Thank you, George
for clearing away a winter’s worth of sand!
Readings for this Sunday: Acts 4:5-12; Psalm 23; 1 John 3:16-24; John
10:11-18.
May Day at the Stone Cottage Pub
Next Friday, May 1, is the night! Have you reserved your tickets for the Murder Mystery Dinner? The Stone Church Players and Chefs are back, this year with an Irish theme! It's the height of the Beltane Festival (May Day) with the locals making merry at the Stone Cottage Pub when a well-known local is discovered to be missing. As always, the audience will need to do with some sleuthing of their own and will be asked to weigh in on who is the culprit! In good pub tradition, the evening opens and closes with Irish ballad-singing by cast members Chris and Carolyn Boldt, Guests are requested to arrive in time to be seated before the 6 pm start! You are welcome to bring their own beer or wine. Other beverages will be provided. Reserve your tickets by calling the church at 323-8515 or purchase them during Coffee Hour on Sunday.( Keep in mind that the past two years, we’ve sold out and had to turn folks away.) Want to help with serving or clean-up? Talk to Chris Mills or Carol Tubman.
Next Friday, May 1, is the night! Have you reserved your tickets for the Murder Mystery Dinner? The Stone Church Players and Chefs are back, this year with an Irish theme! It's the height of the Beltane Festival (May Day) with the locals making merry at the Stone Cottage Pub when a well-known local is discovered to be missing. As always, the audience will need to do with some sleuthing of their own and will be asked to weigh in on who is the culprit! In good pub tradition, the evening opens and closes with Irish ballad-singing by cast members Chris and Carolyn Boldt, Guests are requested to arrive in time to be seated before the 6 pm start! You are welcome to bring their own beer or wine. Other beverages will be provided. Reserve your tickets by calling the church at 323-8515 or purchase them during Coffee Hour on Sunday.( Keep in mind that the past two years, we’ve sold out and had to turn folks away.) Want to help with serving or clean-up? Talk to Chris Mills or Carol Tubman.
SANCTUARY PROGRESS: We’re closing in on
completion! As you can see from the picture, the painters have started and will
be finished by early next week, at which point, we will move back in!!!
A week from
this coming Sunday, May 3rd, we will have ONE Service only at 9:00 am and we have declared it (optional) “dress-up” Sunday, in honor of our
return to the Sanctuary! It’s not required, but if you’d enjoy putting on your
spiffy duds, dresses, and hats, please do!
Who knows? Maybe we’ll have a few haberdashery awards!
Daffodils, anyone? On May 3rd, when we return to the sanctuary
for our worship, it would be wonderful to have fresh daffodils for the altar
and the windows. Might your garden
have a few to share? It doesn’t have to be
lots from any one garden. Please talk to Gretchen (323-7459) or Heidi (323-8515)
if you think you might have some.
Garden help opportunity!!! Our official Spring All-Parish Clean-up Time is still a few
weeks away (May 17), but our bulbs and perennial beds desperately need to be gently raked clear of old growth and
dead leaves. If a few of us come over any time (the sooner the better) and put
in as little as half an hour per person, the job will be done and the blossoms
will flourish! Thanks!
Food for thought…
As I write this on Wednesday, our Earth Day observance at Morning Prayer earlier today is still reverberating in my soul. In recent years the General Convention of the Episcopal Church has added John Muir (Naturalist and Writer) and Hudson Stuck (Priest and Environmentalist) to our “Calendar of Lesser Saints.” I’m sure it is no coincidence that April 22 (Earth Day) was appointed as their day of observation. All the scripture readings appointed for today reflect images of the natural world – from the sublime description (in Revelation) of the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit and leaves “for the healing of the nations,” to the crashing, dangerous, life-threatening winds, storm clouds, and thunderbolts (Psalm 18 and Luke 8) – all manifestations of God’s creativity, power, beauty, and ultimately saving grace. As we regularly do in our small, Wednesday morning congregation, we shared our reflections – this time focusing on our own experiences with natural events and situations over the course of our lives that had compelled and spontaneously drawn each of us to places of spiritual encounter.
As I write this on Wednesday, our Earth Day observance at Morning Prayer earlier today is still reverberating in my soul. In recent years the General Convention of the Episcopal Church has added John Muir (Naturalist and Writer) and Hudson Stuck (Priest and Environmentalist) to our “Calendar of Lesser Saints.” I’m sure it is no coincidence that April 22 (Earth Day) was appointed as their day of observation. All the scripture readings appointed for today reflect images of the natural world – from the sublime description (in Revelation) of the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit and leaves “for the healing of the nations,” to the crashing, dangerous, life-threatening winds, storm clouds, and thunderbolts (Psalm 18 and Luke 8) – all manifestations of God’s creativity, power, beauty, and ultimately saving grace. As we regularly do in our small, Wednesday morning congregation, we shared our reflections – this time focusing on our own experiences with natural events and situations over the course of our lives that had compelled and spontaneously drawn each of us to places of spiritual encounter.
In honor
of Earth Day, I invite you to go outside (regardless of the weather – God created
all of it and you haven’t melted yet!) and discover a bit of the messiness and
sacred power in the earth, trees, water, and air. I also encourage you to scan
your own life experiences with the natural world for times that may be
important to your spiritual formation. Have you, in the darkness of night,
eased yourself into a snowbank, or onto damp summer grass, or the sand of the
beach to lie there in silent awe at the star-filled heavens knowing that you
are beloved and one with the universe? In a moment of perplexity, have you run
up a mountain or escaped to a sacred place (a garden, perhaps) – because “you
knew you had to” to regain your equilibrium, not realizing until days or even
years later, it was God calling you and God who met you when you arrived? Have
you ever been so awed by holding something small and perfect in the palm of
your hand (a butterfly, a beach stone, a newborn creature of any species) – or
has Dame Julian of Norwich did, a hazelnut – that tears welled up in your eyes
and your understanding of the world was changed?
Do it!
And don’t hesitate to share your stories … with me or others.
Give thanks to our God who is good; and whose love endures
for ever!
Eastertide
blessings,
Heidi+
Heidi+
