Weekly Update for July 30, 2026 | | |
From the Senior Warden
Dear Friends in Christ,
I am pleased to share that The Church of the Good Shepherd has entered into a long-term lease with St. John’s Metropolitan Community Church (MCC), which has been worshiping in our Parish Life Center since late March.
Following thoughtful deliberation, the clergy and vestry approved an agreement allowing St. John’s to use space on the second floor of our Parish Life Center for Sunday morning worship.
During their time with us, St. John’s leaders and members have been communicative, respectful, and collaborative. Their commitment to welcoming all people and serving those who are vulnerable or marginalized closely reflects the values shared by Good Shepherd and Raleigh Mennonite Church, the other congregation that meets on our campus. We believe this relationship offers opportunities for meaningful partnership in service to our community.
The clergy and vestry are confident that this arrangement will foster a positive relationship between our congregations while allowing Good Shepherd’s ministries and activities to continue without disruption. The lease also supports the responsible stewardship of our facilities while providing another Christian congregation with a stable place to worship.
We welcome your questions and look forward to sharing more as this relationship develops. Please join us in warmly welcoming St. John’s into our community of faith!
Yours in Christ,
Dan Harris
Senior Warden
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August Book Study
Brett MacDonald, our former diocesan intern, is back with us temporarily before pursuing further education at Duke. While he is here Brett will be teaching a class on Peter Enns’ book The Bible Tells Me So. This class will start this Sunday, August 9th after the 10:15 service and continue through the rest of August in the Adult Formation Room (PLC 323). We plan to begin by looking at chapters one and two during this first meeting. See below for the class reading schedule. Contact: Brett MacDonald
● August 9: Chapters 1–2
● August 16: Chapters 3–4
● August 23: Chapters 5–6
● August 30: Chapter 7 and concluding discussion
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Parish Life Center
Monday and Tuesday, August 10th & 11th: the Parish Life Center's new front doors (with automatic accessibility) are being installed. The installation is scheduled to be a 2-day project from 8 AM each day. Entering the PLC through the front doors during this period may not be possible, so please be prepared to enter through the glass ambulatory, either calling ahead to be let in, or if you have one, using a fob.
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Note in the Pocket Clothing Drive
The Church of the Good Shepherd will be doing a clothing drive until August 16th for Note in the Pocket. Note in the Pocket is a 501c3 organization with a location in Raleigh. Their mission is to provide quality clothing to homeless and impoverished children and families with dignity and love. All size clothing is acceptable for this drive. Please see Allison or Isabella Elliott for more information.
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Back to School Blessing
Students of all ages, teachers, college professors--anyone starting (or has already started) a new school year--you are invited to bring your backpack, book bag, or briefcase with you to church on Sunday, August 23rd for our annual Back to School Blessing during the 10:15 worship service.
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EYC Fall Parents Meeting
The Fall Parents Meeting for the Episcopal Youth Community will be Sunday, August 30 from 5:30-7:30 PM. All youth and their parents are strongly encouraged to attend.
During this meeting we will discuss the fall calendar, the 2027 Summer Pilgrimage, and other future plans. Dinner will be provided. Contact the Rev. Justin Gabbard for more information.
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A Note from the Chalicists
Now that we are back using the same cup for both intincting and drinking of the wine, we would like to offer two gentle reminders..
Chalicists hold the chalice by the stem or base, never the bowl, so that our fingers do not touch the rim that congregants drink from. When you are guiding the chalice to your mouth, please follow our example and refrain from touching the bowl portion of the chalice. While we do wipe the rim after each communicant, we want to keep the rim as clean as possible and appreciate your assistance with this.
Also, if you are intincting, please dip only the edge of your wafer into the wine so as to avoid also dipping your fingers. Thank you all.
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Family Ministry Movie Night/Parent's Night Out
The EYC is looking forward to our Movie Night/Parents Night Out which is scheduled for 5:00-8:00 PM this Saturday, August 8th. Kids of all ages are invited to bring their pillows, blankets, and pajamas and join us at church for a night of games, crafts, and movies. Dinner will be provided. Since we are coordinating volunteers, hiring babysitters, and planning a meal, we do need to know if your children are planning to attend as soon as possible. Please let Justin know by this Sunday if your family is planning to participate.
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Out & About Potluck Supper
Out and About is a longstanding popular supper group started at CGS over 25 years ago to affirm and support our LGBTQ+ members and friends. We gather at 6 PM every third Sunday of the month at a host's home for a potluck meal, fellowship and lots of fun. Please join us! ALL ARE WELCOME. For more information contact Brother Paul Henry OSF by text (954)448-8931. Our next supper is Sunday, August 16th at the home of Anna and David Howard, 1200 Kimbolton Drive Cary, NC 17511
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EYC Summer Pool Party
Once again, Nan and Jack Boyne have graciously offered to host the EYC Summer Pool Party. The Boynes have a gorgeous home in the Five Points neighborhood, and their private patio and pool is the perfect place to spend the last weekend of summer.
All EYC members and their families are invited to attend. This is also the perfect opportunity to introduce an interested friend to our community in a casual environment.
The festivities will begin on Saturday, August 22nd at 5:30 PM and continue until 7:30 PM. Hamburgers and hotdogs will be provided, and guests are invited to bring a side, salad, or dessert.
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Let’s Build a Community Prayer Chain
Don’t forget to contribute to the Community Prayer Chain! At the end of the summer, the chain prayers will be blessed and offered to God during Sunday services on Rally Day, Sunday, September 13th!
Throughout the summer,
- Pick up a colored strip of paper in your worship space or PLC foyer.
- Jot down a prayer--for yourself, for your loved ones, for our community, for our nation. Don’t feel limited to one prayer! Contribute as many prayers as you’d like, using one strip of paper for each prayer.
- Leave your prayer(s) in the basket on the round table in the PLC foyer.
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News from the Green Team - The Power of One
Have you ever sampled Chef Anthony Harris’ delicacies featured at a Beyond Our Doors Luncheon? Learn more about Anthony and his unique approach to Creation Care!
Anthony Harris is the exuberant force behind healthy dishes served at Beyond Our Doors Lunches which not only are from his own recipes, but his own garden. Even if you are not a fan of greens, Anthony’s excitement is contagious and it will beckon you to expand your tastebuds!
It only takes a few minutes of talking with Anthony before you understand that there is so much more to this young man and his commitment to food. He grew up in Florida and was introduced to gardening as a child in his grandfather’s fields, orchards, and vegetable gardens in nearby Alabama. Educated as a philosopher, he had an awakening that everything we have comes from plants after taking a botany class. This set in motion waves of learning in subsequent years that he used in the food and beverage service where he experimented with growing heirloom varieties of vegetables and herbs, combined flavors in unique ways and studied how to deliver higher quality food for all.
Today Anthony is involved in efforts such as seed saving and seed swapping to preserve heirloom cultivars and provide access to unique, open pollinated seeds. Seeds are an important link between humans and plants. Whether for corn or cotton, seed saving is “all one love” as he puts it.
Anthony feels that we have an obligation to carefully manage the environment. Conventional food production is often destructive, and we can do better by taking a bit of effort to grow or source food that is local without additives to provide access to better health for everyone. Anthony advises, “There is no one right answer or way to do things, but be as close to the source as possible for authenticity and integrity in what you are consuming.” It is a good reminder for all of us to start taking food as seriously as Anthony does.
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Help Wanted! Meals on Wheels
Good Shepherd presently delivers to 5 Meals on Wheels routes twice per month. We would love to be able to increase our number of PERMANENT routes, but we really ALSO need people willing to be SUBSTITUTES when one of our drivers needs to be off … it happens! Delivering a route takes around 2-2.5 hours out of your day - about 10 AM till 12 PM on the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month. You will be trained … not throwing you to the wolves here! This is a wonderfully fulfilling service - I promise!!
You get to deliver a balanced, nourishing meal to people who may otherwise be lacking - but maybe above and beyond all that, you may be the ONLY person that person has contact with that day - and you have just a few minutes to make that person’s day a little brighter. How in the world can your day get any better knowing that? Please see/contact Jan Harris (or 919-815-2556) for more info!!
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Volunteer Opportunity
Each week Lowe's Foods on Strickland Road donates baked goods to the Shepherd's Table. And we need volunteers to pick up these donations and get them to the soup kitchen. Our wonderful volunteers sign up for one month at a time, covering each Sunday of that month. The commitment entails picking up the items after 10:15 AM and delivering them to the soup kitchen before 12:00 PM We are currently looking for volunteers to pick up during November and December. To help us with this wonderful ministry, please contact Paula Andrews at paula.andrews2112@gmail.com or (919)880-5701.
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Shepherd's Table Kitchen Assistant
Our friends at Shepherd's Table are in need of a part-time kitchen assistant. The hours are 8:30-1:30 PM Monday through Thursday. Please email Kiran at Kirans@shepherds-table.org if interested.
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Organ Pipes "Leaning Into" a Trip to Virginia
In addition to regular tunings, sometimes pipe organ components require additional work. That is the case for about ten of our 16' Bombarde pedal reed pipes. Leaning or partially collapsing pipe feet or resonator bases do tend to be fairly common in organs between the ages of 30 and 50. Most often the cause is simply a weak spot in the metal alloys that has taken decades under weight to finally show itself. The part you see in the picture is the base that holds up a 16' metal resonator and has started to lean under stress.
Our organ technician Mark Thompson has taken these pipes back to his workshop in Yorktown, VA where he will reenforce the weaker spots and return them hopefully by mid-September. Then they will be back to begin at least another 44 years of music making.
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St. Ambrose Episcopal Church Women
Save the Date
Our friends at St. Ambrose Episcopal Church ae putting on an Episcopal Church Women (ECW) Women's Retreat. It will be on Saturday, September 19th from 9-3:30 PM. More details to come.
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ReNew Mobile Showers
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Because of your generosity and encouragement, ReNew Mobile Showers continues to restore dignity and hope to our neighbors experiencing homelessness and hardship. Please help us spread the word about our upcoming mobile shower services by sharing the flyer below with your family, friends, churches, community organizations, and anyone who may know someone in need.
Thanks to supporters like you, ReNew Mobile Showers has already:
• Provided 219 warm showers to neighbors in need.
• Distributed more than 2,267 essential hygiene and personal care items during our shower services and street outreach.
• Engaged 295 dedicated volunteers who have contributed more than 958 hours of service.
• Heard from 100% of surveyed guests that access to our showers helped reduce barriers related to personal hygiene.
Thank you for believing in our mission and for helping us spread the word.
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Come Worship & Learn This Sunday
The Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ (Transferred)
8 AM
Holy Eucharist, Rite I
8:30 AM - 12 Noon
Nursery Care Available (infant-5 yo)
10:15 AM
Holy Eucharist, Rite II
11:30 AM
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Next Week (Monday-Saturday)
Monday, August 10
Tuesday, August 11
Wednesday, August 12
Thursday, August 13
- 8:30 AM Books & Bagels Book Group at Starbucks (3800 Lake Boone Trail, Raleigh, NC 27607)
- 9 AM Morning Prayer
- 12 PM Men’s Fellowship Lunch at High Park Bar and Grill (625 E Whitaker Rd, Raleigh 27608)
Friday, August 14
Saturday, August 15
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Thank You!
We did it again Good Shepherd and then some! This summer we were asked to join Christ Church and St. Michael's Episcopal to collect 110 backpacks and supplies for the Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry in Dunn. Our goal was 40 and we exceeded it by 16! They will be transported to the farming community in Dunn by the end of this week. For more information about this ministry, click here.
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Our Altar Flowers this past Sunday
Photo Courtesy of Peter Jezierny
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Parish Prayer List
Catherine and Bob Williams; JoAnn Kistler;
Roy Wright; Janet Gilliam; Ralph Sanders;
Pete Taylor; Martha Bailey;
Janie Ward-Newton; William Short;
Brinley Harris; Don Caudill; Margaret Park;
The Rev. Sallie Simpson; Patricia Harris;
Larry Phearse and Family;
Mike Newton-Ward; Rock Kershaw;
Bill White; NY Mike Smith;
Tamara Gregory; Lynda Terrell-Rea;
Meredith Sparrow and Family;
The Fyfe and Simon Families;
The Pursley Family; The Cooke Family;
The Rahal and Anderson Families;
The Smith and Acton Families;
The Vitaglione Family;
the people of the Middle East;
the people of Ukraine and Russia;
victims of gun violence;
and those affected by drought,
heat, floods, storms, and fires.
And we pray for those who mourn,
including the family and friends of,
the Rev. Janet Watrous, Mary Best,
A.B. Swindell, Peggy Hawks, Charles Latimer,
Nolan Simon, Karen Pursley,
Deborah Cooke, Susie Rahal, Jerry Smith,
Gerard Spagnoli, and Guy Vitaglione.
In the diocesan cycle of prayer,
we pray for St. Thomas’, Sanford
and Trinity, Scotland Neck.
In the Anglican cycle of prayer,
we pray for The Episcopal Church.
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Prayer Requests
The people of The Church of the Good Shepherd are eager to join you in lifting your prayers to God. Please tell us how we can pray with you by clicking here to submit a prayer request. Prayer requests added to our public prayer list will be refreshed every month; please feel free to resubmit them if you would like them to remain on the prayer list.
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Ministry Opportunities
If you are looking for meaningful ways to serve, please consider the ministries listed below. The contacts listed can provide more information. More opportunities are listed on our webpages: Serve our Parish / Serve our Neighbors
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News from the Diocese & The Episcopal Church
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Parish Office Regular Hours
Monday-Thursday, 9 AM - 5 PM; Fridays by appointment
Pastoral Care Emergencies
Please call the Pastoral Care Support Line 919.831.2008
Prayer Requests
Please CLICK HERE to submit a prayer request.
Thank you for reading the Parish News.
Announcements and photos to share with our parish family are always welcome!
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A Friendly Reminder…
Have you moved? Changed your phone number or email address? If so, please be sure to contact Parish Administrator David Baggett or 919.831.2018. Thank you!
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