The Evangel. P.O. Box Merritt Island, FL Website: Located at 5555 N. Tropical Trail, Merritt Island.

Transcription

1 P.O. Box Merritt Island, FL Website: Located at 5555 N. Tropical Trail, Merritt Island The Evangel St. Luke s Episcopal Church stlukesmi@cfl.rr.com Fr. Roberts PFROBERTS@peoplepc.com Rectory: Church: May 2018 Inside this issue: Fr. Peter's Message 1 Sr. Warden Message 2 Progressive Dinner 2 Lighthouse Tour Info 2 Annual Picnic Photos 3 Bat Talk Photos 4 Cocoa Playhouse Info 5 Calendar 5 PLEASE NOTE: The deadline for the newsletter items is the 15th of each month. Dear friends, This month I would like to share with you a reading from Gateway to Hope by Maria Boulding. Though God is an almighty lover, he can find himself shut out, and he longs to find an open door of vulnerability in us. It is extraordinarily hard for us to realize this, conditioned as we are by a secular ethic of success and a religious idea of moral perfection which may owe little to the gospel. God calls us, implants his life in the deepest center of our being a baptism, and loves us into growth. He does not propose to us some lofty, rigid ideal to which we must attain by our own unaided human resources. We are more sinful than we know, more deeply flawed than we can recognize by any human insight; but grace works in us in the deepest places of body and spirit. We must live from our weakness, from the barren places of our need, because there is the spring of grace and the source of our strength, as Paul discovered: When I am weak, then I am strong. When we can stand before God in the truth of our need, acknowledging our sinfulness and bankruptcy, then we can celebrate his mercy. Then we are living by grace, and we can allow full scope to his joy. For many of us it is difficult to live honestly from this place of failure and weakness. Even if we know with our heads we should, we may still slip back into the old attitudes and behave as though God were expecting us to succeed and making his love conditional upon our achievements. If we have become hardened in such an attitude it may take some deep experience of failure to disabuse us. When a crisis occurs I may find in myself the sheer moral impossibility of obeying God. It is not simply a matter of emotional rebellion, or of knowing that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak ; the will itself is unwilling. I am rebellious to the core and do not even want to want God s will. Perhaps I can push it one stage further from me, and say with a kind of tortured effort, I want to want to want your will, and then ask myself if there is even a grain of honesty or good will in that. I am helpless; and as the father of the epileptic boy cried to Jesus, I do believe, help my unbelief, so I can only say to God, I am rebellious down to my roots, help me. Here, as we teeter on the edge of despair, beset by every kind of temptation and feeling as though we had already fallen, the Spirit is released. This is his own place, the deepest place of our being where he is wedded to our spirit, where he can act and give life, where he can free us from all that hampers the true thrust of our will. God himself creates our freedom; he gives us freedom as his continuing gift of love, and he alone can influence it from within, in no way violating or diminishing it. Entombed Lazarus is a sign not simply of a certain group of people who had obviously closed their hearts against Jesus, but of each one of us. In this hopeless situation, where you are nothing but stark failure, you know the miracle of grace. This tomb is the place of resurrection, and if you believe you will see the glory of God.

2 P a ge 2 T h e E v a n g e l S t. L u ke s Episcopal Church From the Senior Warden Due to travel plans, I was unable to share the Easter Vigil with my St. Luke s family but I do want to share with you the church I attended on Easter Sunday. A group from our ship walked up the hill to Saint Maclou Church in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, France. Saint Maclou is a Medieval Romanesque church originally founded circa 900. Medieval churches don t have central heating, so we sat with our coats on throughout the service. Although I don t speak French, I enjoyed listening to the congregation sing their Easter hymns and I feebly sang along occasionally. No matter what language, the service was essentially the same as any Easter service around the world and it was an inspiration to share the news of Easter morning with this group of French Christians celebrating the risen Christ just like you were here in Florida. Our inaugural Chapel talk for 2018 was a homerun!! Shari Blissett-Clark gave an informative and entertaining presentation about Bats. She even brought two bats with her one under the collar of her shirt and the other in her shirt pocket! Many of us walked out of the presentation with thoughts of installing our own bat house a better pest control method than chemical pesticides. May brings two Parrish events: a fieldtrip to the Cape Canaveral Lighthouse followed by lunch at Port Canaveral on Saturday May 12 and a Progressive Dinner on Friday May 18. Look for signup sheets in the narthex as there is limited space for both events. See Ginny if you have questions about the Lighthouse tour and Judi for questions about the dinner. Thanks to all who helped prepare/decorate the church for Easter Sunday and those who organized and helped transport all the supplies to Mitchell Ellington Park for the outdoor service and annual picnic. We are very fortunate to have so many giving people in our parish who are always willing to pitch in with a helping hand. Faithfully yours, Marcia PROGRESSIVE DINNER May 18, :30 p.m. 5:30 p.m. - Appetizers - Irene & Paul Neal 6:30 p.m. - Main Course Yvonne & Fr. Gene 7:30 p.m. - Dessert Leslie & Malcolm Dinner will be limited to 26 people. Sign-up sheet will be in the narthex the first Sunday of May. TOUR THE CAPE CANAVERAL LIGHTHOUSE See the Past and Hear about the Future Saturday, May 12, 2018 Want to see the historic Cape Canaveral Lighthouse and learn about plans for rebuilding the original community that housed the lighthouse keepers and their families? You have an opportunity to experience this on Saturday, May 12. Docents will tell you how the lighthouse was built, dismantled and rebuilt. The artist renderings of the Lighthouse Keepers Cottages that will be built on the lighthouse grounds are on display. We will meet at St. Luke s at 10:00 a.m. and car pool to the lighthouse. The tour will be followed by lunch at a port restaurant. Parishioners and a guest must make a reservation for this tour by May 9. A sign-up list will be posted in the narthex. Photo identification will be required the morning of the tour prior to departure. Please direct questions to Ginny at

3 P a ge 3 T h e E v a n g e l S t. L u ke s Episcopal Church

4 P a ge 4 T h e E v a n g e l S t. L u ke s Episcopal Church

5 Page 5 The Evangel St. Luke s Episcopal Church May Calendar Sunday Monday BDG: Bible Discussion Group CFP: Christian Formation Program HE: Holy Eucharist and Sermon Tuesdsay Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday PCE: Parish Choral Eucharist HS: Healing Service MP/EP: Morning/Evening Prayer 1 Ss Philip and 2 Athanasius, Bishop of 3 The Finding of the 4 Monica (Mother of 5 James Alexandria :00am Prayer Group Holy Cross Augustine of Hippo, 387) 11 The Conversion of Augustine 8:30am Men s Breakfast 6 Easter VI (W) 7 John of Beverly 8 Dame Julian of 9 10 Ascension Day 8:00am HE Rite II (A) 10:30am PCE Rite I (II) (Bishop of York 721) 6:30pm Cub Committee 7:00am NMIHO Norwich c.1417 Committee Holy 13 Easter VII (W) Dunstan 8:00am HE Rite I (II) 10:30am PCE Rite II (A) 6;30pm Cub Den Meeting 5:30pm Progressive Dinner (Archbishop of Canterbury 988) 20 Pentecost (R) 21 The First Vincent of Leins, 24 Jackson Kemper, 25 The Ven. Bede, 26 8:00am HE Rite I (II) 10:30am PCE Rite II (A) Book of common Prayer 6:00pm Cub Pack Meeting Priest 450 First Missionary Bishop in the USA (Priest and Monk of Jarrow 735) 12:30pm Ladies Lunch 27 Trinity (W) 28 Augustine of Aidan, Bishop of 8:00am HE Rite I (I) 10:30am PCE Rite II (A) Hippo, 430 Lindesfarne 651 7:00pm HC 7:30pm Vestry 12 10:00am Lighthouse Tour Join us at the Historic Cocoa Village Playhouse for the Spotlight Series performance of

6 Worship Schedule Sundays: Holy Eucharist 8:00 a.m. Christian Formation Program 9:15 a.m. Choral Eucharist (Nursery) 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays: Holy Eucharist & Healing Service 10:30 a.m. Thursdays: Holy Eucharist & Healing Service 6:30 p.m. Choir Rehearsal 7:00 p.m. (On Sundays beginning at 10:15 a.m. nursery for children under six years old is provided in the last room of Perrine Hall by parish volunteers) In the 1870 s the LaRoche, Porcher, and Sams families settled in Courtenay, named after a mayor of Charleston. Episcopalians from the Charleston/John s Island Area of South Carolina met in homes for worship. In 1886, the diocese of Florida established St. Luke s Mission and in 1888, the first church building was constructed on land given by Mr. Edward Porcher, with funds provided by Mrs. Lucy A. Boardman of Connecticut. This building remained the church building until a new one was dedicated on January 25, 1978, and the old building was designated the chapel. St. Luke s congregation uses the new building for most worship services and the chapel for small weddings and funerals. St. Luke s Parish offers a full program of worship and Christian Education on Sunday mornings. We also have a mid-week program of Eucharist and Healing Service Study. In addition, dedicated adult leaders staff our Youth Group for grades 6th-12th. St. Luke s Parish was one of the founders of the Central Brevard Sharing Center, which seeks to meet the needs of those people who cannot find help through regular service agencies. Since 1886, St. Luke s Church has sought to offer the love and worship of God through Jesus Christ by serving their neighbors and strives to make a positive contribution to the spiritual growth of Merritt Island and Central Brevard County. St. Luke s Episcopal Church P.O. Box Merritt Island, FL