S T . J O H N ’ S M E M O R I A L E P I S C O P A L C H U R C H S e e k S e r v e C e l e b r a t e

The Eagle

In

This

Issue…

November 4

Day-Light Saving

Time Ends

November 18

Interfaith Thanksgiving

Service

November 21

NO Celtic Service

November 30 &

December 1

The Holiday Fair

November 2018

Greetings dear friends in Christ!

We’re full of joy and hope here at St. John’s. That’s what I

sense in my conversations with you, and at in our worship

and the myriad ministries. That doesn’t mean we don’t feel

challenged in our personal and communal life. The world is

throwing us some fastballs and curve balls, and we’re

confused and hurt. Here at St. John’s we are offering our

community, and each other, grace and love with our care and

concern for all of God’s creation.

As we approach Thanksgiving and gather in love with family and friends, I

invite us to actively take note of all that makes us thankful. I in-

vite us to make room in our busy lives to stop and express our

gratitude. If you are like me, we might do this for a day or two,

or even a couple times. Certainly we have opportunity to ex-

press our thanks during the Prayers of the People on Sundays.

I’ve seen campaigns or challenges on social media that help us

stop and give thanks for the blessings in our lives. Sometimes it’s

posting 10 pictures of people or places for which you are thankful, and some ask

us to “tag” our friends to join in. When we remember and give thanks for our

blessings, our hearts and minds fill with joy, love, peace and gratitude and we

affect others with our positive thoughts and energy.

United Thank Offering of the Episcopal Church has created the

November 2018 Gratitude Challenge to help us name our grati-

tude every day in different ways. Included in this issue of The

Eagle is an introduction to the Gratitude Challenge. Join me in

engaging each day this month to deepen your personal experi-

ence of gratitude. You’ll notice that in this Gratitude Challenge, there’s a differ-

ent theme for each week. Also, each day of the week has a particular activity to

explore your gratitude. There are ways to engage young and old alike. As the

Gratitude Challenge says, “Science has proven that people who practice grati-

tude are healthier, happier and live longer, so we hope these quick daily practic-

es fill your month with joy and gratitude.” You can get your copy of the full

Gratitude Challenge booklet with all the ideas and resources by downloading

the PDF at https://www.episcopalchurch.org/files/documents/

uto_gratitude_challenge.pdf We’ll have some available at church, too.

PRIEST IN RESIDENCE

The Rev. William Cruse

ST. JOHN’S WARDENS

Ken Bledsoe, Sr. Warden

Janice Hardy, Jr. Warden

VESTRY

Nancy Abbott

Kristin Canty

Jason Farrar

Carolyn Greenberg

Lynda Hammond

Kevin Haas

Barry Hardy

Pat Tarbutton

John Woods

CLERK OF THE VESTRY Barry Hardy

FINANCE CHAIRPERSON Nancy Abbott

TREASURER John Greenberg

BOOKKEEPER

Ellen Joyce

The Eagle

Ellen Joyce, Editor

______________

Articles can be submitted in

writing, or by E-Mail to:

ellen.joyce@

stjohnsramsey.org

To deepen our community’s awareness of gratitude, we’ll share some of our

daily responses with the parish, too. We’ll have a bulletin board in the parish hall

where you can share from your gratitude challenge activities. Like a pot-luck din-

ner or Thanksgiving gathering fills us with food and fellowship, let’s share our

gratitude with each other at St. John’s so that we can be filled with the love, joy

and happiness that nourishes our souls and bodies for our mission

and ministry this fall and through the winter. I preach about sharing

God’s love in our broken world. Here is one more way we can do

this – loving ourselves and our neighbors. Imagine what our visitors

will experience when they see our outpouring of gratitude! We can

be Christ’s light and love, and we can let it shine brightly this month with the

Gratitude Challenge.

REMINDER: Fall Back this Sunday at 2:00AM!

Daylight Savings Times ends November 4th.

Remember to set your clocks back 1 hour

before going to bed on Saturday.

The 2018 Community Interfaith Thanksgiving Service

will be held on Sunday, November 18th at 4:00PM

at St. Paul Roman Catholic Church

200 Wyckoff Ave., Ramsey, NJ

All are invited (and encouraged) to attend.

A combined choir will sing

and refreshments will follow the service.

Please note: Celtic Eucharist on Wednesday 21 November

will not be offered as many of us travel to be with

friends and family for Thanksgiving.

As you gather at this time, remember that

being with one another, and knowing

that we all are beloved of God is a

Communion and prayer of thanks, too.

Break bread with friends and family, and

give thanks for all the blessings God

gives us. Share your gratitude with others

and have a safe and happy holiday.

Peace – Bill+

Mark Your Calendars!

St. John's Holiday Fair

Friday, November 30 - 7PM -10PM

Saturday, December 1, 10AM - 4PM

The Holiday Spirit can already be felt throughout St. John's as preparations are underway

for the Holiday Fair. This year's Fair will bring back favorites like the Cookie Walk and

the Silent Auction, while adding new vendors and crafts that come from the talent of our

own parishioners. As the biggest fund raiser of the year, we need everyone's help to

make our Fair a success. Keep an eye out for the sign up sheets and please consider a do-

nation of any of the following:

Bottles of wine (unopened)

New items for our themed baskets

Gently used Christmas items for Attic Treasures

Time, Talent and Treasure for the Silent Auction such as:

Hosting a dinner

Babysitting

Dog walking

Christmas present wrapping

New Electronics

A weekend at your shore home

Tickets to professional sports game

Please leave donations in the Parish Hall and/or contact Amy Lynch

(alynch710@yahoo.com or 973-216-9742) with any questions. The most IMPORTANT

thing is to spread the word to friends and family about the Fair, so we can share the Holi-

day Spirit with others. Thank you!

Rise Against Hunger

Perhaps we at St. John’s can’t eradicate world hunger, but on Saturday, October

13th, we made a significant step toward filling the bellies of 10,000 children at our

Rise Against Hunger! event.

The morning began as a stalwart crew of ten unloaded fifty-pound bags of rice

and boxes of soy protein, vitamins, dehydrated vegetables, and the equipment to

measure, package, seal and ship the finished meals.

Then about 35 parishioners with their families and friends gathered in our par-

ish hall. After a brief orientation, we were assigned to work stations, and then it

was off to the races! The hardest working crew of all were our three runners,

Charlotte Carr, Wyatt Fraser, and Sophia Nemeth who darted about the parish

hall for two hours, answering cries for “Runner!”

In no time at all, one of the kids rang the gong, signaling that we had finished

and loaded 1,000 meals. In little over two hours, we had completed enough

packets to feed lunch to 10,000 children in the developing world. Amazingly,

through the work of many hands, the truck was reloaded and the parish hall

was put to rights by 12:30!

What a wonderful way to combine fellowship with Outreach!

Kathy Lathrop

Center for Food Action

The Center for Food Action has advised us that they are in desperate need of house-

hold and personal hygiene items. While many of their clients are on food assistance

programs, items that we take for granted cannot be purchased under those programs.

Items urgently needed are:

toilet paper

tissues

paper towels

laundry and dish detergents

toothbrushes and toothpaste

shampoo

soap

body lotion and feminine products

*** Food items are also always needed.

Please pick up an item or two on your next trip to the grocery store. Items may be left

in or near the basket marked Center for Food Action located in the parish hall foyer.

Vi Abrams and Rosemary Haas are our liaisons with the center. Please contact one of

them for more information.

The Season after Pentecost during October and November is often called “ordinary

time.” This sea-son’s color is green, representing a growing time, with white used on the

last Sunday, Reign of Christ. During October, children explored stories from the Old

Testament in the Bible. In November, the focus texts come from the gospel of Matthew

and chil-dren will hear three key parables about what it means to live in God’s way.

Through Jesus’ teachings, they can consider how our choices and actions influence the

ways in which we express our faith.

During the month of November the church school will be involved in a community out-

reach project collecting food items for the St. John’s Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive for

the Northwest Center for Food Action. Parishioners are asked to donate items, such as,

potatoes, bags of stuffing, onions, turkeys, rolls, vegetables, frozen pies, etc. which will

be packaged in baskets for local families in need during this time of the year. Collection

baskets for the items will be in the Parish Hall on November 11th. We thank you, in

advance, for sharing the fruits of our labors with those less fortunate.

November 4 Church School – 10:00 AM - Chapel Service for PreK-Grade 2

Thanksgiving Food Drive for Center for Food Action Begins

November 11 Church School – 10:00AM - CS Staff Meeting: 11:15 AM - Grades 3-5 Classroom

November 18 Family Service: 10:00 AM with Choristers and Cherubs,

No Church School, Thanksgiving Food Drive Ends

November 25 No Church School - Thanksgiving Vacation Schedule

Looking Ahead

December 2 Church School – 10:00 AM - First Sunday in Advent - Chapel Service for Pre K-2

December 9 Church School – 10:00 AM - Second Sunday in Advent

December 16 Family Service: 10:00 AM, No Church School – Third Sunday in Advent

Christmas Pageant and Christmas Card Supper - 4 PM

December 23 No Church School – Fourth Sunday in Advent

December 30 No Church School – Christmas Vacation Schedule

Church School

Music Notes The following article was written by my friend and church music colleague, Sheldon F. Eldridge for a re-

cent newsletter for his church, Christ Episcopal Church, Woodbury, NJ where he is organist and choir-

master. We share very similar attitudes towards our music ministry in the Church and I felt it was worth

reprinting in its entirety.

The Depth and Beauty of Sacred Music in a Sacred Space

Some years ago, I attended the graduation ceremonies of my school, Westminster Choir College.

Because of the size of the gathering, it is held each year in the gothic splendor of Princeton University

Chapel.

The keynote address that year was given by the great American choral music composer Morton Lau-

ridsen (b.1943). In his address to the graduating students, he issued a challenge: Try to find a place

where you can go and be able to have absolute silence. He warned it would not be easy to do.

It is a sad fact of the times in which we live that our ears are perpetually assaulted by sounds of one

kind for another. One of those sounds is “Muzak”, also called “Elevator Music”. Wherever one goes, it is

there - perpetual, relentless - in restaurants, malls, stores, arenas, even in our own homes. It is meant to

subliminally relax us, to get us to buy more, drink more, eat more.

Under this perpetual assault, all of us have learned to “tune out”, to not actually listen to this music.

We are not meant to. Nonetheless, it is an invasion, a sometimes subtle and sometimes not so subtle as-

sault on our ears and brains. We live in a culture of noise and we have learned how to tune it out - to ig-

nore it. Christ Church, Woodbury, offers us a unique opportunity to experience the rare gift using our

ears and minds as we ought. It offers us moments of silence and the holy wonder of the spoken sacred

word and sacred music in a sacred space of exceptional beauty.

On entering Christ Church for sacred worship, one is asked to “let quietness and reverence character-

ize your entrance into the House of God”. We are asked to prepare ourselves for the Sacred Mysteries in

which we are about to join in common worship.

The first thing to greet our ears is the Organ Prelude. Because we have all become so conditioned by

the endless assault of “Muzak”, its is tempting to treat the Organ Prelude in the same way. The Organ

Prelude is not background music, something to be “tuned out”. Neither is it a “recital”. It is meant to

help center us on Divine worship, to draw us in, and focus our hearts on the altar, to fill our souls with

holy expectation of the God who made us and redeems us, breaking into our lives.

Sometimes the Organ Prelude is assertive, full and joyful. At other times is it soft and meditative. In

either case, it is in itself an important musical message. Have you ever noticed that, often, the music is

based on one of the hymns sung that morning, or is a work by the same composer as that morning’s an-

them or motet? Organists take great care choosing this music, and spend considerable time practicing it,

so that when Sunday morning comes, it will be a worthy offering to the Glory of God and the edification

of man.

I invite you to take this music seriously and to let it help you prepare for all that is to follow. I consid-

er it to be an important part of my ministry, just as any priest would his sermon. It is a gift I make each

week to God and to each of you. Let it be your invitation into holy worship!

S T . J O H N ' S M E M O R I A L E P I S C O P A L

C H U R C H

A House of Prayer for All People

301 East Main Street Ramsey, NJ 07446

Phone: 201-327-0703

Email:

ellen.joyce@stjohnsramsey.org

Check us out on the Web: www.stjohnsramsey.org

Worship Schedule

Sunday Services

Holy Eucharist

8 AM & 10 AM ____________

Church School

9:45AM Infant & Child Care

____________

Celtic Prayer

Wednesdays at 7:30 PM

The Rev. William Cruse

Priest in Residence

The Rev. Richard Louis

Rector Emeritus

Drew Kreismer

Organist/Choirmaster

Ellen Joyce

Parish Administrator

Megan Kendall

Youth Missioner

Upcoming Event Calendar

November 4 Thanksgiving Food Drive Begins

Daylight Savings Time Ends

November 5 Apple Pie Making (6:30 PM)

November 17 Pretzel Making (9AM)

November 18 Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, St. Paul’s

November 30 Holiday Fair Preview Evening (7-10PM)

December 1 Holiday Fair (10AM—4PM)

December 9 Lessons & Carols w/ Reception (4PM)

December 16 Christmas Pageant at 4:30PM

Christmas Card Supper at 5PM

December 24 First Eucharist of Christmas at

4:30PM (Family Service with Children’s Choirs)

Festive Christmas Eucharist w/ Carol Sing at

10:30PM

December 25 Holy Eucharist with Carols at 10AM