Page 1 - BathCUMC

June 2018

Pastor’s Page

Dear Members and Friends,

Grace and peace to you in the name of our God who is a God of community – a God whose Holy Spirit came upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost to create community out of what surely seemed to be chaos. Let us remember that Pentecost is more than a holiday, more even than a holy day. Pentecost is a movement – a movement of the Holy Spirit among God’s people, a movement that creates community from chaos, a movement that began on that first Day of Pentecost and continues to and through today.

The Holy Spirit is surely moving in this church, in this faith community. Centenary UMC was a sponsor of the recent STEPS Walk event, thanks to the Something Good Committee, and together with our team of walkers and their generous sponsors, our church contributed over $1300 to this major fundraising event for Catholic Charities/Turning Point! On Wednesday, May 16^th, over seventy people gathered for the first in a renewed tradition of Senior Luncheons. A team of enthusiastic and dedicated women are working hard to prepare for the June opening of the Bath Community Clothes Closet. It is located in the basement of our Sanctuary building, and will offer free clothing for infants and children to clients who are referred to it by various social service agencies in our Bath community. If you are interested in learning more about it and perhaps helping out, please call the Church Office at 776-3434.

The Holy Spirit is moving in a new way among us in this season, as our church has been invited by Bishop Mark Webb to participate in a newly defined Conference-sponsored process designed to increase church vitality. We are one of the first several churches invited to participate in Team Vital, and we are learning more about the process as this newsletter goes to press. It is a process designed to offer already-vital churches support in their efforts to become even more vital. A team for this exciting opportunity is being assembled, and will begin meeting in June. Stay tuned!

June is a great month to lift up and celebrate our life in community. Sunday, June 10 is Children’s and Youth Sunday – we will celebrate our children and youth, the Children’s Sunday School and Youth programs in which they have learned and grown this past year, and we will celebrate those adults who have enabled all that learning and growth.

On Sunday, June 17, we will celebrate “Grads and Dads Sunday” – to honor our graduates, fathers, and those who have been like fathers. And the month of celebrations wraps up in the last week of June with the Bath Haverling High School Baccalaureate Service on Thursday, June 21 at 7 p.m. in the High School Auditorium, and graduation on Saturday, June 23. Again this year it is my pleasure to work with a team of graduating seniors to plan the Baccalaureate Service.

May the Holy Spirit of Christian community be in us and among us as we work to spread the Pentecost movement. May the results be, in the words of one of our favorite praise songs, “…and they’ll know we are Christians by our love!”

Together in Christ’s Love and Service,

Pastor Eleanor Collinsworth