The Easter Season continues, and now we are moving into many events and activities, both here at Church and in the wider community. Please do take a look at the various announcements in this e-mail and see if there are opportunities for service, worship or fellowship that speak to you! Then please join in, as you can.
I hope that you all received the news earlier this week about David Temple’s death. His funeral will be at All Saints’ on Saturday, May 5 at 10am. Family from England will be present, as well as David and Alison’s children who are scattered across the country. A reception will follow in the Parish House. We are asking for contributions of finger desserts or fruit and cheese. If you can bring something, or help with set-up, clean-up or coffee making, please respond to this e-mail. Thank you.
And now there is some further sad news: Nancy Mink’s father, Russell Keimig, died at home this morning after a long bout with cancer. Russ has been on our prayer list, and Nancy – of course – is on our Vestry. The funeral will be in West Monmouth at the Doyle Veterans Cemetery, either Sunday or Monday. Please keep Nancy, her mother and siblings, her husband Ed and their children Dan and Nick in your prayers. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
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Argyle’s Fish ‘n Chips – Thursday, May 3, from 5:30–7:30 pm. Tickets on sale this Sunday at 10 am, see Betsy Wallace. Or download the form from our website and send it in. Eat in or take out! $15 for adults, $8 for kids. Tell your friends and bring your neighbors for a good time with the greater Long Hill Township community. We’ll need help with selling tickets, setting up, baking desserts, and serving. Please sign up to help out as you can. Thank you! Suzanne Traub & Betsy Wallace
Confirmation - The youth and adults to be confirmed by Bishop Beckwith on May 6 in Newark will be formally sent forth with our prayers and blessing at the 10 am service on April 29. They will then be honored in the 10 am service and at coffee hour on May 13, and given their Prayer Books. Please be on hand for these events which are so important in the life of our parish young people and adults. And please keep them in your prayers!
GreenFaith’s Residential Solar Energy Event will be in the held Parish Hall on Sunday, April 29 from 12:30-3:30 pm. It takes 15 minutes. For each home that qualifies and installs panels, All Saints’ will receive $200! The panels and installation are free to the homeowner.You reduces you energy costs, help the environment, and All Saints’ raises some funds! It is a win-win for all! You can sign-up on the sheet in the Narthex to reserve a time on April 29 to have your home assessed via Google Earth; we also take walk-ins. Please pass this along to your friends and neighbors. Questions? Speak with Susie Harris in the Parish Office (908) 647-0067, Roger Mederos, or Mother Vicki.
Boy Scout Flower Sale – Troop 56’s Annual Flower Sale will take place on May 5 & 6 at 1000 Valley Road in Gillette (across from Panera, Starbuck’s and Dunkin’ Donuts). Flats of bedding plants, hanging baskets, potting soil and bird seed are all available. Beautify your yard and garden and support Troop 56!
Yarn! Yarn! We have been so productive knitting hats and scarves for the Seamen’s Church Institute; we’ve used all our supplies! We gratefully would accept any yarn you may have on hand, or new yarn. Our knitting is mostly for men so we’d love to have darker, more masculine colors. If you can help or would like to know more about this outreach project, please speak with Janet Mansfield.
Food for Friends Pantry in Dover –Please remember to bring non-perishable food to church each week. Your contributions make a difference in the lives of many!
Easter Season continues throughout the month of May. Three days of special note in the season are:
Rogation Sunday (May 13) when we ask for God’s blessing on the gardens and fields;
Ascension Day (Thursday, May 17) marking the Risen Christ’s return to heaven;
Pentecost (Sunday, May 27) – the Fiftieth Day of Easter, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the birthday of the Church.
Rogation and Pentecost will be celebrated on their Sundays at both services.
Ascension Day will be celebrated on Thursday, May 17th at 7:30 pm with Evensong. This lovely service from our Anglican heritage dates back to the 16th century as is a peaceful and beautiful end to the day. It is filled with hymns, canticles, anthems and Scripture readings. A special highlight will be our guest organist, Shea Velloso. Please plan to come and celebrate one of the major feast days of the Church year!
Forward Day by Day (FDD) is a daily devotional published by Forward Movement, an Episcopal organization. It features a verse of Scripture and a short meditation, along with the citations for the psalm and all three Bible readings for each day. There is also a daily prayer request, based on the world wide Anglican Cycle of Prayer – all in a handy, pocket-sized booklet that comes out four times a year. FDD comes in a large-print edition, as well, and now is available on the web, by e-mail and as a mobile app! http://forwardmovement.org/Today-s-Meditation/. Both the small and large-print versions are available on the table in the Narthex. Please pick one up and use it for your own personal prayers. The new editor, Scott Gunn, has this to say about FDD: “Since its founding in 1935, Forward Movement has worked to form true disciples. We believe that the Episcopal Church will be vibrant when its congregations are healthy – and that congregations will be healthy when our pews are filled with disciples rather than habitual Christians. Please pray for the whole church – The Episcopal Church, your diocese, your congregation, and your own life as a disciple. The world has great need, and our vitality is important so that we can do the work we’ve been given to do.” [Note – the founding editor in 1935 was the Rev. Gilbert Symonds, father of our own Lois McFarland, and grandfather of Tammy Rosenthal.]
Women’s Book Group – at our May meeting we’ll be discussing Long Ride Home: A Novel by Will Allison. We’ll gather at 7:30 pm in the Rath House on May 16. Hope you can join us for good conversation and friendship.
Diocesan Outreach Effort - Make a difference in honor of Father's Day at a Habitat build. Wouldn’t it be cool to spend the day before Father's Day working in honor of your father by making the world a better place for another family? Saturday, June 16, 2012 will be the first annual diocesan multi-county build day of outreach, providing helping hands to Habitat projects in several of the counties in our diocese. So far there are two projects in Essex County, two in Morris County and one each in Bergen and Sussex Counties. Each project has need of about ten people. Be part of this exhilarating day helping to make the dream of home ownership come true for a family in your area -- sign up to join using the online registration form: http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/form/habitat-build-day-2012 : For more information about this event, please contact Joe Stewart at JStewartIV@aol.com
Stewardship is about mission - God’s mission in the world, and our mission as followers of Jesus Christ.
~ The Episcopal Network for Stewardship
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Worship is primary theology. It is also home, which, as the saying goes, is the place where they have to take you in. There is no one who is not welcome in God’s house, and no amount of human pettiness or pompous religiosity can altar that fact….The worshipping body is not a gathering of like-minded people, or those with a high degree of faith or knowledge concerning spiritual matters; I like to think that it resembles Christ’s ragged band of disciples in this manner, a diverse group with remarkable variance in personalities and attitudes Jesus…In worship, disparate people seek a unity far greater than the sum of themselves but don’t have much control over how, or if, this happens. Recklessly, we let loose with music, and the words of hymns, the psalms, canticles and prayers. We cast the Word of God out into the world, into each human heart, where, to paraphrase the prophet Isaiah, it needs to go to fulfill God’s purpose.
~ Kathleen Norris, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith.
Blessings,
Vicki McGrath+