Day of Pentecost Gospel Readers: Davis (Welsh), Marty (English), Heidi (Latin), Gabriele (German), Gretchen (French).

Thursday, May 27, 2010

This Sunday, May 30th, is Trinity Sunday. We will have our regular two services of Holy Eucharist, at 8:00 and 10:00 am. Do join us for worship.

Summer Altar Flowers: Do you expect to have flowers in your garden at some point this summer which you would like to provide as altar flowers? Since it is so unpredictable exactly when certain flowers are in full bloom, we are in the process of putting together a list of people who might have flowers available on any given Sunday. We will gather those names together, then at the beginning of any given week be able to send out a general request by email when flowers are needed. Of course, if you are able to plan ahead (as in, "I think my peonies will be out by next Sunday.") so much the better! 

     As always, if you do not have garden flowers and would like to offer flowers (in memory, in thanksgiving, or in honor of someone), we are happy to order them from our florist, the cost for which is $25.

     Altar flower arrangements need not be elaborate or complicated. If you have flowers but are unsure about your arranging skills, let us know, and someone else can take that on or help you.

     Finally, it would be wonderful to have someone with regular computer access who would be willing to coordinate the flowers. Might that be you? In the meantime, please email flower-related offerings to Deb at office@standrewsinthevalley.org . Thanks.

Many heartfelt thanks to all who teamed up last weekend to make the Italian Dinner such a success. And special recognition to Lynne Clough, organizer-in-chief, and Ed Walters, accordion player! We brought in close to $600, so we will be sending out about $150 to each of the three organizations: Episcopal Relief and Development, Agape Ministries, and Meals on Wheels. 

Food for thought. Much has been written on the Divine Trinity, but here is one of my personal favorites... from Madeleine L'Engle's book Circle of Quiet in which she quotes from a story by Dorothy Sayers. In it a Japanese man is politely listening to a Christian who is trying to explain the concept of the Trinity. The Japanese man is puzzled: 

"Honorable Father, very good. Honorable Son, very good. Honorable Bird I do not understand at all."

Madeleine goes on to comment:

"Very few of us understand Honorable Bird, except to acknowledge that without his/her  power and grace nothing would be written, painted, or composed at all. To say anything beyond this about the creative process is like pulling all the petals off a flower in order to analyze it, and ending up having destroyed the flower."

See you in church!

Blessings,

Heidi+

May 20, 2010

This Friday's the night! The Italian Dinner begins at 6:00. Tickets are available at the door: adults $10, kids $5. Come and bring your friends for delicious food and good company. Proceeds go to support Meals-on-Wheels, Agape Ministries, and the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund (ERD).

Huggins Hospital Open House, Saturday, May 22nd, 10-2 in Wolfeboro: Come and tour this amazing new regional facility. The Rev. Randy Dales, rector of All Saints' Episcopal Church in Wolfeboro will deliver the invocation at 10:00. The Rev. Heidi Frantz-Dale, rector of St. Andrew's-in-the-Valley, Tamworth, will bless the Emergency Room and staff (directed by our own Carol Tubman) at 10:30 then move up to the Acute Care Unit (directed by our own Chris Mills) to ask God's blessing there as well. Do join us!

This Sunday is the Day of Pentecost, a principal feast of the church year (It's right up there with Easter and Christmas) celebrating the coming of the Holy Spirit in tongues of fire upon the disciples. Wear red (or orange or pink or magenta!) to remind us of those shimmery flames of the Holy Spirit! Services are at 8 and 10, with Child Care provided at the later service.

Our Outreach and Mission open conversation will continue at about 11:25 in the Parish Hall this Sunday. Our focus will be on Haiti, with reports on the situation there and how we might respond. To hear our Presiding Bishop, Katharine Jefferts Schori's update on Haiti, click here. Then go to the bottom left of the page for the video block.

This provides some perspective that may be helpful to our conversation.

Many thanks to the actors in last Sunday's cancel drama of Paul and Silas in Prison: Bob S., Davis, Duane, George R., Gretchen, Jonathan, Kaitlyn, Kathy B., Lisa, Marty, and Stephen. Special thanks to Lisa for her directing. CLICK HERE for video of the production!

Veni Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit!

Blessings, All! See you in church.

Heidi+

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Regular service schedule this Sunday with services at 8 and 10. If the winds of the Spirit are with us, the 10:00 service may include a chancel drama.

The new issue of The Mountain Top is out. Regular members will find your copies in your Parish Hall mail box. Others have been mailed out to home addresses.

We're closing in on the Italian Dinner -- next Friday, May 21st, at 6 pm. Extend an invitation to your friends and plan on coming. Among other delicacies, a variety of lasagnas will be on the menu. Proceeds will go to Meals on Wheels, Agape Ministries, and Episcopal Relief and Development.

Food for thought from Joan Chittiser (The Liturgical Year: the spiraling adventure of spiritual life, p. 170) . . .

Life is an intoxicant that no amount of more mundane inebriants -- faster, deeper, more alluring, more captivating -- can possibly equal. The problem is that for life to become its own exhilarant, we must learn to live it consciously, to live it deeply, to live it to the brim, beyond the visible to the meaningful. Somehow, in the midst of the purely natural, we must become aware of what is more than simply natural. We must cross the line between matter and spirit, between time and timelessness. We must allow one to become the other so that the gifts of neither may be lost, so that the electricity of each can be released.

See you in church!

Blessings,

Heidi+

Thursday, May 6, 2010

This Sunday, May 9th: Regular service schedule with services of Holy Eucharist at 8:00 and 10:00.

     The 10:00 service will be followed by coffee, then we will gather for a brief Mission & Outreach discussion. We will be focussing on the Edith Junior School in Kenya, because some changes there mean that the tailoring program may not be the top priority at this time. We will keep that meeting short, especially since it's Mother's Day. [On May 23rd, we'll return to the broader question of where to put out Outreach & Mission focus.]

Special thanks to Grete & George Plender and Jennifer Manson & her daughters who stepped up to the plate last Sunday to cover Dinner Bell. True Gospel work: giving out food to the hungry! As a way of bringing newer parishioners on board and as a refresher for old-timers, the upcoming Mountain Top will include an article detailing how Dinner Bell works, how it is supported, and how people can participate.

Thanks, too, to all who participated in the Parish Work Day. A lot got accomplished, but if you missed out (or would like to lend your hands again) some painting and some gardening tasks still remain. 

Our Italian Dinner is coming up: Friday, May 21st at 6:00. The proceeds will go to the support of Meals on Wheels, Agape Ministries, and Episcopal Relief and Development. We are still in need of volunteers  for that event. There is a sign-up list in the Parish Hall, or call Lynne at 323-7046.

Food for thought from Karen Armstrong (author of A History of God [1994], The Spiral Staircase [2005], The Great Transformation [2006].

"The reality that we call God is transcendent -- and yet God is also the ground of all being and can be experienced almost as a presence in the depths of the psyche. All traditions went out of their way to emphasize that any idea we had of God bore no absolute relationship to the reality itself, which went beyond it. Our notion of a personal God is one symbolic way of speaking about the divine, but it cannot contain the far more elusive reality. Most would agree with the Greek Orthodox that any statement about God has to have two characteristics. It must be paradoxical, to remind us that God cannot be contained in a neat, coherent system of thought; and it must be apophatic, that is, it should lead us to a moment of silent awe or wonder, because when we are speaking of the reality of God, we are at the end of what words or thoughts can usually do."      [Spiral Staircase, p. 292]

Eastertide continues!

See you in church.

Blessings,

Heidi+