May/June 2008
Dear Friends,
As you read this
Oxen Hill, MD. Almost 2000 UM clergy and laity will conference together under the theme “Poured
Out: Serve Like Christ”. Holy conferencing has long been a part of our Church, to share concerns,
keep each other accountable, check on the state of the church, ordain new members of clergy, celebrate those
who will retire, and generally care for the members of the church. And this year we will also be asked to
endorse a candidate for bishop, to be placed in nomination at the Jurisdictional Conference this summer. Rev.
Peggy Johnson of
This year, our Annual Conference will retire one of the largest group of clergy/deacons in our history:
a total of 36 members with a combined 915 years of service – some names will be familiar to you –
Rev. Peggy Groseclose (Bel Air UMC), Rev. Ed Heydt (Havre de Grace UMC); Rev. Eugene Matthews
(DS of Balto-West); and Dennis Schulze – former Pastor of the Abingdon Charge. I know you will wish them
well after their many years of service. We will also commission or ordain 31 new pastors.
The retirement of Dr. Matthews reduces the number of District Superintendents from 9 to 8 – at this writing.
One of the BIG tasks at Conference this year is voting on the proposed re-alignment of our Conference.
This alignment will reduce the number of districts from 9 to 8. This means that the Baltimore Harford District
may change significantly as of July 1st. It may also mean a change in our District Superintendent.
This alignment change is projected to save Annual Conference about $200,000 in the annual budget.
Other agenda items include: encouraging churches to support pregnancy centers and pregnant women;
establish a cemetery reserve fund to care for abandoned, conference-owned cemeteries and the budget!
There are wonderful times for worship, fellowship, hearing reports of achievement and challenges of
our ministries and missions – locally and globally.
Even though by now, Conference is over; decisions have been made that will affect us for at least the next year,
I ask you to remember to always be in prayer for the whole church, her leaders – especially our Bishop,
John Schol, and, of course, your pastor.
May you all have a blessed and safe Memorial Day – and I’ll see you next Sunday, June 1st for Communion!
In Christ’s Service,
Rev. Janet
Abingdon Charge
Events/News
The
The
The next luncheon will be on
May 22nd at
Summer Bible Studies
Our summer “study” will be an adventure for
all ages – and the Pastor. Members will
be asking the question – “what does this mean” about scriptures, ideas, etc., which
we will attempt to answer together.
There will be day and evening classes through the month of June. Day classes begin on June 3rd at
Food for F.I.S.H.
Cokesbury & Calvary will be
collecting food and money on the following dates:
May
25th
June
29th
Please also be aware that financial donations are VERY welcome as FISH tries to help families with emergency funds for power. Special offering envelopes in June and November.
Contemporary
Service with be held at
June 22nd
Join us for a time of praise, instruction, reflection and sharing our faith!! Come as you are and bring a friend.
Thank you for your continued support to our
UMW Prison Ministry community outreach. For the month of March, I would like to
thank Dorothy Standiford, Ricky Parker, Joe and Rosa Fragoso for their
donations of $20 for white cotton sports bras; personal and household items,
for the inmates at The Harford County Detention Center and for some newly
released inmates who are trying to get a fresh clean start at a newly opened
local transition house.
For the month of April, I would like to thank Dorothy Standiford,
and Sue Burkentine for their donations
of $20 in which I purchased T-shirts and
for the donation of clothing for the
House, respectively. The T-shirts have been donated to the
for the men and women inmates. Since the jail does not provide underwear, these contributions are an
on-going need. We have been trying to
meet this need for ten years now along with many other churches in the area. I was pleased to
find out recently that the state does provide underclothing to the state inmates.
I will be helping the UMW look into
remedying this disparity. For the month
of May: On a personal note, I have continued to make many hospital, nursing home, and home
visitations and pray that God will
continue to bless this ministry.
Peace and joy,
Nancy Randers-Pehrson, M. Div.
COKESBURY NEWS
UNITED
METHODIST WOMEN
The UMW has been meeting regularly and sharing a light
luncheon on the 4th Sunday of each month following worship. Thank you to all who continue to support the
In addition to our regular programs and
ministries, several members of the UMW have embarked on a reading program. The national UMW has a reading program that
embraces each point of the
The cookbook project that the
UMW began some time ago, has a new leader!
Rebekah Barczak has agreed to collect and sort the various recipes that
come our way. SO – NOW IS THE TIME, get
your favorite recipes together, make sure we can understand the difference
between teaspoons (t or tsp) and tablespoons (T or Tbsp) and such (like
“drained” or “undrained”); tell us who’s
recipe it is and what category it should be in, like dessert, main course, etc. Then, type or print the recipe and send it
or email it to Rebekah. You can also just bring them to church!
June 22nd – Pot Luck Dinner & “Pound” Auction- We invite the entire congregations to come to a pot-luck dinner following worship on Sunday morning. Bring a pound of something – anything – wrap it in paper and ribbon or something that will hide whatever it is – and we will auction is off. You won’t know what you are buying until you open your surprise package! Lots of laughs – and maybe some yummy treats could be yours! Proceeds of the auction will go to support UMW missions projects.
May: Susannah Wesley House
June: FISH (local
feeding program serving the
July: Charlie Riley Community Service Scholarship
Foundation
August:Big Brothers/Big Sisters --
Two of our members work for the organization and other members are Big
Sisters.
It is our prayer that you will give generously and prayerfully to these missions.
AKA -
Liturgists: Please sign up for Sundays
so we can email you a copy of the
bulletin (if you have email)!!
I would like
to thank all the choir members for their hard work this year. We face the
challenge
of having very few members and sometimes sing with only 3 or 4 people on any
given sunday. This past year I chose a few difficult pieces for the choir too
learn, which included “Amazing Grace(Our
Chains are Gone)”, “Fly Away Medley” and our last
piece “
Your Choir Director, Kristie Taylor
Calvary’s Annual Spaghetti Dinner was a hit! We served close to 100 persons a delicious dinner and enjoyed accordion music provided by Bobbie Crytser . Our thanks to Lew Espy of Cokesbury for again helping as our cashier. And our thanks to Brian Donley for the new tables.
Special Honoring
Sunday, May 18th, was a very special Sunday, when
we honored Clara Crytser for her many years of service to
UPCOMING AT
Bible study: Tuesday
mornings at
Church
Council Meeting: Tuesday, June 3rd,
Ruritan Dinner – 2nd Tuesday each month. June will be “Ladies Night” for Ruritan and we expect to serve at least 50 for dinner. Please let Jeannie or Joan know if you can help serve and/or clean up.
REMINDER: Don’t forget to sign up for Liturgist!!!
May 25th - Memorial Day Sunday – Bruce Riley preaching.
June 1st – Communion Sunday – We begin a sermon series on the Acts of the Apostles. The adult class at Cokesbury will also be studying Acts during the summer.
Acts 2:1-21; Psalm 46; Matthew 7:21-29
June 8th – Cokesbury honors their graduates! Acts 2: 22-32; Psalm 33:1-12; Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
June 15th – Father’s Day – Bring your “dad” to church!! Acts
June 22nd – Pentecost 6 – Acts
News from the
Celebrate United Methodist heritage day at the Strawbridge Shrine, home of American Methodism and Robert Strawbridge, June 21, 1 to 6:30 p.m., 2650 Strawbridge Lane in New Windsor. There will be music, praise and worship. The Rev. Lloyd Marcus will lead the fellowship and the Rev. "Budd" Kibbe the hymn singing. For more information contact Laura Apostol at 410-635-2600 or go to www.strawbridgeshrine.org.
ROCK 2008 Highlights DVD is now available for $20 while supplies last. Make orders by e-mail with contact information to Jo Chesson at jchesson@bwcumc.org. The pre-ordered DVDs have been mailed out.
UPDATE -
UMCOR assisting
