Blog Posts

Kathryn's Last Sunday

7/17/2017

This past Sunday was Kathryn's last Sunday at St. James. She has been with us as interim rector for almost two years. In June our Discernment Committee called a new permanent rector, Rev. Susan Buchanan, who will join us in August.

During Sunday's service, different groups in the parish honored Kathryn for her work and time with us. The choir sang a blessing; the children gave her a photo album and a stole (made by Deb) with each child's thumbprint and drawing; the young adults placed flowers in her honor; and the parish took an offering for her, presented by our senior warden.

After the service we had a wonderful covered dish in the Hogan Room that included ham, many, many sides, salads, dips, and a very large cake. We also had an old school sherbet + soda punch. A pair of parishioners decorated the tables with beautiful wildflowers from their gardens and the local farmer's market. Everyone had a great time, enjoying the food and the fellowship.

Thank you to everyone who made this Sunday a wonderful day. And thank you to Kathryn for her leadership over the past two years. Blessings on your next journey!

Bly Jonas Award 2017

6/15/2017

When it was announced that Gloria and Hank were the recipients of the Bly Jonas Service Award, they were shocked. They love the backpack ministry which they head up here at St. James. Backpack ministry makes sure that children at Davenport School will have food over the weekend. St. James members pack the food once a month and it is taken to the students at Davenport. There is a very high rate in this diocese of children not having enough food, and this is one program that helps alleviate hunger. Hank and Gloria are very committed to this program. Take the time to ask them about Backpack ministry.

May Vestry Highlights

5/22/2017

Room at the Table needs casual summer clothes and sneakers and sandals for all.

Martha is the newest member of the Endowment Board, replacing Bill Wall.

We are looking at options to comply with Safeguarding standards for doors.

June 4 th there will be one service, 9:30 a.m. You are invited to wear red for Pentecost and hats! There will be a potluck meal following the service!

The Nursery will not be staffed for the summer. Last day is May 28 th ! Thank you to our nursery workers, Gail and Mel for being there each week!

Vestry will be reviewing policies.

Doris has been gathering information on different types of labyrinths.

Vestry needs a community calendar to know what is going on around the area.

July 9 th the 10:30 service will be an outdoor service at the Hogan’s followed by a cookout. More info to follow.

May Room at the Table

5/18/2017

The May Room at the Table was a beautiful, warm day. The menu was Beefaroni Casserole, salad, apple sauce, bread and ice cream sundaes for dessert. We had 72 guests with only a few pieces of bread and a little bit of salad leftover. Everyone loved the Beefaroni, many coming up for seconds. Thank you to the team members for cooking and serving, and thank you, also, to the core bodies who helped.

CARE Committee Meeting Minutes

5/12/2017

The CARE Committee met on Monday, April 24th for our quarterly meeting. Below you will find the minutes and a document about Meals on Wheels. Because the goals of MOW are congruent with CARE's mission statement, we are investigating how we may support this program.

April 2017 CARE Minutes

Meal On Wheels Info Sheet

Rise Against Hunger with St. Paul AME

4/17/2017

On April 9th, 2017, 97 volunteers from St. James and St. Paul AME gathered in the Hogan Room for a 10,000 meal packing event sponsored by Rise Against Hunger. Rise Against Hunger (formerly Stop Hunger Now) is an organization committed to ending worldwide hunger by 2030. The organization provides nutritious meals to those in need around the globe, especially in schools, orphanages and medical clinics; RAH also responds to crisis situations and develops sustainable ways to empower communities.

St. James and St. Paul partnered for two purposes: to facilitate unity in our local community, and to lessen hunger in our greater global community. Our planning committee was comprised of members of both churches who worked diligently for two months to plan an evening of education, service, food, fellowship and worship. Some members put together hunger awareness posters with artifacts from different parts of the world to decorate the walls and make the room festive for the occasion.

Our afternoon started before the packing; RAH brought all of the necessary supplies. Some of the supplies, such as 50 lb. bags of rice, were too heavy for most of our volunteers, so firemen from a local fire department came early to help. After volunteer registration and set-up, the RAH spokeswoman gave us her company’s origins, explaining the burden of extreme poverty on so much of our global community. She also went through the packing procedure. Many volunteers were skeptical that we could pack 10,000 meals, but RAH has the process down to an effective, organized assembly line. It was wonderful to work alongside members of St. Paul, assisting one another when someone ran out of rice, or the weighing scales reset, or when we couldn’t quite get the sealers to seal. There was so much cooperation in working together toward our goal. Children from both churches served as runners, taking unsealed bags between tables; they loved running around the room, and were so careful in getting the unsealed bags from place to place without spilling the contents.

The packing only took about 1 ½ hours or a bit more. Even the planning committee was surprised that we would finish in such a short time, but we did. Both churches worked on cleaning the tables, sweeping rice off of the floor, moving the boxes of packed meals to the truck, and rearranging the tables. We then had a dinner of soup, salad, bread and desserts. Different members of St. James made chicken soup and vegetable soup, and brought salads. St. Paul provided us with two tables of many delicious desserts.

After dinner, Rev. Dr. Byron Grayson and Rev. Kathryn Costas held a short worship service, reminding us that feeding the hungry as we have just done is an example of Jesus in our modern world. St. Paul’s wonderful, talented choir sang for us, and we took communion together.

Our RAH meal packing event with St. Paul was a fantastic afternoon of service and fellowship. Thank you to all of the volunteers who came to pack, and who made food for dinner. Special thank you’s to: Fire Department, Rev. Dr. Grayson, Rev. Costas, the planning committee (Jennifer, Barbara, Joan, Freda, Rebecca, Annette, Betty, Gloria, Teige), and a very special thank you to Jennie, who made this event possible through a lot of work and coordination.

Adult Forum's 3-Sunday Series on Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths

3/11/2017

For the last three Sundays participants in Adult Forum have discussed Karen Armstrong's book, Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths. The discussions were led by Charlotte. Here is her summary of the three-part series:

Jerusalem is a wonderful historically written book by Armstrong. I had read it about 10 years ago and even took it on my Kindle when I visited Jerusalem in 2014. When I volunteered for Adult Forum this year I wanted to present the book with discussions around sacred grounds and the Divine. Jerusalem area was considered touched by Gods even in the Early Bronze Age up through the occupation by Rome and the birth of the Early Christian Church. How much this was Divine and/or human involvement was an interesting question which I had hoped to leave in class participants minds. Armstrong's book has many aspects of history and theology that are worthy of exploring in more depth around the development and reconstruction of Jerusalem. I would recommend this book for any serious read! Hopefully I was able in a small part to show some of her scholarly work and encourage further readings on Jerusalem.

Thank you to Charlotte for facilitating these lessons.

"Letter From Birmingham Jail" Discussion, February 2017

3/2/2017

From Barbara:

On Sunday evening, February 26, a group of parishioners got together to study and discuss Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. The background of the situation in our country at the time was our starting point. In 1954, the Supreme Court had called for the racial integration of public schools. However, by 1963 (100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation), not much progress had been made. In his letter, Dr. King explained his reasoning and justification for promoting nonviolent direct action. This led to a discussion of the relevance of his ideas to the current situation across our country.

Stay tuned for discussion opportunities on other relevant topics.

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner 2017

3/1/2017

Our annual Shrove Tuesday Pancake dinner was held last night to celebrate the day before Lent begins. The men of the church made bacon, sausage and pancakes, served with a lot of syrup.

The children helped Kathryn burn last year's palm leaves in preparation for the Ashe Wednesday service.

Young Adult/Youth/Children's Hayride and Bonfire

2/21/2017

Sunday, February 19th was beautiful, sunny and warm-- 70* in February! It was a perfect day to be outside. There were 9 children and 21 adults present.

We had so many children and adults that we had to have two hayrides for all the kids to have a turn. We stopped mid-ride to feed apples to the horses, and for the some of the more adventurous children to play in the creek that was still pretty cold despite the unseasonably warm weather of late.

Everyone was eager to have dinner. Several parishioners brought their version of lasagna, ranging from the traditional meat and red sauce to a vegetable casserole with a cream sauce. We also two wonderful salads and garlic bread prepared by other parishioners. It was such a nice day that the children and parents sat outside to eat dinner.

For dessert we gathered around a bonfire to make s'mores. The adults were even more excited about the bonfire than the children, jumping up to the fire to squeeze 6 marshmallows between their graham crackers. It was messy, but so delicious!

More than one person said what a great day it was to share fellowship with one another and get to know other parishioners better. Someone remarked that St. James is his family and he is so grateful to be together.

We had so many parishioners bring food (some who offered despite not being able to attend), so thank you to everyone who made lasagnas, bread and who brought dessert items.

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