CHURCH ANNOUNCEMENTS/EVENTS
Please email all announcements to
Carol Merante at the church office.
OFFICE HOURS :
Mon 4:00pm - 6:00pm,
Sat 9am -11am
Additional hours possible on Thursdays: Contact Carol
845-657-2326
Sunday, August 29:
• 11:00 AM - Worship
Monday, August 30:
• 7:00 PM - A.A
Tuesday, August 31:
• 7:00 PM (?) Ice Cream Social for Migrant Workers
Wednesday, September 1:
• 4:30 PM - Yoga class
• 7:00 PM - Worship Committee; A.A.
Thursday, September 2:
• 10:00AM - Yoga class
• 7:00 PM - A.A.
Friday, September 3:
• 10:00 AM - P.E.T. project
Saturday, September 4:
• 7:00 PM - A.A.
Sunday, September 5:
• 11:00 AM Worship – Lee Stowe, guest speaker
COMING EVENTS:
Monday, Sept. 6: Labor Day – church office closed
Tuesday, Sept. 7: Financial Stewardship Committee – Woods’ home (7 PM)
Saturday, Sept. 11: District Youth Lay Speaking Event at Camp Epworth (information and registration forms available in the narthex) – this event focuses on leadership training, NOT preaching.
Sunday, Sept. 12: Sunday school classes resume
Saturday, Sept. 18: Chicken Barbecue (3-6:30 PM)
NEWS IN BRIEF - August 20, 2010
Brief items for use in local church newsletters
prepared by United Methodist News Service
For some 3.5 million children, Pakistan’s worst floods in 80 years could have deadly consequences. That’s the United Nations’ estimate of how many are at risk for diarrhea, cholera, typhoid and other water-borne diseases in the worsening crisis. As floodwaters from August monsoon rains spread over 82,000 square miles in Pakistan, the death toll is estimated at 1,600, the homeless at 1.5 million and the number of people affected at millions more.
Several recent studies support the idea that growing congregations tend to offer more small groups than churches that are losing members. Roscoe United Methodist Church in Illinois started forming small groups more intentionally about a decade ago, said the Rev. Don Dexheimer, the church’s outreach coordinator. Since then, the church has doubled its membership to 1,100 people.
Many of the students at Lydia Patterson High School live in Juárez, Mexico, and must cross the U.S.-Mexico border checkpoint and clear customs on their way to school every day. It’s not uncommon for them to have to wait in lines for an hour or more to enter Texas. But it is worth it. The only United Methodist Church-sponsored campus in the U.S. with a predominantly Hispanic population offers children from impoverished homes a future, said Socorro De Anda, school president.
A broad range of programs, a focus on community leadership and service and a diverse student body set some United Methodist colleges and universities above their peers. Several of the denomination’s 93 four-year colleges and universities earned top grades in The U.S. News & World Report’s annual list of “Best Colleges” in the United States.
Members of a United Methodist committee studying the worldwide nature of the denomination are visiting Africa this month. Since Aug. 14, committee members have visited Kamina, the Democratic Republic of Congo; Harare, Zimbabwe; Maputo, Mozambique; and Monrovia, Liberia. The committee plans to gather in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on Aug. 19-22 to continue preparing its final report. The 32-member committee, created by the 2008 General Conference, is addressing what the church will be like in 2020 and beyond.
Leaders of United Methodist churches located in downtown metropolitan areas often face the challenges of aging congregations, aging buildings and rapidly changing neighborhoods. The Downtown Church Network 2010, sponsored by the United Methodist Board of Discipleship, will give church leaders the chance to exchange ideas. The event for pastors and staff of downtown churches in cities of at least 100,000 people is scheduled for Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at First United Methodist Church in Wichita, Kan. Information is available at www.gbod.org/dcn10.
Clergy in the United Methodist Desert Southwest Annual (regional) Conference are encouraged to preach on issues of immigration on Sept. 5, the day before the Labor Day holiday. The national holiday is an appropriate time to remember and honor all laborers, said the Rev. Dave Summers, chairman of the conference covenant council. “We recognize that many of our churches have already been having conversations about immigration and engaging in study and action,” Summers said. “Our deepest hope is that time in worship will encourage further study, holy conferencing and ways of taking action to strengthen our faithful response as God’s people of love, justice and grace.”
The United Methodist Board of Discipleship has set a goal to start 650 churches in the U.S. in partnership with annual (regional) conferences by the end of 2012. The agency plans to train 1,000 new church planters to reach its goal. The agency’s board of directors, meeting Aug. 4-7, recognized the planting of 125 churches this year. More information about starting United Methodist congregations is available here.
Heifer Project International, long supported by United Methodists through The Advance, recently was named the Direct Marketing Association Nonprofit Federation’s 2010 Nonprofit Organization of the Year. The award recognizes outstanding achievement by a nonprofit organization using direct response marketing to advance its mission.
The United Methodist Board of Church and Society joined with a coalition of religious, political, human rights and civil rights groups to send a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder urging him to adopt prison rape elimination standards. The Prison Rape Elimination Act was adopted in 2003. Standards to guide corrections officials in preventing prison rapes were developed in 2009 and presented to the Department of Justice. Holder missed the June 2010 deadline to endorse the rules. “The bureaucracy is just dragging its feet, doing a slow walk to the mound because, frankly, prisons don’t like anybody looking over their shoulder. But that's the only way that we'll stop this, is holding them accountable,” said Pat Nolan, executive with Prison Fellowship.
United Methodist theological schools will offer 11 online continuing education classes for clergy and laity beginning in the fall semester. The Online Continuing Education Consortium aims to provide theologically sound, financially affordable, and easily accessible continuing education programs. All 13 of the United Methodist theological schools are expected to participate. Five seminaries are offering classes this fall. An online catalogue and links to each theological school offering classes is available at www.gbhem.org/continuingeducation.
United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: www.umns.umc.org