As the Consistory Corner announced in the newsletter last month, the Building Vision Task Force has been working on increasing the “usage” of all three of our buildings. We are in the process of formulating a 501(c)3 in this regard. The Vision Statement for this we provided in the January newsletter as well.
Along these lines, the Consistory agreed to hire an architect for a feasibility study of the sanctuary building. Mr. James Oleg Kruhly of Kruhly Architects was approved. While his firm will be writing up the feasibility study, Mr. Kruhly has also offered to provide a lecture to our congregation, since this “investigation” of a possible re-molding of the worship space, et. al. is happening more often than we might think in many congregations.
Mr. Kruhly has given this lecture while in London, since his expertise is well-known in the area of historic churches. We are very grateful for his generous offer (He will not be charging us an extra fee for the lecture.), and the Task Force is quite sure that the lecture will be eye-opening.
So please plan to remain a bit longer at coffee hour on Sunday, Feb 21st. Mr. Kruhly’s PowerPoint lecture is titled: The Changing Nature of Places of Worship. This should increase our understanding and sense of meaning for such an interior remodeling.
There is a new sign in front of our church. It is the mandatory project sign that will be with us for the duration of Preservation Project Phase 1, i.e. approximately four or five years. The sign was a presupposition for our first quarterly report, due on January 15, 2010.
When Julius and I dug the holes for the signposts, I felt like a dream come true. After all, the biggest word on the sign is the word PRESERVED;. It implies that the worst part of the project is already behind us, when the sign is established — the application process for the state grant, and the creation of the preservation plan that preceded it.
Theologically, the word PRESERVED; is perhaps questionable. Ministry is never about preserving oneself, but about serving others. However, it doers not take much to realize that our very preservation project bears all the marks of service:
- It secures the brick-and-mortar shelter for all our ministries. Without a roof, they would all fall apart and have no place here in the inner city.
- It serves the identity development of our community. Without its historic heritage, much of our community would be exchangeable and meaningless you could have it anywhere in the world. Our old buildings contribute to the particularity of New Brunswick.
- It serves the legacy of our ancestors who would not have expected anything less from us but to do our utmost to keep this steeple in town.
If you look at it in this way, our project sign is a pretty special sign, wouldn’t you say?
Tagged as:
Historic Preservation
Most of us have heard by now that our denomination, the Reformed Church in America, wants to adopt the Belhar Confession from South Africa. Belhar is the location where this confession originated during the time of apartheid. Faced by the evils of racism, segregation, violence and discrimination, the Belhar Confession speaks of unity, reconciliation and justice.
Adoption of the Belhar requires that b of all Classes of the RCA ratify it prior to General Synod 2010. In order to bring us up to speed with this development, we organized a congregational forum following worship on Nov 15th. Ten women of our church had prepared special ethnic food from all corners of the earth and presented it on corresponding ethnic tablecloth. Thank you to Ellen Hamilton for organizing this!
Then we watched a DVD from the proceedings of General Synod 2009, when the parliamentary adoption process was formally launched. Following this, we had some discussion and received an introduction to the text.
When we left for home, most of us shared a feeling of satisfaction over the possibility that the Belhar Confession may become one of our foundational documents, a Standard of Unity, as we say. However, we also recognized that adopting a text from a different culture remains meaningless if we do not allow the liberation struggle of that culture to affect our own. If we adopt Belhar, we will have to face areas on our own home turf that need revision and change.
Managing a big preservation project brings a variety of obligations. Its not all brick and mortar or grant writing! We also need events that create publicity and fill our historic walls with sense of identity and meaning. Of course, we do this every Sunday in worship. Yet, occasionally, we want to look beyond the familiar and draw wider circles and larger networks.
On October 24 , we hosted the Colonial Clergy Conference. It was a two-site event, as it had convened for a September session in Holland, MI. Here in New Jersey, Russ Gasero, the head of our denomination’s corporate archives, and Barbara Fillette, the director of the Reformed Church Center at New Brunswick Theological Seminary, were pivotal in organizing the event. Funding came from the Collegiate Church in New York City, the Roosevelt Studies Center in Middleburg, The Netherlands, and the Van Raalte Institute in Holland, MI.
With this, we gathered six scholars from the United States and the Netherlands who introduced to an audience of 60 the life and work of six early Dutch-American clergymen. It was a most interesting conference! Let me share three examples: Globalization may be a modern term, but we heard of a Dutch pastor, who was born ca. 1644 in Indonesia, had studied in The Netherlands, and had become a secular leader in South America before entering the ministry in North America.
Today, we sigh when we hear of a church where Elders’ Minutes have not been kept in years. Yet, one of the 17th century clergy introduced to us did not believe in keeping minutes of the Consistory. We think its hard to get used to novelty, like worship music, handicapped accessibility, or persons with different orientation. Yet this seems nothing compared to the problems our 18th century ancestors faced when they decided slowly, very slowly, to allow preaching in English rather than the familiar Dutch.
All these things and much more we learned at the conference. In addition, we raised more funds for our Preservation Project. And we created new connections to organizations that want us to survive. But you know what? None of this would have been possible without our indefatigable team of volunteers from our church: Ethel and Joan, Erie and Margaret, Ellen and Bruce, Janet and Rev. Susan, Norma, and many, many others helped to make this happen.
Thank you all for your great support!
Steyntie Heyer was laid to rest in the graveyard of the First Reformed Church in 1746. Hers is the oldest tombstone in our cemetery. (Actually, when her remains were buried, the First Reformed Church did not exist at its current location.) While, for its age, the tombstone is still in remarkably good condition, it is beginning to show signs of deterioration; the same type of blistering and cracking which has destroyed many of our other headstones.
The Property Committee is planning to remove the headstone and store it in the basement of the Education Building, thereby protecting it from the rain and ice which would have eventually destroyed it. Symbols inscribed on the headstone identify the maker as being quite prominent in New Jersey at the time. It’s amazing to think that it has been in the same location for 263 years.
In its place, a modern grave marker will be placed. It will simply be inscribed with ‘Steyntie Heyer 1708-1746′. The grave marker will be supplied at no cost by Peoples Monuments on Route 27 in Somerset. What a wonderful gesture by Jack Lynch, the owner of Peoples Monuments. We really don’t know anything about Steyntie other then what was inscribed on her headstone. She was a member of our church as per some research performed by Rev. Muyskens which is presented in his book about the history of First Reformed Church in New Brunswick. I can’t help but wonder what her life was like. What was New Brunswick like in the early 1700s?
Anyway, I’m glad our church is trying (with the help of Peoples Monuments) to be respectful to our ancestors by preserving part of our history.
God is always doing something new as it is declared in the Psalms and elsewhere in our scriptures. We only need to have eyes to see it and hearts to embrace the new things.
With this in mind, on Rally Sunday we will get a chance to start up the new Fall season and the return of regular programming of our church. With the start, we will celebrate newly painted pews, new upholstery on the chancel furniture, and even a new Communion set on the Communion Table. That’s a lot of new-ness! And to add to our celebration and new things list, over the summer we were informed by letter from the Acting Commissioner, Charles A. Richman that Governor Corzine signed into legislation funding for NJ Historic Trust, which includes our state grant for the historic preservation project.
This may sound a bit surprising and scary in these economic times, especially since the grant is a matching one. However, may we continue to remind ourselves of several things: First, that we have four years for this project and the fund-raising; second; we are free to limit our 2010 preservation efforts to a very conservative scope. With that said, it is clear that, at this time, we want and need to address the steeple and the church roof, the beam in the church attic, as well as the soffit of the education building.
As you can imagine, there are still many things on our buildings that will need to be worked on. Let me just mention the worst problem, which is the structural situation beneath our sanctuary floor. These must do building issues seem overwhelming, though. Inevitably, when we look at the big picture, they appear to be impossible. And so we loose hope. But, as my grandmother used to say, “To eat a whole cake, you have to take one bite at a time.” I think that it is the same for our building needs.
How can I respond so hopeful? Well, let me just remind our doubtful minds of how our pew painting project went this summer. At first, it was awful. We started out sanding lightly, then washing it down, then spot-painting it with primer. And, wow, after two weeks it appeared to be done. Then, we noticed that the paint was pealing. OH NO!!! So we had to start all over again, only this time we did it more thoroughly.
Several of us thought that we were doomed, and it would never be finished. “Impossible!” they claimed. Yet, YOU ALL responded to the call for help. In total, there were 13 church members who helped Julius Fekete accomplish the impossible, not counting the numerous helping hands that brought lunches and other support. Yes, we did it together. One day, it was two other volunteers. Another day it was a whole family. A little bit at a time. And now, it is finished.
It is our calling to remain hope filled even in the midst of uncertainty. Likewise, with the grant monies and our fund-raising efforts for our buildings: we have to do it one step at a time – together.
Hopefully yours,
Pastor Susan
Tagged as:
hope,
NJ Historic Trust,
restoration,
volunteers
The preacher has it right in Ecclesiastes 3: There is a time for everything. One morning during early summer, the handle of our old communion set broke in a way that was not repairable. This was very sad, as the communion set had been a gift from our former pastor, David Muyskens, and his wife, Donna.
The Worship Committee reacted with an ad-hoc session and brainstormed what to do. Due to increased building usage, the Holy Table and the communion set are moved around several times each week. We needed a sturdier set, therefore, and we discussed several options.
Finally, Heather Epstein brought us a sample cup from Trio, a shop for Judaica in Highland Park, where she knew the owner. She presented this to the choir and a wider audience prior to one of our summer worship services and gathered comments. After some further consideration, it was decided to purchase the cup. At the same time, an anonymous donor gave us a fitting silver plate. The cup features a relief of the holy city Jerusalem, a motif that connects Jews and Christians simultaneously and adds an interfaith dimension to our worship services. Please see the accompanying pictures. We will dedicate the new communion set during Rally Sunday on September 13th.
Tagged as:
chalise,
communion,
Judaica
