Anytime we do a parish-wide event it takes many generous hands to make it work smoothly. I thought it worthwhile to give you a sense of the size of the village that we all benefitted from last Sunday. The team started with a leader and Karen Wiedemann took on that role and the Vestry volunteered to be her troops. Karen and Christina White rented a Zip Car and went to Costco last Saturday to get the hamburgers, hotdogs and condiments so the rest of us could bring salads, drinks and desserts.
Then the Vestry worked starting at 8:30 am on Sunday to set up Baxter Hall, the grill and buckets of ice for drinks. Caroline McReynolds-Adams then started to set up her elaborate and varied activities for kids including spectacular face painting led by Meredith Sherman. Seeing the painted kids many who were regulars at the 5:00 pm service was a major highlight. At 11:30 the crack, recently recruited griller team went into action and included Ray Murray, Karen Wiedemann, Dick Bradshaw, Bill Jordan, Brock Hansen, and Victoria Doyen kept the hamburgers and hot dogs coming. At the end, the Vestry clean up crew was joined by a dozen other volunteers who were so diligent that they passed even Doris Burton's high standards for cleanliness.
Then David and Stephanie Deutsch and Christina White led a whole other crew through the preparations, grilling and cleanup for a 5:00 service picnic. Pretty amazing. The next time a parish-wide event is announced you might want to ask yourself if you want to join the team that makes it so great for the rest of us.
A Volunteer Editor is Needed for a New Photographic Directory
As we all work to invite new people to join us at St Marks it becomes increasingly important that we learn each other's names and faces. Nothing beats having a handy photo directory to refer to and it has been ages since John Yanish did a heroic job of rounding us up and finding a photography company to create a directory of our pictures. John has a company in mind that will take our pictures for free but we need a volunteer to take the pictures and edit them into a printed directory. If this sounds like a fun assignment please let me know and Karen Falk our previous faithful editor will tell you her lessons learned from when she did the last one.
From Doris Burton, Junior Warden
Around the House...
And..a good time was had by all!
Thanks to each of you who (a) brought food/beverages (b) helped set up and/or (c) helped clean up last Sunday's picnic. Opportunities to sit and just chat with people we seldom see or welcome newcomers...too few! We had plenty of great food (well, maybe too many onions-and home-mades for which I crave recipes). Only 2 personal plates left behind and one claimed a few hours late. Thanks!!
If you missed this now-annual event, put it on your calendar for next year...
(Re: calendar: there were some last-minute edits to the calendar distributed. A 2nd edition will go out in early November. Copies are correct til then and are in the tract racks.)
Our first conference: Awards, magazine articles, even admiring comments by visitors to our space...and now we venture into the unknown.
September 21, at 6 pm, the first attendees to the Praxis conference will arrive. This church-planting organization aims to help those who wish to start a church community how to do it. The rest of the attendees will be on-site starting about 3 pm Thursday, Sept 22 thru an evening service, all day/evening Friday. A core group will be on-site Saturday until early afternoon and the leaders/organizers will hold a meeting on Sunday from 8 until noon.
Space: Praxis will occupy all of our meeting rooms, Baxter Hall, and the nave Thursday night and all day/evening Friday; Adams and Lions Den on Saturday, and Adams and Dozier Library on Sunday morning. They will have plenary and small group sessions, a dinner, a reception, and a service both evenings. Jeff has graciously re-located the choir to the Elders Room on Thursday but no other meetings will be affected.
Affect on you: It will help enormously if you can avoid coming to St. Mark's Thursday evening (unless you're in choir-you still report!), Friday during office hours, and Saturday morning. Parking is already limited and some of their leaders will need spaces since they will be here all day/evening. The staff will work their normal hours so contact via phone/email will not be a problem. If you do come, please use Metro or Uber instead of using what limited parking we have. The dance and yoga studios are cooperating by encouraging participants to use other means of transport and there'll be no contractors on-site (short of an emergency).
This has been in our plans for nearly a year. We're not on top of everything, there are some things we wish we could manage for the conference people (like coffee service), and there are some services we didn't know we could offer but found someone who could (thanks to Jerry Dale of the Players, they'll have tech support) but we discovered there is a limit of what church volunteers can do. Will we do it again? Whew. It's been a lot of work but they are paying us well. We shall see how it goes and report to you after the dust settles. We already have feelers for another in the spring.
Coffee Support: Our devoted baristas and clean-up crew have been serving you for more than a year. There are only 3-4 people making coffee on a rotating schedule so it would be wonderful for them to have some relief or help.
9 am attendees: If you can get in 20-30 minutes early to offer this service OR would be willing to take over on 10 am service Sundays...and
11:15: if you'd be willing to do the clean up (with a friend makes it go faster!) please let me know.
The team members have duty only a few times each quarter and the more people who are part of this small group, the less frequent your duty day would come.
Please contact me if you are willing to provide this service to your fellow St. Mark's-ers.
From Jeff Kempskie, Director of Music
Earth Mass, 2015.
Dear St. Mark's,
The Chancel Choir, Teen Choir, and Boys & Girls Choir will sing Paul Winter's Missa Gaia (Earth Mass) at a single 10 a.m. morning service on Sunday, October 2nd! This is the perfect service to invite a family member or friend to St. Mark's. In addition to the choir, we'll have several instrumentalists, projected nature images, and a couple dancers from the Dance Studio. This music will be offered in celebration of the Feast of St. Francis and will include the Blessing of Animals, which will also take place at 5 o'clock service. We hope to see you there for this inspiring service of beautiful music!
Peace, JEFF
From the Canvass Chair
2017 CANVASS TRAINING: Canvass training is scheduled for two alternative times on Saturday, 17 September and Tuesday, 20 September. On Saturday, we are meeting at 9:00 am; on Tuesday, it's 7:00 pm. CANVASSERS, pick a day and come be trained by someone who's devoted her professional life to fundraising -- you'll learn a lot, even if you've been a canvasser before! You'll also learn a bit about this year's canvass details. Questions? Ask Nora at stmarkscanvass@gmail.com.
From the Church Office
Some of you have met our Interim Parish Administrator for Programs and Facilities, Andrea Wood. For those of you who haven't, Here she is!
Oh wait! That's her reacting to my idea to take her picture (hopefully not reacting to a typical day at St. Mark's).
Here she is (relunctantly) smiling for the camera. Andrea will be with us at least through October 15. You can reach her at Parishadmin@stmarks.net. Diana Church is still producing our bulletins from far away Connecticut. You can still reach her at Diana.Church@stmarks.net. FYI, bulletin announcements are due to Diana by 5:00 pm on Tuesdays; E-gospel submissions are due by 9:00 am Friday to me, Justi, at justi.schunior@stmarks.net.
Adagio from Symphonie V in F Minor, Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937)
Opening Hymn
O come, come away! Southern Harmony, 1835
First Reading
1 Timothy 2:1-7
Gospel
Luke 16:1-13
Offertory Anthem
For the Beauty of the Earth, Words by Folliott S. Pierpoint, Music by Conrad Kocher, arr. Phillip Keveren - Chancel Choir
Presentation Hymn
550 Jesus calls us; o'er the tumult, vv. 1, 4-5, Tune: Restoration
Sanctus
American Folk Melody, arr. Marcia Pruner
Fraction Anthem
Jack Warren Burnam
Music During Communion
Hymn 676 There is a balm in Gilead, Tune: Balm in Gilead
Hymn 488 Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart, Tune: Slane
Closing Hymn
397 Now thank we all our God, Tune: Nun danket alle Gott
Postlude
Trumpet Tune in G, David N. Johnson (1922-1987)
Schedule of Services
September 18, 2016
The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost
9:00 am Holy Eucharist + Laying on of Hands
The Rev. Michele H. Morgan, Presiding
9:00 am Children's Chapel
The Rev. Rebecca Justice Schunior, Leader
10:00 am Sermon Seminar
The Rev. Michele H. Morgan, Preaching
11:15 am Holy Eucharist + Laying on of Hands
The Rev. Michele H. Morgan, Preacher & Presider
The Rev. Rebecca Justice Schunior, Presider
5:00 pm Contemplative Eucharist
The Rev. Michele H. Morgan, Presider & Homilist
About the Gospel
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