From the Assistant Rector's desk:
When my two brothers and I - Gib is two years older, and Ted is two
years younger - were dwelling in our late teens and early 20s, we began to
discover the grace that can come from spending extended time together, perhaps with
close friends from school, and living into the personalities we were developing
and testing as emerging young adults. We
were living away from home, and free to become whatever we thought we wanted to
become. This at times took the form of
iteration and experimentation in different ways of being in community (my
younger brother had lived for several months in a Zen monastery in Kyoto, and my
older had attended retreats in Tokyo).
During one summer Gib and Ted worked on construction and maintenance crews
in northern New York State, and were joined in the house by a friend of my
older brother (David Paul, whose name, appropriately for a religion major,
claims both Old and New Testaments).
Their living arrangement was casual and uncomplicated, and their goals
were to develop a living cadence of simplicity, gentleness, quietness and
intentionality. All three of them had
studied various world religions, and felt that (at the time) Buddhism held
great promise for them as a guide for being a certain way in the world. So they prepared simple and wholesome food,
spent time in silence and meditation, interacted gently and lightly with each
other and their surroundings.
And they baked bread each day.
This last event became a focus of these young folks, and eventually
found its way into a written 'Manifesto of Living' they three prepared after
several weeks of this idyllic living and posted on the refrigerator. "We will bake bread each day as a symbol of and
gesture towards our care for creation and for each other, and away from strict reliance
on established convention and commercial production." Or something like that. A nice sentiment, felt deeply I'm sure at
that stage in their lives!
Where am I going with this? Well,
it was summer then, and it's summer now.
And they were a community on a journey of becoming, as we are. But more fundamentally, they were learning
something about how one can be in a
community, and as a community. The complex steps they were taking, and the discoveries
they were making, somehow could be distilled into - at that point in their
lives - into bread baking as a symbolic gesture. The act of baking bread drew them somewhere;
something profound and stirring was articulated through the bread. Baking bread - its fragrance, even its simple
presence in the oven - is a draw, transforming a kitchen into something
wonderfully full of promise and expectation, and testifying to an
intentionality that is borne out of more than mere practicality. For bread itself points to so many important elements
of living well: fellowship, sharing, bounty, reconciliation, life itself.
When Jesus says he is the bread of life, and that it is God who draws
us to what Jesus as Christ offers us (an offering that Paul even calls
'fragrant'), Jesus is presenting his own Manifesto of Living that points to
himself as the Way, the Truth and the Life (which comes later in John); a way
of being in the world that helps guide us as we journey. A way of being in the world that we are drawn
to gradually and, if we inevitably resist or pull against it, we are even pulled
deliberately, and assuredly, towards the God that has always been turned
towards us and yearns for us.
May the bread you bake bring wholeness to the astonishing and profound
lives each of you form, and present, each day to the world.
Peace
~ Hall
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Worship
Adult Bible Study
Adult Bible Study meets each Sunday at 9:00 a.m. in the Bidwell Room. On August 16, the Rector will lead a conversation on John 6:56-69.
Save the Date: Sunday, September 13th - Celebration Sunday!! Our church school, choirs and regular service schedule will resume on this date!!
 Prayer Group
The Prayer Group meets in the
Bidwell Room on Thursday afternoons at 4:00 pm and lasts about one hour.
We read aloud the Order for Evening Prayer, Compline, or a Service for
Worship in the Evening, and have 10-15 minutes of quiet reflection.
Anyone who would like to join us is welcome. Call the Office for more
information.
Prayers for and from the
Community
Your
clergy pray for members of the parish community, and all whose lives fall
particularly on our hearts, each day and - in particular - at our noonday
gatherings during the week. Please let either of us know if we can include
you in our confidential prayers.
Stephen (sovoysey@stpetersweston.org) and Hall (hkirkham@stpetersweston.org), 781 891 3200.
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Ministries (Church School, Youth Programs, Outreach, Adult Education, Altar Guild, Flower Guild, Ushers, Welcome Team, Vestry, Pastoral Care, Hospitality, Stewardship, Communications)
Many thanks to all who participated in the B-SAFE Program this summer!
Adult Education
EDUCATION FOR MINISTRY (EFM) offered at Trinity Concord this fall!
Below is an opportunity that many of us at St Peter's have participated in and have found very rewarding. Are you interested in a spiritual journey? Study of Scripture? Read on!
Education for Ministry (http://www.sewanee.edu/EFM/index.htm) is a 4-year series of directed readings and weekly seminars sponsored by the School of Theology of the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. It covers a variety of topics by which participants expand their knowledge of scripture, church history, tradition, and their own spirituality. Participants commit to a one year at a time.
The course is specifically designed for the lay student of religion and spirituality, and through guided reading, reflection, and group interaction, leads participants through a rich spiritual development and understanding of personal beliefs and potential for lay ministry. Each year has a topical concentration, but all share in and discuss learnings and reflections with each other during weekly meetings. The concentrations are as follows:
Year 1: Old Testament
Year 2: New Testament
Year 3: Church history up through the Reformation
Year 4: Church history to today
In addition, participants share in directed Theological Reflections and Common Lessons that are designed to help develop individual and collective spiritual growth and ministry in life.
In the first two years students would read the Old and New Testaments, plus additional course readings supplied by Sewanee Theological Seminary to guide you through the readings. In the last two years, the primary reading is the material from Sewanee, with other references provided for discretionary reading.
The guidance of the mentor and from other participants are as much a part of the process as the readings and reflections themselves. Meetings are a place to openly share faith, questions, insights, concerns, growth, grief, happiness, awe in God and God's ways, and much more.
There is an established EFM group at Trinity Church, Concord that is taking in new members for the Fall of 2009! If you want more information or want to sign up, please contact Karyn Barry (781-894-3664). Operationally, the group meets Wednesday nights from 6:30 to 9:00 at Trinity Concord, and the readings take between 2 and 4 hours of additional time each week. There is a small fee to join and purchase the reading material.
For more information, contact Hall Kirkham.
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Parish Life
Coffee Hour: Join us for coffee hour after the 10am service!
Summer church office hours are 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Last Weekend's Pan-Mass Challenge 
Ride to Honor Survivors & Angels
"Thank you"
Being a part of the PMC makes me a better person in more ways than I
understand, and now I understand more than I did before this weekend.
This recognition (?) was triggered by great friend Adrienne who said:
"Good job!, and thank you - in all sincerity - for making the world
that much better for the rest of us by your efforts. Way to go!" Each
word resonates in different ways, creating a melody that soothes my
tired legs and body.
"Thank
you" is on my mind. I heard it, quite literally, a thousand times or
more this weekend. Everyone was thankful. Volunteers, spectators,
sponsors, friends, patients, and bus drivers thanked riders for riding.
Riders thanked sponsors for funding, spectators for cheering and coming
out (you can't know how great it is to be cheered energetically about
100 feet from the top of a hill!), patients for sharing themselves,
volunteers for pouring water or making the most delicious peanut butter
and banana sandwiches.
There were a lot of "Pleases," and ten times more "Thank yous."
Saying "Thank you" makes me more thankful, and I can always recognize more objects of gratitude.
I have a starter list of ten...and here is the first:
"Thank you" for sharing your
loved ones with me. It's amazing how
thoroughly your loving words and beautiful pictures of survivors and
angels made it easy to hammer up the hills, descend safely, and speed
across the flats.
To see the whole starter list, please click through to my PMC Blog.
Fondly,
John
John Marchiony
h. 781.893.5525 / c. 617.306.9335
If
you'd like to see photos, stories, and information about the Pan-Mass
Challenge and my participation, please visit John's PaceLine Page, www.PMC.org,
http://pmc-team-avanti.blogspot.com/ orhttp://www.teamavanti.googlepages.com/
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Who Does What At St. Peter's Church
320 Boston Post Road, Weston, MA 02493 | www.stpetersweston.org | 781-891-3200
(Click on any name that is underlined to send an email.)
Rector: Stephen Voysey (891-3200)
Assistant Rector: Hall Kirkham (891-3200)
Parish Secretary: Mercer Riis, (891-3200)
Acolytes: Stephen Voysey (891-3200)
Church School: Sarah Ardila & Teresa Swanson (891-3200)
Choirs: Adult Choir:Andrew Shenton, (891-3200); Junior Choir: Kristen Dirmeier
Coffee Hour: Lynn Maruskin (899- 6290)
Communications: Communications Team
Finance Chris Phaneuf (891-3200)
Flowers: Carolyn Ellis (899-5880)
Keys Newsletter: John Marchiony, Meg Pierce & Keith Ward
Lay Liturgical Ministries: Bill Symonds
Men's Group: John Bulbrook, John Marchiony Rob Rodgers
Music: Andrew Shenton, (891-3200)
Newcomers: Michelle King, Suzie Reeves
Outreach: Ron Corley; Rosanne Iacono (891-3236)
Lay Pastoral Care: Flora Booth (899 -2006) and Mary Pughe (894-5961)
Property: Carolyn Ellis (899-5880)
Stewardship: Marty Rodgers
Ushers:Ushers: Ed Vydra (894-7131)
Web Site: John Bulbrook
Youth: Hall Kirkham
Members of the Vestry:
Janice Corley (891-3236), Senior Warden; Marshall Bartlett, Junior Warden; Chris Phaneuf, Treasurer; Richard Batchelder, Clerk; Members: Carolyn Ellis, John Jacobs, Tom Keery, Ann Lombard, Marty Rodgers, Anne Ruggles, Keith Ward
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