Dear Friends in Christ,
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Thank you to everyone who helped with Wednesday’s visiting hours and Thursdays’ funeral and reception for Tony Prasa. Both events were very large, and we could not have done it without our Adult Choir, Ushers, Altar Guild, Office Volunteers, Parking Lot Directors, the Thursday A.A. group that moved their meeting so the reception could be set up, and others who helped in many ways. Most importantly, the parish as a whole – through your prayers and presence – ministered to Carol Prasa and her family and friends with God’s love and grace. “Well done, good and faithful servants!”
Mother’s Day – at both our services on Sunday there will be carnations for each of us to take to either give to our mothers, or remember or honor them in ways that seem fitting to us. We hope you’ll join us for worship.
Coffee Hour on Mother’s Day is being hosted by the men of the parish. If you have a question about what to bring, or how you can help, call John McGrath (973)701-1663. Thanks!
+ + + + + + + +
Here are this week’s announcements. Please see especially:
WORSHIP
Easter Season is filled with days of special focus as we continue to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and the renewal of creation. Looking ahead we have:
Rogation Sunday, 5/21 – 10:00 am, when we bless the Church grounds and gardens, and give thanks to God for the goodness of Creation and God’s generosity and abundance.
Ascension Day, 5/25 – Thursday, 7:30 pm. This is the day we celebrate Christ’s return to the Father in heaven on the fortieth day after the resurrection. It is also a time to recognize our connections to Christians in other parts of the world. Last year we celebrated with a Celtic-themed service. This year we’ll use music, songs, and prayers in an intimate setting from a variety of African countries where the Anglican tradition has taken root. Come and celebrate!
Pentecost, 6/4 – celebrates the giving of the Holy Spirit. We’ll hear the Gospel in a number of different languages, and renew our Baptismal Covenant. At the 10 am service we’ll start with a Pentecost procession with our Christian (Catholic) Community friends, starting in front of the Parish House. After worship we’ll join forces for a celebratory coffee hour. Check-out the sheet in the Narthex to tell us what you can bring!
Evening Prayer – Mondays, 6:00 pm in the Church – a good time to stop in on your way home from work and have a peaceful half hour with God and others.
Early Morning Eucharist – Thursdays, 7:00 am in the Church, with healing prayer available for yourself or others. There’s an optional breakfast in the Rath House, afterward.
FUN & FUNDRAISERS
Prayer & a Party! We need some good Party People to be part of a Parish Life Brainstorming Session for our parish social events. Please put you name on the sheet in the Narthex if you can be a part of this group, or send an e-mail to allsaints_rector@hotmail.com.
Choir Room Piano/Sponsor-a-Hymn - the choir room piano came to All Saints’ for free about 5 years ago. It has served us well, but now the piano won’t hold its tuning and needs increasing maintenance. Both of our choirs use the piano to learn their music as they prepare to lead worship, so it needs to be in tune. The piano also serves many students who use the choir room for their lessons and music classes.
We are looking for a used baby grand or upright piano in good condition, but there will be costs associated with bringing it to All Saints, including moving costs, tunings, and possibly disposal of our current piano. In order to get an instrument that will last a long time, we may even need to pay for it.
We are hoping to raise funds in a couple of ways: a “Pennies for a Piano” jar in the Narthex for pocket change; also, “Sponsor-a-Hymn”. There is a poster in the Narthex for this; choose a date to dedicate a hymn in honor of a birthday, anniversary, baptismal anniversary, graduation, or other special event. You may choose the hymn in consultation with Alison, or sponsor a hymn that is already chosen for the day. The cost is $35 per Sunday for one hymn, and your dedication will be printed in the bulletin, and the person being remembered or honored will be included in the prayers. All the money raised will go toward the piano fund. Please speak to Director of Music Alison Siener Brown if you have any questions. Thanks!
Cookbooks - our parish cookbook “All Saints’ Can Cook!” makes great gifts….for a birthday, a graduation, a housewarming gift for that young adult moving into his or her own apartment for the first time. Cost is $15. Please speak to Janice Lettieri or stop by the Parish Office to buy one.
CHRISTIAN FORMATION
Summer Service Camp, June 26-30, 9:00-11:30 am. For kids age 7 and older. We’ll learn about different ways of serving in our community – feeding people, tending a “giving garden”, caring for the environment. We’ll have lots of hands-on projects, including two field trips. Cost is $40. For more info, registration, and questions about younger children, pick up a flyer in the Narthex.
Sunday, May 21 is the last day of Sunday School for the year. Thank you to our teachers and students. We will thank them at the Family Service on June 4 at 10 am. Nursery care will continue through the summer.
Pilgrim, a Course for the Christian Journey: The Beatitudes. Monday nights at 7:00 pm in the Rath House, through 6/19. Learn more about these central teachings of Jesus, and how we can put them into practice in our lives. You are welcome to drop-in when you can or come every week. Questions? Speak to Mother Vicki.
Bible Study – Wed, 10:15 am, in the Rath House. This week, 5/17, we are reading Esther, chapter 3. The Book of Esther tells the story of Esther – part of the Jewish community in exile in Babylon – saved her people from extinction. You are invited to join us! Use one of our Bibles or bring your own.
HELPING HANDS
Our Twelve Baskets Food Pantry needs volunteer drivers on a Tuesday or Thursday morning, about once a month, on an as-needed basis – preferably someone with an SUV or larger car who can take 500 lbs. of non-perishable food. We need to pick up the food we order from the Community FoodBank of NJ in Hillside, and transport it back to All Saints’. From there, we sort the food and deliver it to the various places it’s needed, including the food pantry we support in Dover. If you can assist with this, or have questions, please speak to Barbara Barbeau. Thanks!
STEWARDSHIP
Community Garden – have you seen the Community Garden taking shape on the back island of the parking lot? We have four raised beds, and plots (4x4, and 3x4) that are now ready for planting for any interested gardeners – parishioners and neighbors. What should you plant? Flowers, herbs, or vegetables–whatever suits your fancy and your ability to tend a plot! You can take your produce home, or share it with Seniors in town through Long Hill Senior Center. Also, used coffee grounds make great mulch/fertilizer; the following local restaurants have agreed to save their coffee grounds for us: Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts in Valley Mall, Dunkin Donuts in Dewey Meadows Village, and the Millington Station Café. We’ll need a couple of volunteers to pick up coffee grounds for us. To get started with a plot, or for more information, speak to Jane Hayden, 770-855-3754.
AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Every so often the Church receives a letter, or an e-mail from someone whose life was touched by our parish community. Yesterday the following message came in on our Facebook page from Susan Olden, who now lives in the South:
“Wow! Some 50 years ago, my dad was custodian and our family was allowed to stay in the manse (rectory, which was then the Rath House). I believe a church elder maybe named Bob Cosgrove passed away unfortunately during my dad's tenure there. We would skate on a little ice pond across from the manse. My dad, Lewis Sliker, was made to feel very welcome. Always busy cleaning, stripping floors and buffing and keeping Sunday school chairs taken care of. We never had it so good. I remember my dad stripping the ivy from the front of the church, and the bees! Oh my! Lovely memories and wonderful neighbors, the Santonastassos, had all girls around my age, Joannie, Linda and Connie. I don't suppose there's anyone from that era that remembers us? Appx 1968-1970? Life was difficult growing up, my dad was sickly a lot and passed from lung cancer at only 48! [Living at All Saints’] was one of our more stable, happy times growing up. Thanks again.”
DIOCESE OF NEWARK….AND BEYOND
Prayer for the Bishop’s Search - Gracious God, we, your people in the Diocese of Newark, give you thanks and praise for your work among us and through us, generation to generation. Lead us in the months ahead as we prayerfully search for our next Bishop. Raise up for us a steadfast steward who will embrace our broad and blessed diversity and uphold the apostolic heritage of your Church. Guide us to a faithful witness who speaks the Gospel truth in love and joy, and intimately knows your Word and world. Direct us, your disciples, in our discernment so our faith may increase and our works glorify your Name. All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.
PARISH CALENDAR
5/15 Evening Prayer Church, 6:00 pm
5/15 Pilgrim Group Rath House, 7:00 pm
5/16 Finance Committee Rath House, 7:30 pm
5/17 Bible Study Rath House, 10:15 am
5/18 Holy Eucharist Church, 7:00 am
Small Saints’& Jr Choirs Choir Room, 5:15 pm
Adult Choir Choir Room, 7:30 pm
For a full schedule of our buildings check the website calendar www.allsaintsmillington.org.
CHRISTIAN PRACTICES
Eucharistic Learning & Formation IV (aka Mystagogical Catechesis) – the following is an excerpt from a reflection called “The Eucharist and the Universe.” It was written by R.E. Charles Browne, an Irish Anglican priest (1906-1975) who ministered in both Belfast, Ireland and Manchester, England.
“There were stirrings of glory and stirrings of danger in the Upper Room. So there are at every Eucharist; the eucharistic food is the food for pilgrims. Our pilgrimage takes us into realms of life where we see that both desires for visible security, tangible realities, and a desperate clinging to what we understand are sinful. We know the point where we must abandon attempts at self-made security if we are to go on. Our pilgrimage brings us to fuller awareness that we are to think and pray and work as men [and women] whose most insignificant acts have consequences too wide to be measured by time or confined within the boundaries of a particular locality or of a particular group of people.
When the celebrant takes and blesses and breaks the bread, he [or she] is setting in motion a complexity of movements which go on and on affecting the whole existence of [humankind] and things until all comes to rest in the strange peace of God. Each communicant, of course, in co-operation with the celebrant, has his or her essential place in the cosmic, timeless acts. ‘I am Alpha and Omega, saith the Lord, the beginning and the end.’ Each Eucharist reminds us of our journey from God to God, and the eucharistic food is more than a remembrance that God sustains us throughout our journey; the eucharistic food is our sustenance.” ~ taken from Love’s Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness, compiled by Geoffrey Rowell, Kenneth Stevenson, and Rowan Williams; Oxford University Press, 2001
This is a link to the Eucharistic hymn “One Bread, One Body.” It is sung widely in the Roman Catholic Church, and it is in our hymnal supplement “Wonder, Love, and Praise.” These are students from the Newman Center at the University of California (Davis): https://youtu.be/jipjrqKViYE
Easter blessings,
Vicki+
Alleluia. Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!
Thank you to everyone who helped with Wednesday’s visiting hours and Thursdays’ funeral and reception for Tony Prasa. Both events were very large, and we could not have done it without our Adult Choir, Ushers, Altar Guild, Office Volunteers, Parking Lot Directors, the Thursday A.A. group that moved their meeting so the reception could be set up, and others who helped in many ways. Most importantly, the parish as a whole – through your prayers and presence – ministered to Carol Prasa and her family and friends with God’s love and grace. “Well done, good and faithful servants!”
Mother’s Day – at both our services on Sunday there will be carnations for each of us to take to either give to our mothers, or remember or honor them in ways that seem fitting to us. We hope you’ll join us for worship.
Coffee Hour on Mother’s Day is being hosted by the men of the parish. If you have a question about what to bring, or how you can help, call John McGrath (973)701-1663. Thanks!
+ + + + + + + +
Here are this week’s announcements. Please see especially:
- Sponsor-a-Hymn (Fun and Fundraising)
- Food Ministry drivers needed (Helping Hands)
- Discussion group on The Beatitudes (Christian Formation)
- Summer Service Camp (Christian Formation)
WORSHIP
Easter Season is filled with days of special focus as we continue to celebrate Jesus’ resurrection and the renewal of creation. Looking ahead we have:
Rogation Sunday, 5/21 – 10:00 am, when we bless the Church grounds and gardens, and give thanks to God for the goodness of Creation and God’s generosity and abundance.
Ascension Day, 5/25 – Thursday, 7:30 pm. This is the day we celebrate Christ’s return to the Father in heaven on the fortieth day after the resurrection. It is also a time to recognize our connections to Christians in other parts of the world. Last year we celebrated with a Celtic-themed service. This year we’ll use music, songs, and prayers in an intimate setting from a variety of African countries where the Anglican tradition has taken root. Come and celebrate!
Pentecost, 6/4 – celebrates the giving of the Holy Spirit. We’ll hear the Gospel in a number of different languages, and renew our Baptismal Covenant. At the 10 am service we’ll start with a Pentecost procession with our Christian (Catholic) Community friends, starting in front of the Parish House. After worship we’ll join forces for a celebratory coffee hour. Check-out the sheet in the Narthex to tell us what you can bring!
Evening Prayer – Mondays, 6:00 pm in the Church – a good time to stop in on your way home from work and have a peaceful half hour with God and others.
Early Morning Eucharist – Thursdays, 7:00 am in the Church, with healing prayer available for yourself or others. There’s an optional breakfast in the Rath House, afterward.
FUN & FUNDRAISERS
Prayer & a Party! We need some good Party People to be part of a Parish Life Brainstorming Session for our parish social events. Please put you name on the sheet in the Narthex if you can be a part of this group, or send an e-mail to allsaints_rector@hotmail.com.
Choir Room Piano/Sponsor-a-Hymn - the choir room piano came to All Saints’ for free about 5 years ago. It has served us well, but now the piano won’t hold its tuning and needs increasing maintenance. Both of our choirs use the piano to learn their music as they prepare to lead worship, so it needs to be in tune. The piano also serves many students who use the choir room for their lessons and music classes.
We are looking for a used baby grand or upright piano in good condition, but there will be costs associated with bringing it to All Saints, including moving costs, tunings, and possibly disposal of our current piano. In order to get an instrument that will last a long time, we may even need to pay for it.
We are hoping to raise funds in a couple of ways: a “Pennies for a Piano” jar in the Narthex for pocket change; also, “Sponsor-a-Hymn”. There is a poster in the Narthex for this; choose a date to dedicate a hymn in honor of a birthday, anniversary, baptismal anniversary, graduation, or other special event. You may choose the hymn in consultation with Alison, or sponsor a hymn that is already chosen for the day. The cost is $35 per Sunday for one hymn, and your dedication will be printed in the bulletin, and the person being remembered or honored will be included in the prayers. All the money raised will go toward the piano fund. Please speak to Director of Music Alison Siener Brown if you have any questions. Thanks!
Cookbooks - our parish cookbook “All Saints’ Can Cook!” makes great gifts….for a birthday, a graduation, a housewarming gift for that young adult moving into his or her own apartment for the first time. Cost is $15. Please speak to Janice Lettieri or stop by the Parish Office to buy one.
CHRISTIAN FORMATION
Summer Service Camp, June 26-30, 9:00-11:30 am. For kids age 7 and older. We’ll learn about different ways of serving in our community – feeding people, tending a “giving garden”, caring for the environment. We’ll have lots of hands-on projects, including two field trips. Cost is $40. For more info, registration, and questions about younger children, pick up a flyer in the Narthex.
Sunday, May 21 is the last day of Sunday School for the year. Thank you to our teachers and students. We will thank them at the Family Service on June 4 at 10 am. Nursery care will continue through the summer.
Pilgrim, a Course for the Christian Journey: The Beatitudes. Monday nights at 7:00 pm in the Rath House, through 6/19. Learn more about these central teachings of Jesus, and how we can put them into practice in our lives. You are welcome to drop-in when you can or come every week. Questions? Speak to Mother Vicki.
Bible Study – Wed, 10:15 am, in the Rath House. This week, 5/17, we are reading Esther, chapter 3. The Book of Esther tells the story of Esther – part of the Jewish community in exile in Babylon – saved her people from extinction. You are invited to join us! Use one of our Bibles or bring your own.
HELPING HANDS
Our Twelve Baskets Food Pantry needs volunteer drivers on a Tuesday or Thursday morning, about once a month, on an as-needed basis – preferably someone with an SUV or larger car who can take 500 lbs. of non-perishable food. We need to pick up the food we order from the Community FoodBank of NJ in Hillside, and transport it back to All Saints’. From there, we sort the food and deliver it to the various places it’s needed, including the food pantry we support in Dover. If you can assist with this, or have questions, please speak to Barbara Barbeau. Thanks!
STEWARDSHIP
Community Garden – have you seen the Community Garden taking shape on the back island of the parking lot? We have four raised beds, and plots (4x4, and 3x4) that are now ready for planting for any interested gardeners – parishioners and neighbors. What should you plant? Flowers, herbs, or vegetables–whatever suits your fancy and your ability to tend a plot! You can take your produce home, or share it with Seniors in town through Long Hill Senior Center. Also, used coffee grounds make great mulch/fertilizer; the following local restaurants have agreed to save their coffee grounds for us: Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts in Valley Mall, Dunkin Donuts in Dewey Meadows Village, and the Millington Station Café. We’ll need a couple of volunteers to pick up coffee grounds for us. To get started with a plot, or for more information, speak to Jane Hayden, 770-855-3754.
AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Every so often the Church receives a letter, or an e-mail from someone whose life was touched by our parish community. Yesterday the following message came in on our Facebook page from Susan Olden, who now lives in the South:
“Wow! Some 50 years ago, my dad was custodian and our family was allowed to stay in the manse (rectory, which was then the Rath House). I believe a church elder maybe named Bob Cosgrove passed away unfortunately during my dad's tenure there. We would skate on a little ice pond across from the manse. My dad, Lewis Sliker, was made to feel very welcome. Always busy cleaning, stripping floors and buffing and keeping Sunday school chairs taken care of. We never had it so good. I remember my dad stripping the ivy from the front of the church, and the bees! Oh my! Lovely memories and wonderful neighbors, the Santonastassos, had all girls around my age, Joannie, Linda and Connie. I don't suppose there's anyone from that era that remembers us? Appx 1968-1970? Life was difficult growing up, my dad was sickly a lot and passed from lung cancer at only 48! [Living at All Saints’] was one of our more stable, happy times growing up. Thanks again.”
DIOCESE OF NEWARK….AND BEYOND
Prayer for the Bishop’s Search - Gracious God, we, your people in the Diocese of Newark, give you thanks and praise for your work among us and through us, generation to generation. Lead us in the months ahead as we prayerfully search for our next Bishop. Raise up for us a steadfast steward who will embrace our broad and blessed diversity and uphold the apostolic heritage of your Church. Guide us to a faithful witness who speaks the Gospel truth in love and joy, and intimately knows your Word and world. Direct us, your disciples, in our discernment so our faith may increase and our works glorify your Name. All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory throughout all ages. Amen.
PARISH CALENDAR
5/15 Evening Prayer Church, 6:00 pm
5/15 Pilgrim Group Rath House, 7:00 pm
5/16 Finance Committee Rath House, 7:30 pm
5/17 Bible Study Rath House, 10:15 am
5/18 Holy Eucharist Church, 7:00 am
Small Saints’& Jr Choirs Choir Room, 5:15 pm
Adult Choir Choir Room, 7:30 pm
For a full schedule of our buildings check the website calendar www.allsaintsmillington.org.
CHRISTIAN PRACTICES
Eucharistic Learning & Formation IV (aka Mystagogical Catechesis) – the following is an excerpt from a reflection called “The Eucharist and the Universe.” It was written by R.E. Charles Browne, an Irish Anglican priest (1906-1975) who ministered in both Belfast, Ireland and Manchester, England.
“There were stirrings of glory and stirrings of danger in the Upper Room. So there are at every Eucharist; the eucharistic food is the food for pilgrims. Our pilgrimage takes us into realms of life where we see that both desires for visible security, tangible realities, and a desperate clinging to what we understand are sinful. We know the point where we must abandon attempts at self-made security if we are to go on. Our pilgrimage brings us to fuller awareness that we are to think and pray and work as men [and women] whose most insignificant acts have consequences too wide to be measured by time or confined within the boundaries of a particular locality or of a particular group of people.
When the celebrant takes and blesses and breaks the bread, he [or she] is setting in motion a complexity of movements which go on and on affecting the whole existence of [humankind] and things until all comes to rest in the strange peace of God. Each communicant, of course, in co-operation with the celebrant, has his or her essential place in the cosmic, timeless acts. ‘I am Alpha and Omega, saith the Lord, the beginning and the end.’ Each Eucharist reminds us of our journey from God to God, and the eucharistic food is more than a remembrance that God sustains us throughout our journey; the eucharistic food is our sustenance.” ~ taken from Love’s Redeeming Work: The Anglican Quest for Holiness, compiled by Geoffrey Rowell, Kenneth Stevenson, and Rowan Williams; Oxford University Press, 2001
This is a link to the Eucharistic hymn “One Bread, One Body.” It is sung widely in the Roman Catholic Church, and it is in our hymnal supplement “Wonder, Love, and Praise.” These are students from the Newman Center at the University of California (Davis): https://youtu.be/jipjrqKViYE
Easter blessings,
Vicki+
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