Episcopal Church of Saint Joseph the Worker

 



 

St. Joseph's Events


Announcements

ALTAR FLOWERS: Sign up for flowers to beautify the altar. You can give money, drop off cut flowers, or bring them arranged. Let the Flower Guild know your preference. $25-$30 makes a nice arrangement for the altar. You can give a check marked flowers and specify what date. If you'd like a notation that they are for someone's birthday or in memory of someone, note that on the sign-up sheet for Altar Flowers so that it can be included in the bulletin.

COFFEE HOUR: Each Sunday we enjoy fellowship and a lovely Coffee Hour. Sign up to take a turn providing the refreshments. Bring punch and refreshments. The coffee and tea are provided by the Coffee Hour Ministry.

SUNDAY SCHOOL -- This is be our sixth year of offering a joint Sunday School with Sunnyhills United Methodist Church.   We are excited to have a new class.  Our Preschool/Kindergarten class will serve children from about 2 ˝ years through Kindergarten.  The 1st through 3rd graders will have their own class taught by Anne Pomeroy and Laine Sazon (SUMC).  Fourth through seventh graders will be taught by Cliveden Chew Haas (SUMC).  The lessons are well planned and interesting, and the children will bring home a handout each week.

Ideas for FUNDRAISING -- Our church is searching for fund raising ideas and projects.  All ideas are wanted and needed.  Your suggestions will be gratefully accepted and considered.  What have you seen to be successful or what fund raising activities have you participated in?   Contact any one of our vestry members with your ideas.

Outreach is going strong, with donations every Sunday.  Please remember a couple of jars of baby food every time you go shopping.  Don't forget that pesky change dragging your pocket down.  Just drop it in the bowl in the back of the church and lighten your load

Milpitas Food Pantry -- Please continue to be generous in your contributions to the Milpitas Food Pantry.  The donation plate is located on the table at the back of the sanctuary.  In addition, the Food Pantry needs canned meats and dry cereal.

Newsletter -- Anne Pomeroy is the editor of The Way of the Cross.  Contributions for the newsletter are due by the 20th of the month.  If you would like to receive the newsletter by e-mail, please let know.

Prayer Chain -- St. Joseph's maintains a Prayer Chain -- like a telephone tree -- to communicate the need for pastoral care and prayers for people we care about.  If you would like to participate on St. Joseph's Prayer Chain, let Margaret Werkheiser know.



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Announcements / Resources

Education for Ministry -- a 4 year course studying the Old Testament the first year, New Testament the second year, History the Third Year and Theology the Fourth Year. There are some openings in EFM at St. Andrew's Saratoga, next year. The class meets on Monday evenings from 7-10. Please contact Max Wright if interested.

The Reverend Suzanne Watson is now a Staff Officer with the Office of Congregational Development for the National Episcopal Church. She will focus on small congregations. She can be reached at swatson@episcopalchurch.org.

Advanced Directives -- an excellent resource for helping people prepare advanced directives in case of serious illness where loved ones can't express their own desires called Five Wishes. It is a workbook from Aging with Dignity and underwritten by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Copies may be ordered at 1-888-594-7437. The website is http://www.agingwithdignity.org/. The five wishes are "My wish for -- the person I want to make care decisions for me when I can't; the kind of medical treatment I want or don't want; how comfortable I want to be; how I want people to treat me; and what I want my loved ones to know." Really good stuff. Could provide the basis for an excellent seminar to help people (of all ages) think about end-of-life matters.

Other websites to check (recommended by the Education Office of the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula:

EPISCOPAL PUBLIC POLICY NETWORK A way to get informed of matters governmental as they pertain to our faith in action is through our Episcopal Public Policy Network! Please check out their website, my friends: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/eppn. It is an excellent source of terrific information and resources.

CHILDREN DO BELONG IN CHURCH! …and I don't mean "Sunday School": I mean worship!! I am saddened by the ways in which children are shuttled off, shunted aside, glared at, ignored, chastised - in congregations in our very own diocese. Children do "know what they're doing" when they come to the altar rail (and besides, head-knowledge has never been the true measure of one's eligibility for salvation, much less a place at the Table!) Bodies may be a bit wiggly, but hearts are attentive. Voices may be learning to whisper, but ears are hearing the word of welcome - or not, as the case may be. How is your congregation doing? If your congregation is more like Mark 10:13 than Mark 10:16, then I commend a number of resources to you (from our Diocesan Resource Center at St. Thomas) and heartily encourage you to seek a new way of welcoming the child in your midst!

Videos:

  • Will Our Faith Have Children?;
  • Celebrating God's Love;
  • How to Raise your Child with Faith…

Books:

  • Awake my Soul: a liturgical resource for use with children and adults
  • Children's Liturgies; Including Children in Worship
  • Children in the Worshipping Community
  • The Religious Potential of the Child
  • Children in the Eucharist; Celebrate the Good News: Children's Chapel
  • God, Kids & Us
  • Offering the Gospel to Children
  • Epiphany Packet: Whose Child is This?

If children and adults are going to be separated on Sunday morning for either worship or education, then send the kids to Church and the adults to Sunday School! Think about it. Human beings are born knowing the mystery and holiness of life - until it gets rationalized out of us. Worship is a natural human response to the glory of God's presence and children respond with open hearts to the sacred. Education - in terms of mastering a body of knowledge, making connections with experience, and ordering the universe - is chiefly an adult need and desire. How are you feeding the hearts and minds of parishioners in age-appropriate ways?!?

YOUTH SPECIALTIES UPDATE Are you getting the Youth Specialties Update on-line? It's good. If you want to sign up, go to www.youthspecialties.com and follow the signs!

CHILDREN IN LITURGY From one of my favorite resources for Family Ministry, http://candlepress.blogspot.com/ for Children in Liturgy, excellent-and-inexpensive resources: Candle Press! Sign up for their e-mailing list for the good news from a terrific Episcopal resource.

DIOCESAN RESOURCE CENTER! The good people of St. Thomas have opened their library to all of us AND are housing our growing Resource Center. There are terrific resources for "Episcopalianism 101" that surfaced as a genuine interest at the Lay Conference in May. For more info, investigate the on-line catalogue http://66.80.1.30/ or be in touch with the Director, Carol Campbell: ; 408-738-2254 Home; 408-736-4155 Resource Center.

COMMUNITY-SUNG PSALMS! St. Peter's in Morro Bay has a great resource for community-sung psalms! The Portland Psalter by Robert Hawthorne is available from Church Publishing Corporation (http://www.churchpublishing.org/) The refrain is delightfully sing-able and the verses supremely grounded in our ancient psalm-singing traditions.

EPISCOPALIANA 101 Did you know that several editions of our "Epiphany Packets" treated with topics that fall under this category? ...and your church might still have your set on a shelf? Check out this new info-source on our national website! www.episcopalchurch.org/fastfacts. I particularly draw your attention to: The Episcopal Church: Finding our Common Ground in Divine Diversity (1995); Hear What the Spirit is Saying (2001); and Zacchaeus, You & Me: Radically Available to God (2000).

STEWARDSHIP At this time of year, you might also want to dig out All Things Come of Thee, O Lord (1997) which centers on stewardship in its broadest sense.

PUBLIC THEOLOGY The Rev. Bob Mayer (St. Jude's, Cupertino) reminds us: "You can read "The Witness" online at http://thewitness.org/agw/ . It's mast-head mission statement is 'A Globe of Witnesses is an online initiative to reclaim the Anglican vocation of doing "public theology" through progressive analysis and commentary from around the world. We welcome unsolicited submissions, including faith-based social justice event postings (send them to editor@thewitness.org), from groups and persons of faith both within and outside of the global Anglican/Episcopal Church community'" You can subscribe to an e-mail newsletter; there is a Spanish version; great lectionary reflections -- lots to commend it.

"SV MISSIONER" has been started by the Rev. Sheldon Hutchison (Canon Missioner to Silicon Valley) to "discuss and disseminate information concerning the culture, technology, and spirituality of the Silicon Valley". If you would like to subscribe, send a message to svmissioner-subscribe@yahoo.com

POPULAR CULTURE AND CHRISTIANITY -- These books have been recommended by Logos Production for use in response to popular culture interest in "the spiritual"

  • Solving the DaVinci Code Mystery by Brandon Gilvin (Disciples of Christ)
  • The Gospels of Mary: the secret tradition of Mary Magdalene, the companion of Jesus by Marvin Meyer
  • Beyond Belief: the secret gospel of Thomas by Elaine Pagels
  • The Gospel of Thomas: Hidden Sayings of Jesus by Marvin Meyer and Harold Bloom
  • The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom (a novel)
  • Becoming a Goddess of Inner Poise: spirituality for the Bridget Jones in all of us by Donna Freitas
  • What Would Buffy Do? The vampire slayer as spiritual guide by Jana Reiss
  • Chocolate for Lent: a creative approach to your Lenten journey by Hilary Brand
  • The Gospel According to Tolkien: visions of the kingdom in middle-earth by Ralph C. Wood
  • The Gospel According to the Simpsons: the spiritual life of the world's most animated family by Mark Pinsky
  • The Gospel According to Harry Potter: spirituality in the stories of the world's most famous seeker by Connie Neal
  • The Gospel in Disney: Christian Values in the Early Animated Classics by Philip Longfellow Anderson
  • The Gospel According to Peanuts by Robert Short
  • Beyond the Matrix: Revolutions and Revelations by Stephen Faller

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