NURC Fall 2006 Message

Dear Friends and Members of NURC,

Welcome to a sultry fall, with warm wind in the air and crystal clear blue skies on the days when it is not pouring! We entered our fall season of worship at New Utrecht with a Remembrance of the Fifth Anniversary of 9/11. Even as we reflected as a congregation during worship, our memories of that day centered on the sights and smells, the burnt paper and ash that that winds carried over to our Brooklyn shore. The fright of our own children in school and the disbelief and then panic of college students in class. The flurry of activity to help at Ground Zero: blankets, flashlight, cooked meals and collected gloves, tools, batteries, water. The gratitude of one of our members who had just retired from Marsh and McClennan and was no longer a fixture in their WTC offices; a remembrance of the doors of our church open, and the streams of people from all walks of life that drew into our sanctuary to kneel and pray.

Memories so powerful, it is to us as if it happened yesterday. It has shaped as a new people, born from the ash, or risen from it, as the phoenix; more caring, more inclusive, more aware of the world beyond the borders of our church yard.

May the memories of the dead that day, the valor and value of their lives continue to remake us and re-birth. May the spirit of charity and unity which defined us as brother and sister responsible to each other that day, remind us that we are one human family every day. And may live to the fullest that spirit of charity and unity as a congregation and a Bensonhurst community.

Welcome back to bible study, to prayer and the breaking of bread around the table. Look for a neighbor to bring with you to church. A friend who needs prayer. A young person who needs vision. A lonely one who needs fellowship.

Happy 90^th birthday to our matriarch, Deacon Rose Lood! And deepest thanks from my family and myself for your thoughts, prayers, words of sympathy and visits during the time of my father’s dying and death.

The leaves will die too this fall. Pay particular attention as they give this world the glory of their color before their final plunge.

See you all at the Thrift Sale on Saturday October 21..10 AM!

Terry