Happy Fall everyone! As much as I love the summer months and the slower pace around our church and campus, I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. There is an excitement in the air when we start a new program year. We have great things in store for you. Let me mention a few of them: Under Brookville Church news, we are featuring something different each Sunday of the month. Here is the break down: • 1st Sundays of the month are traditional Communion Worship Celebrations centering around the Lord’s Table (September 6 will be a special outdoor Communion service) • 2nd Sundays of the month will feature Tradition Time and Honoring Our Families • 3rd Sundays of the month offer Children’s Classes (preK-5th grade) following the Worship Celebration • 4th Sundays of the month will feature Special Music starting in October. NOTE: On September 27 we will be holding our special outdoor Blessing of the Animals service! (See this issue for more information.) Under Brookville Multifaith Campus news there are many multifaith events planned that will enrich, enlighten, and empower those who attend! The first will be on September 20 as we hold our 2nd annual campus Open House featuring special guest Rev. Doug Leonard of the Al Amana Centre in Oman. (See this issue for more information.) Finally, in reference to the title of this article, we are introducing a new layout for our newsletter. As we grow as both a Christian Church and a Multifaith Campus our newsletter has expanded beyond just church news, so to make the news a little clearer we are dividing it into two categories: Church News and Multifaith Campus News. Let us know what you think as we continue to improve on our communications. We hope you will take a look at the enclosed 2015-2016 Church Calendar which also includes the campus’ multifaith gatherings scheduled throughout the year. There is a place for everyone, and a safe space for all who enter. I hope to see you soon! ~ Rev. Vicky Our New Layout
Transcript
Happy Fall everyone! As much as I love the summer months and the slower pace around our church and campus, I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. There is an excitement in
the air when we start a new program year. We have great things in store for you. Let me mention a few of them:
Under Brookville Church news, we are featuring something different each Sunday of the month. Here is the break down:
• 1st Sundays of the month are traditional Communion Worship Celebrations centering around the Lord’s Table (September 6 will be a special outdoor Communion service)
• 2nd Sundays of the month will feature Tradition Time and Honoring Our Families
• 3rd Sundays of the month offer Children’s Classes (preK-5th grade) following the Worship Celebration
• 4th Sundays of the month will feature Special Music starting in October.
NOTE: On September 27 we will be holding our special outdoor Blessing of the Animals service!
(See this issue for more information.)
Under Brookville Multifaith Campus news there are many multifaith events planned that will enrich, enlighten, and empower those who attend! The first will be on September 20 as we hold our 2nd annual campus Open House featuring special guest Rev. Doug Leonard of the Al Amana Centre in Oman. (See this issue for more information.) Finally, in reference to the title of this article, we are introducing a new layout for our newsletter. As we grow as both a Christian Church and a Multifaith Campus our newsletter has expanded beyond just church news, so to make the news a little clearer we are dividing it into two categories: Church News and Multifaith Campus News. Let us know what you think as we continue to improve on our communications. We hope you will take a look at the enclosed 2015-2016 Church Calendar which also includes the campus’ multifaith gatherings scheduled throughout the year.
There is a place for everyone, and a safe space for all who enter.
I hope to see you soon!
~ Rev. Vicky
Our New Layout
Blessing of the Animals Celebration
Sunday, September 27, 2015 10:00 am Worship Service
Brookville Church Bring your pet for a blessing to celebrate St. Francis Day. There will be refreshments for all ages and all species following the service. All friendly, well behaved, vaccinated pets with ID on leashes/carriers, photos of those that cannot attend or stuffed animals are welcome.
Bring a donation: Friskies canned cat food; Pedigree canned dog food; Science Diet Sensitive Skin & Stomach dry dog food, scoopable cat litter; or make a monetary donation to this wonderful no-kill, rescue/adoption center:
Bobbi and the Strays 2 Rider Pl, Freeport, NY 11520
Phone: 516-378-4340 Web site: http://www.bobbiandthestrays.org
@Please Note: Church Office Hours Fall/Winter Schedule:
Give to Brookville Church using yo u r A p p l e o r A n d ro i d p roduc t s ! I t ’s ea sy. F irs t , download QR Code Reader to use the scan code to the right or go into the App Store and search “online giving.” Next, download the “Online Giving: Our Sunday Visitor” app. Once you open the app, click “Register,” then enter our organization ID: 1787, then hit search, which will bring you to the Brookville Reformed Church account. Click on the church name, and it will take you to a register page. Once you’ve set up your account, click “Register” and you’re ready to go!
Not signed up Yet for Online Giving?
Giving online is easy, fast and secure!
Here’s how Online Giving makes your life easier:
• Signing up is quick and uncomplicated • You can choose between using your checking account or a credit card • Budget your giving weekly, monthly, yearly – the choice is yours • Select the fund(s) you wish to contribute toward – General Operating Expenses,
Camp Warwick Scholarship Fund, Rev. Meyers Partnership in Ministry in Oman, etc.
• Your gifts are received and support the work of the church, even if you are not able to get to church as often as you would like
Visit our website and click on the link to sign up! www.brookvillechurch.org
If you have any questions, please call Nan Coffey at 516-676-4216
Summertime, to me, has always been the time between school years which, here on Long Island, is July and August—two months long. We have lived here well over fifty years and I still consider that a short summer. I wondered if, after fifty years, the schools in Minnesota would continue to have the same schedule that I grew up with. I checked and found it true: summer is just over three months long—Memorial Day until after Labor Day. The tradition goes even farther back because my mother went to the same schools and she also had three months off. Minnesota state law requires schools to start after Labor Day. As children, those three months were wonderful. Now, however, as an adult and parent, I realize it meant a lot more, more time for parents to take care of children, and a long enough period to make time for a real vacation – often at a cabin on a lake. I still remember that June was our best vacation time in-state because the tourists would come in July and August. The summer months impacted my memory of the idyllic life in the Land of Ten Thousand Lakes: fishing, boating, water sports, and family activities—all were opportunities for good times. Looking at the Minnesota school year calendar, it is hard to understand how their academic year is compressed into nine months, and New York needs ten for a school year. One possibility is there are no snow days (as we know them) in the Northland. If a school is closed, there it is, a lost day, unless a scheduled holiday is used to make it up. Schools and towns, even the whole state, doesn’t shut down because it snows or the temperature stays at zero for days. Actually, three months off for summer is common among all the northern Midwest states. There is a period during the summer when it is especially hot. It starts slowly in late July and hits the higher temperatures in August. Those days are called the Dog Days of Summer, a term made common in Roman times, and represents about five weeks of high heat. Part of that weather pattern meant the lake water would get so much warmer that the fish would go deeper and eat less. We had to get different bait. One such is named Berkeley GULP Catfish Dough Bloody Liver (so help me—not made up). Many areas of the world have dog days and just for interest, they occur in the southern hemisphere too, about six months earlier (or later if you wish). The term Dog Days started in the Roman times because the Dog Star, Sirius, would rise in the mornings with the sun—thus adding its heat, they believed, to the sun’s for about forty days. It was said that the sultry heat was not fit for a dog. All I can remember about being a kid in August is that swimming in the fresh water lakes was the best: no cold water shock as I entered the lake—it just wasn’t cold enough. One of the best times I remember was an after graduation gathering of about twenty of my closest high school classmates at one of their homes on Serpent Lake. We had a picnic dinner, and as the day ended everyone got into swimming suits and swam to the float offshore. The day ended watching the sunset while we were sitting on, hanging on to, or treading water by the float. That was the last time we all got together. Well not quite true, many of them never left Crosby or Minnesota and continue to have a reunion every so often. This year, twenty-four of the class gathered at the Deerstand Restaurant in Deerwood, a building that was once a church. Which is not so strange since my own family’s Methodist Church building became a Nordic Medieval Bed and Breakfast with a longboat hull hanging from the ceiling. I have not been, nor do I want to go back and see those changes.
Branch Worsham END WORD: The ladies at the church pot luck suppers serve “hot dish” because casserole is just fancy talk. “Hot Dish” is one of those famous phrases that lets the world know we speak Minnesotan. Life’s better at the lake.
HE MARRIED GRACE~~WITH SCRATCHY FACE~~ HE ONLY~~GOT ONE DAY~~OF GRACE
There are two kinds of people in this world and being from Minnesota is better than both of them.
4
The festival of Rosh HaShanah is observed on the 1st day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei (this year corresponding to September 14th). In Hebrew, Rosh HaShanah means, literally, "Head of the Year," and, as its name indicates, it is the beginning of the new Jewish year, 5776. Rosh HaShanah is not just a Jewish holiday. Rosh HaShanah is the birthday of humankind, the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, highlighting the special relationship between God and humanity. In the beginning, before we were here, creation could be in only one direction. God spoke and the world came to be. Every year, that act of creation replays on the awesome day of Rosh HaShanah. Last year’s lease on existence was for one year only, and now the entire process must begin again. As impossible as it may sound, we are responsible for the creation of our very own being. Rosh HaShanah is the time when our fate stands in the balance as God reviews our past year and decides whether or not to renew our lease on His planet. In the Bible, Rosh HaShanah is called “The Day of the Shofar Blast.” That’s the mitzvah (commandment) of the day: to hear the blasts of the shofar. The blasts of the shofar are wake-up calls. Rosh HaShanah is the time to shake out of our spiritual slumber, reconnect to our source, and recommit to our divine mission in this world. The period between Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur is called the Ten Days of Repentance, or in Hebrew the Asseret Yimei Teshuva. During this time Jews contemplate repentance and ask for forgiveness from anyone we may have wronged. The Ten Days allow each person to mend his/her ways to balance the scale of good and bad deeds in life. One of the ongoing themes of the Ten Days is the concept that God has a
“Book” that He writes our names in, thus deciding our fate for the next year. “The Book” is opened on Rosh
HaShanah and our actions during the Ten Days can alter God’s decree. The actions that change the decree are "teshuvah, tefilah and tzedakah," repentance, prayer, good deeds (usually, charity). “The Book” is sealed on Yom Kippur for another year. Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year, is observed on the 10th day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei
(this year corresponding to September 23rd). Yom Kippur commemorates the day when God forgave the Jewish people for the sin of the Golden Calf. Forty days after hearing God say at Mount Sinai, “You shall not have the gods of others in My presence; you shall not make for yourself a graven image,” the Jews committed the sin of idolatry. Moses spent nearly three months on top of the mountain pleading with God for forgiveness, and on the tenth of Tishrei it was finally granted: “Sawlachti” (“I have pardoned, as you have requested.”) From that moment on, this day, known as the Day of Atonement – a day of fasting and prayer, is annually observed as a commemoration of our special relationship with God, a relationship that is strong enough to survive any rocky bumps it might encounter. This is a day when we connect with the very essence of our being, which remains faithful to God regardless of our outward behavior. We fast from sundown to sundown. We conclude this day with one final blast of the shofar and we “break fast” with family and friends. Yom Kippur is the one day of the year when we are able to tap into the deepest level of our soul, which is truly one with God. A parent, when he looks at his child, sees beyond the child’s talents, personality and behavior. He sees part of his very self. (Continued on pg. 2 of the Brookville Multifaith Campus News)
SAT REVIEW CLASS Do you know a high school student who needs tutoring or who needs to prepare for the SAT exam? Rev. James Eastland and Cathy O’Neill are trained secondary education school teachers and are volunteering their time to help raise
funds to send underprivileged children to summer camp at Camp Warwick. The suggested donation is $50 per session. For more information or to sign up call the Brookville Church office at (516) 626-0414 or Cathy O’Neill at (516) 676-8570.
The High Holy Days (Continued from page 1)
Our connection with God is like that bond between parent and child - so deep, so essential, that it can never be severed. On Yom Kippur we reveal the deepest aspect of our relationship with God, which is beyond any thought, speech, action, emotion, disposition, experience, environment, and persona. On Yom Kippur, God looks at us and sees part of Himself, the pure soul that can never, ever be damaged or blemished. In the face of such a strong revelation of our essence, not only are we forgiven, but any negative actions we have done become completely irrelevant. A new dimension of reality is revealed - one in which our wrongdoings never even occurred. In that moment, the board is wiped clean. We are given the chance to start anew. L'shanah tovah tikatevu v'taihatem –
Happy New Year and May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.
Rabbi Stuart A. Paris, HaKohen
Brookville Multifaith Campus News 2
The Saturday Night Live Group of Alcoholics Anonymous meets at the Brookville Church every Saturday night at 9pm. (Coffee and cake starting at 8:30!) As one of Nassau County's oldest AA groups, this meeting has been in existence for over 40 years. If you think you have a problem with alcohol, you are welcome to attend this meeting. For more information, feel free to contact Carol B. at (516) 428-0479.
The First Kids Coffee House Concert! I am excited to announce that the youth of our multifaith campus will present their first coffee house concert on Saturday, September 26 at 4:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Come see the amazing talents of our kids. They will raise money to send other kids to camp in the summer of 2016. Please join us!
To help care for the earth, please use the recycling container in the kitchen of the Fellowship Hall to dispose of plastics (#1, 2, 4, 5 & 6), glass bottles , jars , metal (including aluminum foil and tins).
Please clean/rinse all items before putting in the recycling container. Additional containers are available in office areas to recycle paper.
Thank you for doing your part to help us be good stewards of the earth.
PLEASE RECYCLE!
The summer-flower has run to seed, And yellow is the woodland bough; And every leaf of bush and weed, Is tipt with autumn’s pencil now.
Dear Brookville Reformed Church, Thank you for your continuing prayers and support for our ministry in Oman. Our first two years have been amazing and we feel God’s call to Oman stronger than ever. We hope to remain here for many years to come.
Thank you for being our partner in peace. Remember to pray for our Partner in Peace and Education, Rev. Justin Meyers, his wife Stephanie and their sons, Gavin and Collin as they promote peace among religions in Oman.
Gavin & Collin
Collin
Putting a Face and Story to a Yearly Donation
Helen Howlett (on right) who resides in California spends time year round knitting for a cause. Her sister Kay Gaylord (on left) who lives on Long Island connected Helen with Brookville Church and our Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Outreach Project. Each year, the youth of both the church and the Interfaith Community sacrifice sleeping in on a day off from school to gather early in the morning to distribute care packages to local day laborers in the area. Along with toiletries and a homemade lunch (prepared by the youth the day before) because of Helen, we are able to give the day laborers and their families winter hats and scarves.
This is a labor of love from a woman who lives across the country. A BIG “Thank You!” goes out to Helen for her generous yearly donation!
Parents and Youth, mark your calendars NOW for January 17 & 18 of 2016 for this service project:
Sunday: January 17 from 11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. youth will be preparing empanadas in the church kitchen
Monday: January 18 starting at 6:30 a.m. parents and youth will gather in fellowship hall to be sent out in carloads to distribute the care packages
For more info or to sign up to participate, please contact Rev. Vicky at the church office, 516-626-0414.
@ A Note From Rev. Justin Meyers
Rev. Justin Meyers
Brookville Multifaith Campus News 4
Last week, I had lunch with a chronologically older friend of mine. He is 83 and has lived an extraordinary and magical life. Harry is over six feet tall and walks with a straight back and a proud stride. Every time I see him, he is impeccably groomed, wearing elegant dark blazers, Italian loafers and his full head of silver hair either carefully combed, parted to the left side, or wild as if he had spent too much time engaged in outdoor activities. When you ask him how he is doing, he invariably replies, “Fantastic!” with his deep soprano voice and larger than life smile. Harry was an opera singer for over 40 years, as well as a successful Wall Street trader, a playwright, a painter, an author and in general, a lover of life who exudes energy and joy. The secret to a good life, he often says, lies in making a conscious decision to be positive and greet every moment with enthusiasm. He assures me that enthusiastic people are met
with a better fortune than those who are apathetic and just go through the motions. Needless to say, he looks amazing and one would never guess his age. He is in excellent health and is focused on many projects. He continues to paint and asked if I would give him a picture of myself so that he could paint me. Harry unapologetically flirts with most of the creation. He loves his family, animals, nature and even enjoys the occasional glass of triple-malt scotch. He reads avidly and is curious to learn about new subjects regularly. I was not yet Muslim the last time I saw him, several years ago. The subject came up when he asked me if I “still hung out with a lot of Arabs.” When I replied that I sometimes did, he warned me that Muhammad (Peace be upon him) was not a very nice man and that the Quran was a scary book. I smiled and told him that in my opinion, that was only what the media wanted us to believe, but not the truth. After a few minutes of discussing the subject, his attitude changed from fear of Muslims to curiosity and a desire to learn. He asked me to recommend him a good book about the Prophet’s life. I mentioned a few and that same night, he texted me saying he had ordered Martin Lings’ “Muhammad” in print because Amazon did not have a Kindle version, his new favorite way to read. He also mentioned he downloaded The Quran and the Life of Excellence, by our very own Dr. Sultan Abdulhameed, right after our lunch, and was happy to admit that the Quran “appeared to be full of deep wisdom.” Harry lives on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and recently moved from a large brownstone to a one-bedroom apartment that is easier for him and his wife to take care of. He had his new apartment remodeled before moving in, hiring contractors to do projects such as replacing the “cheap doors” they use nowadays with real wood doors and copper hinges. He also created a painting studio by closing off a small area of the living room. Harry’s life is fuller and more passionate than the lives of many, many young people I know. It is a joy to be around him. He is a person who always leaves you with the impression that life is grand and deserves to be celebrated. Enthusiasm and passion are among the main components of health, happiness, success, and radiance as well as indicators of our tangible connection with God. God created us to thrive, not merely to exist and endure our daily mundane routines. We all have the seeds of greatness within us, and as Dr. Sultan beautifully writes in The Quran and the Life of Excellence: “…God has infused His spirit in mankind. That is why nothing is impossible for a human being. The spirit in us has the resourcefulness to make life into what we want. We have to switch our focus from thinking of ourselves merely as bodies toward remembering that the divine spirit lives in each of us.”
Enthusiasm: The Divine Spirit Within Us
Paola Garcia
Harry’s life is fuller and more passionate than the lives of many, many young
people I know.
Member of the Muslim Reform Movement Organization (MRMO)
Brookville Multifaith Campus News 5
Walking the journey together!
2nd Annual Brookville Multifaith Campus OPEN HOUSE
Sunday, September 20, 2015 10:00 a.m.
Special Guest: Rev. Doug Leonard
Dir. of Al Amana Peace Centre in Oman
Events: at 11:00 a.m. Attend one of the following:
Christian Worship Celebration
Adult Quran Study
Adult Jewish Lesson
Find a safe & welcoming space to belong, serve and grow!
*Hear Special Guest Rev. Leonard speak about his peace efforts in the Middle East. *Hear from our campus clergy about their respective faith communities *Have an opportunity for your children to sit in on a Jewish/Christian lesson taught by trained educators
Pictured from left to right: Rabbi Stuart Paris, founding rabbi for The New Synagogue of Long Island; Rev. Vicky L. Eastland, pastor of Brookville Church; Rev. Enid Kessler, Advisor to The Interfaith Community of Long Island; Pam Gawley and Sarah Cirker, founding co-chairs of The Interfaith Community of Long Island; and Dr. Sultan Abdulhameed, founder of the Muslim Reform Movement Organization.
