December 30, 2021

Dear Friends in Christ:

Happy Sixth Day of Christmas! I trust you are enjoying your geese a laying. We had a lovely candlelight service on Christmas Eve, thanks to the hard work of our small but mighty choir, lectors, ushers, crucifer and torch bearers, Altar Guild and so many other volunteers. I've already had numerous calls from visitors that night telling me how beautiful everything was. From here, we now head toward Epiphany, as the message of God's love goes forth from us out into the world to the ends of the earth!

On to the updates . . .

WORSHIP

Our current policy at St. Timothy's is that face coverings are strongly recommended, though not required at all our services. You can find this week's bulletin insert HERE.

Saturday 1/1, Holy Name of Jesus

10:00am A simple, spoken service of Holy Communion, held in our Chapel. In person and streamed at our website and on our Facebook page. You can find the bulletin HERE.

Sunday 1/2, Christmas II

8:00am Holy Eucharist, Rite I. In person only.

10:00 am Rite II Holy Eucharist. In person and streamed at our website and on our Facebook page. This week's bulletin is HERE.

5:00pm Fr. George will preach at the monthly Solemn Sung Eucharist at Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland. This is a beautiful service, with incense, chanting, and Trinity's fabulous choir, in a magnificent space. Per Trinity's policies, face coverings are required, though singing is permitted. (This service might be streamed on their Facebook page.)

Wednesday 1/5

12:10pm Our mid-week in-person service of Holy Eucharist. In person only.

Thursday 1/6

7pm A special service of Lessons and Carols to celebrate the Feast of Epiphany. In person and streamed at our website and on our Facebook page. You can find a link to the bulletin HERE.

WORSHIP ADJACENT THINGS

1. Tonight (December 30th, at 7pm) we will have our last Choir rehearsal prior to next week's Epiphany Lessons and Carols service. If you're interested in singing for that service next week, please come to tonight's rehearsal. All are welcome. We will have voices from other Stark County parishes, as well as other clergy. So, if you like to sing, join us tonight!
2. I didn't get a chance to post a link to our final Advent organ recital, since it hadn't happened by the time of my last e-mail. Sadly, the organ stopped working the morning of the recital, and was not fixed until later that day. So, actually, you get the opportunity to see our friend Loren Veigel play a most unusual quick-on-his-feet recital at this LINK. A living example of using what you have, where you can, to do what you can.

THE GREAT TAKEDOWN

We had a dedicated and hard-working group to bring up and set up all our beautiful decorations for the Christmas services over two Saturdays earlier this month. And now comes the reckoning.

On Saturday, January 8th, we will gather from 10am to noonish to take everything back down and return it to the rifle range. (Not many priests get to use that phrase.) If you're willing and able, please join us next Saturday morning. Donuts, coffee, and Advil will be available.

BIRTHDAYS and ANNIVERSARIES

Lots of folks having birthdays at the start of the new year, including Holly McCalla (1/1), Cathy Ripich (1/3), Jim Jobe (1/3), Jason Smith (1/5), Katie Miller (1/5), Jacquie McLain (1/5), Doreen Pennington (1/6), Evan Smith (1/7), and Brian Fichter (1/8).

Matt and Reena Kurian will celebrate their anniversary on January 2nd.

Be sure to send good wishes and thoughts to all who celebrate this week!

PRAYERS REQUESTED

Please continue to pray for all those affected by COVID-19, and please keep these friends and parishioners in your prayers:

✥Bob Meyer ✥Judy Wigginton  ✥Chris Lane ✥Priya Kurian ✥Mike Ziegelhofer

✥Chuck Tilley ✥Michael Flamm  ✥Liz Frank ✥Bobbie Muhlbach ✥John Muhlbach  

✥Isaac Leggett ✥Mike Requa  ✥Toni Contini ✥Brian Dorosch ✥Beth Conley ✥Nancy Brooks

✥Bob Daane ✥Chuck Coleman ✥Patty Ann ✥Cary Koontz ✥Noble Carpenter

✥Roger Walters ✥Tim & Sharon Gerber ✥Colleen Major ✥Gail Moss ✥Linda June

✥Stephen Huba ✥Roy Schoenfeld ✥Donna Wheeler-Badgley ✥Fred Gibbs ✥Sheila Gwatkin

✥Christine Hoffman ✥Regina Hoffman ✥Carolyn Flamm ✥Ingrid ✥Betsy Lloyd  ✥David Braid ✥Greg Rush ✥Linda Boyer ✥Asher Forbes ✥Matt, Liz, and Mackenzie Susor ✥Kassie Vetrano

WHAT A WEEK

I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who helped make our sanctuary look so beautiful this year. It was especially inspiring to worship together on Christmas Eve, after having the doors closed last year. The Altar Guild, the cleaning crew, and so many others did so much behind the scenes. And then there are all those who made food and cookies and donated to our Christmas outreach, especially Ann Higgins and her tireless organizing each year.

As a special treat, Jay Spencer and Etta Trimpi organized an outing on the 22nd to see "It's a Wonderful Life." Beyond the Gemütlichkeit of it all, we got to see Jay in his natural environment, rising up out of the floor, before the movie began.

MO AND THE GOE

So, part of the journey toward becoming an Episcopal priest in the Church is to take the General Ordination Exam. The questions are quite challenging, but I found the anxiety of my classmates to be more stressful than the actual exam itself. (If you're interested, you can find the exam questions I faced HERE.)

Into this cauldron of overly complex essay questions goes our very own Maureen "Mo" Major, the first week in January. So, on January 3, 4, and 6, I ask you to offer prayers and good thoughts for her as she sits for these exams. I am certain she will do just fine, with God's help.

PERIODIC PUZZLE

Our chancel looked lovely on Christmas Eve, and I wanted to be sure you had a chance to see it without me standing in the way (like in the first photo above). So here's a little puzzle for you to work on.

You will find the puzzle by clicking HERE. You can choose your background color, number of puzzle pieces, and even set it to display just the edge pieces. Plus, you get a very affirming crowd reaction once you have completed it!

BEING REALISTIC

As I've said before, we are having a hard time finding folks to volunteer for necessary roles during worship. And I totally get that; people are exhausted. At the same time, we are much better off doing fewer things well, rather than trying to do everything in a panic

The five-branch candles on the Altar are a great example of something that adds beauty when we have consistent volunteers to light them, but adds panic every week when we're trying to find someone to get them lit at the last second. (With our 10am service streamed each week, we no longer have flexibility as to when we begin.)

So, in the spirit of doing fewer things better, I'm thinking we might want to remove the five-branch candles for a bit, until we're back at a place where we have people willing to serve as acolytes. Meanwhile, though we still have no ushers, we do have folks to carry the cross to start the service, our Altar Guild and cleaning crew are rock solid, and our smaller choir is holding its own. As always, we do the best we can with the gifts God gives us.

It seems fitting to leave you with a collect for the parish, from page 817 of the BCP

Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven

and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen

the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent.

Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring

us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Faithfully,

Fr. George