June 25, 2009 Volume VIIDear Members and Friends,

“Summertime and the living is easy, Fish are jumping and the cotton is high.”

How is your summer going? With the students and faculty away from this campus, things are quiet and peaceful. My summer has been quite pleasant with plenty of time to read and reflect not only about my stay here, but of the challenges facing this congregation.

My hope is that the various committees we have created will move us forward in the Lord’s work. Our membership really needs to increase if we are to remain a lively and significant presence on this campus. The Church Growth Committee is formulating plans to initiate a campaign of outreach beginning on Rally Day, September 13, 2009. Stay tuned for further details on this campaign. The Sanctuary Committee will soon have a proposal for air conditioning our sanctuary in an economical and aesthetic manner. The window units we presently have are simply inadequate when we have a large congregation. Also, we have received proposals from two organ companies to build a new instrument in this historic place. One company would completely replace our present 1929 Lewis and Hitchcock organ while the other company would use as much of our present instrument as possible but add ranks of pipes and electronic (digital) stops. If we do nothing, our present organ will require a complete restoration in several years (so say the experts).

As for the Manse: the thinking is that we keep the property but upgrade several systems. The house is sound, well-built, but in need of attention. It is located in a strategic place on this campus.

I believe we are living in a “between the times” which can allow us to move forward. Some of these plans should be done before the arrival of the new pastor/chaplain. Others will take more time to accomplish. All of them will involve money. This congregation has successfully completed a campaign to build an educational building. I have no doubt that if we joyfully embrace any of these plans we will succeed.

Please pray for our congregation, for its leaders and staff. May God continue to bless us as we minister in this time and place.

Peace,

Edgar

A Church GardenFirst, plant five rows of peas: Presence, Promptness, Preparation, Purity, Perseverance. Next to these, plant three rows of squash: Squash gossip, Squash criticism, Squash indifference. No garden is

complete without turnips: Turn up for meetings, Turn up with a smile, Turn up with new ideas, Turn up with determination to make everything count for something good and worthwhile.

Education NewsletterAugust 2009

Student MinistriesWould you like to get to know a Hampden-Sydney College student for the 2009-10 school year? Through the “Adopt-A-Student” program, College Church families can provide a home away from home for students. Please sign up on the church bulletin board if you are interested in this wonderful opportunity. More details coming soon on how you can make your “adoption” a meaningful experience.

Food donations are needed for the Lemonade Fellowship Hour following Kick-Off Sunday. On August 23, 2009, College Church will have the traditional service honoring our campus student-athletes. Please help us that day by bringing light finger foods such as cookies, brownies, muffins and breads.

Property Committee“Kneel” by Sally ThompsonCollege Church needs you down on your knees! Is one hour a month too much to ask? Please donate one hour a month to pull weeds in our church flower beds. Meditation time is guaranteed! Please sign up on the bulletin board by the church office.

Many thanks to several of our members that were spotted “Kneeling” recently including Virginia Dickhoff, Margie Agee, and Connie and George Wells.

In addition to weeds, sticks and other yard debris need to be picked up around the grounds of the church and the Manse. Please lend a hand before our new load of mulch arrives!

Congregational Care

Deepest sympathies are extended to former choir members Mary and Tom Brennan for the loss of Tom’s mother recently. The Brennans joined College Church in 1976 and Tom was the organist and choir director for many years. If you would like to send a card, their address is: P.O. Box 324, Steep Falls, ME 04085.

Please remember in prayer: Rondi Arlton, Helen

Breckenridge, Lauren Bush, Mary Eubelia Jobe, the Reamer Family, Jim Thomas (Krissy Vick’s father), Chuck Ironmonger, Katie Fitzgerald (mother of Kitty Bush), Andrea O’York, Elmira Chernault, Stanley Titus and our members at the Woodlands: Nancy Anderson, Jewel Fore, Grace Putney, Hassell Simpson, Mabel Wilkerson.

Fellowship Committee

Please mark your calendar for a Rally Day Picnic on September 13, 2009. More details coming soon.

Plan to join members of the congregation for Sunday Lunch Buddies! All are invited to meet on Sundays after the worship service to go out to eat. The group recently visited La Paroda Mexican Restaurant and Sheldon’s of Keysville.

Choir

The choir will resume rehearsals later this month. We look forward to welcoming them back to our worship services!

Joyfully Praise God

Encourage one another

Strive for maturity in Christ

Use our gifts to serve

Share the Good News.

Daily Guideposts July 24, 2005 submitted by Virginia Dickhoff

kick-off sunday at college Church

Christian EducationPlease consider joining the youth ministry team at College Church! Teachers are needed for the elementary, high school and College student Sunday School classes. Please contact May Reed at

may.reed@realliving.com or 392-5324 if you can contribute some of your time to our precious youth!

We will celebrate the beginning of our Fall Sunday School quarter on Rally Day, September 13, 2009. Please plan to attend this very special day in the life of our church. More details coming soon!

Nursery Volunteers NeededIf you are interested in getting to know our young children by helping in the nursery, please check your calendar for potential dates and contact Virginia Kinman,

vkinman@kinex.net or 392-9690. The call to fill the Fall schedule will come out soon! Many thanks to the following people who have helped in the nursery during Sunday worship in 2009 so far: Margie Agee, Lee Bidwell, Marty Dorrill, Genevieve Herdegen, Mary Herdegen, Jane Jobe, E.A. Mayo, Patsy Pelland, May Reed, Barbara Rice, Dawn Tanner and Krissy Vick.

August 23, 2009

11:00 a.m. Worship Service

to honor

Hampden-Sydney College Athletes

Lemonade Reception following on the front portico

Please donate food items such as brownies, cookies, breads, muffins.

Message from the Growth Committee: “The best way to get people to come to church is to ASK them to come!”

F.A.C.E.S.College Church has been granted $1,000 for support of FACES, our local food bank, by the Presbytery of the Peaks from the Two-Cents-a-Meal grant.

Plastic bags, egg cartons, canned goods and non-perishable items such as macaroni and cheese may be placed in the box by the nursery for FACES. Egg cartons are not a critical need at this time.

Good Samaritan The Good Samaritan Fund collection for July was 775.00. The fund balance as of July 31 was $526.01. Because of your generosity, College Church was able to help with several emergency situations in recent days. Thanks to all who have contributed to this worthy cause. More is needed to continue to respond to calls for help from those in our community with financial needs for the remainder of the year.

Two-Cents a MealThe Two-Cents-A-Meal collection for the month of July was $56.15 bringing our total this year to $411.08. Peaks Presbytery was among the top 10 of 173 PC(USA) presbyteries in the nation for giving to this program. Thanks to all at College Church who faithfully contribute every fourth Sunday of the month.

Spotlight: Bethlehem Ministry, HaitiStarted in 1993 to support schools founded by Father Jean Monique Bruno in Terrier Rouge on the Northern coast of Haiti, Behlehem Ministry seeks to address the root problems of poverty in Haiti through a strategy of holistic community development. The tuition-free elementary school, Ecole St. Barthelemy, has over 500 students in kindergarten through sixth grade. There is no public education in Haiti, so many of these children would not be attending school without the support of Bethlehem Ministry. Clinique Esperance et Vie (Hope and Life Clinic) opened in 2008 and provides medical, dental and preventive health services. Solar energy powers both the school and the clinic. Other projects include a biofuel program, a women’s embroidery collective, midwife training, and food distribution. All of these efforts involve and empower the local community in Terrier Rouge and the surrounding area.You can see beautiful color photos of the work in Haiti in the Good News from Haiti book on the table in the front of the sanctuary. The latest newsletter and a brochure about the St. Barnabas Agricultural School founded by Father Bruno in 1984 are on the bulletin board downstairs. Additional information is available on the website at www.bethlehemministry.org. Bethlehem Ministry receives $4,000 a year from College Church. by Virginia Kinman, Outreach Chair

Homelessness and Affordable Housing Sunday is August 9, 2009. If you missed the June newsletter spotlight on Habitat for Humanity, check out their website at www.farmvillehabitat.org to find out how you can help. Or, read stories of hope from the Presbyterian Network to end Hunger at www.pnteh.org.

News from the PewsHave anything to share with the congregation? Post it here!

http://people.hsc.edu/organizations/collegechurch/Log on and see the latest happenings at College Church. You can now access church calendars, monthly newsletters, upcoming events, pictures and reports on the life of the Church. College Church is also now on Facebook. Become a “friend” of the College Church group today.

Men’s Coffee Group Men of all ages are invited to meet at the Hitchin’ Post on Saturday mornings at 8:30 a.m. Come when you can!

Commonwealth Chorale: “Carmina Burana”This popular music is used in television and movies often. It uses texts of worldly thoughts written in the Bible

margins while bored 13th Century monks illustrated the gilded letters of Bible chapters.

Performances:November 15, 2009 Virginia State University at 3 p.m. Anderson Turner Auditorium

November 22, 2009 Hampden-Sydney College at 3 p.m. Johns Auditorium

Now forming an expanded adult chorus with all ages and all voices.

Composer Carl Orff needs a youth chorus ages 7+ who sing in tune.

Please contact Norma Williams at (434)392-7545.

Bob Hall and John Eastby along with the Nancy Anderson with her Willie Thompson at the Sunday Lunch Buddies at Sheldon’s great-grandson at church Hot Dog Cookout

John Calvin 500! from www.PCUSA.org

Many Presbyterians greet the news that 2009 will mark the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth with a yawn, a roll of the eyes, or even a derisive snort. Why are we so dismissive of our forebear in theReformed tradition?

Lutherans adore Martin Luther. Methodist hearts are strangely warmed by John Wesley. Anglicans even have a sardonic fondness for Henry VIII. But Presbyterians are uncertain about John Calvin and his legacy. Calvin is not a Reformed idol. John Calvin would have been pleased by our reluctance to revere him. He did not want to be idolized by future generations. In order to discourage veneration, he specified that he be buried in Geneva’s common cemetery in an unmarked grave. Contemporary visitors to Geneva may stumble upon Rue Calvin, but his house no longer stands, and no one even knows where it was.

We need not put Calvin on a pedestal in order to appreciate the ways in which his perspectives on Christian faith and life have shaped Reformed churches throughout the world, and continue to shape our church today.

At the conclusion of his admiring biography of Calvin, Theodore Beza, his successor in Geneva, wrote, “Since it has pleased God that Calvin should continue to speak to us through his writings, which are so scholarly and full of godliness, it is up to future generations to go on listening to him ...” 1 Future generations have continued to listen, not passively, but with a lively engagement that sometimes learns from Calvin, sometimes argues with him, and sometimes discovers that contemporary questions and answers are revised by their contact with his questions and answers.

As the Calvin Jubilee approaches, we can recall some of the ways his thinking has shaped the life of the

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), including our understanding of the importance of education for children, youth, and adults.

Calvin placed the highest value on education in the church. He thought, “doubly fools” those “who do not deign to learn, because they think they are wise enough.” 2 Thus, Calvin established schools for Geneva’s children and youth, and he taught Scripture and theology daily. His understanding of Christian education was not confined to the classroom, however, or limited to the most talented students. Many poor ignorant people today, he wrote, “though ignorant and unskilled in the use of language, make known Christ more faithfully than all the theologians ... with their lofty speculations.” 3

Scripture was central to Calvin’s understanding of Christian education. We may mistakenly think of Institutes of the Christian Religion as a scholastic work of systematic theology, but Calvin saw as its purpose, “to prepare and instruct candidates in sacred theology for the reading of the divine Word, in order that they may be able both to have easy access to it and to advance in it without stumbling.” 4 Calvin’s teaching and writing shared a thorough, lively engagement with Scripture as God’s present, living word to the church.

John Calvin did not view the Bible as a collection of facts to be learned or propositions to be mastered. In one of his delightful images, he likens Scripture to a pair of eyeglasses: “Just as eyes, when dimmed with age or weakness or by some other defect, unless aided by spectacles, discernnothing distinctly; so such is our feebleness, unless Scripture guides us in seeking God, we are immediately confused.” 5 We study the Bible, not for its own sake, but because Scripture helps us to see God truthfully, ourselves honestly, and God’s Way in the world clearly.

God’s new Way in the world was central to Calvin’s teaching. He did

not see matters of social and economic life as footnotes to the gospel or addenda to the nature of the church, but integral to knowledge and service of God who is Creator and Redeemer of all of life. He would have been puzzled by the contemporary distinction between compassionand justice. Any separation of theology and ethics would have been foreign to his comprehensive thinking about Christian faith and life.

Calvin’s central concerns with Scripture and God’s Way in all of life inform the educational materials of Congregational Ministries Publishing. We Believe, our central Presbyterian curriculum, is in the spirit of Calvin’s continuing reform of the church. That is one reason why our attention to Calvin’s Jubilee year is not an antiquarian endeavor or an exercise in hagiography. Instead, it is a chance to focus on the ways he continues to help in probing the depths of our faith and faithfulness.

Witherspoon Press is in the process of producing a superb 60-minute DVD that will help Presbyterians learn about Calvin’s life and legacy as a way of incorporating his insights into our task of knowing God more fully and reforming the church more faithfully. Look for more news of this exciting educational resource in future issues of ideas! Also, mark July 8–11, 2009, on your calendar for a Calvin Jubilee conference at Montreat. Both the Calvin legacy DVD and the Jubilee conference will open the PC(USA) to fresh winds of the Spirit blowing from 16th century Geneva!

Notes1. Theodore Beza, The Life of John Calvin (Durham, U.K.: EvangelicalPress, 1997), p. 140.2. John Calvin, Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, 50:4(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1993) p. 54.3. John Calvin, Commentary on the Gospel According to John, 1:45(Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1993), p. 76.4. Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, “John Calvin to theReader,” 1559 (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1960) p. 4.5. Calvin: Institutes, 1.14.1, pp. 160–161.

College ChurchP.O.Box 13Hampden-Sydney, VA 23943

College Church Newsletter July, 2009

Financial Report July 31, 2009

*Received to date for budget: $100,781.98

Budget expenses through July 31: $ 70,287.33

Average weekly congregational giving needed to meet the budget: $1973.40

*Includes $1,400 pledges given in ’08 for ’09 and $30,000 H-SC contribution for Chaplain (Jan. - Dec.)

Worship Attendance July 5 35

July 12 43

July 19 49

July 26 51