PRELUDE, March 2003



FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR:

CAN I HAVE A WITNESS?

You may have already discovered the excellent PBS program "Religion and Ethics Newsweekly," which is broadcast on Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. and Sundays at 6:30 p.m. on WNET/13. Its producers have compiled a video surveying the state of our souls, which I recommend highly. Called "Exploring Religious America" (www.thirteen.org), it raises important questions about how we can live faithfully as Christians in an increasingly pluralistic world.

Evangelical Christians, and I count myself as one though other evangelicals might not, believe we are called to share the Good News which God has revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. How to do this most effectively, though, is a good question. The methods successful in one generation often fail in the next. In our own time and place, "Exploring Religious America" makes clear, our fellow citizens are unlikely to listen to what we say unless we embody it in an exemplary life, one that includes respecting those with other beliefs. If you sound like a bigot, you are a poor witness to the Gospel.

In my still-brief time with the LICC, I've enjoyed the rare privilege and responsibility of speaking not only in a wide variety of Christian churches but also to four Unitarian Universalist congregations, the Brahma Kumaris, a Bahai fellowship, the Islamic Center of Long Island, and a gathering of Shia Muslims.

The trick, I have learned, in preaching the Gospel to U-Us is to address directly the differences between Christianity and other faiths while showing respect for all the varied beliefs present in the room, including those I find rather silly. (Perhaps you find this disillusioning, but the truth is that I am not naturally all that good. I am a judgmental sort whom God has been working on for many years.) The typical UU fellowship encompasses people from several different faith communities, from Christianity to Buddhism: when a Jew marries a Hindu, they often take their children to a UU Sunday School. Tolerance, inclusiveness, and broad-mindedness are near and dear to the hearts of Unitarian Universalists. If you want them to listen to the Gospel According to John, you need to practice these virtues yourself.

Now here is the point, which is driven home by "Exploring Religious America": our fellow citizens increasingly think like Unitarian Universalisms. If we want to reach them, particularly those who are under 50, it helps to be slow to pass judgment, quick to learn from our adversaries, and willing to engage others in dialogue with those who think differently. This is not news most evangelical Christians want to hear, I suspect. It is far easier to recite the Four Spiritual Laws than it is to understand the spirituality of Islam or Sikhism. We are far more comfortable asserting certainties than we are probing the mysteries of faith. We may fear that openness to other traditions is a betrayal of our own.

I have been puzzled by the fact that few Christians have volunteered to be panelists for the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum's interfaith education program and that almost none of these are evangelical Christians. Isn't this a golden opportunity to be a living witness to your faith, telling people in schools, workplaces, civic groups, churches, synagogues, and Bahai fellowships what you believe? "Building Bridges" is not a place for preaching or proselytizing, but don't you want others to understand your faith? The problem, an evangelical friend observed the other day, is that most people who call themselves Evangelicals have never evangelized anyone: they claim to believe in sharing their faith, but they never do it.

What we really need in the Christian community, I think, are more people who are brave enough to bear witness to their beliefs in ways, which are open, tolerant, and respectful which is to say, in ways that have a chance of succeeding in the modern world.

Shalom/Salaam/Shanti/Pax,
Tom



A WORD OR TWO OF THANKS

from Sara C. Weiss, Development Director

We are grateful to the United Church of Christ Wider Church Ministries for a grant of $25,000 and to the Reformed Church in America for $7,500, both of which are to be used for World Trade Center disaster relief.

Special thanks also go to Philip Morris Companies Employee Fund for $5,000 for food purchases, the Long Island Fund for Women and Girls for a $3,500 grant to Women at the Well, Fleet Bank for a corporate gift of $3,000 through United Way of Long Island, First Presbyterian Church of Baldwin for $3,000, Garden City Community Church for its gift of $2,000, Presbyterian Church of Freeport for $1,000, the deacons of East Hampton Presbyterian Church for their gift of $1,000, and board member Adrienne Flipse Hausch for $1,000 to Women at the Well.

We also thank the following for their gifts of $500 or more:

We are grateful also to faith-based institutions, agencies, businesses, and others who gave lesser amounts, but whose gifts are just as important. We thank all those who contributed to "Souper Bowl Sunday" to help support our emergency food centers. We also thank the numerous individuals who also gave but have asked that we not publish their names.



CHURCH WORLD SERVICE NEWS

from Grace MacMillan

Looking out the window, it may not be apparent but spring is just around the corner. By the first of May the Church World Service truck will be rolling across Long Island to pick up the CWS Health, School and Baby Kits that we are working on. Homeless and low-income families in New Mexico, Harrisburg, PA and Raleigh, NC, as well as in Bosnia and Afghanistan have received Church World Service blankets and Kits. CWS is also providing food, seeds and fertilizer for displaced families in Serbia. Churches seeking more information about Kits and the work of Church World Service may call Helen Samuels (631)744-3870 or Grace MacMillan (5l6) 785-3951, CWS Coordinators for the Long Island Council of Churches. It is not too late to put Kits together and they are urgently needed.



MEET OUR NEWEST BOARD MEMBERS:

Carmen Hines comes to us through Project Blueprint, the program by the United Way of Long Island, which trains volunteers for service on not-for-profit governing boards and increases the diversity of these organizations. An active member of Brentwood Presbyterian Church she is fluently bi-lingual in Spanish and English and also speaks a little Italian, French, German, and Yiddish.

The Rev. James Hulsey, the newly installed pastor of 1st Presbyterian Church in Smithtown is also the new representative from the Presbytery of Long Island to the LICC Board of Governors. He is a long time friend of the Council who faithfully supported our Western Nassau CROP Walk while serving as a pastor in Malverne.



SAVE THESE DATES:



PRAY FOR PEACE

The Interfaith Peacemakers, a new coalition of religious voices in Suffolk County, is organizing candlelight vigils for the weekend of March 16th, when the United Nations Weapons Inspectors are due to report again and the world will be praying for peace. They invite you to hold a vigil in your own community with members of your congregation or other congregations. The Interfaith Peacemaker members ask that you please notify them of your event so all vigils can be recognized and publicized. You can receive more information about the Interfaith Peacemakers and the Day for Prayer and Peace by writing to Reverend Jeff Geary at revgeary@hotmail.com, Lucy Burrows at shalomli@optonline.net or by calling Liz Folz at (631) 689-2132.



HEALTH CARE FOR THE POOR

The LICC has long advocated national health coverage for all, but we continue to see poor people who lack access to the most basic health care. In Suffolk County, the future of the Public Health Nursing Department is uncertain, as is the fate of the Riverhead and Tri-County (North Amityville) health clinics that serve some of our poorest neighbors on the Island. The Rev. Kate Lehman from the Stony Brook Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and others have prepared postcards which members of local congregations can send to their elected leaders to fund these positions (92% reimbursed by non-county funds) which care for those in need and protect public health. If you would like a stack of these postcards, contact her at klehman1@optonline.net ASAP.



DID YOU KNOW?



LOCAL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS HELP THE HOMELESS

"Student's for 60,000" is a club that started in Northport High School in the 80's. It sprang out of the Urban Studies program. During these field trips, the students realized how many homeless people there were in New York city--60,000, at the time--and decided to do something about it. From this one objective, many other projects have evolved. The club works with homeless shelters on Long Island and in the city, helps local needy families, and donates supplies to schools in New York City to aid the poor. Since 1992, club members also have been traveling to Nicaragua to build homes for people in this impoverished country who do not have a decent place to live. Recently, we have begun to raise around $50,000 a year for this project and hope to steadily increase the amount we raise each year. We have biannual trips in February and April, each about 10 days in length. If you wish to make a monetary donation or to donate supplies, you can call Maggie Tiernan (631) 262-6709 or write to 154 Laurel Hill Road, Northport, NY 11768.



NEW VIDEOS IN THE LICC LENDING LIBRARY:

"Maggie Growls"-a profile of Maggie Kuhn, the Presbyterian laywoman who founded the Gray Panthers

"Exploring Religious America"-from the PBS series Religion & Ethics Newsweekly



NEEDED/OFFERED:

Needed:

Portable sound system
Do you have a portable, battery-powered sound system we can use at our Easter Dawn service at 6:30 a.m. at Jones Beach (parking field 6)? Would your choir like to sing? If so, please call Tom Goodhue at 516-565-0290 or email tomgoodhue@optonline.net.

Drivers
The LICC cannot now accept donations of furniture and appliances for our social service clients because we do not have the capacity to transport or store them. Do you have a van or pick-up? Would you be willing to schlepp stuff on an as-needed/as-available basis? If so, please call Anne Vaughan at 516-565-0390.

Cards for military personnel
As we pray for peace in the Middle East, St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Carle Place urges us to remember those who have been sent into harm's way. Since Christmas, they've been collecting and shipping greeting cards to U.S. military personnel. They invite others to join them in sending cards for Easter (or Passover, St. Patrick's Day, Muharram, No Ruz, or any other holiday) with your name, parish/congregation, address, and any message you wish to include, to
Operation Easter Cards
St. Mary's Episcopal Church
P. O. Box 201
252 Rushmore Avenue
Carle Place, NY 11514-0201

Volunteers
The Educational & Assistance Corporation provides volunteers through its Good Neighbor Network in Baldwin to help elderly, disabled, and chronically ill Baldwin residents with light chores, transportation, and friendly visits. If you know someone who needs assistance, or if you would like to volunteer, call Diane Monks at 516-539-0150.

A building for purchase
Little Flock Pentecostal Church is seeking a building (or vacant land) to purchase with enough room to seat 250 people in worship and parking for at least 70 cars. Call Paul Matthews at 516-616-7756 or 516-551-4716 or email him at pmat007@msn.com or pmatthews@diagnostixs.com.


Offered:

Personal finance classes
Gloria Nixon Pone, a Doctor of Ministry candidate at New York Theological Seminary and a member of the South Hempstead Congregational Church (UCC) would be happy to lead a course in your church on personal finance. She can do either an eight-week, one-hour Bible study or a more intensive 12-week Biblical financial course covering what the Bible says about money, how to be a good steward of your income, and how to become debt-free and financially independent. She is willing to do these courses gratis, so students would need only to buy course books, and can begin leading either sort of course this September. You can reach her at 516-489-3610 or gjeannixon@aol.com. She is offering both courses this spring at the Congregational Church Of South Hempstead (416 Woodland Drive). Her 8-week Bible study "Discovering God's Way of Handling Money" will be Wednesday evenings from 8-9 p.m., March 5-April 12. (The first session will be 7:30 to 8:30). Her 12-week financial course will be Thursday evenings from 8-9 p.m., beginning March 6.

Trauma training
Pastors, Professional Counselors and Lay-Counselors are all invited to attend the Long Island Trauma Care Conference - "Recovery of the Heart" on March 13th. Featured guests speakers will be Dr. H. Norman Wright and Dr. Timothy Clinton (President of the AACC). Register is ongoing by either calling New Life Community Church at 631-589-5890 or online at www.LongIslandPrays.com.

St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Oceanside presents a lecture on family relationships "Trying to Understand One Another" by the Rev. William J. O'Malley, S.J., the noted educator, author, and humorist, on Sunday, March 2, at 1:30 p.m. All are welcome!

Legal information for sick and injured workers
The Nassau County Bar Assn. is offering a public seminar on "The Rights of Sick and Injured Workers" on Wednesday, March 5, at 7 p.m. at the Bar Assn. (15th & West Streets in Mineola). Admission is free and refreshments will be served. Call 516-747-4070 to register.

Piano
Jonathan Wright has an upright cherry wood piano in good condition in Freeport that he would like to donate to someone who can pick it up themselves. You can call him at 516-868-1573 or email wrightcontract@aol.com.

Organ
Betty Holden has a Lowery electronic chord organ with a double keyboard in good shape to donate. It is about 5 feet long and needs to be picked up in Floral Park. You can call her at 516-437-2340.

A Dead Organ
Jim Bergeron has an organ in Mattituck he would like to donate to a church on the East End. It is a Wurlitzer Concert Digital Music System Model D172 which originally cost $12,000. It has had little play and Looks new, but needs work. It is electronically dead, probably due to power surges. If you are interested in disassembling and hauling it away, call him at 845-473-9461 or email jhbergeron@aol.com.

Grief support group
An 8-week grief support group called Walking the Mourners Path is being offered at Ascension Lutheran Church in Deer Park, St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Smithtown, and St. Paul's Lutheran in Port Jefferson. For more information, call Deacons Lina Miller and Bob Rainis (631-667-4188), Augie Byllott and Helen Wermlund (631-265-2288), or Dottie Meade and Gale Capone (631-473-2236). Helen Wermlund also offers a 8-week course "Women: Healing and Empowering" for abuse survivors and 8-week series of workshops "Self-Esteem in Relationships."

Literacy training
Project Literacy/Outreach is offering free literacy training workshops on March 1, 8, 15, 22, and 29 and April 5 at the Lynbrook Public Library and at the Huntington Senior Center to prepare volunteers to teach reading, writing, and spelling. Call 516-676-7066 or email lu@projectliteracy.org to register for the workshop or to request a tutor.


JOB OPENINGS:



Do You Want Us to Send Multiple Copies of This Newsletter?

Recently a member of the governing council of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Hicksville asked if we would be willing to send "The Prelude" to everyone on the council, including some kind words about how they found our newsletter "a valuable source of information, insight, hope and much more." We'd be happy to do so. Just send us a list of addresses, either e-mail or snail-mail.