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SAINTS Alive! THE NEWSLETTER OF THE PARISH All Saints’ Church Chelmsford, MA July/August 2010
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SAINTS Alive! THE NEWSLETTER OF THE PARISH All Saints’ Church Chelmsford, MA July/August 2010
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World Cup Fever
I will admit I have been infected with World Cup Fever. Even though I can get most of the matches only on the Spanish language station, I have enjoyed watching the games. On many a morning I have been able to watch at least the first half of the 7:30 AM match before heading to work. I cannot say that I am a fan of any one team. The incredible athleticism of the players, the spectacle of the fans, the oversized spectacles of the fans, the fact that it is in South Africa and even the constant buzz of the vuvuzelas have caught my attention.
Four years ago when I was in Kenya, I watched the World Cup with the students at St. Philip’s Theological College. The usually serious and devout Bible students really whooped it up as we watched the games on the one small and fuzzy-pictured TV at the college. It was fun. This year I am watching most of the games alone, but it is still fun and a nice distraction.
Amid all of the stresses and strains of life we could all use a moment or two of distraction. I pray that you will be able to find some time to have some fun this summer. Whether it is getting immersed in a close World Cup match, getting away to the beach or the mountains, or just staying home, may this be a season of refreshment and grace for you.
Peace,
Tom
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Sun July 11 |
B-SAFE Briefing: after the 9 am service. |
Catering Opportunity! Contact asctom@gis.net for details.
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Wed July 21 |
Planning Session for our annual Creation Sunday (Oct. 3rd)
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Blue Room. 7:30 pm |
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Fri-Sun July 23-25 |
LOWELL FOLK FESTIVAL |
To help Mustard Seed ministry, contact Edith Parekh at 617-304-2455.
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Mon, Tue Aug 2,3 |
B-SAFE Summer Program at Epiphany School, Dorchester: All Saints’ Church catering. |
EVEN BIGGER Catering Opportunity! Contact asctom@gis.net for details.
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From Monday, July 26th to Saturday July 31st, Rev Tom and Linda will be going to the Barbara Harris Summer Camp in Greenfield, New Hampshire. Tom will be serving as a chaplain while Linda gets to come along and have fun. For more information about the Diocese of Massachusetts’ Barbara Harris Camp go to www.bchcenter.org.
Getting writing right can be a satisfying pursuit.
Is that verb singular or plural? It should depend on the subject of the sentence, now well-modified by an auxiliary clause that likens a singular subject to a collective noun, a simile that likens the context of the predicate to the season of the year, all introduced by a redolence of goodwill that needs instead to be a reminiscence of appropriateness. All this thinking just to confirm that the subject is singular, this time. In the present tense, for a third-person subject, this singularity means the S stays with the verb. And you can leave the quiver, loaded with apostrophes, as burdened with possessives as before.
So, then, where do you put your apostrophes? You ignore them, place them inside the S, outside the S, before the N or after.
The N? Oh, yes, the N. The N that comes before the missing O. And what about the missing Ls and O in words like shan’t and won’t? Even A can go AWOL on occasion…
And then there’s me, and I, and complements and many, many disagreements. Should I expand that thought by beginning with “And then, there’re me, and I…”? (There’s that missing A!) Me and my friends is becoming an acceptable subject these days. But not in the grammar guides. No matter how many times the ill-prepared language people try to stick up for my friends and me as objects, even if they’re only indirect objects.
And there are even rules about starting sentences with conjunctions, which like prepositions that shouldn’t end them, we haven’t the patience for.
And so the grammar goes.
Good manners go further, and ask for I and my friends to be my friends and I. Or even my friends and me. People sound friendly enough by using myself instead (have I ever found myself worn out from over-use?) But myself, no longer just an emphatic I, is usually just a wordy me.
We use words a whole lot. We often misuse them. So, for example, what is a correct spelling of a word that isn’t in the dictionary? (The spell-checker in my software is far from perfect, since it frequently thinks my verbs are nouns that someone couldn’t spell.) Sometimes, it simply needs to know more words. You surely know a few such words. The one that stumped me a year ago was a shitsu. Oh, well, I do at least TRY to get them right. Even if I make them wrong in the process. Like shiatsu, which is not the dog that was intended!
I have an adequate spelling ability, so obvious whoppers usually don’t get by me, but if your typing is like mine then mistakes and mayhem follow everything I prepare.
One person’s adequate spelling presents a rich puzzle of errors for another to find. That other person has been Amy Hunter, who finds many of the errors that I don’t see. She claims that being a “copy editor” is calming. I never lose sight of the fact she is a contributing editor in her own right, and, once a month, she has been contributing articles to SaintsALIVE! for Adult Formation and other programs. Since her office has been in the same building as the parish office, she’s been the right person to get the new vibe and turn it into an announcement for the newsletter. So “other programs” has covered a lot of ground.
Some of that ground has been shaded by imaginary fruit trees. Our working relationship has been constantly shaded by deadlines that never loom so much as pounce. As we realize we are increasingly likely to miss a deadline, we mention this with a written nod to the orchard creatures in our grove: the grove-lings. For some reason, the first time Amy sent me a message offering a million of these creatures, my non-US spelling training wanted to pronounce this as creatures of the grove, not the present participle of the verb to grovel.
Amy’s son may have taken ill in a far-off out-there state where computer software is constantly reinvented; her father may have become ill (he later died) in Delaware. Going through the e-mail correspondence, I’m sure that for each delay I could find a message from her to say she’d likely be late with her Adult Formation Associate’s message, or with her review of my typo-laden first draft, or that she had been busy with other things and so she and the groveling had gotten together, but she would soon be making efforts to pull the routine efforts together. A “grove-ling” message from Amy has usually meant for me that there would be a finished product in my in-box in just one more day: and then any further delays would be MY FAULT.
Amy and I have wished each-other through issues of deadline disappointment with grove-lings incessantly over many years. And that’s the way it’s been – for many years.
This time, and going forward, the delays are all at my end. Amy may be copy-editing this SaintsALIVE! issue, but she won’t be preparing her Adult Formation updates for the parish. She is leaving her Adult Christian Formation calling to concentrate on writing.
So, if you have any news you need to share with the parish, but can’t quite get the no-longer-resident-exactly parish poet’s ear to convey the announcement, your news will be gratefully received at saintsalive@yahoo.com.
In a short while, we hope, Amy’s new writing ventures will not only satisfy her poetic interests, but also open our eyes to new ways to see ourselves, one another, the world around us, and even our foibles and our God! May the words she finds be enriching to her, to her family and her friends: and may that poetic endeavor, that grove, be fruitful, too.
Patrick Blumeris, editor
The Bishop's Summer Academic and Fun Enrichment (B-SAFE) is the Episcopal Diocese's major effort to reach out to youth in the poorest neighborhoods in greater Boston. They serve about 540 youth at six sites for seven weeks. All Saints’ Church will provide lunch at one of the sites on Monday, August 2nd and Tuesday, August 3rd. We will join over 40 other parishes in the Diocese in preparing meals and meeting the children and staff. We will be serving about 100 meals each day at Epiphany School, an Episcopal Junior High School, in Dorchester. After lunch there will also be an opportunity to meet and read with the young people participating in B-SAFE.
A brief organizational meeting will be held on Sunday July 11th after the 9:00 AM service. We need folks to shop, cook and/or serve. This is a great opportunity to see what is going on in the Episcopal Church outside of our parish. Please contact Rev. Tom Barrington at asctom@gis.net for more information and to help out.
For more information about B-SAFE go to www.ststephensbos.org/summerprograms.html
The Vestry has approved the hiring of a 20 hour a week /10 month a year Director of Religious Education (DRE). We are currently writing a job description and hope to begin interviewing candidates in July. The DRE will be responsible for administering our formation programs for our children and youth. They will also work with, train and support the teachers and youth leaders. It should open an exciting new chapter in our long history to supporting ministry with, for and by children and youth.
Our new DRE will only be able to be effective if we have a strong team of teachers and leaders. If you are interested in serving as a church school teacher or as a youth leader please contact Rev. Tom Barrington. We will be getting out a more specific request later in the summer. Also, please keep in your prayers our search for a DRE, our continuing teachers and leaders, and our children and youth.
Every year, we invite people to donate funds to support the Memorial Garden, the area just outside the Narthex. These donations are usually a memorial for a deceased relative.
This year donations for the general upkeep of the garden have come from Millie Adams in memory of the Adams family, Wendy Bruce in memory of her mother, Barbara Pierson, by Paul Twelves in memory of his daughter Sarah and by Janet Redman and family in memory of her husband Edwin.
Specific donations have also been received. The flowers in the urns next to the bench in the upper garden are from Betsy Hirst in memory of her parents Alfhild and Frederick Steinmetz. The flowers in the large planter in front of the Thrift Shop are in memory of David Willman, son of Barbara Willman.
Other donations are welcome. If you want to support the garden, please send checks to the church made out to All Saints’ Church with Memorial Garden in the note space.
The Gardening Committee
Iraqi Family: The Chelmsford Cluster is planning to sponsor another Iraqi refugee family who do not have any relatives in the USA. They will be living in Lowell; we will help furnish their apartment and have agreed to help them settle in, find work and learn how to live in a new country. We do not know when they will arrive, but we expect it may be in the next month (the date is set by the UN and the State department. We will be given about a two-week notice.) Right now Rev. Tom is our representative to the Chelmsford Cluster. He is looking for one or two others who will be willing to assist him as we help sponsor this new refugee family. Please contact him if you are interested at asctom@gis.net.
RIM in Chelmsford: The Chelmsford Cluster or RIM includes Trinity Lutheran Church, First Baptist Church of Chelmsford, Central Congregational Church in Chelmsford, the Congregational Church of Billerica, All Saints’ Church and a few other individuals.
Volunteer at the Lowell Folk Festival -July 23-25!
We will be cooking and serving food to raise money for our less fortunate brothers and sisters in the Caribbean. For more information, please contact Edith Parekh at 617-304-2455.
Young parishioners (14+) are welcome!
For information about domestic abuse or if you are or someone you know is in an unsafe situation, feel free to call Alternative House in Lowell Crisis Hot Line at 888-291-6228 or call the national Safe Link Hot Line at 877-785-2020.
The Rev. Tom Barrington
The Environmental Stewardship committee will be meeting on Wednesday July 21st at 7:30 PM in the Blue Room to plan our annual Creation Sunday to be held on Sunday October 3rd. We will also be planning various ways we as a congregation can address issues of caring for the world our Lord has given us.
We at All Saints’ have always valued our children and have supported them in their faith. Several years ago, the lower church school leaders formed the CCF Co-op (Children’s Christian Formation Co-Operative) – teachers and volunteers who share the work of organizing, staffing and planning for the various activities and events that the children participate in throughout the school year.
There are now many open positions in need of being filled for the Fall ’10-’11 year. Many of our teachers and volunteers, who have given of their time and energy for several years, will either be stepping down or leaving.
Atrium (pre-K and Kindergarten) and Firelight I (Grades 1 and 2) will be without teachers and are in need of teams of 3 to 4 people for each class.
Firelight II (Grades 3 & 4) and Firelight III (Grades 5 & 6) have 1 teacher each but are in need of an additional 2 to 3 people to share in the workload.
If You……….
• Have volunteered in the past as a safe church representative for one of our classes and had fun helping with a lesson,
• Have personally been asked to consider teaching next year,
• Are in the 10th, 11th or 12th grade and are involved with the youth group,
• Have asked yourself, “How can I become more involved with children’s ministry?”
• Are interested in sharing your gift of teaching children,
Then………….
Please prayerfully consider how you might become a partner of the vision of the All Saints Children’s Co-operative and make a commitment to helping us in our ministry with the children.
All questions/concerns regarding available curriculum and level of commitment can be directed to Melissa Flewelling (978-250-8164).
Thank you –
Children’s Christian Formation Co-Operative Members
Our youth are once again joining youth from Central Congregational Church in the DownEast Maine mission trip this August. The youth give up a week of their summer to make a difference in these people’s lives. Christy Brodeur and Frank Thompson are returning to Maine this year after seeing their impact last year. Joining them is Meredith Kuzara, a frequent WV work camper who finds this important enough to skip a family vacation to join this mission. Also joining is Alex Forsberg, who without details decided this was what he wanted to do this summer. I, Mike Thompson, will be joining them as an adult worker on my first mission trip.
We are asking our parishioners to help in any way they can. There are several ways to support this mission outlined below, if you are able. Please keep us in your prayers for a safe trip, good weather and making a difference in someone’s life.
Meals in Maine for the Lubec Mission Trip!
There is much excitement and anticipation among our youth as we plan the mission trip to DownEast Maine. We have over 25 mission workers signed up to serve those in DownEast Maine this year. We are exploring the different gifts and skills our groups have to offer, allowing the team in Maine to match us up with appropriate projects. As we have in the past, we supply and cook all our own meals and the kids are in charge of the menu.
Communal meals will be an integral part of the trip. In past years, members of our church have been sponsors of the meals and the sponsorships have gone quickly. There is an additional responsibility – the sponsoring person or family needs to write a prayer or inspirational message to go with that meal. We will do all the shopping, preparing, and cooking; we just need your contribution and prayers.
We hope you will support our trip by sponsoring one of the 17 meals: 6 breakfasts, 5 lunches, or 6 dinners. The average cost for each breakfast is $25, for each lunch $35, and for each dinner $50. In addition, and most importantly, we ask that you also send along a prayer or inspirational message for us to read as we sit down to the food that you so generously provided for us through your donation. Any help you can provide us is wonderful and will definitely be appreciated by our hungry mission workers. Molly Duggan is coordinating meals-sponsorship. To sponsor a meal, please contact her at 978-256-7756 or email cmduggan@comcast.net to specify which meal you would like to sponsor. Checks can be made payable to “Central Congregational Church” with “Lubec Mission Trip” in the memo. Please send your check and the prayer or inspirational message to: Molly Duggan, 126 Concord Rd., Chelmsford, MA 01824.
Blessings in a T-shirt and Sock Drive
We will again be running a T-shirt and Sock drive before our trip. Last year we provided over 350 T-shirts and pairs of socks to migrant workers in Lubec ME. These workers pick blueberries all day, getting covered with insecticides. Having spare socks and shirts means they can wash their clothes in the evening and let them dry during the day while they work. T-shirts can be new or used. If you know anyone with a business that supplies T-shirts to their workers or many may have older promotional T-shirts that won't be used, we would love to have them. Check your closets and drawers, any will do. Socks will be new, even one pair is great. If you can help us it would be greatly appreciated. We will have donation boxes in the Narthex for drop-off.
Donations - for a donation-supported mission
All materials used by the Chelmsford group are purchased with donated funds, collected by the youth. The youth will be writing letters to their friends and family, explaining the mission and their reasons for participating. I’m asking for support from you, their extended family. We’ll be collecting donations at coffee hour in the coming weeks. Please seek out our young people and offer your support. Checks can be made out to “Central Congregational Church” with “Lubec Mission Trip” in the memo line, and can be given directly to the youth or to me or left at the parish office. Our theme is "The Power of One" from the movie "Pay it Forward" … Please help our youth pay it forward.
Thank you for all of your support, from all the people going to Maine!
Thank you,
Mike Thompson
In the Sunday Bulletin we list those with more acute needs. Saints Alive carries a list of more “on-going” concerns to bring to God in prayer.
We will keep the description you provide as general or specific as you indicate. Please let us know what you would like included. We also 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 prayer lists, please contact Darlene in the Church Office.
· Eleanor Ferreira at home
· Chaz Freeman, Lois Freeman’s son
· Al Gorham, at home
· Doug Grant at home, chronic back pain
· Ken Hunter, Brian Hunter’s father
· Bea Iams, Sunny Acres
· Lillian Doris Johnson, Loisann Grant’s mother, at D’Youville Manor
· Josephine Krasnecki at Sunny Acres
· Bob Moorehouse at Nashoba Park#2 in Ayer
· Dora Smith, Betsy Eisenmann’s mother
· Phyllis Page, at Chelmsford Crossing (from Amherst, MA)
· Priscilla Smith at Willow Manor in Lowell
· Gladys Stephens, Palm Manor Nursing Home
Ministering at Nyahela Sub-Parish in Kenya:
James Mwaura, Pastor. Rev. Mwaura has asked us to pray for political stability in Kenya.
Rural Dean Rev. Jacob Mbunjiro, Dorcus Esilaba, Shem Bwonya, Elizabeth Osiolo, and Phanice Otenyi, Chairlady of the orphan feeding program.
Nyahela sub-parish currently receives SaintsAlive. If you would like to write directly to them, please note their address:
ACK: Anglican Church of Kenya
ACK NYAHELA PARISH
P.O. BOX 201
LUANDA - KENYA
CODE: 50307
It used to be an injunction against hypocrisy: “Physician, heal thyself.” If you’re so good at telling me how to be, then how come you don’t do it yourself? Jesus was mindful of this when he decided that “his time had come” and he revealed himself as the harbinger of a new redemption, of good news for orphans.
Although he pointed out that it was as good as preordained that he would not be well-received in his home town, he also, later, pointed out that while birds might have nests and foxes might have their dens, the Son of Man had no earthly place to rest.
The places of this earth are all in need. I once had a parish priest who admitted, in a pre-Internet time, that the many places he would read about were too far away, and he could only pray meaningfully for the more clearly present nearby needs of the people more directly in touch with him. The newspaper headlines about distant bloodshed and disasters were just too distant to have a direct meaning for him.
As a parish, we have undertaken to help feed people in Greater Lowell and Greater Boston; to help with home repairs in West Virginia. Our people have planned to clothe people in Maine and repair houses there. We have a parish membership with Habitat for Humanity, and have worked on houses in the Lowell area.
Through the Refugee Immigration Ministry, we have worked to ease the lives of some displaced people and families in Massachusetts.
We also have a relationship with a parish in Kenya, where feeding orphans and providing medical attention bring us back to Jesus’ reminder about homelessness. Kenya is near the limits of how far our parish’s reach is extended.
St. James reminds us that charitable thoughts, and even words, won’t do anybody much good without some kind of action. So, when we see a way to help, even at this great distance, we should work to close that gap between kind thoughts and welcome deeds.
And so, if you can see how we can help Nyahela in their day-to-day struggles, now that our Kenyan mission trip has been cancelled, please let us know!
For now, we are sending money and we undertake to pray for the Nyahela Parish, for James Mwaura, Pastor, and for political stability in Kenya.
There is a point in the Old Testament where Adam and Eve are let out of the Garden of Eden and into the land of people. There was a time just a month ago when the announcement was made that with the exception of Africans, it seemed everyone carried the genes of Neanderthals. So who were the “people” and where was the Garden?
In an affirmation of the importance of his entry to Jerusalem, Jesus pointed out that if the people were silent, the rocks would cry out. He also pointed out that God could make sons of Abraham out of stones. In May, it was announced that a completely artificial life form had been created in a lab, created from the atoms that are found in nature. This development indicates the potential for scientists to create even more complex life forms, that might indeed share the genetic code of Abraham, and might indeed shout Hosanna at a passing Messiah.
God is not holding back many details of how this universe of ours, this Universe of His, works.
We are exhorted in Genesis to take care of (have dominion over) the world. Now that we can read genes and create reproducing life forms, it’s surely worth wondering at the immensity of the secrets that God reveals to us in His Creation.
What a huge trust He has in us! We might want to consider meeting on Wednesday July 21, to commemorate the 1969 moon landing (date depends which time zone you were in!) and help decide how to celebrate Creation Sunday, October 3.
Patrick Blumeris
Editor
Bob Bishop Carl Clark Joan DeChane
Laura Geary Edith Parekh Connie Pawelczak
Sean Seyffert Chantelle Somers Mike Thompson
Scott Bempkins, Senior Warden
Liz Landers, Junior Warden
Cynthia Bennett, Treasurer
Gail Laundry, Clerk
(All phone numbers are area code 978 unless indicated)
Church Office...................................... 256-5673
Senior Warden....... Scott Bempkins...... 877-8966
Junior Warden........ Liz Landers............ 256-9681
Treasurer............... Cynthia Bennett..... 256-5673
Clerk..................... Gail Laundry.......... 250-4031
Acolyte Director.... Clem Cole.............. 251-1296
Adult Education...... to be filled............ 256-5673
Altar Guild............. Liz Landers............ 256-9681
Buildings and…….. Scott Bempkins...... 448-6872
Grounds Dave Cahill............ 250-3592
Christian School.....Elizabeth Danieli 256-3044
Melissa Flewelling...250-8164
Coffee Hour.......... Matt Hickcox......... 448-0931
Endowment ........... Derick Gates ………250-1569
Environmental Stewardship
Committee............. Bill Moreau .............250-4028
Fellowship.............. to be filled……..... 256-5673
Finance Interim...... Derick Gates.......... 250-1569
Handbell Choir …. Debbie Psilopoulos... 256-0797
Music Minister....... Maggie Marshall.... 251-1296
Outreach............... Dave Kuzara………256-5484
Pastoral Care......... Ann Kirk............... 251-4547
Saints Alive............ Patrick Blumeris..... 256-9638
SaintsAlive e-mail:.. ........ saintsalive@yahoo.com
Stewardship Interim Derick Gates......... 250-1569
Thrift Shop............. Carol Cannistraro…256-0929
Youth Group.......... Nancy March......... 250-1695
Webmaster............ Richard Coles........ 256-1311
Web site................ www.allsaintschelmsford.org
… for the September 2010 Saints Alive! is
August 15th, 2010
Please leave your articles in the Saints Alive! mailbox in the church office, or send them via email to SaintsAlive@yahoo.com. Thanks.
