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Mid-Summer 2008
FROM THE RECTOR Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ – This mid-summer issue of Chi Rho comes out to you at an unusually busy time. Christ Church has been bustling over the first few weeks of summer, and there is no end in sight. A few notes for the family: ● The recent unexpected death of Judy Widman was a terrible blow for both her family and our church. Judy served in many capacities over her long tenure here as a parishioner, including as a vestry member, search committee member, and most recently and faithfully as the Director of our Altar Guild. Thanks for your prayerful support of The Widman Family these past couple of weeks, and for the countless ways so many of you helped to make Judy's funeral celebration an event of real beauty and hope. ● Christian Education for adults continues this summer. A discussion group on the day's Gospel meets every Sunday all summer at 9:15 AM in the "Icon Room" in the parish house. All are welcome to join this group for meaningful and fun discussion - no preparation is necessary and drop-ins are most welcome. ● I will take a family vacation in late August. In the event of an emergency of any kind, you may contact the Church Office (986-3440) or Matthew Mumford – our Senior Warden – at his home number (986-9359). Both the office and Wardens will have emergency contact information. Father Frank Alagna will again be serving as our supply priest for Sunday morning services. ● Don't forget that most Sunday sermons are recorded live and posted to our church website for you to listen to at your convenience. Visit www.christchurch.org anytime – and thanks to Betty Hurd, Lloyd & Gillian Jeffords, William Agosto, Steve Laico and all the others who help record Sunday services…and to George Opper, our phenomenal webmaster! A blessed summer to all! Faithfully – Father Scott +
FROM THE INTERN . . . Hello all, In the past month I have done and seen so many interesting things, from visiting the Convent of Saint Helena, to visiting the Cathedral in New York City. My favorite activities, though, are simply talking to those that come into the office just to stop by, and helping during the Sunday services. My office hours will become less consistent during July, but I will try to be in at least 3 mornings a week. Call ahead or stop on by, I hope to see you!!! Jeremy Vogt SUMMER POT LUCK AND THE HOLY SPIRIT On August 7th, there will be a pot luck dinner, open to all. Following the dinner, Father Scott and Jeremy Vogt will be leading a discussion on the Holy Spirit in your lives. Everyone is encouraged to attend! We will start the evening about 7:00 PM and have a wonderful meal, until about 7:40. We will then begin discussing how the Holy Spirit interacts with you in your personal lives until about 8:45. I hope that this appeals to everyone, as it is so important to our lives as Christians. If you are unable to attend the pot luck, you are still encouraged to attend the discussion--and vice-verse! You can sign up on the bulletin board if you are interested -- the more the merrier! More information will be coming, and we hope you will plan on seeing us August 7th! CHRIST CHURCH CARE TEAM MINISTRY As many of you know, our church Care Team Ministry serves parishioners at those times when they may need a ride to the doctor or a nearby medical facility, or some food due to illness, the birth of a new family member or some other special event in their or their family’s life. We are truly blessed to have parishioners who provide rides or some tasty treat to members in need of these helpful services. Please contact Andrea Breslin (544-1254) if you would like us to provide some treats or Arena Andersen (544-1102) to help with rides. Or even if you don’t need food or a ride, we would like you to know we are thinking of you and will keep you in our prayers. So please keep in touch with Andrea, Arena, or notify the Church Office if you would like some assistance from your church family. The Care Team Ministry is always looking for new members to serve our parish family. So please contract Andrea, Arena or the office if you would like to help with food, rides or any other special need or request from a church parish member or family. Sarah Hock – Vestry Outreach Liaison
BUILDINGS & GROUNDS Spring has sprung and summer has arrived; with it the never ending list of Building and Grounds maintenance items.may not be common knowledge to most people but ourbudget for building repairs etc is a mere $2000/year.is a very small amountit is earmarked for maintenance and repairs to Church, Rectory and Parish House buildings and grounds. Additionally, our hope is that(you) will step up and take on some small projects and help us keep our buildings maintained, tidy and accommodating in a highly cost effective way. The list below represents just a few of the items that we are trying to get accomplished over the coming weeks and months. Your willingness to take on any of these projects would be a very welcomedand an opportunity to give, as Jesus challenges us to,ourin support of's work. We are all accustomed to the challenge of supporting God's work with our treasure via pledgingwe can sometimes forget that giving time in support of his work (in this case ourand buildings) is also a very valuable demonstration of pledging in a different sense. Any assistance you can provide will be very much appreciated. For more details on any of the tasks please contact Simon Turner (Buildings and Grounds Chairman) on 845-915-4123. We need help with the following: ● Replace trim work over the parish house entrance porch ● Light repair work to rectory front porch ceiling ● Parish house rear deck - apply stain ● Replace ceiling tiles in sacristy ● Repair sacristy door/hinges ● Clean gutters on the parish house side of church ● Install coat hooks in ladies bathroom ● Weed edge and mulch shrubs/trees at side and front of church ● Gardening HELP - various projects (year round would be fantastic - short term OK also) ● Research/propose illuminated exit signs for church worship space (required to meet code) ● Remove/recyclesteel shelving from Thrift Shop basement ● Install wall mount storage shelves in attic storage space ● Remark parking spaces (yellow lines) in lot behind parish house · Disabled ramp (side of church)- clean and apply second coatstain YOUTH WANTED FOR CONFIRMATION If you will be in 9th grade (or higher) this September and wish to be confirmed, please call Judi Quackenbush (986-6805) or Jo-Ann Rome (987-7236). Our Confirmation Class meets every other Sunday night from 5:00-6:30 PM - September through May. This is a 2-year program so you would be confirmed in the spring of 2010. This year we have a special guest speaker already planned, Ray Boswell a local potter from Sugar Loaf. It will be an exciting night. More details to come!
NOTES FROM THE CHURCH HISTORIAN Dear All, Things are really hopping here at the History corner this month. As I told you last time several people have been working on their family histories and collecting pictures. Ruth Van Strander brought in some great ones of her family, church groups and really great church building pictures that I did not have. My turn to do some work now, scanning them into the computer. Thanks, Ruth! I have been doing some research in the cemetery again and was lucky to find some early stones from The Sinsabaugh Family and some information on one of their men in an 1866 copy of the Advertiser. This man used to run a delivery business with his horse and buggy in the 1860’s. Out of the blue (God Bless the Internet) we were contacted by the great-grandson of The Rev. Dr. William M. Pickslay. He is in the service and stationed in Great Britain and just happened to find out that we had information on his family from checking our Website. I have information that he does not have and vise versa, so we have been having a great time for the last week writing and scanning documents and pictures and sending them along. This is such a great job! I am finishing to preserve the last of our loose papers in our records and then the work of cataloging all of it begins. I haven’t written much on our book this week with all this going on, but Lisa Turner continues to bang away at the Vestry lists for the appendix. She is amazing because my handwriting is criminal. She will be happier when she gets to the end of my notes and starts her own research from 1954 to the present. Have a great summer! Peace to all! Ivy Tulin ARE YOU LIVING ALONE? If you are living alone and would like a daily telephone call just to have someone check in on you, we provide such a service. Or ... if you know of someone who would benefit from this, please call Judi Quackenbush (986-6805) or Jo-Ann Rome (987-7236). This can be long term (we have 3 people being called everyday) or if you are just returning home from the hospital and would want this service for a short period of time, let us know. We have volunteers standing by ready to help.
JULY STEWARDSHIP REPORT Here we are in the wonderful season of summer. It’s a great time to get things done in our yards, spend time vacationing (if you can afford the gas) and just plain relaxing with your family (if they let you). In addition to relaxing with our family and friends, it’s also a perfect time to spend a little time now and then seeing what we can do to help around the church. As I have mentioned many, many time before, Total Stewardship of our God given blessings is much more than sharing our financial blessings. It’s also the use of God’s blessings of our talents and our precious time. Summer is the perfect time to contact our Buildings and Grounds Chairman, Simon Turner to see if there are some small or not so small jobs that you could help with. As Simon will tell you, you don’t have to be an expert carpenter, plumber or electrician to help with various projects that are continually underway at our church, projects where a few hours of your assistance could make all the difference in our ability to get the job done. By the way, I’m sure that Dorothy Eumont would love to have you volunteer to help her with some of her garden upkeep around the church. Please, if you think that you can give a little time, contact her. So please remember during this wonderful time of year, there are many activities going on that both help beautify the church grounds as well as help with normal building maintenance and improvement. It does not require a lot of your time if we all give a little. Believe me that it feels great to see the fruits of your labor in the beautification and improvement of our church and grounds. Please call and offer to help. Thank you and God bless! Fred Widman - Stewardship Chairman FROM THE FINANCE COMMITTEE . . . . Pledge income through the month of May was as follows: Pledged income: $76,250.00 Actual income: $67,979.00 Shop Rite / A&P Gift Card sales though May: Dollar amount sold: $50,000.00 Profit to church: $2,500.00 Sunday attendance has been very strong, yet pledge income continues to struggle (down nearly 11%). Though puzzling on the surface, it reveals that the economy’s affect on pledges has not been allowed to affect our worship attendance. This faithfulness as a church family is what is important, and through God, the other things will take care of themselves. Budget shortages present challenges indeed, but we have abundance where it counts most. Let’s be thankful for that.
MEALS-ON-WHEELS PICNIC If you are now a M-O-W volunteer, if you would like to be a M-O-W volunteer, or if you have ever given thought to being a M-O-W volunteer, this message if for you! On Thursday, July 31st at Noon there will be a picnic at The McFarland’s (with Don’s famous hamburgers!) to include all of the above. A change is desired in the leadership of the Monday operations, which has long been the domain of Christ Church. The input of all (which means you!) is needed to reach an equitable solution of this situation. Please call the Church Office (986-3440) or The McFarlands (986-4825) to be sure your name is on the list! CHRIST CHURCH’S SOUP KITCHEN SUNDAYS Christ Church is scheduled to volunteer to serve at the Soup Kitchen at Grace Episcopal Church in Middletown on the following Sundays from 1:30-4:30 PM: July 20th, August 24th, September 28th, November 2nd, and December 7th. Please consider signing up to volunteer in the parish house or speak to Sarah Hock (986-1321). This is a very rewarding outreach ministry for Christ Church members to help prepare and provide food and an opportunity for friendly fellowship for the people who need and appreciate these services in downtown Middletown - away from all the bustling shopping malls. PRAYER CHAIN Did you know that Christ Church has a prayer chain that prays daily for the concerns, rejoices, and needs of our parish and extended family? If you are in need of prayer, please call the Church Office (986-3440) and they will get the name to our prayer chain or you can call Judi Quackenbush (986-6805) or Linda Garcia (986-1371) and we will add your name. Names can be friends and relatives of our parish family too. They are prayed for daily, and we do not need last names and conditions (God knows all that already). We simply raise your name in prayer. If you would like to be part of this prayer chain, please also call the Church Office or Judi Quackenbush and we will set up you. We have 13 to 14 people already on the chain and we communicate through e-mail regularly.
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