Good day siblings in Christ,
Thank you all who helped with Summerfest this year! Thank you to Marilyn Grantner for spearheading the sign up and the quilt making for this event. Thank you to all the wonderful bakers who made cookies to hand out. Thank you to our set up and tear down teams. A big thank you to those who sat and represented our congregation through the event.
I came for the last hour and half of the event and helped with tear down and it was a lovely day to meet people in the area. I find it is a good way to make quick connections with people to talk about ways of doing things together. I connected with Croton Pride, the Lorraine Hansberry group, Croton Caring, our Mayor, the VFW, and the Croton Welcome Wagon all in that short amount of time. We will be adding a flyer to the Croton Welcome Wagon’s basket listing our support groups and what times they meet as well as other offerings we have.
We raised $257 with the quilt giveaway and one of our Croton Seniors won it! This money will be used to support Lutheran World Relief and Open Door Healthcare in Ossining. Thank you to Marilyn for making and donating all the quilt material.
I wanted to remind the congregation that I will be away from June 9 (after worship) through June 22 and will be completely unavailable. One week I am heading to Princeton and the next to Yale for two different college fellowships. I will be learning techniques for preaching one week and talking about justice the following week. Sue and Melanie have contacts should there be a pastoral emergency either of those weeks. I will not be responding to emails or texts those weeks due to the intensive nature of the fellowships. One of them will involve a project for the congregation throughout the year.
During one of the weeks I am away, I will be traveling to Highland, NY to perform a renewal of vows for Christoper and Yeli Moy. A big congratulations to them and the proud Moy parents.
Weddings have become fewer and fewer for all clergy, across ecumenical lines, due to the change in NY state law regarding who can perform weddings. It is no longer clergy or justices of the peace, but rather anyone can perform a wedding, so this is a special blessing. I was speaking to a colleague who has been in ministry for over 20 years who has only performed 2 weddings. I am in the range of 200+ due to my previous location near colleges and then being in a historic, high ceiling church with a long history of membership. Things change, but I am grateful we have a wedding renewal this year and a wedding next year! The Spirit moves–will we move with it?
This is my last update for a couple of weeks. Melanie will send out the next two. After tomorrow morning, I will see you in two weeks!
See you tomorrow!
Pastor Johnson