PRELUDE, March 2001



FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Yours truly has never particularly thought of himself as a prophetic preacher. Nearly every passage of the Bible seems to me to call us not only individually to holiness but also collectively toward social justice, insights into Scripture usually come to me out of pastoral care rather than any special revelation.

Our work in the Council of Churches is largely care pastoral: we try to help those in need in ways most local congregations cannot, we try to help diverse Christians work together more effectively to embody God's love for our world, and we try to help Christians and non-Christians understand one another better. This is what I see in our work with the poor and our work with those who are ministering with the poor:

With extraordinary support from local churches and synagogues, the LICC provided more than 300 Thanksgiving in November and Christmas gifts for more than 350 people, and this is a great joy. But there are countless families we cannot help.

A few years ago, most of the people who came to the LICC's emergency food centers were between work, or they had started a new job and were waiting for their first paycheck, or they had some other temporary financial difficulty. We seldom fed any family more than three times in one year. Today hundreds of families come to us once a month because every able-bodied adult in the home is working and they must choose monthly whether to pay the rent or buy groceries, to take care of the light bill or fill their child's prescription. Welfare reform may be moving folks from dependence on public assistance to employment but many of those who have landed jobs are worse off than they were before. As one Nassau County official observed last year at a Health & Welfare Council conference, "We are doing what the federal government asked us to do, but people are still poor."

We are serving vastly increased numbers of working poor people because the shortage of affordable housing is so severe on Long Island because and so many people are without medical coverage. A new study finds that to rent a 2-bedroom apartment in Suffolk County, a minimum- wage earner would have to work 175 hours a week--and rents are higher in Nassau. For three terrible months this winter, we had almost no funds to help those at risk of becoming homeless--and the same was true for nearly every other agency on Long Island. You can imagine, I think, how depressing it is to tell one family after another, "I'm sorry but we do not have anywhere near enough money to prevent your eviction tomorrow, and I don't know anyone else who can help you."

People are losing medical coverage at a terrible rate. A few weeks ago a man came to me who had been discharged from the county hospital with a prescription for anti-psychotic drugs but no means to get them. He had been without medication for three days, knew he needed it, didn't want to land in the psychiatric ward again, and was desperate for help. Lucky for him, we had enough money in the bank that day so that I could help him. Imagine what it would have ended up costing the taxpayers financially--and both him and me emotionally--if I had turned him away. We manage to provide prescription-assistance only by "cost-sharing" with other agencies, but we still spent as much money helping people fill prescriptions during the first three weeks of 2001 as we did during all of last year. We doubled our budget this year for this assistance, praying that donors will be generous; by the time you read this column we probably will have exhausted the budget for the entire year.

Our staff lives in fear that this crisis will worsen as we hit welfare time limits later this year. From where we sit on Sweezy Avenue and on Denton Green, it doesn't look like either liberals or conservatives have delivered enough compassion for the downtrodden.

I know that we are not alone in this struggle, and that many of you often feel overwhelmed. As one pastor observed, "We are being asked to do more and more with less and less support."

I lay these observations before you not to make you burdened yourself, but because I am concerned with the burn-out I see in so many good people who are seeking to do good. Would it help if you collected food for the LICC or donated money for prescriptions? Of course it would, but everything we can do individually will never be enough. Somehow all of us who live on this island, all the citizens of our nation, must ask what sort of society we wish to inhabit--or as Micah put it, "What the Almighty requires of you"--and make those who represent us move us into the future which God longs for us to inhabit. As the rabbi I follow insisted in Matthew 25, nations will be judged on basis of whether we feed, clothe, care for, and visit the least of his brothers and sisters. As Willie Edlow of Long Island's United Way observed recently, "Ending hunger on Long Island is easily within our grasp." The questions is: are we, together, going to do it?

Shalom,

Tom



IDEAS YOU CAN USE:

St. James Catholic Church In Setauket invited their neighbors to an ecumenical "soup and bread supper" on Ash Wednesday and decided to take a free-will offering for Bread for the World, an ecumenical group advocating the elimination of hunger. As they said in their invitation, this simple meal was a good way to "begin Lent by identifying with hungry people."



NEEDED/OFFERED:

Needed:

Offered:



WORLD DAY OF PRAYER--MARCH 2

Church Women United sponsors some wonderful ecumenical worship services in many communities each year. They are open to all and you should find them both inspiring and informative. Here are a few which will happen on Friday, March 2, for the World Day of Prayer



CHURCH WORLD SERVICE FORUM--MARCH 18

CWS invites clergy, local leaders of mission and outreach committees, CROP-walkers, and all those who have worked on or contributed to Blanket Sundays, Gift-of-Heart Kits, and the like to meeting on Sunday, March 18, from 3 to 6 p.m. at St. Luke's Lutheran Church, which is located on the corner of Candlewood and Vanderbilt in Dix Hills. This is a chance to hear a stirring address by John McCullough, CWS Executive Director, to meet other CWS staff and CROP leaders, and to see displays celebrating the work of CWS, SERRV, Jubilee 2000, Bread for the World, and other mission projects. Please call 1-888- 297-2767 for more information or to RSVP.



WOMEN OF FAITH--MARCH 27

The LICC is co-sponsoring this annual gathering at Hofstra University on Tuesday, March 27, at 7 p.m., and Tom Goodhue and Chris Veech are serving on the planning committee. This year's event will focus on how different faith communities respond to domestic violence and seek family harmony. All are welcome--yes, men are invited, too--and there will be both exciting presentations, opportunities for small group discussion, resource people, and more. Come if you can!



THE PRAYER LIST:

Please keep in your prayers



WHAT'S NEW AT THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF CHURCHES?

While the LICC does not belong to the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA--denominations join rather than regional ecumenical groups--people often ask what is happening there. Tom Goodhue recently spent several days with its General Secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, at a meeting of the National Assn. of Ecumenical and Interreligious Staff. The NCC has been in great turmoil of late, and he was pleased to learn that



THE PARSONS PICKS:

"THE GERMAN AMERICANS," "CHARLOTTE CHURCH" & "SOUL PRINTS"

One fifth of our nation's population can trace their roots back to Germany, making it America's largest ethnic group, yet few people know much about the story of German immigration. "The German Americans," WLIW/21's fourteenth ethnic documentary, points out that although Germans have been caught in conflicts between America and their homeland, their earliest settlers were themselves refugees from war and religious persecution. Faith was important to them, and the swelled the numbers of Mennonites, Brethren, Quakers, Lutherans, and Catholics in America, enriching our culture with everything from Christmas trees to Bach hymns. "The German Americans" airs nationally on Thursday, March 8, at 8 p.m. on PBS, but remember to check local listings.

In "Charlotte Church Live from Jerusalem," (Thursday, March 8, at 9 p.m. on PBS), this young Welsh prodigy sings "Jerusalem," "The Lord's Prayer," "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah," "Pie Jesu," and "The Holy City" at the Tower of David. "Soul Prints" (Monday, March 12, at 8 p.m. on PBS) explores "sacred individuality," affirming that "our spirituality is as individual as our fingerprints." Again, remember to check listings for the local date and time.



DID YOU KNOW?



SPANISH-LANGUAGE WORSHIP SERVICES

Those working with Spanish-speaking immigrants on Long Island sometimes do not know where to send them to address their spiritual needs, so members of our Eastern Area Steering Committee suggested that the LICC compile information on where there is Spanish worship. The Committee encourages you to make sure Hispanic churches are included in local ecumenical and interfaith services for Good Friday, Thanksgiving, Epiphany, Martin Luther King Day, Ash Wednesday, etc. Students studying Spanish might also benefit from visiting these services. We will update this list as we receive additional information (call 516-565-0290 or e-mail licc@netzero.com).

NASSAU COUNTY:

Elmont:
St. Boniface -- Fr. Angelo Resulto -- Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
Farmingdale:
St. Killian -- Saturday, 6:15 p.m.
Freeport:
Our Holy Redeemer -- Sunday, 1:00 p.m.
Glen Cove:
St. Patrick -- Fr. Santiago Londono -- Sundays, 9:15 a.m.
Great Neck:
St. Aloysius -- Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Hempstead:
Hispanic United Methodist -- Pastor Victoria Luna, 516-486-3287
Iglesia Presbiteria -- Pastor Rudolfo Saborio, 516-564-0201
Iglesia Lutherana -- Pastor Heriberto Prudencio, 516-486-3287
Our Lady of Loretto
Inwood:
Our Lady of Good Counsel -- Sunday, 8:15 a.m.
Long Beach:
St. Mary of the Isle -- Sunday, 10:00 a.m.
Manorhaven:
Our Lady of Fatima -- Saturday, 7:00 p.m.
Mineola:
Corpus Christi -- Saturday, 8:00 p.m.
New Hyde Park:
Notre Dame -- Sunday, 7:00 p.m.
Oceanside:
St. Anthony -- Sunday, 12:30 p.m.
Oyster Bay:
St. Dominic -- Monday, 7:30 p.m.
Rockville Centre:
St. Agnes Cathedral -- Saturdays, 7:30 p.m.
Roosevelt:
Queen of the Most Holy Rosary
Westbury:
St. Brigid -- Sunday, 11:30 a.m.

SUFFOLK COUNTY:

Babylon:
St. Joseph -- Sunday, 10:00 a.m.
Brentwood:
Christ Episcopal Church
St. Anne -- Saturday, 7:30 p.m. & Sunday, 9:00 a.m.
St. Luke -- Saturday, 8:00 p.m. & Sunday, 9:00 a.m.
Center Moriches
St. John the Evangelist -- Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Central Islip
Grace Lutheran Church -- Rev. Morales -- 631-234-8514
Copiague:
Our Lady of Assumption -- Sunday, 11:45 a.m.
Coram:
St. Frances Cabrini -- Sunday, 10:30 a.m.
East Hampton:
Most Holy Trinity -- Sunday 5 pm (winter), 7:30 pm (summer)
Farmingville:
Resurrection Church -- 1st &n 3rd Sundays, 6:30 p.m.
Greenport:
St. Agnes -- Saturday, 8:00 p.m.
Hampton Bays:
St. Rosalie -- Sunday, 4 p.m.
Huntington:
St. Hugh of Lincoln -- Sunday, 8:45 a.m. & Thursday, 7:30 p.m.
Montauk:
St. Therese of Lisieux -- Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Patchogue:
Iglesia Bautista Beth-El -- Rev. Juan Carlos Rivera -- 631-395-4003
St. Francis de Sales -- Sunday, 9:15 a.m. & Tuesday, 7:30 p.m.
Port Jefferson
Infant Jesus -- Sunday, 10 a.m.
Riverhead:
St. John the Evangelist -- Sunday, 7:00 p.m.
Southampton:
Sacred Heart -- Sunday, 12;30 p.m.
Wyandanch -- Sunday, 9:45 a.m.


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