Mission Tidings Newsletter

July 2012 


In This Issue
Reverend's Reflections
Service Time Change
Creation Care Summer Church School
CC Smart Facts
Men's Prayer Group
H.S. Program Funded
Jamberry Bee
Thank You
Baptisms
Parent Program
Yard Sale
Rehoboth Outreach
Confirmation Sign Up
Baccalaureate Homily
Summer Hours

St. Luke's Links

 

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Reverend's Reflections
St. Luke's Mariner's Cross
Dear People of St. Luke's,

 

I took off a couple of weeks in June. As I was preparing to return to the office on a Friday I read over the weekly newsletter online. My first thought? I think we're doing a lot of good things, we're getting it right.

 

What we say we believe and what we actually do and practice are often in tension, whether it is for us as individuals, as families, as communities.

 

Here is what is happening at the start of the summer here at St. Luke's. We are:  

 

*Continuing to worship, on Sundays and Wednesdays.

*Trying new education opportunities for children on Sunday mornings during the summer to encourage families to keep attending church; emphasis in this summer Sunday School curriculum is about caring for the environment as God's gift to us.

*Serving our Community Dinner.

*Feeding the homeless in Brockton.

*Organizing an Outreach project-rehab a family unit at the homeless shelter in Norwell.

*Commissioning Karen and Josh Hirsh to do medical missionary work in Malawi, after we as a faith community helped them in their fund raising.

*Sending off four adults and four high school students to work on the Appalachian Service Project-rehabbing houses in W. Virginia.

*Welcoming the high school Thespian Society to wash cars as a fund raiser.

*Offering a program for parents and concerned adults about making sure our church is as a safe place for our children to be.

 

We have had three funerals, one wedding, and three baptisms recently.

 

We have raised in pledges over $410,000 toward our goal of $670,000 for our Capital Campaign: that money ensures that we can address the basic building needs so that we have a base from which to worship and minister to others.

 

We are doing a lot. Our actions speak to welcoming others, reaching out to help others, nourishing ourselves spiritually, educating our children and adults.

 

Now, it's your turn: I invite you to make an inventory of what your actions, priorities might be based on what you are doing. How we spend our time, that precious resource, tells much about where our heart resides. 

 

Peace to you all, 

 Grant  

Service Time Change For The Summer

Worship: 8 AM (no music) & 9 AM


Creation Care Summer Church School
9 AM - 9:30 AM -Nursery open. Children up to Gr. 4 in Gordon/Horan Rooms.

 

Creation Care Summer Church School
Children's programs (pre-K through 4th grade) are offered this summer from 9-9:30 am Sunday. Programs are funded by a Simple Acts Green Grant from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. Meet in the Gordon/Horan rooms at the beginning of worship for bible study, discussion, and quiet activities. The focus is on caring for God's creation - water, soil, earth, and plants. We use the Abundant Life Garden curriculum from Episcopal Relief and Development as well as hands-on activities to explore energy use around St Luke's.Adult program leaders and assistants are needed. All materials are provided.Children join their families in church for communion. Please contact Rev Joyce to volunteer for 30 minutes for one week or more.
Creation Care Smart Facts
CFL bulb
*If every household in the U.S. replaced just one 100-watt incandescent bulb with a CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulb....The annual greenhouse gasses eliminated would be equivalent to the emissions from 1.5 million cars.

*If a standard 100-watt incandescent bulb is replaced with a CFL bulb of equivalent brightness...The bulb will pay for itself in energy savings in less than one year.

*If every household in the U.S. replace its highest-use incandescent bulbs with CFL bulbs...We would have a combined energy cost savings of $6 billion.
Men's Prayer Group
Beginning Weds., July 4th and continuing until the Weds. after Labor Day, the Men's Group will be on hiatus. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact George Ackley, email: [email protected]

High School Program Funded
The Church Home Society has awarded $10,000 to St Luke's for teen ministry in 2012-13. The funds are to support youth-led programs that encourage good decision-making and are fun. We will form a new youth advisory board and invite 4-6 adult mentors in mid-July. All adult mentors will complete Safe Church training. Contact Rev Joyce at [email protected] or leave messages at 781 545-9482.
Jamberry Bee- Sat., July 7th- 9 a.m.- Noon
jam
Learn the secrets of great jam making at our jamberry workshop. We will be making blueberry jams and  pepper jellies  for the Farm Stand and Harvest Fair. The Jamberry is free of charge but we suggest a $10 donation if you are able to help offset the cost of supplies. All materials will be provided - all we need is you. A sign up will be posted in the narthex.
Friends of the Table
Thank you to all who helped with the meal at the Table in Brockton on Saturday, June 30th.  Your support is truly appreciated!

 Please mark your calendars for our next date on Saturday, October 29th. Teens, please note that you can earn Community Service hours by participating.
Baptisms
holy spirit dove image
Our next Baptism is planned for July 15th. Please contact Rev. Joyce if you have a child or adult interested in Baptism on that day or in the fall.
Parent Program
Plan ahead to help out with children and youth church activities. We offer free SAFE CHURCH TRAINING (only two hours) online or in small groups. This training is required for adult mentors for the youth group, for church school teachers and assistants, and for anyone working with children and youth at St Luke's. Please contact Rev. Joyce for your unique login and password or to schedule a group training at your convenience. Nursery and children's care can be provided at church by advance reservation

Got Stuff?  We need it!
yard sale

St. Luke's Annual Yard Sale will occur on Saturday, August 4th (during Heritage Days).

We will need lots of volunteers and of course lots of "stuff"!

 More info to follow.
Rehoboth Outreach Weekend
August 10,11 & 12.  We need your hands and your hearts for this wonderful project. If you are interested in participating and have not yet signed up, please contact Christine Hudanich, 781-987-1620, [email protected]    Co-chaired by Bill Lincoln and Maureen Keys.
Sign Up  Now for Fall Confirmation Classes
Due to increased interest we are planning three separate confirmation classes to begin in September (High school grade 10-12, 9th grade, and adults including anyone wishing to be received. We need a few adults to be program leaders for small group activities and chaperones/drivers for excursions and retreats. Contact Rev. Joyce.

Rev. Scheyer's Baccalaureate Homily
Delivered June 4, 2012 at Scituate High School

Many years ago in a place across the sea the third grade class tradition was to present the musical Hansel and Gretel. Every student in the class learned to sing every song correctly in German and to dance every dance enthusiastically. As is common with most school plays the action stole the show away from the characterization and the plot. Yet it is in the character portraits of these two brave children that I found my message for you this evening.

 

As the story went, a little boy and a little girl set off into the woods one day to explore. They wisely took along a basket of bread for snacks. Along the way one of them decided to leave a trail of bread crumbs in case they lost their way in the deep dark woods. On their way home they would simply follow their own trail of bread crumbs and safely make it back in time for supper.

 

As you may recall, the birds followed the children and ate up all the bread crumbs and the children were without markers to lead them back home. [ Probably not the cheeriest story for little 8 year olds but as I mentioned the songs and dances and the costumes outweighed the story line for them.] On that captivating moment we will bookmark the story for now and return to it another day.

 

Let's flash forward now to you as you set off into what may seem like deep dark woods of adult life upon your high school graduation. What will your bread crumbs look like? How will you express yourself and leave markers of who you are so that you can always be recognized and always find your way home for renewal?

 

I have watched some of you at musical concerts, in drama rehearsals, on the sports playing fields, in parades, walking around town, and participating fully in your faith communities.  My sense of you is peacefulness. You already carry peace within yourselves and bring peaceful presence to others. Could it be that your 'bread crumbs' may be other people's glimpses and joyful memories of your peaceful presence? If so, then birds cannot eat them and you will always be able to find them to lead you back home.

 

Perhaps it is your capacity for peace, your ability to carry peace within you and to show peace in your actions, that exemplifies your years together here at Scituate High School. Sitz im leben is German for 'setting in life' or the original context in which a specific genre or form was used (p. 552 Oxford Annotated Bible NRSV, Glossary). Let your genre in life be a new one that I call 'peace-telling'.

 

Seek to make your defining form, from this day forward, a compassionate belief in the value and love-worthiness of each person you meet. Your setting is these high school years and your immediate task this evening, this week, this summer is to reflect on those moments and those relationships of peace that you may have shrugged off as inconsequential.

 

A few tips on how to recognize this peace-telling in your life. Peace is one sign of a compassionate justice-seeking spirit. Other signs are love, joy, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (adapted from Galatians 5:22-23 NRSV Holy Bible). Look for these signs and remember when someone mentions that they see them in your interactions. Encourage these signs in each other.

 

Like you, I learned to say peace in the context of learning to speak each new language - first in English as peace, then in German as ruhe, in Latin song as pacem, Spanish as paz, Arabic as salaam, and finally in Hebrew as shalom. Although no two of these words have the exact same meaning, each captures an enduring aspect of peace. Sometimes peace is inseparable from belief in a faith tradition or spiritual life. In the American context peace is both a way of being and a way of doing.

 

Often peace is expressed with nature imagery of gently flowing rivers or soaring mountain peaks especially as seen from above the timber line. Peace sometimes is illustrated in advertisements by certain models of cars and trucks so quiet and smooth riding that drivers have no distractions or worries. When at peace you may feel gentle, you may soar, or you may feel worry-free and able to take a few bumps in stride.

 

Most commonly peace is described in terms of human relationship and in socio-political terms. Peaceful presence with another person calls for trust, companionship, deep listening, and compassion. Political peace is absence of violence or of war or the lack of divisive, hurtful disagreement. Peace-telling prepares requires us to speak truth to power and to deconstruct oppression whether our own or that of others.

 

Beloved graduating class of 2012, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, you will find it in being peace-tellers.

 

Mark your way with peace and you will always be able to find your way home (adapted from Phillipians 4:8 NRSV Holy Bible).  

Summer Office Hours
Effective June 18th through August 17th, Martha's office hours will be Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday from 8 AM to 1 PM. Please leave a message via phone, 545-9482 or email [email protected]