Sausages will be served following the worship, at which a symbolic liturgy of ashes, including the washing away of them again will precede the Lord’s Supper.

Save the date: Annual Congregational Meeting on February 26th directly following worship. A special lunch will be served that day, too.

Help is needed in getting volunteers to stay overnight. If no one is available then the answer to the question in the title of this article is NO THERE IS NO ROOM FOR YOU.

What a terrible thing to have to say to someone who will then have to sleep outdoors all night or possibly the entire week if there we are not able to open.

Please look at your schedule and see if there is not an evening that you will be able to stay here. There will soon be a sign up sheet in fellowship hall or you can call the office (732-545-1005) to sign up.

Matthew 25:37- 40 …Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink. When did we see you a stranger and invite you in or needing clothes and clothe you? … The King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

Now, he is tackling the Sexton’s House. He started in September, but when hurricane Irene hit, many churches needed his emergency assistance – and so did our retreat center in Warwick, where Paul has his office. However, Paul keeps coming back faithfully.

This time he is painting the exterior of the Sexton’s House. Our architect, Margaret Westfield, provided the specifications as a gift to the church. Since then, Paul has been applying Victorian colors to the house!

We also want to thank Jaime Johnson, the new chair of our Invitation & Outreach Committee, because he, too, has been diligently involved with scraping and painting the house – besides his volunteering for House of Manna on many days.

Enjoy the picture of Jaime and Paul with Robert Longo, our sexton. They all are part of our family here at First Reformed Church.

Weather permitting we would like to set tables out in front of the church. If it rains or it is too hot, we will come inside. It doesn’t matter where we are; it will be a fun-filled evening. Co-Lab Arts Group will be joining us and will provide entertainment- a reading from a Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare.

The Invitation & Outreach Committee will provide the meats, rolls, dessert and beverages. Others are asked to bring a salad or a side dish for people to share. It is BYOB; iced tea and lemonade will also be available.

The cost is $5 per person. The money from this event will be used to replace the lights in Fellowship Hall.

There will be a sign-up sheet in Fellowship Hall. If you have any questions, please ask Erie or Joan.

HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!

Sknaht uoy is “thank you” spelled backward. Regardless of the way it is spelled, still it is meant for all those who served at the Men’s Shelter in March. Some nights there were 15 homeless men; other nights there were only 11 or 12.

March is the last month that shelter is provided for them, so now the homeless men will have to find some other place to spend the night. Just think about how cold it is still outside.

Volunteering this time around was a little different for us. It was not as much fun without Jim Hance, our official Shelter Boss. As most of you know, he became ill and is still in the hospital. No only did we volunteers miss Jim, but the homeless men also mentioned him. They always asked us for updates about his condition. Not what one would expect, right?! But many of our homeless guests have been rotating from one house of worship to another for many years. (Unfortunate but true!)

Thank you to all that served – not only those from First Reformed, but also the many other groups and organizations who gave of their time to make it possible for the men to stay.

Events: Sunday April 10th, 2011
Neighborhood Clean Up:
12:45 pm – 2:45 pm
(Light snacks provided)
Please contact Lorena Gaibor at 732-545-0329 to register

Symposium:
3:00 pm – 6:00 pm

Featuring:
The Rainbow Choir, led by Cantor Ott of Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple and Ben Berman of the First Reformed Church
The Raíces Cultural Center Ensemble
Greenfaith
Donna Caputo, Recycling Coordinator for the City of New Brunswick
Kids’ Gardening Activity, Green Workshops, Getting to Know our Fellow New Brunswick Faith Communities, and a communal Dinner!

Delicious Home-Cooked Dinner:
5:00 pm – 6:00 pm

*Please consider bringing your own plastic cup, utensils, and napkin! Reduce Trash!*

Suggested Donation: $5.00

On Dec 12th, our Adult Choir performed at the State Theatre of New Brunswick as part of the Irish Christmas show of Eileen Ivers. This gave us yet another opportunity to make the general public aware of our preservation project — the program had an insert with pictures from the construction site.

On Wednesday, Dec 15th, we had an interesting meeting of the City Council. That night, the Council resolved to use the current opportunity of scaffolding around our steeple to restore the four faces and the corresponding hands of the town clock. As you know, the City owns the clock to this day. The restoration is no easy enterprise! There are four faces, and each is larger than a person. The work entails not only painting, but also carpentry, as parts of the faces are in need of repair or even missing. It was very rewarding for Susan and me to attend the meeting of the City Council. It gave us an opportunity to speak and to have more conversation afterwards. Several of these conversations were continued the following day when we were guests at the Mayor’s Holiday Party at City Hall.

All in all, we can only be grateful for the role our church begins to play in town. Why is that important, you might ask? It is because it creates ties that benefit many. This year, we introduced our friends from Pine Grove Nursery School and from the Turkish Interfaith Dialog Center to the world of City Hall, and we hope that their arrival in town will make our wonderfully diverse community just a bit more complete. That’s what maps are all about — they should not have too many blank spots.

There is, of course, a counter cultural dimension to all of this. Listening to the daily news, one can sometimes gain the impression as if the world was engaged in a cultural conflict between Christianity and Islam. As a European, I am in particular concerned about measures by individual European countries — no minarets here, nor head scarf there.

We are fortunate for living in a nation that does not make homogeneity a political goal. However, even here amidst the freedom of our cultural diversity, we need events that bring us closer. True understanding can only come in part from books and lectures. One also needs friends in another culture before one can truly appreciate its otherness and not be scared by it.

And so we sang and ate and laughed together here at First Reformed Church, Muslims and Christians of great traditions bringing joy to our common ancestor Abraham.

Saturday, Dec 18th at 5:30 p.m.
$8/person — $20/family

First Reformed Church, 9 Bayard Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901

Gift Exchange (optional)
under $10.00

The Seventh Day Adventist congregation will be using the Randolph Room and a part of the Fellowship Hall on Saturdays starting in February. They are a group of folks from Kenya, but they are affiliated with the Seventh Day Adventist Church on Livingston Avenue. The reason for them seeking another space is that they want to hold some of the worship in their own language.

Also, Sunday afternoons from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., the Raices Cultural Center will be teaching music and dance. The co-directors are Francisco Gomez and Nicole Wines, both have been living and teaching in New Brunswick for many years now. They have already participated in two Lunchtime Recitals, and we are looking forward to their participation at the January inter-faith, multi-cultural dance event on Jan 22nd from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 pm.

We here at First Reformed Church can do a little to help those who are homeless. The first week in January, 2011 will be our turn to offer shelter at night. The dates are January 2nd through January 9th. Some of us might be thinking “yeah” we do this every year. Yes, you are correct. However, it is important that we do not think of it as a habit but as an important ministry of our church. What a great ministry it is to offer shelter to those who are not as fortunate as we.

Without Jim Hance and all who offer their time, we could not do this. Please look at your date book and see if you can offer some time. Women and men are both welcome. If you cannot give the whole evening any time would be good.

Imagine what Jesus would do.

This is what happened at the Men’s Shelter. We cared about fifteen homeless men, heard some of their stories, encountered some of their pain and brokenness, and provided them with shelter for a week. There were many very cold and windy days where the temperature was low and the strong winds made it frigid outdoors. The men came in at 7:00 p.m. and left at 7:00 a.m. We did provide them with coffee, juice, fresh fruit, muffins, etc. so that when they left, it was not on an empty stomach. Some we have “known” for years and feel like we are even “catching up” with them; others are new faces with histories that would make you scratch your head.

None of this would have been possible without the volunteers who stayed the night. There were both men and women who kept watch, talked, read, watched DVDs, puzzeled, etc. And for the first time in several years, our volunteers from First Reformed Church covered each night. Highland Park Reformed Church sent two helpers for which we are very grateful.

Jim Hance was the “guy” in charge – our Shelter Boss. So he gets a special pat on the back. To all of the others, a THANK YOU does not seem to be enough. So here it is in multiples: Thank you! Thank you!! And Thank you!!!!

Coming from different faith traditions (Muslim, Hindu and Christian), it was meaningful to discover our common humanity by listening to the peculiar challenges of motherhood in our society. Susan’s speech had an especially humorous streak to it.

Following the presentations, ebru-tv showed us their latest production on the subject. This was followed by a mixture of live Sufi & folk music of Turkish and Persian background, performed by Amir Alan Vahab and his ensemble. Their instruments included two dafs (hand drums), a saz (lute) and two neys (reed flutes).

We concluded the evening with a homemade Turkish dinner and much conversation. Thank you to IDC Central Jersey and its Director, Dr. Nuray Tugrul Yurt, for having organized this memorable event.

The winners are:

1st Prize – Heather Epstein
2nd Prize – Liz Hance
3rd Prize – Lauren Bernhofer

Congratulations to the three winners. And thanks to all of you who provided a pot! We had a wonderful turn out. There were more that 35 in attendance. It seems to grow a little each year. This was our fourth year so who knows what will happen in 2010! Ashley and Pam Gray brought their karaoke machine and quite a few folks serenaded us as we cleaned up and enjoyed good conversations around the room.

Special thanks to Erie Beemsterboer, Ethel Salmone, and Pastor Susan Kramer-Mills for their work in making this a successful and fun evening.

Paul Nulton will be helping us with restoration of the church windows from March 17th to March 27th. We need volunteers to help him with the windows. He will really appreciate dinner invitations during this time. Sign up sheets have been posted in Fellowship Hall.

Thanks, Rod, for taking the heat!!!

“Here at First Reformed Church we feel that a historic congregation like yours is an important anchor of the community. Together we provide a sense of historic identity, and we help make our community particular. An assault on one of us is,  therefore an assault against all of us.”

I would like to share with you now the thank-you letter of the synagogue, because so many of us contributed to this cause.

Thank you again for your concerns, you prayers, and your financial contribution.  Together we build community in our neighborhood.

The Fund-raising Committee and the Invitation & Outreach Committee have joined forces! We have been hard at work these past few months brainstorming fund raising events and ways to raise funds for the Preservation Project. We will be planning a lecture series for Fall 2009, which will explore spirituality today. We hope that this will be reflective of the times we are in and address people’s need to understand spirituality.

You may wonder how you can help raise money for the Preservation Project. Well, the answer is you can participate or help promote Dining for Donation at Applebee’s Restaurant on Ryders Lane in Milltown. Applebee’s will partner with us to help us raise money by donating a portion of the bill from every diner we bring in. So the more people we can bring in, the more we will raise. Please save the dates for Dining for Donation at Applebee’s on Sunday, August 3rd and Sunday, October 24th from 11:00 a.m. to closing. We will soon be distributing the flyers, which are to be handed to the wait-staff at the restaurant that day.

Recently, First Reformed Church received two grant awards from private foundations for the Preservation Project. We received $15,000 from the J. Seward Johnson, Sr. 1963 Charitable Trust and $2,500 from the Freylinghuysen Foundation. This, indeed, is wonderful news and sends a positive message to the community and potential funders.

On behalf of the Fund Raising Committee and Invitation & Outreach Committee, thank you for supporting us by your thoughts and prayers. We ask you to continue to keep us in your prayers.