Dear Friends in Christ,
This week’s announcements are below. Please look particularly at:
*Church Ladies' Night, June 25 – TONIGHT!
*Parish Baseball Outing/Somerset Patriots’ Game, July 12
* Family Promise Homeless Shelter, July 6 – help needed!
* Bridging the Summer Meal Gap, on-going food collection for Food for Friends, Dover
+ + + + + + + + +
COMMUNITY HOSPITALITY We received a thank you card today from Long Hill Township Girl Scouts: “This small donation is sent along with the deep gratitude of the many Girl Scout leaders and Girl Scouts who have the benefit of using your wonderful facilities to hold our meetings and other Scouting events. We truly appreciate the congregation of All Saints’ opening your church home to us, which helps Girl Scout of Long Hill Township to build girls of courage and confidence who make the world a better place. We look forward to continuing this partnership in the years to come. Sincerely yours, Llora McAvoy and Alison Johnson, Co-Service Unit Managers. We are so glad to support the girls (and their families) of our community! ~ VGM+
+ + + + + + + + +
HELPING HANDS
Family Promise Homeless Shelter - Our date to serve at the shelter has been changed to Monday, July 6, and we need help!! We still need one volunteer to provide hamburgers and rolls, to cook, two people to host at dinnertime, and two to stay overnight. There are more details on the sign-up sheet in the Narthex. Questions? Speak to Kathy Pfeil. Thank you for helping these families get back on their feet.
Bridging the Summer Meal Gap – In NJ, 1 in 5 children face hunger; in Morris County, nearly 8% (38,350 people) are food insecure. When school is out, the children don’t receive school breakfast and lunch. Please remember the kids in your donations to the Food for Friends pantry in Dover. A new summer shopping list is available for you to pick up in the Narthex. Thanks for your help in feeding hungry people!
Please leave your donations in the basket in the Narthex. They will be offered and blessed at our Sunday worship before being taken to the Food for Friends pantry in Dover.
FUN & FUNDRAISING
TONIGHT! Church Ladies’ Night at the Stirling Hotel – this Thursday, June 25, starting at 7 pm; come when you can. We’ll gather in the outdoor area. Share your plans for the summer, decompress after the school year, enjoy your fellow parishioners... and maybe we’ll talk about Rummage, too!
Parish Baseball Outing, July 12 @ 5:05 pm – Come for a fun evening with your fellow Saints and watch the Somerset Patriots play the Long Island Ducks at the TD Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater. Tickets are $9.50 per person (group rate) and we have field box seats reserved right behind home plate! Respond to this e-mail or sign up on the sheet in the Narthex and bring your family and friends. Once we know who is coming we’ll get transportation organized. Questions? Speak to Greg Story.
The Rummage Sale – Are you ready? The first day of rummage collection will be Sunday, August 2. Please tell your neighbors and friends, as well as setting your own clean and usable stuff aside. Sale date is Sept. 19. We still have many opportunities for willing hands to sign up and work. Take a look at the poster on the easel in the Narthex. Questions? Speak to Kimberly Celeste.
WORSHIP and MUSIC
Summer Choir - We’ll be having an informal summer choir on July 19 & August 30. Show up at 9:30 to rehearse the anthem and then sing for the 10 am service. This will be a great time to “try on” choir – either for the day or as an intro to next fall. We are always happy to have new choir members! Interested? Please speak to Alison Siener Brown.
The Thursday morning 7 o’clock service of Holy Eucharist and Healing prayer is taking a break for the summer; as is the All God’s Children/Special Needs Worship on the third Sundays of the month. Catch us again in September!
Next Sunday, July 5th we’ll pray for our country, sing some patriotic hymns (@ 10 am) and offer our thanksgiving for our liberties and responsibilities as a nation. Hope to see you in Church!
CHRISTIAN FORMATION
Bible Study, Wednesdays, 10:15-11:30 am in the Rath House. We are meeting through July 15. We’ll take a break for the summer and then pick up again on August 26. We are using a book to guide our study: Bible Women, All Their Words and Why They Matter, by Lindsay Hardin Freeman. This is a great book to read with the group or on your own. We are always happy to have new people join us. Questions? Please speak to Mother Vicki.
Summer Refreshment Hosts are needed for our fellowship after worship. In the summer we have cool drinks and munchies on the Parish House lawn. Please take a turn by putting your name on the sign-up sheet in the Narthex. Questions? Speak to John McGrath
Women's Book Group will meet on Wednesday, July 15 at 7:30 pm in the Rath House. This month’s book for discussion is The Nightingale, by Kristin Hannah. Come for an evening of fellowship, discussion, and learning.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
General Convention has begun in Salt Lake City, Utah. Here is a link to the General Convention website: http://www.generalconvention.org/ and the diocesan site: http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/GC2015 . You can also follow on Facebook or Twitter at #gc78. The election for the new [presiding Bishop will take place on Saturday. Please pray for the House of Bishops as they make their selection. Please also pray for the work of our Church as it meets in Convention.
“Almighty and everliving God, source of all wisdom and understanding, be present with those who take counsel in General Convention for the renewal and mission of your Church. Teach us in all things to seek first your honor and glory. Guide us to perceive what is right, and grant us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it. Guide the minds of those who shall choose a Presiding Bishop for this Church, that we may receive a faithful pastor, who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” ~ Book of Common Prayer
+ + + + + + + + +
Parish Calendar This Week
7/1 Bible Study 10:15 am, Rath House
And please check the calendar on our website for the full listing of groups and events in our buildings.
+ + + + + + + + +
FOR ALL THE SAINTS
Saint Peter and Saint Paul, Apostles Peter and Paul, the two greatest leaders of the early Church, are commemorated separately, Peter on January 18, for his confession of Jesus as the Messiah, and Paul on January 25, for his conversion, but they are commemorated together on June 29 in observance of the tradition of the Church that they both died as martyrs in Rome during the persecution under Nero, in 64.
Paul, the well-educated and cosmopolitan Jew of the Dispersion, and Peter, the uneducated fisherman from Galilee, had differences of opinion in the early years of the Church concerning the mission to the Gentiles. More than once, Paul speaks of rebuking Peter for his continued insistence on Jewish exclusiveness; yet their common commitment to Christ and the proclamation of the Gospel proved stronger than their differences; and both eventually carried that mission to Rome, where they were martyred. According to tradition, Paul was granted the right of a Roman citizen to be beheaded by a sword, but Peter suffered the fate of his Lord, crucifixion, though with head downward.
A generation after their martyrdom, Clement of Rome, writing to the Church in Corinth, probably in 96 A.D., says: Let us come to those who have most recently proved champions; let us take up the noble examples of our own generation. Because of jealousy and envy the greatest and most upright pillars of the Church were persecuted and competed unto death. Let us bring before our eyes the good apostle Peter, who because of unrighteous jealousy endured not one or two, but numerous trials, and so bore a martyrs witness and went to the glorious place that he deserved. Because of jealousy and strife Paul pointed the way to the reward of endurance; seven times he was imprisoned, he was exiled, he was stoned, he was a preacher in both east and west, and won renown for his faith, teaching uprightness to the whole world, and reaching the farthest limit of the west, and bearing a martyrs witness before the rulers, he passed out of the world and was taken up into the holy place, having proved a very great example of endurance. ~ Holy Women, Holy Men
Questions for reflection: Remembering that the word “apostle” means “one who is sent”, to whom is the Holy Spirit sending you with a word of hope, comfort, encouragement, counsel, peace, or justice?
+ + + + + + + + +
This is a traditional African-American Gospel song. Johnny Cash’s version of it is linked below, as is a more recent recording by the Sojourners.
Children, go where I send thee
Children, go where I send thee,
How shall I send thee?
I shall send thee one by one
One was little bitty - baby
wrapped in swaddling- lying in the manger,
Born, born, born in Bethlehem.
Children, go where I send thee,
How shall I send thee?
I shall send thee two by two
Two was Paul and - Silas
One was a little bitty - baby
Born, born, born in Bethlehem.
[Repeat in descending order:]
Three was the 3 men riding
Four was the four come knock'n at the door...
Five was the gospel preachers...
Six was the six that couldn't be fixed...
Seven was the seven that went to heaven...
Eight was the eight that stood at the gate...
Nine was the nine who saw the sign
Ten for the ten commandments...
Johnny Cash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlSLvllkXL4
The Sojourners: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7J7T7_eaeg
Blessings,
Vicki+
In the photo above Peter is shown on the left carrying a key - a reminder that he was given the keys to God's Kingdom.
Paul is shown at the right with a sword - a symbol of the Scriptures as a "sword of the Spirit." Paul was also martyred by the sword (befitting a Roman citizen). Peter, on the other hand was martyred by being crucified upside down.
RSS Feed