With so much physical work, it is necessary that we take care of our spiritual balance. The time of Lent offers itself for this, as it provides us with some great opportunity to find center in our worship life. As every year, we will begin Lent on Ash Wednesday, Feb 17th, at 7:30 p.m. with a collegiate worship service here at First Reformed Church. Folks from the Highland Park Reformed Church, Second Reformed Church, and the Suydam Street Reformed Church will join us for the occasion. Our organist and choir director, Ben Berman, has found great music for the combined choir.

Following the Ash Wednesday service, we will offer a special confessional liturgy during the beginning part of our Lenten Sunday worship services. This liturgy centers on the baptismal font and is based on words from Psalm 51. Each time, we will pour water into the font, reminding ourselves of the beginning of our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In doing so, we will adapt a format that comes to us from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

In addition to this special worship liturgy, we offer a Lenten Adult Education Class. It has the title, Living Your Faith in a Messed-up World, and comes to us from our sister denomination, the Christian Reformed Church. Each session will focus on a short film or interview that provides an exemplary insight into the relevance of the Reformed faith today. The sessions will be held on Friday nights at 8:00 p.m., beginning on Mar 19th. We are trying to hold these sessions in various homes rather than at church. If you would like to host a session, please call our church office (732-545-1005).

A Presbyterian Lenten liturgy and a Christian-Reformed adult education class — this also reflects where we are as the people of First Reformed Church: firmly embedded in our Reformed tradition and, yet, always eager to broaden our horizon and outlook.

May this year’s Lenten journey be meaningful to you!
Pastor Hartmut

A deeply moving Seder meal, like the one we held last year, is once again planned for Maundy Thursday. We will begin to collect reservations soon. This meal is then followed by a Tenebrae Worship during which we remember our Lord Jesus’ death on the cross. More information about this meal will follow in March.

As flu season is still around us, we have to be careful to not spread germs. In order to help this along, there are wipes and hand sanitizers available in the back of the church for you to use.

At our last meeting, we also talked about the Lunchtime Recitals. The spring season is coming soon, and we are preparing for it, even though the State of New Jersey has announced that it will be freezing all grants for arts events. So keep an eye out for the announcements of the dates and performers, and any call to help us celebrate this ministry for the New Brunswick Livingston School music classes and the elderly who are served through this outreach program.