FROM GRETCHEN S PEN. Gretchen

Transcription

1 The Episcopal Church of the Nativity Volume 2015, Issue 10 THE MESSENGER FROM GRETCHEN S PEN The first verse of psalm 63 is a part of a prayer that I frequently find myself praying: O God, you are my God, eagerly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you. It is a prayer that acknowledges the desire for God, for a deep and lasting relationship with God. The psalmist goes on to say so will I bless you as long as I live, and lift up my hands in your Name. The desire for God is life-long, and also is one that is met, and so the psalmist gives praise and thanks. When I go to meet with my spiritual director the first question always asked is and how are you and God doing? My own relationship with God is good, but lately, I have found that relationship to have grown perhaps a bit taken for granted on my part, perhaps a bit complacent. I have found myself restless and unsatisfied, and have realized that I am being asked to go deeper in my prayer life. We have been engaged in conversations about prayer and our relationship with God in our small groups, but I have found myself seeking something more intense. I have spoken to the vestry about my desire to take some serious retreat time and to undertake a 30 day silent Ignatian retreat. These 30 day retreats are based on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola, which are a series of meditations, prayers and contemplations on the Scripture. It is 30 days of silence other than daily conversation with ones spiritual director, with no phone, no computer, no reading material other than the Scripture. It is 30 days of intense prayer designed to help people deepen their relationship with God. Such a retreat is not usually one that people make more than once in their life. I have been wanting to make such a retreat for sometime, and lately the desire, and indeed the feeling of need for such a retreat has grown. The vestry has supported me in this, and after looking at the calendar and having conversations with my spiritual director, I will be starting a 30 day retreat on November 9th down at St. Gertrude s Monastery in Cottonwood. You will hear more about this as it gets closer. While this retreat is an intense engagement and will be my personal retreat time, all of us can hear the call to go deeper into relationship with God. All our worship, all our work, and all our study is designed to help us to just that, love God and our neighbor who has God within. As we go through the next couple of months let all of us consider how we are being invited to go deeper in our relationship with God. Gretchen

2 Page 2 Volume 2015, Issue 10 N A T I V I T Y S OUTREACH: FOOD PANTRY Demand is high for the food from our pantry and we continue to constantly empty our shelves each time we are open. The past several week have been hard at the Idaho food bank, very little food has been available. We would greatly appreciate donations! SATURDAY SUPPER Rose Mortensen offered marinated chicken tenders, peppers and onions, baked beans, potato salad, and rolls. Her crew served 65 people. Anyone interested in being a Team Leader or being a helper with a Team Leader? Call the office or Rosemary Daubert. Thanks to all who are helping with this community outreach! ~ Rosemary Daubert, Saturday Supper Coordinator SNAKE RIVER CLINIC The next delivery of finger-food, for approximately 15 workers at the clinic, will be Tuesday, October 12. If you would like to assist with this ministry, please find the sign-up sheet on the table in the parish hall and/or speak with Susan Pearson ( ). SALVATION ARMY SOUP KITCHEN We will be helping to prepare, serve and clean up from the meal at the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., on Wednesday, October 28. If you would like to join us in serving others, please call Pat Johnson at FAMILY PROMISE BENEFIT DINNER AND DESSERT AUCTION Saturday, October 10th at 6 P.M. at the Red Lion Seaport Room. Enjoy a wonderful meal with friends to support a program in our valley making a real difference for homeless families! Tickets are $25 per person (tickets must be purchased in advance). You may purchase tickets in the church office at Nativity, Rosauers & Owl Southway or call (208) You may also donate a dessert for this auction. To do so, please fill out a Benefit Dinner and Dessert Auction Dessert Donation Form in the parish hall before Tuesday, October 7th. If you have any questions please call Anne Rhoads (509) or Executive Director, Steve Thomas (208)

3 Page 3 Volume 2015, Issue Page 103 CHANCEL GUILD MEN AND WOMEN S GROUPS 13 Nativity women met on September 13th for dessert and conversation, hosted by Caryl Mackey and Marcu Johnson. Pat Johnson reported the money earned from the rummage sale has been transferred to the scholarship fund for Epiphanie. Pat also reported the food pantry is still in need of volunteers. Max stated there is still plenty of room for rummage downstairs. The next Chancel Guild gathering will be on Monday, October 5th at 1:00 pm in the parish hall. Chancel Guild is open to all ladies of Nativity MEN S BREAKFAST Men s breakfast group returns the 2 nd Saturday of September, October 10 th. All men are invited to participate, gathering at 9 am on Saturday. Formation classes TUESDAY EVENING SUPPER AND DVD STUDY PROGRAM The Tuesday evening supper study program starts back up on October 6th. We will gather for a soup and bread supper at 5:30, the study program begins at 6 pm. This month we will explore with Amy-Jill Levine familiar stories from Scripture to see them in a new light. All are invited to join us for supper and study. SUNDAY 9AM BIBLE STUDY, NOON STUDY DISCUSSION GROUP Our 9 am Bible study on Sundays is currently reading the Book of Job a great morality story about how we understand the place of God in tragedy. At noon our book is 40 days with the Holy Spirit and we are studying (and practicing!) various forms of prayer. This is a great way to go deeper in our life in God. VESTRY UPDATE As mentioned last month the vestry had two vacancies, Marsha Creason and Susan Pearson agreed to serve and have been appointed to the vestry. CELEBRATING 150 YEARS Down the years at Nativity:

4 Page 4 Volume 2015, Issue Page 104 More on Father William A. Gilbert, Digging through archives, a story of Father Gilbert s retirement in Ventura, California at age 65, came to light. Before coming to Nativity, William A. Hap Gilbert had quite a career: Shakespearean actor in 1929 at the Boston Shakespearean Repertory Theatre, played on stage from Toronto to London to Montreal. In the 1930 s he went to Hollywood, a venture that lasted only two months: I took in the situation I can take wine, women and song but I couldn t take Hollywood. So he entered Wycliffe College at the University of Toronto to study theology and did missionary work in the lumber camps during this time. 1 In 1933 he was a track star and Canadian fashion model. Then he went on to become a bush preacher north of the 53 rd parallel in Manitoba. It was Hap Gilbert s first stage in a new career; he played it for nearly four years and had about 2,000 whites, mostly prospectors and trappers and many Indians as his audience. 2 After being offered a chaplaincy on the RMS Franconia, he spent five months sailing around the world he spent his 33 rd birthday in Peking, China. From China, Gilbert was accepted to the post of canon in Charge of Christian Education at the Cathedral of St. John, Spokane. From Spokane, he came to Nativity. He served at Nativity until 1945 then on to Walla Walla where he came face to face with what was to become his life-long concern, ministry to the incarcerated and penal reform a ministry that absorbed him for 19 years. He retired at 65 after 36 years in full time ministry. The newspaper, Ventura County Star-Free Press, reported the following on his retirement: Besides, the stereotyped characteristics of a retiree just wouldn t fit Bill Gilbert: one-time stage and motion picture actor, world traveler, outstanding collegiate athlete and class leader, budding journalist, ranch hand, lumberman, the city fashion model and priest. 3 A man of many talents, relationships evidently came easy, maybe THAT was why he graced our wild-west town of Lewiston so easily Father Gilbert, we salute you! Then there was Rev. Frederick Belton from 1946 to We discussed his building program earlier. Recall, he oversaw building expansion for basement areas useful for education and hospitality. It was under his direction that a new rectory was built. Do all of you parishioners know about all the many rooms in our church? Downstairs, library, kitchen, food pantry distribution, rummage and history room? I haven t run across any stories like Hap Gilbert s in the archives about Fr. Belton, and I HAVE asked several parishioners for stories--know that history is from the bottom up, not just from the top down. Stories tell us about relationship we have with each other and with parish leadership. This summer, with our Forum leaders, Tyler Richards and Liz Embler, we have been telling our stories, building relationships with those in our parish, and improving our prayer life. My request (dare I say prayer?) for historical stories was answered by Mary Lou Gregory. She wrote down several stories of former priests. Here is her first story about answers to prayer. (She has more.) Mary Lou s story concerns Rev. Charles May, our Centennial priest. (Today s history is indebted to the Centennial Committee for much of our history.) Father May relayed a story about answers to prayers. He said he wasn t much of a cat lover, but he had neighbor children who were very fond of their pet kitten. One day they knocked on his door and asked him if he d seen their kitten. They asked him to pray that they would find it. Fr. May recounted that he prayed for the children s faith not to be harmed, because he knew

5 Page 5 Volume 2015, Issue 10 sometimes a missing pet episode can end sadly Later that day there was another knock on the door. Fr. May, the children exclaimed excitedly, we found our kitten in YOUR TREE. More coming from Mary Lou s treasure trove. There must be more of YOUR stories about our parish life? We have lists of our historical rectors: Rev. Dean served from 1951 through 1956 when he was transferred to Ritzville. Mr. H.E. Caudell, locum tenums, served from with Rev. William Greenfield, who, history tells us, found the church in financial trouble in 1956 to be rescued by an unnamed commercial firm. 4 Then there was Fr. Stretch, R. Scott Dills , and Charles W. May, 1970 the Centennial priest! Below: Father William A. Hap Gilbert Summer Forum with Tyler Richards and Liz Embler Mary Lou Gregory s family End Notes: 1 The Ventura County Star-Free Press Sunday, September 21, Ibid. 3 Ibid. 4 Jennings, John Richard The History of the Episcopal Church of the Nativity p 9 undated. Jennings, John Richard The History of the Episcopal Church of the Nativity p 9 undated. Richards, Tyler and Embler, Liz Parish Profile church archives The Ventura County Star-Free Press Sunday, September 21, Deloris Jungert Davisson and Margaret Cole 201

6 Page 6 Volume 2015, Issue 10 PUMPKIN CARVING AND MOVIE NIGHT! Join us for a Halloween celebration Friday, October 30th at 5pm in the Parish Hall! We will carve pumpkins and show Pixar s, Monsters, INC. Costumes are encouraged! We will serve treats (Gretchen thinks treats are a meal), popcorn, and refreshments! Feel free to bring treats! All are welcome! To obtain power for the city of Monstropolis monsters have to scare children and collect their screams. However, the children are toxic to the monsters, and after a child gets through, two monsters realize things may not be what they think... COME LET US SING TO THE LORD A SHORT COURSE ON HYMNS AND HYMN WRITING AS WE WRITE A NATIVITY HYMN Join us on Sunday evenings for the month of October as Sarah and Annamarie lead us in an exercise of writing a Nativity Hymn. We will: explore the history of hymns in the church, pick out tunes we want to explore as possible tunes for our hymn, Look at and develop topical themes for hymn verses, create phrases and images to be used and by the end of the month actually write a hymn that reflects our parish. Our goal is the have a working hymn by the end of the month that we can use to celebrate our parish in music. This is going to be a great and fun exercise. All are invited to be part of the hymn writing, whether or not you read music or sing! Join us the four Sundays of October at 3pm and help us write our Nativity Hymn.

7 Newsletter Title Page 10 B I RT H DA Y S IN O C TO B E R Scott Hemphill 10 th Marcu Johnson 14 th Cyndee Church 26 th Diana Hughes 11 th Orville Holm 15 th Toni Pierce 12 th Cathlin Stewart 18 th Jerry Pierce 13 th Allan Pearson 19 th Andrew Cash 14 th Dick Phillips 19 th THE ALTAR GUILD Our thanks to those who have donated sanctuary candles. October 4 - Open. October 11 - Open. October 18 - Given by Cathlin and Avril Stewart for Cathlin s birthday. October 25 - Given by Phyl Lacy in memory of Jack Lacy. Our thanks to those who have donated flowers for the altar. October 4 - Given by Bill and Debi Fitzgerald in memory of Billie Fitzgerald. October 11 - Given by Toni and Jerry Pierce in memory of Ruth Pierce and for Toni and Jerry Pierce birthday s. October 18 - Open. October 25 - Given by Merrily and Joe Lillard in memory of Rachel Walker.

8 Page 8 Volume 2015, Issue 10 WEEKLY SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Sunday: Eucharist - 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Bible Study - 9:00 a.m. Study Hour - 12:00 p.m. Monday - Friday: Noon Day Prayer - 12:15 p.m. Tuesday: Book Study - 9:00 a.m. DVD Supper Study - 5:30 supper, 6 p.m. study OCTOBER 2015 Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Chancel Guild 1 p.m. 6 Food pantry open 8:45-12pm Supper study 5:30 7 Vestry 6 pm Men s bfast- 9am- Saturday Supper- 4 5:30 pm, Food pantry Open 11 Compline 7 pm 18 Diocesan Convention Snake River Clinic meal delivery Food pantry 8:45am- 12pm Food pantry open 8:45am - 12pm Diocesan Convention Diocesan Convention Saturday Supper 4 5:30pm, Food pantry Food pantry open 8:45am - 12pm 28 Salvation Army Soup Kitchen Pumpkin carving & movie- 5pm 31 Halloween

9 Page 9 Volume 2015, Issue 10 SERVICE SCHEDULE FOR OCTOBER DATE October 4 October 11 October 18 Morning Prayer October 25 8:00 AM 8:00 AM 8:00 AM 8:00 AM Ushers Don and Maxine Hubbell John Willows Jerry Pierce Neal and Peggy Flowers LEM Jerry Pierce Jess Stone Pete Ruppel John Willows Lector Jess Stone Margaret Cole Joe Lillard Jerry Pierce POP Peggy Flowers Maxine Hubbell Morning Prayer Anne Rhoads 10:30 AM 10:30 AM 10:30 AM 10:30 AM Greeters Phyl Lacy Ray and Nancy Rosch Maxine Hubbell Rosemary Daubert Ushers Rosemary Daubert Bill and Debi Fitzgerald Caryl Mackey Ray Rosch Richard and Johnette Moore LEM Caryl Mackey Jerry Pierce Harold Crook Marsha Creason Lectors Fran Caradine Harold Crook Pat Johnson Ray Rosch Marcu Johnson Alicia Case Toni Pierce Rosemary Daubert Jane Abbott POP Mary Lou Gregory Caryl Mackey Morning Prayer Nancy Rosch Altar Guild Karen Parkman Susan Pearson Debbie Riedle Fran Caradine Johnette Moore Maxine Hubbell Pat Chase Pat Johnson Roberta Coats Marilyn Harris Marcu Johnson Caryl Mackey Rosemary Daubert Karen Turner Coffee Hour Marsha Creason Help Needed! Help Needed! Ray and Nancy Rosch

10 Page 9 Volume 2015, Issue 10 EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY th Street Lewiston, Idaho Office: office@nativitylewiston.com Rector: CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY Wardens/Vestry Rector Rev d. Gretchen Rehberg Vestry Diana Hughes, Sr. Warden Harold Crook, Jr. Warden Pat Johnson, Treasurer Dick McMillen, Clerk Marsha Creason Rosemary Daubert Diana Hughes Joe Lillard Richard Moore Susan Pearson FIND US ON THE WEB! us on Facebook! Episcopal Church of the Nativity