Coats Coats Coats — and Dinners, at CCK
“My Hope is Built,’ “Rock of Ages,” “This Little Light”: Hymns for Laity Sunday
WHAT WILL WE SING THIS LAITY SUNDAY?
Come to a church that’s refreshing, inspiring, and fun!
At PUMC we play beautiful classical and sacred music during worship, and that refreshes the spirit. We also sing well-known and new hymns as well as “gospel songs” that lift us to Heaven. We pray that our music will inspire everyone, old and young and help them find faith and hope.
The hymns that will be sung this Sunday describe personal feelings of pain and suffering, and the hope, which we get from God’s presence especially in church.
“My Hope is Built on Nothing Less” was written by Edward Mote, a pastor at 
Rehoboth Baptist Church in Horsham, West Sussex as a Christian hymn. The refrain of the hymn refers to the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Builders and the metaphor of Christ as a rock according to 1 Corinthians 10:4 [Wikipedia]. This hymn tells us to trust in God when we face the unknown, for Christ will give us support and hope. It also tells about Christ’s triumphant second coming, as recorded in (Matthew 24:43, Acts 1:9-11, 1 Corinthians 11:26, 1 Thessalonians 5:2-4, 2 Peter 3:10, and Revelation 16:15).To watch a YouTube video of this hymn, click here.
“Rock of Ages” is a Christian hymn sung to the tune “Toplady” by Thomas Hastings in the 
US. It is believed that the Reverend Augustus Toplady was inspired to write it after seeking shelter from a thunderstorm in a cleft in a rock at Burrington Combe in Somerset, England in 1776. “In “Rock of Ages,” the singer confesses, and is comforted, that in life, death, and eternity his standing before God depends entirely on the merits of Christ—the only safe place, or rock, where lawbreakers can hide from the curse they have brought upon themselves.”To watch a YouTube video of this hymn, click here.
“This Little Light of Mine” is a popular gospel song, its origin unknown, but sung all 
around the world. It is often thought of as an African-American spiritual, but can be found in The United Methodist Hymnal and other hymn books. It was sung as a Civil Rights anthem in the 1950s and 1960s, especially the version by Bettie Mae Fikes. It became a popular children’s song and is also included in Christian children’s song books. In 2018, counter-protesters sang “This Little Light of Mine” defiantly before a crowd of white supremacists and alt-right supporters in Charlottesville.“This Little Light” is also sung in several scenes of the 1994 film Corrina, Corrina starring Whoopi Goldberg and Ray Liotta. A version of this popular song was played at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Merkle in May 2018. To watch a YouTube video of this hymn, click here.
Click here to listen to the PUMC worship service, hear the beautiful music, the children’s time, the scripture readings, the sermon, the prayers and the story sharing.
Images Source: google images
Written by Isabella Dougan
Advent Sunday, November 29, 2020
“All Things New: Celebrating God’s Promises” will be the theme for Princeton United Methodist Church on Advent Sunday, November 29, during our 10:00 am worship service. Throughout December, our musicians and singers of all ages – and the congregation – will share the opportunity of setting Advent to music. As we celebrate Advent with the whole family, we will also discover meaningful and fun ways to stay focused on Jesus this season. Do you know what each verse of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” means? Sing-a-long! And the Christmas Carol, “Silent Night,” what is it telling you?
Register soon for our intergenerational Virtual Advent Night set for Sunday, December 6 at 4 pm. There will be crafts, family carols with Tom Shelton, and games. Then at 4:30, we’ll sing carols with Karen Zumbrunn, including the always popular “Twelve Days of Christmas” and “Silent Night.” To register, go to https://princetonumc.breezechms.com/form/2e225e or princetonumc.org.
Households (of any age!) who register for the crafts portion of the event will receive an “Advent in a Box” kit on November 22. The kits will include a variety of supplies to make Advent a meaningful time in your home. Highlights include the book “Faithful Families for Advent and Christmas” by Traci Smith, a make your Advent wreath, a candy cane ornament craft, materials to create an Advent Kindness Tree, a luminaries craft, an Advent countdown paper chain, and more!
See pictures of Evangeline’s crafts for Advent Night on December 6.
Advent Sunday is the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day and the start of the church’s liturgical year. This year, the Advent season begins on Sunday, November 29, and ends on Thursday, December 24. It is a season of hope and expectations as we prepare for the birth and the second coming of Jesus Christ. Four candles representing God’s beautiful gifts of Hope, Peace, Love, and Joy are used at worship during the Advent season. We begin this journey together by lighting the first candle on this first day of Advent.
Letter to the Congregation: Annual Conference Legislation
November 4, 2020
Dear Friends:
Please join us this Sunday, November 8, following worship at 11:30 a.m. to hear about and participate in a discussion about two new pieces of legislation that were passed by our GNJUMC Annual Conference in October. This session will be via Zoom at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8536670465?pwd=ZkdtNGM5Mi9xaUk5ejZMWWF6aHZjQT09
Or dial in: 929 436 2866, Meeting ID: 853 667 0465, Passcode: 7862
At this year’s virtual Annual Conference of the GNJUMC in October, a number of new pieces of legislation were discussed and approved. We would like to provide an overview of the Conference and details on two specific pieces of legislation: A Journey of Hope and A Resolution in Support of Black Lives Matter.
A Journey of Hope directly addresses the sin of racism and the oppression and enslavement of African Americans and Native Americans in the Greater New Jersey Area. A Journey of Hope establishes financial resources and sets specific actions and goals for increasing leadership diversity, ministries, and policies and procedures within our Conference. While having goals that go into future years, we at PUMC can begin our participation in this work now. Here is a link to more information about A Journey of Hope: https://www.gnjumc.org/2020annualconference/journey-of-hope/.
A Resolution in Support of Black Lives Matter calls us to recognize, engage in self-examination, engage in acts of mercy and justice, and to dismantle the sin of racism in GNJ.
Our Conference has taken a bold stand in passing legislation that affirms that racism is a sin and that, as Christians, we are called to dismantle it. At the session on November 8, we will review the legislation and begin a dialogue on what this means to PUMC as we live this charge.
Please plan to join us.
Blessings,
Pastor Jenny Smith Walz
Pastor Skitch Matson
Edwin Francisco, Lay Member to Annual Conference
Iona Harding, Lay Member to Annual Conference
Emelia Timpo, Lay Member to Annual Conference
All Are Welcome
In the fall of 2018, the Relationships and Faith Team organized a program that included reading the book A Mile in My Shoes: Cultivating Compassion by Trevor Hudson. One of the topics Princeton UMC examined was social justice for the LGBTQIA+ community. In the spring of 2019, they invited a panel of three speakers to visit after the United Methodist Church announced its position on human sexuality. One of the questions put to the panel was, “What is it like to be a queer Christian, and what advice do you have for people?” Below are their responses:
First Panelist: “My advice would be to join us who are queer in the church as we open up this conversation. I think that as we begin to learn from one another and sit around the table more with one another, those spaces will be less hostile. For those who are experiencing hostility, if you are a queer, find a place where you’re neither under oppression nor where you’re always on a panel. I don’t sit on a panel at my church. I just sit in a pew and I’m taught by a wonderful, queer pastor every week. I get to be comfortable. Just create those safe spaces to just belong. That would be my advice to the queer community, and to the those who are identifying as queer in the churches. Just look around, because we’re here.”
Second Panelist: “I think the first piece of advice I would say is to listen to people’s stories deeply. Hold them with some care. For someone to share their stories, even in a culture that’s moved in a lot of ways, it is a risky and courageous thing to do. So, if somebody shares their story with you, then hold it really tenderly and let that story drive you back to the Scriptures, drive you back to tradition, and drive you back to your own feelings about your own body. I think, for example in their conversations, we turn to people of color to solve things for us. Right? (For us) to be the authoritative speakers into this. But I wonder if among those of us who are straight, we can listen carefully to the stories of our queer neighbors, and don’t ask them to be in charge of our re-imagination of who they are and what their bodies are. So do the hard work of listening and then digging deep back into the scriptures.”
Third Panelist: “Now as a person who is black, and female, and queer, and a Christian, it brings me great freedom in that I can exhale into who I am, and know that I am a called daughter, child beloved of God that’s fearfully and wonderfully made. It matters that I am embodied in this body. It matters that my identities are what they are across the board. And so the joy of resistance is showing up in a space. I’m showing up in spaces that I also feel that we asked queer people to “out” themselves in ways that we don’t ask cisgender and heterosexual people: “When you get up there, you have to tell people you’re divorced, or you’re having an affair and going through counseling.” All of the ways we are provocative around the LGBTQIA+ community, imagine if we did that to cisgender straight people?And so my resistance is showing up unapologetically, and that when I show up into space I don’t have to say first you must know that I’m black, then you must know I’m a woman, and then you must know that I am deeply in love and I’m queer. We don’t do that in society. The southern word I want to say is just “nosy”, but I also think that it’s a way of control. We like to control people’s narratives for them, and so if you are queer, if you are in an environment that’s not healthy for you, absolutely find your people in a space that is truly loving. They’re out there. And just because there’s a certain group that’s making the most noise. it does not mean that they’re the only group.”
Princeton UMC’s Mission Statement is “We are a diverse community joyfully responding to God’s love and growing as Disciples of Christ by nurturing, teaching, reaching and serving all people.” Repeating and emphasizing reaching and serving all people. Our goal is to create an environment to make all feel welcome and loved.
In Spite of Covid, CCK Continues
Led by Tim Ewer, right Cornerstone Community Kitchen (CCK) volunteers serve takeaway meals, groceries, and clothing on Wednesdays from 5 5 to 6:30 p.m. Donors, include TASK, Cherry Grove Organic Farm, Bentley Community Services and Jewish Family and Children Services, enable CCK to deliver two dozen meals to home bound people, plus 25 to 30 people have been picking up takeaway meals, groceries, and clothing.
Resolving Conflict: Paul and Appiah Agree
This week, the women in Monday Morning Group studied how Paul in chapter 4 of Philippians, advises how to resolve conflict.
- get to a good emotional place yourself (i.e. gratitude, praise)
- then focus ONLY on what’s good.
Recently the New York Times ethicist, Kwame Anthony Appiah, gave similar advice when he addressed the Friends of the Princeton University Library. To speak with someone with whom you disagree: ‘first find what you agree on.’ It also helps, he added if you are engaged in some kind of community activity, like coaching a Little League team.
Details: Paul begins by pleading with two contentious women to “be of the same mind” and calls on others in the group to help them. He continues: 4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Steve Harper in the lectionary study of the Upper Room book, Disciplines, explains: “Paul counsels the believers to work for emotional stability. He commends a renewal of gladness and gentleness and an elimination of anxiety brought about through earnest prayer. He knows that very little is changed when we live in the whirlwind of negativity. We don’t think straight. We don’t respond well when we are engulfed by deformative feelings. Paul points to the big Bible word ‘peace’ as the goal for which to aim in reconciliation.”
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Harper continues: “Second, he exhorts the Christians at Philippi to seek edifying soundness… to think of things that are excellent and admirable. Often, reconciliation occurs not by coming to complete agreement but by deciding that the things that unite us are more important than those that divide us. We come together along the lines of common commitments. When we get it wrong through disagreements, we are often reunited through our core convictions and common pursuits.”
DOES THIS MEAN we need more “common pursuits, sports teams, work teams, common projects” Maybe!
For a link to this very informative animated video about the book of Philippians, click here
Highlights From World Communion Sunday!
On the first Sunday in October, United Methodist congregations join many Christian churches worldwide to celebrate World Communion Sunday. The World Communion Sunday Offerings provide scholarships for national and international students, particularly first-generation college students and ethnic students.
At PUMC, we have a vibrant international community, a testament to our church’s love for diversity and inclusiveness. This year’s communion worship service went virtual from our different homes, allowing us to share bread and wine from our different cultures. As part of our celebration, we welcomed and dispersed our congregation in various languages. We hope everyone had a fun and memorable day!
To watch our World Communion Sunday worship service on Facebook, click here
Written by Isabella Dougan
The “Shema” and “When I Pray for You”
The passage in Deuteronomy 6: 4-9, known as the Shema, is a core principal for both Jews and Christians. Notice how it aligns with the children’s book “When I Pray For You” by Matthew Paul Turner, which Pastor Jenny read on September 20, 2020. It begins
From the moment I saw you,
I started to pray.
Big prayers and small ones
I have sent God’s way.
Here is the Shema passage in the New Revised Standard Version
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.[a]
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
and with all your soul, and with all your might.
And here is the admonition to teach it to the children.
6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise.
In a different translation, from The Message***
4 Attention, Israel!
God, our God! God the one and only!
5 Love God, your God, with your whole heart:
love him with all that’s in you,
love him with all you’ve got!
6-9 Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.
These comments came from Beth P. and Kay H.
Thank you Pastor Jenny for a beautiful children’s book that speaks to our prayers for our loved ones.
As a mother and grandmother thanks for sharing that lovely book with us
For a glimpse into the book, here is a video.
The World of Energy: Claudio Da Silva’s Personal Journey
United Methodist Men sponsor “A Personal Journey into The World of Energy” on Sunday,
At 12 Noon on Sunday, September 20, the United Methodist Men presents a Zoom talk featuring our own Claudio Da Silva who will talk about the foundations of the New Age movement and its similarities and the divergences with the ways of Christ under the title: “My 10 Year Journey Into the World of Energy.” Everyone is invited.
Everyone is invited to the Zoom presentation. Here is the direct link to the zoom presentation, accessible with the passcode “pumc.” https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82322385081?pwd=b0V2R0NHT2VxS2RlQnZ5emFXY1VJUT09
Or go to the church calendar and find the link with complete information.
Claudio will share with us his experience of the New Age teachings regarding energy, the concept of God in us, the veneration of nature and the subjectivity of truth. How are these aspects similar or in opposition with the message of Christ?
Next month, on Tuesday evenings, Claudio will lead a small group experience, “Meditation and Holy Healing.”
Born in Switzerland, living part of his life in Angola, Claudio explored monastic practices in India and other places, including making a 900 mile pilgrimage alone in complete silence. Through these experiences, he felt a liberation through melting with God’s Grace. Through his experiences of different religions and spiritual approaches he became aligned with God’s Truth which brought him deeper into the message of Christ. Claudio now lives in Princeton with his wife and two daughters. He works as a life coach and health practitioner.
For information about “Meditation and Holy Healing,” email skitch@PrincetonUMC.org.