From the Rector

Several of you have talked to me recently about the effect St. Mark's is having on your ability to hear and respond to God's call. I have been greatly encouraged by these conversations. Here are some of the highlights:

• I felt immediately welcome at St. Mark's. You can't tell a founding member from a newcomer - everyone behaves as though they belong.
• When I made a list (in the Covenant! Class) of people whom I admire, all of them were teachers. It was like being hit over the head by a baseball bat. I am going back to college to pursue a degree in early childhood education.
• I was sneaking in with my daughter after the opening hymn. A parishioner said to me "God doesn't mind if you are late!"
• I am less reactive when my buttons are pushed, more able to live out of my true self, less judgmental, needing to "win" less, more able to accept the world and not to demand to live in the world according to me.
• At this point my life is more about being that about doing. When I pray my anxiety washes away.
• A parishioner said to me, "You take care of everyone else - you need to take care of yourself"
• My primary vocational issue now is surrender - asking God for help as I respond to God's call, not behaving as though I have enough resources apart from God and structuring my  life in a way which supports my calling in my diet, exercise, prayer, sleep and an ordered physical space.

Calendar 

Sunday June 5 - Bishop Bud Cederholm visits.

Tuesday June 7 - People Helping People fundraiser at Lester's BBQ, 5-8:30.

Saturday June 11 - Pentecost Eve Voices United! celebration at Cathedral, 7:00 pm

Sunday June 12 - Pentecost Birthday Party and Sunday School Awards Sunday 

Tuesday June 14 - Women's Group Dinner at Bickford's Grille - meet at St. Mark's at 6:30 pm

Sunday June 19 - Father's Day

Friday June 24 - Fundraiser for the Jankowsky family - Tewksbury Elks, 7:00 pm to midnight.

Celebrate a Birthday

Pentecost Eve Voices United!

Cathedral Church of St. Paul (138 Tremont Street), Boston

This is your invitation to "Pentecost Eve Voices United", a musical and liturgical celebration of various voices and cultures of the diocese. The event is sponsored by the diocesan Clergy of Color group, Antiracism Ministry Team, Hispanic Ministries Committee, Lift Every Voice/Diversity in Leadership Committee, Slavery and Reconciliation Task Force, the Union of Black Episcopalians, and the Episcopal Boston Chinese Ministry along with our Cathedral Church of St. Paul.

Bishop Shaw invites us to end our Easter season as gloriously as we began: with a festival vigil to send us out, like the first disciples, full of the Holy Spirit, to witness to God's transforming power in the world. We hope every congregation will be represented. Join the bishops and all of your brothers and sisters from across the diocese, telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God!

St. Mark's Sunday School Continues through the Summer Months!

Children of all ages are always welcome in worship at St. Mark's. However, many young children are better able to learn and focus their attention on stories from Holy Scripture when the stories are presented with colorful illustrations and the children are offered a way to actively participate. So this summer we are offering our preschool through 4^th grade children the option of participating in a Sunday School lesson during the first part of worship.

Each lesson is based on a story from Genesis, often using a beautifully illustrated retelling of the story to help children hear and understand the story. After the story the children are invited to respond to the story with an activity.

Here's a preview of our first four lessons:

* On May 29^th we read In Our Image a retelling of the creation story from Genesis 1 by Nancy Swartz. Then we made collages to help us think about the personal gifts we have been given by God.

* On June 5^th we'll be reading Adam and Eve's First Sunset by Sandy Sasso. Then we'll be making crayon-resist paintings of what we do when we feel afraid.

* On June 12^th we'll be reading Finding the Fruits of Peace, a retelling of the story of Cain and Abel. Then we'll be considering our own ways to resolve conflicts using comic strip drawings.

* Did you ever want to learn more about Noah's wife? On June 19^th we'll be reading The Story of Naamah, Noah's Wife. Then we'll be planting miniature gardens.

Since we'd like our regular Sunday School teachers to be able to join us for worship during the summer months, we'll need parents and other adults to help lead these lessons. So far we have four volunteers. Will you consider helping once or twice during the summer months? Leading the class is not very time consuming, since the book and everything else you need for the lesson is contained in the lesson kit. If you are not able to help lead a class perhaps you might help us collect recycled materials: magazines with lots of photographs of people, plants and animals and shoe boxes.

Thank you for all of your support for our children at St. Mark's!

Peace,

Philip

Scholarship Announcement

Women's Group

Our final meeting before the summer will be on Tuesday, June 14, 2011. As in years past, we will be going out to dinner. Our destination this year will be Bickford's Grille on Cambridge Street in Burlington.  

There will be a sign up sheet in the Narthex. Please sign up by Sunday, June 12, 2011.  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 will be made 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 or at 781-883-8972

Rosemarie Tieri  or at 781-272-1558
Judy Gustafson or at 781-229-2688

Sunday School News

People Helping People  Fundraiser

On Tuesday, June 7, a fundraiser to benefit Burlington's People Helping People will be held at Lester's Roadside BBQ at 376 Cambridge Street in Burlington. Lester's will donate to People Helping People a percentage of all sales, including take-out, between 5:00 and 8:30 p.m. In addition, People Helping People will host an on-premise bake sale throughout the evening.

Lester's Roadside BBQ specializes in real pit-smoked barbecue. Menu items include pulled pork, barbecue chicken, and dry-rub ribs. A variety of barbecue platters, sandwiches, wraps and salads are served, plus traditional sides and kid-friendly meals. See Lester's website for more information.

If you're willing to provide baked goods for the bake sale table, please see the sign-up sheet posted in the narthex. All baked goods should be delivered to Lester's between 4:30 and 5:00 on June 7.

Please help support this important fundraiser for People Helping People!

Outreach Team News

With Spring here, we celebrated Mother's Day and the very special women in our lives. There are many other women who do not physically touch our lives, but we can thoughtfully and lovingly make a difference in theirs. The Outreach Committee is asking you all to participate in a toiletry drive for the guests of the Women's Lunch Place in Boston.  The Lunch Place services the poor and homeless women of Boston. The staff and volunteers hold onto a vision that profound change is possible as they work with drug addicts, victims of domestic violence and those who are suddenly homeless because of divorce or job loss. To meet their daily survival needs, the Lunch Place provides breakfast and lunch, daily shelter services, including showers, and onsite medical care.  

The staff advocates help guests with government benefits, housing searches, landlord disputes, and legal actions they may be facing. The staff listen to very real problems and work toward manageable solutions, with the end goal that the women they work with become more empowered and self-sufficient.

The Outreach Committee has placed a basket in the Narthex for the gathering of small toiletries (travel-size, hotel soaps, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, toothbrushes, toothpaste etc.).  The Basket has already been emptied once, filling two bags.  Let's keep this worthwhile drive going. 

- Betsy Figenbaum

Born: Cambridge, MA, and moved to Burlington at age 4 yrs.

Wife: Ginger. Sons: Scott, Craig, and Keith

What do you love to do? Photography, golf, fresh water fishing, play guitar.

At St. Mark's: Vestry (twice), choir member for many years. Organized Spring Sunday School cookout with Harold Tavares. Helped with the annual Church Strawberry Festival

We moved to Burlington when it was still a small town of about 2000 people and it was a rural community. It was the common thing that a family had one car and Mom stayed home to raise the children. Church was a focal point and every week we went to Sunday School. We always had a garden, maybe because our parents grew up through the Great Depression, and remembered that they needed any food they could get when things got tight.

Since we came from Cambridge roots, we had gone to St. James Episcopal Church there, and knew Doris Floyd, Penny Newton and her mother who ran the Sunday School. We came to Burlington in time and lived through the growth from the VFW to the temporary portable church where Frank Bartlett and I were St. Mark's first acolytes. The youth group became a very important focal point for all of us.  When Ginger and I got married, we went back to St. James in Cambridge to hold the big wedding. We have been married for 43 years have 3 wonderful sons and embrace the love of their wives and four super grandchildren. Ginger is the love of my life and with God's help we have been there for each other through some difficult times.

Back in the 1960's and 70's, church was a focal point for families. Most families were one income, and there were fewer activities for children, so families spent more time as families, especially on weekends. Sundays were for church and family.

In our early years of marriage and as a young family we did a lot of camping on Newfound Lake in Bristol, NH. We learned to water ski. Ginger had trouble learning, but she persevered and got it down by the end of one long summer. She never gave up. What wonderful memories.

My older sons and I are engineers "techies".  I really love my job, and I consider it my own professional work. When I retire, I will cut down to part time, and continue doing what I love to do.

Keith, my youngest son is an artist, spiritual, and not materialistic. About six years ago, he started to teach me to play the guitar and it was a great way for us to bond in a new way.  I have found the guitar to be soothing and relaxing.

Above all St. Mark's continues to be central to our lives. The love that has been extended to us by the St. Mark's family during our recent difficult times has been wonderful.

(reported by Rick Eaton)

Bobby's Bash

In a surprising turn of events, next academic year I will participating in a pilot program to establish a spiritual resources associate position at Lesley University, EDS's partner. I had not planned to do field education next year, but this opportunity called to me. It offers me an opportunity to work with students from many cultural and religious backgrounds, and to build relationships between Lesley and other faith-based organizations in Cambridge and Boston. Interfaith work, and work with those who do not profess a religion but are drawn to individual spiritual practices, is a growing interest of mine. This is a wonderful opportunity, but may mean that on some weekends I worship with Lesley students at some of the many different places of worship available in Cambridge, and not at St. Mark's.

Because EDS is offering so many classes I either need to take as I move into the first of my last two years, or want badly to take for my own discernment, I'm not associating this field ed position with a course. It's very much like I'm working a second part time job on top of my regular course load and normal contract work load. Plus, I need to continue to focus on improving my physical health, which means making time to exercise and cook healthy meals. All of this means that I will have even less time to work with you at St. Mark's this coming year. I will worship with you as much as I possibly can, and hope that you know that, even when I am not here, you are all in my prayers. 

I am particularly looking forward to taking "The Spirituality of Healing." I would never have considered this were it not for the amazing spirit that moves among us during our healing prayers.

This is my last issue as Editor of the ROAR (which really is more like assembly work rather than editing!) I will do all that I can to help with the transition to the new communications team. I hope that whomever takes over the ROAR will allow me to continue to write this column. I look forward to sharing with you my growing sense of excitement at what God might be dreaming for me next!

- Catherine Owens

LECTORS

CHALICERS

During the summer we begin worship as usual at 9:30, followed by coffee hour. Other meetings and events are as announced.