September 2, 2021

Dear Friends,

I hope you are all safe and dry. Thanks to the Trustees and the generosity of our congregation, we intentionally upgraded our water drainage systems around the church building a few years ago. After last night’s storm, the church only took on a bit of water in the youth lounge, choir room and downstairs hallway. We are thankful for Donald and his guys who are mopping and airing out the rooms this morning.

I left the church on Wednesday night at 9pm after a Chatham Methodist Preschool meeting with parents, and the back parking lot was flooded by the brook that had overflown its banks. The exit to Van Doren Ave was a river and impassable. Main Street was also a river and impassable. It was a long and circuitous ride home to the parsonage. All that to say, know that flooding these days, will mean that access to and from our church building will be questionable at best.

If you have experienced flooding and would like a prayer over the phone, or need more tangible help, please give me a call. We’ll try and connect those who are willing to help, with those who are in need.

With love, with prayer, and with trust,

Jeff

We invite all people to join us at 10AM on Sunday, September 5, 2021 in the Sanctuary to enjoy masked, heartfelt, community!

We invite you to be greeters and ushers for Sunday morning worship, and to set up and prepare for refreshments following our worship time. Please use this Sign-Up Genius link to indicate the dates you are willing to assist us. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/904094CA8AE2BAB9-summer. Thank you!

Dear Parishioners and Friends of Chatham UMC,

On behalf of the Staff-Parish Relations Committee, I want to share some news with you, that is sad for us, but good for Ana. Ana Wahidy, our Finance & Office Manager, will be taking another job as the lead accountant in an international trade business effective September 20, 2021. Ana describes this new opportunity as a dream job, yet she has also shared how hard it will be to leave our office team that has done so many good things here at Chatham UMC. Ana, we will miss you, and we are so grateful for the many ways you have streamlined our finances, encouraged great teamwork in the office, and invested so much of yourself in the ministry of hospitality and welcome.

The SPRC will be meeting soon to talk about restructuring the office responsibilities and adding someone to our office team either on an interim or permanent basis as soon as we can. Ana has offered to assist with a smooth transition and will continue to do our payroll in addition to her new job, until we can hire someone.

SPRC will speak with the CUMC staff about their levels of interest in, and opportunities to, acquire additional office duties and potentially increased pay as a result of this restructuring and future hiring.

We welcome your questions and concerns. And if you have someone in mind who may be a good fit for this office position, please reach out to me or Pastor Jeff.

With prayer and trust,

Glen Walker, SPRC Chair

Immediately following church service at 10 we’ll gather on the front lawn on Main St side and have:

Pls Sign up at SignUp Genius below to help get accurate headcount for food:

Questions? Call Steve Davis (m) 973.7384728

We on the Library Committee hope you’ve had an enjoyable summer and that you’ve found opportunities to read a good book. If there’s a book you’d like to review or recommend to our congregation, please send a note about it to Ron Yarger at ryarger@optonline.net. 

In the coming weeks we’ll provide reviews of The Return of the Prodigal Son by Henri Nouwen and The Divine Dance by Richard Rohr. If you would like to write a review or share comments about either of these books, or others by these authors, let us know. We’ll be glad to post your comments.

As we’ve noted previously, you can view and search the entire CUMC Library holdings at http://www.chathamumc.com/cumc-library/. If you have questions or comments about the Library, please let us know.

This Sunday, our 10:00 a.m. in-person Summer service will feature Tom Belding, harmonica. Join us prior to the service for hymn favorites from Mike Maguire at the piano and stay for the beautiful harmonica music during the service.

Members of our Ukulele Orchestra will next meet in-person and online on Saturday, September 11th at 11:00 a.m. in the Asbury Room! Email Peter Hill at the below email address for our Zoom and in-person info.

Our Chatham UMC music groups will begin the program season in September after Labor Day. We will also begin our season with in-person fellowship in the backyard of the Hill residence. If you would like information about our Covenant Choir, Youth Musicians, Wesley Ringers, Ukulele Orchestra, Praise Band, or Wind Ensemble email music director, Peter Hill at petepiano@mac.com.

Please sign up to read and record yourself reading scriptures, this will be a blessing to our online worshiping community. The first date we need filled is 9/7.

Here is the link:

Our CUMC Community Food Pantry has been helping our neighbors facing food insecurity since mid March 2020. Our little pantry has become a beloved community resource but our shelves are almost bare! Help us oversee our information table at the Chatham Fishawack Festival. This year the festival will run

We need volunteers to oversee the table and donations that come in.

Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/904094CA8AE2BAB9-fishawack

Please feel free to contact Eileen Ruggiero at chatumc@optonline.net.

SIGN UP to join the online church community directory at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/sQILS5n/CUMConlinedir 

The CUMC online church community directory is LIVE at https://members.instantchurchdirectory.com/

We welcome singers in all voice parts, but tenors and basses are especially encouraged to join. Sight reading is required, prior choral singing experience is highly desirable.

During auditions singers are asked to vocalize, do pitch- and rhythm-matching exercises, sight-read in a four-part piece and, optionally, sing a prepared selection.

Contact Don MacGowan at membership@masterwork.org to make arrangements or discuss in more detail.

The Masterwork Chorus rehearses at Chatham Methodist Church on Wednesday evenings from 7:30-10:00 PM.

Masterwork Chorus is over 100 voices. Founded in 1955, the non-profit chorus is dedicated to enrich, delight and support the cultural life of the community through high-quality inspiring choral performances.

For more information please visit www.masterwork.org.

The bread ministry is looking for more volunteers to assist in collecting bread from Panera. This ministry is a vital station in the Wednesday Food Distribution. Additional days and dates have been added from now until November. Please click on the link below and chose a day to help!.

For updates on our current needs you may visit our dedicated Facebook page and Website. These sites are updated weekly with accurate information on what our current needs are and how to best support our efforts before you shop. Thank you all for your continued care of one another and making our Pantry a community staple.

All submissions for next week's CUMC Weekly E-news are due by Tuesdays, 2PM. Submissions may be emailed to Zrinka Cvetkovic.