​ANNOUNCEMENTS - The Week of June 16, 2024 (click here for the PDF version)
Here’s what’s happening at St. John’s, around the diocese, and in the local community.​

MOVING FORWARD Today is Rev. Sharon’s last Sunday as priest-in-residence at St. John’s. Deacon John will continue to officiate at morning prayer services each month, and the vestry is arranging for supply clergy to celebrate Eucharist on some Sundays. St. John’s also is seeking volunteers who can help with worship, including those who may wish to be trained by the diocese as lay worship leaders or preachers. Contact wardens Sharon Liparini and Debbie Henschel if you are interested. And reach out to them, Deacon John, or vestry members (Kathy Cascone,  Fran Maenza, Joan Magrane, Michelle Riegel, Sandra Lee Schubert, Carl Sparano and Janice Schouten) with any questions, concerns, ideas or other parish business. Please contact Kathy Cascone with pastoral-care concerns.
 
PRAYER LIST Let Kathy Cascone (casconek(at)yahoo.com or 973-219-1007) know if you wish to add anyone to the parish prayer list, or if a name is ready to be removed.
 
COMMUNICATION Staying well-informed is important, especially during transitional times. Here are some ways to learn what’s happening and stay involved:

• Alert Sharon Liparini if your email changes, so you can continue to receive parish email announcements.
• Check out our website, Facebook page and other social media. (And let Sandra Lee Schubert know if you’d like to help post photos and events.)
• Subscribe to The VOICE Online, the diocesan newsletter published every other Wednesday with news, events and features from around the diocese. Sign up at https://dioceseofnewark.org/e-news

SAVE THE DATES:
 

• Monday, Sept. 9, is the next diocesan Small and Midsize Church Meeting at 7 p.m. on Zoom.
• Saturday, Sept. 21, the 150th anniversary celebration of the Diocese of Newark will begin with a Diocesan Family BBQ at Cross Roads Camp from 10 am.-4 p.m. Learn more and RSVP by Monday, Sept. 9, at dioceseofnewark.org/150th-kick-off
• Monday, Oct. 7, members of churches without clergy are invited to meet with both diocesan canons to talk about doing ministry and the challenges of doing so without clergy.
• Friday and Saturday, Nov. 8-9, will be the 150th Annual Diocesan Convention. The theme for convention and the year’s Sesquicentennial Celebration is Diocese of Newark: Yesterday, Today & Forever – Learning our Past, Embracing our Present and Inviting you into Our Future.

Dear St. J​ohn's,

I am eager to return to celebrate Holy Eucharist with you this Sunday. I had hoped to return from my medical leave in time for Pentecost, but, as the Robert Burn poem says, “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley”!
 
As humans, we move through time chronologically, planning for what will happen in the next moment and hour and day and year. But often, the future forces changes to those plans.
 
When this happens, it’s helpful to remember that God is with us every moment – and that each individual moment is the only time we truly have. While it is good to plan ahead, there is no guarantee we will live to see the future we have planned for.
 
So, let us not get so caught up in dwelling on the past or dreaming of the future that we forget to live in the present. Let us not miss the beauty of the iris or the flicker of summer’s first firefly or the love in a dear friend’s smile.
 
“This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24-25)
 
Rev. Sharon