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News from St. Mark's Episcopal Church
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April 2010
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 Letter from John de Beer
Scholars tell us
that we are living in "Post-Christian" age. To understand
what they mean, there are several books you could read; "Church
for the Unchurched" by George Hunter is one. Or, you could read
Pamela Princiotta's article in this month's ROAR. (Pamela is a
parishioner at St. Mark's, currently in the 7th grade.)
Over 75% of
Pamela's classmates do not attend church. Most of them think that Christmas
is pretty much an American holiday. We are living in a Post-Christian
age. For those of us who continue to identify ourselves as
"Christian," this presents both difficulties and
opportunities.
The difficulties
are easier to see. Fewer people going to church make for smaller
congregations. St. Mark's is an example. This can make for stronger
sense of community, where we all know one another. However, we struggle
to have viable numbers in our youth group and our choirs. We need to
find new ways to be church, with part time paid leaders. At a deeper
level, almost all of us are affected by our Post-Christian society. Our
surrounding culture no longer organizes itself around its faith
communities. The demands of school, work and social activities leave
little time to really participate in church. School sports are
scheduled on Sunday mornings. It is easy to get out of the habit of
regular participation in worship, coming less often and feeling less
connected. Our children sense our ambivalence and resist getting out of
bed on Sunday mornings, exhausted as they are with all the other
demands on their energy.
The opportunities
before us are real and to me more interesting than the difficulties.
Ever since Christianity became the official religion of the Roman
Empire being a Christian has been muddled with being a good citizen. It
has been easy to assume that we become Christian simply by living in a
Christian society. This has never been true. We become Christian as we
choose to follow Jesus in the way, loving God with all our heart and
mind and soul, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. The parents of
Pamela's classmates seem to identify themselves as Christian, but most
of them have not passed on a living faith to their children.
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What does it take to do this, to pass on a living faith?
Some ways I know about are to begin by blessing a newborn child each night
at bed time, to have a children's picture bible to introduce the stories
of our faith as a child first begins to understand the world and his or
her place in it, to give thanks at each meal for the food and for the
family that is present to share it, to participate as a family in helping
to feed the hungry or worship with the homeless. These and other
practices complement the regular participation in worship on
Sunday, giving thanks to God and being formed together as God's people.
Making this choice is always costly. The Good News is that the cost is
insignificant in relation to the value, as we come to know the reality of
God's presence in our lives.
What are the ways that you feel this tension? How are you finding
ways to follow Jesus in a Post-Christian world? How are you bringing up
your children in the way, teaching them the stories that will guide their
lives and bring them to the faith that Pamela describes so well? I'd love
to hear from you!
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Notes From Our Sunday School
God is very helpful in my life. Whenever I pray to Him, He
normally helps me. The day after God helps me I pray to Him saying
"Thank you." I thank God because I want God to know that I am
thankful that He did that for me. Sometimes, when I pray for something
and He doesn't do what I asked, I understand that I can't have everything
that I pray for.
One day in Health class we had to pick four topics about
ourselves and make a quilt using these four topics. Most people chose the
following: religion, hobbies, family, and ethnic background. My teacher,
Mrs. Fay, didn't want us to say we were just Christian or just a certain
religion. She wanted us to be specific. When people went up to present
our "quilt" on our topics most students did not specify and
simply said they were Christian. Mrs. Fay asked if they were
Catholic, Episcopal, etc. Mostly everyone didn't know what they were!
Over 75% of my class didn't go to church. I was horrified. I couldn't
believe how many people didn't know their religion! Mrs. Fay asked us if
we thought that Christmas was pretty much an American holiday, a day for
gifts, since not as many people go to church. Everyone agreed except for
a few. I can't believe most of my class doesn't attend church or realize
the reason we celebrate Christmas.
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 From the Senior
Warden
Happy Easter and happy spring.
After pumping out water in the basement and watching the Shawsheen River creep
closer and closer to my back door, I am very happy to see spring arrive
along with the sun.
We had a great Lenten Program which lead us all to be thinking about
things we could do to create change in our lives and in the lives of
others. Some of us decided to make very personal changes such as lose
weight, some were concerned about the toxins in the environment and
decided to investigate what might be lurking in bottles of cleaning
materials under the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Others were going to accept
help from people when offered and stop trying to do everything
themselves. Whatever our individual decisions were, we were all more
aware of what we were and were not doing and that we need to make some
changes. So with the help of each other and the accountability to each
other, we decided to start working on these changes. One of the chapters
in the book "Rediscovering Values" is titled "Better
Together" and isn't that so true. Working together brings ideas from
others and also sets our brains to think in a different way than usual.
We all have something to offer in life and especially here at St. Mark's,
but we don't always get a chance to talk to others at a deeper level. We
are running off after church to some other function such as sports with
the kids or a visit from a relative or just shopping. Starting in May, we
will have an opportunity to get to know each other better by having small
gatherings in homes or in the parish hall. Over a cup of coffee or tea,
we will be able to meet friends-yet-to-be. We will be discussing life
issues and sharing our thoughts and experiences. These meetings will be
on different dates and times and it is our hope that you all will find a
date and time to attend one of them so we can get to know each other
better. Keep your eyes open for the sign up sheets which will be posted
in the Narthex soon.
May you all have a blessed Easter.
Shirley Estrella
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 From the Associate
for Multigenerational Ministries
Dear Friends,
On Easter morning we will be greeted by these wonderful words of Isaiah,
"For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former
things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and
rejoice forever in what I am creating for I am about to create Jerusalem
as a joy and its people as a delight."
After a long winter and a long Lent the image of a "new
creation" is a welcome sight. We are bogged down by the cold
weather and the season of repentance. By April we are ready for a
new season.
During the months of February and March it can be easy to get into a
spiritual rut. We have come down from the highs of Christmas and
are now trying to be in Lent. And because Lent is such a long
season it is easy to feel that it will never end. We can't see the
end so each day becomes like the next. We lack energy and
motivation.
So when Easter arrives it is like God has breathed fresh air into our
lungs. We experience an inner re-birth. The veil is removed
from our eyes and we see the new creation: a world where Jesus has
conquered the finality of death and opened a new door for us all.
In these moments we turn our hearts away from worldly desires and set
them on the human desire to be a co-creator with God. We long to
reshape the world, making it into the world we all dream of.
My prayer for all of us is that we experience the new creation on Easter
morning and every morning. May God grant us the strength and the
wisdom to wake each day ready to create a new world.
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Save the Dates!
April 1st 7:30 - Maundy Thursday service
April 2nd, Noon and 7:30 - Good Friday Services
April 4th, 9:00 - Easter Service
April 11th, after service - Tea Party Planning and Spring
Cleanup. Sign up in parish hall.
April 13th - Women's group meeting
April 18th, after service - Caring for Each Other open
discussion
May 2nd - Walk for Hunger. Support our team!
May 9th - Mother's Day and EDS Site Visit
May 16th - Morning Prayer, Jane Tierny from B-SAFE preaches and
presents at coffee hour
May 23rd, after service - Brunch for Sarah Manly. Sign
up sheets for the brunch will be posted in the Narthex starting in May.
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Caring For Each Other
In our Lent program some of us began to explore in more
depth what it means to both care for others and to allow ourselves to be
cared for. On Sunday April 18th after coffee hour we are having an open
meeting to discuss how caring for each other might be expressed at St.
Mark's. What needs will our parishioners likely have in the next
couple of years? What can we do now to respond to those needs, and what
are we not prepared to do, but might want to try to do in the future? How
do those of us who need help, whether for a short term crisis or a longer
term situation, let the parish know what we can do to help? When and
how is it OK to ask if someone needs help?
Everyone is welcome to explore these and other questions
around caring for each other. Attending this meeting does not commit
you to doing anything other than offering ideas and opinions. We hope to
see you on April 18th.
- Deb Smyth, Catherine Owens, and Pat Doleman
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Outreach Notes
St. Mark's Church has been serving El Hogar Ministries
for many years.
The mission of El Hogar Projects is to provide a loving
home and education in a Christian environment for abandoned, orphaned and
hopelessly poor children, enabling them to fulfill their ultimate
potential as productive human beings in Honduras.
We have been sending supplies to Honduras as well as
sponsoring Julio Vasquez, who was born in the farming community of
Comayagua on August 7, 1992. He lives with his parents and is the
6th of 9 children. His mother is at home to care for the family who
live in a adobe house with no inside plumbing. Julio is currently
in his third year studying in the electrical shop at St. Mary's Technical
Institute.
Many children literally live "on the streets."
In the face of desperate poverty ... where over half the population lives
on two dollars a day, children who should be in school are on the
streets. El Hogar provides an alternative to that destructive course.
They provide a true sense of belonging, a chance to be more prosperous,
experience joy, purpose, and community. But above that, they invite
children into a community of God's love.
Once again in 2010,St. Mark's will be sending Julio
scholarship money. We will also be collecting some items that all
of the children need. There is a suitcase in the Narthex; did you wonder
what that was for? We will be sending the suitcase to Honduras in
May.
Please help us fill the suitcase:
Masking Tape, Scotch Tape
Shoes - black and running - sizes 3 - 10
jeans - young boys - sizes 6 - 12, for older boys,
sizes 26-34
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B-SAFE Update
Thank you to Marcia and Emily Doiron who attended the B-SAFE
organization meeting in March. Emily said she was probably the youngest
one there. We are glad we had multigenerational representation!
St. Mark's will be serving lunch on Monday July 27th and
Tuesday July 28th, at St. Mary's, Upham's Corner, Dorchester. Please save
these dates. For those of you who work, we hope you will consider giving
up a vacation day to help. We will be having a
preliminary organization meeting in May.
On May 16th, Jane Tierney, one of the organizers, will be visiting
us to offer the homily at Morning Prayer, and to answer questions and
perhaps show a video after the service. This is a great opportunity to
learn more about B-SAFE and how we can contribute.
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Walk for Hunger
The 5 -8th grade Sunday school class (and others like youth
group) will be participating in the Walk for Hunger on May 2, 2010.
A donation sign-up sheet will be in the narthex and
parish beginning March 28th.
From the Project Bread website:
With the economy still struggling, many Massachusetts
families are seeing their monthly income stretched beyond capacity. They
are forced to go without food in order to pay their rent, utility, and
medical bills. The demand for emergency food has never been greater with
pantries and meal programs supported by Project Bread serving 57.3
million meals last year alone. Hunger is not just an urban problem - it
exists in nearly every community throughout the state.
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God and Us -- News from the Vestry
With God leading us, encouraging us, and putting his Holy
Spirit into our hearts and mouths, the vestry hopes to lead you all to a
happy and fruitful life. At our recent vestry retreat, we got to know
each other more intimately and were able to express our most heartfelt
desires for the wellbeing of our parish. I know that God put words into
my mouth that I didn't know were there.
We agreed that our purpose was an is to create a team to
lead St. Mark's 2010 and beyond, through:
1. Evangelism - sharing the Good News.
2. Ministry to a younger generation.
3. Broadening our base by developing new leaders.
Actions to be taken in the next three months.
1. Small group meetings (Sue/Shirley): Inviting 6 to 8
people to parish gatherings - open homes. Host chooses the type of food.
Start in April.
2. Invite parishioners back to church for Easter (Don/Bob):
Draft letter, mail out near 3/14.
3. Plan farewell party for Sarah (Pat Joanne): Confirm May
23rd party date with Sarah, notice in April ROAR.
4. Fair - looking for group to organize fair.
5. Communications - Invite Catherine to March vestry meeting
to discuss communications needs.
6. Fund raising (Elizabeth/Jack Heidbrink): They are looking
for ideas for fundraising.
Invite parishioners to take elements down to altar or take
collection.
Invite friends to church day.
Have night for young people - they can ask friends to come
and enjoy.
At the March vestry meeting
Catherine discussed communications within and outside the
church. She suggested several ways to get St. Mark's information out to
others via electronic means, BCAT, and mass mailings. Justin Turner spoke
about the website. Bruce Jordan has volunteered to help with that
initiative. Justin and Jaime Gweshe are going to work together to set up
a Facebook page in hopes of communicating to that community.
Yours truly is the vestry reporter and welcomes all comments
and news bits.
The outreach team is going to give financial help to the B-SAFE
program this summer. They will continue to support El Hogar by sending
supplies. Pat Doleman will coordinate this with the Church of the
Epiphany in Winchester.
We will continue to supply pancake mix to the food pantry.
St. Mark's day is April 25th. Shirley will have information
later on.
The money from the Mother's Day Flowers will go to REACH in
Waltham. Father's day contributions will go to the building fund.
Before I close I want to reach out to the young people in
our congregation. We want and value your thoughts and ideas. So please
let us know your thoughts.
'Till next time, God Bless!
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Tea Party 2010
 Here we go again! Everyone
had so much fun last year that they want to do it again.
There will be a planning meeting on April 11th after the service to make
some decisions such as a date and theme, etc. Everyone is welcome to join
us. No previous knowledge of running a Tea Party is necessary.....just
wanting to have some fun and enjoy each other and at the same time raise
some money for St. Mark's. If you have any questions or comments talk or
email Shirley Estrella sherlstar@comcast.net.
Shirley
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One Sunday during his sermon, John de Beer asked us to take
a moment and think of someone in our lives who was a hero to us.
My grandfather was machine shop foreman who, like many who grew up early
in the 1900s never completed high school, but learned working skills and
found employment in a factory. In his leisure time, he was a hunter and
fisherman. He loved it. I am not sure if it was being in the woods, or on
a shoreline, or just being in "the great outdoors", or perhaps
it was an escape from work and home. Maybe it was a mixture of all of
these things.
Since my Dad was not so much of an outdoor sportsman, my grandmother
"encouraged" my grandfather to take me and my brothers along to
go fishing with him. I later learned that while he loved us, he
knew that taking young boys fishing meant spending a considerable part of
the time baiting our hooks, untangling our lines, and getting our errant
casts free from overhanging branches and stumps hidden in the water. The
whole "escape" component was surely lost on those occasions.
One day while driving on a trip to the Ipswich River he asked us why we
were going fishing. I took no time at all to reply, "To catch
fish."
He turned his face towards me frowning, and corrected me. "No, we go
fishing to have a good time together."
That was an important lesson I learned from him. We often returned home
with whatever berries were in season instead of trout. But we looked
forward to the next trip together. It did not matter, as he said, if we
caught or kept any fish. Our time together was precious. My
grandfather died thirty years ago, but he is the person I thought of when
I was asked who my hero was.
So my answer to John's question, "Who is a hero to me?" is,
Grampy. He was a busy man, who would have preferred to go off fishing
alone, but he took us with him to teach us how to fish, maybe, and also
to show us that he loved us.
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Help Wanted - Parish Administrator
You may know that Senada Zaganjori has left St. Mark's in order
to spend more time with her family. We are looking for a new Parish
Administrator. Our policy is not to hire parishioners or family members
of parishioners, but if you know of anyone who might be interested in
this position, please do pass it on.
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St. Mark's Episcopal Church is seeking a person to fill a
position as a part-time Parish Administrator for 8 hours per week.
Candidates must have strong computer skills, experience with Microsoft
Word and Excel, a pleasant manner, good people skills and attention to
detail. The ideal candidate will be familiar with the Episcopal Book of
Common Prayer.
For more information or to arrange an interview, email Shirley
Estrella <sherlstar@comcast.net>
or leave your phone number at 781-272-1586.
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Women's Group Activities
Our next Women's Group meeting will be on Tuesday, April
13th at 7:00 PM. It's that time of year to start planning your garden. We
will have a guest speaker instructing and informing us on flower gardens
and perennials. All ladies of St. Mark's are invited to attend.
If anyone has any questions or is in need of transportation, please feel
free to contact:
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Property
Annual Spring Cleanup -------> April 11
Join us for our Annual Spring Cleanup. Find the bulletin
board in the Parish Hall and volunteer.
All Generations are invited to join. Food and beverages will
be served. Music and games may happen.
Come to volunteer at anytime if you would--please! Bring a
rake and other garden tools. Several people have already come to work We
have ordered a TRUCKLOAD OF MULCH. You can spread it when you are ready.
1. We had a flood in the Parish Hall after the rain. About
800 gallons of water seeped in. It was removed by a team of three
volunteers.
2. There is a leak in the Sanctuary. The rain came in! It
will be repaired within a month. It will be expensive to repair.
3. We Need more workers on the Property Team. Will you
volunteer? Can you make a major contribution for repairs?
4. The Stairway to the Parish Hall has been painted. A
volunteer supplied the labor. It looks great!
5. There are new Bulletin Boards in the Parish Hall. Look to
see what is on them! Volunteers did the work.
The property committee is led by the following parishioners.
Contact them if you have questions, want to volunteer or know of a
problem:
--Jack Heidbrink--Property coordinator
--Bob Pattison--Assistant and Vestry liaison
--Howard Bettinson--Assistant
Cell: 781-696-3952
- Jack Heidbrink
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Choir Notes
A LEVAS Reminder
Some of you who are new to our congregation may not be aware
that we sing from two hymnals, our
blue 1982 Hymnal and a newer hymnal with a red binding called Lift Every
Voice and Sing II, other-
wise know as LEVAS. The LEVAS hymnals were purchased with funds
from the Ruth and Matthews
Gregory bequest to St. Mark's for music ministry.
LEVAS includes many traditional hymns that were not included
in The Hymnal 1982, as well as spirituals, gospel songs, and a wide range
of music from other genres.
When the service bulletin indicates a hymn number as, for
example, "L 41", that means that the hymn can be found in LEVAS
rather than the blue hymnal. The hymn boards will show that hymn
number as "L41". If the number is not preceded by
"LEVAS" or an "L", then the hymn can be found in the
blue hymnal.
We hope that when you have a few minutes you will flip
through LEVAS and see what hymns you might recognize, like "How
Great Thou Art", "In the Garden", "Blessed
Assurance", and "God Will Take Care of You." Both the
Adult and Youth Choirs sing selections from LEVAS, like "Ev'ry
Time I Feel the Spirit", "God Has Smiled On Me",
"Break Thou the Bread of Life", and "Thank You,
Lord". If you find a hymn you would like us to sing, either in
LEVAS or the blue hymnal, please pass the name or page number on to Susan
and we will do our best to program it for a future Sunday.
Enjoy LEVAS!
Thank you Choirs!
I would like to extend a big thank you to all of the members
of our church choirs who devoted so much time and energy to preparing for
our Lenten and Easter services. While dealing with illness, family
crises, and other personal challenges, they devoted many hours of work in
rehearsal, and made the commitment to be with us for services whenever
possible. Our choir members support each other in a way that
demonstrates again and again what a kind and caring group they are. A
special thank you goes to Bruce Burrell, who has blessed us with his
clarinet and flute playing despite not feeling his best. Thank you,
all!.
Susan Dearborn
Organist and Choir Director
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 Notes from EDS
In early May EDS is hosting representatives from the
Dioceses of Wyoming, Northern Michigan, and Vermont to attend the
Kellogg lectures and participate in some in-depth discussions on
baptismal ministry in the face of change. These dioceses are leaders
in what is sometimes called local ministry - where parishioners
take significant leadership roles in their church, so that in some
cases they function as Christ's body in the world
without leadership from seminary-educated, traditionally-ordained
clergy.
As many of you know, I am passionate about all of us
learning to discern God's call to us, to live into that call as
we grow into our ownership and leadership of our community. I have
been in a field ed placement with the Diocese of Vermont, and recently
learned that I will also be going to an intensive immersion experience in
Wyoming at the end of April. As such I, along with four other students,
will be both hosts and participants in this EDS event.
The organizers were looking for a church for worship on
Sunday May 9th, one that ideally would also play into the learning
experience. Both I and, independently, someone else suggested St.
Mark's. I am so proud of the way we grew together as a church in the face
of all the changes we experienced over the past few years. I thought it
would be useful for members of these quite rural and dispersed dioceses
to see how a suburban church can move in the direction of expanded
congregational participation, leadership, and ownership, with part time
help from gifted seminary-trained leaders. John, Shirley and the vestry
agreed to the visit, and Sally Cassidy will be helping me to coordinate
it.
On Sunday May 9th we will be hosting up to 25 visitors at
our service, and then for brunch and some form of presentation/discussion
in the parish hall, lasting probably not more than an hour and a half. We
don't have the details planned, but I know that we would love to have as
many of you stay as can, whether you have been with us for years or have
just joined us recently. I hope that you can postpone your Mother's day
plans for a couple of hours, to come and share St. Mark's story with
our visitors. It is after all not my story, or the vestry's story, but
the story of all of us, and should be told in as many voices as we can
offer.
It is possible that some of this will be filmed, and that
the resulting clips can be made available to us for use on our website.
It will be an occasion to get some publicity about who we are in the
local press, and a chance to get our story heard outside this
diocese. It's an exciting opportunity. I hope that you will
join us and make this an event that truly represents who we are as a
congregation!!
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Usher Schedule
Easter
DENNIS HODGKINS
April
11 GREG
DOOLEY
BOB JANKOWSKI
April 18 MARK
LAMOURINE
NELSON HOLT
April
25 BRIAN
CULLINAN
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St. Mark's Schedule
Holy Eucharist and Church School both begin at 9:00 am on
Sunday. Church School children join the congregation at the peace. After
service we have coffee hour in the parish hall.
On the first Sunday of the month Sunday School combines with
our regular service for a special Story service.
The Bible study group meets on Sunday in the
parish hall after coffee hour to study the lessons for the
next Sunday. No special background or education is required, and you
do not have to attend every week. Please join us when you can!
The Youth Choir rehearses after service on Sunday. The Adult Choir
rehearses on Thursday at
7:30 pm.
The Youth Group meets on the first and third Sundays after the
service.
Confirmation class meets on the second and fourth Sundays
after service. Any youth from 8th grade and up is invited, even if you've
already been confirmed!
Vestry meets at 7:00 pm in the Choir Room on the second
Monday. Vestry meetings are open to all, unless otherwise announced.
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