ST. PETER S EPISCOPAL CHURCH 3 Peabody Row, Londonderry, NH

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1 ST. PETER S EPISCOPAL CHURCH 3 Peabody Row, Londonderry, NH ST. PETER S EPISCOPAL CHURCH 3 PEABODY ROW LONDONDERRY, NH Dear Friends, November 2013 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19) The promise God gives to the prophet Isaiah are the words with which Bishop Hirschfeld began his recent letter to delegates for convention. (This letter is on the diocesan website, and I heartily recommend that everyone read it.) I was taken with this scripture because it is full of hope, even if we don t know where we are going. And we don t that is, know where the Church is going. As you ve heard many times from me that Church as we know it is changing, yet we re not sure what will happen. We scratch our heads and wonder why we can t get more people into the pews, or more people to help with church chores, so we try to dream up all sorts of programs and events that will bring people into our community. As Bishop Hirschfeld wrote, May we see and know that the Church is becoming less an institution obsessed with its own survival and more like the movement Jesus unleashed. Jesus told his followers Go. Go out among the people and proclaim the Good News of God s compassionate love, go out and care for the poor and needy, work for justice, so the Kingdom of God may come among you. I think our Stewardship Committee did a brave thing by naming this year s pledge program Noli Timere ( Be not afraid ). The honesty in this phrase may unnerve us, and make us ask ourselves What am I afraid of? We go along with our lives, do our duties, pay our bills, have recreation, and come to church (at least when it works out with our schedule). Our resources seem continually tapped out, so we are careful with what time and treasure we have left and make sure not to commit too much. Better to err on the side of letting go of a little than letting go of more, for fear that we may be without. Without what? Yes, it s true that St. Peter s needs better financial resources, and the vestry always has to remind people to keep up their pledges. Yes, the yearly budget CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE ~

2 seems impossible to reach, and if we can squeak by cutting expenditures to barely cover costs, we do it. The traditional way of funding a church s yearly budget is through members pledges. Maybe this model is unsustainable. So what are we to do? My answer right now is to ask you all to come to the All Parish Retreat Day on Saturday, November 9 th, 9am 2pm at the church. Pledging money is important but what s more important is that we have a heart for each other. We are called to be community with together: the Body of Christ, working to make God s abundant love known to all. How shall we care for the needy and work for justice? How do we live into our baptismal vows to respect the dignity of every human being, when the gap between the well-off and the poor widens? What can St. Peter s do, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the community, the world? The vestry and I find that we are being called to Go go out to work for the reconciling love of God in Jesus. This simple and startling message, lived into, will deepen our faith and draw us together in our mission as a Christian community. What this looks like we have yet to discover. But with your commitment and the Holy Spirit s guidance, we will discern our way. Please join us on November 9 th. Knitters Group St. Peter s knitting group will begin meeting again on November 11, at 7:00 PM; the home of the person hosting will be announced later. All are welcome beginners and experienced knitters alike! We will be working on prayer shawls, and hats and mittens for children in need. Other project ideas are welcome. We hope you can join us! Questions? Call Justina Trevorrow Lift Up Your Voice! The Church School children are preparing songs to sing at the 10:00 liturgy on the Sunday before Thanksgiving and at Christmas time. Rehearsals with Emery will be held from 11:15-11:45 on Sundays, November 10 and 17, and December 1, 8, 15, and 22. All children are welcome. Please help your child get a snack from coffee hour and then usher them back into the sanctuary so that they can work with Emery at the piano. Invite your Priest to Work! A few years ago I offered to visit parishioners in their work environments. Since we live, move, and have our being much of our waking hours in our work environments, visiting you where you work gives me an understanding of what you do, along with how and with whom you spend your working hours. I only had one person take me up on the offer, so I am offering it again, and will happily come to your workplace to visit! We are all ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so our workspace is a predominant place where ministry is carried out. We may not think that working in a laboratory, or sitting in front of a computer screen, or doing intake for new patients in a doctor s office is ministry, but the truth is that wherever we are and whatever we do, we have a chance to show the love of Jesus Christ through our interactions, decisions, and duties. I know you principally within the context of church; seeing you in your work environment gives me a sense of your life and how I can pray for you more fully. So if you re interested in having me visit you at work, give me a call here at the office, and we ll set up a date. Confirmation Conversation (for those wishing to be confirmed, received, or just plain interested in exploring what we hold dear): Anyone wishing to be confirmed or received is expected to attend these five conversations, which will happen once monthly between now and March 2, 2014 when Bishop Hirschfeld will make his Episcopal Visitation to St. Peters. Our conversations will be based on Marcus Borg s Embracing An Adult Faith. They will take place from 11:15 to noon after the 10 am liturgy. November 24, 2013 January 12, 2014 December 15, 2013 February 9, 2014 If you re interested in attending please speak to the rector.

3 Crop Walk Wrap Up Bad News It rained on walk day. Good News Sixty-one hardy souls participated on walk day to make our 2 nd Annual Crop Walk a success! Thanks to those who helped, walked or sponsored a walker. With your participation and generosity combined with the Londonderry United Methodist, St. Jude s, St. Mark s and the Upper Room we were able to raise over $ for fighting hunger. The Upper Room will receive 25% of what was raised and this will see their food pantry through the year. This will allow them to concentrate on their mission of helping families through educational and support programs. The remainder of the $$ stays with Church World Services to feed the hungry and grow sustainable food programs around the world. "Thanksgiving Bags of Plenty" for St. Andrew s Food Pantry As we have done in past years - St. Peters will be collecting "Bags of Plenty" for St. Andrews. These bags will be distributed to families in need for Thanksgiving. The average bag should consist of non perishable food for the average family of four. Examples of food to buy: rice, canned vegetables, beans or fruit, cranberry sauce, stuffing, nuts, quick bread mix, pie filling and boxed crust, etc. Please bring the bags to church on or before November 10. The bags can be left in the upper part of the fellowship hall. If making a bag is too much for you, consider giving an item like instant mashed potatoes, stuffing mix, gravy, and cranberry sauce. We will deliver the bags and other food on November 16th. St. Peter s CSA Experience with Fresh Start Farms I wanted to thank all the adventurous eaters and cooks at St. Peter's who participated in the Fresh Start Farms community supported agriculture program. Oct. 20 was our final delivery for this season. I will contact you in the spring to see if you would like to participate again. I spoke with Andrea Bye just before the Crop Walk and she asked to express their appreciation to all of you for purchasing your fresh vegetables in this way. She explained to me that the farmers are learning all aspects of the business. Our CSA was the first one that Asli and Hajiya handled on their own. They grew, washed, bagged and delivered to us and to the Salem Farmers' Market. More than forty people work on the farm. All are new Americans, arrived within the last five years from Africa (Bantu people from Somalia and Kenya) and Asia (Bhutanese people, some of whom were in refugee camps in Nepal.) As we chatted, I commented that we had had some unusually hot weather this summer and that it must have been tough working in the fields in those conditions. She said that the thing that had worried her was that Ramadan fell during that hot weather and that the workers refused even water during the daylight hours. Knowing something about the people who grow our food can't help but change how we think about the world. Somebody, somewhere, grows everything we eat and we rarely give it a second thought. Here's a few lines from Barbara Kingsolver's book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that seem to apply. "...a genuine food culture is an affinity between people and the land that feeds them. It's not at necessary to live on a food-producing farm to participate in this culture. But it is necessary to know that such farms exist, understand something about what they do, and consider oneself basically in their court." So, we ate well, we did a bit of good and we learned a little something. We learned that there is no such thing as too many tomatoes, but there is definitely such a thing as too much kale. (Most of mine is waiting in the freezer for soup season!) Thank you! Katie Stuart Please contact Jackie Thesse or Barb Sobol with any questions.

4 Christmas Family Gift Project The time has come for the passing of the torch for the Christmas Family outreach. After 15 years or so, it is time for my family to turn this wonderful ministry over. I am willing to help the first year. It involves contacting Social Services, getting the info on the families, organizing the tags and sign-up sheets, announcing it in church, and in the end coordinating all the gifts and delivering them to St. Jude's at a designated time. It does take time, but the sense of reward is unimaginable. If you are interested and would like to discuss this more, please call me Thanks, Paula Limongelli PLEASE JOIN THE FLOWER GUILD MINISTRY Starting after the first of the year we will be needing new members to join the Flower Committee. Unfortunately 2 of our members need to step down due to other commitments and a 3 rd member will not be able to continue at this time due to health reasons. The Flower Committee arranges weekly altar flowers on a rotating basis. There is no special training or experience necessary and there is a weekly allotment available to be able to purchase them. Please or call Sandi Critchley if interested: (603) or Sandra.D.Critchley@Hitchcock.org Thanks for considering this important ministry. November Birthdays 2 Paul Couto 12 Randy Branson 13 Barbara White 14 David Martin 16 James Cooper Nicholas Couto Christopher Couto 17 Beth Baker Sarah Ford 19 Chris Bacho Joan Fisk 20 Marlene Thompson Hilary Whitehead 21 Oksana Critchley 25 MaryAnn Moeri 28 Densil Bolis Dan Bragg 30 Milo Chen Clark James McCoy Jack Stuart IMAGINING THE POSSIBILITIES!!!!!! WHAT S YOUR VISION??????? Please fill out and return the visioning survey by November 1 st. Your comments are VERY important to all of us!!!! Here s the site to do the survey online: As well, please consider joining us at St. Peters Visioning Day. This is your opportunity to have your voice heard in the quest to make St. Peters the best faith community it can be. The retreat will provide the chance to have input on the direction St. Peters may choose to follow. Our all-church retreat will be held Saturday, November 9, 2013 from 9am until 2pm at St. Peters. Families are encouraged to attend, children will have planned activities; even their opinions will count! Snacks and LUNCH will be served! We truly hope each and every parishioner will be able to attend. We want you to come, even if you can only stay a short time! We need input from each and every person that is a part of this faith community. It is only with all of our ideas on the table that we can chart a path forward to make St. Peters exceptional!!! Please RSVP on the sign-up sheet in the narthex, or call Jim Stejskal at by November 3 rd, so we can plan accurately for lunch. Thanks for your prayerful consideration. Jim Stejskal and Debbie Aboud

5 New White Vestments I have made a set of white vestments for St. Peter s a chasuble and stole. The color white symbolizes purity, joy, truth; and white vestments are used for Christmas and Easter as well as a few special feast days that pertain specifically to Christ (e.g. Christ the King Sunday) or other saints (and some special liturgical ceremonies) if the celebrant so chooses. White pigment (such as paint) is pure white. But white light includes the entire spectrum of color appropriate to the Christian seasons of Christmas and Easter which not only speak of purity and truth but of joy in all its glory. My design suggests light in its complexity (a full rainbow), movement, and revelation (light improves our ability to see). The pattern of color and fabric also evokes the Holy Spirit in a suggestion of two wings. --Ginny Guaraldi Green Living Tip of the Month Put on a sweater Remember when you turn up the heat in the winter, your furnace is probably burning fossil fuels. A sweater, sweatshirt, warm robe or socks will keep you even warmer and will help conserve resources and reduce fossil fuels. Layer it, then lower it. God will love you for it Blessings, Jackie St. Peters and Pleasant Valley Nursing Home: Our next visit for Bingo will be November 17th, from 1:30-2:30 PM. Please come and enjoy a fun hour. Soup s On! November 21, 5:30-7:00 pm On Thursday evening, November 21, we are going to try a new thing. A soup supper will be offered for anyone who wishes to come for food, fellowship, and conversation. The soup will be prepared, so you don t have to bring anything but if you want to bring something to share, no one will stop you! We will even break bread together and share communion. The vestry meets this evening at 7:30, so this will allow vestry members to join us for a bowl of soup before their meeting. So whether you're on vestry or not, please join us! Safe Church Training has undergone a major overhaul: It now starts with an online piece that can be done at one s leisure followed by a three-hour group meeting. This provides much more flexibility than the old model of training. The online training is free. Our Safe Church minister is Lynn Eaton, who can provide parishioners with a unique ID password needed to access the program. Because the program uses video clips, broadband Internet access is essential. Completion of the online training is required in order to attend the follow-up in person 3 hour training session. The initial training session schedule and (follow-up) can be found on the diocesan website ( under Resources. People who are required to take the Safe Church training are Vestry, Church School teachers, church staff, anyone who works with youth and children. We highly encourage others to engage in the training in order to better understand how we can best care for the most vulnerable in our community. Please note: other similar trainings in school and business settings, other denominations, even other Episcopal dioceses do not count toward Safe Church Training in the Diocese of New Hampshire.

6 ST. PETER S FALL PLEDGE CAMPAIGN As Christians each of us has a personal walk with Christ. Our walk begins when we are called as followers of Jesus Christ at our Baptism. It continues through life as we strive to be Christ centered rather than self centered. We acknowledge God in Christ as Creator of all. We are called to a life of responsible management of our God-given resources of time, talent, and treasure. We are called to be stewards of God s gifts. This is a lifestyle choice we must make. It involves a conversion of the heart. Stewardship is a lifelong journey with each of us at a different place along the path. We become committed in Christ to a lifetime of action. By following Christ, we have the benefit of the role model of sacrifice for the greater good, a model of self-giving and loving service. Each of us chooses how we will live out this stewardship way of life. At St. Peter s, we seek to carry out God s will in our communities and around the world. We do this when we: Receive God s gifts with gratitude Cultivate them responsibly Share them lovingly in justice with others Stand before God in a spirit of accountability Join us in support of this loving, serving and giving community by making a pledge to donate a portion of your income to St. Peters for the 2014 calendar year. Our fall pledge campaign continues through Sunday, November 24 th. All parishioners will be receiving a pledge packet in the mail. Completed pledge cards can be placed in the collection plate, dropped off at the church office, or mailed to the church. Additional pledge cards are available in the church narthex. We seek to be Christ centered. Please support St. Peter s with a financial pledge, as we journey together. Lee O Connor Stewardship Committee CoChair HOLIDAYS ARE HERE... SCRIP PROGRAM Now November is here many thoughts will be turning to gift buying during the holiday season. The Scrip program is a good way to budget for this by purchasing store gift cards and using them for yourself when shopping. Of course, they can also be used for gift giving! There are many major stores, restaurants and even gas stations who participate in this program so it is easy to find just the right thing. Please take a look through the order sheet, found on the Narthex table at St. Peter's, you may be surprised to see the variety of gift cards available. Orders placed during the services on Sundays are delivered to you the following Sunday. The best part about using this service is the fact St. Peter's church receives a percentage of the order placed. It may not seem a lot but during the course of the year it adds up and goes a long way to helping with the church budget. If there are any questions please feel free to ask Mike Jasper, Eric Parthum or me, Penny Sullivan. I look forward to placing lots of orders! St. Jude's Country Christmas Fair! On Saturday, November 2nd from 9 AM until 5 PM. It is hosted in the parish hall, located at 435 Mammoth Road, Londonderry. Gifts for Life Consider making a donation to Heifer International ( or Episcopal Relief and Development ( These are great ways to honor friends and loved ones by giving a gift in their name to people in need. You can give mosquito nets, clean water, and farm animals and many other things-and you don t have to wrap and mail them!