TABLE OF CONTENTS
From Our Executive Director:
WORRYING ABOUT THE RIGHT STUFF
One of Goodhue's Laws says that we tend to worry about the wrong thing. We fear flying rather than the much-more-dangerous drive to the airport. We are anxious about getting mugged, even though we are more likely to suffer injury from a slip on ice, a fall in the bathtub, or a tumble down stairs.
There is a widespread fear that building condos, coops, townhouses, or apartment buildings will swamp local school districts with new students and drive up property taxes. Worrying about taxes is not by any means irrational: property taxes are high on Long Island, particularly for many residents who can least afford to pay them, and our funding of education is entirely too dependent on assessments in tiny little districts where the failure of a single major business may send tax rates soaring.
But we are worrying about the wrong thing. Across our region, the school age population and the number of young adults who are most likely to have children has been plummeting. Our shortage of housing for the next generation is driving the next generation off the Island: having paid steep property taxes to give kids a solid education, we are seeing them leave in droves because they cannot find a modest home that they can afford - or because they cannot find the sort of "cool downtown" they enjoy. In much the same way, many empty nesters are leaving the Island because they cannot find the sort of smaller homes in interesting, smart-growth communities that they now want. Nearly every pastor, priest, and rabbi has mourned the departure of parishioners who have left the congregation for these very reasons.
Long Island has always had less multi-unit housing and less rental housing than the rest of the metropolitan area and this is a main reason for the "brain drain" that now plagues our families and employers. A few communities already have more than their share of apartments but mostly we have way too many McMansions and far too few of the sort of homes that either young adults or empty-nesters want and can afford.
Many studies have found that smart growth - building homes more densely in neighborhoods near stores, libraries, schools, and mass transit and preserving as much open space in the region as possible - lowers local taxes, while stupid growth pushes them higher, but perhaps you have wondered if this could possibly be true on Long Island. Do the taxes paid by multi-unit housing really cover the cost of new students?
Economist Pearl Kamer recently completed the most thorough study ever done of the impact of multi-unit housing on Long Island taxes. She found that 64% of such developments in Nassau generated more new revenue for local school districts than the cost of educating the new kids who lived there, and the sort of housing most needed by the young adults and empty-nesters whom we are losing - studios, 1-bedroom, and 2-bedroom homes - were particularly likely to be "tax positive" for schools and local municipalities.
The reason for this is that those multi-unit developments that are widely feared actually bring far fewer children in our school districts than do "traditional" three-bedroom or four-bedroom single-family homes. Multi-unit housing on Long Island yields about one child for each home that is built; building single-family homes yields more than three times as many children. Theresa Elkowitz's 2007 study of Avalon Bay communities on Long Island found the same ratio: only one school-age child for every six apartment units. And as I learned in a civil engineering class at Stanford eons ago, before the first Earth Day (held at my alma mater and then organized across the nation by our student body president - go Cardinals!), infrastructure costs of building roads, sewers, and schools for free-standing single-family homes almost always make them "tax-negative."
What sort of homes are built and where they are located affects how great an impact any development has on local taxes, but Kamer's study suggests a powerful irony: putting multi-unit housing in more affluent communities, where there are currently the fewest rental apartments, will probably bring the fewest new children into local schools and generate the greatest tax benefit to local government. We often hide our ethnic and social bias behind economic arguments - another manifestation of sin - but if it's really money that we care about, it's a no-brainer. Want lower taxes? Build more apartments.
Shalom/Salaam/Shanti/Pax,
Tom
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DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT:
Sara C. Weiss, Director of Development
Special thanks go the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock for their extraordinary donation of $100,000 for our emergency food program and to the Island Outreach Foundation for $10,000 to help us serve Long Islanders in need. We also thank four individuals, each of whom gave $1,000 in sorely needed unrestricted gifts. And we thank the following institutional donors for their gifts of $500 and more:
| Arrow Exterminating Co. | $1,150 for Community Resources |
| First Presbyterian Church Northport | $800 Use Where Most Needed |
| NYS Family & Children's Services | $3,000 Riverhead Emergency (Marc Alessi member item) Food & Social Services |
| Plainview Reformed Church | $500 Where Most Needed |
| Reformed Church of Locust Valley | $2,000 Where Most Needed |
| Suffolk Thrivent Financial | $500 Where Most Needed |
| TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation | $5,000 Financial Literacy |
| United Church of Rockville Centre | $500 Where Most Needed |
| Wantagh Memorial Congregational Church | $2,000 Where Most Needed |
| Westbury United Methodist Church | $500 Where Most Needed |
We are also grateful to the institutions that gave less than $500, and to all of our individual donors, though we do not list them because they have asked to remain anonymous.
Most Urgent Need
Our most urgent needs this month are for transportation, utilities, and gas. We need $500 to buy MetroCards for our clients, and another $1,000 to help clients whose electricity and gas have been turned off because they owe way beyond what they can afford.
A typical family is a single Mom with kids. She moved from Nassau to Suffolk County, but was behind in her electric bill and her electricity had been shut off because she couldn't afford to pay. When she moved to Suffolk County, she discovered that the electric company out there would not turn on her electricity until she first paid what she owed for the other place. Since she couldn't do that, she couldn't move to the new location.
Another is a family where both the husband and wife work, and they have several kids. Their landlord had included both the electricity and gas in their rent payment, but then decided he wasn't going to do that anymore. It turned out that the landlord owed over $5,000 in back utility payments and that was why he began to charge our clients for their electricity and gas. He was asking them for an amount considerably beyond what they could afford, so they came to us for help.
The families that need help with gas bills are people who live in housing that requires separate accounts for electricity and gas or heat. They do not qualify for HEAP (Home Energy Assistance Program) or Project Warmth assistance, and so they come to us for help so they can stay warm during the Winter and continue to cook meals for their families.
Get a Tax Deduction for 2009
You can take a tax donation for 2009 for any donation you make to the LICC by Dec. 31. You can also deduct a gift that you charge to your VISA or MasterCard by Dec. 31 if you call 516-565-0290 with the relevant information, even though the bill will not arrive until January. And up until Dec. 31, any funds transferred ("rolled over") from an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) are exempt from taxable income, which can save donors on taxes if:
- The donor must be age 70˝ or older.
- The cap on annual IRA rollovers is $100,000.
- The contribution must be a direct gift to a charity (rather than a planned gift such as a charitable annuity).
You can also avoid capital gains taxes by asking your broker to directly transfer gifts of appreciated property, such as stocks and bonds. And with the stock market up a bit lately, getting the full value of your donation and avoiding capital gains might be a good thing! Contact Timothy Denton at 516-565-0290 if you need more information about this.
Will Your Employer Match the Donations You Make?
You might also see if your employer will match your gift to the LICC. We recently received a gift from Peter LaMassa, for example, a member of Presbyterian Community Church in Massapequa, that was matched by JPMorganChase.
Memorial/Tribute Gifts
A great way to remember a loved one, whether living or deceased, is to give a memorial or tribute gift in his/her name. In your letter accompanying such a gift, please tell us who the gift is in memory or tribute to, and who is giving the gift. We will send a thank you letter to the contributor and to the family of the loved one in accordance with your instructions. Please send your contribution to the LICC, attention Sara Weiss. If you have any questions, call Sara for further information at 516-565-0290, ext. 207. Naming and Tribute opportunities are also available for our programs. Please call Sara for a list. We also have planned giving opportunities that will sustain these programs in perpetuity.
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LICC RECEIVES LARGE GRANT FROM SHELTER ROCK CONGREGATION
At a press conference on Dec. 21, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Shelter Rock announced that it is giving $600,000 in grants to four not-for-profit organizations working to feed the hungry and the poor on Long Island: the Interfaith Nutrition Network, Island Harvest, Long Island Cares-The Harry Chapin Food Bank, and the Long Island Council of Churches, $100,000.
Food pantries, soup kitchens and other feeding programs across the island report increases of up to 35% in the number of people seeking help this year. Lay-offs, underemployment, loss of health insurance coupled with medical problems and rising taxes, utility costs, mortgage payments and transportation costs are often cited. The need for food also historically increases in winter.
"Each of these four organizations plays a unique role in feeding the poor and hungry on Long Island and each has the infrastructure to quickly deploy a large grant effectively at this critical time," said Lauren Furst, president of the Manhasset congregation. UUCSR has about 700 members and is home to the UU Veatch Program, a philanthropic program that supports long-term social change. The congregation voted on Nov.15 to approve the $600,000 through a more recently initiated Large Grants Program, which can provide funding in a crisis.
The $100,000 grant to the Long Island Council of Churches, the largest interfaith group in the region, will enable it to expand its staff and services and feed at least 50 percent more people through its regional pantries in Hempstead, Freeport and Riverhead and other programs.
"This grant will both allow us to keep up with the growing number of people coming for emergency food and also help address some crucial needs that are hard to meet with donated food we receive," said Rev. Tom Goodhue, executive director of LICC. "There is a chronic shortage of diabetic items, low-fat, low-salt food, infant formula, and prenatal nutrition. We're deeply grateful to the extraordinary generosity that the Shelter Rock Congregation has shown toward us - and toward their neighbors in need."
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IDEAS YOU CAN USE:
HANDS-ON MISSION PROJECTS & CELEBRATING THE FOUR CHAPLAINS
Several of our member churches recently asked for suggestions as to hands-on mission projects that their congregations might undertake, particularly ideas for children, youth, and young adults. Here are some to consider:
Food Drives
The LICC needs people to organize collections of nonperishable food in their communities. This makes a great mission project for Vacation Bible School, confirmation classes, youth groups, and such. To help with these, contact Wally Merna at 516-868-4989 or Carolyn Gumbs at 631-727-2210. Wally, Carolyn, or our Executive Director would be glad to speak at your church in conjunction with this drive.
Souper Bowl
Many youth groups, confirmation classes, and Sunday Schools ask each worshiper for $1 to feed the hungry on Super Bowl Sunday, raising more than $3 million dollars last year for soup kitchens and emergency food pantries, plus substantial donations of canned goods. In doing this, they also encourage people to remember our neighbors in need after the Christmas-Hanukkah-New Year's Eve season has passed. Please consider collecting food and money for the LICC's pantries. Information on the Souper Bowl of Caring is available at 1-800-358-SOUP or www.souperbowl.org.
Church World Service kits
Groups might assemble "Gift of the Heart" disaster response kits for Church World Service, which badly needs more of them this winter. For details, visit www.churchworldservice.org.
Church World Service mission trip to Maryland
Young adult groups might visit the CWS center in New Windsor, Maryland, to help prepare shipments, learn more about CWS, shop at the SERV store, and visit Baltimore.
Spanish-speaking volunteers in Hempstead & Freeport
Do you have folks who speak Spanish or are studying it? The LICC's Hempstead office (in Christ's First Presbyterian Church) needs Spanish-speaking volunteers to answer the phone and greet guests anytime Monday through Friday between 9:00 and 4:30. Call Yolanda Murray at 516-565-0290 if you can help. This is a great way for students to improve their conversational Spanish skills!
Building Bridges Volunteers
The Long Island Multi-Faith Forum needs young adult volunteers who are willing to describe how they practice their faith for audiences in local schools, workplaces, and houses of worship. You do not need to commit great amounts of time to volunteer. Panelists serve entirely on an as-needed/as-available basis. Some are available only weekdays, some only weekday evenings, some only on weekends.
Drivers Needed
Young adult drivers could do a great service by occasionally picking up donations and schlepping them to our emergency food pantries in Hempstead (at Christ's 1st Presbyterian Church on the village green at Nichol's Court, 516-565-0290), Freeport (450 North Main Street, 516-868-4989), or Riverhead (407 Osborne Avenue @ Lincoln, opposite the Polish Town Civic Association 631-727-2210).
CELEBRATE THE FOUR CHAPLAINS
One of the most inspiring stories of ecumenical and interfaith courage is that of the four chaplains aboard the USS Dorchester during World War II. Rabbi Alexander Goode, the Rev. George L. Fox, a young Methodist clergyman, the Rev. Clark V. Poling, a Dutch Reformed pastor, and Father John P. Washington, a Catholic priest, met in Chaplains School and became fast friends. When their ship was torpedoed on Feb. 2, 1943, they gave their lifejackets to sailors, held hands in a circle, and prayed together as they went to their deaths.
Some churches, synagogues, and veterans organizations remember the Four Chaplains each year, usually at the beginning of February. Pastoral Care Month (October) and Veterans Day (Nov. 11) also would be good times to remember them. This might be a great time to invite a retired or currently-serving chaplain to speak. You can find a list of local chaplains in our Directory of Long Island Churches and Synagogues and in the October issue of the Prelude, which is archived at www.liccny.org.
More information on the Four Chaplains can be found at http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/chaplains.html, which includes these words:
"Braced against the railings were the Four Chaplains...praying...singing, giving strength to others by their final valiant declaration of faith. Their arms were linked together as they braced against the railing and leaned into each other for support, Reverend Fox, Rabbi Goode, Reverend Poling, and Father Washington. Said one of the survivors, 'It was the finest thing I have ever seen this side of heaven.'"
One obvious choice for music as you remember "those in peril on the sea" would be the Navy Hymn (and also the Coast Guard Hymn, I am told), "Eternal Father, Strong to Save." Songs about courage, such as "Give to the Winds Thy Fears", and hymns expressing a longing for peace, such as "For the Healing of the Nations," would also be appropriate for this service.
--twg--
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WORTH READING: Jason Zweig's Little Book Of Safe Money
Want to save more money this year and reduce your debts? Jason Zweig's new financial advice book, The Little Book of Safe Money (John Wiley & sons, 2009) contains a wealth of great suggestions. Here are few:
- Slow down. Driving 55 miles per hour instead of 70 (and aren't half the cars on the LIE doing at least 75?) will save you as much money as if you found a gas station whose prices are 70 cents less per gallon. Avoiding long warm-ups (which your car doesn't need) and turning off the engine rather than idling for any length of time also save a bundle.
- Skip the car altogether. Walk or bike whenever you can, or take the bus or the train. Not only will you get some exercise and protect the environment, you could also save $1250 a year.
- Brown bag it. Making lunch at home and taking it to work most days, saving a mid-day splurge for a special occasion, can save $1250 a year.
- Reset your thermostat. Zweig suggests trying 65 during the day this winter and 60 at night and putting another blanket on the bed. He thinks you should set your AC at 70 during the summer (but it seems to me that 78 is more like it), or use fans instead and save even more. You can save energy without sacrificing comfort if you get a programmable thermostat and use it to warm shortly before you get up in the morning or return home from work.
- Quit smoking. This would be good for your health and the earth, of course, but it also saves big bucks.
- Borrow DVDs from your library instead of renting them from the video store.
- Don't shop for groceries on an empty stomach. You'll buy less junk food and waste less if you aren't famished as you walk down the food aisle.
- Skip most service contracts and extended warranties. Unless these come as free deal-sweeteners, you probably don't need these for most appliances, electronics, or automobiles - and buying them is usually not worth it.
- Pay off your credit cards. Unless you pay the entire balance each month, use cash or checks whenever you can, since borrowing money on plastic is a really expensive way to float a loan. Ignore the minimum payment on your bill, which is designed to lead you further into debt, and pay the maximum that you can.
--twg-
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WORTH HEARING:
Church People: The Lutherans of Lake Wobegon
I should note, in the interest of full disclosure, that I pledged my troth to a Lutheran lass nearly 35 years ago. Moreover, as Garrison Keilor says in one of his Christmas letters, "and we are still married." Don't think, though, that you have to be a Lutheran or have married into this tribe to appreciate Church People: The Lutherans of Lake Wobegon (High Bridge Audio, 2009), though it probably helps. Keilor, the host of American Public Media's radio show "A Prairie Home Companion," is a masterful storyteller. He gently exaggerates our quirks and foibles so that we can laugh at ourselves-and gain insight into who we are and what God longs for us to be.
This collection of fictitious commercials, satiric skits, and fanciful reports from Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, focuses mostly on the people he knows best, the spiritual heirs of Martin Luther who live in the Midwest, but he also has some fun with Catholics, Methodists, Unitarian Universalists, and even the Christian Brethren. None of the humor is mean-spirited: as he confesses in one skit that surveys denominational differences in worship, he has passed through all the denominations and theologies that he sends up.
Perhaps you need to have at least visited the Upper Plains to imagine some of the musical numbers on these two CDs actually being played in worship-I mean, where else could you possibly hear "A Mighty Fortress" and "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" performed by a polka band? Keilor captures enough of the truth in his portrayal of his putative hometown that one of my in-laws claimed to have heard a number of episodes of "A Prairie Home Companion" before he realized that Lake Wobegon did not actually exist. But then, he might have been pulling my leg-the sort of joke Keilor would appreciate.
Even non-Lutherans and non-Minnesotans can appreciate much of Church People, though. As the Apostle Paul observed, "all have fallen short of the glory of God," and most of the oddities of Lake Wobegon can be found on Long Island. When Keilor and the cast show us what worship will look like if we really accommodate the pace and tastes of those who text and twitter, they could be talking about our neighbors who live anywhere.
--twg--
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WORTH QUOTING
Why We Resist Affordable Housing
"My gut tells me that the real resistance to affordable housing has more to do with race and class than it does with school taxes."
--Paul Pontieri, Mayor of the Village of Patchogue, Long Island Housing Partnership Chairman's Symposium, Nov. 16, 2009
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WHAT EVERY LONG ISLANDER SHOULD KNOW:
Hard Truths About Our Schools
Two studies were released this past month that should give Long Islanders a reality check on how we are educating our children. One provides data on student achievement, the other a close-up of five Long Island school districts. The close-up study, conducted for The Long Island Index by Columbia University's Teachers College, examined one wealthy, almost all-white district; one poor, minority district; and three districts with greater diversity. What the researchers found was vast inequity in education systems: in terms of teachers, academic programs, student support, and more.
The achievement data came from the "gold-standard" National Assessment of Educational Progress. Scores on fourth- and eighth-grade math tests, sharply contradicting the rosy results on recent state tests, showed minimal improvement overall, and no narrowing whatsoever in the achievement gap between white and minority children. Today black eighth-graders are approximately three years behind whites.
It is time for us to stop kidding ourselves. We do not have equal opportunity in education, nor are we moving toward it. Not in our nation, and not on Long Island. We need to acknowledge the depth and resiliency of the achievement gap, and understand its roots. Disadvantaged young children enter school far behind their wealthier peers. The average four-year-old in a poor family has heard some 35 million fewer words than a child in a professional family. What is worse, poor children lag in the personal and social skills - attentiveness, persistence, self-monitoring, etc. - that hold the key to school success.
Wealthy children, then, don't just have a head start. They're also speedier in terms of school skills. Common sense tells us that the gap will only widen through the years, and that's just what happens.
In the face of this reality, what does Long Island do? It gathers children into separate schools in separate districts . . . and gives the least resources to the kids who need the most. We can wish that this system would close the achievement gap; we cannot seriously believe it will.
Closing the gap is very hard, but one of the few places that did it is right here on Long Island. In Rockville Centre educators looked at the tracked classes in their schools, with lower tracks predominately black and Latino and high tracks mostly white and Asian, and said, "This is not acceptable." Step by step, they switched to racially and academically mixed classes. They didn't dumb down the curriculum; they actually made it more rigorous. But they added a critical ingredient - extra help for anyone who wanted it.
The results? In the last year of tracked biology classes, 48% of black and Latino students passed the State Regents exam, and 85% of whites and Asians. The next year, with mixed classes, the pass rate for blacks and Latinos shot up to 77%. The whites and Asians? They climbed too, to 94%. So it went, class after class. All groups improved. The achievement gap closed.
Could this happen across Long Island? Only if we will do what Rockville Centre did: face squarely the current inequity . . . and say, `This is not acceptable.'
--Nancy Rauch Douzinas, Rausch Foundation News, November 2009, reprinted with permission
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Souper Bowl of Caring 2010:
DO YOU CELEBRATE SOUPER BOWL?
Last February more than 11,000 congregations from 50 denominations took part in the Souper Bowl of Caring. They asked each worshiper for $1 to feed the hungry on Super Bowl Sunday, raising more than $3 million dollars for soup kitchens and emergency food pantries, plus substantial donations of canned goods. In doing this, they also encouraged people to remember our neighbors in need even after the Christmas-Hanukkah-New Year's Eve season has passed. Will your congregation take part in Souper Bowl this year? Please consider collecting food and money for the LICC's pantries. Information on the Souper Bowl of Caring is available at 1-800-358-SOUP or www.souperbowl.org.
A campaign to fight hunger and poverty in your local community where every penny stays local, every collection matters and 100% of your collection goes to the charity of your choice! Find out what would happen if every American that celebrates the Super Bowl football game donated one can of food or $1 to fight hunger and poverty in their community.
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WAYS TO SAVE MONEY ON TAXES IN 2010
Homebuyer Credits
Congress has extended the tax credit for first-time homebuyers, which can be up to $8,000, for homes bought before June 30. It applies to people buying a principal residence (not a vacation home) who have not owned another principal residence during the past three years. You can claim the credit after the closing date, but you must close by June. 30. And those who buy a home, even if they own one already, may qualify for a new credit, for up to $6500, if they have lived in their current home for five years or longer. The latest sales reports for Long Island suggest that these incentives are helping to revive the local housing market.
Energy Conservation
Credits and incentives of up to $1500 are available to homeowners who invest in saving energy, such as adding insulation, energy-efficient windows or doors, and greener heating or AC systems. In addition, homeowners who install alternative energy systems such as solar heating or solar cells may qualify for a credit equal to 30% of the cost, if they are installed by the end of 2010. For more info on these, visit www.irs.gov.
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OFFERED/NEEDED
Offered:
- Free Training For Home Energy Auditors
- This class will teach you the skills necessary to provide energy auditing services to homeowners in our community.
Date and Time: This four day class will be held Tues Jan 12, Thurs Jan 14, Tues Jan 19 and Thurs Jan 21 2010. Time will be from 10 am to 4:00 pm each day.
Location: Being finalized at this time - Most likely in Hicksville area
Details: There is no cost for this program. Seating is very limited and you must have a technical background in order to participate.
Registration: If you are interested in this training course please send an email with your resume to auditclass@ligreen.com.
If you need more information contact Chuck Schwartz at 631-721-1908
- Help Coping with Holiday Bills
- The LICC offers seminars on how to best manage your money. Our presentations usually run an hour to 90 minutes, but we can tailor it to the needs of your audience, We can do shorter programs, for example, for a college class, campus ministry group, or youth group. This can boost your congregation's stewardship campaign, helping people to think about how we use our resources faithfully, and not just the portion we donate to our house of worship. We would also be glad to do presentations for religious leaders on how to manage a congregation's money more effectively, reduce expenses, and encourage planned gifts. We have speakers who can handle a variety of languages.
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, Bethpage Federal Credit Union, Capitol One, Citibank, Greenpoint Bank Foundation, JPMorgan Chase, Ridgewood Savings Bank, the State Bank of Long Island, TD Banknorth Charitable Foundation, and Wells Fargo Home Mortgage
To request a seminar, please call 516-565-0290, ext. 206 or e-mail tomgoodhue@optonline.net.
- Help Paying for College
- The Health & Welfare Council of Long Island is offering free help in getting government grants to pay for a college degree through its Financial Aid U program. Appointments are available in Central Islip, Wyandanch, Hempstead, and Roosevelt. For more information or an appointment in Suffolk, contact Erica Chase at 631-650-2302 or echase@hwcli.com. For Nassau, contact Rushka Tcholakova at 516-505-4425 or rtcholakova@hwcli.com.
Needed:
- Fruitcake Needed - Really!
- Some of us actually like fruitcake and look forward to receiving it in December, but it quite possible that the vast majority of Americans would rather use these gifts as doorstops or hockey pucks. If you belong to the latter group, why not give the unwanted bounty you have received to your local emergency food pantry?
Do you have fruitcake tins in your cupboard, either received in recent weeks or placed there by the Ghost of Christmas Past? There is actually a fair amount of nutrition in these desserts, and food donations are slow after the holidays. Emergency pantries often have bare shelves in January and February, and in the current recession, even more of our neighbors than usual are at risk of going hungry.
Do you have anything else that needs to be cleaned out of your cupboard? Fancy jellies and jams? Flavored coffee that is not your cup of tea? Most of us have food in our homes we will never eat, food our neighbors need. This is a great time to go through the canned goods and give away anything that you are not going to use that is not dented, many years old, or otherwise inedible.
Besides food, our Freeport pantry needs a copier and a vacuum cleaner, and our Riverhead pantry needs some comfortable chairs or a small couch for guests waiting for assistance. Donations for the LICC can be dropped off at their Riverhead office (407 Osborne Avenue at Lincoln, opposite the Polish Town Civic Association, 631-727-2210), their Hempstead office (in Christ's 1st Presbyterian Church at the village green on Nichol's Court, 516-565-0290), or their Freeport Emergency Food Center (450 North Main Street, 516-868-4989).
- Disaster Relief Kits - and Someone Driving South This Winter
- Church World Service, our ecumenical partner in disaster response, has issued an urgent appeal for "Gift of the Heart" disaster relief kits. 174,000 pounds of CWS Kits were donated last year - and nearly 300,000 pounds of Kits have already been requested this winter. Please help assemble disaster response kits if you can. If your church assembles kits, they would love to receive them before the usual late-April collection date.
Are you driving south this winter? Could you take some kits with you to New Windsor, Maryland (about 30 miles north of Baltimore, between Gettysburg and Baltimore)? If so, please contact Kathy Burton, associate director of CWS for Long Island, at 860-598-9194, 888-297-2767, or kburton@churchworldservice.org. Please let her know, too, if your church has kits ready to go. Information on how to assemble CWS kits can be found at www.churchworldservice.org.
- Mentors
- January is National Mentoring Month, the time each year when our nation highlights the importance of mentors and the need for every child to have a caring adult in his or her life. When you serve as a mentor, you enrich your life as much as you do the life of a child. BUDDY (Building Unique, Dynamic & Diverse Youth) brings together three of Long Island's premier nonprofit organizations - the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD), the Long Island Council of Churches (LICC) and the Mentoring Partnership of Long Island (MPLI) who have teamed up to launch and sustain a mentoring program for children in Nassau County whose mothers are incarcerated.
The kick-off of our BUDDY program will be on Martin Luther King Jr. Day "Day of Service" on January 18th which recognizes the power of service to strengthen communities and achieve common goals. If you have an hour a week to mentor a young person between the ages of 4-18, please call Valerie Taylor at 516-747-2606 or visit us online at www.licadd.org for more information and an application.
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ECUMENICAL/INTERFAITH MARTIN LUTHER KING SERVICES
- The Ministerial Alliance of North Amityville will have its 23rd Annual MLK Unity Day Breakfast on Saturday, Jan. 16, at 9 a.m. at Circle of Love Ministry, 20 Reith Street in Copiague. The Rev. Gabriel Salguero of the Lamb’s Church in New York will be the keynote preacher. To RSVP, call 631-789-2688, ext. 243.
- "We Must Speak" an Interfaith Celebration and Choir Concert, in the tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., focusing this year on seeking justice and qualitative care for the world's children will be Sunday, Jan. 17, at 4 p.m. at St. Hugh of Lincoln Church, 21 East Ninth Street at Route 110 in Huntington Station.
- The 25th Annual MLK Breakfast sponsored by 1st Baptist Church of Riverhead, will be Monday, January 18, at 8 a.m. in Hauppauge, with the Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes Jr., emeritus pastor of the Riverside Church, as keynote speaker. For tickets ($50 requested donation) call 631-727-3446 Tuesday through Friday 10 to 6. Tickets must be reserved by Dec. 31.
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SHELTER FOR THE HOMELESS
As we move into winter, it is good for your house of worship to know where those in dire straits can find emergency housing:
- in Nassau County, call 1-866-WARMBED
- in Suffolk County, call Emergency Homeless Assistance at 631- 854-9100.
A number of congregations on Long Island are working with Family Promise to create new sheltering programs to help homeless families get back on their feet. The Western Nassau organizational meetings are held the third Monday of every month at the New Hyde Park Baptist Church, 635 New Hyde Park Rd, New Hyde Park, NY at 7:30 pm. All are welcome to attend and learn more about this exciting program. For further information, call Claire Deroche, 516-627-6560, ext. 177.
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GUEST PREACHERS
- Our Executive Director, the Rev. Tom Goodhue, has some Sundays available for guest preaching this winter. You can reach him at tomgoodhue@optonline.net or 516-565-0290, ext. 206.
- LICC chaplain Nancy Schaffer, who is ordained in the United Church of Christ, is available for guest preaching. Call 631-586-9667.
- LICC Chaplain Larry Swensen also is available for guest preaching. You can reach him at 516-794-4505.
- Wally Merna, the manager of our Freeport food pantry, would be happy to speak to churches, service clubs or other community organizations. You can reach him at 516-458-1360 or chaplainwally@gmail.com.
- Timothy Denton, our Finance Director, is available occasionally to speak about the ministry of the LICC. You can reach him at licc@optonline.net.
- The Rev. Dr. Cecily Broderick y Guerra, Vice-President for Pastoral Care of Episcopal Health Services and a member of the LICC Pastoral Care Committee is available for guest preaching. She can be reached at 718-869-7835 or cbroderi@ehs.org.
- The Rev. David L. Tucker, a retired United Church of Christ pastor who lives in Mineola, is available for pulpit supply and interim work. You can reach him at 516-750-8355 or dltgap@optonline.net.
- The Rev. Yuri Ando, who is ordained in the United Methodist Church and trained in Gestalt Pastoral Care, is available for pulpit supply in Suffolk and occasionally in Nassau. Please call her at 631-744-4836 or email at ymando@optonline.net.
- Pastor Emilce Erato of Iglesia Luterana de la Resurrection in Uniondale, is available for guest preaching on Sunday mornings or other times that do not conflict with her worship service on Sunday at 1:00. She is ordained to ministry of Word and Sacrament in the ELCA and can preach or celebrate communion in Spanish as well as English. You can reach her at 516-770-2494.
- The Rev. Elsa Callender, a United Church of Christ clergywoman, is available for guest and supply preaching. You can reach her at 917-836-8524.
- Bob McMillan, an attorney who founded the Long Island Housing Partnership, chaired the Panama Canal Commission, and served as a trustee of the American Medical Association, is available for guest speaking on the future of healthcare and other topics. He also has preached on Laity Sunday about his ministry as a layperson. You can read more about him at www.bobmcmillan.net and you can reach him at 516-610-1000.
- Kathy Burton, the Church World Service associate director for Long Island, is available for guest-speaking and preaching. She also would be glad to report to denominational meetings on the work that CWS is doing. You can reach her at 860-598-9194, 888-297-2767, or kburton@churchworldservice.org.
- Sister Camille D'Arienzo, RSM, who has done extensive prison ministry with death-row inmates, is available for speaking and preaching. You can reach her at cherilife@aol.com or 718-366-0966.
- Sue Terry is a graduate of New Brunswick Seminary and is a licensed preacher in the United Church of Christ (and can celebrate communion in Suffolk County). She can be reached at gterrys@aol.com or 631-751-1170.
- Tom Lyons, a member of Mt. Sinai Congregational Church (UCC) who is active in the Heifer Project, would be happy to speak or preach in local churches. He can be reached a 631-928-4317 or lyonheifer@aol.com.
- Imam Khalid Lateef is available for guest preaching and for lectures on topics such as
- The difference between Farakhan's Nation of Islam and the religion of Al-Islam.
- The need for Muslims to support vs. "tolerate" the religious beliefs of others.
- The effects of Racialism on Islam and the Human Family.
- The United State's diversity as the best example and hope for the Human Family.
- The divisive effects of the narrow promotion of religious dogma, with claims of exclusivity.
- The influence of traditions, culture and nationalism on the way people practice "Islam".
- The practice of "Islam" with a focus on "academics" (learning to speak Arabic, memorizing volumes of Hadith, etc.) vs. character development (practicing the "do's and don'ts" from the Holy Quran).
You can reach him at 631-586-0875 (h), or kslateef@aol.com.
- Rabbi Moses Birnbaum of the Jewish Center in Kew Gardens Hills is the former interreligious chair for the Long Island Chapter of the American Jewish Committee and a past president of the LI Board of Rabbis. He would be glad to guest-preach in churches and other houses of worship. You can reach him at 718-263-6500, 516-622-6385, 516-768-6665, or ramab18@yahoo.com.
- The Rev. Max B. Surjadinata, who has served UCC congregations on Long Island and now lives in Manhattan, would be glad to speak about his experiences in Israel and Palestine with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program of the World Council of Churches. He can be reached at 212-222-1899, srjdnt@aol.com, or mbsur@yahoo.com.
- Stephen Langdon, an Advanced Lay Speaker in the United Methodist Church, is available for guest-preaching in Nassau. You can reach him at 516-507-0935.
- The Rev. Stefanie Regis is available for guest preaching. You can reach her at 516-520-9292 or seviregis@msn.com.
- The Rev. Patricia Sealy, a graduate of New Brunswick Theological Seminary who is ordained in the Elim International Church, is available for guest preaching. You can reach her at patsealy@verizon.net or manna0504@verizon.net.
- Darrell W. Pone, MD, a member of the Congregational Church of South Hempstead and author of We've Come This Far By Faith; Dr Pone's Ten Keys to Success, is available for guest speaking about overcoming cerebral palsy. You can reach him at 516-647 2477.
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ADVERTISING IN THE PRELUDE
Each month we mail about 3000 copies of our newsletter The Prelude to the clergy leaders and lay leaders of 1350 faith organizations. We also email this newsletter to 2200 religious leaders and post it on our Web site (www.liccny.org), which receives more than 2000 visitors each month. 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 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 tomgoodhue@optonline.net. 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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ADS & ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Healthy Congregations Facilitators Training Event
January 20-21, 2010, Koinonia Retreat Center, Highland Falls, NY. Participants completing the 15 hours of training are certified to present the Healthy Congregations program to any congregation. For details, contact Rev. John A. Jurik at 631-271-3581 or jjurik@optonline.net.
Own A Beautiful Home For Less Than $1,300* A Month!
Open House -Thursday, January 14 through Sunday, January 17, Noon – 4 P.M.
New Affordable Cooperative Ownership Program
Senior Living Residence at 1888 Foster Meadow Lane in Elmont
Applications are now available!
Refreshments will be served
If you have any questions, please contact the Long Island Housing Partnership at 631-435-4710
Applicants must be 62 years of age or older and qualify under income and program guidelines.
Two-bedroom, 1 ˝ bath sale price after subsidy - $150,000. The complete offering terms are available from the sponsor. File number: C090011
* After a $4,500 down payment, estimated monthly costs include taxes and common charges.
JOB OPENINGS: Day Care Director
Director sought for small startup Day Care Center - Initially as consultant to complete OCFS application. Contact Bay Shore Methodist Church, Bay Shore, NY 631-666-7194.
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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:tomgoodhue@optonline.net
Web: www.liccny.org
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