The Clarendon Connection

News of Clarendon Hill Presbyterian Church November 2006

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.

Communion will be celebrated on November 5th.

November Calendar

There will be a joint meeting for Session and Deacons on Wednesday, November 1st at 7:30 p.m.

Peace, Justice and Mission committee will meet on Thursday, November 2nd at 7:30 p.m.

Orders for Equal Exchange coffee, tea and cocoa will be taken at church on November 5th, for delivery on the 19th (for more info, see page 2)

Monday, November 6^th, 6:30 p.m. Potluck dinner/ArtSomerville meeting at the Nave Gallery (for more info, see page 3)

Saturday, November 11^th, 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., Fleamarket Fundraiser for the Nave Gallery (for more info, see page 3)

Sunday, October 22^nd through Sunday, November 12^th, “Somerville Open” at the Nave Gallery. (for more info, see page 2)

Sunday, November 12th, 3:00 p.m. Serenata Musicians concert in the sanctuary (for more info, see page 3)

Wednesday, November 15^th, 7:00 p.m. book group (for more info, see 3)

COMING IN DECEMBER: Friday, December 1st through Sunday, Dec.17^th - Nave Gallery Salon(in the gallery): An affordable fine art sale of unique holiday gifts.

Advent Adult Education class after church (December 3, 10, 17 and 24 from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.) (for more info, see page 3)

Parish Notes

Eric Beene (former seminarian) sent an email to say that Isaac Alton Beene was born at 5:59 p.m., on October 22, 2006 at Memorial Hospital in Savannah, GA. He was 7 pounds, 14 ounces and 20 inches long. Congratulations to Eric and his wife, and may God grant a life of blessing to Isaac!

Please keep Nancy Ramsey, wife of our former interim pastor, Glenn Ramsey, in your prayers. She has had several health issues that have been bothering her. We pray that God’s healing touch is felt. If you would like to send a card, her address is:

On Sunday, November 12^th during worship, we will baptize Alex Joseph Donovan – Jones, the son of Rebecca Donovan and Al Jones. The family invites you to attend a special reception at the church after the service. My God’s blessings for Alex be abundant!

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 November 5th. You can send orders to Katherine no later than Tuesday, November 7th, 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 of November 19th

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!

Calling all bakers!

ArtSomerville is having a yard sale in the church basement on Saturday, November 11^th. (Is it a good time for you to do some cleaning out?) As we did last time, Clarendon Hill will be setting up a stand to sell coffee, juices and baked goods to all the shoppers. All proceeds from this part of the yard sale will go to the church building/roof fund. Please contact Katherine Gustafson if you can provide some baked goods AND/OR if you can lend an hour or two on that Saturday to help! Many thanks!

The Nave Gallery

Continuing through Sunday, November 12^th is 'Somerville Open' at The Nave Gallery.

The gallery hours are Fridays from 5:00-8:00 p.m., Saturdays from 1:00-5:00 p.m. and Sundays 1:00-3:00 p.m. The artists for this exhibit are: Emily Arkin, Elaine Bay, Craig Bostick, Jill Comer, Greg Cook, Jef Czekaj, Raul Gonzalez, Aimee LaPorte and Dave Ortega

The exhibit is an interactive exhibition of miniature golf holes designed and built by artists! Nine artists, most of them Somervillians and many of them cartoonists, were each asked to interpret the idea of “mini-golf” in their own unique aesthetic. The results vary from the serious to the humorous, and each hole showcases a complete different visual style and style of play.

On Monday, November 6, 2006 at 6:30 p.m.: Potluck Dinner/ArtSomerville meeting at The Nave Gallery.

Please bring a dish or drink and join a brainstorming sessions for ARTSomerville! Contact Jenn Harrington (jharrington@artsomerville.org) if you require further information.

Saturday, November 11, 2006, 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.: Fleamarket! (Nave Gallery Fundraiser), at The Nave Gallery

Friday, December 1st through Sunday, Dec.17^th - Nave Gallery Salon(in the gallery): An affordable fine art sale of unique holiday gifts.

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 and CHPC.

Serenata Musicians concert

On Sunday, November 12^h, the Serenata Musicians will hold a concert in the sanctuary at 3:00 p.m. There is a $10 suggested donation.

Featuring: Timothy Blalock, piano, Stephanie Krejcarek, violin, Katie Franich, cello, Sivan Etedgee, piano, Margaret Cheng Tuttle, piano, and Talia Etedgee, narrator (guest artist).

The program is Dvorak, "Dumky" Trio, Opus 90, Poulenc, L'Histoire de Babar le petit elephant, and Navok, The Old Photo Box.

Book Group

The group will be meeting on Wednesday, November 15^th at 7:00 p.m. We will take a final look at the Book of Revelation, prior to reading Barbara Rossing's "The Rapture Exposed." (See book review for more information about the book.) Anyone is welcome.

Advent Adult Education class

All are invited to join an Advent study led by Gusti for the four Sundays in Advent (December 3, 10, 17 and 24 from 12:30-1:30pm). We will take on the roles of selected characters in the story of Jesus' birth, bringing our contemporary lives into conversation with this historical moment. On December 3, we will focus on Joseph and Zechariah; December 10 is Mary and Elizabeth; December 17 will be Herod and Emperor Augustus and December 24 brings us to John the Baptist and Jesus. Please mark your calendars now and plan to join us. All are welcome.

Introduction to Yoga

Come join our small, half-hour class during coffee hour (12:00 noon, every other Sunday after June 4th) 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.

Darfur and Africa and American Evangelicals

From SoJomail, Friday, October 20, 2006

Last year, a group of us put together something we called “Worship in the Spirit of Justice.” We planned five weeks of outdoor public worship in Washington, D.C., to bring attention to the suffering in Darfur. We believe that worship is closely connected with protest: when we praise God as the One who loves the poor, oppressed, and forgotten, we are implicitly protesting people and structures that oppress, exclude, and forget. Worship in this way radicalizes all of us. It forms us as people who join God in God’s care for our world.

We chose five “prophetic locations.” The first week, we met at the Lincoln Memorial, recalling our history of racism and slavery – and realizing that, as the film Hotel Rwanda said so painfully and powerfully, the way the rest of the world neglects the deaths of millions in Africa must be attributed in part at least to racism. In succeeding weeks, we met in front of the Capitol building, calling Congress to action; we gathered across from the National Press Club, urging the news media to keep Darfur on the front page until our nation used its influence more effectively for the dying in Darfur; we met across from the Sudan Embassy, where we prayed for that nation’s rulers to change their ways; and finally, we met in front of the White House, where hundreds of us knelt in prayer for our nation’s leaders to take action.

Now, over a year later, a group of evangelical leaders have spoken out on behalf of Darfur. In a sign that more and more evangelical leaders are unwilling to be held hostage to a single political party or a too-limited moral agenda, a wide array of leaders have come together saying that for us, Darfur will be a front-page issue, a true moral issue, and we won’t forget the good our leaders do for Darfur – or fail to do – as we move forward.

It’s important to remember (as a recent Time magazine cover story and a recent CNN series made clear) that Darfur isn’t the only scene of tragedy in Africa. The Congo continues to be a nightmare of violence and chaos. And while Africa gets a bit more of the attention it deserves, we can’t forget the terrible suffering in Latin America (where I recently walked the streets of some of the worst slums in the world), in so many parts of Asia, and even in our own nation – whether we’re speaking of the Katrina-stricken Gulf Coast or the urban and rural poor who are neighbors to all of us.

I’m encouraged to see more and more Christian leaders in the U.S. not only caring about these places, but also visiting them – not just to bring aid or “do mission,” but equally important, perhaps more important, to listen and learn, to meet people, to build relationships so the poor become our neighbors, our friends indeed. (For example, consider the beautiful and historic work of Amahoro-africa.com in bringing emerging Christian leaders from the U.S. together with their counterparts across East Africa.)

On December 10, thousands of churches will join together to “worship in the Spirit of justice.” Across our nation, they will praise God as the God of justice, the God who cares for the oppressed, the God who doesn’t play favorites, the God to whom a starving and frightened Muslim child in the Sudan is as precious as a Christian child in an affluent U.S. Sunday school. They will pray for Darfur, for the leaders of Sudan, for racism and genocide to be exposed and rejected, for rescue and reconciliation to be pursued. They will pray for our President and Congress not to let politics so preoccupy them that they forget justice and compassion.

I hope you’ll invite your church to practice “worship in the Spirit of justice” on December 10, and I hope that kind of worship becomes habitual for more and more of us, week after week, day by day.

Brian McLaren is the author of Secret Message of Jesus, and board chair for Sojourners/Call to Renewal.

We Need a New National Mission Statement

From SojoMail Tuesday, October 24, 2006

What if some of us began a constructive national dialogue, post-political in the sense that it occurs on a level higher and deeper than the mid-range of partisan maneuvering, geared toward a rather simple but grand project: to articulate a national mission statement for the United States. This statement would tell us – and the world – what we’re about. It would serve as a rudder to guide us, and perhaps as a sail to energize us, and perhaps as a keel to stabilize us as well. It would help us make wise decisions, and to admit when we’ve made unwise ones. It would – perhaps this is too optimistic? – give us something above and beyond partisan politics to guide us, a common values fulcrum upon which to leverage our national debates, a shared vision and dream to which all parties and people could be called.

“Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” had a nice ring in the Declaration of Independence, but frankly, it has a bit of an individualistic and self-centered ring today. Consider what it would mean, for example, if our nation were more dedicated to the pursuit of peace and justice than to the pursuit of personal happiness, or to a sustainable life for all creatures instead of simply unlimited prosperity for ourselves.

Perhaps a project like this could invite the participation of every family, every elementary and secondary school child, every university, every church, synagogue, and mosque, every community organization, every state. Perhaps, if we made it a five-to-ten year project, the process could be even more important than the final product.

Perhaps there could be websites where people proposed and crafted elements of the mission statement, and grass-roots gatherings in coffee shops and community centers where various proposals were evaluated. Perhaps at the right time, maybe in 2010 or 2012, such a mission statement could be incorporated in some way alongside the essential documents of our nation.

It’s wonderful to have a history to give us a sense of heritage. It’s essential to have laws and institutions to give us stability. But sometimes I think that our nation, like any adolescent, now needs something more: a sense of mission that is clearly and consciously considered, articulated, debated, affirmed, and celebrated – to give us a noble future. Perhaps, in terms of Native American culture, it is time for our national vision quest, or in Christian or Jewish terms, it is time for our confirmation or bar or bat mitzvah – time for our spiritual coming of age.

Perhaps our current national struggles will, like the struggle of South Africa, bring us to a moment of new possibility and new beginning in the not-too-distant future. That is my hope, even if it sounds naive.

Brian McLaren (brianmclaren.net) is an author, speaker and board member of Sojourners/Call to Renewal.

Book Review

The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation by Barbara Rossing

ISBN 0813343143

From the Publisher

The idea of "The Rapture"-the return of Christ to rescue and deliver Christians off the earth-is an extremely popular interpretation of the Bible's Book of Revelation and a jumping-off point for the best-selling "Left Behind" series of books. This interpretation, based on a psychology of fear and destruction, guides the daily acts of thousands if not millions of people worldwide. In The Rapture Exposed, Barbara Rossing argues that this script for the world's future is nothing more than a disingenuous distortion of the Bible. The truth, Rossing argues, is that Revelation offers a vision of God's healing love for the world. The Rapture Exposed reclaims Christianity from fundamentalists' destructive reading of the biblical story and back into God's beloved community.

Author Biography: Barbara R. Rossing teaches at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago. She holds a doctorate from Harvard University Divinity School and a Masters of Divinity degree from Yale University Divinity School. An ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, she lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Synopsis

Countering the armageddoneers who dominate the wavelengths and book racks, Rossing (New Testament, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago) says that the Bible does not provide a predictive screenplay for worldwide violence and disaster in the Middle East. Rather, Revelation's gift is a story of God who loves us and comes to live with us; Biblical prophets are not predictors of end-time events, but inspired voices calling people to repentance and justice. She assumes no background in theology.

From The Critics

Publishers Weekly

Ordained minister Rossing is ready to do battle with evangelicals both within and outside of her Lutheran Church camp. Rossing, who teaches New Testament at the Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago, begins her sparring by taking on the widely popular Left Behind series and all it presumes to communicate about the future of the world. Claiming that the Left Behind authors' interpretation of prophetic biblical verses is "fiction," Rossing firmly asserts that the Book of Revelation has a completely different purpose than to predict upcoming world uprisings and the eventual end of the earth. Instead, Rossing believes that this biblical vision is meant to inspire humanity to seek out "repentance and justice." Rossing also maintains, somewhat unfairly, that rapture enthusiasts extol a careless, abusive attitude toward God's created world, since rapture theology declares that the followers of Christ are soon to be removed from it. More significant is Rossing's belief that Revelation does not offer a prophetic look at Jerusalem as the inevitable battleground between good and evil, but rather extends the promise of a New Jerusalem that will open its arms to all nations in peace. While Rossing's scholarly work is well organized and obviously carefully thought out, evangelicals may take issue with the blanket statement that "most Christian churches and biblical scholars condemn Rapture theology as a distortion of Christian faith with little biblical basis." This book will likely upset Christian conservatives while appealing to many in mainline denominations.

"Some of us have been reluctant to speak of our faith in the political arena ... because we can see a danger that people deeply rooted in faith will seek to use God rather than be used by God."

- Tennessee State Sen. Roy Herron (Source: The Christian Science Monitor )

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

Nov. 5: Ruth 1: 1-18; Ps. 146; Heb. 9: 11-14; Mark 12: 28-34

Nov. 12:Ruth 3: 1-5, 4: 13-17; Ps. 127; Heb. 9: 24-28; Mark 12: 38-44

Nov. 19: 1 Sam. 1: 4-20; I Sam. 2: 1-10; Heb. 10: 11-14 (15-18) 19-25; Mark 13: 1-8

Nov. 26: 2 Sam. 23: 1-7; Ps. 132: 1-12 (13-18); Rev. 1: 4b-8; John 18: 33-37

Dec. 3: Jer. 33: 14-16; Ps. 25: 1-10; 1 Thess. 3: 9-13; Luke 21: 25-36

Dec. 10: Mal. 3: 1-4; Luke 1: 68-79; Phil. 1: 3-11; Luke 3: 1-6

Dec. 17: Zeph. 3; 14-20; Isa. 12: 2-6; Phil. 4: 4-7; Luke 3: 7-18

Dec. 24: Micah 5: 2-5a; Luke 1: 47-55 OR Ps. 80: 1-7; Heb. 10: 5-10; Luke 1: 39-45 (46-55); Isa. 9: 2-7; Ps. 96; Titus 2: 11-14; Luke 2: 1-14 (15-20)

Dec. 31:1 Sam. 2: 18-20, 26; Ps. 148; Col. 3: 12-17; Luke 2: 41-52

Church Assignments