Pastor
Office phone & fax (301)249-6411
Home phone (301)249-5885
Church School 10:00 a.m.
Worship 11:00 a.m.
web page:http://www.unitedparishbowie.org
| United Church of Christ | Presbyterian |
|---|---|
|
Carl O. Bickel, Ph.D.
Pastor Office phone & fax (301)249-6411 Home phone (301)249-5885 |
| MITCHELLVILLE AND MT. OAK ROADS
Church School 10:00 a.m. Worship 11:00 a.m. |
email:pastor@unitedparishbowie.org
web page:http://www.unitedparishbowie.org |
| If you are new to the Bowie area, we invite you to worship with us at 11:00 a.m. on Sundays. A nursery is provided. Christian education for children, youth and adults is Sunday at 10 a.m. We are affiliated with both the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). and the United Church of Christ. |
A few Sundays ago, the congregation voted overwhelmingly to proceed to hire a part-time Youth Director. It is hoped that a person can be found by September of 2000. A committee is being formed to create a job description and solicit applicants. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please speak to Brian Hunt.
The congregation also voted to form a Building Committee and hire an architect to develop a preliminary plan—to include a fellowship hall and some additional classrooms. Mike Mehl is the Chair of this Committee. If you can serve on this Committee, please contact Mike. It should be noted that the congregation has only voted to proceed to acquire preliminary drawings. The decision to proceed further will come later, after the plans are seen and financial resources are assessed. A small but important first step, however, has been taken.
The above plans and dreams regarding the future are only possible because the congregation's giving has been strong. The Church hopes to be entirely or nearly debt-free by the end of the current year. Let us all pray for a proper discernment of God's leading.
Carl Bickel has been in touch for some time with a student from Japan who was duplicating Carl's Ph.D. research. The student has informed Carl that she obtained similar results using a Japanese sample as Carl obtained using a sample of 246 adult Presbyterians in the Washington D.C. area. Carl's research was published in Psychology and Christianity, Spring, 1998.
In Carl's study respondents completed a paper and pencil questionnaire which measured their level of perceived stress, religious coping styles, and level of depressive affect. Scores on the stress questionnaire were split at the median into high and low stress scores. Three religious coping styles were measured: the self-directing, in which a person, while perhaps religious in some sense, looks within for the solutions to experienced life-problems. The differing style puts everything in God's hands and remains passive. The collaborative style believes that life-problems require both an active God and an active person working together. A measure of depressive affect was also employed.
The results demonstrated that greater use of the self-directed religious coping style under conditions of high stress was significantly associated with greater levels of depressive affect. Conversely, as the collaborative style was increasingly employed in high stress, there was a corresponding significant decrease in depressive affect. Greater use of the deferring coping style made no difference one way or the other, nor were there any significant results for any of the three coping styles under conditions of low stress. The results can be seen in the following two graphs.
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Although no causal relationships can be established, one may speculate that to advise one who is in high stress to look to his or her own efforts for the solution of vexing problems, "to take charge of one's life," may simply be a prescription for greater depressive affect. For example, advising a person on dialysis to simple "take charge" may be asking the person to control the uncontrollable. However to ask the person to completely turn the matter over to God while at the same time being as active as possible may result in reduced depressive affect. Additionally, to encourage the person simply to let God solve the problem while the person remains passive makes no difference either way. In a rough way the self-directing way is the path of secularity (even with a religious gloss) and the deferring style the path of certain kinds of religious expression that encourage passivity. This study may give support to the adage, "Pray as if no amount of work would help, and work as though no amount of prayer would help."
It should be noted that depression is very complicated. Quite often depression is caused partially or wholly by biochemical factors which are somewhat or entirely beyond the control of the subject. Also many social, psychological, and environmental factors may be implicated in the causation of depression. The religious dimension is but one of a myriad of factors in any particular depression. By no means would it be correct to conclude that if only one's faith were stronger or of the correct type, one's depression would instantly lift. Matters of the heart are rarely this simple.
On a Saturday morning several weeks ago, the Village Baptist Church of South Bowie caught fire and burned very quickly, Perhaps eighty percent of the church and educational building is now in ashes or charred remains. The church had been in good shape and was not terribly old. There was no obvious reason for this holy place to be dissolved so quickly and unexpectedly. A newspaper photographer caught a memorable moment when a fireman in his boots was seen rescuing a small cross from the burning church.
In case of a fire in our homes, what or who would we rescue? If we have a spouse, we would hope the two of us could find our children and lead them quickly to safety. We might run back into the burning house again to rescue some photo albums and some legal records. Forget all the mementos and favorite pieces of furniture, even heirlooms. We would consider ourselves most fortunate if no one in our family was burned or maimed.
Does it take a fire for us to see the parallel between us and God, our Creator? So often God's Spirit intervenes on our behalf to save us from those persons who would destroy us or those things that we might cherish too much. God is a jealous God in the sense that God created us to adore Him and be in his family forever. We need to be God's firemen offering a second chance to people who are on destructive paths, including our own offspring. If our children do not yet understand that God wants to be Number One in all of our lives, then we need to put on our boots and do whatever is necessary to lead our children into a daily relationship with God. Our talking and our modeling will carry them so far, but at some point each child needs to affirm for himself that the God revealed in Christ is Number One and the only worthy Ruler of their lives.
Shirley Klotz Bickel, c. 2000
As Pastor Joseph Ruffin and members of the First Community Church enter the building of the United Parish to set up for their afternoon services, they invariably greet the departing United Parish members with a warm and joyful, "God bless you." Pastor Bickel, of the United Parish, has said, "It would be virtually impossible not to like Joe Ruffin and members of First Community Church. It always gives me a lift to receive their greetings and blessings."
Almost four years ago First Community Church, a predominately African-American congregation that had been affiliated with the Free Will Baptists, was looking for a place to worship and another denomination with which to affiliate. Through the efforts of Area Conference minister, The Rev. Dr. Kwame Osei Reed; the minister of First Community, the Rev. Joe Ruffin; was introduced to the Rev. Carl Bickel, Pastor of the United Parish of Bowie in Prince Georges County in suburban Washington D.C. The United Parish is a congregation of about 200 members, is predominately white, and is affiliated with both the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church, (U.S.A.). A very satisfying relationship between First Community and the United Parish has emerged. The 56 member First Community Church and Pastor Ruffin are now members of the United Church of Christ.
First Community Church has been "nesting" within the United Parish. First Community holds services on Sunday afternoons at the United Parish. Pastor Bickel has attended and spoken at services at First Community, and Pastor Ruffin has preached at services of the United Parish. Barbara, Joe's wife, has sung beautiful solos at the United Parish.
Initially First Community Church was to be at the United Parish for only a year while they built their new facility in Temple Hills, Maryland. Their building dream has been delayed, due to difficulty the church has had in selling some property it owns. In the meantime, says Pastor Bickel, "We love having them here, and they can stay as long as they want."
As our lay delegate to the UCC's Potomac Association, I recently attended a meeting at Little River Church. The guest was Maureen Shea, White House Associate Director for Public Liaison. Ms. Shea works primarily with the religious duties and recent activities. She finds her outreach work with Muslim and Sikh organizations especially interesting. Two concerns high on the president's agenda are gun control and third world debt. Then Ms. Shea asked the thirty plus representatives of a number of area UCC churches to state their concerns, which we enthusiastically did. She cautioned us that the most effective strategy is to focus on one of two issues at a time.
Also in attendance was Jay Lintner, Director of the UCC's Office for Church in Society. He said the highest priority issues of his office this year are AIDS in Africa and "Jubilee 2000." The Bible describes the Jubilee tradition of debt forgiveness. April 8-10 will be a Jubilee 2000 National Mobilization, whose objective is urging the World Bank, IMF, and Congress to ACT NOW to cancel the debt of the world's poorest counties in Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East. Mr. Lintner pointed out that money diverted from health and education for debt service is very costly in maternal and infant mortality. Mr. Lintner also passed out flyers announcing a "million mom march for common sense gun laws" on Mother's Day.
Additional information on these events will be available in the narthex.
Doug Snyder
Intergenerational Sunday School Hour
On April 16, Palm Sunday, the church will celebrate Holy Week by holding an Intergenerational Sunday Hour. At 10:00 AM, all Sunday School classes will meet in the sanctuary for devotions and a discussion of the symbols of Holy Week.
After our discussions, each family will design a "quilt square" depicting a significant event in the life of Christ from birth to resurrection. These squares will then be pieced together as "quilt banners" for hanging at United Parish.
This Sunday School Hour will provide a unique opportunity for families and church members to spend time together in worship.. Those individuals who are the only member of their family attending will be grouped together for the banner project.
We hope that all church members will make a special effort to attend this celebration.
Supplies Needed
On April 15, members of the church will design "quilt squares" depicting significant events in the life of Christ. We will use a wide range of materials for these squares -- fabric, bric-a-brac, pipe cleaners, felt, sequences, etc. If you have any "scraps" that you could donate for this project, please place the scraps in the box marked "Quilt Squares" that is under the table in the narthex.
REAL MEN DON'T GO TO CHURCH Or do they? Men are staying away in droves from mainstream churches, says Baltimore author Leon Podles in The Church Impotent, our text for six weeks. Let's talk about it. Fran Coombs will moderate every Sunday at 10 a.m., March 5 - April 9.
A Lenten Study will be offered during the same six-week period. In this class, which will be led by Brenda Clyde, we will discuss some of Jesus' encounters during his last days on earth. The Cross Walk by James Moore will be our study book.
From 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, Carl Bickel is leading a discussion of Paul's Letter to the Galatians. In these meetings we not only seek to understand what Paul was saying, but also to relate it to our lives. Please sign up in the narthex if you would like to participate.
The Women's Bible Study meets the 2nd Thursday of each month at the Church. This year's study is the Book of Psalms. Nikki Hillary serves as Study Leader. Please plan to join the women on the following dates.
| March 9 | Text – Psalms 44, 74, and 80 | |
| April 13 | Text – Psalms 13 and 22 | |
| May 18 | Text – Psalms 100 and 146 – 150 | |
| June 8 | Fellowship Dinner |
The Men's Group meets the first and third Wednesdays each month for breakfast at 7:30 at the Dough Roller on Rt. 301 in Crofton. If the Dough Roller is still closed for repairs, we will meet at Friendly's in Crofton, near K-Mart.
| March 5 | Meet at Church | |
| March 12 | Meet at Blakers | |
| March 19 | Roller Skating | |
| March 26 | Meet at Church | |
| April 2 | April Fools' Dinner at Barbatos | |
| April 9 | Meet at Hanners | |
| April 16 | Meet at Church | |
| April 23 | Easter Sunday—No Meeting | |
| April 30 | Meet at Church |
The Fellowship Committee meets every four to six weeks throughout the year to plan and organize events. Some examples are as follows:
We welcome anyone who would be interested in joining this committee! Call Kathy Mehl.
First, the Community Service Committee wants to thank everyone who participated in its projects this past year including Christmas in April, the Christmas gifts to the children organized by the Central Union Mission, the Christmas food baskets to the needy families in our county, the weekly donations of food for the Bowie Pantry, and the monthly Sunday dinners for the Family Crisis Center's resident families.
In addition, the Committee has given the Bowie Pantry $100, Port Hope $300, Habitat for Humanity $300 and Prince George's Hotline $300 for their ongoing programs. These selections were made based on the responses to the congregational survey of two years ago. These gifts could not have been made without the congregation's full support of the Christmas gift programs.
Habitat was highly rated, but we had not been able to support until this year. While we have not found a way we can help them by volunteering our time and effort, they have an ongoing need for building materials.
Port Hope helps youth ages 16-21 become self sufficient while living within an apartment complex in Lanham. The program was researched by Kathy Busch and its soundness was investigated by the whole committee. The program provides tutoring, teaching of basic life skills, and supports financial independence. The youth involved are too old for foster care, but not yet prepared to be self sufficient.
Karla Roskos pointed us toward the Hotline, which not only provides suicide and crisis intervention and counseling, but makes homeless referrals and serves as a link to area resources for long-term solutions to the problems of its callers or their families.
The Bowie Pantry received the entire amount of our Crop Walk designated donation this year. Normally the Pantry shares with Church World Service, but we had no walkers this year and the donation was made too late to fit in with the normal schedule of Crop Walk, so it was decided to simply give locally. Of course, we support the pantry with our weekly food donations also.
The Committee is lamenting Susan and Tim Frank's move to Wisconsin at the end of February. For several years Tim has served as the organizer of our Christmas in April, while Susan has organized the Christmas food baskets for the needy and organized other gift programs for the Family Crisis Center. They will be an enormous loss to the congregation, and we are hoping they will come back to our balmier climes (which we are having trouble demonstrating right now).
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