This Sunday:

This Sunday, July 4, we will worship indoors at 10 am in the Large Worship Space. Worship Sunday will be a combined Prism service with our SES and BES/Bilingual worshippers together in the sanctuary. Rev. Len Vander Zee will bring us a message in the 10 am service based on 1 Samuel 25. We invite you to sign up to attend the morning service. The 10 am service will also be live via Zoom. Sign up for our Newsletter to receive the Zoom links.

COVID-19 Update on Indoor Worship

As we plan for indoor worship, the pandemic situation continues to change quickly. The following plans are initial and will be adjusted based on case rates, changing guidelines and our first few weeks of indoor worship experience. We eagerly look forward to gathering inside together while also considering how to best protect our most vulnerable worshippers.

Those who are feeling ill, are awaiting a COVID test result, have been exposed to COVID and are in the 14-day quarantine or have tested positive and are in 10 days of isolation should not come to in person worship. Temperature checks will only be conducted in nursery and the children’s programming. Vaccinated worshippers are encouraged to mask and unvaccinated worshippers age 2 and up are required to mask indoors. Physical distancing and 50% capacity is planned in worship areas. To facilitate this, please leave 2 seats between your household group and others. We will avoid using wind and brass instruments and will continue using single-serving communion elements. We will continue to use the responsive liturgy, but congregational singing will be limited to the doxology at the close of the service.

Resources used to guide these decisions include The Hymn SocietySing! The Center for Congregational SongThe CDC Guidance for Large GatheringsThe CDC Guidance for Communities of FaithThe CDC Guidance for Institutes of Higher Education and communication with the Kent County Health Department.

Also, we encourage you to watch this video from members of the COS staff, welcoming you back to worship indoors at Church of the Servant.

Church News:

Financial Update: Last week’s offering and online giving:  $11,208.07
Current Giving for the month of June: $88,488.92
Monthly budgeted General Fund Giving is:  $112,926

Thank you to those who helped plan, set up, promote, and administer the recent COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic at COS. We had 14 people receive a dose! We will hold another clinic at COS on July 11, from 11:30 am – 1:30 pm. The clinic is designed to give 2nd doses of the Pfizer vaccine to the folks from the first vaccine clinic, but we can also take new folks for 1st Pfizer or the 1-dose Johnson and Johnson. Meijer gift cards will be given to those receiving a dose, while supplies last. Please call 616 965 8347 to pre-register for vaccination. Walk-ins are welcome, but pre-registering will help the process go more smoothly and quickly.

The Anti-Racism & Reconciliation and the Prisoners in Christ Restorative Justice teams remind COS members and friends that slavery is still being practiced within these United States because the 13th Amendment allows for it as punishment for a crime. Do Juneteenth Celebrations acknowledge that at least 2.5 million people are enslaved, and often tortured, in U.S. prisons and jails, and twice that number are on parole or probation – in the supervised society described in the book Halfway Home?

Join families and children of people in prison, as well as formerly incarcerated people, at Tall Turf Family Camp July 30-Aug. 1, 2021. (July 9-11 dates are full.) The mission of Tall Turf is to equip youth and families for lives of reconciliation in God’s world. Let’s learn together with those who are directly impacted by the experience of slavery.  Scholarships are available for families who have a loved one in jail or prison, or are dealing with other hardships. See (brochure) or contact Carol Rienstra for more information. 

Next Friday, July 2, a Welcoming Team of volunteers from our Refugee Support Team greeted a Congolese family arriving at the Grand Rapids airport from Tanzania.  They are the Samweli family: a mother, Mariamu, age 29, daughter, Bertha, age 10, and sons Dhawadi, age 7, Shabani, age 5 and Iddi, age 3

COS will work with these folks as a church co-sponsor in partnership with Bethany Christian Services. The family is of Bembe ethnicity, speaks Kibembe and Kiswahili, and listed their religion as Methodist. Their mother/grandmother already resides in GR and is their US immigration “tie”.

Please join us in welcoming them!

The Community Block party at Camelot Park is set for August 7 from 11 am-1:30pm. COS has ordered 200 backpacks and our Camelot Community Partners are each collecting school supplies to go into those backpacks.

We are asking COS members  to collect:

  • 100 boxes of Crayola Color pencils (8 pk)
  • 100 boxes of Crayola thin markers (8pk)
  • 200 plastic pencil boxes

We will have a big basket in the welcome area of church to collect these items until July 28.

The Racial Justice Team of Classis Grand Rapids East invites you to join a tour of Oak Hill Cemetery (647 Hall Street SE) on July 17 at 10am. This educational tour will be led by Pastor Shannon Jammal-Hollemans of Oakdale Park, who will share stories about some of the African American people whose contributions impacted our city, and the role of race and racism in Grand Rapids’ history. The tour is two hours long. Wear your walking shoes. Plan to meet at the entrance on the north side of Hall Street where there is parking next to the small office building. Questions can be directed to Pastor Shannon Jammal-Hollemans, sjammalhollemans@gmail.com.

NOTE: The optimum size of a group is around 20 people, so please advise Pastor Shannon of your plans to join the tour. If there is sufficient interest, she is willing to conduct a second tour in the afternoon of July 17. 

COS is now a member of the Grand Rapids Climate Resolution Coalition, a kaleidoscope of local groups who have come together for the purpose of ensuring a carbon neutral Grand Rapids by 2030 through the passage and successful implementation of a Climate Resolution by the Grand Rapids City Commission. As of Thursday, June 10, the Church of the Servant Council passed a motion to approve the COS Creation Care Team’s recommendation: 

That Church of the Servant join the Grand Rapids Climate Resolution Coalition which is petitioning the GR City Commission to adopt a Resolution that commits the City to be carbon neutral by 2030.

See more information about the Grand Rapids Climate Resolution Coalition – and the Resolution itself at the following link: www.GRClimate.org 

This coalition’s resolution, “Declaring a Climate Emergency: A Better Future Starts Now” declares that we are facing a climate emergency, and it commits the city government of Grand Rapids to take bold actions to ensure carbon neutrality and climate justice in Grand Rapids. Individuals and organizations can now sign on in support of this resolution at grclimate.org.

            Even if you don’t live in Grand Rapids city limits, because this affects all of us, please consider individually signing on in support of this resolution and sharing it with your own friends and networks.

Social Seniors meet every Tuesday morning from 10:00 to 11:00. Designed to provide opportunity for church family camaraderie, Social Seniors is open to anyone who would like to attend, regardless of age. We seek to be spiritually encouraged and to provide opportunities for sharing, humor, expression of our sorrows and joys, and prayer for one another and our church. The Zoom link below will work for every Tuesday. 

Topic: Social Seniors

Time:  10:00 – 11:00 AM

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83263669013?pwd=UzE4Z1czT2h2Q0lsck0zaXV4T1NMdz09

Meeting ID: 832 6366 9013

Passcode: COS  

You can also join by telephone: 1 312 626 6799. When prompted, enter the meeting ID plus #, and then when asked for your participant ID, merely enter #, and you will be connected to the group.

Very good Samuel Shen 16″ Viola for sale. Cele Mereness, who played viola in our church orchestra for years, is no longer able to play this wonderful viola from China. These Chinese violas are very well made with a beautiful tone. The viola and bow both come from The Guarneri House. They are in very good condition and they come with a nice case. For more information on the viola and her asking price, please contact Amy Heeringa.