asburyfirst.org
Holy Week at Asbury First is just around the corner with a series of much-beloved services beginning with Palm Sunday, then a special candlelight Maundy Thursday service with communion and a reenactment of Christ's last night, our traditional Good Friday “Envisioning the Passion” service, along with a special 7 am Easter Sunday Sunrise Service in the Asbury First Community Garden (weather permitting). For more information, visit asburyfirst.org/holy-week
(585) 271-1050
NEWS SHEET
You're invited! Join us for upcoming worship, fellowship, and fun.
MARCH 2026
NEWS SHEET | MARCH 2026
The Columbarium & Memorial Garden
Storehouse Geranium Sale
Easter Altar Flower Donations
The Storehouse Geranium Sale has begun! By ordering geraniums, you're helping the Community Outreach Center to Do More Good. Orders must be received by Wednesday, April 22. This year geraniums are available in red, white, purple, strawberry and salmon, individually or in hanging baskets. Pick up your geraniums on Saturday, May 16 from 9 am to 11:30 am in the Red Room of the COC. Call the Church Office at (585) 271-1050 for help making your order.
Spring is around the corner, and with it, a first chance for the Memorial Garden to grow into its new home in the newly opened Columbarium, a sacred place to pray, reflect and meditate. Niches can be reserved for yourself or a loved one. Contact Kathy Thiel to reserve your niche or learn more at kthiel@asburyfirst.org or call (585) 271-1050 x106
Easter is just around the corner! Now is the time to purchase altar flowers in memory, honor, or celebration of a loved one. Orders will be accepted until March 23. If you would prefer to pay by check, forms are available at the Welcome Desk. Checks should be made payable to Asbury First United Methodist Church Altar Guild and delivered to the church office, attention Beverly Schuman.
Lectio Divina each weekday of Holy Week
Banned Book Club: That Librarian by Amanda Jones
If you are experiencing grief and would like a place to talk about it and share with others, you are welcome to attend on Wednesday evenings from 4 to 5 pm in the Library (1040) and via Zoom. All are welcome. Questions? Contact Rev. Kathy Thiel at (585) 271-1050 x106 or kthiel@asburyfirst.org.
Grief Group Wednesdays, via Zoom and in the Library
Monday, May 18, from 7 to 8 pm in the Red Room , join the Banned Book Club for a discussion of Amanda Jones' That Librarian, a memoir by a Louisiana school librarian who became a target of harassment after defending LGBTQ+ and diverse books. It chronicles her fight against censorship, the resulting threats, and her legal action against her accusers.
Lectio Divina is a contemplative prayer practice focused on one scripture, which will guide us each day in spiritual reflection. Join via zoom every Tuesday 8:30 - 9 am and weekdays during Holy Week, Monday, March 30 through Good Friday, April 3. Questions? Contact Rev. Kathy Thiel at (585) 271-1050 x106 or kthiel@asburyfirst.org.
Asbury Women's Art Class Fridays, 1 - 3 pm in Room 205 (1040)
For just $15 in materials, we'll meet every Friday from 1 - 3 pm in Room 205 (the Bell Room in 1040) to explore art as a spiritual practice while connecting with other women in a welcoming, creative space. Questions? Contact Linda Clemow at programs@asburyfirst.org
Wednesday Morning Book Group – Miracles & Wonder
Morning Prayer – Thursdays at 9:30 am
In these turbulent times of shifting headlines and unsettling political events, our pastoral staff feels called to help our community maintain spiritual grounding. We invite you to join us for Morning Prayer every Thursday from 9:30 - 10am in the Meditation Chapel (within the Sanctuary). This simple service offers a space to center ourselves in God's presence, solidarity, compassion, and love. No special preparation needed—come as you are, whenever you can join us.
Join our Wednesday morning book study Wednesdays from 10 am to 11:30 am in the Red Room (1010) and via Zoom as we explore Miracles and Wonder by Elaine Pagels, which examines the gospels Jesus's followers left behind. Each chapter addresses fascinating questions—Why a virgin birth? Why the resurrection? Did miracles really happen and what did they mean?—bringing Jesus and his followers vividly to life while shedding light on his enduring power to inspire and attract. The group meets Wednesdays from 10 to 11:30 am in the Red Room (1010) and via Zoom, and all are welcome to join this engaging discussion.
Doorknobs, Locks and Keys
Join the Civics Team in our next effort of postcarding for the Progressive Turnout Project. We will meet in the Red Room (1010), 10 am to Noon. Just bring your pen, your best printing skills and your enthusiasm. And if you don’t find yourself called to printing postcards yet still want to support our effort, consider buying and donating postcard stamps (not first class stamps). Stamps can be left with Holly Temming in the Church Office (1050).
Gentle Yoga – Tuesdays at 3 pm, in the Gathering Center
Postcarding Resumes!
Among the hundreds of door latches and locks on campus are a few that need TLC from someone experienced with this kind of repair. If you can help us with this, please contact the Monday Morning Crew's Dave Kennedy at (585) 787-0422 or email programs@asburyfirst.org to lend us your talents!
Join us for Gentle Yoga, Tuesdays at 3 pm in the Gathering Center. A $10 suggested donation at the door. Each beginner-friendly, inclusive session offers an hour of breathing, movement, awareness, and meditation. Wear loose-fitting clothing comfortable for movement; limited mats and props available, but please bring your own if possible.
KOP is seeking 4 groups of 3 volunteers each to be part of a caring circle for new families. Under the Welcome.US program, we can help, but we officially need three volunteers per family. This will guarantee a family $1,000 per person in resettlement funds within 2 to 3 weeks from the Welcome Corps. Please reach out to friends and community members if you can help by being part of a caring circle. For more information, call or text Cindy Malone at (585) 645-4060.
Keeping Our Promise Seeking volunteers
VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES | MARCH 2026
Connecting Through Volunteering
Looking for a deeper way to connect? Volunteering at Asbury First is more than helping out—it’s about building friendships, discovering joy, and growing in faith. Our Volunteer Engagement Committee is here to match your gifts and schedule with opportunities across the church. Whether you have an hour once in a while or time each week, there’s a place for you: greeting on Sunday mornings, singing in the choir, teaching, cooking, office help, or serving with Outreach ministries. The best part? Volunteering is flexible and rewarding. You’ll bless the church with your presence—and find yourself blessed in return. Ready to find your place? Reach out to the Volunteer Engagement Committee and discover the joy of serving together. Call the Church Office to be connected with someone who can help you find your place at (585) 271-1050.
Asbury First is delighted to welcome two new part-time members to our staff. Both bring valuable experience and, perhaps most importantly, a deep personal connection to this congregation and its mission. Dan McInerney — Operations Associate Dan joins the Asbury First staff as Operations Associate. In this role, he will help ensure welcoming front-office operations, assist with data and finance tasks, and coordinate the systems and communications that support volunteer involvement across ministry areas — connecting people to service and keeping the behind-the-scenes functions of Asbury First running smoothly. Dan brings a wealth of experience to the position, having spent 28 years in similar roles within the nonprofit arts sector. But for many in the congregation, Dan is already a familiar face! He has been connected to Asbury First and its music ministry for over 20 years, including the last 14 as Tenor Section Leader in the Sanctuary Choir. Dan and his wife Pam have four grown children and make their home in Irondequoit. Jordan Cole — Hospitality Coordinator Jordan Cole joins the staff as Hospitality Coordinator, a role in which he will support the various hospitality teams who are so often the first faces that new and returning members encounter. "I hope to support these teams as we continue to show the welcoming and unique community that is Asbury First," Jordan says. Jordan graduated from SUNY Oneonta in 2016 with a Bachelor's Degree in Anthropology and Spanish, and since 2018 has worked in customer service and quality control at MAXIMUS, where he gained experience working with a wide variety of people from across New York State. He looks forward to bringing those skills to his new role. Jordan's connection to Asbury First runs deep — he was raised in the church, has been a member since childhood, and grew up through the Youth Ministries. We are thrilled to welcome him back in this new capacity. Please join us in welcoming both Dan and Jordan to their new roles. We look forward to the gifts and energy they will bring to our community!
ARTICLES | MARCH 2026
"True community is based on equality, mutuality, and reciprocity. It affirms the richness of individual diversity while at the same time it celebrates the common human ties that bind us together.” — Pauli Murray, The Song in a Weary Throat (1987) Pauli Murray was a lawyer, civil rights strategist, poet, and later one of the first women ordained as an Episcopal priest. Long before Brown v. Board of Education, Murray was developing legal arguments against segregation that would shape the NAACP’s strategy. Thurgood Marshall referred to her 1950 book States’ Laws on Race and Color as “the Bible” of the civil rights movement. In 1977, she became the first Black woman ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church, bringing together her legal vision and her faith. Pauli Murray understood that injustice is rarely only personal. It is embedded in structures, habits, and laws. She also understood that community is more than goodwill. It is built—or distorted—by the systems we create and sustain. Murray’s life sits at the intersection of Black History Month and Women’s History Month. She navigated racism and sexism in academic, legal, and ecclesial spaces that did not yet know how to make room for her. She was often ahead of her time, articulating arguments about equal protection that would not be fully realized for decades. Her work helped shape the constitutional language that protects many of the rights Americans now take for granted. And yet she was not only a legal thinker. She was a theologian of belonging. When she was ordained, she preached her first Eucharist at the very church in North Carolina where her enslaved grandmother had once been baptized. For Murray, faith and justice were not separate tracks. They were part of the same long work of repair. As we move through Lent, her vision of community offers searching questions. What kind of shared life are we building? Where are we content with surface harmony, and where are we willing to examine the deeper patterns that shape opportunity, access, and dignity? For congregations like ours, largely white and often socially stable, the temptation is to treat justice as an abstract ideal rather than a lived commitment. Murray’s life invites us to do more than admire courage. It asks us to study it, to learn from it, and to consider how our own structures in church and in civic life reflect or resist the equality we profess. Lent is a season for that kind of reflection. Not self-accusation, but clear-eyed honesty. Not performance, but formation. The wilderness work of this season is not only interior. It also reshapes how we live together. Pauli Murray’s life reminds us that community worthy of the name does not emerge accidentally. It is cultivated through intention, sacrifice, and persistence, and that is holy work.
“I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth. We need to be taught to study rather than believe, to inquire rather than affirm.” — Septima P. Clark, Echo in My Soul (1962) Septima Clark was an educator and civil rights strategist whose work helped thousands of African Americans in the South gain literacy and the ability to vote. Often called the “Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement,” Clark developed the Citizenship School model that taught reading, writing, and civic knowledge in church basements and community centers across the South. Her work quietly equipped ordinary people to claim their rights and helped lay the groundwork for the broader civil rights movement. Septima Clark understood that freedom grows through learning. In the years before the Civil Rights Movement gained national attention, Clark and others began organizing what they called Citizenship Schools. These were not grand institutions. Often they met in church basements, kitchens, or borrowed classrooms. The purpose was simple and radical: to teach people to read well enough to pass discriminatory voter registration tests, and teach them enough about the civic process to participate fully in public life. What Clark helped people discover was not only literacy but agency. Education became a doorway to dignity. When people realized they could read the law, understand the ballot, and ask questions about the systems shaping their lives, fear began to loosen its grip. Clark’s approach was patient and practical. She believed that leadership did not emerge from charisma alone but from communities learning together. The citizenship schools were less about producing heroes and more about cultivating thousands of people who knew their own worth and responsibility. As we move through Lent and continue reflecting during Women’s History Month, Clark’s legacy offers an important reminder. Transformation rarely arrives in a single dramatic moment. More often it grows quietly through learning, reflection, and courage practiced over time. Faith communities have always played a role in that kind of formation. Churches have been places where people learn not only scripture but also how to think, question, organize, and serve the common good. Septima Clark believed people were capable of far more than the world expected of them, if they were given the opportunity to learn and grow together. She still has something to teach us. Communities shaped by truth, curiosity, and courage become places where new possibilities emerge. And the work of building those communities is slow, steady. This is how movements begin.
This is your invitation to consider serving as an Equalization Member to this year’s Annual Conference. In the United Methodist system, Annual Conference is the primary decision-making body of our region. It includes clergy and lay members from across the conference who gather to worship, set direction, vote on legislation and budgets, elect leadership, and shape the future of our shared ministry. Because clergy membership sometimes exceeds lay membership, congregations are invited to send additional lay persons as “Equalization Members” to ensure balanced representation between clergy and laity. Equalization Members have full voice and vote, just like elected lay members. What this would involve: Attending the full Annual Conference session (May 28-30 at the Oncenter in downtown Syracuse) Participating in worship, plenary sessions, and voting Reviewing materials in advance (agenda, legislation, budget items) Serving as a thoughtful representative of our congregation in matters that affect the whole Conference It is a meaningful responsibility. The work can be prayerful, sometimes complex, and occasionally spirited. It is also a powerful way to witness how our connectional system functions and to help shape the direction of ministry beyond our local church. Pastor Michelle is happy to answer questions, Conference staff provide orientation materials, and our Asbury First delegation will meet ahead of time.
Wednesdays, 10–11:30 am , 1010 Red Room and Zoom (zoom.us/j/8924819492) PW 578697) This group meets on Wednesdays morning between Labor Day and Memorial Day. It is primarily a book group that is open to all. The group considers and chooses the books to read for the coming year each spring. They spend several weeks on each book, focusing on a few chapters each week. For more information, please contact Mike Mullin at mmullin@asburyfirst.org.
Lectio Divina
CONTINUING CLASSES, GROUPS, AND EVENTS
Fridays, 1 – 3 pm, 1040 Room 205 (upper level, bell choir room) Meeting on Friday afternoons, the Asbury Women's Art Class explores creation through a variety of art mediums. Please email Linda Clemow at soulsourcestudio1@gmail.com for more information and to register.
Tuesday Women’s Fellowship
Looking for a way to stay connected to your Asbury First friends during the week? Want to meet new Asbury First friends? All women, all ages, are welcome to join the Tuesday Women's Fellowship via Zoom, 9:30–10:30 am each week. Bring your coffee or tea, and perhaps a treat, zoom in and enjoy an hour of devotion, sharing, and connection. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Elizabeth Church, coordinator, at emchurch418@gmail.com. Hope to see you soon!
Tuesdays, 9:30-10:30 am, Zoom (zoom.us/j/8347173468 PW 200)
Lectio Divina is a contemplative practice on reading scripture. A passage of scripture is read, then there is silent meditation, then the passage is read again, then more silence, and then discussion. The silence is an opportunity to reflect upon what you experienced in the scripture. This half hour opens and closes with prayer. All are welcome. For more information please contact Rev. Kathy Thiel at kthiel@asburyfirst.org or at 585-271-1050 x106.
Wednesday Morning Study Group
Tuesdays, 8:30–9 am, Zoom (zoom.us/j/8347173468 PW 200)
Asbury First Women's Art Class
Tuesdays, 2:15 - 3:15 pm, Zoom (zoom.us/j/8347173468 PW 200)
Men of all ages are welcome to join us on Wednesday mornings via Zoom as we discuss topics of faith, life, and more. Each week, a different member of the group leads us in a devotion for our time together. These can be instructional, reflective, conversational, and more. This is a wonderful group to make and build connections, and we hope that you will drop in to join us! or more information, please contact Mike Mullin at mmullin@asburyfirst.org.
Have you ever wondered what the Bible really says—and if it truly has any meaning for us in modern times? If so, then you’re not alone. Most Christians have never really read the Bible, and many wonder if its antiquated teachings truly transcend time. If you would like to grapple with these questions, then you are encouraged to join in the Disciple Bible Study. Disciple IV spends the first half the year looking at the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, and the second half of the year focused on the Gospel of John and Revelation. The Disciple IV Bible study will be starting later this spring. Please contact Mike Mullin for more information or to sign-up contact mmullin@asburyfirst.org
Disciple IV Bible Study
Men’s Devotional Group
Wednesdays, 7 am, Zoom (zoom.us/j/8347173468 PW 200)
Yoga at Asbury First
Tuesdays, 3 pm, Gathering Center, $10 pay at the door
Join us for our weekly sessions of Gentle Yoga. This gentle attention can help both to bring inner awareness to your body, as well as clarity and peace to the mind! Classes are an hour long and open to participants at any level. $10 at the door, you're encouraged to wear comfortable loose-fitting clothes, and to bring a towel and water with you.
Carvers of Hope is a wood carving ministry that helps people who find themselves in the very difficult places of life. Its members carve handmade crosses as a reminder of the hope Jesus brought to us through the cross. All materials, wood, and carving tools are provided, as well as carving lessons. No prior skill is needed to carve crosses with this group. If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact John Smalt at jhsmalt@gmail.com.
4th Tuesday of the Month, 6:30–8 pm, Room 203
As The Spirit Moves Us
Prayer Shawl Ministry
Asbury First's LGBTQ+ Advocacy Group continues to hold meetings seeking new ways to support the LGBTQ+ community. Meetings are held in the Youth Room (in the lower level of the church). Anyone affiliated with LGBTQ+ community and allies are welcome to attend. We will be planning for events, outreach, and educational opportunities in our community. Youth and adults are welcome! For more information, please contact Deb Bullock-Smith at (585) 271-1050 x117 or at dbullocksmith@asburyfirst.org.
4th Wednesday of the Month, 3–4:30 pm, Library
3rd Sunday of the Month, at 9:45 am, 1040 Youth Room (lower level)
LGBTQ+ Advocacy Meeting
Sundays, 9:45–10:45 am, Room LL03 and Zoom (zoom.us/j/6174865464 PW Disciple) As The Spirit Moves Us is a class founded on forming a welcoming community to study Biblical events through scripture as well as Christian-based literature. All are welcome, and every voice is heard as we become better together. For more information about this class, please contact Mike Mullin at mmullin@asburyfirst.org or at 585-271-1050 x105.
Carvers of Hope
A prayer shawl is a simple shawl or a lap blanket knitted by members of our group. It is symbolic of an inclusive, unconditionally loving God. The knitting itself is very simple and we have “experts” on hand to help you if you are a beginner. The group meets monthly on the fourth Wednesday. Clergy and lay members of our church identify those who may benefit from our ministry and a shawl, and they're delivered by ministers or congregation members. Questions? Contact Meredith Pixley at meredithpixley@gmail.com.
To submit an announcement, email communication@asburyfirst.org, call the church office at (585) 271-1050, or fill out the online form at asburyfirst.org/bulletin-announcement. If you'd like to receive regular paper communications, please call the church office at (585) 271-1050.
ALTAR FLOWERS The flowers on the altars are given to the glory of God and in gratitude of past and present church members. If you would like to place flowers on the altars, please contact Jeanne Ristau at (585) 223-4356, preferably two weeks ahead of requested date. Prayers and Concerns We offer our prayers and concerns for all those who are ill at home, hospitalized, or in hospice care. Our hearts and prayers are with Kay Layton and her family as they grieve the death of Gary Layton, who died on February 18. A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, March 28 at 11 am in the Sanctuary. Our hearts and prayers are with George Heydweiller and his family as they grieve the death of Kay Heydweiller who died on March 11. Information about a service to celebrate Kay's life will be available soon. We want to be able to visit and pray with those who are in the hospital. If you know someone who is in the hospital and would like a pastoral call, or if you yourself are in the hospital or have a date for surgery, please call Rev. Kathy Thiel who will be most glad to be with you in that moment. (585) 271-1050 x106.
Celebrations and concerns
Stay up-to-date with events, links, and information with our online calendar, or call (585) 271-1050.
asburyfirst.org/events