March 2017 - files.constantcontact.com · You can even download the app! ... Our Brownies participated in World ... March 5 Amanda Wirasakti March 7 Susan Byrd

March 2017

Commit to Our Calling moves into another phase as we enter the season of Lent. Lent is the liturgical season that begins on Ash Wednesday which is March 1st this year. Lent is the 40 days not including Sundays before Easter.

Easter is April 16th this year. (See Why is Easter So Late this Year? to find out why Easter changes from year to year.) Lent is a serious season of reflection and discipline that invites us to consider the ways in which we fall short of what God intends for us to be, to be awed by God’s love poured out in Jesus Christ who bore our sin to the cross and grace, and to prepare for the heartache of Holy Week and the celebration of Easter Sunday.

Many Christians choose to "give up” something during the season of Lent as an act of spiritual discipline intended to remind us of all Jesus gave up out of love for creation. For example, a person might choose to give up soft drinks in order to make a tangible, physical sacrifice that calls to mind Jesus’ sacrificial love. Other Christians choose to “take up” something during the season of Lent as an act of spiritual discipline intended to remind us of Jesus’ taking up the cross on behalf of creation. For example, a person might “take up” the practice of daily scripture reading during Lent . Some folks combine these practices and do something like “giving up” a favorite tv show or computer time in order to create time and space to “take up” regular prayer, meditation or devotion. There is no right or wrong way to engage Lent. The key is to discern how the Spirit is leading you to observe the season This Lenten season we at UPC are giving up fear and anxiety and taking up being bold and brave as we discern the Spirit’s leading us into the future. Being salt of the earth and light to the world necessarily means that we must give up

our preconceived notions about how God is moving and working in the world and dare to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2) by continually seeking the Spirit’s leading and will. Friends, I must be honest. This can be an exhausting endeavor because it means we never arrive at the destination. We are on a continually evolving journey that requires commitment, investment and engagement. We must be adaptable and willing to change as we live into what we say we believe. God isn’t done with us yet. The good news is that we CAN DO THIS! I have no doubts about that because you have proven it over and over and over. As individuals and as a family of faith, you have stepped to challenges that have faced us. You have been willing to have hard conversations, to be vulnerable with each other, and to dare to agree to disagree. You have answered the Spirit’s call to engage the community and to be the body of Christ, the city on a hill, without the expectation of personal benefit. Check out the articles about Sailboat Church. Make note of the educational opportunities in the presbytery. And, make time this holy season to listen for the still, small voice of the Spirit that is leading us into a future that we are only beginning to imagine.

Peace, Pastor Lisa PS Keep your eyes & ears open about a new UPC directory. You can submit a picture, use your last picture, or sign up to have Shannon Eggleston take your picture. The best way to stay in the know is to be on the e-newsletter list. You can sign up on the church website or by contacting the church office.

Union Presbyterian Church Newsletter March 2017 / Page Two

Lenten devotions available in narthex We have printed copies of The Forty Days of Prayer found in Joan Gray’s book Sailboat Church. Our elders and deacons will be using this devotion during the season of Lent as they seek discernment of the Spirit’s stirring in us during 2017 as UPC seeks to Commit to Our Calling as individual believers and as a family of faith. This devotion is a great way to join the journey. If you’d like to have this emailed to you, please contact the church office.

If you prefer an online devotion... Check out d365.org The site is sponsored by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, PC-USA, and Episcopal Church in America. While aimed particularly at youth & young adults, the site provides a powerful experience of scripture, meditation, music, and prayer for ALL ages. You can even download the app!

Lenten Brown Bag Lunch on Tuesdays You’re invited to bring a brown bag lunch to the Choir Room at noon on Tuesdays during Lent beginning on Tuesday, March 7th. We’ll chat about the scripture texts from the past Sunday, ponder the scripture readings for the coming Sun-day, and discuss the related questions raised in Joan Gray’s book Sailboat Church. Join us for this time of nurture for our bodies and souls.

Be in Prayer for Our Nominating Committee and for Those God is Leading to Serve At our annual congregational meeting on January 15th, we elected the 2017 nominating committee. Ray Fowler is serving as the representative from the UPSeniors group. Nancy Goodall is serving as the representative from the Deacons. Julie Hansel is serving as the representative from the Session. Cheryl Martinez is serving as the representative from Music Ministry, and Dave Stenner is serving as the member-at-large representative. From the time of their election, the members of the Nominating Committee have been praying for wisdom and discernment about who God is calling to serve as ruling elders and deacons for our congregations. Throughout February folks had the opportunity to submit their recommendations for people they believe to be gifted to serve as officers of the church, and the Nominating Committee has taken those recommendations under advisement. They have continued to meet and to seek the Spirit’s leading together. By the time you are reading these words, the members of the “Nom Com” will have begun the process of approaching folks they believe God is calling to service as ruling elders or deacons. During the month of March, please be in prayer for the Nom Com and for those considering a call to service. Pray that they are able to silence the competing voices in their spirits and hear the still, small voice of Lord and discern what is God’s will for them at this point in time trusting that God will provide whatever is needed to be faithful to their calling. Also, pray for the members of the congregation who will gather at a congregational meeting after worship on Palm Sunday, April 9th to elect officers and deacons. Pray that they will see beyond personalities and personal friendships to be able to discern gifts for service and the Spirit’s leading for this congregation. Friends, these are exciting days! I cannot wait to learn who God is leading to join our amazing group of leaders to continue to guide us into the future. May we all live with open hearts and spirits to able discern what is God’s will and not our own!

Union Presbyterian Church Newsletter March 2017 / Page Three

What’s Happening Now? Currently, we have two families in our program! Family 1: A single mother (50) with three children. (12, 11 & 11) Family 2: A father (43) and mother (32) with four children (12, 8, 5 and 6 months). Family Promise would like to recognize the fundraising com-mittee for all of their hard work towards the 2nd annual “Home is Where the Heart is” Bourbon & Wine Tasting event that took place on February 10th. The fundraising committee spent hours prior to the event and day of making sure every-thing was perfect. The 2nd annual “Home is Where the Heart is” fundraiser raised over $25,000 to help combat family homelessness! Upcoming Events: Family Promise is launching a T-Shirt fundraiser March 1st, 2017. T-Shirts will be $15.00 for adult and youth. T-Shirts will be available to pick up at the Day Center mid-April. Payments can be made to Family Promise NKY in check, cash or PayPal. Please contact Amanda or Amber to order yours today!

No First Sunday Potluck in March There will be no potluck lunch on the first Sunday of March. Take this chance to go to lunch with UPC folks you may not know very well. Don’t fret. We WILL have other opportunities to get together for fellowship.

Getting to Know God’s Word Intergenerational Bible Study Sunday mornings 9am ALL ages are invited to this fun & informative series at 9 am on Sunday mornings in the Youth Room. Music, games, friendship, and more will help participants learn more about the Bible and its parts, its history, its mysteries, and its purpose as God’s unique and au-thoritative witness. Our starting point assumes abso-lutely no knowledge of the Bible, so save your mad Bible trivia skills for another time.

Church Work Day March 11th All willing hands are welcome on Saturday, March 11th

from 8 am – 1pm as we prepare our beautiful property for a beautiful and more asset-friendly use. Sign up in the narthex or at [email protected] to help, and check out the pictures in the narthex for a rendering of the plan.

We need YOU! As we prepare for a new directory and continuing seeking the Spirit’s leading to Commit to Our Calling, we need at least 1 person from each household to complete the congregational survey. We will once again have laptops set up in the narthex on Sunday, March 5th in order for folks to complete the survey. You may also go to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/UPC2017 Thank you in advance for your help.

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Girl Scout Troop 7152 has adopted a soldier this month. Also during this busy cookie season, the girls are collecting cookies to donate to the Ronald McDon-ald House residents. Our Brownies participated in World Thinking Day this year and have made friends with Brownies from Northern England! They wrote letters, mailed postcards and SWAPS to exchange some cul-ture. We can't wait to hear back from them! Kimberly Tromans Brownie Girl Scout Troop 7152 Leader

Union Presbyterian Church Newsletter March 2017 / Page Four

March 1 Romanus Wirasakti

March 2 Kay Levdahl

March 4 Liam Wood

March 5 Tim Jasensky

March 5 Amanda Wirasakti

March 7 Susan Byrd

March 7 Donna Jones

March 8 Nancy Goodall

March 10 Mike Frost

March 11 Jean Byrd

March 11 Joan Hultz

March 14 Jennifer Michael

March 15 JaNay Lastivka

March 17 Taylor Wriedt

March 18 Audrey Jo Nutt

March 18 Cheryl Martinez

March 20 George Wood

March 23 Mary Lu Funyak

March 25 Tara Gieske

March 26 Teresa Gieske

Match 28 Katelyn Detwiler

March 28 Michelle Mulholland

March 30 Luke Hillman

March 31 Spencer Zembrodt

March 17 Kevin & Heather Dern

March 17 Brian & Kim Fry

March 25 Brian & Shannon Eggleston

March 28 Kurt & Kristin Lintelman

UPC Trivia Night 3 Friday, March 24th

7 pm - 10 pm

Come alone or form a team of 4-6 people. You are invited to

bring an appetizer to share, and drinks will be available for purchase. All proceeds and donations will benefit the

Montreat Youth fund. The winning team will receive a fabulous trophy. To find out

more or to register in advance, contact Kevin Dern.

PDA Mission Trip to Gatlinburg, TN Rebuilding from Fall 2016 forest fire because Jesus calls us to serve You know you've been wanting to go. You know you want to get your hands dirty helping others. You know the community built by working shoulder to shoulder with fellow Presbyterians is unique and so ful-filling. So what in the world are you waiting for! Join the team today! April 2-7 Gatlinburg, Tennessee Hurry, only 25 spots available! To register, call John Deye, 859-394-2875 or email [email protected]

Union Presbyterian Church Newsletter March 2017 / Page Five

Why is Easter so late this year? This explanation is lengthy but really interesting. The date of Easter Sunday, a so-called movable feast day in the Christian Church year, may seem mysterious to many who celebrate it. There are 35 possible dates in the spring season (northern hemisphere) for celebrating a one-time event. Why this wandering? The answer comes from decisions made several centuries after Christianity's inception. And why do most Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches observe Easter occasionally on the same Sunday as the rest of Christendom and at other times as much as five weeks later? This answer lies primarily in how different people reacted to a centuries-old papal decree. Our first stop on this tour of the wandering Easter is a quick study of how calendars were used in the Biblical lands around 30 A.D. Although the Julian or solar-based calendar of the Roman Empire had been in place since 45 B.C., it did not supplant the lunar calendar that was the chart and compass of 2,000 years of Jewish history. (A lunar year is 12 lunar cycles of 29.53 days each or 354.36 days while a Julian year is 365.25 days with a leap day every four years.) The Julian calendar functions by having three years of 365 days and one year of 366 days every four years. The incongruence of the two calendars had marred historical recordings in the Eastern Mediterranean and environs since the dual systems began. And to add to the confusion, Jesus' followers had failed to record the exact date of their Lord's resurrec-tion. Many of those first believers expected Jesus to return soon, a hope that (some scholars believe) rendered such anniver-saries unimportant for them. For these reasons, a single, universally accepted date for the event's celebration had little to no chance. The Nicean accord Three hundred years later in the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine, Christianity was beginning to spread though out the Empire. Since any self-respecting religion was expected to have its religious festivals and days of observance, a date for celebrating Easter now became a priority. In fact, this was one of eight major topics considered by priests and bishops at the church's first Ecumenical Council in 325, in Nicea (present-day Turkey). One unanimously accepted canon guaranteed that Easter would never fall on the beginning the Jewish Passover, perhaps reflecting Christian animosity towards the Jewish people for their perceived role in Jesus' death. However, each church group present at Nicea seemed to have a different opinion on the matter of Easter's date. The biggest division was that between the Eastern churches of Antioch and Syria, which still relied on the Jewish or lunar calendar for determining the date of Easter, and the Western churches of Alexandria and Rome, which employed the efficient solar calendar. The resulting accord, as commonly stated, was that Easter shall fall on the first Sunday following the first full moon following the spring equinox. (The spring equinox is one of the two times in the year when the sun crosses the celestial equator and the length of day and night are approximately equal.) This explains the 35-day span where Easter can occur (March 22 - April 25, inclusive): the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox may occur as little as two or as many as 37 days from the equinox. We owe this complicated formula, with its attention to both the sun (the equinox) and the moon (full phase), to a political compromise among Nicea's gathered factions. The Eastern Christians injected the irregular phases of the moon into the calculations—thus causing the "wandering" effect—because they wanted their lunar calendar to keep its historical (though problematic) role in determining important dates.

Continued on page 6

Union Presbyterian Church Newsletter March 2017 / Page Six

Why is Easter so late this year? (Continued from page 5) A portentous shift Cumbersome though it was, the Nicean accord ruled the church's commemoration of Jesus' resurrection for next 900 to1000 years. But this was not the end of the story. Unfortunately, the Julian solar calendar contained a non-trivial flaw that reared its head as the centuries crept along. This flaw affected the celebration of Easter, and its correction wrought great strife and consternation among Christians. In the mid-1200's, an English Friar named Roger Bacon observed that the date of Easter, in addition to its prescribed wandering, was drifting farther and farther into the spring season. Astronomers now knew that the length of the solar year was closer to 365.242 days than to the 365.250 days assumed in the Julian calendar year. In 1,000 years, the Julian calendar counted 365,250 days, while in actuality, 365,242 solar days had elapsed. Bacon realized that each Julian year "overflowed" slightly into the next solar year, and that any given date was farther along in real time than the calendar would imply. The man-made calendar might say one thing, but nature's seasons were not fooled! Though the small mismatch caused a shift of only 11 minutes per year, this had accumulated—from Julius Ceasar's to Roger Bacon's day—into a troubling 9 days. Bacon's petitions to correct the drift went unheeded. By the mid-1500s, Pope Gregory XIII recognized the consequences of the drift and entrusted a solution to a Jesuit mathematician and astronomer, Christopher Clavius. The enlightened Pope endorsed Clavius's findings in 1563 at the Council of Trent, and 19 years later, on October 4, 1582, Gregory signed a papal bull promulgating the new calendar that bears his name—the Gregorian calendar. Gregory's calendar inserted a correction to the Julian calendar from that time forward. Ingeniously, it removed eight of the 250 leap days (February 29) occurring in each 1,000 years of the Julian calendar, thereby approximating more accurately the average number of days in a year—namely, 365.242. The exact rule is that at the century boundaries, a leap day shall be observed only when the century number is wholly divisible by 400. In other words, observance of a leap day in 2000 was a special event. It will not happen again at a century boundary until 2400. More trouble for Easter While the Gregorian calendar solved the problem for future years, there remained the critical matter of correcting the older calendar's "slippage." By 1582, the cumulative mismatch of the Julian calendar year against the solar year totaled 10 days. The papal bull addressed this problem in a practical but provocative way: it advanced the Julian calendar by 10 days. The calendar days October 5 - 14, 1582 simply vanished! This part of Gregory's decree sealed confusion and conflict across Christendom. Not only would Easter continue its wander-ing, but it would wander differently in different regions. Germany, with its mixture of Catholic and Protestant enclaves, was particularly hard hit. For 193 years, Easter was celebrated variously at different times by different Germanic states. The Anglican Church joined the fray, resisting the change for nearly 170 years. Some jurisdictions within the Eastern Orthodox Church retain to this day the Julian calendar for determining festival dates. That calendar is now 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar and the difference in the year 2,100 will be 14 days. For immovable festival dates, the lag determines exactly the Orthodox date; e.g., Christmas occurs on January 7 (until 2100). For movable festival dates, the situation is more complicated. Both the moon phases and the equinox are at play and the ecclesiastically defined equinox at Nicea, March 21, becomes April 3 in the Gregorian calendar. An in-depth explanation is beyond the scope of this historical recount. But it is interesting to note an agreement throughout Christendom of Easter dates in 2001 and 2004. For more on Easter and the calendars, see the following sources: Duncan, David Ewing. "Calendar", NY. Avon Books, Inc. 1998 Gould, Stephen Jay. "Questioning the Millennium", NY. Harmony Books, 1996 Thurston, Hebert. "Catholic Encyclopedia: Easter Controversy". Retrieved from http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05228a.htm. Lewis Patsavos. "The Calendar of the Orthodox Church". Retrieved from www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/article7070.asp Article by Farrell Brown http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/2008/august/why-does-easters-date-wander.html

Union Presbyterian Church Newsletter March 2017 / Page Seven

Presbytery of Cincinnati News If you'd like to stay "in the know" about all the exciting education, discussion, worship and fellowship opportunities in the Presbytery of Cincinnati, sign The Cincinnati Sampler, a weekly e-newsletter that will keep you up to date and let you know what God is doing in our midst. You can sign up at www.presbyteryofcincinnati.org and read the latest issue.

March 11, 9am-1pm Northminster Presbyterian Church 703 Compton Road, Cincinnati

Talk with first-hand people about refugees, immigrants and the issues around their presence in our area.

small group topics: undocumented immigrants Islam talking to a refugee jobs theology of welcoming integrated immigrants volunteer opportunities sanctuary churches immigration & citizenship linking families sponsored by the Presbytery of Cincinnati To make reservations, call Chelsea at the presbytery office, 513-221-4850 ext 2

Peter Steinke is an internationally respected congregational systems consultant who has also served as a parish pastor, an educator, and a therapist for clergy. Drawing on the work of family-systems expert Edwin Friedman, Peter’s accessible books have helped countless congregations understand their hidden workings and use that understanding to become healthy and vital congregations. He is the author of three best-selling books: How Your Church Family Works, Healthy Congregations, and Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times (the latter book was selected as one of the top ten books for 2006 by the Academy of Parish Clergy).

Friday, April 28, Noon - 4:30pm “Teaching Fish to Walk” An Event for Pastors Only, lunch included

Rev. Steinke will expand on the content of his new book (same title) and demonstrate on how to use the book for study with church leaders. We will look at adaptive challenges facing the church in the light of emotional systems. Saturday, April 29, 9:30am - 4:00pm “Church Conflict: Don’t Waste Your Suffering” An Event for All Church Leaders, lunch included

The focus will be on two variables from Bowen Systems Theory (anxiety and differentiation of self). The group will look at the emotional process that occur, the actual triggers of conflict, but also the effect of redirecting the conflict to learning and new health. Rev. Steinke will illustrate the process he uses to move the system from anxiety to clarity, from stuckness to movement. He will refer to theological clues and themes, brain functioning, the use of reframing, the necessity of lead-ers providing immunity, learning theory, and design thinking.

Such a great way to share the love of Christ with the children of Northern Kentucky! Please bring donations of twin sheets, night lights, comforters, and/or pillows to UPC by Tuesday, March 14th. If you’d like to help build or deliver, contact Talia Frye. Here is a link to a story that ran in The Enquirer about Build a Dream http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2017/02/15/build-dream-nky-group-strives-give-kids-good-nights-sleep/97955374/ UPC is part of the NKY Safety Net Alliance, a local consortium of helping agencies that work collaboratively to resource the people of Northern Kentucky with the most effective use of available resources and to advocate for those without a voice.