Please consider signing up to dedicate flowers . We encourage flowers to be given in loving memory of, in honor of or in thanksgiving of. If you do not have garden flowers and would like flowers to be ordered ($20), please note that accordingly on the submission envelope.
Flower
dedication slips can be found on the shelf outside the Parish office door.
The Rector is on vacation....in case you missed last week's memo here is a reprint of her piece.
A Reopening Update
Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey on relaxing Covid restrictions last week. If you haven’t had the opportunity to do that yet, the survey is attached HERE. Please fill it out at your earliest convenience and email your responses to me or drop the survey off at the church office.
Survey results indicate:
· Masks: Some still are more comfortable wearing masks.
· Distancing: Some prefer a section where physical distancing is maintained.
· Communion Bread: Some prefer to bring their own bread.
· Communion Wine: Some prefer to receive wine from individual cups or will receive bread only.
Based on survey results and CDC guidelines, our current status is this:
· 8:00 services resume this Sunday (except for the first Sunday of the month when there is one service at 9:00.
· There is no longer a limit on the number of people in attendance, so everyone can attend together!
· There is no longer a need to sign up to attend services in person. I have taken down the sign-up page.
· Masks are optional for all who are fully vaccinated, but you are always welcome to wear a mask.
· If you are not fully vaccinated please wear a mask at all times, as recommended by the CDC.
· The first four pews in front of the lectern will be reserved for those who prefer physical distancing (this will also help us give a clear view of the lectern during Prayers of the People for those on Zoom or Facebook). Closed seating will be indicate by the round yellow signs that say, “Please choose another seat.” Please wear a mask if you choose to sit in this section, and graciously find a seat elsewhere if you are comfortable sitting closer together.
· The 9:00 and 10:00 services will continue to be live streamed on Zoom and Facebook. 8:00 services will not be recorded.
I misspoke last Sunday when I invited people who are not feeling well to wear a mask. You are always welcome to wear a mask, but please, if you are not feeling well, stay at home and join us on Zoom or Facebook.
We need more ushers, particularly as our guidelines change. Please let me know if you are willing to be an usher. It is a straightforward ministry, gives you the opportunity to greet everyone at the door and only requires welcoming and directing new-ish people to seats and handing out bulletins. As things continue to change there may also be a need to tell people about changes.
Building Update
We have hired a painter (Linda Williams) to paint the ramp into the Prince Room where there was water damage this fall, and to scrape, caulk and paint the exterior of all the windows (except the back of the parish hall which was done by our volunteer crew last summer). Knowing that she can do this work in the next few weeks allowed us to schedule our carpet installation, which will be the week of August 9. After the carpet is laid and deep cleaning accomplished we will unload the Mi-Box container and bring all the furniture back into the building. We plan to reopen the building to outside groups in September.
We have two funerals at the church on July 10, and would love to have some help working on the gardens. If you can help one morning next week please let Patti Rau know.
Vacation
I will be on vacation from Monday, June 28 – Wednesday, July 7. If you have a pastoral emergency while I am away, please contact Patti Rau at geopat96@roadrunner.com or 603-367-8223.
Blessings, Caroline
The remaining Sundays at 10:00 AM
This Sunday-July 4th
6th Sunday after Pentecost
at 9:00 a.m.
JOIN US FOLLOWING THE SERVICE FOR
A TIME OF CONVERSATION.
Collect of the Day
O God, you have taught us to keep all your commandments by loving you and our neighbor: Grant us the grace of your Holy Spirit, that we may be devoted to you with our whole heart, and united to one another with pure affection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
First Lesson 2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
In our first lesson we hear the culmination of the narrative charting the rise of David. David has already been anointed king of the southern tribes, but these actions in Judah carry no weight among the northern tribes of Israel. Now the tribes of Israel come to David at Hebron to form an alliance, entering into a covenant and anointing David their “Shepherd-king.” David will go on to capture Jerusalem and will rule the united kingdom of Judah and Israel from that city, now called the city of David. God’s providential care for Israel is manifested through David, God’s chosen instrument.
Psalm 48
A celebration of God’s providential care and defense of Mount Zion and the holy temple.
The Second Lesson 2 Corinthians 12:2-10
In this epistle lesson Paul tells of both exaltation and infirmity, and the discovery of a strength that comes through weakness. The Corinthians wanted to boast of their revelations and visions. Well, Paul knows a man (he means himself) who once had an ecstatic experience. God has, however, revealed something still more important to him: that the divine power comes to its full strength when acting through human frailty.
The Gospel Mark 6:1-13
In our gospel story Jesus returns to his hometown and finds suspicion and lack of faith. He can do no mighty works in such a climate. The passage reminds us that God’s action is often clothed in the commonplace. Though rejected, Jesus perseveres and expands his ministry, commissioning his disciples by twos and sending them out to the surrounding villages to preach and to heal. They are to travel in radical dependence upon God, making little provision for their own maintenance or well-being.
For all those who working with COVID patients, vaccinations and vaccines.
Updating the Prayer List
Please let Deb know when a person can be removed from the prayer list. Thank you.
(from The Salt Project)
THE NEW COLOSSUS," BY EMMA LAZARUS
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
with conquering limbs astride from land to land;
here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
a mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
~ Emma Lazarus
This new colossus, Lazarus insists, is “not like” the Greek Colossus, domineering and male, which in the third century BCE stood at the harbor of the island of Rhodes, like some conquering warrior and guardian. No, this statue holds a beacon in her hand, signaling nothing less than “world-wide welcome.” Her name is “Mother of Exiles.” She is unarmed, a light in one hand and a votive tablet in the other. Such tablets were common in ancient Greece for inscribing prayers, or in any case aspirations — and on this particular tablet is the date the United States formally broke from English rule: July 4, 1776. It’s as if she says, We aspire to be free — now come, all you who yearn for freedom.
She is herself the personification of freedom, of course, the Roman goddess Libertas. But compare her with Eugène Delacroix’s 1830 painting, Liberty Leading the People, in which Libertas carries a battle flag and gun. No, this version of Libertas is an image of peace and hospitality. This isn’t the old colossus, but rather a new one: far from keeping people out, Lady Liberty, that “mighty woman with a torch, whose flame / Is the imprisoned lightning,” is welcoming us in.
Happy Fourth, everyone!
The SALT Team
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