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12/02/2020: Share Holiday Cheer!

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Dear LAC Community,
It is the time of year where we experience the joy of Advent, the time leading up to Christmas day. For many this year, it will be difficult to feel this joy. The holiday season can be a challenging time of year for anyone, but especially those who are in need. The stress of the season mixed with financial woes can be a lot for anyone to handle.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of families who are struggling to get by in our
Community has soared while the number of organizations able to help is limited due to social
distancing and health precautions.

Once again this year, Church and Society will provide some much needed Christmas cheer to
families in need in our community. We will provide Gift Cards and Gift baskets to twice as
many families than we did in 2019. What a wonderful opportunity this is for LAC to demonstrate our willingness to help the less fortunate, while we celebrate the spirit of giving!
There are two ways you can help:
One is to adopt an individual assigned to LAC by the Town of Mamaroneck to purchase a gift
card for. Wish lists for specific gift cards for those individuals will be provided. This way,
families can purchase the basics they need or purchase gifts for loved ones. Please sign up here: [LINK]

A second way to help is to donate funds. The C&S committee will use monetary donations to
purchase holiday goodies, hats, scarves, small games, and food gift cards to fill a holiday
basket for each family. You can donate through the church website at www.lacny.org/giving and select “Christmas” in the drop down menu on the Giving page. You can also mail a check noting “Christmas” in the memo. All donations must be received by Tuesday, December 15.

With gratitude and joy, let’s spread some cheer!

Church & Society Committee

11/25/2020: Virtual Advent Workshop

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Greetings LAC Family,
Can you believe Thanksgiving is tomorrow? I literally bought my turkey on Monday night and am very grateful that it was not frozen! I know that I am not alone in preparing for and getting ready to enter the festive, end of the year in new and different ways. It is my hope that you all are finding meaningful ways to continue to celebrate and continue traditions.
It is in that spirit that I hope you will be able to join us for LAC’s FIRST virtual advent workshop this Sunday, November 29th at 3:30pm (via Zoom). Please register [LINK] so you can receive the Zoom information as well as instructions for picking up small Advent packs that will including some of what you will need to bring some of the Advent cheer to your households. We will be sharing our homemade wreaths with one another, having a cookie decorating session led by Samantha Udondem and sharing a story with one another!
Even if you cannot make the workshop on Sunday, you are invited to create a wreath at home and send us a picture of what you have created so that it can be featured in worship later this month. Patty Towle has created a lovely how-to guide for wreaths. If you need candles or a Styrofoam wreath form, please send me an email so we can coordinate that.
Advent is one of the long “waiting” periods in our church calendar. For four weeks, we walk alongside the blessed Virgin Mary as she and we await the birth of Jesus Christ. Waiting isn’t easy, so often that time is almost always filled with stuff, be it work, school, family, changing schedules, holidays and all of the other things that are expected of us from the world around us.
All of our Advent activities and notes about our worship for this month are posted on the Advent page on the LAC website! Please don’t hesitate to look here if you need a reminder or are looking for anything Advent-related this year!
Blessings, and I look forward to waiting with you!
Ekama

11/18/2020: Grateful for (Re)Discovery

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Oh, feed me this day, Holy Spirt, with
the fragrance of the fields and the
freshness of the oceans which you have
made; and help me to hear and to hold
in all dearness those exacting and wonderful
words of our Lord Christ Jesus, saying:
Follow me.

Excerpted from “Six Recognitions of the Lord”
by Mary Oliver, Devotions,
Penguin Press, 2017, pp. 125-128

Dear LAC Community,

Every year about this time when jackets become less optional and there are more leaves on the ground than in the trees above, I am surprised to look out my kitchen window and see – way out, almost at the horizon – a glinting, shimmering expanse of blue. I always exclaim to my boys, “Look! It’s the Long Island Sound!” It’s a bit silly but I never fail to be surprised. Even though the Sound was there last year in the very same spot. And, actually, it was there all Spring and Summer too. Hidden from our view by leaves that are now lost to Autumn. I miss the warmth of the Summer sun and fear the chill of Winter. But I am grateful for the return of the Sound to my window. It seems that in times of transition God sometimes reveals His gifts this way – through a loss followed by grace and the (re)discovery of God’s love and favor – which was actually always there unabated.

As our church moves along its own path of change and transition, the LAC community and lay leadership are continuing to work steadfastly. The Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) and Associate Pastor Nominating Committee (APNC) are both working in earnest to find new clergy that will lead LAC into the future. Meanwhile, the Session, the Deacons, and the Trustees are each performing their necessary roles to support the successful, daily operations of LAC and the LAC Preschool. And, most significantly, LAC’s worship, Christian education, and administrative staff are all working harder than ever to ensure that our congregation can continue to worship and study God’s Word even in the midst of a global pandemic.

All of this “behind the scenes” work by laypeople, professionals, and the ordained is enduring evidence of our community’s commitment to living Christian values and manifesting God’s Love every day. As we enter this season of Thanksgiving, I pray that we will be grateful for the blessing that we have in each other as a congregation. And that we find comfort in remembering that we have been here for each other and for LAC all along.

Worship This Sunday

Please join us for worship this Sunday! The Sermon “This Is Our Time” will be delivered by

Ruling Elder Deborah Milcarek, General Presbytery of the Hudson River Presbytery. Ruling Elder Milcarek has 23 years’ experience working in the Presbyterian Church (USA). Before becoming General Presbyter of the Hudson River Presbytery, she worked as a Christian educator, guided the mission and social justice work of the Presbytery of Baltimore, and taught congregations how to foster deeper engagement in their neighborhoods and communities.

Sharing Abundantly

I also want to remind all members to make a generous donation to LAC’s special Thanksgiving offering in support of our Mission Partners who work tirelessly to reduce and eliminate hunger in Westchester County. If you missed last week’s service led by the Church & Society Committee, you may watch it here [LINK] to learn more about how our Mission Partners are serving our community.

You can give in three ways:

Checks mailed to LAC attn: Gloria Haq
Online at www.lacny.org/giving (Fund: “Thanksgiving”)
Smart phone app: Realm

Wishing you all good things,
Leah Griggs Pauly
Co-Clerk, Session