Time
Off: I
am taking the next two weeks off: Monday, September 7 through Sunday, September
20. I’m not planning anything special, just hoping to spend a lot of time
catching up on rest, reading and enjoying being outdoors.
Sammie Wakefield and Pat Adams will host Compline, Morning Prayer and coffee hour on Sunday mornings. Worship on one of the Sundays I’m away will be Morning Prayer led by our Worship leaders, Gretchen Behr-Svendsen, Cathie Lewis and Lisa Thompson, and the other Sunday will be with the Bishop and whichever parish he is visiting that day. Check the Thursday Memo each week for Zoom information and the bulletin.
Book Study: When I return we will begin a discussion on the book, How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. From the inside book jacket: “Kendi weaves an electrifying combination of ethics, history, law, and science with his own personal story of awakening to antiracism. This is an essential work for anyone who wants to go beyond the awareness of racism to the next step: contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.”
We will meet on Wednesdays at 12:30 p.m. beginning on September 23 for six weeks. All are welcome!
Outdoor Eucharist: We will have another outdoor Eucharist on September 27. Details to follow when I return.
If you would like to visit David please follow these steps: Visitors must call the VA Center to pre-schedule a visit:
- To
schedule a meeting call the Social Worker, Shanna, at 603-624-4366, ext.
6037. She will ask COVID screening questions and arrange a time
- David can
have one visit per week, with up to two visitors for up to one hour
- Visiting
hours are 10:00 am - 3:00 pm, Monday - Friday
- Parking
is on the right side of the main building in Parking Lot E; use the entrance
on that side of the building
To help us keep track of his visitors, and hopefully to ensure he
has a visitor each week, Cathie Lewis will keep track of his visitors. Please
contact her at 954-651-8690 or clew0622@gmail.com so she can stay up to date. Thank you for doing this,
Cathie!
Contact Information for David
David Manley
VA Medical Center
CLC Room E105
718 Smyth Rd. Manchester, NH 03104
UPDATE: As David grows weaker
and sleeps more, the nurses ask that you call the Nurses’ Station at 603-624-4366,
ext. 6218 if you would like to speak to him. They will check to see that he
can receive your call and connect you to his room.
David is so
appreciative of your phone calls and cards, and thanks you all. He feels loved
and supported by all of us and is resting easily.
Blessings, Caroline
via Zoom (email RectorSAITV@gmail.com for Zoom information)
The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
September 6, Proper 18, Year A
Collect of the Day We center ourselves for worship in prayer.
Grant us, O Lord, to trust
in you with all our hearts; for, as you always resist the proud who confide in
their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your
mercy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the
Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
LESSONS We hear the
Word of God proclaimed.
First
Lesson Exodus
12:1-14
In our Hebrew Bible lesson instructions are given, and the meaning of
the Passover meal is told: it is a remembrance and reenactment of Israel’s
beginnings as a people when they were saved out of slavery in Egypt. The details indicate that several different
traditions stand behind the Passover memorial.
Perhaps it was the Israelites’ attempts to keep ancient spring rites, derived
from their shepherding and agricultural backgrounds, which caused the Egyptians
to persecute them. With these traditions the story of God’s judgment on Egypt
and victory for the people has become richly entwined.
Psalm
149
A joyful song in which the faithful praise the Lord and anticipate the
victory of justice.
The Second Lesson Romans 13:8-14
In this reading Paul
summarizes the heart of the law and urges a way of life in full awareness of
the nearness of salvation. All the
commandments and all human responsibility for others are fulfilled by “loving
your neighbor as yourself.” Disciples must recognize that the nighttime of
sinfulness is passing. The daylight, the
time for new conduct and the following of Jesus, now comes.
The Gospel Matthew
18:15-20
Our gospel presents teaching about how to deal with sin and
grievances within the Christian community.
The early churches did not have established codes and regulations and
had to fashion their own ways of dealing with such matters. Here every effort is made to bring the sinful
member to repentance. Failing this, the
individual is to be treated as outside the church. Such decisions are understood to be ratified
in heaven and by Christ’s presence even in the smallest of Christian gatherings.
For God alone my soul in silence waits;
from
God comes my salvation.
God alone is my rock and my salvation,
my
stronghold, so that I shall not be greatly shaken.
Psalm
62:1-2
Throughout the ages, humans from all faith traditions have sat in stillness and silence to return to their heart in support of their spirit. There is an inner healing presence available to us when we stop, notice, and allow.
If you are interested in strengthening or building a contemplative practice or seek silence within community, please plan to join others, each Tuesday, beginning September 15th, at 9:00am. Newcomers are welcome at any gathering. No previous meditation experience needed.
Our time begins with a brief sitting practice, facilitated by Christi Humphrey. Christi has lead other groups which gather to explore contemplative practices through meditation, teachings, and discussion. Guided meditations and teachings draw upon the Christian contemplative tradition, monastic spirituality, Buddhist meditation, and self-compassion practices.
If you would like to learn more or have questions, contact Christi Humphrey at cchumphrey@comcast.net. If you would like to sample Christi leading a guided meditation visit her blog https://watchingforgrace.wordpress.com/2020/03/21/bringing-compassion-to-these-anxious-times/
Oh when the SAINTS begin to PAINT
The OUTSIDE of our PARISH HALL,
Oh we WANT to be IN THAT NUMBER
When the CHIPS begin to FALL!
Do you want a project with a beginning, middle, and end?
Do you like the “tssst-tst” sound of sandpaper clearing chips of paint off a wall and the swoosh of a brush as new protective paint is applied?
Do you like to see immediate results and rejoice when your job’s well done?
If you answered YES to any or all of the above, then YOU are WELCOME to JOIN THE TEAM to repair and repaint the outside wall of the Parish Hall.
Please phone 323-8245 if you are interested in helping out. (We will begin after the heat waves have passed.)
Lisa Thompson for Buildings and Grounds Committee
For our First Nation people and those in this country who are living in impoverished areas of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and the inner city areas populated by some of our poorest citizens.
For all those who are on the front lines serving communities during these difficult times.
Updating the Prayer List
Please let Deb know if you want to put someone back on the prayer list going forward. Thank you for helping us keep our prayer list up to date.
How often have you just driven by one of these and wondered what it said. Let me encourage you to stop. You can find a list of markers along with a location map if you click on the link above.
TAKE A PHOTO WITH YOURSELF, PET, WHOEVER IS WITH YOU, LET ME KNOW THE DATE AND TIME OF THE PHOTO. Have FUN and enjoy the ride!
Next Food Pantry: September 17th
From the SALT Project
Breakage
Then you begin, slowly, to read the
whole story.
+ Mary Oliver
++++
Consider the Lilies of the Sea
And close to these frail, scattered,
and abandoned
Carvings which were the armor and the art
Of dark blind jellies that the fish have eaten,
The big Atlantic cumulates and pours,
Flashes, is felled, and streaks among the pebbles
With wildfire foam.
+ Anne Porter
As summer winds down and gives way to
fall, here are two poems about the seashore - and in particular, about the
apparently infinite number of exquisite gems to be found there, each a home, a
work of art, or a fragment of one.
Oliver finds a schoolhouse, and
intimations of a grand story - if we are patient and loving and imaginative
enough to read it. And Porter - a less famous poet, but equally gifted (winner
of the National Book Award!) - finds the kind of thing Jesus meant when he
said, “Consider the lilies.” Don’t worry. Trust God, who loves and cares for
you, even when everything seems fragmented, tattered, and split, even as you
work like hell to make things come out all right.
“‘Consider the lilies,’” Emily Dickinson said, “is the only commandment I ever obeyed.” Some days, that one is enough. More than enough.
