Proclaiming Peace on World Communion Sunday – October 5
Celebrating 45 Years of Presbyterian Peacemaking Ministry
The Presbyterian Peacemaking Program and annual offering had its start at LPC in the late 1970s during the ministry of the Rev. Richard Watts. The “cold war” was heating up and came near to a boil between President Ronald Reagan and USSR President Gorbachev. With a small group of LPC members and other local Lakewood residents, Dr. Watts started to explore ways the church could promote peace during an anxious time. The group grew into “Swords into Plowshares” (see Isaiah 2:4), a ministry endorsed by Northeast Ohio Presbytery of the Western Reserve. By January of 1980, Watts concluded his ministry at LPC in order to pursue peacemaking ministry and eventually became the first coordinator of the Presbyterian Church’s Peacemaking Program.
To celebrate this 45th anniversary, we have invited Dr. Watts to return to LPC and share his memories of how it all unfolded. He will speak in Wright Chapel at 11:20 a.m. after the World Communion Sunday service and coffee hour. Watts has written several books including a collaboration on “The Meaning of Jesus” with Tom Wright, an Anglican Bishop considered one of the world’s finest New Testament scholars.
The Peace and Global Witness Offering supports the church’s work of bringing reconciliation between separated and sometimes hostile people. Our contributions enable hundreds of these Christ-centered ministries across the globe and in our own backyard. LPC may retain 25% of the offering to support local ministries of its own choosing. This year, in honor of Dr. Watts and his contribution to Presbyterian Peacemaking and reconciliation, our Mission, Outreach and Justice Ministry has selected the Cleveland Legal Aid Society to receive LPC’s portion of the offering. Legal Aid’s all-volunteer team of local attorneys (many are people of Christian faith) represent under-resourced individuals and groups with non-criminal legal counsel and representation “securing justice, equity, and access to opportunity” for those who are often shut out of due process because of poverty.
Please plan to be in church to celebrate World Communion Sunday and LPC’s proud legacy of continuing Christ’s work of peace and reconciliation in God’s world. An offering envelope is enclosed with this newsletter. Envelopes will also be available in the pew racks.
A Message from the Pastor
by The Rev. Dr. James Butler
I am so pleased that Dick Watts accepted our invitation to return to LPC on World Communion Sunday (October 5) and help us celebrate our denomination’s Peacemaking ministries that he helped to found during his pastorate in the late 1970s (see the front page of this newsletter).
As we celebrate this 45th anniversary of Presbyterian peacemaking, we also mourn the division and the divisiveness we are witnessing in our nation and the world. Ukraine continues to suffer under Russia’s invasion. There is genocide in Gaza. And there is violence here, especially gun violence. American children continue to be killed in their schools. And then, political activist Charlie Kirk, who said that school shootings are the price Americans must pay for gun rights, was shot dead in front of hundreds of college students. This proves what I never wanted to believe — that democracies are fragile, even the greatest democracy of all time. I continue to trust that a better world and nation will come, but I suspect it will require more discomfort and pain before a genuine national repentance and turning begins. That’s not my wisdom, it’s straight out of our Bible — both Testaments.
In the scary meantime, this is also straight out of the Bible from the mouth of Jesus: “You have heard that it was said ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,’ but I say do not resist an evil doer…if someone strikes you, do not strike back…” (Matthew 5:38–40). What reasonable people of faith must not do right now is perpetrate violence or return it. It will lead to greater division and a longer time to endure this unfortunate and shameful period of American history. The leaders of the civil rights movement here and in South Africa understood this and convinced others that non-violence was the only route to biblical justice, peace and prosperity. With God’s help, we must follow the same road map.
The Music Corner with Dr. Kaori Hongo
This month is our annual month of “Peace.” There is always a feeling of comfort when we come to this month of “peace” and hope. In music many composers have used this theme in various ways to express their strong dedication to the pursuit of “peace” in this world. Benjamin Britten’s (1913–1976) War Requiem expresses pacifist and humanitarian beliefs by using both the traditional Latin requiem texts with the poetry of Wilfred Owen (1893–1918), a WWI poet/soldier. Welsh composer Karl Jenkins (b. 1944) wrote The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace in dedication to the victims of the Kosovo crisis and to mark the move of the Royal Armouries Museum from London to Leeds. This work is an anti-war composition, and in addition to parts of the Ordinary of the Mass, the text includes words from other religious and historical sources. These include the Islamic call to prayer, the Bible and the Mahabharata (a text from ancient India, one of the two important epics of Hinduism). An interesting fact of this piece is that there are multiple writers, whose words are heard throughout the work; Rudyard Kipling, Alfred Lord Tennyson, and Sankichi Toge (a survivor of the Hiroshima bombing but who died some years later of leukemia). After the Benedictus, “Better is Peace” concludes the mass on a hopeful note where he emphasizes that peace is better than war (conflict) and that “God shall wipe away all tears” (Revelation 21:4).
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Excerpt from Ring Out, Wild Bells by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Published in 1850
Follow-up to the Exploring Origins Born on the Water Series
Following the Exploring Origins series of gatherings in August, the Mission, Outreach and Justice Ministry (MOJ) promised to keep you apprised of the actions and next steps LPC takes as a congregation to address continuing racism. We keep in mind LPC is a Matthew 25 congregation, and one of the principles of our denomination’s Matthew 25 movement is learning and working together to dismantle structural racism.
SURJ NEO
Showing Up for Racial Justice, Northeast Ohio (SURJ NEO) has come to MOJ’s attention. SURJ NEO, according to their “Our Values” flyer, “is one of over 200 chapters within a national organization that brings hundreds of thousands of white people into the fight for racial and economic justice… [in] answer to the call from Black leadership for white people to organize our own.”
Since LPC is a mostly white congregation, a potential relationship with SURJ NEO could be a good fit. Just as this Open Door went to press, MOJ contacted SURJ NEO to ask if they have relationships with other Northeast Ohio faith communities and what sort of relationship with LPC their leadership might recommend. We will keep you informed of what develops.
LAKEWOOD BLACK CAUCUS
On behalf of LPC’s Faith Formation Ministry as well as MOJ, Cindy Dugan met with the Lakewood Black Caucus’s president Shirley Nelson to discuss ways the Caucus and LPC might partner more closely.
Cindy indicated she and Ms. Nelson talked in general terms about exploring more opportunities for LPC parishioners and Lakewood Black Caucus members to interact in the future. One idea discussed was having a book discussion group using the Rev. Dr. William Barber’s most recent book, White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy.
As you may be aware, in recent years the Lakewood Black Caucus has held frequent events and meetings in our church building, in which a number of LPC members have participated. LPC also serves as the Caucus’s business agent.
HAVE YOU NOTICED THE BORN ON THE WATER BANNER?
The banner hanging from the balcony above the receptionist window in the atrium celebrates historical and current African American resilience and societal contributions. All the figures you see on it are the arts and crafts work of participants at the third Exploring Origins gathering, and the words you read on it are selected from The 1619 Project: Born on the Water by Nikole Hannah-Jones and Renée Watson.
The Windows of Our Sanctuary: About the Artist
Douglas Phillips was born in Farrell, Pennsylvania in 1922. He studied fine art in high school and took classes at the Institute of Art in Cleveland. During WWII he served in the US Army for three years, mostly in the Pacific.
He worked as a commercial artist before going to Syracuse University for his BFA. After graduating, he joined the Ecclesiastical Arts Studio as a designer and painter of stained glass. In 1952 he founded Phillips Stained Glass Studios, and built a reputation for museum quality restoration for hundreds of religious buildings in Ohio and throughout the US. His life was featured in Ebony magazine in 1971.
–Kathryn Hack
Library Committee
Faith Formation Events & Volunteer Opportunities
MEET US IN THE PUMPKIN PATCH ON OCTOBER 5!
Fall is here. Families and children K-12 are invited to meet us at Patterson Fruit Farm on Sunday, October 5 from 2–4 p.m. for some festive fun. Bring money for food, drinks, pumpkins and apple picking. Those who register in advance will be given a mini pumpkin at 4 p.m. This event will take the place of youth group for the week. Come for the:
- Giant covered straw pile
- Various slides (including the Slide Barn and 50′ racing slide in the woods)
- Pedal tractors & push carts
- Tire swings
- Corn maze
- Sandbox
- Play buildings
- Wagon rides
Entry fee is only $5 if you sign up with us in advance, or the normal $12 at the entrance (ages 0-2 are always free). RSVP by October 3 to Aliyah Kennedy.
YOUTH LUNCH FUNDRAISER
The LPC Youth Group is preparing for their annual summer trip by serving breakfast for lunch on Sunday, October 12 following worship. The youth rotate summer trips between a retreat, a mission trip and Triennium. This past summer we sent 10 of our youth with nine other kids from the churches in the Presbytery of the Western Reserve to Triennium. In 2026, the youth are excited to head outdoors to explore nature and their faith during our summer retreat.
For the lunch fundraiser, we will make some of the food during the October 10 Lock-In, but we will need waffles and people to help serve. Youth are asked to bring a box of plain waffles to the Lock-In or to church on Sunday, October 12 at 9:30 a.m.
Please join us for delicious breakfast casseroles and waffles prepared and served by the youth as we begin to save for the summer retreat. Donations can be made during the event or labeled as youth summer trip and left in the office for Aliyah Kennedy. Thank you for your continued support.
YOUTH LOCK-IN!
Youth Group will have a neon-themed Lock-In from 8 p.m. on October 10 to 10 a.m. on October 11. If you need to come late or leave early, just let us know. We will have several glow-in-the-dark themed activities, food, movies and all of our normal fun! Bring something to sleep on and a snack to share with the group. Friends are always welcome.
CHAPEL DRAMA CLUB NEWS
This October we will have a spooky inspired show as we prepare for Halloween and All Saints’ Sunday. We plan to feature Tracks by Peter Tarsi, which we worked hard on last spring and theatrical, musical, or poetic works chosen and performed by the youth as part of a Macabre Cabaret. Inspired by death and the afterlife, the youth will explore these concepts during a Drama Club performance on Saturday, October 25 at 7 p.m. and after worship on Sunday, October 26 during the Adult Faith Formation time. All performances are free and open to the public.
KID’S CLUB (K-6th)
On the third Sunday of each month(unless noted) from 12–1:30 p.m., children K-6th will be offered a junior youth group called Kid’s Club. This group will have lunch, play games, and have a seasonal lesson. Friends are welcome and children are not required to be members. Contact Aliyah Kennedy if you are interested in having your child join the Kid’s Club.
TRUNK OR TREAT
Save the date for Trunk or Treat! On Saturday, October 25 from 2–4 p.m., families are invited to dress up for Halloween and come for treats. This has become a wonderful tradition for our church to reach local families in the community. Invite your friends and neighbors or come for the fun. Families should register here.
If you are able to decorate your trunk and hand out treats, let Aliyah Kennedy know. Visitors will vote for their favorite trunk. Candy can be donated in the bin in the atrium and baked goods for the bake sale can be brought to the coffee hour kitchenette leading up to the event. We would love to have youth volunteer to hand out popcorn or help with games. Please email us if you are able to volunteer, bake something for the bake sale, or host a trunk! If you have any questions, contact Aliyah Kennedy.
Hand in Hand Program in October
Hand in Hand will meet on Friday, October 10 in the Reed Room starting at 11 a.m. The speaker will be LPC Pastor Jim Butler who will discuss recent developments in the phenomena and growing prevalence of suicide that can help us prevent it and better understand the dominant factors that contribute to it. He conducted an ethnographic research project on suicide bereavement among eight church members for which he was awarded a doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2009. This timely topic is under much discussion in the media, so join us for this insightful talk.