Saint Andrew’s-in-the-Valley

Thursday MEMO

July 28, 2011

A quiet summer day.

Services for this coming Sunday, July 31st, will be at 8 and 10 AM, with coffee hour following each service. We hope you will join us for worship.

HELP NEEDED! The rector and her husband (that is Duane and I) are “on” as Dinner Bell Cook Team this Sunday evening. This is intended as a twice-a-year opportunity for families with children and teens and their friends to work together on set-up, food prep, serving, and clean-up. At this point we have a “maybe” response from one household. If you can lend a hand, please email or call me at home (367-8220) to offer your services. We will have a simple menu. The time frame is from 4 to 6 on Sunday.

Reminder: Next Sunday, August 7th, will be the first Sunday of the month so...ONE Service only at 9:00 AM. Please plan to stay for coffee and refreshments and an all-parish conversation about plans for Saint Andrew’s during Heidi’s three-month sabbatical leave which begins on September 1st. The discussion will be led by members of the Sabbatical team – Bruce Kennedy, Lisa Thompson, Carol Tubman, and Cathie Lewis.

A special THANK YOU to everyone who made last weekend’s Lobster/Steak Dinner such a wonderful success. The list is a long one and I apologize in advance for whomever I miss. It certainly begins with Sally DeGroot (organizer extraordinaire) along with her husband, Vic, and there so-very-generous friends who volunteered their services again this year to bring their equipment and cooked our lobsters, clams and corn. Thanks, too, to Lynne (who had to miss the actual event) and Carol for their leadership, along with Brooks, Elaine, and Chuck (who shucked the corn), George Plender (who tended the grill), kitchen workers, table setters, and clean-up crew including Grete, Chris, Diane, Frank, George, Patti, Gretchen, Dale, Kathy Johnson, Duane (along with others, I’m sure), all the blueberry buckle bakers, and greeter and ticket-taker supreme, Peg Cade. And it wouldn’t have been much of a party at all without all our guests, so thank you to you and your friends as well!

Time to plan for our Annual Rummage Sale: Friday, August 26th, from 10 AM to 7 PM and Saturday, August 27th, from 9AM to 1 PM. We will be accepting contributions of clean, clothing in good condition on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of that week. We will also be adding some thing year:

Readings for Sunday: Genesis 32:22-31, Psalm 17:1-7, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:13-21

A brief mediation for July 31st on the virtue of humility from Fred Buechner's Listening to Your Life:

Humility is often confused with the gentlemanly self-deprecation of saying you're not much of a bridge player when you know perfectly well you are. Conscious or otherwise, this kind of humility is a form of gamesmanship. If you really aren't much of a bridge player, you're apt to be rather proud of yourself for admitting it so humbly. This kind of humility is a form of low comedy. True humility doesn't consist in thinking ill of yourself but of not thinking of yourself much differently from the way you'd be apt to think of anybody else. It is the capacity for being no more and no less pleased when you play your own hand well than when your opponents do.

See you in church.
Blessings,

Heidi+

Saint Andrew’s-in-the-Valley
Thursday MEMO
Saturday, July 23, 2011

About 75 people gathered indoors and out last night to feast on lobster, clams, steak, corn, and blueberry buckle. It may have been the hottest day of the year, but it cooled to a wonderful evening. Thank you to ALL who made it possible!

Service for this coming Sunday, July 24th, will be at 8 and 10 AM, with coffee hour following both services. We hope you will join us for worship.

Calling all families and friends of families!!! Twice a year the rector and her husband team up with young people and their families to the serve as the Dinner Bell cook team. We are “on” for next Sunday, August 31st, from 4 to about 6 PM. We’ll do something summery and easy. It would be a great opportunity for those of you with young children to help out a little, having an opportunity to do some Christian service together – table setting and plate clearing – as well as have some outside playtime. The actual meal begins at 5 o’clock and is free of charge. Please talk to me (Heidi) at church on Sunday, or email me if you’d be willing to help.

Rummage Sale plans: Heads up!!! Our annual Rummage Sale will be taking place at the end of August this year (NOT in September), so mark your calendars for Friday, August 26th and Saturday, August 27th. The Rummage Sale accepts clean clothing that is in good shape, as well as household linens (sheets, towels, blankets, table clothes, etc.) and will be happy to receive them on Tuesday, the 23rd, Wednesday, the 22nd, and Thursday, the 23rd. Diane Lombardi will be chairing the event this year and she is counting on lots of help.
In addition, for the modest price of $10, if you or someone you know would like to have (and tend) a “booth” of your own to sell white elephant items or crafts, we welcome such additions outside on the lawn near the Parish Hall entrance.
So now is the time to start thinning out your shelves and closets! Posters will be coming soon. In the meanwhile, spread the word!

Readings for Sunday: Genesis 29:15-28, Psalm 105:1-11, Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Food for contemplation from poet Mary Oliver:

Who Said This?

Something whispered something
that was not even a word.
It was more like silence
that was understandable.
I was standing
at the edge of the pond.
Nothing living, what we call living,
was in sight.
And yet, the voice entered me,
my body-life,
with so much happiness.
And there was nothing there
but the water, the sky, the grass.

Blessings, All.
See you in church.
Heidi+

Saint Andrew's-in-the-Valley Thursday MEMO Saturday, July 16, 2011








Lobster party dude, Woods Hole!!!

Services for this Sunday, July 16th, will be at 8 and 10 AM with childcare provided at the later service. The Reverend Jay Hutchinson will be the guest presider and preacher. We hope you will join us for worship.

Sunday is the deadline for making your reservation and buying tickets for the Lobster/Steak dinner this coming Friday evening, July 22nd, at 6 o'clock. The menu: boiled lobster or grilled steak, corn on the cob, steamed clams, salads, and homemade blueberry buckle for dessert! Children's hot dog meals are also available. You are welcome to bring your own wine or beer. 50% of the proceeds go to support outreach projects, locally and internationally.
Food for reflection adapted from Nancy Wood in Earth Prayers from Around the World

Teach us Stillness

O God, teach us stillness
as the grasses are stilled with light.
Teach us suffering
as old stones suffer with memory.
Teach us humility
as blossoms are humble with beginning.
Teach us caring
as the parents who secure their young.
Teach us courage
as the tree which stands alone.
Teach us limitation
as the ant which crawls on the ground.
Teach us freedom
as the osprey which soars in the sky.
Teach us resignation
as the seed which rises in the spring.
Teach us to forget ourselves
as melted snow forgets its life.
Teach us to remember kindness
as dry fields weep with rain.

And live into the fullness of the beauty of this season.

Sent from sunny, breezy, Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
I'll be back in the office on Tuesday.

Blessings, Heidi+

Saint Andrew’s-in-the-Valley
Thursday MEMO
July 7, 2011

Services for Sunday, July 10th, will be at 8 and 10 AM with childcare provided at the later service. The Rev. Robert Stiefel will be our guest presider and preacher. We hope you will join us for worship.

Now’s the time to purchase your tickets for our upcoming Lobster and Steak dinner, to be held on Friday, July 22nd at 6 PM. Sunday the 17th is the last day for ticket purchases, so buy yours this Sunday to avoid the last minute rush! Make your choice between boiled lobster or grilled steak. The meal also includes corn on the cob and other sides as well as home made blueberry buckle for dessert. Children’s hot dog meals are also available. Reservations may be made by calling the church office at 323-8515.

Posted from a foggy Woods Hole, Massachusetts!

Blessings, Heidi+

Saint Andrew's-in-the-Valley Thursday Memo July 1, 2011



Harp music enriched our worship last Sunday, thanks to Val May.


This coming Sunday, July 3rd, we will have ONE service only at 9:00, followed by coffee hour hosted by the Stewardship and Finance Committees. Childcare will also be available.

Have you purchased your tickets for the upcoming Lobster Boil and Steak Grill Dinner on July 22nd at? This is our one FUN-Raising event that requires reservations. Tickets will be available during coffee hour or you can make a reservation by calling the church office and leaving a message. Be sure to leave your name, the number of tickets, and whether you will want lobster or steak.

The chairs have arrived!!!
If you would like to join with others who have contributed, there are special envelopes on the bulletin tables. And as to the question on the envelopes inviting suggestions as to what to call our new acquisition...Suggestions so far include "a quorum of chairs," "an assembly of chairs," and "a congregation of chairs." Other ideas????

The chairs arrived in twenty cartons and provided an opportunity for some good manual exercise to unpack. If you know of anyone who might want some of our old chairs, or 20 super packing cartons, let us know asap.
The chairs are designed to stack twenty high in a "reclining" position on each of three, very easily maneuverable rolling racks. The may also be stacked up to four high on the floor.


It's not too late to participate! The Bishop Search & Nomination Committee has extended the completion deadline for the survey portion of our diocesan self-study and data-gathering.
The new deadline is Friday, July 8, 2011. 30 of us from Saint Andrew's have responded already. We have some healthy completion going with our friends at Trinity, Meredith. Last week we were tied with them, but they've pulled ahead of us and are now at 40! If you're reading this email and haven't yet responded, now's the time. click here. Many thanks to all who have participated already.

Duane and I will be away, leaving Tuesday for two weeks on vacation in Woods Hole, returning on the 18th. We have two popular guest priests in my absence: Next Sunday, July 10 the Rev. Robert Steifel. The following Sunday, July 17, the Rev. Jay Hutchinson. Services on both Sundays will be at 8 and 10. In the event of a pastoral emergency during the week, Debra will be in the office during the mornings. At other times, call Carol Tubman at 539-2780.

Readings for Sunday: Genesis 24:34-38, 42-29, 58-67, Romans 7: 15-25a, Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Food for contemplation as we approach the great American "High Holy Day" of July 4th, from the Rev. Dr. Allen Hilton of the Congregational Church in New Canaan Connecticut ...

"Brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate our nation's bold and lasting declaration of independence, we also glory in declaring our own independence from the tyrannies that would oppress us. But as we do, we had better choose our own dependences as well.
I began this morning by confessing my bewilderment at what does and doesn't stay in a memory -- the theme songs from bad sitcoms are in, the profound lines of the Declaration of Independence are out. And Among the more beautiful lines that ever snuck into my little brain are the generous and inviting words of Jesus that we read from Matthew's Gospel this morning. My memory hold the King James version and these words constitute a call to dependence:

"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart and ye shall find rest unto your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

In the dizzy joy of independence, it is ours to choose our new dependence as well. The One who created us came to us in Jesus Christ and calls us to a new kind of serving that is not about injuring or usurping, but rest -- not burdensome and daunting, but easy and light. That Lord invites us to table this morning. That Lord says, "Come unto me."

Have a Happy Fourth of July Weekend.
I hope we'll see you in church!
Blessings,
Heidi+