May 5, 2016
News from the Shared Ministry 
of
Christ Church, Portsmouth  & 
Trinity Church, Hampton 
In the Episcopal Diocese of NH
 
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Worship Services
The Rev. David "Chip" Robinson

Vicar 

 

All people of faith are welcome to receive Holy Communion at the Lord's Table 


 

Christ Episcopal Church 

1035 Lafayette Road

Portsmouth, NH 03801

Rite II at 10:30 am
Coffee Hour follows
 
Clergy office hours 
Tues & Thurs 9am-12noon

200 High St.
Hampton, NH 03842
Saturday Rite l at 5pm
Rite II at 8:45 am
Coffee Hour after the service
  
Clergy office hours
Mon & Wed 9am-12 noon
Rev David Robinson
 
The Vicar's sermons can be found by clicking on the link for either church and going to the Worship page.
Links

Little Blessings Child Care Center at Christ Church Portsmouth  

Little Blessings Child Care Center 

(603) 431-1809 

at Trinity Church, Hampton

Village Preschool
(603) 929-7349

Episcopal Churches on the Seacoast
 
Seacoast Convocation
 
Christ Church,Portsmouth
St. John's, Portsmouth
St. Thomas, Dover
St. George's, Durham
Ministry Schedule

 

Christ Church
 

Going into the hospital?

 

Due to privacy laws, churches are no longer routinely informed if you or a loved one is admitted to the hospital.  Please be sure you let us know when and where you will be a patient so we can be in touch with you and include you in our prayers and healing ministry. Don't assume the Vicar knows - he would much rather hear from several people than from no one!

 


From the Vicar...
Some thoughts on Ascension Day
 
By the time you read this, our Ascension Day Eucharist will already have been celebrated. But as I'm not anticipating bulging walls from the overwhelming attendance, I figure I still have a chance to say a word or two about the Feast of the Ascension.
 
Ascension Day celebrates the Risen Lord going to heaven. It is one of the seven principal feasts of the Church year in our present calendar. It has not always been thus. The earliest Christians made little of the Ascension as a festival. It was not until the fourth century that a new pattern began to emerge.
 
As the Church overtook the Roman world in that century, it began to celebrate its festivals differently. A cycle of feasts connected with events in Jesus' life began to be added to the established Sunday worship pattern. An early addition to the Sunday cycle was a fifty-day season for Easter. The fourth century pilgrim Egeria finds the Church in Jerusalem celebrating the Lord's ascension and the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church on the final Sunday of the fifty-day Easter season. At the same time, in Augustine's church in North Africa, Ascension Day emerged as a fixed commemoration on the fortieth day during Eastertide, following the chronology of Luke's Gospel.
 
Ascension Day is something I associate with my life as an Episcopalian. It obviously celebrates an important event in the life of our Lord and of his disciples. In my twenties as a new priest celebrating all kinds of things I had never attended in my childhood and teen years, there was something really wonderful about discovering church festivals. Ascension Day is blessed with great liturgical texts, great readings, and, for that matter, great hymns and great sacred works of music.
 
A Prayer Book text I commend to you for reflection is this one from the Ascension Day liturgy:
 
After his glorious resurrection he openly appeared to his disciples, and in their sight ascended into heaven, to prepare a place for us: that where he is, there we might also be, and reign with him in glory. (from the Proper Preface for the Ascension, p. 379)
 
Whether or not you attended our Eucharist at noon today, I hope very much you will take a moment to reflect on the Ascension before this day draws to a close. As one of the great Ascension Day hymns puts it, "Hail the day that sees him rise, Alleluia!"
 
 
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...
 
May 8
Seacoast Area Youth Ministry; Joan HoSue; Nancy McHeachern, Ida Moriarty
 
May 15
Worship Committee at Trinity Church; Paula Kidder; Hope Murray & Tommy; Anne Newell
 
Last week for our Discretionary Fund fundraiser
 
This is the last Sunday to buy tickets for our fundraiser for the Vicar's Discretionary Fund. Peter Monte (at Christ Church) and Gordon Lane (at Trinity Church) are selling raffle tickets for a $200 gift card from the Atlantic Grill in Rye. Tickets are $15 each or three for $30. See Peter or Gordon at coffee hour if you'd like to help us beef up this Fund, which helps people in need both within our congregations and in the community at large. The winning name will be drawn on Pentecost Sunday, May 15.


Stamp Out Hunger food drive is May 14
 
On Saturday, May 14, 2016, letter carriers across the country will be collecting food for families in need. Our own pantry at Hobbs House is among the agencies that will be receiving this food for distribution. It's easy to help:
 
1. Collect and bag non-perishable*         food items
2. Place by mailbox for letter carrier       to deliver to a local food bank or         pantry
 
*Donate items like canned meats, fish, soup, juice, vegetables, pasta, cereal, peanut butter and rice. Please do not include items that have expired or are in glass containers. 


Plant and Bake Sale
This Saturday, May 7 at Christ Church
 
asst-flowers.jpg
The annual Christ Church plant sale will be held this Saturday, May 7th, from 8-2.  Please consider donating some of the perennials from your gardens or something for the bake sale. 
 
Anyone who would like to donate time to make the plant sale a success is welcome to come give us a hand. Smiling faces help make our plant sale GREAT!
 
Tena Wolf






 
Let's wear red for Pentecost!
Plus...can you offer a reading in another language that day? 
 
On the Day of Pentecost, Sunday, May 15, we will continue our custom of wearing red as a small sign that the Holy Spirit lives within each of us. Our services in both churches that day will feature some powerful Pentecost hymns - including some from more contemporary sources - and, at Christ Church, we'll even have a Baptism: Patrick Tremblay is being baptized that day.
 
At both churches, we will have a multi-lingual reading of the Acts passage describing the original Day of Pentecost. If you know another language, I encourage you to sign up to help out with this. I'll have a sign-up sheet at each church along with copies of the text in various languages.
 
So come join us for a festive day! I'll be adorned in bright red vestments, the altar will be decked in red as well - why don't we all wear red to make the scene a "sea" of Pentecost color!
 
Fr. Chip
 
Thank you to all who helped last week
 
A huge "thank you" to all who prepared the grounds and cleaned Christ Church in preparation for Steve Adair's funeral. Everything looks lovely, and while there remain some tasks to transition our building and grounds from winter to summer -- especially some work to "groom" our new Pet Memorial Garden -- the work done last week has brought us a long way. Many, many thanks!
 
Fr. Chip & Warden Craig Davis

Contacts
The Rev. David "Chip" Robinson, Vicar
Christ Episcopal Church, 1035 Lafayette Road, Portsmouth, NH 03801
phone: 603-436-8842
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00-Noon

Trinity Episcopal Church, 200 High Street, Hampton, NH 03842
Shared Ministry Administrator: Nita Niemczyk
phone: 603-926-5688
Office hours: Monday-Friday from 9:00-1:00