
Thank you to everyone who helped with last Saturday’s Veterans’ Dinner. We served 70 guests from two different areas of the V.A. Hospital in Lyons, members of the Warren American Legion, the Berkeley Heights VFW Post, and Vets and their spouses living in our communities. Our 25 volunteers cooked, set up, cleaned up, greeted, served, visited with our guests, and shared Christ’s Peace with them all. Great job, everyone!
I also have some sad news to share. Mark Hewitt is the architect who helped us with our Historic Preservation Plan in 2005 as we prepared for our Centennial Campaign Project. He also designed and oversaw the building of the handicapped-accessible entryway on the Parish House. Mark’s wife, Mia Kissil Hewitt, has been ill for more than a year with lung cancer, and has been on our prayer list. She is a friend to a number of us in the parish. Mia died Wednesday, February 28 at age 51. She and Mark have two high school age daughters who attend Bernardsville High School. Please remember the Hewitt family in your prayers. May Mia rest in the Peace of Christ, and rise in the glory of God.
Take a look at the announcements below, especially:
- Scout Sunday – this Sunday (Worship)
- World War I French Battlefield Presentation (Fellowship & Fun)
- Labyrinth Walk (Lent)
- ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ Film Outing (Fun & Fellowship)
- Epworth Youth Choir Concert (Fun & Fellowship)
Labyrinth Walk, Sunday, March 11, 3-5 pm in the Parish Hall. This is a time of prayerful walking meditation along the labyrinth (borrowed from the Community of St. John Baptist). Walk it at your own pace. There will be time for reflection and journaling. Drop in any time during the two hours. Bring your questions, your burdens, your prayer intentions for yourself and others. Sign up on the sheet in the Narthex.
Epworth Youth Choir Tour Concert & Dinner, Tuesday, March 27, 7 pm in the Church. This middle school and high school choir from First United Methodist Church in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, will present a concert of traditional anthems. The second half of the program is a musical by Dean Wagner called “Keeping Vigil with Jesus.” This concert is a wonderful Lenten opportunity and will appeal to kids as well as adults. Parishioners are invited to have dinner with the choir at 5:30 pm. We will need some volunteers to shop, do some food prep, set up the meal (taco and salad bar), clean up afterwards, and visit with our guests – 35 students and 10 adult chaperones. Please sign up on the sheet in the Narthex if you can help or want to attend the meal.
Lenten Prayer Pilgrimage - On the interior walls of the Church are twelve Lent/Easter pictures. Pick up a Pilgrimage Brochure and baptismal shell from the basket in the Narthex; follow from one picture to another with the Bible passages, prayers, or silent contemplation. You are invited to do this whenever the Church is open.
FELLOWSHIP & FUN
A Wrinkle in Time – Film Outing for Kids in Grade 5 and older, Saturday, March 10 at 1:30 pm. This is a live action, PG adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic book. Here is the premise: “After learning her astrophysicist father, Alex, is being held captive on a distant planet deep in the grip of a universe-spanning evil, Meg Murray works with her highly intelligent younger brother, her new friend and fellow student Calvin O'Keeffe, and three astral travelers, Mrs. Which, Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who to save him.” Mother Vicki and Alison Siener Brown will be going to see the film at headquarters Plaza in Morristown. Tickets are $9.25 for children, $10.50 for adults. We’ll meet in the parking lot at church at 12:30 and car pool together. Please RSVP to this email so we can but tickets ahead of time. Hope to see you there!
World War I French Battlefields, Sunday, March 11, 11:15 am in the Parish Hall. Randy Gaulke will present reflections on his 6 months as a tour guide for the World War I battlefields in the Meuse-Argonne forest in France, which saw the largest numbers of American troops in the war. Come to learn more about this part of our history, during the centennial of that great conflict.
The First Party of Easter follows the Easter Vigil on Saturday, March 31, in the Narthex. We need some simple refreshments to continue the best service of the year! Take a look at the sign-up sheet for what we need.
WORSHIP
Scout Sunday, March 4, 10 am – We’ll honor and celebrate all Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts of our parish and our community, and to give thanks for the Scouting movement. All Scouts and adult leaders are invited to attend in uniform. Please pass the word along.
Easter Flowers & Music - If you would like to make a donation for Easter flowers or guest musicians in memory of a loved one or in thanksgiving for a particular blessing, please use the envelopes found in the pew. Be sure to include the names of the people being remembered or honored; they will appear in all the Easter bulletins. The deadline for the names is March 19.
Celtic Worship with Irish music in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Sunday, March 18, at 5:00 pm, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 9 E Main St., Mendham, NJ. Sponsored by the parishes of St. Mark’s, St. Bernard’s, & All Saints’. Come for peaceful evening worship.
HOLY WEEK
Maundy Thursday Agapé Meal, March 29, 6:00 pm
Agapé is the Greek word for God’s love – and the way we share it in community. We’ll gather for a simple pot-luck meal, as Jesus and his disciples did, before our Maundy Thursday worship. We’ll be sharing this meal with the Christian (Catholic) Community in the Parish House Lower Room. Sign up on the sheet in the Narthex. Hope to see you there!
Foot Washing at Maundy Thursday Worship, March 29, 7:30 pm. This action is a symbol of the loving service to others that Jesus calls us to – basic, humble, prayerful, vulnerable. It is part of Maundy Thursday worship in churches all over the world. During the singing of a chant, the congregation is invited to come forward, have one foot washed, and then wash the foot of the person who comes after them. This care for one another is deeply moving. Wearing shoes and socks that are easily removable makes this easier.
Prayer Watch, anytime Maundy Thursday night, 8:30 pm to 12 am. Come and keep watch in the Church with Jesus for thirty minutes on the night of his trials in the Garden of Gethsemane (Altar of Repose with the Reserved Sacrament). Although this is a time for personal prayer and meditation, it is something done on the part of our whole parish community, even if you haven’t been able to attend worship earlier. The watch will conclude at midnight. Sign up for a half hour prayer time on the sheet in the Narthex.
CHRISTIAN FORMATION
Bible Study/Book Study – Wed. at 10:15 am, in the Rath House. We are reading and discussing Inwardly Digest: The Prayer Book as Guide to a Spiritual Life, by Derek Olsen. Can’t come Wed. mornings? Pick up a copy and read it on your own. The books are in the Narthex and cost $20.
Pilgrim Study Group Mondays, 7-8:30 pm in the Rath House. The next 6-week session, starting on March 5, is Church & Kingdom. “What does it mean to live as a child of the kingdom of God and follow in the way of Christ each day as a member of the Church? How does it affect our life at work as well as at home? How is the Christian faith changing us and shaping us so that we become more like Jesus?” Questions? Speak to Mother Vicki and sign up on the sheet in the Narthex.
SAVE THE DATE
Sunday, May 13 for Bishop Beckwith’s last visitation with us before his retirement.
PARISH CALENDAR
3/5 Pilgrim Group Rath House, 7:00 pm
3/7 Book Study Rath House, 10:15 am
3/8 Holy Eucharist & Healing Church, 7:00 am
Junior Choir 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
Two Quotations from Madeleine L’Engle (1918-2007), author of fiction for children and adults, and spiritual reflection. And an Episcopalian – one of our own!
“The world of science lives fairly comfortably with paradox. We know that light is a wave, and also that light is a particle. The discoveries made in the infinitely small world of particle physics indicate randomness and chance, and I do not find it any more difficult to live with the paradox of a universe of randomness and chance and a universe of pattern and purpose than I do with light as a wave and light as a particle. Living with contradiction is nothing new to the human being.”
“To pray is to listen, to move through my own chattering to God, to that place where I can be silent and listen to what God has to say.”
Lenten blessings, Vicki+