What's Up This Week (9/19-9/25)

Following on a splendid Sunday picnic, this week we have our Episcopal Church Women meeting; a memorial service Saturday for Barbara Hendry, our former Sexton; and healing prayer at our Sunday Service.

I still remember the first and second times I was at a service which included prayer for healing.  The first time, I sat very still in my pew, watching what was going on, and that evening I regaled the family with news of this strange thing they were doing at our new parish.

The second time, I knelt at the altar rail for healing prayer for a child.  As the priest came to each of us, it seemed to me that we were all praying with and for each one receiving the laying on of hands.  When the priest laid hands on my head, I felt a deep stirring -- something I hadn't expected and didn't understand.  That night, I learned that there had been a healing:  my daughter told me about an important change of heart at just that time.

How is this?  We don't really know.  What we do know is that it's about the goodness and love of God,  about discovering God's care for us,  about being drawn into the heart and presence and power of God, at which point amazing things can happen.  Sometimes we realize -- weeks, even months later -- that there was a healing, that God used our openness to move for good.

Try it.  Try it even if you majored in one of the sciences and are deeply suspicious of anything that hasn't been tested and measured in a lab, because this (like most important things in your life) is about love, and has a reason of its own that reason cannot comprehend.  Try it for yourself, for those you carry in your heart.  We'll be doing it this Sunday.

Tuesday, September 20
    1 PM  ECW meeting and Needlecrafters
    7 PM  Communications Committee meets

Saturday, September 24
  11 AM  Memorial Service for Barbara Christine Hendry

Sunday,  September 25
  10 AM  Holy Eucharist and Healing Prayer
                Children's Chapel and Nursery
                Coffee Hour follows
                Training for Readers, Servers and Eucharistic Ministers

What's Up This Week (9/12 - 9/18)

"School Days,  School Days"

Not "reading and writing and 'rithmetic"  but Learning the Love of God.

Sunday the 18th is our Homecoming Picnic (bring a dish to pass).  

This Sunday, as every Sunday, we have Children's Chapel available for children from Pre-K through Elementary School.  It begins at 10:00, with an age-appropriate version of lessons, prayers, songs -- including the Hooray March, and runs for about half an hour.  Following this, children may join their parents in church.  

Soon after this, we will begin once-monthly classes for PreK-K, grades 3-4, and our teen-tween group.  

Two evening programs will begin in October.  New this year will be a series for teens, "Express Yourself," ventures in the arts,  beginning on October 19th, from 6:30-8:30 with Archdeacon Deborah and Tom Lynch.   For more information on that, please call Archdeacon Deborah at 973-553-1676.  

On October 5th, the Adult series will start, with Phyllis Tickle's Embracing Emergence Christianity, following a pot luck supper at 6:30.  Many people, in and out of the church, are sensing a sea change in people's faith practice: "I'm spiritual but not religious" may be one of the markers for this change (and for the church's need to reach out in different ways to new generations.  

According to the publisher,
"Phyllis Tickle invites us to join her in examining the changing face of Christianity and culture.  Phyllis surveys two thousand years of Western history, identifying the great upheavals that occur in Western culture and Christianity every 500 years.  The last was the Great Reformation of the 1500's; the next is happening now." [italics SFP]

Behind the scenes, we are implementing our program as a Safeguarding God's Children parish.  Every adult and youth member who works with children, as well as the entire staff and Vestry, are working through a training series so that we continue to have St. Agnes' a safe place for God's children.  

This week: 

Tuesday, September 12:  

    11:00 AM  Altar Guild meets, followed by lunch

      1:00 PM    Safeguarding God's Children training

      7:00 PM    Safeguarding God's Children training

Wednesday, September 13:  

     7:30 PM   Healing Prayer in the Church

 

Sunday, September 18th: 

    10:00 AM  Children's Chapel

    10:00 AM  Holy Eucharist 

     11:30 AM  Homecoming Picnic

What's Up This Week (9/5 - 9/11)

Ten years later:   
    What has this time meant in your life?  
    What has changed?
    What has grown?

My generation grew up remembering Pearl Harbor and what followed that destruction by an enemy -- I remember my father grimly going out into the neighborhood during blackouts in his Air Warden's hat. Today's generations are galvanized by 9/11.

We have a particular privilege this Sunday:  The Rev. Tom Murphy will be with us as Guest Preacher and Celebrant, for a special service remembering September 11 and those who died.  He is a gifted preacher.  Please call the Church Office, 973-256-5020, by Thursday, to submit the names of those you wish to have remembered.

Please come;  bring your memories, hopes, losses, and dreams for the future to God, and find the blessing.


Fairbairn+


This week: 
   September  5, Monday:          Labor Day: Office closed
   September  6, Tuesday:         Needlecrafters meet, 1 PM
                                                 Vestry meets, 7:30 PM
   September  8, Thursday:        Safeguarding God's Children training, 1 PM
   September 10, Saturday:        Safeguarding God's Children training, 9 AM
   September 11, Sunday:          Memorial Service at 10AM with
                                                 Guest Preacher Tom Murphy
                                                 Coffee Hour follows.

   We are collecting clothing and gift cards for a family who lost their house (and everything in it) in an explosion during the flood.

   Food this week for the St. Paul's Food Pantry:  canned meat and fish, canned vegetables