

Thursday December 24th, Service video will premiere at 4:00 PM.
Thursday December 24th, Service video will premiere at 4:00 PM.
This special edition of The Episcopaper is dedicated to the 2020 Diocesan Convention that took place on October 23 & 24.
Advent Evening Gatherings:
1st Sunday of Advent, November 29, 7:00-7:30PM. Hosted by Jackie Grove
2nd Sunday of Advent, December 6, 7:00-7:30PM. Hosted by Fr. Eliacín
3rd Sunday of Advent, December 13, 7:00-730PM. Hosted by Deacon Liz
4th Sunday of Advent, December 20, 7:00-7:30PM. Hosted by Laurie Crawford
See the Friday email or contact the Church Office for te Zoom Login information for All Advent Evening Gatherings
We have five wood pews and three front row panels with removable kneelers that were taken out of the sanctuary two years ago when we did the remodel of the altar area. They are currently in the Parish Hall and we need them moved out of there so we can start the next part of the remodeling of that area.
Would you like to have one of these FREE items in your house, basement, patio, business or garden? All items vary in length from 8 ft to 10 ft.
Contact the Church Office before Fri. Dec. 4 if you’re interested. She can also help with arranging a truck to move them.
Five Wood Pews:
Three Front Row Panels (removable kneelers):
In this video parishioner and Building Committee member, John Gray, takes us on a tour of the most recent updates in our building project.
Blessings,
John First
Vestry Member
I am hoping you are in a positive spirit and are healthy and happy. I would like to thank you ALL for your continued support of St Johns both financially and spiritually during this last year under such challenging times. Your generosity has helped to maintain our operations. Even though we have not been able to attend services in our beautiful building, we have still needed to maintain our regular expenses. Your continued support has helped us to maintain our goal of sharing the Gospel within and without our community. Your continued support of St John’s leadership and guidance is greatly appreciated.
This is the time we look in our hearts and respond to what our next year of stewardship means to each of us. How are we going to support the mission of God as expressed within St John’s and without? As you drive by our beautiful church, you can see we are still moving ahead, continually improving the facility where we will gather. Even though we cannot gather within just yet. I hope and pray we will be able to gather within soon, as I miss seeing my friends and family.
Please look in your heart and please pledge to support St John going forward. If you support our mission, our leadership, please know your generosity is greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance.
Blessings,
Jane Berard
Vestry Member
Such a question took me back many years to my Professor of Philosophy, Dwayn Richens. He started our first class after he introduced himself with the question, “What do you mean by…” (and here insert a word). What ensued was absolute silence. And so he tried again with another word, still silence and then followed another word, and another. Finally I thought he must be seeking a reply from the class and so I responded, probably with a synonym. At this there was a little curl upwards in his lips as a smile formed. He had obtained his objective, and he walked up to my desk and with twinkling blue eyes said, “You sir are in a state of intellectual chaos.”
He then proceeded to teach the class the importance of how the real meanings of each word should be defined with clear boundaries so that in their use the meaning was unambiguous and communication was absolutely clear. To be sure my brain with it’s impairments needed a clear and unambiguous definition. I turned to what I had been taught, that was finding root of the word and proceeding from there. From the dictionary I obtained only an old word from which “steward” is derived. By explanation a number of persons with different specific responsibilities were described, none associated with the church and none expressly spiritual. My professor was right about ambiguity and no clear communication. How to proceed?
The old, not ancient, word for steward was “stiweard”, which when the derivation is broken down is a melding of “stig” a word for house or hall, and “weard”, a word for ward. That word for ward, what is its meaning. Referring again to the dictionary “ward” is defined as “Have in Keeping, to protect, (chiefly now of GOD).”
So now let us see what Stewardship has come to mean from researching the root of the word. It means to “Have in keeping, and to protect the house of God.” So what does that mean?
These words make me think in a way I have not thought of Stewardship before. I looked at the work being done by my fellow Parishioners. Those working on the fabric of the building were certainly working on the secular House of God and doing more than their fair share. Those working on Finance also contributed more than their fair share considering the amount of time they contributed struggling to keep inadequate sums funding the many needy projects. Then there are many others that go unrecognized. These are the Good Stewards who are committed to “selfless service”, in the words of Jay Morris, and who are a model upon whom we each need to model and measure ourselves.
But when we talk of the House of God what do we mean? Here we are trying to understand Stewardship in the spiritual world. The House of God in keeping and protection. This conjures up for me the vision of what I must do to keep the vision, the values and the commandments that Jesus taught and that causes me to return to the words he uttered in the Sermon on the Mount. For those he blessed in Matthew 5, verses 3 to 10, surely we can find ways to help them.
The problem is in this modern world that everyone is often too busy for those with families to care for and to contribute much of their time. For many of those who are retired the cost of living and medications weighs heavily on their finances and savings. To preserve the House of God it seems to me that we must ask those who do not have the time to contribute of their treasure and for those with little or no treasure to contribute of their time.
This is happening in St Johns with the Good Stewards but we must all be Good Stewards. The question is can we all measure ourselves against them and become their equals in how they contribute so that Gods House as well our St Johns building becomes safer and stronger as they grow into the future.
David Hannaford
Vestry Member
DELEGATES: Dave Baldwin, Candace McKenna, Nancy McConnell & John First
ALTERNATES: Carol Bassett
CLERGY: Eliacín Rosario-Cruz, Liz Van Dyke
And this I pray, that your love may abound more and more in real knowledge and in practical insight, so that you may learn to recognize and treasure what is excellent, and that you may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ; filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Philippians 1:9-11, Amplified Bible)