EPISCOPAL CHURCH
EVENTS & NEWS
September 18, 2014
WORSHIP SCHEDULE
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Pentecost 15
8:00 & 10:00 a.m. – Holy Eucharist at St. John the Divine, Southwest Harbor
Hymns:
Come, labor on (541); God be in my head (694);
O food to pilgrims given (308); God, my King, thy might confessing (414)
Scripture:
Psalm 105:1-6, 37-45; Exodus 16:2-15; Philippians 1:21-30; Matthew 20:1-16
Participants
Celebrant: The Rev. Vesta Kowalski
Usher: Sandy Watts
First Lesson/Psalm: Ann Benson
Second Lesson: Spencer Ervin
Prayers: Floy Ervin
Chalice: Rita Redfield
Acolyte: (10:00) Rita Redfield
Altar Guild: Edie Stanwood
Flowers: Susan Buell
Vestry Member in charge: Bunny Watts
Thursday Holy Eucharist at 12:30 pm
September 25 – Martyrs of Uganda
The Rev. Tim Fleck
v v v v v v v v v v v
Office Hours:
8:30-2:30, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays
Michele Daley, Parish Administrator
Fr. Timothy Fleck will be at St. John’s (244-3229) on Tuesdays and Thursdays
and at St. Saviour’s (288-4215) on Mondays and Wednesdays
He can be reached at 812-8362 (cell) or tim@mdi-episcopal.org
Sr. Warden, Bunny Watts (244-3699); Jr. Warden, Rita Redfield (244-4025)
The Rev. Vesta Kowalski and The Rev. Jennifer Reece, Affiliate Clergy
St. John:
Calendar:
Sunday, September 21, 9:00 a.m. – Forum, Church/State and the Supreme Court, Spencer Ervin and Ted Fletcher
Monday, September 22, 5:00 p.m. – St. John Singers
Wednesdays, 1:30 p.m. – Wednesday Explorers
Fridays, 9:00-1:00 – Farmer’s Market
Fridays, 1:00-3:00 – Mahjong (Come learn and play)
WEDNESDAY EXPLORERS
Wednesday Explorers is a weekly open discussion forum, facilitated by Vesta Kowalski, which meets in the St. John’s Common Room from 1:30 to 3:00 on Wednesday afternoons (note the new time beginning in September). There’s a different topic each week; the topics are chosen by the group. Anyone is free to come once, occasionally, or regularly, and friends from outside the church community are welcome, too. Schedule of topics for September:
September 24 – Just what are we doing on Sunday mornings? Liturgy is, in a sense, theater (as well as “the work of the people”). We’ll talk about our Episcopal liturgy step by step, discussing what it’s trying to accomplish – and what works and does not work for us as individuals.
October 1 – What happens at communion? We often say children shouldn’t receive communion until they can understand what is happening – and then admit that we don’t really understand it ourselves. We’ll talk about how we perceive and experience God’s presence in the act of receiving communion.
2015 BUDGET REQUESTS
From the Finance & Investment Committee
As we did last year, the Finance & Investment Committee (FIC) will be delighted to accept requests for increases in budgets for 2015 or (preferably, from your Treasurer’s point of view) decreases to your 2015 budget.
By way of background, our budget for 2014 on the income side is $162,586 with expenses estimated at $164,701, leaving a budget deficit of $2,115 for our current calendar and fiscal year. To date, we are running close to this projection so we may run a slight deficit in 2014 (with the emphasis on “slight”), unless unforeseen circumstances change our numbers dramatically in the next six months.
The Vestry will conduct personnel reviews this fall and shape requests for personnel compensation changes. We will collect all other requests for increases or decreases to the 2015 budget by October 1 (please email requests to me at the following email: elizabeth.erickson@maine.edu).
If you have questions or thoughts about the 2014 or 2015 budget, I invite you to join our FIC meeting to be held on October 14 at 5:00 pm. If you plan to attend and could let me know, I’d be most grateful.
As ever, minutes of FIC meetings are available to all (through Michele Daley); anyone can attend FIC meetings (generally the second Tuesday of each month at 5:00 pm); and we report regularly to the Vestry and to the entire parish at the parish’s Annual Meeting.
We encourage those of you responsible for any of our various parish ministries to communicate with me by email. If you believe your present budget is workable for another year, I would find it helpful to know that, too.
For all our Finance & Investment Committee members, many thanks to each of you!
Liz Erickson, Treasurer
St. Saviour:
Benefit Baked Bean Supper and Silent Auction: You're invited to "Share the Love" at a benefit Baked Bean Supper and Silent Auction in the Parish Hall on Friday, September 19, 5-7 pm. All proceeds from the dinner and auction will be used to help defray medical expenses for community member Mary Parker who is undergoing experimental cancer treatment at NIH in Bethesda, MD. Mary and her husband David are always supportive of benefits in our community (especially bean suppers!) -- now friends of Mary want to return the favor. Please join us for great food, a fabulous auction, and a really good time. For more information, please contact Gail Leiser at gail.leiser@gmail.com or 288.9083.
Contemplative Prayer Group: Christian contemplation means finding God in all things and all things in God. Julia Morris-Myers will be leading a small group exploring several different contemplative prayer forms on Fridays October 3 - November 21 from 12-1:30 PM in the Rectory Common Library. Because of the intimate nature of this topic, the class will be limited to eight participants who are committed to regular attendance. If you are interested, please contact Julia directly at 667-9529 or jmorrismyers@myfairpoint.net.
Blessing of beasts for St. Francis’ feast
St. Saviour offers public blessing of animals in Bar Harbor
October 4 is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, known by many as the patron saint of animals and the environment. In celebration, St. Saviour Episcopal Church will be offering a free public ceremony for the blessing of pets and companion animals on Saturday, October 4, 2:00 PM in Grant Park, at the end of Albert Meadow near the Shore Path in Bar Harbor.
All sorts of animals are welcome, so long as they are in pet carriers or on a leash and under control. If your animal companion does not do well in crowds or with other animals, you may bring a photo, a favorite toy, or some sort of representation of your animal to be blessed instead. There will also be an opportunity to remember and honor departed pets: you are invited to bring a photo or other memento of them.
The Rev. Tim Fleck, Priest-in-Charge of St. Saviour, says, “Animals are an important part of our lives – our pets as well as the wild animals among whom we live here on MDI. Many of us have learned how to love and to be loved in our relationships with animals, and have experienced closeness with God through appreciation of creation. It’s only natural that we should want to give thanks for the blessings of nature.”
The attached image is © David W. Raber, used by the permission of the artist.
St. Mary and St. Jude:
Episcopal Church Women “Dutch Treat” Dinner, Sunday, September 21st 6:00 p.m. at the Watermark.
Community Events
Touch-A-Truck: Saturday, September 20th at the former Lowe's in Ellsworth from 10am - 2pm. $5/person $20/family; infants FREE! All proceeds benefit Harbor House Children's Center and the Westside Food Pantry. Fun for the whole family! Come see the inside and outside of more than 60 vehicles! Earthmovers, excavators, diggers, rescue vehicles, fire trucks, 18-wheeler, limousine, ambulance, snow plow, cherry picker, dump truck, bulldozer and many more humongous vehicles! LIVE Broadcast by 97.7 WNSX
Kid’s Care Outreach Meal Program at St. Andrew Lutheran Church! This program distributes pre-packaged, healthy meals that can be easily cooked or microwaved. Each package feeds 6 people. On Saturday, October 4th, as many volunteers as they can get from the Ellsworth and MDI community will gather at St. Andrew’s, Ellsworth, to help make these packages between 9 am--12 noon. The goal is to make 20,000 packages of meals, which will be distributed to local shelters, food pantries and school kids back pack programs.
“Odd Books of the Bible”, taught by Vesta Kowalski, an Episcopal priest and former lecturer at the Bangor Theological Seminary, is a course being offered this fall by Acadia Senior College. The course will be held at St. John Church, Southwest Harbor, from 9:30 to 11:30 on five successive Tuesdays, starting on September 30.
St Francis Episcopal Church in Blue Hill will offer a new study: "The life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer". This fascinating program will begin on October 8th and run for four weeks from 10:30-11:45 am at St. Francis by the Sea. The series is based on the New York Times best-selling biography, “Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy” by Eric Metaxas.
Purchase of the book is not required since this is a DVD and discussion based course created by the book's author. Each week, Metaxas will present the forces that formed Bonheoffer's theology that ultimately led him to efforts to smuggle Jews into neutral Switzerland as well as involvement in plots to kill Hitler. There is no charge to participate and all are welcome. Each week an optional, "long-table" Eucharist will follow the program. Please plan to join us. For more information contact St. Francis Church at
(207) 374-5200
Musical Evening: Saturday (note the different day of the week), September 20th, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Our guest musicians will be Marsha Lyons and Linda Foster, who will perform folk songs from the 1960s era; a Hootenanny, you could say. FMI and location: Susan Buell scovino@prexar.com
U U U U U U U
Keep in your prayers this week: Sara Etta Dudley, Johanna-Karen Johannson, Ephron Catlin, Sarah Flynn, Jean Martinez, Pamela Theodore, Lance Funderburk, Emily Frazier, Bruce Blake, Trisha Roy, Shelley Hoover Payne, Molly Lyman, Angelina Sharpe, James Stanton, Dorothy Smith, Bob Theriault, Norman Shaw, Ron Martin, Joseph and Kimberly Pratt family, Ruth and Bob Zachary, Gary Dunlap, Kay and Bill Barney, Lydia Thayer, George Swanson, Jennie Cline and Sharon Dayana Salazar, our sponsored child in Costa Rica.
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