Each year, Family Promise of Hunterdon County hosts its Box City fundraiser with the help of Hunterdon County businesses, schools, and communities who help us bring awareness to the issue of homelessness. This is a critical year for the organization as the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on populations that were already vulnerable. Key findings of the NJ Counts 2020 survey found that:
 

• 9,663 men, women & children had experienced homelessness
• 6,030 people were in emergency shelters

• 1,786 people were unsheltered

• 595 were identified as veterans

For our Box City  event, teams are created to raise funds each year so that the organization can shelter or re-house those who have become [or are about to become] homeless. As residential eviction moratoriums come to an end on March 31st, we anticipate a much greater need as those struggling are unable to pay their rents, have lost employment, become ill, or experienced the loss of a caregiver. These are things that can bring about housing insecurities and contributes to the issue of homelessness. Family Promise seeks to ensure that everyone in our county has a safe place to lay their heads at night.

Please consider registering a team for your church and share with your young members so that they can register and help us draw awareness to this issue by sleeping in a box for one night, May 15, in their own home or yard and sending us photos of their box and themselves. Registering is easy! Just click here to make our 11th annual Box City event a success. Our goal is to raise $30,000, and with your help, we will get there!

Attached are photos from previous Box City events. Although we are bringing awareness to a tough issue, we have a little fun leading up the event by designing our boxes.

If you have questions about Box City, please check out our event web page Box City | Family Promise of Hunterdon County, Inc. or contact me at cyndi@familypromisehc.org or call (908) 782-2490.

Regards,
Cyndi Mayer, Development Director

Beginning Ash Wednesday at 6:00 pm and Wednesdays in Lent.
New Theology on Tap Book Discussion. 

We are pausing our current book on the history of the Church for a special short session on A House of Meanings.  The author is a long-time friend of the rector as well as his official role as Custodian of the Standard Book of Common Prayer.

Dr. Oliver’s book  acknowledges that professional theological terminology is often inaccessible to the average Christian. A House of Meanings presents liturgical theology in accessible ways, free of technical language. Chapters conclude with a discussion guide intended to assist parishioners in developing their own sense of the value of worship and its relationship to our daily lives. Dedicated to deepening parishioners' understandings of the Church and how it has both gathered and sent into service to the world, A House of Meanings will be useful not only to congregations, but to seminarians and anyone planning or evaluating worship.

The author, Juan Oliver,  will be joining our meeting on 3/24 for a conversation.  Please feel free to get a copy and join us on zoom.  Link found in our weekly email and on the website home page.

We are modifying some of the CHS Lay Ministries to enable more parishioners to serve again in our current Hybrid (worship in-person & virtual) environment:

• 1st Reader / Psalm – can be virtual or in-person.  Reads the Old Testament Reading and The Psalm.
  
• 2nd Reader / Intercessor – can be virtual or in-person.  Reads The Epistle and The Intercessory Prayer.
  
• Prayers of the People Responder – can be virtual or in-person.  This lay minister will be un-muted, if virtual, or given a microphone, if in-person.  They voice the People's responses (italicized) after the Intercessor voices the People's petitions.  If you have been a Lay Eucharistic Minister (LEM), we are hoping you will temporarily serve as Responder to the Prayers of the People.
  
• Usher/Greeter – Serves in-person.  We have combined the Ushers and Greeters.  This lay minister is changing the most.  She/he will be stationed at a control console located in the sanctuary and will:    
  >Welcome parishioners and visitors joining the Zoom or arriving in person
  >Control which camera feed is being broadcast
  >Aim moveable camera(s) upon different subjects (for example, the congregation, musician, preacher)
  
• Altar Guild - in-person.  Prepares the sanctuary for Sunday worship.
  

Please note that the following lay ministries will continue to remain temporarily paused:  Acolytes, Lay Eucharistic Visitors (LEV), and Counters.

The next scheduling period will be from February 7th  through April 25th.   Please update your availability in Ministry Schedule Pro (MSP) by Wednesday, January 28th.   We will generate the new schedule Thusday morning, January 29th. 

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Shawl Ministry at the NJ Women's Prison has been shut down. No shawls are currently being made by the inmates of the prison. Consequently, our stock of shawls for distribution by CHS to persons in need has been almost totally depleted. If you are a knitter or crocheter, think about picking up your needles and hooks to help replenish our supply. Yarn is available in the hallway bins adjacent to the church office. If you need patterns or advice (or encouragement), ask any member of the Prayer Shawl Prison Ministry: John Andrews, Susan Kane, Vicki Brooks, Diane Bendahmane, Karen Murray, Roberta Maas, Judy Linger, Carol Crawford Jones, Anne Simpson, Dot Hospador, and Father Philip. Unleash your creativity and help the Shawl Ministry through this tough period. You will be glad you did.
 

The information below is still true, but Fanta has asked that we hold off on donations for the moment.  While she is still able to cook, she wants to cook her African foods so that she can pass them on to her children as part of their heritage.  Wow!!  What strength. (Since they are cooking and still shopping for other things, ShopRite or COSTCO gift cards are appreciated! )

As you may know,  Fanta has been battling metastatic breast cancer for years now and has just gone through several months of chemotherapy. She is now finishing up radiation. This has taken a big toll on her energy level. Preparing meals is presently not a priority for her.   As a community,  the best way we can support this loving family is to provide a daily meal. Bintou, Lossenie, Blessing, and Caroline are very helpful and supportive of their mom. Fanta is still the strong, independent person that we all know and love. Most of all, Fanta is to be admired for her unwavering faith throughout this diagnosis.

The family does not eat any pork including bacon and sausage, however,  these can be made out of turkey. Beef (as in stew or hamburger meat) and all types of chicken/turkey are enjoyed.  Broccoli is a favorite vegetable.  Spicy foods are fine along with soups.  Please remember that the children are now all teenagers and have appetites to match!

A Give In Kind website has been established to make this food train work.  Go to https://giveinkind.com/inkinds/P4Q4O3G/supporting-fanta-and-children

On that website you will find ways that you can provide a meal.  You can make a meal, order a take-out from a restaurant, or provide a gift card.  Holly Warnowicz and Susan Kane have offered to do delivery for you, and the information about securing their help, as well as other information, is on the website - you have to click on the buttons!  

"Food Pick Up Time" gives you a pop-up window with information about how and where to deliver food or arrange to have it delivered for you.

"Anyone with a Smoker" gives you information about smoked meats, as well.

Scrolling down or using the "From Calendar" button gets you to a calendar. You can see the dates from now on and the option to "Claim" a day.  The days that are claimed show what the donor is bringing. If you click the "Claim" you will be prompted to join or login.  You can login with Facebook or Google or you can join by giving an email and password.  Once you are in, you will be able to type in what you will bring on that day, that you'll bring something but you don't know what yet, or that you will order from a local restaurant.  You can also add a personal note to Fanta (she will get these notes!).  After you do that, you will get the information about Fanta's address and the option to add it to your calendar.  You will also get a confirmation email.

This isn't rocket science!  You can do it :).  We are family.

Dear Friends,
 
The only way through is through.
 
I am asking for assistance to develop our worship life in a hybrid environment.
 
With great technical help, and generous donations, we are becoming more adept at broadcasting our worship over the internet and integrated those at home with those capable of coming to in-person worship at Haytown Road.  
 
We are slowly creeping up the learning curve and all of you have been most patient.  Every week, we have an unanticipated technical breakdown and its different and adds to the helplessness of the moment.  However, with constancy and devotion, we lumber on.
 
That said, we are looking  to bouncing forward, not merely bouncing back.
 
Even when the pandemic is over, hybrid worship is here for good. The reality is, there will never be another "snow day."  (Sorry kids- school ain't never gonna be canceled again!)  There will be Sunday worship even on bad weather days cause there will always be internet broadcasts, even if from my
"basement chapel."
 
So who's up for helping?  We will begin with a creative conversation on Zoom, of course.  A date will be announced to those who respond directly to me.  
 
In the short run, we are also looking for vocalists to join our merry band - we are healthfully separated using mics in different spaces safely for all concerned.   It’s is our good fortune to have a modern worship space that allows for safe public worship. AND - remember, as always, no one should feel in any way pressured about coming here live.  Please stay home as only you can know best.  With folks only singing along softly in their masks, it's nice to have a PA system sharing the lyrics with a few voices, and if we had some harmony there, it would be great.  In the future, post-pandemic world, we're still going to want to broadcast hymn singing for those at home, so we are not just filling in temporarily.  This is a long term adaptation. And it will grow the mission of this church.  
 
Pardon for the bluntness here, but I know the world sucks right now and for a bunch of reasons and all at once.  Some days I just want to pull the covers up and hide for four months. But even so, we must rally, as we are able.  I have no idea what a "choir" looks like in the future.  One will have to be rebuilt here.  Among other things.  Our worship will need to emphasize the power and resilience of what a common life in Christ can build in the midst of chaos and calamity. 

Resolve.  Mindfulness. Courage. Tenacity.  How are these exhibited in our gatherings, our common prayers and ritual actions?  The unity of being one body in Christ is threatened.  The integrity of the witness of Jesus in the Gospels is put to the test and some are understandably confused by disparate messengers.  The Church has been here before.  We stand in the long train of the faithful, living through Nero, Caligula, and Diocletian, any number of plagues, the Dark Ages, and more.  We are reminded of their faithfulness and steadfast hope.  
 
So for those who want a stake in the shape of this worshiping life, give me a shout.  As goes worship, so too outreach, and stewardship, and formation, and all of it. All of it (us) will be bouncing forward.  We might not know what reshaping our ministries will look like except that they will all look more like Christ.
 
The only way through is through.
 
Philip+
 

After successfully being able to return our last book selection kit, "Educated," to the library, I believe it would be prudent to take a few more months' break from the Group.  There are several considerations involved in distributing the books to members, and some members, including myself, have voiced their reluctance to  meeting online in Zoom sessions to further compare notes about our readings. I am sure that we will be able to successfully resume our literary meetings in the future.  Until then, we should continue to stay safe and healthy.  

Suzanne Higgins

Dear friends,
We recently received a letter from the Open Cupboard Food Pantry, thanking us for donating nearly 700 pounds of food in 2020. This was a great achievement, because COVID made everything so very difficult!! To continue our generosity, please consider donating canned soup, pasta, or vegetables for the next two months. Also, if you are fortunate to receive a free ham or frozen lasagna from a grocery store, the Food Pantry will gladly accept the donation (they have freezers and fridges). Personal toiletries, diapers, and even gift cards are most welcome. Katie and I will be glad to deliver your donations. We gave them 130 pounds of food recently, and they were so delighted, because donations continue to be fewer than usual. Thank you so very much for your kind support.

Suzanne and Katie Higgins

You can bring groceries to CHS or to the Open Cupboard in Clinton. [If it’s more convenient, send a check or ShopRite gift card to the Open Cupboard Food Pantry, 37 Old Highway 22, PO Box 5071, Clinton 08809.]