Beginning by the end of February, the Beautiful Korean Church will
be meeting in our sanctuary for worship on Sunday afternoons. The
congregation consists of a small group of persons from all over the
southern New England area. It is interdenominational and will hold
its worship in the Korean language. We welcome the Rev. Young Kim,
the pastor, as well as his congregation in this new inter-cultural
opportunity for both of our churches.
Members of the 2010 Confirmation Class have been
busy examining what church membership entails. Some of them
worked recently with their mentors in assisting with the clean up
of the church grounds. Some even discovered what poison ivy was
all about.
In addition, they have gone to share in worship at Congregation
Mishkan Israel, they attended the Maundy Thursday service at our
church, and recently spent some time studying how the New
Testament was created.
Soon they will be attending a presentation at the
Beineke Library at Yale, visiting the New Haven Historical Society
to remember the story of the Amistad, and taking a field trip to
the Mt.Carmel Cemetery to meet some of our church's founding
fathers and mothers.
Discussions about the Sacraments, faith, prayer,
and the discipline of the faith are part of the Confirmation
program as well. Much is packed into the three month Confirmation
process and the class meets one afternoon a week. Confirmation
will take place on Pentecost Sunday, May 23rd, at the 10:00 hour
of worship.
Our 2010 Confirmation class is Kayla Murphy,
Kristin Spencer, Maggie Veno, Christina Samela, and Emily Grindell
Beginning in February, two Trustees, two Deacons,
and two members at large from the congregation began meeting with
Rev. House in an effort to develop and bring to the congregation a
three year plan pertaining to goals around membership, finances,
and our church's visibility in the wider community.
To that end, information is currently being
gathered about the leasing of the far south end of our parking
area for construction of a building from which the church would
gain a monthly income. This is only one idea of a means of
reducing our annual shortfall in income.
The committee also has been at work in attempts to
discover effective ways of increasing our membership. The Rev.
Michael Penn-Strah, Area Conference Minister of the Connecticut
Conference will join a meeting of THE Committee on April 12th for
the purpose of considering innovative and creative ways of gaining
new members.
The committee's plan is to report to the Annual
Meeting at the end of April about one, two, and three year goals
in each of these areas of our common life. Anyone with ideas or
suggestions pertaining to increasing our financial income as well
as our membership may direct comments to the Pastor (Revdjhouse@gmail.com)
