RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES
New Paltz church welcomes bishop
NEW PALTZ, N.Y. >> Bishop Thomas Bickerton will be at the 10:45 a.m. service on Sunday, March 5, at New Paltz United Methodist Church, 1 Grove St., to celebrate the church’s 230th anniversary.
Bickerton was appointed as the spiritual leader of the 447 United Methodist congregations in the New York Annual Conference last fall. He was elected to the episcopacy in 2004 and served the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference from 2004 to 2016.
Most recently, Bickerton served as the chairperson of The United Methodist Church’s Global Health Initiative, which deals with the church’s response to HIV/ Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. This effort, through the church’s Imagine NO Malaria campaign, raised over $70 million dollars within the denomination to eliminate malaria-related death across the world.
A native of West Virginia, Bickerton earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in sociology and psychology from West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1980, a Master’s of Divinity degree from Duke University Divinity School in 1983, a Doctor of Ministry degree from United Theological School in 1994 and an honorary doctorate from West Virginia Wesleyan in 2015. Bickerton’s life has been significantly shaped by involvement in ministry beyond the walls of the local church. His work with Volunteer-inMission teams in his home state, as well as in Africa, Argentina, Israel, Mexico, Russia, Cuba, and the U. S. Gulf Coast, has given him a “true global perspective on the need to be in ministry to all of God’s children.”
Visit newpaltzumc.org for more information.
Saugerties churches schedule Lenten services
SAUGERTIES, N.Y. The Saugerties Area Council of Churches have scheduled a series of Lenten services at various churches from March 5 to April 2.
All of the services will start at 3 p.m. Offerings from the services will go to Vacation Bible School.
The schedule is as follows:
• March 5, Atonement Lutheran Church, 100 Market St.
• March 12, Saugerties Reformed Church, 173 Main St.
• March 19, Trinity Episcopal Church, 32 Church St.
• March 26, Saugerties United Methodist Church, 59 Post St.
• April 2, St. Mary of the Snow-St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church, 36 Cedar St.
Sermons topics will be either what Lent means to a respective church or a topic concerning Lent. A coffee hour will follow each service.
Call (845) 532-5687 for more information.
Delhi church offers Lenten study
DELHI, N.Y. >> Saint James Church Lake Delaware, 55 Lake Delaware Drive, will offer a Lenten study focusing on Metropolitan Anthony Bloom’s book “Beginning to Pray” starting Tuesday, March 7, following a supper in the church rectory at 6 p.m.
The series will continue on Tuesday evenings throughout the Lenten period. All are welcome to attend the class, regardless of church membership.
Bloom was best-known as a writer and broadcaster on prayer and the Christian life. He was a monk and Metropolitan bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. He was founder and for many years bishop — then archbishop, then metropolitan — of the Diocese of Sourozh, the Patriarchate of Moscow’s diocese for Great Britain and Ireland. As a bishop, he became well known as a pastor, preacher, spiritual director and writer on prayer and the Christian life.
Call (607) 832-4401, send an email to saintjames@ delhitel.net or visit stjameslakedelaware.net for more information.
Film series will screen British comedy-drama
RHINEBECK, N.Y. >> “Dean Spanley,” a whimsical, mystical British comedy-drama exploring the relationships between father and son, and master and dog, will be screened as part of the Movies With Spirit series on Saturday, March 18, at 7 p.m. at the Episcopal Church of the Messiah, 6436 Montgomery St.
The film takes place in London in 1904. Genteel Londoner Henslowe Fisk (Jeremy Northam), known as “Fisk Junior,” resents his obligatory weekly Thursday visit to his argumentative septuagenarian father, Horatio Fisk (Peter O’Toole), or “Fisk Senior.” During their awkward meetings, Fisk Senior expresses no emotion other than bullheadedness. He es-
pecially refuses to acknowledge the tragic loss of his younger son, Harrington Fisk (Xavier Horan), killed in a military battle two years earlier, and the death of Fisk Senior’s wife shortly thereafter.
One day, seeking to entertain his father, Fisk Junior takes him to a lecture by a visiting swami (Art Malik), who discusses the transmigration of souls. Fisk Senior later describes the lecture as “singularly unilluminating.” But the lecture proves to be the first of several remarkable encounters with Dean Spanley (Sam Neill), a strange, new local clergyman, who strongly piques Fisk Junior’s curiosity. Fisk Junior later happens upon Spanley at Fisk Senior’s club and then on the grounds of the cathedral.
Fisk Junior takes this to be more than mere coincidence and decides to ask the man to dinner, enticing him with the promise of a rare, sweet Hungarian Imperial Tokay wine, which Spanley had described as his favorite. At dinner, Spanley requires only a few sips of the Tokay before his stuffy conversation turns to something bizarre and fascinating — namely, his experiences in a past life as a Welsh springer spaniel. It later becomes clear that Spanley has an intimate connection with someone close to Fisk Senior. It’s a revelation that will ultimately prove incredibly cathartic for all concerned.
The 2008 film, which won seven film-festival awards, is adapted from “My Talks With Dean Spanley,” a 1936 novella by British-Irish fantasy author Edward Plunkett, who published under the pen name Lord Dunsany. “Dean Spanley” runs 100 minutes and is rated PG. The Rhinebeck screening will be followed by a facilitated discussion. Refreshments will be served.
Attendees over age 12 are asked to contribute $5 a person.
The monthly Movies With Spirit series, organized by Gerry Harrington of Kingston, seeks to stimulate people’s sense of joy and wonder, inspire love and compassion, evoke a deepened understanding of people’s integral connection with others and with life itself, and support individual cultures, faith paths and beliefs while simultaneously transcending them.
The films are screened in diverse houses of worship and reverence across Ulster and Dutchess counties at 7 p.m. on the third Saturday every month. The series has no religious affiliation.
For more information about “Dean Spanley” and the rest of the series, contact Harrington at (845) 389-9201 or at gerryharrington@mindspring.com. Details are also available at movieswithspirit.com and facebook.com/MoviesWithSpirit.