Holy Week & Easter
What a tremendous spiritual journey we made through Holy Week this year. About 60 members and friends of the parish contributed time, talent, and/or treasure to bring alive the story that is at the heart of our faith. Thank you for the songs, the soup, the flowers, the polishing, the cookies, the prayers, the reflections, and everything else. A special thank you to all our musicians, whose countless hours of preparation led to ministry that lifted our prayer and awakened our souls.

Alleluia. Christ is Risen!
The Lord is Risen indeed. Alleluia!


 

 VGS Update


 

Vacation Garden School will be July 27-31 at CGS. The camp is now full for campers (4-7 year olds)! We have just a few spots left for junior counselors (ages 8-10) and counselors (ages 11-13). We will need caring adults who love kids to help us out with making snacks, telling stories, and taking kids on field trips. Contact Melanie Sullivan or Pastor Amy if you want to lend a hand.

 

And please start now praying for good weather for the camp!


 
Cinco de Mayo
Fundraising Brunch
What do you get when you combine tasty enchiladas and great company? A great fundraiser. Que bueno!

Please stay after worship for a Mexican feast, to raise money for CGS, on Sunday, May 3. Suggested contribution is $10/adult, $5/child.
We'll be in the upper parish hall.

Great chance to get to know folks better and support our mission and ministries!

Want to help? Speak with Karen Byrd or Mina Spector.
 
The New Growing Season is Here!

CGS helped start Watertown's first community garden in 2011, and since then, we have grown food in a plot there, which we donate to the Watertown Food Pantry. Might you be called to join this team? The commitment is about 1.5 hours a week through the spring and summer, with allowances made for vacations, etc.  

Specific opportunities:
* Help plant, weed, and tend the plot on Nichols Avenue - Thursdays from 11 am to noon.
* Clean the produce harvested & take it to the food pantry - Thursdays from 3 to 4 pm.
* Stop by the garden on Saturdays or Sundays to water the plot.

Please contact Pastor Amy to sign up. We'll create a schedule once we know who's on board.
The Wider Church
This summer, deputies from all the dioceses of the Episcopal Church will gather for General Convention. A new Presiding Bishop will be elected and important decisions will be made about how the structure of the church impedes or facilitates God's mission. Learn more from our diocesan deputation at a May 6 gathering. Details here.

As the fate of Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tzarnaev is being decided by a jury, our bishops issued a statement reminding us that the Episcopal Church has officially opposed the death penalty since 1958. Here is their statement.

 

Sunday Morning 

Bible Study

 

If you can manage to roll out of bed a little early on Sunday morning, you can get some extra perspective on the gospels we read in the weeks following Easter. We share the mystery and confusion of Christ's resurrection with the disciples hiding terrified in a closed room. Is Jesus a ghost? Can we bear to examine his wounds? Can we share a meal with him once again? And will we ever be brave enough to go out and share the gospel as he tells us to do? Sunday mornings at 9 am in the lower parish hall.  -- Jim Donna

 
Be In Touch
Church of the Good Shepherd: 617-924-9420

The Rev. Amy McCreath: 617-967-7780

Co-Warden Rob Flynn: 617-548-1820

Co-Warden Brad Parsons: 617-501-4539

Organist/Choirmaster Linda Lyster: 617-734-3072

The church office is open on Tuesdays, 9 am to noon, and on Thursdays, noon to 5 pm.




 
Rejoice! 
News from Church of the Good Shepherd, Watertown -- April 2015
Rector's Message

 

Mercy and truth will meet. Justice and peace will embrace.

-- Psalm 85:10

 

It was touch and go for a while: would the new fire light?! Jamie patiently tried several times. The steel wool burned well, but it failed to light the newspaper. Then the newspaper took off, but didn't light the kindling. The Easter Vigil congregation watched and waited as the wind and the sparks battled it out. 

 

We're now in the midst of Easter season, 50 days of celebrating the good news that nothing is beyond the power of God to save. But even in Easter season, we can feel like we're huddled around the fire pit, watching and waiting for something we cannot yet perceive. Will the flames come? Will the light shine forth in a way that transforms and heals? 

 

I'm glad it took us a while to light the fire. Resurrection life is more about patience and persistence than praise songs and fist pumps. The Armenian community knows this all too well. Starting in 1915, the first Christian nation experienced the systematic killing of over a million of its people. Those who made it out alive took nothing with them but their faith, kept alive through songs and prayers, passed down to their children.

 

This week, the Armenian church officially beatified the martyrs of the Armenian genocide. This makes many of our neighbors in Watertown are the descendants of saints. One hundred years after that genocide, we live in a world where extremist groups still wreak unspeakable havoc, and governments tasked with protecting people still engage in crimes against humanity. This is the world in which we are called to live our Easter faith. I give thanks for our Armenian friends who are mentors to all of us -- each one a light of Christ for us and our children. 

 

Our parish is small, but I believe that each action we take for justice and peace matters profoundly. Each person giving over their Mother's Day to walk for peace, each dollar contributed to Living Stones, each person attending an Episcopal City Mission lobby day is tending to that new fire we lit at the Easter Vigil. Each action testifies to Christ's victory over the grave. I am thankful to be called to such ministry alongside you.

 

Faithfully,

 

(The Rev.) Amy McCreath

Rector

Stewardship Update


 

The financial year is off to an interesting start, with significant heating and snow removal bills. At the same time we have seen a substantial increase in pledge income, which gives us hope that we will eventually be able to retire the deficit and afford a full-time Rector on our own without the need for diocesan assistance. In the meantime, we are in fact receiving $60,000 in assistance from the diocese this (less than the $70,000 we received last year) and we need to decide how much to request for 2016. The upper hall, kitchen, and sanctuary all are looking better for the loving care directed at them from a large number of volunteers. Keep up the good work! And thanks for your generosity! 

-- Jim Donna, Assistant Treasurer


 


 Carol Roberts offering time and talent to update the paschal candle, while Quinton and Kirsten Hashemi look on.

Coming Up  
 

Sunday, April 26, 1:30-3:30 pm - "The Many Faces of Homelessness" at St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Belmont, will focus on homelessness in Watertown, Waltham, and Belmont. Keynote speaker is Libby Hayes, Exec. Director of Homes for Families.

 

Saturday, May 2 - Karen Byrd will be confirmed at St. Paul's Church, 26 Washington St., Malden, by the Rt. Rev. Gayle Harris.  The service is at 10:30 am. All are invited to come pray, sing, and celebrate with Karen.

 

Saturday, May 2 - Watertown Helps Out. CGS will welcome volunteers to help us prepare the garden for VGS. Can you help welcome people, and maybe help plant? Contact Meghan O'Connell ([email protected]).

 

Sunday, May 3 - Cinco de Mayo Fundraising Lunch - Stay after church for good food and fellowship! $10/adult, children are free.

 

Tuesday, May 5 - Book signing & reading for Patience My DearMargaret Lyons' (Bower Lewis) first novel. Barnes & Nobles in Burlington, 7:30 pm.

 

Sunday, May 10 - Mother's Day Walk for Peace in Dorchester. Join Pastor Amy and dozens of others joining together as "Watertown Walks for Peace." Sign up to walk or donate here.

 

Saturday, June 6 - Andrea Wyatt will be ordained to the transitional diaconate. (In the Episcopal Church, those who are called to the priesthood serve as deacons for six months to a year before their priesting). Plan now to be there to pray and rejoice with her! June 6, 10:30 am, Emmanuel Church, Boston.

 

 

 
The CGS Choir rehearses before the Palm Sunday service.
Winter Haiku

You know she has a beautiful voice and loves to cook. But this winter, another of CGSer Sue Isaacs' talents emerged on social media: writing haiku! Sue dealt with the challenge of the long, hard winter by typing up over 45 haiku, cheering the hearts of her facebook friends. Here are a few:


 

March 1:

Snow drifts gently down
Sparkles in the streetlights, but
I want a rainbow.
 

Late March:

Ice mountains step out,
They jeer and try to trip me.
Time to barbeque.
 

Maundy Thursday, near midnight:

Rain hits window panes,
At church. We keep watch tonight.
No one is alone.
 

Early Eastertide:

Springtime should be here,
But April has frosty winds.
Winter's last hurrah. 

 

Youth Group Visits SSJE
In Lent, our joint CGS-Christ Church, Waltham Youth Group spent a Sunday afternoon at the Society of St. John the Evangelist, the Episcopal monastery in Cambridge. Brother Luke told the group about monastic life and answered their (excellent) questions about what monks do all day, why they decided to be monks, and how a monastery is different from a parish church. Then the group had a tour of the facility and joined the brothers for evening prayer. Afterwards they learned how incense works and got to see some of the beautiful icons in the sacristy. The afternoon ended with a journey to Burdicks for hot cocoa, because, well, why not?!

Summer Adult Forum Series: Beginning to Pray

Prayer is a central calling of our Christian life, but it is also a central mystery to most Christians! What is prayer? How do I get started, if it's something I've not done outside of formal worship? How do I know something is "happening"? What should I expect?

This summer, we'll take five weeks to explore these questions, using as our guide Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom. The series will run June 28 thru July 26. Jean Ann Schulte will lead the first three sessions and Pastor Amy will lead the final two. We welcome any and all teens and adults who want to begin or deepen their prayer practice to be part of this journey.

About Beginning to Pray: Hailed by both Protestants and Catholics, it was written by an Orthodox Archbishop for people who had never prayed before  and has been read and loved by persons at all levels of spiritual development.
The Final Word

During Lent, our adult formation work at CGS centered around examining our prejudices and privileges in order to more effectively work for racial justice. As a next step, on May 10 we are participating in the Mothers Day Walk for Peace in Dorchester. The walk brings together thousands of people from around the region, including our bishops and hundreds of Episcopalians.

This year, we are participating as part of a diverse coalition of people from Watertown. One goal is for us to build relationships with our neighbors from Watertown, so we can work together in the future. Another goal is to support anti-violence work being led by the Louis Brown Institute for Peace, which sponsors the walk.

There are two ways you can participate:
1. Join the walk! It's a 3.6 mile walk on easy terrain. Click here and register with the group "Watertown Walks for Peace." There is a free bus leaving from First Parish, Watertown. Talk to Pastor Amy to sign up for the bus.
2. Donate! Watertown Walks for Peace is committed to raising $2,000 for the Louis Brown Institute. Click here and donate, crediting the Watertown group.