Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes and I will observe it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Psalm 119:33-34 Dear Friends, The Episcopal Church has always put a high value on education. It is one way that we live out our baptismal promise to strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being. Throughout our history we have established excellent schools and been involved in all kinds of educational ministries. And, we have insisted on an educated clergy that s why all priests in the Episcopal Church are required to do continuing education each year. So, to complete my continuing education requirement for this year, I will be journeying to Sewanee, TN and the University of the South. Those of us who spend time at Sewanee often refer to it as the Holy Mountain and I m really looking forward to my pilgrimage there in June. I will be continuing my work toward the Doctor of Ministry degree (D.Min.). (My daughter refers to it as priest camp. ) And, this summer I am very excited to be taking a course from the Rev. Dr. Louis Weil, one of the liturgists who compiled our current Prayer Book and who is a professor liturgics at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. The class is The Ministry of Eucharistic Presidency sounds riveting, doesn t it? Actually, it really will be as we delve into the wondrous mysteries of the Eucharist. The other class I will be taking is a preaching course taught by the Rev. Dr. Lauren Winner, who is assistant professor Christian spirituality at the Duke Divinity School, and by the Rev. Dr. Bill Brosend, who is the homiletics professor at the School of Theology at Sewanee. This class will present ideas and strategies for preaching the major feasts of the liturgical year for example, the Feast of the Nativity or the Feast of Pentecost. This class will inspire creativity and give us an opportunity to explore the theology of the major feasts of our faith tradition. Good stuff! But, while I am gone, you will not be left priest-less! On Sunday, June 15 th our own Father Mike Demmon will be your celebrant and preacher. Father Mike is a chaplain in one of the Airborne units at Fort Bragg and I am deeply grateful that he can find time in his busy schedule to help us here at Holy Trinity. On Sunday, June 22 nd we welcome back the Rev. Ron Abrams, one of the previous rectors here at Holy Trinity. Father Ron is now the Rector of St. James Parish
in Wilmington, NC and he too has made time in a very busy schedule to be with you on this day and I appreciate it so much. On Sunday, June 29 th I will be back at home in Fayetteville and with all of you. Please know that you all will remain in my prayers in a special way while I am gone. May God s blessings and the peace of our Risen Redeemer be with you, Judith MARK YOUR CALENDARS Senior Sunday, June 1 st Senior Sunday will be on June 1st. Holy Trinity has seven graduates this year. This year the seniors will speak and participate in the service by greeting, lay reading and serving as crucifer. Please join them in the parish hall for a special coffee hour after the 10:30 service. The graduates are: Zachary St. Peter Molly-Mae Pinson Zachary Lutes Nate Middleton Hannah Davis Madi Lee Jacob Connor Labyrinth Schedule for June The Evening Labyrinth Walk for June will take place on Thursday, June 5th. As usual, an optional orientation video will be shown promptly at 7 pm, and the walk will be accompanied by soft music and candles. Come enjoy a contemplative walk in the cool of the Sanctuary. Joyce Loughlin Change in Weekday Services Mother Judith will be away from Fayetteville June 15-28. Wednesday noon Holy Eucharist services will be changed to Morning Prayer. The 5:30 p.m. Eucharist services on Thursdays will be changed to Evening Prayer. Wednesdays, June 11, 18 and 25 Thursdays, June 12, 19, 26 Morning Prayer at noon Evening Prayer at 5:30 p.m.
Welcome our Bishop Elect The Reverend Robert Skirving Members of the Diocese of East Carolina are invited to write Rob and his wife, Sandy, to welcome them to the Diocese! Rob & Sandy Skirving 305 Nakoma Dr. Midland, MI 48630 Or by email: rskirving@charter.net Visit http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2014/05/19/east-carolina-diocese-elects-robertskirving-as-bishop/ for more information about the election and The Rev. Skirving. More information about the Ordination and Consecration on Saturday, November 8 th at Rock Spring Center in Greenville, North Carolina will be posted later in the summer at www.eastcarolinabishopsearch.com. Holy Trinity hopes to rent a bus to go to Greenville for the consecration. Details to come on our website. http://www.holytrinityfay.org/ HOLY TRINITY REPORTS AND UPDATES GOING OUT TO SERVE...PARTNERING WITH MARGARET WILLIS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL During this school year, Holy Trinity continued to partner with our neighbor, Margaret Willis Elementary School. Outreach included: Winter coats donated gently used and new coats for 15+ students; thanks to our pre-school families for helping in this effort. Adopt-a-Family adopted 7 families (identified by the school social worker) for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Prepared spring baskets for 30 students. These baskets were distributed by the school social worker. In September, the Vestry approved a $2500 grant from the Holy Trinity Endowment. The funds offer support to students/families/staff beyond that permitted in the school s limited budget. Expenditures are at the discretion of the school administrators and include: emergency night s lodging for two families without a home; help with lunch money; supplies for Science Lab; civic oration snacks and gift cards; party for 2 nd & 5 th graders; snacks for staff/tutor development and appreciation. Volunteered as proctors for end of grade tests. Purchased school supplies not available through budgeted funds. We are now planning for the 2014-15 school year. Be on the lookout in July and August to learn more about this outreach ministry and how you can participate. Barbara Brooks
News from the Food Pantry During the month of April, your Food pantry gave out 163 bags of food. We spent $1,687.79 on grocery purchases and received $760.00 in monetary contributions from parishioners. Our volunteers are the backbone of the Food Pantry, buying groceries and packing the food bags faithfully each month. Right now, we need some additional volunteers to purchase food. Our shopping volunteers make a grocery run about every five weeks. If you are interested in helping with this vital work or have any questions, please call the church office (484-2134) or Sid Gardner (867-9741). June 1 st will be an Ingathering Sunday for the Food Pantry, so please bring nonperishable food to church. We stock the following for our bags of food: canned meats (chili, beef stew, tuna, salmon, chicken and dumplings, etc.), canned fruit and vegetables, rice, mac n cheese, cookies, peanut butter, and saltines. Your needy neighbors thank you for your support of the Holy Trinity Food Pantry! Alexa Haar 1 Brayden Franklin, Maddox Franklin, Sylvia Ray* 2 Melissa Williams* 3 Cheryl Spears * 5 Mike Demmon, Sarah Franks * 6 Howard Loughlin *7 Katie Allen, Mary Lynn Jordan,Don McFadyen* 8 Raymond Clapper, Katherine Laslie, Margaret Peterson, Chiagozie Udoh* 9 Alexa Haar, Suzanne Pinson* 11 Samuel Handelsman, Debby Sims* 12 Anne Mizelle* 14 Avery Watts* 15 Molly Beene* 16 Gay Trimmer* 18 Bill Barnwell, Leonnie Chisolm, Judy Philbrook, Ezemdi Udoh* 19 Grant Childs, Kenneth Nevarez* 20 Stephanie Franklin, Richard Hall, Louise Walters* 21 Kenniston Carpenter* 22 Inez Elliott, Rob Russell* 23 Christian Davis, Claire Perry* 24 Joseph Edwards* 25 Greg Francis* 26 Davis Childs* 27 Pam Smith* 28 Clara MacMillan* 30 Addison Watts* Sunday, June 15th
Lay Worship Ministries History and diocesan policy place high priority on development of strong lay ministries. From colonial days when East Carolina churches functioned almost completely under the care of vestries, since clergy were rarely available, the Diocese has been blessed with exceptionally strong lay leadership. The Catechism of the Book of Common Prayer (p. 855) describes the ministry of lay persons: The ministry of lay persons is to represent Christ and His Church; to bear witness to Him wherever they may be; and, according to the gifts given them, to carry on Christ s work of reconciliation in the world; and to take their place in the life, worship, and governance of the Church. Especially in the worship of the Church, the whole people of God are represented in our worship services as lay people serve alongside ordained clergy. Our Prayer Book as well as the canons of the Episcopal Church and the Diocese of East Carolina provide opportunities for the laity to function in particular roles in worship. Here at Holy Trinity we are blessed to have lay persons participating in our worship as Eucharistic Ministers, Eucharistic Visitors and Worship Leaders. Those participating in these lay worship ministries are confirmed, adult communicants in good standing (16 years of age or older), regular in their stewardship, faithful in worship, of good repute in the congregation and mature in the faith. These lay ministers also must satisfactorily complete a course of training and study appropriate to their ministries. Further descriptions of these functions are: A Eucharistic Minister is a lay person authorized to administer the chalice at a celebration of Holy Eucharist. A Eucharistic Visitor is a lay person authorized to take the Consecrated Elements in a timely manner following a celebration of Holy Eucharist to members of the congregation who, by reason of illness or infirmity, were unable to be present at the celebration. A Worship Leader is a person who regularly leads public worship under the direction of a member of the clergy or other leader exercising oversight of the congregation or other community of faith (e.g., nursing homes, hospitals, prisons, etc.). Here at Holy Trinity our Worship Leaders lead our weekly services of Morning or Evening Prayer. If you are not currently participating in our lay worship ministries, please consider doing so. You will find it meaningful and enriching to your own worship experience. If you would like to be trained and licensed, please let Mother Judith know by calling the office at (910) 484 2134 or emailing the parish administrator, Janice Luce, at admin@holytrinityfay.org. Training for these ministries will take place later in the summer. If you are currently serving in one of these capacities but feel you can no longer participate, please also let us know.
Faith+Family+Fun "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all." Philippians 4:4-5. Rite 13 nine youth and three adults - went to DC Friday, May 16th. We had a plan, but God had another plan, so there were several alterations. First, Keith St. Peter became ill Friday morning, so the 15 passenger van did not get rented and travel arrangements changed. Thanks to the Scott s for letting us use their SUV! We left Fayetteville at 12:30 pm and arrived at the Washington Seminar Center at 7:30 pm. TRAFFIC!! Dana, our speaker from the National Coalition for the Homeless, arrived at 8pm and talked to us about being homeless and told his story. He is now a counselor for the City of Arlington. Our last two lessons on Sundays had been about homelessness, but having a real person talk to us was wonderful. We then enjoyed dessert, played games, and had a chapel service. Our reading for this service was about the leper who was healed by Jesus. It was taken from a book by Max Lucado and is from the perspective of the leper. He speaks of wanting to touch and be touched it fit nicely with our service project. On Saturday morning, we were joined by Eric and Shacona, from the Homeless Coalition, for breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast, fruit, donuts, and juice). Eric then told us his story and we started off on foot for the Outreach Run. We had placed the toiletries and healthy snack bars that were donated in gallon size zip lock bags for distribution. When we saw a homeless person along our route, several of us approached them, introduced ourselves and asked if they would like the bag of goodies for themselves or someone they know. Many were touched by the stories we heard from people we encountered. We prayed with, were prayed for, talked, hugged and listened. Part of the group was even entertained a rapper named Zeus put on a show for them. We returned to the Seminar Center shortly before noon and then headed for the National Cathedral. We were walking up the steps marked for group tours and a man came out and said Holy Trinity! We were welcomed and then guided through the Cathedral. It is a remarkable structure!
We ate lunch at a Greek Festival near the Cathedral and then returned to the Seminar Center. We had planned to break into groups and do our Scavenger Hunt, but it was getting late, so each group did a part of the Scavenger Hunt that Keith planned. We all met on the mall and played Frisbee after completing our challenges. We then went back to the Seminar Center and headed out for dinner Mexican! Our chapel Saturday night included a story about a homeless woman whose dog needed treatment at a vet very fitting. We each offered the one thing that struck us the most during our day. Youth stated they were thankful they had a family and a home, that they were surprised the homeless were so thankful for what we were giving them because it was not much, etc. Our Rite 13 article in next month s Good Newsletter will be insights and perspectives from the youth. On Sunday morning, we made pancakes and then packed up. We attended church at the National Cathedral. It was a beautiful service full of pageantry. We noted how many people were in their procession, among other things! We returned safely to Fayetteville at 7:20 pm. (More TRAFFIC!) It has been my pleasure to work with the middle-school aged children in Rite 13. It has been wonderful to watch them bond and think and talk together. We are truly working our mission of Faith+Family+Fun. Many memories have been made through this experience and we would like to thank the parishioners, the vestry and Judith for their support to make this possible. Blessings to all, Judy Philbrook
MAY 2014VESTRY REPORT HIGHLIGHTS Holy Trinity Episcopal Church is a vibrant faith community, welcoming all, empowered by sacramental worship to joyfully serve others in Christ s name. This is the new Mission Statement approved by the Vestry at the Vestry meeting held on May 15, 2014. This is not to be confused with our motto, Come in to worship, go out to serve. During the remainder of the month of May and the remainder of the year, Mother Judith challenged us to reflect on the deep meaning of both the Mission Statement and our motto so that we may enact the reality of our mission as a church in our lives and in our contributions to the church. May Fair earned about $8500 for the outreach missions at Holy Trinity. We deeply appreciate the hard work of our May Fair Committee. Special thanks go out to our committee chairs, Jim Thomas and Mary and Rob Russell, for their hard work on this big project. We also give thanks for those volunteers who either donated items or assisted at the yard sale. Mark Philbrook, Junior Warden, has received one contractor bid for some of the larger repairs needed for the church facility. It is estimated that major repairs will run somewhere in the neighborhood of $20,000 with lesser (but still costly!) repairs also needed that may be done by church volunteers. In addition, the need for major repair or replacement of one HVAC unit has been identified. Replacement of the kitchen icemaker is also needed. All of these challenges point to the importance of stewardship as we strive to make our church facility welcoming, clean and safe for young and old alike. Each pledge is important to the vitality of the church! Mary Mac Shields is continuing to lead a clean-up and reorganization of closets and storage at both the church office and in the church proper. Mary Ann Brooks and Bob Pinson have volunteered to complete the Internal Church Audit as required by the Diocese. Mother Judith will be away for part of the month of June to continue her studies at Sewanee. We will welcome the Rev. Mike Demmon to cover services on Sunday, June 15 th and the Rev. Ron Abrams on Sunday, June 22 nd as we pray for the safe return of Mother Judith. Since the Vestry meeting, we have elected a new Bishop for our Diocese. We thank our Diocesan delegates who have served so faithfully and we thank Nancy Broadwell and Tom Holt for their leadership at the Diocesan level during this process. Kasmin Davis, Clerk ****************************************************************************** Rector Search Committee Update Thank You! The three initiatives to collect Search related information and ideas from our congregation have been completed. Thanks to very good participation in the Summit, Neighborhood meetings and the Survey, the Search Committee has lots of valuable information about Holy Trinity s past and
present, as well as our priorities and dreams for the future. It is impossible to summarize all the information gathered in the Search process so far but here are some observations - The Summit, held April 6 th, was a festive kick-off event facilitated by the Rev. Blair Both. 135 participants, including a strong group of our youth, reminisced about successful Holy Trinity ministries, described Holy Trinity as they experience it and reflected on our current challenges and goals for the future. - The eight Neighborhood Meetings, held from May 6 10, were attended by 91 adults (and many children at the Family meeting). Candid opinions described how Holy Trinity has dealt with change both locally and in the national church. The discussions reminded us that respect and frequent communication are the keys to managing any major change. We did well; we can always do better. Finally, attendees described the attributes they felt were most important for our next Rector. - The Survey, completed by 122 parishioners, provided valuable information on what Holy Trinity currently does best : worship; be a welcoming, inclusive community of faith; and serve those in need through our outreach programs. Areas identified that we would most like to strengthen over the next 3 to 5 years: children/youth programs; pastoral care and outreach. The Search Committee s job now is to take all this valuable information and construct an honest, yet compelling Profile of our wonderful parish that will attract the right person to be our next Rector. I ve listed the members of the Search Committee below. Don t hesitate to ask any of us your questions or give us your suggestions and please continue to keep the Search for our next Rector in your prayers. Thank you. Howard Members: Jordan Capps, Jimmy Driscoll, Beth Early, Garvin Ferguson, Nan Fiebig, Conchita Harris, Jean Harrison, Jeff Jones, Fitz Lee, Julie Lee-Jacobs, Howard Loughlin, Elizabeth Scott, David Sullivan, Rosemary Zimmerman Prayer List Vilmar Agustin, Dick Blair, Pearl Brooks, Clifford Brown, The Burney Family, Jean Canham*, Debbie Chase, The Connor Family, Gary Copeland, Oscar Davis*, Kate Holmes, Cindy Humphrey, Nancy Jalbert, Pam Jenkins, John K. Lancaster, Jr., Megan McFadyen, Sam McKenzie, Hudson Moore, Nickie,Daniel, Jessie, Gloria A. Pandongan, Marie Parker*, Holt Perry, Margaret Peterson*, Walter Pinder, Vi Piner*, Paul Reichle, Jr. *, Lee Robertson, Patricia Pollard Schroeder, Kevin Smith, Cheryl Spears, Mimi Spears, Curtis Strickland, Elaine Suguitan, Harold Syms *, Louise Walters*, Leigh Warren, Ann and Woody Wayne, Lochlan and Charlie Wooten. *Visitation and Prayers
Military Prayer List David Alecca, Jacob Allen, Tom Boyle, Bill Burgdorf, Christopher Casey, Daryl Casey, Kyle Chase, Michael Chase, Geoff Childs, John Chisolm, Leroy Chisolm, Lychelle Chisolm, John Connor, John Franklin, Scott Harris, Andrew Hercik, Jonathan Hercik, Brian Hoffman, Oliver Karp, Ryan Kenny, Brent Miller, Zach Miller, Ivey Paige, Tony Paz, Juan Perez, Tim Ripley, Daniel Robert, Alex Ruggiero, Cedric Scott, Jeffrey Sinclair, David Witty, and Thomas Witty. Adjustments to the Prayer List: Names will be kept on the list for three months. After the three month period, the name will be removed from the list unless it is renewed. This threemonth limit does not affect the Military Prayer List or the Visitation List. Please contact the church office with prayer requests by phone: 910-484-2134 or email: admin@holytrinityfay.org. ****************************************************************************** MORE WDC PICTURES
Non-Profit Organization US Postage PAID Fayetteville, NC Permit #85 Holy Trinity Episcopal Church 1601 Raeford Road Fayetteville NC 28305 Return Service Requested Church Staff Interim Rector: The Rev. Judith Reese Administrative Assistants: Janice Luce/Alexa Haar Financial Secretary: Bette Scott Music Director and Organist: Jamie D. Wilcutts Preschool Director: Ruth Folger Gillis Office Hours: Monday Friday: 8:00 am to 3:00 pm Office: 484-2134/Fax: 484-3198 Website: www.holytrinityfay.org Email: admin@holytrinityfay.org VESTRY Senior Warden: Jane Horrocks Junior Warden: Mark Philbrook Treasurer: Neil Bergman Clerk: Kasmin Davis 2014 Anne Chisolm Beth Early Amy St. Peter Robert Yoakum 2015 Jane Horrocks J. R. Hustwit Howard Loughlin Mary Mac Shields 2016
Kasmin Davis Mark Philbrook Alison Jones Rob Richardso