Category Archives: Items of Interest

Lunchtime Recital – March 21st

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Rev. Dr. Hartmut Kramer-Mills

Photos from previous Lunchtime Recital – Elaine Christy, harpist Award winning harpist Elaine Christy teaches at Princeton University and is a member of the Richardson Chamber players there. Christy presented a program of French music for solo harp from Debussy … Continue reading →

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Creativity and Community

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Rev. Dr. Hartmut Kramer-Mills

As Easter comes upon us, we have a remarkable coincidence with the dawn of a new period of ministry here at First Reformed Church. The reason is that our historic preservation project comes to an end. This means less reporting, less building issues, and less work for the Finance Committee and the Consistory. The Fundraising Committee even had its last meeting.

So, we are resurrecting from construction and paper files and bank statements. Now is the time to become creative again and to continue to nurture the exciting community that has formed around us during the years of brick-and-mortar. It is also important that we invest more efforts, prayer and thoughts in growing our church. What would our meaning be, if we did not try to reach as many of our neighbors near and far in order to offer them participation in God’s peculiar way of relating with us? Continue reading →

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Inter-faith Coexistence Project – Earth Day Celebration!

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Rev. Susan Kramer-Mills

We will be celebrating Earth Day in a big way. It’s all about the animals this year. Noah’s story will be our inspiration!

Here’s what’s planned for Sunday, April 29th

12 noon BBQ
1:30 pm – Rainbow Choir sings
1:45 – Inter-faith Worship with speaker
Activities continue until 4 pm. Free rabies vaccines!
Presenters: Seeing Eye Dogs, K-9 Unit, Animal Adoption for cats and dogs
We kindly ask for paper products – cups, plates, napkins and utensils and beverages in large containers Continue reading →

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Town Clock CDC

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Rev. Susan Kramer-Mills

The Town Clock CDC is concentrating its efforts this year on raising funds. Sound all too familiar? Yes! Well, with the funding cuts to all the social service agencies within New Jersey, all trust funds and grant providers for affordable housing are having difficulty. That means that we must concentrate our efforts to raise funds outside of these ‘typical’ agencies, such as the city, county, and state. Frustrating, but it is the reality of the day.

With that being said, we invite you to consider philanthropists you may know, or persons who have board affiliations to organizations which provide grants. We would be delighted to hear about any contacts. This project is an amazing opportunity to do something unique to an historic structure. Just today, I explained to Erie about how the fire in the sanctuary in 1971 was laid by man, whose girlfriend we were supporting. He was abusing her, and we were giving her shelter. Our choice for building 11 units of permanent supportive housing for women and their children stems from this event. What a wonderful way to make something good out of something that destroyed the interior so long ago! Continue reading →

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Women’s Guild – Martha Award

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Rev. Susan Kramer-Mills

Photos from Martha Award –

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Direction Finding in Our Denomination

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Rev. Dr. Hartmut Kramer-Mills

A Report to Consistory on the RCA Conversations Event
in Orlando, Florida, February 10-12, 2012

This is a time when the general populace views many institutions critically and without much respect. What pertains to banks, hospitals and the various levels of government also pertains to the church.

In front of this background it makes only sense that our denomination extended an open invitation to all RCA congregations and interest groups to send representatives for a few days of opinion polling regarding the future direction of our denomination. The results will be shared with General Synod Council (GSC). From there, they will be forwarded to the 2013 General Synod (GS) and then returned to the various Classes. Continue reading →

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Spiders in the Sanctuary!

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Rev. Dr. Hartmut Kramer-Mills

When, on February 4th, I snuck into the sanctuary in the morning in order to water one of the plants in the chancel area, I could not trust my eyes! Every pew, all the chancel furniture and even the three microphones had been covered with what looked like white, fibrous spider webs. The entire sacred hall, it seems, had been turned into the vicious trap of some mean arachnid predator!

But where was the alien beast? Of course, there was none, only Rob “Smiley” Callahan and his wife, who had busied themselves painting the segments in the ceiling that had suffered mild water damage during the roof replacement of the previous weeks. The cobwebs were soon exposed as mere drop cloths, protecting whatever they covered. Continue reading →

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