Welcome to St. Mark’s – Harlem’s Cathedral of Methodism

Welcome to St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Harlem, NY.

  • Sunday Worship:  11:00 AM
  • Bible Study:            Mondays, 6:00 PM
  • Pastors:
    • The Reverend Nathaniel T. Grady, Sr., M.Div., D.D.
    • The Reverend Joseph V. Crockett, M.Div., Ed.

49-55 Edgecombe Avenue
(at West 137th Street and St. Nicholas Avenue)
New York, NY  10030

Office:  212.926.4400

Fax:  212.926.3339

Pre-Mother’s Day Celebration

Sunday, May 6, 2012

      10:00AM – HOLY COMMUNION WORSHIP SERVICE

 1:00pm-Candle Lighting Service

     ***DONATE A CANDLE***

( To symbolize the Light and Love of Christ that

    emanates from those who have nurtured us.)

Guest Musicians – (Both Services)

APU Men's Chorale

 ‘Azusa Pacific University

100-Voice Men’s Chorale

+  Azusa, California  + 

ttt  Please contact the church office if you would like to ‘Honor’ a loved one.  212-926-4400

˜˜˜

   St. Mark’s United Methodist Church

55 Edgecombe Avenue

New York, New York 10030

Rev. Nathaniel T. Grady, Sr. & Rev. Joseph V. Crockett, Pastors

For a free flyer suitable for printing click  here

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Lent 2012 Devotional Guide – Sixth Week

Commitment, Community, and the Cross

Sixth Full Week of Lent

4/1    Palm/ Passion Sunday: Worship of God in a community of God’s people

Date        Book         Chapter: Verse(s)                                                   Theme

4/2          Mark        11:1-11                             Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

4/3          Mark        11:12-33     Jesus Curses the Fig Tree, Cleanses the Temple and His Authority is Questioned  

4/4          Mark       12:1-27                                            Parable of the Wicked Tenants

4/5          Mark       14:1-31                                                     The Plot and the Passover

4/6          Mark       14:32-72             Jesus Prays, Is Betrayed and Appears before the Council

4/7         Mark          15:1-47                                        Jesus, Crucified, Dead and Buried

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  1. Howard Thurman wrote: “Commitment means that it is possible for a man (sic) to yield the nerve center of his consent to a purpose or cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to him than whether he lives or dies.”  For what purpose or cause will you consent to die?
  2. As a result of your commitments, what would you like to leave behind –your legacy?
  3. With who is your legacy invested?  Talk with her/him/them about it.
 Please join us in the celebration of resurrection, Sunday, April 8th  

 

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Holy Week Services at St. Mark’s

Holy Week  Services  April  1 – April  8

Palm Sunday  11 am Worship

Wednesday  12 noon mid-Week Service

Maundy Thursday Service 7 pm

  • Holy Communion & Tenebre Service of Passion

Good Friday Service 11 am

Easter Sunday 11 am Worship

  • Fellowship Luncheon after Service 

49 -55 Edgecombe Avenue-New York, NY 10030– 212.926.4400
137th-138th Streets  /  St. Nicholas & Edgecombe Avenues

The Rev. Nathaniel T. Grady, Sr. & The Rev. Joseph V. Crockett, Pastors


Why Community Now?

Why Community[1] Now?

A Meditation on the Importance of Community for all Seasons of the Church

The Reverend Joseph V. Crockett, Ed.D.   

Psalm 27; Romans 12: 1-5

Lent is a season or introspection, of inward reflection and examination of our own thoughts, feelings, motives and actions toward God, self and others.  But, an authentic, personal relationship with Christ can never come at the expense of God’s community.

Small groups have become big business.  Around 1998-99, it was estimated that nearly seventy five million American Adults, forty percent of the American population, was involved in some kind of small group.

Manufacturing industry arranges workers in teams.  Corporations spend significant portions of its resources training leaders and managers in how to motivate, relate to, and encourage employees to work toward common goals.  Educators teach learners skills for engaging and negotiating group dynamics.  Teenagers spend the majority of their time and energy searching for autonomy – in groups. Weight Watchers, fraternities and sororities, professional societies, the sports industry and the church all organize efforts in terms of groups, small or large.

One thing these groups seek is a sense of community.  Why?  Because whatever is meant by the term community, most people feel that it’s important.

  • Where are we?
  • Where are we headed?
  • Where does God want to lead us?
  • When will we arrive?
  • How do we get from here to where God wants us to be?

We can never realize the life of Christ on our own, individually or separated from the whole of God’s creation. We cannot live into the likeness of Jesus, change our community or transform the world by ourselves.  While autonomy in American culture is our nation’s creed and our personal calling card, community that is distinctively Christian upholds God as our Guide and embraces every “other” as an indispensable, interdependent member of the body.

Christian community necessitates submission and commitment – taking up the cross of Christ, daily.  Christian community embraces the belief that the Creator has placed us here to honor God and to be our sisters and brothers keeper.  God makes us community and holds us together.

But saying we are a Christian community does not make it so.  We have to work at it.  We must increase our trust; and we must increase our trustworthiness.  We must practice self-disclosure with sensitivity and care so that each person’s story becomes part of our shared giftedness.

Commitment to Christian community is both binding and controlling.  The community of Jesus Christ cannot play at community development.  Christian community is a way of life.  Just as being born from above requires a different logic than the reasoning of the world, so too must we who desire Christian community live in ways that are counter to society’s cultural values and norms.  Authentic Christian community is a racially alternative way of life.

An authentic, personal relationship with Christ does not come at the expense of God’s community.  We are called by Christ into fellowship with God and one another. Romans 12:1-5:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God– what is good and acceptable and perfect.  3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.”

Prayer:      Gracious God, thank you for loving us, calling us, and proving for us opportunities to live together as one body with Jesus Christ as our Lord. Amen.  



[1] Reflections are based on Gorman, Julie A., in Community That Is Christian: A Handbook on Small Groups, 2nd edition (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, pp. 11-18).

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Lent 2012 Devotional Guide – Fifth Week

Fifth Full Week of Lent

3/25    5th Sunday of Lent: Worship of God in a community of God’s people

Date        Book               Chapter: Verse(s)                                 Theme

3/26     Isaiah               52:13-53:12                                             The Suffering Servant

3/27     Isaiah               55:1-13                                             Invitation to Abundant Life

3/28     Isaiah               61:1-11                                               Good News of Deliverance

3/29     Isaiah               62: 1-12                                Vindication and Salvation of Zion

3/30     Isaiah               63:7-64:12                                        God’s Mercy Remembered

3/31     Isaiah               66: 1-4                                              The Worship God Demands

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  1. How does each community in which you participate conduct its affairs in ways that express and highlight its beliefs and values?
  2. How and in what ways are the communities’ activities, practices and traditions updated, renewed, refreshed, and replaced to sustain members’ commitments?
  3. With whom will you share these stories?

 


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Lent 2012 Devotional Guide – Fourth Week

Fourth Full Week of Lent

3/18     4th Sunday of Lent: Worship of God in a community of God’s people

Date        Book               Chapter: Verse(s)                                 Theme

3/19        Psalm            26                        Plea for Justice, Declaration of Righteousness

3/20        Psalm            27                                              Triumphant Song of Confidence

3/21        Psalm            30                                  Thanksgiving for Recovery from Illness

3/22        Psalm            31                     Prayer and Praise for Deliverance from Enemies

3/23        Psalm            32                                                           The Joy of Forgiveness

3/24        Psalm            33                                       The Greatness and Goodness of God

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  1. What communities (organizations) are you a member of?
  2. What are their beliefs and values?
  3. Who will you talk with about your communities of commitment?  Is the church one of those communities?

 

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Third Sunday in Lent 2012 – Tearing Down the House!

Sermon preached on March 12, 2012 by The Reverend  Sabrina Johnson Chandler at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Harlem, NY 

Tearing Down the House!

John 2:13-22

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money-changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a market-place!’ 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’ 18 The Jews then said to him, ‘What sign can you show us for doing this?’ 19 Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.’ 20 The Jews then said, ‘This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?’ 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

 

A few months ago, there was a story in the news that made quite a stir. Apparently, Elin Nordegren decided that she was going to completely demolish her house, a house that looked to be a perfectly good house. Of course, the reason this would even make the news was because Ms. Nordegren is also known as the former Mrs. Tiger Woods. And the house was a 12.3 million dollar oceanfront mansion in North Palm Beach!

For me, what was quite remarkable about all of this was all of the attention that her action drew, and all of the speculation about why she was tearing down the house. I mean, let’s face it, it was her house to do with whatever she wanted. But, some people seemed at turns angry, annoyed or just plain judgmental about it. ‘Almost as if to say, what gives her the right’?

They wanted to understand why this woman was razing a perfectly good, multi-million dollar beachfront mansion to the ground!

 Was it just a show of arrogant wealth? Was she tearing it down…simply because she could? What kind of person does that in the face of all of the people in the world who are suffering because of lack?

Was it to pay Tiger back? After all, she got a whopping $110 million dollar settlement out of their very public, very scandalous divorce. She had been betrayed in the worst possible way. Maybe she was tearing this luxury home down to rub his nose in her apparent victory.

But, then more details were revealed. It turns out that Read the rest of this entry »

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Lent 2012 Devotional Guide – Third Week

Third Full Week of Lent

3/11    3rd Sunday of Lent: Worship of God in a community of God’s people

Date        Book                    Chapter: Verse(s)                           Theme

3/12        2 Corinthians   5:20-6:10                             The Ministry of Reconciliation

3/13        Romans              4:13-25                  God’s Promise Realized through Faith

3/14        1 Corinthians   1:18-25                     Christ the Power and Wisdom of God

3/15        Ephesians          2:1-10                                                    From Death to Life

3/16        Hebrews            5:5-10                                       Jesus the Great High Priest

3/17        Philippians       2:5-11                                         Imitating Christ’s Humility

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  1. How do you express those beliefs and values publicly?
  2. Describe the beliefs, values, and practices commonly held in the communities to which you belong?
  3. Who are their partners?  Who do they serve?  What beliefs and values to these agencies uphold?

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United Methodist Women 2012

St. Mark's United Methodist Women

 

Lenten Concert | Brooklyn Ecumenical Choir

 A LENTEN CONCERT

FEATURING

GOSPEL MASS

BY

Robert Ray

The Brooklyn Ecumenical Choir of Bedford Stuyvesant

Patricia Pates Eaton and Lawrence P. Wrenn

Co-Conductors

Brooklyn Ecumenical Choir of Bedford Stuyvesant

Sunday, March 11, 2012

3 P.M.

AT

Saint Mark’s United Methodist Church

49-55 Edgecombe Avenue at West 137th Street

New York, New York 10030

The Rev. Nathaniel T. Grady Sr.,M.Div., D.D. The Rev. Joseph V. Crockett . M.Div., Ed. D.

FREE WILL OFFERING

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