THE DOVE
Summer 2016


Not Too Early
Although this issue of The Dove will be coming out in late June, and the rest of the summer is stretching out languidly before us, it is not too early to start planning to sign your kids up for one of our youth choirs come September! Entering our fourth full year, we hope to continue to strengthen the younger choirs in the 2016 - 2017 season. Nothing enlivens our worship quite as much as having our younger singers offer their gifts during the liturgy, and the experience of being in a choir is virtually without compare for kids. Singing with others promotes teamwork, relationships, and discipline, and provides young people with the satisfying opportunity to give something of themselves for others.  Being in a choir enhances mathematical skills and spatial relationships, and increases linguistic ability.  It can begin a student on a lifelong journey of enjoying and being able to participate in music (I no longer play football, baseball, or volleyball, activities I loved doing when younger, but I still can be involved in music, even at my elevated age). And did you know that singing slows down the heart rate and lowers blood pressure?
 
In addition to all of the benefits mentioned above, there is one other, enormous advantage to singing in one of the youth choirs at Holy Comforter, and that is the fact that the students get to work with Bill Gordon! I have spent over 50 years in and around church music in one form or another, and I can honestly and fervently say that I have never seen a youth choir director as exciting, engaging, supportive, and, in general, fantastic as Mr. Gordon. We are incredibly blessed to have him lead our young people in singing, both in the Chapel and in the younger choirs. Working with him is an opportunity every young person should get to enjoy.
 
If you have been wondering whether you should encourage your child(ren) to take part in choir, the answer is an unqualified "YES." I would be glad to talk to anyone who has questions about our music ministry with and for young people, or who is even remotely curious about the program. This is the year to get involved!
                                            Fr. Jason
Center for Christian Spirituality 
By Chris Hardman 

I am trying out a new name.  I have decided to call the Center for Trinitarian Spirituality the Center for Christian Spirituality.  The word Trinitarian has been confusing to some people.  The fact is that while most "Christian" Spirituality is not Trinitarian, it should be. The Doctrine of the Trinity has been the official way we have understood God since the 4th century. Granted, it has not been what people have heard in the pews, but I think that is changing.
Peggy Parsons to Lead Bereavement Team
It is with true joy that I can announce that Peggy Parsons has agreed to be the new coordinator of the Bereavement Team.  Peggy has been involved in this ministry for many years-along with so many others-and will continue our long-standing tradition of offering compassion and support to families in time of grief and sorrow.  Our Bereavement Team does a marvelous job in all of our names reaching out to family members and friends of those who have died, providing a lovely reception, flowers, note, and love, and it will continue to do so under Peggy's gracious and kind leadership.  Thank you, Peggy, for taking on this new role!
St. Helen's Guild: Reimagined
We in St. Helen's Guild, after  decades of fellowship and service, are taking the opportunity to see how we can take a great thing and make it better!
 
More than throwing great parties, we ask about how we can nurture a spirit of service going forward. The opportunity has arisen to involve interested, younger members - men as well as women - to lend their energy and ideas.
 
Rick Voit will be joining the Board as co-Vice President with Heidi Mangel. If you are interested, please contact Father Parkin or Marilyn Norehad.
... in the vineyard
Our prayers and condolences go out to Emily and Todd Berlinghof and their family on the death of Emily's mother, Mary Sawers, at the age of 81.  Mrs. Sawers died on Thursday, June 9, a memorial service to celebrate her life was held on Friday, June 24, at the Alice Millar Chapel on the campus of Northwestern University.  May God welcome Mary into her new abode, and embrace the entire Berlinghof and Sawers family in comfort and strength.

In happier news, we rejoice in the birth of Oliver Thomas Augsjoost on June 6 in Berkeley, California.  Oliver's parents are Brett and Cindi Augsjoost, and his proud grandparents are our own Dick Augspurger and Rosie McDonel.  Congratulations to the entire family, and may God bless Oliver Thomas, his parents, and his grandparents now and always!
Summer Worship Schedule
June 12 - September 4
 
Sunday:

8:00 a.m.     Holy Eucharist

9:00 a.m.    Holy Eucharist
                    in the Cloister
             (child care provided)
                       
10:15 a.m.  Holy Eucharist
 
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday:

9:00 a.m. Eucharist
               in the Parlor or Church
depending on the organ renovation schedule
 
Thursday :

7:00 a.m. Eucharist and Healing
                 Liturgy i n the Cloister
The Rector's Column 
A Good Story

by The Rev. Dr. Jason L. Parkin, Rector

Some time ago, when I visited one of the retirement homes in the area to see a Holy Comforter parishioner, I inadvertently wrote down the wrong time as I signed in at the front desk. One of the people at the desk corrected the ledger, and quipped, "You of all people ought to tell the truth."  "Yes," said another woman behind the counter. "After all, that's your business." No," I replied, "my business is to tell a good story."
 
It was a light moment, and perhaps my response seemed a little glib. I certainly did not mean to be flippant; for the reality is that my job is to tell a good story. It is the story of a God whose interior love was so powerful, so overflowing that it is exploded forth in Creation. It is the story of a God who loved each of us into being, and molded us, one and all, in beauty and grace. It is the story of a God who became human that we might know the Divine; who descended to earth that we might ascend to heaven; who died that we might live; who lives that we might always live in God. It is the story of a God who calls us into life together as people of faith; who blesses us with strawberries and good Sonoma wine and the sounds of children playing at recess on the local school playground; who inspired the seraphic music of J.S. Bach and the ecstatic poetry of John Donne and the astonishing paintings of Vermeer; who allows us to share in the burden and delight of caring for Creation and one another; who bestowed on us the unique ability to laugh and cry and rejoice and dance and mourn and sing. It is also the story of a God who does not abandon us in times of trial and travail, and who, as the Psalmist says, walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death and anything else we might encounter along the way.
 
I suspect you know the next thing I am going to write: that telling this story is not just my job, nor the responsibility only of those of us who wear white collars. It is the calling, the vocation, the privilege of all of us to tell this story. St. Francis is quoted often as having said, "At all times, preach the Gospel.  If necessary, use words." So true. So true for all of God's people.
 
So enjoy the story. Learn it. Live it. Celebrate it. Tell it. 
Pipe Up!
Organ Restoration Project
Early on Monday morning, June 20, the crew from Berghaus Organ Builders started removing the pipes and other elements of the organ as we initiate the important and long-needed restoration of the instrument. This exciting project will take approximately 12 weeks, and during much of that time the choir pews will be gone, and the weekday Eucharists will take place in the parlor.  As all will remember, we will have use of a small portatif organ during the renovation period, in addition to our regular piano.   More photos here...
Connectivity
by Pastor Heath Howe, Family Ministries

David, my husband, claims to have two great mysteries in life: the power of the Holy Spirit and electricity. (Odd that I am not one of them...) Anyway, he does not understand either of them, but depends on both of them all the time. He also knows that in the case of each of these mysterious resources, the key is staying connected. If there is no connection, the power does not flow, or will flow in unhelpful and even dangerous ways.
The Giving Tree(s)
by Mary Johnson, Director of Children's Ministries & All Things Bright & Beautiful

One of my favorite books is The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. I hesitate to call it a children's book, because I think adults have come to love it as much as children. It almost wasn't published because everyone that the author submitted it to found it "too sad" for children and "too simple" for adults. Ultimately, Harper and Row printed 5,000 copies in 1964.  By 2012, it was listed as #9 on the list of Best Children's' Books, with over 8.5 million copies sold and translations in numerous languages.
Falling Off the Mountain 
by Charlotte Long, Youth Ministries 
 
On the last night of ASP Mission Trip every year, our teams, together with the ASP staff who have made the week possible and other churches living and eating with us, sit around and do a "Share Circle."  The idea is to share one moment or experience or idea from your service that week where you saw God.  Our Youth Group is used to this because we've had the tradition of "JJJ" since our mission trip in 2013; "JJJ" stands for "Joy, Junk and Jesus" and it's where you share a Joy from your day, a Junk from your day and  a moment where you saw or felt Jesus. The kids are not only used to it by now, it's allowed them to get really good at describing the Divine with our limited human words.  Although you don't have to share anything at the Share Circle, all of our kids did.  And they all spoke with such clarity about the love they saw in the families we worked with, in the way different Christians can come together for one week and practice radical love - the frustrating, sweaty, accidentally-hammering-your-thumb kind of love.  Read more here...

Pipe Up Indeed!
 

by Derek Nickels, Music Director
Many thanks to the generous individuals, couples, and families that have graciously donated to the restoration of our Aeolian-Skinner organ! The work began on Monday morning, June 20 with the careful removal of the pipework from the organ chambers. The pipes were carefully measured and placed in pipe trays to be brought to the Berghaus shop in Bellwood where they will be thoroughly cleaned and repaired. Later this week, the pipe chests will be dismantled in order to be releathered. The console will also be taken to the Berghaus shop where it will be refurbished; the aging keydesks will be re-bushed so they are not as noisy as they used to be.  The swell box (the louvered doors that open and close to make the organ sound softer or louder) will be rebuilt so it will be much more responsive and not creak and make other unseemly noises when it is opened or closed.  Once the organ chamber is relatively empty, the Berghaus crew will be able to get rid of all the dust and debris that has accumulated since its installation in 1966. Again, thank you for your support in making this long-overdue project actually become a reality.