Our Beloved Sally

sallyIt is with great sadness that we share the news of the death of Sally Ross.  Sally was a long-time member of Princeton United Methodist Church, and an active member of the Chancel Choir, United Methodist Women, and the Communications Committee.  For the obituary in the Times of Trenton, click here.

We ask for your prayers for Sally’s husband, Charles Phillips, and their family.

Visitation will be at Mather Hodge Funeral home on Saturday, April 26​, 3-5PM.  The Funeral Service will be at Princeton UMC on Monday, April 28 at 11AM​.  Interment will be at Princeton Cemetery. For parking suggestions, click here.

In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to the Christian Education Department of Princeton United Methodist Church or the United Front Against Riverblindness (UFAR).

Landscape of Lent: Palms

2014 4 13 palm doors

Rev. Jana Purkis-Brash delivered a message on “Palms” on Sunday, April 13, 2013, based on Matthew 21:1-11, and 26:14-16. To read the sermon, click here. She closed her message with these words:

We who are called to have the mind and spirit of Jesus betray him when we allow our own self-interest, our own prejudices, our own tacit acceptance of the status quo to limit the ways in which we could help make God’s kingdom a reality here on earth, as it is in heaven.

We betray Jesus when we see people in need and close our hearts against them.

We betray Jesus when we gather wealth (coins) into our own hands while others live in hunger and poverty.

We betray Jesus when we know what he would do but are afraid to do it.

We betray Jesus when we ignore the love he insisted upon and embrace hate.

Palms of praise easily can become palms of betrayal. And because of that, because of our human insistence on hating, hurting, and hoarding, Jesus opens his own palms in love and dies even while pleading for humanity, “Forgive them, Father, they don’t know what they are doing.”

Sometimes, I think we do know what we are doing, or failing to do. But the amazing thing about the love of God in Jesus is that when we fess up to our sin and confess it,we are embraced by the grace that was given to us through those palms.

Palms of praise, palms of betrayal, palms of loving grace: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord,” and may those who go in his name be a blessing as well.

Today as you leave worship you will be given a palm of praise, receive it and carry it remembering that we are called to praise the living Christ. Today you will also be given a coin, receive it and carry it reflecting on how you betray Christ. Journey through this week anticipating the pitcher and basin, the bread, the cup, nails and finally resurrection celebration. In this week, fully prepare to meet the risen Christ.

2014 13 crown of thorrns(the crown of thorns was on the altar)

Adult Study: “Moral Tribes”

adult ss contemporaryContemporary Issues adult class is reading “Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them,” by Joshua Greene. It meets every Sunday in the PUMC library at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings — with the possible exception of April 27 when there will be only one worship service at 9:30.  “We welcome new attendees at any time,” says Charles.

According to reviewer Vanessa Bush, “Greene’s strategies for examining moral reasoning are as applicable to day-to-day decisions as they are to public policy. This is a highly accessible look at the complexities of morality.”

The Heart of Faith class has moved to the Fellowship Hall at the same time, 9:30, and various studies during the week welcome newcomers.

Landscape of Lent: Cave

2014 4 6 stones box 2014 4 6 stones

In the story as told in the gospel of John, said Catherine Williams in her sermon on April 6, Lazarus probably  counted on Jesus coming to heal him. She imagined how he would have felt:

“You take to your fevered bed that night in hope. You rise next morning feeling frighteningly worse than last night, and you ask for news of Jesus. . . Now the sun has begun to set; Jesus is still not here. By now you feel yourself enveloped in a thick, dark cloud of disappointment, anger, fear, and abandonment. You wonder if this what death feels like…

Sometimes we feel abandoned, like Lazarus, Catherine said. She quoted theologian Gordon Lathrop’s book on the ‘little deaths’ we face in the course of living. Lathrop speaks of “moments of physical sickness or disability, or the moments of letting go, of moving on, or of facing failure, all of which can be described in metaphoric language as having something of death about them.”

To Lathrop’s listing she added: strained or severed relationships with living persons, mental and emotional pathologies, loss of employment or underemployment, loneliness, betrayal, and a host of other little deaths that begin to close in around us, cutting off our hope, our connections, even our faith, and leaving us entombed by circumstances beyond our control. . .

Near the end of her message, she pointed out that Lazarus’s name meant “God is my help,” and that he had no idea where, or how close,  his help was.

He only knew he was trapped in circumstances utterly beyond his control, and could see no way out. Which means that for the person in the cave, all I’ve said until now may mean absolutely nothing. But the fact that you are here in this gathered community of faith is symbolic of something hopeful. It symbolizes that you are part of a wider community that cares, and that believes the life of God has the power to destroy death, and that the light of Christ cannot be overpowered by darkness.

(The entire message is here.)

Altar design by Debbie Meola and photos are by Edem Timpo.

Fellowship Hall: Celebrate on May 3

fellowship hall celebration

Our ground floor space has turned from a homely caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly, thanks to our Opening Doors capital campaign. Everyone is invited to help celebrate the transformation of the Fellowship Hall!

On Saturday, May 3, at 6 p.m., enjoy a delicious sit down dinner with entertainment provided by our own Scott Langdon and music by the PUMC Ensemble. Hear about how we used to be known as the ‘Rowdy Methodists,’  learn about we changed during our 165 years — and help launch our future work for Christ in the new space.

Tickets will be available in the Sanford Davis room after each service.  Suggested donation: adults $10.00 per person, $5.00 for children. Get yours soon — tickets will not be sold at the door.

Elisa Neira MSW at UMM Breakfast

2014 4 11 Elisa neiraElisa Neira, Princeton’s director of human services, will speak at the United Methodist Men’s breakfast on Sunday, April 13, at 8 a.m. in our newly renovated Fellowship Hall.

Elisa has an impressive resume, having worked with the Latino immigrant community in New Brunswick and with the New Jersey Association of the Deaf/Blind. In addition to being fluent in English and Spanish, she speaks sign language and has some French. She has a BS in social work from Rutgers and an MSW from Fordham.

Hunger is one of the important issues she is working on at the Department of Human Services. Some of her clients are still going hungry, she has said,  though they are using all available services. She is also concerned with immigration issues, such as stopping wage theft and tuition equality.

A $5 donation will be accepted for the outstanding hot breakfast.

 

 

Ben Burt: “An amazing childhood within your walls”

As a kid, Ben Burt was no shy wallflower. You could always count on him to pipe up with great answers. Now he’s being ordained, and he credits the Christian nurturing at PUMC. These are excerpts from his letter sent, in appreciation, to the congregation.

My name is Ben Burt, better known as that little hooligan son of Fred and Vivian Burt.  For the most part, I have not been a physical part of your congregation since 1997, when I went off to college.  However, my name remained on the roll of PUMC from many years after I left.

            After I left Princeton I struggled to find a church home and I never wanted to move my membership.  I never encountered a place as welcoming, comfortable, and beautiful as PUMC.  . . .

I am sending you this letter to inform you that I am up for ordination as an Elder in full connection at the South Carolina Annual Conference on June 2nd

            Moreover than your presence at this service, it is important to me that you know you are invited to be there.  To some end you will already be there, through all you poured into me.  You, Princeton United Methodist Church, are the reason I am where I am today.  Sure, from a theological perspective we can say God would have gotten me to where ever God wanted me, regardless of my or other’s actions; God got Jonah to Nineveh.  However, I believe God wanted me to be nurtured by Princeton UMC. 

            You all are an amazing congregation.  Even though I was just a punk kid, who didn’t listen (and my wife might agree that I still don’t listen), you all poured the love of Christ into me.  You nurtured and taught me the tradition of the Church.  You let me experience the community of love that Scripture calls the Church to be.  It was what you all instilled in me that God used to draw me deeper into service.  I do not know if I would have the same love for the Church if I had not had such an amazing childhood within your walls.

            I do not know what children are in your nursery these days, but I am happy for them.  Those kids might grow up to be doctors, lawyers, or even bishops.  No matter what they grow up to be I am sure they will know an amazing God through the loving community of PUMC.

Here is the complete text of Ben’s letter.  It includes his contact info.  Send him warm wishes and prayers!

Landscape of Lent: Water

 2014 water altar The Landscape of Lent: Water

A Sermon by Jana Purkis-Brash

Sunday, March 23, 2014. 

Jana’s topic was the story in John 4: 5-42 about the Samarian woman at the well. For the complete sermon, click here.

Her conclusion:  Over and over again Jesus defied the rigid boundaries imposed by the religious and social leaders of his time. You can look at some of what he did in a contemporary context, and some of it will bother you and maybe even make you angry, as it did the Pharisees and Sadducees.

If Jesus were physically present today,

  • He would visit the Ukraine.
  • He would have dinner with prostitutes and drug addicts.
  • He would surround himself with people of poverty.
  • He would embrace and the Gay, Lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community.
  • He would call on us to pray for terrorists.

Jesus is alive today. And we are his body. We are his presence. We are called to have his mind, and to act as best we are able to discern as Jesus would. To ask and take seriously the question of what would Jesus do in our time moves us well beyond the wristbands that were popular years ago and into the often uncomfortable and sometimes socially unacceptable places where we acknowledge that all people of all nations, all cultures, all religions, all genders, all ages, all races, all sexual orientations, all incomes, all accomplishments and all sins are God’s own children and our sisters a2014 water jugnd brothers seeking the water of eternal life.

And that, my dear friends in Christ, is the most significant witness of all… the one you make. Drink deeply of the living water that Christ offers and share that life giving water with others who need it so badly.

Altar art by Debbie Meola, photographs by Edem Timpo.

 

Taize Prayer: Noon Meditation on April 8

2014 taize Bells

2014 4 Taize Reconciliation

 

Cathie Capp gave the Lenten meditation on Tuesday, April 8, noon to 12:30 p.m. In the “A Quiet Center” series, her theme was prayer in the Taize’ community. The Taize’ community is known for  meditative prayer with neither a beginning nor an end. 

2014 4 Taize SkyFollowing this moving and prayerful service, held in the chapel at Princeton United Methodist Church, there was  a light lunch, provided by Iona Harding.

Cathie t00k these photos during the week that she spent in the Taize community.