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STAFF		COUNCIL
Senior Minister	Rev. Stephen Schuette		President	Jim LaPalermo 08
Associate Minister of Parish Services	Rev. Sally Scheib		Vice President	Roxanne Schwoch 08
Minister of Music	Jeffrey Panko		Treasurer	Rod Stipe 09
Handbell Choir Director	Linda Lunt		Secretary	Judy Ekblad 08
Choir Accompanist	Lisa Krueger		Human Concerns / Member at Large	Chris Smith 08
Parish Nurse	Kathy Murray		Trustees Rep	Jeff Braun 08
Bethel Learning Center Director	Kathy Gray		Deacons Rep	Linda Lyman 08
Church Operations Manager	Brian Barrett		Elders Rep	Barbara Schuette 08
Christian Education Intern	Emmy Odean		Ex-Officio (Pastoral Rep)	Rev. Stephen Schuette

BOARD OF ELDERS : Rebecca Love (chair), Barbara Schuette, Bill Scheib, Alicia Kalinich,

This is the first Bethel Letter sent to you by Second Class Periodical mail. We’re grateful for the work that Brian has done to move us through the application process. This should insure that this letter reaches you without the delays we’ve experienced recently, and will also allow those who submit articles to do so a little later in the month. Our new Due Date for Newsletter articles is the Fourth Sunday of each month.

The newsletter and other important releases are available on the Bethel website (www.bethel-ucc.org) under Publications.

If you do not now or never have had any challenges with relationships this article is not for you. You couldn’t possibly understand.

If, however, you find relationships to require work, and even then, the work does not always lead to smooth sailing read on…

Maybe you’re familiar with some or all of these challenges I can think in a few minutes: misunderstanding, miscommunication, misinterpreted motives, jealousy, hurt, blowing things out of proportion, not having concerns taken seriously, over-attention to detail, under-attention to detail, lack of appreciation or recognition, being taken for granted, not having enough “space,” neglect, feeling attacked, being put on the defensive, differences in values, differences in perspectives,…. (Ahhh)…deep breath!

Since you chose to read on you can probably add to the list. With the potential for things to go wrong one might wonder how relationships ever survive. And sometimes they don’t…even in the Church, which is always a sad occurrence that diminishes the community, the Body of Christ, as the emphasis on the things that divide overpower the core faith that binds us together. This is a deeply spiritual concern.

During this Lenten season I’d invite you to pay attention to a central theme that runs through the scripture readings we will use on Sunday. They focus on God’s challenge in relationship with us and the work that God does to address those challenges. And they invite us to focus on our part too. In Biblical language God reaches out to us to keep covenant. A covenant is a way of defining the relationship and centering on the core aspects of the relationship that maintain it and strengthen it.

I’m not suggesting that strengthening and healing our relationship with God will automatically bring calm to the other relationships in our lives. Nothing is automatic. But it doesn’t hurt. Being in touch with the love, grace, strength and peace that is ours in Jesus Christ can be centering and encouraging. So the psalmist writes of the blessing of peace that we would desire for all relationships whether in family, in the church, or between nations: “Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell in unity…” (Psalm 133)

Make a commitment/covenant to attend worship each Sunday during Lent. And join us as well on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 p.m., Feb 28-April 4 when we learn more about UCC history and heritage during this 50^th anniversary year of the UCC.

General Synod The General Synod of the United Church of Christ will meet in Hartford, CT June 22-26. This Synod will include a special celebration of the UCC’s 50^th Anniversary. It’s a marvelous time to attend a Synod!

The celebration events are concentrated on the weekend of June 22-24. If you have an interest in attending, please call the church office or sign the sheet in the narthex.

If you are thinking about going to Synod I’d like you to respond to three questions:

From the list of folk who express an interest we’ll meet to develop our plans. Please let us your interest by March 20. Youth are welcome! –Rev. Steve

The Chicago Metropolitan Association (CMA) of the Illinois Conference of the U.C.C has once again begun its annual search for the most devoted and talented to serve our wider church community, both lay and clergy alike, to serve in the governance of the Association. We have received descriptions of the various positions that are available for participation in the CMA and Illinois Conference as well as application for nominations. If you are interested or wish to nominate an individual please see Jim LaPalermo. Thank you.

If you have questions or would like further detail please contact Rod Stipe, Treasurer.

The new carpet has been installed in the downstairs family room and upper hallways of the Huntington house. The old carpet was damaged in the major rainstorm in late October.

We are in the early stages of investigating the replacement of the chair lift to Schiffman Hall and the replacement of the water heater in the kitchen. Hopefully, these two items can be concluded in the next couple of months. Funding of these items will be generously provided through Memorial Funds and the Women of Bethel.

For those who have not submitted a pledge for 2007 and wish to do so, please fill out a pledge card (available in the Narthex) or call the church office.

READ THE BOOK OF LUKE DURING THIS LENTEN SEASON – The Board of Elders have created a devotional booklet that divides the book of Luke into readings for each week. By the end of Lent you will have read the entire book! Also included in each week is a personal meditation written by a Bethel Church Member. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the six members of our church who took the time to write for our booklet: Karen Ritter, Jude Hines, Ellen Braun, Jim Harris, Lisa Hartlage and Rebecca Love. If you have not already found them these books are available in the Narthex.

PLAN TO ATTEND EASTER BREAKFAST – The Board of Elders will be planning our annual Easter Breakfast and Easter Egg Hunt. Plan to join us on April 8, Easter Sunday before church.

March Birthdays: 1 Kacki Carney, 3 Arlene Sandvik, 4 Grant Naumann, 5 Ardathe Lindberg,

6 Suzanne Ekblad, 6 Michael Murphy, 8 Alex Burkovskiy, 8 Caryl Hineline, 10 Mark Albers,

17 Michelle Sciortino, 18 Jim Crowther, 18 Pat Schwartz, 18 Katie Villa, 19 Steve Schuette,

22 Priscilla Crowther, 22 Grant Hartlage, 22 Peter Hartlage, 22 Tom Lampo, 22 Alice Merrill,

27 Christopher Scrivens, 29 Jillian Gray, 30 Anthony Pennella, 31 Georgia DeClark

Al and Stacey Rago, Will Sampson and Virginia Wilson, Gene and Dorothy Sandstrom

The Chancel Committee is looking for new members! It is our job to get the church ready for Sundays. We hang banners, place flowers, prepare communion, and put things in order. It is a lovely job. If interested, please contact Fern Wilson.

We are excited to officially tell everyone about summer 2007 and summer 2008 plans. Both will, once again, provide opportunities for personal growth as well as plenty of time to help others. We have planned farther into the future than in the past to encourage ownership and participation in one or both trips!

This summer we will begin our work week on Thursday, August 2nd, when we travel west to Lansing, Iowa, to camp for one night. The following morning we will board two houseboats on the Mississippi River for a weekend of adventure, fun and fellowship. On the evening of Sunday, August 5th, we will arrive in Rock Island, Illinois, to work for a community action agency called Project NOW. They have partnered with Church of Peace, a UCC church in Rock Island, which provides staffing, organization of the work week, shelter and food for the week. Several years ago our youth group worked there and enjoyed it very much so we thought it would be great to go again. We will return to Elmhurst on Friday, August, 10th. ***This year's confirmation class is invited to join us for what we think will be another great week together.***

Next summer, 2008, we have arranged to go to Biloxi, Mississippi, to work at Back Bay Mission. Most of our readers know that this is a mission of the United Church of Christ that suffered greatly in Hurricane Katrina. It is one that Bethel Church has supported for years, with gifts given through Human Concerns and through the purchase of shrimp that they used to sell during the holiday season and which we used for our BYF shrimp boils. Bethel member, Leah Lyman, will begin work there very soon as their volunteer coordinator so it is a project very close to our hearts. We are happy to learn that they finally have additional places to house the volunteers that would like to help them. Work dates are July 27th-August 2nd, 2008. Travel dates will be determined at a later time but please keep this opportunity in mind over the coming year.

We'd like to thank everyone who participated in the Souper Bowl Sunday collection. A gift of about $335 was forwarded to the Walk-In Ministry here in Elmhurst to be used to help local folks in need. We also thank those who provided and purchased Valentine treats. Many of our youth enjoy kitchen “escapades” and proceeds are deposited in individual BYF accounts for work trips. Finally, thanks to all who have helped at P.A.D.S. We have had a really good turn out at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday mornings!!

March meeting dates will need to be adjusted. Everyone...check your email for information. The first Sunday, March 4th, is a Concert Series concert at 3 p.m. so we will not have a BYF meeting but do encourage attendance at the concert and/or help with service at the reception. We will be planning more hunger-related service activities so watch for information soon. The 3rd Sunday, March 18th remains a meeting date.

Bethel Book Club Our next selection will be March by Geraldine Brooks. In this 2006 Pulitzer prize-winning novel, Brooks provides the details of the father who was largely absent in Louisa Mae Alcott's novel Little Women when he went off to the Civil War. Against a backdrop of Northern abolitionist idealism and Southern realities, Mr. March comes to life as a fully realized character, struggling with the moral and ethical issues of that time and time eternal.

The book is available online, at bookstores, and at the library. We will meet on Wednesday, March 21, 2007, at 7:30 p.m., at the home of Linda Lyman. Please call Linda if you plan to attend.

Ninth Annual Victorian Tea Will Be Saturday, April 14 Mark your calendars now for the Women of Bethel’s ninth annual Victorian Tea on Saturday, April 14. We’ll once again have a full-tea menu of frozen fruit cups, scones, sandwiches, desserts and, of course, tea, followed by our program, “The Magic of Music,” presented by The Profiles Singing Ensemble. This unique group of multi-talented women has been entertaining audiences throughout the Chicago area since 1966 with engaging performances filled with tantalizing tunes and lively humor. You may remember their delightful program at our 2003 Tea. Tickets for the Tea will be available to Bethel members AND the public beginning Sunday, March 11; seating is limited, so be sure to get your tickets early. Call for ticket availability and to make reservations; cost is $18 per person and your reservation is confirmed when your check is received. Please make checks out to Women of Bethel. The Tea begins at 12:30 with guests seated at that time. The program starts at 1:45 and tickets can be purchased for the program only for $9. Child care is free of charge but we need your reservation by April 9. Don't forget--guests are invited to wear hats and gloves!

Your help with food preparation, set-up on Friday afternoon, March 13, or clean-up following the Tea on Saturday would be greatly appreciated. Please contact one of the committee members, Arlene Sandvik, Fern Wilson, Pat Zugehar, or Linda Lyman if you can help.

ANCHORAGE BI-MONTHLY BIRTHDAY PARTY! The Women of Bethel have been invited to host this event. It is scheduled for Wednesday, April 25, 2007. More information in the April Newsletter.

I am excited to announce that the Bethel Adult Voice Choir will be participating in a choir exchange with the Adult Voice Choir from St. Luke the Evangelist Church in Glen Ellyn, joining musical forces for two worship presentations of John Rutter’s stunning piece Magnificat. The Bethel choir will venture to St. Luke’s March 25 to participate in worship, where St. Luke’s wonderful Maestro Robert Holst will play the piano and I will conduct. On April 15 both choirs will again come together for our Bethel service where Maestro Holst will conduct and I will play the piano. This musical adventure will be an outstanding worship experience, as the opportunity to hear 40 + voices join together in our Bethel Sanctuary to present this sublime and moving piece of music is one you won’t want to miss.

Rutter’s Magnificat, first performed in Carnegie Hall in 1990, is absolutely beautiful music. I would describe Rutter’s compositional style to be a wonderfully successful blend of classical music logic and sensibilities with a strong, definite pop music flavor, possessing great melodic content, and most importantly completely accessible and loved by musical connoisseurs as well as amateur listeners. Rutter (born in 1945) continues to write music that:

The third concert for the eighth annual Monday Evening Concert Series, where I will be featured as piano soloist, will be our “Sunday at 3” concert March 4 at 3 pm. I affectionately refer to this program as a “piano jock recital” as we used to call programs of this nature during my Oberlin College years; a recital full of great technical and musical demands which stretches the physical and mental endurance of the performer. Three major keyboard works will be presented; the Busoni transcription of the J.S. Bach Chaconne for solo violin, Beethoven’s famous Appassionata Sonata and Johannes Brahms Sonata in F Minor Opus 5. If you have questions regarding this or any Monday Evening Concert performance feel free to contact me or the Bethel Office at 279-4040. Our final performance for the Monday Evening Concert Series will feature our beloved Bethel soprano Jenny Riddle Monday May 7 at 7:30 pm. Please support the Monday Evening Concert Series, our Bethel fundraiser.

As always, our Bethel Music Ministry is strong and flourishing. Thank you to all who give so freely of your time and talents. Please know your God given musical abilities, dedication and hard work truly inspires our congregation (and me) weekly in worship.

Most of us have heard the word “sacrament.” We may even have memorized a definition of the word when we were preparing for confirmation. As with many practices in the Christian church, sacraments have a long and fascinating history. Instead of trying to tell that story in a few paragraphs, let me just share a few glimpses of that story.

The English word “sacrament” comes from the Latin word “sacramentum.” Sacramentum is a Latin word referring to an oath of allegiance taken by soldiers. The practices we know today as sacraments have their roots in New Testament times, but not all religious practices from Jesus’ time are still in common use today. Over the years, the church settled on the belief that there were seven sacraments. The number was officially set at the Council of Trent, 1543-1563. The list included Baptism, Confirmation, the Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders, and Marriage.

But the Reformers saw matters differently. Protestant churches today tend to recognize two sacraments: Baptism and the Eucharist, although most Protestant churches still employ practices related to the list of seven. For example, although ordination is not seen as a sacrament, it does exist in many denominations, including our own.

One interesting note on Baptism is a possibility suggested by a scholar named Oscar Cullman. He suggested that in New Testament times children born to baptized parents might not have been baptized, because they were already part of the New Covenant. Whatever the practice then, most Christian churches today believe that people should be baptized. The question that Christians still discuss is whether that Baptism should occur when children are born or when children have grown enough to make the promises for themselves.

Greetings! This month I’d like to focus on Diabetes, a serious metabolic disease. Uncontrolled Diabetes can lead to life-threatening health problems including heart and kidney disease, foot infections, nerve damage and blindness.

Advocate Health Care offers this test to see if you are at risk for diabetes. Write 5 points next to each statement that is true for you. If a statement is not true, write in a zero. Add to find your total score.

SCORING: If you scored 3-9 points, you’re probably at low risk for having diabetes now. But don’t just forget about it. You may be at high risk in the future. Regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight can help you reduce your risk.

If you scored 20 or more points, you are at high risk for having diabetes. Only a doctor can determine if you have diabetes. Please see your doctor to find out for sure. (Source: www.advocatehealth .com

PRAYER: May the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious. The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. Amen

Human Concerns Field Trip We will be traveling to the Northern Illinois Food Bank on March 17 to help with food packaging. We will carpool from Bethel at 8 a.m. and return around Noon. Ages 16 and up are invited to help.

FOOD PANTRY In March we will be collecting disposable diapers to be distributed by the local food pantries. Please leave your donation in the basket just inside the North entrance.

ONE GREAT HOUR OF SHARING Together we can make a world of difference. Nine Christian Churches support One Great Hour of Sharing in a tradition started in 1949. We address problems facing the world by opening our hearts to our neighbors.

In 2005, the UCC churches generously gave over 3.5 million dollars, improving the lives of people in more than 90 countries. By giving you will join others in:

By giving to the One Great Hour of Sharing, we show and share God's love-offering a hand to a neighbor in need.

OUTREACH The Human Concerns Committee voted to help pay part of the January rent for Mahrukh, a woman suffering from major health issues and raising a young daughter. Our $325 gift was from the airport fund.

Human Concerns - Pass It On! We have been given a unique opportunity. An anonymous donor has given our committee $2,500. This money is over and above our budget, which has already been planned. We decided to do something different with this money with your help. A friend of mine told me of a special mission undertaken at their church. Fifty dollars was given to church members, who in turn took this money and donated it to some worthy cause of their choice. Our anonymous donor has agreed that we spend the money in this way. A few individuals campaigned to “grow” their donation. Family discussions of potential beneficiaries expanded awareness of mission. Join us in mission. The only strings attached to the $50 are that you will be expected to report back on how you distributed your money with a note to us. We hope to have some interesting stories that can be shared. We expect to be passing out money on March 4 with a sign-up sheet. We suggest one gift of $50 goes per family, but there may be exceptions. May 20^th will be our deadline for reporting.

AIM has been meeting every other Sunday morning before church to keep current with plans for this mission work trip. We are excited about learning about the people and culture of the Appalachian area and we are excited to be sharing this learning with the rest of our Bethel family. There are 14 people committed to going. The program that we are working with is the ASP (Appalachian Service Project). This organization has been in operation since 1969. Each year approximately 15,000 volunteers work to repair homes for 400-500 families. We have the cost of our own travel, housing and food covered but we need to raise some more funds to purchase the building materials that we will use during our week of work. So below we will outline three ways that you can be involved in this effort.

2) Join the Breakfast Club in collecting gifts for their peers in Appalachia. School Supplies like notebooks, paper, and pens and pencils. New or gently used sports equipment, athletic shoes, purses, backpacks, games and books.

3) Become a shareholder in Appalachia Empowerment Inc. by purchasing either Common Shares $20 or Preferred Shares $100.