I love serving at St. Ann's in Woodstock. Thank you for the opportunity.
Call or e-mail me with any news or questions you may have.
God Bless You.
815-355-6840
(direct cell phone) |
February Birthdays
4 Rob Purdy
11 Alan Hill
14 David Chase
24 Becky Stretch
24 Pat Lechtanski
28 Spin Bowe
28 Vincent Castillo
28 Holly Emrich
March
Birthdays
e-mail your birthday info to Rev. Pat
2 Bridgett Killinger 3 Dinah Hoppe 4 Ben Phillips (dad) 4 Gunnar Gitlin 5 Shirley Heisler 5 Charlotte Risto 5 Rita Green 6 Terry Finlayson 11 Becky Blaho 11 Hannah Gitlin 15 Steve Fleming 15 Quinn Killinger 16 Michael Zaino (son) 18 Grace Hajeck 18 Sharon Porter 18 Nadine Francione 23 Elizabeth Robelet 23 Katie Emrich 26 Lauren Perrine (mom) 27 Alex Gosser 30 Frankie Wedin 31 Lyle Finlayson
March Anniversariese-mail your anniversary information to Rev. Pat
16 Ben & Nancy Phillips
23 Frank/Colleen Gosser
26 Mel & Lynn Long
30 Ron &Young-sook Mangum
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2009 Vestry
and Wardens
Sr. Warden
Jr. Warden
Treasurer
Asst. Treasurer
Clerk of the Vestry
Vestry Members
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Please, remember in prayer this week . . .
Updated 2/24/09
Please e-mail Prayer Requests, and Updates to Rev. Pat
That the sick and those in special need may find your healing love, especially:
J.J., Dorothy, Karen, Pat, Lori, Michael, Maggie, Jeannette, Joanne, Elizabeth, Teagan, Lou, Terry, Todd, Cole, Shirley, Susan, Minerva, Amy, Jim, Anita, John, Dan, Fred, Cindy, Benedict, Liz, Mike, Bob, Dan, Darlene, Evan, Megan, Barbara, Arthur, James, Mike, Frances, Marie, Dan, Kelly, Mary, Jackson, Jeanie, Sue, and Maryann.
And we remember those serving in our Armed Forces:
Baret, Bryce, Todd, Steven, Michael, Tim, Matthew, Benjamin, Dan, Chris, Guy, Joseph, Alicia, Carl, Dave, and Anne.
And we remember those who have died:
And we remember those serving in public office:
Barack (Pres),
Joe (V-Pres),
US Senators:
Dick & Roland,
US Rep: Melissa,
Governor: Pat,
State Senator: Pam, State Rep: Jack, Mayor: Brian, County Board: Yvonne, Anna, Marc, Bob, Scott, James, Kenneth, Lyn, Ed, Kathleen, Barbara, Mary, Sue, John, Peter, Sandra, Tina, Paula, James, Virginia, Randall, Mary, Daniel, and Ersel. | |
Only a few things in life really matter, and those few things that do matter, matter immeasurably.
- Kent Kilbourne See you in Church!
Rev. Pat + |
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Date: Wednesday, Feb 25, 2009
Service Times: 12:15 (noonish)
and 7:30pm.
What is Ash Wednesday?
The first of the forty days of Lent, named for the custom of placing blessed ashes on the foreheads of worshipers at Ash Wednesday services. The ashes are a sign of penitence and a reminder of mortality, and may be imposed with the sign of the cross. Ash Wednesday is observed as a fast in the church year of the Episcopal Church. The Ash Wednesday service is one of the Proper Liturgies for Special Days in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 264). Imposition of ashes at the Ash Wednesday service is optional.
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2009 Daily Lenten Meditations Sign Up
If you would like to sign up for the 2009 Daily Lenten Meditations from Episcopal Relief & Development their link is provided below. Those who sign up will receive an email each day during Lent featuring reflections adapted from the writings of the Rev. Barbara C. Crafton. As we embark on a spiritual journey this season, may these meditations invite us to see ourselves, our neighbors and the world through God's eyes.
Here is the sign-up link: Episcopal Relief and Development
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 Wow -- Check this Site Out !
TOP STORIES
'I am Episcopalian' -- new 'microsite' showcases videos of diverse church members
[Episcopal News Service] A communications initiative to tell the Episcopal Church's story was launched today -- Ash Wednesday -- at www.episcopalchurch.org where visitors will find a new interactive feature called "I Am Episcopalian."
The so-called "microsite" contains short videos of people "sharing their deep, personal connections to the big, wide, vibrant church that we are," said Anne Rudig, who joined the Episcopal Church Center in New York as communications director on January 5.
Not only will the videos illustrate the diversity of Episcopalians -- "all ages, all walks of life, all ethnicities," said Rudig -- but the site also will let users upload their own videos.
Try the link . . . it is waaaaay cool -- Rev. Pat +
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Dates and Events
Wednesday, Feb 25 ASH WEDNESDAY. 12:15 Eucharist & 7:30pm Eucharist
Thursday, Feb 26 7:30 pm Choir ; Needlepoint Group in A.M.
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St. Ann's Parish Calendar - through Easter Sunday 2009
1 March SUNDAY 8:00am & 9:30am Eucharist
10:45am Sunday School
Distribute UTO Boxes
7 March Saturday 9:00am Coffee Hour Training
9:00am Inquirer Class
10:30am Chalice Bearer Training
11:00am Reader Training
11:30am Usher Training
8 March SUNDAY 8:00am & 9:30am Eucharist
10:45 Sunday School
10:45 Adult Forum (The BIBLE)
10:45 Acolytes Meet
13 March Friday 6:30pm Annual Fish Fry
14 March Saturday 9:00am Coffee Hour Training
9:00am Inquirer Class
10:30am Chalice Bearer Training
11:00am Reader Training
11:30am Usher Training
15 March SUNDAY 8:00am & 9:30am Eucharist
10:45 Sunday School
10:45 Coffee Sales
22 March SUNDAY 8:00am & 9:30am Eucharist
10:45 Sunday School
29 March SUNDAY 8:00am & 9:30am Eucharist
10:45 Sunday School
4 April Saturday 9:00 Altar Guild Cleaning Day
9:00 Parish Spring Cleaning Day
5 April SUNDAY Palm Sunday
9:30am Eucharist (no 8am)
10:45 Sunday School
UTO Ingathering
Final Day for Nets-for-Life
9 April Thursday 7:30pm Maundy Thursday Eucharist
10 April Friday 12:15pm Stations of the Cross
10 April Friday 7:30pm Good Friday Service
11 April Saturday 9:00am Altar Guild Preparations
5:30pm Easter Vigil
7:00pm Feast of Easter - Dinner
12 April SUNDAY Easter Sunday 9:30am Eucharist (no 8am)
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Lenten Outreach Project: Nets for Life
St. Ann's will kick off a special Lenten project this coming Sunday. But, first, let me tell you a true story.
Malita, a mother with two young children, had just returned to her home in Angola. Malita's family - you see - had escaped the ravages of Angola's 27-year long civil war by fleeing their home for refuge in Namibia.
But, finally, the family was home in Angola. And, preparations were being made to cultivate the family's farm, for you see they had learned that vegetables were selling quite well in the local market.
But, very soon after her return home "the fever" struck Malita's oldest child.
"The fever" they called it. And, even thought Melita knew that her daughter had taken ill with the "fever" - still Melita had no idea what caused it. Melita's daughter died in her arms in less than one day after coming down with "the fever."
"The fever" we now know -- was simply malaria.
Malaria is totally preventable, yet every day, malaria claims the lives of nearly 3,000 children in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Malaria kills a child every 30 seconds, but it doesn't have to! Malaria is one of the deadliest preventable diseases on the planet. It's caused by a parasite that is transmitted by mosquitoes that typically bite their victims at night.
One million people die from malaria each year and 75% of those who die are children under the age of 5.
Still, the answer to this enormous malaria threat is not a difficult or costly answer. At this point, the most effective remedy against malaria, involves the use of mosquito nets. The mosquito nets are hung over beds or mats, and most of the mosquito nets cover three people at time. The effectiveness of these mosquito nets against malaria is phenomenal. At the Annual Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, this past November our bishop - Jeffery Lee - laid down the challenge for our diocese to raise the funds necessary to purchase one mosquito net per Episcopalian in our diocese. St. Ann's is taking up Bishop Lee's challenge. And, we will have a display in the parish hall by this coming Sunday - with lots of information to share about this Lenten outreach project. Check out the website: Nets for Life Africa -- and let's see how many lives St. Ann's can save. Thanks so much. Rev. Pat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Annual Fish Fry -- Coming Soon ! !
Friday, March 13, 2009
St. Ann's Parish Hall -- 6:30pm
Menu: Fried or Baked Walleye, Coleslaw, Potato Salad, Baked Beans, Macroni & Cheese, Dessert, Beverages.
Join in -- Family Fun -- Bingo with PRIZES -- 50/50 Raffle
(And / Or if you'd like to help with the event.)
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Stained Glass Committee Needed . . . Last chance - More committee volunteers are welcome . . . are you interested? Contact me ASAP if you would like to join Bruce Armstrong, TimKillinger, and David Chwalisz on this committee.
Our resident stained glass artist (Bruce Armstrong) has offered St. Ann's the gift of his creative talents in making stained glass inserts for the doors between the church and the parish hall.
A small committee is being formed to meet during Lent to consider and discuss the content of those stained-glass images. If you are interested in serving on that committee, please contact me. Thanks so much. +Rev. Conley
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About Shrove Tuesday and our Pancake Dinner --
Date: Tuesday, February 24th
Pancake Dinner Time: It is PAST!
Coordinators: Bruce & Natalie Armstrong
This was marvelous!
Just to let you know . . . I'd say more than 30 people enjoyed the pancake menu and great fellowship. Thanks so very much Bruce, Natalie, and Howard for your leadership and very hard work.
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NEXT Book Group -- 
The next Book Group meeting will be Sunday, April 5 at 4:00PM Pat & Peter Lechtanski's home.
To help focus our Lenten thoughts, the book will be Religious Literacy. What Every American Needs to Know - and Doesn't by Stephen Prothero. Contact the Lechtanski's for additional information. ------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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Ash Wednesday
February 25, 2009
St. James Cathedral, Chicago
The Ash Wednesday Homily, Bishop Jeffery Lee, Chicago:
Ash Wednesday seems almost superfluous this year. In the best of times this annual smudge of ashes can seem like a polite nod to the vaguely inevitable crashes and burns we know are the lot of humankind. We know we are dust and that that's where we're all headed. We know life isn't all sunshine and roses. We know that we sin and that we suffer the consequences of our own misdeeds and self-centeredness. As I say, in the best of times, Ash Wednesday is a ritual acknowledgment of all that as something we know about, something we live with, but something the ashes of today help contain and keep at bay as a kind of possibility out there somewhere.
But these are not the best of times. Not for a lot of people. These days too many of us don't need a little bowl of last year's burned up palms. The ashes are settling all around us, drifting into piles at our feet. The fires of greed and consumerism have devoured life savings and the apparent security of economic markets. Jobs have evaporated. Houses and homes have been lost. Entire industries seem ready to vanish into a cloud of dust before our eyes. Violence plagues this city. Random shootings, the insanity of guns on the street, gang life fueled by the despair of racism and the legacy of institutionalized injustice. And have you noticed how much of the violence erupts in the family, in the closest of relationships? Calls to the national domestic violence hotline increased by nearly a quarter in 2008 and over half the callers were dealing with job loss, foreclosure or other aspects of financial stress in their households.
The world swirls with dust and ashes - the fires of war and unrest abroad, the nagging suspicion that the earth itself heads for the ash heap, that global environmental degradation may already be fundamentally irreversible, that economic interests will derail the efforts to stop our misuse of creation.
Now, before you decide that in the face of all this you not only don't need a little bowl of somebody else's ashes today, but that you don't need this sermon either, I want to tell you something. I want you to remember something: these ashes, these ashes are given to us today in a peculiar and particular way. These ashes are not the ones falling from the sky and drifting in desolation at our feet. These ashes are given to us in the sign of the cross, the sign of our life and our hope. I think we do need these ashes. We need them now more than ever. These ashes may be an appropriate sign of the fear and doubt consuming so much of our world, they are an appropriate and an ancient sign of the admission of our own responsibility in creating that doubt and fear (we call that sin), but they are much, much more than that. They are a sign of the ultimate and unconsumable goodness of God. They are given to us in the form of Christ's victory over every fear, every heartache, every sin, death itself.
This is the sign given to us in Holy Baptism, after all. It is that great indicator of God's unimaginable act of bringing creation out of nothing, light out of darkness, life out of death. It is the sign of the unseen power at the heart of reality, the hidden force that keeps on creating the universe and you and me. It is the sign of our identity and the signifier of the power available to us to join in God's project of defeating the forces of chaos and sin and death that
pretend to overwhelm us. We are not victims - Jesus Christ has done that for us. That's what Paul was writing about. God has no need or desire for any sacrifice from us ... the great mystery of the gospel is that God has offered himself as the victim to render illegitimate any more victimization. Our lives and the life of the world are not doomed to the ashes. We do not begin this Lenten journey by wallowing in helpless sorrow. No. We admit the full range of just how bad it is out there and in here. And then we turn to God who alone can save us, but who, in Christ has shown us that he will not save us without us.
Today isn't about pretending we don't know the whole story. Today is the beginning of a journey that will lead us to the tender, embarrassing love of the upper room, through betrayal and desertion, to the horror of the cross, the exhausted sorrow of that tomb and to the disorienting sunlight of the resurrection. And more. Today we begin again a journey that leads us not just to Jesus' rising from death, but to our own. We are not victims and we are not alone. The power of God has come upon us too. The Holy Spirit is not absent from any of this, from anything in our world, today or ever.
Sunday night I attended a benefit concert at Christ Church, Winnetka. It was a benefit for a project called Ubumama, a project aiming to cut in half the number of maternal deaths happening in scandalously disproportionate numbers in the developing world. The concert was given by a friend of ours, a woman named Claudia Schmidt. She performed another benefit last year here in the cathedral when we hosted the Keiskama altarpiece. Claudia sang her heart out as usual and between songs, she shared a quotation from that brilliant old socialist George Bernard Shaw, something I had heard years ago and forgotten. But it's worth remembering on a day like this.
He wrote:
This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.
I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no "brief candle" for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
Yes. Dear friends, let us do what Jesus has called us to do. Let us be what God has made us to be. Let us pray, and give, and fast, and work, and use ourselves up for the sake of this world Christ loved enough to die for. Come and receive these ashes. Come and receive the sign of Christ's victory over everything that conspires to send the world to the ash heap. Come and receive the bread of life and the cup of salvation, the food and drink of the new life of grace and hope made possible by God's incomprehensible love and mercy. Come and do these things and then go. Go back out to be a torch, a force, to be a sign yourselves of God's power to make all things new.
Jeffrey D. Lee
Bishop of Chicago
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