The CUMC Church Council has voted unanimously to follow the CDC Covid Data tracker for Morris County to evaluate weekly Covid levels. This data tracker can be found by Clicking Here.

Going forward, this tracker will help guide us in determining our indoor mask usage for all CUMC functions. Covid levels and recommendations are updated weekly on Thursday nights by the CDC. These updates will be used at CUMC from Friday-Friday.

Beginning this weekend, signs will be visible in the building indicating what level Morris County is at and what the mask requirements will be for our building for CUMC functions.  Please see chart below:

Extra masks will continue to be available throughout our building. You may also use the CDC tracker prior to your visit to know ahead of time whether you will need your mask. 

Thank you for your ongoing patience, and expressions

of care for your neighbors!

If you have any Covid symptoms, please stay home, worship online, and/or visit a doctor. Thank you.

During the last Sunday's worship service, we received the following requests for prayers...

• For our nation, our democracy, our values, and renewed desire to serve the Common Good of All People and All of Creation.
• Of healing for Bill B. as he recovers.
• Of healing for Russians and Ukrainians alike that they will soon live in harmony and love. (Ron)
• For Stephen S. in hospice care and Hilary as she journeys with him.
• For George Small having pace maker surgery on Thursday. (G.S)

Thanks to all who came by the RISE Fundraiser at the July 4 parade. We made lots of popcorn, friends, and funds for our RISE Mission trip. We depart for Friendship, New York on Sunday, July 10 at 7am and return Saturday afternoon on July 16. We hope that you can join us at church on Sunday, July 17 at the 10am worship service when the team members will talk about their experiences on RISE.

If you’d like to be part of the greater RISE team without having to put on work gloves or boots, you can check The Ways to support CUMC RISE Teams below.

Thank you! 

Last Sunday, I read from the pulpit the Council of Bishops statement on the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade. See link below. I also lifted up the long standing Jewish and early Christian belief that life begins with breath. (See Genesis 2:7, Ezekiel 37:9-10, 13-14, Job 34:14-15, to name but a few) More importantly United Methodists use the Wesley Quadrilateral to discern God’s will when facing complex ethical and moral decisions. The Quadrilateral looks at Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience. It is a very holistic way of discernment that honors all resources that God has given us. The Bishop’s statement reflects our long tradition of social justice from a biblical perspective, which looks at the whole of society, and the implications of such decisions on the most vulnerable, the poor, the marginalized of our society. Abortion and the rights of women is a multi-faceted and complex issue that demands thoughtful and prayerful conversations and discernment. I welcome your thoughts.

https://www.unitedmethodistbishops.org/files/roe+v.+wade+cob+response+062422.pdf

With prayer, and with love,

Rev. Jeff Markay

Our July 10th, Sunday service will include Dorothy McCorry, flute, with Peter Hill, piano, performing Augustín Barrios’ Julia Florida. Our hymn sing before the service will include: For the Beauty of the Earth and O For A Thousand Tongues. Join us!

Our music groups: Covenant Choir, Wind Ensemble, Praise Band, Ukulele Orchestra, and Wesley Ringers are off for the Summer and will begin again in September. Look here for more information in the Fall!

All who are interested in singing with the choir for an easy-to-learn anthem, are invited to join our two pick-up choirs over the Summer on the Sundays of July 24th and August 14th. We will meet in the Music Room at 9:00 a.m. before the 10:00 a.m. service. For more information contact, Peter Hill, music director at petepiano@mac.com.

Chatham UMC continues our effort to collect funds and then distribute those donations as reparations each time the congregation sings a Spiritual during the Sunday service. Early American Black Hymns and Spiritual Songs whose authors were not recorded never received the payment that they deserved when their music was published. This effort on their behalf is a small, but powerful, way to honor their enormously important contributions to the lexicon of hymnody. CUMC recently sent our first donation to the Newark Boys Chorus School.

Church Office Summer Schedule

Begins on Monday, June 27^th

The Church Office will be closed on Fridays from July 1^st – September 5^th

The Church Office will be closed in observance of the following Summer Holidays:

Independence Day, Monday July 4^th

Labor Day, Monday, September, 5^th

The Church Office will return to regular schedule beginning Tuesday, September 6^th.

We will be continuing to have our weekly worship services on Sundays at 10:00 AM in our Sanctuary throughout the summer. 

UPDATE: Our weekly coffee fellowship following the worship service will be moved outside the Narthex Main Street Doors. In addition to our usual goodies, we will have juice boxes and sidewalk chalk available for our youngest friends.

All are welcome to join us!

Important Dates:

Sunday July 17^th Service: Join us at 10AM to welcome back the RISE teams and hear about their experience.

Book Review. What We Wish Were True

By Tallu Schuyler Quinn

About a quarter of the way through Tallu Quinn’s book I began losing interest and considered putting it aside. I’m glad I didn’t. This is a story about being in love with life, a life story shared through many small vignettes about Quinn’s early family life, going through seminary, managing simple math, founding the Nashville Food Project, making discoveries during a mission trip to Nicaragua, and times spent with family and friends. Each brief episode is only 3-4 pages long, yet each makes poignant statements about joy and grief, sometimes together. Her story was written after contracting Glioblastoma, a brain cancer, at age 40 in 2020. Here are two excerpts from Living with a Body.

“There is such a deep loneliness in being really sick. The companionship of the divine is profound. But the late nights alone, the foggy confusion, the constant flow of people in and out – it is isolating.”

“I honestly feel most connected in love about our sad reality when I can just hold [my children] and not have a long conversation. Something about the feel [of them] in my lap, or their hands in mine, feels the most connecting and thus healing.”

Tallu Schuyler Quinn died this past February at age 42. Her book was released in April, and it will soon be added to our library.

Reviewed by Ronald Yarger

The display cart outside our church library has additional suggestions, plus instructions about borrowing books. You can view the entire CUMC Library holdings at http://www.chathamumc.com/cumc-library/. 

Ways to support CUMC RISE Teams

Our RISE Teams are preparing for their July trip. There are a number of way in which you can support our teens and their leaders.

• Pray for the team members: John, Shelley, Carl, Jeff, Esther, Annika, Anna, Mia, Lauren, Cole, Liz and Eric from July 10-16, 2022.
• Pray for our homeowner hosts.
• Come to hear about the RISE experience on Sunday, July 17, 2022
• Support this ministry with your finances. Checks payable to Chatham UMC, earmarked CUMC RISE 2022.

 Thank you!!!

Online Worship Liturgists Needed!

Please sign up to read and record yourself reading scriptures, this will be a blessing to our online worshiping community. We have open weekends through Pentecost.

Click Here to Sign Up

Can You Help the Bread Ministry?

The bread ministry is looking for more volunteers to assist in collecting bread from Panera. Sign Up Here

Communities of Care

If you wish to receive a call, a text or an email from someone at the Chatham UMC community?

 Email Church Office Here

CUMC Community Food Pantry

The community support and need of

our 24/7 pantry has grown.

 Help keep our food pantry and weekly distribution sustained.

Click Here to donate online!

Want to know more about our Pop Up pantry and how to help? Check out our webpage Here.

The Masterworks Chorus is pleased to announce Summer Sings

Come enjoy a full season of Summer Sings and choral camaraderie. We provide the conductor, accompanist, and professional soloists and you provide the voices!

Tickets are $15.00 per person, per sing for non-members, $10 for Masterwork Members and Alumni. Tickets will be available at the door, including packets of 5 tickets for $65.

Click Here for more detailed information.