Being Together - Apart - CHS Newsletter March3, 2021

Volume 25/ March 3, 2021

Being Together - Apart

A Message from Joe Robinson+

Every year at about this time of Lent, I find myself thinking whether I am doing enough with my Lenten devotions and practices. I am a pretty hard judge on myself, always thinking that I could do more, that I could do it better, or more sacrificially, or maybe have a better attitude about the whole thing. I wonder if that might be, beyond my conscious thoughts, connected for me to the gifts that were brought to the Christ Child way back at Epiphany.

Talk about sacrifice! These three Magi, which meant - one who knows one’s way around a laboratory, a library, and a map of the night sky, set out on a journey based only on the silent witness of an unfamiliar star and crossed a desert to search for a special child whose birth might just change the world. The road was long and their passage arduous. Yet, they make it all the way to the home of this child and, there they present their gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myhrr.

Here we are again in the season of Lent - forty days spent looking within ourselves to determine what we are making available for God’s resurrecting power at Easter. What we know about our God and God’s Christ is that in answer to just a little human cooperation comes a lot of divine response. The Widow’s meal and oil is miraculously stretched to feed the prophet Elijah in the book of 1Kings. Five loaves and two fish(es) become the basis for a meal that feeds thousands on the shore of Galilee.

Given those proportions, it makes sense that if I can give just a little of myself, my will, my potential, over to this multiplying God, “God only knows” what can be made of that offering. I wonder if, in our humanity, we often avoid giving of ourselves because of our assumptions.

On the one hand, some might believe that in the face of those royal gifts of Epiphany, what we have to give is really not worth much. Others conversely, postpone their offering based on their assuming that we have to give everything all at once.

Here’s the mystery:

God is ready to accept our gifts as we can give them. The smallest offering of our time and energy for the good of the Kingdom begins an installment plan that, over time, brings our whole selves into God’s presence.

In the days to come, give an edge, a corner, a hem, or a cuff of yourself over to God’s purpose and see if God won’t make a whole set of holy garments from what little we think we can share for God’s purpose.

“And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides the women and children.” John 6:13

Keep the Faith,

Joe+

WARDENS' MESSAGE

Dear Parish Family,

Thanks again to all of you who were able to participate in last week’s Annual Parish Meeting. In spite of some initial technological glitches, it went very smoothly, and we had a very good turnout. Everyone seemed to appreciate the verbal reports and parish updates. This does probably qualify as something that, although we did it well, we really hope we will not have to do again!

The business of the parish goes on, of course, and we also held our first Vestry meeting with our newly elected members last week as well. Our parish is really blessed to have such a wonderful group of leaders who are so willing to serve and are eager to learn and to contribute to the future success of Holy Spirit.

We spent much of the meeting orienting our new members and reorienting our continuing members to the role of the Vestry, our financial reporting structure, and their responsibilities as members. This is something we have traditionally done each year as new members join.

As most of you know, each Vestry member is assigned to be liaison to one of our “Affinity Groups”, or groupings of related ministries and committees. If you are the head of one of our committees, you can expect to hear from your new liaison over the coming weeks. Their role is to listen to your concerns, ideas, or suggestions and to relay them back to the Vestry. They are not “looking over your shoulder” but providing a communication tool that is intended to help your work. This idea came out of our Reimagining process several years ago.

Speaking of reimagining, we explored further with Joe+ some thoughts on reorienting our worship space and supported his idea of creating a small team to look at options, timing, and cost. This will also likely involve improvements in lighting and electronics so that we can consider continuing some form of virtual worship participation even after we regather in person.

We talked about our hopes and fears about the timing of returning to in-person worship together as a community. You all know that the pandemic news changes every day as more people are able to be vaccinated but also as worrisome new variants appear. We will continue to monitor events and stay in close touch with our Diocese as they update recommendations for parish worship.

At this point, it does not seem likely that we will be able to resume indoor, in-person worship before the end of the summer. But we also talked about the possibility of holding more outdoor services as we did last fall. We are “eager beyond words” to resume in-person worship but will only do so when we feel it is safe.

Finally, the Vestry members agreed to continue our recent practice of checking in by phone with members, with a focus on those who live alone or may be looking for more contact.

Brenda and Steve

ZOOM WORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES AT CHS

SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE

at 10:00 a.m.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

A Zoom Meeting invitation email is sent

Fridays at Noon.

It includes links to the Zoom service,

Sunday Bulletin, and CHS Announcements.

If you don't use Zoom, you can now join us via live stream or, later,

watch the recorded services using the CHS YouTube Channel. Click Here

TUESDAY HEALING SERVICE

10:00 A.M.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Please join Gail Smith+ for our

powerful healing service.

A Zoom Meeting invitation email is

sent Mondays at Noon.

FOOD 4 KIDS

Nauset Schools Needs Volunteers

To Help Prepare Grab-And-Go Meals

NOW!!

We know it's not summer yet, but Nauset Schools is experiencing

very high demand for their grab-and-go meals and would like help preparing them.

While students attending in person receive meals in their classrooms, many children

are still learning remotely. And the economic pressure on families is not going away -

food insecurity is higher than ever. Food 4 Kids has offered to help find volunteers.

To learn more, click here: https://conta.cc/2L4Ji46

Want to jump right in and sign up? Go to our SignUpGenius page here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E094EA8AB2FA1FE3-f4khelp2.

And if you would like to keep up-to-date on volunteer opportunities with Food 4 Kids, let Brenda and Anne know at info@food4kidscapecod.org.

NAUSET INTERFAITH ASSOCIATION

Dear CHS parishioners:

In recent years, the Refugee Support Team, an outreach ministry of the Nauset Interfaith Association (NIA), has worked with refugees on Cape Cod and in the Worcester area to learn their stories and support them as needed. These are people who in so many ways are just like you and me, but who have had to give up their homelands in order to survive. Their problems seem overwhelming and yet they are people of community and hope.

The Episcopal Church has served immigrants new to the U.S. since the late 1800s. Episcopal Migration Ministries is the refugee resettlement ministry of the Episcopal Church that welcomes refugees, educates communities, and mobilizes congregations to advocate for the protection and rights of all migrants.

We may think our global immigration crisis is too big to do anything about. But, there is something important we can do.

As a member of the Refugee Action Support Team, I am going to communicate with my legislative representatives and urge them to recommend the United States’ support to the UN Global Compact on Refugees.

The Compact’s four main objectives are:

1. Easing pressures on host countries

2. Enhancing self-reliance of refugees

3. Expanding access to third-country solutions (through resettlement and other pathways of admission)

4. Improve conditions in countries of origin to enable refugees return. .

If you would also like to be a part of this effort and also encourage our State and US congressional leaders, you can contact me for their addresses.

Thank you. Nancy Ludewig

SUNDAY BOOK GROUP - NEW BOOK SELECTION

Our new book is The God We Never Knew by Marcus Borg.

We will begin our discussion with the preface and introduction on Sunday March 7. Books are available through your local bookstore, Amazon and on Kindle. We meet on Sundays via Zoom from 12:30 - 1:30 pm. ALL ARE WELCOME! If you wish to join us, please notify Brian or Brooke Skea.

SPIRIT STORIES WITH RUTH CAMPBELL

While my grandson and I are still not able to meet and film new "Spirit Story" videos, we hope to resume sometime this Spring.

If you wondered how special children's books are not just to our youth but we "older folk" too, this recent NY Times Op-Ed, Your Kids Aren’t Too Old for Picture Books, and Neither Are You should make you want to read more of them on your own!

Click here

SOME FUN THINGS

REPEATING THE CALL TO QUILTERS - OR

'WANNA BE QUILTERS"

A CHALLENGE FROM JEAN COLLINS

How are you doing with your 6 1/2" quilt squares that we will stitch and quilt together - when we can gather again - and have our own Quilting Bee at CHS to make a quilt to be raffled for a worthy cause? The picture here is of some of my squares in process. Click here for directions for making your own squares

If you have questions, feel free to contact Jean Collins. Her contact information is in the parish directory. Jean

The 105 Voices of History National HBCU Concert Choir & Leadership Presents a Virtual Performance of "Lift Every Voice and Sing" arranged by Roland M. Carter.. presented at the National Cathedral Sunday February 28th

Click Here.

Here's how the ROVER

GOT TO MARS!

Amazing video of the different areas of the planet as the rover travels the vast terrain.

Enjoy the journey!

Click here.

Love your parents, take care of your children,

but keep a group of good friends.

"JUICE BAR" OPEN AT CHS!

The solar panels are "live" and producing "juice" that will be sold to our local electric grid. The income will be used to pay the interest on the the low interest loans.

Once the loans are paid off, the income will be available for other CHS needs.

Share A

Silver Lining

Shared personal stories from you!.

If you have a pandemic story or "silver lining" to share from your personal experiences during the past year, please send it to me. Think of it as a chance to share what you might say at a coffee hour. Please indicate if you want your contribution to be published anonymously. Sue

While being confined to home as been a real adjustment, the silver lining for us is that Karen has been working virtually from home since March which saves her a 1.5 hour commute each way back and forth to Woods Hole - She is executive assistant to the Director and Deputy and they have a smooth system in place. Lauren is another Dr. Gentile - scary 🤣 - what is even more serendipitous is that she is working for EPA’s Climate Office in Washington. You may or may not know but EPA was where I spent the first 30-years of my professional career before going to U. Miami’s oceanography school for 10-years and then running my own consulting company for the past 20 years. Having her work virtually from here on the Cape with us since March has been a real gift watching her grow and mature as a first rate scientist and very skilled communicator - far smarter, smoother, and savvy that her Dad at that age 🤣🤣🤣…. and such a blessing to have around.

Jack, Karen and Lauren Gentile

SCAM EMAILS ON THE RISE - Lately it seems I get several suspicious emails each week asking me for my phone number or some random piece of information so my email account does not get deactivated... or a notice my PayPal account will be closed if I don't verify account information. I canceled that 2 years ago! One parishioner's email account was recently hacked and sent emails asking for financial help... some of her family and friends thought she was in dire need and sent money!

RULE OF THUMB - IF YOUR EMAIL HAS BEEN HACKED,

CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD IMMEDIATELY!

DO NOT REPLY TO THESE EMAILS - REPORT THEM AS PHISHING OR JUNK - CALL YOUR ACCOUNT CUSTOMER SERVICE LINE TO VERIFY THEY DID NOT REQUEST INFORMATION FROM YOU...

AND CALL or EMAIL YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS TO LET THEM KNOW

YOU WERE HACKED - IT'S A SCAM AND YOU ARE OK!

ANNOUNCEMENTS

JOE ROBINSON+ CONTACT INFORMATION:

Please add this to your contacts and use it for communications directly with our new Transitional Priest In Charge, Joe Robinson.

joer@chsorleans.org

You can also call the parish office and

leave a message for Joe with the answering service.

508-255-0433

Make sure your message includes how Joe can respond to your call.

SPRING AHEAD

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS BEGINS MARCH 14TH -

MOVE YOUR CLOCKS AHEAD 1 HOUR.

CHS WEB SITE UPDATE: To live stream or watch recorded services later, please go to our web site holyspiritorleans.org and click on “VIEW ONLINE”. To download the Sunday Service Bulletin, select “CLICK HERE FOR SUNDAY SERVICE BULLETIN”

IN PERSON-MEETINGS: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have suspended in-person meetings on our church campus. If you need access, please call the office and someone will call you back. If you need to drop something off, please use the black mailbox that is outside the office door. To reach the clergy for emergencies or other church related business please call the church office and press 0 or email Gail+ gsmith at chsorleans.org

SUNDAY'S GLIMPSE OF THE GOSPEL: The Gospel speaks to us today personally and as a community. Join us Sundays at 8:45 a.m. to delve into the Gospel and pray for one another. Contact Gail Smith+ for the Zoom link.

CENTERING PRAYER: Until CHS can resume hosting, the Monday and Thursday Centering Prayer gatherings will be held at 4:30 at the Orleans Federated Church. Wearing a mask, ring the bell and enter through the door on the East side of the building. Sign in, and look for us at the end of the hall to your right. Sometimes we meet in the Sanctuary upstairs.

WEDNESDAY MORNING PRAYER GROUP: The CHS Morning Prayer Group prays on Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m. from the comfort of their own homes. Contact Richard O'Hara and he will send you the coming month's scripture readings for Wednesdays. His email and phone numbers are in the Parish Directory.

FEELING PINCHED AND STRUGGLING TO MAKE ENDS MEET because of the pandemic's impact on your life? Please contact Gail Smith+. Funds are available through the Discretionary Fund.

FORWARD DAY BY DAY: Copies of the November, December and January book are now available. Contact Debbi in the Parish Office. She will mail it to you.

PRAYER REQUEST: Please call the office with your prayer requests at 508-255-0433 and leave a message. They will remain on the CHS Public Prayer List for 4 weeks. If you need them to be on the list for a longer period, please let us know.

PRIVATE INTERCESSORY PRAYER: The CHS Intercessors is a small group of CHS members who are committed to pray regularly for your concerns. If you need private prayer for any reason, please call the Parish Office. Someone will contact you. ALL requests will be held in confidence.

PARISH DIRECTORY: We no longer include member's personal contact information in our communications. Call the Parish Office and we will email you an electronic copy or snail-mail you a hard copy of the current Parish Directory so you can "stay in touch."

Celebrations, Remembrances and Prayers

Upcoming dates to give you time to send a note, card, or call.

BIRTHDAYS

3.1 Elizabeth Moronta 3,1

Elaine Usher 3.1 Ian Ellison 3.3 Maya Hyde 3. 4

Christian Chung 3.5 Matthew Thompson 3. 5

Jane Wiedenman 3.6 Jean Gatzkiewicz 3.8

Barbara Knisell 3.11 Suzanne Gillespie 3.13

Parker Keeffe-Jones 3.14 Kevork Meguerdichian 3.16

Nancy Munson 3.16 Philip Suraci 3.17

Evie Ellison 3.19 Richard Paris 3. 23 Heather Spiegel 3.23

Mary Hammatt 3. 25 The Rev. Sue Lederhouse 3.26

Paul Colwell 3.28 Joan Kirchner 3.30

ANNIVERSARIES

Jeff and Meredith Perkins 3.10.78 Dick and Martha Williams 3.20.65

Kevork and Deborah Meguerdichian 3.25.72 Phil and Sandy Marshall 3.29.58

ORDINATIONS

REMEMBRANCES

Elizabeth Clarkson 3.01.91 Matthew Mapes Nickerson 3.02.89

William Mines 3.03.98 Shirley Adamson 3.05.07

Evelyn M. Burroughs 3.06.08 Aram Kachadorian 3.06.92

Rosamond G. Thomas 3.07.14 Dorothy Skeats 3.09.03

Marcia Birdsall 3.10.20 James Hammond, Sr. 3.11.95

Katherine Recknagel 3.11.99 Wally Houghton 3.12.03

Lester Knisell 3.13.07 Richard Miller 3.13.19

The Rev. Richard Payne 3.13.20 John Rayner 3.14.05

Robert Munson 3.15.15 Anne Crocker 3.17.18

The Rev. Sherrill Smith 3.18.14 Carol Potter 3.19.15

Freda Bonin 3.20.14 Marion A. Eckhardt 3.20.08

Gordon Hampton 3.22.04 Deni Jacobson 3.23.18

Harold Lockwood 3.23.90 Victor von Schlegell, Jr. 3.23.08

Kenneth Dennis 3.24.99 Robert Thorley 3.25.15

Joan Gironda 3.26.20 Marjorie Burling 3.27.02

Paul Perry 3.28.04 Frances Pike 3.31.99

RECENT DEATHS

Rev. James Birdsall 2.23.21

THOSE REQUESTING OUR PRAYERS

Milt Barnes Jr., Elizabeth Beattie, Robert Blanchet, Kate Carroll, Beverly Chace,

Dorothy Cross, Betty Daiute, Noah Evans, Cassie Fariello, Ali Funnell, Ernest Gordon, Mary Beth Guiliano, Adelaide Hubler, Ruth Evans Jones, Bill Kirkby, Joe Manson,

Tyler Marshall , Ed Mason, Bill Nemitz, Dianna Oliveira, Jennifer Peters, Joan Proctor, The Bayuk Family, Linda Stabb, Jared, Mike, Bill Wahlquist

For all our service women and men.

PRAYING FOR THOSE AFFECTED BY COVID 19

Those on the front lines Dr. Susan Cornell, Kristin Crighton, Dr. Donald Dupuis,

Liberty Jane Dupuis, Steven Isner, Carol LaBranche, Kristian Kurtzke, Jenn Marlin,

Dr. David Meguerdichian, Dr. Michael Meguerdichian, Dr. Nadia Huancuhuari,

Joy, Danielle Pensa, Meg Nemitz, Kelly Crossland, Justin Tavano, Holly Tavano,

Kimberly Topping, Mike Topping, Peter Vogt

.+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Watch over thy children, O'Lord, as their days increase.

Bless and guide them wherever they may be, keeping them unspotted

from the world. Strengthen them when they stand;

comfort them when discouraged or sorrowful; raise them up if they fall;

And in their hearts, may thy peace, which passes all understanding,

Abide all the days of their lives; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

DIOCESE of MASSACHUSETTS COMMUNICATIONS

Stay informed and connected to the Episcopal Diocese of MA

including the monthly E-news. (www.diomass.org)

The next edition of Being Together-Apart is Wednesday March 17, 2021.

Send items to be included to Sue Sasso by

Monday end of day March 1st.

newsletters@chsorleans.org

THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Stay current on happenings at CHS.

Check out our Website at https://holyspiritorleans.org

"Like Us" on Facebook at The Church of the Holy Spirit

Editor - Sue Sasso newsletters@chsorleans.org