Lunch Bunch will be returning to another favorite spot, Spain 92, 1116 US Highway 202, south of the Somerville Circle. We will meet on Thursday, November 14 at noon.
Parish Life
Dinner Groups
Dinner Group sign up is now taking place for the coming year. Participants will be grouped with two other couples who then rotate homes and meal contributions. The hosting family invites a fourth member or couple from the congregation to the meal. Meals can be as casual or gourmet as you like. It is a great way to share fellowship and to meet new friends. Sign up sheet is in the narthex. Any questions, contact Wendy Minerowicz.
Advent Parish Night
Come to Advent Parish Night! It is a fun night of crafts, carols, and a pot luck soup dinner. It will take place on Sunday, December 8, from 4:00 to 7:00 at the CEB. Look for the sign up sheets in the narthex and CEB and indicate if you will be bringing soup, salad, or dessert. Examples of the night's crafts will be displayed in the narthex. See you there!
Drink container
One of the three clear, plastic drink containers has gone missing. If you have borrowed it, could you please return it to the supply closet in the CEB kitchen. Thanks.
Dinner Group sign up is now taking place for the coming year. Participants will be grouped with two other couples who then rotate homes and meal contributions. The hosting family invites a fourth member or couple from the congregation to the meal. Meals can be as casual or gourmet as you like. It is a great way to share fellowship and to meet new friends. Sign up sheet is in the narthex. Any questions, contact Wendy Minerowicz.
Advent Parish Night
Come to Advent Parish Night! It is a fun night of crafts, carols, and a pot luck soup dinner. It will take place on Sunday, December 8, from 4:00 to 7:00 at the CEB. Look for the sign up sheets in the narthex and CEB and indicate if you will be bringing soup, salad, or dessert. Examples of the night's crafts will be displayed in the narthex. See you there!
Drink container
One of the three clear, plastic drink containers has gone missing. If you have borrowed it, could you please return it to the supply closet in the CEB kitchen. Thanks.
Hunterdon County Woven Throw
Orders will be taken for the $35 Hunterdon County 300th anniversary woven throw through the church office. Our church is featured right on the center top. This is the perfect Christmas gift!
Important Persons in Zion's Early History
Johann Balthasar Pickel
In 1714, there was a man, twenty-seven years of age and unmarried, who throughout the remainder of his life was to manifest unwavering dedication this congregation. This man was Baltes Pickel. He would have been a most likely candidate for the office of Vorleser and one whom we would hardly expect Justus Falckner to have overlooked.
Baltes Pickel was born in 1687 at Durkheim in the Palatinate, the son of Hans Balthasar Pickel and Anna Eva Mullier. He was still just a boy when his father died and his mother was remarried in 1704 to Mattias Reinbold. With his mother and step-father, young Baltes joined the 1709/1710 emigration and was followed, some 17 years later, by an older brother Johann Nicolaus PIckel, who also settled in Hunterdon County.
That Baltes Pickel early assumed responsibility in the affairs of the congregation is evident by the use made of his and his mother’s homes. The place of the meeting in 1715 was given as Nine Mile Run and in 1716 as Mattias Reinbold’s place at Nine Mile Run. Remember that this was the home of Baltes’ mother and step-father, and possibly, therefore, his own. After Baltes’ marriage in 1718 to Anna Gertrud Reiter, the meetings were held in his home. Thus at least five of the eight services held by Justus Falckner after the one in 1714 were held in home of the Pickel family. It was Baltes Pickel who built, at his own expense, the Racheway Church (at today’s Potterstown) about 1729 and the Leslysland Church (serving the district between Whitehouse and North Branch) about 1735. When at last the Raritan congregation under Pastor Johann Albert Weygand reconsolidated itself and in 1749 built the Zion Lutheran Church at Oldwick, it was Baltes Pickel who generously contributed money and much effort to its construction. He also added £25 toward the purchase of Zion’s first organ. Up to 1750, when the parsonage was built, the hospitality of his home always extended to the Lutheran ministers. Finally, concerned with the church’s continuing prosperity, he bequeathed to Zion by his 1765 will the then magnificent sum of one thousand pounds.
John Augustus Wolf
In 1734, the Reverend John Augustus Wolf arrived from Germany. Wolf was a character totally unfit for the office of the ministry. It was only a few months until he entered into a series of disputes with the congregation concerning salary, parsonage, and his personal conduct. To settle these disputes, the first Lutheran Synod held on American soil was convened in this parish. The delegates and pastor were as follows: from New York, Re. Berkenmeyer, Charles Beekman, Jacob Bos; from Hackensack, Rev. Knoll, John Van Norden, Abraham Van Buskirk; from Uylekill, Peter Frederick; from Potterstown, Rev. Wold, Baltes Pickel, Lawrence Roelofson; from Pluckemin, Daniel Shoemmaker, Hendrick Smith. The Synod resulted in a peace which was short lived, and Wolf continued to menace the congregation’s spiritual welfare until 1745. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg came from Philadelphia in that year in response to our ancestors’ appeals, and disposed of the matter with his accustomed dispatch and justice. Wolf left immediately.
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
The visit of Muhlenberg was the first of many and the service rendered then, welcome and helpful as it must have been, was but little when compared with the constant help the busy patriarch gave to the Raritan Lutherans in the next thirty years.
Muhlenberg was a native of Eimbeck, Hanover Province, Germany. A graduate of the University of Goettingen, he had taught one year in the Francke institutions in Halle. In 1714, at the age of thirty, he was superintendent of an orphan home school and pastor of a church. At this time he was asked to go as a missionary to the wilds of America. Accepting, he becomes pastor of the scattered congregations of Philadelphia, Germantown, Providence, and New Hanover in Pennsylvania. He soon was the recognized leader of Lutherans over a wide area. He set the doctrinal, organizational, liturgical, and practical precedents for American Lutheranism. He sent detailed reports of his work to the pastors at Halle and kept a diary for his personal reference. It is from these documents that much of the early history of the Raritan Congregation is drawn.
In 1714, there was a man, twenty-seven years of age and unmarried, who throughout the remainder of his life was to manifest unwavering dedication this congregation. This man was Baltes Pickel. He would have been a most likely candidate for the office of Vorleser and one whom we would hardly expect Justus Falckner to have overlooked.
Baltes Pickel was born in 1687 at Durkheim in the Palatinate, the son of Hans Balthasar Pickel and Anna Eva Mullier. He was still just a boy when his father died and his mother was remarried in 1704 to Mattias Reinbold. With his mother and step-father, young Baltes joined the 1709/1710 emigration and was followed, some 17 years later, by an older brother Johann Nicolaus PIckel, who also settled in Hunterdon County.
That Baltes Pickel early assumed responsibility in the affairs of the congregation is evident by the use made of his and his mother’s homes. The place of the meeting in 1715 was given as Nine Mile Run and in 1716 as Mattias Reinbold’s place at Nine Mile Run. Remember that this was the home of Baltes’ mother and step-father, and possibly, therefore, his own. After Baltes’ marriage in 1718 to Anna Gertrud Reiter, the meetings were held in his home. Thus at least five of the eight services held by Justus Falckner after the one in 1714 were held in home of the Pickel family. It was Baltes Pickel who built, at his own expense, the Racheway Church (at today’s Potterstown) about 1729 and the Leslysland Church (serving the district between Whitehouse and North Branch) about 1735. When at last the Raritan congregation under Pastor Johann Albert Weygand reconsolidated itself and in 1749 built the Zion Lutheran Church at Oldwick, it was Baltes Pickel who generously contributed money and much effort to its construction. He also added £25 toward the purchase of Zion’s first organ. Up to 1750, when the parsonage was built, the hospitality of his home always extended to the Lutheran ministers. Finally, concerned with the church’s continuing prosperity, he bequeathed to Zion by his 1765 will the then magnificent sum of one thousand pounds.
John Augustus Wolf
In 1734, the Reverend John Augustus Wolf arrived from Germany. Wolf was a character totally unfit for the office of the ministry. It was only a few months until he entered into a series of disputes with the congregation concerning salary, parsonage, and his personal conduct. To settle these disputes, the first Lutheran Synod held on American soil was convened in this parish. The delegates and pastor were as follows: from New York, Re. Berkenmeyer, Charles Beekman, Jacob Bos; from Hackensack, Rev. Knoll, John Van Norden, Abraham Van Buskirk; from Uylekill, Peter Frederick; from Potterstown, Rev. Wold, Baltes Pickel, Lawrence Roelofson; from Pluckemin, Daniel Shoemmaker, Hendrick Smith. The Synod resulted in a peace which was short lived, and Wolf continued to menace the congregation’s spiritual welfare until 1745. Henry Melchior Muhlenberg came from Philadelphia in that year in response to our ancestors’ appeals, and disposed of the matter with his accustomed dispatch and justice. Wolf left immediately.
Henry Melchior Muhlenberg
The visit of Muhlenberg was the first of many and the service rendered then, welcome and helpful as it must have been, was but little when compared with the constant help the busy patriarch gave to the Raritan Lutherans in the next thirty years.
Muhlenberg was a native of Eimbeck, Hanover Province, Germany. A graduate of the University of Goettingen, he had taught one year in the Francke institutions in Halle. In 1714, at the age of thirty, he was superintendent of an orphan home school and pastor of a church. At this time he was asked to go as a missionary to the wilds of America. Accepting, he becomes pastor of the scattered congregations of Philadelphia, Germantown, Providence, and New Hanover in Pennsylvania. He soon was the recognized leader of Lutherans over a wide area. He set the doctrinal, organizational, liturgical, and practical precedents for American Lutheranism. He sent detailed reports of his work to the pastors at Halle and kept a diary for his personal reference. It is from these documents that much of the early history of the Raritan Congregation is drawn.
A Message from Pastor Summer
As we entered our anniversary year, I began to think about our story as a congregation. All that thinking led to the following song. Zion’s Story 1,4. We’re a story being written, 300 years in time. God has been the author, and we have formed the lines. This journey we have taken, Christ has led the way. Each chapter’s been a blessing that’s brought us to today. Refrain Zion’s story is a gospel story. Zion’s story is built on grace. Zion’s story is a gospel story. One, with joy, we embrace. 2. In the home of a freed slave, the gospel first was heard. Water welcomed children, a Pentecost occurred. Emboldened by the Spirit, they answered Jesus’ call To follow in his footsteps, good news to one and all. 3. 300 years of serving, and yet, we’ve just begun, Gathered by the Spirit, following God’s son, Striving as disciples in a world that won’t stand still The story’s only constant, God’s purpose is fulfilled. Peace, Pastor Summer
ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH CELEBRATES 300TH ANNIVERSARY WITH THE WAGNER COLLEGE CHOIR
The congregation of Zion Lutheran Church is invited to attend a special concert presented by the Wagner College Choir at Zion Lutheran Church in Oldwick on October 27 at 4 pm. The Wagner College Choir is a renowned choir directed by Dr. Roger Wesby. The choir recently performed in Germany and Austria.
Dr. Wesby has prepared a concert rich in history to commemorate the anniversary. The program will span 300 years of great composers including Johann Sebastian Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Benjamin Britten, Richard Wagner, Giuseppe Verdi and more. The concert will include a sonata for two flutes and a performance by the Stretto vocal ensemble along with the full college choir.
A reception will follow the concert at the Christian Education Building at 5:30 pm. Admission is free, however a free will offering will be collected at the concert to defray the Choir’s expenses.
Please plan on joining this historic event as part of Zion’s 300th anniversary.
For concert information or questions please call Debra Kaufman.
Stewardship
When you think of Fall you probably think of back to school, pumpkins, and cooler weather. At Zion, Fall means Stewardship. So, what does Stewardship mean?
If you Google Stewardship and Steward you find many definitions. It can be
*One who manages another’s property, finances or other affairs.
*The careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.
*A steward is a person who is the manager, or in charge of someone else’s property.
*There are shop stewards, wine stewards and flight attendants (formerly known as stewardesses).
We are Christian Stewards. Christian Stewardship is the grateful and responsible use of God’s gifts. It is not raising money to meet the budget. All the budget does is indicate how our gifts will be distributed. We are giving back to God a portion of the abundance he has given us. We are grateful to God for it all, and responsible to God for how we use it.
It is our duty and delight to give, or at least it should be. We are doing what we ought to do as responsible church members, and making cheerful sacrifices out of love for God. It is a way of life. The ELCA’s signature phrase is “God’s work. Our hands.” When we give, our hands can do more of God’s work.
During the month of October you will be hearing more from the Stewardship Committee about how your gifts can impact the role Zion can take in being a good steward of God’s gifts to us. Commitment Sunday will be October 27, Reformation Sunday.
Our goal this year is simple. In celebration of our 300th anniversary, we are asking everyone to increase their giving by $300. With this simple gift, we can meet our ministry needs. We can reclaim our support for mission and property, explore staffing in the area of Christian Education, and establish a digital platform (social media presence). In faith, we can make this happen and step boldly into our next 300 years.
Shepherding
The Visitation Group is off to a great start with a very nice turnout at our initial meeting. We reviewed the purpose and scope of the new group. Our intent is to offer friendly visits to Zion members who may be in the hospital or in a similar situation, unable to attend Zion’s regular services. Pastor Summer has prepared the Visitation Program Resource Book, an excellent source for all of those interested in participating in this but unsure what exactly to do when you visit. Different types of visits were discussed so that we understand what everyone is comfortable providing. For instance, there are those comfortable providing hospital visits while others would prefer to visit our members at home. There may be those comfortable delivering flowers to members, while others may want to provide communion (as an extension of our regular service).
The current group includes the following members: Anita Zarate, Rebecca Illnick, Sue Swanson, Kathy & John Rustwick, Judy & Bernard Davis, Peggy Eppley, Dorothy Saewert, Arlene Martin, Margot Forster, Elaine Jermansen, Debra Kaufman, Sandy Matsen, Judy Formalarie, Nancy Neuweiler, & Dan Matyola.
If you would like to participate in the Visitation Program, please email Rosi Delia. If you have questions, please feel free to ask Pastor Summer or Rosi Delia. This is a new program so, don’t be surprised if you’re asked about a visit…giving or receiving. Thank you.
Youth of Zion
This year has been off to a great start for the Youth of Zion. We've had a few Faith Talk meetings at which there has been a lot of discussion of starting "Faith Minutes,” short monthly videos about topics we deal with in our faith. We have also had two YOZ meetings, which have been a great time as we welcome some new members! Looking to the future, we have a busy month planned for October. On Saturday , October 12, Living Waters will be hosting Jason and deMarco, a Christian band visiting as a part of their "Celebrate Diversity" tour. Living Waters will also be hosting a youth Lock-In on Friday, October 18. The Sunday of that same weekend, October 20, the Youth will be attending the CROP Walk in Lambertville. I am greatly looking forward to all of these events. I hope to see you there!
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