ST. THOMAS LIFELINES VOLUME 26, NO. 12 FEBRUARY 2019 Dear St. Thomas Family, I hope your new year is off to a good start! It has been an interesting and busy start for us at St. Thomas. We started off with the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6 with our celebration in the morning here at St. Thomas and then in the evening with the good folks at Our Saviour Lutheran. The weather was reasonable and we had the best attendance in several years. After the January 6 morning service we also had our Annual Parish meeting with lunch provided by the vestry and quite a few other members as well. The food definitely made the meeting more enjoyable. We heard reports about the various activities of the year just past, and about plans for the coming year. We also elected three new vestry members welcome aboard Shirley Hallock, Joe Straub, and Harvey Leist. I am very grateful for the services of the three members who have completed their three-year term: Royal Cummings, Lora Beeken, and Ann Alexander. At our first vestry meeting of the year we elected Jeff Pasciak as Senior Warden and Val Tweedie as Junior Warden, thanks for your willingness to be our leaders! The big event of January, of course, was the 100 th annual convention of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia. Our Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry was with us throughout the weekend and his presence brought a definite energy to the event. The grand finale, our Episcopal Revival was a great experience and a great success. The Berglund Performing Arts Theater was filled to capacity and the event was extremely well planned and executed. The crowd, the music, and of course the Presiding Bishop s sermon, made the event a truly unique worship experience with the Holy Spirit palpably among us. St. Thomas made a really good showing, with about 40 of our members journeying to Roanoke. Thanks to Jenny Stalvey and Emily Marx for leading worship in Christiansburg and allowing me the chance to be in Roanoke. If you were not able to be at the Revival, the video is here: https:// www.dioswva.org/ministries/episcopal-revival.html Now, as we step into the rest of 2019, we have the opportunity to take our place in the second hundred years of the diocese and to seek to serve our neighbors and each other, perhaps in new ways. God is leading us into the future to be a people renewed, restored, and revived to do the work of the Gospel begun in Christ and continued in the Church. Our job is to claim Jesus s calling and faithfully offer our selves, our souls, and bodies to the glory of God. May God bless us in our journey together! Yours in Christ, Mark
FEBRUARY 2019 ST. THOMAS LIFELINE S PAGE 2 St. Thomas is hosting an American Red Cross Blood Drive Saturday, Feb. 23rd, from 10am - 2pm. You can sign up to donate on the signup sheet on the door in the parish hall or on our website. For more information about our blood drive, contact Susan Bathgate. For more information about giving blood, check out the American Red Cross website. https://www.redcrossblood.org IT S TIME TO UPDATE OUR DIRECTORY! Please send in any updates-address, email, phone, list adult children separately, please remove me, add my children, etc. to Jenny Stalvey. Youth at Convention at the Episcopal Revival The 100th Annual Episcopal Convention of the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia kicked off their weekend with a Festival Eucharist at St. Andrews Catholic Church in Roanoke, Virginia. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry participated in this service. Harvey Leist, our own verger, was privileged to serve as verger for this service. Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry & Harvey Leist We continue to collect fruit cups and granola bars for the backpack program and plastic bags for our Trex bench. Contributions to both can be put in the boxes in the parish hall. Thanks for all of your contributions!! From R to L: Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, Bishop Mark-6th Bishop of DIOSWVA, The Rt. Rev. Heath Light-4th Bishop, The Rt. Rev. Neff Powell-5th Bishop Thanks Gail Leist for sharing photos from the Episcopal Revival at Convention! HELP WANTED! There a lot of ways to serve at St. Thomas! And all of our ministries welcome new members. Consider trying a new ministry to serve in this year. We are in particular need of adult volunteers in the nursery And we can always use new members to serve on the altar guild and as ushers! Interested in these or any other ministry? Contact Jenny Stalvey to find out more.
FEBRUARY 2019 ST. THOMAS LIFELINE S PAGE 3 Servers for FEBRUARY Area of Service 3 10 17 24 Acolytes: Server, Crucifer, Torchbearers S-Cameron Graham C-Casey Graham S-Akan Ndem C-Dara Ndem S-Natalie Miller C-Bridget Miller S-Casey Graham C=Cameron Graham Altar Guild Jacquie Graham Gail Leist Kathy Pollard Kathy Pollard Lora Beeken Judy Koland Announcements Susan Bathgate Farrell Doss Shirley Hallock Bill Kennan Chalice Bearer Danielle Bland Carol Cummings Judy Koland Bill Kennan Cleaning Crews Cleaning Service Charlie & Cleaning Service Farrell Doss David Jones Coffee Hour Gwynn Polidoro Danielle Bland Lora Beeken Stella Okoronkwo Lay Reader Joel Hagen Mark Priest Jennifer Miller Rebecca Mays Nursery Sarah Farmer Marie Painter Amara Okoronkwo Uche Okoronkwo Sara Stauffer Dara Ndem Uche Okoronkwo Ushers Francis & Janet Webster Sarah Farmer Scott Farmer Mark Miller Seth Richmeier Gwynn Polidoro Mark Priest Birthdays 2 Cameron Graham 7 Cindy Stone 18 Samantha Bathgate Rebecca Mays 20 Abbie 23 Jim Earp 26 Bonnie Smas 27 Andrew Earp Rachel Earp 28 Bobbie Wines The first Sunday of every month is FOOD BANK SUNDAY. The next Food Bank Sunday is February 3rd. Church Upstairs! Join the children during the first part of the service as they learn about the church and how it works. You can sign up to help on the website or contact Amy Frazier or the parish secretary. 2019 VESTRY SENIOR WARDEN ~ Jeff Pasciak JUNIOR WARDEN ~ Val Tweedie Susan Bathgate, Farrell Doss, Shirley Hallock, Bill Kennan, Harvey Leist, Joanne Stauffer, Joe Straub VESTRY LIAISONS BUILDINGS & GROUNDS ~ Joe Straub & Val Tweedie CHRISTIAN EDUCATION ~ Susan Bathgate FINANCE ~ Val Tweedie OUTREACH ~ Shirley Hallock & Bill Kennan PARISH LIFE ~ Farrell Doss PASTORAL CARE ~ Joanne Stauffer WORSHIP ~ Harvey Leist TRUSTEES Lora Beeken, Mary Stuart Cosby, Scott Farmer
FEBRUARY 2019 ST. THOMAS LIFELINE S PAGE 4 FEBRUARY 2019 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 3 The 4th Sunday after the Epiphany Hospitality & Food Bank Sunday 11:15am Refreshments & Fellowship 11:30am Choir Rehearsal 4 5 6 10:30am HE&HS 7pm UNRV-WG 7 8 9 10 The 5th Sunday after the Epiphany 11 12 13 10:30am HE&HS 7pm UNRV-WG 14 15 16 17 The 6th Sunday after the Epiphany Loose Plate Offering~Rector s Discretionary 10am Holy Eucharist & Healing Rail; Church Upstairs 12pm Vestry 18 19 20 10:30am Holy Eucharist & Healing Service 7pm Unity Women s Group 21 10:15am Daughters of the King 22 23 10 am 2 pm American Red Cross Blood Drive 24 The 7th Sunday after the Epiphany 28 29 30 31 Rev. Mark s Office Hours are on Thursdays 4:30 6:30 HE&HS: Holy Eucharist & Healing Service UNRV-WG: Unity Women s Group NA: Narcotics
ST. THOMAS LIFELINE S St. Thomas Episcopal Church 103 East Main St. Christiansburg, VA 24073 540-382-4365 mysthomasoffice@yahoo.com http://www.stthomaschristiansburg.dioswva.org/