Thank you for welcoming me into this church community that was and is so full of vibrant ministry and intentional worship.  I have been honored to walk with you as we explored new ways to live into God's call to love each other in Jesus' name.

 

During these two and a half years we have shepherded together nearly 150 children and youth in their Christian formation.  The numbers are amazing - we baptized 20 young children and confirmed 20 teens since I arrived. We welcomed at least 10 new families into church school.

 

We welcomed visitors, invited them into community, and drew forth their God-given gifts .Many of the newer parents now serve on vestry, as wardens, in choir, with the fair committees and yard sale, and in various outreach projects.  Others do coffee hour, help teach church school, assist with children's pageants and workshops, shuttle children to Angel choir and young adult choir practice, and fill the back pews in church most Sundays.

 

Our loyal church school teachers and children are a true community in Christ. We have shared classes some Sundays and enjoyed being in our small age groupings on other weeks.  We have expanded beyond classroom walls to use the whole of Dutton Hall and even the new tent outside in the summer.  The energy is high yet peaceful and still very focused on God.

 

Our outreach program continues to draw older youth and teens deeper into God's mission in the world. We supported and sent about 20 youth to Diocesan Camp BCH or on mission trips with (Appalachian Service Project, Scituate High School, Youth Leadership Academy, and similar groups). Best of all our teens safely share their deep desires and concerns as children of God with trusted adult mentors such as Ann Johnson each week in the high school class.

 

I have loved meeting your smiling children at your cars and helping families walk into the building and to our classes.  I have delighted in adults seeing my car outside church and stopping in to say hello or to visit and pray.

 

At Sunday coffee hour and special celebrations we have become an extended family at inter-generational tables where every one watches out for the little ones and sturdy chairs are provided for our elders.  Truly we reflect God's dream for the life of the faithful here on earth.

 

Worship on Sundays and Wednesdays has been a high point for me with you as we renewed our promises to God and each other and shared our faith lives.  My knitting needs more attention yet my St Luke's prayer shawl is such a comfort that I am inspired to keep at it. The Altar Guild has taught me much about centering on God and loving the preparation for the sake of the whole community.

 

As I go to my next call I will remember Saint Luke's and continue to pray for you all. Be good to each other including your clergy and staff. Pray daily. Join together in worship regularly. And know that I will cherish my many delightful memories of my time here in Scituate - forever and ever.

 

Thank you to Dick Clay in his vision for Children and Youth. His gift made my ministry possible and I am deeply grateful for my time with you all.

 

Rev Joyce

Dear People of God at St. Luke's,

  

Denise has suggested several times that I share this sort of information. So what is a priest's typical day or week like? You know where I am and what I do on Sunday mornings and Wednesday midday. A big challenge in answering the general question though is that no day or week is 'regular.' Take today for example, Wednesday May 28th, 2014, although expect digressions. My work day started at home around 8 a.m. as I looked at the first emails of the day, mostly about scheduling future meetings, but also closing loops of earlier conversations. It seems every Tuesday a.m. is taken up answering all the accumulated emails that weren't time sensitive after taking Monday off. My choice, but I often deal with emails on Monday if there is some reasonable need for a quick turnaround. On Mondays my custom is to read the scripture passages for the coming Sunday, to start mulling them over.

 

OK, back to today, Wednesday. Prayer is part of the morning. I spend time checking out all the websites I enjoy...do the daily Jumble, read the comics, visit news sites, but also spend time on Facebook which bridges personal and professional life. Social media at its best lets me keep up with concerns and joys of parishioners and clergy. I'm usually a late starter with new technology. So I started using a cellphone later than many, but when I did so I jumped fully in. My cell number is on every piece of business communication, bulletins, websites, and outgoing message at the church, so the phone can ring or text messages and emails come in at all times of the day. All that to say, I'm wondering about Twitter. Advice welcome.

 

I arrived at the office at 11:30, in time to check in on things before starting the noon service. Writing this article now, after the service, could very well stand in for any number of communication or paper work tasks. My office is open and so I have lots of drop in short visits about building issues, today especially as our construction efforts draw to a close, and the yard. Yesterday the paper work task was to choose all the readings from the options of readings on Sunday from now until Labor day, communicate those choices to supply clergy coming this summer to cover when I'm in D.C. performing a wedding for the child of a parishioner, and the two Sundays in August when I'm in Mexico on our service trip. All of this includes keeping the Wardens, treasurer, and Martha in the office in the loop. Often this includes some further back and forth by email, text, calls.

 

Next up I'll be following through on funeral plan communication for a service upcoming and a wedding. Then I have a home visit to make for a shut in. Lunch happens somewhere on the fly. Then I have a meeting at the Diocese in Boston from 5 p.m. till 9, so I'll need to be on the road by 3:30. This particular meeting is with the HUB implementation committee to hear presentations from 4 applicants. Another digression is called for here.

 

The HUB Implementation Committee has grown out of a commitment I made two years ago when a much larger group of clergy and lay persons started meeting once a month at the diocese to figure out how to allocate $7.4 million for regional, new, collaborative ministries. The money is part of the money raised by the Diocese in the Capital Campaign. This committee has evolved into a smaller implementation committee that continues to meet once a month at the diocese for on average 3 hours each meeting. Tonight the committee will hear from four groups, North Shore Deanery, Metro West which is Framingham and region, North Shore, and South Shore.

 

I serve on two other committees of the diocese. I am a co-coordinator of the Clergy Sabbatical Committee. The diocese sets aside financial aid for clergy to take a three month sabbatical once every five years. Along with two other clergy and two lay persons we set up the criteria for the applications and review them as they come in. This duty is fairly light in time demands, maybe a couple meetings a year at a central location, most often the parish in Braintree, for an hour or two. There's of course reading the applications and fielding random questions from clergy and lay people about the guidelines. A dinner with all the applicants and those who have completed their sabbatical the previous year, chaired by a bishop, in November concludes the year cycle.

 

Finally, I am in my first year of a three year appointment to Diocesan Council, which is basically the vestry of the Diocese. We meet 11 months out of the year, with one of those meetings being a Friday to Saturday retreat in January at the Barbara C Harris Camp and Conference Center in NH. Usually the HUB committee meets before the Council meeting so I only have to make the drive up for one, longish, day into evening.

 

Other commitments outside of the parish include a monthly lunch with Scituate clergy and another with clergy of the South Shore Deanery (as far south as Duxbury, north to Quincy, west to Brockton).

 

Looking back over the rest of this week, I had a funeral at 1p.m. Saturday, so was at the church at noon. After burial in Cohasset I had a 4 p.m. meeting with the group going to Mexico. Sunday p.m. included the community dinner where I try to offer the wonderful women of the kitchen doing all the real work whatever support I can. I'm good for clearing dishes from tables and lifting piles of cleaned and dry dishes back into the cabinet for example.

 

What can't be captured in this description of a day or week comes with the variables of people in the hospital, the planning for special services such as funerals, weddings, and baptisms, the visits with people who want to talk and explore issues of their lives. I have three of those scheduled in the week remaining. While everything I have listed here is a privilege to do, these pastoral moments are some of the most satisfying and can make up much of my work week.

 

Now it's time for me to send off a couple emails before I leave the office for the visit and then Boston, so tonight after I'm home around 9:30 or so if we end on time and I'm lucky with traffic, I'll field the emails that have arisen and then write the next two articles I need to for the newsletter...I'm delinquent already in getting them in on time. 

 

In Christ,

 Grant  

Our 8th Annual Ladies Night will be held on Tuesday, June 10th at The Lighthouse Keeper's Cottage in Cohasset. Our speaker will be Mi Sun Donahue and she will share her thoughts on Conscious Living.

 

" Living life consciously is the most important gift we can give to ourselves at any age. It is simple and yet the one of the  most profound questions that each of us need to ask  ourselves.  Are we living a conscious life or are we just reacting to the life around us and to our circumstances?  Most of us want to live a conscious life, yet we are so busy with our daily routine and commitments  that we forget the "Big Picture".  Who are we and why we are here ?  At the end of the day that is what is most important to us?"

 

Tickets are $40 (includes meal and wine) and will be on sale after the 10:00 AM service on Sundays.

 

In her book, The Journey of a Motherless Child, Ms. Donahue offers readers a glimpse into an extraordinary life and shares some of the lessons she learned along the way interspersed with her inspirational poetry.  The book is $19.95 and can be purchased at Front Street Book Shop or Hummingrock Gifts.  You can visit her website, www,misuns.com,

The end is in sight, yes I believe it. By June 6th the workmen will be done and gone. I thank all of you who have in any way worked with, or worked around, this time in our life together. Special thanks goes to Russ Wood and his father who have given their time to install all the flooring. Cheryl O'Grady has been on site many, many times directing the important decisions about appearances and finishes that most of us might take for granted. She and Joyce Barthold moved all the stuff from Dutton Hall into classrooms so that the floor could be refinished. The committee of Chris McKerrow, Joe and Joyce Barthold, Gail Meehan, Ed Karsch, and Cheryl O'Grady have been the guiding hands all along.

 

So, what's left to do? We'll need to move furniture back into the narthex. All of the church school material needs relocating back to the new closets. The committee is discussing maybe an event that will be a mini celebration where anyone who is interested can join in the work and share some food as well.

 

We will need though a formal celebration and recognition. With the program year ended the timing for a celebration is a bit of a challenge. One great suggestion is that since we're waiting for a more opportune time that we hold an event on the Feast of St. Luke's, October 18th, which falls on a Saturday. A short evening service, dedication of the entrance and bathrooms, followed by a potluck might just be the thing, especially if we can get a bishop to come. If that isn't possible then we may just roll the dedication into the next day's services.

 

Our renovations aren't complete though. The carpet going up the stairs to the choir room and the flooring there will be replaced over the summer. Jean Anderson Collier and Debbie Carlton have been painting the choir room.

 

We also have a wish list that requires extra funding.

 

++New furniture for the narthex.

++New furniture for the Gordon Room...the living room like meeting room.

++New carpeting for the Gordon Room and offices.

++A smaller replica of the Mariner's Cross to hang in the new entryway, which will be illuminated at night as well. This is an excellent opportunity for memorializing a loved one.

Nursery Care During the Summer                                                       

Every Sunday at the 10 a.m. service

 there will be nursery care for our

youngest children throughout the summer.

Our inaugural service trip is taking final form. Karen McElway, Beatriz Hurwitch, Colette and Adrienne Wood, Kim and Annie Harriman, Trevor Martin from Colette's church, and Grant and Denise Barber have been meeting to plan projects, learn some basic Spanish where needed ("where is the bathroom" "thank you"), and get to know one another. It's exciting! Have you noticed that we haven't come to members of the parish even once to ask for help in funding? As each participant is able we are each contributing money. We also have the significant help of $10,000 from a Diocesan fund and another significant grant from a small family foundation. Look for a Mexican meal in the fall that will kick off the next year's trip with pictures and stories from this summer. Ever eaten chicken with a chocolate sauce? It's one of seven served in the region. We probably won't serve the fried grasshoppers though. Oh, it's pronounced 'mol a' and 'wah ha ka.'

Volunteers are needed to provide light refreshments for coffee hour throughout the summer. Please sign up in Dutton Hall.

Thank you!

It is important t keep our Parish Directory up to date with phone numbers and emails. Please be sure to contact the office with any changes (maybe you've disconnected your landline or use a  different internet provider and have changed you email from Verizon to Comcast or vice versa) so that we can keep you informed about all that is happening at St. Luke's. Thank you.