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May 26, 2020October 6, 2020

Confirmands to Serve as Worship Leaders

Pentecost Sunday in the United Methodist Church traditionally celebrates two important events: the beginning of the Christian church and Confirmation, where, after months of preparation, a group of young people publicly profess their faith before a welcoming congregation. Because of the quarantine, Princeton UMC’s five confirmands will not be commissioned on May 31; however, they will serve as worship leaders in what promises to be a very special Pentecost Sunday.

Ever since clergy and staff made the decision to postpone Confirmation until the church community can gather together again, the five confirmands – Anatalia Francisco Cabus, Ben Ashworth Nalbone, Camille Jones, Elli Collins, and Rosalind Hayes – have been been working closely with their teachers on designing the service. “The students will be leading worship via phone and video like we have done in prior services. There will also be a special video which brings them all together to read the UMC Social Creed,” shared Sarah Betancourt, one of the teachers. They will also share original prayers.

During the Confirmation ceremony, confirmands take control of their faith by professing it before family, friends, and the congregation. Although in-person professing is not possible, “each confirmand will, over the next five weeks (except for June 7), share by video their own faith stories as well as their original versions of The Lord’s Prayer,” explained Hyelim Yoon, another of their teachers. So through the July 5 service , these five young people will be creating for themselves and the congregation unique faith experiences.

To help the confirmands organize their faith stories, the teachers provided a list of thought-provoking questions, such as “When was a moment when your ‘eyes were opened’ and you understood something that you hadn’t before? Who was a person who demonstrated to you what it means to live as a follower of Christ? Tell us about a time when you experienced God’s presence.”

During the traditional Confirmation service, confirmands pledge to take more of a leadership role in the church. By the time Anatalia, Ben, Camille, Elli, and Rosalind make their Confirmation, they will be seasoned youth leaders, well prepared “to go into the world and spread the Gospel,” said Hyelim. Pastor Erik ‘Skitch’ Matson concluded that “While most people can remember the day they were confirmed, not many people will be able to say they were confirmed during a pandemic. I’m excited to see how this particular context will shape their understanding of living out their vows, and their understanding of what “Church” means.”

May 24, 2020October 6, 2020

A Tale of Two Beasts

In “Taking the Walk” sermon series on May 24, 2020, Pastor Jenny Smith Walz preached on “Stories We Tell.” Her sermon was based on Philippians 1: 12-21.

At Children’s Time, she read part of A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Roberton. Here, actress Sarah Silverman reads this charming story with a subtle message about how to see different points of view.

May 23, 2020October 6, 2020

Relationships and Faith Series Tackles Complex Issues

Relationships and Faith groups are reading this book by Trevor Hudson

On August 12, 2017, Charlottesville Virginia was rocked by the violence that erupted at the Unite-the-Right rally. The hatred on display that day shocked the country and prompted questions about who we are as a nation. At Princeton United Methodist Church, the tragedy gave rise to a discussion of the question, “What do we do as a
church and as Christians in the wake of such racism?” To answer that question, church clergy designed the Relationships and Faith initiative. Now in its third year, the program has tackled several complex societal issues such as racism, human sexuality, poverty and women’s rights in a variety of ways.

In building the curriculum for that first year, “our steering committee, which is made up primarily of lay leaders, worked off of three central questions: “What are the barriers that separate us?; What does it mean to be the other?; How can we as Christians be inclusive?” explained Discipleship Pastor Skitch Matson. The first year of Relationships and Faith organized around small-group study of the Bible. Intergenerational in composition, the groups shared perspectives and asked questions on how life experiences shaped and changed perspectives. More than 100 people participated that first year. “The response to the initial roll out fueled our commitment to continue,” explained Skitch.

In developing the curriculum for year two, the committee focused on how societal aspects, specifically racism and human sexuality, often separate us from one another. The first two months concentrated on human sexuality, timely as it ”coincided with the Annual Methodist Conference which was grappling with this very issue,” pointed
out Pastor Skitch. For an in-depth look into how misconceptions about sexuality can be divisive, the church team assembled a panel composed of a Princeton Seminary professor, a heterosexual Puerto Rican man for the Latin-X perspective, and the Associate Dean of Princeton Chapel who openly identifies as queer.

In the final two months of the program, the focus moved to racism and the vehicle was, again, a panel discussion. Among the participants was a church member currently studying journalism at Northwestern, and a member of Not In Our Town Princeton,
a multi-racial, multi-faith group of individuals who stand together for racial justice and inclusive communities.

This year, Relationships and Faith is focusing on poverty (March and April) and on women’s rights (May and June). As a springboard for discussing poverty, those participating are reading Trevor Hudson’s A Mile in My Shoes. More than sixty participants meet regularly in small groups at various locations, with each group having
two book leaders who cultivate discussion. Michael Cabus, one of the leaders, values Hudson’s book, not only for its emphasis on reflection but also because it “is more about cultivating a personhood that is able to make compassion actionable, then it is about how to offer compassion to others. To grow as a Christian, your faith must
challenge you to be uncomfortable,” added Cabus. Hopefully, at the end of this year’s program, the participants will engage in an experiential trip, possibly an outing that puts the participants in another’s shoes and prompts the question: “How would our lives change if this was our daily routine?”

While coronavirus has made it hard for book groups to meet in person and for leaders to plan out the second half of the program, the need to, as Hudson
says, cultivate compassion is a certainty in these uncertain times.

May 20, 2020October 6, 2020

Relocation Report: Tim and Linda Henry

The Henry Family, from left: Harper, Alli, Mark, Grace, Tim, Linda, Will

Hello Princeton UMC from sunny Southern California!

After a heartwarming send-off from the church and closing on the sale of our home, we set off from Princeton in May 2015 and spent the next six months traveling around the U.S. We settled in Palm Springs, in the Sonoran Desert. What a change! Climate, lifestyle, priorities—and, yes, churches. Tim sought a church choir similar to PUMCs, and it wasn’t easy. The United Methodist congregation here is quite small, as is their choir. We eventually began attending the large, local Episcopal Church. Tim enjoys the music program at St. Paul in the Desert, but as you can imagine nothing can replace the joyful music ministry at PUMC or the family-like closeness among choir members created by Hyosang Park. Now that we’re all in quarantine, Tim enjoys weekly Zoom rehearsals with Hyosang and the choir, which includes former members like us who have moved away. We worship with PUMC on Sundays via Facebook.

How fortunate we are to have been members of the PUMC family for more than 20 years! Yvonne Macdonald welcomed our sons into her wonderful youth choirs and encouraged Mark and Will, now 37 and 29, to share their love of choral music in worship. No Sunday at PUMC was complete without afternoon choir practices followed by youth club dinners and fellowship with church friends. Both sons would not have missed going on ASP mission trips each summer where they learned important life skills from Ed and Cindy Bennett, John Powell, Bill and Stacy Chick, Tim Ewer, Alex Lang, and others. Our beloved Peggy Fullman had such an impact on our children. Her heart and hands helped shape them into generous, compassionate young men. Peggy was always present for church families, keeping a watchful eye on her young flock and teaching them to do all the good they can at all times. Jim Harris, David Mertz, and Nancy Duff were wonderfully supportive to our sons, especially during their teen years.

Son Will shared: “PUMC was one of the constants in my early life. As I advanced through school and grew through phases of adolescence, and while my weekends were filled with playing on different sports teams, there is always for me a memory of Sundays spent at the church. I am well aware that numerous pillars of my personality, which are based on goodwill and positive moral values, I gained at PUMC. I will always be forever grateful for that. I believe this valuable impression on young minds is a goal of the Methodist Church, and PUMC greatly succeeded in achieving that for me and the many young friends I had there.”

I am reminded so often of the wonderful fellowship of PUMC women. They are dear friends with whom I shared laughter, tears, and prayers as we prepared fellowship meals and funeral luncheons, organized family life events and made advent crafts, cleaned and painted the old kitchen, set up rummage and bake sales in the social hall, and taught VBS. We were church friends who shared our faith and experiences, caring for our church and each other. Many of us have stayed in touch from afar; sadly, some friends have passed away, and my heart is saddened by their loss.

Our family news now: Mark and Alli live in Evanston, IL. Like many young parents during this pandemic, they’re juggling working from home with their role as their children’s part-time teachers. They are members of First United Methodist Church, where they help teach Sunday School. Mark and Alli have given us three wonderful grandchildren: two boys, Harper and Cameron, who are 8 and 2; and a daughter, Grace, age 5. They will celebrate their 10^th wedding anniversary this summer.

Will, a filmmaker, settled in Los Angeles five years ago. He is Associate Producer of a new documentary The High Frontier: The Untold Story of Gerard K. O’Neill, which tells the life story of Princeton University physics professor and space pioneer, Gerry O’Neill. The film is slated for release later this year to a streaming service. Will shares his life with his lovely girlfriend, Hannah.

May 20, 2020October 6, 2020

Pastor Skitch: Be kind to yourself

“Here’s the thing I keep saying to people, and the thing I think we need to hear most in this time: Be kind to yourself.”

That’s what our leader, Amanda said to us all as we signed off from our every-so-often campus ministry call.

Be kind to yourself.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the stories of Jesus, and the letters of the early Church, we find many places where people are learning what it means to love God, and to love their neighbor. From prophets crying out to love those on the margins, to the Apostle Paul writing a theological treatise about what the love of God looks like in Jesus, we see account after account of loving God and our neighbor.

But what about loving ourselves?

When Jesus is asked what commandment is the greatest, the Gospel of Mark says he responds with, “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Love your neighbor as yourself.

We often focus on the front half, don’t we? We try to love the neighbor near, and the neighbor far. We try to love the neighbor we like, and the neighbor we don’t. We try to love our neighbor by transforming systems that hurt our neighbor. We don’t always get it right, but we try our best. But what about loving ourselves?

How can we try our best to love ourselves?

I think that’s what Amanda was getting at it. In asking our group to be kind to ourselves, she was reminding us that not only are we called to give grace to others but we are called to receive grace for ourselves, too.

What ways can you love yourself in terms of your spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being? This week I’m going to look myself in the mirror each day and say out loud, “Be kind to yourself.” I want to hear the words spoken to me, from me. I want to accept the grace that God has been extending to me, and I want to rest in it. Who cares if someone thinks I’m wacky. I need to hear it.

Let us be kind to ourselves, accepting God’s grace, and seeking to be healthier in body, mind, and spirit. Maybe you’ll want to join my practice, too.

Be Kind To Yourself,

Pastor Skitch

(This was published in Happenings, the weekly newsletter, on May 15, 2020)

May 17, 2020October 6, 2020

Maintaining Hope Through Adversity: Ashleigh Donaldson and Deena Prakash

Throughout the country, signs on lawns, banners on buildings, clanging pots and pans, and soaring voices celebrate America’s health care workers’ tireless efforts against the coronavirus. Within the Princeton UMC family worship several healthcare professionals and their families. In the first of an occasional series, Ashleigh Donaldson and Deena Prakash answer questions about their experiences working during COVID-19.

Since August 2018, physical therapist Ashleigh Donaldson has worked at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx. Currently, she is working in the ICU. For 20 years, Deena Parkesh has worked as a nurse at Capital Health in Trenton. Deena works in hemodialysis, a specialty that uses a machine to remove waste and water from the blood.

Ashleigh, can you describe your day? As a PT in the ICU my job consists mostly of evaluating the functional level (for discharge planning) of patients and, when appropriate, starting to mobilize them. With COVID patients, we are seeing their oxygen levels drop significantly with functional mobility, so sometimes even sitting them up for a couple of minutes in the ICU is difficult.

What is your biggest challenge? Firstly, as I am sure everyone has heard, we originally did not have enough equipment to safely see patients. This meant we were either not wearing appropriate equipment, or, we weren’t seeing patients as often as we should because we were trying to conserve gowns/masks etc. Another challenge has been that patients are not allowed to see family members,and watching them deal with everything on their own has been hard. Personally, my biggest challenge has been not seeing my family. I know I am exposed every day so I absolutely cannot see them under any circumstances, and I am not sure when it will be safe to see them.”

Deena:“It is very challenging to work since 99% of our patients go on dialysis three times a week for the rest of their lives. Their only choice of treatment is a kidney transplant. Through this long term care, the patients become like family members to the nurses.. A few of my newly infected patients have died due to loss of kidney function. It is very hard for both patients and the staff. Fear and apprehension are very common.”

Where do you find strength? Joy? How do you maintain hope? Ashleigh: ” The hospital has received many food donations and a lot of positive messages of support. Patients give me strength; they are fighting so hard and it helps us to fight hard too. Quiet times of prayer help to bring me to a place that is calm. I have also received so many supportive messages from friends, family, and of course this church. I would like to say now that I am so grateful for the prayers, cards, and calls to my mom. I find joy in seeing the patients improve. When a patient is discharged, a song plays in the hospital; when a patient finally sits up, medical staff cheer outside their room. People are all pulling together which gives me faith that humanity, kindness, and the human spirit will prevail.”

Deena: “We are together at His Mercy during this pandemic.I pray to God every day for strength and courage, and for my patients’ recovery. I have never before seen nursing care like this before. It is frightening. To do our jobs, we need a lot of physical strength and mental stamina. Indeed, I appreciate our church family for thinking of me, and thank them for all of their prayers.”

Ashleigh (we think she’s on the right ’cause she’s tall!) with a co-worker

May 17, 2020

Just by Being Ourselves: Carl and the Meaning of Life

“We are enough because God is enough.” At PrincetonUMC we try to understand that. During Children’s Time on May 17, Pastor Jenny Smith Walz helped us to understand that by reading this book during Children’s Time:

Carl and the Meaning of Life

Here is how the publisher describes this story.

Carl is an earthworm. He spends his days happily tunneling in the soil until a field mouse asks him a simple question that stops him short: “Why?” Carl’s quest takes him on an adventure to meet all the animals of the forest, each of whom seems to know exactly what they were put on this earth to do, unlike the curious Carl. But it’s not until the world around him has changed that Carl begins to realize everyone, no matter how small, makes a big difference just by being themselves.

Want to hear it read aloud? Here.

May 12, 2020October 6, 2020

Flowers, Candles, a Cross — and more

A beautiful altar always enhances the worship experience. Now that we see the altar through a camera lens, altar design is even more important. We asked Hyosang Park to tell us her she decides to arrange what we see on the altar. Working with the altar guild and the worship committee, she considers the sermon topic, the seasons and the church year, and the color of the floral arrangements.

“I am not sure most people recognize this extraordinary ministry,” says Judy Miller. “Hyosang creates such beautiful altar arrangements and puts so much thought, time, and detailed handmade touches into them.”

“Sometimes I quickly put together the altar table on Sunday morning,” says Hyosang. ‘But there are some Sundays that I prepare arrangements weeks ahead of time. For example, in the photo above, I looked for days in many web stores to find lamps to illustrate Pastor Ginny’s sermon on Thy Word is my lamp unto my feet, and Ginny helped me decide.”

“To create the altar for Thanksgiving Sunday in 2019 (on the right), I stopped my car many times on the side of the roads, to harvest beautiful reeds. Dana Dreibelbis and Lori Pantaleo also brought beautiful fall plants for me to use.”

With construction tools, this altar celebrated the safe return of the ASP team and the sharing of their stories.

For World Communion Sunday 2019, shown at the top of the page, Lori Pantaleo shopped and gathered the different breads and the fabrics shown. “Lori and I got together on Saturday to decorate the table. After taking a few pictures we took it down since we wanted to have fresh bread on Sunday morning. Yes, we redecorated the table Sunday morning. “

Creating Lent/Easter arrangements took few more steps then other Sundays. “First, the Worship committee voted on using white, pink and purple colors on Easter Sunday,” Hyosang explains. “Pam Nugent talked to our florist to find suitable plants for Easter. Meanwhile, my cockatiel laid 7 eggs in February. So, I decided to use a bird nest that Dana Dreibelbis gave back in 2019.

“Ideas started to float into my head, and I began putting things together in my mind first…… 1. bare tree branches, 2. empty bird nests, eggs in the nest,” says Hyosang. Cherry blossoms made out of crepe paper were glued on after Maundy Thursday service.

On Friday, following Hyosang’s color requests, Judy Miller brought pink and white tulips, pink Hydrangeas, solid deep purple pansies, and white pansies with a deep purple center. “I was so pleased by the spectacular finished arrangement,” says Judy. “Stunningly beautiful.”

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

News from the Gillette Familyl

Trey and Anna Gillette are grandparents! They worshiped here with their three sons (Eric, Peter, and Jeffrey) when they were in seminary. Both Trey and Anna served here on the pastoral staff. Trey now works at the seminary. Anna, currently at Marlton UMC, has just been appointed to St. Andrews UMC in Toms River. And Eric and Abby welcomed their son, Jackson Boone, in March. Anna’s appointment just came through from the conference, as below. Her email is Anna@gillettefamily.com if you would like to say hello.

Anna Gillette: a fervent minister who feels called to lead congregations in clarifying and attaining their vision for ministry. She deeply loves creative and passionate worship and teaching Bible studies for all ages. She has served at Marlton United Methodist Church. Princeton UMC, and Centenary UMC in Lambertville. She and her husband Trey are graduates of Princeton Theological Seminary and her husband is an employee there. They have three boys: Eric who lives with his wife in Lubbock TX and is expecting Anna’s first grand baby, Jeffrey who is a student at Rowan College, and Peter who is a senior at Rider University.