Parishoners gathered at the
rectory for relaxed summer fellowship last Sunday. Other pictures interspersed
below.
The services for this
coming Sunday, August 11th, the Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost, will be at
8 and 10 AM, with guest priest, the Reverend Jay Hutchinson preaching and
presiding. We hope you will join us for worship and fellowship.
Readings for this
Sunday: Isaiah 5:1-7, Psalm 80:1-2, 8-18, Hebrews
11:29-12:2, Luke 12:49-56.
Rector’s August
vacation: Heidi and Duane will be
vacationing in Woods Hole with family from August 9th to August 23rd.
If you have matters of pastoral need or urgent concern, please call the office
during weekday mornings or contact one of our wardens: Carol Tubman at 539-2780
or Gretchen Behr-Svendsen at 323-7459.
Name tags and new friends in our midst: A warm welcome to Midge,
Hettie, Fran, and Joe all of whom have be worshiping with us regularly this
summer. Someone made a suggestion recently that when we provide a newcomer with
a name tag, we put a red sticker on it for a few months, so that others can
make a point of introducing themselves and getting acquainted. And if you’ve
been here for longer than a few months, but still think of yourself as “new”,
please help yourself to a sticker (on the Parish bulletin board). And maybe
it’s time to encourage EVERYONE to wear name tags for the rest of the summer!
With guest clergy the next two Sundays, that would be helpful to them as well.
Feel free to store your name tag in your parish mail box for easy access. And
remember…if you introduce yourself to someone whom you think might be new, and
it turns out they’ve been here longer that you … well, it’s about time you get
to know each other.
What’s next for Tom Reinfuss, our postulant to the vocational
diaconate? Tom was approved for postulancy (a three-year period of formal
discernment and education) in June, and he is now on summer vacation with his
family in Nova Scotia. When he returns in September, he and two other
postulants from New Hampshire will begin participating in the formation and
education program run by the Diocese of Massachusetts. The tuition for this
program for Tom is $1800 for each of the three years of training, the cost to
be shared equally by the diocese, the parish, and by each participant.
The parish is committed to covering our $600 share. Since this item was not included in our 2013 budget, the vestry voted to invite direct contributions from members of the parish who might like to provide support. If you would like to contribute to Tom’s tuition, checks should be made payable to St. Andrew’s-in-the-Valley, with a memo line reference “for Tom’s first year tuition.”
The parish is committed to covering our $600 share. Since this item was not included in our 2013 budget, the vestry voted to invite direct contributions from members of the parish who might like to provide support. If you would like to contribute to Tom’s tuition, checks should be made payable to St. Andrew’s-in-the-Valley, with a memo line reference “for Tom’s first year tuition.”
The next Evangelism Institute will take
place on Saturday, September 21, 2013, from 10:00 to 3:00 at Lake Opechee Inn, in Lakeport, (Laconia) NH.
The registration deadline is September 8. Please register by going on-line to http://evangelism.nhepiscopal.org/
Several vestry members will be attending, but having a strong group
participating together will provide a stronger core to bring the information
and practices back home. Learn about inviting new people to church through the “Come
and See” program, integrate new members into our church with the “Koinonia” program, and looking ahead at the
changes coming to New Hampshire in upcoming decades! This is particularly
helpful for our greeters and all who have connections with people who have no
church affiliation (which is all of us).
This year’s Institute
will feature fewer speakers, but more conversation leaders. As attendees, you
will be more engaged with the presenters but also with each other at your
tables. The day will be broken into four movements: Speed Evangelism, Come and
See Q&A, a Welcoming Ministries panel, and a World Cafe conversation.
Stewardship takes
many forms! Our Annual Rummage Sale will be held on Saturday, September 7th.
Many of us have been talking about having too much in our closets. Since we
are all called to be good stewards of all we have, take a look through your
shelves, drawers, and closets. If you don’t wear it, maybe now’s the time to
let someone else put it to use. We won’t have room at the church to store items
until the first week of September, but if we all start the sorting process now
and have our items ready to go at home, it will make for easy work come September.
Special Thanks to all the farmers at the Tamworth
Farmer’s Market who have been generously supplying the Food Center with fresh
produce this summer. The Tuftonboro goat
farmers also donated cheese to our coffee hour last week. Please support all these hardworking people.
Also, thank you to Elizabeth Wiesner who is supplying the Food Center with
produce each week from her garden.
Food for thought…on
learning to live in the present from
Br. Curtis Almquist SSJE…
The real risk is to be
living with your sights focused on the future instead of being grounded in the
present while peering into the future. If you get ahead of yourself in life,
it’s like cutting in line. Now matters. We need the present to prepare us for
the prospect of the future. We actually need now. If we don’t find life now,
life will always elude us.
See you in
church!
Blessings, Heidi+
