Sunday Service:
Holy Eucharist
at 9:30 am
Child care is available
Church of Our
Saviour
191 Flanagan Way (Rt 153) Secaucus, NJ 07094
Tel: 201-863-1449
Fax: 201-863-1474
Mark A. Lewis, Vicar MLewis@secaucus.org
Dorothy Fowlkes
Pastoral Associate
This page revised 23
Dec 07
http://www.secaucus.org/
oursaviour
The Church of
Our Saviour
in the Town of Secaucus, New Jersey
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A
Synopsis of the Vicar's Report
84th Annual Meeting
of the Church of Our Saviour
9 December 2007
A few days ago a group of parishioners were sitting in my office, just chatting. And someone commented that for some people this church is "Sunday only" and for others it's "weekday only" and for many, it's both. We agreed that it was a good thing that all kinds of people are able to experience this place in various ways, according to individual needs. It seemed a useful way of thinking about our great big little corner of Secaucus. So, this year in what our treasurer has called the "State of the Church" address, let's take a look at our Sunday Church and our Weekday Church which &endash; of course &endash; are really the same church.
Our Weekday Church depends on a particular kind of commitment on the part of our congregation. It costs us. During his tenure, Bishop Spong continually urged our congregations not to become landlords. "No community," he said, "mourns the loss of a rental agency." On the other hand, no community misses a vibrant and socially essential congregation. No need to miss it because it won't go away. Five times a week combined NA/AA groups meet here. That means almost 200 people cross our threshold each week to find help in facing life one day at a time. Our twelve-step group -- the first in Secaucus -- has had a solid relationship with this congregation for almost 50 years.
Our Thursday morning play group for stay-at-home parents and their children is moving into its third year. The group jumped to us from another in Hasbrouck Heights and is now in turn exploring its own two-pronged expansion: To Grace Church in Jersey City and the launch of a Chinese-language group to meet here on another weekday morning to serve Secaucus's growing Asian population.
The Linus Group continues to meet twice monthly. The members -- from throughout the community -- meet to enjoy each other's company and handiwork. The lovingly crocheted blankets they make are given to hospitalized children in the region. (Thousands of them so far.) Their meetings are really spectacular. There can be up to 30 ladies and on warm days people walking by on the sidewalk experience our church as an expanse of open doors and windows pouring peals of laughter and happy chatter down the block.
Boy Scout Troop 22 doesn't meet here weekly anymore because of space limitations, but we are still the sponsoring organization of one of America's oldest troops, offering various kinds of support including space for equipment storage. When the scouts are here preparing for their fundraisers and camping trips, they have been known to gather around the big table in the vicarage for card games and pizza. They feel at home here. And, in fact, they are.
We take our turn with the other town churches to support the Weekend Meals-on-Wheels program for senior citizens. The Episcopal Churchwomen meet regularly. That group has saved the life of this congregation repeatedly over the years. And kept the fires of social outreach burning in lean years with their decades-long support of the United Thank Offering, the North Porch Women and Children's Center, and more. Monday I joined them for their annual holiday luncheon. For the first time I wasn't be the youngest person there. The Saturday afternoon Bible Study will soon be two years old. We've had to move it to a larger room to accommodate the numbers, including members of other churches who like to join in.
Five days a week, children learn poise in the DancePower studio downstairs. I am often pleased to be chatting with some stranger and when I mention what I do, the response is frequently, "Oh, my daughter goes to that church...for dance lessons."
And that's what I mean when I said that Weekday Church requires a particular commitment. All this makes a terrific mess. It costs us money. "Those People" both use and waste heat and air conditioning. They leave the doors open sometimes and they spill things and they use things up and don't replace them. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. We could give this place a good cleaning and lock it up tight and we'd save a fortuneÉand lose our soul.
Another way our church fills up the weekdays is by lending me out. While the spiritual life of our parishioners is my top priority, you also allow me the opportunity to serve on boards and committees including Christ Hospital Trustees, Christ Hospital School of Nursing Board, Harmony Early Learning Center's Board, Meadowlands Hospital Ethics Committee (with Edna Mondadori and Eleanor Reuther), the Secaucus Shade Tree Commission, and as a Secaucus Police and Fire Chaplain. This year I joined the board of the oldest chartered corporation in the United States, the marvelously named Corporation for the Relief of Widows and Orphans of Protestant Episcopal Clergymen.
Our Sunday Church is just as lively as the Weekday Church. After we leave, on Sunday morning, the Quimby Memorial Church arrives for their gathering. They are a group in the Divine Science tradition -- a little like the Christian Scientists. But they don't just rent space. They take responsibility for various upkeep chores in the churchyard, join us for selected programs and services, and made us a gift of crisp new signage this year. Their Metaphysical Movie Club meets every few weeks on Sunday afternoons for lunch, screening of a film, and discussion -- often led by someone with a hand in making the picture.
Our own congregation continues to astonish me. "Sunday mornings are terrific; I hate it when I have to be away," someone recently told me. Someone who knows what she's talking about. If I had to give one reason for the vibrant feel of Sundays this year, it might just be that they are noisy. Our musical life is expanding. Our once-in-awhile choir is growing. Get a load of this: Choir members keep their ears open and actually invite visitors and newcomers who like to sing out to join the group. Then Rudy Snelling brings his gifts and John Cafaro backs it all up. We're a lucky bunch. Where else in this world do perfectly ordinary -- even, shall we say, modestly talented -- people not only get to hear live music but actually participate in making the music? So, please, keep on singing.
And children are noisy. Thank God. And we can hardly hear ourselves these days. The Sunday School is now in three classes with Helen and Harry Allen joined by Mary Ann Meli and Dan McDonough as teachers. Dan missed a Sunday recently and got an e-mail from a young pupil urging him not to miss the next Sunday. Some Sundays, half of our congregation is under 21 years old. We have more people under fifty than over 70. That is an amazing statistic for any congregation these days. And no one is happier to point that out than those of us over 70.
And now, for my favorite point in this year's address: In 2007 we had 12 baptisms. And if the Namendorf family schedule allows, we might even hit 13 by the end of the year. I had to run the numbers. That's the largest number of baptisms in this church since 1927, when there were 15. 1927 was the first year this building was in place and those baptisms included many that were put off during the construction. And some were whole families who wanted to join the new Church of Our Saviour en masse. The Bishop will be here on Sunday, 30 March. And we'll have a very substantial group of folks to present for confirmation and reception.
This has been a year of collection and construction that bridged both Weekday Church and Sunday Church. Most obviously, Our entrance is being renovated. Actually, more like restored. Using modern materials, and emphasizing ecological principals, we're making our church's public face look very much like it did when it came to us from the 1925 Sears, Roebuck catalog. Everything is taking much longer than expected, of course, but we're nearing completion. The project is funded by the Trustees of the Diocese of Newark who frankly explain that they are making this investment in our church because they think we're worth it. The extended memorial pavers project and the enhancement of our columbarium has had to be postponed until spring because of labor issues and cost considerations. But we're on for early spring and the work should be all the quicker for having extra time to prepare in advance.
Additions to our church home this year included quite a bit of so-called "holy hardware" to enrich our worship. All Saints' Church in Orange consolidated with two other Orange churches. Rather than sell their furnishings, they asked that congregations in the diocese write letters requesting needed items from their sacristy. Now, for the first time in our history we have a nice sterling silver altar service, a chalice and paten with two cruets. St. Luke's in Montclair replaced their acolytes' vestments and we inherited their old, but perfectly fine ones. Christopher Gregory, our upstairs tenant, gave a thank offering of a hand carved Greek icon. Plus, there are plans for some other enhancements in the altar area to honor the ministry of Ruth Olsen.
Upcoming 2008 projects include the installation of a new gas furnace, removal of our in-ground oil tank, sidewalk replacements, and a restoration of our stained glass. These are also projects to be funded by the Trustees of the diocese.
Stewardship season this year was a good one. We have an increase in the number of estimates of giving, the highest in my years here. And it's the number of committed households that really makes our hearts glad. All the better that our operating budget is higher this year than ever before as well. As always, we have so much to thank our treasurer Don Roberts for.
And I have a lot to thank you for. Thanks for giving me time to serve and learn among you. Thanks for letting me play with your babies. Thanks for looking the other way when I mess things up. So many thanks to Dorothy for being a partner in ministry I can't imagine doing without. I think our predecessors who planted this church here and those who carried it through the years and handed it to us would be proud of us as we begin our 85th year of service. And I feel certain that those who follow in our footsteps will -- thanks to us -- find a firm foundation here for great new things that we can't even imagine today.
Mark A. Lewis, Vicar -- 9 December 2007
Officers elected at the 84th annual meeting of the congregation
The annual meeting of the congregation was held on Sunday, 9 December, 2007. The following officers of the church were elected:
Wardens
Henry Saurborn
Lisa Dever
Treasurer
Don Roberts
Clerk
Jo Ann Namendorf.
Executive Committee
The above candidates and
Henry Allen,
Nicholas Blenkey
Maria deAngelis, Thurman Hart
Ellen Lewis
Edna Mondadori
Alfred Namendorf
Deputies to Diocesan Convention
Dorothy Fowlkes
Ellen Lewis
Donald Roberts
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