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Library News from Bill Wade

Some Tips on Growing Older Gracefully

The manner in which we human beings approach the business of getting older is certainly a relative thing! I have a granddaughter who has just celebrated her sixth birthday and rejoices that she is now old enough to enter the first grade. For her, getting older is great! For many of the rest of us, the passing of the years may not be an occasion for celebration. You have probably heard it said that one should wish to grow old gracefully, but what does that mean? To accept with stoic resignation the fact of becoming old? Is there nothing more?

Given that statisticians report that the average age of Presbyterians in our country is now 61, the topic is of significance. And that is why we are calling your attention to a recent book, The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully, by Joan Chittister, a well-known writer and lecturer, and chair of the United Nations-sponsored Global Peace Initiative of Women. She was born on April 26, 1936, and will soon celebrate her 75th birthday. We presume she knows what she is writing about, and we wish her Happy Birthday as she celebrates her increasing age.

First of all, it is important to say that this is an encouraging and upbeat book. She suggests that we should consider it a gift to be a senior citizen; many of our contemporaries never made it this far. And while some of us do have to contend with various forms of physical limitations and perhaps even pain, we bring to our focus on life a reflection and maturity of wisdom that is valuable to the society in which we live. And she argues that we need "to understand that the last phase of life is not non-life; it is a new stage of life. These older years -- reasonably active, mentally alert, experienced and curious, socially important and spiritually significant -- are meant to be good years."

This is not a book about the physical aspects of aging. Its focus is upon the spiritual and emotional issues that often accompany the business of getting older. In a series of 40 relatively short essays, Chittister reflects upon a variety of topics that are common concerns in the senior years: adjustment, letting go, transformation, regret, freedom, fulfillment, wisdom, memories, nostalgia, loneliness, appreciation, and legacy. She advises us not to go through this book from cover to cover but to read selectively, according to our moods and the needs we face. Her approach is warm and comforting, both realistic and hopeful.

Above all, she wants her readers to find this a productive time of life. As the book jacket says, "These are the capstone years, the time in which a whole new life is not merely being alive, it is the gift of becoming more fully alive than ever." It's waiting for you in the library.

Music Participants: Maundy Thursday: Youth Handbells, Jubilate Youth Choir; Good Friday: Sanctuary Choir, Sanctuary Bells; Easter: sunrise service musicians include Vicki Fey, Shannon Playl, Fred Foy Strang, and Brandon Story; 8:30 service: Praise Team; 11:00 service: Sanctuary Choir, ETSU Faculty Brass, and Alan Fey, timpani.

Holy Week Music: Maundy Thursday: The Youth Handbell Choir will open the service with an arrangement of "Jesus Loves Me," then the Jubilate Youth Choir will sing two anthems. The first, "Celtic Laud," is an original text and melody in the style of Celtic music that gives thanks for the gift of bread and cup and what they represent. The second, "We Walk by Faith and Not by Sight," is a musical setting of a hymn text by the nineteenth-century clergyman, poet, and Biblical scholar, Henry Alford. It rejoices in the comfort of the words, "My peace be with you here."

Good Friday: The Sanctuary Bells begin the service with an arrangement of "He Never Said a Mumbalin' Word," then the Sanctuary Choir will lead the congregation in a new responsive setting by Ann Holler of Hebrews 10:16-25. After the reading of the Passion narrative, the choir will sing "Watch With Me," an anthem by Daniel Gawthrop. The text clearly connects our sin with Christ's suffering.

Easter: The ETSU Brass will provide special music and join in on the hymns and one of the Sanctuary Choir's anthems, "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing." The text by seventeenth-century poet George Herbert was set as a hymn by Erik Routley in 1976, and this arrangement was made in 2001. The Sanctuary Choir will also sing "Christ the Lord Is Risen Again," an anthem by living English composer John Rutter. The text is a sixteenth-century German hymn that was translated into English in the nineteenth-century by noted translator Catherine Winkworth.

Choir Dinner: The children's and youth choirs' annual end-of-year awards dinner is just around the corner! Parents, you should already have Wednesday, May 4, on your calendars. An RSVP postcard will come in the mail soon. Be sure to respond so we will know how much food to prepare.

Final Arts Series Event: Mark your calendars for the final program in our 2010-2011 Arts Series! You will not want to miss young pianist Zachary Hughes in recital Sunday, May 15, at 3:00 p.m., in the sanctuary. More details will follow. ~ Steve & Vicki Fey

April 24: Easter Sunday

Lessons: Isaiah 25:6-9; Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon: At the New Day's Dawn, Gordon Turnbull 

Hymns: Jesus Christ Is Risen Today; The Day of Resurrection; Lift High the Cross

Anthems: Christ the Lord Is Risen Again; Let All the World in Every Corner Sing

By the Numbers for April 17: 8:30 a.m.: 216; 11:00 a.m.: 193

April 25     Aaron Brooks, Betty Johnston, Donna Sikorski

April 26     Oacluse Ellis, Jake Regan, Lynn Welch

April 27     Kim Allerton, Lee Galliher, Jackie Ingram, Catherine Reuning

April 28     Zora Gross, Andrew McRee, Cora Lee Raccioppo, Bob Rhea

April 29     Chuck Preston