Newsletter of St. Andrew & St. John Episcopal Church

315 Main Street, Southwest Harbor ME 04679

e-mail: saints315 [at] verizon.net

Near the middle of the Prayers of

the People, Form VI, we say,

“We thank you, Lord, for all the

blessings of this life.” There

follows a period of silence, and

then we are bid to add our own

thanksgivings. Occasionally, there will be a few

quiet words of thanks from the congregation, but

usually, we as a group are quite reticent when it

comes to spontaneous outbursts of thanks during

worship. This silence is not for lack of gratitude,

and certainly not for lack of blessings in our lives.

In fact, I have often thought that it is a good thing

that we don’t cut loose with thanksgivings at this

point in the service, for if we did stop to reflect on

all that is good in our lives, we’d never make it to

the Eucharist!

We are so richly blessed! I am continually amazed

at the variety and plenitude of gifts that have been

bestowed on our parish. First and most importantly

we have a vigorous and devoted community of

believers. You are people who are clearly not afraid

to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty

(Dolliver House restoration, Westside Food Pantry,

church cleanup, mission trips to Honduras and New

Orleans come to mind) when necessary. When your

labor isn’t quite enough, you cheerfully and

generously open your purses. You are, individually

and collectively, a treasure.

We are part of a church that is so rich in liturgical

tradition and beauty. With the Book of Common

Prayer and the Hymnal at the center to guide us, we

have available to us some of the grandest poetry, the

most sublime of prayer, the most inspiring music in

Christendom. In our brief Sunday service, we have

time only to sample that which is ours to employ

and enjoy. I look forward to our exploring together

more of the variety of worship elements that await.

I have been privileged to have lived in some of the

most spectacular places on the planet. To have the

opportunity to return to live and serve in this

wonderful place is to me a gift for which no mere

words can express sufficient thanks. Life is good.

Thanks be to God!

Love and Blessings,

So far, no one has stepped up to coordinate our

lively post-service gatherings after summer Sunday

services. Please seek out the clipboards (currently

blank..) at both St. Andrew & St. John. Or please

give me a call at 244-3227 to let me know when

you would be able to help…Many thanks,

Joan Bromage

Since the May vestry meeting was held on May 31

st

(those notes too late to be included in this Net

Tender), you can find them, along with minutes of

all vestry meetings, in the red notebook at the back

of the church.

What a wonderful month we have had, of worship,

work and play together, culminating in our joyful

gathering on the Day of Pentecost.

The women’s gathering on May 14 was the first of

many, we hope. Long-time and newer parishioners,

including some of our seasonal members, shared a

delicious potluck, swapped stories (many humorous

ones!) and sang together. Enjoy the pictures

elsewhere in this issue! Thanks to all who came and

all who helped. We’d love to hear your ideas for

gatherings, programs, ministries, that might

strengthen our ties to each other. The same goes

for the men, of course, who hosted the May 21

evening joined by men from the other Episcopal

churches.

The church grounds have been beautifully spruced

up, and we appreciate all the hard work done by our

rakers, scrubbers and gardeners, not just at the

cleanup days but here and there and everywhere

during the week. St. Andrew’s is spruced up too,

ready for the summer of 8:00 a.m. services there.

How grateful we continue to be for the great and

generous gift which has made our continuing

worship there possible.

A fun-filled week in June (the 25

th

through the 29

th

)

awaits all who will lead, help with, and attend our

new Vacation Bible School. Planning for that has

involved both a lot of hard work and a lot of

excitement as the time draws near! Thanks to Floy

Ervin and Pamela VanWechel for working so hard

with their committee to make this happen.

As in our own families, in our parish life there are

also times of change and of grieving. This month

we mourn the death of Alex Watts, killed in an auto

accident in late April. We give thanks for the

creativity of his life, and we will continue to give

our prayers and our love to his parents, Sandy and

Eleanor.

Spring may have been slow in coming…seeds slow

in germinating, shrubs and trees in blooming, but as

we all know it’s worth waiting for. There has been a

time of slow germination at St. Andrew & St. John

and now many plans and programs are growing and

blossoming Let’s keep it going and share it with

those around us! This time has been worth waiting

for!

Joan Bromage

Recently, enjoying our wonderful local library, I

looked on the CD shelf and discovered what is

really a treasure for all of us at St. John's and St.

Andrew's Church. Back in the days of George

Price, his wife, Harriet, spent time with two dear

ladies of our parish - Georgie Seavey and Priscilla

Trafton--"old-timers" you might say. She

interviewed them about their childhoods and later

years in our church---and these are priceless stories

about times past. Plan on checking them out at the

library. If you're interested in the history of our

church, you'll want, also, to check out the book

written by our own Rita Kenway titled "Gotts Island

Maine, Its people 1880-1992". Rita writes about

the establishment and consecration of both St.

Andrew's and St. John's, as well as St. Columba's on

Gotts Island. As our church looks to the future, it

seems a good time to look back in appreciation of

the work and dedication of early parishioners.

Mimi Barnes

" The Song of Solomon

.......Following those who so generously gave on

Easter, these ladies have provided and arranged

flowers on the church for April and May: Ginny

Agar, Susan Buell, Floy Ervin

Susannah Jones

Joyce and Priscilla

two treasures at the women's gathering

On Tuesday, May 22

nd

people and clergy from the 5

area churches (plus St. Andrew Lutheran) gathered

at St. Dunstan’s to continue our journey on finding

ways to work together. We listed 17 possible areas

of concern/interest, which were distilled into 3 main

groups. My sense is that ministering to youth will

be the critical thing for us to work on. It was

decided to request that each of the 6 church's vestry

designate 2 persons to represent their parish to form

a board to guide the group. We hope they will be

selected in time for the next meeting, which will be

Tuesday, June 26

th

, at St. Andrew (Ellsworth). This

body will elect, from themselves, a chair, vice chair,

secretary, and treasurer.

Ted Bromage

The public is invited to Maine's first art exhibit by

jail residents --INSIDE ART: An Exhibit by

Hancock County Jail Residents at the Ellsworth

Grand Theater from June 7 to July 2. The Opening

Reception -- Thursday, June 7, 4:00 to 6:30 PM.

Too often, the meaning of jail time for communities

is misunderstood or ignored. As a result, it can be a

time during which the existence of those inside the

cells is seemingly erased: out of sight, out of mind.

With their individual strengths and abilities

overlooked, jail and prison residents are often

stereotyped in exclusively negative ways.

Reciprocally, this time of invisibility can breed

shame in the jail residents themselves. They become

labeled by the crime they committed, or are accused

of committing; their place on this earth as human

beings seemingly forgotten. This isolation and

distancing may have unintended consequences,

including continuation of addiction and recidivism.

Volunteers with VHJR, for six years now, have

gone into Hancock County Jail to bridge this chasm

of invisibility and negative labeling – attempting to

ameliorate the alienation of community and jail

residents from each other.

Regardless of the reasons for incarceration, VHJR

volunteers are interested in incorporating our

incarcerated citizens into positive roles in the

community by providing restorative assistance.

However, rather than entering the jail with the idea

of "changing" anyone, volunteers are simply there

to share community support, friendship, and a

greater feeling of belonging.

What then could be more important for community

and jail residents alike than a celebration of the gifts

each has for the other? In “Inside Art,” men and

women who have experienced incarceration offer to

their community works of art they have created.

This extraordinary art show not only exhibits the

work and talent of each individual artist, but also

the love and pain, insight and passion in these

works.

And on that night, too, our community offers to

these jail residents its respect, attention, interest and

acknowledgment. Acknowledgment, that is, of their

humanness, talents, and strengths.

Pledged for 2007

$110,800

Pledges received to date

$37,676

Is your pledge up to date?

Budgeted income

$31,634

Income received

$31,836

Budgeted expenditures

$49,742

Actual expenditures

$45,356

Budgeted surplus/deficit

-$18,108

Actual surplus/deficit

-$13,520

Southwest Harbor

ACTIVITIES BEGIN FOLLOWING THE MORNING PARADE

Our Mission Statement:

It's just six weeks away. Put on your thinking caps

and come up with ideas for those baskets. They

bring in lots of money and folks do love to put their

tickets in the jars. It takes very little effort and there

are baskets available if you need one.

Priscilla Trafton has offered her garage for storage

space for Auction and Treasure Trove articles so

start gathering items if you haven't already begun.

Call me at 244-9951 or Priscilla at 244-3253 and

someone will meet you or make arrangements.

Thank you, Mary Mitchell

The pie booth people will be selling pies and other

goodies during the Quietside Festival at the usual

place in front of St. John. We need about 30 pies

and/or other goodies to sell. In June a schedule for

helpers will be posted at both St. Andrew and St.

John. Your help is always appreciated.

Margot (Pie Chairman)

Already I'm tending to quite a few plants to be sold

at the Quietside Festival---given by various

generous folks. We can use and NEED more---so

when you're fixing up your garden,, think of what

you might give for this effort...If you need soil or

pots ---call me because there are lots available.

Growing things for a good cause. Mimi

Barnes, 244-7985

When you come to the Quietside Festival ---be sure

to find the beautiful, creative, accordion-type photo

albums made by some of the St. John's women.

Seven ladies gathered in the undercroft one rainy

morning and had such fun together. On the tables

were piles of lovely, bright papers, scissors, sticky

tape, paper cutters, you name it....Dencie McEnroe,

our top-notch "scrapbooker" patiently taught us how

to proceed----and at the end of the morning (before

we all went across the street for soup!!) fifteen

albums were completed and will be for sale at the

Festival. These will definitely be sold out quickly,

so--- be there and buy yourself one.

Lemonade and water will be sold at the Quietside

Festival and workers may sign up in June/July

to help serve. This is a fun booth where you can

watch the parade (unless Joe and Frank sign

up first!) and meet/greet friends coming to St.

John's part of the Festival. The booth is located next

to the pie/brownie/cookie counter in case you get

hungry as well as thirsty! Thank you willing

workers in advance. (and pray for warm weather as

our sales increase when the temperatures increase)

Shirley Zinn

What would you pay (if the check was made out to

the church) for $250 worth of heating oil or

propane? Hopefully it would be pretty close to

$250! As we solicit items for the Silent Auction

we’d like to have parishioner customers’ co-sign

our written requests for various high value items.

This is where we need you! In the Undercroft there

will be a list of places where you, as a consumer,

can help us solicit goods or services. These

generally would be shops, service stations, and area

restaurants. We’ve got most of the heating

oil/propane companies taken care of, but if you are

a customer of Acadia Fuels, Coastal Energy,

Hancock Oil, or Emerson Energy, I’d appreciate it

if you could call me (244-3227) and let me know

that they are your vendor.

Now about that spare car or boat you need to find a

home for – yes we’d probably love to take it as a

donation to sell. Since this year we will be sharing

our earnings with the Hancock County Medical

Mission, we hope to expand our number of donors

throughout the community. We’d love to have your

friend or neighbor give us a hand on July 14th, if

you would invite him/her. We hope to have our

catalog of items listed on our website, along with

instructions on how to be an absentee bidder, up by

late June. Thus those who cannot be present on the

church grounds that day will have the opportunity to

bid on these items. If you have a second home

somewhere, would you consider donating it for a

long weekend? Extra tickets to the symphony?

They’d be great additions as well. Would you fix

dinner for 6 or 8? Host a cocktail party? Please feed

us your ideas on auction items. We look forward to

your participation in the Quietside festivities,

before, during, and after!

Ted Bromage (244-3227) or after June 11

th

Doris Walton (288-5508)

Hope you're cleaning out those closets and drawers

and finding lots of goodies for the "Treasure Trove"

at the Quietside Festival. Sheets and towels, toys

and games, pots and pans, videos and tapes, small

rugs, and costume jewelry are just some of the

"treasures" that will sell. But only items in good

condition and no clothing, please. Thank you. / Ann

Why bother? After all, if you have been baptized, you’re in. We consider you a full member of the church.

Why go through the bother of going to a class, getting up in front of the parish and all that?

I like to think of the process as an opportunity to get better acquainted with the church, to put some meaning

behind the words we recite every Sunday in the Creed. I think of the inquirers’ class as an opportunity to

become more intelligent about my faith, maybe to make more sense of something that, until now, I’ve accepted

simply because, “that’s what we believe.” In the class we are organizing, Father Wood and I will work with

you to get a better understanding of Holy Scripture (but it’s not a bible study), the Creeds, the Sacraments,

ordained and lay ministries, and prayer. There will be no tests. You will decide whether or not you are ready.

In the Episcopal Church, baptized persons seek confirmation when they reach the age of mature understanding

and commitment.

Confirmation provides an opportunity for individuals to own for themselves promises made on their behalf by

sponsors at the time of infant baptism.

Confirmation includes a public affirmation of faith and the laying on of hands by a bishop. Only bishops may

confirm.

All persons considering confirmation or reception first receive instruction in the faith, the church, the

sacraments, and in the exercise of ministry and witness.

A few definitions

Confirmation, a ceremony in which a person who has been baptized into the Episcopal church is confirmed as a

member by the bishop.

Reception, a ceremony, usually celebrated by the bishop, in which someone who has been baptized in other

Catholic communions is received as a member of the Episcopal church.

Reaffirmation, a ceremony in which those who have been baptized in other Protestant denominations reaffirm

their baptismal vows.

Source: All Souls Episcopal Church, Berkeley CA

Birthdays

Ted Bromage

Cole McEnroe

John Hewlett

Mary Vekasi

Deborah Parlee

Betty Whittlesey

Dean Henry

Mark Furrow

Jim Vekasi

Bill Voorhies

Wedding

Anniversari

es

Joe and Cass Wright

Onorio and Nancy Cerrato

Dana and Kathryn Hiscock

Jim and Mary Vekasi

Sam and Mary Parkman

Mike and Dencie McEnroe

Fred and Kathryn Wake

Skip and Becky Buyers-

Basso

Bill and Diane Krueger

Lee and Anne Judd

Sam and Mary Lawrence

Richard Tardiff and

Pamela VanWechel

The phone rang one afternoon a few years ago in our home in the

southern part of the state. It was our friend Sally and she was inviting us

to dinner. “A friend of Jim’s, the Canon for the Ordinary in the Diocese

of New Hampshire, is coming for the weekend and we thought we

would have a small dinner party.” That sounded like fun and we spent a

delightful evening with Gene Robinson, his partner, and a few close

friends.

We both found Gene sincere, grounded, spirit-filled and blessed with a

liberal dose of southern charm. It did not come as a surprise to us when

the Diocese of New Hampshire elected him as their Bishop. The issues

of selecting an openly gay man as Bishop loomed larger when the

National Church was faced with the decision of whether or not to ratify

New Hampshire’s choice. They did approve the selection in 2003. Our

own Bishop voted to accept Robinson’s election and has proved a good

friend and colleague since that time.

Within the American Episcopal Church one of the most vocal Bishops

of the opinion that gay and lesbian people do not have a place in

ordained ministry is Robert Duncan, Bishop of Pittsburgh. He is one of

the architects of a focused and deliberate plan to reclaim the church

from liberal theology. His followers would like to see Bishop Robinson

repent and seek forgiveness. Robinson would like Duncan to recognize

that he is who he is –a homosexual-- because God made him as such.

Importantly, each Bishop would like to see the other remain in the

Church.

However the struggle does not end here. Robinson’s consecration

caused outrage in the Global South—particularly Africa. Although the

Archbishop of Canterbury is nominally the most powerful Anglican

cleric, according to Peter Boyer (The New Yorker Q&A 4/17/2006), the

most powerful worldwide Anglican cleric is Peter Akinola, Primate of

Nigeria. A very fervent evangelical wing of the English Church

Christianized the huge numbers of Anglicans in Nigeria. (Interestingly

South Africa was evangelized by a different group of Europeans and

Bishop Tutu and his successor are supportive of the selection of a gay

bishop.) Akinola sees the consecration of a gay man as heresy and his

followers see it as their duty to save Anglicanism by attempting to

overturn the American Episcopal Church.

I have not seen Gene Robinson since that dinner party, but the firestorm

surrounding his consecration is never far away. On May 22 The

Archbishop of Canterbury issued invitations to 880 Anglican

Communion Bishops to the once-a-decade Lambeth Conference to be

held in July, 2008. The Bishop of New Hampshire did not receive an

invitation.

Vacation Bible School is our new opportunity to

provide a fun-filled, safe, wholesome, faith-based

activity for the children of Mount Desert Island.

The week-long VBS is open to children (and adult

s) of all ages. Morning instruction includes non-

denominational bible study, song, crafts, supervised

games and snacks. An extended – day program is

available, which includes recreational activities and

visits to the Oceanarium and the Gilley Museum.

There will be no charge to children for the

activities, snacks or field trips. Vacation Bible

School is a “free-to-all” community activity. It may,

for some children, be the only organized

summertime fun experience that the family can

afford.

As we work together to prepare for the upcoming

Vacation Bible School, many will continue to

consider this project to be a function of the

Education Committee. Perhaps this is part of a plan

for better service to young families, possibly a

move toward a ministry for children, or a

“something new” that happens when a new priest is

called. While all of the above points may be true, it

is important to know that Vacation Bible School is

also a big step toward a priority goal in the St

Andrew & St John parish.

Community Outreach has taken many forms in the

past: elder visitations, contributions to mission

fields, knitting projects, Quietside Festival, food

banks, and even the sharing of the lovely St John’s

Church gardens with the Southwest Harbor citizens

and visitors. These and other events and projects

sponsored by St Andrews and St John’s are

examples of how we contribute to the welfare of

others, raise the profile of our parish, and help make

our community and our world a better place for

everyone. This summer we have a now opportunity

for Community Outreach: Help a child and, truly,

you will change the world!

On Saturday June 2, there will be a concert at St.

John's Church featuring Timothy Carter, clarinet

and Yalin Chi, piano. Carter is a native of

Southwest Harbor and a graduate of The Juilliard

School of Music. He has performed as a soloist

throughout the United States, Japan, and Europe

and holds top prizes and awards from The

Tanglewood Music Center. He is currently principal

clarinetist of The Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra in

Aichi, Japan. Chi holds undergraduate and graduate

degrees from The Juilliard School, has performed

extensively throughout the United States and Asia,

and is currently enrolled in the Artist Diploma

Program at The Yale School of Music. Stay tuned

for information abut other musical events during the

summer.

Sixteen energetic and cheerful souls showed up on a

drizzly, not-quite-sunny Saturday morning, May 19,

to spruce up the grounds at St. John's Church. They

raked and pruned, weeded and fertilized, scrubbed

picnic tables and window blinds, cleaned out the

furnace room and made the whole place look cared

for and beautiful. Huge thanks to all. Next we

need to do the same at St. Andrew's to ready the

church for summer services. So in case you missed

the time at St. John's---THIS IS YOUR

CHANCE!!---June 2----9am. You'll enjoy the

morning----plan on it!!!

August 19, 2007

5:00 PM

A Celebration for

Ian L. Bockus

Commemorating

50 years of Ordained Ministry

Rt. Rev. Chilton Knudsen, Officiating

and

Parish Picnic

St. John’s Church

Southwest Harbor

Details to Follow