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vol. 11 issue 10

THE NEW COVENANT MESSENGER

New Covenant Community Church

October 2015

1587 West Exchange Street

Akron, OH 44313

330-253-6989

www.covenantakron.org

office@covenantakron.org

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NEW COVENANT WORSHIPS

October 4th

A Service of Worship and Communion

World Communion Sunday

Rev. Dr. Alex McLean

Dick Wagner, Liturgist

Mary Lindsay, Fellowship Hour

October 11th

A Service of Worship and Communion

20th Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Dr. Alex McLean

Mark Davis, Liturgist

Betty Miller, Fellowship Hour

October 18th

A Service of Worship and Communion

21st Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Dr. Alex McLean

Tim Meyer, Liturgist

Jackie Horton, Fellowship Hour

October 25th

A Service of Worship and Communion 22nd Sunday After Pentecost

Rev. Dr. Alex McLean

Phil Smith, Liturgist

Bev Cinovec, Fellowship Hour

NEW COVENANT GOVERNS

FAITH DEVELOPMENT

Sunday, October 4th

12:15pm after service

Jackie Roth, Chair

FINANCE

Tuesday October 20th

Fellowship Hall, 11am

John Sezna, Chair

GOVERNING BOARD

Wednesday, October 28th

Fellowship Hall, 4pm

MEMBERSHIP

Tuesday, October 20th

Fellowship Hall, 4pm

Mary Dietz, Chair

MISSIONS

Tuesday, October 20th

Fellowship Hall, 5pm

Margie Frlich, Chair

WORSHIP

No meeting this month.

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October Pastor's Column

During this lovely season remember the words of Albert Camus: "Autumn is a second spring

when every leaf is a flower.” We have passed the autumn equinox and now the days are shorter

than the nights. In a few weeks, the trees will be resplendent with their fall beauty. I hope you

will take time to enjoy the beauty of God's creation at this special time of year.

October is filled with special events, both at the church and in the community. On October 4th,

we will be celebrating World Communion Sunday. The day celebrates our oneness in Christ

with our brothers and sisters around the world. Paul tells us that we are to "discern the body"

when we partake of Holy Communion, mindful that we note our relationship to all our brothers

and sisters in Christ in the celebration.

World Communion Sunday began in 1933 in a Presbyterian church in Pittsburgh. When asked

how the special Sunday spread, one of its early proponents said: "The concept spread very

slowly at the start. People did not give it a whole lot of thought. It was during the Second World

War that the spirit caught hold, because we were trying to hold the world together. World Wide

Communion symbolized the effort to hold things together, in a spiritual sense. It emphasized

that we are one in the Spirit and the Gospel of Jesus Christ." I hope you will attend this special

service at the church this October 4th.

On October 24th, there is another special event. The Eastminster Presbytery will be hosting

Disciplefest 2015. It will be held from 9 until 2:30pm at Canfield Presbyterian Church, 140 W.

Main Street, Canfield, Ohio. This is a wonderful continuing education event with many great

speakers. Rev. Dr. Ken Bailey will be the keynote speaker. He will be sharing research from his

upcoming book on the image of the Good Shepherd in the bible. There are also seminars on

prayer, the missional church, understanding your church family, the differences between the

generations in and outside the church, and more. The cost is $15 if you sign up before October

15th, and $25 afterwards.

On Halloween, Saturday October 31st from 5-7PM we are planning to host a new event at our

church and for the young people of our community. We will be having Trunk R Treat. We need

a number of members, ten or more, who will turn out with the trunks of their cars filled with

Halloween treats. As trick or treaters pass by the church parking lot, candy and treats are safely

distributed. These events are a great way to make our name better known in the Akron

community. It all depends, however, on enough members and friends turning out. I hope that

you will be available and join in the fun.

Blessings, Rev. Alex

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Pastoral Recap for September 2015

I would like to thank everyone for making my installation such a special event on September

20th. It will be a day I won't soon forget. Thank you for the meaningful gift of the colorful stole.

The beautiful stained-glass design with three interlocking circles signifies the Trinity, which is

an important doctrine to me. Also, I would like to extend a special thank you to everyone who

extended hospitality to my mother, Lily McLean, my brother John, and to our friends from out

of town. They all had an excellent time and enjoyed meeting each of you. It was a very special

day for me, as well as our church community and I can't say thank you enough.

On September 8th, I attended the quarterly Presbytery meeting at the Presbyterian church in

Boardman, OH. The Presbytery is in a state of transition and over the last few meetings, we

have been working together to form a new vision and mission statement for Eastminster

Presbytery. Once this document is finished, it will set the direction for the ministries and

staffing of the Presbytery office.

It has been a busy month at the church and I appreciate all of the volunteer efforts. On

September 13th we had Back to Church Sunday. We sent out over 500 invitations to the

community surrounding the church. We are getting our message out that we are a strong

community neighborhood church, who provides meaningful worship to God and serves our

community. It is important to remember that this was more of a start in outreach than a finish.

We have been in the neighborhood for just over two years, and people are still discovering who

we are. The good news is that we may have five new members. Four are coming through the

Confirmation class which starts October 11th, and one is someone who lives in the neighborhood.

If you would like to join, or know someone who is interested, please contact me.

Also on the 13th, Sunday School restarted for all ages. Everyone is welcome to join the adult

class which meets at 9:30am. I am teaching that class, and we are discussing the bible texts that

will be used in the service following the class. Thank you to Tim Meyer who taught the first

two classes in September. Jackie Chetelat is teaching the young people. She is using a good

curriculum that features crafts. I hope if you have a child, grandchild, or great-grandchild that

you will encourage them to attend.

During the month, I developed sermons, children's sermons, prayers for the bulletins, and

offered pastoral care to members and friends. I also wrote a visitor letter that is in the hallway

under the bulletin board. This can be given to newcomers, and describes our ministry at NCCC.

I also met with the governing board, the finance committee, the member-care committee, and

the renovation committee. The governing board is developing a vision statement about the

renovation, and I worked on that. I also attended the book club at Lib Kime's home. We are

studying a great book, The Spirituality of Imperfection. In addition, I joined in with members

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of the Eastminster Presbytery, who gathered together for a book club meeting on leadership,

near Youngstown at the home of Nancy Kahaian.

In terms of outreach to the community, I offered the invocation at the September Kiwanis

meeting. I attended the talk by Tracey Krska, education specialist, for the Akron Better

Business Bureau. I also attended a committee meeting of the Akron Area Interfaith Council

(AAIC). Please mark your calendars for November 5th when the AAIC will be putting on its

fall forum. It will feature writer Bob Dyer from the Akron Beacon-Journal moderating a

discussion of area youth from different faith traditions. The start time is 6:30pm. For more

information see the flyer on the bulletin board or contact Nancy Williams. Also on the 13th,

Rose and I attended the Global Village Festival at Lock 3 park downtown where the interfaith

council had a booth. On September 17th, I attended the Akron Roundtable with Rose and my

mother, Lily. We heard a talk by John Norquist, former Mayor of Milwaukee, and CEO for the

Congress for the New Urbanism, and who is currently an urban planner and author of the book

“The Wealth of Cities”. His talk was on the "new urbanism" and how we can make Akron an

even more livable city.

On the 27th, I attended the closing service of Butler Memorial Presbyterian Church in

Youngstown, Ohio. It was a bittersweet service, celebrating the 92 years of witness at this

historically African-American church in the Eastminster Presbytery. I was informed that this

was the only African-American Presbyterian church between Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

Membership had dwindled down to 10 or so members, and the time to move on had come.

Though the ministry at Butler has ended, the gifts of their members will go on with the new

churches they join.

Thank you once again for making the installation so special. It is a day I won't ever forget!

Blessings,

Rev. Alex

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A Message From Your President

Fall is here. The air is cooler and soon the trees will be bright with color.

Many people have been working tirelessly to make our renovation project acceptable to the

congregation. Ken Williams and Bev Cinovec have been preparing documents for banks in the

area to see if there is financial assistance locally. The Finance committee has begun our annual

pledge campaign first to make sure our church can be secure during our fundraising efforts for

the renovation project. The Renovation committee has been evaluating and reevaluating the

project to try and get the costs as complete and as low as possible.

Some improvements are already being made. Rev. McLean is using a new portable microphone

which makes it better to hear and the sound more clear. We have talked to lighting people to

work on getting the stage lighting installed. We hope, with everyone’s support, we will be able

to go forward with our complete project in the spring. We need everyone’s prayers and support

in order to make this happen. This is the hard part and we need positive prayer from everyone

to move forward.

New Covenant Community Church continues to provide God’s love and care to all. A new year

has begun with Sunday school, choir and mission projects in full swing. There are many ways

to show God’s love for his church at NCCC.

Margaret Roth is running our power point on Sundays. Mission is gearing up for Christmas

baskets, and helping at Gennasarrat every second Saturday. Fellowship is planning some

fundraisers and get togethers. You can show God’s love by getting involved and helping with

our projects in our community. That’s who we are. NEW COVENANT COMMUNITY

CHURCH.

With HIS Love

Carol Davis

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Fellowship:

The next Fellowship meeting will be a joint one with Member Care on Oct. 20, 4 pm, in

Fellowship Hall (not at Mary Dietz’s).

Fellowship Activities:

In addition to organizing the Installation Reception for Alex McLean which took place on

September 20th, our committee is working on small fund raising ideas for our church

Renovation Project. Our goal is to make these fundraisers affordable and fun, with the intent

of spreading them out over the next year or so.

The first such event occurs on Friday evening, December 4th, in Fellowship Hall. The ever-

popular Christmas potluck and white elephant gift exchange will return, but with an additional

feature. There will be a raffle with the following items already donated: a $100 Acme gift card,

a $50 Get Go gas card, a combined chocolate and nut basket, and a wine basket. We are open

to other gift items, small or large. Raffle tickets will be sold both before and after the church

services on Sundays beginning November 8th. Cost will be $5 per raffle ticket. Winners need

not be present at the party, but everyone is encouraged to attend.

The next event is Soup Sunday, after the worship service on January 24th. Details will be

worked out, but soups would be donated by our members, and people would pay a certain

amount to attend the luncheon.

Another idea is to have our committee along with youth sell pies from Gardner’s on Valentine’s

Sunday, February 14th.

The last idea is to have the Finance Committee along with the men of the church make breakfast

on some Saturday in early March. People would pay to attend.

An on-going plan is to have the kids’ Sunday School class decorate a box where members could

donate a small amount of money any time they wished. This idea was used when we had our

two ice cream socials at Fairlawn West and generated quite a bit of money that went toward the

various games rented.

Any of these ideas can be modified or added to over the coming months. Please speak with

Nancy Williams or any member of the Fellowship Committee.

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AAIC Coming Events:

Akron Area Interfaith Council general meeting is Tuesday, October 6th, from 10:30am-12pm at

Fairlawn West UCC in the parlor. See Nancy Williams if you wish to attend as a guest.

Set aside the evening of Thursday, November 5th, from 6:30pm-8pm at First Congregational

Church in Akron, 292 E. Market St., for the annual, very timely Fall Forum-- CELEBRATING

DIVERSITY—YOUTH SPEAK. Bob Dyer from the BEACON will lead a youth panel from

various high schools representing Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Unitarian

Universalist faith traditions on the subject of diversity in their lives. This program is certainly a

must for anyone from age 13 or 14 up. We will provide a ride from either from the church

parking lot at 5:45, or from your home for this insightful event. First Congregational Church is

providing light refreshments after the program.

Saturday, November 7, St. Bernard’s Church in downtown Akron is hosting a community

Thanksgiving Dinner sponsored by Global Ties Akron. It’s free, but a covered dish is to be

provided by those attending. Your covered dish should serve 10-12, and the time of the dinner

is 5pm-8pm. This community event is intended to introduce international students and scholars

to the traditions of an American Thanksgiving. AAIC is helping to spread the word about this

community event.

As an active participant in AAIC along with Pastor Alex, I would like to see members of our

congregation come out for the events offered throughout the year from the Fall Forum to the

Hunger Walk in May.

Confirmation Class:

If you are not baptized and/or confirmed, then this is your opportunity to do something about

it. Dr. McLean and Rev. Smith are going to lead a confirmation class this fall. The first

meeting will be Sunday, October 11, at the Sunday school hour of 9:30 a.m. There are four

young people, ages eleven through fourteen, whose parents and great grandparents would like

them to be confirmed. Those parents are also encouraged to attend the first meeting of the class.

This course will be about eight to ten weeks in duration and will extend through the first part of

January and will focus on Scripture, Church History and Doctrine, the nature of the Church

today, and personal faith. The title of the course is: "Faith, Theirs, Ours, and Mine." No matter

your age, if you are interested we will see you in October.

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Fresh Vegetables for Genessaret

Genessaret's cook Philip and assistant George look

forward to our deliveries every Friday! It is very

rewarding to know how much our fresh produce is

appreciated.

Now that fall has arrived, it's time to put our garden

to bed. We'll still be picking collards and tomatoes

until we have a freeze, but the shorter days and cold

nights have slowed the ripening process and growth.

Hopefully with our bunny problem solved, and the

number of beds increased, next year will be even

better!

Thank you to everyone who has helped make our

mission garden a success!

Quote of the Month by Frederick Buechner:

“Stop trying to protect, to rescue, to judge, to manage the lives around you . . . remember that

the lives of others are not your business. They are their business. They are God’s business . . .

even your own life is not your business. It also is God’s business. Leave it to God. It is an

astonishing thought. It can become a life-transforming thought . . . unclench the fists of your

spirit and take it easy . . . What deadens us most to God’s presence within us, I think, is the

inner dialogue that we are continuously engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human

thought. I suspect that there is nothing more crucial to true spiritual comfort . . . than being able

from time to time to stop that chatter . . .”

-Originally published in Telling Secrets

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Sally Ann Anderson, 7th

Bob Myers, 10th

Cathy King, 10th

Kyndra Heischman, 16th

Ruth Anderson, 21st

Chuck Cooley, 23rd

Brynna Kouri, 29th

Betty Miller, 29th

Lydia Anderson, 30th

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

Jaci Chetelat and Chuck Cooley 9th

Church office hours are Monday – Friday 9am – 1pm.

Church Office: 330-253-6989

Email: office@covenantakron.org

Website: www.covenantakron.org

Rev. McLean’s office hours: Monday – Thursday 10:30am – 2:30pm

If you are in need of pastoral care please call the church office or

Rev. McLean on his cell phone: 330-801-5025.