Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
By The Reverend
Canon
Stephen C. Casey
Dear friends:
The Parish Annual Meet-ing is an important event in the calendar of the church year. Aside from being mandated by the State and by the national Church the Annu-al Meet-ing is the time when the leadership of the parish offers an account of the preceding year, approves a budget for the year ahead, and elects officers for the governance of the church, at parochial as well as diocesan level. The Annual Meeting also provides an opportunity for the Rector to report on the state of the congrega-tion and the wider church, and offer a vision for the coming year. This year, the annual meeting of St. Edward’s will take place on Sunday, 21st February, and to allow as many pa-rishioners as possible to attend, there will be one service only of Holy Eu-charist at 9 am, with a brunch to follow.
sequence of any financial mismanagement on the part of the finance committee or the vestry, but more a conse-quence of the changing cli-mate of the church.
Twenty years ago, the na-tional church calculated that a congregation with a full-
time priest and appropri-ate adminis-trative staff needed an average Sun-day attend-ance of around 75 to
carry out a vibrant ministry. Over the years that figure has increased to around 150 and the diocese of Central Penn-sylvania requires a congrega-tion to have an average Sun-day attendance of 100 to justify a full-time priest. The average Sunday attendance at St. Edward’s is currently around 130, so we are well above the diocesan standard, but we have some way to go to meet the estimate of the national church. Of course, as we all know, statistics can be made to show anything and are subject to many vari-ables, but they do explain why an increasing number of congregations in our diocese now have part-time clergy,
(Continued on page 2)
The focus of this year’s annual meeting will be on celebrating our ministry together and launching the annual stewardship cam-paign. On the whole, 2015 was a good year for St. Ed-ward’s. Although the aver-age Sunday attendance, the usual measure of a parish’s health, was slightly down on
the previous year, the aver-age Sunday attendance for the last several weeks of 2015 was highest we have had in several years. Finan-cially, we ended the year with a deficit of $20,000, however, this was well be-low the figure which was anticipated at the beginning of 2015, and even though some families have left the parish and moved out of the area for retirement or pro-fessional reasons, we have been blessed with new fami-lies who have joined St. Edward’s during the course of the year. That being said, the budget for 2016 is pro-jecting a $38,000 deficit. It is important to understand that this deficit is not a con-
Special points of interest:
Worship services and Parish hours are on the back cover of the Scepter
Staff and Vestry Members are listed on the back cover of the Scepter
McLaughlin Baptism 3
Sunday Scenes 4
Movie Review 6
Pancake Dinner 7
Adult Fellowship 7
Ash Wednesday Services 7
Kris Kindle Reveal 8-9
Inside this issue:
ST
.
ED
WA
RD
’S
E
PI
SC
OP
AL
C
HU
RC
H
February 2016
Reflections From the Rector’s Desk
Scepter
“In a new and innovative way, this year’s annual meeting will focus on celebrating our ministry over
the life time of the congregation and launch our 2016 stewardship campaign.”
and why larger congregations with multi-ple staff have had to reduce their budg-ets. For the most part, this also explains the budget deficit for St. Edward’s for the past year and for the current year.
The good news is that by every measure of congrega-tional devel-opment, St. Edward’s is a healthy par-ish with growing ministries, a finance committee and vestry that are fiscally responsible, and a congregation that demonstrates faithful stewardship. But these statistics also encourage us to be generous in the way we support our par-ish financially, as well as through our participation in the many ministries we support.
In a new and innovative way, this year’s annual meeting will focus on celebrating
our ministry over the life time of the con-gregation and launch our 2016 steward-ship campaign. Stewardship is really a year round ministry, therefore pledge forms for 2016 will be mailed to mem-bers of the congregation by the end of January, and we plan to close the cam-paign on the Feast of Pentecost. St. Paul
tells us that God in Christ loves a cheerful giver, so I invite you to be gen-erous in your an-
nual giving, but I also encourage you to attend the annual meeting in February, not just for your own benefit, but to sup-port the parish that embraces you as you serve God in Christ.
Blessings
Fr. Stephen+
(Continued from page 1)
Parish Office Hours
Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Fri-day: 9 AM – 3 PM
Tuesday: 9 AM – 1 PM
Parish Administrative Assistant: Michelle Bentley
Scepter
Production Staff:
H. J. “Mac” Miller
If you're the last person to leave
the building following Sunday ser-
vices or an event, please take the
time to make sure all the lights are
turned off (including the rest
rooms) and the doors are locked.
Page 2 S CE PT ER
Information
Reflections
By Fr. Stephen
Each Wednesday Forgiveness is one of those sub-jects that elicits many views and many questions. How does one for-give? What does the Bible say about forgiveness? Are there some acts of commission or omission that are beyond the ability of any human being to forgive? This Lent, beginning on Wednesday evening the 17th of February and ending on the 16th of March, between 6 pm and 8 pm I shall ask these and many other questions and take a look at the theology and the praxis of forgiveness. The evening is de-signed for you to stop in on any of the segments: the Pot-luck supper which starts at 6 pm and ends around 6:45 pm; the Lenten discus-sion which begins at 6:45 pm and ends a little after 7:30 pm, or simp-ly come for the end of the evening when we will say the night office of Compline. I invite you to join me for this Lenten series. Also dur-ing the Lenten season, after the Wednesday noon-day service of healing, I shall offer a Bible study where we will explore the Passion Narratives in the four Gospels. I look forward to seeing you Fr. Stephen+
Lenten Programme
Page 3
Patrick Ishler rehearsing with the choir.
Military News
Please keep in your prayers those close to us who are serving in the military.
Dustin Burleson Brandon Fox
Gordon Frankenfield
Brandon Fuhrman
Matt Fuhrman
Adam and Christina Grim
Jack Hawk
Drew Johnson
Anthony Koser
Alex Kube
John Lewis
Richard Mutari
David Peck
Capt. Andrew Pfeiffer
Rev. David J. Sparks
Mike Spurr
David Sternberg
Allison Tomich
Evan Westgate
Seamas Whitesel
1st Lt. Thomas Whitesel
Baptism of PJ McLaughlin
Include your news and announce-ments in the next Scepter.
Due date for March will be:
February 20th. Send articles and announcements to:
Third Saturday of
Each Month
5:30 PM Next Service
February 20th
Rite II
Saturday Service
A very beautiful moment with Joe and Christina McLaughlin when Joe prayed for
God's blessing on their son.
Sunday Scenes
Thanks and congratula-
tions go to Thomas Ish-
ler who very kindly
stepped in at the last
minute on the Second
Sunday after Christmas
to be the server. It was
his first time to take this
role, but it was obvious
that he has been ob-
serving carefully all this
time, because he car-
ried it off with very little
guidance. We are so
grateful to our children
and youth for their com-
mitment to being the
church here at Saint
Edward’s. We thank
every youthful acolyte
and server and musi-
cian and usher and
nursery attendant and
greeter and reader and
Crispus Attucks meal-
server and Sunday
school attender for of-
fering their gifts to the
church.
S CE PT ER Page 4
What's Fr Stephen showing on his cell phone
during Children's Sermon? Father Stephen and his Christmas reindeer
Kid’s Corner
Page 5
Bible Quiz
At a time of deep struggle in Elijah’s life, God made his presence known to him. How? A. In a strong and destructive wind B. In an earthquake C. Through fire D. Through silence Answer: D (See 1 Kings 19:9-12, NRSV.)
The children place the Wise Men in
the crèche bearing gifts of gold,
frankincense, "and chocolate?"
No, something that starts with an M.
"Mink?"
Preparing for Epiphany. Annagail and
William process wise men to the
crèche
Maeve and Piper share a king
Page 6 S CE PT ER
By Linda Frankenfield
Looking forward to the new year, these are the books, authors, and dates to consider:
Secret Cord, Geraldine Brooks -
March 10, 1:00pm
We welcome anyone to join in our dis-cussions held at the church.
Book Club News Movie Review: The Martian
By Glen Bentley
If you liked the movie Gravity you should love The Martian. Director Ridley Scott and star Matt Damon deliver a sci-fi epic that is smart, spectacular and stir-ring.
This big screen adaptation (by screen-writer Drew Goddard) of Andy Weir’s best-seller about an astronaut stranded on Mars has just about everything: laughs, thrills, visual splendor and a rousing en-dorsement of the brotherhood of man.
Set in a near future in which the American space pro-gram is thriv-ing the film opens on Mars, where a team led by Melissa Lew-is (Jessica Chastain) is wrapping up a month long scientific mission.
Soon, a fierce sandstorm catches the as-tronauts out in the open, and they barely make it to the Martian lander that will return them to the orbiting mother ship.
But one of them, botanist Mark Watney (Damon), is literally blown away by the raging wind. Believing him dead, Lewis has no choice but to take off without him before the storm makes liftoff impossi-ble.
But Mark isn’t dead. He awakens to a beeping alarm in his helmet telling him he’s almost out of air, struggles out of the sand in which he is half buried and discovers that he has been skewered by a shard of wind-blown metal.
He barely makes it into the now unoccu-pied housing module, where he performs a bit of surgery on himself and takes stock of his situation.
The outpost’s radio antenna was de-stroyed by the storm, so there’s no talk-
ing to NASA or the mother ship now heading back to Earth. There’s enough food on hand for a few months, but a rescue mission will take several years.
But Mark isn’t about to cave without a fight. Employing ingenuity that would make MacGyver envious, he cannibaliz-es the available equipment and creates jerry-rigged systems to provide water, oxygen, electricity and a greenhouse.
Meanwhile NASA (in the persons of Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Kristen Wiig and Chiwetel Ejiofor) and the rest of the world are mourning Mark’s loss. At least until satellite surveillance of Mars shows signs of activity at the outpost.
Faced with the incredible possibility that Mark is alive, the best minds on the plan-et get to work on an ambitious plan to bring him home before his supplies run
out.
From a layman’s perspec-tive, very little hap-pens here that isn’t scientifical-ly plausi-ble. The movie is practically a how-to course in
surviving in a hostile environment.
On the dramatic end, “The Martian” ef-fortlessly balances knuckle-biting sus-pense with humor. In order to leave be-hind a record of his survival efforts, Mark records a daily video blog in which he views the red planet almost in human terms.
Visually the film is amazing. Mars’ vast orange-ish landscapes of dunes and rocky mountains get the David Lean treatment from cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, who clearly has spent much time analyzing “Lawrence of Arabia.”
And while all the per-formers are solid, Damon absolutely cleans up, holding down half the film without another actor to play off of and captur-ing his character’s shift-ing moods of desperation, determination, fear, pride
and, ultimately, a sort of Zen-like ac-ceptance of whatever fate throws at him.
Blizzard
Everyone has a story to tell about The
Blizzard of '16. Stephen and Rayelenn's
story is about the utter kindness of St.
Edward's parishioner David Keener who
suddenly popped up on their doorstep
with snow blower and released Fr Ste-
phen's car from its snow prison ava-
lanche.
By Rayelenn Casey
Adult Fellowship
Page 7
SHROVE TUESDAY
Come One. . . Come All!
Tuesday, February 9th - 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM
St. Edward’s Parish Hall
Join us as we begin the Lenten Season with our Annual Shrove Tuesday Pan-cake Dinner
A wonderful way to FEAST before Lent begins!
Music, festive atmosphere, great food, wonderful fellowship
You will not want to miss this event this year!
Tell your friends. . . Better yet, bring your friends!
Free will offering.
Coffee Hour
Thank you to the following parishioners who hosted cof-fee hours during the month of January:
Sandy and Mike Patrone
R.B. Mullineaux
Ted Cardwell
Ray and Lucetta Kiefer
Geraldine Cosgrave
Janet Rumer
June Klemm
Christina, Joe, and PJ McLaughlin
We had a wonderful response to the par-ish email about coffee hours at St. Ed-ward’s. We are working on creating schedules for the upcoming months for this fellowship ministry for the 8 AM and 10:15 AM services and would also wel-come those willing to serve at the 9:15 AM service. Stay tuned for more infor-mation as we detail what we hope will be a ministry that will grow.
Pancake Dinner
“They who love are but one step from heaven.”
—James Russell Lowell
Wednesday, February 10th
7:00 AM & 12 Noon – St. Edward’s Epis-copal Church
Holy Communion – Imposition of Ashes
7:30 PM
The Combined Service of the Episcopal Churches of Lancaster
St. John’s | St. James | St. Thomas | St. Edward’s
To be held at St. John’s Episcopal Church: 321 West Chestnut Street, Lan-caster
Ash Wednesday Services
By Mike Patrone & John Meyer,
co-chairs
After a break for the holidays, the Men’s Group sponsored a presentation by David Shenk on January 30th. The idea was to begin an understanding of the Muslim Faith. We hope this will be a spring board to more discussions and future presentations on the subject. Due to the possible large audience for this talk, Chef Mark and his kitchen crew had the day off.
The February 27th meeting topic will be Senior Medicare Fraud with John Vogel as the guest speaker. Chef Mark and his kitchen crew will be back in business put-ting on a great breakfast.
Join us at 9 am each month for good food and good fellowship.
Men’s Group
WHAT: Saint Edward’s Friends Togeth-er: Good Food and Good Fellowship
WHERE: Dorris Smith’s house, 3120 Briarwood Boulevard
WHEN: Sunday, March 13, 4:00
BRING: Hors d’oeuvres or dessert
REPLY TO: Dorris Smith, 285-5157
Page 8
Krist Kindling Reveal Dinner
By Meredith Aul
The Krist Kindling dinner was held January
10. We had a nice turnout with an excellent
pot luck dinner and an evening of sharing our
Krist Kindling adventures. I think it’s fair to
say that a good time was had by all. If any-
one couldn’t make it and would like to know
who delivered their Advent gifts, they are
welcome to call or email me.
S CE PT ER
Pictures by Meredith Aul and Rayelenn Casey
Beth Hake, Deacon Hank and his daughter Leah share one of the fun-
ny moments.
Randy Westgate and David Boyer Meredith Aul
Krist Kindlers love the January Reveal party
and laughing with Rose Dixon, who thankfully
did NOT get stopped by a policeman this year.
Maura Keener and Beth Lynch Maeve Milligan and mother Ellen
Page 9
Krist Kindling Reveal Dinner
James Lynch Bob and Jane Young
Rosie Westgate’s father looks on as she tells about her adven-
tures.
Ann and Bill Kline made these three lovely
ornaments and delivered them weekly to
Stephen and Rayelenn Casey. Ann did the
needlework and Bill put them together.
We always love it when the kids of the parish tell their own stories of
intrigue and subterfuge ! Kristen Rosenberg tells her story. Peg Reilly and Leslie Arnold
Sunday Services
8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite I (said)
10:15 a.m. Holy Eucharist Rite II
Contemporary Service ((2nd Sunday, Sept – May) ).
Wednesday
12:00 Noon – Holy Eucharist with healing
Saturday
5:30 Holy Eucharist Rite II (Third Saturday)
2453 Harrisburg Pike
Lancaster, PA 17601
ST . ED WARD ’S EPISCOP AL CHURCH
Phone 717-898-6276
Email: [email protected]
www.sainteds.org
The Reverend Canon Stephen C. Casey, Rector
The Rev. Hank Morrow, Jr., Deacon
Leslie Arnold Senior War-den
Michelle Bentley, Parish Administrative Assistant
Parish Office Hours
Monday, Wednesday, Thurs-day, Friday: 9 AM – 3 PM
Tuesday: 9 AM – 1 PM
Staff Worship Services
Vestry (year term ends)
Leslie Arnold (2018)
Tony Bianco (2016)
Camille Horine (2018)
Maura Keener (2016)
Brian Newsome (2018)
Mike Patrone (2017)
Peg Reiley (2017)
Henry Spire (2018)
Look for us on the web!
www.sainteds.org
