NEWSLETTER. A place to belong! A place to become.!

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1 NEWSLETTER A place to belong! A place to become.! VOLUME I, ISSUE 1 JANUARY 2011 St. Nicholas Episcopal Church, The Rev. Ken Howard, Rector. Sunday Services: 9.00 am., am., 5.00 pm. May God s blessings be with you throughout the New Year and always! YO U N G VO I C E S T O R I N G O U T AT S T. N I C K S Music plays an important role in worship at St. Nicholas Episcopal Church. The voices of the adult choir and the congregation have blended to make glorious music at Sunday and special services. Now St Nick s Music Director, Steven Carman, is bringing together the children of the parish to form a junior choir. T h e f l e d g l i n g c h o i r, which currently consists of eight children, meets at the church on the first two Sundays of the month at 8.30 am. It is actively recruiting new members, and all 2nd to 6th grade children of St Nick s are welcome and encouraged to join. Steven would like to increase the choir size to at least twelve singers before it performs in public. Indeed there is strength in numbers and a larger group can be self-supporting, and help to overcome stage fright. The Music Director would also like to form a support group for the choir. While the choir is not conditional on the support group, the latter could help to encourage confidence, overcome selfconsciousness, and foster teamwork among the children. Steven welcomes parents and other members of the congregation who are interested in assisting with the planning of the choir s activities. If you would like to volunteer, please speak directly with Steven. You may either attend one of the choir practices or, catch him after service on Sundays. This is a welcome venture by the Music Director. One can now look forward to hearing the resonant tones of the new Church organ, a generous gift from the Episcopal Church of The Ascension, Gaithersburg, and the voices of the adult and children s choir, in harmony with the voices of St. Nick s congregation. (Contributed by Steven Carman, Music Director.) N A M E T H I S N E W S L E T T E R WIN A SPECIAL PRIZE The editors and staff would like you to give this newsletter a name. so they have devised a contest. Contest Rules 1. The suggested name should be reflective of the spirit of St. Nicholas Church and its mission a place to belong, a place to become. 2. Your entry should include a suggested name, with a short explanation of what you see as its connection to St. Nicholas. 3. Entries per person are unlimited. Include your name and telephone number, or address with each entry. 4. Deadline for receipt of entries is January 31st, There will be only one winner. 6. entries to the Editor at newsletter@saintnicks.com with subject Newsletter Contest, or place entry in the YOUR VOICE box at the rear of church. Inside this issue: Christian Formation 2 Milestones 2 Save the Date 2 Sh!! Samuel Listens 2 The Children s Page Calendar January 2011 Reflections Editorial Why I chose St. Nick s... 6

2 Page 2 NEWSLETTER CHRISTIAN FORMATION... TERRI MURPHY, DIRECTOR OF CHRISTIAN FORMATION. Christian Formation has been a wonderfully busy ministry! For Children and Youth Our Godly Play curriculum and Story Time are off and running. Recruiting additional teachers has been a focus for us and I am happy to say we have accomplished this goal. In addition to educating the little ones, Christian Formation provides learning and formation opportunities for teens and adults. Our teens, Grades 6-12 meet on the first Friday of the month at 7:00 for pizza/discussion/movie time. The teens have some exciting plans for the future, including laser tag in January. But our biggest challenge will be preparing for our youth mission trip to Kentucky in August, At the present Our November class was a bit different, as we spent the class at Montgomery Mall, focusing on Mall Theology. Our teens were sent on a scavenger hunt to look for evidence of God in the Mall and how He and community are named. We had some great discussion around this! time, we have twelve teens and six adult chaperones from St. Nicholas and two teens and one adult chaperone from Ascension Church in Silver Spring planning to attend. To support this effort, we held the Children s Christmas Shop as our December fundraiser and will again host the Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper on March 8. For Adults During Lent, we plan to host a Dayspring Mini-Silent Retreat and to offer a prayer path opportunity in the Great Room, as well. This prayer path will be created by the youth and will be offered to the parish as a Lenten prayer opportunity. Something new on the horizon will be Education for Ministry (EFM). This is a weekly class which focuses on one topic per year Old Testament, New Testament, Church History and Theology. Yes, we have had it in the past, but you know what they say, What s old is new again! There seems to be a sparking of interest among newer members of the congregation to form a new group for EFM at St. Nicholas under the capable leadership of Barbara Miles. Look forward to seeing and hearing much more on this. M I L E S T O N E S Meghan Holland, one of two seminarians assigned to St. Nicholas, was ordained to the Holy Order of Deacons on December 18th, 2010, in her home diocese of Kentucky. Melanie Hedrick and William (Bill) Carruthers were married on December, 18th, 2010 by our Rector. Gale and Ed. Stanford celebrate their wedding anniversary on January 16th. Rose and Ron Mahan celebrate their wedding anniversary on January 24th. SH!! SAMUEL LIS TENS... St. Nick s Leadership would like to hear from you. Tell them how they are doing. Are there things you would like to see them do differently? What can be done to facilitate your greater involvement in church activities? Etc., etc.? They need your comments and questions. At the rear of the great room, on a table is a BOX labeled YOUR VOICE Use the form provided to express your concerns or opinions. You need sign the form only if you would like a reply. When you are finished, fold the form, and place it in the "YOUR VOICE" box. You are also welcome to express your concerns in letters to the Editors of this newsletter Germantown Road Germantown, MD Tele: Fax: office@saintnicks.com Newsletter Newsletter deadline is generally FIFTEEN DAYS BEFORE THE END OF THE MONTH. Articles may be sent to Rev. Ken Howard at rector@saintnicks.com or The Editors: Audrey Thompson and Cara Poirier at newsletter@saintnicks.com Permission is given to reprint original articles, so long as This Newsletter and the authors are both credited St. Nicholas Episcopal Church.

3 Page 3 NEWSLETTER VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 The Children s Page Let your light shine! Instructions (what to do): 1.Cross out all the words that are a day of the week 2. Next, cross out all the words that are a color 3. Then cross out all the words that are a type of animal. 4. Cross out all words that are numbers. SUNDAY BROWN SEVEN LET PIG WHITE SIXTEEN THREE YOUR TURTLE GOLD EIGHT LIGHT FRIDAY SHINE HORSE FOUR RED BEFORE TUESDAY ORANGE PURPLE MEN WEDNESDAY ALLIGATOR FIVE THAT FIFTY RACCOON THEY FROG BLUE MAY MONDAY TWO THIRTEEN GREEN SEE THURSDAY NINETEEN SNAKE YOUR SATURDAY GOOD SQUIRREL DEEDS SUNDAY TIGER AND PRAISE YOUR PINK TUESDAY YELLOW FATHER BLACK BEAR IN FRIDAY HEAVEN GIRAFFE MONKEY FIVE 5.What do the remaining words say? Write them down in order below. (Matthew 5:16) JOKES! What bird placed Jonah in the belly of the fish? A swallow. What did Noah say while he was loading all the animals into the ark? "Now I have heard everything." What animal could Noah not trust? The cheetah! Why couldn't Jonah trust the ocean? Because he knew there was something fishy about it. What animal was most miserable on the ark? The kangaroo: her children had to play inside while it rained.

4 Page 4 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Click here to view the Church Calendar

5 Page 5 VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 From the Desk of the Rector. A Place to Tell Our Stories Dear Friends, It s been a few years since I ve written one of these From the Desk of the Rector newsletter articles. But I have to say, I m happy to do so. By popular demand we are launching a new newsletter at St. Nicholas Church. It was about this time of year three years ago that our old newsletter, The Abbey, hit the presses for the last time: a special Christmas issue with prayers and wishes from FOSNicks near and far. It had a good run. It had even won a Parish Communicators Award from the diocese. But it had grown to twelve pages and we wanted to save more trees (and money). And much of its then event announcement purpose could be handled through bulletin inserts and . But lately we ve been hearing some friendly rumblings about needing some form of newsletter again. So we added Newsletter Editor to the Help Wanted/Help Offered list and the Congregational Census questionnaire and got not one, not two, but three offers of help. And so your new newsletter editor is Audrey Thompson. Audrey is not only willing but very, very able to lead our renewed newsletter effort, having edited the staff newsletter for Howard University Libraries. The other two newsletter volunteers are equally willing and able, but I ll let Audrey introduce them and their roles. Having listened to Audrey s plans for the newsletter, I think she has a lot of good and creative ideas, which I will let her share with you herself elsewhere in this issue. But even though she will manage the newsletter, it really belongs to you. I hope you will make good use of it. For our leaders that means thinking through the articles you submit to make sure that are timely, relevant, and focused tightly on the ministry area you represent. For our people it suggests a need to read, mark, and inwardly digest (as the Book of Common Prayer so eloquently puts it), to suggest story ideas to the editor when they come to you, and do your part if you are ever asked to write one. Blessings Everyone! Ken+...the newsletter, really belongs to you. I hope you will make good use of it. EDITORIAL: A NEW NE WSLETTER FOR ST. NICK S As some of you may know, St. Nick s newsletter The Abbey discontinued publication a few years ago. inspires its readers to become involved in the activities of the church; Now, the newsletter is being revived. The plan is to publish a monthly newsletter to reach out to the St. Nick s congregation and friends. Our aim for the newsletter is that it: expresses St. Nick s concern for those who read the newsletter; provides information about the programs, goals, and activities of the church; provides spiritual enrichment; assists the promotion of stewardship. In order for the newsletter to be successful, the editors need your support and cooperation. You can help by sending news about church events and about your personal milestones. Also, let us know how you feel we can make this newsletter of real interest to you and other parishioners. your articles by the 15th of the month to The Editors, at newsletter@saintnicks.com. We reserve the right to edit all s and letters for length, style and clarity. Thank you.

6 NEWSLETTER VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 Page 6 Why I chose Saint Nick s... Karen Kucik, Parishioner. My first visit to the plain white building in the Darnestown cornfield happened on a drab Sunday when I had been feeling particularly weary and crabby concerned about people without jobs and people WITH illnesses and battles in the Anglican Communion and weird wars and all the problems of the world. I was wishing for a church community with an intentional focus on Jesus and a determination to keep his message alive in our hearts I felt so encouraged by what was, and is, happening at Saint Nicks that I moved my church membership. I want to practice my faith in a place that accepts people with many different attitudes and unites us. I need to be constantly reminded that I must NOT pass judgment on people who have different ideas from mine. (For me, that is often VERY difficult.) Once I decided to stay here, I got involved. I began attending services regularly. I pledged. I offered to read. (Now, I m a lector never did THAT before!) I volunteered to serve on the lay committee of one of our seminarians, Tracey Kelly, and began participating in monthly meetings. I have learned that the more we participate, through attending, presenting, and volunteering, the more we feel we belong. All of these efforts are strengthened by our faith and our faith strengthened by our efforts. There is so much opportunity we have Bible study, choir, service opportunities, youth group, Sunday school all opportunities to connect with each other and to create Christian community and develop a new level of intimacy with God out here in the Darnestown cornfield! Germantown Road, Germantown, MD In disciplined response to the grace and love of God in Christ. We are a spiritual home, a safe haven, grounded in Scripture and centered in life, where we are nurtured and challenged in our journey of faith. We welcome all people to join us in worship and prayer, and in joyful service to the community around us. St. Nicolas Episcopal Church. The Abbey, Dec. 2001, p. 12..