Dear Friends in Christ,
Here are the week’s announcements.

• First Sunday in Lent Worship  
• Narnia Book Group 
• Lenten Book Group
• Year-in-Review Meeting – date correction
• Lent Reflection: Day 3

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Sunday Worship – First Sunday in Lent, February 21st  –10 am 
Service of the Word, followed by Coffee Hour.  
This service is on Zoom and the service bulletin is on our home page. You are welcome to join us. Please e-mail allstsmill@hotmail.com for the log-in credentials.
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Date Correction! Parish Meeting: Year in Review - Feb 28, 10:45 am (during coffee hour time). Join us to hear presentations form our Vestry and other ministry leaders. This is not an official Annual Meeting. NJ state statutes govern Episcopal churches in legal matters. Our diocesan Chancellor’s reading of the statute is that we can’t have an official Annual Meeting unless we are able to meet in person. But we can gather on Zoom and hear updates about our ministries and finances from 2020. Please join us for worship and this Year in Review meeting on Feb. 28

Narnia Book Group: The Silver Chair, Chapters 1 & 2 - this group will meet on Zoom Sunday afternoons at 4:00 pm starting on 2/21 and continuing for eight sessions (skipping Easter Day). The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis is the fourth book in The Chronicles of Narnia series. The group is open to anyone; you don’t have to have read the previous Narnia books, or been part of the group before. To sign up, please email Mother Vicki at allsaints_rector@hotmail.com. 

Bible Study is on Wednesdays at 10:15 am. This week we’ll start our Lenten series. We’ll look at the Gospel reading for the Sunday to come (either from Mark or John) and also at the Collect (theme prayer) for the day and look at the way the Gospel and the Collect connect with each other.  That means that we’ll be reading material for the First Sunday in Lent. To participate in this Zoom class, or if you have questions, please e-mail Mother Vicki.

Book Study - Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubled Times by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. Wednesdays in Lent at 7:00 pm, starting Feb 24. This study is being shared by St. Peter’s, Livingston,St. Gregory’s, Parsippany, and All Saints’. This week we’ll be discussing the Introduction, Chapters 1 & 2. Join this Zoom group by sending an e-mail to allsints_rector@hotmail.com.
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Parish Schedule this Week 
Sunday Worship & Coffee Hour – 10:00 am; Zoom, posted later to YouTube and our website 
Narnia Book Group - Sun, 4:00 pm; Zoom
Compline - daily, 9:30 pm; Facebook Live 
Bible Study - Wed, 10:15 pm; Zoom 
Lenten Book Group - Wed, 7:00 pm; Zoom
Office Angels - Thu, 11:00 am; Zoom 
Junior Choir – Thu, 5:30 pm; Zoom 
Adult Choir - Thu, 7:30 pm; Zoom 
Parish Office - Mon & Thu, 10:00 am-5:00 pm (usual hours).  
Please call ahead if you need to do in-person parish business.
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Lent: Day 3
Learn – in the Way of Love the practice of “learn” is fundamentally about reading, studying, learning from, and absorbing the Scriptures. The center of that learning is Jesus’ story and his teachings.

The Bible was written long ago and over centuries, recording the experience that people in ancient Israel and the first-century followers of Jesus had with God. In many ways they had a different experience of life and asked different questions of the world than we do. That can make entering into the Bible’s story challenging.

But the Church’s witness for the last 2000 years is that the Holy Spirit can and does speak to us through the pages of Scripture, especially when we come to them in a curious, open-hearted, prayerful way.

We have resources to help us do this. The Forward Day by Day devotional lists the Bible readings for the day and then gives a brief reflection about some aspect of those readings. A contemporary translation like The Message can be helpful because it is more conversational in style than the translation we usually hear on Sundays. A book with the major stories from the Bible like The Path (https://www.forwardmovement.org/Products/2418/the-path.aspx) can help us get the broad outline of how the smaller stories go together.

And in this liturgical year when Mark is our primary gospel we can take in Jesus’ like and teachings by reading Mark from start to finish. It’s 16 chapters long, and you could read it in about an hour. Of course, you might want to break it up and take time to savor each chapter but reading it straight through at one sitting has its benefits.
The important thing is that if we don’t make the time and effort to read and learn from Scripture, we cut ourselves off from one of the primary ways God has chosen to communicate with us. It’s hard to follow Jesus if we don’t know his story and his teachings and make them our own.

Finally, here is a 3-minute video about the practice of Learn: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/way-of-love/learn/

May you be blessed in your journey with learning from the Scriptures this Lent.
Blessings, Vicki+

Dear Friends in Christ,  
Here are the announcements and the information for Sunday’s worship.  
For our offertory this week the combined choirs (adults and children) have recorded a virtual choir anthem that you will all want to hear. It’s an “Alleluia” – on this last Sunday before alleluias are omitted from our worship during Lent.  

Our choirs meet for rehearsal and fellowship every week on Zoom. And then each singer individually records his or her part on an audio file which Alison edits together, along with the accompaniment and the visual portion of the video. All of this is a very different set of skills than singing together in a live ensemble. We are so blessed that our choirs and Director of Music have learned how to do this and have offered their hearts and voices to enrich our worship during this pandemic time. Thank you, all! 

• Last Sunday after Epiphany Worship   
• Narnia Book Group  
• Parish Office News  
• Ash Wednesday  
• Christian Practices  
• Lenten Book Group 
• Year-in-Review Meeting 

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Sunday Worship – Last Sunday after the Epiphany Feb. 7th –10 am  
Service of the Word, followed by Coffee Hour.   
The bulletin is on the home page and you may send an e-mail to allstsmill@hotmail.com to get the Zoom credentials.
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Announcements  
Ash Wednesday Worship ​will be held on Zoom this Wednesday, February 17 at 7:30 pm. The link and service leaflet will be sent Monday. The most important aspect of Ash Wednesday is the start of our spiritual preparation for Easter. What about ashes? Small containers of blessed ashes ​may​ be picked up in the church Bell Tower. You may impose ashes on yourself or on other members of your household during the service. But please note​ - ​ashes are optional in the liturgy, and always have been. If you can’t attend the service on-line you can pray the service on your own with the service leaflet or in the Prayer Book. “The Invitation to a Holy Lent” on page 264 is good for reading and meditating on at the start of this season of spiritual preparation. 

Parish Office News​ – All Saints’ has signed-up with a church management software program called Breeze. This allows us to have a database of our parishioners and visitors, which we did not have before. It is also a donor management program which tracks pledges and donations and creates easily-produced giving statements​.​ Breeze also has some ​communications and scheduling features ​that we are starting to use for different ministry and volunteer reminders. If you get an e-mail from All Saints’ and it has the extension ​@breezechms.com, please don’t ignore it! ​In fact, please set your e-mail program to recognize messages from Breeze. You’ll be hearing more about this new tool for our parish ministry as we get more adept at it. 

Narnia Book Group: The Silver Chair - ​this group will meet on Zoom Sunday afternoons at 4:00 pm starting on 2/21 and continuing for eight sessions (skipping Easter Day). ​The Silver Chair​ by C.S. Lewis is the fourth book in The Chronicles of Narnia series. The group is open to anyone; you don’t have to have read the previous Narnia books, or been part of the group before. To sign up, please email Mother Vicki at ​allsaints_rector@hotmail.com​. 

Bible Study is on Wednesdays at 10:15 am. ​This week we’ll start our ​Lenten series. We’ll look at the Gospel reading for the Sunday to come (either from Mark or John) and at the Collect (theme prayer) for the day and the way they connect with each other. To participate in this Zoom class​ or if you have questions, please e-mail Mother Vicki. 

Lenten Book Study ​​– ​​“Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubled Times” ​​by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.​ The book is available on Amazon in both print and Kindle format. Wednesdays at 7:00 pm, starting Feb 24. This study is being shared by ​St. Peter’s, Livingston, St. Paul’s, Chatham, St. Gregory’s, Parsippany, and All Saints’. The clergy of these different churches will take turns facilitating the discussion each week. At the first session we’ll discuss the Introduction and Chapters 1 & 2. Please e-mail  allstsmill@hotmail.com for the Zoom link.

Parish Meeting: Year in Review - Feb 21, 10:45 am (during coffee hour time.) Join us to hear presentations from our Vestry and other ministry leaders. This is not an official Annual Meeting. NJ state statutes govern Episcopal churches in legal matters. Our diocesan Chancellor’s reading of the statute is that we can’t have an official Annual Meeting unless we are able to meet in person. But we can gather on Zoom and hear updates about our ministries and finances from 2020. Please join us for worship and this Year in Review meeting on Feb. 21. 
+ + + + + + +  The Parish Office is generally staffed Mondays and Thursdays but with limited contact for the public. Please call ahead if you need to do in-person parish business.  

Parish Schedule this Week 
Sunday Worship & Coffee Hour ​– 10:00 am; Zoom, posted later to YouTube and our website 
Compline​ - daily, 9:30 pm; Facebook Live 
Vestry ​- Tue, 7:15 pm; Zoom 
Bible Study​ - Wed, 10:15 pm; Zoom 
Ash Wednesday Service – Wed, 7:30 pm; Zoom 
Office Angels​ - Thu, 11:00 am; Zoom 
Junior Choir​ – Thu, 5:30 pm; Zoom 
Adult Choir​ - Thu, 7:30 pm; Zoom 
Parish Office​ - Mon & Thu, 10:00 am-5:00 pm (usual hours). 
Please call ahead if you need to do in-person parish business.
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Christian Practices: Love
Sunday is St. Valentine’s Day, a day we focus on our love for others – especially those we love romantically, or those in our family. But when we think about God’s love, Christian love, it takes us in a different direction.

In the New Testament there is a particular word for God’s love that is different from other words for love in Greek. It is agapē – unconditional, sacrificial love that involves an attitude of heart and will, even more than it does emotion. It’s God’s love that is self-giving, because that is God’s nature. The deepest and truest expression of God’s love was Jesus’ sacrifice of himself for us on the Cross.

In the Gospel of John Jesus told the disciples that non-believers will know that they are his disciples by the love they have for one another (John 13:35). Some of you may know the 1960s hymn “They’ll Know We are Christians by Our Love.” (https://youtu.be/3EBShVUTH0U)It’s a very simple song, but it states the message clearly: everything we do as Christians is to be infused with God’s love for us, our love for God and one another, and God’s love for the world through us. That is the way the world will recognize that we are Christ-followers.

Loving in God’s way is not about being nice, but it is about kindness and compassion. It is about caring for the good of the other, the neighbor, the stranger, as much as it is about caring for the good of people we like or are close to. God’s love is strong and can sometimes lead us into places of confrontation and controversy – not for their own sake, but for truth and integrity and human dignity.

Bishop Curry’s book “Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubled Times” explores what it means to be practitioners of God’s love in the midst of turmoil. Whether you read the book and join in the discussion of it (see above) or take it in on your own, I hope you will think and pray about how you can learn to love more deeply, truly, and in a Christ-like way. Lent is a good time to do this.

Blessings, Vicki+ 

Dear Friends in Christ, 
Here are the announcements and the links for Sunday’s worship.  
You will notice that there are quite a number of new names that have been added to our Sunday prayers in this week’s service bulletin. There has been a lot of illness and death in our extended parish family – some COVID-related, but most not. Please be gentle with yourselves and with one another and keep each other in prayer. 

• Fifth Sunday after Epiphany Worship  
• Narnia Book Group 
• Parish Office News 
• Stewardship 

• Ash Wednesday 
• Christian Practices 
• Lenten Opportunities 
• In-Person Worship Timing 

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Sunday Worship – Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany Feb. 7th –10 am 
Service of the Word, followed by Coffee Hour.  
Please e-mail allstsmill@hotmail.com for the Zoom log-in. The service bulletin is on our home page.
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Announcements 
Parish Office News – All Saints’ has signed-up with a church management software program called Breeze. This allows us to have a database of our parishioners and visitors, which we did not have before. All of our previous records were on Word documents and required multiple updating for new e-mails addresses, phone numbers, etc. The new system is also a donor management program which tracks pledges and donations and creates easily produced giving statements. It doesn’t replace our QuickBooks accounting system but works in tandem with it. Breeze also has some communications and scheduling features that we are learning to use. You’ll be hearing more about this new tool for our parish ministry as we get more adept at it. 

Ash Wednesday Worship will be held on Zoom on February 17 at 7:30 pm. The link will be sent next week. How will we do Ash Wednesday this year? 

• The most important aspect of the day is the start of our spiritual preparation for Easter. Please read and meditate on the Invitation to a holy Lent at the bottom of page 264 in the Prayer Book. Please note - ashes are optional (and always have been). 
• Small containers of blessed ashes may be picked up in the church Bell Tower starting Feb. 12. You may impose ashes on yourself or on other members of your household during the service.  
• You may also read the service on your own, starting on page 264 of the Prayer Book, or using the service leaflet that will be e-mailed to you.  
• If you can’t get to church to pick up ashes, you can make your own from palms (if you have them) or use wood ash from your fireplace or fire pit.  

 Candlemas – the video from this prayer service for the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Temple is posted to the home page of our website. The reflection starts at minute 7:01. It’s about waiting with hope – even in the midst of our pandemic journey. Take a listen!   

Bible Study is on Wednesdays at 10:15 am. Our current study is Ephesians in the New Testament. This week we will read and discuss Ch. 6 to finish the book.  
The following week we’ll start our Lenten series. We’ll look at the Gospel reading for the Sunday to come (either from Mark or John) and also at the Collect (theme prayer) for the day and look at the way the Gospel and the Collect connect with each other. To participate in this Zoom class, or if you have questions, please e-mail Mother Vicki at allsaints_rector@hotmail.com .   

Narnia Book Group: The Silver Chair - this group will meet on Zoom Sunday afternoons at 4:00 pm starting on 2/21 and continuing for eight sessions (skipping Easter Day). The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis is the fourth book in The Chronicles of Narnia series. The group is open to anyone; you don’t have to have read the previous Narnia books, or been part of the group before. To sign up, please email Mother Vicki at allsaints_rector@hotmail.com. 

Stewardship – Please remember that you can fulfill your pledge by setting up auto-pay with your bank or by electronic fund transfer (EFT) through the secure giving portal on our website. If you are interested in making a gift of appreciated stock, please call David Thursfield. Until we can have the safe and full use of our buildings for both worship and building use rental our parish income will be challenging, so your timely, heartfelt and generous support will be essential. Thank you!
 
Opportunities Around our Diocese - Lenten and Otherwise 
There are several opportunities for prayer, study and conversation between now and Easter. Here are several that may interest you: 
Book Study - Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubled Times by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry. Wednesday evenings during Lent on Zoom with St. Peter’s, Livingston, St. Paul’s, Chatham, St. Gregory’s, Parsippany, and All Saints’ starting Feb. 24 at 7:00 pm. Here is the description of the book from the Amazon page. Please e-mail Mother Vicki at allsaints_rector@hotmail.com if you would like to participate.  

“As the descendant of slaves and the son of a civil rights activist, Bishop Michael Curry's life illustrates massive changes in our times. Much of the world met Bishop Curry when he delivered his sermon on the redemptive power of love at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at Windsor Castle. Here, he expands on his message of hope in an inspirational road map for living the way of love, illuminated with moving lessons from his own life. Through the prism of his faith, ancestry, and personal journey, Love Is the Way shows us how America came this far and, more important, how to go a whole lot further. 

The way of love is essential for addressing the seemingly insurmountable challenges facing the world today: poverty, racism, selfishness, deep ideological divisions, competing claims to speak for God. This book will lead readers to discover the gifts they need in order to live the way of love: deep reservoirs of hope and resilience, simple wisdom, the discipline of nonviolence, and unshakable regard for human dignity.” 

Daily Morning Prayer with the Rev. Susan Sica at St. Gregory’s; Monday-Saturday; 8:30-9:00 AM on Zoom. E-mail allstsmill@hotmail.com for the log-in.

Convent Corner: Centering Prayer, Thursdays 7:15-8:15 pm on Zoom - the Community of St. John Baptist Centering Prayer Group has been meeting for many years and is one of its most popular ministries. Guests can gather on Zoom. Please e-mail Sister Monica Clare at srmc@csjb.org if you are interested in joining. A description of this silent contemplative practice can be found here.

Faith Groups - learn more about this new opportunity in our diocese by reading the material on our diocesan website here: Faith Groups. It’s not just for Lent. If you are interested in starting or being part of a Faith Group here at All Saints, please let Mother Vicki know. 
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When Will Churches in the Diocese of Newark Open for In-Person Worship? 
At present Bishop Hughes has still not lifted the restrictions on in-person worship. Our diocesan guidelines are tied to the metrics of the CovidActNow website https://covidactnow.org/us/new_jersey-nj/?s=1578518 .  As long as Morris County is red or dark red (which all of NJ currently is) we will remain fully on-line.  

This may seem confusing because different denominations have made differing decisions about what is safest for their parishioners. For instance, both St. Vincent’s and the Shrine of St. Joseph are holding in-person worship under limited conditions. First Presbyterian in Stirling and Meyersville Presbyterian are fully on-line.  

Adding to the variety of worship decisions is the fact that All Saints’ is part of the Diocese of Newark, which includes Morris County. Other nearby Episcopal churches in Basking Ridge, Bernardsville, and New Providence are in the Diocese of New Jersey, which has a different set of guidelines and has left more decision-making up to the parishes. Currently St. Mark’s in Basking Ridge is doing a hybrid of in-person and on-line. St. Bernard’s in Bernardsville is only on-line. 

Once we are able to proceed cautiously with worshipping in-person we will still need to be quite limited in our gatherings because of the need for distancing. We have measured out the minimum of at least 6 feet distance between our pews which are small and close together, with narrow aisles. The measurements give us 10 of our 36 pews to use at any given service. If 10 families of four or five people each register for a service, we can have 45 people. If 10 individuals from different households register for a service, we will have a congregation of only 10 people for that service.  

We will also continue to need to wear masks and will not be able to sing together in person until public health officials tell us it is safe and prudent to do so. We know that once we can be fully back in-person we will continue to live-stream our services for those who are at a distance or can’t attend for some other reason.  

The process of moving from fully on-line to fully in-person will take time, work, and patience once the public health conditions and the Bishop allow.  

The full diocesan guidelines can be found here; in particular, look at the quick color-coded overview page: https://dioceseofnewark.org/sites/default/files/resources/Journey%20Forward%20Guidelines%202.0%202020.12.14.pdf 
+ + + + + + + The Parish Office is generally staffed Mondays and Thursdays but with limited contact for the public. Please call ahead if you need to do in-person parish business. 

Parish Schedule this Week 
Sunday Worship & Coffee Hour – 10:00 am; Zoom, posted later to YouTube and our website 
Compline - daily, 9:30 pm; Facebook Live 
Finance Committee - Tue, 7:15 pm; Zoom 
Bible Study - Wed, 10:15 pm; Zoom 
Office Angels - Thu, 11:00 am; Zoom 
Junior Choir – Thu, 5:30 pm; Zoom 
Adult Choir - Thu, 7:30 pm; Zoom 
Parish Office - Mon & Thu, 10:00 am-5:00 pm (usual hours).  
Please call ahead if you need to do in-person parish business. 
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Christian Practices: Intercession 
Intercession is the practice of praying for someone else – for their well-being, guidance, encouragement in faith, healing, whatever the concern may be.  We most often think about this in connection with people we know and love, but as Christians we are also called to pray for the good of the world, or at least our neighborhood or community, however the Holy Spirit leads us. 

How do we intercede and pray for others? God certainly knows the needs of others and knows what is on our hearts and minds even before we can form the words of our prayer. We do well to trust God even when we don’t know “the right thing” to pray, or what the best outcome might be for a person or situation. 

Equally, it is important for us to spend time with our intercessions, to visualize the person or concern for which we are praying, to sit with them (metaphorically) in the light of God’s love. Perhaps the Spirit will give us some wisdom or insight that will help us to pray more directly or effectively. Perhaps that insight will lead us to speak with the person we are praying for in a way that is helpful to them. 

If we are praying for something beyond an individual or family, try to picture the situation from the perspective of the Kingdom of God – where God’s wholeness, goodness, purpose, and right relationships are a reality. Another term for this is what Martin Luther King, jr called “The Beloved Community.” This type of prayer is not about giving God a list of tasks, it is about envision and inviting God’s best for God’s world. 

For whom do you feel called or moved to pray this week? 

Blessings, Vicki+