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01/06/2021: Happy Epiphany!

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Dear LAC,
Last Sunday, we celebrated Epiphany in worship; but if you have been counting down, you know that yesterday was the twelfth day of Christmas, and today, January 6th, is traditionally when we celebrate the Magi’s Journey and the incredible revelation of God’s self in Christ. If you missed it, you can catch up on Rev. Jed Koball’s sermon, “We Journey Together,” here [LINK] and join in God’s call to be in solidarity with our neighbors, both far and near.

 

In recent years, we have celebrated Epiphany in worship by receiving Epiphany Stars-small cut-outs, lovingly hand-lettered by Rev. Smith-Bartlett with a “Star Word” to be a guide for reflection in the new year. Artist Morgan Harper Nichols has created a digital adaptation [LINK] for folks missing this tradition. As star words fly by in this Instagram Reel, simply close your eyes, and take a screenshot (or tap your device to pause) when you feel ready to receive your word for 2021. (You can find the full list of star words here [LINK].) Or, if carnival attractions and gameshow antics bring you delight, you can try clicking to “Spin the Wheel” here [LINK] to see how the Spirit may be speaking to you through the wonder of random number generation!

 

Whether your star word resonates deeply with you, or if you forget it within a matter of minutes, I pray that this new year will be a time of God’s light breaking in through the darkness, and that when you reflect on what it means to have survived this past year, that you will remember moments when God’s love surrounded you.

 

Star Giving by Ann Weems

What I’d really like to give you for Christmas is a star…

Brilliance in a package,
something you could keep in the pocket of your jeans
or in the pocket of your being.
Something to take out in times of darkness,
something that would never snuff out or tarnish,
something you could hold in your hand,
something for wonderment,
something for pondering,
something that would remind you of
what Christmas has always meant:
God’s Advent Light into the darkness of this world.
But stars are only God’s for giving,
and I must be content to give you words and wishes
and packages without stars.
But I can wish you life
as radiant as the Star
that announces the Christ Child’s coming,
and as filled with awe as the shepherds who stood beneath its light.

And I can pass on to you the love
that has been given to me,
ignited countless times by others
who have knelt in Bethlehem’s light.
Perhaps, if you ask, God will give you a star.
From Kneeling in Bethlehem, The Westminster Press, 1980.

Help Us Imagine and Create!

Did you find these online Epiphany stars delightful? If you are intrigued by thinking about ways to adapt worship traditions to work in an online context, please join the Worship Committee as we continue imagining how to make our online worship services more meaningful! We need folks to volunteer as Liturgy Editors to select readings and write prayers for upcoming services. (We’ll set you up with resources, and can even connect you with a worship mentor to talk you through the process!) We need folks to record video and audio clips as virtual liturgists! We need artists-of all ages and experiences and media-to create images and videos as we work together to create LAC’s very own visual culture. Send a note to the office to be paired with a worship mentor, or sign up here to get involved with an up-coming service: [LINK]

12/30/2020: An Update from the PNC

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Dear Devoted LAC Members,
As you know, our committee has been working since March as we dedicate ourselves to the important task of finding our next pastor. After reviewing and discussing over 100 applications and conducting several dozen Zoom interviews, we have narrowed our search to two exceptional candidates. We are enthusiastic about these pastors and they are excited about the prospect of serving at our church.
We were in the process of scheduling in person interviews when safety concerns about travel during the pandemic arose. Although these final interviews have been temporarily delayed, we will schedule them as soon as prudently possible. During this brief hiatus, we have been in regular communication with both candidates, who are as eager to meet with us as we are to meet with them. Thank you for your patience – we promise that we will be welcoming a wonderful new senior pastor here at LAC very soon!
Faithfully,
Your Pastor Nominating Committee
Thea Beaver & Jim Hanley, Co-Chairs
Stacy Brandom, Kim Christiansen, Anthony Manson,
Allison Martin, Won Min Song, Mary Sykes, Samantha Udondem

12/23/2020: Merry Christmas!

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Merry Christmas, LAC!

On Christmas Eve, Larchmont Avenue Church will offer two opportunities for virtual worship:

  • 5PM Pageant Encore: For little ones who need to be in bed early, we will have a second screening of our Christmas Pageant, complete with candle-lighting (or glow-stick snapping!)
  • 8PM Traditional Service: LAC’s Traditional Christmas Eve Service will begin with a special Musical Prelude at 7:45 PM. Please join us for festive music, a sermon from Rev. Jed Koball, and grab a few candles to join us in sharing the love of Christ! Download your bulletin here: [LINK]

This Christmas, may hope be born anew for you; may you be an agent of God’s peace in our community; may joy bubble up as a song that transforms your heart; and may you share the love of God with everyone you meet.

With Joy,
Your LAC Worship Team

Another Opportunity for Contemplation
Even in this unusual Christmas season, the Holy Spirit is at work not only within us, but also within our Church. LAC’s Elders have arranged for special lighting to illuminate the sanctuary windows showing the nativity scene so that all may experience the spirit through art and feel connected to our physical church home while we continue to worship online.
You are invited, starting after sunset on Christmas Eve through January 6, to walk, drive, bike, or skate by the Forest Park side of LAC to view the illuminated crèche scene. You can recreate the tradition of our candlelight service by bringing your own candles to light, and singing a verse of Silent Night as you glimpse Jesus in the manger. We hope this joyful sight will fill you with peace and hope, serving as a reminder that while we cannot be together in our glorious sanctuary, we remain connected with one another.
Photographed by Robert Fertitta

12/16/2021: A Virtual Christmas Pageant!

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Greetings LAC Family,
As expected, this season of Advent is chugging right along and Christmas is only a week and a half away. While some of our regular traditions of this time of year have had to be set aside, others will remain, though maybe in different ways. In that light, it is such a joy that the beloved Christmas pageant will make the LAC airwaves this Sunday!
It’s been quite a fun week getting to both hear and see some giggles as filming for this year’s Christmas pageant commenced. Our incredible director Brittany Beaver worked diligently to edit our production for these digital times. As always, shout out to all of the stars of our production as well as parents (who’ve become expert film producers, videographers, and costume designers) for your excitement and diligence over this worshipful project!
Please join us at 10am on Sunday for this year’s Christmas pageant and carols service. We are so so excited by the hard work and enthusiasm of some our youngest members with you all.  On Christmas Eve, we will offer a special encore screening of the pageant at 5:00 p.m. for little ones who may not be able to stay awake through our traditional service at 8:00 p.m.
Blessings,
Ekama Eni
Interim Director of Youth and Family Ministries

12/09/2020: A Dancing Magnificat!

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Dear LAC,
Over the summer, your LAC worship staff gathered to envision the months ahead. We had no idea what to expect–would we be online forever? Would we worship in-person, perhaps outdoors? We thought about instrumentation that would minimize droplet spread–could LAC host a ukulele choir or perhaps a steel drum ensemble? Some ideas have born fruit, like reviving LAC’s handbell choir, while another idea has blossomed into this week’s Dancing Magnificat.
This week, we will celebrate the third Sunday in Advent when we light the pink candle, symbolizing Mary’s joy, and read Mary’s song in Luke 1 that tells of the amazing things God has done. In this time of waiting and watching–for a vaccine, for hope, for God’s love to break into our world–Mary prophetically reminds us to reflect on the ways God is already at work in our lives. When our own bodies tell the stories of times when God has shown up in our growth, survival, and healing, what could be a better vehicle for this embodied proclamation than dance?
In our Reformed tradition, proclamation is the heart of our worship. We believe that there is something transformative that happens when we gather as a community and read scripture together. The Holy Spirit is at work within us and within the Word of God to lead us to understanding, wisdom, and insight. This act of communal engagement, transformation, and illumination of God’s Word is called proclamation. We are familiar with proclamation happening during the sermon; however, we also experience these moments of transcendence during other parts of worship–from choral anthems that help us to hear God’s Word in a new way to stories of how our mission partners are living out the gospel during the moment for mission. This week, there is no sermon, but there is an embodied proclamation as dancer Candace Tabbs, violinist Nicole Sharlow, and organist Douglas Kostner have collaborated for a spirit-led interpretation of Mary’s Magnificat.
LAC, I hope you love this service as much as your worship planners have loved conspiring to prepare for it! You won’t want to miss it! Here’s a sneak peek:
Magnificat Sunday Preview
With Joy and Delight,
Marranda Major
LAC Secretary, Communication Coordinator, and Video Editrix Extraordinaire
Music Notes
Acts of worship. It is difficult to be a participatory community in the midst of a pandemic. There is so much we can’t do: congregate in our sanctuary, sing hymns together, exchange the sign of peace in person, share communion, meet for fellowship. We know this and justifiably lament these losses.
Still, we continue to express our acts of worship as best we can from our distances. And, dare I say it, we even find opportunities that were either not considered before or physically not possible in live worship. Think of Dave Brandom playing a trio with… himself. Or, coming up on Christmas Eve, our Chancel Choir consisting of both LAC family present in the community and who have moved away but who can join us again with some help from technology, accompanied by a piano duet where both parts are played by yours truly.
Or, this Sunday. A special act of worship, so appropriately titled by Marranda as an embodiment. Not an anthem or a cantata. Not a sermon. A dance. Mary’s response to the angel’s words, her song of praise, expressed through music and motion.
The music, by composer David Bednall, is an unpublished piece that he graciously gave us permission to record for our service. Marian Suite consists of three movements. In the composer’s words, “The first and last movements are Gregorian paraphrases on their respective chants, ‘Ave Maria’ and ‘Ave Maris Stella.’ The middle movement, ‘Mary’s Lullaby,’ is a free melody imbued with the feeling of folksong. There is both an Irish and Scottish feel to it, and I tried to impart to it the simplicity of a lullaby such as my Welsh grandmother might have sung.”
When I heard this music, I thought it almost cried out for movement. I imagined, with its focus on Mary, that it could be used to relate to the Magnificat reading from Luke that we will hear on Sunday. Through Becky Timms, another member of our LAC family who moved away, I was put in touch with Candace Tabbs, who created the dance she so beautifully presents for us.
In her words, “It was a joy and blessing to be in collaboration with Douglas and Nicole to minister Mary’s Magnificat through dance and music. The movement took inspiration from Luke 1:46-55, with each section exploring Mary’s journey through trepidation and doubt about what she was called to do, to soothing her child and herself in a lullaby and finally rejoicing in the power of God and all God has done and would do. The offering speaks to the infinite ways in which the Lord will embrace us with love and protection through all of life’s journey.”
Douglas Kostner
Director of Music Ministry
Congregational Meeting on December 13
Following worship this week, there will be a meeting of the Congregation of the Larchmont Avenue Church at 11:00 a.m. for the purpose of electing new church officers. This will be a historic moment for our church as it will be our first congregation-wide meeting on Zoom! In order for the vote to count, we must have a quorum of members present–that means a minimum of 57 LAC members must participate in this historic vote!  You may participate by calling in via phone, or by using a smart device loaded with the Zoom app. If you have multiple LAC members in your household, we recommend that each person use their own device in order to make voting easier.
Sunday, December 13, 2020 at 11:00 a.m.

12/02/2020: Share Holiday Cheer!

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Dear LAC Community,
It is the time of year where we experience the joy of Advent, the time leading up to Christmas day. For many this year, it will be difficult to feel this joy. The holiday season can be a challenging time of year for anyone, but especially those who are in need. The stress of the season mixed with financial woes can be a lot for anyone to handle.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of families who are struggling to get by in our
Community has soared while the number of organizations able to help is limited due to social
distancing and health precautions.

Once again this year, Church and Society will provide some much needed Christmas cheer to
families in need in our community. We will provide Gift Cards and Gift baskets to twice as
many families than we did in 2019. What a wonderful opportunity this is for LAC to demonstrate our willingness to help the less fortunate, while we celebrate the spirit of giving!
There are two ways you can help:
One is to adopt an individual assigned to LAC by the Town of Mamaroneck to purchase a gift
card for. Wish lists for specific gift cards for those individuals will be provided. This way,
families can purchase the basics they need or purchase gifts for loved ones. Please sign up here: [LINK]

A second way to help is to donate funds. The C&S committee will use monetary donations to
purchase holiday goodies, hats, scarves, small games, and food gift cards to fill a holiday
basket for each family. You can donate through the church website at www.lacny.org/giving and select “Christmas” in the drop down menu on the Giving page. You can also mail a check noting “Christmas” in the memo. All donations must be received by Tuesday, December 15.

With gratitude and joy, let’s spread some cheer!

Church & Society Committee

11/25/2020: Virtual Advent Workshop

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Greetings LAC Family,
Can you believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow? I literally bought my turkey on Monday night and am very grateful that it was not frozen! I know that I am not alone in preparing for and getting ready to enter the festive, end of the year in new and different ways. It is my hope that you all are finding meaningful ways to continue to celebrate and continue traditions.
It is in that spirit that I hope you will be able to join us for LAC’s FIRST virtual advent workshop this Sunday, November 29th at 3:30pm (via Zoom). Please register [LINK] so you can receive the Zoom information as well as instructions for picking up small Advent packs that will including some of what you will need to bring some of the Advent cheer to your households. We will be sharing our homemade wreaths with one another, having a cookie decorating session led by Samantha Udondem and sharing a story with one another!
Even if you cannot make the workshop on Sunday, you are invited to create a wreath at home and send us a picture of what you have created so that it can be featured in worship later this month. Patty Towle has created a lovely how-to guide for wreaths. If you need candles or a Styrofoam wreath form, please send me an email so we can coordinate that.
Advent is one of the long “waiting” periods in our church calendar. For four weeks, we walk alongside the blessed Virgin Mary as she and we await the birth of Jesus Christ. Waiting isn’t easy, so often that time is almost always filled with stuff, be it work, school, family, changing schedules, holidays and all of the other things that are expected of us from the world around us.
All of our Advent activities and notes about our worship for this month are posted on the Advent page on the LAC website! Please don’t hesitate to look here if you need a reminder or are looking for anything Advent-related this year!
Blessings, and I look forward to waiting with you!
Ekama

11/18/2020: Grateful for (Re)Discovery

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Oh, feed me this day, Holy Spirt, with
the fragrance of the fields and the
freshness of the oceans which you have
made; and help me to hear and to hold
in all dearness those exacting and wonderful
words of our Lord Christ Jesus, saying:
Follow me.

Excerpted from “Six Recognitions of the Lord”
by Mary Oliver, Devotions,
Penguin Press, 2017, pp. 125-128

Dear LAC Community,

Every year about this time when jackets become less optional and there are more leaves on the ground than in the trees above, I am surprised to look out my kitchen window and see – way out, almost at the horizon – a glinting, shimmering expanse of blue. I always exclaim to my boys, “Look! It’s the Long Island Sound!” It’s a bit silly but I never fail to be surprised. Even though the Sound was there last year in the very same spot. And, actually, it was there all Spring and Summer too. Hidden from our view by leaves that are now lost to Autumn. I miss the warmth of the Summer sun and fear the chill of Winter. But I am grateful for the return of the Sound to my window. It seems that in times of transition God sometimes reveals His gifts this way – through a loss followed by grace and the (re)discovery of God’s love and favor – which was actually always there unabated.

As our church moves along its own path of change and transition, the LAC community and lay leadership are continuing to work steadfastly. The Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) and Associate Pastor Nominating Committee (APNC) are both working in earnest to find new clergy that will lead LAC into the future. Meanwhile, the Session, the Deacons, and the Trustees are each performing their necessary roles to support the successful, daily operations of LAC and the LAC Preschool. And, most significantly, LAC’s worship, Christian education, and administrative staff are all working harder than ever to ensure that our congregation can continue to worship and study God’s Word even in the midst of a global pandemic.

All of this “behind the scenes” work by laypeople, professionals, and the ordained is enduring evidence of our community’s commitment to living Christian values and manifesting God’s Love every day. As we enter this season of Thanksgiving, I pray that we will be grateful for the blessing that we have in each other as a congregation. And that we find comfort in remembering that we have been here for each other and for LAC all along.

Worship This Sunday

Please join us for worship this Sunday! The Sermon “This Is Our Time” will be delivered by

Ruling Elder Deborah Milcarek, General Presbytery of the Hudson River Presbytery. Ruling Elder Milcarek has 23 years’ experience working in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Before becoming General Presbyter of the Hudson River Presbytery, she worked as a Christian educator, guided the mission and social justice work of the Presbytery of Baltimore, and taught congregations how to foster deeper engagement in their neighborhoods and communities.

Sharing Abundantly

I also want to remind all members to make a generous donation to LAC’s special Thanksgiving offering in support of our Mission Partners who work tirelessly to reduce and eliminate hunger in Westchester County. If you missed last week’s service led by the Church & Society Committee, you may watch it here [LINK] to learn more about how our Mission Partners are serving our community.

You can give in three ways:

Checks mailed to LAC attn: Gloria Haq
Online at www.lacny.org/giving (Fund: “Thanksgiving”)
Smart phone app: Realm

Wishing you all good things,
Leah Griggs Pauly
Co-Clerk, Session

11/11/2020: Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week

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Dear LAC Community,
As the holidays approach, people take time to consider the many blessings they have in their lives. Many people choose to donate some of their time, attention and resources to others who are the victims of hunger and homelessness in our Westchester County community.
As in past years, the Church and Society Committee of LAC urges all members to make a generous donation to our special Thanksgiving offering which will support our Mission Partners who work tirelessly to reduce and eliminate hunger in Westchester County.
You can give in three ways:
  • Checks mailed to LAC attn: Gloria Haq
  • Online at www.lacny.org/giving (Fund: “Thanksgiving”)
  • Smart phone app: Realm
Additionally, please tune in to LAC’s Sunday service on November 15th to see and hear members of the Church and Society Committee kick off Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week with special appearances from six of our Mission Partners who are fighting every day to stop the hunger and homelessness.
Peace,
Clark Morehouse
Church and Society Committee

10/4/2020: Space for Prayer and Reflection

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Dear LAC Community,
As we move into this day after the election, I am sure there are still so many unanswered questions. This election season particularly has been very long and perhaps a little bit fraught. In light of this, we will have the LAC sanctuary open today from noon – 6:00 p.m. ( and virtually for those who would prefer) for a time of prayer, reflection, or just a little chat. Please email me at eeni@lacny.org or send a text message to (240)899-8386 if you’d like to drop by or receive a Zoom link.
Peace,
Ekama
Interim Director of Youth and Family Ministries