This year’s Lenten adult education class is rather large. In addition, we have a home for each of the six sessions. The nice part is that both the content of the class as well as its constituency of participants and host families provide great opportunity for long-term church members and newer folks to get to know each other.
Truly, this class is an exercise in inclusive ministry! And of course, as you read this, you can still join either for a single session or for the remainder. We meet Friday nights at 8:00 p.m.
Each session’s subject provides another window to the world. We do not want to be a church with siege mentality, where the most prevalent question would be how to keep our faith pure while the world goes berserk. Instead, the world is God’;s creation, and we are some of its stewards.
Consequently, our sessions deal with diverse subjects. How do we respond to evil in the world? Where is our faith when we discuss neurological science and the theory of evolution? What does our faith say regarding the reality of disabilities? How do Christians deal with the phenomenon of the day-and-night society that knows no Sabbath? What happens when homelessness challenges our faith?
Does any of this wet your appetite? Then come and see us Fridays during Lent!
Tagged as:
Lenten education
submitted by: Margaret Coakley and Erie Beemsterboer
This month in worship we have several Lenten series and services taking place. We started the Lent season with a collegiate service. This year it was our turn to host Second Reformed Church, Suydam Street Reformed Church and Highland Park Reformed Church. The service was very moving with the imposition of ashes, hand washing and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Following it was a delicious Feast of Sausages which people enjoyed.
An Adult Education class series is being offered on all Fridays of Lent. The series will be led by Pastor Hartmut and held on Friday nights at 8:00 p.m. at various church members’ homes. The theme is Living Our Faith in a Messed-Up World. On Feb 19th, the series started at house of the Pastors. On the following dates, the families mentioned will host the next session. All are welcome to attend any of these.
Feb 26th – the Feketes
Mar 5th, the Waanders
Mar 12th, the Vande Buntes
Mar 19th, the Novacks
Mar 26th, the Hances
We thank all of these generous people to open their houses for these classes.
Like last year on Maundy Thursday, there will be a Seder meal followed by a Tenebrae Worship service. This service was very well received last year, and I know people are looking forward to having this service again. See the article about this elsewhere in the newsletter. And the first Sunday of April we will celebrate Easter. Again special elements for the service are planned.
Looking further ahead on the calender: For our annual Rally Sunday in September, we are working on something really special. It will be a full weekend of special events. The dates to put on your calendar are Sep 11th and 12th. We will host Lorraine Nelson-Wolf in a Song Gift Weekend. More details will be announced later.
Tagged as:
lent
The children had a very Valentine month in February. We explored why God’s Love for us is special and what it means to Love one another. With this theme, we did a wonderful craft which built our spirit of teamwork and cooperation. All joined together to fill reusable plastic tubs with the dry ingredients, which would make Granola Cookies and Apple Pancakes. We had a team of 2 for each ingredient — a Big Lamb and a Little Lamb, where possible. The children practiced measuring and counting, and looked just adorable in their aprons and gloves. The tubs were decorated for Valentine’s Day with hearts and ribbons. The finished products were sold at the Chili Cook-off and on Valentine’s Day Sunday, to help the CE committee meet their fund-raising goal for the year. I haven’t tried mine yet, but word is that the pancakes were especially delicious! They certainly were Made With Love by our children.
In November, a small group of us gathered to watch Flame, which is a part of the NOOMA Bible Study series put together by Rev. Rob Bell. It was provocative, to say the least! But it really engaged our way of thinking about the word LOVE and the many ways we employ it.
Since several folks asked me to consider meeting on a different night (Wednesday the choir practices) so let’s gather on Friday, Jan 15th at 8:00 pm. Since it is our week of the Men’s Shelter, we can meet at the church and provide our volunteers some mutual support. I’ll bring some cookies and make some coffee or tea.
The DVD we will be watching is titled Sunday. The main question that Rob Bell discusses is: When it comes to church, what do you think God has in mind? Intrigued? Hope you’ll consider participating.
Tagged as:
Bible Study
This year’s Pageant play was quite funny and yet very simple. Written by two pastors in Scotland (Alec Shuttleworth and Robin Hill), it presented the question of who is included and deemed appropriate versus those who are not. Without restating the whole play, let me summarize it quickly: an artist was depicting the nativity scene in its traditional grandeur: angels, the holy family, a cow, a donkey, a camel and sheep were included. But, this typical depiction was put under scrutiny particularly by a pig and a rat who claimed that they were also in the stable at the birth of the Christ child. However, they are always overlooked when it came to portraying the scene.
Obviously, they are considered too dirty, too unclean, too inappropriate. The list could go on, right?
This sketch may be distributed, adapted and for use with possible donations going to The Church of Scotland HIV/AIDS Project, and it does present the attitude most feel toward people with HIV/AIDS: we are afraid of them being in the picture with the rest of us. We had a great cast for the play, including those with no speaking parts. The donkeys and sheep were just so cute!!! Thanks to those of you who jumped in at the last moment because of the snow storm. The play was too good not to show to a bigger congregation, so we performed a shorter version on Christmas Eve as well.
Tagged as:
Christmas pageant
And all of a sudden, there was that BIG winter storm. Not too convenient from Mother Nature; she gave us quite a present on the day of our dress rehearsal for the pageant play and the pizza party. Nevertheless, more than twenty of us braved the cold weather and snow by coming to church, regardless.
While the children were practicing in the (cold) sanctuary, the walkways were shoveled by Frank, and in the kitchen all things were prepared for the pizzas. The kids were looking forward to the pizzas made by Ethel and Erie, with so many options and different variations. To make it a little healthier, a salad and carrots were available as well.
When we had devoured about seven pizzas and were getting ready for dessert, a jolly good old man appeared. He came with a bag full of gifts; all the children who came got their gifts, as well as the cooks in the kitchen. Dessert was a big birthday cake for all the Eckerts kids who had just celebrated their birthdays.
After all the dishes were done, the kids started playing in the nursery, some went into the tower with Pastor Hartmut, while some other adults (or at least all the women) gathered in a circle, on their laps a small present. Frank read us the story of how Mary and Joseph traveled to the inn with no room left. Of course, the story was filled with rights, lefts, and crossings. So the gifts when around and back and over again and again. Only to end up on the same lap as they started. We could not figure out how that happened but in the end, we solved that and everybody was happy with her gift!
After that, it was time to get the little ones home, and everybody else out of the snow! Thanks for all those that did show up and helped with all the celebrations!
Tagged as:
Christmas pageant
Calvary Chapel of New Brunswick has been using our facilities for over six years now. At first, they were located in our basement area and then eventually moved to the upstairs area of our education building. Daniel Fusco was there first pastor. Jason Falzarano succeeded him in the pulpit. They took good care of our second story area and even assisted us with the Men’s Shelter quite willingly. All in all, we have been living well – above and below – with one another.
However, after December, we had to ask them to move to a new facility because the second floor will be renovated by the Pine Grove Cooperative Nursery School. The school, which has been in existence since 1957 and located off the Busch Campus, will be making the education building’s second floor (excluding the Pastors’ and Music Director’s offices) ready for classes, which will begin in September 2010. Approximately thirty preschoolers will be divided into three classes from Monday through Friday.
We are very excited to have the Nursery School in our midst. It is just another opportunity for our church to open its doors to the community. We look forward to the children’s voices, play and laughter in our rooms. We are excited to be working with a great group of teachers: Tracy Hanzes, a teacher and Executive Director, Lolly Schenck, and Lillie Suabedissen. And, we anticipate future cooperative events that we all can offer to the larger community.
