HOLY COMMUNION - SUNDAY, JULY 7th & AUGUST 13th
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Join us for Worship with Holy Communion!
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Join us for Communion during worship on Sunday, June 9th at 9:15am in Celebration of Pentecost
MORAVIAN WOMEN
Moravian Women will meet on Thursday, July 11 at 1:00 p.m. in the lounge with Lorraine Abbott as hostess.
WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
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The theme for Chetek 2019 is “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” As a part of the program, we are hoping to let campers know one way they are connected to their “neighbors” in the Western District congregations is through prayer. Please consider selecting one day to offer your prayer support from July 15 – 19 during camp. Signup sheet is on the bulletin board by the offices.
It is as simple as signing up, and offering a prayer during your chosen time for the campers gathered at Chetek. Themes for prayer should be as you feel led, but prayers for a shared experience of community, and faithful discernment are especially appreciated! -Justin Rabbach |
MUSIC UPDATES COMING SOON!
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GAME DAYS
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JOYFUL NOISE OFFERING
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Joyful Noise offerings will be taken on Sunday, July 29th and August 25th. The July offering will be given to Peru mission work and August’s offering will go towards our Cleansing Water ministry.
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STUFF THE BUS
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We will be collecting for Stuff the Bus supplies starting July 8th through August 1st. Supplies can be brought into the church social room and deposited in the boxes provided.
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THANK YOU
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Thank you for the Joyful Noise offering last month! What a gift. ☺ We have really been thriving lately at the café, serving 60 people each day we’re open…some of whom cannot pay for their meal. Your donation funded meals for 40 people!
Your generous souls help make Tricklebee Café possible. Thank you! Pastor Christie Melby-Gibbons & Amy (intern) |
FAMILY CENTER NEEDS
THE FAMILY CENTER: There is a need for the following items at the center:
(If you have any questions or large items to donate, please call 715-421-1559.)
- Personal Care Items: Toothbrush, toothpaste, body wash, deodorant, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, feminine products.
- New/gently-used, working household items: Small appliances, lamps, bath towels, sheets, blankets, batteries.
- Kitchen items: Dish/kitchen towels, silverware, dishes, glassware, pots/pans, Ziplock bags
- Food donations: Hot/cold cereal, pancake mix, syrup, canned meats, canned fruits, long grain rice, peanut butter, jelly, pastas, macaroni & cheese, ethnic (Asian) foods.
- Cleaning products: Laundry detergent, dish soap, hand soap, dishwasher detergent, household cleaners, sanitizing wipes, garbage bags, paper towels.
(If you have any questions or large items to donate, please call 715-421-1559.)
BOARD OF ELDERS - UPDATE
The Board of Elders met on the evening of June 6th:
- We continued with the planning for the July 4th cookout. We concurred that we would like the proceeds from this event to go to the Ahuas Medical Clinic in Honduras. This recommendation was then passed on to the Trustees for their consideration.
- We finalized the restructuring of the Christian Education Committee to include the pastor, an Elder rep., a Trustees rep, the Sunday school teachers, the CEC treasurer, and two at large members from the congregation. Bill Mohr has accepted an appointment to the committee through January of 2021. We will elect an at large member of the congregation for a two year term at our church council in January 2020.
- Concerns about the behavior of children during worship were brought to the Elders. We thoughtfully discussed this issue with no final decisions or actions made. We recognized the tension in this issue and will continue to prayerfully consider all points of view on the matter.
- Our next meeting will take place on Tuesday, July 16th
BOARD OF TRUSTEES - UPDATE
The Board of Trustees met on June 11. A report will be included in the next newsletter.
BUILDING COMMITTEE - UPDATE
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As we have progressed into the month of June the work of the Building Committee has increased. We are seeing finalized plans and State approval of the project should be done by June 25th. Our architects are sending out invitations for bids within the next several days. Plans at this point are to have bids for the project in for review by late July and if everything comes in at planned cost, we could be awarding contracts for work in August. If that is able to happen, the expected start date would be end of August or first of September with project completion before Christmas. We will be making announcements as the milestones are reached.
-Michael Barnes Chair, Building Committee |
BOOK SALE - BOOK BIN VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
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Volunteers are needed to empty Book Bin. You can sign up for a week. Signup sheet is posted on the bulletin board by the church offices.
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RECYCLE YOUR INK CARTRIDGES
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Did you know that we collect used ink and toner cartridges and then turn them in for credit. We receive $2.00 for each cartridge that we bring in. You can place your used cartridges in the blue plastic container in the hallway by the offices.
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ARE YOU READY TO DANCE AND TONE YOUR BODY?Elsa Voight now offers Zumba® Toning classes right here at Wisconsin Rapids Moravian Church! Click HERE to learn more about registration and details. See you there in the disco lights!
Please contact Elsa with further questions: Email: PittsvilleDancePartyFitness@Gmail.com Call or Text: 715-577-8071 |
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2019 CAMPS THEME:
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PLUS 50 RETREAT AT MT. MORRIS
Everyone in the over 50 crowd is invited to attend this special retreat at Mt. Morris. The dates are August 15-18 and the theme is “Love, Love, Love – What Does the Bible Say about Love.” Registration forms are available on the table at the back of the sanctuary.
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CAMP SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMLast fall the Board of Trustees made changes to our camp scholarship program. This year as in past years, we will provide scholarships to cover one-half of the cost of camp. We will continue to do so plus campers can earn points to cover the additional costs. If they earn four points, 100 percent of their cost to attend camp will be covered. Further information, as well as how to earn credits, is available on the table at the back of the sanctuary.
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MORAVIAN DAY OF SERVICE - SEPTEMBER 15th
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Summer has just started, but as life goes, that means time to start planning for the fall... and this year, that means planning for the first ever Moravian Day of Service! On September 15th, individuals and congregations will be finding unique ways to serve in their communities, and joining with folks across the U.S. and Canada, as we collectively renew our commitment to Mission with and among our neighbors! Soon, there will be even more resources available (like worship materials which can be utilized to celebrate service), but for now you access a growing list of invitations to serve from Moravian entities across our Provinces.
To start planning and to stay up to date on the latest visit: moravianmission.org/DayOfService |
FOR FUTURE REFERENCE - GUEST SPEAKER - OCTOBER 27th
We will have a Mission Focus on Sunday, October 27th with Bishop Chris Giesler as our guest speaker. Special music will be provided by the Guitar Group and the Moravians in Mission will provide the coffee Hour. (Chris will also probably speak during the Sunday School hour as well.)
-Shari Marsden
-Shari Marsden
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PRAYER OF SERVANTHOODO God, our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. We give you thanks for your constant presence.
Through seasons of constancy and change, you are with us, calling us out of ourselves into the world to serve others. Grant that we may be united in love for each other and for those we haven’t yet met. us wisdom, patience, and perseverance as we work through the details and challenges of the ministry you have placed before us. Continue, O Lord, to bless the work of our hands. Bless the work of our hands. Amen. |
A PRAYER FOR SUMMER
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A prayer for summer
A rippling sea of green and gold Is shimmering before us As wind stirs the tall corn, Wave after green wave rises high, Reaching for the summer sun. Lord God, When you summon seeds From these furrowed fields, How readily they obey! Like the myriad crops, Help us to grow steadily: Help us stretch, ripen Round out, unfold. In the warm rays of your strength, Help us yield goodness! -St. Mark’s Lutheran Birdsboro, PA |
FROM THE ECUMENICAL OFFICER
A friend’s car was recently totaled by a hit-and-run driver. My friend gave the police a description of the vehicle and driver—an older white male—but no license. The police charged a young Native American woman who had been stopped for driving while intoxicated. She was so drunk she assumed she had done what the police said, so she pleaded guilty. My friend, who is white, is still in conversation with the police.
June 7–9 five Moravians, including PEC president Betsy Miller and me, attended the triennial meeting of Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC), one of the ecumenical groups the province is part of. CUIC started in the 1960s as the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), an attempt to merge several large Protestant groups into one denomination. As that effort faltered, COCU evolved into CUIC, focused on recognition of one another’s ministries and fighting racism in church and society. (While Moravians have no difficulty with a pastor from another denomination serving a Moravian congregation, and vice versa, this is an issue in some denominations.) Like many other church entities, such as state and local councils of churches, CUIC struggles as denominations and congregations more and more tend to focus on their own identity and future.
Our gathering was in Montgomery, Alabama. In addition to our business meeting, we visited Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, from which their pastor, Martin Luther King Jr., led the 1955 bus boycott; the Legacy Museum, showing the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and present incarceration; and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a park with casket-size monuments, by county, naming the four thousand documented lynchings (I noted that fifty-nine of these have been in my lifetime). Most the Moravian delegation came a day early in order to travel also to Selma. A block from the Dexter Ave. Church is the state capitol building, with a prominent statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America.
Most of my ecumenical contacts remind me that the Christian church is not a white church and that the concerns of non-white American Christians are often different from the concerns of white American Christians. Yet in the United States we can hear voices who suggest or assume that the Christian church is white or that whiteness is essential to our national or Christian identity. Even today, not being white is often a handicap in education, employment, or buying a home, through systems that, often unintentionally, favor white persons.
We are members of a denomination whose major mark in church history is as a missionary church, going to the far corners of the world, to people mostly not white, to tell the story of God’s love in Jesus for all humanity, not just those who are white. Many people today view the missionary movement simply as a part of colonialism. Though missionaries have certainly been tainted by colonialism, perhaps especially in relation to Native Americans, Moravians missionaries went out with a conviction that all the people of the world are of value to God and should hear of God’s love in Jesus. So we who are white Moravians have a special interest in striving for a society with rewards and opportunities for all.
Jesus loves grownups and children,
All the people of the world;
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight;
Jesus loves the many people of the world.
Hermann Weinlick,
Ecumenical Officer
June 7–9 five Moravians, including PEC president Betsy Miller and me, attended the triennial meeting of Churches Uniting in Christ (CUIC), one of the ecumenical groups the province is part of. CUIC started in the 1960s as the Consultation on Church Union (COCU), an attempt to merge several large Protestant groups into one denomination. As that effort faltered, COCU evolved into CUIC, focused on recognition of one another’s ministries and fighting racism in church and society. (While Moravians have no difficulty with a pastor from another denomination serving a Moravian congregation, and vice versa, this is an issue in some denominations.) Like many other church entities, such as state and local councils of churches, CUIC struggles as denominations and congregations more and more tend to focus on their own identity and future.
Our gathering was in Montgomery, Alabama. In addition to our business meeting, we visited Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, from which their pastor, Martin Luther King Jr., led the 1955 bus boycott; the Legacy Museum, showing the history of slavery, Jim Crow, and present incarceration; and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a park with casket-size monuments, by county, naming the four thousand documented lynchings (I noted that fifty-nine of these have been in my lifetime). Most the Moravian delegation came a day early in order to travel also to Selma. A block from the Dexter Ave. Church is the state capitol building, with a prominent statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederate States of America.
Most of my ecumenical contacts remind me that the Christian church is not a white church and that the concerns of non-white American Christians are often different from the concerns of white American Christians. Yet in the United States we can hear voices who suggest or assume that the Christian church is white or that whiteness is essential to our national or Christian identity. Even today, not being white is often a handicap in education, employment, or buying a home, through systems that, often unintentionally, favor white persons.
We are members of a denomination whose major mark in church history is as a missionary church, going to the far corners of the world, to people mostly not white, to tell the story of God’s love in Jesus for all humanity, not just those who are white. Many people today view the missionary movement simply as a part of colonialism. Though missionaries have certainly been tainted by colonialism, perhaps especially in relation to Native Americans, Moravians missionaries went out with a conviction that all the people of the world are of value to God and should hear of God’s love in Jesus. So we who are white Moravians have a special interest in striving for a society with rewards and opportunities for all.
Jesus loves grownups and children,
All the people of the world;
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight;
Jesus loves the many people of the world.
Hermann Weinlick,
Ecumenical Officer
“The fruit of silence is prayer. The fruit of prayer is faith. The fruit of faith is love. The fruit of love is service. The fruit of service is peace.”
-Mother Teresa
PASTORAL CARE
To reach Rev. Beth Rohn-Habhegger, please call her at 715-213-2362 or send an email to wrmcpastor@gmail.com.
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You can also follow our pastor on social media:
Instagram at wrmcpastor or Snapchat at Pastorwrmc. |