The Trustees met on Tuesday, January 27th and continued work on a number of important church projects and issues.

New Members & Election of Officers – Jon Rychener and Rolf Frantz have been elected to the Trustees by the Charge Conference. The new

President of the Trustees is Andrew Cattano and continuing in office are Jan Buck as Vice-President, Nance Greenberg as Treasurer, Glenn Stubaus as Secretary, and John Bellush Jr. as Assistant Secretary. Jack Scharf is retiring from the Trustees after 15 years of service.

Otto-Hansen Elevator – Work has been completed on the elevator and we are awaiting inspection. Our bishop, Sudarshana Devadhar, will be visiting and preaching at our church on March 15th, and the dedication of the elevator has tentatively been scheduled for that date.

Parking Lot – The Trustees continue to discuss ways of securing our parking lot against unauthorized vehicular use. Current plans are to

install posts with chains at each entrance and to the lock the parking lot overnight from 10 pm to 6 am. All congregants will be asked to remove their vehicles by 10 pm. We are awaiting approval of this plan from our local police department before implementing this plan

Facility Use Fees – The Trustees approved a proposal to increase the fees for outside use of our facility to $400 a day due to the increased cost of keeping the facility open for these meetings.

Power Lift – We are exploring with the local Presbyterian and Episcopal churches of jointly purchasing a power lift that can be used by all three churches.

If you have any questions or recommendations regarding our facility please contact Andrew Cattano at 973-818-2173 or via email at

ATCattano@aol.com

THE RIGHT PERSON
FOR THE JOB

Our country is one of the most racially mixed countries in the world.  As we have witnessed in our history, this experiment in racial harmony has had its difficulties, but the benefits are self evident.  We are still the strongest nation in the world and this comes from our willingness to accept to our shores members of all races and nations.

The same could be said of Morristown United Methodist Church.  We are called by Christ to accept people of all ages, races, and nationalities.  We have only one worship service each week, so there is no place to hide.  We must find a way to get along with everyone.  The benefit of all this caring, compromising, and sometimes even "biting our tongues" is a dynamic and vibrant church.
   
Recently we received a visit from our Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar and our District Superintendent Renee McCleary.  I introduced them to our President of the Trustees, Andrew Cattano.  Much to my surprise—for lack of a better expression—they were "floored.”  They could not remember another church having a younger President of the Trustees.  I hadn't even given it that much thought.  With Andrew's understanding of the building and his position with Children on the Green, he was simply the best person for the job.

This illustrates what is so exciting about our church.  We have elder statespersons who have faithfully done their duty to build this church and now are willing to train new people to continue the work.  These elder statespersons are the wise grandparents who comfort the flustered young parents and rejoice in the presence of children in our midst.  We have the "sandwich" generation supporting both the young parents and our statespersons while trying to deal with college kids and midlife crisis.  We also have the parents with young children bringing new ideas and the energy to start new ministries.  We also have young adults questioning our theology and pushing the church outward.

No one type of liturgy, music, or message will reach these diverse groups all the time.  But like new immigrants to the United States, people find a reason to come to worship.  Maybe it is the fellowship, the caring or simply the joy of a multigenerational church.  Thank you for being willing to tolerate elements of the worship that do not feed you spiritually because you understand they may feed others.  That is at the heart of a multigenerational church.

And the payoff for all this caring and tolerance is a strong generational church which welcomes and nurtures all.  When we are all welcome; new and old, rich and poor, man and woman, infant and senior; Jesus rejoices.

  
God Bless,
Pastor Neill
 

NCD NEWS
Over the past several months, the NCD team and their committees have been hard at work. We’ve been quite passionate in our quest to develop a “Passion for Devotions” and “Spiritual Interconnectedness” at MUMC by focusing on the following aspects of “Passionate Spirituality” selected by you, the congregation, at an all church meeting in early June.

Small group fellowship – Judy and John Bellush and committee members Marion Rapp, Todd DeCola, Debie Foster and Cathy Willms are busy planning a “Small Group Fellowship Fair” in November. Please see announcement below on this exciting, upcoming event!

Sermon as springboard for devotions – Did you know that the sermon is now available as a pod cast on the church website?

Have you noticed there aren’t many pew Bibles around anymore? Keep an eye out for the new pew Bibles that will be ordered in the coming months.

Do you have a desire or passion for reading the Word of God? If so, you are invited to join the Lay Readers Guild! Duncan Miller and Neill Tolboom are looking for lay readers to assist with reading the scripture at the Sunday services starting in 2009. An organizational meeting is being planned for December. Please contact Duncan (973-292-3532, duncanashleymiller@gmail.com) or Neill (973-538-2132, ntolboom@morristownumc.com) if you are interested.

Spiritual development of youth – Jon Rychener and Judy Haase know that many of you parents are interested in introducing family devotional time at home, but don’t have the resources to do so or don’t know where to begin. Not to worry, Jon and Judy will have several great suggestions for you!

Church-wide activities – Ellie Coutts and Marcia Futter and committee members Sonya Burroughs and Wen-Ling Lai have several activities for roll out this fall and next spring.

September happenings: the Advent Devotional activity was introduced at a fabulous potluck lunch, and “Pulpit Ponderings” was launched, a take home sheet published in the Sunday Bulletin to help ground us during the week in the Scripture for the next sermon.

Other 2008-2009 plans include a prayer chain, a church-wide activity based on a parable as well as a Lenten Devotional.

“Passionate Spirituality” is also happening where the NCD team has not been deliberately at work: check out our wonderful MUMC website and any Sunday school class, raise your voice in song by joining the choir, make a joyful noise by joining the bell choir, register for the Church Retreat (Nov. 7-8), bring a friend to Youth Group, see what theology and Monday Night Football have in common, join the Yarners or the Tuesday night Small Group fellowship, or stop by “Outstretched in Worship”, the Yoga class on Monday nights.

Catch the passion!

The UMC NCD Team: Duncan Miller, Randall Bean, John Bellush, Judy Bellush, Ellie Coutts,
Marcia Futter, Judy Haase, Marion Rapp, Jon Rychener, Neill Tolboom

Carol Parkerson, Board President

Music At Morristown United Methodist Church

When I was offered a transfer to New Jersey sixteen years ago I was beside myself with anticipation.  Sure, the new job would be interesting and fun, but … to live in New Jersey!  We would for the first time ever be within minutes of limitless cultural opportunities and diversity, for New York was only an hour’s drive—or eventually a train ride—away.  And this move has been everything I hoped for and more.

But not long ago I found myself ready for another change—retirement.  And, in only a short time, I discovered ample cultural opportunities a lot closer to home, within my own church, as a matter of fact.  Who knew that the Music At Morristown UMC Concert Series had so much to offer?  And why had I wasted fourteen years to find out?

Yes, I’ve learned that our own concert series offers the highest caliber of performance by professional musicians—and you don’t even have to take the train to get there!  Not only that, but the luncheons and receptions accompanying the concerts allow us to interact with those same musicians to an extent we’d never see in a larger venue.  Best of all, the price is affordable; where else can you hear a performance by an award-winning musician for free, as we can at our December Music At Noon concerts?

But the cultural opportunity, I’ve discovered, is only part of the picture.  The concert series answers another need that I’d felt leading up to my retirement—to make a contribution to this community.  Our concerts are attended by corporate employees and professionals who work in Morristown as well as shoppers, students, senior citizens, and those with physical disabilities.  The facility is handicapped accessible.  Free childcare is provided for the noon concerts.  The luncheons are light and inexpensive.  Best of all, those church members assisting with the concerts create a warm, welcoming environment for all who attend, exemplifying the embrace of Christian love.

So what does the Music At Morristown UMC Concert Series mean to me?  Well, great music, for a start—but much, more more.  If you haven’t been to one of our concerts, I urge you to come.  You’ll be glad you did.

Oh, happy day!  On Friday, November 7, 2008 Forrest Shue and Judy Quinn were married here at MUMC.  I hope I won’t embarrass Forrest by saying that in the 20 years that I’ve been helping out with the planning of weddings here, I have never seen a happier groom or one more interested in the arrangements.  It was a beautiful wedding—and I got a chance to catch up with my friend Betty Lanterman who moved to Virginia a few years ago.  Best wishes for MANY happy years together.  P.S.  Thank you for the lovely bouquet.  

Congratulations are in order for Jim and Barbara MacHale who celebrated their 47th Anniversary on November 25, 2008.  Jim continued a long-standing tradition of gifting his bride with a gardenia corsage to mark the anniversary.  Only three more years to reach that incredible milestone of 50 years!

Well, Pastor Neill made good on his commitment to the youth!  You will remember that he vowed to go around the Green on a pogo stick if the youth raised at least $2500 for the Soup Kitchen.  They outdid themselves; they raised almost $3,000!  Fortunately, sanity prevailed and Neill hopped around the Green instead of “pogo-ing.”  Dot and I (not to mention poor Deb) were very relieved—we’re not ready to break in a new boss.  As evidenced by the accompanying photo, he did wear his infamous red tutu!  Great job, Neill—way to go!

Please indulge a very proud grandma—on November 14th, my 16-year-old grandson Blace Newkirk “wowed em’” as the evil brother, Jonathan, in Roxbury High School’s production of “Arsenic and Old Lace.”  Since I got there an hour early, I was privileged to sit in the front row.  He was awesome!  Watch out, Broadway!!!!

See you next month!

Mona