Montclair Presbyterian Church

This past Sunday morning I took the Time With Children as an opportunity to work on the behaviors appropriate to church. Each week in Godly Play we remind them that “church is a special place to be with God… to speak with God… to listen to God… and to hear the stories of God.” We remind them that they can speak softly and walk quietly, so they do not disturb someone who might be trying to listen to God. The children are great at doing this upstairs in the Godly Play rooms, but we needed to repeat the lesson downstairs in Celebration.

So I talked about the importance of not disturbing others while they talk with God, and I showed them how we can walk quietly in church. A child shared a vivid and beautiful example: walk as if you were in the woods trying to follow a wild deer. You have to put your foot down softly so you don’t scare the deer away. All the children got up with me and we walked out together as if we were following the deer – quietly! Many of you (adults) who were sitting in the congregation showed your appreciation by laughing and clapping as the children went quietly out. I know this was in good nature, but as we went upstairs together, a small voice asked me sadly, “why did they laugh at us?” and my heart broke a little.

There are churches where laughter and applause are frowned upon, and I’m glad we are not one of those churches. We enjoy ourselves together at MPC. But I need to ask for your help with the children. If we want the children to behave solemnly and respectfully in church, we must begin by treating the children with respect and solemnity. If we ask them to learn self-control, we need to model it for them in our own attitudes. If a child makes a joke with conscious intention, by all means please do laugh. But if they are striving to be serious, and we are all tripping over their cuteness, please catch yourself and try instead to help them. God’s spirit can be as elusive as a deer within us, shy and quiet, rarely seen. Let’s all try together to create an atmosphere of reverence and awe in church, so the children can learn how to listen to God.

Every Blessing,
Talitha

Aches and pains in youth group games, hurt feelings in the sanctuary, disruptions in Godly Play, and stretch-marks ripping away at every corner of the church calendar… What is wrong with us? Dear friends, in my eyes it seems that our church has been suffering from a serious case of growing pains. Ben alluded to this a few weeks ago in his Contact piece when he gave us advice for dealing with a packed calendar. Today I want to add to that conversation from a different point of view. It’s not just the calendar that is full, but also our pews and classrooms. There aren’t just new things happening, but new people with us. We have new teachers and new children in Godly Play, and with nearly a dozen new youth in Youth Group, we are seeking more adult advisors for youth group as well. New visitors walk through our doors every week, some just to visit, and some to stay.

Some of these people don’t know our expectations. Some may be young and not yet know how to keep themselves calm and quiet in exciting new places. Some may not be sufficiently reverent about old traditions we hold dear. Some may not be on time, or in the right place, or living up to any of a thousand other tiny standards we hold for them. None of these standards are terrifically important, but when they are repeatedly trampled on, it causes a situation where half of us feel right and righteous, and the other half feel wrong and embarrassed.

Disruptions are hard, and we often experience disruption when new people join our circles. Jerome Berryman, the wise guru of Godly Play, writes that we should not see disruption as bad. It does not mean that the teacher is not teaching well enough, or that the students are not “good listeners.” Rather, it is an opportunity for teaching and for strengthening the circle. We may have to repeat a simple lesson several times. We may leave the “advanced” material out of the lesson, so that we can include those who are just beginning. The old-timers among us may roll their eyes and ask why those newcomers are wasting our time, and the teacher may have to remind them that they were newcomers once too.

If we are to be a church that truly welcomes the immigrant, we need to start by more fully welcoming one another. So when we experience disruptions in church, think of it as an opportunity to practice the spiritual discipline of hospitality. The epistle of the Hebrews says “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it.” God chooses to hide Godself from us, disguised in the faces of the stranger, the poor, the unsophisticated and unaware – and especially, in the little children. May God find welcome with us.

Blessings,
Talitha

This Sunday as we celebrate World Communion with breads of the world, we will also take the Peace and Global Witness offering. This is one of the four yearly offerings of the Presbyterian Church (USA) which we participate in. Each offering has a different purpose and together they maintain wonderful and very important ministries.

One Great Hour of Sharing is the biggest and most well-known offering, especially since other denominations participate as well. It supports hunger relief, disaster assistance, and our program called “Self Development of Peoples” worldwide. The Pentecost offering supports young adult volunteers and children at risk. The Christmas Joy offering supports leaders past, present, and future, with assistance programs for college students and retired pastors. For years we have taken a Peacemaking offering, which at the 2014 General Assembly was expanded and renamed as the Peace and Global Witness offering. The broadening of the offering means it now includes other aspects of global mission that have been underfunded. And in case you are allergic to the colonial connotations of the word “mission,” please know that our church is spectacular at being culturally sensitive, politically appropriate and creatively collaborative in our mission. We don’t have missionaries any more — we have mission co-workers, joining alongside local organizations, churches, seminaries and more in their ministries around the world.

So, this offering supports our peacemaking, reconciliation, and outreach efforts as we seek to be God’s people in the world. Up to 25% of the received offering stays right here at MPC, 25% goes to the San Francisco Presbytery, and 50% to the Presbyterian Mission Agency where it is disbursed to our ministries around the world.

Our MPC portion has for several years been contributed to OCO – Oakland Community Organizations. Among the work of OCO is Lifelines to Healing, a campaign which works to address the root causes of violence and crime in Oakland and the cycle of mass incarceration that disproportionately affects the lives of young Black and Latino men. As another example of what our funds do at the Presbytery level, I’d like to mention the program “Peace Camp” in Richmond. Each summer at Sojourner Truth Presbyterian Church they have a camp for school-age children to learn violence prevention and peacemaking methods that they can use in their schools, homes, and neighborhoods. They begin as young as 1st grade! What a valuable program in a neighborhood that can surely use it.

As we have prayed for peace in so many ways over the last month, I hope that you will also be generous in contributing to this offering on Sunday.

Blessings,
Talitha

We are coming up to World Communion Sunday, which is my favorite minor church holiday of the year. Perhaps because it’s the most delicious, or perhaps because being so minor has saved the holiday from being coopted or commercialized, I will always have a special place in my heart for the first Sunday in October. On this day we remember that we are one with the Church throughout the world and all ages, and we show this in our worship as tangibly as possible. This means Irish soda bread, Indian naan, Italian focaccia, New York bagels, Palestinian pita, Native American fry bread and much, much more. Debbie Fallehy’s bread-baking Family Life Small Group will contribute a loaf, and you are also invited to bring bread from your family’s culinary heritage.

I celebrated this holiday for the first 17 years of my life in a very diverse church. At Broadway Presbyterian Church in New York City, we were near Columbia and all its international students, adjacent to Harlem’s historic African-American neighborhoods, and just blocks away from the vacant lots where the legendary gangs of West Side Story battled out their ethnic rivalries in song and dance. World Communion Sunday brought so many people together, and as we stood around the table in saris and kente cloth, kimonos and suits, the vision of our multicolored clothes and faces taught me an image of heaven, where all shall be reconciled with God and one another.

Montclair may be a less diverse neighborhood than the Upper West Side… but we are well-traveled, and many of us have left bits of our hearts in one country or another. A piece of my heart is in Uganda. Some of our MPC members are in Bolivia right now. So I would invite you to bring a loaf, a tortilla, a rice bowl, or another alternative — either from your family’s heritage OR from a country you especially love.
You have advance notice so you can get excited and choose your best international outfits and recipes. This is happening on Sunday Oct 5th. If you can contribute bread please both RSVP to me, and deliver it early (9:45) before church.

Every Blessing,
Talitha