Metropolitan-Duane Newsletter

Met-Duane News

March, 2005

The Open Door

The Sanctuary is open for prayer and meditation from Noon to 4pm Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

Open Hearts Open Minds Open Doors

Six people join Met-Duane

On Sunday, February 27, six new members joined the church. They are pictured below. Shown below are (left to right) Jim Ellis, Oliveene Gayle, Miranda Heineman, Pastor Ishii, Joelle Tucker, Chae Hyon, and Terence McCormick.

Met-Duane makes apportionment (again)

The certificate that Rev. Noel Chin is presenting acknowledges the fact that Met-Duane made 100% of our Conference Apportionment for 2003. Shown left to right are Trudy Grove, President of the Board of Trustees; Rev. Ishii, Rev. Chin, and co-Lay Leaders Laura Tucker and Jeff Mummert. (Another certificate is in the offing since we also met our 2004 Apportionment.)

City Council of Churches
Honors Pastor Ishii

On Thursday, October 21, 2004, some of Rev. Taka Ishii's friends were present as the Council of Churches of the City of New York honored him outstanding service in ministry.

Each year the Council honors persons selected by their denominations for special recognition. Other honorees included this year were: the Rev. Dr. Floyd Flake, Allen AME Cathedral; the Rev. Dr. A.R. Bernard, Christian Culture Center, Brooklyn; Bishop Mark Sisk, Episcopal Diocese of NY; the Rev. Dr. James Stallings, Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches, Metropolitan NY.
The Council's Award and Recognition Banquet was held at the Saint Vartan Armenian Cathedral, 630 Second Avenue, Manhattan.

News Archives

Church Council planning session held Feb. 28 and 29, 2004. Picture and list of attendees.

The Sunday School kids wrote to Mayor Bloomberg about the plight of the homeless in NYC.

Members and friends of Met-Duane took part in the March 22, 2003, peace march. Taka took some pictures.

Pastor joins news conference on preemptive attack on Iraq.
Pastor's statement to the Press
UM Bishops' statement
Pastor's letter to President Bush.

Charge Conference Report -- We did it again!!

Laura Tucker and Jeff Mummert are our new CO-Lay Leaders.

A church in Kobe, Japan, has sent us a gift of 1000 Paper Cranes.We received another set of 1000 cranes from Oncho Church in Kamakura, Japan.Our Pastor has written a book explaining the significance of paper cranes.

Bishop Ernest Lyght visited Met-Duane shortly after September 11, 2001.

We have received hundreds of letters, e-mails, and other kinds of support in response to the events of September 11, 2001. We have collected pictures of some of these in a couple of photo albums.

Christine Day joins Met-Duane as Assistant Pastor

Christine N. Day has joined Metropolitan-Duane in the position of Assistant Pastor. Christine has a Bachelor's Degree in International Studies from George Washington University and a Master of Divinity Degree from Drew University. She has served as an Intern Chaplain at New York University Medical Center and as Resident Chaplain at the Georgetown University Hospital. Christine will preach her first sermon at Met-Duane on Sunday, September 19.

Met-Duane at Heritage of Pride Parade

Members and friends of Metropolitan-Duane in the annual Heritage of Pride parade in Manhattan.

"... for I was hungry and you gave me food"

The Feeding Program at Met-Duane continues and is growing stronger.. Each Saturday volunteers meet to prepare and package 30 to 40 meals for the homeless. At Noon on Saturday people are welcome to come to the church to pick up a meal. Any meals that are not picked up are distributed in neighborhood parks. Pastor Ishii has written a letter to the congregation about the program and explaining how to volunteer. There is an update to this letter explaining the current needs of the program. You can see pictures of the crew at work in Duane Hall kitchen and you are certainly welcome to join in! (Shown left to right, crew leaders Melanie Heineman, Emily Del Pino, and Lynn Berry.)

Open Door Ministry Continues

The Open Door Ministry, established after the UMCOR-sponsored Listening Post closed, continues. Thanks to the efforts of Daisy Dunbar, Ardele Murphy, and Luther Berry, assisted by Amika Solomon and Parsram Persaud, the Sanctuary is open for prayer and mediation Tuesday through Thursday, from Noon to Four. The Open Door Ministry and the associated food pantry have become very important parts of our ministry. Anyone can help in this ministry by donating food to the food pantry. We have a list of commonly needed food items. The picture shows Daisy and Parsram with some of the written materials on prayer and Bible study that are available to visitors.( For larger pictures, see the food pantry page.)