Trinity Sermon word cloud

Word Cloud for Trinity Sunday (Click it to got to a bigger image on their page)
from wordle.com (thanks guys)

New Funeral Policy

Below is the new Northminster funeral policy. 

If anyone knows how to truncate this post and only show the first paragraph, then link to the whole post, please let me know.  I see it done on other blogs, but don't know how to do it here.

Northminster Presbyterian Church

Funeral Guidelines and Policy

These guidelines are written for members to plan their funerals, and to help families of members who have died.  Over the past few decades the church has gotten away from ancient Christian practices.  This policy hopes to bring back time-tested Christian tradition and practice at funerals.  We encourage a pre-planning conversation with the pastor.

At time of death the pastor should be contacted.  Telephone numbers are below.  The pastor may go with the family to the Funeral home, or should be contacted immediately by the Funeral Director to check the church calendar.

Funerals are for the deceased.  This is the time the church gathers and journeys together to burial.  Therefore, whenever possible, the body of the member who has died should be present in the sanctuary for the funeral service.  One picture of the deceased may be placed on an easel or small table in the sanctuary, a large table for pictures and mementos may be placed in the narthex.  Pictures and mementos are never placed on the communion table.  We cannot accommodate video displays.

Visitation may take place before or after the Funeral.  The church’s Congregational Care Committee has a policy that encourages receptions after the funeral.  The casket may be open before and/or during the Funeral service, but normally it is closed for the service.

 There is no charge for services at Northminster, nor is there a fee for the officiant.  The organist or accompanist should be paid a minimum of $75, and $100 if he/she rehearses with a soloist. Soloists or ensembles from the Northminster choir may sing.  The congregation should sing at least one hymn. This is a Christian worship service; the Bible should be read, prayers offered, and words of hope shared. The font, table, and pulpit will always be present. The minister may allow up to two short speeches about the deceased member.

Normally, a funeral pall will be placed on the casket or urn as it enters the sanctuary. The American flag may cover the casket of a veteran. 

Normally the burial rites of clubs and fraternal organizations are conducted at graveside after the minister concludes the burial service.  Rites may also be conducted at the lodge, clubhouse, union hall, etc. Upon request of both the family and fraternal organization, the Session will consider allowing rites to be performed at Northminster after the funeral.  

When there is a question about this policy the pastor and/or Session will clarify it.  If the pastor is unavailable at time of death the Director of Christian Education and Music, Mr. Randolph should be contacted, or the Elder in charge of Congregational Care.

Adopted by Session

May 18, 2010

Pentecost Offering Information

Plan to wear red no Northminster on Pentecost, May 23, 2010. [I may wear a white shirt and RED tie. You get the picture. Red scarves and ties are fine.]

We'll have a guest preacher, Susan Sampson from Thornwell Home and School. We'll receive the Pentecost Offering. 40% of the offering will go to Thornwell. 60% is used for youth leadership training and children's ministry of our denomination.

Remember there is a congregational meeting following the service to talk about pausing sanctuary building process.

Here's a video about the offering.

Letting Go of Instutional Nostalgia

Outgoing Moderator of our General Assembly Bruce Reyes-Chow blogged about changes in the church and challenged us to let go of institutional nostalgia. His blog is here.

I'm not sure I know how to let go of those structures -- although we often disagree with them, they do the biblical work mandated by the Bible.

I was going to repost his whole blog, but think I'll just let you go to the link above. What do you think of that?

Pics of our children's event and Youth Sunday practice

Above, the men of the Brotherhood small group pose with the children after making birdhouses together. Thanks guys!

Here Nancy and some youth practice for the GRACE children's sermon.

notes and sources for April 25 sermon

The Belhar Confession from the PC(USA) web page. Wait, here is a better text of Belhar from the RCA web page.

Wikipedia on the Belhar Confession.

The Uniting Presbyterian Church of South Africa's page.

Mowbray Presbyterian Church's page.

Treasure hunt at church

Many thanks to all who made the picnic and treasure hunt a big success.

Information about Eboo Patel

On Wednesday, April 15 Louisville Seminary will host a lecture by Dr. Eboo Patel of the Interfaith Youth Core. Here is an article about the lecture. He was awarded the Grawemeyer Award in Religion; this is an international award given by The University of Louisville and Louisville Seminary. He will give the Grawemeyer lecture Wednesday night.

His book is Acts of Faith.

I will try to put a link below  so you may purchase it directly from Amazon.

map to the sunrise service at UWF on Easter Sunday 6:15am.

This map seems to work, you may have to click it a few times. The x marks the end of Campus Drive.

Seeking Meaning from the Trip to South Africa

I am still praying for wisdom about the two week trip to South Africa that ended Friday.  As noted below we spent a lot of time with our partner churches and had a little fun on our own.  I was so happy Nancy could go with me.  Having another member of Northminster who has seen, heard, and begun to understand our partner churches will be helpful.  She can also hold me accountable for some of the plans and promises I made while there. 

At the very least our partner churches (Mowbray and M.P. Dube Memorial) have become real places, not pictures in my imagination.  Both seem to be middle class churches -- although a sociological study of South Africa could convince me otherwise.  Their society is much more complex than ours.  I now have a sense of that and want to convey it to our church and presbytery.

We're real partners.  Northminster does not give money from our budget to either church.  This seemed to have surprised some leaders of the Presbytery of Western Cape.  We have given them a refrigerator before, and participated when the presbytery helped them rebuild after freak tornadoes in 1999.  But nothing from Northminster's budget goes to either church.  We pray for one another, we support each other, and I hope to expand this over time.

What does it mean to be an equal international partner?  This is the meaning I hope to seek in the coming weeks.

I am also interested in both presbyteries participating in joint Two Cents A Meal projects.