Thank God for Witnesses!

Grace Episcopal Church

Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Grace Notes

13 August 2015

On the calendar it is a week of heroic witness (St. Laurence the Deacon, St. Hippolytus, and Jonathan Myrick Daniels, martyrs), of lives dedicated to the service of God (St. Clare and Bl. Jeremy Taylor, in the vowed religious life and in devotional witness), and, supremely, of being completely open to and available to God, in Our Lady the Blessèd Virgin Mary. 

At http://www.missionstclare.com/english/August/cal.html you can find details of the feasts and saints of the week.  All of these people sound very, very special, and they were.  But let’s not let the saintliness of anyone put us off from living into our own vocations as those who are Christ’s own.  When we are open and available to God, He may call us to a special witness, but more often what we will be called to, and equipped for, will not be “special”.  It will be blessed and precious, but it will be so in the context of a day-to-day life in which we will likely not be in any way widely recognized.

I want to write about one example, about the example of how in an otherwise normal life of hard work, and the ins and outs of the little problems of each day, a form of witness can emerge.  The form of witness which can emerge is to be seen to participate in joy, even when (especially when) life might otherwise be difficult.

If you had to (or have to) work more than one job, and are paid at a rate that never leaves any money over from a paycheck; if in this work you had to deal every day with difficult people, or a difficult and repetitive process; if in doing this you found (or find) that the expression of personal thanks to you is rare, you would find it easy to characterize life as hard.  You would find it easy to complain.

But what if instead of complaining you are experienced by others as a joyful person?  And what if, when people get to know you, and they ask how you can be so joyful despite life’s difficulties, your simple answer is to express how much you experience God’s love for you?  Would that not be an incredibly powerful witness to God’s love?  Would you not be witnessing alongside with martyrs and religious?  You certainly would be making such a witness.  Your witness would be like that of Mary, who when the angel announced God’s plan to her gave her simple and unequivocal “yes” to God. 

When we say “yes” to God, He blesses us, and in His blessing we experience joy, no matter our life experience.  And in this we are special in the same way that all of the saints on this week’s calendar were special—we live into our vocation and identity as those “sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own for ever” (BCP 308).  All the word “saint” means in Scripture is one “set aside” for God.  In our Baptism we are each set aside, marked, sealed.  When we can recognize and realize this identity we can both experience joy and show to others how God’s love is experienced.  Thank God for witnesses!

Grace abounds:  Please thank:

§  The Clabots family for the Sunday coffee hour.
§ Andrea Beeck for cleaning and organizing the Children's Library

§  Congratulations and thank you for all the hard work the following parishioners did to make our first ever Miesfeld’s Brat Fry on August 8^th a smashing success!  36% of our annual  budget for fund raising was realized in this one event (!), and of this amount 47% was realized from the donated bake sale goods.  Please thank and /or hug the following:

o   Jill Stagner for advertising

o   Bernie Markevitch for onion preparations

o   Baked Goods donations:  John Davis Family, Barb MacEwen, Mary Snyder, Polly Schmeiser, Andrea and Leona Aparicio, Deb Gagin, Jessica Ambelang, Elizabeth Schaffenburg, Jennifer Pawlus, Wayne Knocke, Paul Aparicio, Mary Clabots, Nicci Beeck, Anne Hanlon, Katy Larson, Claudia Fischer, Joyce Wessel, Betty Potter, Bev Evans, and Anne and John Weeden.

o   For those who packaged the goodies on Friday:  Deb Gagin, Jennifer Pawlus, Nicci Beeck, Julie Davidson, Ellen Aparicio, Bev Evans, Barb MacEwen

o   Volunteers to oversea Bake Sale on Saturday:  Anne Hanlon, Deb Ferguson, Barb MacEwen, Ellen Aparicio, Grace Zangara

o   For those who grilled or volunteered in the brat hut:  Jennifer Pawlus, Elizabeth Schaffenburg, Scott Fabiano, Wayne Knocke, John Davis, Bob MacEwen, Ed Clabots, Bryan Stenz, Paul Aparicio, Steve Larson, Bob Hanlon, Sutton Cecil, Jack Britton, Bill Gagin, and Max Jurgel

o   Many thanks to parishioners who came to eat and buy goodies!

Update on media:  Last week we provided data on blog/podcast/Twitter hits and followers.  Here are the relevant numbers for the parish website:  Monthly hits range from 640 (newsletter) to 1839 (service schedule).  Clearly, a lot of these are hits from web bots.  However, allowing for this, and the fact that most sections of the website average 1000-1200 hits/month, we can estimate that at least several hundred unique live visits happen every month.

Music this Week:  The Twelfth Sunday after Petnecost, Proper 15B

Prelude                           Adagio in E Flat                                            John Stainer

Entrance Hymn 390        “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”          Lobe den Herren

Offertory Hymn 477        “All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine”

                                                                                                            Engelberg

Communion Hymn 324   “Let all mortal flesh keep silence”                       Picardy

Closing Hymn 542           “Christ is the world’s true light”                        St. Joan

Postlude                          Two Chorale Preludes on Lobe den Herren    Max Reger

Call for Contributions:  If you have a spiritual reflection to share, or want to point your fellow worshipers toward a resource, submit your contributions to Fr. Karl (by email) by Wednesday in the week of publication.

Parish Notices

St. Mary the Virgin: Monday, August 17^th we will celebrate the eve of the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin also known as the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. We will celebrate with a Solemn Mass at 6:00 pm. We will continue the celebration with an Ice Cream Social. Please join in the fun. If you can stay and help clean up that would be wonderful.

Eucharistic Festival: August 29, 11AM-2PM at Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Fond du Lac, WI. A traditional celebration of the Sacrament, with an outdoor procession & adoration. Homilist is Archdeacon Michele Whitford. Picnic meal follows. All are welcome to this diocesan family celebration. Sign up online to help or sing in the choir. Visit diofdl.org for more info.

Commemoration of Blessed Charles Chapman Grafton: August 29, 2:00-6:30PM at Episcopal Cathedral Church of St. Paul in Fond du Lac, WI. An event honoring a former bishop of our diocese. Includes presentation by Nashotah House Dean Steven A. Peay at 2:30PM, Evening Prayer at 3:45PM, Holy Eucharist at 4:15PM, and Garden Party. Visit diofdl.org for more info.

Blessing of the Backpacks! We will be blessing all the backpacks and school children as well as all the teachers, on August 30^th at both 8:00 and 10:15 services. We will invite everyone, young and old, who are starting school to come forward with their backpacks for a blessing. We will also ask all the teachers to come forward to be blessed in their important work as well.

Mass in the Grass: Please join us Sunday, September 13, 2015 for an outdoor Mass and All Church Picnic at Deland Community Center, 901 Broughton Dr., Sheboygan, the Mass will begin at 10:15 a.m. with lunch following. There will be games and activities for our children’s enjoyment. Inviting guests is encouraged. There will be ONE MASS only that day. We will be asking for donations of cookies/bars, potato chips, water and monetary donations to defray the cost. Please sign up on the sheet on the Narthex table.

Sunday School Begins: We are getting excited about Sunday School! The teachers are making plans for another wonderful year of learning about the love of Jesus Christ! Sunday School will begin on September 20^th at 9:00am. Please watch for more information.

The Alzheimer's Association Walk to End Alzheimer’s® is the world’s largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide, this inspiring event calls on participants of all ages and abilities to reclaim the future for millions. Together, we can end Alzheimer’s disease, the nation’s sixth-leading cause of death. We - Brenda, Greg, Charlie and Gracie will 
Walk to End Alzheimer’s & all types of dementia - 
in memory of our extraordinary Mother and Grandmother - 
Patricia (Patti) Rae Holmes 
who lost her 10+ year battle with this disease February 2014 If you would like to be a part of this great cause, please donate on my page here! http://act.alz.org/site/TR/Walk2015/WI-SoutheasternWisconsin?pg=team&fr_id=7928&team_id=276583

Thank you!
Brenda, Greg, Charlie and Gracie Burgett

Pastoral Letter on Same Sex Unions:  Bishop Matthew Gunter has issued a pastoral letter, dated 6 August 2015, announcing diocesan policy on the blessing of lifelong unions between same sex couples.  Copies of this letter are available in the parish (narthex table and office). 

The policy provides that unions may be blessed only in those congregations where the priest and 2/3 of the Vestry agree that such unions may be blessed.  The policy also provides:  (a) congregations must engage in an open forum discussion of matters relating to the blessing of same sex unions, using the *Study Guides for Congregational Use* (see below); and (b) if a priest/congregation decide that blessings will not take place in a given congregation, those members seeking blessing will be directed to another congregation in the diocese for pastoral ministration.

A parish forum will be held on Thursday, 8 October, from 6:30 to 8 p.m., in St. Nicholas Hall.  This forum will be facilitated by the Senior Warden, Paul Aparicio.

Fr. Schaffenburg has communicated to the Vestry that he will not participate in the blessing of same sex unions.

*Study Guides for Congregational Use*: Bishop Gunter has released two study guides for use by congregations and individuals of the Diocese of Fond du Lac. The King or a Fox: Configuring the Mosaic of Scripture is a 14-page document as a guide to understanding and interpreting Scripture. It was used by clergy during deanery clericus gatherings. In Dialogue With Each Other is a Study Guide created to aid congregations in studying and discussing the topic of same-sex unions. Clergy may want to encourage individuals to make use these resources or use them as a basis for forums or other study series. Downloads are available both as PDF and Word files. Visit diofdl.org.

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