emmanuel the trumpet church staff · most high, omnipotent, good lord, grant your people grace to...
TRANSCRIPT
Emmanuel
Church Staff
The Rev’d Canon Dr. Mark Gatza,
Rector
Brent Pertusio, Organist & Choirmaster
Heather Costantino, Christian Education
Coordinator
James Kennard, Sexton
Church Phone
410 838-7699
Church Cell Phone for
Pastoral Emergencies
443 752-0573
www.emmanuelbelair.org
Your Vestry Wants To Hear From You!
Here is a list of your vestry to contact with any concerns!
Rector --Mark Gatza: [email protected]
Senior Warden — Dottie Ward: [email protected]
Treasurer -- Steve Bareford: [email protected]
Registrar -- Liz Glass: [email protected]
Joan Kime: [email protected]
Paul Rogers: [email protected]
Shannon Rogers: [email protected]
Ted Roux: [email protected]
Debbie Bissoondial: [email protected]
Chris Gauthier: [email protected]
Cami Rogers: [email protected]
Rita Scharmann: [email protected]
JoAnne Bogusko: [email protected]
Peg Goodson: [email protected]
Allan Herlinger: [email protected]
Linden White: [email protected]
Francis of Assisi friar, 1226
Francis, the son of a prosperous merchant of Assisi, was born in 1182. His early youth was spent in harmless revelry and fruitless attempts to win military glory.
Various encounters with beggars and lepers pricked the young man’s con-science, and he decided to embrace a life devoted to Lady Poverty. De-spite his father’s intense opposition, Francis totally renounced all material values, and devoted himself to serving the poor. In 1210 Pope Innocent III confirmed the simple Rule for the Order of Friars Minor, a name Francis chose to emphasize his desire to be numbered among the “least”of God’s servants. The order grew rapidly all over Europe. But by 1221 Francis had lost control of it, since his ideal of strict and absolute poverty, both for the individual friars and for the order as a whole was found to be too difficult
to maintain. His last years were spent in much suffering of body and spirit, but his unconquerable joy never failed.
Not long before his death, during a retreat on Mount La Verna, Francis received, on September 14, Holy Cross Day, the marks of the Lord’s wounds, the stigmata, in his own hands and feet and side. Pope Gregory IX, a former patrol of the Franciscans, canonized Francis in 1228, and began the erection of the great basilica in Assisi where Francis is buried.
Of all the saints, Francis is the most popular and admired, but likely the least imitated; few have attained his total identifica-tion with the poverty and suffering of Christ. Francis left few writings but, of these, his spirit of joyous faith comes through most truly in the “Canticle of the Sun,” which he composed at Clare’s convent of St. Damian’s. The Hymnal version begins:
Most High, Omnipotent, good Lord, To thee be ceaseless praise outpoured, And Blessing without measure. Let creatures all give thanks to thee And serve in great humility.
The Trumpet
Emmanuel Episcopal Church
303 North Main Street
Bel Air, Maryland 21014
6 October 2015
Upcoming Scripture Lessons
4 October — Genesis 2: 18-28, Psalm 8, Hebrews 1:1-4, 2: 5-12, Mark 10: 2-16
18 October — Isaiah 53: 4-12, Psalm 91: 9-16, Hebrews 5: 1-10, Mark 10:35-45
“Every Dollar We Spend Helps Someone In Need” Emmanuel’s 2016 “Pledge” Campaign
This has always been the case at Emmanuel Church, but when these words came to me last week at the “Project Resource” conference, they rang true to my ears. There are hungry people in Harford County that need food, sick and shut-in friends and neighbors who need our prayers, children who need to learn how to find God in their lives, groups that need space to meet together, and — most importantly — all of us need to hear the Gospel proclaimed and have a place to gather for worship. Behind all of this is a talented and dedicated staff and an infrastructure of buildings and grounds.
Emmanuel supports its ministries by asking you each year to contribute directly to our budget and to tell us ahead of time — to pledge to us — how much you are able to give. We ask you to fill out a “Pledge Card” so that we can create a budget with which to plan our expenses for the coming year. Many churches have en-dowments that generate income above and beyond the pledges of their members. Emmanuel does have a small endowment — less than $50,000 in total — and it has not contributed to our budget in some time as we let it grow. More than most congregations, then, we depend on your faithfulness and your generosity so that we can accomplish what God calls us to do.
You will find a variety of materials available to you over the next six weeks or so that describes more fully what we do and what we spend money on, including a narrative budget. Read them carefully and see if you don’t agree that every dollar we spend helps someone in need. Mark Gatza+
Francis of Assisi
Friar, 1226
Most high, omnipotent, good Lord, grant your people grace to renounce gladly the vanities of this world; that following the way of blessed Francis, we may for love of you delight in your whole creation with perfectness of joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, on God, for ever and ever. Amen.
If it is Broken, Fix it! Last week I attended the first Project Resource conference offered by The Episco-
pal Church as a delegate from Maryland, one of 14 dioceses in attendance. Over
the next three years, similar delegations (consisting of the Bishop, two lay persons
and two clergy) from the other 96 dioceses will attend the same conference, so that
by the end every diocese in the church will have a chance to learn this important material.
Project Resource (project-resource.org) is “a teaching and
resource movement that assists philanthropy and raises funds
needed in God’s mission.” No one articulated the goal of Project
Resource more succinctly than our own Bishop Sutton. “Five
years from now,” he said, “we want everyone in the Diocese of
Maryland to be enthusiastic about giving to the Church.” This
has been born out for many years in his visitations to congrega-
tions, where he has frequently said that the Offering is “the fun-
nest” part of the service, and that people should “give until it
feels good.”
But the truth is that, at this moment, not everyone is enthu-
siastic about giving to the Church. Project Resource conference
leaders put it this way: Everyone’s “Plan A” is to trust God to
take care of us and provide for us all that we need to lead satis-
fied and joy-filled lives. “Plan B” is to store up our own wealth,
both financially and in terms of possessions, in case “Plan A” doesn’t work. Tragically, way too
many people jump too quickly to “Plan B” before God can show that “Plan A” really does work.
With this truth underlying our experience, it is no wonder that the way we have practiced
“stewardship” in recent decades is no longer working. A brief letter from the rector thanking mem-
bers for their past support and pleading for a little more this year and even a pledge card that
acknowledges the fact that we offer gifts of time and talent simply don’t cut it anymore. That has
certainly been true at Emmanuel, where the income we receive from people who have pledged to
support us has been down significantly enough in the last two years to leave us with deficit budgets
and in debt to ourselves. The system we have used for so long, given the realities of our economy
and our experiences in a world, is broken.
I returned from Denver with great confidence that we can fix it. Perhaps not all at once or in a
single year’s effort. But the resources that are available to us — “curated” for us by this conference
— provide the tools and the training we need.
You will enjoy, I hope, a little taste of this as we try to incorporate some of these learnings in our
campaign to raise income for our 2016 budget. Indeed, you will hear explicitly that “Every Dollar
Given Helps Someone in Need,” our theme this year. But the larger promise is that our future efforts
will be even more successful and more fun. The children who give to our “flying pig” each week are
already “enthusiastic” givers. Project Resource will help you become one too, maybe sooner than
five years from now.
Totidem Verbis Mark Gatza+
What’s happening in Sunday School?
Our theme for Sunday School this year is “Praise God”. The children have be-
gun a series of lessons that looks at the many ways we can praise God.
Recently our third grade class had a robust conversation about “making a joyful noise to the Lord” from
Psalm 98. They talked about how we can praise God through music. The wisdom of their insights was
well beyond their 8 years. One third grader commented that, “if you feel you have to have a good singing
voice in order to make a joyful noise to God, then you must not be singing for God”. When talking about
how God might feel when we make a joyful noise, another child in the class said, “God feels remembered
and not left out.”
Are you singing for God and making sure that God is not “left out”? Out of the mouths of babes….. ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Adult Bible Study
Our Friday morning Bible Study will start up again on Friday, Oc-
tober 2, 2015.
We will meet in the Rectory at 9:30 and end by 11:00.
We will be reading the book Grace written by Max Lucado and examining some of his scripture references to grace in depth. If you are interested in joining the study, please let me know as soon as you can so I can get a copy of the book into your hands before October 2nd. See me Sunday mornings or contact me at church Tuesday, Wednesday or Fridays between 9:30 am and 2:00 pm. You can also email me at [email protected].
Heather Costantino
Christian Education Coordinator
The Book of Judges
Another Adult Bible Study is available on Tuesdays at 5:00 PM in the Maryan Room of the Parish Hall. Beginning 29 September 2015, this fall features the Book of Judges. With the increasing awareness of senseless violence in our coun-try, it seems right to study a biblical that depicts more vio-lence than any other. Canon Gatza will look not only at the stories but at the art that depicts them.