Dates to Remember For December

December 3 Communion Sun-day worship at 10 a.m. and Advent Candlelight Concert at 4:00 p.m.

Food Pantry Sunday is Decem-ber 10. We are not collecting turkeys this year. Items for a Christmas din-ner would be appreciated.

Operation Santa Claus gifts are due on December 10.

Advent gifts will be distributed by the Deacons.

Christmas Eve Service at 8:00 p.m. Bring Your family and friends to worship at this inspiring Christ-mas Eve service.

Christmas Flowers

As is our custom over the years, we will again be honoring or remem-bering our loved ones at Christmas. Beautiful poinsettia plants will be placed in the sanctuary. A listing of your loved ones will appear in the Christmas Eve bulletin. See insert with this issue. Flowers may be picked up following the Christmas Eve service.

Our Church Family

Our sincere congratulations to Amy Gottschalk and Ray Evangel-ista who were married in our church on Saturday, November 4th.

Our sincere sympathy is ex-tended to the family of Kenneth McIntyre who died suddenly on Sep-tember 10. Also to the family of Nancy Toman who died on October 19, Frances Sarapa who died on Oc-tober 24, Herbert Cumming on Octo-ber 26 and Cornelis Stapel on October 27, 2006.

Susan Moyle Christmas Card Sale

Christmas cards are color photos of our church windows. There are 8 cards to a pack for $12. Sale of the cards will support a summer camper-ship to a child in need. Thank you.

Afternoon Fellowship Meets

Tuesday, November 14 At 12:00 noon

Bring a sandwich, beverage and dessert will be served. Barbara Hickey and Betty Gottschall will be presenting a skit. The group will meet on Tues-day, December 12th for a pot luck luncheon and a Christmas program presented by Betty Gottschall.

Evening Service Guild Meets

Tuesday November 14 The Evening Service Guild will

meet at Rudy's restaurant at 6:00 p.m. All are welcome to join in sharing supper together. The Evening Service Guild will also meet on Tuesday, De-cember 12th at Rudy’s Restaurant.

HAVE YOU NOTICED? We have new shrubbery plantings

in front of the sanctuary and along the Ward Street side of the sanctuary. These beautiful shrubs were received through several private donations.

As the plants will grow...so the church will grow." George Arnold

Piano News From Worship Chair, Tom Leach!

It is my pleasure to report that the fund raising for our new sanctuary piano has resulted in fully financing the purchase. More than 70 individu-als and families contributed gener-ously in support of this effort. This cooperative effort to fully cover the cost without seeking financial assis-tance from the church is a tremendous accomplishment we should all be proud of.

The piano is scheduled to be de-livered in mid–November and will be in immediate use and available for participation in our Christmas Concert on December 3 and other holiday events. A dedication is planned for January.

The committee wishes to thank everyone who helped to acquire this outstanding instrument. It will be with us to enjoy for many years to come.

Thomas K. Leach, Chair Worship Committee

Rummage Sale A Big Success!

Once again the members of the Fellowship Committee and additional volunteers worked long hours to sort and unpack donations to make the sale a big success. An important decision has been made by the committee that there will be NO SPRING SALE! PLEASE DO NOT SAVE OR BRING A N Y R U M M A G E T O T H E CHURCH IN THE MONTHS AHEAD. Thanks for all you have given, but at this time, the committee has decided to cancel the spring sale and possibly the fall sale due to lack of workers during the day time hours.

CHRISTMAS EVE CANDLELIGHT SERVICE ONE SERVICE AT 8:00 P.M.

CHILD CARE WILL BE PROVIDED

Come and enjoy the beauty of the sanctuary accented with poinsettia blos-soms. As we worship and celebrate the birth of the Christ Child in the soft glow of candlelight we will again gather to sing and hear the wondrous story.

Our Chancel Choir plus soloists, organ and harp will lead us in our musical devotions. Pastor Wilcox will preach. as is our wonderful tradition we will close the service as we light our candles and sing “Silent Night.”

THE TOWER NEWS THE SECOND REFORMED CHURCH

The Rev. Dennis B. Wilcox, Pastor

Church Telephone: 201-343-7550 Fax: 343-0590 Anderson, Union & Ward Streets, Hackensack, NJ 07601

Volume 51 November, December 2006

Community Thanksgiving Service At First Presbyterian

Church At 7:30 P.M. The Rev. Eugene Kim of the First

Methodist Church will give the mes-sage. This meaningful service is shared by our church along with First Presby-terian Church and First Methodist Church of Hackensack to remember the many blessings we have to be thankful for at this time.

Greeters For November And December

Nov. 5—Lillian Tramantano 12—Charlotte and

Annie Panny 19—Bill Fechtmann 26—Karen Rabadan Dec. 3—Brenda and Frank Voigt 10—Carol Wilcox

17—Keith, Sophia, Grant and Grace Talbert Dec. 24—Vicki, Rick, Paul, Ricky, Peter and Chris Cornwell Christmas Eve—Amy & Ray

Evangelista 31—Joy and Dick Squilanti

YOUth Missions Activities On Nov. 18 the YOUth will

hold a brown bag lunch and cloth-ing event for the homeless.

The young people not only pre-pare the lunch bags, they set up all the clothing that is available for the homeless in their collection closet.

The next day they will have a birthday party for Donna Abraham at her house. As you know, Donna has MS and is confined to her home. This group has adopted Donna.

Cookies For College Kids! Yes, it is cookie time this month!

By the time you receive this Tower, the college students away or at home who are attending college will proba-bly have delved into their box of cook-ies prepared and sent by the Fellow-ship Committee.

HATS ARE NEEDED! The YOUth Missions are collect-

ing warm knit hats to be given out at their Christmas Dinner. A box will be available in the lounge for your gifts. Large sizes for men will be needed the most. Thanks so much.

YOUth Mission decorated pumpkins for display in the lounge at a recent meeting.

Christmas Candlelight Choir Concert Sunday, December 3, 4 P.M.

Invite Your Friends

From The Organ Bench! All my thanks and appreciation go

to all of you who contributed so gener-ously to the new piano fund. As many of you know, our piano has been greatly deficient and not supportive to our needs and the needs of our guest musicians. I eagerly look forward to putting our new Yamaha piano to good use and once again, thank you tremen-dously for your understanding, coop-eration and generosity.

June Marano-Murray

TAX INFORMATION The year 2006 ends on Sunday,

December 31st. It is not too late now to plan. Naturally, all contributions received on or before that date will be included in your personal statement for 2006 and will include all contributions mailed to the church with a postmark of December 31 or prior. AFTER De-cember 31 all gifts will be in your statement for year 2007.

CHRISTMAS CANDLELIGHT CONCERT

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 3 4:00 P.M.

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS! The Chancel Choir under the lead-

ership of June Marano-Murray will present a Christmas Concert. The pro-gram will feature music by J.S. Bach, John Rutter, David Willcocks, Gilbert Martin, Russell Nagy and others. Along with the chancel choir, soloists Leslie Malanga, Mezzo, Soprano, Anne Marie Church, Tenor, Michael Malanga, and Baritone, Gary Hickey, there will be Handbells, Organ and Piano. This is a great way to begin the Advent and Christmas Season.

Church Library Begins New Chapter Under

Guidance Of Rhea Talbert And Christian Ed

The Christian Education commit-tee is in the process of revitalizing The Second Reformed Church library. New titles are on order from Cokesbury, Faith Alive Christian Resources and The Upper Room Christian resource catalogs and will begin to arrive in November. Based upon survey re-sponses from church members, the volumes will focus upon current is-sues, self-help, Christian history, prayer guides, inspirational texts, Bible study, Christian art and music. The new books will offer something for everyone in our congregation.

As the new books arrive, we will display them and our classics on a “Library Loan” cart in the lounge fol-lowing services. Everyone will be able to sign out and borrow volumes as they wish. If you have a suggestion for a new book that you would like to see purchased for the library or if you have a donation, please see Rhea Talbert.

News And Notes

The Hymnody Seminar led by John Ballou, one of our former "interim" organists, was great. All those who attended were intrigued to learn about the hymns we sing and where they originated. The time went way too fast. Thanks, John.

PASTOR’S PEN

Thanksgiving is almost here. It seems to have suddenly appeared on my hori-zon. I have hardly had time to make a list of all those things I’m thankful for. Shame on me. I’m missing the whole point of Thanksgiving. Without that list, I reduce Thanksgiving to just another holiday.

I confess I have started a Christmas list… about all the stuff I have to do. That list is also a distraction from the whole point of Christmas. To paraphrase St. Paul: “The list that I should, I have not made; the list I should forget, I make.” In other words, it is hard to keep priorities straight.

To help with the priorities keeping, try this. Make a list—yes another list—of what you think your priorities should be. Here are some suggestions for the list: family, friends, health, thoughtfulness… kind of sounds like it could/should come from the Thanksgiving list I didn’t make. Here are some suggestions to keep off the list: stuff, more stuff, other stuff… kind of sounds like the Christmas list I started.

Maybe I just solved my two list problem with one list. Give it a try. And have a great Thanksgiving and a better Christmas.

Yours for one and only one list,

Dennis B Wilcox Pastor

THE TOWER NEWS

Audrey F. Michel

Editor

Phyllis Hall Layout & Design

Marie Grumbrecht

Circulation

Sunday School 10:00 A.M. Worship Service 10:00 A.M. Adult Education 11:15 A.M.

Web Address:

www.secondreformed.org

E-mail: secondreformedchurch@hotmail.net

Mailing Address:

436 Union St., Hackensack, NJ 07601

Submissions for the Tower News should be in to the Tower News box

no later than the 12th of every month.

CONGREGATIONAL MEETING HELD

FOLLOWING WORSHIP ON NOVEMBER 5

The budget for 2007 was pre-sented by Richard Cornwell. It was discussed and approved unanimously by the members in attendance. Rev. Wilcox gave a Pastor's Report at the meeting which included many facts some excerpts are:

"How do you measure the state of the church”… meaning our congrega-tion… and considered several ways, there are always numbers. We have 291 folks associated with us as con-fessing members, baptized members, and adherents. Let me translate: Con-fessing members are communicant members, baptized members are chil-dren waiting to become confessing members by confirmation, and adher-ents are almost always here but have not joined...yet. Like the rest of us, they are a work in progress. Seven active members died this past year, we re-ceived 4 new members by reaffirma-tion—which means they were already confirmed and transferred to our con-gregation. Number wise, we are about the same. Attendance is better. Dealing with the numbers whether in terms of membership or finances is always open to interpretation.

Let's talk about time to talk about the state of the church. We are busy! Look at the announcements in the bul-letin. Personally I'm busy with the busyness of the church. Sometimes more than others. In the last two weeks my busyness included 5 funerals, 4 internments, 4 "extremely urgent" pas-toral calls, 3 classes to attend or teach, 2 worship services, 1 wedding re-hearsal, 1 wedding, 1 classis meeting, and a congregational meeting. We are busy, the proposed 2007 budget is a busy one...and that's just the numbers. We can't calculate the time and effort it presents.

Pastor Wilcox went on to comment on attitude. In the life and health of our congregation, we have a lot of car-ing people. I know that from visiting folks and hearing about what other folks have done for them. I know that seeing individual members here paint-ing, staining, fixing, arranging, and

working on projects they don't have to… but want to… because it's good for the church. Fellowship is more than fun, it's healing and sustaining. Our youth are involved in Mission and they are teaching us what they have been taught… and that ought to make all of us feel very confident about our attitude. Another confidence builder… visitors feel welcome. The importance of that cannot be overstated. Visitors tell me that our congregation is friendly.

Numbers and time can be used to understand the state of the church. They don't begin to approach attitude as far as importance in the life of a congregation. I know your attitude is right. You are here. Thanks for coming. !!!!!

Pastor Wilcox

Spanish Classes Led By Art DeBlasio

Are Going Well! A good group meets after worship

to study vocabulary and phrases needed to communicate with the Span-ish speaking guests of our Mission projects. This class has been spon-sored by the Mission Committee of the church.

Election Of New

Deacons And Elders The following persons were pre-

sented to the congregation for election to Consistory by the Nominating Com-mittee. The committee is chaired by Carol Miller.

For Deacon Amy Gottschalk Evangelista Phyllis Hall JoAnn Snyder For Elder Bonnie Dickinson Betty Gottschall Jeff Ostroth The vote was unanimous. The installation of the new Dea-

cons and Elders will take place in the new year.

Advent begins December 3rd.

Some of the students learning Spanish.