All Saints Episcopal Church, Hilton Head Island, SC

E-MAIL ADDRESSES WANTED…

New and better ways to communicate with our All Saints parishioners are in the offing. One of them is through electronic mail! At present, it costs 50 cents to mail a news flyer, schedule, etc. (postage, paper & envelope) and we don’t always meet the Bulk Rate minimum of 200 pieces for a single local zip code. If we had everyone’s e-mail address, think of the savings that would be generated. Send your e-mail address to Marilyn Adams or the Webmaster today! Your e-mail address will not be shared or made public in any way.

For those Episcopalians and other Anglicans holding their collective breath for some definitive answers from the Lambeth Conference about critical issues facing the Communion, you can breathe again! Yes, there were no groundbreaking or even conscious responses relating to the burning questions facing our Communion. I really had to ask myself, “Was I realistically expecting brilliant answers that would solve our impasse(s)?”

In a word, no. I don’t think we have those brilliant answers tucked away that will satisfy humanity or God. But I do have the hope we can continue to be the Anglican Communion, that Episcopalians can agree to disagree and remain the Episcopal Church, and that we continue to reflect God in unique ways as only the Anglican Communion can do. I hope this Church of ours is deep enough and broad enough that we may all have a place at communion together. That is what I expect of members to this congregation.

I also have the hope that we can move away from words and doctrine and issues of who is and who isn’t saved to fundamental issues facing God’s people and God’s creation. At some profound and deep level, salvation is about God reaching out to humanity and to the Church (a visible sign of God’s kingdom on earth), often in spite of the Church.

I am personally more concerned with the vast majority of people who lack adequate food, drink filthy water, and have a flimsy roof over their heads. I am hopeful that we, in the West, can see our own abundance and figure out how to live with less so that others may have even a little. I am hopeful we will have the courage to meet hatred head on, a confrontation with one of the real sins of this world. I have hope Christians in particular and people in general can begin to heal the wounds we inflict on one another and understand the reasons why we habitually separate people, why we would rather conquer than have common borders, and why we insist on our own way. Is that just the human condition? And if it is, doesn’t Christ have a lot to say about that?

The Episcopal Church and, for that matter, the Anglican Communion, is famous for the beauty of our liturgy and also at times for a lot of words that say very little. We are in love at times with our own majestic and poetic words, at the risk of obscuring the truth or differences. I fear this just-concluded Lambeth Conference was intent on holding us together at the cost of any meaningful dialogue that might have addressed our collective concerns.

Trouble is, when all is said and done, there may be no definitive answers to satisfy all of us, especially God.

Summer is just about over, and we are already looking forward to the Bishop’s visit on November 2, All Saints Sunday.

A significant aspect of our preparation for that celebration will occur through a series of classes that will enable us to explore our faith and learn more about the Episcopal tradition. Open to anyone interested in Confirmation, being received from another Christian denomination, or considering reaffirming his or her baptismal covenant, these sessions will be held on Sundays from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m.

Whether you are a newcomer or a seasoned Episcopalian, you are welcome to join this group. If interested, please contact me or Marilyn Adams in the parish office.

Heat, dust, and bugs. I always remember them when the All Saints’ VBS missionary team is about to head off for the Dominican Republic. And then there is the possibility of delayed or missed flights (how annoying…). I’m not worried about getting sick because I’ve had every shot and pill the CDC thinks might be remotely helpful in warding off tropical illness. Still, there’s enough discomfort or inconvenience associated with mission trips to give me pause.

“Well, it’s only for a week,” I tell myself, and then I get on the plane, and eventually enter a different world, the world of the developing-nation poor. I say “enter” that world, but it would be more accurate to say that I come up to the edge of it and peer in. We missionaries sleep in a hotel with air-conditioned bedrooms; we have plenty to eat; we get transported to and from the work site in a minivan; we have credit cards; and, if by any chance we were to become ill or injured, someone would medevac us home right away. In short, we can take most of our rich-person’s privileges with us.

Still, the DR is a place where we sweat during the day, where unexpected things can and do happen, and where I am most definitely outside my comfort zone. It’s a place where I feel much more vulnerable than I ever do here in the comfortable, predictable low country.

Our parish, in partnership with a Florida deanery, has made the commitment to build a church and a school in Barahona, a small city on the southern coast of the Dominican Republic, near the Haitian border. The church is nearly finished and is beginning to provide a spiritual anchor for the neighborhood, a place where the poor can gather to hear good news about the Kingdom of God and to love and support one another. The school, when finished, will help many children escape the grinding poverty afflicting so many in that part of the world.

Mission trips themselves are expensive; six missionaries spending a week in the DR cans cost between $8,000 and $9,000 (paid for by the missionaries themselves), which includes airfare (the greatest expense), hotels, and food. So the question is raised periodically: Why send people? Why not just send the money?

I have never heard the missionaries themselves ask that question, but other people sometimes do. The missionaries usually say only, “We gain more than we give” on a mission trip. But what exactly does that mean? What does that ‘gain” look like? And is it worth the cost? After all, that $8,000 or $9,000 could go a long way toward alleviating suffering among people who have so little.

Different people may “gain” different things. I never seem to grow at all spiritually unless I push myself outside of my comfort zone. For me, comfort goes hand in hand with inertia. But in the Dominican Republic, I have to push myself – to be more sociable than is comfortable, to be hotter than is comfortable, to exert myself physically more than is comfortable, to exert myself spiritually more than is comfortable.

But that’s when the good things start to happen. I learn from people who have had little chance for an education but who have considerable wisdom. I learn about hospitality from people who have far less but who show more hospitality than I do. I learn from children who are more protective of their family members than I was at their age and whose grace before meals includes asking God that “those who have nothing to eat today…may they find something to eat.” I learn from other missionaries who show remarkable strength or patience or good judgment. I learn that the Dominicans are more interested in making friends with us than in receiving material benefits. I make new friends. I learn from my own mistakes. I certainly “gain” more than I give in many respects.

To believe in God is to know that there will be wonderful surprises. We read in the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 1:45-46:

Working with poor people in the heat and humidity in some far away country! Can anything I might like come from that?

WEDNESDAY NIGHT AT ALL SAINTS will be held September 10 and our special guest co-presenter will be The Right Reverend William J. Skilton, retired Bishop Suffragan of the Diocese of South Carolina. Bishop Skilton and our rector Rick Lindsey will reflect on the Lambeth Conference which concluded last month. The evening begins with Liturgy in the church at 5:15 followed by a community dinner in the parish hall at 5:45. The program portion of the evening runs from 6:30-7:30. There will be a registration sheet on the bulletin board in the parish hall and the deadline is Monday the 8^th for dinner and Tuesday the 9^th for the program.

I was blessed to be part of the South Carolina Episcopal Church’s Mission Medical Team working as a nurse for a second year. The twenty-member team was made up of nurses, priests, musicians, physicians, dentists, translators, physician assistants, pharmacists, and non-medical support members.

We spent ten days in the DR providing basic medical and dental treatment to many people who would not otherwise have had this care. We brought along our medical supplies and some basic medicines. The Episcopal priests would ask each client (at our clinic sites) to pay for the services they received (equivalent to a few cents per family). However, some could not afford this and thus “worked” for their care. They helped in the kitchen preparing our food or swept the floors and helped clean up when we were done for the day. The Dominicans are a very proud people.

I worked each day in “triage.” The person or “family unit” would sit before a translator and me. We would find out the reason they were there. I would take their vital signs and gather pertinent medical information. One “family unit” that came to my area was a grandmother with four children, all under the age of seven. She was the sole caretaker of these children. Two of them were her granddaughters. The lady’s son was dead, and the mother’s location was unknown. She also had taken in two “street kids” with no families of their own. She looked very tired; however, she had brought them to the clinic for their chance to receive health care. There are many, many more unique stories just like this one.

Our clinic days would typically begin with an early morning breakfast at our hotel. We would then climb into a van to take us to the clinic site. On our way, one of our clergy members would lead us in a brief morning prayer and reflection. Once at the clinic, we would each go to our assigned task area and begin our day’s work. We would finish late in the afternoon, return to our hotel, and have supper as a group around 7:30 p.m. After supper we had an evening prayer service or celebrated the Eucharist. For me, this last team gathering of the day centered and calmed me. It helped seal the day and renewed my strength for the next day.

I came away from this trip feeling physically exhausted. However, what is even more prevalent is the feeling of being centered, peaceful, and truly blessed to be part of this wonderful experience.

The writer describes Solomon’s dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. By the time we arrive at this description of the dedication service, we have already been treated to three chapters of architectural details in which one gets the sense that no expense was spared. The only trouble with this picture was that, by the time this was written, the temple had lain in ruins for a century and a half. No one living bore the memory of its grandeur. So why all of this hype to describe a temple no one could enter or worship in and which no one remembered?

The answer is simple. Despite all the grandeur, the temple was nothing other than a big space until the one crucial moment when the instrumentalists play and the voices of God’s people are raised in praise and thanksgiving. It is at that moment – and not a moment sooner – that the house is filled with the glory of God, and that big building becomes the temple of God. The writer speaks fondly and lovingly of the Levitical singers, whose job it was to raise their voices in praise and thanksgiving, to “make themselves heard” in the service of the Lord. These musicians transform the occasion from the common to the scared and open the doorways to the divine. When the people of God “make themselves heard,” powerful things happen.

Okay, all that is well and good, you say, but what does any of it have to do with us at All Saints, here and now? The first is the notion that our worship ought to be rich, full of the very best and beautiful we have to offer. Nothing was too good for the house of God. Worship deserves the very best – in word, in song, in giving. The second is the notion that when we gather here, we have a job to do, a task to accomplish. This time in this place is not about our entertainment; it is not an occasion for sitting back and admiring what we have already done or being congratulated for our good taste. When we make ourselves heard in the praise of God, it should be so persuasive that no one can remain outside but will be drawn in to see what all the fuss is about. And when we do that, we have reason to believe that the place will truly become the house of God.

In the coming weeks, invitations to volunteer for service in the church will be forthcoming. As a musical leader, I must acknowledge that resources themselves are often beyond our controlling. Our challenge, then, is to develop the eyes that can see the resources around us and to grasp the possibilities, responding with joyful, faithful lives.

So how do we do that? The answers differ for each of us, and discerning those answers is itself part of our individual journey. For me and the musicians who serve in the choirs of All Saints, we believe our answers will have to do with our love of music and with our strong conviction that what we are doing is really important. As musicians, we always share an infectious joy and delight in making music, no matter how grand or humble our place of service.

Anyone who has been a part of a choir, an instrumental group, or a singing congregation knows that music carefully chosen and prepared and prayerfully offered can build community and change us from being isolated individuals into a worshipping people of unity. The ‘nuts and bolts’ of music – melody, harmony, rhythm, meter, and texture – profoundly connect us deeply in a way that often words alone do not. Finally, music draws us closer to God by making a vital connection between our worship on earth and the worship which is forever taking place in heaven. This marriage of heaven and earth is something that many composers of sacred music have realized. If music is to be an agent of transformation in our worship, we need to realize it too.

In closing, I ask you to be open to the transforming work of God’s spirit. The great joy (and mystery) is that whatever we offer to God in worship – however imperfect it might seem – is somehow given back to us in a blessing far greater than we can imagine. Nothing would make me happier, as your parish musician, than your response with joyful, faithful lives!

First, applications for grants for 2008 from organizations in Hilton Head/Bluffton/Beaufort County continue to be accepted. The members of the committee especially want to hear from the organizations which our parishioners support with their time, talent, and treasure so that All Saints can further assist in supporting their work in our community. The short application form is available as hard copy or electronically from Marilyn Adams or from Ginny Trolley.

In the ongoing outreach projects, the donations of food for Deep Well and Bluffton Self Help are only trickling in. Please be generous in your support of these two projects. Bringing a can or a box of food with you to church is easy if you’ll remember to add the desired items to your weekly shopping list. And Friends with Wheels is always in need to call receivers and drivers.

Our new local mission, Family Promise Interfaith Hospitality Network of Beaufort County, is now up and running. The Day Center has been established in Bluffton, and families in need of temporary assistance have been accepted into the program. They will receive assistance in employment counseling, affordable housing, and transportation during their participation in the Network. Four times a year, up to three families will spend the evening and overnight at All Saints for one week at a time.

Our first week to host two or three needy families begins on Sunday, September 14. The guests will arrive at the church about 4:00 p.m. In partnership with members of Congregation Beth Yam, we’ll provide dinner, compassionate companionship, and rooms which they’ll call “home” for the week, upstairs in the office wing of the parish hall. A Network van will transport the family members to work, school, or the Day Center at 7:00 a.m., and they’ll return to All Saints at 6:00 p.. each evening. On Sunday, September 21, the families will move, along with their beds and belongings, to the next participating church.

We still need diapers, a first-aid kid, toys and games for toddlers and teens, and G-rated videos or DVDs. Loni Saunders has been organizing the supply effort; she can be reached at 686-3990 or at dsaund6560@aol.com. Bobbie Cubbage has volunteered to organize food for the week. She’ll plan simple dinners for the families (and the All Saints hosts) and will need help with shopping, preparing, and serving the dinners. The guests will use provided food supplies for breakfast and bagged lunches. There has been a good response from volunteers willing to be hosts in the evening or stay overnight at the church to help the guests feel safe, comfortable, and welcome.

A mandatory training session for all volunteers will be provided at three different times with the hope that everyone will find at least one convenient time: Wednesday, September 3, from 10:30 a.m. – noon; Wednesday, September 3, from 7 – 8:30 p.m.; and Thursday, September 11, from 1-2:30 p.m.

Please keep this local mission project in your prayers and try to discern your part in this endeavor. Contact Ginny Trolley at 681-9671 or at GinTrolley@hargray.com with questions or suggestions or to volunteer to assist. For donations or supplies, please contact Loni Saunders. To assist with meals, please contact Bobbie Cubbage at 686-3938 or at bcubbage@usa.net.

It has been almost seven months since the last Fifth Saturday. Come join us for breakfast at 8 am in Gordon Mann Hall. Groups will then disperse to work on indoor and outdoor community projects. The work takes place between 9 am and noon.

Adult and youth volunteers are welcome. Wear work clothes and bring tool and gardening equipment, if you have them. Check the parish bulletin boards for additional details or call Jenifer Gajdalo at 681-3881.

Once again, the Garden Tour Board is gearing up, this time for our 22^nd Annual Garden Tour. So mark your calendars now for Saturday, May 16! For anyone new to All Saints, the Annual Garden Tour is our largest outreach opportunity. It represents effort from the entire parish and culminates in an event that has, after 21 years, become one of our area’s most anticipated events! The Tour’s objectives are twofold: to provide a tour of lovely gardens for the enjoyment of our community and to earn funds through ticket sales to benefit local charities.

As we begin our planning for this year’s Garden Tour, please be considering those ways in which you can contribute your talent. Every committee will need help.

Our first Board meeting will take place on Friday, September 19, at 2:30 p.m. in Gordon Mann Hall.

We are back in session after a nice summer break and lucky to have so many wonderful families with us this year. Each class is humming and buzzing around already and that is after only four days of school. I do believe the children were anxious to get back to school and play with their friends and teachers. The students who are new to our school this year are adjusting very nicely and we hear happy voices all day long.

As the year progresses we have many wonderful activities planned, but initially we are just getting settled. There is a family ice cream social planned for September which will be held on the All Saints Pre-School playground. The date has been set for September 23, unless it rains. There will be a sign-up sheet on the parent board in the hallway for you to let us know if you are coming and what you can bring.

The Celebrity Golf Tournament was Labor Day Weekend. Thank you to all who volunteered for the various jobs we assigned. As a beneficiary of the Celebrity Golf Tournament we are able to provide scholarship funds to qualified families whose children attend our school. We are very grateful to the Celebrity Golf Tournament for helping us help others.

Please come by and visit us any time. We are here Monday through Friday from 8:30 am - 2:30 pm.

In May of this year, Fr. Rick blessed our first fifteen completed prayer shawls for distribution. All found homes very quickly both within and outside our congregation. Today, you would find that one wraps the shoulders of a young mother as she rocks her newborn baby. Another covers the lap of an aging shut-in as a reminder that All Saints cares. And still other shawls warm those recovering from illness, surgery, and those additional challenges that life brings us.

A message is included with each shawl letting the recipient know that within its stitches are the prayers and love of the knitter. As such, this small gift becomes a channel of God’s great love through us to others.

The members of this very satisfying and successful ministry will once again begin meeting regularly now that our summer hiatus has ended. We gather regularly at 10:00 a.m. on the first Saturday of each month in the classroom off Gordon Mann Hall. Please plan to join us on Saturday, September 6! If you are a knitter or if you would like to learn how to knit (we’ll teach you), do give this recently-begun ministry your consideration. Because this is an on-going ministry, new members are welcome to join us at any time.

What a wonderful outreach activity this is…please come join us! Contact Shea Szachara at 705-2500 or at shea@szachara.com for more details.

All Saints Episcopal Church women will be hosting the Alzheimer’s Respite and Resource’s fund raiser, ART EXPO!, in Gordon Mann Hall on Thursday, September 18, from 6 to 8:00 p.m. Art by local artists and AR&R participants will be for sale. Wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served, so please bring your checkbook! What a great opportunity to do some early Christmas shopping or find that perfect piece of art for a spot in your home that “needs something.”

Alzheimer’s Respite and Resource is a local charity not affiliated with any state or national organization. It has been designed by the State of South Caroli8na as an ‘Angel Charity’ for its exceptional service (91% of all funds received go directly to client services).

AR&R’s mission is threefold: to provide a quality social day program for those in the community who suffer from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia; to provide much-needed respite for caregivers facing the daily emotional and physical challenges of caring for those loved ones; and, to serve the community as a resource for education, information, and referrals. In the social day program (held Monday through Friday at All Saints), AR&R participants create paintings, craft items, and other art projects for the annual ART EXPO (their annual fund raiser).

YOU are needed to make ART EXPO 2008 a success! Please plan to attend on Thursday, September 18, from 6 to 8:00 p.m. – and please plan to buy! And if you are able to help with donations of food, wine, art, and/or craft items for the silent auction, please contact Lee Woodruff at 681-8276.

Do you know the location of All Saints’ AED in case of emergency? The unit hangs on the wall in the main hallway next to the restrooms. We have several parishioners trained in CPR and AED. This is an important skill for all of us to know and is taught at the Hilton Head Fire & Rescue office at no cost (or, if you’d like a certification card, the fee is $4.00). We do have books available for use in the class. Please call 682-5141 for more information or to register for a class.

If you are already trained in CPR/AED, please contact Dale Finn at 705-2317 or at dale355@yahoo.com to be placed on the All Saints’ list of trained parishioners. We will schedule periodic brief refresher sessions throughout the year so everyone feels comfortable using the equipment.

All Saints Sunday School begins on Sunday, September 7! Children age three through 5^th grade are invited to join us for exciting Bible adventures each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. We will be exploring people of the Bible and learning to relate their stories to our own lives. Each Sunday will be filled with activities for children of all ages, including arts, crafts, story telling, Bible verses, and much more.

The children will gather in the children’s room upstairs, and then join their parents in church during the peace. We can’t wait to get started, and we hope you will come and help us make this the best Sunday school yet!

If you have any interest (large or small) in helping us, please contact me, Katie Stephens, at 681-4816 or at katie@hargray.com.

Our fall season opens with this special Sunday event…a chance to hear from the spiritual, community, mission, and financial committees of All Saints…an opportunity to hear what they do and how they need YOU!

On this very special Sunday, 5there will be one service only at 9:00 a.m. – the service will then be followed by a delicious brunch served in Gordon Mann Hall. The brunch is free to all; child care will be provided.

What a wonderful opportunity for fellowship, food, and fun! Your presence at the WBTTF on Sunday, October 5, is your gift to All Saints!

The Episcopal Church women will begin a new year with a meeting on Tuesday, September 9, at 5:45 p.m. in Gordon Mann Hall. Our speaker for this meeting will be our most kind Deacon Sandy Grant.

All women of All Saints are automatically members of ECW and, as such, are cordially invited to all meetings; meetings are typically held on the second Tuesday of the month. A contribution of $25 annually may be offered to offset expenses, but anyone who does not care to or cannot afford to contribute monetarily will still be welcome to attend.

Our new schedule, designed so that our meetings will end by 8:00 p.m., is as follows:

The cost for dinner is $5.00 (if you would like wine, that is an additional $2.00); a sign-up sheet will be posted in Gordon Mann Hall. Or you may sign up by emailing Marsha Rabun at marsha911@hargray.com by the Sunday prior to the meeting.

Please mark ECW on your calendar so you can become better acquainted with ECW, its good works and good programs. And come enjoy the fellowship among the women of All Saints. We look forward to seeing everyone at the first meeting of this year!

September brings a new round of gatherings for those affectionately known as the “Saintly Singles.” If you are single, please join us for an evening of fellowship, wine, and hors d’oeuvres on the third Monday of each month. This is an opportunity for singles to enjoy the company of others in a social setting, without any agenda, dues, or business…but to simply enjoy one another’s company.

The Saintly Singles group often organizes additional events that include concerts, theatre, museums, and dinner out. Our first event this year will be a wine tasting at the Hilton Head Winery. Please watch the Sunday bulletin for more specific information or contact the co-chairs: Stan Cooke, 298-4545, or Joyce Kauffman, 341-6486.

Join us on Saturday, September 27, for the 5^th Annual Preacher’s Cup Golf & BBQ Dinner! This annual event, held at Eagle Point Golf Club in Bluffton, will benefit Christ Lutheran church and All Saints June 2009 Vacation Bible School.

The first tee time will be at 10:00 a.m.; entry fee for adults is $100.00 per golfer (children under 12 are free; children aged 13 and up are $25). (Make your check payable to Christ Lutheran Church/Preacher’s Cup.)

The BBQ Dinner will be held that evening at 6:00 p.m. at Christian Lutheran Church, Heinrichs Hall.

So form your foursome! The deadline to sign up is Friday, September 19, by 4:00 p.m. For more information, please call Max Stein, 671-6254, or Christ Lutheran Church, 785-5560.

Beginning this fall, St. Christopher will begin hosting quarterly retreats under the theme, “Be Still and Know God.” Retreats will run Sunday through Tuesday at St. Christopher Camp and Conference Center, Johns Island.

The first retreat will be held October 5-7. Designed for adults age 18 and up, the retreats are for those who feel the need to get away, to be quiet, and to connect with the tangible presence of God.

Rates (which include lodging and all meals and materials) are $185.00 ($160 for those in full-time ministry in the SC Diocese).

We are dependent on earth for all of the necessities of life. Sadly, too many humans are being greedy regarding the earth, which does not really belong to us. As Psalm 24:1 puts it: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.” In Psalm 50:7-12 God says: “Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle of a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains; and the wild beasts of the field are mine…for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof.” Everything on the planet exists because of the goodness of our loving Creator.

Therefore, we are expected to manage the earth all that exists on it in a caring, responsible manner. Not to do so is an affront to God. To pollute the air, water or land is wrong. To destroy forests without replanting trees and plants is an insult to God.

An article in this month’s Stewardship points out that most of the seven billion people on earth are not well-fed, well-clothed, well-sheltered, or well in health or in spirit. Yet each year almost a hundred million people are added to those already here. We must decide now to clean up our environment, plant trees and gardens, use wind and solar power, recycle whatever is recyclable, and provide for the poor and hungry, and so on. We must be aware that this is God’s earth and remind others that we are to care for our Creator’s world.

Prayer: Lord of heaven, earth, and sea give us the knowledge, will and strength to take care of this beautiful world as you would have us do. Amen.

AR&R Activities Art Expo! The Associate's Corner 'Be Still and Know God' Retreats The Deacon's Reflections Defibrillator ECW to Meet Garden Tour News The Juliets MLK Community Service Day Local Mission and Outreach	September, 2008	Medical Mission Trip 2008 The Music Around Us Prayer Shawl Ministry Preacher's Cup Golf & BBQ Preschool News The Rector's Reflections Saintly Singles A Stewardship Minute Sunday School Begins WBTTF Wednesday Night
Aug	Index	Oct

PelicaNews
PelicaNews items are excerpted from the All Saints monthly magazine, The Pelican's Bill.

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PelicaNews PelicaNews items are excerpted from the All Saints monthly magazine, The Pelican's Bill.

If there is no navigation bar present at the left of the screen, click here.

PelicaNews
PelicaNews items are excerpted from the All Saints monthly magazine, The Pelican's Bill.