It was the First Sunday of Lent. It was also the first sunny Sunday after a period of cold temperatures and snow. In addition, it was the first Sunday of a new homeless men’s shelter week here at church. Finally, it was a Sunday when our Women’s Guild met in the early afternoon.
Yet, there was more going on that Sunday! Therefore, I would like to cast a spotlight on it in order to make visible what exactly it is that we do here at church. If you, Dear Reader, feel that it may be helpful, please use this article to invite friends or colleagues to our church.
First, Feb 21 was a Sunday of baptism and new member admission. We celebrated the coming home of the young family of Elian Titre, Keoduangchay “K.T.” Thiangtham, and their children Natya and Elian. I say, “coming home” because K.T. spent a significant part of her childhood in this church, and because nowadays it is special when an entire family receives the gift of belonging. Please see the accompanying picture taken by Liz Hance.
The joyful event provided an additional chance for a picture of the junior sermon that day. Such moments are too precious to be taken for granted! To be gathered with the future of the church around some serious conversation on a religious matter — I treasure these moments very much. Worship without our children would be less complete, indeed.
Finally, we had a great coffee hour; the pictures here were taken by Gary Bernhofer. Our guest speaker was Mr. James Oleg Kruhly, the architect behind our feasibility study on converting parts of our sanctuary into permanent supportive housing. However, Mr. Kruhly did not just speak about our project.
Rather, he gave a slide presentation on What Is Happening with Places of Worship? He had numerous examples from North America, but also from France, Japan, and Germany.
Mr. Kruhly was well equipped for providing this overview. His company has completed projects in ten states, and in Europe, including the Public Library of Stockholm, Sweden. The quintessence of his lecture was this: colonial churches in America started out as meeting houses for their surrounding community. Yet their introverted architecture signaled: You had to be a member in order to have access.
Today, we come full circle, when churches share space with the community again. Permanent supportive housing is a great illustration. It shows at the same time that churches who consider it are no longer introverted, as they actively pursue a goal in the surrounding world.
Mr. Kruhly closed his remarks by emphasizing the importance of sanctuaries changing in this way as opposed to the sad fact of sanctuaries disappearing altogether. He encouraged us to continue on our path into the surrounding community and world. This was, in my opinion, what Sunday, Feb 21st, was all about.
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
During the worship of February 7th, the bell choir played a beautiful piece. It was a bit more challenging than the pieces we have played before. For March 14th, we are working on a new piece with some other new techniques for most players. As a choir we are growing nicely towards more intricate pieces. We also have started to work on a song that we will play during the Easter worship service.
With the short rehearsal time we have, the whole choir is very grateful that every week Norma comes a little bit early so the bells are all out and ready for us to play when we come to the music room. Thank you, Norma, for doing this every week for us!
Tagged as:
bell choir
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
Last year, we celebrated a special dinner on Maundy Thursday. Dinner was served in the sanctuary at tables set for a “Seder-like” meal. In fact, we did follow a shortened version of a Seder, with a few additions including an altered form of the Lord’s Supper. Following dinner, we entered the pews and concluded with a Tenebrae worship, which reminded us of Jesus’ death on the cross. The whole experience in this form was incredibly moving; thus, the Invitation & Outreach Committee along with the Worship Committee plan to celebrate Maundy Thursday again in such a way.
Please mark your calendar for Apr 1st, 7:00 p.m. The Seder meal menu will include lamb, rice pilaf, greens, various Seder foods, dessert and beverages. A vegetarian dish will also be available. Since Ethel Salamone is “The Chef”, we know that the meal will be delicious. The cost of the meal is $10 per person and $30 for a family.
Reservations will be required since we have to set up tables in the sanctuary and need to plan out the number of seats. There will be a sign up sheet in Fellowship Hall, with a cut off date of Mar 21st. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask Ethel Salamone or Joan Fekete for more information.
Tagged as:
Maundy Thursday,
Seder,
Tenebrae
The Zimmerli Museum is a wonderful artistic resource that we can enjoy in the heart of our hub city. Thus, some of the Free Spirits headed over to the museum after having their brown bag lunches. We enjoyed a fascinating exhibit by the female Moroccan-born photographer, Lalla Essaydi, titled Les Femmes du Maroc. Her enormous photos of Moroccan women in staged narratives were juxtaposed with Western male paintings from the 19 century. Her photos, taken in the th last five years, showed women draped in Arabic calligraphy-like traditional dress forms, although the fabric was white muslin, thus showing the calligraphy.
Also unusual was that their bodies (faces, legs, hands, etc.) were covered with Arabic calligraphy painted on with henna. Once again, the artist used various techniques and methods to present the women in her photos in a feminist Muslim way. This exhibition goes until Jun 6th and is well worth the visit.
For March, we have planned to enjoy our annual Blarney Day celebration. All Free Spirits are invited to bring lunches on Mar 17th at noon. Pastor Susan will provide something green for dessert. Please bring stories or jokes to share with all.
In January, the Fund-raising Committee organized a special coffee hour. At that time, everyone was asked to give us ideas for fund-raising events and contacts. The ideas were all great; some were more realistic than others, but we promise to look at all of them and see how and when we can use them.
Some of them we actually have used already. An example is getting in touch with Rutgers people. After this coffee hour, the church was approached by a coordinator for Rutgers volunteers for a special volunteer work. Having the idea from the coffee hour in mind, we accepted this. Sadly enough, the event fell through because of the snow. But perhaps in the future we will have a chance again to work with Rutgers people.
We know that is not strictly a fund-raising to have young people to come and clean, but without contacts it is hard to start a relationship. Moreover, without a good relationship, you hardly can approach people for contributions.
Of course, if you came up with an idea after this coffee hour, you can always reach out to one of the members of the Fund-raising Committee and let them know: Janet Waanders is the Chair.
