Pastor Bruce
Newsletter December 2022 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, Recently, as I’ve glanced at my December calendar, I’ve been reminded that once upon a time in the days before COVID, here...
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Pastor Bruce
- Nov 1
- 3 min
Newsletter November 2022 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, Nineteenth-century English poet John Keats once wrote: “Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced.” I discovered the...
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Pastor Bruce
- Sep 30
- 2 min
Newsletter October 2022 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, As you know, we will celebrate the bicentennial of First Presbyterian Church of Ridgewood NJ in 2023. As we prepare to mark...
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Pastor Bruce
- May 28
- 2 min
Newsletter June 2022 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, While the word lazy has a negative connotation, I cannot help but look forward to the lazy days of summer. For many of us,...
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Pastor Bruce
- Apr 30
- 2 min
Newsletter May 2022 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, This month, I’ve decided to use this space to write a stewardship article, but not the kind of stewardship article you...
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Pastor Bruce
- Mar 28
- 2 min
Newsletter April 2022 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, During the early days of the pandemic, when it was not safe to gather, our worship services were pre-recorded and made...
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Pastor Bruce
- Feb 21
- 1 min
Newsletter March 2022 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, Four years ago during Lent, we created a midweek worship service combined with a simple meal. During its early years, the...
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Pastor Bruce
- Dec 30, 2021
- 3 min
Newsletter January 2022 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends: As I sit down to type my first First Press article of 2022, I am reminded of the practice of adopting New Year’s...
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Pastor Bruce
- Nov 26, 2021
- 4 min
Newsletter December 2021 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends: It was a number of years ago, a few days before Christmas, and my mom wasn’t feeling well. So she went to see her...
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Pastor Bruce
- Oct 26, 2021
- 2 min
Newsletter November 2021 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends: As he often does when writing to the churches, the Apostle Paul begins his letter to the Philippians with words of...
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Pastor Bruce
- Sep 27, 2021
- 2 min
Newsletter October 2021 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Consecration Sunday Is Coming: Sunday, October 24! Congregations which approach financial stewardship from a biblical perspective do not...
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Pastor Bruce
- Aug 30, 2021
- 1 min
Newsletter September 2021 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, As I write this, August will soon give way to September, children will soon return to school, and in the rhythm of church...
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Pastor Bruce
- May 26, 2021
- 2 min
Newsletter June 2021 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, While we’re not completely out of the woods, conditions created by the coronavirus are improving greatly! Thanks be to God...
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Pastor Bruce
- Apr 29, 2021
- 2 min
Newsletter May 2021 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, As I write these words, I am preparing to plant pansies in some raised pots and beds around the backyard of the manse. I...
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Pastor Bruce
- Mar 26, 2021
- 2 min
Newsletter April 2021 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, As we approach Good Friday, I am reminded of these haunting words from Matthew 27:46: My God, my God, why have you forsaken...
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Bruce Ballantine
- Feb 26, 2021
- 3 min
Newsletter March, 2021- First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, It was two days before our regularly scheduled Sunday, March 15, 2020 worship service. Reports were beginning to surface...
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Bruce Ballantine
- Jan 30, 2021
- 1 min
Newsletter February, 2021- First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, Three years ago during Lent, we created a midweek worship service combined with a simple meal. During those three years,...
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Bruce Ballantine
- Dec 28, 2020
- 3 min
Newsletter January, 2021- First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends, Recently I was asked to write an online devotional for my alma mater, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. The assigned date...
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Pastor Bruce
- Nov 24, 2020
- 2 min
Newsletter December, 2020 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends: In just a few days on November 29, we enter the season of Advent, a season of preparation for the coming of Christ, whose...
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Bruce Ballantine
- Oct 30, 2020
- 2 min
Newsletter November, 2020 - First Presbyterian Ridgewood, NJ
Dear Friends: I doubt that St. Paul realized that his letters to various first-century churches would one day become part of the...
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