June 28th The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
Wednesday, June 24, 2015 at 9:57AM Praying the Anglican Rosary Saturday June 27 at 9:00 a.m.
The Anglican Rosary Group will meet this Saturday. The student film shoot originally scheduled for that day has canceled.
Sunday June 28th
One Service at 9:30 a.m.
Parish Potluck Follows
Disaster Preparedness talk by Jim Goltz
Disaster Preparedness & Recover for COA.
We continue our work toward developing a Parish Recovery Plan in the event of a major disaster. The plan will cover four areas.
1. Communication with members of the parish to make sure people are alright. We will be asking parish members to supply us with contact information for people out of the area. Sometimes if local phone service is not working, long distance does. It’s important that people have an out area, out of state preferably person who can be contacted. We’ll be looking at other forms of communication by means of social media etc.
2. Continuity of Worship and Operations. This will involve what some call “Church in a Box.” That is having the accoutrements prepared to do worship either outside, or in the Parish Hall, should the Church be unusable. Fr. Michael Bamberger who is the Episcopal Relief and Development Disaster Coordinator for our diocese says that the Churches that hold worship after a disaster are the ones that recover. We intend to be one of those.
The Finance Committee will put in place procedures that enable continuity of business for our parish.
3. The Integrity of our Building. We’ve got the engineering drawings of the Church, Parish Hall, and Rectory. We will be talking to the structural engineer who worked on the Church Tower Restoration so that we can quickly evaluate the structural integrity of the building and prevent a premature closure of the building by temporary building inspectors who just want to be on the safe side. This was important for Fr. Bamberger’s Church, Ascension Sierra Madre after the Sierra Madre Earthquke.
4. Our being of assistance to the surrounding community. In all likelihood most of our outreach efforts after a disaster will be directed toward Hillsides Home. We’ll be working with them to find out their plan and their needs.
Thank you to those who’ve signed up. Everyone is welcome, please feel free to bring something to share.
Disaster Preparedness: Contact Information
We would like to collect contact information from parish members so we can check on them in the event of a disaster. Often time in a disaster situation local phone service is disrupted. However, it is often possible to contact people by long distance. It is a good idea to have an out of the area contact person. You can let them know you are okay or in need, and they can be reached by people here who may be able to help.
At the Disaster Preparedness Potluck we’ll have a contact information form for people to fill out. This will be kept in hard copy in a safe place so it can be available even if computers are not working.
Disaster Preparedness Talk by Jim Goltz
Jim recently retired from the California Office of Emergency Services. Jim is an expert in Disaster Planning and Recovery. He will be talking with us about our own personal preparedness in terms of our homes, our cars, etc. It will be practical, down-to-earth and doable.
Ministry Study Year Concludes
This Sunday Louise Macatee concludes her Ministry Study Year with us. It has been great fun to have her and she got a lot out of being with us. Here are her comments.
With Gratitude for the Year
"I was a stranger and you took me in." These familiar words from the Gospel of St. Matthew capture my sense of being gathered into the kindness and openness of all of you at Church of the Angels as I have spent this Ministry Study Year with you. It is not an experience I will forget, and it has been formational in my journey towards ordination (hopefully!) and in my life as a Christian. I am grateful for your willingness to teach me about your church and the ways in which COA has nurtured and deepened your spiritual lives; I have often been shown how much pride people have in this church and in Fr. Bob's ministry and the gratitude you feel for the support and companionship of this community. Despite its years, this is such an alive, vital place.
During this year, Fr. Bob has been an exceptional model and mentor for me, and I am deeply grateful for all the time and care he has taken to make sure that I had every opportunity to learn about the life of a parish priest. He made sure that I had a chance to "ride along" as he took communion to parishioners during Holy Week, be present for weddings rehearsals, sit in on pre-marital counseling, participate in a funeral service, and attend various committee meetings, including a Vestry meeting. I saw him work with older Atrium students in his office as they began to explore the Bible in a new way. This is only a sampling of the many things Fr. Bob has invited me to participate in this year. At the center, though, has been his care that I have a meaningful formation in all that feeds us as Christians -- the homily, the table, and the meal. Thank you, Fr. Bob, for each gift of wisdom and direction that you shared with me.
I will be back to visit, for I can't imagine not keeping track of your ongoing journeys. I am so grateful for having had the gift of being a part of your lives in this year.
Thank you, Louise
The Financial Page
Please keep up with your Annual Giving Pledge during the Summer. The bills keep coming in even when we’re away. Thanks so much.
Emmaus Road: Summer Movies.
Emmaus Road began its summer movie schedule last Monday with the viewing of Black Robe about a Jesuit priest traveling to a mission in French Canada in the 1600’s. There will be another movie on Monday June 29. We haven’t selected it yet, but it will be announced on Sunday.
Summer Reading; The Late History of Israel
Keep at it. Before long we’ll come to The One and Only True and Authoritative, Historically Correct, and Officially Approved Report of the Amazing Rise, God Fearing Life, Heroic Deeds, and Wonderful Achievements of David the Son of Jesse, King of Judah Seven years, and of both Judah and Israel for Thirty three, Chosen of God and Father of King Solomon.* Or by it’s working Title: The King David Report.
Summer Sunday School
The Atriums are closed for the summer giving our Catechists a well deserved rest. We are deeply grateful for all their dedication to the spiritual development of our children. During the summer we will have a basic Sunday School for children at the 10:15 service. Marielle Askew will give a short lesson and lead the children in some art and craft activities.
Coffee Hour Sign Up for July and August
The sign up sheet for Coffee hour is next to the Air Pots on the Coffee table outside Church. Please sign up to take a Sunday during the summer.
Something Added to the Large Print Bulletin
Chris Askew who makes the Large Print Bulletin for Sundays has added something to it as an aid to, as we say in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, “Enable fuller participation in the Liturgy.
Chris is adding the brief introductions to the Sunday Scripture Readings that appear in the small print bulletin inserts. They come from a book written by our former bishop and New Testament scholar, Frederick Borsch entitled Introducing the Lessons of the Church Year. Bishop Borsch has written a brief paragraph on each of the Sunday readings. This paragraph helps set the context of the readings we’re going to hear with some relevant historical and theological information. Looking at these introductions prior to the readings can help in getting a deeper of understanding of them. These introductions will come on one page that also contains the calendar and announcements and Daily Scripture readings. You can easily take that page out of the Large Print Bulletin and take it home.
The Large Print Bulletin can be a help in your daily prayer life. On a Sunday morning we get a lot of material in a very short period of time. It can be helpful to later in the week go back and re-read the Scriptures, the hymns which are religious poetry set to music, and the Liturgy itself as a way of continuing and deepening the sense of Christ’s presence to us in Scripture and Liturgy.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
Level 2
June 28, Pentecost 4
La Fettuccia
Following the presentation of the History of the Kingdom of God, we take out the spool of grosgrain ribbon, known as La Fettuccia. For those not familiar with grosgrain ribbon, it is not smooth but has tiny ribs across the width of the ribbon. The number of ribs per inch varies by one or two according to the ribbon used, but typically there are eight ribs per quarter inch. Each rib represents 1000 years. The length of the ribbon used in the atrium for this presentation is 162’ which roughly equals 62 million years. Now, we know the Earth is much older than 62 million years. It would take a lot of ribbon to represent that approximation, nearly 4 football fields in length. For logistical reasons, accuracy isn’t what is highlighted in this presentation but it is, however, included in our discussion. The focus is on the vastness and magnificence of God’s plan.
Note of interest, every 62 million years scientists suggests the Earth experiences a “cleansing” process. Ahh, I would invite everyone to attend Jim’s presentation on disaster preparedness this Sunday. Just in case we are a little early on the timeline.
La Fettuccia. To fully appreciate the work, it is taken outside to the driveway at the church’s entrance. There are other materials that go with it, the most significant being the Bible, a brief summary of the history of the kingdom of God as described in last week’s lesson, selected words of Scripture, markers with words Creation, Redemption and Parousia, and a protected candle with matches.
As mentioned, the work is an extension of the prior week’s presentation; i.e., it shares in the proclamation “the plan of God existed since before the beginning of what we have come to know as time; having one purpose, to unite all of creation with God. There is one history progressively unfolding in three principles: Creation, Redemption and Parousia. There is one method, the law of Incarnation culminating in the manifestation of Jesus Christ. There is one author of the plan, but the collaborators in this history are God and humankind. This sacred history is written in the Bible.”
The first moment of this presentation begins with presenting the ribbon at the beginning with a few words. We set up the Bible on a stand and open it to Genesis 1:1. Here, the candle is lit. There is a red fringe at the end of the ribbon where it is placed in the Bible, a time when God is alone. Because most of the children are readers at this point, each take a turn and read through the Creation story. The ribbon (blue in color) is slowly spooling out. This color represents the creation of matter, when Earth was in a gaseous state.
Then, the ribbon changes in color to beige when first evidence of life begins on Earth. There is a marker for the beginning of the smallest of organisms, then symbols for plant and animal life. It is in this color when humankind first appears and is differentiated from all other animals with the use of intelligence and ability to create work or transform matter. The ribbon continues spooling out in a line when we come to another change in color to yellow. There is a cross over this part which represents the time of Incarnation and Redemption and current time.
White is the next color, which represents the time yet to come when humankind moves to collaborate with God, the unwritten page of history, culminating in the Parousia, when God will be all in all.
We wonder, “What or who is part of this history.” When all of the ribbon is unwound, there are four arrows with four words: Creation, Redemption, Parousia, and the Current Year written separately on each arrow. The children are encouraged to place the arrows where they belong. Not everyone agrees Creation should be placed at the beginning although it usually is. Long ago, a child suggested we are moving toward Creation, rather than from it. It is no surprise to me why with CGS catechists refrain from a “controlled” answer to any wondering.
There are descriptive text strips and plaques for each of the moments. We discuss the length of the Blank Page and the length of the Parousia fringe (gold in color) at the end, what that means. Should the ribbon end at all? La Fettuccia. It’s a pretty special work. Thank you Sofia.
This week, I encourage each of us as active collaborators to the Plan to think about our unique “blank page” and to keep the writing going!
Also – attend the disaster preparedness talk this Sunday! We are nearing our 62 million mark!
Housekeeping: I will be off-line for July, but resume again in August. I have scheduled to write on the True Vine presentations, the core of Level II just as the Good Shepherd is for Level I.
Ms. Georgie
Music with the Angels: Black Rose Early Music Ensemble Sunday July 12 4:00 p.m.
Black Rose Early Music Ensemble invites you to spend a musical "Day in the Country, and a Night on the Town". Enjoy a walk in the woods, go bird-watching, evade a swarm of bees, attend a peasant wedding, get the latest gossip from the Town Crier, and end the day with a Royal Fireworks display. Playing on copies of 18th-century instruments, the group will perform music by Handel, Hotteterre, Telemann, Biber, and others. July 12, 4 pm, at Church of the Angels, Free-will offering, $10 suggest, but we never turn anyone away regardless of ability to pay. Children are always welcome.
General Convention News:
“It’s he sort’a thing you’d like if you’re the kind’ a person that likes that sort’a thing.” Abraham Lincoln.
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On the schedule for Wednesday, June 24:
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Reports from Episcopal News Service |
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