The Messenger March / April 2024

Riverside Presbyterian Basketball League

February 11, 2024

Riverside Presbyterian Basketball League awards were awarded on February 11, 2024. Thank you to the board, coaches, referees, players, families, and volunteers who keep this league running! The Maness Award was awarded to players in each age division, and the Morrow Award was awarded to adults who have served in the League. Over 425 children participated this season.

From Your Pastor

Brian Lays

Dear Riversiders:

Last month, I had the privilege of traveling to Malawi, a small, landlocked country in Southern Africa, with a group from four other Presbyterian churches in our region of the country. The purpose of the trip was to visit the Nkhoma Synod Hospital, which was founded a century ago by Presbyterian missionaries. Under the leadership of Salvador de la Torre—the same missionary with whom our Mexico mission trip team worked in Chiapas—the hospital is transforming into a teaching hospital to help equip its very rural region of Malawi with better health services.

Lots of assistance is needed at the hospital, from IT workers who can help the transition onto a digital platform to accountants who can help with the hospital’s finances, to teachers, nurses, and, of course, doctors, who can assist with treatment and care.

The hospital is remarkable in that, when it comes to money, it is able to do a lot with a little. With a budget of less than $2 million per year, it serves a population that would require a $700 million budget at a typical hospital in the United States. Still, the needs are substantial. Distribution of medicine is a major challenge in the hard-to-reach rural villages. The hospital is unable to provide food for patients, except for newborn children. Medicines are often in short supply. Still, amazing things are happening. The hospital recently completed a new surgical ward equipped with air conditioning, and can now manufacture its own oxygen, which was very unreliable but in high demand during the pandemic.

My most memorable moment from the trip was when I accompanied the palliative care team on one particular visit. We drove about an hour and a half to deliver medicine to an old man who was dying of leprosy. He sits all day in the shade of his small, one-room hut, which is no more than four feet high. Leprosy is something I read a lot about in the Bible, but to see it in real life, what with its ghastly open wounds, was difficult to witness. Two other young women in the village were showing the beginning signs of the disease on their hands, and I couldn’t help but wonder what the future holds for them.

A highlight of the trip was getting to meet the moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Malawi (photo directly to the left). The Presbyterian Church, and Christianity generally, is strong in Malawi, and the faithful spirituality of the faculty and staff at the hospital was evident throughout our stay. I even had the joy of preaching in their morning chapel—a true delight!

I hope that one day, Riverside can take another trip to the hospital, as it could be an ideal medical mission partnership. But for now, I’m thankful for the three short days I spent witnessing God’s faithful presence among a beautiful people.

Grace and peace, Pastor Brian

Women’s Retreat

Marywood Retreat Center

20 women gathered at Marywood Retreat Center on Saturday, February 3, for a women’s retreat titled “Telling Our Stories.” The retreat was led by Rev. Julie Coffman Hester, child of Riverside Presbyterian and daughter of Blanche and Dan Coffman. The women enjoyed good food, great teaching, and time with each other. Here are a few quotes from women who attended.

“Listen, I want to share something with you. Oops, I need to practice listening first. Our recent women's retreat provided the guidance and opportunity for us to listen and to share with others. I encourage you to ‘listen’ and join us next year, since this is a fun, safe, caring, womenonly spiritual time. I'll be quiet now.” -Hilary Shipp

“The women's retreat this year was my first, and now I can't imagine not going every year. It was a highlight of my church life at RPC, and it provided so many blessings--most of all the warm and loving fellowship of intergenerational women seeking Christ. With the help of Rev. Coffman Hester, we explored how our stories and the stories of our families fit into God's big picture in a calm and peaceful venue on the river quite fitting for spiritual contemplation and growth.” -Elaine Akin

“For someone who has not been a lifelong member of the congregation like so many others, the women’s retreat was the gift of inclusiveness, warmth, and laughter. Julie Hester, our retreat leader, reminded us all of the importance of not only telling our stories, but hearing the stories of others which bind us together in faith. Staying over on Saturday is a must! I’m so grateful I was able to attend and look forward to the next one.“

-Claudia Calhoun

The Neighboring Collaborative

by Elaine Akin

I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to participate in The Neighboring Collaborative, serving our Five Points neighborhood led by Pastor Dana. My gratitude is really twofold—I am humbled equally by the energy and heart modeled by my fellow Collaborative members and by the residents and merchants of this beloved historic district of Jacksonville. Our Collaborative meets monthly to discuss lots of pertinent topics that affect us and our Five Points neighbors—from logistics such as parking and trash pickup, to more creative thinking such as programs and community-building initiatives. Our visioning focuses on how we can be a presence for good as Riverside Presbyterian Church, but also how we can work hand-in-hand with our Five Points neighbors to collectively improve our neighborhood. It’s community outreach in the truest sense!

I have also been completely enlightened by attending the monthly Five Points Merchant Association (FPMA) meetings, which take place in RPC’s Bittinger Hall. I love that we can extend this kindness of a free venue for the merchants, and it has also been the most efficient way for me to understand the perspectives, goals, and challenges of our neighbors. The merchants are sincere and passionate, and I learn so much about the history of Five Points, the current nuances of everyday life, and the hopes of the future for this important cultural hub. The FPMA now offers committees for a variety of issues and ideas for the neighborhood, and you don’t have to be a FPMA member to participate! Anyone with a heart for Five Points is welcome to inquire at fpmajax@gmail.com.

Caterpillars + the Easter Story

RPC Children and Youth Given Caterpillars to Experience the Easter Story

On Sunday, March 3, RPC children and youth picked up individual caterpillars and took them home. Over the next several weeks, children get to experience the caterpillar growing and eventually forming a chrysalis. The butterfly should emerge from the chrysalis a few days before Easter. Children and youth are then invited to bring their butterflies to church on Easter Sunday at 9:45 am. Emily Heeg will lead a discussion about the experience and about how the cycle of the butterfly reminds us of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

Youth Sunday + Youth Space Reveal

January 21, 2024

Pastor Lauren shared this blessing and prayer at the youth space reveal:

Holy One, Holy Three:

It is in you that we move and live and have our being. And so as we move and live in these spaces, may we feel your presence around us and among us and within us. May we remember this as the place where we understood you were more than a word in a prayer. May this place be as our own sanctuary, where we can be who and what we truly are and may we feel safe to become who you are calling us to become. Thank you for this space, God. May we always use it to learn more about one another, ourselves, and You. For you call us to live in community, O God, and we give you thanks for the community we have found here at Riverside. We ask that you make your presence abundantly clear to this community today. Show up in our conversations and relationships over puzzles, activities, ping pong, and the meal we are about to share. We give you thanks for the ways you use your people to nourish us spiritually and physically.

Holy One, Holy Three:

It is in you that we move and live and have our being. So be with us as we experience this space, these people, and you, this day and every day. Amen.

Youth Sunday is a day when RPC youth lead worship! The youth then invited the congregation to come see the new youth space, one of the projects of our Cornerstone Campaign. We all shared a meal together to end our time with each other. It was a full day and good day at Riverside! A big thanks to all of the hands and hearts that made this day possible!

The Davidson family children in their house with their caterpillars.

Riverside Chorister Camp

Dear Riversiders,

I’m thrilled to announce an exciting new opportunity for children at Riverside Presbyterian Church: our first Riverside Chorister Camp this summer, July 29–August 2!

Riverside Chorister Camp

Chorister Camp will provide an immersive musical experience for students entering grades three through eight. Throughout the camp, students will make friends in rehearsals and over shared meals, learn to sing and read music, play games together, and experience special concerts in Riverside Presbyterian’s Sanctuary.

Building Musical Skills

Chorister Camp provides a fantastic opportunity to introduce children to the world of music and to invite children with an established interest in music to dive deeper. The camp’s dual focus on singing and our cultural tradition of musicmaking creates space for children to experiment and explore music in a new way. The camp’s focus will enrich students’ habits of singing along to their favorite Spotify playlists and expand their horizons to enjoy other ways of engaging music. Throughout the camp, students will build basic music skills that open up new worlds of experience when listening to music and singing, skills like:

• more detailed listening of music (in technical terms like form, timbre, and polyphony),

• improved memory and recall of music (also known as musical audiation),

• beginning to think about music’s cultural and historical contexts,

• and experience the deeply social nature of music, because music is always made in community.

What can Chorister Camp offer my child?

By building these musical skills in a formal setting, students will find a richer enjoyment in their day-to-day musical life. These skills help children think and talk about bigger musical questions like, “what makes Taylor Swift songs so catchy?”, “why do I like this Ariana Grande song but not that one?” and “how do I describe the way this Billie Eilish song makes me feel?” In other words, students will engage music in developing their self-understanding, sense of identity, and emotional intelligence. Most importantly, they’ll experience the joy of making beautiful music with new friends using their own voice—and this is a powerful experience with life-long impacts.

Our World-Class Guest Faculty

Our highly accomplished guest faculty bring their years of experience at the highest levels of children’s music education to the Chorister Camp experience. Carolyn Craig, Organ Scholar at Westminster Abbey in London, has taught in children’s choir programs at Truro Cathedral in the UK, Trinity on the Green in New Haven, CT, Westminster Cathedral in London, and Westminster Abbey in London. Peter Thompson, Teacher of Music at Truro School in Cornwall in the UK, has taught at Truro Cathedral for almost a decade following extensive experience as a boy chorister himself. Matt Bickett, Director of Music Ministries and Organist at RPC, studied at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and with top figures in the Royal School of Church Music children’s choir training program.

July 29 - August 2, 2024

for rising 3rd - rising 8th graders

Benefits to Students’ Musical Life including Competition Preparation

For experienced student musicians, the Chorister Camp’s focus on skill-building will show immediate benefits in All-State and other adjudicated musical competitions. Especially for instrumentalists, skills like more detailed listening and improved musical recall equips players with a deeper understanding of their music and prepares them to make greater progress with less effort. Similarly, students of piano and violin will see benefits in their weekly lessons.

Limited Spots and Scholarships Available

Enrollment to Chorister Camp is limited, so register soon to secure your child’s spot. No faith background or previous musical experience is required. We’re also very excited to offer scholarships to anyone for whom the course fee might be an obstacle. Be sure to sign up today! Chorister Camp begins daily at 9:00 am (with breakfast available starting at 8:30 am) and ends at 3:00 pm, July 29 to August 2. The course fee ($250 if registered by June 1, $300 after June 1) includes lunch and two snacks plus all instructional materials.

If you have any questions about the camp, please email me at matt.bickett@rpcjax.org, and I’ll look forward to talking more about it with you,

Matt Bickett

Director of Music Ministries & Organist

Riverside Presbyterian Church, Jacksonville matt.bickett@rpcjax.org (904) 355–4585 ext. 17

Matthew 25 Summit

by the Rev. Dr. Cindy Benz

With no real concept of exactly what we were getting ourselves into, but with high hopes of gleaning more information about the Matthew 25 Initiative of the Presbyterian Church, USA, four Riversiders attended the first of what we hope will be an annual event – the Matthew 25 Summit in Atlanta, Georgia, on January 16-18, 2024. The attendees (now dubbed the Summit Sisters!) were Dana Riley, Kathy Para, Julie Handley, and Cindy Benz.

The four of us split up and attended multiple workshops, including Introduction to M25; What Does God Have to Do with Inclusion?; Where Does Jesus Stand –Five Spiritual Practices to End Poverty; The Role of White Voices in Anti-Racism; The Least of These: Theological and Missional Ways to Eradicate Poverty; and What Does It Mean to Be a Vital Congregation? We received practical wisdom pertaining to the three focus areas of the Matthew 25 Initiative, which are Eradicating Systemic Poverty (fight poverty, not poor people!), Dismantling Structural Racism (we may not be guilty, but we are responsible), and Building Congregational Vitality (safety v. comfort, “if I can’t see you, I can’t value you,” radical welcome).

We also attended a number of mind-blowing keynote sessions (see links below) with experts speaking on the long and sordid history of how we got to where we are now, and how we can come together as a faith community to make positive changes going forward. A few of the results for us at Riverside Presbyterian Church so far have included Matthew 25 Sunday, participation in the Poor People’s Campaign, a planned member visitation program to strengthen congregational vitality, a Matthew 25 library in Bittinger Hall, and plans for a trip to Montgomery, Alabama, with 904ward. We are taking the call to justice seriously and hope you’ll join us in these efforts!

Watch Rev. Dr. William Yoo’s + Rev. Prof Mitri Raheb’s Keynote from Matthew 25 Summit: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ltvW2MONb8 www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgoCltsSeTY

Read more about Matthew 25: https://www. presbyterianmission.org/ministries/matthew-25/

Poor People’s Campaign: www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/

New Matthew 25 Lending Library

by Lissa Kiser

We are pleased to announce the founding of the Matthew 25 Lending Library at RPC! In keeping with our commitment as a Matthew 25 church in the PC(USA), books in the library will help readers deepen their understanding of how we can best do what the Matthew 25 movement describes as “God’s reconciling work” by contributing to the “well-being of the most vulnerable in all societies.”

The core of the new library collection, gifts of Barbara and Carl Zacheis, currently focuses especially on the history of and issues related to racial discrimination in America, but we anticipate adding other works pertaining to poverty, hunger, homelessness, incarceration, and other concerns in keeping with the Matthew 25 movement.

The library, which will open for borrowers soon, is located in a new corner reading nook in Bittinger Hall. Can you suggest thematically appropriate books? Or if you have some you would consider donating, please bring them to the church office, with a note to that effect, for review.

Earth Care Tips

Reduce and reuse before you recycle, and do it in that order.

Reduce first. Recycling is well and good, but it takes energy to recycle products and that energy usage has its own env impact. Before you buy something, ask yourself if you really need it. Are you replacing a product that you could fix or have fixed?

Could you borrow it from a neighbor or could you do without it. The best way to live sustainably is to reduce your consumption in general.

Reuse: Think of ways you might reuse a product before throwing it into the recycling bin. For instance, you could easily reuse jars and bottles as storage containers or drinking vessels, while plastic fruit containers could become planters for starting seeds. Only if you can’t reuse something (or give it to someone else who can reuse it) should you recycle it.

Cut down on food waste

According to the USDA, 30-40% of food is wasted. While some of that waste happens on farms and in stores (consider buying Misfits Market which buys farmers’ “ugly” produce and sells them to consumers at 40% off retail), plenty happens in our own homes too. All of us are guilty of forgetting our leftovers or leaving lettuce to rot in the crisper drawer. One of the easiest ways to reduce food waste is to meal plan, so you only buy food that you know you need for the recipes you intend to make over the week. It can also help to have some quality food storage containers for leftovers, so they stay fresh longer. Remember to use glass instead of plastic for your food storage bc of toxic chemical leakage.

Upcoming Dates

To learn more or sign up for any of these events please go to www.rpcjax.org/calendar

April 3 - WED - Dinner Church, Shabbat 101, 5:30 - 6:30 pm

April 6 - SAT - Field Trip to Native Plant Nursery in Starke, Fl, 10:00 am

April 6 - SAT - Middle School Youth Trip to Wild Adventures, 8:00 am

April 14 - SUN - RPC Field Trip to Jumbo Shrimp Baseball Game, 3:00 pm

April 28 - SUN - Riversiders Adult Potluck, 6:00 pm

PW Lifetime Membership

Awarded to Janie Jones

On February 5, 2024, Janie Jones was awarded the Presbyterian Women in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A)’s Honorary Life Membership. Janie and David recently moved out of state and this was a special way to honor Janie’s service to the Presbyterian Women before their departure.

Holy Week SCHEDULE

March 28 Maundy Thursday Service

7:00 pm

March 29 Good Friday Service

March 31 Easter Sunday Services

7:00 pm 8:30 am 10:30 am

Communion and Choir at all Holy Week Services

Nursery opens 15 minutes prior to each service

On Maundy Thursday we remember the last night of Christ’s life, as we begin the journey to the cross. The word “Maundy” is derived from the Latin word “commandment,” and recalls the “new commandment” Christ gave his disciples the night before he died: love one another as I have loved you.

On Good Friday we recount Christ’s passion and death, and remember all that God in Christ has done for us. This is a contemplative service of scripture and song.

On Easter Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Christ at 8:30 or 10:30 am. These services are identical.

The Easter cross will be in the courtyard on Park Street. Everyone is encouraged to bring flowers to place on the cross, but flowers are provided if you are not able to bring them.

The butterfly release (butterflies brought to RPC by our children and youth) will be at 9:45 am. Please meet near the Easter cross.

Becky Senko

2

3

4

Paul Heeg

5

Adams

Josh Bryan

Kendall McGeorge

Tom Schneider

6

8

Libba

Emily Lockwood

Dana Riley

Valerie

Elise

Emily

15

Harrison

Jesse Geibe

Al Harding

Cliff Huber

Dorothy Marsh

Leigh Rosenbloom

16

Ford Gleaton

Lilly Gleaton

Daniel Kraus

Julia Rogers

17

Anita Goyer

John Green

Stephanie Rodriguez 18

Charissa Hollingsworth

19

Samantha Lobello 20

Karen Stiltz

Nancy Warner

21

Kendell Anderson

Sarah Cotchaleovitch

Coral Day

John Hager

Tai Tai Scherer

22

Eddie Marsh

Caitie Morgan

Fred Sontag

Lisa

Caroline

Bookie

Peggy

9

Thomas Green

Peter Michaelis

11

Bentley Forrester

Nick Garas

Kathy Para

12

Jo Pratt-Dannals

13

Susan Erdelyi

John Hager

Thomas Hager

14

Jenny Brumback

Ruby Evert

Ellen Lotz

Jeff Meyer

Don Ward

16

Janie Day

Julia Fallucco

Carter Rosenbloom

17

Paul Mahoney

Davis Matson

Lawson Nuland

William Rosenberg

24

Gene Clewell

Deana Green

Jon Thompson

25

Kristian Villano

26

Thomson Farnell

Sal Goodwin

Debbie Grisnik

Genevieve Miller

Erin Raynor

27

Hattie Eyrick

Culver Rice

28

Mary Coxe

Emily Heeg

29

Ryan Ashley

Bailey Eyrick

Phineas Johnston

Sloane Johnston

Betsy Miller

30

Caroline Harding

Brad Thoburn

31

Jason

19

Cindy Benz

Omar Dajani

Diana Sifton

Peggy

Cecilia

Camp Stoneburner

20

Anderson Hall

John Logsdon

21

Hazel Taylor

Sharon Vandiver

22

Bethany Crawley

Suzanne Felton

Charity Fisher

Jonathan Andrews

Nina Garas

William Green

Virginia