NEWS AROUND THE PARISH
Congratulations to:
Sharon and Charles Kent, whose
son Nicholas Charles Kent, was born
February 8th.
Our thoughts and prayers are with:
Edith Zieminski’s on the
death of her brother Norman Kelley.
Those of us who knew
Hilda Reinhardt who died following a car accident.
Dan Shoemaker who is recovering from elbow
surgery following a bicycle accident.
Kari
Bloom who recently had a procedure done in her on-going battle with MS.
Shelby Weyant as she
rehabs following surgery.
Linda Casey who was
hospitalized.
PRAYING FOR OUR CHURCH FAMILY
We invite you to continue
praying for our Church families: The
families for March are:
Week of March 2nd
Flora Beebe
Ben, Kim, Amy & Mya Flis
John and Diane Levesque
Vera Stankus
Week
of March 9th
David, Carrie, Madeline and Haley Beecher
Marilyn Freer
Ronald and Nancy Lindsay
Jennifer, Amanda and Hannah Staski
Week
of March 16th
Jeffery Beecher
Eric, Jill, Matt and Julia Frey
Louis and Karen Luciani
Scott Stieler
Week of March 23rd
Larry Beecher
Garilyn Galang
Peggy Lyons
Jonathan, Michelle, Sara and Mark Sumner
Week
of March 30th
Charles Bell
Martin and Patricia Gannon
William, Sheryl, Britney, Shelby and Billy Mack
Elaine Sweeney
The
families for April are:
Week
of April 6th
Barbara Bergolios
John, Linda, Elena and Rosie Garcia
Alice Mann
Hal, Christina and Ciera Sweet
Week
of April 13th
Arthur and Marie Betts
Grace Gatcomb
George Manwaring
Harold and Vicki Sweet
Week
of April 20th
Elaine Biafore
Richard Gee
Shirley Massicott
Al, Christine, Alan and Catherine Tancreti
Week
of April 27th
Laurel Blood
George and Anna Geer
Dorothy Meloney
Thomas, Sharon and Steven Tarca
UMYF NEWS
The UMYF Rock-a-thon will be on Saturday, March 1st. The youth will spend 12 hours rocking in
rocking chairs to raise money. The money collected will be used in two ways; to
pay for the group’s annual trip to Six Flags, and to help support Matt Hubbard and Leah Heald who will
be participating this summer in UM Army, a mission project for youth.
Parental help is needed for this event. The congregation can sponsor the group. If you would like to do so, please speak with
a member of the UMYF, or Renee and Eric.
Other activities are:
March 9th The Jr UMYF will meet at the Church from 6 to 8
p.m. to watch a movie.
The Sr UMYF will meet at the Lavalette’s from 6 to
7:30 p.m.
March 16th The Jr UMYF will meet at the Church from 6 to 7:30
p.m. to make Easter Cards.
The Sr UMYF will meet at the Joy’s from 6 – 7:30
March 23rd is Easter so there will be no meetings.
March 30th The Jr UMYF will meet at the Church from 6 – 8 p.m.
to watch a movie.
The Sr UMYF will meet at the Garcia’s from 6 -7:30.
April 6th the Jr UMYF will have a Game Night at the Church
from 6 – 7:30 p.m.
Sr. UMYF will meet at the parsonage from 6 –
7:30.
April 13th the Jr UMYF will meet at the Church from
6 – 7:30
p.m. to do some cooking.
The Sr UMYF
program is to be announced.
April 20th both groups will meet from 5:30 – 7:30 for a
Murder Mystery.
April 27th Jr UMYF will meet from 6 -7:30 p.m. for a
Scavenger Hunt.
The Sr UMYF will meet at the Blythe’s from 6 – 7:30
HOLY WEEK CELEBRATION
Easter is Sunday, March 23rd. We will worship at 8:30 and 10 a.m. The choir will present special anthems at
both services. There will be no Sunrise Service this year.
The congregation
is invited to prepare for Easter by participating in the following Holy Week
events:
On Palm Sunday, March 16th the Sunday School will once again present there “Walk through Holy Week”
program. Come and here their retelling
of the events of Holy Week.
On Maundy Thursday, March 20th
we will gather for worship at 7:30 p.m. The service will include Communion and the
service of Tenebrae, where we recount the Passion narrative. The Confirmation Class will assist with this
service.
On Good Friday, March 21st
we will hold our Prayer Vigil. The Prayer Vigil begins at noon on Friday and ends on Saturday
morning at 10 a.m. The Prayer Vigil provides members of the congregation
an opportunity to set aside time for prayer and reflection. While it is possible to do this at home,
coming and sitting in the sanctuary for quite reflection provides a unique
opportunity. Our hope is to have someone in the sanctuary during this
time. A sign-up sheet for is available
with hourly slots. Everyone is welcome
to come for whatever time they can. More
than one person can be in the sanctuary at a time. You are encouraged to participate as your
schedule allows. The sanctuary will be
locked during the overnight hours. Those
sitting vigil during those hours will know in advance who is following them.
Please make a special effort to be in attendance at
these services. Your participation will
enhance your Easter experience.
SINGING LUSTILY
The Cluster of United Methodist Churches will be holding
a Choir Concert on Sunday, April
13th beginning at 4 p.m. This event will
be held at the Meriden UMC and will feature a combined choir from all of the churches. Each choir has chosen one piece to
contribute. All pieces will be sung by
the combined choir. Kendra Henderson will be one of the
Directors.
A free will offering to support
the work of Unity House will be taken. Unity
House, which is our Cluster mission project is a Refugee Resettlement
Mission. Following the concert
which will last about an hour, there will be a reception. We hope you will make every effort to attend.
CONFIRMATION BUS TRIP
This
year’s Confirmation Bus Trip is on Saturday,
May 3rd.
We will leave from our Church parking lot at 7:30
a.m. and return by 6 p.m.
All of the details are not
finalized. One of our stops will be The
John Street United Methodist Church which is the oldest Methodist Church in
America. There will also be “free time”
at the South Street Seaport.
This trip is open to anyone in
the congregation. The cost for the bus
ticket is $30. The UMW sponsors the
confirmands so their bus ticket is paid for. In addition you will need spending money and
money for lunch. If you are interested
in attending, please see Pastor Eric
Easter Plants and Alternative Giving
Once again we are offering the opportunity for members
and friends of the congregation to memorialize and / or honor loved ones with a
personal dedication through the purchase a spring plant for the Easter Altar
arrangement, or through an alternative gift to charity. The plants offered for purchase at the price of $10/per plant. You will be able to make your choice from the
following plants: tulip, daffodil, mum
and Easter Lily. Order forms will be
available in the Sunday bulletins beginning Sunday, February 24th.
The deadline for ordering plants is March 9th.
At the February 18th meeting, the Ministry
Teams selected the Midnight Run and Master’s Manna as the recipients for
alternative donation. Funds collected will benefit the Breakfast Run we have
volunteered to do mid spring. Master’s Manna is a local outreach mission
located on Route 5 at the Christian Street intersection. They is primarily a
food pantry which also offers computer instruction and job counseling. It is
possible for those in need to visit this food pantry on a weekly basis if the
need exists. The staff at Master’s Manna is all volunteer; but they do have
overhead for the expenses of the building.
Please see Pastor Eric or Gail
Powell if you have any questions or want additional information.
LENT
Easter arrives early this year – real early.
Although the Liturgical calendar counts the weeks of each season the same; in 2008
we barely move out of the Advent and Christmas season before we experienced Ash
Wednesday and Lent began.
It barely seems as though we had a chance to
catch our breath after the New Year before Lent is upon us. This is the season
where we move in our community of faith from the outward act of receiving THE
GIFT, to a period of inner examination, reflection, and contemplation. We seek
the manner in which each one of us personally accepts THE GIFT.
We have specific events during the season of
Lent that take us from the awareness of Ash Wednesday – and through the forty
days of self examination to the celebration of the Resurrection on Easter
morning. There will be notices and announcements to advise you that our youth
will present the moving presentation of The Walk through Holy Week, we will
worship together on Maundy Thursday and feast, through communion, as the
disciples did with Christ before he was taken away by the Roman soldiers. We
will spend time in contemplative silence as we experience the Prayer Vigil on
Good Friday. WE invite everyone to sign up for a specific time for the Vigil;
but your presence in the sanctuary at any time during the Vigil is important.
We have a sacred opportunity to wait for the promise of Christ to be revealed
in a quiet, prayerful and solemn house of worship. In the “empty sanctuary,
devotional materials are provided to center your mind and aid in the prayerful
expectation and contemplation. We hope to have a community of faith present in
the Sanctuary throughout the hours of the Vigil. If you would like to know more
about this event, contact Pastor Eric or Gail Powell.
Pastor Eric has also arranged for a Lenten
Study using the book, Longing for Enough in a Culture of More,” The study
groups meet on Monday mornings at the Wright Building in the Masonic Complex
and Wednesday evenings at the parsonage. I you are not able to attend one of
the groups but would like a copy of the book to read at your leisure, speak
with Pastor Eric.
As we move closer to the Easter Celebration, I
encourage you to participate fully in the events of the Lenten season and to
encourage you to contemplate and recognize the everlasting faithfulness and
presence of God in your daily life. Let us all be more intentional in our
recognition of the gift of grace we receive through the love of Jesus
Christ. His gifts, everlasting love,
peace, grace, forgiveness and hope, enable us to live moment by moment in a
world that calls us to witness to the miracle of Easter.
In His Service, Gail
Powell, Lay Leader
Going, Going, GONE….
The Silent Auction
has begun. Items are on display in the
Gathering Area.
We hope you will
participate as there is such a variety of offerings… eat out, eat in, get a massage, redecorate
your house with paintings, furniture, a clock, knick-knack, play a round of
golf or go to a museum, pamper yourself
with special scents and creams, power wash your deck, buy some hardy plants for
your yard, and much more.
The Bid Sheet is
by each item. All you need to do is put
your name and the amount you are bidding.
If you are not a church member, we’d like your phone number, too, so
that we can contact you should you have the winning bid. It’s quite possible you will be outbid. Fine,
just bid again.
The Auction is over on Sunday, March 9 after
the 10 o’clock service.
Nurture Team
The Nurture Team met on February 18th. We discussed the
upcoming Easter schedule. The sign up sheet for the prayer vigil will be put
out on March 9th and we encourage people to sign up. The prayer vigil is nice
way to celebrate this Lenten season. Eric will be explaining more about the
prayer vigil during upcoming church services. Because Easter is so early
this year it was decided that there will not be a sunrise service. There will
be an 8:30 and a 10:00 service and the choir will be signing at each service.
Gail Powell will be handling the Easter plants. In lieu of purchasing a plant
donations will be made to Master's Manna. More information will be provided
in the bulletin. Sunday school classes will begin practicing for the walk
through Holy week presentation on Palm Sunday (March 16th). We hope you have a Happy Easter.
Witness Team
Work continues on updating our directory, getting it
printed and available. Plans are in the works to have a picture day one
Sunday, in order to get pictures of new members as well as update any of the
old pictures for those who wish. Announcements will be made as to the
date of picture taking, when it is scheduled. The hope is to have the
directories available in early spring, at a suggested offering of $3.00 per
copy.
Members of the
Natural Church Development Health team attended a workshop on Saturday,
February 16, on passionate spirituality. The witness team is discussing
ways to incorporate what was learned to help increase our "passionate
spirituality". Stay tuned for updates!
Wishing everyone a
peaceful Lenten Season and a very Happy Easter!
Kim Childs and the
Witness Ministry Team
Trustees
At the last
meeting the Trustees voted to have the damaged sewer pipe at the Parsonage
replaced. It is hoped that this can be
scheduled in February or early March.
The cost will be between $1500 and 2000;
dependant upon how much pipe to the street must be replaced.
The light fixtures
originally purchased for Sunday School rooms several years ago will not provide
the good lighting we anticipated. Since they were special ordered, they cannot
be returned so we plan to sell the 12 fixtures. Should you know anyone who might be
interested in purchasing one or a dozen
fixtures, please see any Trustee. The
fixtures are stored in the Sunday School office.
We have purchased,
and Martin Craemer has installed, a microphone that will be used in the choir
loft when it is used for Sunday School
performances. The children are often
hard to hear and this may help.
LifeLine Health
Screening will be available for church and community residents on Feb. 21
during the day. Pre-registration is
required. Call 1-800-710-1913 for registration or general information about
the program.
It was suggested
that the Trustees consider sponsoring an after church program about endowments
and other ways to make our church a beneficiary of an estate. We have been fortunate to receive bequests
from Olive Richards, Evelyn Wilkinson, Archibald Prisk, Jean Huls and Frances
and Ron Cole. Many parishioners are not
aware of how to leave funds to their church.
No date has been set as it is still in a planning stage,
The Trustees meet
again at the end of March.
Outreach Team
For those of you who didn’t get a chance to check the
Outreach board, we received thank you notes from our Christmas families.
“Yalesville Methodist Church, I don’t know where to
start, words can’t express the feelings that I have. So let me start with
a huge THANK YOU! we are so thankful for all our gifts. I can’t
believe that we have gotten everything that the kids put on their lists.
This year was a tough year for me and my family and this helped out extremely.
And the gift cards to Stop and Shop were so greatly needed. Words really
can’t express my Thanks and our happiness. Thank you so much for all that you
have done for me and my family.”
“I wanted to thank you for adopting my family. The
best feeling was when my children woke up Christmas morning and saw how excited
they were to see NEW BIKES! It brought tears of joy to my
eyes. Thank you and may the lord bless you for what you have done for our
family.
So thanks again to all the congregation who support this
wonderful project, and a special thanks to Ray Classen for shopping for the
bikes and other big toys, and to the United Methodist Women who donated 200.00
toward our gifts.
Coming up in March
we will be supporting the Wallingford Emergency Shelter by providing three
dinner meals while Choate is on their school break. The confirmation
class (with help from their families and sponsors) will be providing meatloaf
and fixings for March 3rd. We will be asking others in the
congregation for their support for two other meals on March 10th and
the 13th. We need to provide meat, starch, vegetables and
drinks to feed 20 people. We will have a signup sheet for you after
church services on February 24th. We will ask that all food
items be dropped off at the church by 5:45 pm (cooked and hot) so that they can
be delivered to the shelter on time that evening. Thanks in advance for
your support!
We hope those of
you who took Heifer banks for the Lenten season are enjoying the calendar and
bank, and the opportunity it gives to think about all your blessings each
day. These are not just for the kids, so please take one if you haven’t
already done so!
Debbie Sopchak
United Methodist Women
On Sunday, February 10th, the UMW met at 11:45
AM for a luncheon /meeting with guest speaker, Barbara Barlok, who is the
Executive Director of the Interfaith Volunteer Care Givers. The basic premise
of this group is there has to be faith in action. A Hebrew word often used to
describe their work is “chesed”, which means loving kindness, to do a great
work in looking after needs of others. Actually, the Good Samaritan theory.
Volunteers are urged to develop relationships, although always setting their
own limits, in helping people, who have nobody to do chores such as shopping,
driving to doctors’ appointments, to church, respite care, etc. Barbara said
that our own local Dr. Hofbauer was the one who brought it to her attention the
need of such service in our town. Our congregation and the Wallingford Senior
Center are only ones affiliated with the Interfaith Volunteer Care Givers.
Arnie Willhite has been helpful in seeking volunteers in our congregation and
setting up training sessions at the Senior Center. Those who have participated
in this program like Sherry Willhite, Mary Simone and Priscilla Reynolds said
they get more out of it than they give. Most volunteers are retired and 80%
come from congregations in the 16 towns that are served. There are also
students from Quinnipiac University and Yale who have given up their time to
help and they are assured that back-up services are always available if needed.
There are many in our community who would benefit by giving your time to help.
Do let Arnie know if you are interested in this worthy endeavor.
Mrs. Bartok graduated from Yale Divinity School in 1995
and was an ordained minister in the United church of Christ a few years later.
Besides being the Executive Director of Interfaith Volunteer Care Givers for
five years, she has been associated with the Connecticut Coalition on Aging,
Sage Services of New Haven and the Alzheimer’s Association.
Our luncheon was “catered” by our own special chef, Nancy
Lindsay. A delicious soup, salad, gelatin salad, baked ziti, bread and
beverages were served. Desserts were provided by Margaret Brown and Ruth
Grandy. Anyone not there really missed out on a great afternoon.
The next UMW meeting will be
held on Monday, March 10th at 7 P.M. Bob
Wessman will be showing his slide presentation at our March 10th meeting. It
will be about nature and seasons and set to music. Bob is a professional
photographer. Those who have seen this presentation in the past will attest to
how great a job he does. B.J. Hamel is
in charge of the Devotional Reading and Sherry Willhite and Charlene Poglitsch
will be our hostesses.
-
Gloria Pilling
YUMC Cookbook
The YUMC Cookbook has gone to press and they should be
available shortly. The price will be $10
and all proceeds will benefit the Building/Endowment Fund. We are selling taking orders in advance. Fill out the coupon and enclose payment and
we will have your books ready for you when they arrive!
Advance Sales
Coupon:
Name:
Number of Books:
Phone Number:
Amount Paid:
Multiple Sclerosis Walk
On May 4th, I will once again represent our church by
doing the Multiple Sclerosis Walk in Cheshire. A table will be set up for
upcoming 8:30 and 10:00 services. We will be asking each adult to donate $1.00.
Last year our church gave $176.00. On behalf of those who will benefit from
your kindness, We thank you.
-Mary
Simone.
Our Next Rummage Sale
Mark your calendars for the next Rummage Sale. It will be on April 18th and 19th.
We will need people to help with the sorting and marking
of items the two weeks before the sale. Please see Nancy Eddy or Muriel Creed if you are
will to come in some mornings Most definitely, people are needed to
help on the days of the Sale as clerks, cashiers, and general assistance.
The, importantly, we need people to clean up after 2 on the 19th.
Items needed are antiques, collectibles, linens, house wares, books (but
not textbooks), toys in good condition, furniture, tools, working appliances,
and any other good things that might sell.
Let you family and friends know about this fund raiser.