In-person AND Online: Celebrating Deacon Sue’s Ministry This Sunday
This coming Sunday, June 13, please join us in honoring Deacon Sue by attending worship so we may celebrate her ministry among us. Bishop Mary Glasspool, the Assistant Bishop of the Diocese of New York, will be with us as Deacon Sue serves on her final Sunday at St. John’s. Afterwards, we will have a party on the lawn with refreshments to continue the celebration.
You may attend the celebration in one of 3 ways: in-person, via Zoom, and through Facebook Live.
- Attending in-person? We have with limited seating capacity due to the pandemic but please don’t let that sway you from coming. Click here: We ask that everyone RSVP by using this form to let us know that you will be coming to worship on June 13. We want to be sure we have the sanctuary space to accommodate all who are planning to come.
- Attending via Zoom? Please click here to go to the St. John’s website where you will find the link for the Zoom room as well as the bulletin for the service. The room will open approximately 15 minutes before we begin.
- Attending through Facebook Live? If you’d like to view the worship service through Facebook, please click here to go to the St. John’s Kingston Facebook page where you can view the video. The video will begin approximately 15 minutes before we begin.
And please don’t forget to donate to the Deacon Bonsteel Community Advocacy Fund. This fund will support St. John’s ongoing mission of advocating for social justice by assisting individuals with the costs of training and travel in the ministry of social justice activism and advocacy. With this fund, St. John’s is intentionally carrying forth Sue’s diaconal ministry and ensuring that it will continue. To help us honor Deacon Sue, we hope that you will give generously to this fund. You can send a check to the church or bring it with you to worship on June 13. Everything that goes into our collection plate that day will go into this fund. You may also use Paypal by clicking here. Be sure to note: Deacon Bonsteel Community Advocacy Fund.
See you on Sunday!
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Please Excuse the Hopeful Dust!
Dear Ones: It’s been a busy week here on the campus of St. John’s. Two major projects have been started and completed and a third has just begun.
First, the Rectory garage needed some repair. Water had been draining off of the roof rather than flowing into the gutters, damaging the wood at the bottom of the walls. Bob Dennison found a great contractor to work with to do the repair work and realign the gutters so the problem doesn’t return. It was quite loud outside the Rectory for a few mornings but it’s all worth it to have this maintenance work completed. Well done!
Second, as we announced on Sunday last week, Radio Kingston asked us to work with Central Hudson to help get energy into the grid from their solar farm that sits behind the Rectory. Central Hudson needed to lay cables underground in the sidelawn of the church (see the announcement below for a fuller description). And, although their work was delayed by rain a few times as well as an issue with the gas line, Central Hudson has worked with us and Angel Food East to ensure that we have 100% access when we really need it. The yard will look a bit un-yard-like for a while until the grass seed takes hold, but this project is an important one for the community of Kingston and we’ve been blessed by being a part of it.
Finally, as we have been discussing for quite a while, the crumbling in some places along the interior walls of our sanctuary has pointed to an issue with some places around the roof. The roof itself is just fine, but where the roof connects to various places in the building we’re seeing water leak in. So, we’ve hired architect Marilyn Kaplan of Preservation Architecture, who has worked with Episcopal churches throughout the area to correct issues with their buildings. Marilyn has started her work, taking measurements and pictures of the building so she can create a set of architectural drawings, and will be returning throughout the summer to continue this work. The Vestry is excited to have begun this project after a few years of conversation. Look for more information coming soon about this project!
So please excuse the dust as we do some important and hopeful work, using our resources to maintain our beautiful building and offer our space to assist the larger community of Kingston at the same time. These are hopeful actions on the part of the parish because it means that we believe in the future of St. John’s and the mission we have in this place. Thank you!
In God’s love and mine, Rev. Michelle
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Announcements for
June 13, 2021
What’s going on with the sidelawn? Earlier this year, we were contacted by Radio Kingston to help with a project. As many of you know, the radio tower behind the Rectory belongs to Radio Kingston as St. John’s sold them the land many years ago. When the pandemic began last year, Radio Kingston started up a Community Fund to help people with needs – like utility bills and rent. St. John’s contributed to that fund last year. What they discovered is that most of the requests they received for help were to pay for Central Hudson bills. By thinking outside the box, they realized that there was a more economical way to use their resources – build a solar farm on the land around the radio tower. And so they did. Go and check it out behind the Rectory sometime! With this solar farm, Radio Kingston will receive credits for adding energy into the grid and then use those credits to help people in need to pay their electric bill. What a great idea, right? Here’s where we come in: In order to connect the right kinds of cables, they needed to put them underground. So, St. John’s granted an easement to Central Hudson to dig up our sidelawn and bury the cables. It will take a few months for the grass to grow back but what a wonderful way (and easy) to share our space and resources with the larger Kingston community! A blessing offered and a blessing received.
The Page Turners is the St. John’s book club who meet every first Tuesday evening of the month for good discussion and good company. All are welcome to attend. For June 8, the book is, ‘The Midnight Library’, by Matthew Haig and the selection for July 13 is ‘Humankind, A Hopeful History,” by Rutger Bregman. Email or call Lynn Dennison for more information.
Voices Heard: A series of panel discussions sponsored by the Reparations Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. The legacy of the transatlantic slave trade is deeply entrenched in the structural systems and legislative actions that govern communities today. This series of panel discussions organized by the Reparations Committee for the Diocese of New York intends to broaden awareness and deepen our understanding of the pressing topics of an intractable nature of systemic racism on education, health, economics, gender, policing and the criminal justice system, the church and more that negatively impact people of African heritage. Bringing experts, community organizers, civic leaders, clergy and laity into dialogue will help to inform us and make commitments for engagement in our own communities as we prepare our cause for action in making recommendations for the task brought forth through Resolution regarding the Reparations Fund. All panels will take place from 7:00–8:30 p.m. on Zoom. Registration in advance is required for each individual Discussion.
- Tuesday, June 22 – Reaching For a Better Tomorrow: The Work and Mission of Hudson Link Working For Higher Education in Prison
- Tuesday, July 6 – The Awakening of Unwoke People: Church, Religion and State
- Tuesday, July 20 – Rectors of Color: Examining the Missed Opportunities of Deployment
For more information or to register: dioceseny.org/organizer/reparations-committee
Have an announcement?
Please send by Wednesday at noon to stjohnskingston@aol.com.