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The Word
Greetings
in the Name of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
October
2007
In the year ending on 1
October 2007 this parish contributed $12,150 to the relief of those in need in
West Point and
§ 65.2% was paid for
electricity, gas and water. Effective
15-08-07, the parish stopped the direct payment of any utility charge, except
in cases referred by The Salvation Army.
§ 17.4% for housing
assistance. Effective 15-08-07, the parish
stopped the direct payment of housing assistance, except in cases referred by
The American Red Cross.
§ 6.7% for food. Most contributions in this area were
non-monetary, being in the form of the donation of goods to The Community Food
Pantry.
§ 5.5% for medicine; 1.9% for clothing; and 3.3% for
other needs (incl. baby supplies, transportation assistance, and fees needed to
secure government-issued identification).
§ None of these numbers
include in-kind donations of clothing, furniture, bedding, school supplies,
etc.
Of the donations made to
the Rector’s Discretionary Fund in support of this charitable work, 8.2% was
included in the parish budget, 81.0% was contributed by two families, and the
remaining 10.8% was contributed by other members of the parish.
It has been our policy to normally provide
assistance once per year to persons in need of aid. Of the 215 people receiving direct aid from
the parish in the past year, 11 received aid more than once, due to
extraordinary circumstances (e.g., subsequent accidental injury). If we estimate how many family members may
have benefited from aid provided, it is evident that we have provided direct
aid to between 2.5 and 3% of the population of the entire county. Of those who have received aid, we have
direct knowledge of 6 people who have secured full-time employment secondary to
help we have provided.
Jesus reminds us that it is in the nature
of this fallen world that the poor will always be with us (Mt. 26.11), and that
the giving of alms is a Christian duty (Lk.
12.33). It is clear that we are
responding to need out of love for our Lord, and not just from a sense of duty,
but as our Lord’s disciples–those who “... seek and serve Christ in all
persons” (BCP 305)–we must be “...wise as serpents and innocent as
doves” (Mt. 10.16). We are called to act
wisely in all stewardship, and to offer up not just our riches in money, but in
time and talent as well. To this end,
this month marks the start of a campaign to be smarter in how we continue to
give generously. We will seek to be
smarter by seeking to lead, by seeking to organize the churches of Christ in
this community to act together in the provision of relief. I have this past week sent a letter to every
church in
§ Who can provide monetary relief; in
what amount?
§ Who can provide relief in-in kind;
in food, clothing, services?
§ How can we best share information
and resources?
§ How do we avoid duplication of
services, and best leverage the government programs that are available?
§ What institutional and functional
barriers exist that prevent us from working together better, or being more
effective in providing relief?
The goal will be to
design and implement a system, staffed all by voluntary labor,
that will allow us to help more people in need. One outcome might be a “one stop” system,
where all persons in need can be referred to one center that coordinate
relief across all church groups. That
center would be open five days a week, staffed by volunteers. For example, it might be staffed by
Episcopalians on Monday, Methodists on Tuesday, etc.
In being good stewards we have to be
realistic. It will be a major “win” if
50% of congregations send representatives to the 29 October meeting. It will be a major accomplishment if by the
beginning of the
new year we have five or six congregations ready and willing to dedicate
resources to this ministry (to which I am assigning the provisional project
name of “4C” for “Clay County Christians Care”), and five or six more who have
made relief of the poor a higher priority in their spiritual lives. One of the ways we will work to make this
happen is to keep communicating with all congregations, and keep communicating
through the press about how the Christians in this community will continue to
show their love for neighbor in living their love for God.
Please come see me if you can volunteer to
help, as a envelope-stuffer, telephonist, hospitality
minister, and as someone with great ideas about how to lead all of our fellow
disciples into greater service
______________________________________________________________________________
A
Note on Stewardship
Please make sure you attend the luncheon after Holy
Eucharist on Sunday, 7 October, when we will kick-off the
2007–08 Stewardship Campaign (to be chaired once again by Dwight Dyess). We’ll review a first draft of the 2008
budget, which reflects material increases in costs for items such as necessary
stained glass repair, an expanded music ministry, an increase in health
insurance and utility costs, and the partial retirement of debt incurred in the
purchase of the rectory. This parish is
healthy financially, and advance budget planning will help to keep us that way
when we can each share the blessings which our Lord has showered upon us.
Yours in Christ Jesus,
Grace Notes
Music: We’re
reversing the order of “Grace Notes” this month, in honor of the start of
Margaret Mary Henry as our organist.
Margaret Mary, a
We begin the month with the famous hymn Christ is
Made the Sure Foundation (518). This
hymn is from the 7th century, as translated by Bl.
John Mason Neale.
Neale (feast day 7 August) was a nineteenth
century English priest responsible for much of the reconnection in liturgy and
spirituality between the Church of England and the early Church. A polymath fluent in 22 languages, Neale is responsible for more hymns (forty-five) in our
hymnal than any other author or translator.
The tune to this hymn is from 13th century French plainsong
also unearthed by Neale in his researches. The hymn’s reminder of the foundation of all
of our faith is balanced by those which remind us of Jesus’ call to us as our
shepherd, The King of Love my Shpherd Is
(645), sung to an old Irish melody, and His call to labor for the kingdom which
resonates in the twentieth century hymn Come Labor On (541).
Eighteenth century hymnody, which focuses much more
on congregational singing, is represented in The Head that Once was Crowned
with Thorns (483), with German Reformation chorale singing represented in Now
Thank we all Our God (396). At the
end of the month a twentieth century flavor obtains, with All my Hope on God
is Founded (665) and Tell Out, my Soul, the Greatness of the Lord! (438), the latter of which is a paraphrase of the Magnificat (Lk. 1.47-55). In 438 we will sing a tune which is new to us
(we have always used 437), written by Walter Greatorex. This tune is best known in the Anglican
Communion as Lift up your Hearts!, and will be rememberd by
some from the The Hymnal 1940, in which
it was used for no. 389, Rise, Crowned with Light. The setting of Timothy Dudley-Smith’s
paraphrase of the Magnificat to this tune was
used originally in the Roman Catholic Church.
The adoption of this hymn instead of the prior hymns using this tune
reflects, probably, the desire that the new hymnal not reflect “Christian
guilt,” i.e., any emphasis on sin (which both old hymns emphasize). We need, however, to be reminded of our
fallen state. Just as Mary speaks of a
humble heart in the Magnificat, the English
poet John Hall echos in Blest are the Pure in
Heart (656), in which we sing, “Lord, we thy presence seek; my ours this
blessing be; give us a pure and lowly heart, a temple fit for thee.”
The Service music we are using in Rite I combines
the old Scottish chant form (S204 for the Gloria in excelsis
Deo) and a Sanctus (S113) and Agnus Dei (S157) from the sixteenth century Prayer
Booke Noted of John Merbecke. Merbecke set the
prayers of The Book of Common Prayer to music following the dictum of
Elizabeth I that “music must be understanded of the
people,” which required a one note:one
syllable correspondence.
Holy Days: Three
apostles are celebrated in October:
James of Jerusalem (the brother of our Lord) on the 23rd, and
Simon and Jude on the 28th.
St. Luke the Evangelist is remembered on the 18th. St. Luke is both the patron of physicians and
painters. He himself was a physician
(Col. 4.14), and tradition holds that he painted the first icon, of the Virgin
Mary.
The month begins with feast of Remigius
of Rheims. Remigius
was the apostle to the Germanic Franks in the sixth century. 1 October is also used as the Feast of
Dedication, in which the founding of a congregation is remembered if the
actual date of founding is unclear or conflicts with a feast with priority on
the calendar.
The feast of St. Francis of
Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Ridley and Thomas Cranmer (d.
1555-56, feast 16 October) were killed in the battles of the English
Reformation. In the library of
Finally, the month also includes teachers and
thinkers, including Robert Grosseteste (d. 1253,
feast 9 Oct.), Samuel Schereschewsky (14 Oct.), the
twentieth century convert from Judaism who translated the Bible into Mandarin
Chinese, and St. Teresa of Avila (15 Oct.) the great 16th century
mystic, who is the only woman whom Rome has accorded the highest distinction of
being a “Doctor of the Church”.
VESTRY HIGHLIGHTS
Treasurer’s
Report: $9975.16 Operating Account,
$44,175.71 Capital Account.
The Stewardship Campaign will
begin in October. We need a Chairman.
The yearly Stewardship
Pot-Luck Luncheon will be Sunday, Oct. 7th.
Father Karl advised the
Vestry of the House of Bishops meeting in
A community-wide church
initiative for relief is being discussed by Father Karl with West Point
Ministerial Association of which he is a member.
What churches are doing what
for hard-times relief and is there a way to co-ordinate programs are questions
being asked. No utility bills are being
paid by Incarnation now except Salvation Army referrals.
Vestry
Highlights submitted by the Church Clerk,
Marion
Kohut
288TH
SAPPER COMPANY
The 288th Sapper
Company of
RECTOR’S
DISCRETIONARY FUND
Every person whom we are
blessed to help through the Rector’s Discretionary Fund is added to the Prayer
List for the month in which help is provided.
