NATIVITY NEWS The newsletter of the Episcopal Church of the Nativity and St. Stephen Newport and Thompsontown, PA 159 South Second Street, Newport PA 17074 Phone: 717-567-6514 E-mail: chnatss@pa.net Parish Website: www.nativityandststephen.diocpa.org A note from the Rector May 2018 When I sit at my desk and type on the computer, I have a wonderful view. Recently, the forsythia started blooming and one morning, a female cardinal perched on top of the bush. She was moving her head back and forth, watching and listening. She was looking right at me, but didn t see me. When I tried to take a photo, she just blended in with the background, so it was hard to see her. During times of heavy rain, I can see the creek. That s when it s swollen and moving out of its banks. When it s high like that, I go check the white pipe leading from our property out to the creek. If the creek ever rose that high, we would have flooding in our building. I also usually see at least one ground hog. I enjoyed watching the ground hog recently; however, am not so enamored when our garden is planted. The ground hog enjoys plenty of our produce. If I lean a little to the right, I see the sturdy, large piece from our elm tree that stood out front for so many years. Sometimes seeing it makes me sad that the elms have nearly disappeared. There s also a statue of Mary. I have always loved depictions of Mary and especially of mothers and babies. I appreciate meditating on Mary, her example and her life. I also look out on the labyrinth. I enjoy walking our labyrinth and I ve also learned that even looking at it and mentally going around the path is calming and a great way to focus the mind. One day as I was busy typing away, I was startled to see a woman running in the yard. Then there were two more women. It was a cold, windy day; not necessarily a great day to be outside. As I watched, the women started walking the labyrinth. I was overjoyed that these women knew about our labyrinth and appreciated having it here. I enjoyed watching them all walk the labyrinth. Then they left, taking care that the yard gate was closed. I am grateful for this lovely spot that nurtures all of us. I am grateful that others in our community find it nurturing also. Love, Rebecca
Vestry Report April 11, 2018 Mutual Ministry Review Vestry met earlier in April in order to have time to answer questions posed by the Mutual Ministry Review. At the center is prayer and worship. Everything we do should strengthen our prayer to and worship of God. The sources of transformation are: Worship and Prayer: Holy Eucharist, Daily Office and Personal Prayer Study and Learning: Mind, Heart and Practice Action: Stewardship, Evangelism and Service Life in Community: Conversation, Food, and Silence During our meeting, we went through every source of transformation and asked ourselves the questions posed below. The questions for each area are: 1. Where do we see this in our congregation? 2. Is this a particular area of giftedness for our congregation? If so, how? 3. Is this an area where we have not concentrated in the recent past? If so, is there room for more concerted effort? 4. Are we doing things that take away from this practice in our church? 5. What is the one thing that we can either highlight or begin in the next few months, that will focus on this portion of the sources of transformation model? Here is what we discussed. Worship and Prayer: Holy Eucharist, Daily Office and Personal Prayer We notice this in our Sunday Worship, Tuesday Centering Prayer and Taize, our prayer list and the prayers we say when we gather. We are unsure of people s personal prayer practices. We also believe this is something we do as a matter of routine. We are not necessarily known for our prayer life. We know that people take and use the Forward Day by Day booklets and we do have the labyrinth. We don t believe we are doing things that take away from this practice in our church. We would like to begin a program of praying for each person/family in our parish each week. We would also like to explore having a Daily office service via conference call or online meeting as an additional worship opportunity. This could be done through Skype, Google Hangouts, Join Me or Facebook Live. Study and Learning: Mind, Heart, and Practice We see this area in our congregation through Godly Play, Parlor People, Centering Prayer/Taize, the labyrinth, and our stewardship efforts. We do see this as an area of giftedness in our congregation for those who participate in the various efforts. One thing we would like to do in the next few months is to have Marion Fluchere do a Godly Play story with us during a church service.
Action: Stewardship, Evangelism and Service We said we were very active in service for the size of our parish. We believed everyone was involved in some part of the worship service, whether they were greeters, readers, Eucharistic Ministers, members of the choir, vergers, or acolytes. We noted our involvement with requests from Join Hands, St. Barnabas program, the road clean-up, events at the Commons and Gardens, Helping Kids ministry of Tony and Ann Roland, and our Giving To Others (GTO) donations. We support the Perry County Food Bank with food donations and with food from our garden. We are good stewards of our buildings and grounds. We do believe this is an area of giftedness for our congregation and that we do a lot of work for our size. One thing we would like to do in the future is to expand our garden, so it can be a community garden. We would like to partner with others in Newport to benefit from the garden. Life in Community: Conversation, Food and Silence We see this area in our coffee hour, weekly breakfasts, various meals we share, and Join Hands activities. We do believe food is a giftedness in this congregation, as evidenced by the liveliness of coffee hour and how many people participate in the various parish meals we have (picnic, annual meeting, Christmas decorating). We did see that cultivating silence might be a place for growth or more concerted effort. We didn t think we were doing things that took away from this practice and we couldn t think of something that we could highlight or begin in the next few months in this area. An overall question raised was why aren t we growing? We say we think we do pretty well in these areas of transformation, but we don t seem to have new people coming to the church. Canon Morrow will attend our May 9 Vestry meeting to receive our report, as well as, give us the results of the surveys we completed and submitted. Our Opening We read the family devotions for early evening from page 139 of the Book of Common Prayer. Bill Day shared a story about the importance of the church in his life. Our Financial Resources We reviewed our January and February financial statements. Year-to-date total income was $49,434 and expenses were $47,360. Wendy reported that as of our April mortgage payment, our mortgage is $99,733. Wendy also reported that we sent $1,000 to Join Hands in February from our contributions to the Health and Heating Fund. Lowering our Carbon Footprint Members of Vestry discussed their results from using a carbon calculator to determine the carbon they put into the air. Various methods to reduce our individual footprints were discussed. The committee will ask every family to commit to lowering their carbon footprint by 10% by the end of 2018. See resources in the undercroft. No July Meeting Vestry agreed to not have a meeting in July since Rebecca will be away for a Continuing Education program during that time.
Bishop s Blogs from Undoing Racism Workshop Training April 12-14, 2018. Check out Bishop Scanlan s weekly blog at: https://www.diocesecpa.org/blog/ Day One In Process Dear readers of the On The Way blog- I am attending a three day anti-racism training conducted by the People s Institute for Survival and Beyond (http://pisab.org) here in State College with 27 other Episcopalians from our diocese. This training has been made possible by the prayerful discernment of our Eliminating Racism Task Force, and by our 2018 Convention budget that named working for racial reconciliation as a diocesan missional priority. The work in these three days promises to be challenging and transformational. Tonight we got off to a good start with a meal and fellowship, the beginning of creating a timeline of racism and resistance in our country, and introductions that invited us to share who we are, what we do and why we think it is important for our diocese to engage this work at this time. We were presented with some theological ideas to ground the work; consider that we are the Family of God, intimately connected to each other. There are sacred stories that have been taken from us that we need to reclaim, and God calls us, the faithful, to this work that reaches backwards into brokenness and forward, in promise, to reconciliation. The work promises to be rich. You ll hear more, when we have finished- +Audrey Day Two In Process It s difficult, if not nearly impossible to process, condense and put seven hours of training into one neat blog entry that does justice to the depth and breadth of the material presented, the associated new learning and the affective response. Difficult and nearly impossible haven t stopped me yet. As I write this after several hours of dead sleep, it is easier to see the pattern or shape of the three- day training program that I and 26 other Episcopalians from the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania are engaged in with the People s Institute for Survival and Beyond. The shape is classic for many training programs- Day One: Begin with assessing knowledge and emotional temperature (remember pre-tests from school days?), lay a theological foundation (essential for groups like ours). Day Two: break it down and lay out a reasoned, intellectual case with smart exercises that use personal experience to lend individual examples. Day Three: Build it back up, inspire and call us to action. It is a classic methodology. And it works. Yesterday was Day Two. We started with a puzzle- exercise that got us thinking and showed us that we default to working within certain constructs that we have developed and from which we rarely stray. It was a parlor game that many of us have done before and that few could remember how to solve:......... Directions: connect all of these 9 dots using 4 straight lines without taking your pencil off of the paper.
A few from our group arrived at the correct solution and Chad demonstrated the right answer. Most of our morning was spent in a Power Analysis of the systems in our society that oppress and keep people down. We set up an urban construct of poverty and named all of the systems that affect those living in the space- systems like Healthcare, education, entertainment, law enforcement, food, sanitation, etc. We did a deep dive on 5 of the systems- Health Care, Education, Criminal Justice, Religion/Church, Social Media- and came to an understanding of how the systems are both structures for assistance and oppression but, most importantly, how these systems are built, controlled and directed by those outside of the urban centers that they serve. The afternoon session was a long path to reaching a definition of racism and how it is related to the systems of power that we investigated earlier in the day. We learned about the evolution of the concept of race- and how it was developed to lift white people above all others, even claiming that white people (Caucasoid) were only human and that all others- Negroid, Mongoloid and Australoid, were not. This system of classification from the early science of Anthropology in the 17c. resulted in white people at the top of the hierarchy and negros at the bottom. We learned about race in its modern construct and received an understanding that race is a specious classification created by Europeans during the time of colonial expansion to assign human worth and social status using themselves as a model of humanity, for the purpose of legitimizing white power and white skin privilege. (Dr. Maulana Karenga adpt. B. Major, M. Washington). The other important components that we discussed included prejudice (the process of pre-judging) and power. We discussed how power is an element that can have both individual and personal applications and systemic and institutional applications. Racism, is the product of a formula that comes from combining these elements together: Racism = Race Prejudice + Power (the power of systems and Institutions) together. We know the pain, destruction and harm that Racism has done in our country. Understanding it from the ground up has been helpful. Day Three Winding Down Now, in Day Three to figure out what to do about it. All Organizing comes to an ask, to action. It will be interesting to see where we are at the end of the day. Day Three of our Anti-Racism training with the People s Institute for Survival and Beyond ended with a service of Holy Eucharist and hopes that our time today was not spent winding up the work, but, really, winding up for more work and change and hope and reconciliation in our diocese as we work to eliminate (or, undo, which seems to be the popular term,) racism. It was quite a journey these three days. (I like that it was three days- like other spiritual journeys we have known Jonah in the big fish, Jesus in the tomb ) I pray that our experience will lead to powerful transformations, as well. As I wrote yesterday, we received a lot of education about the roots of racism in America that have to do with anthropology, colonialism, the doctrine of discovery and our need for domination- and the resultant racism that is the perfect storm of racial prejudice and the (misuse) of institutional and systemic power. Today s emphasis was on understanding internalized racial oppression, looking at Internalized Racial Inferiority (what s it really like to be black in America?) and Internalized Racial Superiority. Thanks to some black folk that I know, and to The Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas who split me wide open on the topic of racism last winter in a talk that she gave at Messiah College, I had an idea of the things that black and brown mothers and
fathers say to their children as they are growing up at their knee. It was awe-ful to hear the black and brown people in our group have that conversation with us today. When we got to the conversation about white folk, we discussed everything from fear to deflection, denial, fragility and color-blindedness. One personal learning that I had today was coming to understand that white color blindedness (pretending there is no difference between us) really isn t as helpful as we think it is. For the black or brown person who is being regarded by a color-blind white person, it erases any foundational part of their identity. I ll not lie- this part of the training made me more uncomfortable than when we started- and on edge a little bit about how I am supposed to be and act with my black friends. We talked about systems in an organization and the places where transformational change takes place. Guess what? It s not at the level of personnel or programs or even among those whom our organization services (those are places for less durable transactional change) but real, lasting and significant change takes place at the place of organizational structure and the formation of mission, vision and corporate identity. In the Diocese, that s the Council of Trustees and Bishop, and our coalescing vision and identity. And so, if we want to work on undoing or eliminating racism in our diocese, it isn t going to be with another program it will come in naming us as an anti-racist diocese in our mission, vision and identity and working to live up to that. Are we there yet? Honestly, I think we have work to do. Not because we are all for racism- but because we need to be enlightened (woke!) to what s going on in this country. We see it on tv. We hear it from our friends of color. We read about one more unarmed black man in his twenties shot. And we don t know what to do. Those who attended this weekend s workshop (representatives of diocesan bodies, staff and others) will meet again in a few weeks to unpack this work. The Eliminating Racism Task Force that gathered us for this training will meet before then to look at a way forward. One of our trainers recommended a 20-year strategic plan. It will take that long. I m glad for the time that we had, and look forward to widening the circle for others to participate. email me if you want in on the organizing. Please
During 2018, we will be celebrating baptism on May 20 and November 4. Let Rebecca know if you or someone you know would like to be baptized on any of these days. Active, baptized members of the parish seeking their first college degree are encouraged to apply for the Kyle Weller Scholarship by June 1. Applications and further requirements are available at http://bit.ly/2vgr5oy for the letter and http://bit.ly/2tiqj8k for the application. Baking needs and chocolate items available through Equal Exchange. A price list and basket are available to pay for the items you choose to buy. A catalogue is also available. If there s an item you d like us to order, please see Jane Hoover Geraniums for Pentecost. Donations for geraniums to decorate the church for Pentecost on May 20 are being taken. Plants should cost $4-5. Envelopes are at the back of the church. You can make them in memory of or in honor of someone. Notecards of Nativity for sale. $2 each or 5 for $8. The photo on the 4X5½ cards is of the pews and was taken by Irene VanBuskirk. They are in the undercroft. St. Barnabas program for children June 26-27 Wendy Day said our church is signed up to provide breakfast and lunch for the St. Barnabas program in Harrisburg on Tuesday, June 26 and Wednesday, June 27. Wednesday will be a field trip day. We will also provide snacks for the entire week. Please see Wendy if you are available to assist. Pauline M. Whitekettle Scholarship Fund, deadline June 1. Open to residents of Newport. A flyer is posted in the undercroft. For full eligibility guidelines and to apply, visit: www.tfec.org/whitekettle Newport Public Library 10 th Annual Golf Outing, Thursday, May 17, 8am Shotgun Start, Rich Valley Gold Course, Mechanicsburg. Cost is $70 per player and includes green fees, cart and post-outing dinner. Forms available online at PeCoInfo.org or at the library. Deadline to register is May 11. Take a Swing at Drug Abuse, Perry Human Services Miniature Golf Tournament, Saturday, May 5, Reserve a time from 11am 1:30pm, Paradise Stream Family Campground, Loysville. Form a team of 2 5 people with each participant raising a minimum of $25. Golfers receive a free t-shirt and 1 game of miniature golf. Registration info is posted in the undercroft or visit perryhumanservices.org. Perry County Literacy Council s 24 th Annual Race for Reading, Saturday, May 5, 5pm, Little Buffalo State Park Recreation Hall. Pre-Race Mint Julep Party, 4pm at the home of Todd Saner in honor of Susan Connell. Dinner Tickets are $35 and Mint Julep Tickets are $50. There will be a silent auction and live auction at the dinner. Sponsorships and donations for auctions also needed. If you d like to sit with other parish members attending or would like more info, please Rebecca.
Join CCU for the 2018 Highmark Walk, Saturday, May 19, 9am, HACC Participate in a 5K or 1 mile walk to benefit CCU s HELP Ministries and Susquehanna Harbor Safe Haven Programs. Sign-up at www.ccuhbg.org/walk Cook Out and Craft, May 27, Honaman House Little Dresses for Africa, ECW Service Retreat, Saturday, May 19, 9am 3pm, St. Andrews in the Valley. Little Dresses for Africa has identified a need among the young women in 3rd world countries and it is being addressed with the sani-panti sewing project. The distribution of these simple, washable pads and the discussion surrounding good hygiene enables girls to not only manage their periods more easily, but maintain their dignity in the community. Please bring scissors, sewing machines and thread. Most importantly your helping hands and caring heart. Lunch and drinks will be provided. Monetary donations will be accepted to offset the cost. Contact Eileen Sullivan at eileensullivan51@gmail.com or Cindy Mohr at seymour5602@gmail.com if you d like to attend. CCU s 41 st Annual HELP Ministries Golf Tournament, Monday, June 4, 8am Shotgun Start, Sunset Golf Course, 2016 Sunset Drive, Middletown. $100/ player includes cart, 18 holes of golf, lunch and prizes. Register as an individual or as a group. Registration forms are available in the undercroft or visit ccuhbg.org. Cook Out, June 6, 11-1pm, Episcopal Commons Please see Wendy or Lynne if you will be attending and are able to help on either day. Perry County Rotary Club 24 th Annual Golf Outing, Friday, June 7, 12pm- Lunch, 1pm- Shotgun Start, Carlisle Barricks Golf Course. Proceeds benefit Rotary scholarship fund and community programs. Lunch, greens fees, cart and dinner included. Call or email for registration form. Tom Burd 717-834-3111 or Laurence Brodisch 717-567-6905 or rotaryclubperrycountypa@gmail.com Church Picnic, June 25, 11am, Landis Farm. Quiet Eucharist at Nativity at 9:30am. Please bring a dish to share. Summer Worship Schedule at St. Stephen s May 27 - Memorial Walk, June 3, July 1, August 5, & September 2
May 3 William Santiago Episcopal Commons Maud Fluchere 4 Gabriel Bixa 6 Anne Chappelka 8 Doris Foster Lisa Davis 18 Helen McKensie 8 Fred Santiago 22 Jean Rummel 9 W. Thomas Warne, III 26 Frederick Harvey 10 Darlene Amsler Kathryn Osborne Honaman House 14 Claire Cabell 3 Vina McGowan 16 Susan Rice 6 Lorraine Wall 17 Becky Shull 9 Terry Adams 20 Ben Shepley 17 William Hart 21 Lillian Hoover 22 Julia Cramer Mark Rice 24 Tootser Davis 28 Tom Way 30 Mackenzie Murphy Service Participants Schedule Date Greeters Lector Prayers Acolyte Euch. Min. Coffee Hour **June 3 (A.G. 1) Yocums Julie J. Gail S. Lillian H. Amsler Edna / Andrea Morning Prayer - Darlene @ St. Stephen's June 10 (A.G. 2) Cramers Kay C. John C. Davis Davis Lynne / Jill LGBTQIA Observance June 17 (A.G. 3) Rice / Crup Ann R. Wendy D. Saner Saner Darlene / Mary John Sivley -Preaching (Father's Day) June 24 (A.G. 4) Days Jan Y. Becky C. Rohm Rohm Picnic Church Picnic Counters: June 3 Bill D. and Becky June 10 Shannon and Jill June 17 Gail and Darlene June 24 Kay and Sue
May 2018 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 Taize Tuesday, 5pm 2 Men s Breakfast (Espresso Yourself) Women s Breakfast (Bitting s) - 9am 3 4 5 Harrisburg Convocation Event, Building Relationships, 9am noon, St. Luke s, Mechanicsburg Choir Practice, 10:15am 6 Worship - 9:30am Asian / Pacific Islander Observance Special Offering Parlor People - Bill Rohm The Historical Jesus - Solutions and Methods 13 Worship - 9:30am Mother s Day Godly Play No Parlor People 20 Worship - 9:30am Pentecost Renewal of Vows Godly Play Parlor People - Dick Price Leonardo Da Vinci s Biblical paintings 27 Worship - 9:30am St. Stephen s Memorial Walk Special Offering 7 Commonwealth Interfaith Service Prayers for Justice and Peace, 6pm, Beth El Temple, 2637 Front Street, Harrisburg Newport Anti-Racism League, 7pm 8 Taize Tuesday, 5pm 14 15 Taize Tuesday, 5pm 21 22 Taize Tuesday, 5pm 28 29 Taize Tuesday, 5pm 9 Men s Breakfast (Espresso Yourself) Women s Breakfast (Bitting s) - 9am Choir Practice, 10:15am Vestry, 6:30pm 16 Men s Breakfast (Espresso Yourself) Women s Breakfast (Bitting s) - 9am Choir Practice, 10:15am 23 Men s Breakfast (Espresso Yourself) Women s Breakfast (Bitting s) - 9am Choir Practice, 10:15am 30 Men s Breakfast (Espresso Yourself) Women s Breakfast (Bitting s) - 9am Choir Practice, 10:15am 10 Perry County Job Fair and Community Resource Event, 10am 3pm, Newport Assembly of God Family Life Center 11 12 17 18 19 24 Harrisburg Convocation Clergy Council Meeting, 2pm 25 26 31 Stitchers, 10am Special Offerings May 6 - Caring for Nativity s Neighbors and Flower Offering May 27 Building Fund