April 26, 2012

This Sunday, the 4th Sunday after Easter and Good Shepherd Sunday, we will have services at 8 and 10 AM, with coffee hour following each service. This is also "Bring-your-sheep-to-church Sunday!" All small sheep welcome – stuffed, carved, china, photographed, spun. The "flock" will surround us in our worship on the window ledges.
After coffee hour, an entourage of children and adults will "process" by car to the Hird's farm in Sandwich for a picnic and some time with some real lambs! Thanks in advance to Juli, Stephen, Aislinn, and Ronan for inviting us and helping us learn what it means to be a good shepherd and tender of sheep.

Readings for this Sunday: Acts 4:5-12, Psalm 23, 1 John 3:16-24, John 10:11-18

Last chance to reserve your tickets the Italian Murder Mystery Dinner! Please call the church office by noon on Friday. Only a limited number left and they're going fast. 

Pictures:
A few of the questionable characters in this zesty pistol and passion mystery. An Italian gift basket will be given to one of the dinner guests who solves the mystery of who killed Pepi Roni.

Don't forget our Lakes Region "Meet & Greet," to be held at the Holderness School this coming Wednesday, May 2nd. This is your opportunity to meet all three of our nominees for Bishop and to ask your questions and hear responses. Registration is from 5:45 to 6:15. The sessions begin at 6:30 sharp and will run for about two hours. Saint Andrew's has agreed to provide some refreshments. Please sign up on the parish bulletin board to provide food or offer or request a ride.

A huge thank you to all who stayed last Sunday to take part in our Spring Parish Work Day. The front lawn is now raked, thanks to Levi, Lynn, and Chris. The Parish Hall windows are pristine! the Prince Room entryway has been positively transformed!!! And there's still more to be done. If you have some time to share, call the office and someone will get back to you.

Reminder: On Sunday, May 6th we will have ONE service only at 9:00. It will be followed by an all-parish conversation and sharing of observation from the "Meet & Greets" to which all are welcome.

Food for thought from Brother Geoffrey Tristram

God longs for each of us to become the unique person that God made us to be, and to reflect the glory of God out into the world. – Br. Geoffrey Tristram

Blessings, Heidi+

From the office at St. Andrew’s

UPCOMING WEEK’S CALENDAR:

Fri  4/27:

            10a-noon  Food Center
            6 PM Italian Dinner Mystery          

Sat  4/28:       

            4pm AA St. Patricks Supper
            8pm AA & Al-Anon(PH,PR)

Sun 4/29:       

            8 AM Holy Eucharist
            10 AM Holy Eucharist
           5 PM Dinner Bell (Cook Team: Rau )

Mon 4/30        Church office closed

            7 pm Boy Scouts
       
Tue  5/1:        
            10am – noon  Food Center
            8pm AA (PH)
       
Wed 5/2:
            9 AM Service of Morning Prayer   
                    
Thu  5/3:
            6pm Round Table Eucharist
            6:30 pm Brown Bag Supper
            7 pm Vestry Meeting

Thursday,
April 19, 2012

Services for this coming Sunday, April 22nd and the Third Sunday of Easter, will be at 8 and 10 AM, with coffee hours following both services. This is also Earth Day and (appropriately) Spring Work Day Sunday!

You are invited to come to church in your work clothes, bringing lawn rakes, work gloves, and garden tools and stay for an hour or so after the service. Since at the moment we do not have a sexton to do outside work, we need to get the lawn well raked before the mowing season begins. The back daffodil beds need serious weeding, and there are numerous scruffy, post-winter accumulations that need attention. So COME ONE! COME ALL!

The official “Work Day” will take place after the later service, but there are additional tasks that need to be tackled during the week, like using the blower to clear the sand from the parking lot. There will be a posted list.

Next Sunday, April 29th and the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is Good Shepherd Sunday, so bring your sheep – china, stuffed, carved, painted! We will display them along the window ledges and think about Jesus as our Good Shepherd. After the 10 o’clock service our Children’s Group and their adults and other interested friends will make a pilgrimage to the Hird’s farm in Sandwich for a picnic and to visit their live sheep and learn a little about sheep and shepherding.

Get your tickets this Sunday – or call the office and reserve! The Italian Mystery Dinner on Friday, April 27th at 6 is heating up! Our actors are rehearsing. Our chefs are cooking! And tickets are going fast! Please arrive promptly at 6:00 because the mystery is interspersed between the courses.

Do you ever feel as though your money is not in your control??? If so, please consider signing up for a unique, award-winning series called More than Money Matters. This series is being offered at no cost on four Mondays beginning April 23rd at the Freedom Public Library. Identify and set your goals, let your giving, saving, and spending align with your values, learn basic money management tools to help you budget, reduce debt, and find money to save. Registration info is in the Parish Hall. It is offered by Thrivant Financial for Lutherans, (but Episcopalians are welcome)!

The Bishop Search Process continues! We have our three nominees (Penny, Rob, and Bill) and we have been praying for them. They will be coming to town – actually to Holderness School – for a “Meet & Greet” opportunity on Wednesday, May 2nd. You are invited to this Question and Answer, get-acquainted event. If you would like to car-pool, please sign up on the lists on the parish bulletin Board.

The Electing Convention will be held on Saturday, May 19th at St. Paul’s Church in Concord. EVERYONE attending MUST preregister through Debra in our office by May 1st. There will be a limited number of seats for non-voting guests in the church AND a much large number of places available in the undercroft where sound will be piped in. So, if you would like to be part of the excitement, you too MUST register with Debra in our office. ONLY preregistered people will be permitted on site that day.

See below! There really is some work to be done to tidy things up for the season!














Food for thought as we approach Earth Day from Presiding bishop Katharine Jeffers Schori (from her book Gospel in the Global village: Seeking God's dream of Shalom)...

Reconciliation is God's mission; reconciling the world to God in Christ is the way Episcopalians put it. Reconciliation means restoring God's intention for the world. It's needed in the relationships between human beings and their creator, between and among human beings, and -- in ways that we are becoming increasingly aware of -- between human beings and the rest of creation.

See you in church, prepared to honor the earth by readying it for the coming season!
Blessings,
Heidi+

April 12, 2012
Easter Week

Services for this coming Sunday, April 15th and the Second Sunday of Easter, will be at 8 and 10 AM with coffee hour following both services. The Reverend Eleanor McLaughlin will be guest presider and preacher. Ellie+ is a good friend of this parish and was part of the clergy team during Heidi's sabbatical last fall. Heidi and Duane will be taking their post Easter release Sunday, visiting family and friends in Massachusetts and celebrating their graddaughter's first birthday.

Next Sunday, April 22nd (Earth Day) we will be holding our annual spring cleanup following the 10:00 service. Feel free to come to church in your work clothes so that we can team up on outside cleanup. Bring your rakes, tarps, and garden gloves. As yet, we have not hired a replacement sexton, so there is much to be done and all hands will be put to work. Coffee hour refreshments will be quartered sandwiches, cheese, fruit and cookies to keep us well nourished.

Make your reservations for the Italian Murder Mystery Dinner to be held on Friday, April 27th at 6 PM. Admission is $15 for adults. If you have a party of eight, the charge will be $105, giving you one free dinner. This will be dinner theater at it's most exciting! Who will be the one to solve the mystery? Spread the word and invite your friends.

Holy Week and Easter in pictures at Saint Andrew's-in-the-Valley

Palm Sunday
The children eagerly prepare to distribute the palms


Maundy Thursday
Hand washing, foot washing, absolution, and the striping and wiping down of the altar


Good Friday
The empty chancel for midday meditations; communion from the Maundy Thursday celebration



Holy Saturday
The children and parents gather with Mother Heidi to explore the Good Friday story and to create the Easter garden and the tomb in which Jesus was laid.


The Easter Vigil
The kindling of the Easter fire, a large puppet proclaims the promise to God's people of a new heart and a new land, and the first eucharist of Easter


Easter Day
Connor and Aislinn light the alter candles and carry the torches. Levi joins in the procession as he prepares for his first communion.

Food for thought from former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold as we live into the Great 50 Days of Eastertide...

Easter is not simply a recurring feast day in the Christian calendar; it is the shattering of the known in order to make way for what is real. And the reality it proclaims is that everything that restricts, diminishes, imprisons, and limits life as God intends it is trampled down by the risen Christ. Christ's victory is therefore a challenge to everything within us and within the church and the world that resists Christ's all-embracing freedom.

Blessings in this Holy Season of resurrection and new life!
Heidi+

April 7, 2012 Holy Saturday, the Blessed Sabbath

Food for thought for this day from the Orthodox liturgy:
Today Hades tearfully sighs: " Would that I had not received him who was born of Mary, for he came to me and destroyed my power; he broke my bronze gates, and being God, delivered the souls I had been holding captive!" O Lord, glory to your cross and to your holy resurrection!

Today Hades groans: "My power has vanished. I received one who died as mortals die, but I could not hold him: with him and through him I lost those over which I had ruled. I had held control over the dead since the world began, and lo, he raises them all up with him!" O Lord, glory to your cross and holy resurrection.

Holy Saturday, Children's Easter Garden gathering 12:30 to 2 with bag lunch.

The Great Vigil of Easter Saturday at 8 PM with kindling the new fire, the Vigil readings, and the first Eucharist of Easter. Bring your bells to ring at the Easter acclamation!!!

Easter Day: The service of holy eucharist at 8:00 AM is spoken and has no music. The 10:00 liturgy includes, hymns, choir, organ, trumpet, and celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Coffee hours follow both services. We hope you will join with us in celebration!

Easter Dinner will be served at Dinner Bell at 5:00 hosted by the Raus and the Souths.

Detail of a tapestry of the Resurrection of Christ, based on a cartoon by the school of Raphael and created in the workshop of Pieter van Aelst in Brussels, 1524-31. Part of the Scuola Nuova series depicting episodes from the life of Christ. The Vatican Museums.

A word about the "Good Friday Offering"...
Envelopes have been available during Holy Week for this sepcial offering in support of the Episcopal Church in the Holy Lands. The work and witness of the church in that region, often working in tandem with Muslims and Jews, is of vital importance to peace and reconciliation. Please know that if you would like to contribute, the envelopes are still out. It's not too late.

Blessings on this holy day.
I hope to see you this evening as we kindle the Easter fire at 8 o'clock!
Heidi+

April 6, 2012 Good Friday MEMO

Deposition from the Cross, thirteenth century, Volterra, Italy

Services for Good Friday at Saint Andrew's: Noon to 1:30 -- Meditations at the Cross, for which you are invited to come and go as you schedule allows. This evening at 7:00 PM -- The Liturgy of the Passion, with hymns, readings, solemn collects, and communion from the reserved sacrament. [Please note: Yesterday's posting was INCORRECT. Tonight's service will be at 7:00.]

The washing of the bare altar in preparation for Good Friday and Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday: Children's Easter Garden gathering 12:30 to 2 with bag lunch.

The Great Vigil of Easter: Saturday at 8 PM with kindling the new fire, the Vigil readings, and the first Eucharist of Easter. Bring your bells to ring at the Easter acclamation!!!

Easter Day: 8 AM and 10 AM, with Easter reception following both services.
Easter Dinner: 5 PM Dinner Bell, hosted by the Raus and the Souths!


Food for Reflection for Good Friday from Poet Denise Levertov...

"Salvator Mundi: Via Crucis"

Maybe He looked indeed
much as Rembrandt envisioned Him
in those small heads that seem in fact
portraits of more than a model.
A dark, still young, very intelligent face,
a soul-mirror gaze of deep understanding, un judging.
That face, in extremis, would have clenched its teeth
in a grimace not shown in even the great crucifixions.
The burden of humanness (I begin to see) exacted from Him
that He taste also the humiliation of dread,
cold sweat of wanting to let the whole thing go,
like any mortal hero out of his depth,
like anyone who has taken a step too far
and wants herself back.
The painters, even the greatest, don’t show how,
in the midnight Garden,
or staggering uphill under the weight of the Cross,
he went through with even the human longing
to simply cease, to not be.
Not torture of body,
not the hideous betrayals humans commit,
not the faithless weakness of friends, and surely
not the anticipation of death (not then, in agony’s grip)
was Incarnation’s heaviest weight,
but this sickened desire to renege,
to step back from what He, Who was God,
had promised Himself, and had entered
time and flesh to enact.
Sublime acceptance, to be absolute, had to have welled
up from those depths where purpose
drifted for mortal moments.

Blessings on this holy day,
Heidi+






Pieta, Michelangelo, 1498-99
Saint Peter's, Vatican City

April 5, 2012: Maundy Thursday

The liturgy of the day for Maundy Thursday will begin at 7 PM. We hope you will join us. Maundy Thursday commemorates the Institution of the Lord's Supper. On the night before his death, Jesus set an example for his disciples by washing their feet as an act of humble service. Following his commandment, all who choose to will have an opportunity to participate in this ritual washing of one another's feet. The foot washing is followed by a simple celebration of the eucharist and the Stripping of the Altar in preparation for Good Friday.Tomorrow, Good Friday, a simple service of scripture readings and meditations "At the Cross" will be held from noon to 1:30. You are invited to come and go as your schedule permits. At 1:30 we will walk the Stations of the Cross.






At 7 PM the Good Friday Liturgy of the Day will be held, which includes hymns, the solemn collects, and Communion from the Reserved Sacrament. All are welcome.

A special thank you to Gretchen, Cathie, and Grete for braving the brisk air and tidying up the memorial garden this week in preparation for Easter.


Crucifix from Museo Dell'Opera, Florence








Food for Reflection
from "The Indiscriminate Host"
in John Shea’s Stories of Faith:

At the meal

Jesus said
“My friends,
Hold onto life with an open hand
as I hold this bread and wine.
This bread is our food.
This wine is our drink.
This meal is our fellowship.
So we hand over to the Giver Of Life
the music our muscles make,
the kisses that bring peace,
the sounds that swell the heart.
But this bread is my body broken,
This wine is my blood outpoured.
This meal is our sacrifice.
So we hand over to the Giver Of Life
the eyes that squint back,
the hands that do not reach out,
the barricaded mind, the hoarding heart.
All we are we offer.
Life received as a gift
is given up a gift. “

Then there was a garden without fragrance
and a man with cold lips
and a high priest with a ripped robe
and a governor with glistening hands
and a disciple with a labyrinthine lie
and a carpenter put back to work.

After Jesus had passed through the dark door,
his friends returned
to what they did best,
Galilee and the sea.

One evening Peter said,
“I am going out to weep”
But they thought he said
“I am going out to fish”
So they went with him
And they wept and fished the night away,
catching nothing but their tears.

With the dawn
came a fire on the shore
and the smell of fish across the water.
Through the mist
A man was crumbled over the coals.
He rose
like an arrow from the bow of the earth,
like an open hand in a time of war.
like the smoke of an undying sacrifice
and turned.
“Come eat your meal.”
No one, John says, presumed to inquire,

“Who are you?”
They knew who it was.
The host had returned.

That is why we meet together
with food and drink between us.
As God would not let go of Jesus
in the hour of his death,
His friends would not let go of him
in the hour of his glory.
Down to this day
we break the bread of his absence
and hope
and drink the wine of his presence
and live.


On this night we have all been given a great gift when he said "I give you and new commandment: Love one another as I have loved you."

May we all have the grace to live into that commandment.

Blessings and peace in His name,
Heidi+

Holy Week MEMO
Saint Andrew’s-in-the-Valley
Tuesday, April 3, 2012






As we walk the walk of Holy Week, whether you plan to gather with the parish for services or are unable to do so, consider setting enough time aside to read the Gospel passage appointed for the day…

Monday of Holy Week: Mark 14:3-9
Tuesday of Holy Week: Mark 11:15-19
Wednesday of Holy Week: Matthew 26:1-5, 14-25
Maundy Thursday: Luke 22:14-30
Good Friday: John 18:1 – 19:37
Holy Saturday: John 19:38-42

Wednesday of Holy Week: 9 AM Service of Morning Prayer (and discover this treasure of our liturgical life at Saint Andrew's.), Cathie Lewis officiating.

Wednesday of Holy Week 7 PM Film Night: Jesus of Montreal.
This film presents the creation of a modern Passion play. In the process, it juxtaposes traditional understandings of the Passion narrative with modern discoveries about the historical Jesus. The result, in the film, is conflict over the “truth” of our understanding of the actual events of the time.
Additionally, as the actors work on the new Passion, the events of the narrative begin to influence their own lives in the world. This is especially the case for the actor “Coulombe” who plays Jesus.
The original version in French was released in Canada in 1989 and received an academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. A U.S. release, with English subtitles and a dubbed English version occurred in 1990. It won twelve Canadian “Genie” awards, the Golden Globe for best Foreign Language Film, nomination for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and the 1989 Jury Prize at Cannes.
I hope you will join us for this evocative film and the conversation to follow.

Maundy Thursday Liturgy with foot washing, remembrance of the Last Supper, and the stripping of the altar: 7 PM

Good Friday, noon to 1:30 Meditations at the Cross; 1:30 Stations of the Cross.
Good Friday Liturgy of the Day with Holy Communion 7 PM

Holy Saturday, Children's Easter Garden gathering 12:30 to 2 with bag lunch.

The Great Vigil of Easter Saturday at 8 PM with kindling the new fire, the Vigil readings, and the first Eucharist of Easter. Bring your bells to ring at the Easter acclamation!!!

Food for thought from poet Anne Weems from her collection Kneeling In Jerusalem…
It’s tempting for many of us to just skip over the observances of Holy Week in our eagerness to get to Easter. The poet poignantly reminds us that the “only road to Easter morning is through the unrelenting shadow of that Friday.”

HOLY WEEK

Holy is the week….
Holy, consecrated, belonging to God…
We move from hosannas to horror
with the predictable ease
of those who know not what they do.

Our hosannas sung,
Our palms waves,
Let us go with passion into this week.
It is a time to curse fig trees that do not yield fruit.
It is a time to cleanse our temples of any blasphemy
It is a time to greet Jesus as the Lord’s Anointed One,
To lavishly break our alabaster
and pour perfume out for him
without counting the cost.
It is a time for preparation…
The time to give thanks and break bread is upon us.
The time to give thanks and drink of the cup is imminent.
Eat, drink, remember:
On this night of nights, each one must ask,
As we dip our bread in the wine,
“ Is it I?”
And on that darkest of days, each of us must stand
beneath the tree
and watch the dying
if we are to be there
when the stone is rolled away.

The only road to Easter morning
Is through the unrelenting shadow of that Friday
Only then will the alleluias be sung:
Only then will the dancing begin.

See you in church!
Blessings,
Heidi+