The Lion's Pause 🦁

The Lion's Pause

WE SEEK TO UNITE ALL PEOPLE WITH GOD AND EACH OTHER IN CHRIST THROUGH WORSHIP, FELLOWSHIP, EDUCATION, AND SERVICE

SAVE THE DATE - May 18, 2025

St. Mark’s 70th Anniversary

Time flies - hard to believe we are coming up on our 70th year. A wonderful celebration is being planned, so please mark your calendars now, and stay tuned for future details!

Carriage rides will be provided during the church picnic on July 14. Two carriages will be available for ten minute rides. There will be a total of 16 time slots available to sign up for a ride. Two people per ride, with the possibility of small children riding on parents’ laps. There will be a sign up sheet in the lobby.

Vestry Vibes

Hard to believe the year is half over, and the summer season is just beginning. School is out, the choir is off for the summer, and families are planning their vacation time in the sun. There is a lot happening at St. Mark’s this summer too, with lots of outdoor activities planned to enjoy our special outdoor spaces. The Vestry wanted to share some of the planning activities for this summer, and provide an update on our office transition.

Office Transition

After nine years, we bid our friend Katie Kuceyeski good-bye as she embarks on new ventures with her business. A fine “Katie” style reception was held May 26 with her husband, Ryan, and son, Lucas attending. We will miss her expertise in the office and her kind and tender care of our parish family. During the transition, Katie will continue to assist with day to day activities until August 31.

Two avenues of the office transition are well underway. One consists of transitioning the day to day financial matters to a bookkeeping firm. The Transition Team interviewed several bookkeeping and accounting firms and, together with recommendation from the Finance Committee, have made a recommendation on a local bookkeeping firm. The firm has the expertise in accounting, Quickbooks, and managing day to day financial transactions of the church. The Vestry approved this recommendation, and the transition will begin next week, with the goal of completing by August 1.

The second area of transition is the day to day management of the office. Interviews will begin shortly with a Temp Agency to secure a part-time administrative assistant. This role will primarily assist the Rector, meet and greet visitors, coordinate events and meetings, order supplies, maintain calendars, schedule appointments, and assist the various committees and ministries of the parish, as well as assembling the Sunday bulletin and Lion’s Pause.

The full office transition is scheduled to be completed by the end of August. We are expecting a smooth transition, but ask for your patience during the next few months as these new roles are adopted and transitioned.

There is much more happening this summer at St. Mark’s!

“Summer in the Sanctuary” outdoor services:

July 14 - Sermon on the Mount outdoor service with cook-out picnic

August 18 - Intergenerational service with picnic

June 25 - ECW Luncheon and Holy Eucharist - reservations are already coming in from churches in our mission area.

The Building and Grounds team has been busy cleaning up the outdoor Chapel and Pavilion in preparation for all the summer activities. St. Mark’s gardeners have been busy planting perennials and tending the gardens. Take a peek in the Columbarium to see the beautifully restored and painted planters which have been filled with colorful flowers. St. Mark’s is blessed with all these beautiful outdoor spaces and it is great to enjoy them during the summer season.

Thanks again to Livvy Mull for her beautiful work in hand painting the bench backs in the Chapel, with words from the Book of Common Prayer. A lovely dedication to this special “Sanctuary in the Woods.”

Save the Date! - May 18, 2025 - 70th Anniversary Luncheon is being planned with lots of history on display. If you have any photos, stories, or memorabilia from years past, please let Kathy Sloan know so they can be included in the archives.

Summer Cleaning

Weaver CDC has decided to change cleaning companies, and St. Mark’s uses the same company, so we are also going to change services. Nine months out the year, Weaver is the major user of the building and has cleaning crews in the building 5 days a week. Weaver and St. Mark’s have agreed to wait until late August to start the service. That will save both of us some money and give us time to find a new cleaning company.

This presents the congregation with two opportunities:

1) Volunteers - Contact Building and Grounds - Joe Hoot (joe24hoot@gmail.com) and advise him if you are willing to take on one of the weekly responsibilities for the summer. Sweep the Family Room, clean the 5 restrooms, empty the waste baskets, dust the Family Room and copier, push the dry mop in the hallway, lobby and narthex.

2) If you see something that needs cleaning attention, send an email to Joe to let him know what needs to be addressed.

Committees and Ministries

All our other Committees and Ministries remain very busy for the summer, with Cluster Dinners starting back up, Hope Ministries Outreach Sundays, Knitting, Men Out Dining, ECW, Ladies’ Lunch Bunch, and Book Club. “Yoga with Beth” in the undercroft on Tuesday evenings in June with Beth Julian - a gentle, meditative way to end the day.

Be sure to find details on all these events, and more, in the Lion’s Pause every week, and please sign up in the lobby. We may need a bigger kiosk!

Your Vestry and Father RJ are here to answer any questions you may have. Please pray for their guidance in fulfilling God’s plan for the church year: Kathy Wise, Rick Werren, Beth Bletzacker, Ken Jaeb, Kent Clark, John Willoughby, Joe Hoot, Sara Stratton, Leslie Redmon, Treasurer Charlie Kiesling and Clerk Karen Violand

Thanks to all who have contributed to the water conditioner rebuild. We have collected $1,760 towards the total cost of $2,816. If you would still like to help, please include "water conditioner" on the memo line of your check.

Sunday, June 16:

8 and 10 a.m.

Lessons

Bulletin

Live Stream

Tuesday, June 18:

Yoga with Beth, 6:40 p.m.

Wednesday, June 19:

Evening Prayer, Zoom

Bulletin Zoom

View the St. Mark's calendar HERE.

Please click here for info on the upcoming ECW luncheon on June 25.

Yoga with Beth

Tuesdays in June 2024

Join us for any, or all of the four sessions on Tuesdays in June: June 4, 11, 18, 25

7:00 -8:15 PM in the undercroft

Cost is $10 per session, or $35 if paying at once for all 4 weeks ● Cash, check, VenMo or PayPal

Doors open at 6:40 to allow time for paperwork and settling into a meditative mind.

Bring your own mat. Yoga blocks and strap are helpful but not necessary.

Space is limited:

Text 330-705-4359 or email yogabeth63@gmail.com to reserve your spot!

The Diocese has continued to offer easy online giving. To use this, please select "St. Mark's Canton" from the dropdown, and choose either a one-time or recurring gift. We thank you for your continued support.

Designate a Gift to St. Mark's

Newsletter Additions

If you are adding something to the Lion's Pause, please submit it here by the Monday prior to Friday publication.

June Anniversaries

1 Ronald and Joyce Rupp

17 Charlie and MaryAnn Kiesling

20 Beth and Kirk Bletzacker, Paul and Gail Wetherell Sack

June Birthdays

1 Judy Hixon

3 Carol Popovich, Ezekiel (Zeke) Gordon

6 Paul Sack

7 Jamie Heinzman

9 Jeff Turner Tim Turner

17 Evan Jenkins

23 Kieran Argenti

24 Bruce Schutrum

*Please note: Your birthday/anniversary will only show up if you've completed your profile on Instant Church Directory.

Need to log in? Go here.

Bob's Music Notes

In my wildest dreams I never thought I'd be seated on an organ bench made famous by Charles Widor, Marcel Dupre, and later Daniel Roth. This was the organ at St. Sulpice in Paris, France, and on a July Sunday 1953 my summer teacher, Dupre, invited me to share the bench with him - not, heaven forbid, to play - but to observe. And observe I did.

This stupendous pipe organ has five manuals. From the top down, they are Solo, Recit Expressif (pipes enclosed in a chamber with shutters to control volume), Positif, Grand Orgue, and Grand Choeur, this one right at the bottom, and the manual Dupre used mostly. The action of the organ is largely mechanical which means that, with the proper stops selected, when you play a note on manual I, the Grand Choeur, that note will physically move on all the keyboards, plus, any pedal note will likewise appear at the lower end of each manual. The whole time I was there with Dupre he had everything coupled.

Dupre's chief comment about my playing had to do with legato, the smooth transition from one note to another without separations. He assigned me a scale-like fugue of Bach's to demonstrate the technique, so it was instructive to sit on this historic bench and watch first-hand my revered teacher.

When Dupre was 21 he memorized every organ work of Bach! In the published Bach-Dupre edition there are nine volumes. I bought the complete set while over there mostly because of the meticulous fingering which enables the player to achieve a perfect legato.

This large gorgeous church has a six-second reverberation - ideal for organ music. Many churches, sad to say, are so focused on the spoken word with a dry acoustic - great for speaking, awful for music. Recently Rector George Baum at St. Tim's in Massillon, Ohio, had all the carpet torn up to make a more reverberant space. I told him my favorite phrase "Carpet bedrooms, not churches!" a saying that was new to him.

When I was downtown at the large Methodist worship space I tried in vain to do the same thing, but one time, when the carpet was being replaced and the old carpet removed, I ventured down there at midnight (against Kathleen's wishes) and tape-recorded an hour's worth of music.

Well, no sound-deadening problems at St. Sulpice - rich acoustics, that organ sound bouncing around that great space. Dupre played everything from memory. Imagine: knowing every note that Bach had written for the organ, he could draw upon that fund of knowledge to play any Bach piece he could think of, and that's what he did, plus some improvising. There were points in the Mass where there was to be no music, and I marveled that Dupre would stop right in the middle of a piece for the liturgical exercise and then pick up the music from where he had stopped and, I confess, with his wondrous legato and with all that reverberation - well, quite an overlapping of sound. My personal reaction, in such a vibrant acoustic, would be to not play legato and let Mother Nature take care of the legato. But those moments on the bench with this genius are etched in my memory.

On a subsequent visit to Paris with some of my friends, we went to Notre Dame and in our halting French, sought permission to visit the organ gallery made famous by the blind master Louis Vierne. I wish our reception would have been akin to what I experienced at St. Sulpice.

Prayer Concerns

Have compassion on: Ten Gall, Vonda Temelkoff, Henry Aegerter, Jim Weaver, Jane Schutrum, Ron Brooks, and all those who suffer from any grief or trouble.

Family & Friends: Johnny Willoughby & Alison (grandson & friend of the Willoughbys) + Jane McBride (mother of Beth Crowl); Kathy Kennedy (former St. Mark’s parishioner) + Family of John Fortney (brother of Cindy Brown) + Bletzacker/Stutz families (death of Beth’s brother, Jeff) + Joel Harris (friend of Derek & Emily Gordon) + Doug (friend of Marcia Tirpak) + Joanne C. (Florida friend of the Kieslings) + Tom (brother-in-law of AnJane McConville) + Rick Schlegel & Jody Shumway (Co-worker friends of the Rand’s daughter) + Dr. Mallamaci (acquaintance of Bobbi Zollinger) + Jolonda Mull, Kirk Schuring, Pam Lagodich, & Bill Allen (sister-in-law & friends of the Mulls) + Earl Hoot (father of Joe Hoot) + Ashley Stockman (friend of Katie & Ryan Kuceyeski) + Scott Jones & Tim Swihart (cousin & friend of the Gordons) + Larry Aclaska & Judy Heisser-Turner (acquaintance & sister of Bert Heisser) + Lee, Theresa, and Chuck Boone (friends & cousin of the Hixons) + Mark Osterhage (friend of the Watters) + Elaine Campbell (friend of the Turners) + Sammy Coates (friend of Leslie Redmon) + Melanie & Trish (friends of Paulette Frech) + Pat Walter & family (friend of Barb Whitehouse) + Alycia Geis (Karen Violand’s friend’s daughter) + Don & Janet Sheatzley-Morgan (husband & sister of Barb Siegfried) + DaNay Jackson (friend of Ron Brookes) + Allison Cornell-Hood & Anne Higgins (daughter & friend of Diane Cornell) + Finnigan Savage (friend of Pam McCarthy) + Jimmy Little (son of Sue Little) + Yanette Pysher (Vonda Temelkoff’s cousin) + Tony Donahue (friend of the Boyds) + Marc Hostetler (brother of Susan Hostetler) + David (acquaintance of the Nadels) + Those in the Armed Forces.

PRAYER CHAIN:

St. Mark's has a group of prayer warriors who pray for the specific needs of those on the prayer chain. If you would like to place yourself or a loved one on the prayer chain, please contact Bobbi Gordon at ggordon24@sbcglobal.net

Prayer requests may be placed on the private Prayer Chain or on the Prayer Concerns list appearing in The Lion's Pause and Sunday bulletin or in both places. Please let Bobbi know your preference. Unless otherwise instructed, names will be listed as we receive them. Please update Bobbi or Katie on the status of your friends or family members as to when they may be removed from the prayer lists.