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.
James Oleg Kruhly of Kruhly Architects in Philadelphia, provided us a wonderful lecture on Sunday, Feb 21st, titled, The Changing Nature of Places of Worship. As Master of Architecture from the Yale School of Architecture, Mr. Kruhly has received several awards, including the Fellow of the American Institutes of Architects in 1992 in recognition of his national contributions to design. He has completed projects in ten states, as well as in Europe.
Mr. Kruhly’s lecture gave the many gathered in Fellowship Hall an historic perspective of the development of architecture on this continent, beginning with the meeting house style, which was added on to with a foyer and eventually a steeple. Furthermore, the last fifty years has shown an ever increasing preference for the less ornate — almost barn-like — extroverted structures which are more and more open to the natural world.
Mr. Kruhly also touched on the subject of our own considerations regarding a remodeling of the sanctuary interior, for which we have employed him to provide us with a feasibility study. He briefly showed the slides of what such a change could look like.
Sometime in April, the Building Vision Group plans to invite the congregation to hear more about these ideas and to respond with their own thoughts, hopes and dreams.
Tagged as:
architecture
by Joan Fekete on March 2, 2010
in General
Gal 13:13– And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Gentlemen of the Evening — It sounds like it could be the title of either a book or a play, right? However, it is not. Rather, this is how I refer to the men who use our Men’s Shelter. You may be thinking how silly that phrase is — to use such a description for those who live on the streets. Actually I first used it in jest when talking about the men. Yet, through my encounters with some of them, I have come to realize that they are gentlemen. They always smile when coming in off the streets; they greet us, and even wish us to have a good evening. Their morning responses are usually a “thank you for providing the breakfast.” And their last statement as they go out the door into the cold:”Thanks. You have a good day.” We get to go to our warm homes and beds, while they go out on the streets for the day.
Our turn of hosting the shelter has ended for this year. This winter has had some nasty cold and snowy weather. What a great opportunity for us to show our love of God by following the example of Jesus, who taught us to love our brothers and sisters, to care for our neighbors.
To all those who volunteered for a night to watch over our Gentlemen of the Evening: Thank You very much! Especially, we thank Jim Hance, our Shelter Boss; without him we would not be able to provide this much needed service. He does the leg work, gets the food, sets up the volunteers and, most importantly, brings his train movies.
Tagged as:
men's shelter
Tongue in cheek, I can say we are in the calm before the storm. I say this because the current action of our preservation project takes place behind the public scene. Let me explain what I mean.
This month, Westfield Architects collected pre-qualification forms from the potential contractors involved with Phase I of our project. Following this, Westfield Architects called for references and sent them for approval by the New Jersey Historic Trust (NJHT).
As soon as the NJHT approves the bidder’s list, the bidding documents will be distributed. The bids are due in the second half of March. If all goes according to plan, our Consistory will vote on particular contractors in April. At the same time, our Preservation Team will want to coordinate our choice of contractors with neighboring Christ Episcopal Church. Cooperating in this way, we hope to be economically more efficient. Phase I construction is scheduled to begin during the second half of May. This is when the public will notice progress.
Since our grants from NJHT and from the City of New Brunswick will be paid by reimbursement, there will not be much news prior to the beginning of the construction. The exception is, of course, our reimbursement for previous construction under the NJHT grant. This depends now on recording an easement on our buildings with Middlesex County. NJHT is currently drafting this document, but Consistory will have to approve it before we can bring it to the county office.
There is some development regarding the state grant covering the cost of remediation for our former underground oil tank. The grant has been set aside by the Department of Environmental Protection, but requires review by the NJ Economic Development Authority who will have the final decision.
Tagged as:
Preservation
