The Fellowship
Newsletter for February 2021
Friends and family of CVUMC, here is what is happening in our church community
From The Pastor
February 2021
 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to reap; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to throw away; a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; a time to love; and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
 
    On this last week in January, I always find it amazing how quickly the new year gets underway and it seems the words found in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes always seem fitting.
    Just as we have celebrated Christmas and have been worshiping in the season of Epiphany, we will soon be entering another season, one that is known as Lent. This year’s Lenten season begins on Wednesday the 17th of February.
    The season of Lent is a season of forty days, not counting Sundays. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends forty days later on Holy Saturday. Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “lencten” which means “spring.” The season is a preparation for celebrating Easter. Historically, Lent began as a period of fasting and preparation for baptism by converts and then became a time for penance by all Christians. The First Sunday describes Jesus’ temptation by Satan; and the Sixth Sunday (Passion/Palm Sunday), Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and his subsequent passion, death, and Resurrection on Easter, April the 4th.
    With three Sundays remaining in the season of Epiphany, I hope these weeks will allow you to prepare for the season of Lent and provide opportunities to reflect on the life and ministry of Jesus that will take us to Palm Sunday and the celebration of Easter.
 
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Paul
Save the Date
United Methodist Women Board Meeting: The Board will meet on Zoom, Thursday Feb. 4 at 1 pm. 
Lent Begins: Feb. 17 is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent
United Methodist Women Cal-Pac Mid-Winter Event: Feb. 20, 2021 from 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. on Zoom. Register online www.calpacumc.org/umw Registration deadline is Feb. 12. (See United Methodist Women article in this newsletter)
Every Sunday: Worship service is on our church Facebook page at 10 a.m. and continuously thereafter. The video is on our website www.cvumc.org by 12 noon.
Alternate Saturdays: Feb. 6, Feb. 20. Food Pantry collection is 9:00 – 1:00 outside of Fellowship Hall. Non-perishable foods and paper goods collected for Bailey Center & Learning Works. Financial donations also welcome. United Methodist Women Library Books are available for check out too
Every Tuesday: Prayer Team meets at 6:30 pm on Zoom. If you have a prayer request, please call any member of the Prayer Team: Pastor Paul, Jeanne Lavieri, Diane Lewis, Debi Bois, Janice Burke, or call the Church Office (818-249-6173)
Giving just got easier! We have set up an easy and secure way for you to give online. It is easy: just go to the website www.cvumc.org under the Giving Tab and click in. Just follow the instructions. You can give a reoccurring pledge or donation or a onetime amount.
    We believe in the power of generosity, what it does for the individual doing the giving, as well as for the purpose that the giving supports. Giving is a principle that is taught throughout the entire Bible. When we tithe and give, we are expressing worship in a tangible way by putting God first in our lives, all while allowing us to be a part of the most important work in life that is spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ! Whether it’s giving your time, talent, or treasure you can know that giving to God goes beyond this moment and leaves an eternal legacy.
    If you would prefer, you can still mail in or drop off your tithes and offerings to the church. To mail offerings and donations to the church, use this address:
Crescenta Valley UMC
2700 Montrose Ave.
Montrose, CA 91020
For those that can give, we deeply appreciate you and thank you. The smallest bit helps and we are grateful for each and every one of you. Thank you to Dan Griffin, Karyn Kemmerer and Molly Burke for getting this up and running. 
 Report from the Foundation
 
    The Foundation Board met on Monday, January 25th. The meeting was started by saying goodbye to and thanking Becky Castano, Norma Ellis and Hank Garrett for their years of advice, ideas, support and dedication. The CVUMC Family owes them a great debt for all they have helped the Foundation accomplish. 
    A great example of that is what was decided at the meeting on the 25th. At that meeting the Foundation decided the amount it felt it could give to CVUMC throughout 2021, while still preserving enough assets to continue giving generously and well into the future. Throughout the year 2021, the Foundation will be contributing $46,000 in equal quarterly installments of $11,500. Its first check will be deposited on Monday, February 8, 2021. This amount represents an increase of $6,000 over last year, and will be in addition to the traditional Pastoral Housing payments (usually around $13,000), and what remains of the pledge of "up to $60,000" from the Parsonage Account ($24,000).
    How is the Foundation able to continue to contribute so much for so long? It's a 3-part process.
    First, the CVUMC Family has believed in and trusted enough to contribute the funds which the Foundation shepherds. Recent examples of that would be the commission of a stone in honor of Ed Waldheim, which was installed under the Tree of Life in our Narthex just recently. Another stone has been commissioned by the Schmutzer family. That stone will be installed shortly. The congregation has also contributed funds to commission a leaf in honor of Carol Ruygrok, an original Founder of the Foundation, and whose daughter, Chris, currently serves as Secretary of the Foundation. The congregation also has contributed to purchase a leaf in honor of Ed Waldheim.
    Second, the Foundation's broker, S. Keith Price of Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, has been looking out for CVUMC's interests for years and years. His dedication, counsel and advice are invaluable.
    Third, all of your prayers uplift this process. Do not stop praying.
 
The Foundation will continue to work to support CVUMC by working with its broker, talking with the congregation about future contributions, and prayerfully shepherding those monies for the benefit of CVUMC Foundation. Members going forward will be Debi Bois, President; Bettie Hull, Vice President and Chris Ruygrok, Secretary.
 
Again, to paraphrase Martin Luther King ... if you can't run, walk; if you can't walk, crawl; but by all means keep moving forward.
The Board members are Kathy Garrett, Peggy Griffin, Connie Horton, Bettie Hull, Diane Lewis, Loraine Locke, Mary Marino, Linda Neate, Carmena Smith, and Cathy Wacker.
 
  • Board Meeting: Thurs. Feb. 4 on Zoom, 1:00 – 2:30 pm. Linda will send out the access code.
  • The annual Cal-Pac UMW Mid-Winter Event is on Saturday, February 20, 2021 via Zoom, from 11 am – 12:30 pm in California. The theme of the event is, “Knitting Together God’s Family”. Multiple speakers active in the field of mental health as volunteers and organizers will address the topic of mental health with a background of racial and social injustice in mind. Their stories will help us expand the concept of missions and inspire us to be more involved with the young and vulnerable in our community grappling with mental health issues. So please register online by February 12 for the virtual Mid-Winter Event @ www.calpacumc.org/umw (or see Linda Neate for the form to register by snail mail.) And mark your calendar - February 20, 2021.
  • Book Cart/Table: The books will be available for check-out each Food Pantry day. (This month the dates are Feb. 6 and Feb. 20.)The books have been sanitized and are spread out on a table, to make browsing easier and safer. Hand sanitizer is there – please use it before touching any of the books. Keep your masks on. There are pens for the sign-out sheet. Please put used pens in the separate “Used Pen” basket so they can be sanitized before being used again. If returning books, put them into the designated box – they need to be sanitized and quarantined for 2 weeks before being checked out again. Since so many people want to read the books, please check out no more than two, and try to return them within 2-4 weeks, hopefully at the very next Food Pantry collection date.
And also we request – only one person at the table at a time. We want to stay at least 6 feet apart to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
  • Reading Program: You can find this year’s list at unitedmethodistwomen.org. If you are interested in reading for the Reading Program, all the books from 2017 – 2021 lists are the ones that will “count”. It will take a while to expand the number of books in our library but so far we’ve added 13 new titles to the library collection. You can also find many books on your own by going on-line, and some are in the public library systems. If you order books through Amazon please remember to visit smile.amazon.com, Amazon’s charitable giving page; select “United Methodist Women” as your charitable organization. For all eligible purchases made on smile.amazon.com, Amazon will donate 0.5% to United Methodist Women! 
  • Faith Talks: a Podcast just for YOU: Faith Talks are monthly conversations with United Methodist Women. Each conversation explores themes and resources that empower us to put faith, hope and love into action. Check out interviews with United Methodist Women mission studies’ authors and more at: unitedmethodistwomen.org/faithtalks. (Three (3) Faith Talks “count” as 2 books read for the Reading Program in the Spiritual Growth category.)
  • North District Reading Award: The women in our Unit are committed to learning about issues of today’s world and growing in spirituality. One way we do that is through our Reading Program. We were awarded the North District 2020 Reading Banner for having the highest percentage of readers of all Units in the District! Congratulations, everyone!
Music Notes
   For the new year, I thought it would be fun to highlight our band members. I submitted an article that featured Tim recently, so I thought it would be Alexis’ turn. You all know what a great musician he is and how much fun he is, but perhaps you didn’t know what a rock star he really is!
     Alexis was born in Ottawa, Canada but has lived here in Los Angeles for decades. He teaches at the Musician’s Institute (of which is a graduate with honors) and has done nearly every job there from bass instructor to chair of the bass department. Alexis is an author; his books are legendary. My good friend and bassist, Joel DiBartolo (bassist on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Sarah Vaughn & Blossom Dearie), talked about Alexis’ books and his published articles in Bass Player Magazine.
     You may not know the long list of famous musicians Alexis has worked with, including one of my all-time favorite groups; Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Please click on the link below to see Alexis playing with this legendary band at Woodstock ’94! He has also worked with Jackson Brown, Manhattan Transfer, Carole King, Rita Coolidge and many others. Please ask Alexis to tell you the story of working with Chuck Berry!
     On top of all that…he’s a nice guy and a good friend. We are blessed to have him in our church!
     Alexis has a lot of great videos on his website, so please check out: AlexisSklarevski.com
     Here’s the video of Alexis with CSN at Woodstock ‘94!
Church Council
    Saturday January 30th some of us attended the North District Training Day on Zoom. We will get together to share anything we think is useful for our congregation. Some of our group attended the SPRC Section as we have two new members. I attended a session about Children, Families and Youth. They gave a lot of great ideas so don’t be surprised if I reach out to some of you to help. It will be nothing too hard or time consuming. We will also share this information in the next few weeks.
    February 17th is Ash Wednesday and the start of the Lent Season. Stay tuned for information on this and other Lent activities. If you have any ideas for Lent you would like to share please let any of your Leaders know. Linda lists all of our names in this newsletter in the Thank You section at the end of the newsletter.
    We are still doing Church business and there are a lot of people behind the scenes doing so much. Praise God for all who keep it going.
Peace, Hope, Joy and Love,
Janice Burke
Greetings, Siblings in Christ,
     I just attended the North District Annual (Zoom) Training session this morning (Jan. 30) and I would like to share some thoughts with you.
Jenny Hambarsumian and I were at the Staff Parish Relations Committee training which was led by our North District Superintendent, the Reverend Jim Powell. He emphasized the importance of relationships and teamwork in ministry. He also pointed out that as much we dream of returning to things being the way they were pre-pandemic, they never will be the same. We may as well prepare ourselves to adapt to and to innovate for a changing world. Many of the practices and traditions we have relied upon were designed for a world that no longer exists.
The good news is that the Gospel doesn’t change. We feel grief at the loss of our past ways of doing things. As with all loss, we acknowledge it and eventually begin introducing new ways to be together. Some changes that we may expect down the road are:

Using our campus as a community center
Pastoral Appointments to Mission Areas
Hybrid Church - online and in person
Sustainable staff and volunteer teams

We are going to need your participation as we navigate these uncharted territories. Please don’t hold back because you think that your current leaders must know what we are doing. This is new to all of us. Each and every one of you knows something that no one else knows, and you have gifts to contribute.
In many ways, we are blessed with opportunities for new beginnings. I ask that you spend the coming months prayerfully asking how you can help shape new ways for us to be together, grow in discipleship, and reach out into the community. We are poised to listen and try new things. Pastor Powell reassured us with these words from Proverbs 3:5-6:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
    and do not rely on your own insight.
 
In all your ways acknowledge him,
    and he will make straight your paths.
 
    What a relief to know that we are not being asked to do this alone. We can open our hearts to receive guidance from God. And we can join hands with others who are doing the same. That right there would be a piece of the Kingdom. 
    I and the rest of SPRC members look forward to hearing about your hopes and dreams for CVUMC in the coming months. Feel free to contact Jenny Hambarsumian, Andrew Delman, Mike Abdollahi, Janice Burke or me.
Peace, Love, and Hope
Jeanne Lavieri
(818) 383-3137
   We have had one Zoom meeting in January. It is nice to just get together. We just chat and play a game usually. Would you like to be a mentor to our Youth? It would be great you would like to show off your gifts or talent to them. I am praying for some of you to step up and give them some different points of view. We all need a change to make it interesting. They are still interested in doing a Youth Worship Service and I will work on that. Please continue to pray for our young people as we go into this New Year with Zoom school and staying at home.
Prayers and Hope for their future.
Yours in Christ, Janice
Preschool News

It is hard to believe that we are already at the end of January. This past year has gone by so quickly considering all the changes we have had to adapt to. As we look forward, we have planned some fun activities that the children can participate in yet keep all safe:   
Valentines Day We’ll celebrate Wed. February 10. Wear Red/Pink. We will send home a short story about making Valentines. Parents will take pictures and children will share with class what they did. The Preschool also plans to give a special valentine bag for each child to take home.
*** Chinese New Year TBA
St. Patricks Day Wed. March 17: All about the color Green. Wear Green today.
Wacky Wednesdays
Wed. February 3: Sports Day: wear a sports shirt
Wed. March 3: Wacky Dress Day: wear something crazy and be creative                                                                 
Wed. April 13: Superhero Day: wear something that your superhero would wear
Wed. May 12: Crazy Hair Day: what can I say, surprise us
Read Across America Week
Mon. Mar. 1: “Fox in Socks” Crazy Socks Day: wear Crazy mismatched socks
Tues. Mar. 2: Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss Pajama Day. “Llama Llama Red Pajamas” or “Cat in The Hat”: wear pajamas to school; cozy up with your favorite book. 
Wed. Mar. 3: Read “Wacky Wednesday”: wacky dress day. Clothes inside-out, backward, mixed-up colors – you decide.
Thurs. Mar. 4: “Thing One and Thing Two” day: copy a friend and dress like twins.
Fri. Mar. 5: “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish”: wear all red and blue.
 
In addition, Teachers are working on "Child Assessments" as we chart the progress and development of each child. Our Curriculum Specialist, Ms. Geovanna has been doing a wonderful job creating the curriculum needed for children to develop to the next learning level including Kindergarten for the Pre-K age group.
Special Thank You from Bettie Hull
Bettie wishes to thank all the wonderful people who have contacted her – their kind phone calls, cards, prayers, and messages expressing their love and concern for her and her family and her sister Patricia’s family. The love and care from church family members has really supported her during the past few months of family health concerns.  
Anniversaries
14   Pastor Paul and Connie Tangonan
 
Birthdays
4    Beverly Reynolds              21  Alma Swanson
7    Linda Waldheim                22  Carmena Smith
13  Al Burke                           26  Debi Bois
15  Henry Garrett                  26  Jenny Hambarsumian
20  Stuart Mawhinney            29  Jonathan Castaneda
We enter the second month of this New Year with anticipation and hope for what lies ahead, and with the knowledge that God continually provides comfort for each of us. We remember that we are blessed with the support, efforts, caring, and kindness of so many people, and we are surrounded with the love of God. 
Please keep in your prayers all those whose efforts strengthen our wonderful church every week.
 
*Pastor Paul: pastoral leadership, care, wisdom, spiritual guidance
*All of you - you continually offer your time, resources, and prayers for our church family
 
*All who create and present our worship services
Liturgists (Welcome, Joys and Concerns, and Scripture):
Debi Bois, Janice Burke, Jeanne Lavieri, Diane Lewis
Musicians:
Our Band: Barb Catlin-Bergeron, Ricky Cosentino, Tim Kobza, Alexis Sklarevski
Guest musicians and vocalists: Wayne Bergeron, Perrin York, Melissa Faye, Antonio Lozano
Worship Team:
Pastor Paul, Barb Catlin-Bergeron, Janice Burke, Jeanne Lavieri, Debi Bois, Diane Lewis, Ricky Cosentino, Tim Kobza, Alexis Sklarevski
Tech Team:
Barb Catlin-Bergeron, Molly Burke, Kim Mawhinney, Edmond Hambarsumian
 
*All who manage the structure, operations, programs, and finances of our church
Youth Leader: Janice Burke
Trustees: Richard Brace, Alan Del Castillo, Hector Castaneda, Edmond Hambarsumian, Andrew Midgley, and Linda Neate
Membership Secretary: Kim Mawhinney
Financial Team: Dan Griffin, Becky Castano, Janice Burke, Debi Bois
Church Office Administrative Assistant: Karyn Kemmerer
Committee on Lay Leadership:
Jenny Hambarsumian, Melissa Abdollahi, Kathy Midgley
Linda Taylor-Bell:
Preschool Director – successful and safe operation of Preschool!
Preschool Board:
Connie Horton, Chair, and Lisa Perry-Castaneda, church representative
Staff-Parish Relations Committee: Andrew Delman, Jenny Hambarsumian, Mike Abdollahi, Jeanne Lavieri (as Lay Leader) and Janice Burke (as Lay Member to Annual Conference).
Leadership Council:
Pastor Paul, Janice Burke, Becky Castano, Dan Griffin, Kathy Midgley, Jeanne Lavieri, Debi Bois, Connie Horton, Linda Neate
Prayer Team: Pastor Paul, Jeanne Lavieri, Debi Bois, Diane Lewis
Tithes and Offerings Tabulators: Bettie Hull, Connie Horton and Cathy Wacker
Foundation Board Members:
Debi Bois, Bettie Hull, Chris Ruygrok who are continuing on the Foundation Board, and Henry Garrett, Norma Ellis, Becky Castano who stepped down at the end of January
Food Pantry Coordinators: Debi Bois, Janice Burke, and Connie Horton
United Methodist Women Board:
Kathy Garrett, Peggy Griffin, Connie Horton, Bettie Hull, Diane Lewis, Loraine Locke, Mary Marino, Linda Neate, Carmena Smith, Cathy Wacker
Marv Wacker: Thursday Man and “Head Groundskeeper and Troubleshooter”
 
Check out our church website @ www.cvumc.org for up-to-date news!