THE WHITE OAK LEAVES
White Oak Springs Presbyterian Church (USA)
W. Lee Dreyer – Pastor
Office Phone 789-7145 - Home Phone 789-9899
E-mail address: [email protected]
April 2010 Volume 25 Number 7 191 Years of Service (est. 1818)
From The Pastor
March 22, 2010
Dear Friends,
In the days before Easter, we preachers find ourselves ricocheting back and forth between the
anticipation of Holy Week and Resurrection morning services and anxiety about being up to the task. In
the case of people who make it to church only on Easter, the preacher has only one shot, and we want to
make it count.
The challenge is that we live in a Good Friday world. Theologian Jurgen Moltmann, who was
conscripted at age seventeen into the German army and witnessed the firebombing of his hometown of
Hamburg, in which 40,000 civilians were killed, wrote that “Good Friday is the center of the world.” But
he also wrote that “Easter morning is the Sunrise of the coming of God and the morning of new life and the
beginning of the future of the world. The laughter of the universe is God’s delight. It is the universal
Easter laughter in heaven and earth.”
Easter laughter?
The story begins with weeping, grief, and despair. Most of Jesus’ friends abandoned him after his
arrest and watched in horror as he was summarily executed for sedition. They had actually begun to
believe him when he said that love is better than hate…that forgiveness is better than revenge. They had
begun to trust him when he said that the greatest good is love for God and neighbor and that the way to
gain your best life is to give it away. All of that died when his life ebbed away.
No wonder they were so incredulous when women returned from his tomb, reporting that it was
empty. No wonder preachers stammer and stutter about the resurrection. For if it is true, then Good Friday
is NOT the center of things. Easter is. And suddenly, everything is new and different and possible.
The Christian writer, Anne Lamott, writes: “I don’t have the right personality for Good Friday, for
the crucifixion. I’d like to skip ahead to the resurrection vision of one of the kids in our Sunday School
who drew a picture of the Easter Bunny outside an open tomb: everlasting life and a basket full of
chocolates…
I hate it that you can’t prove the beliefs of my faith. Darkness is our context, Easter’s context:
without it you couldn’t see the light. Hope is about choosing to believe this one thing that love is bigger
than any grim, bleak stuff anyone can throw at us.”
We go to church on Easter and participate in worship because this truth is so big that not one of us is
up to understanding it by ourselves. We celebrate with hymns because we can sing more than we can say,
and with flowers, those eloquent reminders of creation’s beauty. We gather to celebrate the goodness of
life—of our lives and God’s gracious, unending presence with us.
This coming Easter, when you sing “Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia!” I hope you will hear—if
you listen closely—the sound of Easter laughter.
May you all have a meaningful Holy Week and a glorious Easter.
In the name of the risen Christ,
Lee
April Celebrations
Patty & George Learn
Jim & Beulah Gilliland
Jerry & Joe Sarrapo
Edie Marlowe
Geza Doctor
Rev. Bob Crawford
Bob McGinley
All our Service Men &
Women
Jayne Dodgson
Linda Connelly
Jeff Boice
Paul Learn Family
2nd
29th
Also keep our friends and family members who are
ill, grieving, or suffering in your daily prayers.
Julie (Ream) Graham
Richard Ream
Rev. Robert Crawford
Justin Cichra
Roberta Learn
Joanne Jamison
William Marlowe
Steve Kennedy
Michael Spagnolo
3rd
4th
7th
8th
16th
13th
19th
19th
27th
www.whiteoakspringspreschurch.com/
You can find the latest news and upcoming events.
The White Oak Leaves will be available from the web
site, as well as information on upcoming sermons.
Take a look and let us know what you think of it.
* April 11th Upper Room Sunday School Class
* May 9th – Deacons and Trustees
* June 13th - Choir
Your group is responsible for hosting Moments of Fellowship during
the assigned months and with providing people to serve as greeters
before the worship service each Sunday.
Please check the paper products and drink supplies prior to
your dates.
NEWLETTER DEADLINE
Deadline for the
May issue of
WHITE OAK LEAVES is
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Call (724) 789-9899, or e-mail
Carol Dreyer at [email protected]
Help us reduce costs,
Let me know if you would prefer to receive your
newsletter via: e-mail, website, or snail mail
Thanks, Carol Dreyer
Please remember our on-going mission projects:
The Evans City Food Cupboard
B.E.R.I. - Butler County Emergency Relief Initiative.
There is a container on the back table.
 MILES OF PENNIES – Jar on back table. Proceeds
of this project will be used where needed.
 Remember to keep in touch with your Secret
Sister in some way at least once a month (a
card, a poem, etc.) and remember them daily in
your prayers and on their special days


Memorial Book
“Come Back, Como” Given by Ike and
Ginny Henry in memory of Ronald Bellis
(Carolyn Sedoris’s father)
Junior Worship Program
Church Directory
Update
We will be starting to take
pictures for the new directory in
May. Following the 9:45 A.M.
Service each week you will have
the opportunity to have your
picture taken. If you are unable
to attend one of these sessions
please contact me and every effort
will be made to get the photo.
Arrangements will be made with
shut-ins to come to you.
Thanks, Carol Dreyer
Believe In God
B.I.G. Theme: Jesus is Alive!
B.I.G Idea:
We believe that Jesus is alive and is always with us.
Date
Lesson
th
April 4
No Lesson
Easter Sunday
April 11th
The Resurrection/
Jesus and Thomas
April 18th
Breakfast on the
Beach
th
April 25
The Great
Commission
The White Oak Springs
Presbyterian Church provides two
adult Sunday School classes: the
“Upper Room” class (which meets
in the small classroom to the
right of the chancel) and the
“Wired Word” class (which meets
in the church library).
You can preview the weekly lessons from the
Wired Word class online through the web
site at
www.whiteoakspringspreschurch.com/
Follow the link to the Sunday School page.
Recent Worship Attendance
February 28th - 38
March 7th - 52
March 14th - 52
March 21st - 55
Springtime Prayer
For flowers that bloom about our feet,
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet,
For song of bird, and hum of bee,
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
For blue of stream and blue of sky,
For pleasant shade of branches high,
For fragrant air and cooling breeze,
For beauty of the blooming trees,
Father in heaven, we thank Thee!
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Christian Service Committee
Meeting of March 4, 2010
New Business:
o Blanket Sunday envelopes were removed from
the pew’s and will be available on the back tables
if anyone would like to still make a contribution.
o Minute for Mission’s will be given each Sunday
during lent for the One Great Hour of Sharing
Offering, which will be received on Easter
Sunday, April 4th.
o Easter sunrise breakfast menu will be; eggsausage muffins, orange juice, coffee and tea.
o Palms will be ordered to be distributed on Palm
Sunday.
o The committee will meet at the church on Friday,
April 2nd at 1:00 P.M. to set up for the breakfast.
The next meeting will be Thursday, May 6th at 7:00 P.M.
Virginia Henry, Secretary
Church Financial Report
Account Balances
February 28, 2010
Checking Balance 2-1-2010
Total Receipts
$ 5,476.59
8,208.50
Total Expenses
$ 7,940.15
Checking Balance 2-28-2010
$ 5,744.94
Total Investments
Balance 2-17-2010
Balance 3-16-2010
$ 514,463.61
$ 524,585.42
Brochures are available
for Westminster
Highlands and Camp
Lambec. Please
contact the church to
receive one.
WHITE OAK SPRINGS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (USA)
102 SHANNON ROAD
RENFREW PA 16053
THE WHITE OAK LEAVES
April 2010