The Community Church of High Falls The High Falls Messengerchurches.rca.org/highfalls/newsletters/hfm-0304-2019.pdfGuild Meetings will resume on March 17th. Re-member...all women of

It is official; I’ve hit the winter wall. Here at the end of February, the wind is howling, the tem-perature swings back and forth over the freezing line, and the snow is packed down hard. One of the Psalmist says it all, “how long O Lord!” Granted, that Psalm has nothing to do with winter, but it still fits.

I feel this way at the end of every season. In Au-gust I’m sick of the heat, in May, I’m tired of rain, and in November I’m looking forward to the first snow. Sadly, I confess, I’m not tired of how much I complain about the weather. Truth be told, I like complaining about the weather. And I am good at it. Basically, I’m the definition of impatience. To which I am not apologetic. As one friend said to me a long time ago, in reference to the fruits of the Spirit, “Patience is a typo.” And winter is the worst season to deal with when it is time for it to be over. The cold, the lack of sunlight, the claus-trophobic sense that I’m either, (a) trapped by being inside, or (b) trapped my mounds of snow and ice.

I heard it asked in a movie once (a great movie with Morgan Freeman playing God), does God give us patience, or the circumstances in which we learn to be patient? Given how many winters I’ve lived through, and my still under-developed pa-tience threshold, I try to imagine how impatient I would be without winter. Which is a silver lining I

suppose. Imagine what a rotten hu-man being I would be if I had never had to survive win-ter?

By the time we send out the next newsletter, it will be the end of April, or early May. Easter will have come and gone for another year. All the snow will be melted and gone (well, at least it had bet-ter be!). I’ll have something to say about the mud puddles on the rail trails, and how the rain brings out the stink in my wet dog, which will be stuck to all the furniture. I’ll be happy to comment on the seemingly impossible task of getting muddy paw prints off the floor for more than an hour at a time. I’ll be cursing about all the gravel I’m trying to pick out the grass now because, during the win-ter, the plow guy pushed it there with the snow. And inevitably some stinkin’ bird will make her nest in some inconvenient location around the house.

Ah, it’s good to have something to look forward to.

Hang in there fellow winter-weary curmudgeons. God is gracious and kind, and soon enough, God will provide us with new things to complain about.

God bless, Pastor Aaron

A WORD FROM OUR PASTOR...

Mar/Apr 2019

The High Falls Messenger

The Community Church of High Fal l s

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Jeremiah 29:11

Mar/Apr 2019: The High Fal ls Messenger ~ Community Church of High Fal ls ~ Page 2

CONSISTORY & CHURCH HAPPENINGS… Office Hours: Pastor Aaron does not hold specific office hours at either church but is available by ap-pointment. Please do not hesitate to call him if you would like an appointment at either church or if you would like a home visit. 845-594-2214 or [email protected] Current Consistory Members: Elders: Amy Greene, Cindy Angyal, Melissa Styles-Neff and Alan Pellicane Deacons: Dawn Letus, Kathy Walbert, Paul Wikane, and Lee Potter-Paashaus Classis dues: for 2019 are $95 per member. If you are able to contribute even a portion of this amount, it would be much appreciated. Parish Nursing Program: Jim Nerone, RN and Anne Marie Kitchen, RN Blood pressure checks for January totaled 12. Feb-ruary checks totaled 11. The next dates for blood pressure checks will be March 10th and April 14th.

Prayer Chain: If you wish to request prayer for any special need, one phone call to Pastor Aaron (845-594-2214) or Alan Pellicane (1-914-204-6456) will activate the chain.

Card Ministry: If you know of someone who should receive a get well card, a thinking of you card, etc. please let Anne Kitchen know. You can reach her via email at: [email protected] or phone: 845-687-9571 Anyone requesting use of the Church Building/Facilities must first contact Pastor Aaron. Email him at [email protected]. IF you are not con-nected with the church and are making a request for use of our building and/or parking lot, please note that these requests must be approved by the consis-

tory and should be submitted via email to Pastor Aaron no later than the 5th of each month for con-sistory consideration. Calendar Keeper: Amy Greene We will have a Lenten Book Study of Mixed Bless-ings by Barbara Brown Taylor. We will be meeting on Tuesday nights, at 6 pm, starting on March 5th. A sign-up sheet is available at the back of the church if you would like Pastor Aaron to order you a copy. Mixed Blessings is a collection of Taylor’s best, and shortest, sermons. Beloved for her winsome and in-spirational writing, Mixed Blessings is on the way to being a devotional classic that anyone can under-stand.

Many enjoyed our recent Pancake Breakfast...there may be more in the future. Our Meatloaf Dinner will take place on March 9th.

The Mission & Outreach Committee will be meeting again soon.

The North Marbletown Mission Thrift Shop will re-open in the Spring but most likely not until May. Be watching all the usual places for an announcement of the opening...Facebook, the Webpage, Bulletins, etc.

The Gathering—our contemplative evening service will return on April 7th and May 5th @ 5pm. We hope that many will join us for this centering time of songs and prayers.

Flower Committee News Anyone interested in being a part of the flower com-mittee (supplying flowers for the sanctuary for a month or for special occasions) or if you would like to change your month, I have openings...just give me a call. Thanks! MaryAnn, 845-687-9409 Our Shawl Ministry Group meets most Wednesdays from 10-12 noon in the Fellowship Hall...you are welcome to come knit or crochet with us, or just sit and chat.


GUILD: Guild Meetings will resume on March 17th. Re-member...all women of the church (and men too) are welcome to join us for our monthly meetings.

We do plan to order two more chair dollies and then we can get rid of the old, decrepit ones.

We will be working on an idea, suggested by Marie Andersen, to hold a Rummage/Yard Sale in the Spring...this will be discussed further at our March meeting in 2019.

Kathy also suggested that the Guild have a special T-Shirt that we could wear during events such as the Bazaar, feeling that it would help our shoppers identify those who are a part of the church. We are thinking gray with long sleeves but what wording, picture, etc. to put on the front? Let us think about it over the winter and discuss again in March.

Our 2018 Bazaar was a great success. Are you work-ing on new stuff for this year’s bazaar? This season of snow and mud is an excellent time to be working on items for the 2019 Bazaar.

We recently purchased some new full length aprons with our logo on them to be used at our fundraising dinners. Some tried them out at our recent Sweet-heart Pancake Breakfast! Our next fundraising din-ner will be the Deacons Meatloaf Dinner on March 9th, 4-7pm.

We would like to thank these three ladies on our service team, who both set up and cleaned up after our potluck luncheon in January. They also host our Second Sunday Coffee Hours...always with a smile!

Our Church Family Birthdays … 3/1 Richard Albert 3/2 Matthew Cline 3/4 Andrew Potter 3/5 MaryAnn Wright 3/8 Kelly Hassett 3/9 Dan Paashaus 3/19 Peggy Ayasse 3/25 Kathy Walbert 4/3 Ann Jackson 4/6 Brooke Bogart 4/11 Esther Stickley 4/17 Jane van Laer

4/24 Lorna Schimmrich 4/24 Dawn Letus 4/28 Grace Moone 4/29 Kristin Nerone Anniversaries…

3/26 Amy & Eddie Greene 3/31 Colleen & Bruce Jones 4/10 Lorna & Henry Schimmrich

Our dear Amy Greene is sharing 2 of her recipes. She not only prepares Communion but makes the loaves. She is also a beloved Sunday School teacher. Her Mac ‘n Cheese is an added attrac-tion.

Amy Greene’s Mac N’ Cheese

1 pound pasta shells 1 pound white cheddar cheese 1 pound yellow cheddar cheese 1 pound diced ham 1 bag frozen peas Boil the pasta and then mix above together and place in pan of your choice. Melt one stick of butter and mix with ¾ cup bread crumbs, I prefer the garlic flavored. Put crumbs over the pasta and use back of spoon to press down and seal the edges. Bake at 350 for half an hour.

You can multiply this recipe easily to feed your multitudes. I’m not great at math so I like that this one doesn’t really require math. (Communion Bread recipe is on page 7)

Jessie’s Kitchen

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. ~ Joel 2: 26


Sunday School - both classes have been learning about the 12 Disciples and practicing a song to help us remember their names.

This is the last year I will be teaching on a weekly basis. Hopefully the number of older students will pick up and someone else will feel compelled to step in and teach alongside of Amy. Please consider helping.

Youth Group has had a slow start in the new year, hopefully outside activities will slow down and our teens will be free on Friday nights.

I also wanted to let those of you not familiar with the Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster, Pennsylvania know that from March 9th - October 5th 2019, they will be performing the story of Jesus. This is a Chris-tian Theater that brings the Bible stories to life on stage. Paul and I have seen many over the years and they are amazing! The backdrops, actors, and use of live animals rival any Broadway play I've been to.

Also, there will be a special showing of Noah for three days only in theaters around the country. It will be playing at the Regal Galleria on South Road, Poughkeepsie on April 9th, 11th, & 13th. We saw this live on stage & it was spectacular. Not sure how movie version will be, but worth the trip to get an idea of what the live performances are like.

~ Gail Wikane

SUNDAY SCHOOL AND YOUTH GROUP

Our contemplative evening service will return on April 7th and May 5th @ 5pm. We hope that YOU will join us for this centering time of songs and prayers.


A History Lesson...a series by Gary Kitchen

The Pine Street African and African-American Burial Ground in Kingston

In the summer of 1990, an Archaeological Survey in Kingston, New York, resulted in the discovery of an 18th to 19th century African and African-American burial ground amidst the backyards of a residential portion within the city limits. The area in question was used for African-American burials from 1750 and continued in use to 1878, only stopping with the expansion of the city limits of Kingston on its southern border. Small family grave-yards of enslaved individuals have been discovered through-out our area of the Hudson Val-ley, but there has only been two large burial grounds discov-ered holding the remains of en-slaved individuals and their relatives. The cemetery in King-ston is one of the few burial grounds for enslaved individuals discovered that is almost as large as the African cemetery in New York City. The impetus for this survey was to locate the designated Negro Cemetery as shown on the 1870 Beers Map of Kingston. The map and area is shown in Figure 1. Prior to the 1750s, the area where the burial plot is located, was known as “Armbowery”. This is an the old Dutch term derived

from the word arm meaning “poor, needy or indigent” and bouwen which means “to cultivate”. This can be interpreted as “poor farm”. This large section of land was owned by the Common-ality of the City of Kingston and used for pasture land, gardening, social events un-til the mid-18th century. It’s location is shown in Fig-ure 2.

(Continued on page 8)

Figure 1 - 1870 Beers Map of Kingston (cemetery location is between Pine and Fair Street)

Figure 2 - Location shown on 1777 map


The North Marbletown Mission Thrift Shop

The NM Mission Thrift Shop is closed for the season and will re-open this Spring—most likely the first Saturday in May...look for updates via Facebook, our Website, the Bulletin, etc. Please note that we are not yet accepting any donations.

If you are looking for information or would like to volunteer your help in the Spring, please contact Martha at 687-7043 or on the NM Mission Thrift Shop Facebook page.

~ Martha Lischinsky, NM Coordinator

Net proceeds go to the Rondout Valley Food Pantry and other missions. The Mission Shop is located on Route 209 north of Stone Ridge, Cross streets are Marcott Road and Wuchte Lane. The North Marbletown Mission Thrift Shop is made possible by volunteers from the Community Church as well as others from the surrounding community.

MISSION & OUTREACH

This year the “Bring a Dime – Every Time” collection took in $389.95 to help the hungry that rely on the Rondout Valley Food Pantry. We all enjoyed the fellowship offered by the Roller Luncheon! Coming up in the Spring will be our annual Food Drive. Details will be posted in an upcoming Sunday bulle-tin.

Lee Potter-Paashaus chairs the Missions Committee and Cindy Angyal coordinates our quarterly missions. If you would like to be on the committee let us know.

Rondout Valley Food Pantry

Cindy Angyal and Lee Potter-Paashaus are now on the board for the Rondout Valley Food Pantry. The pan-try is now located in the old Marbletown Town Hall building in Stone Ridge. It is open on Tuesday and Thursday from 9-11 am. If you are aware of anyone in need, please have them call the Pantry at 845-687-4013.

Items in need at this time are laundry soap pods, coffee, soap, toothpaste, shampoo, and other toiletry items (these items are not purchased by the pantry so they rely on donations). If you wish to make a monetary donation to the Food Pantry please make the check out to the Rondout Valley Food Pantry and give it to Cindy or Lee and they will get your donation to the food pantry. Please indicate that you are from the Community Church of High Falls so that they know we are not only supporting them with food items but also with monetary donations.

So far this year our church has donated 93 items to the food pantry. Thank you for supporting those in need.


Our annual Congregational Meeting and Roller Luncheon was held on January 27th, following the Sunday service. After approval of the Budget we went downstairs for a Pot Luck Luncheon and to count and roll the coins saved in the Big Jar throughout 2018. $389.95 was collected over the course of this past year and will go to the Rondout Valley Food Pan-try. It wasn’t only coins that were collected this past year as seen in this photo, an anonymous donor put a 100$ bill in the pot!

Official Communion Bread of High Falls

(it’s so not just for Communion)

Start: ¼ cup warm water ½ cup sugar ¼ cup black strap molasses 2 teaspoons of yeast (I prefer jarred yeast over foil packets) Let rest for an hour. It’s not really resting because the yeast are having a feast. The better the feast the better the crumb of the bread.

Mix in: ¼ cup oil 2 ½ cups very warm water (not hot) 1 tablespoon salt 4 ½ cups whole wheat flour 3 cups unbleached white flour

Knead and knead and knead. Give it a good ten minutes…this also helps build your triceps muscles but more importantly helps get the texture you want from the bread. Coat the mixing bowl in oil and turn the bread over in it. Cover and place it somewhere warm until doubled in size. I like to warm my oven a tiny bit and then put it in with the heat off, or put the bowl in the sunlight. Once doubled, knead and shape the bread to what you want. This will make two loaves. You can use a bread pan which will give you a crunchier crust and if that is what you want, place a heat safe bowl of water in your oven during the preheat to make steam while you bake it. I prefer a softer crust and usually shape to round loaves. This bread also makes a really pretty center piece for your table if you braid it. This bread is also really happy to have things added, I have kneaded in fancy French herbs, or chunks of good cheese. Once you have your basic loaf made this bread is really forgiving so have fun and try different things out. After shaping let rise for half an hour and then bake at 350 for about half an hour, or until it sounds hollow when tapped. I have also made small balls and turned them into dumplings by placing them in the slow boiling stock of a good stew or soup. This bread also freezes really well before baking, so if it is just you or just two, you can make the whole recipe and then freeze portions for future meals. I’m gushing but I really just love this bread! ~ From Amy Greene


The figure shown below is an artistic (John Vanderlyn) representation taken from a bluff of rocks just east of the junction of Wall and Fair Street looking northwest towards the Catskills. John Vanderlyn (b. 1776 d. 1852) was a neo classicist painter from Kingston, NY. The homes shown in the painting are along St. James Street, which in 1819, was the southernmost section of inhabited Kingston. The burial site and Armbowery were located outside of Kingston’s wall stockade and could not be owned by private individu-als at the time. An ideal location for a graveyard for enslaved persons. The 1990 project was spearheaded by archaeologist Joseph H. Diamond and Kingston historian Edwin Ford. The initial findings proved the existence and location of the cemetery but the significance was not immediately embraced by the community or Kingston government. Since the burials stopped in 1878, the only evidence that the burial ground existed was it’s inclusion in maps made of the area in 1870 and 1875. Figuring out who is actually interred in this cemetery proved to be a little more elusive. Court records from 1803 indicate that two Africans were most likely buried in the Pine Street Cemetery, a male named Sam and female named Dayon. The cemetery is mentioned four times in two history books by Schoonmaker, 1888 and Sylvester, 1880). It is not mentioned in any land deeds. Based on deed research, the burial ground was covered by a lumberyard as of 1880 and at that point only three or four gravestones were visible. Burial of African-Americans after the 1870s in the Mount Zion Cemetery established in the mid-19th century on South Wall Street, about a mile and a half south of the Pine Street location. A local resident had uncovered a box containing bones when he was doing some ex-cavation in his basement. His property was believed to be located just on the northern edge of where the Pine Street burials took place. These bones were examined and found to be of African-American origin and then reburied in the Mount Zion Cemetery.

(Continued from page 5)

(Continued on page 9)

Figure 3 - John Vanderlyn View in 1819


The cemetery location spans over several privately owned lots. Since there are no grave markers, no ceme-tery records, only map evidence, the uncovered human remains and the historical references, it was diffi-cult to convince the present lot owners that their backyards contained human remains. Since these lots were not owned by a church, a cemetery association, or the City of Kingston it was difficult to have the area protected. It is ironic that since these “owned” individuals in life were now owned by private indi-viduals in death, how does the preservation group formed go about possible historic designation and future protection? Deed records and map evidence confirm that after burials ceased in the late 1870s the burial area was di-vided into private lots, sold and resold. The area now became parts of backyards, a lumberyard, etc. Fig-ure 4 shows the lumberyard location with the superimposed presumed borders of the Pine Street Cemetery. Since the 1990 survey was written and presented in 2001 at the Sixty–Eighth Annual Meeting of the Eastern States Archaeological Federation, in Watertown NY as “Kingston’s African-American Burial Ground”, the 70 by 225 foot plot has remained unchanged. No new construction was allowed, but no further surveys were conducted. The previous preservation group had tried to purchase the property but was unable to raise the funds. Now the Kingston Land Trust (KLT) has partnered with a local nonprofit organization, Harambee, to begin a fundraising campaign to purchase the burial site. The majority of the property, which includes a dilapi-dated building and it’s backyard, is owned by a bank’s loan servicing agent, is on the market for $200,000. The newly formed preservation group has started fundraising activities to raise the money to purchase the lot. The executive director of Harambee noted in a recent press release, “Through the struggles and mis-treatment of our ancestors and allies, we are united in the fight to give them peace and freedom in their death.”

Figure 4 - 1892 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map

Community Church of High Falls

PO Box 68

High Falls, NY 12440

We are located at 4 Firehouse Rd, HF [email protected] http://churches.rca.org/highfalls/ www.facebook.com/communitychurchofhighfalls Pastor Aaron Schulte [email protected] 845-594-2214

DATES TO REMEMBER…

Mar 5: Lenten Book Study series begins—6pm Mar 6: Ash Wednesday; Lent begins Mar 9: Deacons Meatloaf dinner Mar 10: Time Change—Spring ahead Mar 10: Second Sunday Coffee Hour Mar 14: Consistory Mtg Mar 17: Guild Mtg Apr 7: The Gathering @ 5pm Apr 11: Consistory Mtg Apr 14: Palm Sunday and Second Sunday Coffee Hour Apr 21: Easter Apr 28: Newsletter Deadline Apr Guild Mtg—will post in bulletin March 23: annual Charlie Haas Scholarship Spaghetti Din-ner at the High Falls Fire House, 4-7pm March 31: Spaghetti Dinner & Dance-a-thon, 4-8pm at St John the Evangelist Church in Saugerties to benefit the

families of Nikole, Jo and others with children that have cancer or other serious illnesses. Articles for the Newsletter or Photos for the Bulletin

Board regarding Church Life & Church Family Events are always welcome!! Many thanks to Philliber Re-search Associates for printing our newsletters and to the Women’s Guild for paying the postage on all newsletters not picked up in church.

Next Newsletter Deadline is: April 28th

GUILD meetings resume March 17th

Documents

The Community Church of High Falls The High Falls Messengerchurches.rca.org/highfalls/newsletters/hfm-0304-2019.pdfGuild Meetings will resume on March 17th. Re-member...all women of