Environmental Sermon Award Winner

The Rev. Dr. Janet Parker, a Presbyterian and UCC minister, and friend and mentor from my days at Union Seminary, has won the National Council of Churches' Environmental Sermon Award. In the sermon, Dr. Parker preaches the Good News to care for our earth and environment.

You can read her sermon here.

Conversely, I'll also have a copy of the sermon printed and available on Sunday.

The Joy of Podcasting

As many of you know, we offer a podcast for all sermons preached here at the church. You can hear the podcast (even if you don't own an mp3 player or an iPod). You can hear the podcast here by locating to the left of this page our podcast player and selecting the sermon you want to hear. Or you can go to the church's podcasting homepage on the Podomatic website.

But besides the sermons here, the Internet has a host of sermons available for your interest. This afternoon, I just heard a wonderful sermon by a student at Union Theological Seminary preaching in chapel. Let me invite you to hear it. The student's name is Justin Latterell. I have no idea who he is but he preached one fine sermon!

Art Show & Strawberry Festival

This year we are doing something different. On June 9, we will be hosting our annual Strawberry Festival. We will have fresh strawberries delivered and served with cake and ice cream. Coupled with our festival, we will also be having an art show and sale from our Artists' Circle.

The Artists' Circle is led by church member Kathy Lindner. It meets the second Saturday of every month from 10:00am to 3:00pm. They get together and do various painting projects through various mediums of paint. This year they have been painting with water colors and what an amazing group of artists we have.

During the show everyone will get an opportunity to see their art work and purchase what a few on display. The art show is open to the public free of charge. Eating the strawberries, however, requires tickets. Our Strawberry Festival is a special fundraiser we have yearly and the monies help our operating expenses. The tickets for adults are $3.50 and kids for $1.00.

Oops!

So we didn't have our movie night last night in church. I had forgotten that we had rescheduled it because yesterday was Mother's Day. Who would think that you wouldn't want to come to church and see the M. Night Shamalan's The Village on Mother's Day? Well, me for one.

Anyways, we will show the movie next Sunday, May 20 at 5:00pm. We will be having a lot of activity next Sunday morning. We will be observing Christian Education Recognition as well as having an Ice Cream Social after church in celebration and thanksgiving for our Stewardship Campaign.

You are invited to return in the evening for our movie showing. We will have popcorn and soda as refreshments.

And, I should offer a word of warning. The movie is a somewhat scary one although it had a superb ending that will keep us awash in conversation. If you have young children, and even though the final scenes of the movie will dispel some of the myth of the movie, it still may scare the living daylights out of them. Maybe next Sunday would be a good night to have a babysitter? Or, if we get enough requests, perhaps we could have a babysitter here? Let the church know if that interests you.

Faith in America

Here is a great grassroots movement challenging the understandings about prejudice and discrimination. Led by Mitchell Gold (the furniture designer) and the Rev. Jimmy Creech (defrocked UMC pastor), they are taking their message on the road, placing ads in newspapers, and challenging all of us in our understanding regarding how religion and faith has often been used to champion social causes as well as, on numerous occasions, to justify injustices in relation to race, gender, and sexual orientation.

Check out their website, here the testimonies and see the posters and ads they are placing in newspapers across the country.

Laughter on the 23rd Floor

Come help the 100th Anniversary Committee fundraiser by purchasing a ticket to see this fun play at the Little Firehouse Theatre in Oradell, NJ. And, come and support our newest member Steve Moldt as he stars in this Neil Simon's winning play. We are going as a group on Saturday, May 19 at 8:00 p.m.

Here is a recent write up about the play:

This Broadway hit is a homage to the author’s early days in show biz when he worked as a junior jokesmith for Sid Caesar’s “Your Show of Shows”. He was stuck in a room with a bunch of the looniest comedy writers ever, who grew up to be Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner and others. The play is structured as a memoir told by Simon’s alter ego Lucas. As the writers in the play try to top each other with gags while competing for the attention of head madman Max Prince (the Sid Caesar character), Max must contend with NBC brass who fear that his humor is too sophisticated for middle America. The Wall Street Journal said: ”Laughter” is an “old-style comedy; fast and furious without a thought in its head except to entertain.”

Tickets are being sold for $20. To purchase them, please contact Judy Russell as soon as possible.

A Kingdom for Everyone Podcast

Cresskill UCC's Podcast

Give it a listen!

A Kingdom for Everyone



Enjoy! -- Cresskill UCC