Welcome to the Friday edition of the e-news from 

your vacationing Vicar and the vacationing editor...  

From the Vicar... 

Vacation thoughts

As you read this, Cindy and I are making our annual "pilgrimage" to Maine and I hope that lots of you will find time for a break too, at home or away. It seems to me that the real essence of a vacation is about breaking our rituals and routines (you know the ones - it's Wednesday so it must be spaghetti for supper...) and spending quality time with ourselves and our loved ones. Finding time to have an uninterrupted conversation, finish a book, and watch a film, or just a moment to sit and think and tackle that thorny problem you've been putting off. Vacations take us out of ourselves and to a new place, sometimes geographically and sometimes within ourselves.

Now, I don't know what Jesus would make of the two-week vacation, but the Bible does tell us that he spent plenty of time away from the hub of things. In the Gospel stories Jesus often takes himself off by himself, or goes into the wilderness or even gets into a boat so he can sit in silence in the middle of the lake - he, like us, needed time to reflect, to rest and to pray and think of a way forward, a way which co-operates with God's love in the world. It's a good pattern to copy.

So when you sit with your feet in a river or lake with a cold drink in your hand, or when you lie on the beach with your toes in the sand, pause and thank God for all you have and enjoy a healthy, good rest! I sure plan to!

Our guest celebrant while Fr. Chip is away...

We welcome Fr. Bill Gannon July 26/27 and Aug. 2/3

We are delighted to welcome the Rev. Bill Gannon as our guest celebrant at both churches the last weekend in July and the first weekend in August. Fr. Bill was Trinity's interim prior to the establishment of our Shared Ministry, and is a familiar face to many at Christ Church as well. A retired priest from the Diocese of Newark (N.J.), Fr. Bill makes his home in Bedford and has been active in both supply and interim ministry since returning to his native New Hampshire several years ago.

Our Shared Ministry Cycle of Prayer

Each week, in both of our churches, we pray for one ministry we share and one or two households in each church. About once every six weeks, we will instead 

using the Shared Ministry Collect we prayed throughout the opening months of our Shared Ministry.

In our prayers the next two weeks, we give God thanks for...