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News from St. Mark's Episcopal Church
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June 2010
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 Letter from John
de Beer
I am writing to you the day before our farewell party for Sarah Manly.
For the past three years, Sarah has been the Associate for
Multigenerational Ministries at St. Mark's, a one-quarter time
position. I am struggling to imagine our parish life without Sarah. I
feel so grateful for all that she has brought us and very sad at the
prospect of her absence.
Sarah came to us fresh out of seminary. I met her as she was completing
a Master of Divinity degree at the Episcopal Divinity School. She
helped facilitate an event I was leading in the continuing education
program there. I was immediately struck by Sarah's easy way with
people, with her ability to ask just the right questions. People opened
up to her and she was willing to share her own thoughts and feelings.
I asked her what she was going to do after seminary. She had no clear
plans at the time. So I invited her to meet some of the leaders at St.
Mark's and to discern with us whether she could spend a year helping us
shape the newly created Associate's position. We had just drafted a
mission statement and wanted to invest our resources in responding to
God's call to us. Here is how we understood this call:
St. Mark's is a
multigenerational parish in which we celebrate God, enjoy one another,
and serve our neighbors. Our mission is to create a place of safety and
support in which all God's people are given the opportunity to be
transformed, as we explore our faith and our call to service.
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Sarah helped us to make
these words a reality. In her work with children, teenagers and adults
she helped us connect across the generations. She made a safe space for
teenagers to talk to one another and then venture outside their comfort
zone as they talked with adults at St. Mark's and worshiped with the
homeless in Boston. A moment that stands out for me is in the parish hall
this Lent, when a teenager and an octogenarian were talking to one
another about loneliness. Sarah convened the Story Sunday planning team
which is finding a way for old and young to celebrate God together.
She blessed us with sermons that connected scripture with her own
challenges and invited us to do the same. A young adult group now meets
both formally and informally. On Saturday, May 22, five members of St.
Mark's were confirmed. Through the class that Sarah led, each of them
made an informed and conscious choice to place God in the center of their
lives.
In this season of Pentecost our readings from Scripture invite us to pay
attention to the presence of the Holy Spirit in the world. The Hebrew
word for Spirit is Ruach, which can also be translated
"breath" or "wind." Just as we cannot see the wind,
but are aware of it through its effects, so we know the Spirit of God by
what happens as a result of the Spirit's presence. All who are led
by the Spirit of God are children of God, says Paul in Romans.
Sarah, we see the Spirit at work in you. Thank you for all that you have
given us. May God bless you as you marry Derek van Gulde in August.
May you continue to allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in all that you
do.
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Reminder: Sunday
School Awards Sunday
Sunday
school awards will be presented at the June 13th service. Please
have your child in church that day to receive their award for completing
Sunday school this year.
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 From the Senior Warden
CONGRATULATIONS
to Jaime Gweshe, Alison Cassidy, Chiara Lamourine, John Kelley III, and
Kristina Barry who were all confirmed at Christ Church in Waltham on May
22nd. Do you remember when you were confirmed? Do you
remember what it meant to you? I remember when my two children were
confirmed here at St. Mark's. The girls wore white dresses and veils and
the boys wore suits with ties. How times have changed.! And we are about
to go through another change as Sarah Manly moves on after spending three
wonderful years with us. In her article in the February ROAR Sarah wrote
"Instead of seeing change as out of God's control we should
see change as a symbol of God's activity in our lives." This
keeps us open and ready for a little adventure which will bring with it a
world of possibilities. Saying good-bye is less about something ending
and more about new beginnings and exciting possibilities both for you
Sarah and for St. Mark's. Thank you for being such an inspiration as you
worked with both the youth and adults, you will be missed.
Quite frequently I hear the statement "St. Mark's is like a
family". What does that mean?
Like a family, we are all connected by the same creator, God. Like a
family, we are all different although in many ways the same. Like a family,
we do not always agree with each other. Like a family, we are there to
support each other in whatever life deals us and like a family we work
together to reach out to others and welcome them into God's family at St.
Mark's. Melissa Stellato and her daughter Gianna joined us a few months
ago and I hope you feel welcome and part of our family.
I would like to thank everyone who prayed for me before my second
surgery. Your prayers, cards, thoughts, emails, phone calls, visits, have
all made a big difference in my attitude toward facing my surgeries and
ongoing treatment. I am hoping and praying that over the summer
months, the radiation treatments will be complete.
As you all go about your summer vacations whether traveling near or far
or just relaxing in your own back yard, be mindful of how much God plays
a part in your daily life. We do not close the doors to the church
in the summer and God does not go on vacation. Remember you are always
welcome at St. Mark's.
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 From
the Associate for Multigenerational Ministries
Dear
Friends,
After almost three years at St. Mark's it's hard to have to
say goodbye to all of you. As a
parish you have provided me with a wonderful spiritual home at a time
when I most needed one. Leaving
seminary wasn't easy but your welcoming spirit made that transition much
easier. And now you're helping
with the transition to married life!
So I've spent the last
month trying to find a way to properly say goodbye. The act of leave-taking is never
easy. Either we don't know what to
say or we arrive too late. More
often than not we are left dissatisfied and disheartened. For many years after my grandfather
died I felt enormous guilt over missing the chance to say goodbye. I would have terrible nightmares where
he came back to life to haunt me, waiting for his goodbye. The nightmares finally stopped when I
learned to celebrate the memories I had of him.
While I'm pretty sure none
of you will be haunting me I do want to give you a proper farewell. Since I can't ensure that I can say
goodbye to all of you I wanted to leave you with my top-five greatest St.
Mark's memories. Let these images
be my way of leaving while taking you all with me.
1. Listening to the Sunday
school students as they told the Godly
Play stories. Alyssa, Ricky,
and Jenna are great storytellers!
2. The miraculous moment when
the old Story Sunday altar didn't collapse under the excited hands of the
youth. John and I were holding our
breaths waiting for the wine spill all over the place.
3. Driving the youth up to the
Bishop Barbara Harris camp for the overnight retreats. They always kept me up-to-date with
popular culture and shared their great taste in music.
4. Sitting with the Story
Sunday planning team wondering how we were going to make the readings
come alive for all ages. Our
creative energies were definitely put to the test.
5. Watching the wonderful
changes brought about by John's Klesis
classes. So many of you gladly
opened yourselves up to the scary journey of learning about God and
yourself.
Of course there are many
more memories I can share and ones that I hope you will share with one
another. Remember to always
celebrate the memories you've made and the future ones to come.
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St.
Mark's Middle School Walks the Walk!
Thank
you to all who supported us for the Walk For Hunger on Sunday, May
2nd.
The Walk for Hunger began in 1969 and has become the country's oldest
continual pledge walk and largest one-day fundraiser to alleviate local
hunger. 42,000 walkers and 2,000 volunteers raised 3.8 million
dollars for the 400 emergency food programs that support families in
crisis. This includes Burlington's People Helping People. Our
group, consisting of 15 parishioners, and friends and families of
parishioners, helped to raise approximately $1,500 for this worthwhile
event.
This was our second walk and a middle school outreach project. All
are invited to join us no matter the age and we look forward to
increasing the number of participants from St. Marks next year. While
everyone who walked made a tremendous contribution, a special
acknowledgement to Allison Cassidy, Deb Smyth and Andy Gilbert for
walking the entire 20 miles!
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 Father's Day is June 20th
Celebrate
or remember the fathers in your life and support our Building Fund at the
same time.
A donation is not required, but if you do choose to give, all donations
will go to St. Mark's Building Fund for repair and maintenance of our
property. Names will be included in the Father's Day Sunday
Bulletin.
Ask one of our Ushers to give you the form. Return the
celebration/memorial form by either placing it in the alms basin, or in
the mail slot outside the office door. You will receive a Father's
Day card recognizing your donation. If donating by check please
make the check payable to St. Mark's Church and write "Father's
Day" on the memo field.
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Women's Group News
Our
final meeting before the summer will be on Tuesday, June 15, 2010. As in
years past, we will be going out to dinner. This year we have decided to
venture over to the Dandelion Green on Mall Road in Burlington.
There will be a sign up sheet in the Narthex. Please sign up by Sunday,
June 13, 2010. The cost of the dinner is $25.00 per person.
We will be meeting in the church parking lot at 6:30 PM and driving over
together. Reservations are for 7:00 PM. All women of the church are
welcome to join us.
If anyone needs a ride, please contact us and we will make arrangements
for you. We all have a wonderful time and want you to join in the
fellowship of St Mark's women. If you have any questions, please feel
free to contact:
Linda Kelley at 781-883-8972 or email at ljkelley@rcn.com
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Outreach Notes
A Beautiful
Outreach Gift
Once
again, this year, we celebrated the special women in our lives
while helping women who do not have much to celebrate. St. Mark's
donated $455.00 from the sale of the Mother's day roses to REACH (Refuge,
Education, Advocacy and Change).
This program is dedicated to the safety, healing, and empowerment of
victims of domestic or relationship violence. Like so many charities in
this field, it began as a hotline and shelter for victims in 1981; unlike
so many, it grew and developed, broadening its services and increasing
its scale of operations, as the scope of the problems unfolded. As of
2006, REACH has provided emergency shelter to 1,750 survivors and
children, answered over 30,000 crisis calls, assisted over 5,000
survivors seeking legal advocacy, and helped 1,500 in support groups. But
demand for services far exceeds supply; in 2003 they turned away 474
people due to lack of beds or housing; in 2004 REACH sheltered 100 people
(49 adults, 51 children), but turned away almost five times that number:
485. In 2005 they opened a Safe Home program providing 1,000 additional
nights of safety, but that was not enough. Now they are intent on
doubling their sheltering capacity by purchasing and servicing another
home, for which a $2.5 million capital campaign is now underway. Very few
charities in this field are able to mount so ambitious an effort, so it
is a matter of some urgency to help those few succeed. Please consider
supporting this life-saving work.
Your
thoughtful contributions are helping many women and children fleeing
abusive situations.
Thank
you, Linda Kelley, and your team for organizing this project and for our
beautiful altar of roses.
Please
join us at out next Outreach Meeting on June 6th after the Service. See
where our Outreach money is being distributed. We will be meeting in the
"lounge" area of the Parish Hall.
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On
May 16th, Jane Tierney, partner church coordinator for B-SAFE, gave
a wonderful talk about the B-SAFE program. She reminded us that the
dangers to children on the streets is very real, as she told us about a
young woman, an honor student with no connection to gangs, who had been
killed just the past week. As Shirley Estrella said afterwards during
announcements, this is an area where we can truly make a difference.
I
spoke with some of you after the service, and a number of you have
indicated interest in helping one way or another with our participation
in the program. Don't be surprised if I come talk with more of you, as I
see you!
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 later this month.
Jane
was very impressed by us at coffee hour after the service. She said she
goes to a lot of coffee hours, and can tell when people want to be with
each other and care for each other, and when they just go to the parish
hall because that's what's expected after church. She felt something of
love that moves among us.
I
hope that we all remember that we are a loving church family not only so
that we can support each other, but also so that we may better do God's
work in the world. Supporting B-SAFE is one way of doing that work!
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AMERICAN GIRL TEA
PARTY
Your American Girl
Doll is welcome !
June 12, 2010 3
pm
St. Mark's Episcopal Church
A portion of the proceeds
will benefit the
Burlington Food Pantry
Fun...Food...Entertainment...Raffles...Prizes
Adults $8, child & seniors $6
Receive a free raffle ticket with a donation of a can of soup.
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God and Us -- News
from the Vestry
This
may be old news to some, but, in case you missed it-15 people from St.
Mark's took part in Project Bread's Walk for Hunger. They raised
approximately $1600.00. Debbie, Alison, and Andy walked the full 20
miles. Sally and others made 7 ˝ miles. A total of 42,000
people took part and $3.8 million was raised for the hungry.
Congratulations to all.
Rick Eaton and Judy Gustafson are our official greeters to newcomers and
will fill me in on any news. I know Rick has replenished forms in
the pews and sharpened all the pencils.
We plan to have a stewardship dinner with a DJ in late September-more to
follow.
For all those that missed it-we had a delicious catered brunch with our
visitors from Vermont, Wyoming and Upper Michigan. It was a wonderful
time, God sure blessed us on that day and we were honored to have those
guests.
One of our fundraisers will be on Father's Day. We have Father's
Day cards with our lion on the front. Forms are at the back of the
church. All proceeds will go to our property fund.
A meeting was held by the fundraising committee on May 9th. Numerous
ideas were discussed-more to follow.
We are still looking for a baby changing table.
We possibly have a replacement for Sarah. We have his resume and
John has interviewed the applicant and is very impressed with him.
Don't forget the Tea Party on June 12th
Well that's all for now.
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Property
Thank you to all the
Property Angels!
The
church is looking great thanks to God for the good weather and thanks to
the many ANGELS who come at various times to make God's place look
better. Here are just a few beautiful things that have been done by
parishioners in the past few weeks:
·The
gardens have been raked and cleaned of weeds
·Huge
piles of debris have been chipped or removed
·Insulation
has been added to the front doors.
·Two
kneelers have been repaired.
·The
mulch has made all gardens more attractive.
·The
lawn has been cut several times
·The
water leaks are fixed in the Church Roof.
·Light
bulbs have been replaced
·The
sign has been amended to say Service
@ 9 AM
Other
"Angelic Acts of Kindness" continue to be noticed every time we
come to church.
If you want to help,
contact one of the Three Property Coordinators;
Cell: 781-696-3952
- Jack Heidbrink
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Choir
Notes
TEA AND CRUMPETS!!
The St. Mark's Adult Choir will once again be part of the American Girl
Tea Party on June 12th. We will have a chance to sing some songs we
don't normally get to perform, mostly well know favorites from Broadway
musicals. Who doesn't love "Get Me to the Church on Time"? We
hope to see a great turnout for the event. Thank you to Shirley
Estrella for inviting us to be part of the second annual Tea Party, and
thank you to our choir members for making this extra effort.
YOUTH CHOIR IN JUNE
The Youth Choir will take part in our Story Sunday on June 6th, singing a
song for Emily Turner when she is baptized that day. We will sing
"May you Have Peace", accompanying ourselves on various
percussion instruments. It's not to be missed! Our last rehearsal of the
church school year will take place after the service on June 6th.
I am grateful to the Youth Choir members who have dedicated their time
for rehearsals after church and to participate in our worship as fully as
they do.
ADULT CHOIR SOCIAL
The Adult Choir will be gathering to socialize and mark the end of our
rehearsal year. We did this last June and enjoyed ourselves so much we
decided to do it again. Last year we saw the movie "Young at
Heart", about the inspiring chorus of senior citizens in
Northampton, Massachusetts. Rita Boucher has graciously agreed to host us
as we get together this June and watch "Sister Act". Who knows
what ideas we'll take away from that movie?!
SUMMER CHOIR
As in past years, the Youth Choir will take the summer off until the week
after Labor Day when school resumes. The Adult Choir will continue
to grace us with their music during our summer worship services. We will
end our Thursday night rehearsals in June, and then start again the
Thursday after Labor Day. Later in the summer we will have a
session to read through some new anthems that we will consider for the
next church year. Our anthems during the summer will be familiar
favorites, so we invite anyone who would like to try us out to come on Sunday
morning at 8:30am for a quick run-through before the service.
SUMMER HYMNS
Please don't forget to pass along any suggestions you may have for hymns
during the summer. We try to focus on the more familiar ones, but I'm
happy to hear any and all ideas from either the 1982 Hymnal or Lift Ev'ry
Voice and Sing. Just leave a note in my folder in the office, or speak to
me after the service.
Susan Dearborn
Organist and Choir Director
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 Notes from EDS
Despite
David's illness, the demands of work, and Mom's broken hip, I finished
everything I needed to do for the academic year. My Vermont field ed
placement is over. We had our ministry development intensive weekend at
EDS, at which St. Mark's played such a stellar role! I even worked as
gaffer at commencement. I can tell you, crawling around on the floor all
around Christ Church Cambridge, first taping down wires and then
untaping them, is not something I'm particularly well-suited for
anymore. I have rarely been as tired, hot, dirty, and sore as I was that
night!
It
was a bitter-sweet experience to see people, many of whom have
become friends, going off on their careers, much as it is bitter-sweet
for us to see Sarah leave us. We rejoice for her as she moves on to
marriage and a bright future, even as we realize how much we will miss
her.
Change
is hard. And yet, during this year I have come to believe that
God is in change. If we can know what we have in the moment and
thank God for it, if we can honor the past and also be open to the
gifts God has in store for us, and if we can trust in God to hold us
as we face the unknown, we are with God and God is with us.
I
wish my old friends the best as they move on. I will miss them. And, this
September's incoming class is the class I will graduate with in three
years. I look forward to making new friends among them!
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Usher Schedule
BOB
JANKOWSKI
June 13 DON HOWSER
RICK
BLANEY
June 20 JUDY
GUSTAFSON
BOB PATTISON
June 27 GREG DOOLEY
BOB JANKOWSKI
July 4 MARK LAMOURINE
July 11 NELSON HOLT
July 18 RICK BLANEY
July 25 DON
HOWSER
Aug 1 BOB
JANKOWSKI
Aug. 8 GREG DOOLEY
Aug. 15 BOB JANKOWSKI
Aug 22 JUDY GUSTAFSON
Aug.
29 BOB PATTISON
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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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