The Week of July 17, 2022
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Join us this Sunday at 9:00AM in person or online
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Dear friends in Christ,
One of the questions the clergy receive most often is: How do I pray?
Some of us will have been raised saying our prayers at particular moments in the day: when we wake up, before dinner, as we are preparing to sleep. This is not just kiddie or domestic religion; quite the opposite. Beginning and ending the day in prayer is a custom even older than the church itself, and this makes sense! How better to bookend our waking hours than by spending a few minutes being still and speaking to God?
As Episcopalians, we have an unparalleled resource for making our prayers in the Book of Common Prayer. For nearly 500 years, the Prayer Book in its various incarnations has anchored not only the corporate life of Anglican Christians, but those same Christians’ private prayers as well.
One of the major aims of the Protestant Reformation was to streamline the complicated and unwieldy array of services of the medieval church and to translate them into a language that ordinary people could understand. In the Church of England, the Prayer Book is the end result of this objective. Other than services for life events – baptism, marriage, burial, ordination – the only services provided by the first Prayer Book back in 1549 were Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and “the Supper of the Lorde and holy Communion, commonly called the Masse.” That’s at once a very short and yet complete menu.
Morning and Evening Prayer were each a conflation of the eight short services that would have been said at roughly three-hour intervals throughout the day in a monastery. Starting in the 1920s, the last of those daily monastic services – called Compline – began to be revived in Anglican churches, a service appropriate for when Evening Prayer might already have been said.
The practice of making short devotions appropriate to the various time of the day is not restricted to the institutional church. The short private prayers of the Prayer Book are pegged to the hours of the day because we are all creatures bound to time. We experience our own lives temporally: we wake up, we go about our business, we grow tired, and we sleep, usually in some sync with the rhythm of the rising and setting of the sun.
Praying throughout the day (even only once a day) is a way of sanctifying time, and it is a way of sanctifying our own lives, of dedicating ourselves to our faith in the God of whose Son we are not ashamed.
Yours faithfully in Christ,
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Our Sunday service will begin at 9:00 am on summer Sundays until Homecoming Sunday, September 11, when the 8:00 am and 10:15 am services will resume.
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Our parish administrator, Kathy McBride, will be out of the office for the next few weeks. If you need to stop by the office, please reach out to Fr. Andrew in advance.
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Volunteers from St. John’s and the Over 60 Club have worked diligently to complete the flower cross. The finished product will be on display in the church after the 9:00 am service THIS Sunday, July 17, before it is raised in the rear gallery of the church. Please contact Nicky Mehan for more details.
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Save the date: A Garden Party, Saturday, July 23 ~ 3-6 pm
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The St. John’s Women’s Group will be hosting a Garden Party on the great lawn this year, in lieu of their annual High Tea. Please mark your calendars, and don’t miss this fantastic event. Tickets are $30 general admission and $20 for seniors. Please see Olive Grant on Sunday morning, or contact the Parish Office during the week to purchase. Tickets are also available via Eventbrite - click here to purchase.
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Inspirica Women's Shelter Monthly Meals
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On the last Friday of each month, various teams or families from St. John's provide a meal to a small group of women at an Inspirica women's shelter. Parishioners provide a healthy meal to approximately 10-15 Inspirica clients at their 8 Woodland Place location. The volunteers choose the menu, which should consist of a protein, starch, salad and/or vegetable, bread, water and a light dessert. Volunteers can either drop off the meal or can stay and serve the meal; clients do the clean up.
Would you please consider helping with this important ministry? Our next available date is June July 29. If you do not have a “team” to prepare the meal, but would like to do part of the meal, that's great; we can coordinate! Please contact Caroline Smit at csmit@optonline.net or 203-912-6661 to sign up now or in the future.
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St. John’s Community Foundation Press Release
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St. John’s Community Foundation has granted more than a quarter of a million dollars to more than forty organizations serving the Stamford community which provide for educational and economic opportunities, as well for those in crisis and those requiring basic needs. Click here to read the Foundation’s most recent press releases.
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Tuesday Afternoon Bible Study
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During the summer months, Tuesday Bible study will take place on the last Tuesday of every month. The regular weekly schedule will resume on the first Tuesday after Labor Day. Click here to join the Zoom meeting.
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Open Thursdays and Saturdays: 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
The Community Thrift Shop welcomes new, almost new, and gently used clothing, home goods, and jewelry donations. All proceeds from the Thrift Shop are donated to nonprofit charities serving those in need. Please note: Starting in June, the Thrift Shop will be open every Thursday 10:00-3:00 and the first and third Saturday of each month from 10:00-3:00.
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Recent Prayer Requests for Healing of Body, Mind and Spirit.
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Please keep these persons in your daily prayers:
Ben, Carol, Daniel, Ed, Kedley, Lloyd, Marc, Terrence, Jon, Ann, Henri, Sharon, Erin, Dante, Anthony, Marie-Anne, Martha, Nessa, Angela, Gweneth, Toni, Jordan, Gabriella, Cindi, Barbara, Andrew, Jeffrey, Theadeen, Latoya, Christine, Murdena, Aidee, Anthony, Mitch, Jacob, Roslyn, Collin, McKenna, Andy, Errol, Emman, Bill and Verna.
In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer: the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America
In the Episcopal Church in Connecticut: St. Paul’s, Riverside; St. Andrew the Apostle, Rocky Hill; Christ Church, Roxbury
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To give to St. John's Episcopal Church, you can make your donations electronically or you can simply mail in your check to the church office if you would rather not use the online giving tool. Our Parish Administrator, Kathy McBride, is receiving doing the banking.
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Forward Day By Day is the Episcopal Church's own discipleship publication! As disciples, followers of Christ, daily prayer and reflection grounds us in God's love and gives us strength and clarity to confront our weaknesses, put our trust in God and listen to where God is calling us to serve. Available online for-free!
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