Volume 14 Number 3 March from the Rector. The Rev. Donald Lowery. March Madness leads to April Fools Day

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1 The Bell Tower The Church of the Holy Innocents Newsletter Volume 14 Number 3 March 2018 Inside this Issue From the Rector March Madness From the Rector...cont. Parish News... Youth Group Healing Service Souper Bowl ECW Treasurer s Report Vestry News... Altar Guild News... Easter Lily Order Form March Schedule of Events The Deacon s Bench... March Birthdays and Anniversaries Remember in Your Prayers Special Dates Unified Serving Schedule Spotlight On The Church of the Holy Innocents 210 South Chestnut Street Henderson, North Carolina Telephone: hinnocents@centurylink.net Church Web Site Address: Visit us on Facebook from the Rector March Madness leads to April Fools Day Holy Week begins in the last days of March this year and then we proceed to Easter which falls on April 1, 2018, which is also April s Fools Day. That coincidence will give both skeptics and believers a turn or two in conversation and comment as Christians celebrate the holiest day of our year. It is tempting to write my lead article around that curious collision of days, but having raised the issue I choose not so to do because, quite honestly, it would spoil my Easter Sermon on which I am already working. However, it does remind us that what is the bedrock of faith for some is absolute folly for others. In some ways, the story of Jesus has always seemed foolish to some. St. Paul tells us that the story Jesus death on the cross and his resurrection seem like folly to some people while others find it a stumbling block that is, something that trips them up intellectually or spiritually. When Paul preached Jesus and the Resurrection in ancient Athens, some thought he was preaching a new pair of divinities, a new male god named Jesus and a new female goddess names Anastasia a name which literally means Resurrection. Others realized he was claiming Jesus rose from the dead and scoffed at the idea. For two thousand years, in times of deep faith and in times of skepticism, Christians have observed with devotion From the Rector cont. pg UPCOMING CHURCH EVENTS Mark Your Calendar HOLY WEEK & EASTER March 25 - Palm Sunday March 29 - Maundy Thursday March 30 - Good Friday April 1- Easter Sunday COMMUNITY HOLY WEEK SERVICES March 26 - March 30 First Baptist Church (Noon services followed by lunch) (Service details on page 2.)

2 MARCH 2018 and prayer the events of Holy Week and Easter. So we continue to do so at Holy Innocents. We will, as is the custom in Henderson, have noon Holy Week Services for the community this year hosted at First Baptist Church. Each day a different pastor will preach and a lunch will be served after the noon time worship. I will preach on Wednesday and our parish will serve lunch in the fellowship hall of the First Baptist Church. We will keep the proper liturgy for Maundy Thursday at 7:00 p.m. followed by the Solemn Stripping of the Altar. On Friday, after the community noon service, we will have Stations of the Cross at Holy Innocents at 3:00 p.m.. The proper liturgy for Good Friday will be celebrated at 7:00 p.m. with communion from the reserved sacrament. Our Healing Service will be held on March 7 th at 5:30 p.m. This service of Healing and Holy Communion will be followed by Lenten Program at 6:30 p.m. We will continue to have Holy Communion Service followed by Lenten Program on March 14 h and March 21 st On the last Wednesday of March, we will have Holy Communion Service. Betsy Seifert, President The ECW met on Tuesday, February 27 th at 10:00 a.m. in the Ladies Parlor. We discussed our plans for the lunch we ll be preparing and serving after the Holy Week Community Service at the First Baptist Church on Wednesday, March 28 th. Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 24 th at 10:00 a.m. in the Ladies Parlor. Please plan to join us! It was a super Souper Bowl! Marsha Nelson If you are interested in applying for a church scholarship for college, you need to contact Susie Pahl in our church office for an application or you can download the form from our church website at: ( The scholarship link is located under the program tab. If you are currently receiving a Wolfe Scholarship, you will receive a renewal application form via in April. The renewal form is also available to download from our church website. Completed applications are due back to the church office or via return by the May 1 deadline. The Scholarship Committee will meet in May to select recipients for next year. Christian symbol Yolanda Yoder Easter Sunday we will pull out all the stops with the Easter Vigil as Sunrise Service at 6:00 am at old St. John s, and then 8:00 and 10:30 in English and 12:30 in Spanish. Come out on April Fools Day and see what God has up his sleeve for his people. Parish News The Youth Group will meet on March 4 th, 11 th and 25 th at 5:00 p.m. We will not meet on Sunday, March 18 th. We did it again! We raised $325 for ACTS during the Souper Bowl (on Super Bowl Sunday). This is our third straight year participating in this special Souper Bowl of Caring event! The total so far at the national level is $7,656,879 (cash & food) raised by 2,796 organizations for local charities in the 2018 Souper Bowl of Caring. Thank you for a super Souper Bowl! The church office will be closed Easter Monday and Tuesday St. Patrick used the shamrock to teach people about the Godhead. Holding up a shamrock, he challenged them, Is this one leaf, or three? Inevitably, people replied that it was both, prompting St. Patrick to draw the analogy that so, too, is God: one God in three Persons the Holy Trinity. April Newsletter items are due: March 23 rd Please news items to: MJNELSON@nc.rr.com Thanks for your support! 2

3 MARCH 2018 NEW FUNDS UPDATE Treasurer s Report The Vestry established a new fund in 2018 and it is listed as follows: THE WOODWARD-GHOLSON ENDOWMENT SCHOLARSHIP FUND Bob Nelson, Treasurer We are pleased to announce that our church has received funds, through a grant from Griselle Gholson Woodward, to be used to fund academic scholarships. The fund is to be known as The Woodward-Gholson Endowment Scholarship Fund. The earnings from this fund are to be used to create scholarships for post-secondary education for students in need of financial support, with strong academics, and a commitment to community service. A committee has been established to oversee this fund. Once we have sufficient earnings from the grant, applications will be accepted from those wishing to be a recipient. EDITOR S NOTE: The application process will be published in this newsletter and on our church website when the earnings from this fund are available for distribution. VESTRY News... Hunter Roberson Roberta Scott Rix Edwards Nick Long Sarah Paynter Catherine Olmert Tom Church Pictured from left to right are members of our 2018 Vestry The annual Vestry Retreat was held on February23 rd and 24 th at the Henderson Country Club. The above photo was taken during the opening session of the retreat. This year s Vestry Committee assignments are as follows: Finance & Stewardship Tom Church Building & Grounds (Junior Warden) Elderly Service Rix Edwards & Roberta Scott Communications -Caroline Burnette & Roberta Scott Day School Liaison Sarah Paynter Worship Nick Long (Sr. Warden) Outreach Catherine Olmert & Hunter Roberson Parish Life Catherine Olmert (Pastoral Care will be subcommittee w/input from Elderly Service) Latino Congregation Liaison Caroline Burnette ECW Liaison Roberta Scott Info provided by Nick Long ~ Photo by Bob Nelson 3

4 THE BELL TOWER Altar Guild News Margaret Williamson, Chairman Altar Guild members will be cleaning the sacristy and the sanctuary in March in preparation for Easter. Each committee will have a section to clean as we did last year and your committee chairman will contact you with more details. March 2018 Schedule of Events Choir Weekly Practice Schedule Hand Bell Choir Wed, at 6:00 PM Parish Choir Sun. at 9:30 AM Sunday - March 4 (Lent3) 10:30 AM, Holy Eucharist Rite I 12:30 PM, La Misa Servicio We will meet on Saturday, March 24 th at 10:00 a.m. to make palm crosses for Palm Sunday and on Saturday, March 31 st at 10:00 a.m. we will meet to decorate the sanctuary for Easter. Please order Easter lilies in memory or in honor of loved ones. They will be $15.00 each. An order form is below for your use and there will also be some in our church bulletins. Wednesday March 7 5:30 PM, Healing Service & Holy Communion 6:30 PM, Lenten Program Sunday March 11 (Lent4) 10:30 AM, Holy Eucharist Rite I 12:30 PM, La Misa Servicio Wednesday March 14 3:00 PM, Nursing Home Ministry 5:30 PM, Holy Communion 6:30 PM, Lenten Program Sunday March 18 (Lent 5) 10:30 AM, Holy Eucharist Rite I 12:30 PM, La Misa Servicio Wednesday March 21 5:30 PM, Holy Communion 6:30 PM, Lenten Program 21 st Sunday March 25 (Palm Sunday) 10:30 AM, Holy Eucharist Rite I 12:30 PM, La Misa Servicio Wednesday March 28 3:00 PM, Nursing Home Ministry 5:30 PM, Holy Communion 6:30 PM, Lenten Program Thurs. March 29 ( Maundy Thurs) 7:00 PM, Holy Communion with Solemn stripping of the Altar Friday March 30 (Good Friday) 3:00 PM, Stations of the Cross 7:00 PM, Liturgy w/ Communion Sunday April 1 (Easter) 6:00 AM, Sunrise Service St. John s 10:30 AM, Sung Holy Eucharist 12:30 PM, Misa por Pascua All services are conducted in the Church, unless otherwise noted. 4

5 THE BELL TOWER The Deacon s Bench by the Rev. Harrel Johnson MARCH 2018 Lent is not just a time for us to get closer to Jesus and hope for the best. Lent is a time to embrace the challenge of the Gospel, to swim upstream against all of the world s downstream current of things that pleasure us and delight us, but never satisfy. Deep Lent, as some call this time, is when we struggle with the darkness, and may not always find answers to why it is so pervasive. We cannot answer why evil seems so prevalent because we can t readily see it in our own choices. So, asking to be part of the light will reveal what is hidden in our darkness, and most of us would prefer not to see. That is why self-examination and confession are rare and avoided by most of us. But we have strayed like lost sheep, we have followed too much the desires of our own hearts, to the point where, left on our own, we are truly lost. So, make today a turning point, an embracing of John 3:16 for your future. If you say this passage every day this week and ask God how to embrace it, you will find a way. You will find it as you receive the bread and the cup. You will find it as you reach out to another human being who is also lost and lonely. You will find a way to move more into the light. You will have different questions to ask, ones for which there are answers. The only reason Jesus could go to the cross was because he dared to walk into the darkness. We have to do the same if we are going to follow him the rest of the Lenten journey. That means leaving a lot of things behind, including the world s wisdom for how to live in the darkness by making everything pleasant for ourselves. Somehow, we have to connect, with the Hebrews who wandered in the desert. And somehow, we have to take what is offered this Sunday, the word and sacrament, and let it begin to work in us so that, as John so wonderfully writes: it may be clearly seen that [our] deeds have been done in God. Amen. The Brinkley Report The past month has not been a good one for Scott and his family. A few weeks ago Scott lost his Mother after a brief but tragic stay in a Charlotte hospital. There were trips back and forth to the hospital and then the funeral. Scott was able to have his girls with him during these times, but then they all came down with the flu. His car has also broken down, and the time off from work has left him in dire straits financially. Please pray for them and reach out to them if you can. 5

6 Birthdays Annette Roberson... 3/01 Mary Beth Parish... 3/04 Sarah Rose Parish... 3/04 John Stevenson.. 3/04 Scott Brinkley..3/04 Caroline Burnette 3/06 Robin Scott Williams...3/08 Barbara Madigan... 3/15 Jordan Williamson... 3/22 Mildred Kimball... 3/23 Luke Stark... 3/25 William Parish... 3/28 Hunter Roberson /29 Linda Shaw /31 Anniversaries Remember In Your Prayers Pray for Healing and Comfort: Cynthia Shaw, Trayce Wheless, Barbara Collins, Staci Barnett, Barbara Madigan, Melody Shearin, Carolyn Lowery, Mary Shearin, Meghan Bunn, Frances Saunders, Vivie Drake, Lisa Adcock, C.G. Williams, Griselle Woodward, Graham Shearin, Nancy Rogers, Tommy Greenway, Bill Mast, William Stancil, Thomas Stancil, Grace Sanders, Bettie Cooper, Sheila Roberts, Berkeley Ellis, Graham Cawthorne, Wesley Jackson, Juan Sanchez Avila, Bo Jones, Megan Jones, Jane Carnes, Trevor Balllinger, Gus Bachman, Mary Parham Jackson, Theo, Janet Wynn, Darrell Mullinix, Chick Young and Lucy Gray. World Day of Prayer March 2, 2018 Third Sunday in Lent March 4, 2018 Daylight-Saving Time begins March 11, 2018 Fourth Sunday in Lent March 11, 2018 Fifth Sunday in Lent March 18, 2018 First Day of Spring March 20, 2018 Palm/Passion Sunday March 25, 2018 Holy Week, March 25-31,2018 Maundy Thursday March 29, 2018 THE BELL TOWER Special Dates Mildred & D. Boyd Kimball... 3/01 Annette & Tommy Roberson... 3/26 March 11,2018 Good Friday March 30, 2018 MARCH Unified Serving Schedule ~ COFFEE WILL BE SERVED IN THE GREAT HALL AFTER THE 10:30 AM SERVICE ~ MAR bearers acolytes crucifer layreader/ chalice bearer ushers altar guild FLOWerS 4 Kaitlyn Paynter (Book) Genie Parish 8:00 am - Rick Palamar 10:30 am - Ruth Hartness Butch Gray Cole Whitt Anora Rainey Anne Bliss 11 Mary Parish (Book) Ethan Holloway 8:00 am - Hut Wester 10:30 am - Porter Shaw Butch Gray Cole Whitt Mariana Davis Kathy & Greg Taylor 18 Sarah Parish (Book) Lehman Ford 8:00 am - Greg Taylor 10:30 am - Butch Gray Cole Whitt Mariana Davis Marsha & Bob Nelson 25 Brennan Olmert Tucker Olmert PALM SUNDAY Lehman Ford 8:00 am - Bob Nelson 10:30 am - Nancy Whitt Butch Gray Cole Whitt Shirley Young Jean & Rick Palamar 29 Kaitlyn Paynter Jack Paynter Ethan Holloway 7:00 pm - Rix Edwards Shirley Young Malone Parham Family 30 Genie Parish 3:00pm -Stations of the Cross 7:00pm- Liturgy of Good Fri. Shirley Young 6 NOTE: IF YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO LAYREAD AND HAVE A CONFLICT, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR OWN REPLACEMENT AND NOTIFY THE CHURCH OFFICE.

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8 PHONE: THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY INNOCENTS 210 South Chestnut Street Henderson, NC The Church of the Holy Innocents All are welcome to join us as we joyfully greet each person present at our worship. May our love and respect for one another be steady and true as we strive to follow Christ our Lord.