PRELUDE, June 2001



FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:

"Just Do It!"

Recently yours truly spent a day volunteering at Reading Fun Day, a wonderful event which our local public television station WLIW/21 presents several times a year throughout the Tri-State region. My labors had nearly nothing to do with my day job--which is precisely what made even more enjoyable. We Trinitarians tend to think in threes and here are three reasons why I did this:

  1. My wife and I watch and support public television. I represent the LICC on WLIW's Community Advisory Board and I review many of their programs for this newsletter, the Queens Federation of Churches newsletter, the United Methodist Reporter and the National Christian Reporter. I believe children deserve quality programming such as "Sesame Street," "Between the Lions," and "The Puzzle Place," and that they should be able to see them without commercial interruptions and relentless merchandising. I also believe that grown-ups need the alternative viewpoints represented by "NewsHour," "BBC World News," "Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly," "Out of Ireland," and other fine programs. And I absolutely love WLIW's "Ballykissangel." Public television ought to receive adequate public funding. Because it doesn't, it is a good cause worth our voluntary contributions.

  2. Volunteering for WLIW is also a lot of fun. It is much fun meeting the stars of "Sesame Street," R.L. Stine (the best-selling author of the Goosebump books), and Charles Burke (who played Corky in the wonderful series "Life Goes On.") Being the Executive Director of the LICC keeps me more than busy enough. You might think that the last thing I'd want to do on a Saturday morning is head toward a shopping mall filled with young children, but it is great to see the joy which these events give them--and I get to play with the walkie-talkies myself.

  3. Volunteering offers a chance to discover new gifts. I am not at all accustomed to hanging out with famous folks but the staff at WLIW thought I might be good at it, so escorting celebrities to and from the stage, the "Green Room," and their limos has been my niche ever since. I think it was Henri Nouwen who said that we find our gifts where God's longing for our world intersects our joy. Our work, our calling, and our careers are important, but they are not all that we are or all that we can do. Volunteering gives you a chance to find talents you never knew you had and to make the world a better place.

Those who organize a blood drive, sing in a church choir, swing a hammer with Habitat for Humanity, or serve the LICC's Thanksgiving dinner to farm workers in Riverhead know the satisfaction which comes from joyfully using your abilities to the glory of God. Find your gift and use it. Just do it.

Shalom,

Tom



MEET THE NEW VOLUNTEER IN OUR HEMPSTEAD OFFICE:

Adrena Winston, who has just begun volunteering in our Hempstead office, comes to us through the National Council on the Aging's Senior Community Service Employment Program, the project through which we found Dorothy Milano for our Riverhead office. A native of Pittsburgh, Adrenna has lived in Hempstead for many years and belongs to Christ's 1st Presbyterian Church, where our Hempstead office is housed. She has worked as a remedial reading teacher, a receptionist in Nassau County parks, and the program director for a seniors residence in Westbury and a community center in Freeport. Welcome aboard, Adrenna!



IDEAS YOU CAN USE:

Interfaith Dialogue:
The Presbytery of Long Island, the North Fork Synagogue, and the Presbyterian Churches of Cutchogue and Southold have begun a series of Sunday afternoon interfaith discussions. Topics have included questions such as "What Does the Lord Require of Us?" and "Who is the Christian to the Jew? Who is the Jew to the Christian? One recent discussion was co-led by Prof. Neal Gilman of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Rev. Richard Ploth, a retired pastor who chairs the LICC Development Committee. The series has generated enthusiastic participation. More than 40 people turned out for a dialogue this winter which took place in the middle of a snow storm!

Interfaith Choir:
The North Shore Clergy Association in Glen Cove is planning to begin an interfaith choir which would rehearse monthly and sing at worship services for Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Day, etc. Maybe you could do the same in your community? Wouldn't this add much to your worship services?

Juneteenth:
The Rev. Joe Tucker, pastor of Joyful Heart Baptist Church in Hempstead, celebrates Juneteenth each year in Joyful Heart, a congregation he founded and still leads. Derived from June 19th, it commemorates the day in 1865 when slaves in Texas learned--several weeks after the end of the Civil War--that they had been set free by the Emancipation Proclamation. Sunday School children relate the history of Emancipation--how a reluctant President Lincoln signed the proclamation and how it took more than two years for the news to reach Texas--accompanied by Scripture and preaching. The day is an opportunity, Dr. Tucker points out, to remind ourselves that "real freedom comes from God."


SAVE THIS DATE: Saturday, Sept. 29

The Rev. Barbara Lundblad will lead the LICC's Fall Convocation on Saturday, Sept. 29, at 1st Baptist Church in Riverhead. One of the best-known preachers in America, Lundblad served as youth director of two Minnesota congregations, pastor of Our Saviour's Atonement Lutheran Church in Manhattan, and associate professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary. She has been a Protestant Hour preacher and has taught at Yale Divinity School, Princeton Theological Seminary, Hebrew Union College, and the Chicago Theological Schools. Last fall she was the Beecher Lecturer at Yale. Her new book, Transforming the Stone: Preaching through Resistance to Change, will be published this summer by Abingdon Press.

The Sept. 29 workshop is for laity and clergy, both those in the pews and those in the pulpit. Lundblad will focus on:



INTERFAITH DIALOGUE ON INTERFAITH MARRIAGE

Every relationship has its unique joys and difficulties, and marriage between people of different religions presents a whole set of distinctive challenges. Where do you have the wedding? How will you share your beliefs and values with your children? How will you relate to in-laws who come from a different cultural or religious background? How will you celebrate holidays?

Not every church--let alone every world religion--has the same position on the advisability of falling in love with someone outside your faith and there is often little sharing of varied perspectives on interreligious romance.

The Long Island Multi-Faith Forum invites you to an interfaith dialogue on interfaith marriage at the Congregational Church of Huntington (30 Washington Drive in Centerport) on Sunday, June 3, from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. UCC pastor Mark Bigelow, Muslim chaplain Sanaa Nadim, Prof. Anand Mohan (who is Hindu), and a rabbi will describe what each of their faith communities teaches about the challenges of interfaith marriage, and then a panel of four couples-- Catholic/Muslim, Hindu/Christian, Hindu/Jewish, and Hindu/Jain--will tell how they have tried to cope with these challenges in their families. Other faith communities will share printed materials describing what they teach about this topic. There is no charge for this program and all are invited. International refreshments will be served.



BLOOD DRIVES:

Sunday, July 8, 10:00-2:00 at Bellmore Presbyterian Church, on the corner of Martin Avenue & Bellmore.



THE PRAYER LIST:

Please keep in your prayers

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WORSHIP IN MANY LANGUAGES

Many people expressed appreciation for the information on Spanish-language worship services which we published in the March Prelude--and have asked us to begin compile data on other non- English worship services. If your parish offers any of these, please call 516-565-0290 or fax 516- 565-0291, or e-mail licc@netzero.com with any of the following information you have: church, location, time, language, coordinator, phone number, e-mail address.

This is what we have found thus far:

Haitian:
St. Boniface Catholic Church, 631 Elmont Road, Elmont
Third Sunday of each month, 9 a.m.

Korean:
Long Island Korean United Methodist Church, 486 Town Line Road, Commack
Sunday, 6 a.m. & 2 p.m.; Wednesday, 8:30 p.m.
Pastor Tae-Hun Yoon 631-499-1260 - Commackumc@aol.com

Syro-Malabar:
St. Boniface Catholic Church, 631 Elmont Road, Elmont
Third Sunday of each month, 10:30 a.m.

The award for multilingualism goes to:
St. John the Theologian Orthodox Church in America, 158 West End Avenue, Shirley,
Sunday, 10 a.m. (9:30 in July & August)
blends English, Greek, Russian, Bulgarian, Slavonic, and Romanian.
Fr. Jonathan Ivanoff 631-281-5960 - stjohnorthodox@hotmail.com