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The Minister's Message

I love tulips, and in recent weeks quite a few tulips adorned our church. With Easter, the Mission and Outreach Commission gave tulips in honor of my family and me, wherefore again many thanks. Then at my installation service there were again tulips everywhere. It is tulip time outside in our yards as well now. If you see tulips, you think about Holland, right? In the country of my birth, we have a tradition to cultivate, treasure and enjoy these beautiful flowers.

The other day I read an interesting article about Istanbul, Turkey, in the Guardian newspaper. In Istanbul this spring it is not the minarets, the sunsets or the Bosphorous river-views making April crowds coo with pleasure - it is the tulips! With a tulip blooming for almost every one of its 12 million inhabitants the city hopes to remind the world that Turkey was the original home of the flower, now more usually associated with clogs, cheese and windmills.

If you did not know: tulips hail originally from eastern Turkey. The Ottomans cultivated the flower and took it to their imperial capital Istanbul. There, tulips adorned the Sultan's palaces and the gardens of the elite. The word "tulip" derives from the Turkish word tulbent, referring to the Sultan's turban headdress, which the flower resembles in shape. An angry mob uprising in the eighteenth century saw Istanbul's opulent tulip gardens all but disappear and the city had been largely without beds of flower ever since.

In the newspaper article, Lale Atik, 59, whose first name means tulip, was interviewed and she understood why the world had forgotten the flower's Turkish origin. "The Dutch imported Tulip bulbs, cultivated them and developed new types while we just sat on our hands . . . but now we can create the old days of Istanbul," she said.

That statement made me think. We can have something beautiful like a tulip, or our faith, or our church family, but if we do not cultivate and develop it, if we just sit on our hands, we may lose it.

It is spring again, and more than that it is the time after Easter, almost Pentecost. It is the time to cultivate the spirit, to develop our relationship with the risen Christ, to grow our faith and be this gorgeous presence in the world. Because if we don't, someone else will. Let's not sit on our hands. If our church community is our tulip, let it bloom, and beautify our community, so together we grow and prosper!

God bless, The Rev. Jan Willem van der Werff

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Covenant's Volunteer of the Month

Keith Gwin

Covenant Church is one of the best maintained churches in the area. The Building and Grounds Commission works very hard on the upkeep of the church and its offices. Covenant houses ECHO, Beloved Community, Capital Health System Day Care Center and a tenant in the third floor apartment. With all of these entities using the building the wear and tear is substantial, but recently we have been blessed with a Vital Volunteer by the name of Keith Gwin.

Covenant was in dire need of a maintenance person to handle the various problems that crop up in the workings of the church. Some repairs are so minor it would be a waste of money to call in a repair professional who charges upwards of $100 per hour. We have had various volunteers, but the job can be very time consuming, and we never quite had the consistency needed to maintain the upkeep of the church.

Then Keith enthusiastically volunteered to help. Being recently retired, he felt he could give back to the church by helping out with the maintenance duties. Well, Keith went straight to work and the church has never looked better.

When Keith first came on board the Day Care Center was undergoing a fire and safety inspection. Having received notice of a few minor violations, CHS and Covenant were both under a deadline to have the violations fixed before a certain date or both would face fines.

Keith said, “I can do it. Just give me a list of the violations and I will fix them.” He looked the list over and went straight to work. He replaced exit lights and emergency lights, repaired broken tiles and broken windows, fixed doors and door locks (and while doing that he polished the brass plates around the doors). When the inspectors returned they found all the minor violations were corrected, and CHS passed with flying colors!

Keith has continued to work on the maintenance of the church building. He has re-wrapped pipes with special coating to meet other inspection requirements; repaired floors and carpets; repaired and replaced broken and cracked ceiling tiles; and repaired broken doors. He is now in the process of repairing the red carpet on the Sanctuary steps leading to the pulpit. He is looking at carpet samples, trying to match the carpet exactly, after which the repairs will begin.

Keith continues in his volunteer work at Covenant and we certainly appreciate him. He also serves as a deacon, and enjoys delivering flowers to shut-ins on Sundays. He has so much energy and vitality and truly enjoys his work. His enthusiasm is great to watch and his care for the church is evident. Keith’s work ethic is strong and when he says he will be here, he keeps his word. Covenant can depend on him. Keith, Covenant thanks you for taking on such a difficult volunteer position. Not many folks can do what you do and show the good spirit that always seems to radiate from you. You truly represent what it means to be a Christian. Thank you.

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We Will Get You to The Church On Time!

Do you want to attend church on Sundays but have no transportation? Please call the church office or the scheduled driver and arrangements will be made for you to be taken to church and then taken home. Below is the schedule for May and June van drivers.

May

4 Joyce Jaeger

11 David Kulp

18 Joyce Jaeger

25 Jeff Lippincott at

June

1 Jeff Lippincott

8 Joyce Jaeger

15 Jeff Lippincott

22 David Kulp

29 Joyce Jaeger

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As Sunday School is ending for this year, the Christian Education Commission is already planning for next year. And we need YOUR help!

We are looking for bright, enthusiastic people who like to work with our kids. For just a short time each Sunday, you can share a rewarding experience with our youth, plus assist with this important Church ministry.

All curriculum and supplies are provided. And our experienced teachers and the C.E. Commission will share help and support.

So all that is missing, is YOU! If you have any questions; call the office at 989.8282, or contact JoAnn Trevor. We hope to hear from you!

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Ministry to Shut-ins

Covenant has a number of members who, due to illness, cannot attend church on Sundays but would still like to hear the sermon. The worship service is recorded each week and the sermons are now available on tape. If you or someone you know would like to receive a tape cassette of the Sunday message, please call Rae at the church office at 609.989.8282 and you will be placed on the mailing list.

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Basic Literacy or English as a Second Language

Covenant Church started an exciting new ministry in April to offer one-to-one or small group literacy classes to people in the community or members or friends of the church. These classes can either be Basic Literacy (reading, writing) or ESL (English as a Second Language). If you would like to learn how to become a tutor, or if you or someone you know would like to get literacy assistance to reach a personal or professional goal, please contact Season Bonner e-mail: season.bonner@comcast.net or Rae Richardson at the church office 609.989.8282, e-mail: 471covenantrae@comcast.net. All calls will be confidential.

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Covenant Cookbook!

Attention all cooks and chefs at heart! We would like your input and contributions so that we may put together a Covenant Cookbook! It will go on sale for family, friends and to the general public and will also be available at our Flea Markets. The cookbook will be a fund-raising activity in helping to reach our goal of purchasing a new sound system for the church.

All you need to do is write up your favorite recipe and hand it in to Sue Powell, or you may email recipes to Cindy Moskow at kneadu@comcast.net We hope that everyone will want to participate! Please contact Sue Powell for questions or additional information.

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The following letter is from Doug Baker, Covenant's missionary in Ireland

A Letter From Ireland

Editor’s note: Those who are interested in the peace process in Northern Ireland know that our missionary, Doug Baker, may be the best source to learn what is actually going on there. This is excerpted from a much longer letter. You can read the whole letter on the PCUSA website.)

On March 4, 2008, the Reverend Dr. Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party and First Minister of the Northern Ireland Assembly, announced he will be stepping down from both roles in early May 2008. Dr. Paisley will be 82 next month. Given his age, it is not surprising he would make such a move. However, it is a reversal from what he had been saying even recently, and the question is raised whether he has willingly embraced this decision or been pushed by party colleagues. Although he has emphatically stated that the decision to go is his alone, most commentators argue that the announcement came amid internal DUP pressure for him to set a date to go.

Dr. Paisley was the founder and until a few months ago “moderator for life” of the Free Presbyterian Church, a relatively small—and fanatically anti-Catholic—fundamentalist denomination that has long been an inhibiting influence snapping at the heels of those in more mainstream Protestant churches in Ireland, which have engaged in more open relationships with Roman Catholics and each other.

The strongly pro-British Democratic Unionist Party was also largely his creation, and he has been the leader since its inception decades ago. Most of his political career has been spent in opposition not only to Irish nationalism and Republicanism but also to the Ulster Unionist Party and other more moderate expressions of unionism. Over the decades he rallied opposition to any cooperation with nationalists within Northern Ireland and any cross-border cooperation with the Republic of Ireland. In so doing he was a significant influence in bringing down successive Ulster Unionist leaders, most recently David Trimble, who was the initial First Minister in the power-sharing Executive set up after the 1998 Belfast Agreement.

After the DUP succeeded in topping the Ulster Unionists in the last elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly, Ian Paisley was presented with a new choice. Having forever been in the wings expressing opposition and criticizing, he was now in a position to assume power. The price for that under the power-sharing principles of the Northern Ireland Assembly set up by the Belfast Agreement of 1998, however, was going into government with Sinn Fein, which had succeeded in winning the largest Nationalist vote. This was something he had vowed he could not consider, at least until all traces of the IRA had disappeared—their weapons, the Army Council, etc—and Sinn Fein had acknowledged that the violence of the Republican Movement over the decades of the Troubles had been wrong.

Then in March 2007 new discussions with the British and Irish Government, and with Sinn Fein themselves, convinced him that there was no choice but to make a deal and do an aboutface. In May 2007 he became First Minister and Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness became Deputy First Minister. In his own words, the DUP decision to go into power-sharing with Sinn Fein “saved us from an effectual united Ireland,” through the likely plan B the British and Irish governments would impose on Northern Ireland if Northern Irish parties would not themselves embrace a devolved power-sharing arrangement. He insisted that it wasn’t that he liked the idea of power-sharing with Sinn Fein, he simply felt there was no other option open to them to secure the continued union of Northern Ireland with the United Kingdom.

That decision gained him credit from the British and Irish governments and many onlookers but enraged a rump of his own party and many within his Free Presbyterian Church. In September at the annual meeting of the Free Presbyterian Church, Paisley was not re-selected as moderator.

Then on February 14, 2008, in a by-election for a councilor to Banbridge District Council, the Traditional Unionist Voice ran a candidate in opposition to the DUP’s own choice. Fully 27 percent of normally DUP voters registered their displeasure with Ian Paisley and the DUP by voting Traditional Unionist Voice. The result was that they split their numbers and an Ulster Unionist candidate was elected instead, which was a wake-up call to the DUP.

Tough decisions on huge unresolved political issues loom on the horizon. Devolution and power-sharing are having some success and appear secure, but there is a long road ahead littered with challenges around which cracks may begin to widen. Those who have to tread it need all of our prayers.