St. Matt's News


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Sunday Worship

7:30, 8:30,
& 11:00 a.m.

Education Hour:
9:45-10:45 a.m.

Office phone:
414-774-0441

 

 

Small Group Ministry

 

First Fridays Book Group
The First Fridays Book Group has announced its list of books for the 2011-12 year. The Book List is available to view, download or print [here] aewisnd will be available on the table across from the church office.

The group is open to everyone who loves to read and would be interested in discussing the books they have read. The Group will meet this next year on the first Friday of the month, October - March, with the April and May meetings on the second Fridays due to schedule conflicts.

The reading list for 2011-2012. The list is online [here].

Contact: Danette Braun (email pd.braun@sbcglobal.net or phone 414-771-2512)
Fred Heim (262-253-0338)
Terri Kuhlmann (414-453-5966)

Feb. 3 meeting cancelled
We have received notice of the death of Tim Ireland, lifelong member of St. Matthew's and church custodian for many years. The visitation and memorial service celebrating Tim's life will be held this coming Friday night (Feb. 3) at St. Matthew's.

Due to this, the First Fridays Book Club meeting scheduled for that night is cancelled. Discussion of Let the Great World Spin will be postponed until our March meeting date, March 2, 2012. The March selection, Lottery, will be rescheduled to our next book club season. Here is the revised book club calendar for the remainder of this year:

Feb. 3: CANCELLED, no meeting
March 2: Let the Great World Spin by Column McCann
April 13: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
May 11: Otherwise: New and Selected Poems or Collected Poems by Jane Kenyon (see more [here]).

The next meeting will be held March 2, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. The book selected is Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann.

Synopsis (from Amazon.com)

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers, suspended a quarter mile above the ground. In the streets below, a slew of ordinary lives become extraordinary in bestselling novelist Colum McCann’s stunningly intricate portrait of a city and its people.

Let the Great World Spin is the critically acclaimed author’s most ambitious novel yet: a dazzlingly rich vision of the pain, loveliness, mystery, and promise of New York City in the 1970s.

Corrigan, a radical young Irish monk, struggles with his own demons as he lives among the prostitutes in the middle of the burning Bronx. A group of mothers gather in a Park Avenue apartment to mourn their sons who died in Vietnam, only to discover just how much divides them even in grief. A young artist finds herself at the scene of a hit-and-run that sends her own life careening sideways. Tillie, a thirty-eight-year-old grandmother, turns tricks alongside her teenage daughter, determined not only to take care of her family but to prove her own worth.

Elegantly weaving together these and other seemingly disparate lives, McCann’s powerful allegory comes alive in the unforgettable voices of the city’s people, unexpectedly drawn together by hope, beauty, and the “artistic crime of the century.”

A sweeping and radical social novel, Let the Great World Spin captures the spirit of America in a time of transition, extraordinary promise, and, in hindsight, heartbreaking innocence. Hailed as a “fiercely original talent” (San Francisco Chronicle), award-winning novelist McCann has delivered a triumphantly American masterpiece that awakens in us a sense of what the novel can achieve, confront, and even heal.

If you have any questions, please contact either Danette, Fred or Terri:
Danette: pd.braun@sbcglobal.net or 414-339-1406
Fred: fjheim3@sbcglobal.net or 262-253-0338
Terri: jkuhlmann@wi.rr.com or 414-453-5966

Authors among us
Book club members Richard Carter and Caroyn Kenney-Carter have recently published two new books: Through the Cabin Door and Inside and Out. The flyers give a little more detail about the books. Click title for flyer: [Inside and Out] and [Through the Cabin Door].

 

Jane Kenyon poetry, May 2012 Book Club selection
In May 2012, the First Fridays Book Club will be discussing the poetry of Jane Kenyon (1947-1995). For some of us, reading an entire book of poetry would be a monumental task, so for the purpose of our May discussion, we'll focus on the short list of poems noted below. All of the selected poems are available in either of the following poetry collections:

If you have little experience engaging with poetry, we offer the following suggestions for your consideration:

A reminder email will be sent as the meeting date approaches.

Thank you for your willingness to explore literature in all its forms!
~ Danette, Fred and Terri

[The list below alternates with italic and regular typeface for ease of viewing.]

Poem Title

Page number
Otherwise 		Page number
Collected Poems

Otherwise

214 266

Reading Aloud to My Father

 22 291

Mosaic of the Nativity: Serbia, Winter 1993

4 273

Let Evening Come

 176 213

After an Illness, Walking the Dog

 166-167 200-201

With the Dog at Sunrise

 177 214

Here

 27 8

Notes from the Other Side

 215 267

Potluck at the Wilmot Flat Baptist Church

 53-54 55-56

Briefly It Enters, and Briefly Speaks

 115 137-138

On the Aisle

 157-158 188-189

We Let the Boat Drift

 135-136 163-164

At the Winter Solstice

 159 190

Drink, Eat, Sleep

 66 72

Trouble with Math in a One-Room Country School

 97 116

 

Small Groups at St. Matthew's

WHAT is a small group?
It is a group of 6-12 people who gather together to experience Christian community through honest conversation, service, study that is relevant to daily living and through genuine caring and support for one another.

WHO is in the group?
Members of the congregation, community and friends who have a desire to grow in faith and to share that experience with each other.

WHERE does the group meet?
Most groups choose to meet in one another’s homes on a rotating basis.  For those groups who need a “central location” for a period of time, the church can be available as a meeting place.

WHEN does the group get together?
Most groups meet 1-2 times per month.  The gatherings are generally about two hours in length, although that will vary by group and the activity that the group is engaged in.  We do recommend that newly formed groups meet twice per month in the beginning to establish relationships.

WHY should I join a small group?
The overall purpose of the small group is to bring people to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.  This was initiated by Jesus Himself when he formed His own small group known as the disciples!  It is also a great way to develop lasting and sincere friendships!

HOW can I get involved in a small group?
To get connected to a group, please contact Sue Swing at the church office at 414/774-0441.  We are always forming new groups and would love to introduce you to this life-changing experience!