Category: PUMC Family News

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Passing the baton with Brahms: Lyn Ransom

Princeton UMC has been blessed with wonderful music directors; Lyn Ransom held that post 30 years ago, in the same time period that she founded the VOICES chorale. After 30 years she is retiring from VOICES; she will direct the Brahms Requiem with the Riverside Symphonia on Friday, June 16, at 8 p.m. at Richardson Auditorium.

Also on the program is Randall Thompson’s Frostiana. Soloists include Rochelle Ellis, soprano, and Mischa Bouvier, baritone.

The choristers from Voices were kind enough to sing (excerpt here) at the memorial service for Lynn Hight, who with her husband Bill was a charter member.

The Brahms is “deeply spiritually based in me,” she told Anthony Stoeckert for an article in the Packet. “I’ve just loved this piece and I’ve identified with it.”

For tickets, ranging from $25 to $45, click here. 

 

 

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Laura Bratton: Overcoming Adversity

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When you’re in your thirties and the book you’ve written about your life has just been published, you must have done something amazing. The “you” in this case is the Reverend Laura Bratton ’10, author of Harnessing Courage: Overcoming Adversity with Grit and Gratitude (Clovercroft Publishing, 2016). Richard Trenner wrote this in a post for Princeton Theological Seminary, see the rest here. 

Many Princeton UMC members attended Laura’s talk and booksigning. Here is a link to our post on her book and a photo of them getting their books signed (thanks to Richard Trenner for both photos).

Learn more about Laura Bratton’s life and work at http://www.ubiglobal.org/.

Watch the full video of Bratton’s talk on PTSEM’s Multimedia page.

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Welcome back, Tom Lank

Welcome back to Rev. Tom Lank!  He and his family return to PUMC on Sunday, February 12 so that he can speak at the breakfast served by United Methodist Men. His topic: United Methodist Volunteers in Mission. He will also preach at both services, on the sermon series topic “Life in Community,” based on Deuteronomy 30:15-20 

Tom is a United Methodist Deacon and a product of Princeton UMC, where he discerned his call to ministry as a layperson, and served on staff as the Associate Pastor from 2008-2010.   Tom led the mission trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo  that launched PUMC’s strong support for United Front Against Riverblindness. He currently serves as the Coordinator of the United Methodist Volunteers in Mission program for the Northeastern Jurisdiction, covering United Methodist congregations from Maine to West Virginia to Washington, DC.  Tom, his wife Gretchen Boger, and their two children, Edith (11) and Alice (8) currently live in Philadelphia.

UMM cooks the tasty hot breakfast, and it’s not ‘just for guys.’ Everyone  is invited; a $5 donation is suggested.

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Youth News—Meet Jacob Davis

The youth program at PUMC includes multiple “Youth Staff” volunteers who dedicate their time to mentoring our teens. Most of these “Staff,” however, are new to PUMC. So, for the next few months we will showcase a short interview with each youth staff, allowing us to know a bit more about them and their passion for our youth. Hopefully this short piece will give you the courage to talk with them the next time you see them!

Blessings,

Pastor Skitch Matson

Q. Tell us a bit about where you’re from.

I was born and raised in Largo, FL right by the beach (near Tampa). After High School I joined the Coast Guard and spent a few years moving around from Virginia to North Carolina, and then eventually back to Jacksonville, FL.

Q. Do you have any past experiences working with youth?

For the past six years I have been working on and off with youth. I have volunteered at my home church when I was around, went on trips with my old youth group as an adult leader (but still a kid at heart), spent 2 weeks working at the Duke Youth Academy a few summers ago, and most recently spent just over a year as a small group leader at a youth group in Jacksonville with my wife, Rachel.

Q. How long have you been in Princeton?

We have now been in Princeton for almost 4 months. We moved here so I could finish my degree in Religion at TCNJ, and my wife, Rachel, could attend Princeton Theological Seminary.

Q.Why are you a Youth Staff?

I am a youth staff because youth matter so much to our church as well as our communities, which is often forgotten. They have great insight, valued praises, and real concerns; their voices need to be heard within our communities and congregations. It is a blessing to work with and walk through life with these students during this formative time in their lives.

Q. What does Youth Staff mean to you?

It’s a group of adults who come together with the hope that God will use us to show each student the endless love God has for each of them.

Q. I hear you like good books, what’s one that you would recommend? “Reaching Out: Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life”  by Henri J.M. Nouwen.

Written by Isabella Dougan

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Meet Our New Music Intern

By Hyosang Park

Marisa Curcio, a student from Westminster Choir College of Rider University is joining our staff to service the Lord with Princeton UMC congregation. She is currently a senior majoring in Church Music and Music Education. She has an exceptionally exquisitely soaring soprano voice that can be heard from miles away and make people turn their heads because of its beauty. She has her senior recital scheduled in March. Please don’t miss an opportunity to hear and be embraced in such a stunning voice. Details be will announced in the February issue, so stay tuned. She already has sung with Chancel Choir at our annual Christmas Concert and during our Longest Night service. She has an outgoing personality and is eager to meet everyone at PUMC. I hope you will all get to meet and know her in 2017.

Isabella Dougan

 

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November 13: Nancy Duff, welcome back!

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Nancy J. Duff

We are so glad to welcome Nancy J. Duff back to PUMC! Nancy will speak at the UMM breakfast in Fellowship Hall on Sunday, November 13, at 8 a.m. Nancy visited us regularly when her husband, David C. Mertz, served here as Associate Pastor. He is now the pastor of First United Methodist Church in Westfield.

Based on her class at the Princeton Theological Seminary on the doctrine of vocation, her topic will be Called by God, exploring four aspects of God’s call in our lives.

  • We are called into being for a divinely appointed purpose.
  • We are called to glorify God in all that we do.
  • We are called to make a space where others can glorify God.
  • We affirm the freedom of God to call individuals to different tasks.

Nancy Duff grew up in Texas and attended Union Presbyterian Seminary in Virginia for her M.Div. and Union Theological Seminary in New York for her Ph.D. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA) she has taught Christian Ethics at Princeton Theological Seminary since 1990. Her courses include “The Ethics of Resisting and Accepting Death,” “The Theology and Ethics of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” and “The Ethics of the Ten Commandments.” One of her intriguing publications is “Praising God Online”

A hot breakfast is served at 8 am, and the program starts at 8:30. Everyone is invited; a $5 donation is requested.

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Laura Bratton’s “Grit and Gratitude”

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Laura Bratton.. formerly a seminary intern at PUMC, is coming back to Princeton to speak at Princeton Theological Seminary Library on Tuesday, November 15, 7 to 8 p.m. She will sign her new book, Harnessing Courage: overcoming adversity with grit and gratitude. 
“Living into daily grit gives us the ability to remain grounded as we experience those times of adversity and trauma as well as moments of joy and laughter,” she says. “Expressing our gratefulness — both when life is easy and when life is difficult — brings healing and strength.”
When Laura served as an intern at our church, many of us wondered how she mustered the courage and determination to succeed as a pastor. She had lost her vision, starting in middle school, and by the time we knew her she was blind due to macular degeneration.

We marveled at her portfolio of coping assets, which included knowledge of Braille, owning a guide dog, and a passionate faith in God. We rejoiced in her successes, learned from her insights, anbratton-headshotd were reluctant to say goodbye. After graduating as the first blind student to get an MDiv at Princeton Theological Seminary, she was a chaplain at the Cleveland Clinic and then senior pastor at Laurens Road United Methodist Church in Greenville, South Carolina.

Aiming to spread her message outside church walls, she has established herself as an inspirational speaker and coach. Her new book can speak to anyone struggling with a problem — whether they have a strong faith or don’t believe in God. Welcome back, Laura!

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‘Saying Hello’ to Donald Lasko in the Kelsey Review

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Editor’s note: last October we celebrated Donald Lasko’s poem “Saying Goodbye.” This same poem was read at his memorial service today (February 10, 2016). We are all so sad that he is no longer here to teach and write. Here is the entry from October, 2016. 

“Saying Goodbye,” a poem by Donald Lasko has just been published in MCCC’s the literary journal Kelsey Review, a 30-year-old publication that has just gone digital. To read the poem, click here. 

At left, Don reads his poetry at MCCC, but PUMC members recognize him as a member of Chancel Choir; he also sings with Pro Musica. A retired public high school English teacher (married to Kate, who also teaches English), Don graduated from Oberlin College and has an MA with additional doctoral studies in English at SUNY Stony Brook. He received an NEH grant to study with Galway Kinnell and Sharon Olds from NYU School of Creative Writing and taught creative writing and poetry for many years at Summer Institute for the Gifted on numerous college campuses. For more than 50 years he has had numerous poems published in “little” magazines and is a co-editor of a two-volume anthology This Is Just To Say: An Anthology Of Reading For Writers for use at the high school level.

 

Here is more poetry by Don. “This is” was published in U.S. 1 Newspaper in July, 2015. 

 

Here is the published obituary: 

This page can link to more of Don’s work; just email communications@PrincetonUMC.org. 

The most recent poem published in U.S. 1 was “Note to Myself” last July. In part, it is a hymn to his baby granddaughter. The final lines:

that this ever came to be is still a mystery we stand before

unknowing, swaddled as we all are from the beginning

in the arms of what some call God. Just sing!

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Summer Sharing: ‘The East and West in Me’

So far this summer, in Summer Sharing sessions after church, Barbara MacGuigan has spoken on her anthropology adventure, and Paul Manulik and Lindsay Diehl have told about their music mission to Haiti.

Summer Sharing continues with Jamileh “Jamie” Gerber on Sunday, August 14 at 11:15 a.m.in Fellowship Hall. Born in Iran, Jamie has worked around the world from Tehran to Trenton, from South Carolina to Spain.

Jamie grew up as a Christian in Iran, where most of the people, including her 2016 august jamie headshotgrandparents, were Muslims. In the early 1930s her father was befriended by Christian missionaries who arranged for his eye disease to be treated in Tehran. “It was his Damascus moment,” says Jamie. She remembers that, following the teachings of Jesus, he brought people into their home from all backgrounds and religions.

Jamie went to college in Beirut and worked in the royal palace, leaving Iran for a year to earn a master’s degree in instructional technology from Indiana University. One of her favorite jobs at UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) was to help newly literate rural farmers read how to improve their agricultural methods. In 1979 she and her family survived the revolution. Jamie moved with her husband and two children to a Spanish fishing village on the Mediterranean Sea, and she found work teaching in an international school.

When Jamie moved to Princeton in 1983, she joined our church. She earned her Master of Library Service at Rutgers and worked at the Princeton University Library and at the state labor department. Then she left town to be an associate professor at Bloomfield College. Remembering Princeton and PUMC fondly, she moved back here and rejoined the church this spring.  Her topic: “The East and the West in Me.”

 

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Anthropology Adventure: from Durango to the depths of the Grand Canyon

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Everyone is invited to explore ancient cultures with Barbara MacGuigan on Sunday, July 17. A second year student of anthropology at Maryland’s Washington College,  Barbara recently participated in a two week experiential learning trip to the American Four Corners Region.

The goal of the seminar was to gain firsthand knowledge of how environment shapes culture and to become acquainted with the issues surrounding American archaeology.

Along with visiting ancient Ancestral Puebloan sites, the class investigated various contemporary Native and Colonial cultural centers including the tourist mecca Durango  and Supai Village, nestled in the middle of desert country in the Grand Canyon area.

She will share her findings and her experience after service on Sunday July 17 in Fellowship Hall at about 11:15 a.m.  Join us and support Barbara!

Our next summer sharing time will be July 31, when Paul Manulik and Lindsay Diehl tell about their music mission to Haiti.