April Vol. 81 No. 4

Transcription

1 April 2015 Vol. 81 No. 4

2 Holy Thursday April 2, 2015 A Holy Thursday Service will take place at Pennsauken UMC at 7:30pm. Preceded by a soup gathering at 6:30pm. All are welcome. Good Friday Breakfast April 3, 2015 Women Serving Together will host a continental breakfast beginning at 8:30am. The guest speaker will be Shirley Weller. All are welcome. A free will offering will be taken. Please sign up on the sheet in the chapel so we know how many to plan for. Easter Worship Services Sunday, April 5th 9:30am Pennsauken UMC 10:45am Trinity Good Friday Community Worship Service - April 3, noon - 3:00pm at the Grace Episcopal Church, 7E Maple Ave., Merchantville, NJ. Local Pastors will preach on the seven last words from the cross. Pastor Walt will preach on the 3rd word beginning at approximately 12:50 pm. All are welcome! Come for all or part of the service. Shirley Weller to Speak at Good Friday Breakfast Long-time Trinity member and former lay leader Shirley Weller will be the speaker at this year s Good Friday breakfast on April 3 rd. The 8:30 a.m. breakfast is sponsored by Women Serving Together and all members of Trinity and Pennsauken United Methodist Churches and their guests are invited to attend. Shirley, who has been a member of Trinity since 1939, served as Trinity s first woman lay leader from 1982 to She lived in Pennsauken for many years with her husband, Bill, and their four sons. After their sons were grown and Bill retired, the couple moved to the Wiley Christian Retirement Community in Marlton but continued to be active at Trinity. Bill, who has since passed away, served as Trinity lay leader from 1973 to Weller Hall at Trinity was named in honor of the couple. Shirley continues to take part in activities at Trinity, including the church s recent 150 th anniversary celebration. WST is pleased that she has accepted their invitation to speak at the Good Friday breakfast and knows everyone who attends will find spiritual sustenance from the message she brings that day. Note: Trinity has had two other women lay leaders. Cora Assenheimer served from 1993 to 1996 and current lay leader Elaine McBride has served since 2014.) A Future With Hope Gift Shop If you have skills in arts, crafts, quilting, knitting, crocheting, art or woodworking, you may be the right person to make a contribution to the A Future With Hope Gift Shop that will be set up at Annual Conference. The gift shop is looking for donations to sell at the conference with 100 percent of the proceeds going to AFWH. Along with creating your item, all that is asked is to pre-price it and then officewashumc@aol.com with a brief description of what your item is, your contact information and the name of your home church. For more information officewashumc@aol.com or call Jean McMullan at

3 A band played, hymns were sung, history was recalled, bread was broken, old friends were greeted and people talked well into the afternoon about the Sunday morning sermon. All this and more were part of Trinity s 150 th anniversary celebration over the weekend of March 14-15, The celebration began with music on the evening of March 14 th as an estimated 170 people filled the church to hear a two-hour concert by Beck s Philadelphia Brigade Band. The band, a Civil War reenactment group that wears period costumes and plays many period instruments, played 21 Civil War era tunes and three encores. The program also included music by Ebenezer s Elixir Old-Time Minstrel Band, another reenactment musical group, and two special offerings Battle Hymn of the Republic and Danny Boy that were sung by Trinity s music director, Doc Maddison, with accompaniment by Trinity organist Helen Carrell. On Sunday morning, Pastor Walter Mander led a special church service that included the readings by lay leaders Michael O Shea and Elaine McBride, and Larry Migliaccio, who heads the Board of Trustees. Brandon Gaines, Trinity choir director for many years, sang In This Very Room, by Ron and Carol Harris, and Rev. Dr. Richard Leaver, who was Trinity s pastor from 1995 to1999, led the congregation during the time of prayer. Pastor Walt talked about Trinity s history since it was established on March 11, A special highlight was the sermon offered by Rev. Dr. Donald Marks, which was titled The Best of Things in the Worst of Times, and reflected on the importance of faith and the church during difficult times throughout history. Dr. Marks served at Trinity from 1981 to 1995 and again from 2007 to Special guests Andrew Trotter and his wife Daphne, who traveled to South Jersey from their home in Washington, DC, for the anniversary celebration, were also introduced during the service. Andrew, who is a great great grandson of church founder David S. Stetson, also offered some thoughts on Trinity s anniversary. Immediately following the service, Pastor Walt encouraged everyone to head outdoors for a picture taken by Skip Harris, who also served as our unofficial photographer for the weekend and helped to document our anniversary celebration. Despite a stiff wind, temperatures in the 50s and ground that was sodden from heavy rains on Saturday, everyone was able to gather on the Chapel Avenue side of the church. Using a camera with a timer on a tripod, Skip was able to both take and be part of a large group picture that will be similar to pictures taken during Trinity s 100 th and 125 th anniversaries. On Sunday afternoon, almost 90 people gathered for a luncheon at Marco s at the Pennsauken Country Club. Mayors Edward Brennan of Merchantville and Rick Taylor of Pennsauken joined us for lunch and presented congratulatory proclamations. In addition to Dr. Marks and his wife Barbara, Dr. Leaver, and the Trotters, other special guests included previous pastor Rev. Larry Potts, who served from 1999 to 2006, and his wife Carol; Rev. Brian Joyce, who went into the pastorate from Trinity, and his wife Nannette; Rev. Thomas Venables, who served as a youth pastor during the 1960s; Nancy Hankins, whose husband Charles was Trinity s pastor from 1971 to 1978; and Ragnhild Moyer, whose husband William served from 1978 to We also had guests from other area churches. They were Rev. Anthony J. Manuppella of St. Peter Catholic Church in Merchantville, Rev. Dennis Blackwell from Asbury United Methodist Church in Woodlynne, and Rev. Jere L. Hopkins-Doerr of East Pennsauken United Methodist Church and her husband. We hope all members and friends of Trinity were able to enjoy at least some part of the 150 th anniversary celebration weekend, and that everyone is looking forward with renewed faith and commitment to many more years of worship and service as part of the Trinity community. Special thanks to everyone who helped make the weekend a success. The 150 th Anniversary Committee: Cece Lentini Torok and Linda Migliaccio, co-chairs Karen Hoffman Elaine McBride Debbie Curcio Jack Thomas Kathy Mander Pastor Walt Mander

4 Hello friends! Even though the snow continues to fall, the calendar is telling us it is spring. It s ok though. Sooner than we think, we ll be complaining about the heat! continuing through the season of Lent, Holy Week and Easter Sunday. Please check the schedule for services. The Holy Thursday Service will be held at Pennsauken Methodist this year. Women Serving Together are hosting their annual Good Friday Breakfast followed by the town-wide service from noon till 3pm. We will have lots of special music on Easter Sunday as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. I know that there will be other articles in this newsletter about the 150 th Anniversary celebration but I can t let the opportunity slip by without singing the praises of the wonderful time we had! The concert Saturday was great. The bands were very entertaining and Doc Maddison likes to describe his musical selections as organ solo with tenor accompaniment. Whichever way you describe it, they gave my goose bumps goose bumps! Jack Thomas left no stone unturned in his publicity of the concert. He made sure to let everyone in the surrounding towns know about our celebration and was even able to raise a few dollars to help the meet the expenses of the upkeep of our beautiful church. The service on Sunday was a wonderful celebration of the culmination of 150 years in the life of our church and hope for the future as we share God s love to with our members and the surrounding community. It was great having former members, musicians, ministers, and their families, and even a descendant of David Stetson join us. A special thank you goes out to Brandon Gaines for sharing his talent with us. We thank Rev. Mander for sharing many of the facts that he found while researching our history and Rev Marks for sharing a wonderful message with examples of how Trinity has traditionally found a way to do the best of things in the worst of times. After the service, many of us continued the celebration with a luncheon. There, even more of our former ministers and families shared the meal and township officials honored the influence that Trinity has had in the community. It was a great time to reconnect with old friends. I cannot thank Cece Torok and Linda Migliaccio and their committee enough for all of the work they did to make this weekend such an amazing and enjoyable success. Cindy Stulz also worked tirelessly behind the scenes helping with whatever we asked. Michael Hall, Peter Johnston, and Jeff Novak also did a lot of repairs and maintenance on our church to make Trinity look beautiful for the celebration. Here s looking forward to another 150 years! Looking forward to the next few weeks, we are I continue to be grateful to all who help with the services each Sunday. As I close, I want to say thank you all for your contributions. I ask God to comfort our members and friends on our prayer list as they face struggles in their daily life. May God bless us, everyone! Debbie Curcio Worship Committee Chair Improve Blood Pressure A healthy diet can positively affect your blood pressure. Enjoy a diet filled with colorful vegetables, fruits, whole grains, seafood, and low fat dairy. Snack on a small handful of nuts, seeds or a piece of fruit. Limit sodium to 1500 to 2300 mg/day. Switch out the salt shaker for one that is filled with your favorite herbs and spices. Herbs and apices like thyme, oregano, rosemary, turmeric and cinnamon add a lot of flavor to many dishes. Rinse canned beans and veggies before use. Cook at home as much as possible. Restaurants and processed foods provide most of our salt intake. Add sautéed garlic and onions to soups and pasta dishes. Barbara Wilson, Registered Dietitian barb246rd@yahoo.com Wooden Home Town Collectible 150th Anniversary Church $13.00 Please see Kathy Mander

5 Happy Birthday April Birthdays 2 nd Josh Edwards Chikamso Ezeiruaku 3 rd Bobby Taylor 7 th Janice Stow Tamra Vrana 11 th Samantha Hayman Pamela Lapp 14 th Adam Gilliss Jr. 16 th Cecelia Torok 22 nd Marie Miller 25 th Debbie Hartman Amere Wright 27 th Jonathan Kpolie TÑÜ Ä TÇÇ äxüátü xá 19 th Pastor Walt & Kathy Mander 20 th Joseph & Greta Brocious Youth Fun Pennsauken UMC Every Saturday in April at 6:00pm All Youth are Welcome! April Showers at Collingswood Manor Once again I am asking for your help with the annual April Showers event at the Collingswood Manor to be held on April 14th. Each church that is a member of the Manor Auxiliary is asked to donate personal care items to be given to the residents. All items collected are arranged on tables and residents may choose any items that they need. Photos of last years April Showers are on display on the bulletin board in the Chapel. A list of suggested items you may wish to donate is as follows. A box for your donations is located in the chapel. Any donations will be gratefully appreciated. Karen Hoffman Collingswood Manor Representative Dish Soap Paper Towels Puzzle Books Note Paper Paper Napkins Poly-Grip Large Bar Soap Hand Lotion Laundry Soap Pens & Pencils Safety Pins Brush Suggested Items to Donate: Sponges Handy Wipes Scotch Tape Comb Kleenex Q-Tips Shampoo Emery Boards Shower Cap Toothpaste Soft Soap Zip-Lock Sandwich Bags The Food Pantry is requesting the following Canned meat or fish Condensed soup Canned vegetables Canned fruit Cereal As always, all donations are appreciated!

6 Sunday Worship 10:45 AM The Tidings A periodic publication of Trinity United Methodist Church Office Hours Tues. - Fri. 9:00 am - 1:00 pm (856) Fax: (856) office@gotrinity.org Website: Visit us on Facebook Sunday School 9:30 AM 2015 Trinity United Methodist Church 36 W. Maple Ave. Merchantville, NJ 08109