1. 3-3-2019 Announcements Church of the Epiphany 209 S. Third Avenue, Royersford, PA 19468 610-948-9655 www.epiphanystar.net THE REV. BETH W. HIXON, RECTOR 215-896-0828 OR RECTOR@EPIPHANYSTAR.NET I ALL HANDS ON DECK! A work party will be held after the 10 am service today. Meet Mary Martin in the church if you re able to help stack wood, bag trash, etc. Any time you contribute is most appreciated. We need to clean up the space in order to continue our insurance this week. Many hands thanks! PRAYER, STUDY AND CONVERSATION in Lent: Two weekly opportunities to discuss our Resurrection Life as individuals and as a Beloved Community will be offered this Lent. One will be held following the 10 am service (11:15-12:15) and the other on Wednesday mornings 9-10 am. Sunday/Wednesday meeting dates are: March 10/13, 17/20, 24/27, March 31/April 3, and April 7/10. The same material will be considered on Sunday and Wednesday of each week so if you miss Sunday, come on Wednesday. Jake Owensby s new book, A Resurrection Shaped Life, will be the springboard for our gathering activities. THE BOOKS ARE IN AND WILL BE DISTRIBUTED TODAY AND NEXT SUNDAY (3/10) Let Beth know if you d like a copy. Cost is $13 rather than $12. Make checks out to Epiphany with Book Purchase in the memo line. (A book purchase does not commit you to attend Lenten gatherings.. but we hope you ll be there!) EASTER FLOWERS will be offered again this year as memorials. A list of Easter lilies, daffodils, tulips and azaleas with their prices will be published next week. After that, payment envelopes and order forms can be given to Helen up until April 7. ROSE WINDOW SALVAGE: The vestry would like to share a cost quote from a local, reputable firm for the salvage of the central medallion depicting Jesus in the Garden. It can be removed and prepared for storage for $1,720.00 The other option is to prepare the medallion for display in current or future worship spaces. The cost for that treatment is $2,265.00. (It won t be possible to retrieve and save the small stained-glass eyelets that surround the medallion.) This quote is good for one year. These costs are not included in the annual budget so it will be necessary to find other means to afford this expense. This item was previously overwhelmingly dentified as more beloved than all others Update: Mary Martin called the salvage company. They estimate the weight of the medallion to be about 25 lbs it is light enough to be safely hung. VESTRY DOINGS: On February 11 th, the vestry welcomed new members and have tentatively identified their liaison responsibilities. Jonathan Bailey will work with Beth around Epiphany Hope transition activities. Mary Martin will work with Paul Exley around Parish Communication, and Mary Thompson will be working with all of us around Parish Life activities. Marti Wilson accepted an appointment to be Rector s Warden. Susan Garone was elected to continue as Accounting Warden,
and Julie Dattilo has been elected as Vestry Secretary. Ed Hill, will continue on as our most able Property Liaison. Our annual Vestry Retreat will be held at Wapiti on April 5 th and 6 th. Please keep your Vestry in your prayers for wisdom and strength as we develop our leadership and make decisions that will carry Epiphany into the future. PROJECT OUTREACH SUPPORT Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly: According to Gary Vanatter, peanut butter and jelly and boxed rice and pasta meals are always needed. Bring your offerings any Sunday and place them in the plastic bin in the hall. Gary collects them to take to Project Outreach on the First Sunday of every month. Any who want to help distribute food at Project Outreach (in the Library at 4 th and Washington) can join Gary and Joan McCracken there Thursday mornings. Hours are 9-Noon. Lots of help is needed on Epiphany s designated Thursday: April 11 th. Mark your calendar! Future: Royersford United Methodist (RUM) is sponsoring three country music concerts this spring. The concerts will all be held at RUM (4 th & Church). Free-will offerings will be donated exclusively to Project Outreach!). Mark your calendars for the following Friday Concerts: March 15, April 5 & 26 Take a look at the poster on our bulletin board for program descriptions. VISITING THE BLAUSERS: The Blausers continue to enjoy your visits on Thursday afternoons!! Continue to be in touch with Betsy Dell (610-323-0549 or charlesbetcha6@verizon.net) when you d like to schedule time with the Blausers! SCRIP: The next scrip order date is TODAY. Please give your orders and payment to Kitty DiBattista. If you wish to order, but will not be at church, please email (proutygarone@verizon.net) or call (610-304-0529) Susan Garone. Thanks for your participation. SAVE THE DATE Lent Sun/Wed Meeting Dates: March 10/13, 17/20, 24/27, March 31/April 3, and April 7/10 (Sundays: 11:15-12:15) (Wednesdays: 9-10 am) 3/6 12N & 7p Ash Wednesday 3/15 7:30 pm Project Outreach Benefit Concert (R. United Methodist) The Acoustic Coots 4/5 7:30 pm Project Outreach Benefit Concert (RUM) Songs of Faith & Justice 4/18-20 Holy Week Services (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Great Vigil of Easter) 4/21 Easter Sunday 4/26 7:30 pm Project Outreach Benefit Concert (RUM) Celtic Concert w/ Charlie Zahn 6/9 The Feast of Pentecost LET S READ THE WHOLE BIBLE TOGETHER THIS YEAR! This week s readings: Mar 4 Day 64 Deuteronomy 1 3, Psalm 53, Luke 11 Mar 5 Day 65 Deuteronomy 4 6, Psalm 54, Luke 12 Mar 6 Day 66 Deuteronomy 7 9, Psalm 55, Luke 13 Mar 7 Day 67 Deuteronomy 10 12, Psalm 56, Luke 14 Mar 8 Day 68 Deuteronomy 13 15, Psalm 57, Luke 15 Mar 9 Day 69 Deuteronomy 16 18, Psalm 58, Luke 16 Mar 10 Day 70 Enjoy hearing the Scriptures read aloud in church OR go to www.epiphanystar.net and Scroll down to Bishop s Bible Challenge, click day or week of your choice, find the red link: click & read.
EPIPHANY RESOURCES and COMMUNICATION: Remember The parish calendar, lay ministry schedules and the parish directory can be accessed on the website (www.epiphanystar.net). The parish directory requires a password. Prayer requests and announcements can be submitted by email to churchoffice@epiphanystar.net. The announcement deadline for the following Sunday is Wednesday at 6 pm. Beth is available to all parishioners by text (215) 896-0828 or email (rector@epiphanystar.net) She will usually respond within an hour or two. If you should not receive a response, please call rather than text. She appreciates knowing when and where you are in the event of an acute illness or crisis any time of the day or night and will come to you whenever you wish her presence. ASSISTING IN TODAY S WORSHIP, Christian Formation, and Fellowship 10am Eucharistic Minister Marti Wilson Lectors: Paul Atlee & Joanne Arnold Greeter: Betsy Dell Usher: Charles Dell Counters: TBD Altar Guild Julie Dattilo, Joanne Arnold Godly Play Teacher Julie Dattilo Godly Play Greeter TBD PARISH LIFE AND WORK THIS WEEK Tuesday 8:00pm A.A. (Ed building) Wednesday 10:15am Mid-week Holy Eucharist with Healing Litany 6:00pm TBMP Weight Loss Program (Office) 6:20pm Bell Choir Rehearsal (New Worship Space) 7:00pm Ash Wednesday Service 8:00pm Choir Rehearsal (New Worship Space) Sunday (3/10) 6:30 am St. Augustine s Breakfast team leaves from Epiphany Lent 1 8:00am Holy Eucharist Rite I (New Worship Space) 10:00am Holy Eucharist Rite II with Music (New Worship Space) ASSISTING IN NEXT Sunday s Worship (3/10) Eucharistic Minister Lectors: Greeter / Usher: Usher: Counters: Altar Guild Godly Play Teacher Godly Play Greeter 10am Kitty DiBattista Julie Dattilo & Kathy Cobbs Betsy Dell Charles Dell Vincent & Susan Garone Julie Dattilo, Joanne Arnold Marti Wilson TBD
WORTHY WORDS The following Frederick Buechner Center article, originally published by Buechner in his 1983 memoir, Now and Then, was recently sent to subscribers and was brought to my attention by Mary Thompson. Buechner, a prolific writer, preacher, theologian and some would say, mystic, is still publishing at age 92. I commend it to you for reflection as we move into Lent and enter into an intentional pondering of our relationship with God what brings us closer to God and what in our lives gets in the way of that holy intimacy. The Real Article THE OTHER PART OF my experience as a Christian that I tried to deal with in The Final Beast was the experience of prayer, and... I drew directly from an event in my own life. A year or so before writing the book, I took two or three days off to attend a series of seminars on prayer conducted by an Episcopal laywoman named Agnes Sanford, who was recommended to me by a friend as a fascinating and deeply spiritual woman who had had remarkable success as a faith healer. "Spiritual" was another of those words that I always choked on a little, and faithhealing was something I associated with charlatans and the lunatic fringe; but since my friend had only recently left the college chaplaincy to become a Jungian analyst, I couldn't dismiss him as easily taken in, so I decided to accept his recommendation and go. I saw Agnes Sanford first in the dingy front hall of the building where the talks were to take place, and after no more than a few minutes' conversation with her, I felt as sure as you can ever be in such matters that if there was such a thing as the Real Article in her line of work, then that was what she was. She was rather short and on the plump side with a breezy matter-of-factness about her which was the last thing I would have expected. She had far more the air of a college dean or a successful businesswoman than of a Mary Baker Eddy or Madam Blavatsky. She seemed completely without pretensions, yet just as completely confident that she knew what she was talking about. She had an earthy sense of humor. The most vivid image she presented was of Jesus standing in church services all over Christendom with his hands tied behind his back and unable to do any mighty works there because the ministers who led the services either didn't expect him to do them or didn't dare ask him to do them for fear that he wouldn't or couldn't and that their own faith and the faith of their congregations would be threatened as the result. I recognized immediately my kinship with those ministers. A great deal of public prayer seemed to me a matter of giving God something that he neither needed nor, as far as I could imagine, much wanted. In private I prayed a good deal but for the most part it was a very blurred, haphazard kind of business much of it blubbering, as Dr. Muilenburg had said his was, speaking words out of my deepest needs, fears, longings, but never expecting much back by way of an answer, never believing very strongly that anyone was listening to me or even, at times, that there was anyone to listen at all.
That was the whole point, Agnes Sanford said. You had to expect. You had to believe. As in Jesus' parables of the Importunate Friend and the Unjust Judge, you had to keep at it. It took work. It took practice, was in that sense not unlike the Buddhist Eightfold Path. More than anything else, it took faith. It was faith that unbound the hands of Jesus so that through your prayers his power could flow and miracles could happen, healing could happen, because where faith was, healing always was too, she said, and there was no power on earth that could prevent it. Inside us all, she said, there was a voice of doubt and disbelief which sought to drown out our prayers even as we were praying them, but we were to pray down that voice for all we were worth because it was simply the product in us of old hurts, griefs, failures, of all that the world had done to try to destroy our faith. More even than our bodies, she said, it was these hurtful memories that needed healing. For God, all time is one, and we were to invite Jesus into our past as into a house that has been locked up for years to open windows and doors for us so that light and life could enter at last, to sweep out the debris of decades, to drive back the shadows. The healing of memories was like the forgiveness of sins, she said. Prayer was like a game, a little ridiculous the way she described it, but we were to play it anyway praying for the healing both of ourselves and others because Jesus told us to and because most of the other games we played were more ridiculous still and not half so useful. We were to believe in spite of not believing. That was what faith was all about, she told us. "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief," said the father of the sick son (Mark 9:24), and though it wasn't much, Jesus considered it enough. The boy was healed. Fairy-tale prayers, she called them. Why not? Jesus prayers. The language of the prayer didn't matter, and her own language couldn't have been plainer or her prayers more unliterary and down-to-earth. Only the faith mattered. All of this she spoke with nothing wild-eyed or dramatic about her, but clearly, wittily, less like a mystic than like the president of a rather impressive club. And you could also get too much praying, too much religion, she said, and when that happened, the thing to do was just to put it aside for a while as she did and do something else. She herself read murder mysteries, she said. Or just collapsed. The Frederick Buechner Center P.O. Box 381348 Cambridge, MA 02238 info@frederickbuechner.com
CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY 209 S. Third Avenue, Royersford, PA 19468 610-948-9655 WWW.EPIPHANYSTAR.NET A PARISH WITHIN THE VALLEY FORGE DEANERY OF THE EPISCOPAL DIOCESE OF PENNSYLVANIA WWW.DIOPA.ORG WORSHIP SERVICES SUNDAYS 8 AM HOLY EUCHARIST RITE I (SPOKEN) 10 AM HOLY EUCHARIST RITE II (MUSIC) MIDWEEK HOLY EUCHARIST WITH HEALING LITANY 10:15AM WEDNESDAYS THE CHURCH OF THE EPIPHANY WORSHIPS IN THE WARNER EDUCATION BUILDING ALL ARE WELCOME PAUL EXLEY, PARISH ADMINISTRATOR churchoffice@epiphanystar.net MARY CAMPBELL, ORGANIST, PIANIST & DIRECTOR OF EPIPHANY CHOIRS 484-995-6110 (TEXT OR CALL) OR SUNFLOWERANGELS@VERIZON.NET THE REV. BETH W. HIXON, RECTOR 215-896-0828 (TEXT OR CALL) OR RECTOR@EPIPHANYSTAR.NET