Mothers lead reflections at FSUMC on Mother’s Day

Three mothers, lay servants at Fenimore Street United Methodist Church (FSUMC), on Sunday, May 11, led reflections on Mother’s Day during a two-hour-long Worship Service at the 134-year-old church at the corner of Rogers Avenue and Fenimore Street in Brooklyn.

Ministers Joycelyn King, Janice Gooding, and Chaplain Selena Lubell shared the pulpit, reflecting on the role of mothers and the goodness of God.

Though he and his wife, First Lady Sis. Kim Jackson, were present during the Worship Service, FSUMC Pastor the Rev. Roger Jackson reserved the pulpit for the women lay servants. The closest he came to the pulpit was recognizing two lay servants before the altar and taking group photos with recipients of Mother’s Day “acknowledgements.”

Min. King, the church’s interim lay leader, was born in Antigua and preached that, as she looked back on her life, she “can honestly say that, in all things, God has been faithful.”

She said that during the past week, “a small group of us have been reflecting on Psalm 1: 1-3: “Blessed is the man or woman who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law – day and night,” said Min. King, who is also the church’s Sunday School assistant superintendent.   

“She is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither – whatever she does prospers,” added the former Deaconess in the Methodist Church in Jamaica and Guyana. 

In using the Scripture passage, Min. King prayed “God’s word back to God” over her life.

“Dear God, I want to be a woman who is blessed by you. Please protect me from relationships that dishonor you and glorify sin,” she prayed. “Teach me to delight in your word and to meditate on it continually.

“Help me to hide your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you,” Min. King added. “Plant me beside Godly people who are grounded in the truth, so that I can be fruitful and strong in my faith.

I pray that you will cause me to prosper in all that I do for your glory and according to your perfect plans.”

She then prayed for all women/mothers in the congregation and online: “Dear God, we want to be women who are blessed by you. Please protect us from relationships that dishonor you and glorify sin.

“Teach us to delight in your word and to meditate on it continually,” Min. King added. “Help us to hide your word in our hearts, so that we may not sin against you.

“Plant us beside Godly people who are grounded in the truth, so that we can be fruitful and strong in our faith,” she continued. “I pray that you will cause us to prosper in all that we do for your glory and according to your perfect plans.”

Min. King urged that Mother’s Day be “restful” to all women.

“God is a promise keeper,” she preached. “His promises are true. Allow his promises to satisfy and quiet your heart today in the name of Jesus.”

Min. Gooding, a Barbadian native, noted that “mothers tend to the needs of their family,

“When we know Him (God), we can lean on his everlasting arms,” she preached. “God knows us, and we should know him. God’s love never changes; God’s love is always the same.

“So, today, ask yourself, are you living the life God wants you to be?”  Min. Gooding added. “I pray that everyone will have a blessed Mother’s Day.”

Jamaican-born Chaplain Lubell, who also served as liturgist during the service, asked in her message: “Do you know we are all on assignment?

“Our children understand their assignment even when in the terrible two-year-old stage,” she said. “But the word tells us that, as a young boy, Jesus knew his assignment.

“He must be about his Father’s business,” Chaplain Lubell added. “He was at the right place when he was found debating spirituality and tradition.”

She said she applies Luke 2:49 ESV and John 2:3-5 ESV to her two sons.

“Children speak to parents very early,” Lubell said. “Our job is to harness the spirit in them.

“Every generation must make its own way,” she added. “We are all on assignment.”

The Sunday School children – directed by Jamaican-born Superintendent Gail Murray, a public school assistant principal in Brownsville, Brooklyn – recited poems from the book, “Mothers Are a Song: A Mother’s Day Program for Presentation by all Sunday School Members,” by Ruby Welsh Wilkins.

The children recited the poems “True Mother’s Love”, “M.O.T.H.E.R.” and “For Mother.”

“True Mother’s Love” says in part: “True mother love is warm and glowing/True mother love is sweet and knowing/True mother love is all out flowing and points the way/To God, who yet loves more/This love is priceless.”

“M.O.T.H.E.R.” says: M is the Miracle of a mother/O is for the Outpouring love she gives/T is for the Terrific teacher like no other/H is for her Heart of gold/E is the Exceptional talents/R is Refuge where all hurts can mend.

“Put them together, the letters spell mother/A word that brings music to my ear/A gift that love alone can send,” the poem adds.

“For Mother” says partially: “For the labor of love that gave me birth/A naked and newborn stranger on earth/For the warmth of your arms, your gentle breast/The circle of love where my heart found rest/Your constant care in my early years/For a hand to hold in my childish fears/For each moment of toil and sacrifice.”

The church’s Chancel Choir sang “God’s Amazing Grace,” and Ministers King, Gooding, and Chaplain Lubell assisted in distributing “tokens of appreciation” to acknowledge “biological and non-biological mothers” in the congregation.

Sis. Dianne Brown, the Jamaican-born chairperson of the Higher Education  Committee, and Sis. Ava Providence, the Vincentian-born member of the Committee, used the Mother’s Day celebration to present a check to Sis. Dorothy Providence, FSUMC’s financial secretary, from funds raised during the Committee’s recent bake sale.

“We always place the Almighty Father at the forefront in everything we planned to do and, once again, the Higher Education Scholarship Fund Committee expresses our overwhelming gratitude for the help it has received from our congregation, friends, and families in support of the annual bake sale,” Brown told Caribbean Life afterwards.

“I would like to shout out my accolades to the efficient and dedicated team members of Higher Education,” she added. “The Higher Education Committee is more than thankful to the congregation members who baked, who did the check-offs, the two cashiers, and to the donors. Give thanks to the Holy One.”