This Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter, April 12, the 9:15 and 11:15 a.m. services will be combined into one 10:00 a.m. service, to be followed by our traditional Parish Picnic. Church School classes do not meet this morning and casual dress is appropriate for this service.

Our traditional Parish Picnic on the church grounds. will take place following the combined services at 10:00 a.m. Please bring a side item to share, the main course and dessert will be provided by St. John's. Casual dress is appropriate, and there will be a bounce house for children and sign-ups for VBS volunteers.

Register now for the St. John's Parish Fellowship Retreat!  We will have activities for all ages at this parish-wide event.  There will be a ropes course, canoeing, labyrinth walk, and centering prayer, The day includes lunch and a closing worship service.   Dayspring is the Episcopal conference center just 30 minutes south of Tampa in Ellenton. There will be a $17 cost per person (does not include the ropes course or canopy walk). Scholarships are available, please contact Fr. Connelly if you would like to take advantage of that option. If you wish to contribute to the fund for scholarships, please send a check to the parish offices with "Retreat Scholarships" noted.

As has been true for several months now, a faithful crew of St. John's volunteers has been running Faith Café on the last two Fridays of each month.  Nicholas Nitch is our "go to" Daily Coordinator.  Rick Barrs, Bob Vawter, and special friend and Hebrew teacher, Hanna Weiss, have all been drivers.  Lesley Hanlon, Maria Howey, Kathleen Moore, Sally Wiley, Sally Olsson, Elizabeth Strong, Helen Maseda, Miriam Faircloth, Carol McCammon, Madeleine Tellekamp, Christina Daws, David Wheaton, Jim Voss,  Tammy Pines, and Mary Jane Schenck have all taken their turns with kitchen or serving and clean-up duties. These wonderful volunteers have a lot of fun while serving the needy a good, hot lunch.  Nicholas is becoming famous for the soups he concocts on the spot. Gaye McDonald serves faithfully in the Angel Closet.  Dave Kenyon is another Daily Coordinator for Faith Café, but he serves on a different day of the week. The people of St. John's are truly vital to this ministry.

We are very fortunate that Sally Wiley has agreed to join the STEM (South Tampa Ecumenical Ministries) Board. Father Connelly has submitted her nomination to the President, and she will join in  April. Her wisdom and dedication will bring a lot to the Board in this exciting time when we are beginning to think of a "Phase 2" for Faith Café, which would involve acquiring more land and expanding services. Hugh Cruse has cycled off the STEM Board to become the "webmaster" for Faith Café.  He is the genius behind our "Signupgenius" digital calendar that has significantly helped the scheduling the entire week Monday through Saturday. We are all very grateful for Hugh's many years of service to the Board and look forward to his continued involvement with technical issues.  

One recent Friday, Henry Woodroffe was given a special invitation to stop by Faith Café to be introduced to the serving crew. Not many knew that he designed the new building and donated his and his company's services. Now that he has returned to membership at St. John's, we thought our volunteers ought to know whom to thank for his contribution to the building that has made serving the needy almost a gourmet experience.

Now that hot weather is coming--we need men's t-shirts and shorts. Toiletries, underwear, and socks are also always welcome. Please bring contributions to the parish offices, and they will be taken down to Faith Café. 

Contacts: Mary Jane Schenck, (home) 837.9428, or mjschenck@ut.edu; Sally Wiley (cell)  244.4497, or swileytampa@aol.com.

The next Men's Ministry event will be entitled Writing about (Your) Inspiring Lives. St. John's parishioner Phil Leigh will share lessons learned as a biography ghostwriter and explain how you can write your own. As Tennessee Williams put it, "Life is all memories except for the one present moment that goes by so quickly you hardly catch it going." 

After finishing an investment career, Phil's first Civil War book was distributed by the University of Chicago Press in 2013 and followed by two more in 2014 and 2015. Additionally, Phil has written twenty-three Civil War articles for the New York Times. In 2013 he began ghostwriting the biographies of living Floridians in order to learn more about the challenges and accomplishments of others.
  

Please join us in the Parish Hall at 6:00 p.m. for wine and fellowship time, a fine meal catered by Holy Hog Barbecue at 6:30 p.m., and our speaker following dinner. RSVP to Dallas Coffield at dcoffield@gmail.com.