Dear Centenary Church Family:

This Sunday, March 12th (The Third Sunday in Lent), we will celebrate Women’s Sunday during our 10:15 AM Worship service. A number of women from our congregation will lead us in various portions of the service. Many of the prayers, our songs of praise, and hymns have been written by women, or relate to the theme of the morning. Assistant Pastor Terrilisa Durham Bauknight and some of the “young ladies” of our Centenary United Methodist Youth will share a special message with the children, after which they will be dismissed for Sunday School classes–see the announcement below.) Pastor Bauknight’s morning Message, Cleaning House, is based on the account of Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple in John 2:13-25. We will also hear the reading from Psalm 19. The women of our Chancel Choir and the young women of our Junior Choir will blend their voices to sing A Canon of Praise by Natalie Sleeth. Our Celebration of Found Coins is designated for the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Emergency Appeal for the Philippines in the wake of the disastrous mudslides in February.

Please Remember:
Change in Sunday School Schedule on Sundays March 19th & 26th for Younger Children and Junior High Youth: Sunday School classes will be held at 10:30 AM (after the Children’s Message) during Worship time on these two Sundays. Children are asked to go directly to their Sunday School classrooms from Worship. Please Note: The Adult Class and Senior High Youth Class will continue to meet at 9:00 AM on these two Sundays.

Food Collection This Sunday, March 19th: Thank you for bringing cereals, staple food items in plastic jars or cans, and paper products to share with persons in need in our area. We are deeply grateful for your generous sharing.

Discovering Everyday Spirituality Is Adult Class Study for Lent
“As I talk to people these days, I hear over and over again that they are hungry for a life that is more substantive, that has deep value in it, and that is spiritual. People are looking for a spiritual life that is intelligent and related to their everyday life.”

With these words, Thomas Moore, best-selling author of Care for the Soul, invites us on a journey called Discovering Everyday Spirituality, an eight-week video series profiling ordinary people who seek to reclaim and nurture the sacredness that can be found in everyday life. Centenary’s Adult Class will be using this series as its Lenten study, starting Sunday, March 19, at 9:00 A.M. The series is divided into four parts: Story, Place, Activity, and Ritual.

Story: We start the journey to discover everyday spirituality with the stories of our lives. By considering the stories we tell, we learn how to view ourselves and the world. By focusing on our personal stories, we become aware of turning points, paths to renewal, sources of strength, and feelings of community. Video segments include mothers and daughters telling intimate family stories of birth, marriage, and death, and author Dan Wakefield leading a spiritual autobiography workshop where everyone can learn to find their story.

Place: Part two of the journey concerns the places where we have lived. To appreciate and nourish the spirituality of a place is an exercise of great importance. Video segments include one of a mother who tours her childhood home with her young children, and another about how a walk through the neighborhood and a tour of our homes can reveal the spiritual life of our families and communities.
Activity: In part three of the journey, we discover how everyday spirituality is expressed in our daily activities as we experience the sacred dimension of our lives through work and play. Video segments feature Jeff Smith (the Frugal Gourmet), who whips up a theology of cooking, and Robert Fulghum (author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten), who irons his shirt as a daily form of contemplation.

Ritual: The last part of the series looks at the rituals that form the very fabric of our lives. In these two episodes, the ordinary rituals of daily life are profiled. By anchoring us to a deeper part of ourselves, these everyday acts enable us to confront the continuing unpredictability of life. One video segment shows how the Sunday afternoon meal, a tradition stretching back several generations, becomes a ritual of strengthening connections for a busy family in Brooklyn. Another segment relates how a sudden and tragic death confronts a father with the challenge of moving forward and creating simple rituals to commemorate a life.

We invite you to join us on this journey, starting this Sunday, March 19, at 9:00 A.M. in the Sunshine Room.

Lenten University at Centenary: Lenten University is on Wednesday evenings, from 6:30 PM until approximately 8:00 PM. We gather for the meal, and the study is directed by our use of The Bread and Broth Study Series for Lent. Child Care and activities will be provided. Because of the limited response, but still enough to go forward, there will be only one (1) study session outside of activities provided for children ages 12 and under. (The study series on This Holy Mystery will also continue on Wednesday evenings during Lent for those who have been participating.) Supper and Classes will be held on every Wednesday during Lent and conclude on April 12th in Holy Week. We look forward to seeing you and joining with you during this special time with fellowship and study.

United Methodist Women Communion Breakfast
Saturday, March 25th at 9:30 A.M. at Centenary
The women of New Dover and Wesley Churches have been invited as usual as well as the women from Jesus Followers Congregation. The Rev. Sunghee Park, pastor of Trinity UM Church in South Amboy will be our speaker. Child care will be provided and girls of an appropriate age are invited to attend. There is a sign up sheet in the narthex asking you to bring quiches, breakfast casseroles, fresh fruit, etc. for the breakfast. The cost for this event is $3.00. Any questions, please ask Sylvia Woodfield, Millie Pleuler or Giselle Esquivel Cordero.

The Art of Muriel Harris at Centenary During Lent: We are richly blessed during the 2006 Lenten Season to have a number of Muriel Harris’ paintings adorning the walls of our Sanctuary. You will want to take time to pause on Sundays during Lent—or at other times you are in the building—to view these special works based on the indicated biblical passages, and reminding us of the themes of creation, liberation and justice. Muriel Harris, a long-time member of Centenary UMC, has received many awards and high recognition over the years for her artistry. Although in recent years she has endured the loss of much of her eyesight to age-related macular degeneration, Muriel Harris continues to create new art using a number of different media. Some of the paintings in our Sanctuary will represent her recent work in the more “tactile” media. We are grateful to Muriel Harris for sharing the gift of her art with us once again this year.

Upcoming Children’s Ministries Events:
+Friday, March 31st-6:30-8:30 PM: Kids’ Night Out Game Night
Bring a game to share with others. Child Care provided. $8.00 per child.
+Friday, April 7th @ 6:30 PM – T.G.I.F.
+Saturday, April 8th 9:00 AM-3:00PM in the Sanctuary – Walking in His Footsteps
A multi-media, labyrinth journey through Jesus’ last week.
+Sunday, April 9th—Palm Sunday Brunch & Easter Egg Hunt (Following Worship)
+Sunday, April 16th @ 7:15 AM—Easter Breakfast (Following Sunrise Service)
+Saturday, April 29th @ 6:00 PM –Annual Talent Show
Fellowship Time Refreshments: Please consider sponsoring a refreshment time and signing up for one of the many available weeks in 2006 on the Refreshment Chart posted on the bulletin board in the Narthex. Information on what you need to provide is available from Pastor Painter or by speaking with Millie Pleuler (732-750-4434). Thank you for providing hospitality on a Sunday morning.

HEALTH KITS NEEDED BY UMCOR
The United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) is the Methodist Church’s agency that responds to all sorts of emergencies such as hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. nationally and internationally.

This past year as we all know has been quite a year for that sort of disaster locally and around the world. Their supplies have been depleted and they are in need of health kits to replenish their supplies.
The United Methodist Women in the Raritan District have made the gathering of health kits a project of their group. The health kits will be collected at their meeting on Saturday, April 8th.
Our United Methodist Women, with some help from our friends in the Youth Groups of our church and the congregation, will be collecting the items needed for these health kits during the month of March. We will have a box in the narthex to collect the items needed for the kits.
The Youth Group and United Methodist Women and anyone else who would like to help will be assembling these kits at the end of March. The date will be announced in the church bulletin.

Items Needed for Health Kit

1 hand towel 1 bath-size bar of soap in original wrapper
1 wash cloth 1 toothbrush in original sealed package
1 hair comb, regular size (not pocket) 1 large tube of toothpaste
1 nail file or nail clipper (no sample or travel sizes)
6 adhesive bandages (such as Band-Aids*) *suggested brand-name item

Any questions, please contact Sylvia Woodfield (732) 549-9042. Thank you in advance for your help in making this project a success!

Sermons “Podcast” on Our Web Site: In addition to being available in print, the Pastors’ weekly sermons are now available as a “podcast” on our Web site. You may listen to each Message as it was delivered in Worship. Go to www.CentenaryUMCnj.org to explore this new feature. Our thanks to Web servant Ernie Agtarap for providing this new feature on our Web site, as well as many additional links and features. If you have not visited our Web site in recent days, please do so to see the many changes.

Some Thoughts for This Week:

Those who have never rebelled against God
Or at some point of their lives shaken their fists in the face of heaven,
Have likely never encountered God at all. – Catherine Marshall [adapted]
When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life in such a way so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice. – Indian Proverb

Blessed is the person who finds out which way God is moving and then gets going in the same direction. – Unknown

Grant that I may not pray alone with the mouth; help me that I may pray from the depths of my heart. – Martin Luther

Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it. – Cullen Hightower

An optimist is the human personification of spring. – Susan J. Bissonette

We don’t inherit the earth from our ancestors. We borrow it from our children. — Pennsylvania Dutch saying

True religion is the life we live, not the creed we profess. – J.F. Wright

I look forward to sharing in Sunday School, Worship and Fellowship with you this Sunday at Centenary.

Shalom, John