Chancel Choir Director, Hyosang Park, Accompanist, Yang-Hee Park, and Sound & Video Producer, Stephen Offer
Hyosang and Yang-Hee have continued to rehearse virtually every week via Zoom. Stephen communicates with the team each step of the way. Great musicianship!
If you weren’t able to worship with us on Sunday, 24 May 2020, you’d want to go back to the archive on our website or Facebook to do so. Here’s the link.
Our Chancel Choir’s Music Ministry was a beautiful tribute to Bill and Donna Suits. It was such a joy to hear their voices and see their faces! Here’s what Pastor Jenny Smith Walz says of them:
“Hyosang does a masterful job of choosing the perfect music and bringing in a superb mix of vocals and instruments every week.”
“Yang-Hee consistently brings us such beautiful music – before, during, after each service. It’s a gift to be able to listen.”
“Stephen Offer painlessly puts the virtual choir video together.”
On May 24, 2020, when the world celebrated Memorial Day weekend, the Chancel Choir and Handbell Choir presented the Babylon Canon in tribute to Bill and Donna Suits, church members pictured here, who died of Covid-19 in April. Bill had been an loyal member of the choir. Thanks to Hyosang Park, music director, and Stephen Offer, who produced the sound and video. Listen to it here.
A celebration of life will be held here at Princeton United Methodist Church once travel restrictions are lifted and it is safe for family and friends to gather. It will be a joint celebration to honor both Donna and Bill for their love, lives and faith. Here is a place to register, to be notified when a memorial service can be held.
Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl explains in his memoir, “Man’s Search for Meaning,” that it is neither the pursuit of happiness nor the attainment of success that makes life worth living. Instead, we should “find meaning in whatever we do and always have something left to accomplish.” He uses his experience in Nazi death camps to teach us how to cope with suffering and pursue what we find meaningful.
We hope everyone would find time to also read the book, especially in these uncertain times of the COVID crisis.
Sunday being Youth Music Sunday, our Youth Choir led all of the music and liturgist parts. Under Tom Shelton’s musical leadership, William Ponder, Leanne Griffiths, Kasey Angelo, Amy Angelo, Julia Potts, Ana Francisco-Cabus. Reanna Bartels- Quansah, Gillian Bartels- Quansah, Lena Hamilton, Elli Collins, Maggie Collins, Julia Potts, Sophia Penn, Robin Roth, Delaney McCarty, Andre Penn, Izzy Distase all took part in leading the service. We have such gifted and grace-filled young people who genuinely lead worship and not just perform.
Tom does a brilliant job,” says Pastor Jenny Smith Walz, “teaching them about worship and worship leadership, about the liturgical year, scripture, and being a church community, as well as musical techniques and anthems.” The songs they performed included popular hymns, “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” “Amazing Grace,” “For the Beauty of the Earth,” “Down to the River to Pray,” and Chopin’s Waltz in A minor.
They have just wrapped up another year of singing, playing, leading worship, offering their gifts, learning, and loving. Thank You Youth Choir and Director Tom Shelton!
If you weren’t able to worship with us this past Sunday, you’d want to go back to the archive on our website or Facebook Linkto watch our amazing youth doing God’s work.
Evangeline Burgers recommends this book, written for children but with wisdom for all ages. It has stories of real-life faith heroes, many who are still doing important work among us. You can hear the author read chapters on this YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2vGRRW0G6WzjJMwa6nivyWKWIkj9QgUD
Spiritual Practices to Calm Your Anxious Brain, Charles Stone
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-workerDeena (on the left) with her co-workers
“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 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.
The birds are singing, the sun is shining, it is a glorious time! I hope you are all well and having a wonderful week together at home.
I’ve recorded another read aloud video for our children: What Mary Jo Shared, by Janice May Udry. It is the story of a girl who has a hard time finding a story to share, but when she does it brings her new life! This is a great one for those of us (young or old!) who always feel like, “I don’t know what to share!” I hope you can check it out with your family on our PUMC Flipgrid: https://flipgrid.com/45caa357 and respond with your own stories.
I was inspired by Pastor Jenny’s inclusion in her sermon last Sunday of the importance of changemakers telling their story to make a difference for our world. I picked up this book earlier this year called, Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints, by Daneen Akers. It is a book full of stories of real-life faith heroes, many who are still doing important work among us. The price tag is, unfortunately, a bit high, but the author is reading aloud a new story each week on her YouTube channel. I highly recommend this resource for you and your kids!
Take turns sharing your favorite stories from books, movies, and TV shows. Briefly explain how the story actually ends and then take turns offering your own ending – one that’s happier, stranger, or more interesting. Your ending may turn a minor character into a heroine or turn a tragic death into nothing more than a close call. The aim is to inspire creativity. Then, talk about some real-life alternate endings you’ve experienced – that is, when you thought a situation would turn out one way but were surprised when it turned out another way. Try to keep the stories positive, with endings that turned out better than expected. Your goal is to help kids understand that dread, fear, and worry are sometimes misplaced emotions. If we can’t see how something good ultimately can come from something that seems bad, we’re not looking at it from the right perspective. We’re not taking into account how
God can change the ending.
1st scripture – 1Peter 2: 9-10 – Peter saluting God’s chosen people
2nd scripture – Acts 1:1-11 – The promise of the Holy Spirit and the Ascension of Jesus
Pastor Jenny
In her sermon on Sunday, April 26, 2020, Rev. Jenny Smith Walz reminded us that the question, ‘Who are you,’ has been asked in many stories, in such classics as ‘Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland.’ When Alice met Caterpillar, the first thing he said to her was, “Who are you?” Alice did not know how to answer Caterpillar so she left. In our “Talking the Walk” worship series, we are putting words to our faith, telling stories of God, life, resurrection, healing, etc. This can be very hard to do, sometimes vulnerable to share. We may even think we don’t have a story to tell.
Hearing stories helps us tell our stories and strengthens our faith. Every story has a hero, not necessarily a superhero, but the main character, a protagonist. In Bible scriptures, it is easy to see that God is the hero. We read stories of Moses, Joseph, Samson,Esther. What then is our story? The stories we like best to tell are the ones where we are at the center – we are the heroes. However, we must never forget that God is the hero of our stories – a different sort of hero. He creates, calls, proclaims us into being. God gives us each a co-hero role in the story, thus bringing us into the spotlight. He calls us out of darkness into marvelous light, out of obscurity, out of chaos, out of nothingness.
In the first scripture for today, Peter is reminding the Exiles of the Dispersion who they were – troubled, persecuted, un-gathered. Yet, he brings them grace and peace. With the Covid_19 crisis, God is also reminding us how fragile our identities are. We should, therefore, embrace the truth of what Peter is telling those exiles. “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
In worship, we hear a different word – ‘Enough.’ We are enough for God. not because of our greatness, not because of our accomplishments. We are God’s people because it is God who is summoning us into being, gathering us together, shaping us as his people and, telling us who we are – God’s beloved. We don’t have to become the amazing hero of the story. We only have to believe that we are called and chosen and should joyfully respond to God’s love. All we have to do now is to remember who we are and then tell our story of how God has created us, how God has chosen us, how God has called us, how God is shaping us, connecting us, equipping us, and strengthening us to love others and bring justice to this world. Because God claims us, no stereotype can define us, and no ridicule can undo us.
Pastor Jenny explained that we are constantly bombarded by questions that make us question who we are, what our identity is, how much money we have – all the things that tempt us to think that they matter in terms of our identity. God is reminding us again and again that the things that tempt us do not define our identity in Christ. The most important part of our story is not what we do or what we have but in merely being a beloved child of God. And here we are in this covid_19 crisis in a way that may make it even trickier. Even as we find ourselves in isolation, we are trying to understand what is most important and what activities are essential for our well-being.
She referred to the story of Howard Thurman, author, philosopher, theologian, educator, civil rights leader, dean of the chapel at Boston University and the first African American professor at Boston University, several decades ago. He stated that part of his identity as God’s beloved was that which his grandmother, a former slave, gave him when she kept saying over and over again to him, “you are someone.”
Thurman told the story of his family traveling in the South in the 50s when they came upon a playground. The girls wanted to play on the swings, but there was a sign that read “For Whites Only By State Law.” In explaining why they were not allowed on the playground, he said to them: “You are somebody, you are so important to God, so powerful in fact that it takes all of the state legislature, the courts, the sheriffs and policemen… it takes all these to keep two little black girls from swinging in those swings. That is how important you are! Never forget that the estimate of your importance and self-worth can be judged by how much power people are willing to use to control you and keep you in the place they have assigned you. You are two important little girls.” What a way to reinterpret that sign and to keep proclaiming their lovingness, enoughness, somebodyness amid such a terrible injustice!
As we continue our “Talking the Walk” worship series about telling our stories, “I would love to hear the stories of your beginnings and how God was a part of that beginning. So tell me a story of who you are,” announced Pastor Jenny. “Tell me a story of how you know you are God’s beloved child. Tell me a story about your belovedness, your enoughness, your somebodyness, your chosenness. Tell me a story of who you are in God.
Following Pastor Jenny’s sermon, Heather Hadley told her amazing story about how she came to be a member of Princeton United Methodist Church.
To hear the sermon live, go to the Princeton United Methodist Church Facebook page
For the complete video of the April 26 service, found on Princeton United Methodist Church Facebook page, click here
I hope you and your families have been able to reflect together on Pastor Jenny’s call for us to think about our stories of when we knew we were God’s beloved or when we knew that we were enough. One of Henry’s favorite books is Little Humans by Brandon Stanton. I’ve created a video read aloud of the book and also an Imaginative Prayer (from Jared Patrick Boyd) inviting us to imagine ourselves being fully and uniquely formed by God.
FamilyInterviews: Get to know your family members better and practice storytelling.
Set up – Make a whole production out of it and set up an interview space in your home with two chairs and a fun backdrop (*think The Tonight Show!)
Think of some good interview questions and make sure everyone has a turn to be an interviewer and interviewee. You could even record the interviews for posterity. Here are some interview question ideas:
– What were you afraid of when you were younger? How did you overcome fear?
– When were you most proud of yourself?
– If you could talk to anyone – living or dead – for one hour, who would you choose and why? What would you talk about?
– Where do you see yourself in ten years? Where would you like to live? What would you like to be doing?
– If you could do one thing over again, what would it be?
After the interviews are done, reflect on the process of interviewing. What makes a good question? What does it feel like to know that others are interested in your stories and ideas?
Closing Family Prayer: Our interests, skills, abilities and quirks – the things that make us unique – all come from God. God put them inside us for a reason. So the more we learn about one another, the more we learn about God.
If you are wanting to get your own copy of either of these books “Little Humans” or “Imaginative Prayer” we encourage you to order them through a local bookstore like Labyrinth Books or jaZams!
On May 24, 2020, when the world celebrated Memorial Day weekend, the Chancel Choir and Handbell Choir presented the Babylon Canon in tribute to 
Youth Choir
The aim is to inspire creativity. Then, talk about some real-life alternate endings you’ve experienced – that is, when you thought a situation would turn out one way but were surprised when it turned out another way. Try to keep the stories positive, with endings that turned out better than expected. Your goal is to help kids understand that dread, fear, and worry are sometimes misplaced emotions. If we can’t see how something good ultimately can come from something that seems bad, we’re not looking at it from the right perspective. We’re not taking into account how
I hope you and your families have been able to reflect together on Pastor Jenny’s call for us to think about our stories of when we knew we were God’s beloved or when we knew that we were enough. One of Henry’s favorite books is 
I’ve created a 
FamilyInterviews: Get to know your family members better and practice storytelling.