SHARING MORE THAN HISTORY: A THANKSGIVING PACK-A-THON REFLECTION Rev. Michael S. Bos

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1 Newsletter Title APRIL Kids Club, 6 p.m. Youth Group, 6:30 p.m. 2 Supper Center, 12:30 p.m. 3 Adult Christian Ed, 10 a.m. 5 Church, 4 p.m. Knitting Circle, 6:30 p.m. 6 Men s Group, 7:30 a.m. Yoga, 6:30 p.m. Taizé, 7 p.m. 8 Kids Club, 6 p.m. 9 Supper Center, 12:30 p.m. 10 Adult Christian Ed, 10 a.m. Crime Victims Vigil. 2 p.m. 12 Church, 4 p.m. 13 Yoga, 6:30 p.m. Taizé, 7 p.m. 15 Kids Club, 6 p.m. Book Club, 7 p.m. 16 Supper Center, 12:30 p.m. 17 Intersections Sunday Adult Christian Ed, 10 a.m. Faith Forum, 12:30 p.m. 19 Church, 4 p.m. 20 Yoga, 6:30 p.m. Pub Theology, 8 p.m. 22 Kids Club, 6 p.m. 23 Saturday Center, 12:30 p.m. 24 Adult Christian Ed., 10 a.m. Talent Show, 12:30 p.m. 26 Church, 4 p.m. 27 Yoga, 6:30 p.m. Taizé, 7 p.m. 29 Kid s Club, 6 p.m. 30 Supper Center, 12:30 p.m. SHARING MORE THAN HISTORY: A THANKSGIVING PACK-A-THON REFLECTION Rev. Michael S. Bos In 1628, a group of Dutch settlers held their first worship service in the loft of a mill on the tip of Manhattan. Today, this congregation is known as The Collegiate Church and is the oldest Protestant church in North America. West End Collegiate Church is one of four Collegiate congregations in Manhattan that shares in this history. It is remarkable that twenty-six years later a service was held in that same loft, resulting in the formation of Shearith Israel, the oldest Jewish congregation in North America. Even more remarkable is that these two congregations are now neighbors on the Upper West Side. When we were contacted by Zachary Edinger and Barbara Reiss about the possibility of joining the Thanksgiving Pack-a-Thon, it was this shared history that motivated us to say yes. The idea of cooperating on this project resonated with so many of our members that we quickly had to close registration, lest we have too many people. This is not a problem we often encounter in congregational life! What we discovered in the experience is that we share much more than history. We learned that your congregation is committed to helping the most vulnerable around us. We experienced an intergenerational emphasis where small children worked next to senior citizens. This made organizing the process a little messier but so much more meaningful. Most importantly, we joined together with people of faith who believe that together we can make a difference in our community. These things, together with your hospitality, made the people of West End feel at home at Shearith Israel. It is easy to live in religious silos, tend to the needs of our members, and gauge the health of our congregations by the strength of our internal programs. But experiences like the Pack-a-Thon remind us that we do not simply exist in a neighborhood; we exist for our neighborhood. By joining together it turned our focus outward. We made friends with people we normally pass by on the street, and we were able to do more for our community by cooperating with one another. Our congregations share a rich history in New York City. My hope is that the rekindling of our relationship continues to grow and become an impactful presence on the Upper West Side and beyond. Reprinted from Spring 2016 issue of The Bulletin Congregation Shearith Israel. m

2 The Joy of Mutual Belonging Pub Theology will meet at The Dublin House on April 20 at 8 PM Jesus is the Question There are 307 questions Jesus asked and only 3 he answered. This month we ll take a look at these questions and responses. If you want to prepare you can purchase the book, Jesus Is the Question: The 307 Questions Jesus Asked and the 3 He Answered by Martin B. Copenhaver Each Tuesday the chapel is turned into a sanctuary where the economically challenged find hot food and dignity. There are dedicated volunteers who serve faithfully as if they were serving Jesus himself walking through our doors (I love our weekly volunteers!). One Tuesday in March one of our Soup Kitchen Church attendees came up to me and handed me an envelope. She said, The eight of us pooled the resources we have together to give back to this church. We love coming to church on Tuesday. We belong here. Thank you. In the envelope was $80 dollars. I was so moved by this gesture. The joy of dignity and belonging moves us to give back to people that give to us. That is the beauty of Christian community, the mutual offering of gifts for the joy of the beloved community! Grace and Peace, Pastor Jes Kast-Keat New Online Class Follow us on New Faith on the Go Online Class! A Simple Path to a Deeper Spiritual Life begins April 24. Yet today, as we face more distraction, detours, and flat out change than ever before, we can find the pursuit of the spiritual life more ominous than life-giving. Enter author, priest, and social activist Becca Stevens. Through her work with Thistle Farms, helping abused women find deep meaning and satisfaction, she has assembled a storehouse of practical wisdom and inspired insight. Reverend Becca Stevens will be leading us. To sign up please Pastor Jes at jkastkeat@westendchurch.org. Want to keep up with what s happening with your WECC family? Go to Facebook : WestEndChurchNYC and It s a great way to stay connected to our community. Pledge Campaign Update As we near the end of our Pledge Campaign, we need your help to reach our goal. To date, we have had one-hundred and five people commit $229,049 toward our goal of $255,000. We are very grateful for the generosity you have shown WECC. As we look ahead, we ask that you consider how you can financially support our growing ministry. Through our shared stewardship, we provide a place where people can discover a flourishing faith, participate in a caring community, and commit to service that changes lives. There are pledge forms in the back of the sanctuary and you can also pledge online at westendchurch.org.

3 From Service to Justice from Ian Carr McPherson I am excited to announce that this year s Youth Service Trip will take us to the nation s capital, Washington, D.C.! (And what an exciting year to visit!) We will leave the morning of Wednesday, July 13, from the church and arrive back to the church on Sunday night, July 17. This year, I am coordinating with Fort Washington s Associate Minister Bridget Kelso Anthony to put together an independent program of service and spiritual reflection. We will be partnering with the Church of the Saviour (CoS), the same community through which I did a year of voluntary service before arriving in New York. We will volunteer, worship, and reflect with various CoS ministries, including DaySpring, their permaculture project and retreat center (just outside the city in Maryland); The Potter s House, their coffee shop in Adams Morgan; and Christ House, their clinic for those experiencing homelessness. Partnering with my friends in the Church of the Saviour community was a very intentional choice on my part. My vision for our Youth Group is one of engaged, spiritually-informed service and justiceseeking within our urban context. In fact, I have started calling this service trip a vision trip because I want our middle and high school youth to begin to reimagine our world and envision new, creative ways to engage in service and justice that is informed by our faith. We will be asking ourselves the questions: What is it about my faith tradition that calls me to service? How does service inform my faith? How can spirituallyinformed service transform the world? Rather than a single entity, the Church of the Saviour is a rich community of congregations and organizations (not unlike the Collegiate Churches) that has answered these questions in many different ways within their particular context. They have rooted themselves firmly within their community particularly within the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC and listened to and partnered with their neighbors to address the needs of their community. A quote by the indigenous Australian artist and activist, Lilla Watson, sits above a bulletin board in the CoS voluntary service house where I lived last year: If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together. This call followed me throughout the year as I served at an education nonprofit in the CoS community, and it continues to challenge me as the Coordinator of Children and Youth Ministry here at West End. How can we move beyond short-term mission work and transition our focus from service to justice? This is the question we will wrestle with together on this trip. But don t worry, we will have a lot of time for a lot of fun together as well! DC is beautiful in the summer, and I look forward to taking advantage of the many monuments, parks, and museums with our youth. Also, please mark your calendars for our Annual Talent Show Fundraiser on April 24, following the service. I really appreciate your continued support of our Children and Youth Ministries here at West End. We raised $2605 in our Easter offering for the benevolence fund. Thank you for your generosity! Annual Talent Show Fundraiser Sunday, April 24, 12:30 We are looking for talent submissions from YOU! Can you sing? Can you dance? Can you juggle? For those of you who would prefer to provide materials for the auction, we are seeking baked goods, paintings or other artwork, a donated good or service from your place of business, etc. You can sign-up on the sheet in the back of the sanctuary or by letting Ian know (imcpherson@westendchurch.org).

4 Adult Christian Education Sundays at 10:00 a.m., Room 6 Jocelyn Camp will lead the classes MAKING CONNECTIONS THREE POETS LOOK AT AMERICA: Walt Whitman (19th Century) Allen Ginsburg (20th Century) Gregory Pardlo (21st Century) April 3: Walt Whitman ( ) One s self I sing There was a child went forth every day A noiseless patient spider April 10: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry... April 17: Allen Ginsberg ( ) A Supermarket in California Excerpts from Howl April 24: Gregory Pardlo (1968- ). Problema 3 Marginalia Wishing Well Materials available in back of sanctuary and in class. Mark your calendars for the Annual Church Retreat at the Warwick Retreat Center June 18-19! New financial and schedule adjustments to the Annual Church Retreat! In the past couple of years, we ve heard that a full weekend retreat has been difficult for West Enders to get away for the entire time. We ve altered the retreat to leave early on Saturday morning and returning Sunday, late afternoon. Hope you can join us! $100 per person for a double, $200 for a single room, 18 and under are free Theme: The Seasons of Life and Faith. Sign-up in back of Sanctuary Knitting Circle......will meet on Tuesday April 5 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Room 4. All levels of knitting skills are welcomed see Katherine Charapko (kcharapko@fortwashingtonchurch.org), and/or Wendy Realmuto for more information.

5 Spotlight on Tenors from Cynthia Powell In our ongoing series Meet the Choir, here are the Three Tenors! Our tenor section is a mighty triumvirate of exceptional voices. We're pleased to introduce them to you: James Gedge From the age of seven, immersed himself in his Rochester, Minnesota church choir, which led to singing at the Vatican for Pope Paul, touring six European countries, a Bachelor s Music degree from Lawrence University and a Master of Science degree from Queens College. Now, James teaches choral music and adaptive music to students with special needs in Eastchester, N.Y. He founded The Players Club, a middle and high school drama troupe, and has performed, directed, and produced over 175 professional and amateur productions. James was an Equity Actor and performed on Broadway, at Radio City Music Hall, on national tours, at regional companies and in dinner theatres across the country. James sang with the NYC Gay Men s Chorus and served as assistant director for eight seasons. He sang tenor with the Marble Choir and was a singing member and Board President of the Empire City Chorus (formerly the Gay Gotham Chorus). He made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut on his 40th birthday, and sang and arranged music for Melissa Rivers (Joan s daughter) wedding at the Plaza Hotel. He was the wedding singer for one of the Trump weddings at Marble Collegiate! James and his husband of 26 years (and Gracie, their yellow Labrador) live on West End Avenue, and spend their summers in the Pines community of Fire Island. He is delighted to sing with the West End Choir. Bradley J. King has advanced degrees in voice and conducting from the University of North Texas and a Bachelor's in Music from DePauw University. Bradley has performed many diverse roles, including Anthony from Sweeney Todd, and Colin from Le Devin du Village. He has regularly participated in the Fall Island Vocal Seminar, Boston Early Music Festival Young Artist Program, and Lied Austria. Hailing from Media, Pennsylvania, Bradley won the Fritz Lockeman Award for Musical Expression, NATS State and Regional Auditions, and the James Toland Vocal Arts Competition. This is his first season with the West End Choir, and we look forward to many more. Chris Lyons has been in the choir at West End since He studied at the Eastman School and Boston Conservatory. He has sung secular and sacred music all over New York, from loft spaces in Brooklyn to Carnegie Hall. Performing roles in a wide array from Hero in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Larry in Burn This, and a barking dog in an experimental theater piece (where he was very well received), he mostly goes with what seems like the most fun at any given moment. That includes singing at West End. Next month, we ll meet the bass section. Until then, happy spring, and may glorious music reign in our hearts! See you in church Cynthia Powell

6 APRIL SERMONS We often live with artificial limits we have placed on ourselves or others have placed on us. In this series we learn how to move beyond these limits to the life God created us to live. April 3 - Part 1: Breaking Limits April 10 - Part 2: Limited by Our Past BOOK CLUB On Friday, April 15 we will discuss Euphoria by Lily King. We will meet at 7 p.m. in Rooms 1 & 2. For more information contact Kay at uyterlinde@hotmail.com or call April 17- Intersections Sunday April 24 - Part 3: Knowing Our Limits Check out WECC s New APP! A Neighborhood Church for all people

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