Parish Notices for June 4, 2021 |
|
|
Slowly and purposefully, and listening to guidance from the CDC, for the last few months we have been returning to activities on our church campus. It has been a joy to worship with you under the trees, to see small groups meeting in various spaces around our beautiful grounds, and to meet with parishioners again in our sacred spaces that mean so much to us. We have been reminded over the last year that the church is much more than the building, that the relationships are what make us strong as a community. And enjoying those relationships in our physical space feels life giving.
Change has been a constant during this pandemic and I’m grateful for the ways you have continued to adapt to changing guidelines and new ways of staying connected. I expect change will continue to be the new norm as we take steady steps towards returning to full in-person activity.
We are still planning to return to worship in the nave on July 4. I look forward to celebrating our return to that beautiful space together. There are many logistics to be worked out and it will take many volunteers to help that happen safely and smoothly. If you would be willing to help, please contact me or contact the parish office.
|
|
Until July, we will continue with our online service on Zoom at 9 a.m. and our Outdoor Eucharist at 11:30 a.m. Based on guidance about the low risk of outdoor transmission, masks are not required at the outdoor service for those who are vaccinated. Please remember that everyone has a different comfort level with re-engaging right now, even those who are fully vaccinated. Some people are ready to jump back in with both feet and some are just beginning to dip a toe into re-engaging with others face to face. Wherever you are in that spectrum, we want to create space for you. And remember that we still have members of our community who are under age 12 who are not yet vaccinated. We want to be mindful of that when we gather and to be aware of maintaining a healthy, safe distance from others. Our online services will continue to be a way to worship with others safely. |
|
Expect more news to come on returning to indoor worship in July. And if you have any questions or concerns, or just would appreciate some extra support during these ever-changing times, please contact me. We are always glad to hear from you. I look forward to seeing you Sunday.
Grace and peace,
Amy+
|
|
Sunday Morning at 9 a.m.
Online via Zoom
|
Login at 8:50 a.m. to greet one another. Remain online afterwards for Small Groups Virtual Coffee Hour. |
Bulletin and Login links can also be found on our homepage.
|
|
Dial: 646.558.8656
Meeting ID: 532 385 901
|
|
Sunday Morning at 11:30 a.m.
Outdoor Eucharist - Registration Required
|
Please Bring
- a mask
- a chair
- a pre-printed bulletin or electronic device.
|
|
Cancellation notices due to weather will be sent to the registrant email at 8:30 a.m. Check your email before coming to church if the weather is uncertain.
|
|
Registration
Click on links provided on our website, in this newsletter OR NOW from your Realm account via the web or your smart phone app. For those who have created your Realm logins, the fields will auto-fill for you once you select your name. Guest registration is also an option.
A pop up confirmation notice appears when you complete your registration, and a confirmation email is immediately sent. If you don’t receive a confirmation notice or email, try again and be sure to click the last button marked REGISTER.
|
|
Morning Prayer at 9 a.m.
Weekdays via Zoom
|
Login around 8:45 a.m. for Virtual Coffee Hour. The Zoom Link is not public. Email the parish office to receive the login information.
Amy will lead an INSTRUCTIVE MORNING PRAYER on Tuesday, June 8.
|
|
|
Wednesday Noonday Prayer & Eucharist
Outdoors in the Memorial Garden
|
Noonday Prayer takes place at 12 p.m. Healing with Eucharist follows at 12:15 p.m. Masks and social distancing are required. Chairs are available for those who would like to bring one out from the church, or you can bring your own. Bulletins and Prayer Books provided. |
|
|
Altar Arrangements and the Sanctuary Light
The Altar Arrangements and the Sanctuary Light can be given in honor of an anniversary, birthday or in memory of a loved one.
|
|
The Arrangements at the Altar for this Sunday are given to the Glory of God and in memory Paige French by Amanda Kay Seals.
The Altar Arrangements are used for both online and outdoor services. You may request a particular flower or color be used on the signup. Suggested donation is $75.
|
|
The Sanctuary Light is given this week to the Glory of God.
The light is a visible sign of the presence of the Blessed Sacrament held in reserve in the Tabernacle and burns for seven days. Suggested donation is $6.
Sign up by noon on Wednesdays to be listed in the weekly Friday email and the Sunday online bulletin.
|
|
Children & Youth Ministries |
|
|
|
Jammin' with Jesus
Saturday, June 19 at 9 a.m.
|
Register by Friday, June 11 at 5 p.m.
Families are invited to regather outside for summer fun! Bagels, muffins and jam will be provided to munch on while we wonder about Jesus' parables. We will be masked and socially distant outside to keep all members of our community safe. Come to sing, play, and reconnect with your church family!
|
|
I'd love to hear a story!
Our online Godly Play sessions will end Sunday. However, if you and your family would like to meet Christen (or another storyteller) in the Godly Play room on Sunday morning before outdoor worship, sign up with this link
|
|
|
All participants must wear masks during the session. A parent, grandparent, or guardian needs to be present with the children; no previous Godly Play experience required. All children old enough to sit and listen to a 10-15 minutes story with their family are welcome. The art shelves and story shelves will be open for response time! Email Christen Erskine, Interim Director of Children's Ministries if you have any questions or to request a particular story.
|
|
Youth Group will not meet on June 6. Weekly Youth Group will resume June 13. |
|
June 26 - Youth Ping Pong Tournament
Charlie Slater, Epiphany's resident Ping Pong professional, is excited to host a tournament for the youth of Epiphany on June 26. The tournament will run from 1:30-5 p.m. Trophies will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.
|
|
July 17 - Youth Work Day at Emmaus House
All youth are invited to help clean up Freedom School at Emmaus House July 17 at 9 a.m. We'll clean up the classrooms, pack up school supplies, and store them away.
|
|
Weekly Youth News
Members of the parish with youth age children can subscribe to a newsletter with updates just about Youth Ministries. Email Mat Schramm, Director of Youth Ministries to sign up for the weekly newsletters.
|
|
Pantry Drive for DEAM
June 6 – June 30
This month we are collecting items to help the Decatur-area Emergency Assistance Ministry (DEAM) pantry. Bins are located by the front door.
This time we are collecting:
- small cornbread mixes like Jiffy
-
any size of shelf-stable milk, canned or dry, except Sweetened Condensed canned milk.
|
|
Living Contemplatively Spirituality Group
Mondays at 11 a.m. on Zoom
Beginning Monday, June 7
The Living Contemplatively Group will begin a new book study in June on the book Anchored in the Current: Discovering Howard Thurman as Educator, Activist, Guide, and Prophet. The book is edited by Gregory C. Ellison II and includes essays about Howard Thurman by Barbara Brown Taylor, Luther Smith, Marion Wright Edelman, and others on Thurman’s influence on our understanding of vocation and living a life anchored in faith. If you are currently participating in the small group studying Thurman’s book Jesus and the Disinherited and want to do deeper into the spiritual foundation that grounded Thurman’s life, or if you are encountering for the first time this civil rights activist, pastor, professor, poet, and spiritual guide, you are invited to join us for this study. For more information or to sign up, email the Rev. Amy Dills-Moore.
|
|
The United Thank Offering
Thanks to all who gave this Spring. We gathered $1606.25!
An Episcopal tradition since 1889, the United Thank Offering (UTO) contributions support Episcopal missions and ministries.
|
|
Community of Hope Training Coming to Epiphany |
|
Starting this fall, Epiphany will host a 14-week Community of Hope (COH) training for lay pastoral caregivers. Graduates of the program will be trained to make pastoral visits to Epiphany members who are experiencing various forms of loss, grief, illness, life changes, loneliness, or isolation. COH caregivers may also serve outside the church in nursing homes, hospitals, prisons, at Hagar’s House or DCM, or at Emmaus House, or to be with people who are in crisis no matter where they are.
What sets Community of Hope apart from other pastoral care programs is its emphasis on the spiritual growth and community formation of the caregivers. The trainees remain united in prayer and community as their ministries lead them to serve in the parish and in the wider community. Epiphany clergy and other facilitators will teach modules from the Community of Hope curriculum, which is rooted in Benedictine spirituality and based on the classic clinical pastoral education model used in many hospitals to train caregivers. The training is not limited exclusively to any creed but is open to and enriched by the representation of many denominations.
The Community of Hope program awakens trainees to God’s call on each of our lives by helping individuals discover and better understand their own spiritual gifts for ministry. Participants are encouraged to make this experience a journey into wholeness, to use this opportunity to explore a “rule of life”, practice sacred silence, Christian meditation, compassionate listening, pastoral identity and Lectio Divina, all within the context of Benedictine spirituality. This experience builds community and develops spiritually centered pastoral caregivers.
If you are interested in learning more about the Community of Hope, please contact Ann Fowler, 404.808.1864, by June 20. A response by that date will enable us to begin detailed planning for the fall. Potential participants will be polled to determine the most convenient day and time for the program to meet.
|
|
Harvey Fund Grant Application
The Catherine D. Harvey Legacy Fund grant application cycle for the Summer term is now open. If you are aware of an organization that might qualify, please share the application.
|
|
Because of the uncertainties of the next year, Education for Ministry (EFM) will meet on Zoom for the 2021-22 school year. This makes it a great opportunity to get to know people outside of our usual geography and ways of thinking, and perhaps even some people from other countries! EFM is a four-year extension program of the School of Theology of the University of the South. It is partly academic readings, but the heart of EFM is theological reflection, or “TR“. In a TR, participants discuss issues of faith, what they believe, what they question, how it relates to their everyday lives, and how they keep faith alive. Students sign up one year at a time for this four-year program. The cost of the program is $350 per year. The meetings will be held from early September through May. For further information, email Esther Harbert.
|
|
The staff continues to work mostly from home. They check their email and voicemail messages regularly.
Pastoral Emergencies: Please call the church at 404.373.8338 and leave a message for Amy (ext. 14) or Nicole (ext. 16). They receive message alerts and will return your call.
Building Sign-In Required: The Building is open in a limited to way to people or small groups who have requested access through the parish office. If you need to enter the church building for any reason, please sign in and out using the logbook at the entrance.
|
|
Just a reminder to everyone that the door codes have been changed. Currently, they are only being given to parishioners who are authorized to be in the building at this time.
NOTICE: If you are given a code, please do not share it with anyone. Refer them to the office so they can be given the correct code for their area of ministry.
|
|
|
|
Ways to Give
The easiest way for you to give to Epiphany is through Realm, our secure online community. You can make one-time donations or manage your giving as a recurring transaction in a secure, easy-to-use environment. Contribution statements are always available via your profile.
Realm Login
If you have not yet created a login to our online church ministry tool, Email the parish office and you will be sent an invitation email
Visit epiphany.org/ways-to-give to learn about the different was to give to Epiphany. You'll also find links to more information about Realm. Finally, if you have not already made a financial pledge to support Church of the Epiphany this year, there's also a link about how to make a pledge on the Ways to Give page.
|
|
Daughters of the King meet 4th Sundays
The Daughters of the King (DOK) meet online on 4th Sundays at 2 p.m. The DOK is open to all women in the parish interested in fellowship and study. Email Barbara Ryder if you would like to receive the Zoom link each month.
|
|
Epiphany Book Group meets 1st Mondays
-
June: A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
-
July: No Meeting
-
August: Barkskins by Annie Proulx
|
|
|
Racial Justice Group meets 2nd Tuesdays
The Racial Justice Group (RJG) meets 2nd Tuesdays at 7 p.m. Called by our baptismal covenant to strive for justice and peace among all people and to respect the dignity of every human being, the RJG is focused on lifelong learning and action steps we can take as individuals and as a church community to help achieve racial equity and justice. All are welcome. Email Erin Braden for the Zoom link, and reach out to Erin or Kay Lee with any questions or suggestions. We welcome your thoughts.
|
|
Racial Justice Book Study Group meets 4th Wednesdays. Summer reading book selected.
You are invited to join Epiphany’s Racial Justice Book Study group on the last Wednesday of the month from 6:45 - 8 p.m.
Summer Books:
June 23: Behold the Dreamers by Imbolu Mbue.
July 28: You are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience by Tarana Burke and Brene Brown.
August 25th: Walking With The Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis.
The purposes of our Book Study are to:
- educate and inform ourselves on the history of racial injustice
- better understand the challenges of changing racial inequities and seeking racial justice, and
- work toward pragmatic and effective ways to be better anti-racist advocates.
Please consider ordering your books from Black owned, local bookstores, which you can find by searching for “black owned bookstores Atlanta.” Email Lisa Daily for the Zoom link. Contact Lisa Daily or Kay Lee, if you have any questions.
|
Grief Pastoral Care Group meets 1st Thursdays
The Grief Pastoral Care Group meets online 1st Thursdays at noon for a healing and faith based conversation around grief and loss. Led by parishioners Megan Fraijo-Paul and Nancy Thompson, both trained psychotherapists. Email Megan or Nancy for more information.
|
|
Flex & Stretch and Chair Yoga
The Flex & Stretch class—which is the basic SilverSneakers class—meets online on Fridays and the Chair Yoga program meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays. All at 11 a.m. Email Ellen Mintzmeyer for the Zoom link.
|
|
-
Send prayer requests to the parish office.
- Names of our friends and family remain on the list for four weeks.
-
The Anniversary & Birthday List for the month can be found here.
|
|
|
For members who are bidding our prayers: Jewel Allen • Joy Boydon • Sally Brockington • Alma Fuller • Beth Galvin • Judy Jarady • Henry Laird • Sally McClintock • Neela Ram • Ann Rowles • Paul Thompson• Stephanie Thompson
For friends and family: Isabel, granddaughter of Mike & Beth Towers • Betty Porter, relative of Christen Erskine • Dave Tipton, brother of Pam Tipton • Rosalind, sister of Katharine Hilliard-Yntema • Nicky Cullen, friend of Linda Ryder-Wolf • Einar Sagstuen, friend of Sandy Land • Gary Davis, father of Jeremy Davis • Blanca Ester Solis, friend of Jeff & Wallace McGrath • Sherie McGowin, friend of Noelle Reetz • Eleanor Whitman, aunt of Noelle Reetz • Nell Witman Sandemeyer, cousin of Noelle Reetz • Ansley, friend of Esther Bryant • Zach, friend of Henry Bryant • Dab Belcore & Kathy Brannon, brother and sister-in-law of Barbara Belcore • Michael Seymour, neighbor of Ellen Mintzmyer • Joslyn, friend of Ellen Mintzmyer • Rob Holland, relative of George Councill • Gibby, mother of Amanda Kay Seals • Sophia Seymore, niece of Erin Braden
For those who have died: Joann Hambalek, friend of Barbara Belcore • Dalton Fox, friend of Linda Ryder-Wolf
For those celebrating anniversaries for the week of 6/6-12: Pam & Tom Gore
For those celebrating birthdays for the week of 6/6-12: Scott Bennett • Vivienne Bennett • Jason Wiles • James Ciccarelli • Jon Harbert • Declan Bryan • Allison Jacobs • Leah Kelly • Phoebe McNeely • George Ross • Juergen Meyer • Kristin Phillips • Jan Marie Robinson • Susan Messner • Norah Sinclair • Dennis Edmiston • Phoebe Sheffield • Anne Warner
For members who desire our continuing prayers: Ron Hutcheson • Rod MacLeod • Chris Miller • Tom Mundy • Terry-Lee Ross • June Sparks • Pat Spivey
|
|
|
|
The weekly parish notices are published Friday mornings at 7 a.m.
The submission deadline is Wednesdays at NOON.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
