8:00 AM Rite II
9:00 AM Annual Meeting
10:00 AM Rite II: Choir & Sunday School
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Visit our virtual worship page for the Sunday Bulletin
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Please plan to join us THIS Sunday at 9 AM for our Annual Meeting.
View the 2024 Annual Report here. | |
Please note: Rev. Jill will be away next week Monday, February 3 through Friday, February 7. If you have a Pastoral Emergency that needs immediate attention, please contact Rev. Terry. | |
Annual Meeting
THIS Sunday, February 2 at 9 AM
All members of Saint John's are invited and encouraged to attend.
View the 2024 Annual Report here.
Our 2025 Vestry Nominees are:
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DEBBIE MILLER
I have been a member of St. John’s Concord for over twenty-six years. Before that I was a member of St. John’s Lansdowne for thirty-five years where I was confirmed and married. I have two children Abigail and Bernie IV - both were baptized here at St. John's. We used to attend the 9:15 service and the whole family often ushered. Currently we attend the 8am service and we usher as a family during the holidays. I’m part of the team that delivers food to St. Mary’s Food Pantry. I also enjoy being part of St. John’s WSFG/WOW and the literary group. My husband, Bernie Miller and I have been working on the horseshoe garden at the church. We are now members of the Green Team working hard to support many environmental projects. I am currently retired from DCIU as a Special Education teacher. I am involved with the Alpha Delta Kappa - sorority for teachers that supports altruistic projects benefiting the children and teachers in Delaware County. Also, I am on the Board of Trustees for Chester Heights at the Rachel Kohl Community Library. I recognize and appreciate being nominated for the vestry and am looking forward to working with some wonderful people in our church community.
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DIANE STOVER
I’ve been married for 31 years to my soulmate Don Stover. I have two beautiful and successful daughters, Rose and Gloria. My husband and I have dedicated our lives to our children, ensuring that they continue, even as adults, to be nurtured and loved through all their successes and challenges. Second to motherhood, my passions are roller skating, yoga, music, reading and crocheting.
Although I was baptized Catholic, after years of judgment from the Catholic church, my parents decided to raise me and my siblings without church, as Christians, in the home. From the age of 5, I remember being continually reminded that if I was afraid, I should pray to Jesus. After watching Jesus of Nazareth on TV when I was 12, Jesus was all I could think of and I had intermittent attendance at my local Catholic church throughout my life. After researching the Episcopal church and Saint John’s, I determined that it may be the perfect fit for me. Upon my first visit to Saint John’s, I knew that I was home. My goal and mission in life is to attain the unwavering faith that my mother had and to share my journey with others.
Thank you for this opportunity to contribute to Saint John’s and serve Jesus to the best of my ability.
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PHIL THOMPSEN
I would be honored to serve on the Vestry at Saint John’s Church. I have felt warmly welcomed to Saint John’s since I first visited in 2016. The following year, I joined the choir, and I continue to be an active member of our music ministry. I have also regularly served as a lector, reading scripture and leading the Prayers of the People. I was baptized in 1962 at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral Church in Minneapolis, and I was confirmed at Saint John’s in 2019. Shortly after Father John retired, I served on the Transition Prayer Group, and I continue to serve on our Parish Prayer Group, a ministry of the Pastoral Care Committee. During the pandemic, I helped lead the effort to live stream our worship services, and I continue to serve on the Tech Team. In 2023, I was elected to serve as a Delegate to the Diocesan convention, and have participated as a delegate in the past two conventions.
On a personal note, I hold a Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Utah. I worked in higher education for 40 years, including 27 years at West Chester University, from which I retired in 2024. My scholarship has been published in numerous journals and book chapters, and I am the author of the textbook On Air: Effective Announcing. Prior to my academic career, I worked as a broadcast announcer for 9 years. I am married to Sherry Thompsen, who also attends Saint John’s and sings in our choir.
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TRACEY PAYNE
I joined Saint John's with my husband, Ty, about 29 years ago. We were looking for a church that would support and encourage our biracial relationship, now 39 years strong, as we began to start our family. We started attending the "early" service, then switched to the "family" service once Cordell was old enough to start making noise. Ty was confirmed and Cordell was baptized and confirmed at Saint John's.
I was raised in the Episcopal Church, Ty and I were married at Good Samaritan in Paoli, and our son, Cordell, was baptized at Saint John's 28 years ago. This church continues to be a strength and foundation, as we have made friends and made true family connections with many parishioners. We have a home!!!
I have been known to attend with my fur babies, first Coda, our Rottie, then Ginger, our Pittie, now we are raising Sheba, also a Pittie, to soon follow in her sibling paw steps and attend services as well.
I have been involved in helping facilitate Sunday school, I help as a Counter, am co-Altar Guild directress, and now begin my 3rd term on Vestry. I find great pride in cultivating the relationships I have formed within our parish family. Saint John's ROCKs!
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Green Team Update
The St. John's Green Team is busy planning events for the coming year. Please stay on the lookout for opportunities to help care for our creation in ways such as: participating in a workshop; helping with the spring road clean-up; giving an hour or two to the spring property clean-up; assisting with plantings, waterings and care for our beautiful property.
And remember all the things you can do at church or at home to care for our mother Earth: purchase recycled products; limit single use, disposable product use; choose to use dishware, silverware and drinkware versus throw-away paper (or worse, styrofoam) products; and lots more!
Please reach out to a Green Team member if you have any questions, need more information, or wish to join the team! We meet on the 2nd Sunday of every month at 11:15 in the Battin Room. If you have "green" ideas for us, please email our chair, Glenn Wikel.
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Light in the Darkness
This Sunday is an important day in the life of our church - and I don't just mean our Annual Meeting! Falling exactly 40 days after the celebration of the Christ Mass is the celebration of Candlemas on February 2nd, a feast day that doesn't often fall on a Sunday. Christians have been marking this day in the deep dark of winter for well over a thousand years. The earliest account of this special day is described by a fourth century pilgrim from Spain named Egeria. She visited Jerusalem around the year 380 and wrote about the moment when Mary and Joseph brought their infant son to the Temple in Jerusalem, fulfilling Mosaic law by presenting their first-born son to God (a story recorded in chapter two of Luke's Gospel).
Later Christians built upon the foundation of the Presentation of Jesus, tying the gift of God's Light to the song sung by a man named Simeon who was in the Temple when Jesus was presented. Simeon's song proclaimed that Jesus is "a light to enlighten the nations, and the glory of God's people, Israel." As a way of blessing the Light of Christ, Christians would bring candles from home to be blessed and then used in the deep of winter to keep the darkness away, to remember that how dark it might seem or feel in our lives, Christ's Light is stronger than any darkness. There would also be a procession in which the faithful would walk with lit candles, singing Simeon's song, which is where the name Candle-Mass comes from.
As a way to remember our ancient faith, and to hold on to the hopeful reminder that no matter how profound may be the darkness in our lives, our fears, our nights, God's Light cannot be overcome, we will have our own Candlemas procession following the Annual Meeting and into our sanctuary.
May we always hold onto the Light that is in Christ, and that continues to shine in each one of us.
Blessings,
Rev Jill
Image credit: Jason Jenicke
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February Adult Education Parables of Jesus: Powerfully Provocative Little Stories – Sundays @ 9:15 AM in the Battin Room
Jesus often taught his followers using parables, short stories that took common items and actions that Jesus twisted and turned to break open his followers’ understanding of what life in God’s Kingdom could be. As New Testament scholar Amy-Jill Levine writes about parables, “we would be better off thinking less about what they ‘mean’ and more about what they can ‘do:’ remind, provoke, refine, confront, disturb.”
- Sunday, February 9: What is a parable and how is God’s Kingdom like a mustard seed? Scripture focus: Mark 4:30-32
- Sunday, February 16: What are we called to do? The hidden King. Scripture focus: Matthew 25:31-46
- Sunday, February 23: Who is my neighbor? Breaking down racial divisions. Scripture focus: Luke 10:25-37 Matthew 25:31-46
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Morning Meditations
2nd & 4th Thursdays at 10:45 AM
“Understanding Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount”
Jesus taught in many ways: both by his actions and through his words. One of his famous
blocks of teaching are found in section of Matthew’s Gospel titled “The Sermon on the Mount” – but, this isn’t really a sermon! It’s a series of discrete teachings, each of which could be the basis of a lecture, a community study, or a personal meditation. We’ll spend 6 weeks looking into several of these sections.
Thursday, Feb 13 – Beatitudes (Scripture focus: Matthew 5:1-11)
Thursday, Feb 27 – Salt and Light (Scripture focus: Matthew 5:12-16)
Thursday, March 13 – None
Thursday, March 27 – Practicing Piety (Scripture focus: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18)
Thursday, April 10 – How Jesus Taught Us to Pray (Scripture focus: Matthew 6:7-14)
Thursday, April 24 – Finding Treasure, Releasing Anxiety (Scripture focus: Matthew 6:19-34)
Thursday, May 8 – Seeing Clearly (Scripture focus: Matthew 7:1-12)
Thursday, May 22 – Building on Rock (Scripture focus: Matthew 7:13-28)
(Stay after for our Healing Eucharist at 11:30 or come ahead of time at 10 AM for our Thursday Café!)
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Parkinson's Support Group Update
At our December 4th meeting, 18 members from St. John's and our wider community gathered in the Battin Room to hear a seminar by Physical Therapist Heather Cianci. Her talk was entitled “An over view of Parkinson’s Disease” and she gave an excellent presentation. She discussed current treatments and research. Currently, Heather works at the Dan Aaron Parkinson’s Rehab Center in Philadelphia and we are grateful to have heard her share her wisdom with our group.
The Parkinson’s Support Group meets on the first Wednesday of the month in the Battin Room from 1:30 to 3:00 and is open to all , parishioners as well as those in our wider community. Those diagnosed with Parkinson’s and their caregivers are welcomed to attend. For more information or to answer questions, please reach out to Rev. Terry.
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Coffee hour hosts needed: this is a fun job you can do with your whole family. Signup here or on the clipboard in the Parish Hall. | | | |
Sponsor Our Altar Flowers
We have real flower arrangements on the first Sunday of each month, delivered by Marcus Hook Florist. On that first Sunday, we list all the flower sponsor dedications we’ve collected money for in that month. Flowers may be given in memory of (M), in thanksgiving for (T), or in honor of (H) your special person or event.
Please help sponsor the altar flowers we adorn our sanctuary with. Your $25 contribution will help us place a fresh cut arrangement once per month to acknowledge those who we are remembering, thanking for and honoring.
Learn more here.
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Parkinson's Support Group
1st Wednesday of the Month (usually)
Next one is
February 5 @ 1:30 PM to 3 PM
More info here.
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My Siblings in Christ,
Next month, on February 8, we will honor the life and ministry of the Blessed Absalom Jones, the first African American priest in The Episcopal Church, with a service at Episcopal Academy's chapel starting at 10:15 a.m.
Dr. Catharine Meeks, who founded the Absalom Jones Center, will be the guest speaker. Her life’s work has been engaging people in racial justice work. We will have musical performances by the Girls High School Dance Ensemble, Camden Brass Ensemble, the Intermezzo Choir Ministry and the St. James School Choir. (You can register for 2/8 service here.)
Those wishing to sing in the choir for the service are invited to one of two rehearsal dates – 1/18 from 12 to 2 p.m. and on 2/1 from noon – 2 p.m. Both rehearsals are being held at the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, 6361 Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia PA 19151.
On 2/9, Dr. Meeks will also be at St. Andrew St. Monica for a book signing of The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning: Meditations on Racial Healing from 1-3 p.m. (Purchase the book and register for this here.)
In addition, I am sharing the propers for his feast day on 2/9 as well as his biography, for churches to examine the contributions he made. For all other questions or concerns, don't hesitate to get in touch with the chair of Absalom Jones 2025, the Rev. Canon Jordan F. Casson, rector@stmichaelsyeadon.org or 484-466-5330.
Yours in Christ,
Bishop Daniel
About Dr. Catherine Meeks (taken from here)
Meeks has engaged in racial justice work her entire adult life, beginning when she was an undergraduate student at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. After earning a Ph.D. from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, Meeks spent 25 years working at Mercer University in Macon as an assistant dean of women, instructor and assistant professor. While employed at Mercer University, Meeks led the city’s youth violence prevention task for two years. She then went on to work at Wesleyan College, also in Macon, for nine years until she retired from academia in 2008.
Early retirement, however, didn’t stop Meeks from continuing racial justice work. She went on to lead the Diocese of Atlanta’s racial reconciliation commission before founding the Absalom Jones Center in 2017. Named after Absalom Jones, the first Black priest in The Episcopal Church and a prominent abolitionist in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the center serves as a way for Episcopalians to engage in racial justice work through educational resources, including workshops and a virtual library with media on racial healing. The center also offers travel opportunities to historical sites related to racial justice.
Dr. Meeks has received many awards through the years and is author to eight books with a 2022 publication titled The Night is Long but Light Comes in the Morning: Meditations on Racial Healing.
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St. John's Episcopal Church
Usual Office Hours
Monday - Friday
9 AM - 1 PM
610-459-2994
saintjohnsconcord.com
The Rev. Jill LaRoche Wikel, Rector
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