Please enjoy our newsletter for Dec/Jan 2015/2016.
See it prettified in the PDF, with links and lovely photos: Beyond the Green Doors – December/January 2015/2016 Newsletter
Beyond the
Green Doors
The newsletter of the
Peterborough United Methodist Church
43 Concord Street, Peterborough, NH
January/December 2015/2016
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
Tues Dec 1 Prayer Shawl Ministry 1 pm
Tues Dec 1 UMW Meeting 7 pm
Tues Dec 1 Giving Tuesday
Sun Dec 6 Fellowship Luncheon 11:30 am
Sun Dec 6 Poinsettia orders due
Wed Dec 9 Finance Comm Meeting 6:30 pm
Wed Dec 9 Ad Council Meeting 7 pm
Sun Dec 13 Christmas Cantata 10 am
Sun Dec 13 Peace Light Service 7 pm
Sat Dec 19 Tailgate Dinner at Hundred Nights 5 pm
Sun Dec 20 Children’s Pageant 10 am
Mon Dec 21 Candlelight Vigil for the Homeless in Keene 5 pm
Thu Dec 24 Christmas Eve Service 4:30 pm
Tues Jan 5 Prayer Shawl Ministry 1 pm
Wed Jan 6 Book Group 7 pm
Fri Jan 15 Open Mic 7 pm
Sun Jan 17 Friend Day 10 am
Sun Jan 17 UMC Human Relations Day
Thu Jan 21 Family Forum 7 pm
Wed Jan 27 Newsletter submissions due
Sat Jan 30 Men’s Group 7:30 am
BEYOND THE GREEN DOORS
Please submit all materials for the next newsletter (February/March) to our editors by the last Wednesday of the month, January 27. Send to Melissa French, ready for copy and paste, with the subject “Newsletter submission” Thanks!
UPDATES FROM PETERBOROUGHUMC.ORG
Do All the Good You Can Image
Methodism in Peterborough NH
Open the Eyes of My Heart Music Ministry
Love Grows Here Music Ministry
Anniversary Celebration
Presentation
My God Is Real Music Ministry
Feast of Gratitude Worship Snippet Video
We’re hiring – Nursery Attendant
PUMC Historical Tidbits
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!
We continue to seek people to help with aspects of our worship and fellowship. Methodism was founded on the concept of Lay Ministry so consider volunteering your talents to strengthen our ministries.
Offering counters
Worship Helpers
Coffee Hour
Poinsettia orders
Forms due by Dec. 6th. See Barbara MacInnes for forms. Poinsettias will be ready for pick up Dec 22nd.
FRIEND DAY
Remember, the 3rd Sunday of the month is Friend Day worship. Please consider bringing a friend or neighbor with you, calling someone to carpool to church, and wearing your nametag in worship! Don’t let another month go by without participating.
Invite a friend – Bring a friend – Be a friend
175th Celebration Photo Directory
The photo directory that is being compiled to mark our 175th year is still in the works. If you have not yet had your picture taken, please see Karen Keenan as soon as possible. Or, if you would like to submit your own photo, please do so. We would like a photo of all members AND those in regular attendance. You don’t have to be a member to be recognized in our photo directory.
Thank you for your patience with this project. Please see Karen if you have any questions.
FOOD PANTRY NEEDS
The food pantry has requested more peanut butter and jelly, snacks, packaged cookies, juice boxes, and macaroni. They are helping provide lunches for little kids as school starts.
MEN’S GROUP
The Peterborough UMC Men’s Group meets the last Saturday of the month, resuming Saturday January 30. Cooking begins around 7:30 – 8 am. All men are welcome no matter where you are on your spiritual journey. You can be of any religion or none.
PRAYER SHAWL MINISTRY
The prayer shawl group meets at the church the first Tuesday of the month. We have plenty of yarn to choose from, and willing hands to help you get started. We knit or crochet from 1:00- approximately 2:00. All are welcome!
The Holiday Stroll raised $1231 for the church! Many thanks to all the people who donated items and volunteered!
The Sunday School kids raised $160 for the food bank at the Stroll! Great job!
UNITED METHODIST WOMEN
The UMW meets Tuesday, Dec 1 at 7 pm at Gladys Bugler’s home. The program is “Gratitude” by Sue Norton.
FINANCE COMMITTEE
The Finance Committee has been busy working on the 2016 budget, as have many of you, and will be ready to meet with the Ad Council early next week. We want to thank those who have sent their pledge cards back and encourage anyone else who may want to pledge to put their cards in the offering plate, or send them to the address on the envelope provided. This is a great help in completing the budgeting process. Thanks again!
Ken Schultz
PUMC Sunday School News
Greetings parents and friends! This has been a busy fall for the PUMC Sunday school program! There have been some new things added to the program.
Children at the Altar
The addition of our boys and girls participating in Communion Sunday services has been one terrific change. The kids have done a nice job of stepping into the role as liturgist during the services. Here’s hoping more and more of the kids want to participate in the Children’s Liturgy – it’s nice to have them directly involved in bringing Sunday worship to the congregation.
Thank you for your help with guiding your children and helping them rehearse the readings before the services, and thank you for your kind words and encouragement for the children! It’s a big thing to step up in front of our congregation and your support makes it ever easier for the young readers!
Memory Verses
The start of a memory verse practice is another little change that has had a slow start. We will be trying to get a set schedule for the children to recite the verse and bring home a ribbon verse marker for their Bibles.
The memory verses are taken from the Bible stories that we are sharing with the children. For this fall, the stories have come from the Book of Genesis, as we learned about the Creation, Adam and Eve Abraham and Sarah, Lot, and Isaac.
Our current Bible verse is from Genesis 12: 3 – “All the families of Earth will be blessed because of you.”
Children who want to earn a memory verse ribbon should be ready to recite the verse, know the book, chapter and verse number. We will also ask them to tell us in their words a bit about their understanding of the verse.
Children’s Offering
We are also beginning to have the children bring a few pennies (and ONLY pennies) to Sunday school, as we begin our weekly lesson with a prayer and an offering. Thanks for saving a few pennies each week from your shopping errands or including some pennies in your children’s weekly allowance. We make our penny offerings to a communal urn and then count out pennies to place in the offering basket, based on the number of children and adults attending Sunday school that day. Thanks for helping the kids remember to bring their offerings each week.
Advent Adventure!
As Advent arrives, we will begin to plan for a special Christmas Pageant! Can it be done in a few short weeks? We plan to try! We have been given readings and the outline for an Advent pageant by Pastor Lourey and would like to present it as a shadow puppet production. The next few weeks of Sunday school will be taken up with learning about shadow puppetry, learning the story that we will present and beginning to learn to use the puppets, the lighting and the screen.
The plan is to break the group into a couple smaller ‘rehearsal groups’ to make working things through easier. That way, we can give the kids more individual attention as they learn the story and how to manipulate their puppets and learn their cues.
We also have some ideas for a couple costumes for our younger children that we’ll be working on. If you’d like to help the children craft their puppets and make a basket of fabric poinsettia blossoms, you are welcome to be a part of the project. This shadow puppet production will be a work in progress as we go and you are indeed, welcome to come along for the ride! Just let us know what you’re interested in helping with!
Much of the work will be done during Sunday school time, but as we come closer to the December 20th presentation, we would like to schedule three early evening work sessions. We have tentatively chosen December 2nd, 9th, and 16th as dates for rehearsals. Each rehearsal will about an hour in length from 6 – 7 PM-ish. We will be in touch with each of you, as we get closer to these dates. Yes! This will be an Advent adventure! Stay tuned and pray that we keep our energy high and our eyes on the goal!
Peace! Laura and Susan
FROM THE TRUSTEES
Trustees Bulletin Board:
In an effort to streamline communication regarding our facilities, and to ensure we have all of the necessary supplies, we have instituted a new bulletin board on the wall between the library and the office. This will centralize the location of the facility calendar, the rental agreements and registry, a contact list for our contractors, the list of janitorial supplies needed as well as place for a new list for needed office supplies. The latter does not fall under the trustee’s traditional role but as we have not had anyone step forward to volunteer to replenish office supplies, everyone will be encouraged to 1) add items to this list that you notice are getting low and 2) check this list periodically and if you can get any of the items listed simply put your name to that line so that someone else doesn’t duplicate the effort. We have a reimbursement procedure and the slips along with the instructions are also on this bulletin board. Hopefully needed items will not remain on the list for too long before someone steps up to fill the need. We’ll just have to see how this works out!
Handicapped Parking:
Recently we were made aware that anyone not displaying state issued authorization that uses the handicap spaces would be subject to expensive fines levied by the Peterborough Police department per the State of NH statutes. We have always allowed that anyone who needs to, regardless of whether displaying the official plates or placards, can park in these spaces as they are easily accessible to the side ramp, and as this is private property we did not know that state law also applies here. Through clarification with the police department we decided to remove the handicap signs from the side of the building (the painted signs on the pavement will remain in the spaces as they are not considered legal markings). Therefore anyone who needs to use these spaces may do so legally, whether you have the proper permit, or are just transporting elderly guests or otherwise have mobility issues. We ask everyone else to refrain from using these spaces.
Parking in General:
Yes, we know parking spaces are a premium. Unfortunately we have limited options as nearly our entire property either has a building on it or is already paved! All those who are able are encouraged to park on the street in front of the church or in the River Center parking lot across the street (although it is also used by the Episcopal Church and fills up quickly). Arrive early and enjoy pre-worship fellowship time and also beat the other churches to the available spots! Team up and double park on the back row (just make sure exit lane is kept clear). Carpooling is also encouraged whenever possible (another opportunity for fellowship!), even shuttling the short distance from the downtown parking lots. There is space for one small car between the last handicap spot and the bulkhead (again, be careful not to block the entrance lane).
Custodial Staff:
Please take the opportunity to thank Andy Dunbar for his work as our Custodian. Andy has been doing a great job keeping our facility clean, and you may have noticed that he is very passionate about recycling! He is not a full time staffer though, there are only two hours per week in the church’s operating budget and some weeks that gets stretched pretty thin for all that he has to do, especially with the additional use the church has been getting. We have just submitted our budget for next year and have requested an increase in this amount, but we still need everyone’s help to keep this expense to a minimum. If you have an event planned that you would like additional pre or post cleanup done, please contact a member of the Trustees in advance to make your request so that we can plan it around what is already allocated per week. And only contact Andy via email or his cell phone (NOT his home phone) with as much notice as you can. Let’s continue working together to do all we can to keep our facilities in great shape so they can be used to better accomplish our mission.
Thanks,
Matt Keenan
Chair – Board of Trustees
PETERBOROUGH UMC COMMUNICATIONS
In addition to “Beyond the Green Doors,” Peterborough UMC offers the following ways you can keep in touch.
We are on the web. Visit our website at: http://www.PeterboroughUMC.org
We are on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/peterboroughunitedmethodist/
We are on Google: plus.google.com/102483185988404254932
We are on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/pumcnh
We are on Instagram http://www.instagram.com/pumcnh