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This Sunday
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June 21st
The Third Sunday after Pentecost
(Proper 7)
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and
reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern
those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your
loving kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
8am: Holy Eucharist
Our early service is unaccompanied by music and usually lasts about 50 minutes. Coffee and fellowship are offered before the service begins in the parish hall, while the sanctuary is available for quiet prayer. Another coffee hour follows the service.
10am: Holy Eucharist
During the summer months, this Eucharistic service is accompanied by congregational hymns and organ. Nursery care is available during this service. A festival reception for kids and adults follows.
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Next Week at Christ Church
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June 22nd through 27th
Monday
Cornerstone Office Closed
Tuesday
Homeless in Puyallup Mtg., 12pm, Nazarene Church
Wednesday
Eucharist & Lunch, 12:05pm, Church
Friday
Youth Cafe, 7pm, Youth Room
Saturday
Parish Bike Ride (email for details)
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Announcements
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Upcoming Events
The annual CECoP Parish Picnic is July 12th. Mark your calendars now! The meal is potluck, but we need a dedicated team of grillers to organize and deploy grills and grillable food items. Would you like to help? Let us know. Also, anyone who has lawn games, beach balls, frisbees, or other picnic activity items is invited to bring them for the entertainment of all. Tapestry Singers' rummage sale:
Saturday, June 20th, during the Meeker Day celebration. The sale will
be from 9 am until 2 pm in the Parish Hall. Come shop and help support
our local 501 (c) 3 choir, which is part of Valley Arts United.
Knitting Ministry meets Monday, June 22nd at 6 pm at the Argus Manor where Helen Godwin lives, in the recreation building. The address is 204 9th Ave. SE., Puyallup. This is the complex right after the Regency Retirement Home, catty corner from Cattin's Restaurant. You may park on the street or in one of the Visitor's spaces. We look forward to seeing members as well as anyone else wishing to join us in this ministry.
Needed: more people to deliver the Sunday flowers after the 10 am service. If you have purchased the Sunday flowers, you are always welcome to take them home after the second service. If you would like to share the flowers, there are three people (Mac, Alyse, and Elsa) who take them to home bound parishioners, folks in nursing or retirement homes, or to people who have been ill, in the hospital, or are recovering at home. It is a nice way to connect with them, and have them be part of the church family when they are unable to attend church.
General Announcements
June is 'bottled water, juice, and healthy snacks month' for the Food Bank. Thank you for your generosity!
Feel like enjoying a bike ride in the nice weather this weekend? Join your fellow parishioner peddlers for the CECoP Parish Bike Ride. The Ride has its own email list now. Each Saturday's ride will be different. Some weeks we'll start early, ride out for coffee, and be back before lunch. Other weeks we'll ride in the afternoon and have a picnic somewhere along the trail. Or we might decide to drive to Orting and start there, heading further up the trail than we went last year. How will you know where and when we're riding this weekend? The CECoP Parish Bike Ride email, of course! Reply to this email or click here to get signed up for this weekly reminder of bicycling goodness. Let's ride!
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Mark Your Calendar!
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These are events a bit farther off. Mark your calendars now, and if you have any questions in advance, contact the office. New entries are in bold.
- Parish Picnic: July 12th
- August 1st: Mother Earth Farms Volunteer Day
- Early October: Pierce Co. Hunger Walk
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A word from Associate Priest, Ann |
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As summer draws near I'm wanting to let you know that I have been doing Sunday Supply at Church of the Holy Spirit on Vashon Island. Then I'll be participating in the Celtic Pilgrimage June 24-July 8. 23 "pilgrims" will be going to Scotland to include time at the early and remote communities of Iona and Lindisfarne, with some time in Edinburgh and Glasgow. The last week will be in Ireland. Dublin, the Ring of Kerry, New Grange and Glendalough will be a few of our stopping places.
Tom Cashman and Carla Pryne will be our guides. I will keep you in my prayers as I hope you will do likewise for the inner and outer spiritual journey and blessing that travel and reflection bring to strengthen our spiritual paths. It will be good to connect mid summer to hear about your journey's - reflections and how the quiet light that shines in every heart is awakening your soul.
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Child of God, Start Telling the Truth |
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by Janet Neilsen
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A Reflection on the 107th Psalm
(Editor's Note: Psalm 107 is on of the optional Psalms appointed for this Sunday. You can read it here.)
I'm still struggling with how I am supposed to tell about my faith. I mistrust stories of miraculous conversions, and of miraculous healing, even though I believe the Bible, which clearly describes dozens of people who experienced healings, visions, amended lives, and even health reclaimed from the jaws of death, as with Lazarus (John 11:1-44), and Jairus' daughter (Mark 5:.22-24. 35-43), for example- not to mention Jesus.
Yet if someone says that the instant they accepted Jesus they dropped their addictions, reformed from explosively temperamental to gentleness, or were completely healed of a dread disease, I am wary. It didn't happen that way for me. Maybe it can happen, but when I hear those stories from others, I begin to wonder what is wrong with me that I didn't have those experiences. Am I really a Christian if I haven't been completely healed or utterly transformed?
Psalm 107 offers a different perspective on telling one's story, and a reassuring understanding of the fits and starts we experience as we walk with the Lord. David sings a magnificent exhortation to praise. Here is what I think this Psalm is trying to tell me:
Start Telling the Truth
Give thanks to the LORD for his mercy and the wonders he does for his children. If you were redeemed from the foe, start telling the truth. Don't keep it to yourself.
Don't you see how you were lost and aimless? Don't you see the ways you wandered around in the world desperate for meaning and purpose? You were starved spiritually, and that starvation actually fed your other hungers, for attention, for possessions, to take risks, to avoid pain and numb your mind.
Spiritual malnourishment insidiously ate away at your ability to see others, or the consequences of your actions, or the presence of God so near. Your judgment began to fail, making every idea or action just as attractive and plausible or meaningless and unimportant as any other. At last, you were skilled at ignoring your conscience. The truth became flexible. Your first priority was your own convenience. Down you went.
Do you remember crying out "Help me!", and sobbing inwardly, "Help me!"? Do you recall the slow process of 'coming to', when the light began to creep in? How it seemed that you could think more clearly, how the pain seemed to lessen? The seeds of healing were placed in your heart. You were set on a straight path in a new direction. Give thanks to the LORD for his mercy.
Then you decided, 'I'm okay, now. I appreciate the lift, but I can find my own way home from here." How long was it before the gloom set in? The seeds of healing began to wither in the waning light. How long before your misery was worse than before? How long before you were imprisoned in hopelessness?
Your cries,"Help me" rose again. Because of your humility, the LORD set you on your feet again (and again). He saw you begin to absorb how following the Light keeps the darkness at bay. (Duh.) Offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and tell his acts with shouts of joy.
Those seeds of healing were not dead after all, and you began to take responsibility for helping to keep them alive. As you grew stronger, you began to be productive, performing meaningful work and making a true contribution. Each act of service strengthened you for the next.
Then came a dangerous assignment. You were at sea, unmoored, cut loose, and afloat in a vast ocean. You saw its beauty and profound depth. You saw that he had created it to provoke your wonder and humility. Abruptly the storm came up, and it wasn't only the waves that were heaving. There you were, in the service of the LORD, trembling, miserable, sick and scared, just like before. This time you did not hesitate to call out "help me!' After a time, when you acknowledged your utter dependence upon him, the storm calmed. He brought you to the harbor you were bound for.
I will give thanks to the LORD for his mercy and the wonders he does for me. I will exalt him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the council of elders. LORD, please help me to tell my friends.
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Questions? Comments? More Information?
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