EVENTS UPDATE: Please read for updates to our Fall Events Calendar!
Here are the changes and updates to what’s happening at St. John’s in the next several weeks.
Oct 24: Guest Preacher! Dr. Modele Clarke, Lead Pastor of New Progressive Baptist Church, Kingston. Please join us afterwards for a reception in the parish hall.
Oct 31: The Rt. Rev. Andy Dietsche is visiting. He will preach, baptize one of our newest members, and receive several people into the Episcopal Church. Be sure to join us for a reception afterwards to celebrate our newest members!
Oct 31: Trunk-or-Treat has been cancelled. After a short poll of the St. John’s Community, there aren’t enough people committed to coming for this event. Sorry to those who were looking forward to this.
Nov. 6 (Sat): Harvest Team Cook-In Part II: Join us for another fun day of cooking together in the St. John’s Kitchen. Plus, learn how to make soap! We begin at 10:00 am. Everything we make will be sold at an event in December to raise funds for St. John’s. Questions? Talk to Ana Hernandez or Sara Hutton.
Nov 7: Celebration of All Saints’ Day and Commitment Sunday. We’ll celebrate our Stewardship Campaign with an outdoor fireside brunch. Bring lawn chairs and/or food to share.
Nov. 13 (Sat): The 245th Convention of the Diocese of New York at St. John the Divine in NYC. Our delegates to convention this year are the Rev. Michelle Meech and Claudette Ford, Warden.
Nov. 14: Parish Read: Church Cracked Open, parish hall after worship. We finish up our parish read with a discussion on chapters 6, 7, 8.
Nov 28: Advent begins
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Stewardship Is Hope
Every fall, every church I know conducts a Pledge Campaign – a time when the we reflect on our commitments to St. John’s – commitments of time, talent, and treasure. We tend to think of Stewardship only in regards to finances but the truth is that Stewardship is about all the ways we commit ourselves to this Body of Christ. And, in that commitment, we express our hope for ourselves, for one another, and for the larger community.
We have so much to be thankful for this year. For we have come this far through the pandemic with very few people getting sick in our community, which is no small thing. This is a death-dealing virus that we are battling and I’m thankful for everyone’s mindfulness, support, compassion, and love in keeping one another safe. We are not through it yet, but we are gaining ground.
And, by resting in this gratitude, we are able to look forward to who St. John’s is becoming. As we continue being “church” together, we grow in God’s Spirit in a variety of ways, some of us called to new ministries or to renewing our commitment to those things we love to do – this of course is stewardship of both time and talent. If you haven’t participated in ministries at St. John’s before, consider how you’d like to serve.
Hopefully, we will be able to keep worshipping on Sundays in person through this winter but the leadership will be keeping our eye on the infection rate in Ulster County to assess if a change is necessary to keep everyone safe. I’m also putting together some plans for Christian formation in the coming year, so please stay tuned to announcements for ways to deepen your faith – stewardship of time.
We have a couple of significant new ventures on the horizon. First, the Vestry is making plans to begin renting out our kitchen space, expanding the community of St. John’s to a whole new group of people and creating a source of income to support the church’s mission. Once we have the details worked out, we’ll make a bigger announcement.
Second, we have been working with our architect, Marilyn Kaplan this year as she makes drawings and assessments of our building. With this information, we will be able to permanently fix the decades-long water leaks in the walls of our sanctuary and we will be looking at some major accessibility concerns. Of course, we will be having some parish-wide conversations about this in the months to come and be announcing a capital campaign as well. This will take commitment in many forms – the stewardship of time, talent, and treasure.
In short, we are certainly not finished with 2021, but we can already look forward to 2022 being quite a year for the community of St. John’s. So let us hope together as we commit ourselves to one another and to our Savior Christ for the coming year.
In God’s love and mine, Rev. Michelle
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Announcements for
October 24, 2021
2022 Stewardship Campaign – This week we kick off our 2022 Stewardship Campaign. Pick up your pledge form THIS SUNDAY during social hour and begin considering what you’re called to offer as your pledge to St. John’s in the coming year. Commitment Sunday is November 7 when we celebrate All Saints’ Sunday and wrap-up the Stewardship Campaign with an outdoor fireside brunch.
NEXT WEEK: Our Bishop Andy Dietsche will be here on October 31 to preach and baptize and receive our new members into the Episcopal Church. Please be sure to join us as we celebrate our new members and greet the Bishop.
Fellowship Hour Sign up! – The Hospitality Committee invites you to sign up for St John’s Social Hour. A sign-up sheet is posted on the bulletin board in the Vestibule. All are welcome to offer their generosity to others & share some good conversation as well. Questions? See Barbara Johnston.
Fall Parish-wide Book Read Discussion. On November 14 we finish our parish read, The Church Cracked Open by Stephanie Spellers discussing chapters 6, 7, 8.
The Ulster Immigrant Defense Network (UIDN) will soon be in need of volunteer tutors, to work with motivated students to improve their reading skills. If interested, please let Jeanette Baggot know. An initial prerequisite is completing a Volunteer form located on the Kingston City School District website. More details will soon be on the way!
Page Turners Book Club: The book club will meet on Zoom on November 2 to discuss, ‘The Boys in the Boat,’ by Daniel James Brown. For December 7th the book is ‘The Searcher’, by Tana French. For January 4th the book is, ‘The Lincoln Highway,’ by Amor Towles. Speak with Lynn Dennison for more information.
All Souls on All Saints’ Day: Each year, before we celebrate All Saints’ Day on the first Sunday of November, we list those who have died and offer prayers for them. Please be sure to list those you would like to have printed in the bulletin on November 7. The list is on the bulletin board in the Vestibule.
Have an announcement?
Please send by Wednesday at noon to stjohnskingston@aol.com.