Announcements and Events
January 2012
Faith In Action
Annual Meeting
and
Celebration of our Life together Pot-Luck
Sunday, February 5, 2012 in the undercroft
Join us!
All SING born!
Beginning September 18, 2011 - 9 am in the parish house parlors.
All Sing is simple Christian music with a variety of instruments and families. This music group will have a songbook and everyone who attends will have the opportunity to request songs. In short it will be your favorite church camp tunes done without the camp fire.
Progressive Christian Adult Education Series
WHEN - Wednesday Evenings; 5:30 – 6:30, Potluck; 6:30 – 8:00,
Lesson and Discussion
WHERE - Parlors, St. John’s Episcopal Church
WHY - To Share Ideas about How to Live as a Christian in Today’s World
WHO - Anyone Interested in Participating, for One Session or for More
Jesus lived constantly aware that God is always doing something right here, right now in this world and that anybody can be a part of it. He encouraged all to search, to question, to wrestle with the implications of what He was saying and doing. Wherever He went, whatever He did, Jesus started discussions about what matters most because, for Jesus, God is always inviting us to open our eyes and join in!
Please feel welcomed to come join in any or all of the discussions we will be having over the next several months, as we listen to a lesson and participate in a discussion to discern together how we think Jesus might answer questions such as these if we could ask Him what He thinks about them today:
- Does my life really matter?
- How can we forgive what feels unforgivable?
- Does God have faith in us?
- Why do we have to suffer the loss of those we love?
- Is it wrong for me to get angry?
- Why won’t You give us nice, neat answers?
Each week we will first watch a 10 – 14 minute film of a scripturally and experientially based teaching about a specific topic related to real – life situations. Topics cover issues we care about, and that we want to talk about, and that come up every day in our lives. Then we will follow a discussion guide prepared by NOOMA (see www.NOOMA.com) and produced by Rob Bell, one of the most influential --- and controversial --- evangelical Pastors in America today.
Handcrafters Guild Rocks!
Please Join Us!
New to St John’s? Newly retired? Enjoy crafting?
The HandCrafters Guild meets every Tuesday afternoon at 1 pm at the Sloan home in Florence. All our projects are donated to our annual Christmas Fair, St. John’s largest fund raiser of the year. We are a dedicated and friendly group and all skill levels are welcome. Tea, laughs and treats abound throughout our afternoons of crafting. Please join us! Georgie @ 586-3632, Inge @ 586-4634, Susan @ 586-0879
St. John’s Survival Center Garden
Last summer we “grew” a new ministry! We planted a plot at the Northampton Community Gardens, enjoyed the out-of-doors and each other’s company, and donated the harvest to the Northampton Survival Center, where it was a welcome addition to the standard canned and packaged food offerings. Please join us! No gardening experience is necessary; we’re all learning from each other. We’re looking for volunteers to plan, prepare the garden, plant, weed, mulch, water, harvest and deliver. Also needed are donations of compost, organic fertilizer, starter plants, mulch and tools. Join us once or on a regular basis. If you’re interested, please contact Cathy Wanat at 584-2395 or cgwanat@hotmail.com.
Living the Questions
There are now two Living the Questions groups, one closer to the start-up meets on Wednesday during Forum at 11:00 and the evening one meets at 6:00 pm preceded by a pot-luck. Both groups are happy to have new members. A new group will start in the Fall if you are interested you should speak to Rev. Munz.
Outreach Funds Distribution
Each December, interested parishioners are invited to gather together to decide how to distribute outreach funds that have been raised throughout the year. Funds are raised mostly from our Christmas Fair, but are also supplemented by our annual tag sale.
Funds raised in 2010 amounted to $7,092 and were distributed to the following:
Safe Passage, Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity, Hampshire County Jail Decisional Training program, MANNA Soup Kitchen, Inc., the Northampton Survival Center, the Interfaith Help Fund, Hampshire
Interfaith Cot Shelter, Anglican Frontier Missions for the Culver family in China, Afghan Relief Fund, Borderlands Education and Spiritual
Center, Laundry soap for the homeless shelter clients, Haiti Relief,
Episcopal Relief and Development
If you are interested in being part of the Mission/Outreach Committee, please contact Rev. Munz.
At the distribution meeting and at he December Vestry meeting, the decision was made to dedicate all money raised from the 2011 tag sale to the Episcopal Church’s effort to rebuilding Haiti.
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