DECEMBER
1
10:30 Worship
Communion Sunday
8
10:30 Worship
2
4
3
10:30 Worship
Ord/Install Of
Elders & Deacons
9
10
Cub Scouts Boy Scouts
16
17
Cub Scouts Boy Scouts
23
10:30 Worship
29
30
10:30 Worship
7:30 p.m.
Choir
Rehearsal
11
1:00 p.m.
Bible Study
Girl Scouts
5:00 p.m. Church
Family Christmas
Party
22
6
Girl Scouts
Lorrie Loughney,
guest worship leader
15
5
7:30 p.m.
Choir
Rehearsal
18
1:00 p.m.
Bible Study
Session and
Deacons meet Girl Scouts
at 7:15 p.m. in
Chapel
7:30 p.m.
Choir
Rehearsal
24
25
7:30 p.m.
Christmas
Christmas Eve
Communion
and
Day
Candlelight
Service
31 Church
Office
Closed
New Year’s
Eve
7
Christmas
Caroling
12
5:30 p.m.
Women’s
Dinner at
Claire
Wehrles
19
13
20
14
21
Dec 6
Dec 7
Dec 11
Dec 26
Paula Costanzo
Liz Hamborsky
Linda Bourbeau
Mary Close
Dec 3 Sue & Lou
Cantarella
26 Betty & Everett
Fitch
SPECIAL DATES
26
27
28
Pastor Ken will be on Continuing Education
leave beginning Dec. 2 thru Dec. 8.
• First Sunday of Advent,
December 1,
• Second Sunday of
Advent, Dec 8,
• Third Sunday of Advent,
December 15,
• First Day of Winter,
December 21,
• Fourth Sunday of
Advent, Dec 22,
• Christmas Eve,
December 24,
• Christmas Day,
December 25,
• New Year’s Eve/Watch
Night, December 31
We welcome home Bill Metzgar and his
unit as they return from a deployment to
Afghanistan.
"A SALUTE TO OUR SOLDIERS"
I see you standing among them all
Standing so strong ,proud and tall
The world looks at you, but does not see
Everything you sacrifice to keep us free
I'm here to say, to let you know
That you are loved, even if it doesn't show
You fight for our hopes, dreams, and liberty
You fight for our freedom...... A hero to be
We want you to know, you’re never alone
For we are waiting, for you to come home
But the hardest thing for a person to be
Is you.. A SOLDIER, fighting
To keep us free
Thank you to all our men and women in the Armed Forces of
the United States who has sacrificed so much...
To keep us all safe and free....
Christmas Gift Prayer
Thank you, God for the wonderful gift of
your son, Jesus, as we celebrate His birthday.
Help us to remember Him as we give and receive gifts, taking
time to pray for each person and for those who have nothing.
Help us, Lord, to fill this Christmas with you and with your
love, peace and joy. Amen
SESSION
CLASS OF 2013
Everett Fitch
Nancy Walsh
Don Williams
CLASS OF 2014
Sue Cantarella
Ralph Metzgar
Jean Biggar
CLASS OF 2015
Barbara Keller
John Frank
Dick Loessy
President: Everett Fitch
Financial Secretary: Dick Loessy
Treasurer: Sue Cantarella
Clerk of Session: Sue Canarella
Treasurer of Endowments: Jack Cross
COMMITTEES
Christian Education:
Nancy Walsh, chair
Bonnie Forbes, Georgie Levy, Sue Cantarella
Finance Committee: Jack Cross, chair
Bev Solsman, Dick Loessy
Personnel:
Don Williams, chair
Linda Muracco, Myrna Watkins, Dick Loessy
Property Committee: Everett Fitch, chair
John Frank, Ralph Metzgar, Jack Solsman
Worship Committee: Jean Biggar, chair
Betty Fitch, Bonnie Forbes, Linda Muracco
Outreach Committee: Barbara Keller, chair
Jean Biggar, Sue Cantarella, Linda Bourbeau,
Georgie Levy, John Frank
Commissioner to Presbytery: John Frank
Auditors: Connie Richards, Beverly Solsman
Joint Session and Deacond Meeting:
Tues., Dec. 17, at 7:15 p.m.
All present and incoming Elders/Deacons are asked to attend.
BOARD OF DEACONS
Class of 2013
Georgie Levy
Lisa Price
Jack Solsman
Class of 2014
Debbie Kimmerle
Betty Lamm
Connie Richards
Moderator: Myrna Watkins
Secretary: Debbie Kimmerle
Class of 2015
Mary Grace Donati
Bonnie Forbes
Myrna Watkins
Vice Moderator: Betty Lamm
Treasurer: Bonnie Forbes
The Board of Deacons continues to
collect canned goods and non-perishable food items for the
Safety Net in Scranton. These items may be brought in at any
time and left in the baskets in the vestibule or in the church
office.
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Thank You! for the support of our missions throughout the
year. …
Our Cropwalk offering was a total of $1245.00 and
helped to feed those in need.
Sandra Roberts, Director of the Bread Basket, thanks our
congregation for our continued support by donating canned
foods to the North Scranton pantry
Live to Give
In Acts 20:35, Paul quotes Jesus that “It is more blessed to give
than to receive.” (Interestingly, that’s the only recorded
statement of Jesus that’s not found in one of the four gospels.)
At Christmas and throughout the year, the blessings of giving
are profound and lasting. Poet Maya Angelou says, “I have
found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of
the giver.”
Monday thru Friday 8:30 to 11:00 a.m.
Pastor Forbes is normally in the office
Tuesday thru Thursday mornings.
Please Note: The Pastor will be on Continuing Education
leave from Dec. 2 to Dec. 8th. Please contact Sue in the
church office should you pastoral care for any reason during
this time. After office hours call: 570-383-9298 or
570-954-5846.
Church website:
dunmorepresby.org
Church email: [email protected]
[email protected]
Pastor Ken:
[email protected]
JOIN OUR PRAYER CHAIN
IT IS JUST ONE PHONE CALL
BE ONE MORE LINK TO MAKE
OUR CHAIN STRONGER
If you have any type of prayer need request for a friend or
family member, please contact Pastor Ken at 570-344-3145,
Sue Cantarella at 570-343-6807 (or after hours) 570-3839298 or let a prayer chain member know.
Our chain:
Bonnie Forbes
Danny Clark
Betty & Evertt Fitch
Betty Lamm
Liz Hamborsky
Norma Mecca
Nancy Walsh
Eleanor Metzgar
Doris Keller
A congregational meeting was held on Sunday, Nov.
24th to receive the report of the Nominating Committee
and elect officers for the upcoming year. The following
The Annual Church Family Christmas Party will again be a
Potluck Supper, with dessert and beverages provided. A signup sheet will be posted to help with an idea of the types of
food being brought and the number of people who will
attend.
The Dunmore Head Start has truly appreciated our
gifts for the children and this year we will again have an angel
tree and tags will be placed on the tree—a snowman for boys
and a star for girls. Gifts requested this year are a baby doll
for the girls and a truck for the boys. The children are all 3 to
5 years old – so please be sure they are age appropriate.
Please place the tag on the items and return them to the tree
area of the Fellowship Hall by Sunday, Dec. 15th.
It was also decided that in following tradition, we will
still collect a mission offering on the night of the party and
that will be given to “Pack Them with Love’. This program
was recently started by Courtney Green, and she distributes a
brown paper bag of healthy snacks on Friday afternoons to
children who are part of the Free Lunch Program at Dunmore
Elementary. This way we help those in our own community.
have been elected:
Elder: Everett Fitch, Nancy Walsh, Don Williams
(second terms)
Deacon: Georgie Levy, Lisa Price (second terms)
Betty Skorec beginning a new term
The installation of officers will take place on Sunday,
December 15th during the morning worship.
Jack Solsman has completed his term and we thank
him for his work and dedication to the Board of
Deacons.
The Congregational and
Corporation meeting will be held
on Sunday, January 19, 2014
following worship. Any
organization that includes a financial and/or
committee report in the end of the year booklet should
have them into Sue in the church office by Sunday,
Pack Them with Love was one of the two recipients of the
Hunger Offering received at the November Presbytery
meeting. They will receive $205 from Presbytery.
January 12. They may be submitted typed or written
or email to:
[email protected]
Per capita for 2014 is $29.50.
Christmas Caroling –Saturday,
December 7th at 1:00 pm
A sign-up sheet is posted and all are invited to
come along and visit our friends that are shutin and residents in nursing homes. The group
will leave from the church.
Advent Bible Study
“Finding Bethlehem in the Midst of Bedlam”
at 1:00 p.m.
Dec. 11 Love Came Down to Bethlehem
(Matt. 11: 1-6)
Dec. 18 Precious Memories of Christmas
(Luke 2)
CHRISTMAS EVE CANDLELIGHT
AND COMMUNION SERVICE
Tuesday, December 24th at 7:30 p.m.
Friends,
We wish you a Joyous and Blessed Christmas
and hope for the New Year of 2014.
Ken and Bonnie Forbes
Women’s Night Christmas Dinner Party
Thursday, December 12th,
at Claire Wehrle’s
294 Elmhurst Blvd, Dunmore
This is my treat – you just come.
Appetizers at 5:30 and dinner 6:00
Please sign the sheet posted if you are attending or
call Sue in the church office – 570-343-6807
Adult/PW Christmas Party
This year it was decided that
with the busy holiday season
and to give our own members
a break, we would have a
dinner following worship on January 5th at 1:00 p.m.
at Stirna’s in Scranton. We need to guarantee our
reservation of 35 people, so we ask that if you are
interested in attending you make your reservations
with payment to Sue Cantarella or Nancy Walsh by
Dec. 22nd. The price will be $16.00 for a dinner
buffet: salad, chicken strips & roast beef
pasta, potato, vegetables, dessert & beverages
We hope to have an afternoon of great fellowship and
food – still in celebration of the season of Christmas.
Today most people’s notion of
glory is of Hollywoodish person
and glamour in George Clooney
and Halle Berry. But the shepherds in the Bible
Christmas story in Luke 2 caught sight of an infinitely
more important kind of glory, an extraordinary glory
centered in the God of all creation. Yet even the
shepherds were not permitted to look nakedly upon this
glory; it was too high and wonderful for that. So they
received it through an angel, a Heavenly emissary of God
who communicated God’s glory to human beings.
The shepherds were appropriately awe-stricken by this
message and its proclaimers. They may even have
thought they would die as a result of the encounter with
the angel!
But the angel said, “Fear not!” The visit by the angel was
intended only to announce the favor of god, who was at
that very moment drawing near to save humanity in the
form of a Messiah. And yet the Messiah was appearing in
the most incredible way – as a baby born in a stable
surrounded by animals.
The shepherds in this way were privileged to witness
the greatest mystery of all time – the glory of the
unspeakable God made visible in a newborn child.
Friends, life on earth would never ever again be the
same with the birth of Jesus Christ.
Help us O God, to catch even a glimpse of the glory
beheld by these simple shepherds of long ago..
Then let us return to our ordinary lives as they did,
worshiping and praising you for the wonderful thing
you have done for us humans.
Thank You God!
In Joy,
Pastor Ken
confusion, it may just help us to see that by contrast, Christmas itself is eternal.”
Christmas rush may do us greater service than we realize. With all its temporal
them now since that holy night in Bethlehem. Regarded in this manner, the pre-
Christmas. It is not a matter of days or weeks, but of centuries — [more than] twenty of
mercifully comes to a close. It is only now, perhaps, that we truly recognize the spirit of
“Eventually, the hour comes when the rushing ends and the race against the calendar
But author Burton Hills viewed the madness from another perspective:
The Christmas rush leads to stress for many people.
Reconsider the Rush
The Presbyterian Church of Dunmore
137 Chestnut Street
Dunmore, PA 18512
Rev. Kenneth Forbes, Pastor
dunmorepresby.org
Prayers and Concerns of our Church Family
Thoughts are with those of our church family in need whether it
be a physical or other daily struggle.
Special prayers for healing to :
Della Orazzi
John Frank
Jack and Joan Cross
Ron Martinelli
Lorraine Sterner
Our deepest sympathies remain with Della Orazzi and her
family following the passing of her husband Joe on November
8th. Joe was a faithful member of our congregation, active in our
Adult Fellowship group and many of our church activities.
A memorial service was held for Joe at the church.
Bobbi Goldberg underwent surgery and is receiving rehab and
we continue thoughts and prayers for her continued healing.
Her home address is: 1644 N. Main Ave., Scranton, PA 18504
To Our Friends at DPC:
Thank you for your concern and encouragement by cards, calls
and visits during my current illness. It is a wonderful feeling to
know that so many people care.
I am feeling better and anxiously awaiting permission to get out
and about. I miss being with you, but hope to see you soon.
Jack Cross
Linda Bourbeau would like to thank everyone for their calls and
concern following a recent dental procedure.
To the Women of the Congregation:
For several years, I have been privileged
to serve as the Moderator of our Presbyterian
Women but feel that now is the time to step
aside (effective at the end of December).
During the last few years, I have not been able
to devote the time and energy that is needed to lead our group
effectively.
I am pleased with what our women have been able to
do to serve our church and the community —making more
than 200 ugly quilts (just my estimate), sponsoring Aminata,
contributing to denominational, synod, and presbytery
offerings, sponsoring teas, packing Christmas boxes for Clark
Summit State Hospital, learning in our Bible studies, and
hosting the Coffee Hours. We would not be able to do all this
without the financial contributions of the women and the
support of many in the congregation who have helped with
our special events.
I want to thank those who have and continue to serve
as officers and circle leaders and to remember the women who
came before us. These women have kept us going as we had to
change from the way things were done when we had a more
vital membership.
Jean Biggar
We thank Jean for her dedication and leadership over the years
she has served as moderator of The Presbyterian Women.
The Church Women United of Lackawanna County
will hold a Christmas Tea on Friday, Dec. 6th at 1:00
p.m. at Elm Park United Methodist Church, Linden
St., Scranton. All women are invited.