Thursday MEMO
 |
Services
for this coming Sunday, May 29th, and the Second
Sunday after Pentecost, will be at 8 and
10 AM, with coffee hour following each service. We hope you will join us
for worship and fellowship.
Food for thought, right up front, from the
Rector…
Br. James Koester write: A river runs through us, gushing from our hearts and running its course into the heart of God. We don’t often see it. Sometimes we only know it by the trees and scrub and brush along its banks but this is the river that shapes our lives, and melts our hearts and molds us into the holy people of God.
Br. James Koester write: A river runs through us, gushing from our hearts and running its course into the heart of God. We don’t often see it. Sometimes we only know it by the trees and scrub and brush along its banks but this is the river that shapes our lives, and melts our hearts and molds us into the holy people of God.
Over and over again, our scripture and tradition affirm the
place of story in the shaping of God’s people. From the “story” of creation in
Genesis and all that follows, through the Gospel accounts of Jesus, the letters
reflecting the issues of the communities of the early church, all the way
through to the Book of Revelation and its mystical glimpse into a new heaven
and a new earth – we have been shaped by story.
Together as priest and people, over the last twelve and half
years, God has been molding us as holy people of God. Actually, God has been
doing this since forever, but on Sunday, June 5 (a 9:00 single-service Sunday), we will be paying particular attention
to how we have been taking shape. We will do this with what I will call a “Story
Circle Liturgy.”
What is a “Story Circle Liturgy,” you
ask? We will come
together as we always do on Sunday mornings for prayer, praise, reflection,
Eucharist, and fellowship, but we will gather in the Parish Hall, so that our
seating can be roughly in the round. A circle allows us to see each other’s
faces, not just the backs of heads and to tell our stories – of the life of this beloved community over the course
of the past 12 years.
Think of it as stories told around the campfire, but instead of
darkness we will be telling them in the clear light of a June morning around
our sacred table. Each of you who is receiving this MEMO has a story (actually
many stories) of a moment when the power and presence of God has been felt –
sometimes even decisively – in an event or an interaction or a liturgy, and in
turn your experience has effected who we are as a parish.
This past Sunday we focused on the Divine Trinity – our mysterious
way of talking about our God who calls each of us into the great dance of life
in Christ, a dance in which we are all
invited to be participants and not just observers. Our God is incomplete
without us!Next
Sunday we will abridge the readings slightly in order to make room for our stories, which will be our shared sermon. In order to make this work, we will have a framework, and we will have to acknowledge that some stories will remain untold for the time being because of time constraints, but it will get the ball rolling. (No one will be expected to speak who doesn’t choose to.)
Sunday we will abridge the readings slightly in order to make room for our stories, which will be our shared sermon. In order to make this work, we will have a framework, and we will have to acknowledge that some stories will remain untold for the time being because of time constraints, but it will get the ball rolling. (No one will be expected to speak who doesn’t choose to.)
·
Stories
will be kept to two minutes, so planning ahead will be important.
· Each will need a beginning a middle and
an end. The story-teller gets to decide which should be brief and which
deserves to be a bit more extensive.
· The story belongs to the teller. If you
experienced the event differently, that becomes your story. This is not about correcting someone else’s telling.
So what visual or auditory images of
this place and our life together do you carry in your heart? I encourage each of you to jot them
down over the coming days and then find your
favorite. It is something that I have been doing personally as the end of my
time here approaches and it will be a wonderful way for you as a parish claim the
uniqueness of God’s work in this place. Who knows where it might go. I can
envision some sort of collaborative scroll of events, sketches, pictures that
might evolve.
Each week as we gather at the table to remember Christ’s words, we
are calling that event back into the present as Christ becomes present for us
in the bread and wine. My hope and prayer is that our shared story-telling on
Sunday, June 5th will rekindle twelve years God’s activity here in
this place, bringing that back to life as we participate together with the Spirit.
 |
| Last Sunday we thanked Janet Palmer for her many years of service as child-care provider . |
New church cleaning person:
I have just hired Sara Trudnack
to take over the cleaning responsibilities that Deb has been carrying since Chuck
Werning’s death three years ago. If you ever patronize Jake’s Seafood
Restaurant you may know her already! She’ll be working about 5 hours a week at
the church, aiming for times when the place is not in heavy use. If you cross
paths with her, please introduce yourself. She will be an active and friendly
presence.
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church,
the Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, will be speaking in Concord on Monday
morning, June 6 at 10:00. If
you are interested in attending, register here:https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ech8myap5d7da820&oseq=&c=&ch= There are a number of us going from Saint Andrew’s. There’s a list for those wishing to carpool posted on the parish bulletin board.
 |
| Gretchen receiving special recognition at our February Annual Meeting. |
See you in church!
Blessings, Heidi+
Thank you, Janet
