Month: December 2022

I am excited to announce that the Session has approved creating a new full-time position at Derry to help us meet our ministry needs.  The Director of Church Life and Connection (DCLC) will help create fellowship opportunities for all ages and age groups within the Derry Church community and cultivate connections between church members of all ages. 

M.E. Steelman will be transitioning from her current part-time position as the children’s ministry coordinator to the Director of Church Life and Connection in January. Her new position will allow her to continue some of the great work she has been doing with the children of the church. She will continue to lead children’s fellowship in her role as the DCLC and help plan and oversee Terrific Tuesdays. She will partner with a new Associate Pastor to assist with other areas of children’s ministry like worship and education. 

M.E. will be focusing on fellowship for all ages, and part of her new duties will be to work with the Membership Involvement Committee to plan and lead our big annual fellowship events like the Corn Roast, Church Picnic, Square Dance and Chili Cookoff, and seasonal events like Trunk or Treat and the Easter Egg Hunt. She’ll also work with the committee to help re-start and reimagine a Derry Seniors program. 

As the DCLC, M.E. will be a staff resource for fellowship groups like the Derry Day Trippers, parent groups, supper clubs, the golf group, and any other fellowship groups we create in the future.  M.E. will help the church dream together about new ways to share life and connection together by age, interest, life-situation, and need.

M.E. will take the lead in many of the programmatic elements of church life and fellowship, but she will also invest in congregational connection. M.E. will help foster intergenerational relationships within the church through mission projects, retreats, and special events. She will also spend time with our senior members who are homebound or in retirement communities and work with our Membership Involvement Committee and Deacons to find new ways to keep them connected to the Derry Church community.  

M.E. has the wonderful ability to create meaningful programs and connect people to one another. She is creative, organized, and passionate about the Derry community. I am looking forward to continuing to work with her in this new role and I’m excited about the future of church life and connection at Derry.  

We will continue to share news and information about the Director of Church Life and Connection in the new year as M.E. begins her work. The Personnel Committee and Session believe this position will help fill in some needed gaps in our staff, continue areas of energy and success at Derry, and create new ministry opportunities that will make a difference in the lives of our members and the community. 

This fall and winter I have had the privilege of making music with the kids of Derry Church. I work (play really!) with them in four different settings:

• On Sunday mornings from 9:00-9:15 am, I make music with preschool through 5th grade children. 
• On Tuesday nights from 5:45-6:15 pm, I make music with preschool and Kindergarten children.
• From 6:15-6:45 pm, I make music with 1st-5th grade children
• From 6:45-7:15 pm, I ring bells and chimes with 2nd-5th grade children. 

Some kids I only see in one setting. Others I see at two or three. Some are there every week.  Others only drop by occasionally. I am thrilled to work with all of them!

Throughout this fall, the kid’s musical skills have improved immensely. Children who could only use their talking voice in September have now found their singing voice.  1st-5th grade students who could echo rhythmic patterns with only partial accuracy are now reading rhythms on their own. Second grade students who struggled to get a bell to make a sound in September are ringing songs with multiple bells. Everyone’s singing range is expanding. Their pitch accuracy is solidifying. Their blend is improving. We’re singing in canons! It’s really, really exciting!

As exciting as developing musical skills together is, that’s not our primary focus.  Where we have really focused is using music to explore our relationship with God. 
For example, we’ve spent almost half our time singing songs that have Alleluias or Hallelujahs.  We talked about Alleluia being the way we say “Yay!!!” in church.  Then we went on to discuss that Alleluias and Hallelujahs are used in many countries and in many languages.  

If you were in church on December 4, you heard two songs that were from opposite sides of the world but each used Alleluia to celebrate. “He Came Down” is a lilting song of praise from Cameroon in West Africa sung by the Preschool-Kindergarten group (Joyful Noise). “Jubilate Deo/Raise a Song of Gladness” is a song of praise from the Taizé Community in France that the 1st-5th grade Celebration Singers sang in Latin, English, and as a canon! 

We’ve explored many other songs with Alleluias from other parts of the world that haven’t made it to a church service. We’ve also discussed that sometimes we don’t feel like saying “Yay!” to God. Sometimes we want to cry, ask for help, or scream at God, and there are songs for those times, too.

As we develop our musical skills and explore our relationship with God, a community is being formed. On Tuesday evenings, I watch preschoolers who cried in September pause at the door to the music room, give their adult a quick hug and then, beaming, skip/gallop into the room to hop on my train—named “Engine No. 9”—that everyone is riding.  1st-5th grade children who were nervous to sing at all in September shoot their hands into the air when I ask if anyone wants to lead the sung greeting on their own; then cheer for each other when they get it right.  

In Sunday School, I see 2nd-5th grade students patiently help the younger ones navigate a hymnal, their fingers carefully following the words. Before worship, after worship, and in the fellowship hall the kids wave at me or prance up to have a conversation. These kids feel safe and welcome at our church, both among their peers and with at least one adult.  They are confident, they are comfortable, they are excited.  Most importantly, they love being here. What more could we ask for our kids as a church?

On the first Thursday of each month (or close to it), the eNews feature article highlights the mission focus for the month. In December we’re lifting up the Christmas Joy Offering.

Have you ever searched for the perfect gift? Our scriptural theme notes, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us…” (John 1:14), reminding us that the only perfect gift ever given is the one we receive in Jesus Christ.

The Christmas Joy Offering is one of four special offerings received by the Presbyterian Church (USA) during the year. This special offering is shared among two PCUSA programs and a local ministry supported by Derry Church. The two PCUSA programs support our past, present, and future church workers and their families through the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions and our Presbyterian-related schools and colleges who are equipping communities of color to prepare future leaders.

Through the Board of Pensions, current and retired church workers and their families can receive critical financial assistance to support them during unforeseen circumstances. This support could involve supplements to their income, housing assistance, or for an emergency medical situation. 

The PCUSA has long supported programs of higher education. Thus, the Christmas Joy Offering will also be used to support three PCUSA-related institutions: the Menaul School in Albuquerque, NM; the Presbyterian Pan American School in Kingsville, TX; and Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, AL. Funds can provide students with much-needed assistance while they pursue their professional goals, perhaps as future church leaders.

Derry Church will share a portion of our 2022 Christmas Joy Offering receipts with Christian Churches United. Steve Schwartz, Director of Development, has provided us with this update:

Christian Churches United rallies the community to love our neighbors facing homelessness, poverty and incarceration. Through their HELP Ministries program they provide rental assistance, utility assistance and other tangible aid to people who are in danger of becoming homeless to prevent homelessness, or to people who are currently homeless to help them get off the street into long-term housing. 

Susquehanna Harbor Safe Haven is a long-term residential program specifically designed to help chronically homeless men—those on the street for a year or more with a mental health diagnosis—obtain and maintain long-term housing. Their Street Outreach Team operates two winter overnight shelters, one for men and one for women, and develops relationships with guests in these shelters and others on the street with the goal of helping them overcome challenges and obtain long-term housing. 

All of these programs are funded by a network of local churches in partnership with concerned neighbors, businesses, and other funding partners. All donations provide help and hope to our neighbors facing significant challenges in their lives.

Gifts to the Christmas Joy Offering are being received now through the end of the year. Please give generously to this special offering. Thank you, Derry, for your support!

Christmas is a time of hope, peace, joy, and love centered around the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I invite you to experience the wonder and excitement of Christmas this Sunday, December 4 at 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm as the Derry Ringers and Sanctuary Choir lead us on a journey to Bethlehem to celebrate the babe born in a manger, Jesus the Messiah: The Promise Fulfilled.

The program, a musical tapestry, weaves Isaiah’s vision of seeing God, a peaceable Kingdom, and the messenger to come bringing light, love, and peace to the scene at the manger. The choirs will sing of Jesus in His mother’s arms, Joseph beside them, shepherds coming from their fields to see this Holy Child born in an oxen stall, the Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us.

The repertoire presented by the Sanctuary Choir will range from In Dulci Jubilo from the Medieval period to modern arrangements of hymns and spirituals, such as Sweet Little Jesus Boy featuring soloist Julie Miller, soprano. 

The choirs will be accompanied by brass and percussion, with Dan Stokes at Derry’s Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ and Mary Lemons at the grand piano. The choirs and congregation will have the opportunity to lift their voices in praise to the well-known and beloved David Willcocks’ arrangements of O Come, All Ye Faithful and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. 

The Derry Ringers will present Arnold B. Sherman’s Laudation and Paul McKlveen’s, The Hills are Bare at Bethlehem featuring Claire Folts on viola. Janice Click Holl will present Dan Forrest’s See Amid the Winter’s Snow. We welcome back to Derry mezzo-soprano Amy Yovanovich, who will share Pietro Yon’s Gesù Bambino. Mitchell Sensenig-Wilshire will join Amy in the beloved carol, O Holy Night. He will also sing the classic Christmas song, The Birthday of a King.

Join the choirs of Derry Church as they worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who has come to bring light and peace to this world! Come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.