Calvary Chimes
Week of Sunday, April 2, 2017
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Please help
stock St. A
ndrew's
Pantry
with
small jars of peanut butter.
Wanted
: Interested persons in various capacities. The Profile Gathering last Sunday focused on lay ministry and lay leadership and how it is important for all members to become involved in church ministry and activities, depending on their skills and interests. A large sign-up sheet has been laid out on the stage of Hannaford Hall, asking for involvement in the following areas, which currently need more support and help:
- Communications: Ideas and skills to do publicity, social media, flyers and signs, and other ways to communicate.
- Adult spiritual formation: Ideas for Sunday educational programs; also inviting potential presenters, persons to find, coordinate and schedule presenters, think tank for other adult programs possible.
- Altar Guild: Set-up for Sundays and other worship events, on a rotating basis.
- Food and hospitality: Under Edy Dreith's leadership, help provide food or coordinate persons and groups to provide food for events and Sundays.
- Events: Help Edy coordinate new, special, and odd adventures during the year.
The purpose is to be able to offer to prospective rectors a profile and description of Calvary Church as one that supports and sustains a strong lay involvement the church, and to make sure that all persons at Calvary know that they are both welcome to be an integral part of Calvary, and needed for their skills and interests to make Calvary the jewel of the diocese that it is.
Please sign up for these and also ask what else you can do to help! If you have ideas to implement a program or event that is not yet being done, let Edy or Joanna know. Our response is, "We will always try to get to Yes."
The
last Lenten program will feature the Rev. Alice Connor, an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Southern Ohio and a young adult minister at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church. She is also the author of a new book just out, titled Fierce." It is described as a book on "women in the Bible and their stories of violence, mercy, bravery, wisdom, sex, and salvation." Alice is an amazing and articulate speaker, and she is herself described as an "engaging speaker, storyteller, discussion leader, bourbon enthusiast, world's okayest mom, and provocateur." As one who asked her to participate in a group discussion for the DVD with theologian Walter Brueggemann on prophetic witness, Joanna testifies that all this is true, and that she is truly a formidable intellect, but also an approachable and funny one. Please come to hear her! The program begins with Taize service at 6:00pm, with supper at 6:30 and the presentation soon after.
Cincinnati area confirmations by Bishop Breidenthal will take place on Saturday, May 6 at St. Anne Church in West Chester. If you wish to be confirmed, or received into the Episcopal Church from another denomination, and have not attended the confirmation class, please contact Joanna as soon as possible. We are taking names for confirmation and reception, to submit to the diocese.
We are continuing to improve our communications both within and outside the church. Have you seen our Holy Week and Easter banners in front of the church? The banner lets passers-by know when our services take place, to invite them to attend the church. Also, at the entrance to Hannaford Hall, a welcome sign and brochure greet all who enter, and newcomers can pick up a brochure giving a brief description of Calvary. We are also working on putting signs on the outside doors. One of the intimidating things about churches with multiple doors with no signs is that a newcomer or guest would wonder, "If I open this door, where will I end up?" The signs will let people know whether they are entering the church, or the entry to Hannaford Hall. That's important, as a sign that non-members are welcome here! Any other ideas you may have to make Calvary more welcome and inviting are...very welcome!
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Calvary Sunday Schedule
8:00 am
Holy Eucharist
Alternate Family Service with Communion
10:30 am
Holy Eucharist with Choir
10:15 am
Sunday School
9:00 - 11:30 am
Nursery
8:30 - 12:00 pm
Calvary Café
Fellowship & Coffee
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Ministry Quick Links
Transition/Interim Priest
Director of Children and Family Ministry
Calvary Community
Judy Gardner
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From the Interim Rector
Holy Week: A Door into God's Heart
Palm Sunday is on April 9 this year, which is relatively late. Easter is a "movable feast," depending on the date of the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox, and this year, that date is April 16 out of possible latest date of April 25.
It's funny that unlike Christmas, Easter is a relatively peaceful holy day, though both are joyful. Whereas Advent often brings us a flurry of preparatory activity and busy-ness and stress as a run-up to Christmas, Lent seems to move stolidly and ploddingly toward Holy Week with barely a flutter of anxiety about Easter-unless you are the priest. And maybe a member of the Altar Guild.
For us, we are now moving into late Lent and seeing Holy Week loom up on us like a light at the end of the tunnel-the proverbial headlight of the freight train in front of us. For many of us who work in the church, Holy Week and Easter are like a dozen Christmases in terms of the importance of the events and the magnificence of the services-Stations of the Cross, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil, and finally Easter Day. Given their significance for the Christian faith, I wonder that the church is not filled to the rafters during that week.
But I think I know why: Holy Week is scary.
Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday and ends with the first acclamation of Alleluia! Christ is risen! It is the heart of our Church year because it connects us with the events leading up to the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus. However, as central as these remembrances are for our Christian faith and life, Holy Week is often a difficult week for us. We don't like it. In fact, we would rather avoid it. And why wouldn't we? We are dragged into a story that makes us squirm. We are told to remember not God triumphant, the King of Glory, the divine-made-flesh. Rather, we are told to remember Jesus the suffering servant, whose followers abandon him and whose enemies kill him.
For many years, I avoided Holy Week services. I had several excuses for not attending. My children are too young. All that heavy emotion ruins my mood. The service is too late. The service is too early. It's hard enough on Palm Sunday when we have to yell "Crucify him!" - why would I want to do that again?
That last excuse was probably the most truthful one for me. I didn't want to face the pain. Seeing God vulnerable, I recoiled from my own vulnerability. I wanted to skip right over from the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to his glorious resurrection on Easter Day.
But one year, I did attend the service on Maundy Thursday service, and then on Good Friday. When on Thursday the altar was stripped of all traces of Christian life, in an act that reminded me of my own denial of my Lord, I wept in agony over my own daily faithlessness. On Friday when I stared into the brutality of the crucifixion, I wanted to retreat deep into my soul for the comfort of God that we humans had denied to Jesus on that day.
Yes, they were difficult services, full of pain and grief - but also hope. And oh! what an Easter it was on that Sunday morning! As we pray, "Jesus went not up to joy before he first suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified." So, it seems, we also need to carry the burden of Holy Week in order to best know the joy of Easter. The deeper we experience Holy week, the deeper we will experience Easter.
Palm Sunday offers a window into Holy Week events. But Holy Week services are doors into God's heart, as we follow God's only Son to the cross. We stand outside in the darkness during Holy Week, looking in hope for that morning when we can finally shout "Alleluia!" But we need not wait alone. God opens the door and invites us in, on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, to wait in vigil with God. Then, once inside, when God lights up the world with "Alleluia! Christ is risen!" - oh! what an Easter it will be!
Joanna's cell phone number is available for members' pastoral emergencies. If you are being hospitalized, are having surgery, have a death in the family, are experiencing a personal crisis, or have been arrested, please call Joanna at 859.803.0665.
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Thanks to those who helped with IHN!
Tender Mercies April 30, 4:00 p.m.
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Music News
With any questions regarding the Choir and/or the Choral Scholar program, please contact the organist/choirmaster, Howard Helvey:
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Sunday School and Family News
Sunday School
This past week we finished our Faces of Easter series. We heard about Jesus' death and resurrection, and his presence with us today in communion.
This Sunday, this 4th-6th graders will get to teach the lesson to the younger two classes!
We look forward to seeing you this Sunday!
There
will be an Easter Egg hunt following both the 9:30 and 10:30 services on Easter morning. Please bring your baskets to collect your eggs!
Our next event will be Movie Night in April. Check back for details!
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Family Worship Service
Parents, please know that we are adding some quieter alternatives to the instruments for children to use during the service! There are soft toys on the bottom shelf of the prayer board. There are also children's guides to the service on key rings and activity pages in baskets on the name tag table. Please be sure to return materials to their baskets after the service so that we can set up easily for future weeks.
There will be an Easter Egg hunt following the service on Easter morning. Please bring a basket to collect you eggs!
Thank you to our new worship helpers for greeting people as they come in and making sure that our service runs smoothly. If you are interested in helping in this way
or for more information please contact Kelsey at (614)787-1720 or kelseylogan18@gmail.com
Please come and talk to any of the worship team members if you have any ideas for our community or would like to join the team.
Current Team Members:
Kelsey Logan
Joanna Leiserson
Helene Ault
JJ Engelbert
Sally Engelbert
Helen Jones
Janet Keller
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| Prayer |
A
lmighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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If you would like to add someone to the Prayer List please contact the Parish Office calvaryclifton@fuse.net
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Prayers for strength, healing, and other requests for prayer from parish members and friends of the larger community:
Lydia Karlo, Brandon Davis, Paul McCauley, Marilyn Fietz, Ingrid Grupp, Carol Ann Edmonds, George Ann Wesner, Kate French, Eve Rowe, Jeanne Leo, Kitty Clark, Charles Parsons, Reed Coen, Sharon Grayton, Miriam McKenney and Maurine Sierveld, Mary Ann Bragg, Lauren Gleason.
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See you at Church!
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