For This Sunday

Activity Bags for Children: We have activity bags for children to use during church services. The bags are available in the church entrances. Please return at the end of the service.

Children’s Bulletins: We have bulletins for children ages 3-6 and for 7-12 available at each service. Ask an usher for one or both.

Coffee Hour: Coffee Hour hosts are needed for Sundays in February! The sign up sheet is posted in the parish hall, or call or email Patrick in the office. Please consider signing up to host! It doesn’t have to be a lot of work, you don’t even have to cook. Ideas include: veggies, fruit, cheese, crackers, cookies, mini sandwiches, breads, brownies, pretzels, trail mix, danish, and donuts. 

Children and Youth Christian Formation: We have two Christian Formation classes for children and youth ages 3-7 and ages 8 and up on Sunday mornings at 10AM. All are welcome! 

Adult Christian Formation: Sunday we will continue to read Ruth (and then Esther) together in Epiphany using The Good Book Club. We will be discussing Ruth: Chapters 3&4. Reflections and questions are provided by The Rev. Elizabeth Felicetti, who is rector at St. David’s in Richmond. She is also co-authoring two books with Samantha (forthcoming from Eerdmans). Materials provided. We meet on the stage at 10AM. All are welcome, please join us. All are welcome, please join us. For a reading schedule and information click here.

Nursery Closed on Jan 22nd: The Nursery will be closed on Jan 22nd due to lack of coverage. It will be open January 29th.

Nursery time changes: The Nursery will now be open from 9:45am to 12pm. 

Gluten Free Communion Options: Sealed communion packets with gluten free wafers are currently unavailable—it is our hope we’ll be able to offer them before the end of February. Gluten free communion wafers are currently available. Communion can be taken in one kind if the common cup makes you nervous!

Rise Against Hunger meal packaging event on January 22nd!: Please sign up to help! We need more people to gather and package meals for over 10,000 hungry schoolchildren worldwide, in under 3 hours! In 2023, Rise Against Hunger will mark 25 years working toward: “A World Without Hunger”! Join us as we “join hands to lend a hand” and help make an impact on remote, last-mile communities worldwide. Invite your friends and neighbors to join us for this fun event. (We still need 20-30 MORE volunteers) for set up, packaging, and clean up.). THANK YOU!

To learn more and sign up, click here. Please forward the link above to friends and neighbors so they can sign up to help. Please watch the brief video that shows the incredible impact this program makes.

As the video explains: “the packages may look like simple bags of rice and soy, but Rise Against Hunger meals represent the hopes and dreams of people worldwide”. They could not send millions of meals around the globe each year without all of us volunteering to help. We will meet in the Parish Hall right after the 11am service (set up help a bit earlier). With 50 volunteers helping with set up, packaging, and clean up the time will fly and you will help feed ten thousand school children! Pizza and drinks will be provided. Join us!  

Coming up This Week

Monday

4PM

Book Club: The next meeting of the St. John’s Book Club will be held on Monday, January 23, at 4pm on the stage in the parish house. For that meeting we will finish reading Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boyle. New members are welcome! For more information, please contact Susan Edmonson.

Tuesday

10AM

Outreach Meeting: The St John’s Outreach Committee will meet in the parish house at 10AM on Tuesday January 24. Projects and funding for 2023 will be discussed as well as a recap of activities in 2022. This meeting is open to parishioners interested in the outreach of our church.

Wednesday

3PM

Bible Study: We continue our study of Romans every Wednesday at 3pm. We are taking our time, so please join in the discussion of this informative and formational letter of Paul. We begin and end in prayer for our St. John’s family and those on our hearts. We meet at 3pm (Wednesdays) via Zoom. We welcome all visitors!

Announcements

Annual Meeting: On Sunday, January 29th, we will have one worship service at 10am. Following the service, please join us in the church for St. John’s Annual Meeting including the election of new vestry members and then in the parish hall for breakfast. There will be no Christian formation, but Nursery will be provided. 

Altar Flowers: We need people to sign up for altar flowers! If you would like to honor or memorialize a loved one, event, or occasion, please sign up for a Sunday of altar flowers. Contact Anne Chisman Abraham by email or at 757-714-8215.

Charitable Trust: Over the past years, the St. John’s Charitable Trust has made numerous grants to many charitable organizations and we have received Thank You notes, letters and acknowledgements from many of these recipients. These are posted on the Parish House bulletin board located in the hall near Mark’s office to share with the parish, so please take a look at your next opportunity.

EM{BRACE}: If you are cleaning out your closets or attics or helping a friend or family member downsize, keep EM{BRACE} in mind. A collection bin will be available in the parish hall to collect Durable Medical Equipment (DME) for those in need in under-developed countries. DME is items such as canes, crutches, braces, splints, walkers, wheelchairs, commodes, etc.

Stewardship: For those who have requested them, pledge envelopes will be available in the parish house on January 1st. If you haven’t pledged yet, it’s not too late! Call the office to request a pledge card today.

Altar Guild Volunteers Needed: The altar guild is a critical ministry of the church. They set up our altar and enable us to have our Sunday worship. All you need to do is arrive approximately 30 minutes before the service to help set up. No Saturdays are required! If you cannot commit to a Sunday, but would still like to help make our altar lovely on Sunday, please consider our linen ministry. All you need is a washing machine and an iron. You would take home our purificators (what we use to wipe the cup), wash, iron and return to the church. If you are interested, please contact Lynn Kirkland. 

Chanco Staffing: If you, or someone you know, loves the outdoors, Jesus, and working with kids Camp Chanco would encourage you to apply for one of the many positions they need to fill for the coming summer. Positions include Activities Director, Kitchen Staff, Counselors, Ropes Instructor, Lifeguards, Nature Instructors, Photographer, Sailing Instructors, Nurse, Chaplin, Operations Director, Aquatics Director. All positions include housing, meals and training. This is a fantastic opportunity to build your resume, make new friends and help make memories for kids that will last a lifetime. For more information please email programs@chanco.org, or to apply go to campchanco.campbrainstaff.com.

Kroger Community Rewards Program: For the past several years, St. John’s has partnered with Kroger and benefits from their Community Rewards program. Every person who links their Kroger card to St. John’s under the community reward program helps St. John’s receive a quarterly bonus payment. Currently, we only have 15 families linked and our devoted treasurer faithfully updates the Vestry on the quarterly amount received. Please consider linking your card to us, so we can grow this free benefit! Read more here! Our organization number is AD255.