May 7, 2015



Full Beltane moon over St. Andrew's
Services for this coming Sunday, May 10th, the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Rogation Sunday and Mothers’ Day, will be at 8 and 10 a.m. with coffee hour following both services. We’re now back in the church for both services.
Don’t miss the Gallery of pictures at the end.
Readings for this Sunday: Acts 10:44-48, Psalm 98, 1 John 5:1-6, John 15:9-17.
CALENDAR UPDATES for the coming weeks:
Thursday, May 14th is Ascension Day. This year the Episcopal churches of the Lakes Region Convocation will have a combined Ascension Day Service to be held at 6 pm St. Mark’s Church in Ashland. It’s about a 40 minutes drive over. If you’d like to carpool, please meet at St. Andrew’s promptly at 5 pm and we can drive over together.
Next Sunday, May 17th will be a “dress-down” Sunday and the 10 o’clock service will be followed by All Parish Spring Clean-up Day. The sanctuary is pristine, but the grounds need raking, gardens need to be prepped, windows washed, and other clean-up chores attended to. And there’s some inside work to be done as well.

Sunday, May 24th is Pentecost! Remember to wear RED in celebration of the coming of the Holy Spirit. This is the day that the Gospel gets proclaimed in a variety of languages. If you have reasonably comfortable reading fluency in some tongue other than English, please let Lisa Thompson or Rev. Heidi know. The Bible is available on-line in dozens of languages.

Sunday, June 21st will we hold our 3rd Annual All-Parish Liturgy and Picnic at White Lake State Park. Yes, it’s Fathers’ Day. What a great way to celebrate. We have reserved the pavilion, so the will be protected from sun and rain! Mark your calendars now to you can plan ahead and bring your family, or invite your friends.

Looking back to last weekend… What a time was had at the Murder Mystery Dinner! Special thanks go out to many people who made the event such a success. To Chris Mills (playwright) who created the amazing and wonderfully ridiculous script for May Day at the Stone Cottage Pub; to the Stone Church Players for their bold, lighthearted creativity, talent, and commitment to pull a show together in record time; to Carolyn Boldt (chief set designer) and her team of Sally, Lisa, and Chris; to “Larkspur” (alias Chris & Carolyn Boldt) for their fabulous singing and pub-worthy joke telling; to Carol Tubman (“chief cheftan”) and her wonderful team of bakers and cooks for a fabulous meal; to our incredibly faithful and generous servers (Dale Appleton, Michelle Mills, Gretchen Behr-Svendsen, David Manley, and Tim Huckman), who don’t really get to see the play because they are so busy prepping the next course the whole time to our prio clean-up team (Jen & Tom Huckman, Elizabeth Wiesner, Ann Albrecht, and many others); to Duane for his photography; to Deb and David for reservations and ticketing; and to our eager, good-humored, responsive, appreciative audience! And…we brought in about $1200, half of which will go to support local outreach.
And, as if the Friday night event were not enough to make for an active weekend at Saint Andrew’s, we had the great joy of returning to our renovated sanctuary to worship and give thanks to God, the giver of all gifts! Ladies came in hats, gentlemen sported jackets and ties, we were surrounded by daffodils from many a garden, once again the organ and singing reverberated in praise, and the choir and organ graced us with a fitting choral postlude! Thank you again to all who made our return to the church possible.
We also commissioned Sammie Wakefield for her work with Eleanore’s Project, sending her off to Peru with our love and prayers, as she and the EP team provide custom-fitted wheelchairs to mobility-impaired children. Please keep in your prayers Sammie, her team-mates, and the children and families with whom they will be working.
Food for thought as Eastertide continues ….
from Daily Prayers for All Season, Church Publishing Co., 2014
 Have you noticed and wondered? During the joyful season of Easter, the Confession of Sin is traditionally omitted in order for worship to emphasize the celebration of redemption and new life that are characteristics of this season.
As the apostle Paul writes to the church in Rome [Rom 6:6, 11] “We know that our old self was crucified with Christ so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin … So you must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus, in your life we receive life: Raise us to the new life of grace.
You look with compassion on our human failings: Raise us to the new life of grace.
You make us bearers of hope in a world of suffering and despair: Raise us to the new life of grace.
Eastertide blessings,
Heidi+

PHOTO GALLERY: The Murder Mystery Dinner
Villain moustache - Duane Dale wishes to remind folks that "Villain Brand Moustache Wax, the official moustache wax of the The Stone Church Players, is a REAL product, for which the discount code MayDay will save you 5 cents on every dollar spent!



Casting votes for "who done it"!




Don McGarrity wins the drawing



And from "Dress-Up Sunday" (May 3): The ladies in hats . . .