Here is an example I love:

"IS GOD....ISGOD IS IN CHARGE"

WHEN WE PRAY, DOES OUR GOD HEAR?

WHEN WE BELIEVE, WILL WE STILL FEAR?

WE PRAY FOR PEACE, DEAR GOD - ONE DAY,

FOR LOVED ONES WHO'VE BEEN SWEPT AWAY.

MAY THEY WALK WITH YOU NOW, HAND IN HAND,

MAY THEY WATCH WITH YOU NOW, O'ER THIS GREAT LAND.

WHEN WE PRAY TO GOD, HIS EARS DO HEAR!

AND WHEN WE BELIEVE, WE SHALL NOT FEAR!

I DID IT HIS WAY

                                       page 26

And you should see the drawings!  Thanks, Johnny!

Youth Group News

From Angie

No Youth Group Drop-In  November 8

There will NOT be a drop-in on Monday, November 8.  We will resume the regular schedule (5:30-7:30 PM) on November 15.

SERVICE!    SERVICE!    SERVICE!

September and October have been great months for service.  Our youth Walked to Cure Diabetes, Made Strides Against Breast Cancer, and participated in the 28^th Annual Hunger Walk for CHOW.     

What's ahead?  The Ramp It Up bowling tournament on October 23 (you can still get involved), the Endicott Soup Kitchen on October 30, Project Linus on January 29, (see below for details on both), Easter cleanup on April 16, and the Ross Park Zoo cleanup, the STAP AIDS Walk, Robert's Run, and the Cystic Fibrosis Walk.   Watch the Sunday bulletin for dates.  EVERYONE is welcome to join us - I find service projects for our youth, although they are not youth-only activities.

Do you know of an organization, cause, or individual we can help?  Send your suggestions to Angie Roux at aroux@ctkvestal.org or 624-0305.

Soup Kitchen - Saturday morning, October 30, at the  First United Methodist Church on the corner of McKinley & Monroe in Endicott.  Contact Todd Eames (761-3744) or Angie Roux for start time and to sign up. 

Save the Date - Project Linus on Saturday, January 29. 

Project Linus's mission is to "provide love, a sense of security, warmth and comfort to children who are seriously ill, traumatized, or otherwise in need through the gifts of new, handmade blankets and afghans."

This project will require a lot of prep, so I'm starting the search for people and materials early.  Do you know how to sew or want to learn?  Do you like working with others to help children in need?  Do you have a sewing machine you can share for the day? Do you need a service project because you're in Confirmation or going to Work Camp?  If you answered yes to any of these, please come join us on January 29.  Contact Angie Roux for more information.  Also check out http://www.projectlinus.org/.

In Lutheran Questions, Lutheran Answers, the Rev. Dr. Martin Marty, ELCA pastor and retired professor of religious history at the University of Chicago, wrote,

"For most Lutherans it may also not be so difficult to say what makes Lutherans different from Roman Catholics.  In the main, the war is over, in the sense that there was a total breach between these two sets of Christians who had had trouble laying down their arms and extending their greeting hands decades ago.  But so much has happened during recent decades in many areas of difference that they both speak of common affirmations.  And yet no one can fail to spot the differences when they count the number of sacraments or point to the authority of the Pope within Roman Catholicism."

Obvious differences are that Lutherans have women pastors and bishops; we have married and single clergy.  And we sing better than they do.

In 1962-63, the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church addressed many of the same questions that Martin Luther and the other Lutheran Reformers of the 16^th century addressed.  Vatican II came out with many of the same answers that the Lutherans had 440 years earlier.  Vatican II officially identified Lutherans and other Christians as "separate brethren" rather than "unbelievers and heathen."  Vatican II decided that both bread and wine should be served to lay people in the Mass, that worship should be in the language of the people, that private confession was not a prerequisite for receiving communion, that lay members had the authority to exercise leadership in the church.  They also determined that the presence of Christ in the Sacrament of Communion was essentially a mystery and recognized that transubstantiation was one valid human attempt to explain Christ's presence and re-presentation was another valid human explanation of what was essentially a divine mystery.  When Lutherans read what Vatican II meant by re-presentation, the Lutherans said that's the same thing that we mean by the Lutheran doctrine of the Real Presence.

After Vatican II, International and national dialog committees of Lutheran and Roman Catholic scholars were established.  These scholars - officially appointed to represent each denomination - published their conclusions.  First they agreed on Holy Baptism and the Apostles' Creed.  The last doctrine on which they published their agreement was Justification.

In 1980, on the 450^th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, the primary doctrinal confession of the Lutheran Church, the Pope and other Roman Catholic leaders participated in a service of scripture reading and prayer at a Lutheran Church in Rome together with the leaders of the Lutheran World Federation.  In that service, the Lutherans officially removed the 16^th century anathemas (condemnations) of the Pope and Roman Catholic Church because none of the anathemas were valid in the light of Vatican II.  In the same service, the Roman Catholic Church officially declared that the Augsburg Confession was orthodox Catholic theology,

On the basis of Vatican II and the subsequent dialogs and acceptance of the Augsburg Confession by the Roman Catholic Church, there is no longer any barrier in Lutheran theology to fellowship with the Roman Catholic Church.  On the Roman Catholic side, the barrier is the reality that most Lutheran pastors have not been ordained in Apostolic succession; that is, ordained by a bishop who was ordained by a bishop and so on all the way back to the apostles.

Unfortunately, in recent years, there has been a backlash in the Roman Catholic Church.  The backlash is trying to take the Roman Catholic Church back to what it was before Vatican II.  Examples of this backward movement were the introduction of the Latin Mass, the appointment of very conservative bishops, the reduction of authority given to lay Catholics, the reduced role given to women, and reduced ecumenical involvement with other Christians.

In spite of the recent trends, I have had very good relations with a number of Roman Catholics over the years.  I have communed at Roman Catholic altars where priests and lay people have known my identity.  And I have communed Roman Catholic priests, brothers, nuns and laity at my Lutheran altar.

In my congregation in Quincy, IL, there was a Roman Catholic married to a Lutheran woman.  The Roman Catholic worshiped in a Catholic Church and the Lutheran Church.  He had a beer distributorship.  He said that the distinction between the Catholic Church and Lutheran church was like the distinction between Budweiser and Bud Lite.  The Lutheran Church was like Lite beer - it had fewer calories (rules) and was healthier for you.

Inspiration from Pat Moynihan

Dear Lord,

Please help me to be content where I am.

"Geographical cures" are something that I've often dreamed about.  I used to believe that as the old torch song goes, "the other man's grass is always greener, the sun shines brighter on the other side" especially if the other man's grass is growing someplace where I've always longed to travel.

I've often thought that if I just lived by the ocean, I'd never be depressed again.  How could I be, with the roar of the surf pounding in my ears and the smell of the sea nourishing my soul?

I do love the ocean, and I feel more at peace when I'm there, but one thing I've learned is that, "wherever you go, there you are."  In other words, I take the same baggage with me whether I travel afar or stay close to my home my whole life through.  And believing that a  place is going to provide me with an inner peace or happiness that I can't achieve right where I am is just wishful thinking.

If I really want to go to the ocean, I can go buy an atlas and map out the trip.  If, however, what I really want to achieve is a life that is successful through the values I hold true, then I need to map out a spiritual journey.  A spiritual journey requires a lot more energy than taking a mere trip to the beach.  Dear God, please help me to be fueled for my journey by relying on the energy given to me through Your spirit.  

By relying on this enegry and learning more about who You are God, I know I will learn more about myself, as well.  Because if I truly look at my own needs and recognize my inner need for You, Lord, then I am truly starting a journey that will bring me fulfillment.

Thank You, Lord, for helping me stay on a path that leads to a closer walk with You.

Amen.

Pat Moynihan attends CTK's second service with her husband, John.