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ST. JOHN’S LUTHERAN CHURCH OF MELROSE PARK, PA MARCH 2014

Shrove tuesday Pancake Supper

March 4th 5:30-7:15

Come and eat!

Steve Brown and his crew will be cooking up great deliciousness on this last day before Lent. Enjoy the meal and each other’s company.

Kids, help Pastor Donna convert last year’s palms

from Palm Sunday into the ashes for this year’s Ash

Wednesday (the next night).

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Energized! That is how I describe the feeling after most of the transition events we’ve had at St. John’s. I come away energized – also grateful for you who give your time and brainpower and to considering the three questions of the interim time:

“Who are we? Who is our neighbor? What is God calling

us to do?” One Thing I Learned How we build on each others’ ideas. The blank sheets that stared at us at the start of our Feb. 23 get-together were daunting – but once one or two put down their ideas, the others seemed to come easier. I experienced this also in the Lenten and Holy Week worship planning events. The ideas were great and made better by what the next person added. Another Thing I Learned… I learned that while 11:30 on Sunday morning is a pretty convenient time to get together, especially when we have marvelous food, it is best not to gather then in the Hagan Room – because it is then that our neighbors at Eglise Francophone are playing their music especially loud. So – future events won’t be in the Hagan Room at that particular time. What We Need to Learn Next… How to improve relationships between members of St. John’s and pastors of St. John’s. This issue was identified in the history event and has become more apparent to me in conversations with many of the members (and, sadly former members) of St. John’s. Before you call your next pastor, this is a good time to address these issues.

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The Rev. Dr. Dee Littleton will be leading us in a workshop on “Pastoral Attachment” issues on Sunday, March 30, following worship. Pastor Littleton is a trained and practicing therapist and specializes in relationships with congregations and pastors. She is currently devoting her sabbatical time to studying “pastoral attachment.” We will benefit greatly from her expertise. The March 30 event will begin with a potluck in the fellowship hall, followed by Pastor Littleton’s workshop. By all means, come!      

Following are the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and

Threats identified during the Feb. 23 transition event at St. John’s.

Strengths Loving, caring congregation Sense of strong community within St. John’s Outreach to other communities through social ministry program Beautiful liturgy Beautiful music Small but active The physical building offers many possibilities Our small but active and friendly congregation Location on busy street Wonderful cooperation Strong support of each other Beautiful sanctuary Spiritual worship and blessed sermon Endowment

Continued on next page

Pastor’s Page

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Pastor’s Page

From the Music Director As we begin our Lenten journey together on Ash Wednesday, one of the most noticeable changes in our worship will be the music. The 40 Days are a time to mourn and repent of our sins, a time to strengthen our relationship with God, a time to meditate on the Passion of Jesus. All of this is reflected in the music of the liturgy as well as the organ and choral music chosen to support it. Music whose purpose, as always, is an offering to God that also serves to lead us in our meditations on this most essential part of our spiritual journey.

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Weaknesses Not much parking

Lack of families with young children Lack of consistent attendance

Property problems Too many chiefs … so few Indians

Small web/social media presence Not having enough people to spread out

responsibilities and tasks so we can prevent “burn out”

Why wait for so long of a call committee Opportunities We could improve diversity Problems with Cedarbrook (and other communities difficulties) could provide opportunity for us to help More communication to our neighbors in the immediate neighborhood (re: our events, not just worship) Possibility of a space for community meetings or events Social media The Creative Arts Series Shared events with other churches and congregations

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Space, building Parsonage Project PLAY, Chris Molnar, Eglise Francophone An opportunity to move forward in different ways under new leadership Improve, clear focus on social ministry Signs Change address from Melrose Avenue to Old York Road Book club Creekside Co-op Poinsettia Cleaners/Library

Threats Lack of imagination

Tethered to tradition Lack of young families for future growth Not being open minded enough to accept

change for the future well being Fear of past

Fear of future Endowment

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Congregational Life

Update: Over the next few weeks we will be trying to update our security system as far as the keys and fobs concerned. We are trying to find

out how many keys/bobs are out there. If you have a key and/or fob please contact

the office or me. Roberta cell – 215-815-3713 or

rfcoyle@verizon.net. Thank you for all your help with this project.

VOLUNTEER VALUES Did you ever think about how many hours are volunteered at St. John’s. Let’s look at

the month of January. We’ll start with Sunday morning. The acolyte, worship

assistant and lector are all volunteers. Then we have the communion assistants, ushers

and sound system people. Oh then someone has to count the offering and put together the coffee hour. I almost forgot my favorite the

choir. This is just Sunday morning.

On January 15th Joyce put together a great lunch for a meeting of pastors who used our church. They left having seen a wonderful

side of St. John’s. Roberta has been working on cleaning and

organizing the many rooms and little corners of the church. Barbara Lawson has been

helping in the office two Tuesdays a month we could use more help with the office

Tuesdays and Wednesday. Maybe you had an idea of something that

needs to be taken care of. But you just didn’t know how to start. If you just call and ask

someone will help you get started. You could be in the

VOLUNTEER VALUES next month telling us what project you have

volunteered to get started.

Social Ministry News During Lent, the Social Ministry Committee will be sponsoring a drive to collect rolls of toilet paper. This essential item is not covered by food stamps. We will once again have plastic eggs, each containing an item that will benefit a local organization that distributes food and other necessities to those in need in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. In addition to canned food, we will be including non-food items that are not covered by food stamps. We will also be continuing to collect tabs from aluminum cans to support the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The collection container will be in the Hagan Room.

New Generation Fund - 2013 Our total contributions for 2013 amounted to $5,886.00. Thank you for your support and please remember our New Generation Fund recipients for 2014: Lutheran World Relief

and Laurel House in Norristown. The members of the Social Ministry Committee are deeply grateful for the enthusiastic support that the work of the committee receives from the members and friends of St. John’s. Thank you all!

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Congregational Life

 

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Worship in Lent

Thanks to the St. John’s folks who devoted two evenings to the

goal of planning “deeply meaningful and distinctive

worship” during Lent and Holy Week.

Ash Wednesday Worship

7:30 p.m. March 5 We will begin our worship with King David’s great psalm of contrition, Psalm 51. Following that will be our Ash Wednesday confession and imposition of ashes. Note that in our worship on Ash Wednesday, there is confession, but no absolution. The absolution will be spoken at the beginning of our worship on Maundy Thursday – the bookends of Lent. Holy Communion will also be a strong part of this worship. St. John’s chancel choir will sing.

Sundays in Lent Our worship on Sundays in Lent this year will begin with confession, followed by the Kyrie. “Kyrie” is short for “Kyrie Eleison” which means “Lord, have mercy.” Because we will give up singing or saying the word “Alleluia” during Lent, as is traditional among Christians, we will be using a new gospel acclamation. In that gospel acclamation there is a part that the congregation will sing every Sunday and also a verse specific to the gospel for each day that the choir will sing. We will be adding a special prayer the worship assistant will pray as the offering is brought up to the altar. During Communion in Lent, Pastor Donna will speak the Proper Preface (the words that follow the Great Thanksgiving and that change every season), instead of chanting it. We hope you find these changes add meaning to your worship.

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Holy Week Those of us on the planning team are very excited about our designs for worship during Holy Week. That is all we are going to say now, except note these dates:

Palm Sunday, April 13th

worship at 10:00 a.m.

Maundy Thursday, April 17th, worship at 7:30 p.m.

Good Friday, April 18th,

worship at 7:30 p.m.

Easter Sunday, April 20th,

worship at 10:00 a.m. (Congregation invited to sing along

on the “Hallelujah Chorus” at the end of our festive worship.)

Study in Lent: “Jesus’ Passion Through Poetry”

During Lent, Pastor Donna will lead a study on Thursday evenings,

7:00-8:15 p.m. in the Hagan Room. Topic of the study is “Jesus’ Passion

Through Poetry.” We will begin on Thursday, March 13. This is a great study for poetry lovers!

Invite your friends and neighbors.  

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From the Transition

Event Feb 23rd

Member’s Spotlight

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From the Council article for February 2014 Chimer

The Church Council met on December 8th 2013. Here is a list of things that were done by the Council during this meeting.

• Officers were elected for 2014. • President – Bob Baetke • Vice President – Johnny Bruno • Secretary – Chris Suloff • Treasurer – Tim Terry • Financial Secretary – Josh Pinnel

• We created a committee that will manage

the use of the parsonage during the interim period between pastors as well as examine the facts pertaining to the future use of the parsonage.

• Approved the Personnel Committee’s

recommendation that David Lembo work a reduced employment schedule (3/4) time while he participates in his internships.

• We discussed if an updated Child

Protection Policy is needed. This will be discussed further at the January meeting.

We have also selected dates for the first 3 meetings of 2014. These meetings will be on Sunday January 19th, Sunday February 16th, and Sunday March 16th. They will be all held after worship and all members of the congregation are welcome to attend. If anybody has any issues that they wish to raise with Council, they can bring it to any member of the Council at any time.

From the Council

The March 23rd transition event

Has been changed to March 30th.

 

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Arts

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St. John’s Creative Art Series 2013-14 1224 Melrose Avenue, Melrose Park PA 19027

Diary of a Mad Artist:

Art And

The World I Live In

Digital Artwork by Joan Myerson Shrager

Reception: March 30th 1:30 to 3:30PM

March 30th to April 27th 2014

Self-Study for Lent In the Hagan Room is a pile of

devotional books that Pastor Donna has found helpful during Lent.

The ones with her name may be borrowed and returned after Easter.

The others you may keep.

Blessed praying & growing in faith during the season of Lent!

 

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Welcome from the staff of St. John’s

Donna Wright, Interim Pastor

prdonnawright@gmail.com David Lembo, Parish Administrator

atchair@gmail.com Chuck Griffin, Jr, Director of Music

Sibyl Weidner, Design Specialist

Volunteer Staff Sunday School Coordinator: Norajean Flanagan

Office: Roberta Coyle Parish Activities: Steve Brown

Congregational Leaders Personnel  Committee:  Allison Nguyen,

Bob Baetke, Joyce Rasmussen, and Marcia Boraas

Financial Resources: Tim Terry Property Resources: Tim Terry

Social Ministry: Norajean Flanagan

Fellowship Coffee Hour: Sue Kershner & Steve Brown St. Johnsmen: Steve Brown & John Kopyar

Ruth Circle: Joan Seader

Worship & Arts Worship: Joyce Rasmussen & Bob Baetke

Arts: Cindy Raff Altar Care: Fran & Roger Pinnel

Sacristan: Roger Pinnel Flowers: Johnny Bruno

Officers of the 2014 Church Council Bob Baetke - President

Johnny Bruno – Vice President Chris Suloff – Secretary

Josh Pinnel - Financial Secretary Tim Terry - Treasurer

Other Council Members: Roberta Coyle, Janet Leech, & Peter Rasmussen,

Pr. Donna Wright

The CHIMER Editor & Design: Sibyl Weidner

Photographer: Bert Glenn

CHIMER Copyright 2014 St. John’s Lutheran Church of Melrose Park, PA

Who’s Who at St. John’s

CHIMER Deadlines for the next year

March 19th for April 2014 April 16th for May 2014 May 21st for June 2014

June 18th for July/August 2014 August 20th for September 2014 September 17th for October 2014 October 22nd for November 2014

November 19th for December 2014 December 17th for January 2015

Your voice is welcome in the CHIMER.

Material submitted beyond the deadline may or may not be included.

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Philly FOSNA is proud to announce a Philadelphia Sabeel/ FOSNA Conference

Friday and Saturday March 28-29, 2014 Friday registration opens at 11am,

sessions begin at 1pm and end at 8:30pm.

Saturday conference opens at 8am,

sessions begin at 9:15am and end at 5:45pm.

The purpose of this two-day conference is to examine the role of the United States in Israel-Palestine.

It is sponsored by Friends of Sabeel-North America (FOSNA). It is hosted by the American Friends Service Committee. The conference will be held at Friends Center, 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, near historic

City Hall and national shrines.

The intention, design, and spirit of this FOSNA Conference is to galvanize advocacy for justice in Israel-Palestine.

This groundbreaking conference will spotlight what is happening in the US with regard to Israel-Palestine through plenary sessions and

workshops. Distinguished plenary speakers will address current realities such as US foreign policy, the media, political discourse, and religion.

Interactive workshops will engage participants about relevant historical realities, offer timely updates regarding facts on the ground, and provide

ample time for lively discussions about creative responses – opportunities for involvement in specific areas of advocacy such as campus organizing,

US military aid, educating through Steadfast Hope and Kairos USA, “Difficult” Conversations, Palestine as a civil rights struggle, and BDS

(Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions).

Conference participants can expect to leave with a wealth of specific avenues for action.

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