News

Vacation Bible School: Save the Earth! 

A group of more than fifty children from St. John's and from the nearby parish of St. James' House of Prayer Episcopal Church, as well as eighteen St. John's youth assistants, are filling the campus with joy, music, and worship this week as they learn how to Save the Earth! for Jesus.  Guided by Leland Baldwin, St. John's Director of Christian Education, children are learning to compost (with the remains of their daily healthy fruit and vegetable snacks), making sculptures from recyclables, and singing songs about keeping "this fragile earth, our island home" safe for future generations. The daily lessons are taken from Genesis 1 and the children are also acting out each day's Bible lesson in dramatic skits.     

   

The week will conclude tomorrow evening, Thursday, June 21, with a potluck supper in Rudisill Parish Hall at 5:30 p.m., where children will show their parents what they learned. 

Music News 

 

St. John's Choir Tour

This coming Sunday morning, our choir will be singing a Festal Eucharist at St. Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue, New York City, as part of their tour to New York and Washington, D.C.  The invitation to sing at St. Thomas is a rare honor, and was issued after St. Thomas boy choristers sang here at St. John's last year, being joined for part of their program by our own altos, tenors and basses.  John Scott, Director of Music at St. Thomas, was impressed with the level of musicianship he found here and, unusually, we were not required to submit the recordings normally needed as proof of suitability to sing there.   

 

The choir will then travel on to Washington, D.C. for two services of Choral Evensong at the National Cathedral on Monday and Tuesday, June 25 and 26. Please remember and pray for our choir as they take St. John's name further afield and lead worship in these two high profile venues over the coming days.

 

At the Organ This Sunday 

We extend a very warm welcome to Matt Swickey, who will be our organist this Sunday while our own organists and choir are away. Matt is formerly Organist and Choirmaster of St. Mary's Church here in Tampa and we are very grateful to him for playing for us.

Events

Come Help Us Welcome Bishop Zebedee Masereka! 

Bishop Zebedee Masereka and Dr. Daniel Sambili will be visiting Tampa from June 23 through 28, and the Bishop will  preach at all three services on Sunday, June 24. The Bishop will be available during the coffee hour between the 9:00 a.m. and 11:15 services that morning to answer questions and talk about his work with the Bishop Masereka Christian Foundation in Kasese, Uganda, as well as the progress being made at the Medical Center there.

 

There will be a reception for the Bishop and Dr. Sambili at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, June 24, in Rudisill Parish Hall, where you can also learn more about plans for the BMCF Medical Center.  Contact Peggy Curlin at pcurlin@verizon.net or 287.0176 to RSVP for the reception.

The Bishop Masereka Christian Foundation has a new website and a new Facebook page.  To access, please click here: Facebook; Website   

Join Our Taskforce to Help Create a New Informal Service 

The clergy and staff of St. John's would like your help and input in the planning of a new Sunday service, proposed to be held at Price Chapel on the school's Middle Division campus.  The new service would be reverent but informal, would include the participation of youth in the service, and include a variety of music.  Please contact either Father Doug Remer at dremer@stjohnstampa.org or Mother Stefanie Taylor at staylor@stjohnstampa.org with questions or to join the group.  Youth are encouraged to join the taskforce.

Pastoral Care

If you or someone you love is admitted to the hospital or is in any other need of pastoral care from a clergy member, please call the parish offices at 259.1570, or call the Pastoral Care beeper at 913.0030. We want to be your support when you are in need, and we need you to let us know when those times come.

Faith Café Needs Clothing

The men of Faith Café are in need of hot-weather clothing as our Florida summer approaches. Please consider making a donation of t-shirts, lightweight pants, and shorts in sizes L and XL. Donations may be brought to the parish offices. 

This Week at St. John's

Feast Day Facts: The sole biblical account of the birth of John the Baptist comes from the Gospel of Luke.  John's parents, Zechariah  - a Jewish priest - and Elizabeth, were without children and both were beyond the age of child-bearing.  During Zechariah's rotation to serve in the Temple in Jerusalem, he was chosen by lot to offer incense at the Golden Altar in the Holy Place.  The Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and announced that he and his wife would give birth to a child, and that they should name him John.  However, because Zechariah did not believe the message of Gabriel, he was rendered speechless until the time of John's birth.  When John was born, his relatives wanted to name him after his father, but Zechariah wrote, "His name is John" and then could again speak.  His first words were a canticle of praise, the Benedictus, which is one of the canticles in the Daily Office.

The Nativity of St John the Baptist is one of the oldest festivals of the Christian church, being listed by the Council of Agde in 506 AD as one of that region's principal festivals, where it was a day of rest and, like Christmas, was celebrated with three Masses: a vigil, at dawn, and at midday.

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