A Monthly Newsletter For The Cursillo Community of Newark . Volume XVII - July 2002 - Louise Clarke, Editor From the Spiritual Director The Rev. John A. Rollins Christ Church, Pompton Lakes For me, summer is always a time for re-creation and refreshment, between the end of a busy program year and the beginning of a new program year. It's a time for taking stock and rethinking priorities. As I think about this process once again, I encountered the following, which is reported to be written on the tomb of a bishop interred in Westminster Abbey: When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country. But it, too, seemed immovable. As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it. And now as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family. From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country and, who knows, I may have even changed the world. (Anonymous, quoted in Chicken Soup for the Soul) I pray the summer will be a time of re-creation and refreshment for you, also. May God bless us all. From the Lay Director Joe Stewart Christ Church, Pompton Lakes This is an exciting time for Newark Cursillo. We have so many things happening, we surely are blessed. As always, the latest weekend was a wonderful success, sharing the joy of our Cursillo Community with 9 new Cursillistas. Thanks to Bill Calcagno and the whole team for all their hard work. We were also blessed with 2 new clergy persons who worked really hard to make the weekend a success. I hope you all get to meet Mariano and Lucy Ann. We will be hosting the quarterly meeting of the National Episcopal Cursillo Committee. The planning for all the logistics is in the capable hands of Jan Paxton. If you can help in any way, please contact her and let her know. Let's all make this a successful meeting for them, and let's all make a point of attending the Ultreya that they will facilitate on July 26th. Another really exciting thing that's brewing is the Clergy and Partner Weekend that will be held on August 20th - 23rd of 2003. We have been talking about a weekend that runs from Wednesday through Saturday, so that it would be possible for clergy to attend without missing their Sunday services for several years. Until now, we have been unable to find any facility that had the accommodations we needed or an opening in their schedule that would work. During NewArk 28, I was walking down the hall to my room when I ran into Sister Catherine near her office. In the conversation that ensued, I discovered that she had an opening available next summer. I could hardly believe it, they are almost always booked solid. I totally believe that God made this date available because the time is right for this weekend to be a success. We have begun the planning for this weekend, and prayer needs to be one of the ongoing ingredients in the preparations for this weekend, so I ask you all to hold up the planning for this weekend in prayer throughout the next year. In closing, I'm looking forward to a year of growth and excitement for the whole Community. I ask your prayers for the Secretariat, that we might make decisions that help the Community serve God and Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit. May God bless you all. The Fourth Day Piety Sandra Cummins Holy Spirit, Verona Piety – What it is, and what it isn't. Piety is not a fast road to glory and praise. Rather it is the road that takes you in the opposite direction. A visit to Dictionary.com provides the following: Piety. Veneration or reverence of the Supreme Being, and love of his character, loving obedience to the will of God, and earnest devotion to his service. In other words, piety is service motivated by and centered upon love. Piety is a discipline by which we all must live if we wish to bring people (including ourselves) in to a closer relationship with God. It's not intended to be a struggle, but does require some quiet persistence. Piety provides opportunities to be at one with Christ – to serve in a gentle and loving fashion, in genuine obedience to God's will for our lives. There are many methods of developing our piety, but most begin around participation in Eucharist and personal daily prayer. This lays a foundation upon which we can base our relationship with God – a foundation that will enable us to be open to His call, to hear when He reveals His purpose for our lives. No relationship can develop when communication goes only one way. There must be sharing and exchange for a relationship to have depth, and for this to happen in our spiritual relationships, we have to first learn to talk with God and to make time to be open to hear His call (for it surely will come). We have to learn to set aside our own agendas, to find an inner peace, and to trust – in other words, to let go and let God. All that we do should be done prayerfully and as an act of worship – not looking for praise or seeking reward. We have to beware of false modesty, being happy simply to know that our task is complete and done to the best of our abilities. After all, when God knows, who else needs to know? Study Nancy J. Whiting Christ Church, Pompton Plains Have you ever wondered what life was like in the times when the Hebrew Scriptures were written? Anita Diamant has written a wonderful book describing life among the tribal women of that time. In The Red Tent she has developed an exciting, moving picture of what it meant to be a woman of Israel in what was seemingly a man's world. The red tent is the place where women gathered during their cycle of birthing, menses and even illness. Much of the story is told through conversations which take place in the red tent. As told by Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob, the stories recount events in the lives of her mothers, the four wives of Jacob. The stories are dramatic, touching and told with great sensitivity. There are stories of great traditions and of the turmoil of being a woman in that time. Diamant has treated us to a fictional view of women in the Hebrew Scriptures, an often neglected group of people. Her characters are real and vital and their stories are well worth reading. The book was a New York Times bestseller for many weeks and will become a treasured classic in the years to come. Action Janet Hager St. John the Divine, Hasbrouck Heights Jabez cried out to the God of Israel Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hands be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. This prayer has become quiet important to us at St. John's. Not only do some of us pray this daily, but our Executive Committee added this to their agenda as a part of a group study. But I ll get back to this. Six years ago St. John's and St. Mary the Virgin embarked upon a new ministry called a shared ministry. Together the churches called The Reverend Joe Pickard to be the Vicar at both Congregations. Three years into this new ministry and after many hours of praying, soul searching and tears St. Mary's made the decision to end their Ministry. Where did that leave St. John s? How were we going to grow and thrive? During a meeting with Bishop McKelvy, he challenged us then with this question, Would anyone miss you (meaning St. John's) if you were not here? And as Carol Haefele put so eloquently St. John's decided the time had come for a new kind of courage, the courage of showing just what our faith was all about. As a congregation, we made a decision that, if they didn't miss us up to this point they would miss us soon. But how did we get them to notice that we were here? What is our ministry to this community at large? We needed a plan. An action plan. Not only did we need a plan to guide us on our journey, but we had to have a viable plan that the Department of Missions would support not just emotionally and spiritually but financially also. So we started the process, on several nights during the spring of 1999 we started dream nights. At the beginning of the night a question was posed If money was no object what would you like to see happen here at St. John's. On sheets of newsprint Joe and the congregation shared their dreams of what St. John's could look like. No dream was too big or to small, everything was possible. We have dreams of a new Church Facility, a full time Music Ministry, Concerts, late night 12 step meetings for people who work the late shifts, a bell tower, Associate Clergy, a full time parish administrator, provide respite care for families who are caring for people who are ill, a senior center, I think we even dreamed of a swimming pool. Eventually we took those news-prints and after many long hours developed a five year plan that is supported by the DOM. As we began living the Challenge we began to study our environment. What was it the community really needed that we could provide? We discovered that people needed to be cared for. One of the off shoots of the challenge is called The Care on the Corner Center. Right now we have three ministries that are being developed, English as a Second Language, Sophie & Friends--a Toddler Care/Nurturing Group and H.O.P.E.S. a group that responds to and supports the incidents of adults coping with childhood abuse. Two of these groups, ESL and Sophie and Friends, are up running and growing and we are currently canvassing for a facilitator for the Hopes group. Sophie & Friends meets weekly and averages about 18 children every week. This group is basically self sufficient and has a minimal need for volunteers from our congregation to continue on and grow. ESL - In June of 2001 we started this program. That first group of students began to meet at the end of June 2001. The session had thirty two registered students, of which 20 completed the six week course. In the fall of 2001 thirty three students registered and twenty students completed the session. In the winter of 2002 we had a total of one hundred and fifteen students register and thirty five who completed the session. Remember what we have been praying for here at St. John's Oh that God would bless us and enlarge our territory. Our students come from 24 countries representing over 17 different languages and dialects with a variety of educational levels that run from PhD candidates to hardly any education at all. The people who participate in these classes are very grateful for this program. Not only do we as a congregation provide them with a way to learn English but we provide them with hospitality and love. This program is provided to the community at no cost and is fully supported by volunteers from the congregation and the community. By no means do I want you to think that these programs got up and running with no problem; again borrowing from Carol. We floundered, we never lost faith, we continued to work and pray. During all of this our parish life continued to grow. More people were in church, our Sunday school grew, and we played, prayed and ate together as a parish family. Through piety, study and action St. John's is truly a Christian Community in Acton making a difference in the world and I am blessed to be a pat of it. May you all be blessed with an ever enlarging territory and may you continue to be protected from harm. Ultreya Weekend News -NewArk #29 NewArk #29 is scheduled for April 24-27, 2003. The Coordinator for the weekend will Carol Haefle. Applications for team and for weekenders will be available at all upcoming Ultreyas or by contacting Carol at 973-778-5034. Applications are available in the print copy of the NewArk and on line in pdf format by clicking here.(Pdf format means that you need the Adobe Acrobat Viewer, which is free from Adobe and on most computers because it comes bundled with other software. If you don't have a current version, go to www.adobe.com and download one.) Community News The Episcopal Church of the Atonement (Anglican), Fair Lawn, continues their 3rd Sunday of the month Taizé service ,7-8 pm, on June 16th. This will continue through the summer. You can mark the following dates now: July 21, August 18th, and September 15th. The Church is located off Broadway, also known as Route 4, at 1-36 30th Street, behind the Jack Daniels Audi Dealership, across the street from Warren Point School. Please join us. For more information please telephone the Church at (201)797-0760. Fr Kevin P.J. Coffey TELLING OUR STORIES A Fourth-Day Event September 28th: Save the Date On Saturday, September 28th, Julie Sibbald will lead a Fourth-Day event called "Telling Our Stories." Julie, a professional storyteller who brings spiritual lessons to life for her audiences, will share how storytelling has helped her tell her own story. In addition, Julie will both tell us stories and teach us how to tell stories ourselves. The workshop is scheduled from 1:00 – 5:00 PM at Church of the Atonement in Fair Lawn. Following the workshop, participants will share a meal. To round out the day's events an ultreya will follow at 7:00 PM. Participants are asked to pay a $5.00 registration fee and to bring a snack or drink to share at the snack table. Church of the Atonement will provide a simple meal for dinner. Please save the date on your calendar now and look for a registration form sometime in the weeks ahead. For further information, contact Kathy Coffey, (201) 796-4991 or kpcoffey2@aol.com. NECC News Jan Paxton The summer meeting of the National Episcopal Cursillo Committee will be held here in the Diocese of Newark and we are the hosts! The committee will meet at Christ Church, Pompton and will stay with host families in the area. According to the schedule, they will arrive on Wednesday and gather at Christ Church for supper. Their opening Eucharist will be Thursday morning and they will work hard on Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. On Friday evening there will be a Pot-luck Supper at Christ Church at 6:00 PM for the entire Cursillo Community to welcome the committee to the diocese and then after supper (7:30 PM) they will provide the witness and spiritual direction for an Ultreya. I hope that as many of you as are around will join us for that event. On Saturday afternoon we are to plan several options of entertainment and then the NECC members and the host families will gather to share a dinner. Most of the NECC members will join their host families for church on Sunday morning and then depart sometime in the afternoon. John Rollins has agreed to be the head of the meals committee for this visit and I will coordinate the hosts. Erica Stewart will coordinate the Altar Guild needs and I have asked several other folks to help coordinate other aspects of the visit. If you would be able to donate food (meals, break table items....) please contact John (973-835-2207 or rollins@intac.com). Food donations needed for the NECC meeting 6 dozen eggs Fresh fruit 4 loaves white or whole wheat bread 4 loaves rye bread 2 lbs. bacon 3 lbs breakfast sausage links 2 gallons milk 2 quarts half ‘n half 4 lbs. standard coffee 2 lbs. decaffeinated coffee 2 lbs. butter 6 lbs. sliced ham 6 lbs. sliced corned beef 4 lbs. cole slaw 2 large bottles Russian dressing 5 lbs. Italian sausage 6 lbs. meat balls 6 lbs. pork butt 3 dozen potato hamburger buns salad greens green bell peppers red bell peppers break table items If you would be able to meet someone at the airport on Wednesday or return someone on Sunday or house someone in your guest room (making arrangements to get them back and forth to Christ Church), please let me know (paxton@intac.com , 973-633-9648). Let's show them what real hospitality is like! Dates to Remember Who to Talk To --Return to top of Cursillo Home Page