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SAINTS Alive! THE NEWSLETTER OF THE PARISH All Saints’ Church Chelmsford, MA June 2006
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SAINTS Alive! THE NEWSLETTER OF THE PARISH All Saints’ Church Chelmsford, MA June 2006
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From the Rector
Thank you all for the incredible and generous support you have given me as I head off on my sabbatical. I am writing this the day before I fly out to Kenya and know that I leave surrounded by a cloud of witnesses and uncountable prayers. I will bring your greeting in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to all those I meet. I look forward to my return, both to share what I have learned as well as to hear how you have grown in love and faith.
Faithfully yours,Tom
It is our great pleasure to welcome the Rev. Ray Bronk as our interim priest while Tom is away on his well deserved sabbatical. Some of you may have already meet Ray on Easter Sunday when he joined us at the 11 o’clock service. Ray began his ministry with us on Sunday, May 21.
Ray has a wealth of experience as both a teacher and a rector. He was a professor of Philosophy and Study of Religion at UMASS-Boston from 1968-1992. He was in parish work in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Michigan, Italy, Germany, and most recently, Lake Placid, New York. His wife is also an Episcopal priest, the Rev. Joyce Caggiano.
Ray will be with us for about 12 hours during the week, and the two services on Sundays. You can contact Darlene in the church office to find out what his hours will be on any given week. You may contact Ray during those hours or the wardens, Adrienne Spear at home at 978-251-4199, in an emergency during the day at her office at 978-688-6921 or cell phone at 978-821-3711, and Ron Cannistraro at 978-256-0929 when needed.
As we have gone through this preparation process getting ready for Tom’s departure we have felt an overwhelming sense of support from the All Saints’ Community. It is the strength and love in this community that will allow us not only to get through the time of his absence but to use that time to explore new ideas and be ready to welcome him back in September.
We would like to thank all those involved in the preparation and the past wardens, vestry members, and parishioners for their kind words and offers of support. You have truly made this time easier to face and we may take you up on those offers.
We are very excited to have the Rev. Ray Bronk with us and look forward the new stories, experiences, and ideas he will have to share with us. We enjoyed the hour or so we spent with him when we met and I’m sure we will enjoy working with him for these next few months.
We will hold Tom in our prayers as he travels and Linda as she travels to join him in Africa for part of the summer. May God’s peace and love be with all of us.
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Walk for AIDSSaturday June 24thSPONSOR a walk team and support HIV/AIDS Care programs in Africa, including the Hardisons’ Mission in Kenya.
WALK or RIDE the Minuteman Bikeway
9 am Alewife T Station
10 am Bedford Train Depot
MEET at the Church of Our Redeemer
6 Meriam Street, Lexington.
Lunch, fellowship, worship with Bishop Tom Shaw For Info and Registration
www.JuneJubilee.org
Organized by the Jubilee Ministry and theDeaneries of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts
Calling All Drivers!
The Cole-Marshall household is in need of drivers for their Belarussian son, Sergey. Sergey is here for six months to receive chemo for a recurring cancer. While here, he needs his blood count checked Wednesday mornings at LGH, as well as Wednesday afternoon visits to Floating Hospital, which is part of the New England Medical Center, located in Boston's theatre district. He will also need to be at Floating on some Fridays for transfusions when his blood counts are low. Sergey's mom, Nina, will be arriving tonight to join us throughout Sergey's treatment. Sergey speaks limited English, but understands it well. His mom does not speak any English.
If you can help, please call Maggie at 978-251-1296 or e-mail her at: maggie@ccc.com. Sergey's treatment is being sponsored by the Chernobyl Children Project, and both NEMC and LGH are donating many services.
Thoughts About Doctors
Honor a physician with the honor that is due to him, for the uses which you may have of him; for the Lord has created him.
For healing comes from the Most High. The skill of the physician shall lift up his head and in the sight of great men he shall be admired.
The Lord hath created medicine out of the earth and he that is wise will not neglect them. With such, doth he heal men and taketh away their pains.
Ecclesiasticus 38
Mission Season Conclusion
The conclusion of our several months long Mission Season will be on Sunday, June 4th which is, appropriately enough, Pentecost! After church there will be a light lunch and a discussion of what the parish sees its mission to be. This will be your chance to give the Outreach Team your views on what we should be about as a parish. We’re also eager to hear any feedback on all the mission-related activities that have gone on recently. Among other things, we’ll be trying to answer the question: “What does God want to accomplish and how can All Saints’ be a part of it?” Babysitting will be provided. Bring you ideas and your enthusiasm! Speaking in tongues optional.
The Outreach Team
News from the Choir Loft
The choir season ends on June 11, but music continues throughout the summer. If you have an instrument that you'd like to play, with or without the organ, or would like to sing at a service, please let Maggie Marshall know at 978-251-1296 or maggie@ccc.com.
This summer will provide a bit of a musical challenge since we will be without an organ for the second half of the summer while the keyboards are being refurbished.
Last fall with the proceeds of the Cabaret Night, we established a scholarship fund to help with the expenses for our parish youth to attend the Barbara Harris Camp. This camp, in Greenfield, NH, is run by the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and offers many different kinds of camping experiences from art and music to soccer and family camp programs.
At present the fund is small, but scholarships are also available from the diocese. If you are interested in a parish and/or a diocesan scholarship, please contact either of the wardens.
If you would like to help us build up this camp scholarship so that we can award more scholarships or give more financial help to individuals, contributions will be gratefully accepted. Make checks out to All Saints’ Church. Make sure you indicate in the notation section that it is a gift for the Barbara Harris Camp Scholarship. Also plan to attend next fall’s Cabaret Night, October 21, proceeds again to benefit the scholarship fund.
2003 Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts: Diocesan Convention mission strategy for the next ten years.
Under the banner of Inviting, Forming, Sending and Serving, the Diocese of Massachusetts adopted the following Statement of Mission:
As members of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts we believe God in Christ is working everywhere in the world to heal, to reconcile, to love every person and all of creation into wholeness. Through the life, cross, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the power of sin and death has been broken; life and hope is the new reality.
It is our mission to join in God’s transforming mission. We will form our children, our young people, and our adult members, through prayer, worship and scripture, to become followers of Christ, that we might discern where God is carrying out this mission in our world. And we will send our people to serve with Christ, inviting everyone and all of creation to share in the just reign of God.
Preview of
Intentions for June 2006
Saints Alive asks if you can find the answers to the following questions, based on the Intentions List for June 2006 (beginning on Page 4).
Name a parish near the Mystic River (in Medford). We remember this parish on June 18, but they might celebrate their own name’s feast in the gifts of the spirit at Pentecost, two weeks earlier.
Where (which town?) is the Trinity Church that is remembered especially on Trinity Sunday?
On June 29 we remember Saint Peter and Saint Paul. On June 25 we remember especially a parish in Millis who will celebrate their patronal festival on that day. Is this Saint Paul’s or Saint Peter’s?
Nearer to home: in Methuen, where a lot of people are recovering from floods in May. St. Andrew’s is in the cycle to be remembered especially on Bernard Mizeki’s feast day. Which day is that?
News from your B&G
Permit me to urge you to help our gardeners and landscapers through the summer months. Please assist the Thrift Shop folks as they work to spruce up during their summer closure. All the May rains brought FAR less puddles in there, and no water into other areas of the Church!
The contracted part of the high trim painting and repair concluded quickly! What remains are the areas that we will do, near the ground; typically on a small ladder. We hope that it lasts for as long as the original work, being not maintained for over 100 years!
Keyspan (or whoever they are now) has agreed to give us a free energy audit, which I will report to you in this space.
Memorial Garden
This year, as always, we have been blessed with donations for flowers in the Memorial Garden (area just outside the Narthex). This year’s donations are in loving memory of Paula Blagg, Mabel Dickinson, Sarah Twelves, Edward and Hilda Tebeau in the garden area. The flowers in the large containers are in memory of David Willman.
Please take a few moments and walk through the garden and enjoy the beauty and tranquility.
The Gardening Committee
Work on the Landscape Plan Continues
We have begun to implement the master plan for landscaping around the church. We have received donations and planted three special memorials over the last month. There is a large Kousa Dogwood tree planted in the area between the Parish Hall and the Chapel (called the Meadow) in memory of Helen and Jack Robinson, a Korean Lilac in memory of Bob Clement also in the Meadow near the back entrance to the Thrift Shop and a Globe Blue Spruce next to the Lychgate in front of the church in memory of Herb and David Willman.
If you are interested in a memorial for a loved one, please contact Oliver Chamberlain or Carol Douglas. They will be happy to discuss the possibilities available within the plan.
Landscaping Committee
He who digs a well, constructs a stone fountain, plants a grove of trees by the roadside, plants an orchard, builds a house, reclaims a swamp, or so much as puts a stone seat by the wayside, makes the land so far lovely and desirable, makes a fortune which he cannot carry with him but which is useful to his country long afterwards.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882
Churches and institutions we are asked to consider especially during the month of June are listed in this section.
Saturday, June 3, 2006 The Martyrs of Uganda
Uganda shares a border with Kenya. We remember a series of deaths by burning of Christians in Uganda at the direction of King Mwanga, in 1885-86. These martyrdoms of Christians in Uganda set the stage for Uganda’s becoming a largely Christian country. There were new martyrs in the 1970’s, among them Archbishop Janani Luwum.
Sunday, June 4, 2006 Pentecost
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St. Michael’s Church, Marblehead
St. Gabriel’s Church, Marion
Church of the Holy Trinity, Marlborough (preparing for a “patronal festival” June 11)
Episcopal City Mission
Episcopal Marriage Encounter
Sunday, June 11, 2006 First Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday
(On June 11, we also remember Archbishop Boniface, who was martyred in 754 in Frisia while preparing to receive a group of confirmands.)
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Trinity Church, Marshfield Hills (“patronal festival”)
Church of the Holy Spirit, Mattapan (Boston)
St. George’s Church, Maynard
Church of the Advent, Medfield
Deputies to General Convention
Sunday, June 18, 2006 Second Sunday after Pentecost
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Bernard Mizeki and the pilgrims gathering at the Bernard Mizeki Shrine, hosted by All Saints’ Church, Marondera, Zimbabwe. Bernard Mizeki was born inland in Mozambique but sought adventure in travel to the coast and then to Cape Town, where he worked for about many years before training for mission work, eventually traveling north to set up a mission parish in Theydon near Marondera, Zimbabwe, for the then-new Diocese of Mashonaland. He was martyred in 1895 by people opposing Christianity as a white-people’s religion, but his example insisting while mortally wounded that his unborn child should be baptized, and his miraculous disappearance after dying, became powerfully persuasive reasons for Christianity to take hold in Zimbabwe.
Grace Church, Medford
Christ Church, Medway
Trinity Church, Melrose
St. Andrew’s Church, Methuen
Wider Mission Ministry Area
Saturday, June 24, 2006 Nativity of St. John the Baptist
Sunday, June 25, 2006 Third Sunday after Pentecost
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Church of Our Saviour, Middleborough
St. Paul’s Church, Millis (preparing to mark their Saint’s Day June 29, 2006)
Church of Our Saviour, Milton
St. Michael’s Church, Milton
Congregations: Wardens, Treasurers and Clerks
Thursday, June 29, 2006 Saint Peter and Saint Paul
Tom’s Schedule May to September 2006
May 17 to July 20 travel to Maseno, Kenya
July 20 to August 14 Going on retreat, to reflect and write about my experiences. Tom’s first epistle has been received and is included on Page 7 of this issue – editor.
August 14 to September 4 Family vacation.
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MVP to Receive Arnold Award
All Saints’ is proud to recognize the nomination of the Merrimack Valley Project for the Episcopal City Mission’s 2006 Arnold Award. This parish has had a connection, chiefly through our rector Tom Barrington but through parishioners as well, with the MVP. The Arnold Award was established in 1982 to recognize an individual, group or parish that has “continued in a significant way the commitment to the cities and their people which marked the ministry of the Rt. Rev. Morris F. Arnold, Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Diocese of MA.” The bestowing ceremony will take place June 6 at the Episcopal City Mission Annual Meeting in Boston. Our congratulations to and continued prayers for the Merrimack Valley Project for their work.
Greetings
I'd like to ask parishioners to recommit themselves to wearing nametags at all church services and events as we welcome the Rev. Ray Bronk as our interim priest. If you do not already have a nametag or you need a new one, please email me by Saturday so I can have one ready for you on Sunday morning. kate2323@aol.com. Thanks so much!
Katie LaRochelle
Greeters Coordinator
Adult Formation
Upcoming Formation Events
June 4 Feast of Pentecost
June 5 & 7 Book Study of The Holy Longing continues 7:30- 9:00PM Mondays through June 19 or 9:30- 11:00AM Wednesdays through June 21
June 11 celebrate the end of the Sunday School program year
June 13 Silent Night 7:30- 8:45pm Blue Room
June 18 Sunday service time shifts to 8:00AM and 9:00AM
From the Associate for Adult Christian Formation
Whew! What a blur of events! Wrapping up the Learning Team’s work and presenting the vestry with a strategic plan, having Bishop Tom Shaw visit our parish, sending our rector Tom off on sabbatical, and welcoming our interim priest the Rev Ray Bronk … May most certainly was a busy month! Summer promises continued busyness; it also offers a change of pace and the chance to try some different activities.
Wednesdays continue to offer two opportunities for prayer and worship. A small group gathers each Wednesday morning in the Blue Room at 7:00 for Morning Prayer. There is also a Eucharist service every Wednesday noon in the chapel. All are invited to come.
Our monthly opportunity for silent reflection, Silent Night, will continue each second Tuesday evening in the Blue Room, 7:30- 8:45pm. We open and close with a brief form of the Daily Office from the Prayer Book and share about an hour of silence. Participants pray, write, read, do art, or do any other quiet task that helps them hold the silence.
The Sunday morning adult Bible class goes on hiatus for the summer on June 18 with the shift of service time.
The Rev Ray Bronk and I are looking at how our parish can draw upon his vast experience as a priest and an educator. We hope that he can offer a couple of classes and discussion opportunities about the Christian faith. Our parish is blessed to have his experience and knowledge available to us these four months.
I hope that summer 2006 is a time when you get a chance to have a change of pace, to spend some time relaxing, and to renew your relationships.
in peace,
Amy Hunter
Pledge Statements
Pledge statements for the first half of 2006 will be available in the Narthex shortly after the end of June. Please pick up your statement; it will save us the cost of postage. Statements that do not get picked up will require mailing.
Please make every effort to keep your pledge up to date during the summer months. Traditionally, pledge payments drop off during the summer, but salaries still need to be paid, maintenance needs to be done, and our bills keep coming in.
Thank you!
Ron Cannistraro
Junior Warden
Coming through (just once)
I expect to pass through this world but once; Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any fellow-creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
Stephen Grellet (1773-1855)
All's well in Kenya
Sabbatical Correspondence from Tom Barrington, Mon, 22 May 2006
I am well and starting to get my bearings here. I arrived in Nairobi on Friday and got a great tour of the city with James Nyaga and his wife Sarah. They are friends of Paul Gitimu, the Anglican Church of Kenya priest who lives in Lawrence. Got into Maseno, Kenya on Friday evening at dusk (It does indeed get dark very fast after sunset on the equator.) Everyone has been wonderfully welcoming. The guest house is what must be called primitive but I am finding it comfortable. If you compare it to camping in the Adirondacks it is luxurious, hot water showers, flush toilets and my own mosquito netting.
On Saturday I went with the Mobile Health Clinic out of the Mason Mission Hospital to one of the Orphan Feeding Program sites. The Diocese of Mass pays for the clinic as well as the food. It is hilly country and the roads are frightful. We went up and down and up and down again on very bad dirt roads and turned into track only one car wide and then came upon the church, parish hall, priest’s residence and cook house and lots of kids and mothers. It felt to me like the middle of nowhere but the area is densely populated with tiny little farms so they said this was normal. There is a little village a few hundred meters up the road but it did not look like much of a village (No Norman Rockwell village here).
When we got there there were fires going in the cook house with huge vats of beans cooking. I helped out by counting pills being dispensed by the pharmacy. The clinic saw 205 people. Most were mostly OK but they did hospitalize three children. Because it is a free program everyone comes, though you do have to sign up and have your little booklet. We saw folks for about six hours. I did go out for the feeding program. I have no idea how many children were served. Each got a large mug of beans. There was just enough. They serve out of eight large plastic buckets. After the food and the clinic, the women fed us workers. We actually got some meat and vegetables. There were three Americans, Dr. Gerry Hardison, Wanda a physician’s assistant from Vermont and myself, and eight Kenyans. They either worked at the hospital or were student nurses.
That night I spent some time with some of the students at the school. I have met a few but have not had any time to sit down and talk. I had the copy of the article in Cowley Magazine that talked about Tom Shaw and Br. David’s visit along with a photograph of all of them. That wonderfully broke the ice. I think it will be a very interesting place to study. It looks like I will be leading a seminar on mission this week. I have also now have two offers to preach next Sunday. I will have to work that out on Monday. Yes, I do hear Ian Douglas’ counsel to try to not be put in charge and will have to find some balance.
Today, Sunday, I went to an English Morning Prayer service in the school chapel with just a handful of others. It was nice with voice-only singing and a nice simple sermon. I could not work out the logistics to go to a local parish. I really wanted to go with someone and the couple of guys I could have gone with were bicycling. I do not yet have one. Also, I wanted to visit a Children with AIDS program at the hospital. It is like a club for kids with AIDS and their care givers. They have it once a month. They have five children officers and do a lot of teaching about HIV/AIDS. I gave out about 30 of the friendship bracelets and they were a big hit. (I do have pictures but with a dial up satellite connection it takes too long to send.) They then watched Shrek, with great delight.
I am having a good time but do feel very far away. I think of you often. I hope to be involved in the college this week rather than the hospital. I also want to learn my way around. It is nice that I have some time and do not feel like I have to get every experience in at once.
I have extended the greeting of All Saints' Church with all. It is greatly appreciated that they know that the people from All Saints' Church in Chelmsford Massachusetts are praying for them. (Wherever that might be.) Life here can be very hard and knowing that in Christ they have brothers and sisters praying for them and that they are not alone makes a huge difference. Pray for me also, as I pray for you.
With peace and blessings,
Tom
Current Vestry Members
David Cahill Beth Anne Economou Lois Freeman
Derick Gates Steve Grillo Doug Hausler
Joe Sala Sally Warren Anne Whitaker
Adrienne Spear, Senior Warden
Melanie Hickcox, Treasurer
Meredith McElroy, Clerk
The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended,
The darkness looms at thy behest;
To thee our morning hymns ascended,
Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.
We thank thee that thy Church unsleeping,
While earth rolls onward into light,
Through all the world her watch is keeping
And rests not now by day or night.
As o’er each continent and island
The dawn leads on another day,
The voice of prayer is never silent,
Nor dies the strain of praise away.
The sun that bids us rest is waking
Our brethren ’neath the western sky,
And hour by hour fresh lips are making
Thy wondrous doings heard on high.
So be it, Lord; thy throne shall never,
Like earth’s proud empires, pass away;
Thy kingdom stands, and grows forever,
Till all thy creatures own thy sway.
J. Ellerton (1826-93)
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Church Office, phone: 978-256-5673
Senior Warden....... Adrienne Spear
Junior Warden........ Ron Cannistraro
Treasurer............... Melanie Hickcox
Clerk..................... Meredith McElroy
Acolyte Director.... Clem Cole
Adult Education...... Amy Hunter
Altar Guild............. Liz Landers
Buildings and…….. Rich Jerome
Grounds
Christian School..... Laura Marshall
Michelle Thomas
Elizabeth Danieli
Coffee Hour.......... Cindy Dussault
Endowment ........... to be filled
Environmental Stewardship
Committee............. Liz Marshall
Fellowship.............. to be filled
Finance.................. Clem Cole
Music Minister....... Maggie Marshall
Outreach............... Dave Kuzara
Pastoral Care......... Joy Chadwick
Saints Alive............ Patrick Blumeris
SaintsAlive e-mail:.. ... saintsalive@yahoo.com
Stewardship........... Steve Grillo
Thrift Shop............. Carol Cannistraro
Youth Group.......... to be filled
Webmaster............ Richard Coles
Web site................ www.allsaintschelmsford.org
… for the July/August 2006 Saints Alive! is
June 16th, 2006
Please leave your articles in the Saints Alive! mailbox in the church office, or send them via email to SaintsAlive@yahoo.com