St.
Christopher's Episcopal Church
miscellaneous info
places
to go & things to see:
What did we forget to include? Email us!
Announcements & misc. thoughts etc:
Our good friend the Rev. Heather McCain is beginning a new church!! See her most recent newsletter.
New Prayer Walk -- before
Easter the Prayer Walk around our park
ing lot was the traditional "Stations of the
Cross" On Easter day it was changed to "Stations of the Resurrection"
Most likely you have never heard of this much less experienced it. But you
will find it a very meaningful and prayerful time. Please give it a try!
Lots happening before Easter ! (follow the link for details)
Lenten Study series. This year we will be looking at various ways to pray. Prayer styles, prayer practices -- whatever terminology you use -- very from person to person. This will provide a time for you to experiment and possibly discover a new way which is powerful for you. Sundays 6:45 - 8:15 pm beginning February 10th. Please call the church office (869-5311) or email ken@st-christopher.org to register so we have a count.
Ash Wednesday service --- the beginning of Lent --- is Wednesday February 6th at 7 pm. This is a deeply spiritual service intended to help us begin the process of self reflection.
Shrove Tuesday PANCAKES !! Feb. 5th (Lent is very early this year!) From 5- 7 pm. BRING FRIENDS. All proceeds go to support this summer's youth mission trip. This celebration, in some places known as Mardi Gras, and other as "Carnival" grew from the tradition of not serving any animal fat during Lent. So the last night before Lent was a time to use up the remaining animal fat and pancakes were an easy way to accomplish that goal!
Bishop Michael Curry
Join us & hear one of the best preachers in the USA today!
Sunday, January 13, 2007 at 5 pm
Christmas Eve: contemporary service @ 7 pm; special music @ 9:30 pm, service @ 10 pm
Great fun ! Dedicating our renovated Parish House was a joy. This opens up new ministry possibilities to us. May we prove worthy of God's gifts and trust.
Bishop Chip Marble knocks and calls out:
"Let the doors be opened!"
For
(relatively) up-to-date reflections on the sabbatical this summer go to: www.st-christopher.org/Sabbatical
is
it really possible for a church
to be this active?
FIRST.
Have you seen
all the work on the building? Go to www.st-christopher.org/Renovations
for a few photos.
SECOND: Several new Bible
studies. The Thursday 7 pm men's group continues as well as the 10:15 am Sunday
issue oriented study. The Sunday 6:30 PM group will be looking at the book of
Acts. A new Thursday 9:15 group has begun meeting. Find the one that works for
you !!
Building
Renovation update
Progress is being made on
the renovations made possible by a very generous donation.
This will allow the combining of some rooms in the Parish House into one large
room. Most importantly, the entire space,
including rest rooms will be easily accessible to anyone, including handicapped persons.
Also included are some of the
essentially maintenance items we have put off for so long:
there is no heat or AC in 2/3rds of the building, the roof is well past its useful
life, there is no insulation and the windows are little better than screens, the
electrical power is very substandard, etc. etc.
As mentioned last time, this
requires moving our youth activities into the downstairs of the church building. The tape on the floor and notes on the walls
explains those steps.
The Vestry has now reviewed the
detailed architectural drawings and made a long list of questions for the architect (none
major). Copies of the architectural plans and
Vestry notes are in the office for you to look at.
Currently the Parish House plans
are being reviewed by the City for building permits and contractors are preparing
estimates. Concurrently, we are seeking more
detailed estimates for the work downstairs.
As everyone who has done
anything like this knows --- renovation schedules are at least partially dreams! That said, the dream is for the downstairs to
be done in February and the Parish House in March and April.
Christmas
Eve !
9:00 am Advent 4 service (not Christmas Eve service)
7:00 pm Christmas Eve - contemporary
9:30 pm Christmas music
10:00 pm Christmas Eve - with organ & choir
(no Christmas day service)
Lots
of fun in December ! INVITE FRIENDS ! This December will be the busiest in St.
Christopher's history!! Some dates still need to be set but three Fridays in a
row will be very special. December 1st will set the tone for the entire
Christmas season. We are invited to the Christmas party for the people our angel
tree gifts go to. These are developmentally challenged children and adults, most of
whom are in foster care of some kind. FANTASTIC - moving event. Call the
office for details: 869-5311.
Hayride & Christmas lights! On December 8th we will meet at Tanglewood
Park near Winston-Salem to view their Christmas light show via a horse drawn wagon hayride
!! (Wagon does have a cover and sides if it rains.) Taffy London has been
making the arrangements and we are somewhere over 60 people signed up!! We may be
into a waiting list so call soon.
Christmas Carols at the bonfire: In what has become an annual event, we
will build a large bonfire in the front yard and sign Christmas carols (and a few other
seasonal songs) on Friday December 15th.
Children's Christmas pageant will be Sunday December 17th in early
afternoon. We very much want to include as many children as possible so call the
office and let us know if your child, or you, want to be involved. (email works
too: office@st-christopher.org but please have a clear memo line on
top. We are getting in excess of 25 junk emails a day and it is easy to miss the
important.
"Greening of
the church: one wonderful time
of Christmas fellowship is when we get together to "green" or decorate the
church. With this year's calendar we decided that December 17th after the children's
pageant will be the best time. Watch for details.
Choir Christmas
cantata Final plans are still
being developed but we certainly will have the wonderful cantata the choir offers us!
Adopt
a Teacher: One of the best
characteristics of St. Christopher's is our willingness to change directions when a new
need arises. When Eastern Guilford HS burned, the many teachers in our congregation
groaned with pain knowing how difficult it will be for the Eastern Guilford teachers to
get re-established. We don't often mention it, but teachers spend a great deal of
their own money to outfit the classroom. This includes everything from pencils to
computer printers to furniture. Plus there is all their personal items --
pocketbooks, book bags, cell phones, etc.
With that in mind we announced
an "Adopt a Teacher" challenge and the community has responded! We
hope to adopt more than one teacher. We are working to develop a needs list
and will be posting that asap. Financial gifts are always welcome and we invite you
to send in a check to St. Christopher's marker as "teacher fund".
Watch for updates.
Youth
person !! In what is one
of the most exciting things to happen at St. Christopher's in quite some time, the Vestry
voted to provide funding for a VERY part time person to work with our youth.
Ms. Sarah Chesnutt has been hired. Sarah is a find !! She has over
two years experience. This past month she helped lead the music for Vacation
Bible School and everyone said: "keep her!"
Building
renovations ???
A very generous donor has offered to pay to renovate the parish house. (This
was done after their generous tithe.) The concept is to eliminate all the
classrooms and create one large, open space. Two handicapped accessible rest
rooms will be provided and a handicapped accessible entrance (possibly a new one at the
parking lot end.) The youth and children activities will move downstairs which
will take some renovations also. An architect is working on the plans and then
we shall see. Exciting times!
SORRY
!!! If you have been
watching this space you know it has not be updated in a while. A computer melt down
began the problem and then it took longer than it should have to get it all back up
and running.
Easter
2006 Is the year truly
that far along? Easter is later than usual this year and it still feels as if it rushed into us! We
have lots going on during Easter Week (Holy Week). Please check it out at events during Easter Week.
A
broader view: In the
paragraph below I discuss God's Vision for St .Christopher's. A similar
process has been followed in our Diocese (Episcopal churches in central NC). The
result is very exciting ! To see the material go to the Diocesan
Webster: www.episdionc.org and look for the Mission
Action Plan link.
God's
Visions for St. Christopher's --- ?The
"?" is not meant to suggest God does not have a Vision for St.
Christopher's! God has a wonderful, exciting, fulfilling Vision for St.
Christopher's and for each of us individually. No, the "?" just
raises the important question: "Have we heard God correctly?"
PLEASE review the draft Vision prepared
by some of your friends. Please let
send us your thoughts. What do you hear God saying?
Funny
words defined ! The Episcopal Church is well known for our
beautiful worship services, wonderful music, great people, etc. etc. BUT we are also known for using lots of funny words
! People may know what a "nave" is, but how many
people can define"affusion" or "zuchetto" ? (I had to look that
one up!) Now you can find a definition for any of these crazy words.
Just go to: the
dictionary of Episcopal terms. and have some fun with your friends.
VISION --
God's plans for us A group
of your fellow St. Christopher's people have begun what I think will be a fascinating
process. They are seeking to discover the Vision or Plan God has for St.
Christopher's.
The key difference between a
business plan and God's Vision for a church is "whose idea is it?"
We don't seek to
develop a plan and then
look for ways to accomplish it. We seek to discover the plan or Vision or Dream God has for us
and then seek to reach that Vision or Dream.
The Vision Team will consider
first a five year Vision ... what does God have in mind for us in 2010? Then
consider 3 years -- where do we need to be in 2008 to reach the 2010 Vision?
Lastly they will consider more immediate actions.
Our Mission Team
structure will be the basic organizing structure for the Vision Team. They
will sub-divide the overall Vision into Worship, Christian Formation, Christian Caring,
and Inviting & Involving components. Based on those sub-visions, the Team
will look into Support Services: budget, staff, buildings & grounds, etc.
There will be lots of opportunity for other people to tell the
Vision Team their understanding of God's Vision for us. At the end, the Vestry
will be asked to adopt the Vision to provide some guidance for decision making.
Misc.
Thoughts: My first thought is:
Easter is over ! Actually that is not true since we celebrate an Easter season
for 50 days (7 weeks, a week of weeks) until the day of Pentecost.
That correction made, I am
still glad the day of Easter is over! That's really unfortunate since Easter
should be something we celebrate and appreciate continually. Instead we take a few
hours (well for clergy a few days) and cram in all the celebrations at once.
May we take a few minutes sometime soon and ask how Easter can affect all of our
lives. Then, the tough part, may we live into that dream! Ken
In the news again - Why is all the great work the Episcopal
Church is doing with Tsunami relief not in the news? Oh well.
The international body called
the Anglican Consultative Council (leaders of various Anglican churches around the world)
issued a statement after their meeting. I honestly am not sure exactly what their statement means concerning the US and
Canadian churches! The key is that what this means to us, will depend largely
on what we want it to mean to us.
We downloaded and copied the Windsor Report if you
wish to get a hard copy rather than reading it on line. Some material about it was presented at our annual
convention.
Bishop
Curry's visit: If you would like a video
tape of Bishop Curry's sermon at St. Christopher's, just let the office know.
869-5311 or office@st-christopher.org