the episcopal church of the resurrection | 865-986-2390 ...jul 07, 2019 · the episcopal church of...
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The Episcopal Church of the Resurrection | 865-986-2390
CrossRoads
A note from the Rector
Greetings, friends! I am so glad to be home again, and back with you. My trip to the Diocese of Kondoa in Tanzania was an amazing adventure. I feel so very fortunate to have gotten to go, and I learned so much while we were there. During the trip, we visited about 13 of the roughly 150 congregations in the diocese. (I also participated in the pre-ordination retreat for the 12 new ordinands, as well as in their ordination service.)
In each congregation we visited, each member of the team introduced themselves. In each place, I told them that I brought them greetings from the Church of the Resurrection, and offered your good wishes directly to them. The Bishop stated often that he can’t take the people of Kondoa to the world, but he could bring the world to them in the people who came to visit. During our time there, we baptized 150-200 people, we preached and prayed, and the Bishop confirmed even more at each visit. The church is vibrantly alive there, and it was energizing, even on the long days that made us very tired, indeed.
I was so happy to hear of your collection on Pentecost Sunday in my absence! That was such a generous and thoughtful gift, over $1000 in a single Sunday, and Bishop Given, his wife Mother Lillian, and the people of the Diocese of Kondoa will be so excited. In addition to your gift, at their June meeting, the vestry has authorized another $2000 from the outreach budget, bringing our gift as a whole to just over $3000. This amount of money can do great good there - it is more than enough to put a roof on a new church, or to furnish desks for the new secondary school, or even to go towards sinking a new well in a village in which fresh water is so needed. The Kondoan people welcomed us with such joy and celebration in the Holy Spirit, even though they are suffering greatly from a drought that has devastated their crops, causing food shortages in many villages. People who were only eating every second or third day, to conserve food, humbled and honored us greatly by offering us a meal that we might all share together.
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July 2019
Regular Features
Calendar 3
Lay Ministry Schedule 4
Vestry Recap 4
Church &Vestry Contacts 5
Financial Update 8
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CALENDAR NOTES July 4 – Independence Day (Office Closed) July 13 – Daughters of the King Meeting
July 22-28 – Mother Amy on Vacation
Mondays through August, at 10:00 am – Summer Stitchery
Let us go forth into the
world, rejoicing in
the power of the Spirit.
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The team which went is working on putting together a presentation with our best photos and videos of our time there. (I’m culling through hundreds of photos, to pick out the best ones - you don’t want to sit though them all!) In August, we will offer a time in the parish hall so you can hear more about the trip, and about what your gifts have done in partnership with others. We will also look forward to hearing from Deacon Lee about his pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
He and I both agree: it is good to travel - but it is even better to return home. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for the opportunity to serve the wider Anglican communion of which we are all a part. And please keep Bishop Given, and the people of Kondoa in your prayers, as they struggle through this drought. They anticipate many hard days ahead, until the rains (hopefully) return in November.
In Christ always,
Mother Amy
Resurrection has a lot of travelers, and summer is prime vacation and visiting time. Scheduling our lay ministers can be quite a puzzle sometimes, but information can help! Please, if you serve on any of the lay ministries, please remember to let Amanda know if you’ll be unavailable over the summer.
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July 2019 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 10:00 Summer Stitchery Michael & Elizabeth
Meade
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Jack & Hannah Parten
3 Andy & Judy Hadjian
4 Independence Day 6pm Prayers & Squares
5 9am Prayers & Squares
Bill Schwindt
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7 8 & 10am Holy Eucharist
8 10:00 Summer Stitchery 7pm AA
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10 10am Holy Eucharist/Healing 6pm Choir
11 5:30pm AA (women)
12 7pm AA
13 9:30am Daughters of the King
14 8 & 10am Holy Eucharist
15 10:00 Summer Stitchery 7pm AA
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Ginny Tolbert
17 10am Holy Eucharist/Healing 4:30pm Vestry 6pm Choir
Judy Hadjian Judith Kubesh
18 5:30pm AA (women) 6pm Prayers & Squares
19 9am Prayers & Squares 7pm AA
Ben Kubesh
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Bruce Kilmer Michael Minor
21 8 & 10am Holy Eucharist
22 10:00 Summer Stitchery 7pm AA
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24 10amHoly Eucharist/Healing 6 pm Choir
25 5:30pm AA (women)
Monty Ross
26 7pm AA
Janey Coombes
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28 8 & 10am Holy Eucharist
29 10:00 Summer Stitchery 7pm AA
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31 10am Holy Eucharist/Healing 6pm Choir
Thomas Fiebke Jr.
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Vestry Meeting Recap – June 2019 Note: the notes that appear in the CrossRoads are not the official, approved minutes, but rather provide an overview of the meeting. Official minutes, once approved by the vestry, are available in a notebook in the parish hall.
Financial Even though people are away we are still on budget with the pledges. $80K is being transferred from the money market account to our TD Ameritrade accounts to earn a better rate of return. The 2018 audit is complete and has been submitted to the Diocese. It was decided that $2,000 be taken from the Outreach fund and added to the $1,040 collected at Pentecost for a total donation of $3,040 to the Diocese of Kondoa. The Bishop of Kondoa will decide the best use of our donation, and we look forward to hearing how they use it. We are grateful for people’s generous support. Junior Warden The next workday to prepare the grounds for Ribfest is on July 20. There were only 10 volunteers on the June 15 workday, which was not enough. We need about 20 people to accomplish the work on July 20. Lack of volunteers for this preparation work could put Ribfest in jeopardy. An anonymous donor has offered to fund the installation of a concrete path from the parking lot to the back of the church to replace the uneven stones there now. The vestry gratefully accepted the donation and hoped the work would be complete by the end of July.
Lay Ministry Schedules If you are unable to serve as scheduled, please try to find an alternate and let Amanda know so she can update the schedule. Because schedules may change, please be sure to check the Sunday Bulletin and weekly email updates for the most current version.
Church and Vestry Contacts
Resurrection Office 865-986-2390 [email protected]
Amy Morehous, Rector 865-986-2390 [email protected]
Lee Ragsdale, Deacon 865-740-3657 [email protected]
Andrew Wilkinson, Senior Warden 865-244-7593 [email protected]
Garry Lucas, Junior Warden 662-588-0543 [email protected]
Tony Adams 423-884-3024 [email protected]
Alice Anderson 865-988-0389 [email protected]
Will Heathcote 865-458-1210 [email protected]
Jan Sampson 630-207-1040 janteachersampson@ gmail.com
Bill Schwindt 865-657-3421 [email protected]
Art Stewart 865-256-5935 [email protected]
Diane Van Koughnett 865-458-6000 [email protected]
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Summer Stitchery Do you knit? Crochet? Embroider or cross stitch? Hand sew? Come join us for some summer handiwork time - whether you’re more of a yarn person, or you prefer needle and thread, bring your current project, and join us for some summer stitchery beginning Monday, July 1st, from 10-noon.
Always wanted to learn to knit, or having trouble with a project? Mother Amy can help you learn the basics, or sometimes even unsnarl your snangle if you find yourself tied up in knots. We will have coffee and tea available, and folks are welcome to drop in and out as their schedule allows anytime between 10:00 and noon. Friends and neighbors are all welcome, so come sit for a bit and stitch with us this summer.
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“And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel.” - Revelation 8:4
In Kelly Johnson’s excellent sermon last week, she talked about the many different traditions of worship from which we all come, all along the spectrum from low church to high. This puts us in what’s called “broad church” - a congregation which is fortunate to appreciate the full spectrum of Anglican worship as it’s been passed down to us through our church’s 500 years of history. One of the aspects of worship at Resurrection in the past has been incense - an important part of worship for the early Hebrew people, for Paul and the early Christians, on through the centuries of Christian worship. It was my understanding that it was the congregation’s preference here at Resurrection to use incense for the high holy days of our church calendar: the Feast of the Incarnation (Christmas Eve), Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, Christ the King Sunday, and All Saints’. This is somewhere in the middle of church practice - some congregations never use incense, some use it only for Christmas and Easter, while some use it for nearly every Eucharistic service. When I arrived, I embraced what I understood your preferred pattern to be. However, I hear that in my absence, the incense used at Pentecost took people by surprise - and some of them, a very unwelcome
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Senior Warden The church and parish hall have no fire suppression system or monitored security system. Estimates have been obtained to provide those systems. A sprinkler system is not an option as the cost to install the required high-pressure water supply is well in excess of $100,000. The estimates to provide monitored fire alarm systems is also high, with the lowest quotation being around $15,000. The vestry has been asked to consider whether this would be a worthwhile expenditure. Rector Mother Amy reported on her trip to the Diocese of Kondoa. Three priests and four lay people went. It was an amazing trip, the pace was exhausting, but the people are wonderful and joyful. The group is working on a presentation together with all their photos and comments they’d like to share. She passed along Church of the Resurrection’s good wishes everywhere they went. Travel was hard, commutes were long in a full Range Rover travelling over unpaved roads. Services were long with baptisms of people of all ages and confirmations. A knitting and handwork group is starting on Monday, July 1 and will run through the summer. All interested are welcome to attend. EFM is something Mother Amy would like to have available in the parish. Six people are needed to form a group. She’ll be talking about it more in the fall. Her preference is for a lay person to run it if our church proceeds. Mother Amy spoke about the Sewanee Ministry Collaborative established at the School of Theology. The Bishop encouraged her to apply and she was accepted. The first summit will take place in September during the week on September 10-13. Ribfest Andrew provided this update. Ten teams have committed. Dave Baumgardner is hoping for another five. The land has been cleared already for teams. Tickets are now available – Dave is handing sales. 350 tickets have been printed. People can go online to order tickets. Church members may get blocks of tickets to sell if they wish to help as in previous years. The process will be the same. Collect the monies and return unsold tickets to Dave prior to Ribfest Incense There was a concern about the use of incense as many people were affected by it at the single service on Pentecost Sunday. Many wished they were notified ahead of a service using incense. Mother Amy said it is normally used only on feast days, and she would like people who have issues with incense to be encouraged to speak with her. She stated that the type we are using currently is the most hypoallergenic.
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7 What if the church caught fire? by Andrew Wilkinson
As you may have noticed we have no smoke or heat detectors in the church or parish hall. So, what would happen if there was a fire? Unless there was someone in the building, we would have to rely on our neighbors spotting the smoke and calling the fire department. By the time this happened, a fire would likely be well established and the damage to the building would be severe before the fire department arrived, maybe resulting a complete loss of the building. Of course, we all hope this will never happen, and even the most pessimistic of us would have to admit the chances of a fire are extremely small.
What can we do to mitigate the losses that would result from a fire, and is the cost of taking such steps reasonable? The best way to reduce the damage caused by a fire is to install a sprinkler system as this would minimize the fire and water damage. Because there are no fire hydrants in the vicinity of our church, the cost of running the required high-pressure water line from the nearest hydrant is prohibitive – well over $100,000. Another option we have is to install a fire detection system that is monitored 24/7. With such a system, smoke would be detected inside the building and the fire department would be notified immediately. This early detection is likely to result in less damage to the buildings, probably avoiding a total loss. The lowest estimate we have received for the cost of installing a fire detection system in our buildings is about $16,000. I have asked our vestry to consider whether this is a reasonable us of the church’s funds, and we will discuss it again at the next vestry meeting on July 17th I now ask each one of you reading this article to help the vestry by considering the following, and then letting any vestry member know how you feel.
1. How would you feel about being unable to use either the church or the parish hall for over one year, which is the time it could take to rebuild after a total loss? Remember that we would lose the use of the building after any fire damage; the greater the damage the longer we would be without the building.
2. Is it reasonable to spend $16,000 potentially to reduce the amount of time we would be unable to use the church or parish hall?
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surprise. If this is the case for you, then I offer you my apologies. As your rector, I am charged with conducting worship within the traditions which have been handed down to us as Anglicans. So, my friends, I’m asking for your thoughtful input. What is your experience of incense in our worship? Does it add to or take away from the celebration of our holiest of days? Incense is meant as a fragrant and prayerful offering to God, and is a meaningful and historic part of our worship but what if its use drives others from the sanctuary? In larger sanctuaries, it can be easier to sit further away from incense, if that’s a person’s preference. Here at Resurrection, we share a fairly intimate worship space, and we all have to share it together. We are a microcosm of the kingdom of God, and each person is a valued member - so, how do we share our space, and our worship time thoughtfully and respectfully? Whatever your opinion, I hope that you will communicate it to me directly, either in conversation, or in e-mail. I also ask that you respect the opinions of others, especially when they don’t match your own. Everyone comes to our worship with very different experiences and ideas; there is history and meaning to be found in our common practices. We all come to seek God, to worship, to pray, to sing, and to gather around the altar and break bread together. We can learn from one another, if we’re willing to listen. In the months ahead, I will be listening to you, and I will communicate what I’m hearing. If incense is going to be used in a service (the next one would, in theory, be All Saints’ Sunday, the first Sunday in November) it will be communicated well in advance. And I thank you in advance for being willing to be in conversation - with God, with me, and with one another.
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The Episcopal Church of the Resurrection
917 Pond Road, Loudon, TN 37774 865-986-2390 886-467-2223 [email protected]
Refreshing souls, bridging communities, engaging people in service.
Find us on the Web:
episcopalloudon.com
Financial Snapshot May 2019
Operations Month
Y-T-D
Income $21,616.09 $120,739.03 Expenses $21,283.23 $101,478.11 Balance $332.86 $19,260.92
Pledges Actual $20,878.71 $110,205.18 Budgeted $21,082.00 $105,410.00 Difference ($203.29) $4,795.18