The Clarendon Connection

News of Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church May 2007

Sunday Schedule

Choir rehearsal 9:45 a.m.

Worship 10:30 a.m.

Christian Education (for children) 10:45 a.m. Refreshments and fellowship 11:30 a.m.

Christian Education (for adults) 12:00 p.m.

(please see schedule on page 9)

Communion will be celebrated on May 6th.

May Calendar

There will be a joint meeting for Session and Deacons on Wednesday, May 2nd at 7:30 p.m.

Somerville Open Studios, Saturday, May 5^th and Sunday, May 6^th. (for more info, see page 4.) We will be hosting the Art Café in the basement. Help needed! (for more info, see page 2 )

Orders for Equal Exchange items will be taken at church on May 6^th (for more info, see page 2)

Thursday, May 10^th, Peace Justice and Mission will meet at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday, May 10th, 8:30-9:45 p.m., ‘Clouds in Motion’ guitar performance, at The Nave Gallery (for more info, see page 5)

Friday, May 11th, Serenata Chamber Musicians concert at 7:30 p.m. (for more info, see page 5)

Yoga, after the service on May 13^th (for more info, see page 9)

Saturday, May 19th, Somerville Chorus at The Nave Gallery

Saturday, May 19th, 10:00 a.m., Blue Hills Hike. Leaves from CHPC (for more info, see page 9)

Adult Ed., after the service on May 20th (for more info, see page 9)

Sunday, May 20th, 4:00 p.m., Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World, at The Nave Gallery (for more info, see page 5)

Sunday, May 20th at 7:00 p.m., Sunday Night Forum. Reality Check: Challenges facing Christian and Muslim Palestinians (for more info, see page 9)

Monday, May 21^st, Presbytery of Boston meets at Whittinsville

Book group meets on Wednesday, May 23rd , at 7:00 p.m.

On Sunday, May 27^th we will celebrate Pentecost and collect the Pentecost Offering. (for more info, see page 10)

'The Green Line' at The Nave Gallery runs through Sunday, May 27^th. (for more info, see page 5)

COMING: In June, a potluck and presentation on Immigration.

Request for Help – Can You Lend a Hand?

When: Saturday, May 5^th and Sunday, May 6^th, Noon – 5:00 p.m. both days, SOMERVILLE OPEN STUDIOS at Clarendon Hill.

What: ART CAFÉ/Bake Sale

Why: All proceeds go to the CHPC Building Fund – Accessibility Project.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!

~Baked Goods (If possible, deliver items between 10:00 a.m. and 13 noon on Saturday, May 5^th)

~Volunteers for Bake Sale table and to help in the kitchen (please sign up for a 2 hour shift-we need about 12 volunteers, so far we have 3)

~Donations for the kitchen (we need to purchase paper good, lunch ingredients, beverages, etc.)

Please contact Katherine Gustafson to sign up to help. And thank you in advance for helping!

The Presbyterian Coffee Project

Orders will be taken for Equal Exchange COFFEE (drip or whole bean) and TEA (English Breakfast, Earl Grey or Green), cocoa mix, baking cocoa, and chocolate bars at church on May 6th. You can send orders to Katherine no later than May 6^th by phone (617-628-6716) or email (kgkg@gis.net).

Katherine has coffee, tea, cocoa mix, baking cocoa and some chocolate bars on hand for anyone needing some before the delivery date. We will be added some new products (see below). Remember that for all products we purchase through the Presbyterian Coffee project, Equal Exchange makes a contribution to the Presbyterian Hunger Program.

NEW: ORGANIC, DRIED, SWEETENED CRANBERRIES AND ORGANIC ROOIBOS TEA

Bringing Fair Trade Home

With the continuing loss of family farms eroding rural communities, small farmers in the US face challenges that are similar in many ways to those of farmers in the developing world. Farmers around the world are caught between declining prices for their products, the consolidation of markets and distribution, and tightening control over inputs such as seed. For 20 years, Equal Exchange had been building Fair Trade by partnering with small farmer co-ops in Latin America, Africa and Asia. Now we are extending our model to family farmers, farm workers, and farmer co-operatives here in North America. With your help, we’re Bringing Fair Trade Home.

Cranberries

Whole, organic juicy berries are sliced, infused with organic sugar, and then slowly kiln-dried to preserve every last bit of flavor. The tartness of the cranberries is offset but not overpowered by sweetness. High in antioxidants, cranberries are also know for their anti-bacterial properties. Delicious by themselves, dried cranberries are also a great alternative to raisins in cookies and many other recipes, or added to a salad. Our very first cranberries were grown with care by the Mann family on their small farm in southeastern Massachusetts.

Monika and Keith Mann have been growing cranberries organically since shortly after they got married. In 1994 they began leasing 3 acres of cranberry bogs from Keith’s father, a lifelong grower. One year they discovered antique equipment in a small processing facility on the property, and brought it back into use for sorting fresh cranberries. Currently the Manns have 27 acres in organic production, growing varieties including Early Black and Howes which are native to Massachusetts, as well as Stevens, a hybrid. Monika and Keith have one year-round employee, who has been on the farm longer than Monika, and a team of seasonal employees in the fall, all of whom are provided with housing. In addition to routine care of the farm, and long hours during the harvest season, Monika takes care of organic sales and marketing, and Keith is an inventor, focused on improving efficiency in every aspect of the farm operation. The Manns are proud of their work and also enjoy the flexibility it allows them to be with their young daughter. “We’re organic heart and soul,” they say.

Rooibos Tea

This tea has a fruity character with vanilla overtones. Rooisbos is naturally caffeine-free and contains antioxidants which are know to promote good health. This organic rooibos comes from the small-scale farmers of the Wupperthal Tea Association in the Cederberg region of South Africa.

The Wupperthal Tea Association is a democratically organized group of small-scale farmers who have grown rooibos in South Africa for generations. Their land is situated to the east of the Cederberg Mountains in an area that is among the driest rooibos growing regions, resulting in both lower production and higher quality. Pushed off their ancestral lands during the colonial and apartheid eras to make way for large-scale white-owned plantations, Fair Trade offers hope and a chance for these small-scale farmers to reach markets formerly accessible only to plantations. The rooibos is processed and packed by Fair Packers, a small-farmer initiative partly controlled by the Wupperthal Tea Association. “Our past connects us to the crop and now through Fair Trade to the possibilities of our future – we can live free and proud as a family in Wupperthal,” said, Barend Salomo, a rooibos farmer and Wupperthal Chairperson.

What is EQUAL EXCHANGE? In 1991, Equal Exchange became the first U.S. company to adopt international fair trade standards as guiding principles on 100% of their products. By working with democratic farmer cooperatives around the world and paying a fair price, Equal Exchange supports efforts to improve local communities, putting more control and greater income in the hands of impoverished, small-scale farmers in developing nations.

We also serve freshly made Equal Exchange coffee at Clarendon Hill’s coffee hours!

Somerville Open Studios

Saturday, May 5th, 12 noon-6:00 p.m.: Somerville Open Studios!!!

Somerville Open Studios at The Nave

11 Artists showing work, 2nd Annual SOS Music Festival (free), The Art Cafe and the Green Room Portrait Fundraiser.

Plus SOS After Dusk: Special Outdoor Green lighting effects by Todd Sargent

2nd Annual SOS Music Festival

1:00 p.m. Josiah & Emil Altschuler classical crossover violin recital, violin pianist, cello combined with folk, bluegrass, rock

2:00 p.m. Clarinetist Glenn Dickson (from Naftule's Dream) combines the human warmth of the clarinet with electronic techniques developed by Brian Eno to create other-worldly soundscapes and hypnotic tone poems.

3:00 p.m. Brown Bird is a Boston and Portland, ME based trio comprised of David Lamb, Jeremy Robinson and Jerusha Robinson. Together they employ hushed vocals, cello, accordion, guitar, banjo and sparse percussion to blend their influences of depression era americana, eastern european folk, sea shanties, classical and indie rock into beautifully crafted songs with arrangements that often feel as pensive and disquieting as their lyrics.

4:00 p.m. Pianist Eileen Feldman will present an hour of "PRELUDES"- finely crafted musical jewels of pith, presence, and personality by Bach, Chopin, Debussy, and others

5:00 p.m.Astro Al is what it would sound like if William Shatner was the lead singer for the Doors. Astro Al is 50's B movie music madness for spaced out adults.

Sunday May 6^th, 12 noon –6:00 p.m.: Somerville Open Studios!!!

Somerville Open Studios at The Nave

11 Artists showing work, 2nd Annual SOS Music Festival (free), The Art Cafe and the Green Room Portrait Fundraiser.

Plus SOS After Dusk: Special Outdoor Green lighting effects by Todd Sargent

2nd Annual SOS Music Festival

1:00 p.m. John O'Hara and Somerville go together like peanut butter and chocolate, or, more accurately, beer and drinking it. He's absolutely thrilled to be doing SOS although he wishes the 88 ran closer to the Nave. He currently resides on the 88 bus line.

2:00 p.m.Violinist Yael Bat-Shimon performs her unique brand of improvisational music both alone and in duos with singer Joseph Darensbourg. Joseph Darensbourg sings music from the crossroads cultures of medieval Iberia and the Middle East.

3:00 p.m. The Blooming is a new collaboration of four seasoned improvisors: Tom Hall - saxophones, loops / Morris Acevedo - electric guitar / Jeff Song - acoustic bass guitar / Curt Newton - drumset. With a spontaneous weaving of melody, pulse, and texture, they create songs you have almost heard before, music emerging just beyond your headlight beams.

4:00 p.m. Orlando Cela, flute and Itamar Ronen, piano: Serenata Chamber Musicians is a Somerville based group made up of 20 talented musicians from the greater Boston area. Since April, the Serenata Chamber Musicians. They perform chamber music in various ensembles including violin, viola, cello, piano, flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, harp, and voice, monthly at the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church.

5:00 p.m. Uncle Shoe and the Fatback Boys Boastful, humorous, opinionated and romantic songs of Tin Pan Alley with masterful banjo playing, hollers, & a captivating voice.

Serenata Musicians concert

Friday, May 11, 2007, 7:30pm at Clarendon Hill

$10.00 general admission (children 12 and under free)

Featuring: Annegret Klaua, violin, Meghan Miller, flute, Ben Fox, oboe, Kiera Thompson, clarinet, Itamar Ronen, piano, and Margaret Cheng Tuttle, piano. Program: Schnittke, Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano, Schumann, Fantasy-Pieces for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 73, and Bach, Trio Sonata in Bb Major

The Nave Gallery

'The Green Line' at The Nave Gallery runs through Sunday, May 27^th.

A group exhibition in collaboration with Brickbottom Gallery and in coordination with Somerville Open Studios. Artists respond to the new green line extension, public space, urban life, and making connections.

Artist statements

Susan Mara Bregman

These images bridge the gap between my artistic life as a photographer and my work life as a transportation planner. As a planner, I see streetcars taking people to work, school, and play. As an artist, I see a blur of lights and color as a train enters Park Street Station. I used a toy camera, with its random light leaks and uncertain focus, to transform the grimy reality of public transportation into a sleek and streamlined vision. The pictures that emerged show an urban life that is, at once, mysterious and familiar.

Charles Daniels

For the Green Line, I chose portraits that represent the masses who use public transportation. Somerville's oft mentioned density is made up of a myriad of personalities. My portraits celebrate the individual spirit in each of us. Daniels is one of the photographers for Think Green! event, a benefit for The Nave Gallery, on 5-6 May 2007.

Charlotte Ellen Kaplan

The proposed extension of the Green Line--like all public transportation--gives us more than one benefit. One is efficiency in transportation, carrying a group of people to their destinations. Another is efficiency in using our resources. But perhaps the most interesting benefit is the way public transportation makes connections within its neighborhood and with other neighborhoods. Public transportation is a social venue, not just a link between two destinations. People meet other people from their neighborhood, and the next neighborhood, and the next. My work is about those connections.

Jeffrey Mann

In 1972, I was hitchhiking south to Florida and got a ride in a Caddy with two guys who seemed a little down and out. The car was definitely on its last legs. The engine was rough and rust had eaten away chunks of the car. Talking to them I was surprised at how unconcerned they seemed that the car would get them to Florida . It looked like they'd be would be lucky to make it ten miles further. I asked them if they were concerned that the car would leave them stranded? "No problem, Man" they said "We'll just ditch her. We got a Harley in the trunk." We don't have to use a binary approach--cars or no cars. We should be able to plan ahead for a future that allows for the possibility of significant numbers of people being able to choose to do without cars and possibly, if that is in our best interest as a society, to have most transportation occur without the car. The Greenline Extension and mass transit in general is our "Harley" in the trunk.

Rachel Mello

I work in silhouette and paint, cutting the shapes of familiar sights such as power lines, and morning commuters out of hardboard before painting the surface.

The pieces included in the Green Line show explore the daily activity of waiting for public transportation. We are standing on the platform, waiting for our morning train, and we are attending public meetings, waiting for our train-line.

Waiting interests me as a activity in that we are physically so very close together, and yet rarely speak or make eye-contact with each other.

When I compose my pieces I design the space created by cutting and the cast shadows to be an important aspect of the composition, and an expression of the spaces between each of us and the world in front of us. Through my work, I explore different aspects of seeing and awareness.

Karen Molloy

During the 20 years I've lived in Somerville, I have taken a lot of photographs around the city. Always on the lookout for the textures of urban decay, I find myself most fascinated with the remnants of Somerville's past and its associated rail systems: old rail signage, abandoned tracks and bridges, and signs of nature retaking land that in another era was carved out for transporting manufacturing equipment and materials, commercial goods, and passengers. For several years I've made artists books depicting the visual experience of walking about the streets of urban areas. I like the book format because its small scale, physicality, and hand-held nature convey the intimacy of personal experience. For this exhibit I created two books using imagery from the railbed that extends through the heart of Somerville to Lechmere, including abandoned areas that will eventually be used by the Green Line Extension.

Meghan Moore

Since 1999 I've been a freelance people photographer. For commercial jobs, I'm most often on location making images for monthly magazines, weekly newspapers, or for companies' brochures and websites. Call me crazy, but I love photographing weddings too, for all the joy and spontaneous moments that are part of the day. Open Studios is for opening up discussions between artists and visitors, so be sure to tell me what you're thinking about. On SOS weekend, I'll be helping the Nave Gallery fundraise by photographing you and your loved ones (liked ones? other ones!). Think GREEN! With the Green Line Extension coming to town, we're celebrating. Wear green, bring green, think green. Or purple, orange, red, blue. Come as you are, come as a pirate, just expect silly, fun, painless portraits.

Riki Moss

Imagining the Green Line evoked thoughts of waiting at the station for a train, of a train waiting for a station. Am I the train? The station? And who waits for what? So the piece is about waiting. I thought of it in a corner, the space defined by the imaginary vanishing point tracks. I work in paper pulp, making globular forms that often wait in my studio for an environment to come down the tracks and pick them up. They feel patient and mute; the ideal attributes of a commuter waiting for a train at a station that might never appear. The tracks drawn in green wire refer to plans so loosely laid as to perhaps defy construction.

Tim Murley:

As a native Bostonian, I often paint images ingrained in some aspect of Massachusetts history, such as old colonial-themed magical landscapes and swirly-skied Boston cityscapes featuring fender benders, big digs, the Green Line, police cars, and fire engines. I’ve always been surrounded by the vibrant, yet often extremely chaotic, city life of Boston. The Green Line represents the urban lifeline of Boston, circulating the thousands of inhabitants across and between hubs of the city. My view of Boston is a dichotomous balance of animated culture, life, music, and adventure contrasted with the often extreme chaos of endless trains, police cars, buses, taxicabs, pedestrians, and ever-growing new buildings that overwhelmingly inundate my senses. The pervasiveness of chaos and fascination get translated into depictions of dynamic and lively Boston scenes contrasted with the disorder of urban living, with its inescapable vehicles, trains, and congestion.

Dana Pearson

For this exhibit I decided to document the only existing subway stop in Somerville. The images show people coming, going, busking, and working at different times of day and on different dates. The photograph titled "Charlie Tickets" shows the confusion that came with the recent switch from tokens to a system based on paper tickets and plastic cards."Holland St. Exit" was shot at night using a long exposure. I shot more than 30 photographs at this spot over two nights and chose the location because of the American flag in the background. In "Checking For The All Clear" I was standing above the platform at the top of the stairs waiting for something to happen, looking for something to catch my eye. When the train arrived I noticed a T employee checking to make sure that the doors were clear and safely closed. I managed to grab a few shots, both vertical and horizontal, and waited for the next train so that I could repeat the process. The image of the "Busker" was also shot from above the platform but in this case the angle did not seem to fit the subject so I also photographed him at eye level. At this angle I framed the subject so that the signage behind the performer gives the viewer a sense of place.

Eli Sidman:

As is the case with many residents of Somerville, using public transportation, unlike jumping into a car, means walking through our neighborhood, at least briefly. Traversing the sidewalks allows us exclusive space and time to observe the area in which we live. This action inevitably forces us to consider, day after day, our immediate surroundings, both consciously and subconsciously. Eventually, week after week, and month after month, certain moods are absorbed. For me, these overall impressions are not particular to any specific structures, intersections, or types of weather. Rather, the impression of the area where I live is a simplification of all aspects: elementary colors and shapes that speak of all features of the landscape at the same time. My work seeks to portray this unification of place, and convey the specific mood it creates.

V Van Sant

Even though I did not attend many meetings, I was in attendance for one meeting when they passed out green glow rings. This meeting seemed to be rehashing old stuff that was presented already and a long time ago. And this event seemed full of doubt, double speak and shallow promises. I left wondering if I would even see the extension become reality. My piece was created to in some small way "keep the dream alive".

My make-shift alter will have as an offering 300 green glow rings (will need to be replenished as they are taken)

Viewer can take a ring to show support for the green line extension. There will be a small tag on each ring with instructions.

I am excited to think that a SOS trolley ride will carry these rings across the city and truly symbolize the Green Line extension.

Thursday, May 10th 2007, 8:30-9:45 p.m., ‘Clouds in Motion’ guitar performance, at The Nave Gallery.

$5.00 admission Scilian guitarist Francesco Guaiana combines electronic effects and overlapping layers of sounds and noises to create "a sonic wall". The repetitive cycles alter the sense of gravity, and inspire a feeling “lightness” which helps one to escape the weight of everyday life. With special guest Giacomo Merega on electric bass.

Saturday, May 19th, Somerville Community Chorus at The Nave Gallery

Sunday, May 20^th, 4:00 p.m., Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World, at The Nave Gallery

For kids of ALL ages! Gustafer Yellowgold was created by illustrator/singer/songwriter Morgan Taylor. On the debut DVD Gustafer Yellowgold's Wide Wild World Gustafer comes to life. The minimally animated illustrations are accompanied by Taylor’s catchy original story-songs for a truly different multimedia experience that will entrance children and adults alike.

Gustafer is a friendly creature who came to Earth from the Sun and has an interesting magnetism for making friends with some of Earth's odder creatures. His best friend is Forrest Applecrumbie the flightless Pterodactyl. Gustafer and Forrest built a small cottage-style home on the edge of an uncharted wooded area in Minnesota. He has a pet Eel named Slim (short for Slimothy) and a pet Dragon named Asparagus who lives in his fireplace. Gustafer's older brother Ben, an inventor, also came to Earth and lives a few miles away on Nugget Island.

Since his creation, Gustafer Yellowgold has become an international phenomenon. Live “Gustafer” shows, accompanied by live music, have been acclaimed by the New York Times, which said, “The show is a cross between ‘Yellow Submarine’ and Dr. Seuss, filtered through the lens of the Lower East Side.” Time Out NY Kids magazine called it “Beatlesque…very beautiful.”

Tickets $7.00

To see a schedule of events, which is updated often, please look at the website: www.artsomerville.org/upcoming.html

The Nave Gallery is a project of ARTSomerville in collaboration with the Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church. Run and staffed completely by volunteers, the Nave provides an important exhibition space for both local and regional artists.

Introduction to Yoga

Come join our small, half-hour class during coffee hour (12:00 noon, on Sunday, May 13^th) to practice mindful breathing and gentle yoga postures. Great for stress release, improved flexibility and strength. If interested, please email Liz at cavatorta1@hotmail.com for more info.

Blue Hills Hike

Meet at the church at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 19^th. We will carpool to Blue Hills for a morning hike. Join us for a time of fun, fellowship, and some exercise! Sign up sheet is on the big double doors in the basement. For questions or more information, contact Randy Winchester.

Adult Education

Come and join our adult education group, which meets after coffee hour (around 12:00 noon). We began our group in November, with a four week Advent study of scriptures relating to the arrival of Jesus. We are now meeting to study scriptures or other topics that members are interested in. During May, we will be meeting on one Sunday, May 20th. We welcome all who are interested in exploring the scriptures and sharing their faith journey in a warm and welcoming environment.

Sunday Night Forum

Our forum this month will feature Hilary Rantisi. The title of her program is: Reality Check: Challenges facing Christian and Muslim Palestinians.

Hilary says of her program: “My talk will focus on the human reality facing people in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. As a Christian, I do not believe that we can have a discussion on the conflict in terms of power politics and military strength alone. The Gospel of Jesus compels me to see these things differently. The Israel-Palestinian conflict is one of human suffering, where millions of ordinary people are subject to willful abject poverty and subjugation in the name of security and political ideology. This is wrong. It denies the humanity of those suffering and the holistic development of people that God intended in creation. The Bible says clearly that all people are made in the image of God. I take that seriously and use it as a lens with which to examine the present day realities of Israel’s occupation and Palestinian dispossession. Based on it, I firmly believe that peace with justice is possible. In fact, I believe that only a focusing on the individual and their needs for God given holistic development will bring about the longed for peace in Israel-Palestine.”

Ms. Rantisi obtained her Masters of Arts in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago, and her Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from Aurora University Aurora, Illinois. She is the Director of the Middle East Initiative (MEI) at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Born in Jerusalem and raised in Ramallah, West Bank, Ms. Rantisi worked with the Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center in Jerusalem before coming to Harvard. She concentrated on issues of religion, politics, human rights, and grassroots mobilization, and developed programs that linked small, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with established, international organizations. Committed to reviewing conflicts grounded in her ideals of universal human rights and human dignity, Ms. Rantisi is an active public speaker on Middle East issues, and a published writer in a variety of publications. She co-edited with Naim Ateek, Our Story: The Palestinians (Jerusalem: Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center, 1999.) Ms. Rantisi has been designated an “International Peacemaker” three times by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), and has been honored for her work by several organizations.

Please join us for a thoughtful and thought-provoking program!

Pentecost and the Pentecost Offering

That very Spirit!

(Romans 8:16)

Dear Friends,

On the Day of Pentecost, a great sound of rushing wind filled the upper room where the disciples met and tongues as of fire rested on them. In explaining this strange happening, Peter reaches back into Scripture and brings forth the words of the prophet Joel:

“‘In the last days it will be, God declares, that I will pour out my

Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall

prophesy, and your young men shall see visions’” (Acts 2:17).

The Spirit of God was poured out on the church that day and is still God’s gift to all believers, unto children’s children. The Spirit is no respecter of age—it often uses children and youth to accomplish God’s purposes in this world. The stories of young Miriam, David, and Samuel remind us that God chooses people not because of age, but because of heart.

What a precious gift young people are. Yet, in today’s world, many live without hope for the future or support to meet daily needs. What better place could there be to make spiritual and financial investments than in our children and youth?

The Pentecost Offering, while the newest of the PC(USA) special offerings, is also one of the most exciting. When a congregation receives this Offering, 40 percent stays with the congregation to fund mission and ministry with children at risk. At the General Assembly level, the Pentecost Offering funds ministries with children at risk, youth, and young adults. Youth ministries provide opportunities for spiritual growth and leadership development for Presbyterian youth. Young adults explore their call to mission service through the Young Adult Volunteer program. Child advocacy ministries speak and act on behalf of those who cannot protect themselves. All of these ministries act to help bring God’s love and care to younger members of God’s family.

I say again, What better place could there be to make spiritual and financial investments than in our children and youth? I encourage you to search out the needs in your community and find ways to show Jesus’ love to these “little ones” and give generously to the Pentecost Offering. Let the Holy Spirit who moved the disciples out to the ends of the earth on that first Pentecost move you to give sacrificially. Together we can have a significant positive impact on the children and youth of our churches and of the world.

Joan S. Gray

Moderator, 217th General Assembly (2006)

The Pentecost Offering is traditionally received on the day of Pentecost. It provides a direct way to meet the needs of children at risk, youth, and young adults. Congregations are encouraged to keep 40 percent of the Offering to support ministry with children at risk in their communities.

The General Assembly’s portion (60 percent) provides leadership development opportunities for Presbyterian youth and young adults and supports children-at-risk programs at the national level. Since 1998, Presbyterians of all ages have raised over $7 million for these ministries that benefit younger members of God’s family.

Clarendon Hill will collect the Pentecost offering on Sunday, May 27^th. Below are just some of the ways that your offering is used.

Working on Behalf of All Children

As we move past the midpoint of our denomination’s Decade of the Child (2001–2011), the infants of 2001 are the six-year-olds of today.

Some are at risk because they live in undeveloped countries. They start work as carpet weavers or rag pickers instead of starting first grade. They die of malaria before their fifth birthday instead of receiving normal childhood immunizations.

But many children are at risk even though they live in the United States:

* Some get too much junk food while others simply don’t get enough food.

* Some see a pediatrician for regular well-baby visits, while others are among the 11 percent of American children who are uninsured.

* Some are exposed to violent images in video games and on television that give them nightmares, while for others, themselves the victims of violence, nightmares are real.

As Christians we are called to reflect on the kind of world we are building for all children, whether close to our hearts, just outside our doors, or far away. At the end of the Decade of the Child in 2011, when today’s six-year-olds are ten, how can we ensure that all children are growing up healthy and living life abundantly?

The Child Advocacy Office, supported by funds from the Pentecost Offering, works on behalf of all children. The office addresses issues that adversely affect the health and wholeness of children. The work includes prayer, education, direct service, and advocacy in the public arena in a comprehensive effort to move the church’s vision for child well-being toward a reality for all children.Your gift to the Pentecost Offering provides hope for children at risk through the ministry of the PC(USA) Child Advocacy Office.

"Lives Tangled Up for God"

In 1993, Britta Martin Dukes decided to take a year off to serve as a Young Adult Volunteer. Little did she know that those twelve months would change the direction of her life.

Britta left a job in fashion advertising in Phoenix to work with homeless youth in Peterborough, England. In a matter of days, the energy she had spent developing creative ways to entice consumers to purchase high-dollar fashions was redirected to something much more meaningful—building relationships with street kids and helping them acquire life skills, employment, and permanent housing.

“In every chat over a cup or two or three of milky tea, in every encouragement to sign up for a training course, in every answered question about why I was doing this, I found a fulfillment I had never known,” writes Britta, “a deep joy that God was using me as an instrument of Christ’s love to help these children learn to believe in themselves, their potential, their ability, and especially, their lovability. I realized that all I knew how to do was take each little step with them and let God do the rest. Out of this tangling of our lives came the inability to reconcile my former profession with my newly found reality, resulting in what became a significant change in my own life—my career in fashion advertising was ruined! And for that, I am thankful.

“There are many more YAVs who have gotten their lives tangled up for God, ‘ruined their careers,’ and realized God’s undeniable call on their lives in the process, too. And thus emerges a new generation of God-formed leaders. And for this, I am thankful.”

Support for the Pentecost Offering develops a new and committed generation of leadership through the Young Adult Volunteer program. Britta received her M.Div. at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in May 2005 and is now director of children’s ministry at Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Austin, Texas.

Calvin, Mickey, and Friends

In January 2006 more than 2,200 youth went to Disney World to encounter Jesus Christ! In 2008 it is expected that over 3,000 will do the same. Disney World—Jesus? Do the two connect at all?

Every day we ask young people to connect the very un-churchy things in life with their faith in Jesus Christ. It is our call in the church to offer our young people experiences that teach them how to connect FAITH with LIFE. How to mix Jesus with every day—particularly with the days we are not in church? The Faith in 3D event does this!

Faith in 3D gathers youth from three denominations—the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the Episcopal Church, and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship—for three days of exploring the three main dimensions of life and faith—individual, communal, and global.

In a high school classroom as students were shuffling in, a fifteen-year-old boy (who happened to be Presbyterian) overheard a classmate, someone he had never really spoken to or even, in his words, acknowledged), speaking about “some 3D thing I’m going to at Disney World with my church.” The Presbyterian boy turned around and said, “Do you mean Faith in 3D? I’m going to that, too!”

In ways that we cannot even identify sometimes, our young people can make the connection! MY CHURCH is taking me to Disney World! MY CHURCH says we can be the church ANYWHERE! I CAN be BELOVED. . . anywhere!

Faith in 3D is supported by your generous gifts to the Pentecost Offering. All PC(USA) churches are invited to this amazing event. Held over the long weekend January 12–21, 2008, at Disney World. Exploring life, faith, discipleship, and justice . . . and Splash Mountain.

Podcasts!

We've begun audio podcasting Sunday services through our website: http://www.clarendonhillchurch.org/podcasts.html

Podcasts are audio broadcasts that can be subscribed to and automatically downloaded when new episodes are added using podcast software (iTunes is one that's well known). The individual programs can also be downloaded directly.

If you can’t make it to church on a particular Sunday, you don’t need to miss out on everything. Listen to the service in a place and at a time that is convenient for you!

We need updates!

Just a reminder to folks to be in touch with Sarah Donovan for an update if you have a change of address, cellphone number, home or work phone number , or e-mail address as she is compiling a parish list to be available to all who want it.

New thinking to save the earth

This op-ed appeared in The Boston Globe on Monday, April 16^th, and was written by James Carroll.

This week, spring fever takes the form of the fever pitch to which global warming is rising. Last Saturday was the National Day of Climate Action, a campaign organized by Bill McKibben, aimed at getting Congress to “step it up” and cut US carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050. Next Sunday is Earth Sunday – part festival and part political demonstration, and always a call to action for the environment.

The urgency of such events comes from recent scientific reports that make impending ecological catastrophes more vivid than ever. Nations and municipalities must begin now to plan for effects on drinking water, sea levels, toxins, and various social dislocations that already seem inevitable. Not event the Bush administration any longer argues that climate change is a minor issue, unrelated to human activity.

As individuals, we set about collecting batteries, recycling cellphones, buying energy-efficient lightbulbs, choosing paper instead of plastic, not topping off the gas tank, supporting wind power, picking up after the dog with biodegradable baggies, writing to Congress, sorting the trash into yet more categories, investing in eco-responsible companies, always looking for more ways to reduce the newly named “carbon footprint.”

Such adjustments can seem like nuisances at one end or monumental challenges at the other, but behavioral responses to potential ecological disasters are the easy part. Far more challenging is the task of revising the way we think about basic aspects of how we live. If the earth is to survive as a human habitat the meaning of subjects like these must be transformed.

Nature. We Americans, speaking generally, see a gulf between ourselves and “nature.” From a created world of concrete, we make occasional forays into given realms of trees, rocks, sand, or sea. We go “back to nature” as if we left it behind, say, when we put clothes on or built cities. But his sense of detachment allows us to imagine we can trash nature without trashing ourselves. Conversely, nature’s mechanism for saving itself includes human ingenuity. We humans are not above nature or apart from it. We are of nature.

Nation. A 19^th-century notion of national sovereignty allows subgroups to pursue agendas without regard for their effects on the whole. But this wrongly assumes that the health of the whole is a matter of indifference to the group. The United States has long refused to temper its claim to radical independence from all other nations, but that both defines the source of America’s disproportionate ecological destructiveness and impedes every effort to mitigate it. There will be no stopping environmental degradation until nations stop thinking of independent sovereignty as an absolute. Climate change respects no borders.

Poverty. In America, full citizenship was originally granted only to property owners, we are what we have. The pursuit of happiness equals the accumulations of possessions. This cult of “more” drives an economy that defines its health by growth, its market by the glove. In families, the success of a second generation is defined only by its surpassing the affluence of the first. This merciless consumption divides people into “haves,” “the have less,” and “have nots,” but it also eats the environment alive. Sufficiency, simplicity, and a sense that the treasures of the earth are property of all people must become notes of the new America.

Power. Once, this nation took for granted that its power in the world depended on the sway of the American idea – liberal democracy, freedom, opportunity, equality. But in the middle of the 20^th century, that changed, a move away from influence to imposition. Power came from an arsenal, and ultimate power came from a nuclear arsenal. Today’s Pentagon budget is at Cold War levels without the Cold War because we Americans no longer believe in the power of own idea. But military power is an illusion, as Iraq shows, like Vietnam before it. Resisting populations cannot finally be coerced, only killed. Meanwhile, nuclear weapons still threaten the environment more than anything.

Global warming can prompt terrible fatalism, as if forecast catastrophes are certain to befall the planet. But the future is not an extension through time of what is already perceived. That’s the point of revised thinking about everything from nature to power, since history shows that thought is soul of creativity, and therefore of creation. Human choices brought the earth to this brink of ultimate harm, and human choices, informed by changed ideas, can rescue it.

Earth Day

This sermon was preached by Kristy Graf on Sunday, April 15^th in celebration of Earth Day.

We are inspired.

I am inspired.

Yesterday for the first time in a long time I was able to sit on my porch in the sun… close my eyes, and listen to the birds. I am inspired by nature. I am relaxed by the sounds of the world around me. Somehow connected – somehow understanding… there is more than this crazy busy-ness of my life. I use parks and trees, camping and hiking, lakes and oceans to revive my soul. It is a blessing that I have enjoyed throughout my life.

For me there is another piece. I have been so inspired by nature, by my environment that I have felt a calling to work in a field that is related. My work is many things but in a large way it is about upholding a vision for what I believe the world can be. What I believe God has called the world to be.

Today’s scripture is from John and takes place after the death of Jesus, but there is a strikingly similar story early in Luke. Jesus had been performing healings and driving out evil spirits. He was surrounded by a crowd on the edges of a lake when he asked Simon (who would eventually be called Peter) to put the boat out and he would teach from there. When he was done teaching he asked Simon to put down the nets. Even though the fishermen had worked hard all night and not caught anything this time they brought up such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. Sound familiar? They pulled their boats ashore, left everything, and followed Jesus.

Peter was inspired.

Inspiration, vision, beauty, miracles become motivation.

Peter was called to act. Jesus called these fishermen to be his disciples to follow his teachings and to help build a movement. To educate others and bring them in. A movement that would grow and stretch through time to change the human understanding of our relationship to God.

I don’t know that I believe the environmental movement will play as profound a role in human history. But I do believe in a need to change the human understanding of our relationship to nature – that we are nature. This is a time for innovation, education, and action. Creativity and ingenuity. I’m a geeky engineer so I believe, sometimes more than I should, in the potential of technology to help us change. I believe in the beauty of wind turbines and renewable energy, of compact fluorescent light bulbs and hybrid cars. There is so much potential – if each person starts to take small steps it all adds up so quickly to a larger vision. But I know it the long run it will take more than that. It will require a mind sweeping education and awareness raising, an evangelism of sorts that draws people to the vision so completely that they are willing to throw all of their belongings aside and follow Jesus.

Unfortunately this is the thing about having a vision or believing in a better world. Its all pretty and beautiful and happy when you think of it and only it off in the future or where ever it lies, but when you come to the hands in the dirt work along the path to that vision its hard to stay inspired. Its hard to have the faith that the vision will be fulfilled.

Taking baby steps toward a distant vision can often just remind me or you how far we still have to go. Everyday e-mails roll across my computer telling of the potential impacts of our burning of fossil fuels for electricity and transportation. Over 50% of our electricity in the Unite States comes from coal. We have scraped away over 1200 miles of mountaintops in Appalachia and strip mined even more out West to get to this coal. We import oil from distant countries to fuel a society completely that has left us utterly dependent on automobiles. And all of this doesn’t even touch on global warming.

Industrialized nations account for about 80% of the carbon dioxide – the most significant heat trapping emission produced by humans. But the consequences will be felt all over the entire globe. 634 million people (roughly 10% of the entire world population currently) live in low elevation areas that will be at risk in the next hundred years for sea level rise caused by global warming. Two third’s of the world’s largest cities, those having 5 million people or more, are in low elevation areas.

Everyday there are new things I read things like: Increasing temperatures and extreme weather patterns are already taking their toll on crop yields. Future climate change is expected to put close to 50 million extra people at risk of hunger by 2020 rising to an additional 132 million and 266 million by 2050 and 2080 respectively, says the report of IPCC Working Group II.

And yet there is still resistance to change.

The world is full of war and hatred while there are visions of peace. There is pain and injury where we long for support and forgiveness.

We still have so very far to go.

And it isn’t just everyone else or some systemic change that is lacking, its me. I fall short of my own vision all the time. I use more electricity, I drive more than I need to, I still haven’t bought a new bike, I love to fly to far off places.

I am disappointed.

And I am disappointing.

I am frustrated.

I am exhausted.

I burn out.

I need to be alone.

I need to forget about the vision.

Somehow in this space I connect to Peter in today’s gospel. In the gospel of John. Part of a long and empowering movement. Feeling the momentum – so inspired that he left everything behind. Thought he could change the world, was going to be a part of something monumental.

How far did Peter feel from the vision when his leader, his savior, his God was crucified? How far When Peter himself denied that he was one of the disciples of Jesus.

We can imagine the feelings that mixed with Peter’s grief – guilt, anger, disappointment, exhaustion, frustration, depression.

It was time to forget the vision.

Go back to the beginning. Go back to what you know. I’m going out to fish said Peter. Some of the other disciples went with him. Fishing, a focused activity, a family tradition, a family business, a skill, keep the motions going for a while. Focus and above all forget the vision for he would only be reminded of how far away it really was.

We need to be willing to give ourselves that kind of space and time. Go fishing. Go back to what we know. Rely on tradition and forgive ourselves as we take Sabbath from our vision.

And it was here in this kind of space while Peter was fishing that Jesus appeared on the shore and asked the disciples to cast their nets to the right side of the boat. Even though they had worked hard all night and not caught anything this time there were so many fish they could not haul in the nets. Sound familiar?

Whether or not this story actually happened twice, or Luke and John are just telling it in different ways, I love the possibility that this story the idea of the miraculous catch of fish can be both an initial calling and a calling back from the frustration and disappointment.

And then Jesus invites them to breakfast. They sit and eat together re-energizing their bodies re-energizing their souls.

Then Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him, and each time Peter says he does.

Feed my lambs.

Take care of my sheep.

Feed my sheep.

Peter is steadily reminded of the work he had begun. Of the vision that had been set out. And here of the role he is to play. Peter is re-inspired.

There is still work to do.

And so I believe it is a cycle. One that I think Peter may have gone through and one that we all go through in various ways. God inspires us with the beauty of nature or the kindness of a stranger. We are inspired by a vision. Even when we are inspired by pain and suffering it can be because we believe the world can exist without them. We are called to act to bring about that vision in small ways and sometimes in big ways, leaving everything else behind. So we act, engage, create, and innovate in a myriad of ways. Then at some point we burn out, we give up, we fail, we fall short, we get frustrated. And as we give ourselves the space to forget the vision and let down our frustration. Jesus stands on the shore, forgiving us, opening his arms, and he calls us back. Reminds us that we are part of a bigger vision and plan that is beyond our understanding, but that ours is an important role. And we begin the cycle anew.

There is a new book coming out in May that I can’t wait to read. It is called Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken and some of the reviews talk about an analogy that he makes and that I can’t stop thinking about (which is part of why I can’t wait to read it). He is apparently looking back at the growing momentum over history of grassroots movements and he relates them to an immune system. Each small piece or group slowly step by step healing all around, but each small piece is part of a large intricate system that will heal the world in time. The individual relationships, the baby steps, the rallies, the phone calls, they all add up over a time that is God’s time not ours.

because it is in the world between that the work of healing is done. When we are called back to the vision we must go.

When Jesus stands on the shore and asks how it is here in our solitude we must admit that while we have finally relaxed ourselves, we have not caught any fish.

When he offers us breakfast on the shore we must dive into the water and rush to meet him ready to remember.

We must eat the food he offers and listen closely as he reminds us slowly of the vision – as he re-inspires us for the work ahead, with our eyes closed, the early morning sun on our faces and the songs of birds in our ears.

Amen.

Keeping the faith used to be easier

This appeared in the Boston Sunday Globe on April 8^th and was written by Beverly Beckham.

It was easier when Father Coen was alive. His faith was strong and certain, and as long as he was here, my faith was strong and certain, too. I called him my window through whom I saw God. And he said, “God is everywhere. You know that.”

I know it sometimes, but not all the time. Not enough of the time. Not the way I knew it when he was here to remind me.

I have a tape of him singing. He made it for me. He was like that, kind and unassuming and willing to make a tape if you asked him. “See the face of Christ revealed in every person standing at your side,” he boomed in his big, happy voice. “We celebrate him. We remember. We believe.”

And I believed, too.

But lately, I’m not seeing Go in everything. It’s my fault. I’m out of touch. God is like an old friend who moved away, whom I haven’t even written or phoned or even emailed.

Only I am the one who moved, not God.

I didn’t even observe Lent this year. I drank wine, ate cookies, gave up nothing, didn’t fast. It was not a time of penance and reflection. But here it is Easter anyway, not just for all the people who prepared and looked into their souls and resolved to be better, but for slackers like me, too - a gift and a celebration.

I think how Easter was Father Coen’s favorite day, dark dispelled by light, altars transformed by flowers, eternal life promised by a God who loves us all so much that he lived and died for each of us, Easter our redemption.

The priest scandal had barely begun when he had his stroke. I thought that God had spared him the shame of this, because he was a good man and guileless and it would have devastated him to see, in the words of Kipling, the things he gave his life to broken.

But he did see. He just couldn’t talk about what was going on because his big voice was gone, and his energy and even some of his faith.

Faith wavers, that’s what he said from the altar a thousand times. It’s not steady and even like water from a hose. It swells like a stream. It narrows like a river. Man doubts. That’s his nature. Even Jesus, because he was man, doubted. “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me.” “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” “They will be done,” not always the first words that come to mind.

You can’t get to Easter Sunday without going through Good Friday. Father Coen preached this on Easter morning that life was hard and unfair and disappointing sometimes, but that life was good, too. And that God was good and always with us and that in the end this life is just a prelude to eternity.

He had 3 ½ months of his own Good Friday, after his stroke, his voice a whisper, his life’s work, ministering to people, over.

He was ministered to at the end, and he didn’t like it. It was his agony in the garden and his crowning with thorns.

Sometimes in the quiet of the church, I remember the light his faith cast and how it illuminated the whole world for me. I saw God everywhere because of him.

He said I’d be OK without him, and I am, most days. But some days I’m not. Because life is all hustle and bustle and coming and going, and time out of God and reflection is rare.

But it is true and he was right – if we are spiritual beings only temporarily human, and this world is not the be-all and end-all – then we’ve got our priorities wrong. And we better stop listening to marketers and Madison Avenue and start listening to poets and philosophers.

Because the lesson of Easter morning is this: That flesh dies but spirit lives. And that God is good and loves us all.

“Go and serve the Lord and one another.” That’s how Father Coen ended every Mass.

And you wanted to – because he made faith that simple.

The Clarendon Connection is edited by Ellen D. Schemerhorn.

Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church

155 Powder House Boulevard

West Somerville, Massachusetts 02144-1613

Telephone: 617-625-4823

www.clarendonhillchurch.org

The Rev. Karl Gustafson, Minister…………………………..John Adams, Music Director

Augustus Kwaa, Parish Associate/Evangelist……………………….. Arnie James, Sexton

Gusti Newquist, Seminarian

LECTIONARY TEXTS

May 6: Acts 11: 1-18; Ps. 148; Rev. 21: 1-6; John 13: 31-35

May 13: Acts 16: 9-15; Ps. 67; Rev. 21: 10, 21: 22-22: 5, John 14: 23-29 or John 5: 1-9

May 20: Acts 16: 16-34; Ps. 97; Rev. 22: 12-14, 16017, 20-21; John 17: 20-26

May 27: Acts 2: 1-21 or Gen. 11: 1-9; Ps. 104: 24-34, 35b; Rom. 8: 14-17 OR Acts 2: 1-21; John 14: 8-17 (25-27)

June 3: Prov. 8: 1-4, 22-31; Ps. 8; Rom. 5: 1-5; John 16: 12-15

June 10: 1 Kings 17: 8-16 (17-24); Ps. 146; Gal. 1: 11-24; Luke 7: 11-17

June 17: 1 Kings 21: 1-10 (11-14) 15-21a; Ps. 5: 1-8; Gal. 2: 15-21; Luke 7: 36-8:3

June 24: 1 Kings 19: 1-4 (5-7) 8-15a; Ps. 42 and 43; Gal. 3: 23-29; Luke 8: 26-39

Church Assignments