Calendar News

Fourth Sunday of Easter

There are seven Sundays – 50 days – in the season of Easter.  We gather Sunday after 

Sunday to share the news and tell the stories of the ordinary people and extraordinary power that continues to flow from the dark morning of Jesus’ rising.  The Easter season isn’t just about the astonishing “wow!” of Jesus’ rising; it’s also — and preeminently — about the equally astonishing invitation for human beings to rise into greater intimacy and life together with God.

 

College Student Finals Care Packages

The Spring Semester is quickly reaching its end.  Congregational Care will be sending care packages to our college students again.  Brown paper bags will be on the back table downstairs with each student’s name on the bag and where they go to college.  If you would like to contribute, please bring any snacks/treats or other items that might help them in their studies.  Suggestions include:  granola bars, candy bars, cookies, microwave popcorn, peanut butter or cheese crackers, gift cards, things that will be easy to send, etc.  

We have 11 students, 8 of whom will graduate this spring, 1 who graduated in December, 1 who will graduate in August, and 1 who is finishing her sophomore year.  If you would like to put any cards or other gifts in the bags for the graduates, please feel free to do so.  Thank you for your generosity and encouragement!  We plan to mail out the packages on Monday, April 29.  

 

Meeting Around Reading

The group will meet on Thursday, April 25, at 6:30pm at the church.  We will talk about the first part of A Prayer for Owen Meany.  We will finish talking about it in our May 23rdmeeting.  Please come, even if you have not read the first part.  

 

St. John’s Birthday Party

The Day of Pentecost is celebrated 50 days after Easter. The festival of

Pentecost is important because it represents the beginning of the Christian Church. It

reminds us how Jesus' promise that God would send the Holy Spirit was fulfilled.

Services on this day are marked by wearing red.  

We celebrate this day as the “birthday” of St John’s.

As birthday presents to St John’s,  we give consumable supplies to the church: paper

towels, paper plates, plastic silverware, and coffee cups; coffee and creamer; hand and dish soap; bathroom and cleaning supplies etc.

There is a birthday money tree downstairs. Thanks to Jane and the kids in Godly Play for decorating envelopes for donations. You may put cash or a check in an envelope and use the clothes pins nearby to clip envelopes to the tree.

Money will be put in a special account and used to restock supplies as needed throughout the year.  We will celebrate with some special treats at Coffee Hour May 19th!  Stay tuned for more details as the date approaches.

 

Seen and Said:  The Art of Martin Garhart

Our very own Martin Garhart will have a show of his watercolor and oil paintings

 at the Brinton Museum in Big Horn, WY from May 11-August 25.  There will be 

an Opening Reception on May 10 from 5-7pm.  Please visit the museum’s website,theBrintonMuseum.org for more information.

 

Upcoming Milestones this Week

From saltproject.org

April 21 is the birthday of naturalist John Muir, born in Dunbar, Scotland, in 1838 — though he grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. By age 11, he could recite nearly all of the Bible by heart, and his writings later in life are shot through with theological ideas. An avid inventor and fascinated with God’s creation, he was nearly struck blind by a sawmill accident, and realized how important the beautiful world was to him: “I bade adieu to all my mechanical inventions, determined to devote the rest of my life to the study of the inventions of God.” He embarked on a 1,000-mile walk from Indiana to the Gulf of Mexico, and then another from San Francisco to the Sierra Nevada mountain range. He eventually helped found the Sierra Club and tirelessly fought to protect wilderness areas, especially around the Yosemite Valley — and his fateful camping trip with President Theodore Roosevelt resulted in the establishment of the United States National Parks.

 

April 22 is this year’s beginning of Passover, the Jewish commemoration of the Israelites’ exodus out of Egypt, from slavery to freedom. The holiday is marked in many Jewish homes by a Passover seder, a festive meal dramatizing the exodus through stories, song, and ritual foods, such as matzah (unleavened bread) and maror (bitter herbs).

 

April 22 is also Earth Day, first observed in 1970 — which makes this year the 54th anniversary. Inspired in part by Rachel Carson’s work, among many others, the original Earth Day was a widespread, nonpartisan response to the negative impacts of industrial development — and President Nixon, along with Congress, responded quickly to the popular pressure, establishing the Environmental Protection Agency that same year, and landmark environmental legislation followed close behind. With something like one billion people now participating annually, Earth Day is considered the largest civic-focused day of action in the world. 

Jews and Christians, among other religious people, have been involved all the way along in Earth Day’s history — and no wonder, since Genesis so vividly casts humanity as creation’s steward in the first creation story; as Eden’s gardener in the second creation story; as custodian of creation’s biodiversity in the Noah story; as custodian of one another, and especially of the most vulnerable people, in the Prophets and in Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25; and so on. And this year’s Earth Day theme — “Planet vs. Plastics” — is both timely and pressing. If the original Earth Day spurred unprecedented environmental action and coordination, the 54th must do the same!