Farnham & St. John's
Torrence's Message
"Dawning"
“Morning has broken like the first morning!” (Hymn #8)

“Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” (Annie Lamot)

Every dawn brings a new day that has never happened before – not just in the exact same ways the days before happened. There is something about the dawning of a new day offering the fresh air of possibilities born anew. Each dawn heralds a yet born-again time, created out of the old but offering a space in which to create a unique “now.” Now, a present to be opened, savored and lived into.

I am not usually up at dawn, but every now and then it happens that I am awake to a dawn. And if and when I am awake to it, the dawn always seems to surprise me. Its colors, the way the early light plays on things. I can’t help but pause, drop into the moment-by-moment arrival of a particular dawn. Dawnings demand notice, respect, awe. A dawn almost takes my breath away with the energy it brings to me and life around me. Paying homage to a dawn colors and energizes everything it lights upon for the new day coming into being.

These past two Sundays as we gathered in the sanctuaries of N. Farnham and then St. John’s on the first two Sundays of a new day dawning in our life of gathering together as a family of faith, the power of coming together in our old familiar rituals of being together with each other and God, simply took my breath away. It was the dawn of return. In a strange way it was a surprise to me. For more than a year (fifteen months) our beloved faith home sanctuaries had remained dark (figuratively speaking), as if in a long silent and dark enforced hibernation. In my always planning mind, I had harbored hope that maybe we would be returning to them perhaps by fall.

Then the good news broke – in person indoors worship could begin again. This gospel good news, I believe, suddenly woke all of us up to a dawn we had imagined to be later in coming.

These last two Sundays had an energy about them that lifted our spirits along with our voices as we came together. Our churches came alive again. Not that the Spirit and our spirits had maintained a deep silent sleep throughout the pandemic. Obviously, the Holy Spirit and our spirits had been not only dreaming but stirring in ways respectful and yet amazingly creative within the slowed down, sheltering in place for the good of the whole time during the pandemic. And hope continued throughout that “this too will pass” and “good will prevail” and that we are in relationship with a Divine that never slumbers nor sleeps but is continually at work shaping, re-shaping, creating, recreating new life out of the old. A God who says: “I make all things new (again)!” We kept the lamp of hope burning in us. So, we were stubborn and made it through, a day, a week, a month at a time. We showed up on the airwaves (Zoom, etc.) and in the great outdoors, and we tried to do the right and loving and holy thing with each other and we didn’t give up, did we.
We have come through a dark time. We stand in awe of this new dawn. May we open to the joy of living into the light it brings.

Alleluia! Thanks be to God . . . .  

Torrence
Last week at Farnham & St. John's
Anne Neuman Photo
From left, Bill Sisson, Ben Cox, Ford Becker, Gwynne Tayloe, and Carl Barber.

For Memorial Day we recognized our veterans and thanked them for their service.

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Apologies to Courtney Sisson for misspelling her name under her picture in the May 26th E-pistle.
They leave pawprints on our hearts
and on their friends hearts, too.
Charlie Altaffer
Snow Jenkins
 Special condoloences go out to Charlie's human family and to BrotherMark and "Snow" Jenkins' "family" at this much loved white German Shepherd's recent passing.
Mt. Airy "cousins" gather round to say good-bye to Charlie at the time of his burial at the Mt. Airy pet burial grounds.

Snow's feline friend visits her grave.
Announcements
A service to Celebrate the Life of Harry Carlton Grander will be held at North Farnham Church on Monday June 14th at 1:00 p.m. Interment in the North Farnham Memorial Garden will follow.
The return of Coffee Hour


Hooray! Coffee hour (though scaled down) returns beginning with our June services at St. John's and N. Farnham.
June events at Farnham

June 13th we will be blessing the newly installed memorial garden and June 27th is Queen Anne Sunday, when we celebrate using the service from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
Send pictures for the
E-pistle and updates for the prayer list to parishchurchnews@gmail.com
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The next E-pistle comes out on June 16th.
the Forward Day by Day meditation link.
More copies of Forward Day by Day are now available in the St. John's parish hall and will be available at Farnham's for coffee hour next week.
Services
Sunday, June 6th  
Pentecost II



10 a.m. Service of Holy Communion


St. John's

Sunday, June 13th  
Pentecost III
Blessing of the Garden


10 a.m. Service of Morning Prayer


N. Farnham
Sunday, June 20th 
Pentecost IV


10 a.m. Service of Holy Communion


St. John's

Sunday, June 27th  
Queen Anne Sunday


10 a.m. Service of Holy Communion


N. Farnham
The Parish Prayer List
for those in need of God's comfort and healing:
Courtenay Altaffer
Jimmy Barrack
Ford Becker
Martha Berger
Randall Bone
Sue Bowie
Sallie Cox
Constance Edwards
Bob File
David Gallagher
Regina Griggs
Barbara Grander
Dorothy Grove
Sandy Wade Hagan
The Rev. Howard Hanchey
Kelsey Heidenreich
Billy Hooper
Rebecca Hubert
Mary Douglas Lawton
The Rt. Rev. Peter Lee
Susan Lewis
Frank Lynch
Susannah Marais
Tommy Neuman
Judi Newman
James Rynd
Marsha Rynd
Chris Smith
Debbie Belfield Stacks
Scott Strickler
Waldy Sulik
Billy Tennyson
Roclyn Tennyson
John Welch, II
Matthew Yates
Rose Mary Zellner and
all the victims of COVID 19
and for those serving in our armed forces:
Royce Baker
David Berger
Ryan Berger
Allen Crocker
Randy Crocker
Court Garretson
Cameron Heidenreich
Dan Heidenreich
Charles Jones
Daniel Kirk
Mark Lawton
Scott Longar
Luis Loya
Gavin Wade McClung
Christopher Strickler
We also pray for those who have died.
June Birthdays & Anniversaries
8th - Chris Plaice
9th – Ben & Sallie Cox
9th – Bill Cardin
19th – Anna Calvert
24th – Anne Neuman
28th – Danni Plaice
28th – Waldy Sulik
29th – Evie Overton
The Episcopal Church Welcomes You!

This Sunday at 10 a.m. we are having a service of Communion at St. John's. We have returned to the sanctuary. Masks are not required, but if you are unvaccinated, please consider wearing one to protect those who cannot be vaccinated, especially if you want to sing. Our website is farnhamwithstjohns.org
North Farnham Church
St. John's Church

Background -Dawn on the Rappahannock - staff photo.