Friday night at 6:00 is the Mardi Gras Dinner! Don't miss it!
Saint Andrew's-in-the-Valley
Thursday MEMO March 3, 2011
This coming Sunday, March 6th and the Last Sunday after Pentecost, we will have ONE service only at 9:00 followed by coffee hour hosted by the Altar Guild. This is the last Sunday before the beginning of Lent. We hope you will join us for worship as we sing our last Alleluias until Easter!
Friday, March 4th: It's Mardi Gras Dinner Night!!! Bring your family and friends and join us for our pre-Lent party time with beads, masks, and music! The meal will be served a 6 PM. The menu is flavorful New Orleans fare, but fear not...it won't all be spicy! $10 for folks over 12; $2 for children. If you have masks or beads or wild costumes, now's the time!!! This is the first of our 2011 FUN-Raising dinners. 50% of proceeds will go to outreach; 50% stays with the church to support our mission to the community and the world. See you there!
Do you know anyone who could use a simple computer desk? As a result of rearranging and sprucing up my office, I no longer need the table-top style computer desk. (It's a 2' x 5' blond wooden desk top in excellent condition with an attached keyboard drawer, designed to straddle two file cabinets.) Email me or call the office if you're interested.
If it's Mardi Gras, can Ash Wednesday be far behind? Our feasting Friday evening (and in the four days following) is designed to use up all the fats, sugar, and other exotic goodies in our cupboards and give us one last wild fling before focusing ourselves for a Holy Lent.
On Wednesday (March 9th) we will gather at noon and at 5 o'clock to receive the sign of the cross on our foreheads in ashes -- a reminder "that we are but dust and to dust we will return." We will not live forever and it is time to take responsibility for the ways in which we have "missed the mark" (one of the Hebrew ways of talking about sin). The noon service will be a simple spoken liturgy with imposition of ashes and Holy Eucharist. At the 5 o'clock service we will begin the liturgy on the steps of the church where we will burn our palms left from last year, and then proceed with the Ash Wednesday liturgy of the day which will include hymns, imposition of ashes, and eucharist. The 5 pm schedule will allow people to worship together, then proceed to the various Town Meetings that are scheduled for that evening.
If you have dried palms tucked behind pictures or serving as bookmarks, now's the time to bring them in. There's a basket to receive them on the piano in the transept.
An opportunity to support the people of Haiti: Elizabeth Wiesner, a member of the parish, writes in support of her brother-in-law’s work with an invitation to help: "Dave Sargent, along with seven other men, is on his way to Haiti for his second trip. They are going to Nazon village and will be helping to rebuild an orphanage in Nafca village which was razed during the earthquake. Dave has asked me to help by providing supplies that they can take along for the children, who range in age from newborn to 16 years.
The following is a partial list of things that are needed:
– Clothes: underwear, T shirts, shorts, dresses, socks.
– Hair barrettes, beads to make necklaces or bracelets, fancy rubber bands for the girls.
– Pillowcases, towels, sheets, washcloths, etc.
– Medicated (unscented) wipes, medicated powder ( i.e. gold bond), and ointment such as balmex for the babies
– Body soap, shampoo, chapstick [nothing perfumed, which attracts mosquitoes, so no nail polish, no perfumes, or makeup]
– Toys, small stuffed animals, paper supplies, crayons, pencils, pens, coloring books, picture books."
Elizabeth will collect the items from the church and take them to Dave. All of the contributions need to be in by March 15, 2011. Financial donations will also be welcomed. These will be used to help defray the cost of the trip, and for food and medications for the people who are mostly stricken with typhus. There are two doctors who are writing prescriptions, but the medications have to be purchased in the US. Checks should be made out to “FCCO, Haiti Trip.” Also, please include these men and their mission in your prayers.
Many thanks – on behalf of Elizabeth, the team, and the Haitian recipients!
Food for thought at the turning of the season...
Lent invites us to a 40-day period of intentional focus -- a season of penitence and fasting -- in preparation for the days on which we will remember and celebrate our Lord's Passion and Resurrection (Holy Week and Easter). If traditional forms of penitence and fasting do not speak to you, these next few days are the time to consider what practices might interrupt your "business as usual" and call you to simplicity, generosity, prayer, and reflection. What about cutting out extraneous TV watching or web searching, and using that time to consider the meditation of the day in the collection for the season from Episcopal Relief and Development that is in your church mail box? What about giving up complaining? (Saint Benedict considers "no grumbling" to be a cornerstone of healthy community life.) What about tossing the catalogs that appear in your mailbox directly into the recycling bin, and spend the five minutes reflecting on what it is that so pulls you to want to leaf through them? What about getting enough sleep? Or sending a note of appreciation every day to someone who wouldn't expect it? Or committing to preparing simple, tasty, low-meat meals, beginning every meal with a prayer of thanksgiving, and eating slowly, paying appreciative attention to each and every bite, then make a financial contribution that will provide food to someone who is truly hungry?
And once you have made a decision about a single modest practice that you would like to commit to during Lent, why not tell someone in the church your plan, ask for their prayers, and inquire as to how they plan to mark the season (offering your prayers). Together, let us move into a Holy Lent.
Readings for Sunday: Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 1:16-21, Mathew 17:1-9
See you in church!
Blessings, Heidi+
