Message from your Music Directors:

" If you plan on going to heaven, you'd better get used to singing in a choir" Why not get in practice now?"  

That's a Bob Mahns Quote!

" If God Could make a donkey talk, He can give anyone a voice to sing His praises"

That's a Gwynne Mahns quote!

Seriously, we are getting to the point of becoming quite desperate for more choir members. It only takes one or two members to be sick at the same time, and it becomes virtually impossible for us to sing an anthem each week.

In addition to signing lots of well-known carols, listening to instrumental specials, we'll be highlighting the five women mentioned in Matthew's genealogy of Christ. Perhaps you, like many, skip right over them-but they reveal story- a thread that connects one generation to another. Matthew list 42 generations of Jesus human ancestors. The stories that will be told in our special Christmas program will show women who all share something in common: questionable backgrounds. But here's the thing most of us want to conceal the more disgraceful events and people in our families. But not Jesus. Matthew goes out of his way in the first chapter of his Gospel to draw attention to these women. Why? Because even in genealogies God weaves His grace. He loves to produce something beautiful out of sordid family backgrounds. He loves to make foreigners His children. He loves to reconcile His enemies. Jesus came from a human family filled with unlikely people. 
Praise God!    

You don't have to read music to join, nor do you have an operatic voice-you just have to come to rehearsals, enjoy the camaraderie and warm friendship of the group. There are so many benefits to singing in choir: it reduces stress, lowers blood pressure and gives the singer and listeners a lot of pleasure. Think about it! It could be your New Year resolution.

If you have questions or need more information speak to a choir member or to one of us.

CALLING ALL FACEBOOK USERS

If you a Facebook account, why not use it to let your friends know about all the wonderful things that go on in our church. It would be free advertising for special events like the special Christmas Carol Sing-long Service planned for Sunday, December 17th at 10 A.M. Or our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at 7 P.M.   

Reformatiom Leaders Thomas Linacre

Thomas Linacre

In the 1490’s another Oxford professor, and the personal physician to King Henry the 7th and 8th, Thomas Linacre, decided to learn Greek. After reading the Gospels in Greek, and comparing it to the Latin Vulgate, he wrote in his diary, “Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel… or we are not Christians.” The Latin had become so corrupt that it no longer even preserved the message of the Gospel… yet the Church still threatened to kill anyone who read the scripture in any language other than Latin… though Latin was not an original language of the scriptures.

Early Education of Thomas Linacre

Thomas Lynacre received his early education at the cathedral school of Canterbury, then under the direction of William Celling, who became prior of Canterbury in 1472. Celling was an ardent scholar, and one of the earliest in England who cultivated Greek learning. From him Linacre must have received his first incentive to this study.
Linacre entered Oxford about the year 1480, and in 1484 was elected a fellow of All Souls' College. Shortly afterwards he visited Italy in the train of Celling, who was sent by Henry VIII as an envoy to the papal court, and he accompanied his patron as far as Bologna. There he became the pupil of Angelo Poliziano, and afterwards shared the instruction which that great scholar imparted at Florence to the sons of Lorenzo de 'Medici. The younger of these princes became Pope Leo X, who was famous for his heretical claim that “the fable of Christ has been quite profitable to us” which infuriated the Protestants.

Associates of Thomas Linacre

Among Linacre’s other teachers and friends in Italy were Demetrius Chalcondylas, Aldus Romanus the printer of Venice, and Nicolaus Leonicenus of Vicenza. Linacre took the degree of doctor of medicine with great distinction at Padua. On his return to Oxford, full of the learning and imbued with the spirit of the Italian Renaissance, he formed one of the brilliant circle of Oxford scholars, including John Colet, William Grocyn and William Latimer, who are mentioned with so much warm eulogy in the letters of Erasmus.
Linacre does not appear to have practiced or taught medicine in Oxford. About the year 1501 he was called to court as tutor of the young prince Arthur. On the accession of Henry VIII he was appointed the king's physician, an office at that time of considerable influence and importance, and practiced medicine in London, having among his patients most of the great statesmen and prelates of the time, as Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop Warham and Bishop Fox.
After some years of professional activity, and when in advanced life, Linacre received priest's orders in 1520, though he had for some years previously held several clerical benefices. There is no doubt that his ordination was connected with his retirement from active life. Literary labours, and the cares of the foundation which owed its existence chiefly to him, the Royal College of Physicians, occupied Linacre's remaining years till his death on the 20th of October 1524.

Linacre the Scholar

Linacre was more of a scholar than a man of letters, and rather a man of learning than a scientific investigator. He was one of the first Englishmen who studied Greek in Italy, whence he brought back to his native country and his own university the lessons of the "New Learning." His teachers were some of the greatest scholars of the day. Among his pupils was one--Erasmus--whose name alone would suffice to preserve the memory of his instructor in Greek, and others of note in letters and politics, such as Sir Thomas More, Prince Arthur and Queen Mary. Colet, Grocyn, William Lilye and other eminent scholars were his close friends, and he was esteemed by a still wider circle of literary correspondents in all parts of Europe.
Linacre's literary activity was displayed in two directions, in pure scholarship and in translation from the Greek. In the domain of scholarship he was known by the rudiments of Latin grammar (Progymnasmata Grammatices vulgaria), composed in English. He also wrote a work on Latin composition, De emendata structure, Latini sermonis, which was published in London in 1524 and many times reprinted on the continent of Europe. Linacre's only medical works were his translations. He desired to make the works of Galen, and indeed those of Aristotle also, accessible to all readers of Latin. Concerning Linacre’s translations from Aristotle, some of which are known to have been completed, nothing has survived.

Linacre the Physician

But the most important service which Linacre conferred upon his own profession and science was not by his writings. Linacre was responsible for the foundation by royal charter of the College of Physicians in London, and he was the first president of the new college, which he further aided by conveying to it his own house, and by the gift of his library. Two readerships were founded in Merton College, Oxford, and one in St John's College, Cambridge, but owing to neglect and bad management of the funds, they fell into uselessness and obscurity. The Oxford foundation was revived by the university commissioners in 1856 in the form of the Linacre Professorship of Anatomy. Posterity has done justice to the generosity and public spirit which prompted these foundations; and it is impossible to overlook the importance of the College of Physicians by which Linacre not only first organized the medical profession in England, but impressed upon it for some centuries the stamp of his own individuality.

Linacre, Colet, and the Protestant Reformation

As a professor of philosophy at Oxford, Linacre founded the Department for Greek Studies. He did this after a two-year sojourn to Italy to learn Greek himself. Upon returning to Oxford, Linacre discovered that the Greek manuscripts were dramatically different from the Latin Vulgate. He wrote in his diary, “Either this (the original Greek) is not the Gospel… of we are not Christians”. The Latin Vulgate had become progressively more and more corrupted with each passing generation over the previous 1,000 years.
Linacre notified John Colet, another Oxford professor, and Colet was inspired to follow in Linacre’s footsteps and take a two-year sabbatical to Italy to study Greek. Upon returning to Oxford, Colet assisted Linacre in the production of the first Greek grammar book printed in England. The work of Colet and Linacre contributed greatly to the public awareness that the Roman Catholic Church’s Latin Vulgate text could not be trusted, and called for Christian scholars to return to the original Greek manuscripts to translate, or at least to understand, the Gospel as it was originally meant to be communicated.

The Start of the Reformation

1516-17, Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St Peter's Basilica in Rome.^[32] Roman Catholic theology stated that faith alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, cannot justify man;^[33] and that only such faith as is active in charity and good works (fides caritate formata) can justify man.^[34] These good works could be obtained by donating money to the church.

On 31 October, 1517, Luther wrote to Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, protesting the sale of indulgences. He enclosed in his letter a copy of his "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," which came to be known as The 95 Theses. Hans Hillerbrand writes that Luther had no intention of confronting the church, but saw his disputation as a scholarly objection to church practices, and the tone of the writing is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire."^[35]Hillerbrand writes that there is nevertheless an undercurrent of challenge in several of the theses, particularly in Thesis 86, which asks: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"^[35]

Luther objected to a saying attributed to Johann Tetzel that "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs,"^[36] insisting that, since forgiveness was God's alone to grant, those who claimed that indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. Christians, he said, must not slacken in following Christ on account of such false assurances.

According to Philipp Melanchthon, writing in 1546, Luther nailed a copy of the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg that same day — church doors acting as the bulletin boards of his time — an event now seen as sparking the Protestant Reformation,^[37] and celebrated each year on 31 October as Reformation Day. Some scholars have questioned the accuracy of Melanchthon's account, noting that no contemporaneous evidence exists for it.^[38] Others have countered that no such evidence is necessary, because this was the customary way of advertising an event on a university campus in Luther's day.^[39]

The 95 Theses were quickly translated from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the printing press.^[40] Within two weeks, the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe.

Reformation Leaders Johann Gutenberg

Johann Gutenberg

http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/gutenberg.html

Johann Gutenberg 

Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1450's, and the first book to ever be printed was a Latin language Bible, printed in Mainz, Germany. Gutenberg’s Bibles were surprisingly beautiful, as each leaf Gutenberg printed was later colorfully hand-illuminated. Born as “Johann Gensfleisch” (John Gooseflesh), he preferred to be known as “Johann Gutenberg” (John Beautiful Mountain). Ironically, though he had created what many believe to be the most important invention in history, Gutenberg was a victim of unscrupulous business associates who took control of his business and left him in poverty. Nevertheless, the invention of the movable-type printing press meant that Bibles and books could finally be effectively produced in large quantities in a short period of time. This was essential to the success of the Reformation.

 

GUTENBERG, JOHANN (c. 1398—1468), German printer, is supposed to have been born 1398—1399 at Mainz of well-to-do parents, his father being Friele zum Gensfleisch and his mother Elsgen Wyrich, whose birthplace “Gutenberg”, was the name he adopted. The Germans, and most other people, contend that Gutenberg was the inventor of the art of printing with movable types.

Reformation Leaders John Hus

John Hus                                       

http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-hus.html

Note: You may wish to visit the next two web sites to see two of Jon Hus most antagonist revails.

Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigismund,_Holy_Roman_Emperor

Antipope John XXIII http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope_John_XXIII

 

One of Wycliffe’s followers, John Hus, actively promoted Wycliffe’s ideas: that people should be permitted to read the Bible in their own language, and they should oppose the tyranny of the Roman church that threatened anyone possessing a non-Latin Bible with execution. Hus was burned at the stake in 1415, with Wycliffe’s manuscript Bibles used as kindling for the fire. The last words of John Hus were that, “in 100 years, God will raise up a man whose calls for reform cannot be suppressed.” Almost exactly 100 years later, in 1517, Martin Luther nailed his famous 95 Theses of Contention (a list of 95 issues of heretical theology and crimes of the Roman Catholic Church) into the church door at Wittenberg. The prophecy of Hus had come true!

John Hus, the famous Reformer of Bohemia, was born at Hussinetz (Husinecz; 75 miles south west of Prague) on or around July 6, 1369. John Huss is a common English designation, but the name is more correctly written, according to Slavic spelling, Hus. It is an abbreviation from his birthplace made by himself about 1399; in earlier life he was always known as Jan, Johann or John Hussinetz, or, in Latin, Johannes de Hussinetz. His parents were Czechs.

Like Martin Luther, he had to earn his living by singing and performing humble services in the Church. He felt inclined toward the clerical profession, not so much by an inner impulse as by the attraction of the tranquil life of the clergy. He studied at Prague, where he must have been as early as the middle of the 1380’s. He was greatly influenced by Stanislaus of Znaim, who later became his close friend, but eventually his bitter enemy. As a student Hus did not distinguish himself. The learned quotations of which he boasted in his writings were mostly taken from Wycliffe's works. He was said to have had a hot temper. In 1393 he received his bachelor of arts, in 1394 bachelor of theology, and in 1396 master of arts. In 1400 he was ordained priest, in 1401 he became dean of the philosophical faculty, and in the following year rector. In 1402 he was appointed also preacher of the Bethlehem Church in Prague, where he preached in the Czech language.

Reformation Leaders John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe

John Wycliffe (1320-1384)        http://www.greatsite.com/timeline-english-bible-history/john-wycliffe.html

 

 John Wycliffe The first hand-written English language Bible manuscripts were produced in 1380's AD by John Wycliffe, an Oxford professor, scholar, and theologian. Wycliffe, (also spelled “Wycliff” & “Wyclif”), was well-known throughout Europe for his opposition to the teaching of the organized Church, which he believed to be contrary to the Bible. With the help of his followers, called the Lollards, and his assistant Purvey, and many other faithful scribes, Wycliffe produced dozens of English language manuscript copies of the scriptures. They were translated out of the Latin Vulgate, which was the only source text available to Wycliffe. The Pope was so infuriated by his teachings and his translation of the Bible into English, that 44 years after Wycliffe had died, he ordered the bones to be dug-up, crushed, and scattered in the river!

John Wycliffe (1320-1384) was a theologian and early proponent of reform in the Roman Catholic Church during the 14th century. He initiated the first translation of the Bible into the English language and is considered the main precursor of the Protestant Reformation. Wycliffe was born at Ipreswell (modern Hipswell), Yorkshire, England, between 1320 and 1330; and he died at Lutterworth (near Leicester) December 31, 1384.

His family was of early Saxon origin, long settled in Yorkshire. In his day the family was a large one, covering a considerable territory, and its principal seat was Wycliffe-on-Tees, of which Ipreswell was an outlying hamlet. 1324 is the year usually given for Wycliffe's birth. Wycliffe probably received his early education close to home. It is not known when he first went to Oxford, with which he was so closely connected till the end of his life. He was at Oxford in about 1345, when a series of illustrious names was adding glory to the fame of the university--such as those of Roger Bacon, Robert Grosseteste, Thomas Bradwardine, William of Occam, and Richard Fitzralph.

Wycliffe owed much to Occam; he showed an interest in natural science and mathematics, but applied himself to the study of theology, ecclesiastical law, and philosophy. Even his opponents acknowledged the keenness of his dialectic. His writings prove that he was well grounded in Roman and English law, as well as in native history. A family whose seat was in the neighborhood of Wycliffe's home-- Bernard Castle-- had founded Balliol College, Oxford to which Wycliffe belonged, first as scholar, then as master. He attained the headship no later than 1360.

DIRECTIONS TO THE CHURCH

We are located at 36 Lacey Road in Whiting, N.J. 

See directions and maps below, and call 732-350-0232 if you need further directions.

Via Rt. 37 or Rt. 70:

From points west of Whiting, go east on Rt. 70 to intersection with Rt. 539. (Exxon gas station) Turn right on 539/530.

After the turn you are on Rt. 530 and Rt. 539 heading southeast toward the shore. After going just about 0.1 mile, bear left at a fork to stay on 530. Continue on Rt. 530, which is also Lacey Road, through a traffic light at Manchester Blvd./Station Road, and another at Lake Road. At third traffic light, turn right to stay on Lacey Road (Rt. 614). Continue on Lacey Road for about another mile, past intersection (Whiting Station/Gardenia Road) and look for church parking lot on right.

From Toms River area via Rt. 37 West to Rt. 70, then west on Rt. 70 to traffic light at Manchester Blvd. Turn left on Manchester Blvd. and continue through next traffic light. Turn left at second traffic light, which is Lacey Road. Then follow above directions to 30 Lacey Rd. 

From Toms River area Via Rt.530 (Pinewald-Keswick Rd.):

From Toms River area, take Rt. 530 northwest to intersection with Lacey Road. Make a left turn onto Lacey Road. Continue on Lacey Road for about a mile, past intersection (Whiting Station/Gardenia Road) and look for church parking lot on right.

From Garden State Pkwy South take exit 80. On exit ramp, be in left lane of two-lane exit, then bear right when lane divides, to make a right turn. Make a left turn at first traffic light, then follow Rt. 530 (Dover Road) to traffic light at Davenport Road. Continue past Davenport Road, and make next right turn to stay on Rt. 530 (Pinewald-Keswick Rd.). Continue on Rt. 530 to intersection with Lacey Road. Make a left turn onto Lacey Road. Continue on Lacey Road for about a mile, past intersection (Whiting Station/Gardenia Road) and look for church parking lot on right.

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Whiting, NJ 08759-2921

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Community Reformed Church

Our Mission

To proclaim by teaching, preaching and by example,

The gospel of Jesus Christ;

To enable people to experience a growing relationship with God;

To continue Christ's ministry of healing broken lives,

freeing imprisoned spirits, and bringing hope to those in despair;

And to witness to God's redeeming grace, inviting all people

to celebrate His loving presence in this church and all the world.