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April 5, 2020October 6, 2020

Kids Singing Alone but Together

Thanks to the video conferencing program Zoom and the efforts of church staff, children and youth can participate in church life through Sunday School, Confirmation Class, Youth Fellowship – and even the children’s choir meets online with Tom Shelton, children’s and youth choir director.

For instance, at the 30-minute practice on April 1, Tom opened with fun vocal warmups, giving everyone a chance to demonstrate. With a short video, he reviewed what Palm Sunday means and connected it to Sunday’s worship. Children learned the “Hosanna” opening hymn to get ready to wave palms from their homes on Sunday.

Sometimes the children saw only Tom, sometimes they saw and heard one person singing a solo, sometimes their faces were spread out in a grid. “It does my heart good,” says Tom, when I look at all of their faces, and they are sitting up tall in their chairs at home and actually singing!

Connection is the most important part, Tom says. “These are troubling times. It’s nice to have some sense of normalcy or ‘routine’ when everything they are used to is ‘up in the air.’ They LOVE being together!”]

It is takes three times longer to plan a virtual class, practicing how to move from warm up exercises to showing a score. Mostly the singer’s screens are muted, but they unmute themselves to respond. “I love how much they want to be a leader and sing an example,” says Tom. “I have to be very conscious that It’s not ‘just singing,’ but that I’m stretching them musically, by asking questions and having them explain the answers or type the answer in the “chat” message box.

On April 15 the singers will enjoy a treat. They will reprise the musical from February in a virtual “sing along!”

Says Tom: “One positive thing – I’m growing a lot by doing this! I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks! “

April 2, 2020October 6, 2020

From Pastor Jenny, April 2, 2020

Greetings Beloved PUMC Community!

“It shall be a jubilee for you: you shall return, every one of you, to your property and every one of you to your family.” ~Leviticus 25:10b

(We wrap up our Poverty: Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope series this Sunday with scripture about Jubilee from Leviticus 25)

Here’s my video update for you for this week!

And below is a summary with details!

Holy Week – Watch your mail for a Worship Packet!

Starts on Sunday, April 5 – Palm Sunday
- Live Worship at 10am on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)
- Communion! – gather bread and juice, wine, or water ahead of time (along with your candle, cross, or bible to create your sacred space)
- Virtual Palm Parade – take a horizontal photo or video of you with your palm branch – we’ll be mailing you a palm branch and a paper one you can cut out and decorate or you can find any kind of branch from your yard or your walk outdoors. Send your photos or videos to Evangeline, upload it directly here, or respond to the post on our Facebook Page. Submit them by noon on Sunday! Be sure it’s horizontal!
- Children’s Time – Ms. Hyosang will be teaching us how to make a cross out of a palm frond or a strip of paper. Have one ready!
Thursday, April 9 – Maundy Thursday
- Live Worship at 6pm on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)
- Communion – gather bread and juice, wine, or water ahead of time (along with your candle, cross, or bible to create your sacred space)
- Foot or Hand Washing – gather a pitcher of water, a basin or bowl, towel(s)
Friday, April 10 – Good Friday
- Live Worship at 6pm on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)
- Tenebrae – gather 7 candles or other types of light. You’ll extinguish each one at different points in the service
Saturday, April 11 – Holy Saturday
- Prayer Service (~20 min) at 10am on Facebook
Sunday, April 12 – Easter Sunday
- Sunrise Service Live Worship at 6:30am on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)
- Sunrise Service Communion – gather bread and juice, wine, or water ahead of time (along with your candle, cross, or bible to create your sacred space)
- Live Worship at 10am on Facebook or by Phone (929-436-2866 | Meeting ID: 249 876 072 | # after next prompt)
Throughout Holy Week
- Daily Prayer Stations – will be in your mailed worship packet and on our Website and Facebook.
Prayer Requests
- Send prayer requests to be named in worship to Pastor Skitch by 9am on Sundays or respond to the weekly Facebook post
- In Search Of. . .

Do you have a working knowledge of technologies, such as Zoom, Facebook, Google, basic video creation? (or a willingness to learn?) Do you have some time to offer?

Help us deepen our PUMC community and strengthen our tools for sharing God’s love with others by sharing your time and talents! So many great ideas have been shared to help us through this time of physical distancing and sheltering at home, and we need more people to help put them in action! Contact the office if you’re ready to help.

Office Update

Tuesday, March 31, was our secretary’s last day in the office as a result of our planned office ministry reorganization. Due to the COVID-19 crisis and some other delays, we have not yet hired people for either of our open positions. So we have an interim plan:

Jasmine Cianflone will continue to produce our weekly Happenings and monthly Newsletter as our virtual communications assistant until we hire for the Administrative and Communications Associate position.
Hyosang Park, our Music Director, will be caring for our virtual bulletins and other worship support.
We’re in the process of contracting with a virtual assistant firm for short-term, part-time help until we are able to hire. This schedule is still being set.
At a minimum, you should expect that phone messages left on our office phone (609-924-2613) and emails sent to our office address will be responded to within one business day. And your postal mail will be received and cared for appropriately.
We’ll share more as this plan develops.
Remember that the church building is closed to non-staff at this time.

Let Us Know!

As our time of physical distancing, staying at home, remote learning, and virtual worship continues, as we start to find a new normal amidst an ever changing and uncertain landscape, as the end of this season looms only vaguely in the distance, the challenge and difficulty only grows. We are not wired for this. We are as ill-prepared to live in social isolation as the hospitals are to treat the whole population at once. While video technology is a wonderful gift, it’s simply not the same as seeing one another face to face and embracing one another with a hug or handshake.

This will continue to take a toll on us, and we will all respond to it differently, with varying emotions and abilities to cope.

Worship and reaching out through various ways to be in touch with others are two healing acts (of many) we can do to help ourselves and one another through this time.

Please invite others who aren’t currently connected with a church (including those who used to be part of PUMC, but perhaps have moved away) to join in our worship and other ministries. Pay attention to people you are in conversation with who are struggling, and invite them to join us.

And if YOU are struggling with anxiety, fear, isolation, loneliness, financial stress, obtaining your basic necessities, grief, etc., please let a pastor or our Circle of Care know. If you need a listening ear or if you would like someone to pray with you, do not hesitate to reach out. Someone will respond!

I miss you all dearly, and I long for the time when we will gather again.

Peace and love,
Pastor Jenny

January 21, 2020October 6, 2020

A Weekend for Stained Glass Windows

REVISED as below in red.

Light shining through a church window can be like God’s light offering solace to one’s heart. On Saturday and Sunday, January 25 and 26, Dan Aubrey (of Community News NJ and U.S. 1 Newspaper) offers stained glass window tours in Trenton and Princeton. Aubrey is a long-time appreciator of beautiful windows who has written about windows for his publications, and he has a Facebook page, Stained Glass Project of Greater Trenton and Princeton.

In Trenton, come to ST. MICHAEL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH, 140 N Warren Street, on Saturday, January 25, 2020 at 3 p.m. Here, you will see glass by Tiffany, the Victorian England-era Kempe Company, and the NJ-based Lamb Company. Aubrey will present a slide show of the area’s stained glass and then lead the group across the street to the CATHEDRAL OF ST. MARY OF THE ASSUMPTION to see creations by the former Edward Byrne Company in Bucks County.

In Princeton, come to PRINCETON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH (PrincetonUMC) on Sunday, January 26 from noon to 1 p.m. Dan Aubrey will speak at 12:30 p.m and town-wide tour handouts will be distributed. (The schedule has changed in order to accommodate a special service. Please email windows@PrincetonUMC.org to schedule additional times). Take the guided or self-guided tour of this 1910 Arts and Crafts style church, with its Tiffany window and other windows with glass that is milky, not translucent. Discovered at the end of the 19^th century, this “opalescent” glass could have different shades and colors in a single piece. In the balcony, the Tiffany window shows St. George and the Dragon. In the next room is a spectacular triptych by Louis Lederle, a former Tiffany artist, and the adjoining chapel has some sweetly sentimental windows dating from the 1940s.

Aubrey will lead the group to three other churches in Princeton: St. Paul’s, the University Chapel, and Trinity Church on Mercer Street. ~~Princeton UMC remains open until 3 p.m.~~ Please email windows@PrincetonUMC.org to schedule a time convenient to you. All are welcome, and the tour is free. Click here for details.

December 21, 2019October 6, 2020

Winter Solstice: Longest Night Service

In the calendar of 2,000 years ago, December 25 was the Longest Night of the year and it was proclaimed the Winter Solstice. Today — Saturday, December 21 – is the actual date of the Winter Solstice. Some Christian churches offer “Blue Christmas” or “Longest Night services, as explained in this NPR segment.

At Princeton UMC, we acknowledged the darkness in life at a Longest Night Service, held this year on Tuesday, December 17. Pastor Jenny Smith Walz and the PrincetonUMC’s Stephen Ministers led a service of reflection, minor and modal music, and prayer – with several times of comforting silence.

Each worshipper received an origami star (made by Hyosang Park) and placed in the bar in back of 28 flickering candles. The star represented the mix of feelings – happy and sad. And the contrast between the joy of the Baby’s birth with the cruelty of Herod.

When the bar was raised, the lights behind it turned on and sparkled. It was as if the stars and are prayers were lifted to heaven.

Longest Night Decemb — Pastors, Stephen Ministers, and members of the Love Lives On groups participated in the Longest Night Service at PrincetonUMC

Here are some United Methodist Church resources about the Longest Night.

A quiz and an answer

An episode of Chuck Knows Church

A secular book about the winter solstice

December 15, 2019October 6, 2020

Crafting Advent 2019

Thanks to all who helped us get into the spirit of waiting – the Advent season – on Sunday, December 8, after the worship service. Intergenerational inspiration!

October 14, 2019October 6, 2020

Art Against Racism: Opening Our Doors

Rev, Ginny Cetuk, left, with Caroline Clarke, who delivered Not in Our Town Princeton’s lecture on “The Case for Reparations,” and Robt Seda-Schreiber of the Bayard Rustin Center of Social Justice

Art Agaist Racism - "Girl in Prayer" by Rhinold Ponder — “Girl in Prayer” by Rhinold Ponder

Princeton UMC gave strong support to the first Art Against Racism project, founded by Rhinold Ponder and aided by the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice and Not in Our Town Princeton. Princeton UMC members hosted the intercongregational breakfast on Sunday, staged the reparations talk by Not in Our Town Princeton’s spokesperson Caroline Clarke, and opened the doors to the exhibit for 11 days. A member of PUMC bought one of the paintings, “Girl in Prayer,” and donated it to the church.

The exhibit attracted nearly 300 visitors. “We are extremely grateful,” says Rhinold, “that the PUMC family embraced the project with open arms and hard work to make it a very successful event. So much positive energy and relationship building came out of PUMC’s participation.” Other works were shown at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Princeton and the Princeton YWCA.

Rev. Ginny Cetuk worked with Rhinold to bring these events to our church. “Thank you, Pastor Ginny, for bringing this wonderful opportunity to show PUMC”s commitment to work against racism and for justice and love for all people,” says Pat Ostberg, who took charge of scheduling exhibit volunteers.

Princeton UMC joined members of First Baptist church and Mt. Pisgah AME church at a breakfast cooked by Ian Macdonald.

Special thanks go to Chef Ian Macdonald and the hosts for thebreakfast, to Abu Ibrahim and Iona Harding who helped stage the lecture and reception, and to the 22 volunteers who worked to keep the show open for 10 ½ days. They include Judy Algor, Chris Cox, Dana Dreibelbis, Anne Fikaris, Barbara Fox, Iona Harding, Karen Hoagland, Mikaela Langdon, Karen Longo-Baldwin, Jeff & Vivian Sayre, Marv Ostberg, Pat Ostberg, Lori Pantaleo, Joe & Sunny Paun, Beth Perrine, Charles Phillips, Katheryn Ranta. Hyelim Yoon, Temi Tayo, and Michele Tuck-Ponder.

“I was touched by the artists’ statements through their art, the people who came through our doors to view the exhibit, and the volunteer’s willingness to devote some of their time to the issue of racism,” says Pat. “Thanks to Debbie Blok for the many behind the scene things she did and to Susan Lidstone for the eye-catching, outdoor signs. Many of our visitors were just walking by, saw the signs and dropped in.”

“I was so proud of our church for “opening” our doors to this very important community outreach,” says Katheryn Ranta. “I was especially touched by meeting and talking with our visitors:

The young man with autism whose painting of hands forming a heart over the rainbow was on display. His proud parents and grandparents were with him.
A young Asian woman with her white husband talked about how the painting of an interracial couple touched on the problems she faces.
Three college age students spent a long time discussing some of the paintings and then took Skitch’s Testing Your Spirituality and talked with Iona and me about it.”

Pat’s favorite story: “When Marv and I were there one evening, a couple came in. After looking at the paintings and poetry, the wife told me she had always wanted to see the inside of our church, and then said, ‘You can tell there is a lot of love here.’ I agreed with her.”

August 15, 2019October 6, 2020

Loving Music at an Early Age: PUMC’s Choirs

The beauty of Christian music comes alive when children and youth feel what the lyrics say, says Tom Shelton, PUMC’s director of children’s and youth choirs and a sacred music professor at Westminster Choir College.

Encourage families you know to bring their children to choir practice! Choristers learn good singing techniques and music theory; they participate in worship monthly, present a musical, and sing at special services throughout the year.

Open houses for parents and children will be Wednesday, September 18 at 4:30 p.m. (kindergarten and first grade) and the same day at 5:30 p.m. for second through fifth grade.

The first rehearsal for youth (grades 6-12) is Sunday, September 15, 5 p.m. Tom teaches the youngest children, ages three and four, during their Sunday School class.

There is no charge to be in a choir, and singers do not need to be church members.”I want young singers to love music their whole life, not just for the time they are with me,” says Tom.

August 10, 2019October 6, 2020

Pastor Ginny Leads an August 24 Retreat

Times of uncertainty can be unsettling to say the least, says Pastor Ginny Cetuk. “I have had many experiences in my life that seemed overwhelming because I did not know which way to go. This was true even though my faith in God and God’s presence in my life was strong.”

“But as a church, we seek to help members and friends in all of the circumstances of life including times that bring great uncertainty. Together as the Beloved Community of Christ, we think and pray and study and worship and support each other in all times, especially in times of change and uncertainty.”

“One such time will be a retreat day set aside for us to think about the resources God
has given us when life as we know it is abruptly changed and we do not know how to
proceed. The title of the retreat is ‘Uncertainty as a Spiritual Discipline.'”

The retreat will be at Princeton UMC on Saturday, August 24, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. “In our time together that day,” says Pastor Ginny, “we will share stories, explore scripture, learn from other faith traditions about practices that are helpful in these seasons and enjoy food and fellowship.”

“Please pray for this event! Ask God to guide and bless you and me as we
ponder our responses to uncertainty and how our faith in Christ can sustain us in
these and all times. I look forward to seeing you there.”

July 31, 2019October 6, 2020

Learning about Uncertainty as a Spiritual Discipline

Have you ever found yourself in a situation in which you do not know what to do? Have
you ever been puzzled as to which way to turn or how to respond to things that arise?
Have you ever felt overwhelmed, or anxious or lost because you just don’t know how
things will turn out?

If you said “yes” to any of these things, know that you are not alone, says Pastor Ginny Cetuk. She will lead a retreat at PrincetonUMC, entitled “Uncertainty as a Spiritual Discipline” on Saturday, August 24, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“Part of the human experience is facing times of uncertainty,” she says. “All of us will have experiences that we didn’t expect to have; we have losses of multiple kinds in our lives that leave us uncertain about how to proceed; and all of us will have times when we even question God when the future suddenly is changed in ways we did not anticipate.”

In our time together that day, we will share stories, explore scripture, learn from other faith traditions about practices that are helpful in these seasons, and enjoy food and fellowship. Everyone is welcome.