|
In This Issue
Next Sunday’s Readings
The Last Sunday of Epiphany brings us again to the Transfiguration. Jesus takes his disciples up the mountain at night to pray and they see a vision of Jesus transformed, shining brightly with holy light. Jesus is so full of God’s love that he glows with the light of that love. His clothes are dazzlingly bright! God is truly revealed in human form. What do you suppose the disciples talked about over breakfast the next day? How do you go about your day to day life after God has been revealed? How do we live with this new reality?
Read Next Sunday’s Lessons here.
Last Sunday’s Sermon: Sign On the Dotted Line
For weeks now we have been reading the Sermon on the Mount. Starting with the blessings, calling us to be witnesses, and laying out a vision of life transformed by God’s love, Jesus gives us the New Covenant. This week Jesus invites us to commit to live in God’s love. Commit to living in and by the New Covenant. He does this by contrasting life in which money is our master and life in which God is our master. Choosing God is the easy part. Living that way turns out to be the real challenge.
Listen to Last Sunday's Sermon Here.
Be a Blessing
This is a wonderful time of year to be thinking about new life, new energy, and new ways that we can be a blessing to others. We all have so much that we can share and when we do that, we are living into the teaching of Jesus Christ.
Last Sunday, Fr. David’s sermon was about investing in our church, St. Dunstan’s. This was not about just financial investing, it was also about investing of ourselves. Over the past years, I have told both my children and my students, that they will get out of life, what they are willing to put into it. I ask that each one of us think about how we can make a difference in our community here at church. What kind of talent and time are you willing to invest in order to help the church that you love and support? You can be a reader, a greeter, a volunteer, join a Care Team, usher, and the list goes on and on. A church is not just a building. It is the people that are in it and what they contribute that makes a church. We are blessed here at St. Dunstan’s with many opportunities. Please take advantage of some of those opportunities and share your gifts. You are both needed and loved.
As we begin to work with our new mission statement, you are invited to join in finding ways to help others. We will be looking carefully at what the statement is telling us and how we can use it as a guide. It reflects who we were, who we are, and who we want to be in the future. We need you. Please get involved. Be a blessing to others.
Gifts we receive from God are multiplied many times over when we share them with others. May we always demonstrate our gratitude and thanks to God, by sharing them, just as He shared them with us.
Blessings,
Mary E. Pacher
Evensong for the Second Sunday in Lent
Sunday, March 20, 4 pm
At the Henry Chapel in the Highlands
Sung by the choir of St. Dunstan's Church
Hello from Camp Huston!
Online Registration is now available for Summer 2011 @www. huston.org! Brochures are on the table in the Narthex. Resident Camp, Horse and Buckaroo camps, Mini-camp, Theater Camp, and Family Camp are all available. Scholarships are also available through our parish and through the Bishop Curtis Scholarship Fund.
Save the date for the Open House BBQ on May 21, 2011. Join us for free BBQ and the opportunity to see the cabins, walk the trails, try out arts and crafts, and meet some of this summer's staff! This is a great way to get acquainted with Camp Huston if you have never been before or to show a friend.
Other upcoming events include Work Weekend April 29-May 1, when we will be preparing the cabins for the summer season adn working on projects around the camp. We will close each evening with a service and an opportunity to share successes of the day around a campfire. Cost is only $10/person, including lodging and meals! Visit the website above for more information and a registration form.
Huston Quilters will also be happening from April 27-May 1. You are welcome to join this fun-filled group of women quiting all day and night with nothing but meals in between. Costs vary but information is included on the website above. |
|
Best Coffee Hour Ever
Imagine a homemade strawberry and kiwi torte, delicious apple crisp, and fresh baked banana bread. There was coffee too, but I didn’t have time to sample that. I’m having more and more trouble getting to the 9:30 service on time because of the fabulous coffee hour the chapel congregation is hosting!
I love how this small congregation has begun to care for one another. Each week one, two or three people bake some sort of tasty treat to contribute to the fellowship time after the service. Sometimes Christian hospitality is not abstract or theological. Sometimes Christian hospitality is just a home baked torte and a pot of coffee offered on a card table to friends and visitors.
At St. Dunstan's Church we seek to offer a welcoming environment where individuals can come together… Individuals seem to come together best around good food and drink. The new coffee hour at the chapel arose from our heart as an expression of the love God has given us. It’s not a program or a committee and there was no plan or budget, just a group of people responding generously to the love flowing in our worship.
In my sermon on Sunday I talked about the small, concrete steps we can take to shift our allegiance and our trust from money to God. Jesus tells us, “No one can serve two masters.” But trusting in God takes a real commitment and concrete actions. The examples I gave were service activities such as volunteering at the food bank and acts of compassion, like our new Care Teams. The delightful coffee hour at our Chapel service is another step, a real and meaningful step, towards living in God’s love. You could even say that this coffee hour is one of the ways we “walk in Christ’s love and forgiveness”.
Your brother in Christ,
The Rev. David Marshall
Click here to respond to this posting in my blog.
Community Engagement
Consider supporting the Youth Group by purchasing some of their PHOTO Cards! These cards are blank on the inside, come with an envelope, and include a Bible verse that goes with teh pictures taken by the Youth Group on the St. Dunstan's grounds. They will be for sale this Sunday before and after the service! All proceeds go towards the Heifer project! Be sure and watch the Youth Group poster that tells how much money we have raised to date for the Heifer project. You may also contribute to the Heifer project by check to St. Dunstan's Church with a memo "Heifer".
Greenwood Food Bank Volunteer Night planned for March 11th from 6-8 pm. Please join us as members of the congregation meet together with other community volunteers to sort the food donations. Next time you go to the grocery store, please consider picking up some healthy food items for our less fortunate neighbors. Soups, canned fruits and vegetables, as well as basic staples can really help our hungry neighbors. Bring your donations and place them in the food box in the narthex. Cash donations are also welcome. Make your checks payable to St. Dunstan's with a notation for the Food Bank. Thank you for your support!
Upcoming Events in our Congregational Life
Sunday School and Youth Group both meet this coming Sunday, March 6th. Youth Group begins at 9:30 with a lesson and reconvenes from 11:00 - 1:00 pm with a snack lunch. The group will be "burning" the congregation's challenges that keep us separated from God, working on the photography cards, and filling up the "Heifer" poster with our progress.
Sunday School will work on a lesson called "Dazzling Reign" from Matthew 17:1-9, taking home an art project. Mary E. Pacher and Joan Baker will also be working with the Sunday School to get ready for the "Putting Away of the Alleluias" at the service on Sunday.
Ann Patrice and Sandy
Tickets continue on sale for the Shrove Tuesday Italian Dinner on Tuesday, March 8 starting at 5:30 pm put on by St. Agnes Guild. All sales will go toward the purchase of new kitchen equipment. Italo Carosiello will be our featured chef and the Ain't No Heaven Seven band will be providing musical entertainment.
The Prayer of the Lamb warmly invites you to participate in our Lent Mini-Retreat on March 12, 9:30 AM - 12:30 PM, the first Saturday of Lent.
The Ash Wednesday liturgy invites us to "the observance of holy Lent". The mini-retreat, presented by the Rev. Beverly Hosea, will guide us in personal reflection about why it would be good to engage in a special spirtual discipline or practice during Lent - what this would provide and how we might go about doing this. We will also explore meditation with the Prayer of the Lamb, a practice that has become bedrock for those of us who regularly use it.
There will be coffee, fruit, and rolls in the narthex. Then we will move into the acolyte area to the south of the altar for the retreat activities. While the theme of the retreat is solemn, our retreats (as well as our monthly Sunday night gatherings with Beverly) are always experiences of fellowship.
There are flyers on the long table near the main entrance. Please pre- register by calling 206-713-5321 or email Beverly @ PrayeroftheLamb@mac.com or Rica O'Connor @ roc@uw.edu.
Parish Work Day is scheduled on Saturday March 12 starting at 2 pm to work with Junior Warden Lyn Donivan and the Building and Grounds Vestry Team on the list from the fire inspection. Please mark your calendar to come join fellow Christians 'working shoulder to shoulder'.
Weekly Highlights mailing notice: If you normally receive the Highlights by mail and have an e-mail address that could be used, please call the church office @206-363-4319 with your e-mail address to start receiving the Weekly Highlights electronically. We would like to keep our mailing costs down as much as possible, and still provide the news of St. Dunstan's to you in a timely manner. Thank you for your help and cooperation.
|
|
