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Workshop
on Stained Glass to be Held July 21 |
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A three-hour workshop in the art and craft of stained glass will be held on Saturday, July 21, from 1 to 4 p.m., in the church assembly hall. All are invited to come and bring friends.
Peter Leue, a well-known local craftsman and active member of our congregation, will lead the hands-on session which will cover the history, materials, and technique of stained glass. Every participant will have the opportunity to create a stained-glass project, a suncatcher made from pieces of Westminster’s old stained-glass windows.
The fee for the workshop is only $5 to cover the cost of materials, and all tools and supplies will be provided.
Those interested may call the church office to pre-register, which will help the planning process, but walk-ins will also be welcome.
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Parties Being Planned Everyone is invited to enjoy social events this summer that are being hosted by Westminster members, including barbecues, a Russian-style feast, English teas, and a sing-a-long. Watch your mail for a complete schedule, and then R.S.V.P. for your favorite. |
Contract Renewed
The Session has voted to renew an interim ministry agreement with the Rev. Sandra Hanna, to be in effect for 12 months beginning June 1, 2001, or until 90 days following a call to a new pastor, whichever comes first. The contract was amended to increase her continuing education allowance for 2001 by $800, and may also be amended in January 2002 to reflect salary and benefit adjustments authorized in the new church budget.
The motion to extend the contract was passed unanimously, and there were many expressions of gratitude to the Rev. Hanna for her creative and outstanding leadership during this transitional time.
From the Church Records
Deaths:
5/22/01 William G. Fraser
6/7/01 Helen O’Meara
Baptism:
6/3/01 Tyler Sullivan Schaad, son of Ian and Courtney Wilson Schaad.
Marriages:
6/2/01 G. David Hershey and Sarah G. Jeffery.
6/22/01 Susan C. Loesch and Adam R. Bell.
6/30/01 Laura Moody and Ryan Decker.
Mission News...
The Mission Committee has made a $420 donation to Project Love, and the Session voted at its June meeting to donate an additional $420 to this summertime program from the Session discretionary fund.
Project Love is a seven-week day camp for Albany children from 5 to 13 years of age, held at the Boys and Girls Club on Delaware Avenue. The FOCUS churches pledged this year to provide at least 20 scholarships to the program for families unable to afford it.
Persons may send individual contributions to fund a child at the camp, which costs $30 per child per week, to: Irving Smith, First Presbyterian Church, 363 State St. Albany, NY, 12210.
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The Messenger
is a monthly publication of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, 262
State Street (mail to: 85 Chestnut Street),
Albany, NY 12210. Phone: 436-8544; Fax: 436-8599; E-mail
Website:
. Interim Pastor
Sandra Lee Hanna Parish Associate
James R. Thompson Minister of Music and
Arts Alfred V.
Fedak Associate Minister of
Music and Arts Susan
Hermance Fedak Editor
Ann O. Treadway Administrative Secretary
Nancy J. Sokil News deadline: 15th of
preceding month. Contributions
welcome. |
Lectionary for Lord's Day
July 2001
1 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Ps. 77:1-2, 11-20
Gal. 5:1, 13-25; Luke 9:51-62
8 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 Kings 5:1-14; Ps. 30
Gal. 6:(1-6) 7-16
Luke 10: 1-11, 16-20
15 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Amos7:7-17; Ps. 82
Col. 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37
22 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Amos 8:1-12; Ps. 52
Col. 1:15-28; Luke 10:38-42
29 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Hos. 1:2-10; Ps. 85
Col. 2:6-15 (16-19)
Luke 11:1-13
August 2001
5 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Hos. 11:1-11; Ps. 107:1-9, 43
Col. 3:1-11; Luke 12:13-21
12 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isa. 1:1, 10-20; Ps. 50:1-8, 22-23
Heb. 11:1-3, 8-16; Luke 12:32-40
19 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isa. 5:1-7; Ps. 80:1-2, 8-19
Heb. 11:29-12:2; Luke 12:49-56
26 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jer. 1:4-10; Ps. 71:1-6
Heb. 12:18-29; Luke 13:10–17
Organ
Fund Committee
Making Early Progress
The Organ Fund Restoration Committee, co-chaired by Gail Reynolds and Rich Miller, reports that much progress is being made during this “silent phase” of the fund drive. The public part of the drive will begin in December and several events and opportunities to donate to the fund are now being planned.
According to Gail, the committee is also looking ahead to many exciting musical events to be held in Westminster with the reinstalled Skinner pipe organ in the spring of 2003. It is now projected that the renovated organ will be here by the end of 2002.
Other members of the organ fund committee are Susan Filipp, David Klingaman, Hank and Mary Elizabeth Williams, and Al Zeppieri.
Program
on Ghana
Set for September 15
Associate Presbyter Linda Crawford of the Albany Presbytery will speak on her recent experiences in Ghana at an intergenerational program to be held from 5 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 15, in the church assembly hall. A light supper will be served, and planning for the event is being coordinated by the Christian Education Committee, the Mission Committee, and representatives of the FOCUS executive council.
A group of 15 Americans, including Associate Presbyter Crawford, recently spent about two weeks in Africa where, she said, “the health situation and lifestyles of the children became a stark reality for us.” She will show some slides of her surroundings while in Ghana, and be prepared to teach some simple Ghanian children’s songs.
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Budget
Canvass Team to Meet Soon |
Church budget canvass co-chairs Nancy Burton and Lois Wilson began the budget process for next year by meeting with committee representatives in June to determine how budget allocations should be made.
The canvass team will meet in August to draw up a draft budget, which will be submitted to the Session and the Trustees at their September meetings. The Session is then expected to adopt a final budget at its October meeting.
On Sunday, September 16, a second hour lunch program will be held for a discussion on spiritual gifts of Westminster members.
The annual meeting is scheduled for Sunday, October 28, when members will be asked to endorse the 2002 budget, along with electing church officers. Committee chairmen will be present to answer any questions about their program areas.
Pledge cards will be mailed out in early November, and Pledge Sunday will be held on November 18, the Sunday before Thanksgiving.
Last year’s budget canvass was highly successful–with an ambitious goal exceeded during the 2001 church year–and members of the canvass team are hopeful the Westminster family will continue to give generously, to allow our church ministry to grow even more in meaning and reach.
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Report
from the 213th General Assembly |
(Editor’s note: The following is excerpted from Presbyterian News Service.)
For better or worse, the 213th General Assembly will surely be remembered for its decision to propose the deletion of G-6.0106b – the commonly called “fidelity and chastity” provision – of the Book of Order and the vacating of an authoritative interpretation of the constitution in force since 1978 that prohibits the ordination of “self-affirming practicing homosexuals” as church officers.
What should be remembered about this Assembly is that it showed a remarkable degree of trust in its committees, conducted its business prayerfully and civilly, and took seriously both the social witness of the church and the theological under-pinnings that drive the mission and ministry of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). And just about all of the Assembly’s decisions were made by overwhelming majorities, demon-strating a remarkable degree of unity in a church that is frequently characterized as badly divided.
The Assembly’s vote to send another amendment to the presbyteries that would delete G-6.0106b, which requires church officers to practice “fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness,” was 317-208, a 60 percent approval. If the presbyteries ratify the deletion, the authoritative interpretation barring gay ordination will also be repealed. The last time a proposal to delete G-6.0106b went to the presbyteries – in 1997 – it was rejected 114-57.
Staff’s Summer Plans
Interim Minister Sandra Hanna will attend the Hymn Society’s annual conference in Kansas City and the Mount Olivet retreat center in Minnesota during July. After a short vacation to visit family and friends in Minneapolis, she will be back at Westminster for all of August.
Al Fedak, Minister of Arts and Music, led choral reading sessions and coordinated a composers’ forum at the regional convention of the American Guild of Organists in Binghamton in late June. In July he is leading workshops at the Christian Reformed Church’s Conference on Liturgy and Music, and playing the organ at the Hymn Society conference in Kansas City. Later in the summer he will serve as choral director of the Colby College Summer Church Music Institute in Maine.
Sue Fedak and Peter Leue are accompanying three Westminster teenagers, Matt Brown, Greg Dwyer and Eric Schell, to a group work camp in Elizabeth, West Virginia, that is taking place June 30 through July 9.
An Author Among Us
Doris Creegan, a member of the Westminster Choir and lecturer at the University at Albany, has published a book in French entitled “Echoes de la Reforme dans la litterature de langue francaise.” One reviewer wrote: “What she brings to her book is not only vast learning but also formidable powers of concentration and organization. The book is a tour de force.”
Doris Creegan was born in Tours, France, and attended French schools before becoming a foreign exchange student at Wheaton College and Mount Holyoke College.