Mid-Week Visitor
Presbyterian Visitor
June 1, 2023
Tasting Luncheon
The 45th Annual Women’s Association’s Tasting Luncheon will take place on Friday, June 23rd from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Tickets are on sale now and may be purchased from a member of the Women’s Association or by calling the church office. Cost of the tickets will be $8 in advance and $9 at the door. Dine-in, carry out and deliveries are available in the Bloomfield area. Volunteers will be need to help prepare the dishes and to work, if you would like to help with this please see Alicia Holt. The decorations for this year’s Tasting Luncheon will show case our Bicentennial. If you have any pictures or items that might be used as decorations, please let Connie Hawkins know.
Recipes for this year’s Tasting Luncheon are Pimento Cheese Pasta Salad, Cucumber & Tomato Salad, Pear Lime Gelatin, Duo Tater Bake, Slow-Cooked Beans, 3 Cheese Cauliflower, Amish Chicken, Cheesy Baked Tortellini, Hash Brown Sausage Balls, 7-Up Lemon Cake, Honey Bun Cake, and Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecakes.
We will be honoring our graduating senior, Maggie Talbot, at the Senior Dinner following worship service on Sunday, June 4th. Maggie is graduating from Augustana College. The Local Service Committee will be providing the meat and drinks, please bring a covered dish to share. There will also be a showing of a “Style Show” that took place several years ago.
The Women’s Association will be hosting the Legion Dinner on Friday, June 9th. Volunteers are needed to help prepare food and to work. Please see the sign-up sheet on the narthex podium.
Melinda Hendrix and Kara Talbot are working with the Baptist Church to have a combined Vacation Bible School, for the children, this summer. This year’s theme will be “Shine With God’s Light” and will take place July 17th, 18th, and 19th. Volunteers are needed to help with all aspects of VBS, please see the sign-up sheet on the narthex podium.
Our Trustees have been hard at work making improvements to our church and yard. Recently they have pulled out the old bushes around the bell tower wall and will be replacing them with new ones. They also have plans to places some bushes around the flagpole.
Some of the stained-glass windows, that had been stored in the attic or now in the hands of PD Haywood who will be restoring them.
Congratulations to all our area graduates on their accomplishments. Listed below are a few of the graduates of our church members families:
Addison Buckler, granddaughter of Ed & Diana Jackson, Lexington Christian Academy High School.
Eric Hendrix, grandson of Jane Lueking and son of Tim & Melinda Hendrix for receiving his Master Degree in Public Affairs from IUPUI
Lauren Lueking, granddaughter of Jane Lueking for receiving her degree in Architectural Engineering from Texas A&M.
As we are getting closer to our bicentennial celebration, the committee is looking for some pictures of our old church building, especially the stained glass windows. If you have any, the church office would like to make a copy of them. Please let the church office know if you have any. We are also looking for any information on the stained-glass windows that were removed from the old church and sold. Please let the church office know if you have, or know where one of these windows are located.
The Session will be meeting on Tuesday, June 6th at 5:30 p.m. in the Seekers Room.
The Trustees will be meeting on Monday, June 12th at 6:00 p.m. in the Seekers Room.
We are still in need of adult nursery volunteers. Please see the sign-up sheet on the narthex podium. Thank you to everyone who has been helping out in the nursery during worship service. Also thank you to all who volunteer as worship leaders and to many others who help out with other aspects of the church life.
Footprints of Presbyterians
The Reverend J. Nelson Jackaway
Joseph Nelson Jackaway was born in Kensington, Philadelphia, PA on May 15, 1907. His father was Zachary Taylor Jackaway, and his mother was Mary Elenore Dallas. He attended the Presbyterian Church in Kensington, was elected a Trustee, and then ordained as a Ruling Elder before he chose to attend Temple University to obtain his bachelor’s degree in theology. He then attended Princeton Theological Seminary and was ordained as a Presbyterian minister in 1939.
He married Clarice Muriel Mentz on April 23, 1938, in Philadelphia, and they had five children.
After his ordination, he served Presbyterian Churches in Graysville, PA, Barrington, NJ, Belle Vernon, PA, Booneville, KY, Van Buren, OH, and McComb, OH. While in Kentucky, he served several churches.
The Rev. Jackaway became our pastor in the summer of 1964. He was called to become the pastor of both the First Presbyterian Church in Bloomfield, and the Scotland Presbyterian Church. He led both congregations during a prayerful and challenging time of merger. The two congregations became one congregation, renaming themselves as the United Presbyterian Church.
As his son, Mel Jackaway, relates: “My Dad liked the rural communities and small churches. Therefore, Bloomfield and Scotland were a good mix for him, the best of both worlds… He made many friends within the congregations, which helped with the merger of these two churches. He was a good advisor for the adults, and a good guide and mentor for the younger generation. He took an active interest in the ongoing activities around town, and he encouraged the youth of the church in their events. Indeed, he taught the Teen-age class in Sunday School. He believed the future of the church was in the youth group, and he did all he could to cultivate and nurture their lives. I think the church, both the youth and the adults grew and prospered under his tutelage.”
While he was our pastor, he met an untimely death, passing in October 1968, at the age of 61. He is remembered for bringing two congregations together to form a stronger body of Christ.
Pastor’s Message
With Memorial Day Weekend at the end of May came the unofficial beginning of summer. It’s another season, and it often brings with it a different sort of rhythm. Summer can be
slower,
more relaxed,
more spontaneous
We gather in different ways,
relax in different ways,
travel more.
Routines change as the seasons change, and with those changes comes an opportunity to set new intentions for ourselves and our families. We have a chance to be deliberate about what we want to accomplish in this season, how we want to feel, who we want to spend our time with.
It’s no different in the life of the church, where we can also use the change in season to evaluate what matters in our life together at this time and set intentions for how to prioritize that.
Do we want to be intentional about resting? Then we can consider what it could look like for us to pause in
some of our activities and replenish our energy.
Do we want to be intentional about outreach? Then we can consider what it could look like to step
outside the walls of our building and meet our neighbors with no agenda beyond getting to know
them.
Do we want to be intentional about spirituality? Then we can consider what it could look like to explore a
new way of praying or being aware of God’s presence among us.
Do we want to be intentional about celebrating? Then we can consider what in particular we want to
celebrate in our lives, community and congregation, and what sort of activities would feel
celebratory.
In our considerations, the most important thing to keep in mind is that this is for a season, not forever. That takes the pressure off a bit to get it perfect. It also takes away some of the pressure to do all the things. The questions are:
What is God calling us to do NOW?
What is God calling us to feel NOW?
Who is God calling us to be with NOW?
I invite you to take some time to sit with these questions, both individually, and with others. Setting your intentions will allow you to make the most of this season, before it flies by.
In hope,
Pastor Hana