2010 Lenten Services Schedule

The 2010 Lenten Services Schedule

Our community's popular ecumenical Lenten Services have been scheduled again this year for each Wednesday during Lent.

This season's theme for the series is "The Sign of Jonah." Jonah for Lent? Sounds fishy, but it is a natural fit. When the Jews asked Jesus for a sign, he said, "I will give you only the sign of Jonah." After three days in the belly of the earth, Jesus rose with news of God's prodigal grace. This series explores the meaning of "The Sign of Jonah," following Jonah on his journey, and Jesus on his way to the cross.

Each Wednesday all are invited to gather for soup and sandwich beginning at 6:00 pm, with worship following at 7:00 pm. The schedule is as follows:

Ash Wednesday, February 17:Hosted at First Reformed of Chatham.
Preaching: Iris Waddell [we had our own Communion service with the Methodist churches of Chatham and East Chatham]

February 24:Hosted at St. James Roman Catholic Church. [snowed out]
Preaching: Michele Cijka

March 3:Hosted at PayneA.M.E. Church. [venue changed to St. James RC Church]
Preaching: Esau Greene

March 10:Hosted at ChathamUnited Methodist Church.
Preaching: Ellen Neufeld

March 17:Hosted at the CanaanCongregational Church, Routes 295 and 5.
Preaching: Doug Holmes

March 24:Hosted at St. Peter's Presbyterian Church, Spencertown.
Preaching: Robert (Bob) Isaksen

Change in Lenten schedule

Pleae note change in next Wednesday's Lenten service from Payne AME Church to St.James RC Church. Same preacher as far as I know.

Burning of the Palms & Elvis-and our new sign!

In this February 14, 2010 photo we see Richard , Charlotte ,Samantha , Casey, Evan and Pastor Bob burning the palms. Photo is by Doug Stalker. (Aren't we lucky to have a resident photographer in our midst?)

To get a preview of one of tomorrow's hymns, here's Elvis crooning "Lead Me, Guide Me." Learn it tonight; join in tomorrow!

Click here for a direct line to "The King" (the other one.)

Helping hand for Haiti

You can give through the congregation. If you are a Thrivent member, you can give through Thrivent who will match your gifts.

ELCA NEWS SERVICE: February 12, 2010

ELCA Gifts to Support Recovery Efforts in Haiti Exceed $4.6 Million

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Since the earthquake in Haiti one month ago, the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has received over 27,000
gifts totaling more than $4.2 million to support humanitarian relief
efforts in Haiti. According to ELCA Treasurer Christina Jackson-Skelton,
the ELCA received an additional $320,000 in a matching grant from
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans, bringing the overall total to more than
$4.6 million in gifts to the ELCA.

More http://www.elca.org/News/Releases.asp?a=4447

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org
http://www.elca.org/news
Twitter: http://twitter.com/elcanews

Council Meeting - February 2010

MEETING OF THE FIRST CONGREGATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHRIST our EMMANUEL
LUTHERAN CHURCH

FEBRUARY 9, 2010

In attendance: Marcia Sarro, Ken Wilber, Patty Bervy, Pastor Robert
Isaksen, Gary Wheeler, Christa Lordi, Linda O'neil
Absent: Mac MacDonald, Youth Member

Pastor led the "Charter Council" into its deliberations with
historical perspectives as comparisons for encouragements in the near
future, with analogies to the "Transfiguration of Our Lord".

The minutes from the Annual Meeting from January 24, 2010 were
distributed to Council Members.

The minutes from the interim Congregation Council from January 7th,
2010, were reviewed and discussed:

--election of congregational council
--church property---furnace cleaning/service--two completed @
$168.00, parsonage pending; Patty Bervy to obtain additional estimate
on new furnace
--new church sign--pending at meeting time but installed during the
week of Feb. 9th
--information about the handicap lift is pending
--merging of finances is proceeding
--Linda Stalker has agreed to manage the "Improvement Fund" with the
inclusion of donations for the special "window" and " handicap-lift"
funds
--estimate for replacement of plastic protective window panels
temporarily set-aside
--new members were received on January 25th
--April 25, 2010 will be Consolidation Celebration and official
installation of Pastor Isaksen
--Pastoral letter on the church logo (by Doug Stalker) letterhead is
to be mailed this month
--Constitution changes have been made; Christa will submit with
required information to "Upstate New York Synod"

--Pastor's cell phone: 646-530-0790; email: bpisak1@yahoo.com

Patty Bervy reviewed the budget for 2010 with correction.
The January Treasurer's Report before financial consolidation:
Deposits: $3,654 Disbursements: $2,031.24
The flat payment of $3000.00 for Mission Support to the ELCA will be
distributed over 12 months.
The unpaid increase in the Cluster Secretary costs will show in the
next financial statement. Current cost about $175./month
Treasurer's Report accepted.

The Sunday School will meet in the upstairs rooms of the parsonage
Sundays at 11:00 AM, weekly. There is a coffee hour available after
church. Parents of Sunday School children, parishioners, and guests
are welcome to stay and enjoy fellowship. Linda O'Neil will notify
the newspapers of the correct times.

There has been activity to rearrange the Sanctuary as well as the
winter worship space in the basement. Several rows of pews were
removed to allow for space for the Children's table at the rear of
the sanctuary during worship. The children's carpet from the former
Christ Church is to be used under the children's table. The main
altar has been placed a floor level. There is now seating for
110-115 people in the sanctuary. A suggestion for two rocking chairs
in the children's area for moms and/or child comfort needs came from
Pastor's experiences. An opaque or semi-visual screen could be
considered as needs arise. Pews were placed for worship in the
basement parallel with the side windows and altar arrangement,
creating a more devotional environment.

Members should contemplate the new arrangements and consider what
floor covering for the sanctuary would be most useful and durable.
Suggestions for plain wood floors after removal of the old carpeting,
and/or new carpeting, or area runners were made. Ideas and fact-
finding to be considered at the next Council meeting.

Ken will contact the company which is restoring the Resurrection
Angel Window from the former Christ Church to proceed with
installation in the Chatham church. A suggestion is made to sell the
current round "Bible" window on Ebay, and to list it on the blog site
with Deb Ulmer's assistance.
--- motion by Patty made with consensus on these two issues

Patty Bervy and Ken Wilber will establish a single checking account
consolidating monies from both churches, with the required security
signatures.
A motion by Ken that the balance of the estimate for the installation
of the window be transferred to the "Improvement Fund"---Council
consensus
An EIN (Employer Identification Number) is still needed for Pastor's
benefits and Board of Pension documents.

A discussion ensued concerning the investment of larger amounts of
money in the "Mission Investment Fund" (MIF) of the ELCA, or in a
Certificate of Deposit, or other money market fund. The church can
borrow from the MIF for improvements and earn interest on the
investment. Comparison of interest rates needs to be made.

Pastor has received a fee for services rendered and is making a
donation of $62.50 to the "Lift" fund and $62.50 to the "Haiti"
relief fund of the Lutheran Church.

Hand addressed envelopes are ready for the mailing of the Pastoral
letter which is being prepared by the cluster secretary. A check of
the sanctuary guest book could clarify some addresses.

There will be a Service on Ash Wednesday, February 17, 2010. Pastor
will prepare the special bulletin which will include communion and
imposition of ashes.
Marcia will pick up bulletins. Due to lack of space in the winter
worship basement a "soup and sandwich" session will not be possible
this year.
Pastor is pleased to have a comprehensive list of music for the
accompanying machine. Perhaps speakers could be added in the
basement for better sound.

The officers of the Congregation Council are elected as follows:

President: Marcia Sarro
Vice President: Ken Wilber
Secretary: Christa Lordi

The treasurer elected by the Congregation on January 24, 2010:
Patty Bervy

Appointments made by the Congregation Council for 2010:

Financial Secretary: Candice Tubbs
Improvement Fund Deputy Treasurer: Linda Stalker
Property Management: Richard MacDonald
Worship and Music: Richard Tucksmith
Christian Education: Linda O'Neil
Sunday School Superintendent: Richard Tucksmith


A motion by Ken with Council consensus that there be a requirement
for a second signature--that of the treasurer-- for disbursements
from the "Improvement Fund"

Patty Bervy requests permission to order a church address stamp for
mail and payments. Motion by Gary to purchase---council approved
Stationery and envelopes are available through the cluster secretary.

Patty Bervy presented the annual request from the ELCA for audit/
financial information (Patty to complete), sunday school information
(Richard Tuchsmith to complete), and congregation statistics (Marcia
to complete).

A new directory of congregation members would be an asset for the
charter membership. The Council would like to request Doug Stalker's
help with pictures of members as this becomes better established, and
Deb Ulmer's help with a possible computer printing of an address/
picture booklet.

The installation of the Congregation Officers will be on February 14,
2010.

Pastor reported on the health difficulties encountered recently by
Carol and Hank Bartel. Carol is hospitalized with need of surgery
for heart valve malfunction and Hank has had an accident which
resulted in a broken shoulder. Their families are assisting, but
church members are asked for prayers and support as much as possible.

The Congregation Council made the following responsibility appointments:

Deb Ulmer----Web site manager
Outgoing members of the church council----Nominating Committee
Ken Wilber----Annual Audit Supervisor with the Finance Committee
Marcia Sarro---Altar Committee Chairperson, Social Ministries Committee
Claire Wheeler----Ceremony recorder
Patty Bervy---Fellowship Committee
_____________----Cluster representative

Kirsten Bervy, acting Youth Member on the Congregation Council, will
post committees for volunteers from the congregation.

Pastor announced a church conference which meets monthly called
"Lutheran Ministerium" to be held at the Coburg Village Lutheran
Nursing Home in Athens/Catskills.

The meeting completed and adjourned with "The Lord's Prayer".

Bringing children to church

HEIGH-HO, IT'S OFF TO CHURCH WE GO

FELIX CARROLL
Section: Unwind, Page: UW3
Times Union
Date: Sunday, February 7, 2010

For reasons that are equal parts practical, political, spiritual and personal, about three years ago, when "my beloved son in whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17) turned 4-years old, I began dragging him to church on Sundays.

Yes, I had my doubts that first day. Particularly during the consecration, when the priest said the words "Take this, all of you, and eat it. This is My Body ..." All the talk of body and blood, soul and divinity, I wondered if expecting my boy to comprehend all this was like expecting him to understand the movie "Blade Runner."

Still, at the time, he knew more about Spider-Man than he did about God, and I felt guilty as a result. He could deliver a disturbingly detailed lecture on a fictional character like, say, Salacious Crumb, the Kowakian monkey-lizard in the motley court of Jabba the Hut, and yet he knew next to nothing about that nonfictional wild rebel from Nazareth who (word has it) changed the world.

That's not to say he was happy about attending church. He wasn't. Week after week, on Sunday morning, I'd comb his hair and spit-shine him, and pull him down the block in the direction of the pealing church bells, and he'd scowl at me as if to say, "Dad, when I get bigger, this is how it's going to go down: You and me. Behind the barn. Fisticuffs. Two hits. I hit you, and you hit the ground. Got it?"

But by the end of year one, he had barged his way through the stages of grief and had finally come to accept that Sunday mornings he would have to surrender control of his wardrobe and whereabouts.

Why church? Such a question would be unheard of a couple generations ago. And so maybe mutiny against the modern day is part of it. But it's not just because my parents forced my siblings and me to attend, and that their parents forced them and onward down the family line, stretching in a buoyant backstroke through the centuries. There are other reasons.

When I was coming of age in the 1980s, the most well-known faces of Christianity in our nation were televangelists who often spoke with venom, whose suits were expensive, whose homes were huge, who made wild and unfulfilled apocalyptic predictions, and who struck me as absolute lunatics.

It was they, and not archetypal youthful rebellion, who prompted me to run in the opposite direction, back through my Catholic upbringing and out the other side to the lonely, spiritual bottomlands where absolute truth could be tossed in the air and riddled with buckshot.

At the time, I was a greenhorn when it came to demagoguery. As I got older, I wasn't so easily discouraged. I became a father of a baby whom I'd rock to sleep. He became a growing boy whom I wished to rock awake. And what do I wish him to see?

I want him to see that the face of religion today isn't the political-hacks who talk about the "real" America. It isn't the Pharisees of cable news whose popularity and bank accounts are contingent upon stoking and exploiting political and religious polarity.

So, yeah, I drag my boy to church in an effort to inoculate him from the modern-day snake-oil salesmen, and for him to see the face of spirituality in the people who go about the world doing good for others, who do so quietly, who have one foot on Earth and one in eternity. People, in other words, who've got it together.

I take him to church because the following is indisputable: A spiritual life will protect him from the bad things that will surely happen in his life. The bad things won't be as devastating.

There are other reasons. How about this: Science, medicine and politics offer, at best, huge answers to small questions. Today, the biggest question -- why are we here? -- is all but ignored outside of the specially built edifices designed for such rumination -- our churches and synagogues (and a goodly number of Irish pubs).

In a passage from a book titled "Lectures in Orthodox Religious Education," by Sophie S. Koulomzin, the author writes: "If the child's environment is penetrated by a living spirit of faith and love, the child will discover it, just as it discovers parental love and security."

Besides, children are hard-wired for the miraculous, whether it's Spider-Man or the coolest of dudes from 2,000 years ago who befriended the outcasts, who distinguished the sinner (whom we are called to love) and the sin (which we are called to eschew). The older I get, the better that sounds to me.

And the older I get, the more I realize that joy is the twin brother of truth and the principal mark of maturity.

Does that mean my boy smiles each Sunday when we walk through the church doors? No. I haven't seen him smile yet. But what are you gonna do?

Posted for Pastor Isaksen