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
Can there be such a thing as the most important grave? I thought, in death we are all equal before God? While this holds true for those who have gone before us, it does not quite hold true for the survivors.
Naturally, some graves have more significance than other graves. In our cemetery, the box tomb of Dr. Henry Livingston is very important. Not only was Dr. Livingston pivotal in organizing our denomination by negotiating a corresponding treaty with our mother church in the Netherlands, he also drafted much of the constitution of the young denomination. In addition, he served as president of Queens College, now Rutgers University, at a time when the situation of the college was rather difficult. In 1812, Dr. Livingston served as interim pastor of our congregation. In this function, he dedicated our church in September, 1812. Later, General Synod honored him by erecting a box tomb above his grave.
Some time ago, a large part of an adjacent pine tree fell on the tomb and destroyed much of it. Fortunately, the damage was covered by our insurance company, but we were responsible for a $2,000 deductible. This we received as gift from three anonymous donors. This summer, Christine Miller and colleague from Cultural Heritage Research Services, Inc. in North Wales, PA, repaired the box tomb. We are blessed to have this grave again intact.
Tagged as:
Cultural Heritage Research Services,
Dr. Henry Livingston,
Queens College
There may not be much visible as of now, but there is much progress behind the scenes. Stef and I attended the grantee workshop in Trenton on April 29th. There we received instruction on how to manage the capital grant of $487,797. Meanwhile, Consistory has signed the grant agreement forms and restructured our Preservation Team. We opened it to all members of Property, Finance, and Fund-Raising. It is quite a large team now! I am also glad to report that Julius Fekete is succeeding me as convener of the Team, while Lauren Bernhofer serves as clerk. The first meeting of the Team took place on May 24.
One of the agenda items of this first meeting was the development of a list of volunteer projects as part of Phase I of our preservation project. This list encompasses the restoration of the “florist entrance” to the church, the repair of the cemetery fence, and the restoration of the railings at the main entrance to the church.
Meanwhile, Rev. Paul Nulton is already spending a second fortnight this year with the restoration of our sanctuary windows. We are very grateful for his services. Paul is one of our denomination’s volunteer coordinators. In addition, we received unexpected help from a government program that provides summer youth employment for eight weeks this summer. We requested two young people for work at our site and attended the corresponding workshop at the One-Stop Career Center on 506 Jersey Avenue. We were surprised to see many church representatives among the other participating employers. Over the summer, Julius Fekete, Ellen and Bruce Hamilton, and Robert Stahl will serve as supervisors here at church from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. every day. The program begins Jul 6th and ends on August 28th. It does not involve any cost on our part except our expenditures for material.
All this is accompanied by new efforts of our Fund-Raising Committee to secure more funding for our preservation project. Under the leadership of Janet Waanders, they are currently focusing on grant applications with a variety of private foundations. Later, this will have to be supplemented with outreach to businesses and organizations in our community.
Even though this is not part of our preservation project, I would like to take the opportunity and inform you of the status of our UST Fund grant application for remediation and reconstruction costs after the removal of our underground oil tank. A letter from the Department of Environmental Protection informed us that our eligibility for the grant will be determined sometime in June. Work on the site will first commence when DEP allows us to do so. It seems that we are at a minimum several months away from replacing the temporary asphalt cover with concrete sidewalk.
As you can see, dear reader, our preservation efforts are quite complex. This is positive in difficult economic times, as it means that we will always experience progress somewhere, even if we suffer setbacks here and there.
Tagged as:
History
Yes, he’s back! Paul is coming on May 27th, in order to continue his work on the sanctuary windows. He will be with us for two weeks. Once again, please support his work efforts by thanking him with a dinner.
A sign up sheet is posted in Fellowship Hall.
