In-Person Worship @ ESC Temporarily Suspended
By The Rev. Cameron Randle
 
While COVID-19 positivity percentages continue to rise in our region, all in-person worship services (and all indoor church activities) at Eastern Shore Chapel are suspended until further notice. This cessation is in response to a December 8 directive from Bishop Susan Haynes implementing new restrictions and protocols, effective immediately.

Regrettably, our outdoor worship service scheduled for Sunday, December 13 (Advent III) is canceled and all services through the Christmas and New Year holidays will be virtual. Please participate in our beloved faith community during this temporary suspension by clicking on links emailed to you on a weekly basis or by visiting YouTube.com and entering Eastern Shore Chapel in the search bar.

The decision to pause all in-person worship services is not made lightly. It is the result of much prayerful discernment. In policy, we are supportive of Bishop Haynes and her goal of ensuring maximum safety for everyone in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Virginia. In reality, attendance limits of 25 or less make it difficult to conduct outdoor worship in a parish our size. This is especially true, given the number of volunteers necessary to ‘stage’ an outdoor service at ESC.

Chapel Pantry, as a critical outreach ministry, will continue to distribute food to hungry families as we have throughout the pandemic. Parish Day School, with its essential childcare services, will also follow its current protocol. After next week, PDS recesses for the holidays until January, 2021. 

As disappointing as it is to imagine Christmas without in-person worship, we are called to consider the greater good. It is no accident, I suspect, that this Sunday’s readings include the following admonition: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (I Thessalonians 5: 16-24). 

It may require some extra effort, but we are all capable of incorporating that scriptural mandate into our hearts, minds and daily lives. Just think how wonderful Christmas 2021 will be at 2020 Laskin Road!
ESC Vestry election

Following a very close ballot, the Vestry of Eastern Shore Chapel is pleased to announce its newest members: David Boling, Pat Edwards, Susan Kaufman and Gina Williams; alternate: Kenny Fields. Kenny stands ready to serve if and when called.

Beginning January 1, 2021, these Vestry members will serve our church for the next three years. To say that they begin their journey in unusual times is an understatement. We are blessed to have had such a wonderful slate of candidates and will be well served by each new member.

We also extend thanks and congratulations to our 2021 Wardens: Senior Warden, Lynn Lear; Jr. Warden for Administration, Ann Onhaizer; Jr. Warden for Buildings and Grounds, Steve Shirley.

Please join us in welcoming the Class of 2024!

In Thanksgiving, 
Sally Cox
Senior Warden
MLK Zoom Study Group
 
Our virtual encounter with Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail is underway on Thursdays at 7 PM. To participate in the discussion led by Fr. Cameron, please utilize the following link:
 
Meeting ID: 892 5137 5674
Passcode: Se0w4P
Organ recital sneak preview

This organ selection is part of an organ recital performed at ESC and recorded without an audience. It is being assembled in a Blue Ray format. The completed recital will be available at a later date.
ESC Prayer Team: All year ‘round, prayer is important

The need to pray and the need for prayer create an unending, life giving cycle, fueled by love, to be in communication with our Loving God. It’s a very holy time, to sit in the dark of the morning and lift up to God those in need, our parish friends and families who for one reason or another have found their way to the Eastern Shore Chapel Prayer list. Your ESC prayer team is at the ready, all we need are the names.

We are humbled and honored to add the Rev. Hayes Perdue to our list of military deployed. Do you have a family member who is deployed; would you like to add them to our prayer list? Please let Amanda McGinty, Assistant for Pastoral Care or one of our clergy know. It will be our privilege to lift them up! 

Are you interested in joining the prayer team; please contact the Rev. Melody Perdue.
Stewardship interviews Patti Glowatsky, Director of Family Formation
Come meet Patti and hear what she will be doing and her strong beliefs about Stewardship. Click the screenshot below to watch.
KAIROS Prison Ministry

Don’t we all love to get Christmas cards? At home, Heidi and I are blessed to receive Christmas cards from all over the country; from old friends and from family we haven’t seen in too long. The cards themselves are beautiful and convey the joy and hope and promise that rings so true in the glorious season of Advent and Christmas. Sometimes they contain precious Christmas letters that provide all you need to know about the comings and goings of the writer and their family. They contain the highlights of the past year and especially the ways that they have been blessed since last they wrote. Pictures too are included, smiling faces and beautiful vistas abound. We read them all and reread them and save them in a special basket by the front door. They are a snapshot of life and of hope.

In the KAIROS post office box I am blessed to receive Christmas cards too. These are treasured missives from friends maybe only once met, maybe years ago. Imagine a resident of a prison, a tried and convicted child of God, sitting on the side of his prison bunk, thinking of me. Imagine that. There are two types of Christmas cards from inside prison; one the simple, generic kind available in the commissary if they are fortunate enough to have the $2.00 needed to buy one. The other type is the card that they make by hand with whatever materials they have in their cells. These are amazing, imaginative, time consuming, and heart breaking too.

There isn’t any news of travels or family updates, many of these men are in exactly the same place they were when I met them, whenever that was. Most families have forgotten them, leaving them almost no contact with the outside world. Imagine that. But they write notes of joy and hope too. They tell of Gods work in their lives, they tell of their life with Christ in a place where without Him they couldn’t survive. They speak of thanksgiving for the blessing of the KAIROS Prison Ministry.

Imagine that. In this COVID-19 time we can’t go visit them but we can write them. We can remind them that they are not forgotten and that they are loved indeed; we can lift them up in prayer. And we do. Thanks be to God.

Would you like to learn more about KAIROS and how you can share the blessings you have received with an incarcerated brother or sister? Contact any member of our prison ministry team, they have the green name tags or email cleedavis3@gmail.com.

Merry Christmas!
Chapel Pantry update
By Kay O'Reilly, Chapel Pantry Coordinator

The Chapel Pantry served 408 families on Saturday, following a much-needed Thanksgiving break. So many families have expressed their gratitude to this church for helping, telling us what a blessing we are to them. Thank you for your faithful support. It means so much for so many in our community.

The construction continues for our expansion project. Everything should be completed by the first week of January, weather permitting. We are so excited to see it all unfold! Heartfelt thanks go to our project managers, Bruce Gallup and Bruce Whitaker for their many hours of help. Thanks also to Dicky Bosley for his excellent work on the concrete pad that will provide the foundation for the equipment.

Funding is being provided by the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia through the Virginia Beach Pandemic Relief Partnership. Visit VBrelief.org to learn more about this program to help Virginia Beach residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From Parish Book Store

Thank you to all who so generously contributed money for books for the 96 children of the Mission of the Holy Spirit. The books will be delivered next week.
 
Time is running out to take advantage of our big sale. Call the Book Store (757-415-0114) or email us (books@easternshorechapel.org) to make an appointment. OR if you want to order a book from our website go to bookshop.org/shop/parishbookstore. We receive the profit from your order, and you can order ANY book, not just those featured on our virtual bookshelves.
Parish Day School: Learning about Faithfulness

Our students this week have been learning about the fruit of the Spirit, Faithfulness. They are hearing the stories of advent and preparing for the coming of Jesus. The children have been busy with Christmas plans from wrapping presents, creating gifts for their parents, to practicing their fine motor skills with decorating Christmas trees. Each classroom has a nativity that the children can explore during Center Time. We love seeing our little learners explore and learn from the nativity with their peers. Our classes will be participating in Virtual Christmas Concerts the week of December 14 to be sent out to the families to continue our Christmas tradition.

We are excited to announce that our classrooms have submitted their Spirit Baskets with the help of our amazing Room Parents. The Parent Teacher Fellowship will be launching their first annual Virtual Spirit Basket Auction this week. Look for more information to come with a link to check out the baskets and make a bid. Winners will be announced the week of December 14. Thank you for your support and participation in this event!
Community of the Gospel offers racial reconciliation training

The Community of the Gospel (CG), an ecumenical non-residential monastic community with standing in The Episcopal Church, announces a three-Saturday cycle of racial reconciliation training on January 23, January 30, and February 6 from 2 to 4 PM via Zoom. The Community offers racial reconciliation training free of charge to all interested persons. This training is part of the CG's ongoing response to this nation's reckoning with systemic racism.

The event will be facilitated by the Rev. Br. Simeon Powell, CG, Deacon at St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church in Chico, CA, and Dr. Delia R. Heck, Chair of the Natural Science Division of Ferrum College, Ferrum VA. Both facilitators have long experience offering racial reconciliation training and in advocating for greater awareness of racism in American society. Dr. Ferrum serves on The Episcopal Church's Taskforce for Care of Creation and Environmental Racism. Deacon Powell recently represented TEC on the Anglican Indigenous Network's meeting on The Six Nations Reserve in Ontario.

The training will consist of relevant prayer, reflection and lectio divina. Work will focus on personal and implicit bias as well as systemic and institutional racism. Videos and facilitator inputs will be presented.

Commenting on the training event, Br. Daniel-Chad Hoffman, Guardian, stated: "We believe that this training will help us to live out our monastic promises of prayer, study, and service in a manner that is attuned to contemporary reality and to our foundational baptismal vows."

Training will be open to any individual who enrolls ahead of time. All participants are requested to commit to participation in the entire sequence of three Saturday training events. Information on how to sign up can be obtained by contacting Br. Daniel-Chad Hoffman, CG, at brdanchad@protonmail.com.

The Community of the Gospel was founded in 2007 and currently numbers nearly forty-six Members and Friends across the United States, the Bahamas, and South Africa. While holding day jobs, members commit to embody Gospel values through disciplined prayer, study and service.
Ongoing at ESC
Morning Daily Office
Join us every morning but Sunday at 7:30 on ZOOM to celebrate the Morning Daily Office.
Click here or go to ZOOM Meeting ID: 562 715 368 Passcode: John1513. On Thursdays join us live in the narthex - just like we did pre-pandemic! Everything is provided, all you need to do is show up. All are invited, all are welcomed.
Evening Daily Office
Evening Daily Office is now available on ZOOM at 5:30 Monday through Friday. Meeting ID: 896 1777 7644 Passcode: Ex1414. Join us once, join us occasionally, or join us regularly; we are made richer by your presence.
Zoom with your Sunday School class!
Join friends and teachers, by Zoom, as they meet and discuss lessons from this year’s curriculum – Feasting on the Word. Confirmation classes for students in the Senior High Class meet on the first and third Sundays of the month during the regular Sunday School hour at 9:10 a.m. Classes on the second and fourth Sundays include Lectionary based topics. To discuss formation needs or other questions, please contact Patti Glowatsky (pglowatsky@easternshorechapel.org), Director of Family Formation:
Prayers for Our Military
From CRU Military Ministry - As we recognize the faithfulness of God to fulfill all of His promises, we ask Him to strengthen all who are weary as they serve so faithfully. PRAY a blessing over the military and increase their power as they serve in obedience to Him and their nation. In their weariness, PRAY for the Lord to refresh their strength. When they feel isolated, ask the Lord to give them the assurance that He is with them. We pray that their work and mission would be successful. May they be filled with all the fullness of God through Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

Prayer Cards for Deployed Service Members
If you would like a prayer card sent to your deployed service member please contact Bill Hunter at whunter9@cox.net or 757-402-6384. Please let Bill know if deployed military members have returned so that he can welcome them back and remove them from the deployed military prayer list. Sponsors should contact Bill with contact info for formerly deployed members.
The Chapel Chimes is distributed every Wednesday.
If you would like to submit an article to the Chapel Chimes email
please send an email to Ann Turner, caturner62@icloud.com,
with "CHIMES SUBMISSION" in the subject line.
Deadline is every Tuesday at 5 pm.