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St. John’s Connects – Late March Edition

Click here or scroll down to view this week’s newsletter: https://conta.cc/3qXX0Vu

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St. John’s ConnectsMarch 19, 2021


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Live-Streamed Services
Holy Eucharist with Spiritual Communion every Sunday at 10 a.m. You can join the service on ourFacebook page and our website.Zoom Church School
9:45 a.m. Godly Play. pre-K through 5th grade; 10:15 a.m. Teen Text –  6th grade through high school.For prayer requests email Rev. Lisa here.
For pastoral emergencies, please call her cellphone at 203-589-0765.


Important Website Info!!
****New St. John’s Web Address!****
If you click on to the St. John’s website and see something that looks a lot like this picture, you’ve come to the WRONG PLACE.
Due to a miscommunication with the “keeper of domain names” we had to change our web address.

OUR NEW WEB ADDRESS IS: stjohns-nm.org. (Yes, the hyphen IS necessary).
Please change the bookmarks on your phones, tablets and PCs so you can find us more easily.

PIC Ponderings


Years ago, one of my Youth Group teens taught me an invaluable lesson.
Christopher was an enthusiastic member of our Youth Group. He showed up every time, the first and third Sunday evening of each month, ready to engage and ready to lead. He seemed to have a great passion for his faith.

So imagine my confusion when I realized he, and his widowed Mom, never joined us for Sunday morning worship.

Did he find our worship traditions boring? Irrelevant to his life? Uninspiring enough to get out of bed? So I asked him – in a gentle, no-shame/blame/guilt kind of way. I was truly curious and wanted to learn from him.

“Oh no!”, he said. “I LOVE church! It’s just that Mom and I have bonded over becoming Revolutionary War enactors and the group meets every Sunday morning!” We get really inspired by these enactments.

“Uh, tell me more?”, I asked, dimly confused.
“Well, I love history. And each week, we find a different story to re-enact. It’s not about learning a story or remembering something that happened in the past. We get dressed up, we learn our lines, we listen for our cues – and we find ourselves REMEMBERING, RE-LIVING THE STORY!

“We bring all the pieces back together and become part of it. We talk about how the war began, why people chose the sides they did, how they responded to experiences of their choices. Afterwards, we debrief about how we feel and we wonder what could have been different.”

A lightbulb goes off in my head.

That’s what our worship is intended to be all about! We remember God’s great love for us. We re-tell the scripture stories and hear about the choices God’s People made, how God responded in return, and how those who learned to live differently flourished while those who chose their own ways didn’t.

We remember how God so loved the world that he sent Jesus to walk with us and show us those different ways.

We are not meant to be passive bystanders. We are meant to become PART OF THE STORY and open ourselves to be transformed into new life.

This also is what Holy Week and Easter is all about.

We have been through a lot this year. Finding ourselves in God’s Story promises to open us up to the new life to come.

Please take a look at the annotated and REVISED HOLY WEEK WORSHIP SCHEDULE below, and find your place to engage.

EDITORS NOTE: The Holy Week schedule below includes additions (Stations of the Cross for one) and enhanced descriptions of our service offerings. It also includes, regrettably, one deletion from our previous list – The Easter Egg Hunt. Please read carefully so you are familiar with the changes. – Thanks

Lent and Holy Week at St. John’s
Preaching Series in Lent
Revisiting our Baptismal Covenant
Sunday March 21 – “Will you respect the dignity of all?”

Holy Week Events

March 27 – Palms and Pictures at the Church 10 am – noon (Saturday before Palm Sunday)
Drive by the front of the church and pick up your (blessed)palms, in preparation for Palm Sunday. For those willing and able to get out of their cars, take a moment to have your picture taken and help us add your missed faces to our social media and worship offerings.

March 28 – Palm Sunday Services (On Facebook) 10 a.m.
(pre-recorded Blessing of the Palms)
Jesus enters Jerusalem amid great fanfare and hope
While our Sunday School teens present a Mock Trial: Jesus of Nazareth vs Religious Leaders and the Roman Empire
Why did everything go wrong? Who are we among the crowd? How can we heal from oppression and isolation (and sing” Alleluia” again) if we don’t first acknowledge our complicity and our hurts?

April 1 – Maundy Thursday Eucharist (On Facebook) 7 p.m.
A Service that helps us re-live Jesus’ final night on earth. The traditional Foot Washing and Eucharistic celebration of the Last Supper take on the necessary theological imagination this year, drawing us in to our own participation in Jesus’ final command:Love one another, as I have loved youThe service ends with Jesus’ betrayal in the Garden of Gethsemane

April 2 – Good Friday Stations of the Cross (on Facebook) Noon
This time together takes us through the “14 Stations”  the journey down the Via Delarosa in Jerusalem that Jesus walked from his prison cell to his Cross. Oh, what love he has for us!

April 4 – Easter Sunday Eucharist (on Facebook) 10 a.m.
“In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.”(Eric Hoffer, Reflections on the Human Condition)

What have we learned in this time of separation? What can we let go of when we return? What can we cherish even more deeply? Will we “Be the Church” differently?
We will with God’s Help
Vestry Report
Reopening Update
COVID-19 had a prominent place on the agenda at Tuesday night’s Vestry meeting.
Lisa has been fielding questions from parishioners regarding the timing of reopening. Although many positive things are happening, we’re not ready to reopen.
Lisa noted that New Milford and surrounding towns are considered “red” with regards to COVID-19, and the ECCT is closely monitoring the COVID-10 case map published by the state in collaboration with the CDC – See this link.

(The report specific to New Milford is highlighted in the photo below.)
Before we return to in-person worship we need to have fewer than five cases (or reported cases) per 100,000 people for at least two weeks.
At the last vestry meeting in February, we discussed a request from Literacy Volunteers to resume activities in the triple classroom.
After some study, Lisa advised them that we are not yet ready to hold classes given the current COVID-19 constraints. While many of the volunteers have been vaccinated, many or most of their clients have not.
For these same reasons, Lisa also determined, with Vestry consultation, that our Sunday School program will return to Zoom, rather that in-person in the Parish Hall until after Easter.

Our Finances
Pledge income in February lagged behind budget by $1,824, with total income coming in under the budget target by $629.
Expenses were higher than planned in February, but this was mostly due to the timing of certain payments.
Year-to-date, St. John’s is in positive territory financially, by $1,181. 
Our investments continued to perform well in February, growing by 2.02% to $937,678. For the year to date, they’re up 1.55%


The Bishop’s Visit
As reported two weeks ago and again below in Connects, Bishop Douglas will join us for worship on May 2.
Bishop visits typically include a meeting with the Vestry and this visit will be no exception, although the meeting will be held via Zoom.
The topics will be racial healing/justice/reconciliation and our Lenten focus on the baptismal covenants.
ECCT Events Report
Flora Quammie and Sharlene Zagozewski recapped two recent virtual ECCT events – Rooted in Hope in a Time of Anxiety: A Day for Laity, which was held on Feb 27 and the NW Region CollaborativeVestry Retreat, held on March 6.
Both events focused on the stress of both COVID-19 and the anxiety of the past year, and encouraged participants in the practice of spiritual disciplines, exercise and supportive relationships.
Participants were also encouraged to look at the Gospels, which perhaps don’t get as much attention when things are going well but make a lot more sense in times of trial.
Interior Lighting Project Nearing Completion
As we’ve mentioned before, Jim Altemus, together with his trusty sidekicks Jim Rains and Bill Kamp, has been working on a project to replace the mis-matched and often burned-out bulbs in the church.
The guys are nearly finished, with the least reachable fixtures being recently completed. Jim A. suggests that you don’t try this at home.
We thank any and all Jims, and Bill, for the work they have done on this. And we thank the members of the St. John’s Men’s Group for donating funds for the lights.

What Else Is Happening?

Church School Is Back On Zoom
We’ve decided to go back to the Zoom format for church school until the weather is consistently nicer and we can return to outdoor learning in the church garden.
Godly Play (pre-K through fifth grade) will return for now to the 9:45 a.m. Sunday time slot. Teen Text (sixth grade and up) will again meet on Zoom at 10:15 a.m.Food Drive Update
Our next food collection will be Wednesday, April 7 from 10 a.m. to Noon, to benefit the New Milford Food Bank.
This past Wednesday we collected a generous amount of non-perishable food for Our Daily Bread, the food bank at the New Milford United Methodist Church. We appreciate your past support and remind you the need continues to be great.
If you would like to join our group of food-collection volunteers, we could definitely use a few new helpers. The commitment is one hour every six weeks. If you’d like to help please contact Ron Vallo.

Sacred Ground:Race and Faith
Rev. Lisa and Paul Manfredi are looking for parishioners interested in joining us in this wonderful program offered through our Northwest Region Leadership Team. Sacred Ground is a film- and reading-based, 10-week course put together by the Episcopal Church to explore different dimensions of race and faith and the call to become beloved community.
Participants are asked to watch about 90 minutes of film, and read about 35 pages before each class. Materials will be provided to you in advance.
We would also ask that you commit to attend each session. Sessions will be facilitated by Kelli Ray Gibson, who served previously as ECCT’s Racial Justice Resource Coordinator.

We will meet the following Thursdays from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.: 4/8, 4/22, 5/6, 5/20, 6/3, 6/17, 7/1, 7/15, 7/29, and 8/12.
If you’re interested, please contact Rev. Lisa by April 1 at the latest.
Classes will be held over Zoom with a class size limited to 20. A $30 tuition for the entire series is required. Assistance is available.

Please email Lisa here for assistance or other information.
You can find out more about the Sacred Ground series here.Summer Camp is Back!!

Good news kids (and parents) !!!
Summer Camp is back at Camp Washington in a COVID-precautioned way.
Registration is already underway and spots and program are limited due to the pandemic-related precautions
Get all the details – and register – here.
It Bears Repeating!

Bishop Douglas to Visit in May
Bishop Ian Douglas will be visiting St. John’s on Sunday May 2. More accurately, he’ll be visiting all of us at Harrybrooke Park.
The day will include Holy Eucharist Rite II with Spiritual Communion, as well as:
Confirmation of three of our teens Reception – those from the Roman Catholic and Lutheran traditions who would like to formally be received as Episcopalians (contact Rev. Lisa for more information)Reaffirmation – any of the rest of us who would like to publicly reaffirm our commitment to the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus Movement.


A Helping Hand
We’re continuing our ministry of providing meals for the Lee family as Emily continues her cancer treatment. While she begins to regain some strength, she still has a long road ahead of her.
Lise Smith has faithfully headed this effort for a year and is seeking your continued generosity and help.
If you’d like to make a meal, or donate money to help purchase a restaurant treat for the family, please call Lise at 860-354-0325. If she needs to call you back, the call back will show as a call from Diane Pond (Lise’s daughter).
Thanks in advance from Lise, and a very grateful Lee family!!

Keep Your Crew Up To Date
If your St. John’s group (committee, friends, affinity group, etc) would like to meet via ZOOM, to work, check in or socialize, you are invited to use St. John’s Zoom account.
Just contact Kim Polhemus to be sure the time you’d like isn’t already being used. Kim will give you the details and you can meet and work face to face (kind of).
The meeting ID is 860 354 5583; the password is 06776

News From the ECCT

Learn more about the various workshops and register on ECCT’s Spring Training and Gathering page.
Make Reservation HerePrayer Petitions

Prayers for Those Who Are Ill or in Need
Parishioners: Estelle, Joan, Sandra, Ivana, Kathy, Anna, Brita, Emily, Olga, Kendra, Helen, Sonok, Audrey 
Family, Friends and Neighbors: Cathy, Justin, Alex, Matt, Pat, Suzie, Sherrie, Jerry, Paul, Janet, Josie, A.J., Nancy, Paul, Heather, Beth 
For those who have died: especially the over 500,000 who have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. alone.
If you have a name to be added, please email Rev. Lisa at stjohnsepiscopal.clergy@gmail.com, or call her cell phone at 203-589-0765.


A Lenten Prayer for Forgiving Oneself
Gracious God, my heart is heavy with my own failures. I try to excuse them and explain to myself why they occurred, because I want to be free from the feeling that I am unworthy and incapable of being all that I can be.
But I find it easier to accept your forgiveness than to forgive myself. When I try to forgive myself, it seems I only remember and re-play my failures in my mind, and a sense of hopelessness floods over me.
Help me to know that my past actions are a part of my growing humanity and that even when I fail to live up to what is your will for me, every single moment can be lived anew. Remind me that refusing to forgive myself only keeps me from experiencing that newness.
Assure me of the truth that by casting “my sins into the depth of the sea” (Micah 7:19b), you have freed me to discard them myself and live the next moment as if it were my first—for indeed it is.
I ask this for the sake of your love. Amen!


Editor’s Note

Even if those teaser three days of warmth a week or so ago didn’t convince you, we know sunnier days are ahead.
Spring has sprung along Whittelsey Ave. and, thanks to Flora Quammie, we have documented proof.
Now if only we could hold on it for more than a few days!!
We at Connects will be around to keep you informed about the parish as Spring arrives, turns to Summer and beyond.
It you have something to share in the next Connects, coming Friday, April 2, please send the info to Ron Vallo by Wednesday, March 31. Thanks!


Ya Say It’s Your Birthday!UPCOMING BIRTHDAYS
Tami Mills (3/20); Shane Deppen (3/21); Helen Gardner (4/6)

ANNIVERSARIES:
Paul and Sharlene Zagozewski (3/27)
Congrats to all who are celebrating! We wish we could be celebrating with you. Enjoy your day!

Online Worship


The Bible App for Kids: It’s available for both Android and iOS, and is a free app that offers illustrated and interactive games for children ages four and older. (We saw this in an article on CNET. Pretty sure it’s non-denominational but you may want to test it out before you let your kids have a look.)Just For Fun!
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