Draft of New Parish Directory
Several draft copies of a new parish directory are available on the information tables in the church and undercroft. Please confirm that your information is correct. The new directories will be available within the next few weeks.
Camp Chicago
Did you know that the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago offers a summer camp for children and young people? Three different one-week sessions are offered between June 30 and July 19. Camp Chicago is open to children ages 7-17. Flyers are posted around St. John’s. See Pastor Orr for registration information or check out this link.
Blue Jeans Sunday Next Week, May 5
Wear your gardening clothes to church on Sunday, May 5, and stay after church for a bit to help with spring landscape work. Volunteers to rake and prune are needed to prepare the grounds of St. John’s for spring growth and summer beauty.
Grande Prairie Singers Season Closer
The Grande Prairie Singers will close their 2013-14 season with “American Choral Music Today” at 4 p.m., Sunday, May 19, at Faith United Protestant Church, Park Forest. Composers include Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre, and the south suburbs’ own Darrell Dalton. See Betsy Burgwald for tickets: $15 in advance; $20 at the door; students, $10 with ID.
Yarn Ministry
The yarn ministry will meet Monday, May 6, beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the Guild room.
Friday, April 26, 2013
Reflection for April 28
For Arbor Day
Human beings have had a short span of existence on this 4.5 billion-year-old planet, and we live only a short time as individuals. That we share the Earth with such a venerable organism [the ginkgo tree], with a history where hundreds and tens of millions of years are relevant, should help to give us a better perspective from which to think of our own lives and existence here and thus prepare as well as we are able for the future. Our short-term actions are ruining the world in which we live much faster than we can imagine, with the world’s sustainable capacity sufficient to provide less than two-thirds of what we consume each year, even though billions of us live hungry and in extreme poverty. The two billion or more additional people who will join our numbers in the next several decades will almost all be poor, entering a world that we, with our largely short-term view of progress, are destroying rapidly. Might not we be able to learn from the deep past and then redouble our efforts to sustainably use our planet’s resources and thus live within its productive capacity while we still have time to do so? (Peter H. Raven, in the Foreward to Ginkgo, by Peter Crane).
Human beings have had a short span of existence on this 4.5 billion-year-old planet, and we live only a short time as individuals. That we share the Earth with such a venerable organism [the ginkgo tree], with a history where hundreds and tens of millions of years are relevant, should help to give us a better perspective from which to think of our own lives and existence here and thus prepare as well as we are able for the future. Our short-term actions are ruining the world in which we live much faster than we can imagine, with the world’s sustainable capacity sufficient to provide less than two-thirds of what we consume each year, even though billions of us live hungry and in extreme poverty. The two billion or more additional people who will join our numbers in the next several decades will almost all be poor, entering a world that we, with our largely short-term view of progress, are destroying rapidly. Might not we be able to learn from the deep past and then redouble our efforts to sustainably use our planet’s resources and thus live within its productive capacity while we still have time to do so? (Peter H. Raven, in the Foreward to Ginkgo, by Peter Crane).
Friday, April 19, 2013
Announcements for April 21
Guest Preacher This Sunday: The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows serves on Bishop Lee’s leadership team as Director of Networking. Among her responsibilities are overseeing the electronic and print communications of the Diocese. She will preach at both services this Sunday, April 21, and will also offer a forum hour at 9:00 in the adult education class.
Draft of New Parish Directory
Several draft copies of a new parish directory are available on the information tables in the church and undercroft. Please confirm that your information is correct. The new directories will be available within the next few weeks.
Camp Chicago
Did you know that the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago offers a summer camp for children and young people? Three different one-week sessions are offered between June 30 and July 19. Camp Chicago is open to children ages 7-17. Flyers are posted around St. John’s. See Pastor Orr for registration information or check out this link.
Blue Jeans Sunday May 5
Wear your gardening clothes to church on Sunday, May 5, and stay after church for a bit to help with spring landscape work. Volunteers to rake and prune are needed to prepare the grounds of St. John’s for spring growth and summer beauty.
Grande Prairie Singers Season Closer
The Grande Prairie Singers will close their 2013-14 season with “American Choral Music Today” at 4 p.m., Sunday, May 19, at Faith United Protestant Church, Park Forest. Composers include Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre, and the south suburbs’ own Darrell Dalton. See Betsy Burgwald for tickets: $15 in advance; $20 at the door; students, $10 with ID.
Recycle Your Plastic Easter Eggs
If you have now empty plastic Easter eggs please bring them to the church for use in next year’s Easter egg hunt. Look for the lavender colored collection box near the parish office.
The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows serves on Bishop Lee’s leadership team as Director of Networking. Among her responsibilities are overseeing the electronic and print communications of the Diocese. She will preach at both services this Sunday, April 21, and will also offer a forum hour at 9:00 in the adult education class.
Draft of New Parish Directory
Several draft copies of a new parish directory are available on the information tables in the church and undercroft. Please confirm that your information is correct. The new directories will be available within the next few weeks.
Camp Chicago
Did you know that the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago offers a summer camp for children and young people? Three different one-week sessions are offered between June 30 and July 19. Camp Chicago is open to children ages 7-17. Flyers are posted around St. John’s. See Pastor Orr for registration information or check out this link.
Blue Jeans Sunday May 5
Wear your gardening clothes to church on Sunday, May 5, and stay after church for a bit to help with spring landscape work. Volunteers to rake and prune are needed to prepare the grounds of St. John’s for spring growth and summer beauty.
Grande Prairie Singers Season Closer
The Grande Prairie Singers will close their 2013-14 season with “American Choral Music Today” at 4 p.m., Sunday, May 19, at Faith United Protestant Church, Park Forest. Composers include Morten Lauridsen, Eric Whitacre, and the south suburbs’ own Darrell Dalton. See Betsy Burgwald for tickets: $15 in advance; $20 at the door; students, $10 with ID.
Recycle Your Plastic Easter Eggs
If you have now empty plastic Easter eggs please bring them to the church for use in next year’s Easter egg hunt. Look for the lavender colored collection box near the parish office.
Reflection for April 21
A Prayer for First Responders
Blessed are you, Lord, God of mercy, who through your Son gave us a marvelous example of charity and the great commandment of love for one another. Send down your blessings on these your servants, who so generously devote themselves to helping others. Grant them courage when they are afraid, wisdom when they must make quick decisions, strength when they are weary, and compassion in all their work. When the alarm sounds and they are called to aid both friend and stranger, let them faithfully serve you in their neighbor. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen (adapted from the Book of Blessings, #587, by Diana Macalintal; published on Facebook, April 15, by Unapologetically Episcopalian).
Blessed are you, Lord, God of mercy, who through your Son gave us a marvelous example of charity and the great commandment of love for one another. Send down your blessings on these your servants, who so generously devote themselves to helping others. Grant them courage when they are afraid, wisdom when they must make quick decisions, strength when they are weary, and compassion in all their work. When the alarm sounds and they are called to aid both friend and stranger, let them faithfully serve you in their neighbor. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen (adapted from the Book of Blessings, #587, by Diana Macalintal; published on Facebook, April 15, by Unapologetically Episcopalian).
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Minutes from Vestry Meeting - March 18, 2013
Formation
Evening Prayer and Thanksgiving & Prayer Requests
The vestry assembled in the church for evening prayer at 7:00 PM. The group then gathered in the undercroft meeting room and offered prayers of thanksgiving and intercession.
Attendance
Present at the meeting were: the rector, Kristin Orr; the senior warden, Audrey Ongman, the junior warden, Bill Bestow; vestry members Candice Barrera, Bob Berner, Steve Hofer, Greg Lawrence, Gale Michael, Mark Moxley and Patti Pohrte; the treasurer, Debbi Huggett; and the clerk, Susan Marquis. Absent were vestry members Anne Edwards and Jim Whitfield.
Parish Stewardship
Approval of Minutes from the February Meeting
Greg Lawrence moved to approve the minutes from the February 18, 2013 vestry meeting. Audrey Ongman seconded, and the motion passed.
Treasurer’s Report
Contributions are coming in as expected. January and February expenses slightly exceeded the budget, but all expenses can be covered. Audrey Ongman made the motion to accept the treasurer’s report, and following a second by Gale Michael, the motion passed.
Information
Rector’s Report
--Pastor Orr reported that there is no update on the columbarium or the accessibility projects.
--There was a small leak in the guild room radiator, and a circulating pump was leaking in the boiler. These have been repaired at a cost of approximately $1,500.
--The large plate glass window in the Atrium had been broken and was replaced with laminate safety glass, and other cracked windows were repaired at a cost of about $1,000.
--The rector expressed thanks to Patti Pohrte, Mark Moxley, and others who helped the children paint a new mural on the new Atrium window.
--The refrigerator in the rectory stopped working, and the repair cost was too high to make repairs worthwhile. Pastor Orr has ordered a new refrigerator.
--During Lent there are learning opportunities in a Wednesday evening adult class on the subject “Heaven,” and the regular adult Sunday morning class will continue.
--The office now has an updated computer and a fast broadband connection. WiFi is available in the office area and can be expanded to other areas of the church if there is a need for it.
--Tomorrow, St. John’s will host dinner for a group of college students from Missouri who are visiting the area to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. Various parishioners have offered to supply food.
--St. John’s is hosting other community groups such as the Grand Prairie children’s group rehearsals, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Girl Scouts from Western Avenue School.
--Music Director Michael Soto has ordered sets of sounds recorded from pipe organs in various sites around the world, and he is in the process of adding them, via computer, to our electronic organ. Frank So and Debbi Huggett have funded the upgrade in memory of Frank’s brother, Richard J. So.
Wardens’ Reports and Reports from Parish Organizations
Bill Bestow reported on another successful Lenten Fish Fry attended by 140-150 people. The total income was about $1,900 with the net income of $824 donated to PADS.
Upcoming Parish Events
Pastor Orr reminded the vestry to check the Holy Week schedule and to attend worship services, which will be held every day. Pastor Orr is planning to add a Stations of the Cross children’s event this year on Holy Saturday. The annual children’s Easter egg hunt will take place after the 10:00 AM service on Easter.
Closing
After prayer, the meeting ended at 8:04 PM. The next vestry meeting is scheduled for April 15th.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Marquis
Clerk of the Vestry
Approved: April 15, 2013
Evening Prayer and Thanksgiving & Prayer Requests
The vestry assembled in the church for evening prayer at 7:00 PM. The group then gathered in the undercroft meeting room and offered prayers of thanksgiving and intercession.
Attendance
Present at the meeting were: the rector, Kristin Orr; the senior warden, Audrey Ongman, the junior warden, Bill Bestow; vestry members Candice Barrera, Bob Berner, Steve Hofer, Greg Lawrence, Gale Michael, Mark Moxley and Patti Pohrte; the treasurer, Debbi Huggett; and the clerk, Susan Marquis. Absent were vestry members Anne Edwards and Jim Whitfield.
Parish Stewardship
Approval of Minutes from the February Meeting
Greg Lawrence moved to approve the minutes from the February 18, 2013 vestry meeting. Audrey Ongman seconded, and the motion passed.
Treasurer’s Report
Contributions are coming in as expected. January and February expenses slightly exceeded the budget, but all expenses can be covered. Audrey Ongman made the motion to accept the treasurer’s report, and following a second by Gale Michael, the motion passed.
Information
Rector’s Report
--Pastor Orr reported that there is no update on the columbarium or the accessibility projects.
--There was a small leak in the guild room radiator, and a circulating pump was leaking in the boiler. These have been repaired at a cost of approximately $1,500.
--The large plate glass window in the Atrium had been broken and was replaced with laminate safety glass, and other cracked windows were repaired at a cost of about $1,000.
--The rector expressed thanks to Patti Pohrte, Mark Moxley, and others who helped the children paint a new mural on the new Atrium window.
--The refrigerator in the rectory stopped working, and the repair cost was too high to make repairs worthwhile. Pastor Orr has ordered a new refrigerator.
--During Lent there are learning opportunities in a Wednesday evening adult class on the subject “Heaven,” and the regular adult Sunday morning class will continue.
--The office now has an updated computer and a fast broadband connection. WiFi is available in the office area and can be expanded to other areas of the church if there is a need for it.
--Tomorrow, St. John’s will host dinner for a group of college students from Missouri who are visiting the area to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. Various parishioners have offered to supply food.
--St. John’s is hosting other community groups such as the Grand Prairie children’s group rehearsals, Alcoholics Anonymous, and Girl Scouts from Western Avenue School.
--Music Director Michael Soto has ordered sets of sounds recorded from pipe organs in various sites around the world, and he is in the process of adding them, via computer, to our electronic organ. Frank So and Debbi Huggett have funded the upgrade in memory of Frank’s brother, Richard J. So.
Wardens’ Reports and Reports from Parish Organizations
Bill Bestow reported on another successful Lenten Fish Fry attended by 140-150 people. The total income was about $1,900 with the net income of $824 donated to PADS.
Upcoming Parish Events
Pastor Orr reminded the vestry to check the Holy Week schedule and to attend worship services, which will be held every day. Pastor Orr is planning to add a Stations of the Cross children’s event this year on Holy Saturday. The annual children’s Easter egg hunt will take place after the 10:00 AM service on Easter.
Closing
After prayer, the meeting ended at 8:04 PM. The next vestry meeting is scheduled for April 15th.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Marquis
Clerk of the Vestry
Approved: April 15, 2013
Friday, April 12, 2013
Announcements for April 14
Vestry Meeting
The vestry meets Monday, April 15, beginning with Evening Prayer at 7:00 p.m. in the church.
Guest Preacher April 21: The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows serves on Bishop Lee’s leadership team as Director of Networking. Among her responsibilities are overseeing the electronic and print communications of the Diocese. She will preach at both services on April 21 and will also offer a forum hour at 9:00 in the adult education class.
Adult Sunday School Class: Surprised by Hope
During the Easter season the Living Faithfully adult Sunday School class will study N. T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope. We will use a curriculum that utilizes DVD sessions with Bishop Wright and a participants’ guide. Additional participants’ guides are now available for $10. You may join the class at any time. The class meets at 9:00 a.m. in Classroom 4.
Camp Chicago
Did you know that the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago offers a summer camp for children and young people? Three different one-week sessions are offered between June 30 and July 19. Camp Chicago is open to children ages 7-17. Flyers are posted around St. John’s. See Pastor Orr for registration information or check out this link.
Blue Jeans Sunday May 5
Wear your gardening clothes to church on Sunday, May 5, and stay after church for a bit to help with spring landscape work. Volunteers to rake and prune are needed to prepare the grounds of St. John’s for spring growth and summer beauty.
Recycle Your Plastic Easter Eggs
If you have now empty plastic Easter eggs please bring them to the church for use in next year’s Easter egg hunt. Look for the lavender colored collection box near the parish office.
The vestry meets Monday, April 15, beginning with Evening Prayer at 7:00 p.m. in the church.
Guest Preacher April 21: The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows
The Rev. Jennifer Baskerville-Burrows serves on Bishop Lee’s leadership team as Director of Networking. Among her responsibilities are overseeing the electronic and print communications of the Diocese. She will preach at both services on April 21 and will also offer a forum hour at 9:00 in the adult education class.
Adult Sunday School Class: Surprised by Hope
During the Easter season the Living Faithfully adult Sunday School class will study N. T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope. We will use a curriculum that utilizes DVD sessions with Bishop Wright and a participants’ guide. Additional participants’ guides are now available for $10. You may join the class at any time. The class meets at 9:00 a.m. in Classroom 4.
Camp Chicago
Did you know that the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago offers a summer camp for children and young people? Three different one-week sessions are offered between June 30 and July 19. Camp Chicago is open to children ages 7-17. Flyers are posted around St. John’s. See Pastor Orr for registration information or check out this link.
Blue Jeans Sunday May 5
Wear your gardening clothes to church on Sunday, May 5, and stay after church for a bit to help with spring landscape work. Volunteers to rake and prune are needed to prepare the grounds of St. John’s for spring growth and summer beauty.
Recycle Your Plastic Easter Eggs
If you have now empty plastic Easter eggs please bring them to the church for use in next year’s Easter egg hunt. Look for the lavender colored collection box near the parish office.
Reflection for April 14
To make bread or love, to dig in the earth, to feed an animal or cook for a stranger—these activities require no extensive commentary, no lucid theology. All they require is someone willing to bend, reach, chop, stir. Most of these tasks are so full of pleasure that there is no need to complicate things by calling them holy. And yet these are the same activities that change lives, sometimes all at once and sometimes more slowly, the way dripping water changes stone. In a world where faith is often construed as a way of thinking, bodily practices remind the willing that faith is a way of life. (Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World).
Friday, April 5, 2013
Announcements for April 7
Sunday School Classes Resume
After the Easter break children’s Sunday School classes resume this Sunday, April 7, at 9:00 a.m.
Adult Sunday School Class: Surprised by Hope
During the Easter season the Living Faithfully adult Sunday School class will study N. T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope. We will use a curriculum that utilizes DVD sessions with Bishop Wright and a participants’ guide. The participants’ guide is available for $10. Sessions begin this Sunday, April 7, at 9:00 a.m. in Classroom 4.
Easter Lilies
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Easter flowers. The glorious beauty of the church helps bring joy to our Easter worship. Contributors are listed on an insert to this Sunday’s service leaflet.
Recycle Your Plastic Easter Eggs
If you have now empty plastic Easter eggs please bring them to the church for use in next year’s Easter egg hunt. Look for the lavender colored collection box near the parish office.
After the Easter break children’s Sunday School classes resume this Sunday, April 7, at 9:00 a.m.
Adult Sunday School Class: Surprised by Hope
During the Easter season the Living Faithfully adult Sunday School class will study N. T. Wright’s book Surprised by Hope. We will use a curriculum that utilizes DVD sessions with Bishop Wright and a participants’ guide. The participants’ guide is available for $10. Sessions begin this Sunday, April 7, at 9:00 a.m. in Classroom 4.
Easter Lilies
Thank you to everyone who contributed to the Easter flowers. The glorious beauty of the church helps bring joy to our Easter worship. Contributors are listed on an insert to this Sunday’s service leaflet.
Recycle Your Plastic Easter Eggs
If you have now empty plastic Easter eggs please bring them to the church for use in next year’s Easter egg hunt. Look for the lavender colored collection box near the parish office.
Reflection for April 7
This book addresses two questions that have often been dealt with entirely separately but that, I passionately believe, belong tightly together. First, what is the ultimate Christian hope? Second, what hope is there for change, rescue, transformation, new possibilities within the world in the present? And the main answer can be put like this. As long as we see Christian hope in terms of “going to heaven,” of a salvation that is essentially away from this world, the two questions are bound to appear as unrelated. Indeed, some insist angrily that to ask the second one at all is to ignore the first one, which is the really important one…. But if the Christian hope is for God’s new creation, for “new heavens and new earth,” and if that hope has already come to life in Jesus of Nazareth, then there is every reason to join the two questions together. I find that to many—not least, many Christians—all this comes as a surprise: both that the Christian hope is surprisingly different from what they had assumed and that this same hope offers a coherent and energizing basis for work in today’s world. (N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope).
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