Merry Christmas

This is from the Presbyterian Hunger Program staff in Louisville, Kentucky who have asked me to share it with all who give so much to help hungry people here and all over the world.

New Jersey Council of Churches Launches "Clip Campaign"

Bring your coupons to the Presbytery Center--we will collect and make them available on request to hunger ministries or send them on to NJCC

In these times of unprecedented fiscal uncertainty, the NJCC is launching a new campaign to help people in need. Every week thousands of coupons that can be used to help purchase necessary items are thrown in the trash.

The NJCC would like to ask its local churches to begin an organized collection process of coupons for distribution.

Here is how it works. Churches will collect coupons in four categories:

1. cereal
2. baby products
3. detergents/cleaning supplies
4. miscellaneous (a particularly good coupon in any area)

The coupons should be distributed either:

1. to the NJCC office; we will see that they are given to those in need
2. to members of the church who need them
3. to another local church
4. to a local food pantry or soup kitchen
   

Please consider having your church participate by taking this step and helping in another way to make a difference.

For questions or comments, please respond to this email or call the NJCC at 609-396-9546.

How Brightly Shines Our Morning Star Food Pantry

Morning Star’s building at 1 Morning Star Drive in Bayville is new, but its hunger ministry is not. “We’ve had a food pantry for many years,” says Rev. Myrlene Hamilton Hess, “but we didn’t have a facility appropriate for a public food bank, so it remained small and grew through word of mouth.”

The new Morning Star Food Pantry opened to the public on August 10, 2008. It has grown to handling over 150 people with food on a monthly basis and continues to grow each month. As part of Morning Star’s Loaves and Fishes Ministry. Special projects in 2008 include backpacks for children in September, Halloween costumes for children in October, Thanksgiving turkeys in November, and Christmas presents to families in December.

[read entire article]

Current sources of funding for this ministry include 50% of the money collected from Cents-Ability and donations and food from the congregation and the general public.

At a time when so many families and individuals find themselves in need, however, the food pantry needs sponsors and donations of money, food, health and beauty, cleaning items and clothing. Local businesses are ideal for partnerships with the church as are nearby congregations. Monmouth Presbytery is proud to be a new partner: at its November meeting, the Cents-Ability Grants Committee approved a $1,000 grant.

Next Monthly Fast October 31-November 2

Presbyterians around the country are engaging in monthly 40-hour fasts to help discern responses to the Global Food Crisis. The fasts typically take place on the first weekend of every month, beginning on Friday evening and ending with Communion or a communal meal on Sunday. The next fast is October 31- November 2. Resources are available (PDF) that explore the country focus for the month is Haiti and the theme focus of food aid.

New Bible Study--Fair Trade: Using our Purchasing Power for Justice and Hope

People of faith seek both definition and guidance from God as we make choices in our lives. But how can we make the connections between our faith and the vast economic web that affects our own daily lives and all too often puts too much economic risk onto farmers and craftspeople in poor nations—those least able to bear it? Probably not by using the index of your study Bible!

Partners for Just Trade is a new organization that grew out of the Presbyterian Hunger Program’s Joining Hands initiative in Peru. As they learned more about Fair Trade, they saw the convergence of its nine basic Key Principles with the Judeo-Christian teachings about justice and became excited about the idea of creating a Bible Study to help all of us understand and be actively involved in God’s vision for the well-being of all of creation.

Fair Trade: Using Our Purchasing Power for Justice and Hope walks the reader through the principles of Fair Trade through personal narration, Bible passages, questions for reflection, and challenges to engage the reader in learning about Fair Trade.

You can do the 6-part study alone or with a group. It can take as much or as little time as you have. Even a quick study will bring new ideas about how important our lifestyles are to the well-being of people we don’t even know; or deeper study may take you to the university for classes, the library for books, or the internet to find some websites.

For more information, contact Partners for Just Trade at 314-707-2831 or visit them on the web.

Invitation to a Church-wide Fast

I recently received an invitation to a Denomination-wide Fast. It says, "At the behest of the 218th General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) is inviting its congregations to engage in a monthly church-wide fast to discern faithful responses to the global food crisis, in a world where more than 845 million people go hungry. As many as 100 million more may be driven into extreme poverty due to the food crisis, while others live with plenty to spare." Download the document.

How do you feel about fasting? I must admit that the idea scares me, mostly because I'm not sure I can do it and I really hate failing. And, as a lifelong member of churches in the Reformed tradition, it's not part of my repertoire (even though John Calvin called for fasting as part of the Public and Mutual Practice of Penance.) But I have decided it's time to give it a try--for a year, and one month at a time.

For one thing, as a musician, I know how deadly it can be to never change your tunes.

It sounds like fasting is a spiritually (and socially) transforming and life-giving practice. Noelle Damico, Coordinator of the PC(USA) campaign for Fair Food, notes that “a central purpose is that of reconciliation—to God and to one’s neighbor” which can sharpen our vision to see God’s vision for our world more clearly, strengthen our resolve to live with integrity, and prepare us to act with God to transform ourselves and our world. And—not the least for people like me who too often are overfed—it “brings lasting insights into the physical needs of the body and the daily struggles of those who are hungry and poor.” (You can find much more at www.pcusa.org/hunger/foodcrisis.) I can’t even begin to imagine how God could use our denomination in new ways if just two people in every congregation would become part of this!

I will also be in good company. Fasting used to be a common thing "back in the day" for Jews and Christians, too--which means that I would be joining giants of the faith like Moses, King David, Queen Esther, the prophets Isaiah and Joel, the people of Nineveh, and Jesus--just to name a few. And then there are John Calvin, Mahatma Gandhi, Cesar Chavez, and Martin Luther King Jr. Closer to home, I already have connections to 453 Presbyterians (several from Monmouth Presbytery) who have joined the new Facebook group "Presbyterians Respond to Global Food Crisis"--and there's plenty of room for more.

Finally, there's more than one way to be part of this. Congregations can commit to the fast as a body, and individuals and smaller groups may also participate. And, for those who are physically unable to fast, there is the alternative of simpler meals.

Are you ready to sign on? The first of the monthly fasts begins on Friday evening, October 3. And break the fast with Holy Communion on Sunday if your place of worship does Communion then. Fittingly, October 5 is World Communion Sunday!

If it's October, it's time for a CROP Hunger Walk

What is a CROP Hunger Walk? Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty. Neighbors walking together to take a stand against hunger in our world. Together we raise awareness and funds for international relief and development, as well as local hunger-fighting. Read more»

Since 1969, CROP WALKS and Walkers have been putting a lot of soul into the fight against hunger, but there are still steps we need to take together. Join in a CROP Hunger Walk near you to help raise awareness and funds to fight hunger--around the block and around the world. Or, if there isn't one in your community -- contact Church World Service NJ office to volunteer to help start one!

Following are the NJ CROP walks taking place in our Presbytery:

• October 5 - Tuckerton
• October 19 - Bordentown, Freehold, Hightstown, Long Branch, Ocean County North, and Red Bank
  
• October 26 - Allentown