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SAINTS Alive! THE NEWSLETTER OF THE PARISH All Saints’ Church Chelmsford, MA April 2007
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SAINTS Alive! THE NEWSLETTER OF THE PARISH All Saints’ Church Chelmsford, MA April 2007
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I find that I am especially looking forward to Easter this year. One reason is that it has been a good Lent. For me it has been a time of reflection and renewal. It has also been very busy with planning. The Vestry went on a very productive retreat. We are hosting a Deanery Confirmation Service. We are planning for Holy Week and Easter, the high point of our Christian life. Even so, this year it feels like Easter is not an end point but an entrance way into serving God more fully.
The weekend after Easter is going to be full and exciting. Saturday April 14th will be the Interfaith Step It Up 2007 Rally on Chelmsford Common. This will be an opportunity for us to gather with other people of faith to address issues of global warming. A part of God’s mission is to be stewards of our planet.
On Sunday, April 15th, we will be celebrating Baptism as well as welcoming The Rt. Rev. Simon Oketch and his wife Margaret. He is the Bishop of the Diocese of Maseno North in the Anglican Church of Kenya. It will be an opportunity to learn more about the Anglican Communion and to imagine how we can more fully partner with the members of Nyahela Sub-parish in his diocese.
Toward the end of the month, we have been asked to join with other congregations to think and pray about issues of fair housing and racism that still separate us one from another.
At Easter we celebrate the fact that Christ is risen. His resurrection is the entrance-way for us to join God in God’s mission in so many ways.
Peace,
Tom
8:00 AM and 10:00 AM
Blessing of Palms, Reading of the Passion and Holy Eucharist
Monday thru Saturday – 7:00 AM
Noon in the Chapel
Maundy Thursday – April 5th
6:30 PM - Agape Meal in the Parish Hall
7:30 PM - Celebration of the Last Supper and stripping of the Altar in the Church
Good Friday – April 6th
Noon Vigil in the Chapel
7:30 PM Good Friday Service
Featuring parts of the Fauré Requim with combined choirs of Trinity Lutheran Church and All Saints’ Episcopal Church
An intimate evening of darkness and light, tales of salvation and reconciliation, renewal of Baptismal Vows and the first Eucharist of Easter. Followed by an Easter party.
7:30 AM - Holy Eucharist in the Chapel
9:00 AM - Festival Eucharist with the
Childrens, Youth and Senior Choirs
11:00 AM - Festival Eucharist with the Senior Choir
by Christin Mills
From a sermon preached at All Saints’ Church on March 11, 2007
Chrissy is a junior at Boston University. She went on a pilgrimage to Maseno Kenya with a group of college students and Bishop Shaw in January, 2007
As tempting as it is, we can’t stay at home for the rest of our lives. Every one of us needs to experience new things that will teach us, change us and help us grow into the people we were meant to become.
I recently traveled to Kenya with a group of Episcopal college students from Boston. … I found that our visit not only forced our group to step out of our comfort zones, but it allowed the people we were visiting to explore new ideas and experience new things as well. My friend Sarah and I went one Saturday to visit Nyahela parish. This is the same parish that Reverend Barrington visited and many of you sent letters to. We received an extremely warm greeting, were fed two meals and were able to help with their orphan feeding program.
While we were waiting for their food to be ready, Sarah and I spent two hours surrounded by about 200 children. We were so different to each other, but we found that we had one big thing in common, Church. We had all grown up going to church on Sundays, listening to the bible stories, taking communion and learning the songs. Everyone we met in Kenya loved to sing. We spent those two hours at the Nyahela Parish listening to the kids sing songs to us that they had learned in church and in school. We even attempted to sing to them. When we found songs that we both knew we would sing together. Eventually the kids went to get their food leaving Sarah and me free to walk around and take pictures. In the Diocese of Maseno North, Nyahela Parish is one of the last to have their feeding program sponsored by an American parish. The children involved in the feeding program get one free meal a week, free classes on Saturdays to supplement their education and free healthcare at the Maseno Anglican Hospital. Nyahela Parish feeds between 300 and 400 children each week. It is amazing how much this parish is doing with so few resources. Everywhere we went we were asked to speak to the congregation. One of my friends on the trip, Gabby, said something that stuck with me throughout the whole trip. She told the people of Ebersiratsi parish, “If you can do so much with so little, imagine what we could be doing with so much more.”
I came to the conclusion that it is not about how much money I have or don’t have. It is about how I use the resources that I have. God is sending us all on journeys just as He sent Jesus out to spread His word. And just like Jesus all he asks us to explore, experience new things and share our lives and gifts we those we meet.
With thoughts of Spring cleaning in the backs of your minds, the Firelight Church School students ask you to hold onto those old bicycles you may be thinking of throwing out and instead consider donating them to Bikes Not Bombs, a non-profit organization working for alternative transportation and community development. Bikes Not Bombs operates the Bicycle Recycling and Youth Training Center in Jamaica Plain, MA, to promote environmental education, meaningful employment and safe sustainable communities, both locally and abroad. For more information on this organization, visit www.bikesnotbombs.org. We are planning a collection drive to take place at the All Saints Church parking lot on May 19. More details to follow. If there are any questions feel free to call me (978-250-8164) or e-mail me m.flewelling@comcast.net.
Melissa Flewelling & Susan Gates
The Worship Committee invites you to become part of the dedicated team that assists in our weekly worship services. Opportunities available at both services include reading the lessons, leading the prayers of the people and other parts of the service, and assisting with the distribution of wine and bread. Training is available for all of these areas. Please speak to Maggie Marshall or Tom Barrington if you feel called to serve in any of these capacities.
Greetings to my All Saints’ family from North Berwick, Maine. I hope this missive finds you all well and having weathered yet another New England winter none the worse for wear. I myself am so thrilled at the prospect of entering into “mud season” here in Vacationland; I’ve got a jumbo box of Handiwipes by the back door for the dogs’ feet (now if they’d only learn to use them!)
I wanted to write not only to let you know how much you’re all missed but also to share something that happened to me recently. Sometimes it’s hard to see God at work in your life but at other times his hand is so obvious it’s difficult to fathom how you could ever doubt. I’m ashamed to admit that since I moved to Maine two years ago, I had only attended St. George’s, the local Episcopal church in Sanford, twice. I just didn’t get a “warm fuzzy” from the rector; both sermons I heard him preach were uncomfortably hellfire and brimstone.
And that wasn’t the only thing. Both times I went, no one came to say hi to me (NOTE to greeters: you are invaluable!). The choir sat in the sanctuary. The first time I attended the rector baptized a baby, and he did it in the BACK of the church so we all had to turn around in our seats (what was THAT about?!) And the kneelers…they’re not attached to the pew in front of you, and they’re kind of wobbly. But I digress…the main thing was I really did not connect with the rector.
So I did not go, but there has been a huge hole in my life. I considered trying the Methodist church, but having just recently been confirmed as an Episcopalian I couldn’t bring myself to do that. So I prayed and asked God for guidance. This last Ash Wednesday I walked across the street from where I work and attended the noon service at St. John’s in Portsmouth, and it felt so good to be there. I vowed to myself that that Sunday, the first in Lent, I would give St. George’s another try. I reasoned that the church is so much more than the rector (no offense, Tom) and that I would surely make friends and find people there I would connect with.
When Sunday dawned, however, I did NOT want to go. I sat in my jammies arguing with myself. The little voice in my head said, “Just go,” and the other little voice said, “I don’t want to go.” But the first voice was insistent, even telling me to hop on the Internet to see if the church had a website so I could check the service schedule times. They did have a website – services at 8 and 10 a.m. – and there was a note: “At this morning’s 10 a.m. service we will be commissioning the search committee as they begin their search for our new rector.”
I thought I should probably go. As I arrived and made my way into a pew, a friendly woman in a choir robe was coming up the aisle and she stopped and said hello to me, telling me her name was Ginny and that she was also the church secretary. She said she hoped I enjoyed the service.
I did. The priest who was there that day was an elderly gentleman with a warm, witty style and I liked him immensely. His sermon was about Jesus going into the desert and being tempted by Satan, and before he got into it he called the children up to sit on the steps leading to the Sanctuary and chatted with them about it at a level they could understand. When he asked one of the children what kind of bread he would make out of stone if he could, without hesitation the boy responded, “cinnamon raisin!” The priest agreed that was his favorite, too. I thought it would be wonderful if this man could serve as the interim until a permanent rector was hired.
Towards the end of the service that little voice was back in my head again, telling me to go to coffee hour. “Oh NO, not coffee hour!” I replied. I attended All Saints’ five or six times before working up the courage to go to coffee hour. But again, that little voice would not let up, and so I soon found myself walking into a strange parish hall, where strangers were pouring coffee and chatting amongst themselves. I got my cup and stood over to the side, out of the way. I felt like a stranger in a strange land, and was thinking how right at that moment, about 60 miles to the south, my All Saints’ family was now gathered doing the same thing – people I knew and felt comfortable with, who knew me.
The rector came in and once he got his cup of coffee I decided as I made my escape to quickly stop and tell him how much I enjoyed his sermon. He warmly shook my hand and asked me if I’d been coming to St. George’s for long. I told him no, that I had moved to the area two years before and had only come a couple times. “It’s very hard to find a new church family, when you were so fond of your last one,” I said.
He asked me where my last church was. All Saints’ Church in Chelmsford, Massachusetts, said I.
“All Saints’ Church in Chelmsford, Massachusetts!” said he. “Now I was the Associate Rector there from let’s see, about 1968 to 1972. Who might we know in common? Do you know the Davenports?” I told him I did.
“And Harry Taplin? Do you know Harry and his daughter, Lynne?” I told him about going to work in Harry’s garden, and taking the produce to donate to the Chelmsford food pantry. How his daughter Lynne and I had become great friends.
The Reverend Jim Lowe seemed to know just what I needed. “Well,’ he said. “ You need to meet your extended church family, right here!” And with that, he took me by the hand and took me to meet the junior and senior warden. “Robin and Marie, this is Judy Glidden. She comes from All Saints’ Church down in Massachusetts – I was the Associate Rector there from ’68 to ’72! She was pretty busy there – on the Vestry and even co-leading the Youth Group!”
Robin and Marie got that look in their eyes I’d seen so many times in the eyes of the leadership at All Saints’. You know the one I mean! “It’s SO great to meet you!” Marie said, giving me a big hug. Robin smiled and leaning in said, “Admit to experience like that around here and you’ll get roped into all kinds of things!”
I spoke with Amy Hunter a few days after this, happened to tell her about it, and she said sometimes God just likes to show off. I said it was like He stuck His head down through the clouds and hollered “ONE PRAYER ANSWER, COMING UP!” Father Lowe cannot be the interim priest at St. George’s because he is already serving as interim at another church, and agreed on that Sunday, which was his one Sunday off per month, to fill in at St. George’s. I wonder if, when asked, a little voice in his head said, “Just go!” I needed someone to take me by the hand and introduce me to my extended family at St. George’s. God sent someone from All Saints’ to do that.
I’ve been going to St. George’s for a few weeks now and am happy to report that, although the choir members are few in number and they sit in a different place, their voices are sweet. And the kneelers, although not attached to the pews in front, well they are well padded, cleaned and cared for. I’m still not sure why they baptize the babies in the back of the church, but I’m sure I’ll find out in due time. And though no one will ever replace my All Saints’ family, how wonderful it is to finally be meeting my brothers and sisters in Christ at St. George’s. Peace be with you all.
Judy Glidden
974 Oak Woods Road
N. Berwick, ME 03906
e-mail to: jglidden1@maine.rr.com
The next B&G Volunteer Day will be Saturday May 5th starting at 9 AM.
This one will be for "Grounds."
Rich Jerome
The parish hall kitchen clean-up teams could use a few more volunteers. There are 4 teams that help to keep our nearly new kitchen looking the best that it can. Each team meets once a month, on a day and time that is convenient for those team members.
The teams do a general and thorough cleaning of the kitchen with the exception of floors. We generally pick up and put away anything that has been left out on the counters. We clean the refrigerator by wiping it down and discarding any items that have expired. The stove top is wiped down as are all counters. We try to manage the recycle bins and if they are overflowing we take the items home to add to our own recycling efforts.
Please remember that our facility is rented out on a regular basis and our long-term renters are using the parish hall and kitchen. It is important that our space is clean and tidy for both our renters’ use and our own. If you have been looking for some small way to be involved that takes a short amount of time (usually 30 minutes or less) and that will make a huge difference, then this is for you.
Please call Carol Cannistraro at 978-256-0929 or e-mail her at carolron@comcast.net.
Trinity Church, Topsfield is sponsoring an Antiracism Training Program conducted by the Diocesan Antiracism Team on May 18 and 19. Enrollment is open to all parish members in the North Shore Deanery and Merrimack Deanery as well as to members of other parishes.
Friday, May 18 - 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Saturday, May 19 - 8:00 am to 4:30 pm
Contact Reverend Johanna Barrett of Trinity Topsfield at 978-887-5570, or Nancy Moore at 781-275-1018.
In the Sunday Bulletin under the section on “those in our parish in need of healing,” we list those with more acute needs. Saints Alive now carries a list of more “on-going” concerns to bring to God in prayer.
We will make the description you provide as general or specific as you indicate. Please let us know what you would like included. We encourage you to clip out these names and keep them in your prayers.
If you would like your name to be added or removed from any of the prayers lists, please contact Darlene in the Church Office.
· Gladys Stephens, Palm Manor Nursing Home
· Eleanor Ferreira at home
· Millie Adams at home
· Mary Buote at home
· Grace Wardell, Sunny Acres Nursing and Rehab Center
· Dora Smith, Betsy Eisemann’s Mother
· Priscilla Smith at home
· Doug Grant at home, chronic back pain
· Chaz Freeman, waiting for placement
· Debbie Anderton, Dora Carr’s daughter
· Dorothy Eaton, Willow Manor
· Richard Shaffer, Amy Hunter’s father, cancer
· Alistair Redman, son of Edwin and Janet Redman, missing
Sudden
Tumbling waves
On the Sea of Galilee
Rocking winds
Many afraid disciples
Yet Jesus calms
Edward Van Corbach
Firelight Class (grade 4)
Churches and institutions we are asked to consider especially during the month of April are listed in this section.
Sunday, April 1, 2007 The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
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Church of the Good Shepherd, Fairhaven
Church of the Ascension, Fall River
St. John's/St. Stephen's Partnership, Fall River
St. Luke's Church, Fall River
Formation/Education Ministry Area
Friday, April 6, 2007 Good Friday
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Sunday, April 8, 2007 Easter Day
St. Mark's Church, Fall River
St. Barnabas' Church, Falmouth
St. Mark's Church, Foxborough
St. Andrew's Church, Framingham
Merrimack Valley Deanery
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Saturday, April 14, 2007 “Step it Up” Interfaith Rally for National Day of Climate Action (Chelmsford Common noon to 2 pm)
Sunday, April 15, 2007 The Second Sunday of Easter
St. John's Church, Franklin
St. John's Church, Gloucester
St. John's Chapel, Groton School, Groton
Congregations: Sextons and Custodians
Ministries to the Homeless
Sunday, April 22, 2007 The Third Sunday of Easter
St. James' Church, Groveland
St. David's Church, Halifax
St. Andrew's Church, Hanover
Christ Church, Harwich Port
The Ministry of all Altar Guilds
Friday, April 27, 2007 Arbor Day
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Sunday, April 29, 2007 The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Trinity Church, Haverhill
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Hingham
St. John's Church, Holbrook
St. Michael's Church, Holliston
Essex County Community Organization
Sunday, May 6, 2007 The Fifth Sunday of Easter
St. Paul's Church, Hopkinton
St. Luke's Church, Hudson
Christ Church, Hyde Park (Boston)
Iglesia de San Juan, Hyde Park (Boston)
Mount Hope/Buzzards Bay Deanery
Sunday, May 13, 2007 The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Ascension Memorial Church, Ipswich
St. John's Church, Jamaica Plain (Boston)
Grace Church, Lawrence
Esperanza Academy, Lawrence
Episcopal Church Women
The Massachusetts Council of Churches
One way to commemorate Good Friday is through remembering the Stations of the Cross. One listing of these follows:
Last month, I wrote about the Zen of Building Maintenance; now it's back to nuts and bolts. I'm writing this a little ahead of the 'action', but it looks like there is some serious movement toward high efficiency furnaces and solving the acoustics problems (LOUD resonance!) with the Parish Hall.
We have a very good quote in front of the Vestry shortly on the furnaces; and of course, this decision depends on being prudent with our resources. We believe that newer high efficiency furnaces can pay us back in less than 5 years. Depending on fuel prices and severity of winter, this could be 2-3 years!
The acoustics problem is actively being researched by Deb Dutton, Dave Cahill, Matt Hickcox and Steve Grillo. We are required to report a proposal to the Vestry for next year's budget consideration. If you have an inkling that this subject interests you, or even if you would like to learn with us, please see one of us for details.
Rich Jerome
Spring is here (almost), and it’s time to think Gardening! Every year we invite parishioners to donate funds in memory of a loved one for the purpose of buying flowers for the Memorial Garden. This is the space just outside the Narthex with the birdbath etc. We have a dedicated group of gardeners who supplement the permanent plants with a colorful set of annuals. If you’re interested, please send your donation to the Church office, make checks payable to All Saints’ Church and mark it Memorial Garden in the note space.
The landscape design is still progressing slowly. There have been several additions over the last two years including a Red Japanese Maple, a Globe Blue Spruce, a Korean Lilac, and a Kousa Dogwood. These trees have been donated as memorials in memory of the Alcorn Sisters, Herb and David Willman, Bob Clement and Jack and Helen Robinson. There have been several other people who have expressed interest in this area and we are keeping them in mind as the plan matures. If you are interest in this sort of donation, please contact either Oliver Chamberlain or Carol Douglas with your interest. With the completion of the stone wall, we expect that the remainder of the plan will begin to move more quickly.
The Garden Committee
Vacancies in the Parish
Leadership positions to be filled for:
Fellowship;
Youth Group;
a representative for United Thank Offering.
April 1 to 7 Holy Week
Sun Palm Sunday
Mon – Sat: Morning Prayer at 7:00Am in Chapel
Wed Eucharist and Healing Service at noon in Chapel
Thur Maundy Thursday-- Agape dinner & service
Fri Good Friday – noon service in chapel evening service at Trinity Lutheran
Sat Easter Vigil – 7:30PM
April 8 EASTER DAY
April 10 “Prayer as First Resort” Blue Room, 7:30 – 9:00 pm
I feel as if I am sending greetings to this parish from the faraway land of illness, surgery and recovery, a much less glamorous sabbatical than Tom’s pilgrimage to Kenya! I am not quite back yet, but I feel myself returning to some of my regular rhythms at home and at work.
My experiences have ensured me a rich Lenten time. I have many opportunities to practice patience and to experience gratitude. Most of all, I have known that I am held by community, in my family, in the friendships I am privileged to have, and here at All Saints’. Thank you to all of you for your prayers, thoughts and communications.
I hope to return full-force after Easter. Watch your bulletins and email for formation events. There is plenty in the works -- events to nurture spiritual practice, a workshop on play and spirituality, a book discussion, getting the Connect program up and running. You will be hearing more from me after Easter!
Till then, I encourage you to enter as fully as possible into the drama of Holy Week and the Easter season. We come to these services and stories, not as people remembering some events far away and long ago, but as people who know that we are called here and now to be the People of God and the Body of Christ. The Easter story, the Passion and the Resurrection are our story. May God give each of us and this community the grace to live more deeply in our new life in Christ.
in peace,
Amy Hunter
Associate for Adult Christian Formation
There will be an interfaith rally to celebrate the National Day of Climate Action on the Chelmsford Common from noon until 2 pm on April 14th. Everyone is Welcome!
Some of the planned events:
· There will be a Photo-op at 1:00 p.m.
· Take away a seedling tree to plant on Arbor Day (April 27th).
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Sign up for Wind/Hydroelectric Power.
· Bring your hybrid car or better yet, bicycle … and brag about its mileage!
· Bring your friends and a banner!
· Network with other environmental stewards!
This event is being organized by a group of Environmental Stewards from All Saints’ Church and is one of over 800 actions in all 50 states.
For more information on the “Step it up” campaign and other planned events/actions, go to www.stepitup2007.org.
The vestry elected for 2007 had its second meeting on Tuesday, March 27 (the first official meeting was its retreat held on March 2-3). Parishioners should look for the official minutes on the bulletin board in the hallway between the Atrium and the Parish Hall.
After an opening prayer led by Lois Freeman, the vestry pondered several items. First, we elected Edith Parekh to be a member of the Vestry to fill a vacancy due to a resignation. Edith, a resident of Lowell, is a longstanding parishioner, who brings to the Vestry a lot of experience relating to the support of non-profits – including a long term involvement with the Mustard Seed project.
We then reflected on the experience of our retreat, led by a diocesan consultant, Ted Gaiser. We felt that the experience had been a good one with Ted providing some very solid practical tools to use during our ongoing work together.
During the course of the evening, we also discussed: replacing a couple of our furnaces with more efficient ones; the extension of a pension plan for our lay employees; committing ourselves to fund Nyahela Parish Orphan Feeding Program in Kenya; and our vision of the role of fundraisers in our life together as a parish. In the background for further development and future reporting are a revisioning of the coffee hour and the related topic of Parish Hall acoustics.
This is a brief report, but captures, I think the gist of the meeting. Look for further reports on the work of the vestry in future issues of Saints Alive.
Harry Taplin
Current Vestry Members
David Cahill Tom Decker Deb Dutton
Beth-Anne Economou Rich Jerome Liz Landers
Edith Parekh Rebecca Ricard Harry Taplin
Derick Gates, Senior Warden
Melanie Hickcox, Treasurer
Kevin Meyers, Clerk
Lynne Grillo and Amy Hunter invite you to gather in the Blue Room on Tuesday, April 10, 7:30- 9:00 to reflect on how we can identify and strengthen our personal spiritual practices. Both of us were struck by an article that suggested that often people turn to prayer as the last resort, the thing one does when everything else has failed and there’s no hope. What if we prayed first and about those things that matter most to us? What if we looked at our spiritual practices, not with an eye to loading ourselves with all the things we should be doing, but with the realization that we are already spiritual people with practices that help us be in relationship with God and one another?
Please join us. If you want to know more, please contact Amy Hunter at fifimom@juno.com.
Palm Sunday – April 1, 8a.m and 10a.m. – distribution of palms, festal procession, and reading of the Passion. Also at 10a.m., the Senior Choir and the Senior Choir from Trinity Lutheran will be singing much of the Fauré Requiem, featuring Josh Christian and Kathryn Chamberlain as soloists, with Oliver Chamberlain as conductor and Maggie Marshall at the organ.
Monday – Saturday, morning prayer at 7a.m. in the Chapel
Wednesday, April 4 – noonday Eucharist in the Chapel
Maundy Thursday – April 5. Agapé meal at 6:30p.m. followed by our last Eucharist until Easter. The church service includes footwashing and the stripping of the altar. Help is needed for setting up this meal in the parish hall. The supper is a simple, meatless family potluck. All are welcome to both the meal and the service.
Good Friday – April 6. Noonday service in the chapel followed by a period of reflection.
Good Friday, 7:30p.m., Trinity Lutheran Church – a musical service which will include Fauré’s Requiem with combined choirs.
Holy Saturday, April 7, 7:30-9:30p.m. A small, intimate evening of telling the story of God’s work throughout human history to create a community of life and reconciliation, culminating with the first Eucharist of Easter. .
Easter Sunday – services at 7:30a.m. in the chapel, and at 9a.m., and 11a.m. in the main sanctuary. The 9a.m. service features handbells, both youth choirs, and the senior choir and brass. The 11a.m. service includes all but the youth choirs.
In a world that is full of bad things, it is nice to find the good things and celebrate them. In my experience, good things tend to happen when I keep my eyes, ears, and heart open.
Even though I am in a bit of a note-learning and logistical nightmare right now, it is still part of the bigger “grace” musical picture.
I am writing this the day after a wonderful combined choral evensong at Christ Church, Andover. My colleague at Christ Church, Barbara Bruns, is someone whom I’ve known for a while, even though she is relatively new in her position there. We discovered that we share similar views about children and song, so my first grace note of the season was to agree to do this service. Making this service even richer was the celebrant, Ray Bronk, who is serving as Interim Assistant there.
My next grace note is part of a bigger composition. It began in December when Patrick Gagnon, the Minister of Music at Trinity Lutheran, asked me what my intentions were for Ash Wednesday music. Although I pride myself on planning ahead, he had beaten me to the punch this time. He mentioned that his choir was singing the Fauré Requiem on Good Friday and that they would be doing the Agnus Dei on Ash Wednesday. We were welcome to join them if we wanted to.
Our choir had done this same piece 5 years ago, with Oliver Chamberlain conducting, and Wayne Ashford playing the organ. As some of you know, we did sing the Agnus Dei with the Trinity Lutheran choir, and we thought we had achieved nirvana – the combined choir of over 30 voices, with 4 balanced parts, was a treat for all! Oliver and I decided that since we were dusting off (maybe resurrecting is a better term) one movement for Ash Wednesday, we might as well pull out the Requiem and do as much of it as possible on Palm Sunday. For me, the true grace came after the Ash Wednesday service, when an e-mail exchange between myself and Patrick resulted not only in my conveying our willingness to join them on Good Friday, but also his offering to lend us his choir on Palm Sunday!
My final grace note of the season should be heard by all who attend the Deanery Confirmation at All Saints’ on 3/31. Although our choirs are perfectly capable of raising voices and ringing bells in joyous praise, I felt that it would be even more special to add other groups and instruments. I have cashed in many collegial chips to ensure that this day will be a wonderful and unique celebration.
May God’s good grace continue to shine upon us all!
Maggie Marshall, Minister of Music
Critical, short-term help needed
We are forming an audit team to review the books for 2004 and 2005. Don’t be frightened by the word audit – the process is well defined by the diocese and requires no prior accounting experience. It can be completed in a few Saturday afternoons, tentatively set for April 21, April 28, and if necessary, May 5. If you are available to help on any or all of these days, please call Melanie Hickcox at 978 448-0931, or e-mail her at mel@odic.com.
19th Annual Merrimack Valley
Alzheimer’s Conference
Sponsored by
Elder Services of the Merrimack Valley
and the Merrimack Valley Alzheimer’s Partnership
Saturday April 28, 2007 – 8 :00 AM to 1:00 PM
Wyndham Andover
Old River Road , Andover, MA
Traveling the Road of Alzheimer’s Disease
A Conference for Professional and Family Care Partners of Alzheimer’s Patients
Experts in the field will present current information on Alzheimer’s Disease including: research updates and prospects, medications, behavioral protocols, health and long term care, ethical and legal issues.
Reistration deadline: Thursday, April 19, 2007
Please call Barbara Brandt-Saret at 800-892-0890, Ext. 347 for more information.
From the Riter
One of Tom Barrington’s favorite Easter memories was recalled a couple of years ago for the “From the Rector” column. Tom’s draft article began by introducing one of his favorite “Eater memories.” Since his memory was of trips to a restaurant on Easter Day, my temptation was to leave the Eater typo in place.
Sharing food is a great blessing: This Lent, Ray Bronk has been leading Bible study meetings at All Saints’ on Monday evenings … with food. Learning from Luke, with both Ray Bronk and Tom on call to ask questions, has led to a more deliberate “Eater” experience.
At the same time, Tom has challenged us to take the show on the road (by reference to the sending out of the 12 and the 72). Should we really be comfortable as hearers of the Word, only? And who were those priests and Sadducees and Pharisees whom Jesus lampooned in his teaching? Some of them were real seekers of God’s will, but they were seemingly trapped in their traditions. The echoes of Tom’s recent sermon on the aftermath of the return of the prodigal son brought to mind some limits: there are still those who feel very comfortable with doing things as they’ve always been done: the rites of the rubric of the prayer book should be observed, just as the many prohibitions of the Old Testament needed to be followed when Jesus was teaching.
After all, don’t altar candles need to be lit in a particular order, or snuffed out in the reverse order? (Even if I don’t remember that order!) Still, don’t decorum and church vestments matter? Conversely, doesn’t it matter that Jesus came into this world – and died on Good Friday (and rose again) – to heal our relationships with God (and our neighbors): now how trivial is the candle-sequencing beside such a mission! The rulebooks have their place, and the routines may be comfortable, but the relationships matter more, and we need to be ready to change.
Bread and soup on Monday nights this Lent have sparked a number of lively discussions. The rites have their place, if only to remind us of the ardent good intentions of their framers. But when someone thinks less of us because we stuck to the rules, then it may be time to leave those rites behind, to concentrate on fellowship!
Patrick Blumeris, editor
Church Office........................... 978-256-5673
Senior Warden....... Derick Gates
Junior Warden........ Lois Freeman
Treasurer............... Melanie Hickcox
Clerk..................... Kevin Myers
Acolyte Director.... Clem Cole
Adult Education...... Amy Hunter
Altar Guild............. Liz Landers
Buildings and…….. Rich Jerome
Grounds
Christian School..... Laura Marshall
Michelle Thomas
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Coffee Hour.......... Cindy Dussault
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Environmental Stewardship
Committee............. Liz Marshall
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Music Minister....... Maggie Marshall
Outreach............... Dave Kuzara
Pastoral Care......... Joy Chadwick
Saints Alive............ Patrick Blumeris
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… for the May 2007 Saints Alive! is
April 15th, 2007
Please leave your articles in the Saints Alive! mailbox in the church office, or send them via email to SaintsAlive@yahoo.com. Thanks.
