What s Happening At Castleton Hill? July s Monthly meeting schedule: AA (Mondays) Mondays @ 1:00 PM AA (Wednesdays) Wednesdays @ 7:00 PM AA (Weekdays) M-F @ 4:00pm CEC Meeting October 15 7:30 PM Elders Meeting October 2 7:00 PM Scrabble Days October 4, 11, 18, 25 11:00AM Trustee Meeting October 8 6:30 PM UBC Advisory October 10 8:00 PM UBC Collegiate October 24 8:00 PM October Birthdays and Anniversaries: Birthdays: Daniel Timari 1-Oct Roy Dookhan 2-Oct Nicholas Guastella 2-Oct Christopher Timari 6-Oct Kathryn Sandberg 8-Oct Premela Dookhan 9-Oct Agnes Goetz 14-Oct Drew Tirrito 15-Oct Jesse Lambert 17-Oct Brian Berman 18-Oct Carol Diker 19-Oct Bernard Eldredge 25-Oct Jennifer Hughes 26-Oct Anniversaries: Anna & Jesse Lambert Kristin Strandberg Elizabeth Drake 17-Oct 23-Oct 25-Oct Blessings and love from our savior, as you celebrate God s goodness in your life! Opportunities in October: Vanderbilt Community Dinner: Vanderbilt Avenue Moravian Church hosts a SI Community Dinner at 4pm on October 20 th that is free and open to the public and they love to welcome servers! Come and Pray! It s that time of year, again! Time to sign up for the Unity Prayer Watch. Since 1957, the Unity Prayer Watch has assured that Moravians in the Northern and Southern Province are praying for our Moravian Church and our world 24/7/365. Our part of the prayer, this year, is scheduled for Wednesday, December 12, 2018. Sign up for your 20 minute slot, today! Big Day! On Sunday, October 28 th, we will be celebrating Appreciation Sunday, during worship. We will be thanking God for congregation members who supported and built our church, over the years. If you know of someone who should be included in this celebration, please contact Pastor Lance!
Elders Minutes: The Elders met on October 2. They discussed the following: Sunday School started September 23 rd and will be offered every Sunday with a rotation of volunteers teaching the class. Missy Gunderson has already spread the word and invited several home school families and her own family members to start attending. The teachers will be Missy Gunderson, Trisha Fox, Casey Diker, Donna Ziegeler and Danny Grossi. Adult Sunday School started September 23 rd at 10:00 in Pastor Lance s office. 4 people attended last Sunday. Youth Group switched to a twice a month format at the request of the staff. Youth Group started September 23 rd with 10 kids in attendance. Youth Rally is October 5, 6, 7. Yolande Rose and Joy Alessi have been organizing the volunteers. Pastor Lance will attend the rally with possibly one or two youth from CHMC. Reception of new members Trisha Clay (Fox) and Morgan Fox would like to join CHMC by transfer of membership. The service will be November 18 th. Pastor Lance will approach Ben and Missy Gunderson to see if they are interested in joining the church and attending six new members sessions. Trustees Minutes: The Trustees met on September 10 th. Among the issues discussed were the following: Parsonage roof rennovated. Flooring buckling in the front room to the left of the front door on the first floor of the parsonage. Rear storm door of the parsonage needs to be replaced. New thermostat has been installed in the church sanctuary. Lights in the Narthex to be checked- bulbs may need to be replaced. Need to format a building use policy I request form. Need quicker response time with consents regarding building use requests. Third AA group (The 4 O'clock Club) requesting use of Fellowship Hall to conduct meetings Monday Friday, 4pm- 5:15pm Office Woe! We re having some problems in the Church Office, and we need your help! Our Church Secretary, Karen, does a lot of great work for our Church. But her office is not always treated with the respect that it deserves. Too often, the Church Office becomes the place where people drop off items for donation, things to be picked up by others, and so on. We also seem to be having some unauthorized use of the computer in the Church Office. To correct these, the Elders and the Trustees will implement the following policy changes: We will no longer be able to accept anonymous donations of any kind to the church. If you have items to donate, please contact Pastor Lance, who will help connect you with the appropriate organization. When we DO put out a call for donations, the drop-off place and time parameters will be clearly announced. Extra security measures will be added to both the Office Computer and the Church Office. Thanks for your help! In the Know! Mark your calendars for the annual UBC Collegiate Council Meeting 8:00 pm, Wednesday, October 24 @ New Dorp Moravian Church. This is a VERY important meeting. All congregation members are invited to attend, participate, and ask questions at this meeting. YOUR vote will be required for budgetary and other action items that will shape the UBC for the next year! Don t miss out!
Looking ahead to Christmas! Can you believe it? Christmas is right around the corner! Here are a few Christmas reminders to think about now! October 24 (Wednesday) @6:30pm Candle Wrapping for Christmas Vesper Service (prior to Collegiate Council @ New Dorp Moravian Church) November 25 (Sunday) BEGIN Christmas Angel Tree for MOD November 25 (Sunday) after church Decorating the Sanctuary (in sanctuary) November 25 (Sunday) after church Wrapping Christmas Eve candles (in parlour) December 2 (Sunday) after church Setup for Christmas Boutique (in Fellowship Hall) December 8 (Saturday) 10-4:00pm Christmas Boutique December 16 (Sunday) LAST DAY to order Christmas pointsettas December 18 (Tuesday) LAST DAY for Christmas Angel Tree for MOD December 24 (Monday) @4:30 pm Christmas Eve Candlelight Lovefeast (early service) @8:00pm Christmas Eve Candlelight Lovefeast (late service) December 25 (Tuesday) @ 9:00am Christmas in your PJs! (in sanctuary) Learn and Play! Kids Sunday School is doing great! We ve got an excited group of Sunday School leaders who are bringing the Word of God to our kids and our kids are having a fantastic time! If you know a young person, age pre-k to 4 th grade, who would enjoy games, crafts, stories, and more make sure they get to our Sunday School class. It s every Sunday, from just after the Children s Sermon (around 11:30) to 12:30 or about 20 minutes into Fellowship Hour. And if you re interested in helping out in the classroom, please let Pastor Lance know! Adult Sunday School is meeting, too! We re meeting for about 45 minutes in the morning 10:00am to 10:45am, in the Pastor s office. Right now, we re studying the Book of Luke. So far, we ve had four people come to class but we have room for more! And we re saving a seat for you! Coffee and tea, available! Thanksgiving: The Outreach Committee of New Dorp Moravian Church is coordinating a Moravians In Mission Project to fill Thanksgiving Baskets for individuals & families in our community. With your help, and in partnership with all the Moravian Churches on Staten Island, we hope to fill many baskets. We re all also invited to help sort and fill this year s baskets. All volunteers are welcome. For more information or to volunteer to help, please call the Church Office at (718) 351-0090. We are collecting the following items to fill the baskets. Let s see how quickly we can fill them! Apple Juice Apple Sauce Canned Carrots Canned Cranberry Sauce Canned String Beans Canned Whole Kernel Corn Canned Yams Coffee Cookies Crackers Instant Mashed Potatoes Stuffing Mix Turkey Gravy OFFICE HOURS: New this Fall! Pastor Lance is happy to announce that he will have regular office hours, at the church office, this Fall. Beginning in October, the Pastor s Office hours will be from 8:30 to 12:30 on Monday and Wednesday, and from 8:30 to 2:30 on Tuesday or, as usual, by appointment. This does NOT mean that Pastor Lance will only be at the church at these times; and this does NOT mean that these will be the only times you can call or meet with Pastor Lance. It simply means that you are most likely to find him in his office at these times!
The Thread Castleton Hill Moravian Church August/September 2018 When the weather gets cooler and the school buses start to run, I think of my mother, who died of colon cancer a little over ten years ago. Mom was a teacher. She taught elementary school for 43 years but, more importantly, she taught me about God and Jesus and how to live a life of faith. And she taught me about love. My sister and I loved our mother very much, and watching her die, over a period of several weeks, was both difficult and scary. People die in many different ways. My mom sort of... unwound... and fell apart. She got increasingly tired, during the day. She had very low energy except for regular bouts of intense abdominal pain. We read to her and talked to her and prayed with her. And there were pills and heating pads and smaller and smaller meals. And pills. And pills. At the end, she was either sleeping or silently grinding her teeth against the pain. And then she was gone. When my mother died, my sister took it very hard. She swung back and forth between inconsolable weeping and less-than-rational anger. My sister was ups upset that mom wouldn t be there to see her hit the milestones getting married, starting a career, buying a house, and so on. She grieved the fact that she wouldn t be able to call mom during the week, and on weekends, and the odd evenings. She was angry at God. And she was angry at me. Why was she angry at me? Because I didn t fall apart. I kept thinking about how even Lazarus had to die, eventually. I kept thinking about how there had been time for family and friends to visit mom, before the end and how we stood around her bed and sang hymns to her. And I kept thinking about how she was free from pain and exhaustion, and how I would see her again and probably sooner than I would think. We say we love things: People, places, jobs, church. But I wonder how true that really is. I wonder if we don t just love what these things give us. What they do for us. How they make us feel. If we truly love something people, places, jobs, church wouldn t we want the very best for them? Wouldn t we want the people we loved to be happy and healthy? The places we loved to be kept up and cared for? The jobs we love to be vibrant and meaningful? And the church we love to be thriving, growing--and, yes, changing? Or do we love things only if they are what we want them to be? The people in our lives to act in ways we expect and approve of? The places in our lives to be preserved exactly as we remember them? And our church to be just what we think church should be from the first hymn to the last handshake? If that s how we treat the things we love, maybe what we really love is ourselves. My mother taught me that love is NOT transactional not about what someone or something can do for me. She taught me that love defies our expectations, transcends change and growth and is nothing, NOTHING that we can control. For if we truly love someone or something, we should be able to let it grow its own way. And if we can t do that, then maybe we need to re-examine the way we love. How do you love our church? Give it some thought! Blessings! ~Pastor Lance