May 16, 2019
Picture of  the Week!

Dr. Strand at the organ with enthusiasts.
Readings of  the Week
5th Sunday of Easter
May 19th
Music of the Week 
Christ Is Alive!  
Let Christians Sing  


Sermon of the Week  
The Rev. Tim Boggs
Sermon from the 4th week of  Easter May 12th 
 
Worship Schedule

Sunday
  • 8:00 am Quiet, spoken and traditional 
  • 9:30 am Holy Communion with choir and children's programs
  • 5:30 pm Celtic
    Eventide...contemplative, musical and prayerful
      
 
Monday
  • 5:00 pm Centering Prayer
Clergy and Music
 This Sunday .
  • The Rev. Tim Boggs will be  preaching and celebrating at 8 am and 9:30 am and celebrating at 5:30 pm
  • Jim Strand is on the organ bench.
  • The Rev. Holly Hoffmann is on vacation!
Meetings & Events  

5/19      Blood Pressure Screening 
5/19      Health Ministry Coffee Chat
5/21       Book Club
5/26       No Youth Group Meeting   
5/27      Memorial Day/ Office Closed
6/2        Parish Breakfast
6/5        20/30 Dinner
6/5        Yoga
6/12      Yoga 
6/14      Last Knitting Group til Fall
6/19      Yoga
6/22       Consecration of Bishop  
6/26      Yoga
7/4         July 4th / Office Closed
 

All Are Welcome

Overview of Children and Youth Programs

Children's Chapel
Ages four through sixth grade! A space of welcome, music, and prayer before lessons in our age groups. 9:30am, downstairs in Godly Play.

Nursery : During 9:30am worship for babies and toddlers.

Godly Play : ages 4- grade k
Wonder and storytelling with inviting object lessons.

Our Place : grades 1st- 4th
A rotation based program of Bible exploration.

Connect : grades 5th -6th  
God's story meets our story with games, artwork and fun!

Rite 13 : grades 7th- 8th  
Focusing on God at work in our lives through service and formation.

Debbie Fisher, Interim
Minister for Children and Families
Youth Group
News
High School Youth Gatherings
*** Note there will be no youth group meeting on May 26th ***  
  Our usual meetings for fun, food, fellowship, and prayer are on the first and third Sundays of each month at 3:30 - 5 pm.
   
The adults involved with leading the high school youth group are the Rev. Holly Clark, Anne Sedlack, and Peter Durgin.  
   
If you would like to be added to our email list to learn about upcoming high school youth events, please contact the Rev. Holly Hoffmann at hclark@stalbansmaine.org.   
 
Health Ministry
liz blood pressure
May 19th
Blood Pressure Screening
after 9:30 am service.

A reminder from your
Health Ministry

Always apply sunscreen before you go outside.

A reminder from your
Health Ministry

Always do a "tick check".

A reminder from your
Health Ministry
Contemplative Stitching

Contemplative Stitching
All are welcome
Any level of handwork
quilting, embroidery anything.
9 am - 10 am
Every 2nd and 4th Friday
of the month at St. Alban's
Please note we
will not meet for the summer (last meeting on 6/14) but we will resume in the fall. Stay tuned.

  Like me on Facebook

 
 
Each month at your Vestry's meetings one of us leads the group in an opening prayer or meditation. At our last meeting we all delighted as Chris Pezzullo read from a letter to a friend written by Fra. Giovanni, a renaissance friar, thinker and poet.
 
Fra. Giovanni was also an architect and his inspirational writings often have sense of building-up, a kind of generative wonder at the possibilities of life. Chris noticed how fresh these 15 th century words of hope sound to our modern ears. They do indeed!
 
Here's a sampling and a link to the whole letter.
 
There is nothing I can give you which you have not got, but there is much, very much, that, while I cannot give it, you can take.

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in today. Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see - and to see we have only to look. I beseech you to look!

Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by the covering, cast them away as ugly, or heavy or hard. Remove the covering and you will find beneath it a living splendor, woven of love, by wisdom, with power.

Welcome it, grasp it, touch the angel's hand that brings it to you.
 
Friends, we have been given so much...shall we reach and take and share and grow?
 
  
  
Please Help
Coffee Hour is hosted by us all!
Would you like a turn?
Your help would be most welcome!
Hosts make coffee (supplied by the church), provide cookies, coffee cake or someth ing similar, cream, and their time on the scheduled Sunday morning.

Detailed information is provided to hosts well in advance.

We now use this link to schedule coffee hour! Simply click this link to find an available Sunday that fits your schedule.
Lifesaving Skills
This Sunday after the 9:30 am service 
Plug In to a Nourishing Word
Missed a sermon?  Want to listen to a certain preacher, date or week ? You can find them on our website. But now we have a new offering:

Introducing our Podcast channel called
A Nourishing Word 
For more information and directions  

20s and 30s
SAVE THE DATE!
 
2 0s / 30s Dinner and Conversation, Wednesday, June 5th  at 6 pm

If you are in your twenties or thirties, you are invited to a simple dinner on May 1 at 6 pm in Bonoff Hall to get to know one another better and to discuss how St. Alban's could support you in your faith journey even more. If you have questions, please speak with the Rev. Holly Hoffmann or Vestry member David Stankiewicz. Please RSVP to ktucker@stalbansmaine.org
by Sunday, April 28.

Yoga For All
Yoga at St. Alban's: Wednesdays
in June, 
9:30-10:45 am 


 
All Levels Yoga is suitable for continuing and beginning students. Our focus will be on cultivating a clear, intelligent and balanced practice of postures, breathing techniques and relaxation.  Class size is small and props are used to individualize student's needs / abilities. The yoga props will be provided. If you own a yoga mat, please bring it with you.

Holly Hofmann
(a local yoga teacher and not our Associate Rector) is a compassionate, experienced and certified  yoga teacher who encourages patience, humor and kindness as the body naturally unfolds.   
 
  The contemplative practices of yoga can bring an inner calm and peace to daily life.  Or as poet Galway Kinnell so beautifully expresses, a form of "self-blessing" --- "The bud stands for all things, for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing".  To sign up, email ktucker@stalbansmaine.org  and then bring a check payable to St. Alban's for $60 to the office at St. Alban's by the end of May. Note in the memo line that the check is for yoga class. 

Don't Miss This
At Cape Elizabeth Public Library

Contemplative Caregiving: Finding Healing, Compassion, and Spiritual Growth through End-of-Life Care 
May 18th, 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Join us for an interactive talk and book signing with Dr. John Eric Baugher, author of Contemplative Caregiving: Finding Healing, Compassion, and Spiritual Growth through End-of-Life Care. Integrating insights from over two decades of engagement in hospice care with contemplative social science research, this heartfelt book offers practical lessons on the transformative possibilities of compassionate caregiving. Copies of Dr. Baugher's book will be available at the event.

Camp St. Alban's
 
All are welcome
Book Club Update

Book Club Update
The upcoming selections for the book group are, "The Grapes of Wrath," by John Steinbeck, to be discussed on May 21... three copies ordered at Nonesuch. 
"The Gentleman in Moscow," by Amor Towles, will be discussed on June 18. Five copies are on hold at Nonesuch.  
The meetings are held at the church at 7 p.m.