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Thank you for the privilege of being your

pastor for nearly 11 years. Thank you.

For my last newsletter note to you, here

is the Annual Report I have written to be in-

cluded in this year’s book. I hope you will

read it and remember along with me. I fully

believe that you will continue to serve God in

ever more creative, faithful and amazing ways,

and I can’t wait to hear what’s next! Blessings.

In this issue:

From the Pastor 1-3

May Worship Schedule

Maeba Jonas Ordained!

4

Annual Meeting, June 4

Evening Book Group

5

New Congregation Space

and Buildings

Recommendation

6-7

Children’s Faith Formation 8

Calling All Kids! 9

Interim Search

Committee

Chapel on the Green,

May 28 after Worship

10

Columbus House

OWL Teens Complete

Program

Graduates

11

Hospitality and Ushers

Schedule

12

May Calendar 13

Church of the Redeemer UCC

Redeemer News

From the Pastor

I am choosing to make my Annual Report this year a

summary report of my nearly 11 years as your pastor, rather

than just this year alone, though this year stands out as

eventful! Even though I firmly believe in Albert Einstein’s

reflection that “Not everything that counts can be counted

and not everything that can be counted counts,” I’m going to

begin with some numbers:

41 Baptisms,

32 Confirmed,

14 Weddings,

46 Funerals/Memorial Services, and

6 Ordinations

390 Sermons

8 years teaching in the Supervised Ministry and

Preaching programs at Yale Divinity School

4 interns supervised at Redeemer.

Beyond the numbers, other events stand out for me as I

consider my time as your pastor. Continued page 2

May 2017

Redeemer News May 2017

Being part of the group in New Haven which formed the Abraham’s Tent

ministry and being so heartened that the leadership at Redeemer fully

embraced this idea and that successive Missions teams have worked so hard to

implement this ministry.

The square dance in the empty sanctuary during the painting project.

Adding our children’s circle of chairs at the front of the sanctuary and working

with Marilyn Kendrix so that I could spend time every couple of months down

in the Sunday School and get to know the children.

Working with leadership to restructure our governance to make it leaner and

more efficient.

Formal and informal conversations, book studies, adult forums, films, etc. over

the years on matters of race in our society; the posting of the Black Lives

Matter banner.

Serving as President of Interfaith Cooperative Ministries and working collabora-

tively on many projects with colleagues of faith communities across greater

New Haven.

Serving dinner at least once a year with you at Columbus House.

Spending time in homes, nursing homes, hospitals, cafes and restaurants, as well

as in my office, with people at all stages of life—such a privilege to swim in the

deep end of struggles and joys.

The celebration of our 175th Anniversary and the hymn I wrote to commemo-

rate that event.

Singing with the choir; listening to the choir; my son Luke playing the trumpet

for a couple of Easters, the way Maggie and the choir nurtured and supported

my son Ben as he grows into a musician.

Being led to read so many good and great (and a few not-so-great) books over

the years with both book groups. Learning how to kayak with the Kayak group!

Your celebrations of my 50th birthday and 25th ordination anniversary.

Bringing the needs of IRIS for space to the attention of the congregation and

having you respond so generously.

Working with Sue, Chantee, Marilyn and Jordan with our Faith Formation

ministries. Working with Debra and Barbara in the office. Working with Maggie,

Larry, Julia, Dayna, Sarah, Paul, Brian and the choirs on worship and music. And I

will never forget the guitar my last Christmas Eve.

Working with Peter, Alan, Cheryl, Jonathan, and Bob as Moderators, with John

Seashore and Hank Sykes as Treasurers, and all who have served in elective or

team positions over these years, especially my Pastoral Relations teams.


Beginning the conversations with my UCC colleagues in town which have

evolved into our current project with United Church.

It has not all been a bed of roses over the years (pew conversation anyone?), but

the joys and satisfactions have far outweighed the struggles and hurts, at least from

my point of view. I have tried to be faithful to God, and to you. I close with a

reflection by Ken Untener.

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise

that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the

Kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.

No prayer fully expresses our faith.

No confession brings perfection.

No pastoral visit brings wholeness.

No program accomplishes the Church’s mission.

No set of goals and objectives includes everything.

This is what we are about.

We plant the seeds that one day will grow.

We water seeds already planted, knowing they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.

This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for

God’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master

builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.

We are prophets of a future not our own.

And in the words of Dag Hammarskjold: “For all that has been, thanks. To all that

will be, Yes!”

with love, Shelly


May 7: 10 AM Shelly’s Last Sunday

3 PM Godspeed Service

May 14: Elizabeth Price preaches

and leads worship

May 21: Children’s Sunday!

May 28: Joint Service at United

June 4: Pentecost! Mary Nelson preaches.

Annual Meeting

WORSHIP SCHEDULE FOR MAY

Maeba Jonas

Ordained!!

On April 22 clergy, lay members

and Maeba’s family gathered to

celebrate her ordination to the

Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the United Church of Christ.

Many thanks to Julie and Carol for coordinating the reception and

to all who brought food. Maeba continues to serve as Chaplain In-

tern at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, as well as regular

preacher at a local UCC congregation.


Redeemer’s Annual Meeting will be June 4 following worship (which happens to be Pentecost Sunday!). This meeting will be exceedingly important, as the vote on

forming the new congregation will take place, among other. Please plan to be in attendance. Remember that our by-laws

do not allow for proxy or absentee ballots.

ANNUAL REPORTS

Team Coordinators, Church Officers and Staff need to get their Annual Report to Barbara ASAP!!

Evening book group will meet again on May 22 to

discuss the book Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. The meeting will take place at the home of Kathy Taylor.

EVENING BOOK

GROUP

Save the Date

Annual Meeting, June 4


New Congregation

Space and Buildings Recommendation

We, the New Church Coordinating Team, propose that our permanent worship home

be the Church on the Green. Further, we propose that we worship primarily at

Redeemer while we plan and renovate the Church on the Green to meet the needs of

the New Church as set out by our work teams. We will use this time to figure out the

mission(s) of our new congregation, experiment with new ideas, remember our pasts

and the legacies that we bring with us, and grow together as a single congregation

seeking to join God’s work in New Haven.

This was an extremely difficult recommendation to make. Over twenty members of both of

our congregations put in well over one hundred hours researching, debating, and praying over

the many variables we felt should contribute to this decision. In most cases, we found the two

church buildings to be very similar in their ability to serve our New Church needs. For weeks

we tried to reason our way through these many variables, only to end repeatedly in deadlock.

Over time we realized that we would never be able to make a decision about what to recom-

mend unless we made some hard choices about what our top priorities should be.

Very quickly, a top priority became very clear. We realized that our highest priority as a

New Church is to be a new, progressive model of church for the city of New Haven. To

achieve this, we feel that we should be in the heart of New Haven, on the Green. There

is symbolic power in this location, and we as a New Church have a vision for the role

this community presence will play in our social justice ministry.

This is an ecclesiastical rationale rather than a material one, and we believe the mission of our

church should be our first concern. However, there are significant material reasons that

support this recommendation as well. They include:

Ability to raise funds to pay for renovations. It is no one’s intention that our new

congregation will spend down endowment funds in order to pursue renovations of the

Meeting House, or for any other purpose. We will raise the money ourselves through

our own faithful giving and seek outside sources. A capital campaign sounds daunting

because neither predecessor congregation has engaged in a capital campaign in a long

time; however, church fundraising wisdom indicates that a capital campaign should be

conducted approximately every ten years. We are, in fact, overdue. Rev. Mary Nelson,

our South Central Regional Minister, has made UCC staff at the conference and national


level aware that we may seek funding for various endeavors of our new church, including

building renovation. We believe that our potential to raise funds from diverse

and creative sources to renovate the historic Church on the Green is far

greater than our potential to raise funds to renovate the Redeemer building.

Maximizing our existing financial resources. The stricter limitations on the use of the

Church on the Green drastically reduces the pool of potential buyers or re-uses of the

property, which makes it an even more prudent recommendation to retain it and

transform it into our permanent worship home. Once we are a new congregation, we

would likely look for a buyer for Redeemer’s current buildings. The income from that

eventual sale, and any rental income in the meantime, would help offset the costs of the

Church on the Green’s renovation.

There are, of course, many other material issues on everyone’s minds. Details such as design,

timeline, and funding are more appropriately left to the new congregation and its elected

leaders, as named in our Governance Structure and approved by the congregation per our

Transitional Bylaws. These trusted leaders will presumably have skills and knowledge that the

Coordinating Team, primarily a discernment body, does not have. Despite the complexities of

these decisions, and the anxiety that anticipating them may cause, the Coordinating Team has

complete faith that our new congregation can form our new vision and carry it out together,

with God’s help. The Coordinating Team’s recommendation seeks to ground us in who we

want to be as a church. In our case, location downtown is closer to the heart of who we want

to be than any other variable.

For now, we ask you to take courage and have faith in our collective ability to make sound

Spirit-driven decisions when the time is right, and to trust that the Spirit will lead us to do

God’s will if we stay attuned. We hope that you will join us for future conversations where we

can discuss concerns, anxieties, and excitement together. We ask you to take heart from our

collective excitement to join together, and to build a center of social justice in the heart of New

Haven that will build deep interconnectedness, empower us to make a stronger Christian impact

on our city, and transform us on our faith journeys, wherever those journeys might take us.

Respectfully submitted by the New Congregation Coordinating Team: Roger Adams, David

Carter, Caryne Eskridge, Tony Forman, Peter Halsey, Janyss Morse, Beth Pellegrino, John

Schneider, Matt Taylor, and Kathryn Thomas, in consultation with Rev. Mary Nelson (South

Central Regional Minister)


On April 23rd, our church took part in a joint worship service with United Church on

the Green and First & Summerfield United Methodist. As I was preparing to lead the

Children’s Sermon and Sunday School for that day, I began to feel nervous about

what we might even talk about. Over the past year, I have grown closer to the

children from Redeemer, and I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know the kids from

United, but I had no idea what to expect with the ones from First & Summerfield.

Anyone who has ever led a Children’s Sermon knows that you have to prepare for all

kinds of situations, and be ready to think on your feet depending on how many

children are there and what kind of mood they are in. As I arrived at First &

Summerfield UMC that morning, I took a deep breath, and tried to remind myself that

whether there were two children or twenty, the message would be the same: we are

the church. Church is not confined to a place, but rather, is a way of being. Church is

what we do.

During Sunday School that day, I spoke with the children about the many

things we do in order to be the church in the world. They talked about loving others

through community service, sitting with a classmate at lunch who may not have many

friends, or helping a sibling when they are sad. In addition to this, we talked about

the things we do during a worship service that may help prepare us to go out into the

world and love our neighbors. Our liturgy, which are the things we do in worship,

became our focal point of that day. We talked about the order of worship, different

prayers we read, songs we sing, and the choreography we do together. You see, I fear

that we forget how amazing our liturgy really is. When we come to worship on

Sundays, we tend to go through the motions, or fall into habit, because we’ve done

this all before. Being comfortable is not a problem, but forgetting how magical the

whole experience is can be.

At one point during our discussion, I was working with a group of three

children from Redeemer on what they might want to lead during Children’s Sunday in

May. I went through the list of parts, including reading prayers, helping with the

Children’s Faith Formation


offertory, and assisting with the benediction. As they began to choose what they

wanted to do, we began to discuss the composition of certain liturgical aspects for

the day. I asked one of them if they wanted to write the Call to Worship, to which

they smiled and responded, “Yes!” Just to make sure they understood what might be

needed for this particular prayer, I asked them what they thought they would like to

write. They looked up at me with the purest expression and said, “How about,

‘Come, Holy Spirit, Come?’” I smiled and began to tear up. You see, at the begin-

ning of every week down in Sunday School, the children and I light a candle and say

those words together as a way of beginning our time together: “Come, Holy Spirit,

Come!” In that moment, I knew that this child already understood the purpose of our

Call to Worship more than many adults might. They knew the importance of asking

God to be with us in our time of worship. And I knew that our children already saw

the beauty of our liturgy.

On Sunday, May 21st, I invite you to join us in worship as the children lead us

in a time where we will draw closer to the Divine. I am constantly in awe of their

wisdom and faith, and I thank God every day that we get to spend this time together.

Come be a part of this amazing day and take part in a worship service that will pre-

pare us to go out and be the church.

Jordan Rebholz, Minister for Faith Formation

If your child plays an instrument and would like to play a prelude

or postlude for Children's Sunday (May 21st), please speak with

Maggie Brooks or Julia Blue Raspe.

Calling

All Kids!


United Church and Church of the Redeemer will be making and distributing sand-

wiches on Sunday May 28th, 2017 during the Chapel on the Green service. Fifty-

two Sundays a year in every weather condition, Trinity's Chapel on the Green is a

unique venue. It is an outdoor congregation, of housed and unhoused, sharing God's

compassion through care, community, worship and breaking bread together. We will

make sandwiches during our second hour. Service begins at 2:00PM. Trinity Church

is located at 950 Chapel Street (corner of Temple), New Haven CT 06511

Pastor Shelly is departing on May 7th, and we will need new leadership to see us through our near future. The Leadership Council has approved an Interim Search Committee to find the best candidate for that charge. Paul Berry, Nancy Carrington, Myra Jones-Taylor, and Courtney Mason, along with Moderator Bob Parker will undertake this search, with guidance from our CT Conference Regional Minister, Mary Nelson.

The committee’s first task is to create a new Profile of our church that Mary will share when seeking potential candidates. The committee hopes to have this profile finalized just after Easter for approval by Leadership Council. We will post updates in the Monday emails and make announcements in worship on our progress. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask any member of the Search Committee.

Interim Search Committee

CHAPEL ON THE GREEN

AFTER

WORSHIP AT UNITED

MAY 28


Our sign up list for Columbus

House cooking is empty and we urgently need folk to sign up for

May 14. Remember we have a shopping list (you are reimbursed for

food costs) and recipes and menu online or available from the

church office. There are also some staples in the closet opposite the

Pastor’s office. The time asked is from about 4-5:45 pm. And you do

NOT have to wash the dishes! Children and teens are welcome to

help out. Sign up on the list the missions bulletin board or by call-

ing the church office.

COLUMBUS HOUSE

SUNDAY MEALS

A number of the Confirmands from both Redeemer and United

have been meeting since the Fall in the Our Whole Lives human

sexuality program. Barb Nangle (United) and David Carter

(Redeemer) have given of their time not only to be with the teens,

but to get more training in the program! We thank them and

celebrate the teens and parents who committed to this great

program.

OWL TEENS COMPLETE PROGRAM

Calling all graduates (or parents thereof)! Please send Barbara

your school and future plans! We want to celebrate you in the June

Newsletter.

GRADUATES!


Ushers and Hospitality

Servers

For May and June

Thank you so much to all who serve as Ushers and Hospitality Servers each Sunday!

Ushers and Hospitality Servers are assigned by their respective teams to serve on a given

Sunday. Under Redeemer’s hospitality plan two individuals or couples are assigned as hosts and

hostesses for a given Sunday. One provides a savory food item and the other a sweet treat.

While our office administrator Barbara will continue to send reminders via email each week, this

list should serve as a reminder in advance of Sundays that you are assigned.

If you are unavailable on a date you are assigned please try to arrange to exchange dates with

someone else and let Barbara know so that she can acknowledge the correct ushers or hosts in

the bulletin. This is the usher or hospitality server’s responsibility.

Hospitality Servers

May 7 Luncheon

May 14 Alan Kendrix

Courtney Mason

May 21 Marilyn Larson

Greta Seashore

May 28 at United

June 4 Maggie Brooks

Susan Gooley

June 11 Peggy Strickler

Grace and Peter Halsey

June 18 Anne Baltzell

Kay Comendul

June 25 Carol & Wes Poling

Hank Sykes

Ushers

May 7 Chuck Peterson

Carol Nardini

May 14 Peter and Grace Halsey

May 21 Babz Rawls-Ivy

Briana Ivy

Gregory Ivy

May 28 at United

June 4 Wes & Carol Poling

Jon Reed

June 11 Brad & Kathy Czepiel

Meggie Czepiel

June 18 Roz Hamilton

Twila Harper

Peggy Strickler

June 25 Lorenzo & Roslyn Evans


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Blessing of the Animals, 2015

The Church of the

Redeemer

185 Cold Spring Street

New Haven, CT 06511

(203) 787-5711

[email protected]

Rev. Dr. Rochelle A. Stackhouse,

Pastor

[email protected]

Jordan Rebholz,

Minister for Faith Formation

Robert Parker, Moderator of the Church

Henry Sykes, Treasurer

Kristen Forman, Clerk

Marguerite Brooks, Director of Music

Julia Blue Raspe, Chancel Choir Director

and Alto Section Leader

Paul Berry, Boys’ Choir Director

and Tenor Section Leader

Sarah Reed, Soprano Section Leader

Brian Robinson, Bass Section Leader

Larry Bishop, Organist

Barbara Repetsky, Office Administrator

and Financial Secretary

Collin Morrissey, Security

Lou and Valarie Fanelli, Sextons

Shelly’s Installation, 2006

Easter 2013

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