Announcements for August 29

• Blessing of the Backpacks This Sunday, August 29
  Start the school year off right. This Sunday during the 10:00 a.m. service we will bless school backpacks and offer special prayers for all students and educators. Students of all ages, preschool through junior high through adult, are encouraged to bring your backpacks or other book/computer bags to church that morning.
  
  
• Bowling League
  Do you wanna have fun? Join a bowling league. Teams of four persons (any combination of men, women or teenage children) bowl every other Sunday afternoon from 3 pm to 6 pm at Lynwood Bowl in Lynwood, IL beginning Sept. 19, 2010 and ending May 1, 2011. The bowling fee per week is $20.00 per person. Sanction fee is $20.00 (one time charge). Split season: winners of the first half roll off against the winners of the second half for the championship. Banquet and prize distribution is immediately following bowling on the last day. You don’t have to have a whole team to join. We can put you on a team that’s already established. Contact Gale Michael if you are interested or need more information.
  
  
• Diocesan Convention: Relate, Renew, Restore: Caring for God’s Creation
  The 173rd annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago will be held November 19 & 20 at the Westin Lombard Hotel in Yorktown Center near Oak Brook. The theme this year is stewardship of God’s creation. Everyone is invited. More information is available on the parish information tables. If you would like to serve as a delegate from St. John’s to the business portions of convention, please speak to the Rector soon. Our delegate roster will need to be confirmed at the September vestry meeting.
  
  
• Daughters of the King Meet This Wednesday
  St. John's chapter of Daughters of the King will meet 7:30-9:00 p.m., Wednesday, September 1, in the Guild Room for a planning meeting. They will also meet on the third Saturday, September 18, 9:00- 11:00 a.m., starting with a light breakfast. All women of the parish are welcome. Please join us!
  
  
• Looking Ahead: Sunday School Registration
  Registration for children’s Sunday School classes will be offered at the St. John’s Fall Jubilation and Ministry Fair, Sunday, September 12, following the 10:00 a.m. service.
  
  
• St. John’s Jubilation September 12
  St. John’s annual celebration of community takes place Sunday, September 12, following the 10:00 service. Many parishes call this “Homecoming Sunday”—a time to come home to church and gather and share stories with fellow parishioners after summer vacations and adventures. It is also a time to share information and sign up for fall programs. If your group would like a display table at the Jubilation, please call the parish office.

Reflection for August 29

Prayers linger in choir stalls, soak into walls. Centuries of prayer can make you feel buoyant in medieval European cathedrals. Gratitude settles over you like a benediction within busy urban shrines. When you can’t pray, you can go to a place consecrated for prayers and let the residue of others’ prayers carry you effortlessly, wordlessly into a state of prayer (Suzanne Guthrie, “Prayer-haunted,” Christian Century, August 24, 2010).

Announcements for August 22

• Blessing of the Backpacks August 29
  Start the school year off right. Next Sunday, August 29, during the 10:00 a.m. service we will bless school backpacks and offer special prayers for all students and educators. Students of all ages, preschool through junior high through adult, are encouraged to bring your backpacks or other book/computer bags to church that morning.
  
  
• School Supplies Needed
  Many school districts begin classes this week. Please bring donated school supplies this Sunday (notebooks, paper, pencils, crayons, erasers, calculators) for distribution to needy children through Respond Now. Look for the special box in the west foyer marked “Respond Now School Supplies.”
  
  
• Bowling League
  Do you wanna have fun? Join a bowling league. Teams of four persons (any combination of men, women or teenage children) bowl every other Sunday afternoon from 3 pm to 6 pm at Lynwood Bowl in Lynwood, IL beginning Sept. 19, 2010 and ending May 1, 2011. The bowling fee per week is $20.00 per person. Sanction fee is $20.00 (one time charge). Split season: winners of the first half roll off against the winners of the second half for the championship. Banquet and prize distribution is immediately following bowling on the last day. You don’t have to have a whole team to join. We can put you on a team that’s already established. Contact Gale Michael if you are interested or need more information.
  
  
• Diocesan Convention: Relate, Renew, Restore: Caring for God’s Creation
  The 173rd annual convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago will be held November 19 & 20 at the Westin Lombard Hotel in Yorktown Center near Oak Brook. The theme this year is stewardship of God’s creation. Everyone is invited. More information is available on the parish information tables (or by clicking here). If you would like to serve as a delegate from St. John’s to the business portions of convention, please speak to the Rector soon. Our delegate roster will need to be confirmed at the September vestry meeting.
  
  
• Looking Ahead: Sunday School Registration
  Registration for children’s Sunday School classes will be offered at the St. John’s Fall Jubilation and Ministry Fair, Sunday, September 12, following the 10:00 a.m. service.

Reflection for August 22

You can't do the Jesus thing alone.

(Jane Redmont, "An open letter to Anne Rice," posted at Episcopal Cafe.

Announcements for August 15

• Vestry Meeting this Monday
  The August vestry meeting is Monday, August 16, beginning at 7:00 p.m.
  
  
• Bowling League
  Do you wanna have fun? Join a bowling league. Teams of four persons (any combination of men, women or teenage children) bowl every other Sunday afternoon from 3 pm to 6 pm at Lynwood Bowl in Lynwood, IL beginning Sept. 19, 2010 and ending May 1, 2011. The bowling fee per week is $20.00 per person. Sanction fee is $20.00 (one time charge). Split season: winners of the first half roll off against the winners of the second half for the championship. Banquet and prize distribution is immediately following bowling on the last day. You don’t have to have a whole team to join. We can put you on a team that’s already established. Contact Gale Michael if you are interested or need more information.
  
  
• Register for Education for Ministry (EFM)
  It is time to register for this fall’s EFM class. The orientation session will be Thursday evening, September 2. Please see Pastor Orr this Sunday or as soon as possible if you are interested.
  
  
• School Supplies Needed
  Please continue to bring school supplies (notebooks, paper, pencils, crayons, erasers, calculators) for distribution to needy children through Respond Now. Place them in the special box in the west foyer marked “Respond Now School Supplies.”
  
  
• Wednesday Eucharist
  The celebration of the Holy Eucharist resumes this week at the Wednesday morning worship service.

Reflection for August 15

Belief in God

I haven't yet found the decisive new argument that will prove once and for all that there really is a God; but we do need to remember that the number of people who come into a living personal faith as a result of arguments is actually rather small. Many centuries ago, a great theologian and pastor, St. Ambrose, said that 'it did not suit God to save his people by arguments'....

[For a lot of folk belief in God] starts from a sense that we ‘believe in’, we trust some kinds of people. We have confidence in the way they live; the way they live is a way I want to live.... The world they inhabit is one I’d like to live in. Faith has a lot to do with the simple fact that there are trustworthy lives to be seen.

It puts quite a responsibility on believing people, of course (Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust).