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10/28/2020: Worship–An Anchor for Months Ahead

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Dear Fellow Congregants,

 

When I was a child, I went with my mother to a refinisher to have a chair repaired. Walking in the door the repairman told my mother she looked familiar and asked her where she lived. She said, “I am from Union.” He said, “I thought I had seen you before, I went to church there.” My mother asked (much to my total embarrassment), “Why didn’t you come back?” His reply? “I guess I got into some other things.”
I am telling you that story because I am confessing that I have gotten into some other things besides attending our online Sunday Services. When the weather became nicer, the outside beckoned, and I took advantage of it. Maybe some of you grabbed the chance to be together with others outside too. We may have channeled our freedom and the energy from the warm weather into both good works through mission outreach and diversions from the pressures and stresses of today.
Now we face the winter months. Although I have personally been sailing along with mostly good breezes and smooth waters, I am taking a look at restrictions that loom, and I feel as though I need an anchor to get through the choppy, maybe stormy months ahead and their challenges. What about you?
Under the guidance of Ernest Wong, the Worship and Music Committee has presented opportunities for us find a mooring and strengthen us as a reinvigorated church community. Frankly, the request for congregant responsibility caused me to think it would be a lot of work for the few people who “attend” the service. Then I reviewed the schedule of speakers and visiting ministers and am honestly touched by the people who are willing to reach out to us. These are people who have been or are in our community. Some may be physically elsewhere, but they all know and have a real connection to us and want to help us serve LAC with an energy that will strengthen our connections with each other and the community.
So look again at the schedule and think about helping with a service. I won’t minimize that it will take some work but don’t worry so much about the “bulletin maker” responsibility. There are guidelines and references for support, as well as resources for helping to record parts of the service. Except for the fact that there must be a bit of coordinating in time for online bulletin/program production, the responsibility is much the same as it would be with any visiting preacher. And remember you can do it from anywhere. Here’s the [LINK] for you to volunteer.
So maybe you are a choir member and are drawn to the musical sermons and can encourage one or two others to delve into the readings. Maybe Jed Koball was the Associate when you, your children, grandchildren were in confirmation. Or did you help with one of his mission trips? Why not get the old gang together to connect on one or more of those Sundays? We know Daniel Yang as a compassionate chaplain who has used his experiences to shed light on just what we need to see. Maybe you are a front-line worker(s) who might feel a special connection to his work and words. Or perhaps you know Rabbi Sirkman from community work together.
I encourage you to look for that LAC anchor too. Rather than wait for change, we can make this transitional period a time we embrace the control to make LAC home and, even given the online limitations, make it a place we love and bring back the church we used to know. My mother always said, “Many hands, make for light work.” So let’s get at it so we can say we DID come back and be ready to welcome our new pastor.
With love,
Ann Hitchings, Elder

10/22/2020: Goodbye with Gratitude

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Dear LAC family:
It has been an honor to serve as your interim Pastor these last two years. This Sunday will be my last one preaching to you in worship. My interim contract comes to a close at month’s end. As I announced last week, I will be joining the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township on November 15th as their installed Sr. Pastor/Head of Staff. The new installed Pastor for LAC is still being discerned, but good progress is being made by our PNC each week as they choose their nominee.
On Tuesday night, Session approved several measures to facilitate the smooth transition of worship leadership, pastoral care, staff leadership, and preschool governance. These measures involve all the church membership working together to check in with each other as good neighbors and friends, to volunteer to prepare the weekly worship bulletin and liturgy [sign up here] as support for our weekly guest preachers, and to communicate with the church office [LACoffice@lacny.org] when there is a pastoral emergency (illness, death, or critical care needs) so the Presbytery can provide support. I encourage you all to use this transitional time as a way to strengthen your connections with one another in preparation for the arrival of the new installed Pastor.
Here is the worship schedule for this fall and winter:

 

  • November 1: All Saints Day service, Rev. John Miller preaching. LAC bulletin maker: Ernest Wong.
  • November 8: Success Sunday – Stewardship Pledge Sunday. Stewardship committee preaching. LAC bulletin maker: Greg Hawkins.
  • November 15: Mission Sunday – Church & Society Committee preaching. LAC bulletin maker: Kim Larsen and Clark Morehouse.
  • November 22: Presbyter Sunday, General Presbyter Deb Milcarek preaching. LAC bulletin maker: Ernest Wong.
  • November 29: Advent 1, Rev. Jed Koball preaching. LAC bulletin maker: Patty Towle.
  • December 6: Advent 2, Rev. Jed Koball preaching. LAC bulletin maker: filled.
  • December 13: Advent 3, Liturgical dancer Candace Tabbs. LAC bulletin maker: ______________.
  • December 20: Lessons and Carols. Douglas Kostner, directing. LAC bulletin maker: Ann Hitchings.
  • December 24: Christmas Eve Service. Rev. Jed Koball preaching. LAC bulletin maker: filled.
  • December Christmas Pageant: Ekama Eni. LAC bulletin maker:________.
  • December 27th: Sunday after Christmas, Rabbi Jeff Sirkman, invited. LAC bulletin maker: Arthur Washington.
January and February preaching: Rev. Daniel Yang and Rev. Jed Koball will cover the Sunday preaching slots. We will need congregants to assist in preparing the liturgy and bulletin preparation for each of these Sundays.
With this program in place, I am confident that LAC will maintain a stable and welcoming church presence for our worshipping community. Thank you for all you do for Christ’s church and for your gracious kindness to me over these last two years of my interim ministry at LAC.
With love,
Ellen
Interim Pastor, Larchmont Avenue Church

10/15/2020: A Plan for the Weeks Ahead

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Dear LAC family:
While we celebrate with Rev. Clémot the joyful news of her installed call to a church in Chatham, we now face the challenge of becoming a church without a Pastor at month’s end. It is always hard to say goodbye to our pastoral leaders, but harder still to face a hiatus between pastors. Nevertheless, we will manage. After consulting with Presbytery leadership and other pastors, we have developed a plan to ensure the smooth continuation of our worship services and mission outreach over the weeks ahead.
We also have spoken with our Pastor Nominating Committee leaders and expect that we will have a nominee for Sr. Pastor named by year end or soon thereafter. Thus, our transitional plan can be very short term.
We present to you here an outline of what to expect at LAC in this time of transition.
Worship. Our worship and music committee has organized a worship schedule for the weeks ahead. It will rely on a combination of professional clergy leadership and congregant-led worship. As from November 1, we will rely on our current expertise in on-line worship video production. This will allow for broader participation from congregants and preachers located in more distant locations. Although Session approval for this approach and these preachers remains pending, we anticipate implementing the following schedule:
  • November 1 will be an All Saints Day service led by neighboring Presbyterian pastors Rev. Dan Love and Rev. John Miller who will record sermon and sacrament in our sanctuary in advance.
  • November 8th and 15th worship will be led by the Stewardship Committee and the Church & Society Committee, respectively.
  • We are thrilled to share the exciting news that our friend and missionary Rev. Jed Koball will preach for us, recording from Peru, for the beginning of Advent Season and Christmas.
  • In mid-December, Douglas Kostner will direct a guest artist in an exciting, new liturgical dance worship service, and will conclude Advent with the traditional Service of Lessons and Carols.
  • Our Christmas Eve service will be led by our guest preacher Rev. Jed Koball. He is honored to be invited back to LAC remotely! And a Christmas Pageant opportunity is being offered for interested families under the leadership of Ekama Eni.
  • Finally, we anticipate having long term pulpit supply in January until our new Pastor joins us.
Pastoral Care. We are grateful to Moderator Becky Gray for her leadership of the Deacon board, and for the compassionate care ministry led by Deacons Liz Nabholz and Suzy Huang. They will continue to provide outreach and conversation with home-bound congregants and those in need of pastoral care. We note that Stephanie Piccone has resumed coordinating our outreach ministry with flower and plant deliveries as gestures of friendship with our members. The deacons are planning a virtual community dinner for November 23rd – invitations coming soon! The deacons will also be launching a new intergenerational buddy program led by LAC youth member Mila Kinnear. They will join in the Food Drive for Kindness Kick-off at Ellen’s final Sunday after worship on October 25th.
Mission Outreach. Thanks to the ongoing leadership of Kim Larsen in the Church & Society Committee, Jim Hanley with Midnight Run, and other outreach initiatives by Sasha Nahr, Meg Kaufer, and Caitlyn Carpenter, the LAC missional ministries continue unabated. We encourage these groups to invite more congregants to assist in service work by writing occasional “Mid-Week Message” e-blasts on a rotating basis by committee, board, or activity. The Mid-Week Message is produced and broadcast by our communications coordinator, Marranda Major, but its content will come from congregants like you.
The LAC Preschool. Our preschool is thriving despite the need to reduce classroom size and implement strenuous safety measures. Interim Preschool Director Kristin DeFelice has done an outstanding job guiding the preschool through the complicated pandemic territory safely. The Trustees, pursuant to our church by-laws, are responsible for the Preschool oversight and they will communicate more closely with Kristin to ensure she has adequate support and resources. Alexandra Belluzzi, who has been on medical leave since January, is doing well although her treatments continue. She intends to resume her position as Director of the Preschool on January 1, 2021.
Staff Leadership. We are blessed to have a wonderful staff at LAC, both highly competent and self-sufficient. They appreciate having support and encouragement and our Personnel Committee has agreed to be present for them. Each Personnel Committee member has adopted a staff member to shepherd and will be checking in on a regular basis. Our staff members are: Douglas Kostner, Director of Music, Kristin DeFelice, Interim Director of Preschool, Gloria Haq, Bookkeeper, Marranda Major, Church Secretary and Communications Coordinator, and Ekama Eni, Interim Director of Youth and Family Ministries. We are happy that Sarah Haq has extended her contract as Administrative Assistant to the Preschool and LAC for the remainder of the program year.
Grateful to God. With this oversight and program plan in place, we feel confident that LAC will continue to offer meaningful worship, caring connections, and life-giving support to our friends and neighbors. Please be supportive of our staff and church officers as we take on these additional responsibilities over the weeks ahead. We trust in God’s grace and love, and all the church family, that this transitional time will go well and help us grow closer.
Faithfully yours,
Leah Griggs-Pauly and Clark Morehouse, Co-Clerks of Session
Rev. Dr. Ellen Clark Clémot, Interim Pastor/Head of Staff
Save the Date!
October 25th: Ellen’s Farewell Sunday: After worship on October 25th, Rev. Clémot will be outside the church at 60 Forest Park Avenue to wave goodbye. In lieu of a giving her a “purse” cash gift for her departure, Ellen has asked for everyone to make a pledge to LAC and to bring a can or box of non-perishable food to church on October 25th from 10:45am to 11:45am for our HOPE food pantry as you swing by to say goodbye. She will have socially distanced food collection bins available for your donations and asks that everyone wear a mask. If you would like more information or would like to help organize this event, please contact Chris Templeman at Christian.A.Templeman@morganstanley.com  or Clark Morehouse at cmorehouse12@gmail.com. If you prefer to have Rev. Clémot contact you by phone to say goodbye, please email her at eclemot@lacny.org.

LAC Preschool Food Collection for Kindness:  In conjunction with the Farewell Food drop off for Rev. Clémot on October 25th, Interim Preschool Director Kristin DeFelice will be organizing a Preschool Food Collection for Kindness to continue through November. The deacons will be coordinating these joint food drives from LAC to alleviate hunger and food insecurity for our immediate neighbors. For more information, please contact Kristin DeFelice at PreschoolDirector@lacny.org or Deacon Moderator Becky Gray at bmarlis@yahoo.com.

10/13/2020: Thank You, LAC!

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Dear LAC Family:
It has been a privilege and a pleasure to serve as your interim minister for these past two
years. I have been honored to work beside you in ministry, lead you in worship, and dream with you about the future of LAC. But I write to you today to share my happy news that I have now received a calling to serve another congregation.
On Sunday, the congregation of the Presbyterian Church of Chatham Township, a 750-
member church in western New Jersey, elected me to be their installed Senior Pastor/Head of
Staff. The church in Chatham, known as PCCT, values traditional reformed worship, has a
strong associate minister, music staff, preschool, and significant administrative team. Its focus
on family and mission drives its ministries. I am thrilled to be joining them as their Pastor.
Being installed means having tenure as a Pastor – not having to say goodbye after a two-
year term as interim, but staying on, moving in, integrating with the church family, and
accompanying the members of the congregation on their life journeys. This has always been my ministry dream. The congregation in Chatham is excited to have me join them for the long-term, and I am so pleased. I will begin my ministry there on November 15th. My interim contract here at LAC ends this month. My last Sunday with you will be on October 25th in the sanctuary.
Now I begin the sad task of saying goodbye to all of you at LAC. While we all knew I
would be leaving soon, especially as our Pastor Nominating Committee is now so close to
electing a nominee to be LAC’s installed pastor, it is still difficult to leave you. You have been
generous and kind to me and welcoming from the very beginning. I am so thankful for all of you and grateful to God for our last two years together.
The role of interim is a difficult one – it is not the minister who comes to be loved, but
rather the one who comes to heal and reveal, to take down and build up, and above all, to prepare the terrain to be smooth and life-giving for the installed pastor to follow. I have applied all my energy to accomplish this work for you. I feel confident that LAC is ready to thrive.
As I leave you at the end of this month, I will hold you close in my heart as the church
that makes bold plans and sees them through. You are the first LAC generation who welcomed a woman to lead you. You are the ones who acted responsibly in repairing and preserving your
beautiful campus properties. You help your neighbors in need with food and clothing and love.
You combat climate change. You made welcoming the centerpiece of your outreach message.
You love sacred music. You nurture the children. You care for one another.
Your faithfulness to God and integrity as a church family will bear much good fruit. I am
so grateful to all of you for your dedication to one another and to Christ’s mission for our greater community. I will always remember you at LAC as the congregation that was generous with its gifts and willing to help others, even, and most essentially, in a time of pandemic.I leave you at month’s end with an exceptionally excellent staff, stream-lined and high-
performing. I leave you structurally sound as to your governance boards, your ministry
connections, and your Presbytery relationship. And I leave you with gratitude for our time
together, and for your allowing me to share with you God’s Word from the pulpit each Sunday
with a message of love, hope, and kindness.
God is making for you a new beginning and a bright future. I wish you well.

Yours in Christ,
Ellen
Interim Pastor, Larchmont Avenue Church

9/30/20: October 2020 Worship Schedule at LAC

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Dear LAC Worshippers,
Session met Monday night and decided the schedule and method for our October worship services, Sundays at 10:00 a.m. Here it is: Communion Sunday will be pre-recorded and the other Sundays will be held in-person in the sanctuary.
Communion Sunday, October 4th – Video Worship broadcast on our website lacny.org and on FB Live.
  • Sunday, October 11th – In-Person Worship at LAC and livestreamed on our website lacny.org.
  • Sunday, October 18th – In-Person Worship at LAC and livestreamed on our website lacny.org.
  • Sunday, October 25th – In-Person Worship at LAC and livestreamed on our website lacny.org.
We were grateful to receive negative results from COVID-19 testing for our staff and have no COVID cases to report. The entire worship staff looks forward to welcoming you to worship in-person and online in the weeks ahead.
In-Person Safety Monitors and Ushers. In-person worship means we will need more volunteers who will come early to church to help with social distancing precautions, wellness survey, and ushering people to the reserved pews. Please click here to sign up [LINK]. Session has asked that Elders, Deacons, and Trustees be especially encouraged to help out. Thank you!

Thank you, Chrystal Chambers!

On behalf of the Session, Personnel Committee, Christian Education Committee, and Worship Team at LAC, I give my sincere thanks to our friend and faithful congregant Chrystal Chambers, who concludes her term as interim Director of Christian Education today.

 

Chrystal’s gracious presence, willingness to serve Christ and her church, and her generous can-do attitude have been invaluable assets to our Sunday School program over the past two years. Among her accomplishments were the launch of our Adult Education and speaker program, initiation of intergenerational book groups, encouragement of new co-ed and women’s Bible studies, and she even produced and directed our first ever Virtual Vacation Bible School this summer. (If you missed it, please enjoy this five-part summer series with your children here [LINK].)

 

Thank you, Chrystal. You will be missed from our staff meetings, but we are grateful to have you remain in our community as our friend and inspire us by your example as Christ’s disciple in all you do.
In God’s Love,
Ellen

9/23/20: Worship and Mission at LAC During COVID-19

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Dear LAC Family,

On Sunday we tried in-person worship for the first time following the safety guidelines adopted by Session to reduce the risk of infection from COVID-19 while gathering indoors. We had only four people register to attend worship, and five more attend as walk-ins, with five volunteer usher/safety monitors. All told, there were 20 of us in the building, including worship leaders and staff.

Because the livestream was not transmitting properly due to a technical problem with the settings, our regular online community of 30 plus households was not able to follow along with us right away. This was never our intention and I am very sorry about the pain and frustration it caused you. The transmission and recording occurred, but it did not land on our website. We asked the outside vendor of our livestream system to help us rectify the situation this week, but it appears we have discovered the fix on our own. You can now go to our new website at www.lacny.org and click on the worship livestream tab to see the Sunday service. Please understand that in-person worship is not what it used to be because of COVID-19.

Many who worshipped in-person and those who saw the worship service livestream online later in the day were disappointed by the lack of our usual variety of voices and singing in the worship service. In order for us to restore the hymns, brass and wind instrumental music, our soloists singing, a greater variety of voices and congregants participating, and all the other dimensions of worship that we enjoy, we will need to pre-record videos of worship leaders in places where they can speak and sing safely. It may be possible to produce a hybrid, livestream of some aspects of worship and upload videos of others, but it will take us a little while to learn how to use our new technology more fully to implement a hybrid worship service. We may also need to have our communion Sunday worship services completely online in order to include the communion experience of eating bread together, which we cannot do in the sanctuary.

On Monday, September 28th, the Session will meet and determine how we will conduct worship services in October, and beyond, whether on-line only or in-person with livestream, or some hybrid of the two. If you have any thoughts or comments you would like to share with Session about how we should proceed as a church to include everyone in our worship services, please send an email to our co-clerks of Session: Leah Griggs-Pauly (leahgp@gmail.com) and Clark Morehouse (cmorehouse12@gmail.com) for inclusion in our correspondence review for our Monday meeting.

A New LAC Website: www.lacny.org

Please take a moment today to visit the new LAC website at www.lacny.org. The new site provides more action and easier interaction as well as updated photos and information for visitors to our church. You can pledge online, and make direct payment contributions as well, and even become a Sustaining Member of LAC by signing up under the Donate Now button to make regular monthly payments that will be automatically deducted from the bank account you provide. We encourage your support and thank you for your giving. Special thanks to Matthew Templeman for providing the soaring drone images on our new cover page.
Friends, please also send a note to our Session co-clerks with your reactions to the new website and let me know at eclemot@lacny.org if there are further edits and updates you would like to see made.

Sunday School and Youth Groups with Ekama!

Online Sunday School took off with a great start last Sunday under the leadership of our new Youth and Family Ministries Interim Director, Ekama Eni. If you would like your child to participate in this special on-line program, with some possible in-person playground playdates to come, please register here: [LINK].
Tonight, at 6:00 p.m., Ekama will meet in person with our youth group students in SHIFT and TGIF outdoors at the Manse. Students should gather outside on the back deck of the Manse next to the church for their kick-off get together from 6 – 7:30 p.m. If your middle school or high school student would like to participate and has not yet registered, please contact Ekama at eeni@lacny.org.

Clothing Drive for our Neighbors in Need

Please bring your gently used clothing donations today between 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. to Russell Hall, or tomorrow from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Clothing will be then distributed next week to people in need through our mission partners Community Resource Center, Washingtonville Alliance, and The Sharing Shelf at a pop-up Street Store to be hosted by St Thomas Church on October 3rd. Please bring clothing for the fall season, especially for children and men, in clean and complete condition, and labeled in individual bags. If you would like to volunteer to help sort the clothing next week on October 1st and 2nd, please sign up here [LINK]. Please contact Sasha Nahr if you have questions about this community mission project: sashanahr@gmail.com.
Thank you, and God bless,
Ellen
Interim Pastor, Larchmont Avenue Church

9/16: A Trial Run — In-Person Worship During COVID-19

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Dear LAC Family,
I hope you are doing well and staying healthy in these early days of back-to-school. We continue to be vigilant about the incursion of COVID-19 in our community. With great care we managed a socially distanced meet and greet for Ekama Eni last Sunday. The small number of participants helped make the event participants feel safer despite the risk of gathering indoors. Our safety monitor volunteers were able to limit the number of people in Russell Hall to 20 people at all times.
Livestream of Worship. This Sunday we will try worshipping in the Sanctuary in-person under our Session-approved safety guidelines, and will permit only up to 50 people to be present in the Sanctuary. We will also livestream the service with a new broadcast platform found on our website: www.lacny.org. You can watch worship from home here [LINK].
In-Person Worship. In order to attend worship on Sunday, you must reserve a place here [LINK] by 12:00 p.m. on Friday, be in good health, and free from quarantine restrictions. Please wear your mask at all times inside the church and while in line outside. We encourage everyone to come by 9:40 a.m. in order to be greeted by our safety monitors who will conduct a wellness survey, temperature check, and contact tracing register. We ask that you not use the LAC bathrooms, unless for emergencies, so please plan ahead. After worship, ushers will direct people to exit by rows, closest to the Larchmont Avenue doors exiting first. I will host a virtual zoom coffee hour at 11 a.m. for everyone who attended, virtually or in-person.
Sunday School for our youngest members will commence virtually this Sunday, September 20th via Zoom. Classes will meet every other week.
PreK-1st Graders: 11:30 a.m. -11:55 a.m.
2nd – 3rd Graders: 12:00 p.m. – 12:25 p.m.
4th – 5th  Graders: 12:30 p.m. – 12:55 p.m.
The meeting schedule is on the church website. For the alternating weeks where we do not meet via Zoom, there will be a short video lesson posted on the Sunday School section of the  redesigned church website. Please register HERE [LINK] so we can send you the login details. We look forward to learning with you!
SHIFT and TGIF will have a joint youth kickoff event on Wednesday, September 23rd from 6-7:30 p.m. on the Manse deck. There will be pizza, music, and fun socially distanced shenanigans as Ekama Eni will get to meet all of you and we finish up our planning for this calendar year. If you are a youth or a parent of a youth and you have not yet, please fill out this form [LINK] to aid us in our planning for the year! Questions? Contact Ekama Eni at eeni@lacny.org for more details.
At the end of the month, Session will assess the worship experience and interest level of the congregation of in-person worship to determine if we continue in-person or go back to on-line worship for October.
Yours in Christ,
Ellen
Interim Pastor, Larchmont Avenue Church

9/9/2020: Meet & Greet, Mission, Bells, and More!

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Dear LAC Family:
Welcome back! I hope you all have had relaxing summer breaks, peaceful time for reflection, and good health over these last three months.
This Sunday, September 13th, we will test out a limited gathering in Russell Hall of people who sign-up to participate in our in-person fellowship walk following an online worship service. Participants should all be in good health, follow safety protocols, and be prepared for a wellness survey, contact tracing, temperature check, social distancing, and mask-wearing at all times.
Once inside, we proceed along a straight diagonal line – entering Russell hall and exiting at Wendt Avenue. There will not be time to linger for long. The doors and windows will be open and we encourage people to keep moving. No seating or refreshment will be provided.
Small groups of individuals who have reserved a time slot at the event will have a few minutes at each of three tables. These tables are places to 1) meet our new Interim Director of Youth and Family Ministries, Ekama Eni, 2) sign up for hand bell choir with Douglas Kostner, and 3) learn about and join a petition to provide counsel for indigent tenants facing eviction through a High School study initiative led by Caitlyn Carpenter and some of her classmates.
To attend, you must reserve a space, and a time slot, through our online sign-up system. Only three households will be permitted inside the building within any of our 15-minute time slots. Registration will close this Friday, September 11th, at 3:00 p.m., and then confirm your time slot via email. Spaces are limited, so please reserve a spot now at the following link: [LINK].
We will Livestream the event on Facebook for those who cannot attend. Many thanks to Leigh Anne Smith for organizing this event, to Ernest Wong and Angie Liessl for providing the safety monitor guidelines and crew for their implementation, and to all of our staff who have worked hard to make our space clean and safe for this trial run.
Wishing you God’s Peace as the new program year unfolds!
In God’s Love,
Ellen
Interim Pastor, Larchmont Avenue ChurchMeet & Greet Event September 13, 2020 at 11 am