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********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** *** May 19,2023 “Who is this?” Have you ever had a phone call from someone who doesn’t identify himself - or herself - and just starts talking? Apparently the caller assumes you know who it is - or maybe doesn’t want you to know. It leaves you guessing, and that’s kind of awkward, isn’t it? It affects the tone of your conversation. You don't know what to say or how to say it. You're a little more guarded. Is this the Pope or the Pizza Guy? You don't know what words are appropriate. You don't know how to address them properly. You just have to stop the conversation and ask cautiously, “Who is this?” That can be true of another kind of conversation we have. I’m taking about our prayers with God. If you don’t quite know who you are talking to when you pray, then your prayers will be a little awkward. Your understanding of what God is really like shapes your prayers. Your ideas about who is “on the other end of the line” set the tone and expectations you have in your prayer life. You should ask “Who is this?” as you begin your prayers, and God will tell you through his Word. That’s what we will be exploring this Sunday. Who is it that we think we are talking to when we pray? It will be good to join you again for worship after our trip to Ohio. I appreciate your prayers and good wishes as we gathered with family to say good bye to Sue’s special uncle. There’s nothing quite like the soothing love of family in times like that. Grace and peace, Pastor Dave ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ****** May 12, 2023 Odds & Ends . . . There are a number of things I wish to highlight: • Way to go CROP Walkers! We surpassed our $1,000 goal. Our five walkers raised $1,330 toward the effort to fight hunger. As one coordinator of the walk said, “Your little church did awesome.” Yup. I think our motto should be, “We’re a little church with a big heart. • ”This Sunday is Mother’s Day. I hope it will be a special day for us as we all remember and honor our moms. •Sadly, however, Sue and I can't be with you on Mothers Day. We had a couple of deaths in our family. Sue’s uncle and stepmom both died on the same day last week. We are heading today to Ohio for the funeral of Sue’s uncle. Many thanks to Belinda and Jeff for leading worship on short notice while we are away this weekend. We still don’t know when the service will be for Sue’s stepmom. Your prayerful support is most appreciated. •The Tuesday class is taking the day off this week. The following week (May 23) we will meet to discuss the 4th session of the 40 Days of Prayer Campaign. •We have to change the date for my presentation on my mission trip to Nicaragua. Too many people will be away on June 4th. How’s June 11th? I will confirm the date after running it by consistory. •The pick up day for the Food Pantry is this Sunday. Their special requests are: Baked beans, Juice, Pasta Sides, Soup and Paper Towels. As always, thank you for your generous support of this ministry. The new stoves are installed and ready to go! Just in time for the Classis meeting on May 23rd. Again, many thanks for your prayers and good wishes during this time of sorrow in our family. Grace and peace, Pastor Dav ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** ********** *** May 5, 2023 CROP WALK UPDATE As of this moment we have five walkers for this Sunday’s CROP Walk! Joining me on this stroll for a great cause will be Amy Heebner, Judy Kimes, Dale Matott and Jeff Mudge. I am glad to report that we already have raised $600 for the CROP Walk - and that’s only what has been recorded for our Group on the Walk’s website (click here to see it - or make an online donation). I know my fellow walkers and I have received additional donations as well. I wonder . . . . could we raise over $1,000??? We will be joining the walkers of the Delmar Reformed Church. They walk on the Rail Trail that is just a block away from the church. We will all walk at our own pace for about an hour and arrange it so that we all finish at the Stewart’s in Delmar for ice cream! (That’s a bribe I couldn’t resist.) Why are we walking? The prolonged war in Ukraine, on top of the pandemic and other natural disasters is causing a global food crisis. Millions are are suffering from famine. The CROP Hunger Walks across our land and the funds we raise will feed the hungry through Church World Service. When we join this movement, donate and raise funds, we will provide life-saving support like emergency food along with the seeds, tools and programs that will help families feed themselves in the future. 25% of the funds we raise will go to local food programs as well. We five walkers all thank you for supporting this important cause to fight hunger “one step at a time.” 40+ DAYS OF PRAYER UPDATE This Tuesday we will begin the third section of the 40 Days of Prayer experience. Monday I will send out an email with the links to the video for that section and the scriptures for the daily prayer exercise through the week. One thing I have observed over my many years as a Pastor, is that most people feel they aren’t very good at praying. Many seem to feel a bit awkward about it - especially if they are asked to lead it publicly. I would say that's universal. Everybody feels they could be better at praying. I’ve never heard anyone say, “You know, I’m a pro at praying - world class.” In fact the Number one “world class” Christian himself - St. Paul - said, “We don’t even know what we should pray for; nor how we should pray.” (Romans 8: 26) So when it comes to praying we all could use some help. We all need to learn more. It’s okay to admit, "I need to get better at this," and that’s what we’re trying to do on this journey into prayer together. This Sunday I will talk about the false expectations we have of prayer. There are so many bad ideas about prayer and what it's supposed to do that it’s no wonder we feel inadequate in doing it. I’ll try to explain “what prayer isn’t.” Ridding ourselves of these false ideas can be the first step in making prayer a more comfortable and pleasing experience. We will celebrate communion this Sunday. The elders have decided to go back to using the little communion glasses. We will also distribute individual pieces of bread in little paper “cups.” It will be nice to celebrate communion a little more like the way we did before the pandemic. Grace and peace, Pastor Dave ********************** ************ ********** ************** ********** ********** ********** ********** April 22, 2023 Let us pray . . . We have just begun our 40+ Day journey into prayer. Our Tuesday group is the center of this focus, but we all will be engaged in reflecting on what prayer is about in our Sunday services. The group will be following Rick Warren’s insights and using the prayer journal that comes with those teachings, but I hope every one of us will commit to taking a deeper journey into your prayer life. Even if you do not attend the Tuesday sessions, I encourage you to commit to spending time each day in intentional prayer. While you are certainly welcome to “jump in” on any Tuesday, you can also purchase the Prayer Journal and use it as a guide and personal log of your growth through the coming weeks. We can also show you how you can view the weekly video sessions we will be using on YouTube. Prayer isn’t so much “something we do” as Christians; it’s more the essence of who we are. Prayer is the key to our growth as Christians. In fact, tomorrow I will look at how and why we grow as Christians, using Paul’s analogy of our being spiritual babies who need to grow up (see Ephesians 4: 11-16). He notes that if we don’t deepen our faith and broaden our understanding of God and God’s ways, we’ll turn into “suckers” (my word, not his). Suckers fall for anything because they don’t know the truth. In his words, they are like infants who are “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.” (That sounds like an apt description of our times, doesn't it?). A hearty prayer life is one of the ways we “grow up” and are able to discern what is true. Grace and peace, Pastor Dave April 7, 2023 It’s Good Friday . . . But Easter Is Coming! After a last evening’s beautiful Tenebrae service of communion with our Hilltown Church friends, we turn our attention to Holy Week’s ending: The crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. This evening we have more opportunities to worship with Hilltown churches. We are invited to join the Good Friday services at the Onesquethaw and Westerlo Reformed Churches. Both begin at 7:00 p.m. Then at last the long journey through Lent ends with our Easter Celebration of Jesus’ resurrection victory. That morning begins for us with breakfast at 9:00 a.m., followed by our service at 10:30. (A big “Thank You” to our Women’s Guild for preparing that breakfast for us!) It seems to me that we really need Easter this year. With so much bad news breaking out every day in so many shocking and troubling ways - with the mayhem and madness of our sinful world so prevalent and powerful - the Good News of Easter is like a “balm in Gilead.” It’s our only hope, our only comfort. I pray that this Sunday we will hear that Good News, embrace it and be empowered by it to carry on in our service to God’s Kingdom. Let’s invite Easter to shine brightly into our darkness. I have some pretty exciting announcements to make about what will be happening after Easter. But for now I don’t want any distractions from our Easter focus. After all, for us Christians, Easter is the whole reason for our being. (See 1 Corinthians 15 about that.) Next week I’ll fill you in on these new things:
Good things will be happening for us - Starting this Sunday. Grace and peace, Pastor Dave March 31, 2023 Hosanna! We have two invitations from neighboring churches this Palm Sunday weekend. First, the Onesquethaw Reformed Church invites us to join them tomorrow, Saturday, for a Lenten worship service. That will begin at 10:00 a.m. We are also invited to attend a dinner program at the Delmar Reformed Church on Palm Sunday evening. The four of us who traveled to Nicaragua this month will share some pictures and thoughts about our experiences and we will be making some Nicaraguan food to share. It will all start at 5:30 p.m. Of course we begin Holy Week with this Sunday’s Service of Communion and Palms, and we’ll have a fellowship time following the service. I am also looking forward to our Maundy Thursday Tenebrae Service where we will be joined by folk from the Clarksville and Jerusalem churches. Maundy Thursday commemorates the first Last Supper. We also will make it a kind of “reversal” of the Christmas Eve tradition by extinguishing candles. (“Tenebrae” is the latin word for “darkness.”) As we extinguish each candle, we’ll hear the scriptural accounts of how the darkness of human sin tried to dim the Light of the World. Then, out from the darkness comes the glorious light of Easter! After a 9:00 a.m. Easter Morning breakfast planned and provided by the Women’s Guild, we will celebrate our Lord’s resurrection at our regular worship time. A couple of other things to note about Holy Week: The Choir is preparing special music for Maundy Thursday and Easter, so they are having a special rehearsal. It will be Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. Also the Women’s Guild will have a meeting on that Wednesday afternoon at 12:30 p.m. I’m praying that in all the activity and gatherings this coming week we will be touched by the joyful good news of Easter’s proclamation. Grace and peace, Pastor Dave __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ March 24, 2023 Consistory News Here are the highlights of this week’s meeting of the Consistory: We will host a Tenebrae service of communion and candles on Maundy Thursday with our neighboring Hilltown churches. The 7pm service will include a combined choir. We will also celebrate communion at our Palm Sunday’s service. Consistory approved the print up of laminated liturgies that we can use at communion services. We are invited to attend a dinner program at Delmar Reformed Church on Palm Sunday where those of us who traveled on the mission trip to Nicaragua will share our thoughts and photos of the experience. Nicaraguan dishes will be offered. It all starts at 5:30 pm. The Onesquethaw Reformed Church invites us to a Lenten Service of Worship on Saturday, April 1 at 10:00 am. The Women’s Guild will host an Easter Breakfast at 9:00 am. Our celebration of our Lord’s resurrection will be at 10:30 am. There will be a sign-up sheet for Easter Flowers. Belinda will preach on the April Sundays (16th and 30th.) The Tuesday Study Group has completed its journey through the Heidelberg Catechism and is exploring what to focus on next. We are invited to attend the installation service for The Rev. Elizabeth Moses at the Bethany Reformed Church. It will be April 23rd at 4:00 pm. The pick-up date for the Food Pantry is April 16. Our treasurer, Joanie de Paz reports that February ended with a positive balance. (Being the good Church Treasurer that she is, she pointed out that the positive balance was due primarily to the fact that we had not yet received the bills for oil heat and electricity.) The next Guild meeting will be Wednesday, April 5. They will make plans for the meal we will offer for the Classis meeting we will be hosting on May 23rd. They also are working on crochet projects. Speaking of meals at our church, the Consistory was glad to hear that progress is being made on the installation of our new electric stoves. Deacon Paul Watson has arranged with professional movers to remove the old (heavy!) gas stove on April 12. He is also negotiating with someone who might purchase it. Meanwhile, Deacon Irving Mosher has secured bids from electricians to install wiring for the stoves. (After the meeting we voted on line to accept the bid from Excel Electric of Glenmont and they will be able to install the stoves in April - in plenty of time for the Classis dinner!) This spring we will continue our work on the Mead Cemetery plot. Some grave stones need straightening and other improvements need to be completed. The stained glass window is repaired and re-installed! It took Chapman Stained Glass Company only 32 days to complete the job! They also installed a new plexiglass window to protect it. Our parsonage is on the market. We hope to welcome new tenants soon. Our next meeting will be April 24th. Wow, I guess we covered a lot at that busy meeting! This Sunday I will be talking about the secret identity we Christians all have. It’s tied directly to the “secret” identity Jesus had. My text will be Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22 and Matthew 16: 13-17. Grace and peace, Pastor Dave __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________ Saturday 18 March 2023 Back from Nicaragua It was quite a trip! So many wonderful things took place in Nicaragua as I visited with old friends and made many new ones. I just have to share those special moments with you and that’s what I’ll do this Sunday. Instead of a traditionally structured sermon I’ll share some of the highlights of the trip and explain why it was so important to me to go. To make it a sermon, I’ll frame my remarks in the context of 1 John 4: 7-12. After the service we will hold our annual meeting and celebrate the highlights of what was a glorious year. This meeting will be over a brunch prepared by the Women’s guild. Reminder: Tomorrow we will have a planning meeting with the Hilltown Ministries Congregations that will be joining us for the Maundy Thursday service of communion and candles. We’ll meet at our church at 10am Saturday and all our members are welcome to attend. I look forward to worshiping with my church family again. Grace and peace, Pastor Dave SATURDAY 07 May 2022
FRIDAY 22 April 2022 What a Day!
This past Easter Sunday was one of the finest moments I’ve had with URC. After a long hiatus from social gatherings, we had a wonderful Easter breakfast together. Thanks to the preparation of all the volunteers under Bonnie Bahanan’s leadership, everything was delicious and the decorations and favors were splendid.
Then there was the worship service . . . Wow!
The choir was stellar, the singing robust, and the pews were filled! (Someone reported that they counted over 50 worshipers.) We had visitors with us and more than a few of us had family and friends worshiping with them. Through it all, the joy and hope of the resurrection of our Lord was palpable. It was a wonderful day!
Now our life together continues. Here are a few bits and pieces about that:
Many of you have shared that you’ll be praying for our safe travels. That’s much appreciated.
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Dave |
Historic Unionville Reformed Church
Pastor: Rev. Dr. David Corlett
Pastor: Rev. Dr. David Corlett
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