MADISON AVENUE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
921 Madison Avenue
(at East 73rd Street)
New York, NY 10021
Tel: 212- 288-8920
Fax: 212-249-1466
(at East 73rd Street)
New York, NY 10021
Tel: 212- 288-8920
Fax: 212-249-1466
Marthame and Elizabeth Sanders are mission workers for the Presbyterian Church (USA) serving in the Palestinian territories. The Sanders came to MAPC last August and spoke about their ministry. Impressed by their commitment to work for peace in such a difficult and violent situation, the Session voted to designate a portion of our 2002 Peace Offering to support their ongoing work. The following excerpt is from a letter in response to many expressions of concern they have received in recent months. For more information on their ministry, visit their website at http://come.to/zababdeh.
Dear Friends,
Since September 28, 2000, Israel and Palestine have been sinking in a spiral of violence. Over the past two and a half years in the West Bank, we’ve received many phone calls and e-mails asking some variation on the question, “When are you coming home?” The violence spiraled deeper and deeper, taking its toll on thousands of lives, limbs, homes, lands. But friends and family had mostly stopped asking us when we’d leave. We knew our way around, spoke passable Arabic, the locals knew us. We’d stuck around this long - there wasn’t any use in trying to talk sense into us at this point.
Now the e-mails and phone calls have started again. It’s a blurry chorus of reason and rumor: “We’re going to war in Iraq.” “Yeah, there are some peace movements, but at this point, it’s inevitable.” “Saddam will send scuds/nerve gas/smallpox at you!” “The Arab anti-American backlash will put you in danger.” “The American government has called for a full evacuation of Americans in the Middle East! Don’t you have to leave?” “When does your flight arrive?”
Yet here we are. We’re still here because we believe. We came here out of a commitment to serve the Church in the land of its birth, to be in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our presence here (in Zababdeh, Nazareth, Jerusalem, or elsewhere) is a religious calling, not a political affiliation. The cross overshadows the crown, not the other way around.
We’re still here because we hope. We hope that war will be avoided, for nothing made by human hands is inevitable. We hope that nationalism and fanaticism will not have their way, that the rift between East and West will not become an impassible chasm, swallowing up lives and hopes for a peaceful future. We feel strongly that this is a time for peacemakers. Those of you who share our conviction, we love you dearly: struggle with us; pray with us; work with us as seekers of peace. If you disagree, we love you dearly. And we challenge you. For this is a time for turning swords into ploughshares, a time for us to turn to the long hard work of cultivating peace, not to the deception of a “quick and clean” war.
We are still here, because we love. We love the people of this region. From Baghdad to Beirut, we have visited them, eaten with them, laughed and cried with them, worshiped and prayed with them. Having done so, it’s impossible for us to think of them as the enemy - or as candidates for collateral damage. Arab, Christian, Muslim, Jew, they have become our brothers and sisters, fellow children of God trying to carve out life in a region of imported death. For their sake, for our sake, and for God’s sake, we continue to do what we can to bring peace here. Those of you sending us e-mails and making phone calls, before you ask us to come home again, we ask the same of you.
So we’re still here because we’re still called to work and minister here. Don’t worry; we’re not seeking our own martyrdom. But we haven’t bought those plane tickets yet.
The following is from a Word in Action by Elder Caroline Johnson on the subject of “Lay Ministry,” given during the worship services on February 23.
Christ promises us a new life when we follow Him and serve Him. I have seen this promise fulfilled over and over again in my experience in lay ministry at this church. I confess that each and every time I have been asked to serve in some capacity my response has been, “Oh I could not possibly do that,” and then I have taken the first faltering steps in obedience, but with a faint heart. And every single time Christ has met me where I was, strengthened me and given me resources that I did not possess at the outset.
One of my first assignments here was to work on a task force convened to decide whether or not we should institute a Christian Education hour. This was a controversial topic, and every point of view was represented in the group. Over the months it took to reach a decision, the Holy Spirit worked in each of us to resolve our differences and bring us all to a higher level of understanding about this project and the work of the church. Indeed, the CE hour has been just a piece of a much larger and more wonderful plan for education ministry that is still unfolding before us.
As Christians, we are admonished to love with actions, to bring our time and talents – however meager we believe them to be – so that God can use us for His mighty purposes. He knows so much better than we do what we need to learn, and He leads and teaches us if we take that first step.
Serving God in the world produces fruit – whether it is teaching children, feeding the elderly, sheltering the homeless or restoring His house – but it also enfolds us in the sister- and brotherhood of believers who strengthen our faith by their words and their example. Lay ministry programs give us the chance to grow in faith together. So I encourage you to look at the opportunities to serve God in this place and bring your talents to the work that is before us. It will change your life.
“Come, follow me.” The Lord’s call is vital; it must be heeded. As God leads a person into discipleship, there are unexpected joys and always grace to meet the challenges. Our pastoral staff will share the stories of their unique callings, journeys that are as diverse as the courses of their lives.
On Sunday, March 30 at 7:30 pm there will be a special service at MAPC at which the Presbytery of New York City will ordain Kirianne Weaver as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She is the daughter of John and Marianne Weaver, our music ministry team.
This will be the culmination of an unusual odyssey that began with Kirianne’s formative education in our Day School, the Chapin School and the Bronx High School of Science. While at Bronx Science she was on the varsity soccer team and won the Pegasus award as the best female player in the NY public schools. This led to her spending a summer in Holland in the Teams USA program. During her four years at Bryn Mawr College she began to have a sense of call to the ministry. She spent a summer as designated artist at the archeological dig at Megiddo, Israel, visiting many of the historic Christian and Jewish holy places. Another summer was spent in Yellowstone National Park working with the Park Christian Ministries program. After graduation in 1995 she spent a year as an intern in the Women’s Advocacy program at Presbyterian Headquarters in Louisville. There she came under the spell of the art work of the Christian artist Nalini Jayasurya, who invited her to study with her in her home in Sri Lanka. Kirianne spent the 1996-97 year working with Nalini and teaching at the Senior Moir School in Colombo.
Kiri entered Princeton Theological Seminary in 1998. During her three years there she served as an intern at Chestnut Hill Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and sang in the Chapel Touring Choir. Summers were spent with the Touring Choir in England and Scotland, living in a Christian village in Ghana, and working in a children’s program at Fourth Presbyterian Church in South Boston. At her graduation in 2001 she received a Jagow Prize in Homiletics and Speech and the Graduate Study Fellowship for the Parish Pulpit Ministry. This fellowship enabled her to spend the next year in Calcutta, where she studied Indian religious art while also traveling throughout that vast country. She returned to the USA to become a Resident in Ministry at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, the position to which she will be ordained.
All are cordially invited to the service and to the reception that will follow.
One of the projects that the Fund for Renewal supported is Carnegie East House, the new non-profit enriched housing apartment residence for seniors on the Upper East Side, which opened in December. Visits from members of the MAPC community are welcomed. There will be a Meet the Author tea at 2 pm on March 20th, when Jeri Sedlar will discuss her new book “Don’t Retire, Rewire,” followed by tea and conversation. Carnegie East House is located at 1844 Second Avenue at 95th Street. For further information, the telephone number is 212/410-0033 ext 105.
On Sunday, March 30, at 3 pm, John Weaver will play one of the dedicatory recitals on the new organ at the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer at 66th St. and Lexington Ave. His program will include works by Dupré, Bach, Franck and Weaver. The console of this splendid instrument is moved into the center of the chancel for recitals. The suggested donation is $15.
Also, see: