TABLE OF CONTENTS
From Our Executive Director:
MORE BLESSED TO GIVE
My friend Bruce Rudolf, a retired Lutheran pastor in the Missouri Synod who pastored Emanuel Lutheran Church in Patchogue, tells me how he recently read in Phil Yancey's book Finding God in Unexpected Places, a collection of his articles in Christianity Today, that St. Paul did a lot of fund raising but emphasized not the recipients of charity (the young church in Jerusalem) but rather the joy and goodness of giving.
Bruce can bear witness himself to the truth of this. A few weeks ago, while he was doing some fundraising of his own for a Christian charity that combats hunger, he and his wife went to the Post Office. As he walked in, a mentally handicapped girl was begging - "O Please mister I need five dollars - I'm homeless - I'll pay you back", and he gave her $3 and free advice that she put her hands in her pockets, since it was about 5 degrees that day in Wisconsin. While he was doing this, his wife rolled down the windows of the car, having noticed the girl's cold hands, and held out her gloves, saying, "Here, take these."
As Bruce continued on into the post office, he reports, he "missed the best part. The girl took the gloves, walked across the street, and began to dance on the sidewalk holding up her hands so proud of the gloves and happy to have them. . . .You have to know who got the greater gift that day. I can't stop thinking about it and am using it in my presentation now. It really is more blessed to give than to receive."
Every issue of this newsletter lifts up immense needs among our neighbors, and the suffering of the poor can easily overwhelm us and leave us ineffective and less compassionate. The cure for compassion fatigue and cynicism, perhaps, is to be mindful of how fortunate we are (as Buddhists might put it), to "put a little gratitude in your attitude" (as my friends in AA say), and to celebrate (as Phil Yancey, Bruce Rudolf, and the Bible remind us) how joyful and good it is to give.
May you know this joy!
Shalom/Salaam/Shanti/Pax,
Tom
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DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT
Sara C. Weiss, Director of Development
Special thanks go to Newsday Charities, a fund of the McCormick Tribune Foundation, for its generous gift of $53,000 to help support our Community Resources programs that serve individuals and families in crisis from all walks of life. Special thanks also go to the Rhodebeck Long Island Fund, a donor-advised fund of the Long Island Community Foundation, for its generous gift of $20,000 to help support our Freeport Emergency Food Center
We thank the following for their generous support during the month of February (we prepare our copy a month before publication), and for the blessings these gifts bring to our needy clients:
| Gloria Dei Lutheran Church/NHP | $500 Where most needed |
| Long Island Cares, Inc. | $960 Riverhead Emergency Food |
| Riverhead Building Supply | $1,500 Annual Convocation Sponsor |
| Riverhead Building Supply | $1,500 Annual Meeting Sponsor |
| Suffolk County Dept. of Social Services | $2,500 Riverhead Emergency Food |
| United Way of Long Island | $1,491 Monthly Allocation |
We are also grateful to three individuals for their gifts, one who gave $5,000 through a donor-advised fund, another who gave $500 for the Long Island Multi-Faith Forum, and a board member who gave an unrestricted gift $1,000.
We thank these and the many other individuals who gave but asked that we don’t publish their names, and we thank the institutions that gave less than $500. We are grateful for all of these gifts.
Most Urgent Need
Prescription assistance continues to be a chronic need, and we are grateful for past gifts from individuals and institutions. During the eight months we had grants from the Suffolk Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) and CVS Pharmacy, we helped more than 80 clients with prescription assistance. These were used up by the end of last month, but the deluge of requests for prescription assistance continues unabated. And we are not alone. A recent New York Times article (2/27/07) entitled “Child Health Care Splits White House and States,” noted that several States will run out of their annual allotments of federal monies for their Children’s Health Insurance Programs within three months, and others will run out by September. Clearly the demands for prescriptions and basic medical care are far greater than the resources available to meet them. We have found that the primary reason is that the clients these programs help are uninsured or woefully underinsured and they cannot afford the exorbitant cost of essential medicines. In theory, generics are supposed to be available but in many instances of life-saving medications for serious conditions like diabetes and cardiac problems, they are not.
Some of our clients receive DSS and have minimal income from other sources. Others are hardworking East Enders who have household incomes of $26,000 per year - for a household of four. Many are unemployed and have no income at all. A significant number we've helped are trapped in the 45-day waiting period for DSS assistance, and have no income until their benefits come through. We helped them bridge the gap.
The average price we paid for each prescription was $181.57 (ranging from $19 to over $600 for a single medication) and the average price we paid for each of their eyeglasses and eye exams was $127.48. None had health insurance, many were too sick to work, and one-third were trapped in the 45-day waiting period between applying for and receiving Medicaid or disability insurance. Several had life-threatening illnesses. Others were at high risk of being hospitalized if they did not take their prescriptions. A severely diabetic man was losing his eyesight. We were able to help him while we had the grants. What will happen to them now?
Please help us continue to assist these uninsured clients with their prescriptions
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LICC ANNUAL MEETING May 3 in Smithtown
The Long Island Council of Churches will hold its Annual Meeting on Thursday, May 3, from 11:00 to 2:00 at 1st Presbyterian Church in Smithtown. A panel will discuss one of the most important challenges facing churches and other not-for-profits: the plight of not-for-profit organizations as government shifts burdens to churches and other faith-based institutions without providing the funding and resources needed to care for the impoverished. How should faith-based institutions respond when problems land at our doors that we do not have the financial and organizational capacity to solve? How can we learn to say “No,” and when does it become irresponsible stewardship to continue when we have neither the funding nor the resources to support these programs? Nearly all religious leaders find themselves being asked to do more and more with less and less support. Come and explore how we can cope with and respond creatively to these pressures.
RESERVATION FOR 2007 ANNUAL MEETING
Registration and payment must be received no later than April 26, 2007.
Please complete and print out hard copy. Address check for $35 per person to: Long Island Council of Churches. Please write “Annual Meeting” in the memo section and mail to:
Brenda S. Morrison, Director of Finance
Long Island Council of Churches
1644 Denton Green
Hempstead, NY 11550
PANEL DISSCUSSION: THE PLIGHT OF NONPROFITS
The 2007 Annual Meeting panel discussion will examine how we should respond when Federal, State and local governments are shifting the burden of caring for our most vulnerable citizens to churches and other faith-based institutions. Government is sending people to churches for help with rent, food, housing, clothing, and other basic needs when the churches do not have the resources to assist the poverty-stricken in these numbers. For example, the Department of Social Services has repeatedly sent clients to us for help but did not let us know they were coming, and do not provide sufficient funding so we can help these clients. Clients get caught in the middle and faith-based staff feel guilty that they don’t have the resources to help. Too often, they end up “giving away the store,” which is not only bad stewardship but also further diminishes their capacity to help the poor. How do we respond when problems land at our door that we do not have the financial and organizational capacity to solve?
Panelists will be Jack O’Connell, President & C.E.O., Health & Welfare Council of L.I.; Laura Cassell, Executive Director, Catholic Charities; and Gerry Vasquez, Executive Director, Suffolk County Community Voices Coalition. They will discuss strategies faith based nonprofits can use to respond to the crisis and develop new solutions to this increasingly intractable problem.
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CHRISTIAN CHURCHES TOGETHER LAUNCHED
A consensus on the importance of evangelism and the need to eliminate domestic poverty marked the official formation of Christian Churches Together (CCT) in Pasadena February 6-9. The CCT is composed of 36 churches and national organizations from virtually all U.S. Christian groups who have been seeking to come together for fellowship, worship and opportunities to share in important ministries.
“Remember that you belong to God and God does not belong to you,” said the Rev. Dr. Larry Pickins of the United Methodist Church, quoting his mother’s early admonition. . .
“CCT is good news for American Christians,” said the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Orthodox Church in America. “Our gathering of the wider spectrum of U.S. Christian churches is succeeding in building mutual trust and overcoming stereotypes. Our common hope and expectation is that CCT will enable our churches to offer a strong and united Christian moral voice and vision in the public square.”
Christian Churches Together (CCT) began in 2001 out of a deeply felt need to broaden and expand fellowship, unity, and witness among the diverse expressions of Christian faith today. Over the past five years, with a focus on praying together and building relationships, CCT has become the broadest, most inclusive fellowship of Christian churches and traditions in the USA, including Evangelical/Pentecostal, Orthodox, Catholic, historic Protestant and Racial/Ethnic churches among its participants. . . . The 36 founding members include the most recent groups to become official participants in CCT: the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. Other groups are currently investigating membership, said the Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson of the Reformed Church in America, chair of the CCT steering committee. . . .
Evangelism and the need to eliminate poverty in the U.S. were major topics at the meeting.
Dr. William Shaw of the National Baptist Convention USA, Inc., declared poverty in the United States to be a "scandal." Poverty "will not be redressed without intentional and painful effort by the total U.S. community," Shaw said. "CCT calls the country's conscience to that effort and commits itself to being a part of that redressing." . . .
The discussion on evangelism Wednesday was made open to a group of seminary students and young leaders “so that they might learn about the exciting movement for unity in the CCT as well as adding their challenges and perspectives,” Granberg-Michaelson said. . . Bishop Stephen Blaire, Catholic Diocese of Stockton, noted that one of the common threads discovered in this day-long discussion was an understanding that evangelism is rooted in personal relationship with Jesus Christ. . . . .
Bishop James Leggett of the International Pentecostal Holiness church proclaimed that we must follow Jesus in his prayer “That all might be one.” Dr. Shaw, Rev. Pickens, Bishop Leggett, Father Kishkovsky, and Bishop Richard Sklba of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (representing Cardinal William Keeler of the Archdiocese of Baltimore) joined together as the presidents of the five faith families of CCT and, in a symbolic action of lighting candles, committed “to grow closer together in Christ in order to strengthen our Christian witness in the world.”
Next month’s Prelude will include the CCT’s new statement on poverty in America. For the latest information on this new ecumenical organization, visit www.christianchurchestogether.org.
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From The Multi-Faith Forum: UNDERSTANDING BUDDHISM
Buddhism is a tradition that both fascinates and confuses many people. The Long Island Multi-Faith Forum always stresses that each volunteer speaks as an example of how one individual from their faith community practices his or her beliefs in daily life on Long Island, not as an official spokesman for that religion. This month, fittingly enough, two local Buddhist volunteers offer their somewhat different perspectives.
Who Are the Buddhists?
by Sheila Sussman
Who are the Buddhists of Long Island? There are two broad types - Buddhist Asian immigrants, also called ethnic Buddhists, and American converts, who discovered Buddhism through education and/or travel in Asia. American converts can be further labeled as either ‘self-identifiers’ or ‘sympathizers.’ Loosely defined, self-identifiers are disciplined adherents committed to their practice of Buddhist rituals and vows, while sympathizers accept only those practices consistent with their (evolving) self-image. There is no requirement to immediately accept all Buddhist teachings in order to identify with Buddhism. Indeed, it’s even irrelevant, as the teachings vary so widely. We have no Head who pronounces the faith and no authorized Book, only leaders and books. Therefore the Buddha advised a careful approach to distinguishing good teachers and teachings from bad,
"It is proper for you, Kalamas, to doubt, to be uncertain.... Do not go upon what has been acquired by repeated hearing; nor upon tradition; nor upon rumor; nor upon what is in a scripture; nor upon surmise; nor upon an axiom; nor upon specious reasoning; nor upon a bias towards a notion that has been pondered over; nor upon another's seeming ability; nor upon the consideration, 'The monk is our teacher....'
"Kalamas, when you yourselves know: 'These things are bad; these things are blamable; these things are censured by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill,' abandon them.”
Buddhist faith, like all faiths, finds expression in every human way. There is everything from old-school conservatives to modern-day proselytizers. Interpretations of teachings vary to the point of contradiction. There’s a school for just about everyone, and Americans coming to Buddhism face a truly bewildering choice among the traditions that Asian immigrant populations have introduced to this country. It remains to be seen whether any recognizable ‘American school’ evolves out of it all.
Do Buddhists Believe in God?
by Timothy Denton
Some Buddhists will be able to answer “yes” or “no” (or “NO!!”) to any or all questions asked about God or god. Ditto questions about Buddhism as a salvific, eschatological religion.
The question I feel that is most important is, “What is your experience - if any - of a power other than what you commonly refer to as your ‘self’?” To the extent a person believes or hopes in a deity, I’m interested in what they think it does for them. This is the “other power” of Pure Land and Nichiren Buddhism, for example. And on the other hand, I’m interested to know how the absence of this “other” functions in a person who truly manifests “self-power.” In Japanese, the terms are joriki and toriki, and they really refer to whether we believe we are manifesting a power from within or from outside. They are different ways of ascribing accountability, responsibility, and freedom.
Certainly, phenomena can exist as delusions. Most of the way we perceive phenomena is inaccurate. Faith, in and of itself, doesn’t constitute a program of action. An old friend of mine used to quote so often we wanted to hit him, “If you pray for potatoes, reach for a hoe.” The way faith motivates me may be ultimately more important than whatever it is I have faith in. The world has seen some wonderfully altruistic atheists.
Speaking personally, the best answer I can give to questions about upper-or lower-case God is to say I don’t know. How is it even within the realm of conception that a miserable little human in some out-of-the-way corner of the universe can understand a being who is allegedly eternal and infinite in magnitude? I could know God’s will? Really? And not just for myself, but for everyone? Now and forever? Isn’t that just incredibly arrogant? Or, perhaps another way to say it could be: Wouldn’t a god I can understand be terribly inadequate?
I myself don’t adhere to any one school, finding practices from both Northern and Southern traditions useful. A prominent modern-day teacher, Master Sheng Yen, advises, “If you find it useful, good, then use it. If you don’t, then don’t worry about it,” which is roughly the same advice the Buddha gave. Sometimes I feel hypocritical about my faith, but overall I believe it’s genuine, no matter how it might be viewed by strict adherents to a particular school.
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WORTH QUOTING
The Difference between Protestant & Catholic Crosses
“One of the different features of the two Churches is found in the symbol of the cross. Jesus is hanging from the cross of the Catholic Church but not on that of the Protestant Church. I am not sure of the reason, but I heard a Protestant minister saying, ‘Jesus must not be on the cross because he was resurrected from the dead.’ I imagine that a Catholic would say, ‘Jesus should be on the cross because without the sacrifice of the cross there is no resurrection.”
--the Rev. Sungmu Lee, The Spire, United Methodist Church of Bay Shore
Evangelism
“Baptists conveyed an offer to render the Bible - or at least some of the more striking episodes - into the [Cherokee] syllabary . . . . [Chief Bear] said he judged the Bible to be a sound book. Nevertheless, he wondered why the white people were not better than they are, having had it for so long. He promised that just as soon as the white people achieved Christianity, he would recommend it to his own folks.”
--Charles Frazier, Thirteen Moons (Random House)
Charity and Justice
“It is frankly not enough to be charitable, though, that is an important start. Charity recognizes that the cry of the hungry in the camps of Darfur is a cry to us from Christ himself, but a loaf of bread and a bit of fish are part of the process. Genocide is going on, and as Christ’s people, we have a responsibility to demand justice for these too easily forgotten people.“
--the Rev. Mark Lukens, The Bell Tower
Bethany Congregational Church, (UCC), East Rockaway
Planning for a Pandemic
“If a pandemic influenza event occurs, it will require an immediate, highly coordinated parish response. The communication plan and the chain of command will need to be established and disseminated prior to an outbreak. Phone and email systems may initially be overtaxed in the event of an emergency. . . . Homebound individuals are at risk of not receiving basic services (e.g., electricity, groceries) and may have particular needs for support and communication.”
--The Rev. Phillip Cato, Episcopal Life February 2007
Undocumented Immigrant Workers
“If we required good documents starting tomorrow, the nation would plunge into an instantaneous economic crisis. Millions of workers would suddenly be missing. The only practical and ethical solution is to provide legal status to honest, hardworking immigrants. Then we would have to acknowledge how we treat them. We would have to admit that jobs that offer a fair wage and humane working conditions cost money. . . ”
--Bryan Welch, Utne Reader March-April 2007
The Prerequisites for Interfaith Dialogue
“. . . it seems to me, and I've heard this from Christians as well, the prerequisites are that no participant de-legitimize another's faith through rejection, co-optation, syncretism, etc. plus aggressive proselytization has to be rejected.”
--Rabbi Moses Birnbaum, Plainview Jewish Center
Tips for Talking Across Religious Divisions
- Never speak for others in dialogue. . . .
- Don’t compare the best of who you are with the worst of who they are. . . .
- Speak as honestly as possible about your faith tradition. Reflect on your tradition as it is, not as you wish it to be.
- Recognize what your partner needs in order to be in dialogue with you. . . .
- Enter each dialogue with ‘bold humility.’ Remember you have significant gifts to offer - and receive.
- Yet never acquiesce from truth. . . .
- Allow yourself permission to listen. You may change. Just ‘saying your piece’ - that’s not ecumenical dialogue.
- Expect to be surprised. . . .
- Don’t go looking to dialogue with those most like you.
- Approach ecumenism as a spiritual discipline. . . it’s not a ‘program’ or ‘project.’ For the church, it’s a spiritual vocation.”
--United Church of Christ President John H. Thomas
& UCC Ecumenical Officer Lydia Veliko,
United Church News February/March 2007
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WORTH READING: THE GOOD NAZI & TWO BOOKS ON FAITH & SCIENCE
Dr. Michael Good, like many other children of Holocaust survivors, wanted to know how his parents escaped the evil unleashed by Hitler and the Third Reich. Knowing that “almost all survivors owe their lives in small or large part to someone else’s kindness, bravery, or courage,” he sets out to learn who saved his mother. The Search for Major Plagge (Fordham University Press) tells how he found that her rescuer was a Nazi.
Dr. Good says that he wants readers to ponder “our propensity to act violently out of fear and bigotry, juxtaposed against our often unexpected capacity for acting with nobility and moral courage.” What he learns about Karl Plagge, a major in the German Army, is a stunning example of unexpected courage in a time of violent bigotry.
During the 1930s, Plagge became increasingly disturbed by the anti-Semitism of his fellow Nazis. Sent to the Eastern Front, he repeatedly risked his own life by giving often-faked work permits to the Jews of Vilna after the ghetto was liquidated, saving more than 250 of them. Good reminds us, too, that Jews were not the only victims of the Nazis: Plagge also saved Poles, Lithuanians, and others. Nor did Plagge escape unscathed: the Shoah produced a crisis of faith not only for Jews but also for many goyim, who also asked how God could let this happen to innocent people.
It is fitting that this remarkable man, who is now recognized at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, as one of the Righteous Among the Nations, should have the last word: “I will often be disappointed, but I will give love, even when I don’t believe in love; I will do it not from weakness but from duty. Harboring hatred and rancor and reciprocating them is weakness—overlooking them and restraining them through love is strength.”
Francisco Ayala is a renowned biologist who profoundly respects people of faith. Earl Langguth was a doctoral candidate in science who answered a call to ordained ministry. Their new books offer contrasting but not completely contradictory approaches to issues of creation and evolution, faith and science.
Francisco J. Ayala, who won the National Medal of Science, offers an intelligent, faithful response to the ID movement in Darwin and Intelligent Design (Fortress Press, paperback, $7). The latest installment in the Fortress Facets series, this brief book surveys the theory of evolution and the notion of Intelligent Design.
The ID movement is based on an appealing idea, one that this reviewer happens to believe himself, that a Creator is guiding the evolution of Creation. ID proponents often dismiss Darwin’s ideas as “merely a theory” but Ayala argues that Intelligent Design is not even a theory: it has not yet been formulated as a scientific one that can be tested or disproved. Nearly all scientists find the evidence for evolution overwhelming, he points out. “The theory of evolution needs to be taught in the schools,” he insists, “because nothing in biology makes sense without it.”
“Science and religious beliefs need not be in contradiction,” Ayala says, but ID “leads to conclusions about the nature of the designer quite different from those of omniscience, omnipotence, and benevolence that Christian theology predicates of God.” Evolutionary theory explains why childbirth is difficult: our brains have gotten larger over vast stretches of time. ID requires us to blame God for every design defect in the human body, whether a superfluous inflamed appendix or a dangerously narrow birth canal. Darwinism removes any need to explain the world’s imperfections as the result of divine design.
Earl Leonard Langguth’s Illuminations (Tate Publishing, paperback, $17.99) is by contrast a book of poetry and commentary based on Scripture. The poems are pretty good and his analysis of the Bible texts is interesting, even where it is not convincing. He cites dubious sources, for example, to support his assertion that the Gospel of Matthew was written before the Gospel of Mark. The poetry, though, is consistently fresh, contemporary, and thought provoking.
Langguth claims to have never quite accepted liberal theology but offers some decidedly “liberal” interpretations of Holy Writ, such as his claim that the call of the disciples could not possibly have happened the way it is reported in the first three Gospels. He freely describes how his thinking has changed over time and admits that he does not care at all whether the Big Bang happened billions of years ago or far more recently,
“For Alpha and Omega is our God,
Creation but a fragile, fleeting place…”
The physicists call their theorized cosmic fireball a “singularity.” That is not a bad way, Langguth playfully replies, to describe our Creator.
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WORTH WATCHING ON WLIW/21
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WOMEN & MORTGAGES
A recent study by the Consumer Federation of America found that women generally have better credit histories than men but pay considerably more for mortgages. 10% of women who took out mortgages in 2005 received high-cost, and often predatory “sub-prime” loans, while only 7.5% of the men did.
African-American women are particularly likely to get stuck with these sub-prime mortgages, even when they are earning good money: high income black women are five times more likely than upper-income white men to get stuck with a high-cost loan. Allen Fishbein, the Federation’s director of housing and credit policy, told the New York Times (1/21/07) that the most likely reason for this disparity is that women are less likely than men to know how to shop for a loan - or to even know that it is possible to do this.
Would your congregation, agency, or community group like some help in sorting out personal finances? The Long Island Council of Churches offers seminars on how to manage your money well - and not get ripped off. Our presentations usually run an hour to 90 minutes, and we will tailor it to the needs of your audience, such as a shorter program for a college class, campus ministry group, or youth group and their parents. The LICC will arrange speakers, educational materials, and other freebies. There is no charge for this program. Thanks to grants from Astoria Federal Savings, Bank of America, Bank of New York, Citibank, Dime Savings Bank (Washington Mutual), Greenpoint Bank Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Ridgewood Savings Bank, and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage for making it possible for the Long Island Council of Churches to provide this free program.
Each presentation is shaped around the needs of the audience and we are prepared to address a wide variety of topics. Here are some we have dealt with recently that might be of interest to students and their parents:
- How to shop for a good loan
- How to get a good deal on checking and savings accounts and other financial services
- How to manage credit cards and other forms of credit
- How to “repair” a bad credit history
- How to reduce expenses on things you think are essential
- How to convert a loan you already have into a better deal
- How to talk with your kids (or your parents) about how they manage their money
We have speakers who can handle a variety of languages. If you would like to have such a seminar, call 516-565-0290, ext. 206, fax 516-565-0291, or e-mail licchemp@aol.com.
You might also want to visit a seminar offered near you. All are invited, for example, to Harvest Christian Bible Church in Central Islip, 295 Half Mile Road, Saturday morning, April 21, 10:00 to noon for a program that will cover:
- How to set a family budget
- How to reduce household expenses
- How to manage income and debt
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REVERSE MORTGAGES FOR SENIORS
By Rich Murphy
Welcome to my 2nd column regarding Reverse Mortgages for Seniors (the first one can be found at www.liccny.org). The purpose of this column is to answer basic questions about Reverse Mortgages and help seniors and their families to better protect themselves from becoming victims of predatory lenders.
In my initial column, you were advised that before talking to any Lender about taking out a Reverse Mortgage, you MUST speak to an approved counselor. They can provide you with the information and guidance that you need to make an educated decision. As promised, here is a list of some of the FREE counselors providing this service on Long Island:
- Nassau County Office of Housing & Intergovernmental Affairs
- (516) 571-1429 Ask for Ron Moss or Haydee Rosario
- Family & Children’s Association
- (516) 485-5600 Ask for Mike Temares
- Long Island Housing Partnership
- (631) 435-4710 Ask for Lynn Law
- Long Island Housing Services
- (631) 467-5111 Ask for Diane Patrizzio
- Housing Help, Inc.
- (631) 754-0373 Ask for Susan Lagville
- North Fork Housing Alliance
- (631) 477-1070 Ask for Tanya Palmore
- Economic Opportunity Council of Suffolk
- (631) 289-2124 Ask for Angela Harmon
- AARP
- (800) 209-8085
Call any of these counselors to make an appointment. Some can come to you, some will help you over the phone and some may require you to come to their office to receive counseling.
Here are some new questions that have been asked by our readers:
Question: How much can I borrow?
Answer: The amount you can borrow depends on your age (remember you must be at least 62 years old to apply), the current interest rates that are available for these loans and the value of your home. In general, the older you are, the lower the interest rate and the more valuable your home is, the larger amount you can borrow. Each person can be different. This is another good reason to speak to the counselors first!
Question: Will a Reverse Mortgage affect my Social Security, Medicare, Supplemental Security Income or Medicaid Benefits?
Answer: A Reverse Mortgage does not affect your Social Security or Medicare benefits because those benefits are not based on your income or assets. If you receive Medicaid or any other public benefits where eligibility is determined by income or assets, you should contact the Social Security Administration, Area Agency on Aging or Legal Services for guidance on your situation.
Please call any questions you may have to the Long Island Council of Churches at (516) 565-0290 or email them to LICCHEMP@aol.com. Your questions will be published anonymously.
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Easter Sunday
April 8, 2007
6:00 A.M. DST
EASTER DAWN SERVICE
The Rev. Nancy Schaffer Preaching
Music by
Salvation Army Band
& Bill Flipse
Jones Beach State Park
Parking Field 6, East of the East Bathhouse
Dress Warmly, Bring beach chairs or blankets
Information/Questions: Please call the LICC office (516) 565-0290
Sponsored by the Western Area Steering Committee of
THE LONG ISLAND COUNCIL OF CHURCHES
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CHURCH WORLD SERVICE Kits To Be Collected April 28
Saturday, April 28, is the official pick-up day for “Gift of the Heart” disaster response kits that Church World Service distributes across the nation and around the world. CWS, our ecumenical partner in relief and development work, shipped kits last year to Buffalo and Syracuse in response to flooding there and sent tens of thousands of kits to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama to aid those who are still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
These “sub-depots” will be open that day from 9:00 to noon to receive your kits:
- St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
2332 Grand Avenue, Baldwin, 516-223-1951
- 1st Presbyterian Church of Levittown
474 Wantagh Avenue, Levittown, 516-731-3808
- Ruth Smith’s Back Porch (really!)
1850 South Bay Avenue, Amityville, 631-264-2473
The two “main depots” will be open April 28 from 9:00 to 2:00:
- Hempstead United Methodist Church
40 Front Street at Washington Avenue, Hempstead, 516-485-6363
- Riverhead United Methodist Church
204 East Main Street, Riverhead, 631-727-2327
If you have already assembled School Kits, Kid’s Kits, Cleanup Kits, or Health Kits you can bring them early to any LICC meeting in April. For further information on what to put in a kit visit www.churchworldservice.org or call 1-888-CWS-CROP or our Long Island Coordinators, Grace MacMillan in Nassau (516-785-3951) or Helen Samuels in Suffolk (631-744-3870). And donations are needed to ship the kits to disaster sites!
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An Easier Way To Reach Our Web-Site
The National Council of Churches has graciously hosted the LICC Web site for several years, and we are grateful for their help. We now have a shorter domain name or address for our home page: www.liccny.org. You can still use the old URL if you have it bookmarked and you will still be able to easily reach the NCC’s pages from our new address.
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NEEDED/OFFERED
Offered:
- Habitat for Humanity Homes in Suffolk
- Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk is pleased to announce that they will be accepting applications for new 2007 Habitat homes. The application distribution will take place at an informational session on April 30, 2007 . Please contact the Community Development Corporation of Long Island 631-471-1215 ext. 144 to register. You must register and attend a class in order to receive an application. Space is limited to 100 applicants. If you have any questions, contact Habitat for Humanity of Suffolk at (631) 924-4966 x101 or visit www.hfhsuffolk.org and click on Home Ownership for more information and eligibility requirements.
- Help Talking with Kids about Sex
- May is Teen Pregnancy Prevention Month. Would you like to have a workshop in your congregation on "How to Have the Big Talk - about Sex"? If so, please call Harriet Gourdine-Adams, Director of Family Planning, at 516-572-5025. She is particularly eager to reach churches in Roosevelt, Freeport, Elmont, New Cassel/Westbury, and Hempstead communities, where there are high teen pregnancy rates and Nassau County Community health centers.
- "The Great Warming" To Be Shown March 27 in Bethpage
- Bethpage United Methodist Church (192 Broadway) is showing a film that may be the most beautiful movie yet on global climate change, THE GREAT WARMING, on Tuesday, March 27, at 7 p.m. It includes footage of Fire Island. For more info, visit www.thegreatwarming.com.
- Organist Scholarships
- The Suffolk Chapter of the American Guild of Organists and Elsener Organ Works offer scholarships for organ students. Applications are due by March 30. For more information about the scholarships, visit www.suffolkago.org.
- New videos in the LICC Lending Library at the Presbytery Center in Commack:
- “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly: Using the News to Teach Religion” discussion guide and DVDs from the PBS series, which airs locally on WNET/13 on Fridays at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. These are excellent resources for congregational study, covering “Election 2006: Religion & Politics”
- “Faith & Family in America”
- “The Emerging Church”
- “America’s Evangelicals”
Needed:
- Used Cars
- The Kiwanis Club of Greater Riverhead is supporting Open Arms Soup Kitchen (a ministry of First Baptist Church) through a fundraising program that allows us to receive donations of cars that are no longer wanted. If anyone has a vehicle they would like to donate, running or not, please call (631) 463-5811.
- Food
- The LICC receives donations of non-perishable food and perishables that we know we can move quickly, such as eggs, bagels, turkeys at Thanksgiving, and easy to store produce. But what can you do with large amounts of perishable food, particularly on a weekend when Island Harvest, the Interfaith Nutrition Network, and other such groups may not be able to receive your donation anywhere near you?
Hope for the Future, a ministry that feeds the homeless in Hempstead and Manhattan, has a large warehouse in Farmingdale, just off Route 110, and will gladly receive donations of usable, perishable food. You can reach them at 631-752-5771 or hopeFTF@aol.com.
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SAVE A LIFE—DONATE BLOOD!
Long Island Blood Services
Upcoming Community Blood Drives
| Event Date | Site | Address | Start/End Time | Chairperson/Phone |
|---|
| 4/1/07 | Adonai Christian Center | 99-07 Northern Blvd.
Corona 11368 | 12:00 PM
5:30 PM | Luciano Muniz
(917) 337-1527 |
| 4/4/07 | Trinity Lutheran | Trinity Lutheran
Islip 11751 | 4:00 PM
9:30 PM | Dianne Daly
(631) 581-3133 |
| 4/6/07 | St. James Episcopal Church | 490 N. Country Rd
St. James 11780 | 2:00 PM
7:30 PM | Edna Rousseau
(631) 862-3592 |
| 4/14/07 | First Presbyterian Church | 89-60 164th Street
Jamaica 11432 | 11:00 AM
4:30 PM | Sarah Bennett
(718) 276-2597 |
| 4/15/07 | The Church in the Gardens | 50 Ascan Ave.
Forest Hills 11375 | 10:00 AM
3:30 PM | James March
(212) 553-5428 |
| 4/16/07 | St. Paul's United Methodist | 270 Main St.
Northport 11768 | 3:15 PM
8:45 PM | Eve Van Dyk
(631) 262-7383 |
| 4/16/07 | Church on the Sound | 335 Oxhead Rd.
Stony Brook 11790 | 3:30 PM
9:00 PM | Cindy Hall
(631) 588-9154 |
| 4/20/07 | Community United Methodist Church | 100 Park Blvd.
Massapequa Park 11762 | 3:00 PM
8:30 PM | Laura Fiorillo
(516) 478-5024 |
| 4/22/07 | Central Presbyterian Church | 252-00 Horace Harding Expwy
Little Neck 11362 | 11:30 AM
5:00 PM | Christopher Lee
(917) 757-4404 |
| 4/23/07 | First Presbyterian Church- Church House | 79 E. Main St.
Babylon 11702 | 3:30 PM
9:00 PM | Gail Rogals
(631) 666-0297 |
| 4/28/07 | Grace Chapel Church | 61 Overton St
Sayville 11782 | 9:00 AM
2:30 PM | Richard Spotteck
(631) 567-3886 |
| 4/29/07 | Lake Success Ismaili Center | 280 Community Drive
Lake Success 11042 | 9:00 AM
2:30 PM | Salem Merchants
(516) 783-8700 |
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO SCHEDULE A CONVENIENT APPOINTMENT PLEASE CALL 1-800-933-BLOOD (2566)
And here’s one more blood drive at the very beginning of May:
Tuesday, May 1, from 3:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church of Islip, at 340 Main Street, in the adjacent chapel building. Call 631-581-1080 for further information.
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ADVERTISING IN THE PRELUDE
Each month, 2700 copies of our newsletter The Prelude are mailed to both the clergy leaders and lay leaders of 1350 faith organizations. Filled with timely articles, news briefs, updates and notices affecting Long Island’s communities and churches and the wider world, The Prelude is a must read for all who would “work together to improve living on Long Island and promote interfaith understanding and cooperation.” The LICC accepts paid sponsorship ads, display ads and simple listings (classifieds). Advertising in The Prelude is a great way to reach clergy, lay leaders, and volunteers in Long Island’s congregations. To receive a “media kit” with advertising rates, copy requirements, and copy deadlines, please call 516-565-0290 or email licchemp@aol.com. Congregations that join the LICC and groups that join the Friends of the LICC receive a free classified ad in thanks for paying their annual dues.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
“Sacred Walk of Inclusion" March 30 in Southampton
An inter-faith prayer walk of solidarity with our immigrant neighbors, Friday, March 30, from noon to 2:00. Prayerful walkers should meet in front of Southampton Village Hall (23 Main Street) by 11:45. The walk will proceed to Southampton Town Hall, the Southampton train station, and the 7-11, returning to Village Hall by 2:00, with time for silence, meditation, intercessory prayer, and hymns.
Passion Drama in Lake Ronkokoma
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Lake Ronkokoma presents a first-person drama on the Passion of the Christ, on Good Friday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. at 315 Lake Shore Road, with Fr. Anthony DiLorenzo playing an elderly Apostle John. All are welcome.
Jesus Alive Concerts in Islip and Rockville Centre
- Saturday, April 28, 6:30 p.m.
Islip Presbyterian Church
340 Main Street (Montauk Highway)
Islip
631-277-4365
With Servants of the Shepherd, Simple Praise, Dorothy Chappell, Tom Brennan, and the Jesus Alive Dance Team
- Saturday, May 5, at 7 p.m.
St. Mark’s United Methodist Church
200 Hempstead Avenue
Rockville Centre
With The Shepherd’s Singers and the Jewels Dance Group
Guest Speaker Bernadine Logan of the United Methodist Center in Far Rockaway
Please bring non-perishable food to feed the hungry.
For more info, visit www.JesusAliveMinistries.org.
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JOB OPENINGS:
Organist/Choir Director
Wantagh Memorial Congregational Church (UCC) has an immediate opening for an Organist/Choir Director. To apply, contact Peter Perlew at 631-691-1539.
SENIOR MINISTER
The Community Church of East Williston is seeking a senior minister with at least ten years' experience to lead an active Long Island inter-denominational Protestant, 250-member church. Responsibilities include: supervision and leadership of Christian education, visitation and staff. Ideal candidate will have strong communication and organizational skills. Compensation package includes housing. Benefits and salary commensurate with experience. Qualified candidates should e-mail résumé in confidence to: ccewsearch@yahoo.com.
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The Long Island Council of Churches is a 501(c)3 charitable organization. The Long Island Council of Churches unites diverse Christians to work together in ministry with the poor and to promote interfaith understanding. All donations are tax-deductible and much appreciated.
The Rev. Thomas W. Goodhue
Executive Director
Long Island Council of Churches
1644 Denton Green
Hempstead, NY 11550
voice: 516-565-0290, ext. 206
fax: 516-565-0291
email:licchemp@aol.com
Web: www.liccny.org
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