Aislinn, Peg, and Alli prepare for the procession last Sunday. We welcome Aislinn as our newest acolyte, and Alli (granddaughter of George and Patti), who serves regularly in her home church in Connecticut and was here for a visit.
Thank you both for stepping forward with a desire to serve.
[More pictures below.]









Saint Andrew's-in-the-Valley
Thursday MEMO
February 24, 2010

POT LUCK Supper & GAME NIGHT have been canceled due to the weather. Stay home. Stay safe. Enjoy the beauty of winter in New Hampshire.

Services this coming Sunday, February 27th and the 8th Sunday after the Epiphany, will be at 8 and 10 AM, with child care provided at the later service. Both services will be followed by coffee hour. We hope you will join us for worship and fellowship.

Stop by our offices when your next at church. At long last, the carpeting has been replaced, giving us a tidy new look (and an opportunity to do a lot of sorting)! Thank you for your support of our facilities improvement projects.

Mardi Gras Supper is this coming Friday, March 4th. at 6 pm: Come party with your parish family and friends in New Orleans spirit! Shake off those mid-winter blues with beads, masks, and lively jazz and zydeco music! Enjoy at tasty, good-for-the-soul menu, and don't worry, there will be plenty of non-spicy options for tame Yankee tastes. $10 for teens and adults; $2 for children 12 and under. Adults who would like to bring their own wine or beer are welcome to do so.
This is the first of our 2011 FUN-Raising dinners. 50% of the proceeds will go to support community outreach and 50% will support the church. Help make it a success.

And if we're celebrating Mardi Gras, can Ash Wednesday and Lent be far behind? Ash Wednesday is March 9th. Because that is Town Meeting Night in at least three of the towns we serve, WE WILL BE CHANGING OUR WORSHIP SCHEDULE. We will have ONE service with the imposition of ashes and holy eucharist at 5 PM (instead of services at noon and 7 PM).

If you have dried palms left from last Palm Sunday, bring them in. (There will be a basket on the piano on Sunday.) We will burn them at the beginning of the liturgy to provide the ashes for the imposition of ashes.

An appreciation of Saint Andrew's from the community: The Tamworth Exchange has been inviting people to contribute to a list of what makes Tamworth special. The following additions appeared this past week: "The Dinner Bell @ Saint Andrew's and all the volunteers that prepare and serve the meals," and "Saint Andrew's church bell on a Sunday mornings."

Readings for Sunday: Isaiah 49:66-16a, Psalm 131, 1Corinthians 4:1-5, Matthew 6:24-34

Food for thought in late February from Frederick Buechner:

There are times when I suspect the world may come to an end before most of us are ready to -- which would have the advantage at least of our not having to leave, one by one, while the party is still going strong -- but most of the time I believe that the world will manage somehow to survive us, and that has its advantages too. I suppose Judy and I will keep living in Vermont because after all these years it's hard to imagine living anywhere else, and as long as the dreams keep being dreamed, I suppose I will go on writing books. They never reach as wide a public as I would like -- too religious for secular readers, I suspect, and too secular for religious ones -- but in the end justice is almost always done in literary matters, I believe, and if they are worth enduring, they will endure. Who can say? Humanly speaking, in fact, who can say for sure about anything? And yet there are some things I would be willing to bet maybe even my life on.

That life is grace, for instance -- the givenness of it, the fathomlessness of it, the endless possibilities of its becoming transparent to something extraordinary beyond itself. That -- as I picked up somewhere in Jung and whittled into the ash stick I use for tramping around through the woods -- vocatus atque non vocatus Deus aderit, which I take to mean that in the long run, whether you call on him or don't call on him, God will be present with you. That if we really had our eyes open, we would see that all moments are key moments. That he who does not love remains in death. That Jesus is the Word made flesh who dwells among us full of grace and truth. On good days I might add a few more to the list. On bad days it's possible there might be a few less.

See you in church!
Blessings,
Heidi+