The Session has begun a process of charting a course to the future. Check out the insert in this newsletter for details about this new Vision and Direction. And find out how we all are a part of it!
Be sure to attend worship on May 18th to help welcome our newest members: Tyler Nutter, Kari Peglar, and Maggie Schoeberlein. They have completed a two-year confirmation class in which they have learned about such things as parts of worship, prayer, Presbyterian history, and the liturgical year, but most importantly, to question and explore what their faith means to them.
The confirmation class will also lead the Adult Education Class that Sunday. Come let them lead you through exploring your faith Confirmation Class style!
2003 marks the 50th anniversary of Trinity Presbyterian Church (Trinity was created when First United Presbyterian Church of University City merged with Kingshighway Presbyterian Church of St. Louis).
Our celebration will be called "The Fabric of Our Faith." The kick-off for the celebration is Pentecost Sunday, June 8. Please make plans to attend the worship and the picnic that will follow. Be watching for a special mailing in May.
What a terrific year of music making this has been, and it's not over yet! In addition to the spirited worship offerings given by our choirs each week, we have had a number of special musical events the Bach cantata with chamber orchestra last November, chamber music with piano, clarinet and cello on a snowy February morning, bagpipes on Palm Sunday, ethnic percussion on World Communion Sunday, a festive Mardi Gras Service featuring Dixieland Jazz, brass on Easter, and on and on! These musical events have brought excitement and joy to the congregation; they have lifted our spirits and helped us to worship God with our whole being!
And that is exactly what Psalm 150 is all about! It is a call to praise our living God using a variety of musical instruments: metal and wood, loud and soft, strummed and bowed, powered by air from human lungs or from organ bellows. But the last line is the heart of the text: "Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!" Following in that spirit, Trinity's Psalm 150 Fund has brought a wide variety of musical expressions to our worship services and we have all been richly blessed through them.
The Psalm 150 Fund has not just served our faith community, however. Because of the remarkable generosity of last year's donations, we were able to make a gift to the Chorister's Guild, a national organization that nurtures the spiritual growth of children and youth through music. And continuing Trinity's commitment to local mission, we were also able to make a donation to Sangeetha, a local society dedicated to the performance and appreciation of Indian Classical Music. A unique relationship between Trinity and Sangeetha has developed, and music is becoming a significant bridge between people of various cultures and religions in our community. All of this is due to you! Your gifts to the Psalm 150 Fund provided the resources for these wonderful opportunities!
As we kick off our Psalm 150 Fund campaign on May 4, I encourage you to again give joyfully and generously to this special offering. This fund is such an important part of our ongoing music ministry at Trinity. It provides funds for guest musicians throughout the year and also provides financial support for other creative and meaningful musical endeavors. It is also becoming a vehicle through which we can bless others in our world and our community through the gift of music!
Keep your eyes open for a Psalm 150 letter and envelope in the mail and thank you, in advance, for your continued support!
Who: All of us
What: Are invited to Dinner
When: Saturday, June 7
Where: In various Trinity members' homes
Why: So we can get to know one another better
How?: See below!
We are organizing another round of potluck dinners in members' homes to help us get to know one another better. New this time: kid friendly homes are available. As last time, hosts will know the list of their attendees but attendees won't know who else is coming until that evening. We will help arrange rides participants may need. Dinner will start at 7:00 for homes without kids, 6:00 for those with kids. Please feel free to invite friends and relatives to attend as well.
Sign up by email to Karon (tpcucity@swbell.net) or in the Church dining room by May 18. Hosts: what size party do you wish have? (The organizers will contact you after May 18.) Attendees: tell us your phone number, the number in your party, whether you have friends or relatives attending with you and whether you would like a kid friendly home or not. Questions? Contact me (862-3437 or tjpeters2@hotmail.com).
Mark your calendars and sign up now!
Children in God's Creation have been studying Communion. Margy Brown shares some reflections on teaching part of that unit...
I led the drama workshop for the communion unit. We acted out the Last Supper. It's a short, simple story. There was plenty of time to act it out multiple times and let everyone who wanted to play Jesus have a turn. Then we sat around and ate bread and drank grape juice while discussing what it might have felt like to be at the Last Supper. I can't say that the discussion was very profound or even always focused on the topic. But I think that the act of sharing food with friends at church does play an important role in helping us understand what communion is all about, even if we don't fully understand why. Maybe it's because love is something that you have to learn from experience, not from words or books.
"Here I am Lord. Is it I, Lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart." The Lord is calling us to build a home starting Saturday, May 3.
As a partner church in Interfaith Builders, Trinity will help build a Habitat for Humanity house in Hillsdale (north of St. Charles Rock Road / Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, west of Kienlen, east of Lucas and Hunt). Workers from all four churches will install floor joists and the sub-floor on the first Saturday, build and erect exterior walls on the second, interior walls on the third, and so on.
Some of us met Harriet Carter, the homeowner-to-be with and for whom we will be building. She and her 12-year old son and other friends and relatives will work with us every Saturday. She is a charming, outgoing person.
Every Sunday in the Trinity dining room volunteers can sign up to work. And watch for the new Interfaith Builders tee shirts.
We need Builders, of course. People who want to be there but not swing hammers can be Safety Observers. We also need Volunteer Coordinatorswho work for a month, sending reminder postcards and calling Substitute Builders from a list when necessary. And we need Lunch Crewsto make lunches for the volunteers on May 31, June 21, July 26, and possibly more (These dates may change as the four churches negotiate trades.)
We also need Crew Leaderswho can direct small groups of volunteers. Habitat offers trainingfor Crew Leaders starting April 24. You will learn what you need to know just ten days before you use it; anyone interested in this role should contact me soon (727-1471 home, 935-6271 work, or pcg@wuphys.wustl.edu).
We have already sent a letter asking for contributions to pay Trinity's share of the sponsor fee. Please consider supporting this project, designating your contribution for "Habitat." Trinity needs to raise $7,500 of new money. At this writing we have $3,100.
Interfaith Builders has scheduled an ecumenical service of readings, music, and prayer to be held Sunday afternoon, May 18 (note that the date has changed), at Our Lady of the Pillar Catholic Church, probably at 3:00 PM, with time for refreshments and fellowship afterwards. This will be a great way to meet our partners in this project and prepare ourselves to begin the work. See you there!
There's a faint air of the biblical patriarch about Jim Shoemaker. Perhaps it's the genes of his umpty-umpth grandfather, William Brewster, lurking in his DNA. Brewster was a founder of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts in 1620 and was known as a man well schooled in the Bible. There are uncanny connections between the two men.
Plymouth Colony was an experiment in theocracy using the Bible as the basis for its "General Fundamentals." (Later this was gradually transformed into the Bill of Rights.) Raised in a Christian fundamentalist atmosphere, perhaps reminiscent of Pilgrim society (although in mid-Illinois), Jim Shoemaker uses his knowledge of the Bible in the ethics class he teaches at Saint Louis University Medical School.
"The ethic we've evolved in Western culture is based on a human standard," he explains. "We judge our behavior on how it affects others. This code of behavior' is spelled out in the letters of Paul, especially in his letter to the Romans. We are told to reduce suffering and to enhance life. Everything physicians do everything that all people should do is based on that concept."
But isn't there a higher standard? "Jesus demonstrated that there is," Jim says. "Pure good is beyond human law or religious law. Jesus healed on the Sabbath and suffered for it because it brought more good than obeying a manmade law."
"Using a human standard in making ethical decisions does not mean making human beings into God. Paul warns against this, too, when he describes those who worship the created, rather than the Creator. To say that human life is holy or sacred sounds like heresy to me."
With both an M.D. and a Ph.D., Jim's main work is research into genetic abnormalities or "inborn errors." (The term echoes the "original sin" of earlier generations.) He invented the Urease Method, a urine test that is used to diagnose certain metabolic disorders. "It's simple, inexpensive, and usually accurate," he says with satisfaction. "Once urea is removed from a urine sample, the products of metabolism are clearly evident. Certain end products point to specific metabolic problems like a neon light."
Jim's Metabolic Screening Lab has analyzed some 7,400 specimens since he founded it in 1992. About one percent of the samples have shown a specific abnormality that can be corrected through a prescribed diet. That translates to eighty productive lives saved without extraordinary measures.
He came to medical ethics by way of a sensational murder trial. About ten years ago, a mother was convicted of poisoning her infant with antifreeze. It made sense to the jury because antifreeze-like products were found in the baby's urine. Jim knew that a genetic defect called methylmalonic acidemia produces similar products. His testimony was a major factor in exonerating the mother in her appeal.
The resulting media exposure he has appeared on a half-dozen "we'll tell you what really happened"-type programs got the attention of the SLU administration and they liked his sensible, pragmatic approach to ethical questions.
Most of these questions involve choices physicians and researchers must make in experimental procedures, weighing a potentially severe drug reaction against the possible good it might do, for instance. Jim points out that it could be considered fraud if a physician ordered (and charged for) a course of treatment that modestly lengthened life, but did not improve it. "What if we were required to give guarantees?" he muses. "How many medical procedures would disappear?"
The Bible also leads Jim's creativity in interesting paths. For many years, a quartet with Joel Stevenor, Paul Devine, Bob Henderson, and Jim sang at Trinity. Joel went into the ministry and took on the pastorate at Overland Presbyterian. Henderson followed him to play the organ there.
"I wrote a cantata with our voices in mind," Jim says, "although it was performed as a SATB-organ arrangement." The cantata, Promises of God, tells the astonishing story of covenant, from Noah to the resurrected Jesus and shows the depth of Jim's knowledge of the Scriptures. (Jim is shy about promoting his work. The CD of the cantata with many Trinity singers and Paul Vasile at the organ sells for $12 with the proceeds going to Overland Presbyterian. A remarkable booklet explaining the cantata is included.) Jim has completed another musical that has not yet been performed.
He segues easily from music to genetics to genealogy. "Scientific evidence has shown definitively that everyone currently alive is part of one family," he asserts. "The idea that we are all connected is much more than metaphysical theory. It's fact. We just need to learn to act with that truth in mind."
Jim is married to Dr. Mary Nielsen and they have three daughters, Kathryn, Laura, and Joanna.
Rachel Bowell and Kevin Harkins met at the University of Indiana at Bloomington where they were both pursuing degrees in Library Science. They are both now employed at SIRSI where Rachel works as a consultant and Kevin works in software testing. Kevin is originally from Terre Haute, Indiana and was raised Catholic while Rachel is from Wheaton, Illinois and grew up Presbyterian. Rachel has lived in many different places and was an exchange student in Germany. Kevin plays the guitar and Rachel enjoys cooking.
Michael Krivonak works in commercial real estate for Turley, Martin & Tucker, specializing in healthcare. He was born in Queens, New York, but has also lived in North Carolina and Florida. He has a 19-year-old son who will start at Missouri University in the Fall. He grew up Catholic but has been a Presbyterian for about ten years and is transferring his membership from First Presbyterian in Kirkwood. He referees lacrosse in his spare time.
This happened just last week in my class and, as the title suggests, I couldn't help but see the irony of the situation. I teach developmental English at Florissant Valley Community College. My students teach me as much or more than I teach then.
The class had been underway for nearly twenty-five minutes when Willie came into the room. I knew he had been under a lot of stress and worry because his brother, a Marine, was in Iraq, but the pain in his face, as he eased his lanky frame into the chair, was not as much emotional pain as it was physical. I also knew that he worked the night shift at UPS.
(He came directly from work to the campus.) I wondered if perhaps he had hurt himself at work.
"Are you okay?" I asked lamely.
"Nope." was his reply.
"Did you get hurt at work?" I asked.
"Nope. I'll tell you later."
We were doing group work at that moment and he didn't seem ready to say more, so I went back to my rounds helping each cluster of students perfect their topic sentences. I soon became aware of him beckoning to me from the hall.
"Mrs. Cricket," he began as he lifted his shirt to reveal a huge bandage on his side, "I got shot last night." It seems he and his band had finished a gig and were loading up their equipment when, as he put it, "somebody wanted our stuff." He said he got scared and when he ran, one of the would-be thieves shot him in the side.
How ironic that after worrying for weeks about his brother possibly getting shot, Willie should be the one who got hit.
We worry instead of praying. I am certainly guilty of that. I worry about my family. I worry about my students who face incredible odds. I need to stop worrying and simply pray for all of them. Not worrying certainly doesn't mean not caring, because we all care deeply for those we love. In this time of uncertainty and in this season of Lent, let us help one another remember to pray.
The May 8, 1953, newsletter of the Kingshighway Presbyterian Church, then about to merge with First United Presbyterian Church to form Trinity, reported that worship on Mother's Day would be held at both First United and at Kingshighway. Eldon Clay Frye, D.D. would preach on "A Christian Foundation for Every Home" and music would be furnished by the choir of First United and C. Albert Scholin, Minister of Music.
Other items:
The Session is calling a Congregation Corporation Meeting to be held at Kingshighway, Wednesday, May 20, at 8:00 p.m., for the purpose of approving the Articles of Federation, the selling of Kingshighway Church and other business that may properly come before it. On the same night, at the same hour, the Session is calling a Congregation Corporation Meeting at First United Church to approve the Articles of Federation and other business that may properly come before it. [May 15, 1953 edition.]
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JUNIOR CHURCH
Our study of Moses will continue this Sunday, and the film "Moses and His People" will be shown. . In color and done with puppets, this is a highly recommended picture for boys and girls.
Handwork will include something to make for Mother on her day. The Bible Story Scrapbook is completed, and will be displayed at the Children's Day Assembly, along with other projects completed. [May 8, 1953]
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IT'S COMING! IT'S ALMOST HERE!
Tawasi's Variety Hit Show, May 22nd, 8:00 p.m., in Kingshighway's large dining room. You won't want to miss this outstanding presentation, featuring an old-time melodrama packed with laughs, "The Purloined Bustle." Special musical numbers and skits, plus a chorus of characters dressed for the 1800s all add up to an evening of delightful entertainment. All for a mere 65 cents, which will help send our young folks to camp this summer. [May 15, 1953]
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INFANT BAPTISM
The final Baptismal Service in Kingshighway Presbyterian Church will be held Children's Day, June 14th, during the 11:00 a.m. service.
All parents who desire to have their children baptized at this time, please call the Church Office, FO 5050. [May 29, 1953]
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PEACE IS STILL INDIVISIBLE
Litvinov, who used to emerge from obscurity when Soviet Russia was trying to present an appearance of friendliness to the West, coined the slogan: "Peace is indivisible." It is still true, not because Litvinov said it but because the world in which we live is one. The point is worth remembering today when our lack of preparedness for making peace results in conflicting counsels and a general nervousness. Some commentatorsinsist that it makes a big difference where we start to talk peace and in what order its fateful issues are discussed. Inevitably this resurrects the ancient argument as to whether Asia or Europe should have priority, and if Europe is given the green light, whether Austria or Germany should come first...Eventually we will have to confront the great issues involved in a European settlement, but how do we test out Russia's intentions unless we do so on Korea, where the cold war is hot? It is true that there will be no peace anywhere unless agreement is possible on the future of Germany. But the same could be said concerning Korea. Peace is indivisible, and the issue which waits just beneath the surface in each facet of the problem is precisely that indivisible settlement. That may be accepted as a fact at the same time that we deal with each set of questions in its turn. It is particularly worth remembering when we realize that the opportunity which may now be resting on our doorsteps may never return.
- The Christian Century [ May 1, 1953]
There are a number of special musical opportunities during the month of May. Don't miss them!
Come join us for another exciting week of VBS. The theme this year is "Lighthouse Kids: Shining God's Light" where children discover how God's light is shined to others and understand that God's light shines in them.
All children preschool through 4th grade will be welcome. A separate weekend program will be held prior to the weeklong program for 5th, 6th and 7th graders. Our hope is that the 5th, 6th and 7th graders will return on Monday, June 23, to share their knowledge and help during the weeklong program with the younger students. If you have any questions or just can't wait to volunteer, please contact me at 314-727-9902 or by e-mail at carmans@swbell.net.
If you are planning an event and will be using the church's facilities, please stop by the office or call me at 314.725-3840 for a copy of the new Event Planning Guide (or click here) before your planning begins. The planning guide has been approved by Session.