January 7, 2021
Dear Friends in Christ:

Back in June of last year, a small group of us began streaming a service of sung Compline two nights a week. A few months ago, we switched the Thursday service to a model based on the Taize' form of sung worship. We have decided that after 30 weeks, it is time to take a break from Compline. However, we do want to continue to offer Taize' on Tuesday evenings. Not just because of the alliteration of Tuesday Taize', but also because we intend to make this service into an in-person weekly occurrence, once we are able to safely sing together again.

I hope you can join us online on Tuesday evenings at 7pm in the weeks ahead.

On to the updates . . .
WORSHIP
You can find this week's bulletin insert HERE.

Sunday 1/10, Baptism of Jesus
10:00 am we will stream a Rite II service of Holy Eucharist, at our website and on our Facebook page, using Choirmaster Andrew Bolden's "Third Street Mass," which can be found HERE.
This week's service outline is HERE, and hymns are HERE.
Starting next Sunday (for the Sundays after Epiphany), we will be using Rite I until Ash Wednesday. (So brush up on your Elizabethan English!)

Tuesday 1/12 7pm
Our weekly evening service, based on the Taize' model. You can tune in at 7pm, on Facebook and at our website. You can find an outline of the service HERE.

Epiphany Lessons and Carols
Last night, we successfully streamed a lovely pre-recorded service of Lessons and Carols for the Feast of the Epiphany. For those who missed it, or who might want to watch it again, you can find the link at our website, on our Facebook page, and on our Youtube channel.
You can find the service outline HERE.
A huge thank you to all who participated!
ANNUAL MEETING
We will hold our Annual Meeting online, using zoom, on January 17th, at 11:30am (immediately following our online worship service that day).
If you have never used zoom before, you'll want to download the application in advance by visiting their website. I will send the specific details of the meeting in the weeks ahead.

The two things we need to do are to elect three new Vestry members, and approve the budget for 2021. We currently have two potential candidates for Vestry, so we need at least one more. If you are interested in serving on Vestry, or would like more information, please contact any current Vestry member, or the Rector (that's me).

Our zoom meeting ID is 853 4798 1005. And the password is 1836 (the year the parish was founded). To be eligible to vote, participants must be adult members of St. Timothy's. Please contact me if you have any questions. (Preferably, before 11:29am on January 17th.)

We will mail out a pared-down version of the Annual Meeting guidebook early next week, and I will also send a PDF of the booklet in next week's e-mail.
BIRTHDAYS and ANNIVERSARIES
Lots of folks celebrating birthdays again this week: Erick McCalla (1/10), Jill Strodtbeck (1/13), Jay Bomze (1/15), Doug Miller (1/16), Jim Bower (1/16), and Patrick Streb (1/16).
No anniversaries of which I am aware.
Be sure to send happy thoughts and good wishes to all who celebrate this week!
WEEKLY PUZZLE
This week, we continue with our theme of things most people don't get to see, featuring our Advent pall. The pall--you'll remember--is a square piece of stiff fabric or cardboard that sits atop the chalice. The remarkable thing about our Advent pall is those little symbols embroidered into it. These are the symbols corresponding to the O Antiphons (which you can think of as the verses to the hymn "O Come Emmanuel.") Again, the pall doesn't have to have anything on it, which is why St. Timothy's collection is so remarkable.

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!


PRAYERS REQUESTED
Please keep these friends and parishioners in your prayers.
David Wigginton, Anne Smith, Bob Meyer, Chris Lane, Judy Wigginton, Priya Kurian, Chuck Tilley, Michael Flamm, Bob Long, Chester Brumbaugh, Stormi, Dave Cottrill, Jeff Frank, Shari, Margaret Fowlar, Bobbie Muhlbach, Isaac Leggett, Patty, Liz Frank, Erin Wiley, Charlene Lochland, Dan, Brian Dorosch, Charles Conner, Marlene, Caroline, and all those affected by COVID 19.
OTHER THINGS
If you're willing to help stock up our food pantry, we're pretty much out of everything these days. Key items are pasta and sauces, canned fish and meat, soups, cereals, and peanut butter.

Still no word from the Bishop on resuming in-person worship services. My fellow clergy and I are trying to imagine ways to observe Ash Wednesday, but are having a hard time of it. (The Bishop has expressly forbidden "drive-through ashes," and I am definitely with him on that.) Hopefully, we will find a way.

And speaking of hopefully finding a way, yesterday's events in our nation's capital and Capitol were breathtakingly horrifying. The deep divisions in our country were laid bare, the curtain was pulled back, and we found ourselves staring into the abyss. While I don't know how or when we will heal from all this, I know that heal we must. And so, for now, I offer up this prayer . . .

Heavenly Father, in your Word you have given us a vision of
that holy City to which the nations of the world bring their
glory: Behold and visit, we pray, the cities of the earth.
Renew the ties of mutual regard which form our civic life.
Send us honest and able leaders. Enable us to eliminate
poverty, prejudice, and oppression, that peace may prevail
with righteousness, and justice with order, and that men and
women from different cultures and with differing talents may
find with one another the fulfillment of their humanity;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. BCP pg. 825

I sure do miss seeing you all, and I hope you are healthy and happy. Please let me know how I might be helpful to you.

Faithfully,

Fr. George