Sunday e-Bulletin

All Saints' Church e-bulletin for April 24, 2016

Week Ahead

Readings

Last Week's

Sermon
_______

Table of Contents

Musical Notes

Living Stones

Yard & Plant Sale

Treble Choir

WV Potluck

Boy Scouts Yard Sale

Food for Thought

Campaign Update

Prayer as 1st Resort

8:00 AM Servers

Acolytes

Crucifer

Connor Cahill

Chalice

Peter DeChane

Litanist/Paten

Laura Geary

10:00 AM Servers

Acolytes

Crucifer

Aly Moore

Server

Jenna Favreau
-

Torch Bearer

Heather Anderson

Assistants

Elizabeth Danieli

Pre & Post Servers

Altar Guild

Melanie Hickcox

Liz Landers

Greeters

Tracey Blanchet
Lynne Grillo

Counters

Jean McCaffrey

Camille O'Brien

Karen Kowalski

This Week's Meetings

THURSDAY

7:45 PM

Parish Choir

SUNDAY

8:00 AM

Holy Eucharist

9:45 AM

Church School

-
10:00 AM

Holy Eucharist

11:15

J2A & Rite 13 Classes

TUESDAY

6:30 PM

Church School Council

WEDNESDAY

12:00 PM

Holy Eucharist

This Week's Readings

First Lesson

Acts 11:1-8

Psalm

148

Second Lesson

Revelation 21:1-6

Gospel

John 13:31-35

Photo Credits:
Steve Grillo
Matt Hickcox
Ed Haynes
Paul Krenitsky
Harry Taplin

Musical Notes Music Staff

Music for this Sunday keeps us in Eastertide, with voluntaries that are based on two of the hymns being used - Middlebury and Truro.

The opening voluntary, Come away to the skies, is by George Shearing (1919-2011), who was a British jazz pianist who was born blind, the youngest of nine children, with working class parents. He moved to the United States, became an American citizen, and was a prolific composer and toured with several different jazz bands.

We will once again be singing the psalm, in one of the easiest formats around - simplified Anglican chant. We will use the same unison psalm chant each week, and hope that you will join in once you see how easy it is.

When choosing anthems for the choirs to sing, I always start with reading the scripture for the appointed day. Sometimes, I have immediate Aha moments, and sometimes I resort to planning tools to shore up my thinking. This week, the Parish Choir will sing Bainton's And I saw a new heaven from the Revelation reading, and the B #'s will sing I give you a new commandment by Peter Aston, which comes from the Gospel reading. Two aha anthems for one service doesn't happen often! I hope that you will enjoy hearing these scripture passages twice.

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Holy and Ever Loving Father, we ask your blessings over our Living Stones Capital Campaign. May we be ever faithful to your will, loving and compassionate towards each other, and discerning in our endeavors. We ask that you abide with us as we prayerfully consider the potential of our contributions, the promise of the campaign, and our role as faithful stewards of this place. May God the Father encourage us, May Jesus the Great Healer remove fears and obstacles from our midst, and May the Holy Spirit unite us in purpose. Amen.

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Yard and Plant Sale

We will be having a Yard and Plant sale on May 21st. Please save your junque and plant cuttings.

More details will be coming in the following weeks.

If you are interested in being a part of the Yard Sale Team, please speak to the Wardens - Chris Mills, and Frank Ouellette.

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Save The Date

We are hosting our annual Treble Choir Festival on May 1st at 4 pm. Our youth choirs will be joining those of Andover and Gloucester to perform A Festival Service of Lessons and Carols for the Church Year. We hope that many of you can join us for this special musical event.

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West Virginia Potluck Dinner
and Talent Show

Calling all performers! This year's West Virginia Talent show and potluck dinner will be held Sunday, May 15th, at All Saints'. The fun and fellowship start at 6:00pm. Can you sing, tell jokes, or play the ukulele? Then we need you! If you can't do any of these, we still need you! We know you must have a talent you'd like to share, so come and get it on the fun! Please let Maggie Marshall (maggie@ccc.com) know what you can contribute in the talent department.

For those who just want to come and enjoy the show, this is a wonderful evening out for a great cause. There is no admission fee, but there will be a free will offering to benefit this annual mission trip to West Virginia in June to fix up homes of needy Appalachians. Please bring a dish to share as we enjoy this annual event with our Central Congregational brothers and sisters.

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The Friends of Boy Scout Troop 74:

are having their 31st annual Giant Yard Sale on Saturday May 7, 2016 at Central Congregational Church parking lot, corner of Fletcher St. and North Rd. in Chelmsford from 8 am-2pm, rain or shine. Profits support the Troop's advancement, leadership, training, activities, and equipment needs. Items for sale include but are not limited to: furniture, toys, household goods, outdoor equipment, books, electronics, clothing, and collectibles. Thank you!

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Worship Commssion Food for Thought

From time to time, the Worship Commission goes beyond planning our weekly worship, and discusses articles that might help us to approach things differently. Below is an article that the group wanted to share with everyone. Of particular interest is the list of ten things that we all, as a congregation, can do to be welcoming of young families, and new parishioners, also.

WHEN CHURCHES WANT A PASTOR WHO CAN
"BRING IN YOUNG FAMILIES"

March 12, 2015 CTS Staff 20 Comments

By Jan Edmiston, DMin '01

Almost every church I've ever known has wanted to Attract Young Families. The reasoning behind this includes the following:
   - If we don't regenerate, everyone will eventually get old and die.
   - It's energizing to have young people around.
Younger members can do the work that older members can't/won't do anymore.
   - Older members tend to be on fixed incomes and younger working members are needed for their pledges.
   - Young families (i.e. mom, dad, and kids) remind us of church when we were (or wish we were) part of young families.

There are a few things wrong with this reasoning, including the fact that "attracting" people in general feels manipulative - as if people are "targets" to be used for our own purposes. Yuck.

Let's be honest about the "why?" Are we saying that we want these rare and valuable Young Families for what they can give to us?

What if - instead - the "why" of this demographic quest was about feeding souls and sharing authentic community? I always hoped - as a young mom - that church would provide adults that could help me nurture my children. I always wanted to know that - if my kids couldn't come to me or HH with a problem - they would have other trustworthy adults to whom they could go (and they did.)

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Living Stones Campaign Update

Our Living Stones campaign is proceeding apace and we'd like to report on our current status. We have visited about a third of the parish and our totals to date are as follows: $326,000 pledged over a five year period and $75,000 in cash from those pledges.

Our implementation committee is putting together a plan for how the money will be spent and we will share that with you upon receipt.

Prayer as First Resort

will be on Tuesday, May 10th 7:30-8:45 pm in the Blue and Cranberry Rooms. If you would like to learn more about Prayer as First Resort, please contact Deb Dutton (debdutton@hotmail.com) or Lynne Grillo (lynne@odic.com).

Goal of e-bulletin: "to communicate what is going on at All Saints' Church Chelmsford"