Walking with Jesus

In church on Sunday, Mary Hallam's class unveiled Walking with Jesus, their amazing model of Jesus life and ministry. Watch the video to get an idea of all their hard work, and check out the real thing in the lower church hall.

Food Drive a Success

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to CPC's 2010 Food Drive. Click below for a slide show of everyone bringing their food in.

Food Drive 2010

June 6-12 will be CPC's annual food drive week. We'll begin the week by dropping leaflets on all our neighbors' doors. We'll end the week by collecting food from our neighbors and bringing it to the church. Didn't get a leaflet? Bring your food offering by CPC on Saturday, June 12 between 10 and 3. Don't live near Malverne? Join us by making a donation to your local food pantry or soup kitchen.

Here is why we do this:

On the phone today I talked with a neighbor, a well respected leader in Nassau County, where budget cuts by her employer reduced her job from full time to part time. Her husband had a stroke, leaving her the only wage earner. She is afraid she's going to loose her house. She may very well be a client at the Long Island Council of Church's Freeport Food Pantry.

Julie is a client. She works full time in an accounting office. She drives a new car, which she could not afford. The car, and other choices made during an addiction fueled out of control life, left her in debt and struggling to pay her bills. Now she's getting help for her addiction, paying down her debt and retaking control of her life. The food pantry helps her stretch her pay checks; its staff provide moral support and counsel.

Combine the stories and you get the statistics.

In 2008, the LICC Food Pantry served 3642 households. In 2009, almost 1,000 more. These households contained 13,000 individuals. Half were children. Six percent were senior citizens. The remaining adults were mostly employed, or recently laid off. Every month an additional 50 to 100 individuals come to the pantry who have never asked for assistance before.

CPC's annual food drive seeks to stock the pantry before the summer season, when donations drop off and the lack of free or reduced cost school meals increases the strain on family grocery budgets. To help, bring some of the below items to the church on Saturday, June 12 between 10 and 3.

Here is what the Food Pantry needs most to meet this increased need:

• Canned Vegetables (low salt)
• Soup (low salt/low fat)
• Canned fruit and 100% Fruit Juice (not fruit drink)
• Pasta, Rice Canned Beans
• Complete Pancake Mix
• Oatmeal, Grits, Dry Cereal (non/low sugar)
• Canned tuna/chicken/Salmon (in water) Canned Stew
• Nuts (low salt), Peanut Butter/Jelly
• Dry Milk/Parmalat
• Shampoo, Soap, Toiletries
• Clean, gently-used clothing
• diapers (all sizes), Enfamil formula, baby cereal, baby wipes and powder.

For more info:
Life in Difficult Times - How to Make It Through is a series of pod casts produced by the LICC that both inform those in need on how to get help and educate about the best ways to help. The series of three podcasts are available for $1.25 each by clicking the link above.

More on Pentecost

I just learned this about Pentecost - and its really cool.

Pentecost is the Greek for the Jewish holiday Shavuot, which both celebrated the Spring grain harvest and celebrated the giving of the law to Moses by God.

Some parallels which suggests to me that God knows his Jewish holidays pretty well:

Bush that burned but was not consumed -> tongues of fire that didn't burn anything.

God gives Moses the law -> the Holy Spirit enables interpretation and understanding of scripture.

The law created and guided the Jewish people -> the Holy Spirit creates and guides the church.

The law was given on Mount Sinai, the holiest of ground -> the Holy Spirit infuses sacredness to whatever it touches.

Why Pentecost

A long time member of our church confessed the other day that she didn't really understand Pentecost. As Pentecost is not celebrated outside of the church - we don't give Pentecost cards, or get days off from work or school - this is not surprising. Here is a primer for her and others who might be wondering.

Pentecost literally means "fiftieth" and one of the three major feast days in ancient Judaism marking the fiftieth day following Passover. In Acts chapter 2, we learn that the disciples were all gathered together on that day when a "sound like the rush of a violent wind" filled the house and "tongues as of fire rested on each of them. All were filled with the Holy Spirit." The Holy Spirit empowers the disciples, who until then had been passive to say the least, to rush out into the crowded city and talk about Jesus. Miraculously, when they talk, everyone can understand regardless of their native language. Peter preaches what is perhaps the greatest sermon ever and over 1,000 people are converted.

Christians consider Pentecost to be the birthday of the church and along with Easter and Christmas is one of the most important liturgical holidays.

In some Christian traditions, churches are decorated in red for Pentecost. Somebody back in the Middle Ages decided that the color red symbolized the Holy Spirit, and that tradition has been passed down through the churches ever since.

National Day of Prayer

Today (Thursday, May 6th) is the 49th annual National Day of Prayer.

A prayer for our nation taken from the Presidential Proclamation marking today as the National Day of Prayer:

On this day, let us give thanks for the many blessings God has bestowed upon our Nation. Let us rejoice for the blessing of freedom both to believe and to live our beliefs, and for the many other freedoms and opportunities that bring us together as one Nation. Let us ask for wisdom, compassion, and discernment of justice as we address the great challenges of our time.

Let us remember in our thoughts and prayers those suffering from natural disasters in Haiti, Chile, and elsewhere, and the people from those countries and from around the world who have worked tirelessly and selflessly to render aid. Let us pray for the families of the West Virginia miners, and the people of Poland who so recently and unexpectedly lost many of their beloved leaders. Let us pray for the safety and success of those who have left home to serve in our Armed Forces, putting their lives at risk in order to make the world a safer place. As we remember them, let us not forget their families and the substantial sacrifices that they make every day. Let us remember the unsung heroes who struggle to build their communities, raise their families, and help their neighbors, for they are the wellspring of our greatness. Finally, let us remember in our thoughts and prayers those people everywhere who join us in the aspiration for a world that is just, peaceful, free, and respectful of the dignity of every human being.

Read the entire Proclamation.

National Day of Prayer web site

Easter Egg Hunt for the Less than Limber

The Mission Outreach Team continued their wonderful Sunday Afternoon Socials at Malverne Village Hall, this one featuring an Easter Egg Hung for the Less Than Limber. After finding their eggs, the women retired inside to play games and eat candy. Thanks to everyone who helped out and everyone who came. Check out the slide show below:

Hygiene Kits Delivered

Bill Lee and his wife Judy loaded all of the Hygiene Kits made by the CPC Sunday School, Nassau Joint Youth Activities group and Allyce Yang's Cadet Troop - some 550 kits in all - and delivered them to the Church World Service distribution hub in New Windsor Maryland. Judy took some pictures.

View pictures of the Nassau Joint Youth gathering where some of the kits were assembled.

Hedge of Protection

When I first started praying with my colleagues at The Bowery Mission I noticed many of them using the phrase "hedge of protection," especially when lifting up a person or a program going through trying times - a client in danger of relapse, staff faced with unruly clients, etc. It was especially used in situations where the darkness of evil was a real and genuine threat. "God," they would pray, "please put a hedge of protection around so and so."

At first I was puzzled by the imagery and then came to use it myself. It is not biblical, although some link it to the cloud and the fire that God used to protect the Israelites from the Egyptians as they escaped from Egypt.

Hedge of protection language echos the fortress language of the psalmists and picked up by Martin Luther in his famous hymn. I see the hedge of protection as a mess of brambles between us and the evil of this world which threatens us and our faith. I take comfort in God's promise to protect me and keep me secure.

Presbyterian/Jewish Relations

On February 22nd, the Jewish human rights group and anti-antisemitism watchdog Simon Wiesenthal Center ran the following headline:

Presbyterian Church USA Ready to Declare War Against Israel

The attached article referenced a leaked draft of a press release describing a yet-to-be finished statement regarding the Middle East that will be before the PC(USA) General Assembly this summer. According to the Wiesenthal Center, the finished document will contain extensive language threatening to the security of the state of Israel.

Nobody outside of the committee that is writing the statement seems to know what it will actually say, and the Wiesenthal Center has not posted a copy of the press release it claims to have received, so denominational leaders are struggling to understand where this complaint came from.

In response Gradye Parsons, Stated Clerk of the PC(USA) issued a statement reaffirming the PC(USA)'s historic and ongoing support of the state of Israel within secure borders, while also expressing the church's ongoing concern for the violence and human rights abuses by both parties in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Here is my take, and what I would say to anyone who asked by opinion of this mater:
1. The PC(USA) has been one of the longest and staunchest defenders of the State of Israel and has long been a leader in Jewish/Christian relations. Statement after statement by the church has affirmed the right of Israel to exist. Presbyterian theologians, Bible scholars and preachers have been among the leaders in promoting a Christianity that combats, rather than supports, antisemitism.

2. The PC(USA) has very old, historic and close relationships with its sister churches in the Middle East including the Arab Christian communities in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. PC(USA) peacemakers and missionaries are working in those churches and in Arab communities helping them prosper and promote peace within the context of the Israeli occupation. The PC(USA) desperately wants a secular, Palestinian state that co-exists with Israel because current policies by both Israel and Hamas are killing the Arab Christian church.

We are called as a church to stand with our sisters and brothers in Christ and to use whatever political power we have, and whatever power of presence our peacemakers and missionaries can provide, to ensure that they have the right to worship, the ability to pursue an education, build an economy, farm their land, raise their children in the faith.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) has long affirmed that support of the state of Israel and support of Arab Christians are not mutually exclusive. Others disagree. I do not.

Your thoughts? Leave a comment.

Grafitti from the Pancake Supper

Congregational God Sightings for 2009

At the annual meeting on January 24th, members of the Community Presbyterian community expressed the following God sightings from the last year of their life together. Have your own? Share it in the comments.

• The quilt was appreciated and great friendship and cooperation developed in its making.
• Our many accomplishments as a small congregation – Outreach, fellowship etc.
• Our ability to meet our budget.
• Involvement of some folks not ordinarily active.
• The many happy faces of the seniors who came together at the first “social” at the village hall.
• We are still here when some thought we would go under
• Prayer meetings for Stan
• Love and support of the church family through difficult times.
• Our church continues to welcome all people who wish to join us. We continue to welcome those of the different background, faith and race. Our good pantry work and our mission working in this country and abroad.
• Accepted into colleges,
• Pinebrook Clean up;
• Baby Eric Thomas Nelson and Elisabeth back in church
• We did not close this year in the red, we are financially okay.
• A thriving thrift shop
• Our church is not static – with Fritz and the Elders’ leadership, CPC seems to constantly renew and revitalize itself. It is really amazing how mission has become the focus and purpose of our activities and prayers
• Our church fellowship and continue to prosper in many ways. And my life with my mom… blessings from above.
• The SWAP – generosity abounds on all sides
• Stan’s memorial service
• Thanks for being alive to experience all the beauty of the world and the wonderful people I know
• Our ability as a small congregation to make substantial differences for people in need
• All the accomplishments and goals that were made
• Health for many in Haiti
• That we respond to the disaster in Haiti and the needs of the neglected of the world empowered by the Holy Spirit
• Service and the great time we had at the Craft Fair
• Caroling for the shut-ins this past Christmas of the joy and healing brought to them
• Our prayerful vigil for Stan
• Craft Fair
• Choir
• Birth of Eric Thomas Nelson
• Bringing our daughter through a difficult pregnancy

Prayers for the Congregation 2010

At the annual meeting on January 24th, members of the Community Presbyterian community expressed the following prayers for the Congregation. Have your own? Share it in the comments.

• May we grow and do more deeds of service
• To continue to grow and to be as productive as we were this past year.
• Continued solvency, continued mission outreach, continued blessing for us all
• That we continue to increase the size of our congregation so that in turn our mission work will increase as well.
• Pray for peace on earth
• That the church will have a positive effect on the world, Long Island and Malverne
• Continued solvency for our church and continued welcoming into our presence people from the community to join us. Give us the strength to carry on His work. (We are few but we need to be strong.)
• Help us welcome
• Help us stay financially afloat
• Help us increase membership.
• Continued growth in spiritual and physical areas
• That we continue to grow, that we are able to discern God’s mission for our church and to carry it out.
• We remain welcoming and generosity
• We widen our circle of faith
• We bring more families back
• For everyone to stay safe and healthy for 2010. A good year
• To continue our mission work and to keep thinking of ways to invite our community into our church
• That giving continues
• Outreach is successful
• More young people come out to church and know our Saviour

2010 Congregational Priorities

In his State of the Church address on Sunday, Pastor Fritz outlined the following priorities for the congregation in the coming year:

Continue Mission Outreach
To continue the work of the Mission Outreach Team and follow in their lead as they host the Sunday Afternoon Socials and find other ways to serve our neighbors living alone.

Invitation and Engagement
To intentionally invite our neighbors into worship and mission with us both one on one and by increasing our visibility in the community.

Presbyterian Mission Partnership
To identify specific Presbyterian ministries, one on Long Island and one international, where we can partner through prayer, through giving and through involvement.

Priority Teams have been set up to lead our congregation forward in these areas. To join a priority team, sign up in the back of church or talk with Pastor Fritz.

Read Pastor Fritz's State of the Church address

Haiti Disaster Response

All of us have been rocked by the powerful images and stories coming out of Haiti. There are hundreds of aid organizations already at work in Haiti and more are now on their way there, giving us a plethora of opportunities to help. Here are a few that I know to be trust worthy and reliable. Feel free to share this with colleagues and friends who are interested in helping.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
PDA is working through our church partners and our PC(USA) Mission Personnel to assess the situation and channel relief. Initial relief is provided through our One Great Hour of Sharing Easter offering, but they are seeking $1,000,000 in additional funds.

To give: Put a check in the offering plate at church marked "PDA-Haiti" or give online.

Partners in Development
PID is a small, dynamic economic development organization that has specialized in working with Haiti's poorest of the poor for over twenty years. I personally know the Executive Director and many of their Haitian staff. They have some of the lowest administrative overhead costs of any development organization, ensuring that almost every dollar you give will go on the ground in Haiti. PID is also recruiting a team of "medical professionals and experienced travelers" to provide support for their Haitian staff, especially at their medical clinic in the Port-au-Prince suburbs. If you are interested, talk to Pastor Fritz.

To give: Put a check in the offering plate at church marked "PID - Haiti" or give online.

Hygiene Kits
CPC is partnering with Church World Service to collect Hygiene Kits for use in the tent cities that have sprung up all over Haiti. For information on what to put into the kit, click here. Then bring your kits(s) to the church.

Neighbor to Neighbor
DONNA HAS REACHED CAPACITY AND CANNOT ACCEPT ANY MORE STUFF! EXTREME THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED.
We live in a small world where personal connections transcend international boundaries. Donna Flud and her American Airlines colleagues regularly fly into and out of Haiti and have regularly been delivering relief supplies for years. Once commercial flights resume, Donna will be able to personally deliver clothes, shoes, hygene items, etc.

I would suggest that those wishing to partner with Donna make Hygiene Kits for her to distribute through her Haitian contacts. These compact, self contained kits are proven tool for helping in times of extreme need.

To give: Go to the Church World Service Kits Web Page and assemble a Hygine Kit according to the directions provided. Drop it off at church. Or put a check in the offering plate at church marked "Hygine Kits - Haiti."

The Power of Prayer
Please hold the people of Haiti up in prayer as well as all those seeking to bring aid and support. Pray for your Haitian neighbors and co-workers, who may very well be mourning friends and family members lost in the disaster. Please pray especially for PC(USA) Missionary Sharon Babe, who was injured in the quake and is hospitalized. Pray also for our church partner, the Episcopal Diocese in Haiti, which lost almost all their buildings.

A prayer for Haiti
God of compassion
Please watch over the people of Haiti,
And weave out of these terrible happenings
wonders of goodness and grace.
Surround those who have been affected by tragedy
With a sense of your present love,
And hold them in faith.
Though they are lost in grief,
May they find you and be comforted;
Guide us as a church
To find ways of providing assistance
that heals wounds and provides hope
Help us to remember that when one of your children suffer
We all suffer
Through Jesus Christ who was dead, but lives
and rules this world with you. Amen.

Christmas Eve 2009

Christmas Resources

Charities with Giving Catalogs
www.heifer.org
www.worldvision.org
www.bowery.org
www.pcusa.org/give
www.partnersforjusttrade.org

Sources of Fair Trade gifts
www.agreatergift.org
www.handcraftingjustice.org
www.heartbeatscatalog.org
www.tenthousandvillages.com
www.fairtradefederation.org
www.partnersforjusttrade.org

Handcrafting Justice
25-30 21st Avenue, Astoria, NY
(718) 204-0909

Online Advent Calendars
www.followthestar.org
www.edow.org/spirituality/advent/

Shopping Free Christmas
www.buynothingchristmas.org
www.adventconspiracy.org

Elder Stan Bishop

A few weeks ago I met a teacher colleague of Stan's in the hospital. "Nobody," he said, "Has an ill thing to say about him." Just today I met a former student of Stan's, now a small businessman in the Village of Malverne. "He was one of the best teachers I ever had. He was hard and strict, but fair and made learning fun." In retirement, Stan taught an intensive survey of the Bible course at Community Presbyterian. One of his students in that course returned from a Mediterranean cruise psyched to tell Stan all about the places they studied. As his pastor I always considered Stan a true colleague in ministry, and a leader a guide to the congregation on how to live the life of faith.

Here are the details of the various services and ways we are remembering Stan's presence among him and celebrating his resurrection healing:

Malverne Memorial Service:
Saturday, November 21 @ 2:30 pm. Time for visiting to follow.

Stan Bishop Memorial Fund
Community Presbyterian has established a special memorial fund to honor Stan's ministry in our midst. The fund will be split between the Long Island Council of Churches Food Pantry & a special project at the church.

Doylestown PA Committal Service
Stan is being buried in his family's plot in the Mennonite Cemetery in Doylestown, PA. The service will be at 2:00 pm.

Directions/Map
Pick up I-78 west to US 202. Follow 202 Southwest through NJ, cross the Delaware River and continue into Doylestown. Take Business 202 (State Street) into Doylestown. Turn right onto Main Street, and then left onto Broad Street. Follow to cemetery (approx. where Broad Street intersects 611)




View Larger Map

WMC 09 - Final Reflections

For the last three days I've been participating in the PC(USA)'s Mission Celebration 2009, learning about all that our church and our partners are doing in international mission. Scroll through the blog for all my reports on plenary sessions, worship and workshops. If you have thoughts or comments, please leave them.

A few final reflections:

• The PC(USA) has become like an elderly parent. Our mission activity in the late 19th and early 20th century birthed strong Christian communities all over the world. As we struggle, we now need these communities to breath the Holy Spirit and vitality back into us.
• Some years ago a colleague in education ministry told me that the PC(USA) began going downhill when we stopped building hospitals, starting schools and birthing worshiping communities. Among our partner churches overseas, education and health care remain the bedrock of their mission and are often the starting point for evangelism. Why aren't we doing this at home?
• The PC(USA)'s mission around the world is vibrant and healthy and our partner churches are strong.
• In a globalizing world, our congregations ever more need to learn to cross cultures and engage in conversation with our neighbors.
• Theological divides do not justify negation of the great commission or great commandment.
• Here in the states, we need to resist the urge to create multiple congregations based on language and culture and strive to create communities that can bridge culture and gather everyone around Jesus Christ.
• We must relearn how to pray, testify and share our faith with each other and our neighbors.
  

WMC 09 - Closing Worship

Rev. Dr. Mary Mikail, president of the Near East School of Theology, preached at the closing worship. Her points:

• What mission does our church have for the world of today? A world of violence and injustice?
• The world is in a spiritual crisis. It is never in more need of hope and healing.
• Our mission is a gift from God.
• That gift enables us to catch the Spirit of Christ to challenge the evils in society.
• To catch the Spirit of Christ is to bring hope and healing.
• We do mission through humble, compassionate service.

All worship leadership came through a music team headed by Corey Nelson who brought music from all over the world. Worship ended with communion and commissioning of all into their mission service.