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Rossmoor Community Church
Newsletter - February , 2015
1 Village Mall, Monroe Twp., NJ 08831 - Rev. Dr. Dierdre L. Thomson, Pastor
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11 a.m.
Services
F O UR TH SUN D AY AF TER EPI PH AN Y
Communion
The Rev. Dr. Dierdre L. Thomson will be preaching.
11 a.m. The Rev. Dr. Dierdre L. Thomson will preach,
with music by the Choristers.
11 a.m. The Rev. Joanne Petto will be guest preacher.
Gloria Montlack will direct the Rossmoor
Chorus. Please stay for Fellowship Hour.
1 p.m.
ASH WED N ESD AY SER VI C E
11 a.m. The Rev. Dr. Dierdre L. Thomson will preach. The
Delaware River Consort Quartet will be our
guests.
BOOKLETS AVAILABLE:
“Information for Obituary,
Death Notice &
Funeral/Memorial Services”
There are copies for each of you on the
round table in the narthex. Please pick one
up and fill it out! I have completed one and
have it placed with all my “other” important papers. My family is aware of where it
is and just how it should be used.
I find it an invaluable source of information that will help loved ones when we are
no longer with them.
― Sallie Rowland
Prayer Concerns:
Kim Alexander; Carole;
Ben Collier; Flo Cramer;
Karen Lee Curdie;
Debbie; DeHart family;
Barbara Dennis; Florence
Haygood; Timothy
Haynes; Susan Espenhart; Eileen
Harding; Janette; Dina Leonard &
family; Pat Leonard; Tristan
Meiselbach; Linda and Richard
Montalbano; Frank Palmanteri;
Bobby Sargent; Gary Strague & family; Christine Whitehill; Luke Zufall.
CHOIR START-UP
JOIN US ON FEB. 4 AT 10 AM
doing well, having fun.
I have just returned from a National
Sacred Music Association Conference in
San Antonio which included organ workshops and classes on “working with aging
voices.” I am really excited and want to
try starting a real church choir here in Rossmoor Community Church! Do we stop
using our voices to praise God because
we are getting old? I am hoping to launch
a trial period (Feb-March-April) using
YOUR voices! The plan is to rehearse one
Wednesday a month from 10-11 a.m. and to
sing on the second Sunday of each month.
On that Sunday, we will rehearse at 9:30 a.m.
before we sing at the 11 o’clock service.
A little over a decade ago, our church had
a music budget that covered soloists on
three Sundays each month, with an additional financial commitment for special
music events at Christmas and Easter. Do
you remember the “Messiah Sing-a-long”
and the “Cantatas” during the Christmas
and Easter seasons? With our decrease in
membership over the past few years, we
no longer have the funds for a great deal
of this professional music.
In an effort to promote lovely sacred
music, we re-started the Chimers.
Considering the physical stamina required
for rehearsals (90 minutes standing, reading music in the spring and fall) and the
actual Sunday morning performance (90
minutes), it would seem an impossibility.
But this is a small dedicated group that is
Please see me if you are willing to be a
part of the group! We need your commitment of only one Wednesday and one
Sunday a month. I hope to see you at
our first meeting on February 4th in the
Meeting House, at 10 a.m.
― Cecile
Thank you ― from the Deacons
It’s hard to believe that after 6 years of collecting Warm Coats for the Needy, there are
still any left in our closets to donate. But the
fact is, thanks to donations by our members
as well as other caring folks in Rossmoor,
our Church, once again this year, collected
many hundreds of coats and other pieces of
warm clothing.
Two totally packed car loads of a few hundred items of warm clothing were picked up
by a volunteer from “Your Grandmother’s
Cupboard” for distribution to those living in
dire poverty within our state. This Christian
outreach organization, based in Toms River,
collects and provides food, clothing and
other necessities of life to over 1,200 people
- the homeless, the hungry, and other “invisible” children and adults living in our midst
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with special needs. They serve 20 different
“gathering places” located from one end of
N.J. to the other.
Our Mission Committee thanks the entire
Rossmoor community for joining us in this
endeavor to help others who are so much
less fortunate than ourselves. This is truly
God’s love at work and we hope that all who
contributed will know that the recipients of
their warm clothing feel that someone loves
and cares about them.
As we travel on the train of life, the mystery is ... at which station will we be stepping down and leaving our seat empty? We
should plan now to leave behind beautiful
memories. So, we must live in the best way
we can, with love and forgiveness, offering
the best of who we are.
―Alyce Owens
FROM YOUR
PASTOR
“And I will make of thee a great nation ...”
― Genesis 12:2
For those of you who read Guideposts, Prosperity can come by way of a gift of
John Sherrill is a name that you will recognize. Recently, John wrote a brief article about the question, “Are You Good
News?” Here is what he had to say:
“The Gospel is supposed to be good
news. How much of the time do we come
across as good news to those around us?
This idea of good news came to mind
when reading the Old Testament: ‘And I
will make of thee a great nation ... and
thou shalt be a blessing ... and in thee
shall all families of the earth be blessed.’
So God’s promise to Abraham was that his
descendants would be the carriers of blessings to the world. You and I are supposed
to be channels of God’s good news in
three areas:
1. Material Blessings ― Are we acting as
channels of God’s material blessings?
money, in terms of encouragement or a
suggestion, words of acceptance or
expression of confidence.
2. Physical Blessings ― Have we as a
modern ‘good-ness people’ been bringing
physical blessings to those around us?
Perhaps it will be through sustained intercessory prayer, a special healing service or
ministry, visiting the sick person, a get-well
card, a phone call or simply a cheerful note,
3. Spiritual Blessings ― We are ‘goodnews people’ when we pass on to others
God’s spiritual blessings of love, kindness,
generosity, faith.”
Sherrill’s words cause me to ask myself, “Am
I good news?” Are you good news? Is
Rossmoor Community Church good news?
“Show kindness and mercy to one another.”
― Zechariah 7:9
Something to think about ~ If it is sometimes hard to follow through on being
“Good News” to others, perhaps the following poem will help. It describes us as we hesitate, and then reminds us that turning to God will help us be the “Good News” to others.
Why is it, God, that the only decision I seem to make with ease is the decision
not to make a decision?
I’m tired of hesitancy, of living in the limbo of doubt and thin excuses like: “It makes
no difference.” or “Why don’t you decide?”
Give me a dash of courage, God, and start me on my way to being firm in simple
things like: What to have for dinner or which clothes to wear today. Then, moving
on to tougher tasks, let me discover with gladness that the spirit, like the body,
grows strong with exercise.
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Lift Every Voice and Sing
Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty;
let our rejoicing rise, high as the listening skies,
let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has tought us,
sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod,
felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
come to the place for which our people sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, til now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
thou who hast, by thy might, led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee,
lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath they hand, may we forever stand,
true to our God, true to our native land.
HYMN OF THE MONTH for February ― “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
Many people are surprised to learn that Lift Every Voice and Sing was
first written as a poem. Created by James Weldon Johnson, it was performed
for the first time by 500 school children in celebration of President Lincoln’s
birthday on February 12, 1900 in Jacksonville, Florida, at the segregated
Stanton School when Booker T. Washington was its honored guest. The poem
was set to music by Johnson’s brother, John Rosamond Johnson, and soon
adopted by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP) as its official song. Today “Lift Every Voice and Sing” is one of the
most cherished songs of the African American Civil Rights Movement and is
often referred to as the Black National Anthem.
( From Online – Black Culture Connection)
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