St. Luke's New Building Video

Fw: Car safety

Funny, I never felt scared at the time. Frank

----- Original Message -----

From: muzzy2121

To: Frank Kline

Sent: Sunday, October 25, 2009 12:28 PM

Subject: Fw: Car safety

 

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Wow! Pretty amazing how far they have come. 

 

 

 

St. Luke's Staff - Palos Verdes Peninsula News (Th 22 Oct'09)

Come Worship with Us!

Sunday, October 25, 2009
Building Dedication Sunday

Sermon: St. Luke’s Service Station

Preacher: The Rev. Reinhard Krauss

Sermon Text: 1 Kings 8:22-23, 27-30, 41-43
22 Then Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven. 23 He said, "O Lord, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart, 27 "But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! 28 Regard your servant's prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; 29 that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, "My name shall be there,' that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. 30 Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive. 41 "Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name 42 —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, 43 then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built.

Question to Ponder:
The passage from 1 Kings describes King Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the first temple in Jerusalem. As we dedicate our new building this Sunday, what is our prayer for its purpose?

Francesca's Baby

Healthcare discussion

Last week, Frank Kline led a discussion of healthcare reform in America. There were a number of provocative questions raised during the discussion:

• What can be done to help the tens of millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans?
• Does society have a moral responsibility to provide healthcare?
• What is the government's responsibility? business? individuals?
• Do healthy individuals have a right to "opt out" of healthcare?
• Would you pay more for healthcare (or receive reduced services) in exchange for more people being covered by healthcare?
• What about inefficiencies in the system -- would reforming the procedural end of healthcare lead to a more affordable system?
• How much do lawsuits and  court judgements aggravate the problem?

Here is an opportunity to continue the discussion -- 

Useful Healthcare Websites

 See;

www.c-span.org/healthcare

www.kff.org

www.webmd.com

Old Blogs

Should we go back and delete our old blogs? I have been deleting my old ones.

Building Dedication Dinner Deadline

Photos for Oct. 25 Dedication

Come Worship with Us!

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Sermon: Joy in Singing: Hymns by Jane Parker Huber

Preacher: The Rev. Laura Krauss

Question to Ponder:
Come and enjoy the hymns of Jane Parker Huber, a “Grandma Moses” of hymn writing.

Fw: Piano Stair Case

 Great fun and a very good idea. Frank

----- Original Message -----

From: Bunny Anderson

To: Richard Anderson ; Debi Birnie ; Teri Green

Sent: Wednesday, October 14, 2009 9:48 PM

Subject: Fw: Piano Stair Case

 

 

 

 

--- I really  like this theory! Check out this video clip from Stockholm, Sweden.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw&feature=player_embedded

Fw: Oameni

A very nice collection of pictures. I couldn't find any that I had seen before. Frank

----- Original Message -----

From: Bunny Anderson

 

DON'T OPEN THIS UNLESS YOU HAVE SOME REAL LEISURE TIME...I SPENT 2 MIN JUST STUDYING SEVERAL OF THESE REMARKABLE PHOTOS TO ABSORB THEIR DETAILS

 

 

 

 

+

 

 

Exceptional photos!  Thanks Rasilia in Nepal.

 

Love,

 

Delta

 

----- Original Message -----

Subject: Oameni

Nice foto shoots, plz have the look.

 

Rasila Shankhadev
The Explore Nepal P. Ltd.
www.xplorenepal.com
Please consider the environment before printing this email.

 

 

 

 

Fw: AHIP - plan would increase costs for individuals and families

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Frank M Kline

To: Frank M Kline 673

Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 12:21 PM

Subject: Fw: AHIP - plan would increase costs for individuals and families

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Don McCanne

To: Quote-of-the-Day

Sent: Monday, October 12, 2009 10:33 AM

Subject: qotd: AHIP - plan would increase costs for individuals and families

The Washington Post

October 12, 2009

New Bill Would Raise Rates, Says Insurance Group

By Ceci Connolly

After months of collaboration on President Obama's attempt to overhaul the nation's health-care system, the insurance industry plans to strike out against the effort on Monday with a report warning that the typical family premium in 2019 could cost $4,000 more than projected.

Administration officials, who spent much of the spring and summer wooing the insurers, questioned the timing and authorship of the report, which was paid for by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), an industry trade group.

"The report makes clear that several major provisions in the current legislative proposal will cause health care costs to increase far faster and higher than they would under the current system," Karen Ignagni, AHIP's president and chief executive, wrote to board members Sunday. "Between 2010 and 2019 the cumulative increases in the cost of a typical family policy under this reform proposal will be approximately $20,700 more than it would be under the current system."

"Now that health-care reform grows ever closer, these health insurers are breaking out the same, tired playbook of deception to prevent millions of Americans from getting the affordable, accessible care they need," said Finance Committee spokesman Scott Mulhauser. "It's a health insurance company hatchet job, plain and simple."

"Those guys specialize in tax shelters," said Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform. "Clearly this is not their area of expertise."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/11/AR2009101102207.html?hpid=topnews

And...

PriceWaterhouseCoopers

October 2009

Potential Impact of Health Reform on the Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage

There are four provisions included in the Senate Finance Committee proposal that could increase private health insurance premiums above the levels projected under current law:

* Insurance market reforms coupled with a weak coverage requirement,

* A new tax on high-cost health care plans,

* Cost-shifting as a result of cuts to Medicare, and

* New taxes on several health care sectors.

This analysis shows that the cost of the average family coverage is approximately $12,300 today and could be expected to increase to approximately: $21,900 in 2019 under current law and to $25,900 if these provisions are implemented.

This analysis shows that the cost of the average single coverage is $4,600 today and could be expected to increase to: $8,200 in 2019 under current law and to $9,700 if these provisions are implemented.

By 2019 the cost of single coverage is expected to increase by $1,500 more than it would under the current system and the cost of family coverage is expected to increase by $4,000 more than it would under the current system. This amounts to an additional 18 percent increase in premiums by 2019. The overall 18 percent increase is a composite of increases by market segment as follows:

* 49% increase for the non-group (individual) market;

* 28% increase for small employers (those firms with fewer than 50 employees);

* 11% increase for large employers with insured coverage; and,

* 9% increase for self-insured employers.

http://www.politico.com/static/PPM116_pwc2.html

Comment:  Although Congress and the administration frown on this new report released by America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), in it the insurance industry has confirmed what we have been saying all along - insurance costs will "increase far faster and higher than they would under the current system."

The insurance industry got virtually everything they wanted (since they basically wrote the bill). The problem was that the the numbers would not compute. To prevent any deficits and to avoid obvious explicit tax increases, Congress had to manipulate the numbers. Since the tax credits would not be adequate, Congress had to exempt those middle-income individuals and families who could not afford the premiums. With guaranteed issue, adverse selection is then inevitable, driving up premiums for those covered by the plans.

Since much of the reform effort centers around the severe deficiencies of the individual market, it is important to note the impact on these plans. The individual market already provides the worst value in health insurance, and the Senate Finance proposal would drive those premiums up by an extra 49 percent over the next decade, according to the PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) analysis. Contrast that to the large employers who self-insure through their own risk pools. The excess increase would be only 9 percent.

One important lesson in this report is that separating the health care funds from the insurance industry partially insulates them from the nefarious behavior of the insurers. The greatest problem that self-insured employers still face is that they have almost no control over systemic health care cost increases. 

Imagine if we insulated all risk pools from the insurers, and spread the risk as widely as possible through a single, universal risk pool. That would create our own monopsony wherein we could demand greater value for our health care purchases. If we did that then we wouldn't even need the egregiously wasteful administrative excesses of the private insurance industry.

Instead of acknowledging the problem, Congress and the administration are attacking the messengers - PWC and AHIP. But it was Congress and the administration that decided that they wanted to get into bed with AHIP in the first place. Surely no one accuses Karen Ignagni of singing the siren songs of Lorelei, but she might as well have since our elected leaders are steering the ship of reform onto the rocks.

Time for a song. Let us sing to the health reform ship manned by AHIP, Congress and the Obama administration. Lorelei can lead our chorus. Then, with a fresh start, we will have a solid rock to serve as our foundation for reform.

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_______________________________________________
Quote-of-the-day mailing list
Quote-of-the-day@mccanne.org
http://two.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/quote-of-the-day

Come Worship with Us!

Sunday, October 11, 2009
Sermon: By Gracious Powers so Wonderfully Sheltered

Preacher: The Rev. Reinhard Krauss

By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,
and confidently waiting come what may,
we know that God is with us night and morning,
and never fails to greet us each new day.

Question to Ponder:
These words were penned by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his prison cell on New Year’s Eve 1944. How is God present (or absent) in the midst of the circumstances in which you find yourself?

Adult Education / Health Care Forum - Sun 11 Oct'09

Fishing - Sunday, 11 Oct'09

Scripture Tree

When the tree comes up....click on any flower,close that one and click on another. Have a blessed day. Click on link below:

http://home.att.net/~sheryl4/ST/Christian-Tree-1.html

Where is there Good Live Music?

To find live performances of chamber music click below:

http://SundaysLive.org

This sends you to the website of the Los Angeles Museum of Art for the listings of its free Sunday 6pm chamber-music concerts. More importantly, by clicking on the Clickable Chamber Music Newsletter from the South Bay in the left-hand column of options you get listings of dozens of local performances. Convenient clickable links for each performance provide information on locations, musical groups, artist biographies, venues, and costs. A search tool permits finding events by specific smaller geographical areas. Each summer the St. Luke's Garden Concerts are listed.

RADIANT BEAMS by Fay Chang

Radiant Beams

by Fay Chang

Our God who art here and now, hallowed be thy name. Thy loving kindness come; thy tender mercies be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily health and forgive us our anxieties as we forgive that which causes our anxieties. And lead us not into disease but deliver us from destruction. For thine is the love and the joy and the peace forever. Amen

Packed with gentle silence, the parish hall exuded the God-likeness of the attendees: thirty-six women and four men. We had come to share in centering prayer to be played out in three periods of twenty minutes of silence each. In between those seated sessions, we quietly walked about indoors and out, observed and lit candles, considered photos and words celebrating the theme of Sacred Darkness and Light. One hymn especially amplified this theme:

Holy Darkness, blessed night

Heaven's answer, hidden from our sight.

Chris and Sue Hagen alternately read scriptures and played meditative music. Absent from her usual facilitator role was Evie McGreevy who had just begun her chemotherapy. Even then she had meticulously prepared the program offered by the Contemplative Outreach of North San Diego County.

This half-day 2009 midsummer retreat held at St. Thomas More Church in Oceanside included a liturgical dance by Elena Andrews. Her movements poetically mimed the sadness of crouching in darkness and then the joy of opening to the light. The centerpiece displayed on the floor was a quilt of radiating batik pieces in colors ranging from somber to bright from the center to the borders. We were asked to picture some form of light like a star shining above and around the quilt. I pictured a constellation of holy lights emanating from each participant.

In my usual navigationally challenged manner, I got lost driving to this retreat. I circumnavigated the hills of Vista for twenty minutes. Then because of insomnia the night before, I fell asleep during each of the prayer periods. With only momentary doubt, I decided that relaxation was part of the blessing. Toward the end of the morning, as I struggled to open a plastic bottle of water, the gentleman sitting next to me extended his hand for the bottle and twisted the cap. I was struck with the simplicity of the act. Yet it resonated with these words from Matthew 25:35:

I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

The ambiance at this retreat is best described by Isaiah 30:15:

In returning and rest you shall be saved;

In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.

Ink Bottles (a neat animated greeting)

'Jacquie Lawson'

Just click on the name above....... and when it opens   click on one  Ink Bottle and watch what happens !!!

Jump-Rope Dance

Is there anything that can't be done with enough imagination, dedication and work?

Click Here:

JumpRopeDance

These girls entertained at Half-Time of an Army/Navy Basketball Game.

The FIRECRACKERS are 4rth, 5th, and 6th graders from Cincinnati, Ohio

Come Worship with Us!

Sunday, October 4, 2009
Sermon: The Gifts of Hymns from Around the World

Preacher: The Rev. Laura Krauss

Sermon Text: Matthew 28: 18-20
18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

Question to Ponder:
Join us as we celebrate Worldwide Communion Sunday together.