PASTOR: Rev. Marty Singleterry 575-200-6206 martys15@live.com Saint Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church CHURCH COUNCIL: Carolyn Olson, President (575) 887-3343 cole@bajabb.com LaVelta Jenkins, Vice President (575)636-4751 imrightw@gmail.com July, 2016. Volume 55 #7 Chris McCraw, Secretary (575) 885-8512 Susan Knight, Treasurer (575)302-9399 struttmom1@yahoo.com Dianna Hutchison, Financial Secretary (575) 361-3979 cdhutch@bajabb.com Kate Hanson (575)361-6835 khanson_04@hotmail.com Brad Harper (575) 725-9155 harper3664@hotmail.com MINISTRY TEAMS: * = Council Liaison Bold = Chairperson Christian Education Cindy Anderson Laura Dhenin Diana Hutchison Chris McCraw * Jean Vinka Finance & Stewardship Dianna Hutchison LaVelta Jenkins Susan Knight* Paul Thompson Property David Hanson Kate Hanson* Brad Harper Carolyn Olson Paul Thompson Service, Unity & Witness Dianna Hutchison* Susan Howard Gib Tafoya Valda Tafoya Jean Vinka Worship & Music Kay Gunning Dawn Hanson Carolyn Olson* Linda Servold Toni Thompson STAFF: Choir Director: Organist and Keyboard: Assistant Musicians: Office Secretary Website Editor The CONTACT Linda Servold Linda Servold Carolyn Olson Jill Thompson Laura Dhenin Laura Dhenin Laura Dhenin Mini-Mission #1: Jonah s House Food Pantry. BIRTHDAYS: ANNIVERSAIES: Cassandra Condon 7-8 Bryan & Susan Howard 7-7-90 Carl Vinka 7-12 Gib & Val Tafoya 7-25-92 Laila Anderson 7-15 Isaac McCraw 7-19 Alyssa Meeks 7-24 Randy Anderson 7-25 Rebecca Hutchison 7-29 If we have inadvertently omitted anyone, please contact Laura Dhenin in the church office. Thank you!
Page 2 Sunday, July 3: Mark Your Calendars! Dates to Remember: Food Drive for Jonah s House July Birthdays Cake Reception Sunday, July 10: 10:30 am Service of the Word (No Holy Communion) Sunday, July 17: 10:30 am Worship with Holy Communion *Guest: Rev. Gene Harbaugh Sunday, July 17: 10:30 am Worship with Holy Communion Sunday, July 31: 10:30 am Service of Prayer & Healing Sunday, August 7: 10:30 am Bible Sunday & Blessing of Backpacks Mini-Missions! COMING THIS SUMMER! ALL St. Peter children (and adults!) are invited to join us as we visit our various community-ministry partners, such as: Jonah s House Food Pantry, Terry Able Community Kitchen, Carlsbad Transitional Housing and Packs for Hunger. This is a great opportunity for the children to learn first-hand about these human-service organizations right here in our own community. Stay-tuned for more details! Out of the Office: Rev. Marty will be on vacation: July 10 - July 17. Laura will be on vacation: July 15 - August 3. Service of Prayer and Healing Food Drive for Jonah s House Sunday July 3 Jonah's House in in need of canned and other non-perishable food items. PLEASE Remember to bring your items to church the first Sunday of each month. July Birthday Reception: July 3 - After Worship Join us after worship as we honor all those celebrating birthdays this month. Sunday, July 31, 10:30 am Join us for this meaningful worship service that will feature a liturgy of prayer, healing and laying on of hands. A Prayer for our Nation: Lord of all the worlds, guide this nation by your Spirit to go forward in justice and freedom. Give to all our people the blessings of well-being and harmony, but above all things give us faith in you, that our nation may bring glory to your name and blessings to all peoples, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
Page 3 Attention Home Gardeners! Do you have too many tomatoes and cucumbers? And don t know what to do with it all? Jonah s House can HELP! Jonah s House will accept your surplus garden produce. Jonah s House is open Monday-Friday to receive your donations. Hours: 9:00-11:00 am Location: 512 West Stevens Street Did you know... Packs for Hunger distributes food in the Summer!...and they need our HELP! Packs for Hunger is in desperate need of nonperishable food items or monetary donations to help feed hungry children in our community over the Summer. St. Peter has a collection box in the Narthex. Lists of suggested items are available on the Welcome Table. Please consider making a contribution. 2016 Vacation Bible School This year s ecumenical Vacation Bible School was hosted by Grace Episcopal Church. There were approximately 40 children and 25 adult and youth helpers. St. Peter was well represented with 10 children participating, 1 youth helper and 4 adult helpers. Thank you to all those who provided snacks, and items for our potluck, dinner. Special thanks to Olivia Meeks, Cindy Meeks, Jean Vinka, and Dianna Hutchison for your help. Bible Sunday: Sunday, August 7. Join us for a special children-led worship and Bible- Fund drive. In 2010, we asked our St. Peter family to help us put the Word of God into the hands of all our children through our Spark the Faith Bible Initiative. Thanks to your overwhelming generosity, we were able to buy Bibles for every child in our congregation and that fund has sustained our growing needs over the past 6 years. This Fall and over the next several years many of our children will begin their Confirmation instruction and thus, transition to a new, more advanced Bible. We are once again asking for your help and support. If you would like to contribute, please designate Bible Fund on your giving envelope. Or use one of the special Spark the Faith envelopes on the Welcome Table in the Narthex. Thank you for your help! Blessing of the Backpacks: Sunday, August 7 Join us during our 10:30 am worship as we bless backpacks and the children who carry them, as well as teachers and school workers returning to the classroom. Children are encouraged to bring their backpacks to church on this Sunday.
Page 4 ELCA presiding bishop issues letter in response to Orlando shooting 6/13/2016 7:00:00 PM CHICAGO (ELCA) The Rev. Elizabeth A. Eaton, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), has issued a letter in response to the June 12 shooting that claimed the lives of 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Fla. This is the deadliest mass shooting in U. S. history. In the letter Eaton states, "We must speak peace and reconciliation into the cacophony of hatred and division. We must live the truth that all people are created in God's image." Eaton's letter follows: Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them." Genesis 1:27 We are killing ourselves. We believe that all people are created in God's image. All of humanity bears a family resemblance. Those murdered in Orlando were not abstract "others," they are us. But somehow, in the mind of a deeply disturbed gunman, the LGBTQ community was severed from our common humanity. This separation led to the death of 49 and the wounding of 54 of us. We live in an increasingly divided and polarized society. Too often we sort ourselves into like-minded groups and sort others out. It is a short distance from division to demonization. Yesterday, we witnessed the tragic consequences of this. There is another way. In Christ God has reconciled the world to God's self. Jesus lived among us sharing our humanity. Jesus died for us to restore our humanity. God invites us into this reconciling work. This must be our witness as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The perpetrator of this hate crime did not come out of nowhere. He was shaped by our culture of division, which itself has been misshapen by the manipulation of our fears. That is not who we are. St. Paul wrote, "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ" (II Corinthians 5:17-20). Our work begins now. We need to examine ourselves, individually and as a church, to acknowledge the ways we have divided and have been divided. We must stand with people who have been "othered". We must speak peace and reconciliation into the cacophony of hatred and division. We must live the truth that all people are created in God's image. This morning your churchwide staff came together to mourn and to pray. We prayed for those killed in Orlando and remembered the Charleston Nine killed only a year ago. We prayed for the family of the shooter, for our LGBTQ brothers and sisters and for our Muslim brothers and sisters who now face the threat of retaliation. And we prayed that the Prince of Peace will bring us to the day when we stop killing ourselves. Your sister in Christ, Elizabeth A. Eaton Presiding Bishop Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Page 5 Bishop Gonia's new blog: five key processes all going on now...in harmony "A little over a month ago we met in Assembly under the theme, Many Voices - One Song. As we move into this summer of 2016 I want to share with you how the Song we're called to sing as God's people here in the Rocky Mountain Synod is finding expression in some particular ways. Five parallel processes are taking place this summer, all components of the Song we are singing together..." Read Bishop Gonia's blog and click on links in the blog for information about these key processes taking place in harmony together: Soprano - Strategic Planning Alto - Office of the Bishop Staffing Tenor - Generosity Table/Mission Support Inventory Bass - Lilly Grant Project Rhythm - ELCA Churchwide Assembly ELCA Federal Credit Union opens The ELCA Federal Credit Union celebrated its grand opening with a ribbon -cutting ceremony June 6 at its headquarters in the Lutheran Center in Chicago. The credit union serves ELCA members, synod employees, congregations and ELCA-related ministries. It is the first of the ELCA s financial ministries to offer individual consumer loans. This is responsible stewardship, said Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton at the ribbon cutting. It makes services available to everyone. The ELCA Credit Union is socially responsible and is a great benefit not only to members of the ELCA churchwide organization but to all our members across the church. Religion good for our health and well-being The number of people who classify themselves as religiously unaffiliated ( nones ) has overtaken the number of Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants and followers of non-christian faiths in the U.S. over the past decade. While this affects the worldview and might cause people to question religion s relevance, there are several recent studies that cite the benefits of living a faith-filled life. Living Lutheran s June cover story tells how keeping the faith can contribute to our well-being. Learn more.
Page 6 WATCH THIS A Place for All: Live Webcast Recording ELCA International Women Leaders Thank You On March 8, the ELCA celebrated International Women s Day with a call for members to boldly invest in the education of women leaders from our companion churches around the world. Through the generosity of our individual donors, congregations and synods, ELCA Global Church Sponsorship met and surpassed its $100,000 matching goal, enabling the ELCA s International Women Leaders initiative to provide scholarships to up-and-coming women leaders. These women, making up the 2015 International Women Leaders class, would like to thank you themselves! Take action on predatory lending Many households facing financial struggles may look to short-term loans to cover emergency expenses. In some states, payday lending companies that claim to provide support charge interest rates of 300 percent or more to borrowers. These steep rates and hidden fees can trap those who are not able to quickly repay loans. You can join ELCA Advocacy in opposing unjust policies and call for standards that will help lift people out of poverty. Go to ELCA.org/advocacy and click on Advocacy Center to send a letter to Congress calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to stop predatory lending traps. Save the date! The next International Women s Day is Wednesday, March 8, 2017.
Page 7 THE MINISTRY OF GENEROSITY In the second of his letters to the people of Corinth, the Apostle Paul talks about the sharing of resources so that no one in the community has to do without. He inspired generosity when he told them in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15, Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. The goal is equality, as it is written: The one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Giving is an expression of our faith. It s a way to show our generosity, faithfulness and willingness to help those that Paul described as having too little. For God so loved the world that he gave let s joyfully follow his example and do the same. Giving provides an opportunity to: Connect with others. As with the people of Corinth, giving allows us to rely on one another and help when there s a need. Be part of something bigger. Find a cause that you are passionate about and see how you can be of service to them. Make a difference. Your support can make a direct impact on organizations and the people they serve. There are endless ways to support the causes that matter to you. Giving can be contagious and jump-start a generosity movement throughout your community. Your willingness to give back invites others to do the same. This article provided compliments of Thrivent Financial and Joann Rodriguez, FIC, 575-523-1879, joann.rodriguez@thrivent.com. 28451ND R4-16
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10 God s Work Our Hands
Page 11
Page 12 CONGRATULATIONS! To Emily Hutchison and Emory Stearns on the birth of their son, Emitt Kal-El, born on Wednesday, May 18. 7.7 lbs. and 19.
Saint Peter Evangelical Lutheran Churc h 1302 West Pierce Street Carlsbad NM 88220 575-887-3033 Email: stpeterlutheran@pvtnetworks.net www.splcnm.com S u n M o n T u e W e d T h u F r i S a t July ~ 2016 9:00-10:00 am: 5:30-7:30 pm: Girl Scouts 1 2 3 10:30 am: Worship & Holy Communion 11:45 am: July Birthday Cake Reception 4 5 5:30 pm: Christian Education Mtg. 1:00-2:30 pm: 6 7 6:30 pm: Finance & Stewardship Mtg. 9:00-10:00 am: 5:30-7:30 pm: Girl Scouts 8 9 *Food Drive for Jonah s House 10 10:30 am: Worship 12:00 pm: Cong. Council Mtg. 1:00-2:30 pm: 5:00 pm: CTHHS Board Mtg. 11 12 13 1:00-2:30 pm: 5:30 pm: Worship & Music Mtg. 14 15 9:00-10:00 am: 5:30-7:30 pm: Girl Scouts 16 Rev. Marty Out of the Office: July 10-July 17 17 10:30 am: Worship & Holy Communion 1:00-2:30 pm: 18 19 20 1:00-2:30 pm: 21 22 9:00-10:00 am: 23 *Guest: Rev. Gene Harbaugh 5:30-7:30 pm: Girl Scouts Laura Out of the Office: July 15-August 3 24 10:30 am: Worship & Holy Communion 1:00-2:30 pm: 25 26 27 1:00-2:30 pm: 28 29 9:00-10:00 am: 30 5:30-7:30 pm: Girl Scouts Laura Out of the Office: July 15-August 3 31 10:30 am: Service of Prayer & Healing
The Contact St. Peter Lutheran Church 1302 West Pierce Street Carlsbad NM 88220 Sunday Schedule ~ Summer ~ 10:30 am: Worship with Holy Communion