Churches

During the Advent season of reflection, examination and planning, it’s natural to consider "giving back" for the many blessings bestowed during the past year. But often, after reviewing the numerous needs of so many, a common question arises: What difference can just one person make?

The Rt. Rev. Mark Beckwith, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, visited St. Andrew and Holy Communion on Sunday, a service that marked World AIDS Day by calling for continued support for the nearly 34 million people living with HIV around the world.

The Episcopal Church is encouraging renewed education and advocacy efforts to bring an end to the global pandemic. During his sermon to parishioners in South Orange, the Bishop recalled the fear and confusion – and avoidance of those with the AIDS when the virus was first diagnosed 30 years ago.

Church of the Redeemer, located on South Street just one block away from the historic Green in Morristown, NJ, is launching a major environmental initiative to “Go Green” by participating in a rigorous two-year environmental certification program sponsored by GreenFaith, a national interfaith environmental organization (www.greenfaith.org).

St. Peter's Community Food Pantry provided Thanksgiving turkey dinner to hundreds this holiday weekend and also refilled its emptying shelves.

Clifton's only food pantry located on Clifton Avenue was able to provide 430 families with a Thanksgiving turkey dinner last year, along with gravy and cranberry sauce, thanks to donations made by local residents, said Rev. Peter DeFranco, priest at St. Peter's Episcopal Church and a director of St. Peter's Community Food Pantry.

It wasn't during her six months in the burn unit of a hospital that Carol Gadsden got her calling.

It wasn't a few weeks later when the woman whom doctors sent home to die decided to fight back.

Nor was it three years later when she was counseling a co-worker fighting breast cancer and realized "I was squandering my life."

As Gadsden explained Sunday, her calling came on a May day at her school psychologist job as she stood at her desk.

Rabbi Jim Simons instructed those attending a Thanksgiving interfaith service Sunday night in Haworth to treat the holiday as a beginning — a chance to begin to become the people they can be.

Simons, of Temple Beth-El in Closter, gave the sermon at St. Luke’s Episcopal & Our Savior Lutheran Church, and was joined by clergy from Cresskill, Demarest, Hackensack and Haworth. The Northern Valley service has been held about five years.

The air bubbled with laughter and excitement as Archdeacon Peter Jackson presented bright orange Halloween cards, made by the Sunday School children of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Montclair, to the children of Hogar de Niñas (a girls’ home) in Panama. The Hogar is a 90-year-old diocesan institution serving orphans and girls whose parents are unable to care for them. They receive substantial support from the Episcopal Diocese of Panama, as well as donations from churches within the Diocese of Newark.