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ANNOUNCEMENTS - The Week of May 4 2025
Here’s what’s happening at St. John’s, around the diocese, and in the local community. SAVE THE DATES: We are in Easter Season. Join us Sunday's at 10:30 A.M. Keep in an eye on this page for updates on upcoming events. 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:
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More from the Diocese. Read here.
We’re living in a time right now where we’ve got to work through chaos, says Bishop Hughes, and the way we do that as Christians is we show our love. Recording this video in her kitchen where she’s preparing a special dinner for some diocesan members – “Cooking is my love language,” she says – she urges us all to think and pray about how we can show love with actions as well as words. (Time: 4:44.) Video Transcript This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. It is the second week of Easter, which means we’re in those great 50 days of Easter. And I am not filming at my desk today. I’m making this little tape as I stand in the kitchen. I got up early before I have to be in the office because I have people coming over for dinner tonight, and I’m excited about those people. They’re a marginalized group in the world, and I don’t want them to feel marginalized in our church. So I’ve invited members of the trans community and our transgender community in our diocese over for dinner tonight. And one of the things that happens for me, naturally, when I cook is I think about the people who are coming. I want to make sure that they know that they are loved and cared for. And cooking is my love language, it is how I let people know that they are really, truly cared for. I hope and pray that we have really great conversation. And most of all, I want them to know that they are not alone, and they are beloved by God and beloved by me. So I’m excited to have them here. But I have to say I’m at that point in the kitchen where I wish I could just stay, but I’ve got meetings, I’ve got to get into the office. But I just want to share with you a little bit of the disaster that it looks like this morning. I think every cook recognizes this moment where things are not neat and tidy. As a matter of fact, they’re kind of everywhere. There’s a long ways to go. The only thing I’ve gotten done this morning is dessert, but it’s easier to get dessert done. Texas sheet cake, by the way, for those of you who know it and like it. But there’s still a ways to go, while on the other side of the kitchen, you can see some of the stuff – potatoes that only get peeled later tonight, there’s a butternut squash that’s already chopped up and veggies that have to be chopped up – but this is what it’s like when you’re pulling dinner together. And I show you all the messy part, not just to say, Oh, look, this is what it looks like in my kitchen when I’m baking – I’m sure it looks as messy in yours when you’re cooking or doing whatever you’re getting done to get the next meal ready – but it’s to remind us that every single day of our lives we work through some mess, through some dirt, through some chaos, in order to get to something that we really like and something that we really want. And we’re living in a time right now where we’ve got to work through the mess. We’ve got to work through the chaos, and the way we do that as Christians is we show our love. And so in these great 50 days of Easter, I wonder how every single person in this diocese could show their love. Show your love to someone who’s marginalized. Show your love to someone whose rights are being compromised. Show your love to those who need to know that they are loved. It might mean that you feel a little awkward. It might mean that you don’t quite know what to say or what to do. But think about it and pray about it first. I thought about this and prayed about it, like how, what’s my best way to support people in the transgender community in the diocese and let them know, other than my words, which I have shared frequently – no one’s surprised by my stance – but other than my words, how can I let them know? And it just struck me, this is one of the ways I show people that I love them. So there is a strand of Christianity that is very much focused on proving who is wrong, who does not belong, where Satan is, and who God cannot tolerate. And I can’t help but look at the God who incarnated fully human, fully divine, in order to be with us and keep us connected to God forever – I can’t help but look at that and feel nothing but expansive love. And what Jesus tells us to do is to love our neighbor, and that when we see someone to love, that in some way, we are seeing Christ in that person. So we’ve got 50 more days of – well, I guess it’s more like 47, or 43… math is not my gift – but we’ve got a number of days in front of us to still celebrate Easter, and I invite you to celebrate it in this specific way. Let people know that they are loved by God and loved by you. Show that love as much as you say that love. More from the Diocese. Read here.
During this time of uncertainty and anxiety, Bishop Hughes emphasizes the benefit of worshiping in-person – in community – this Holy Week and Easter, engaging with scripture, and praying with one another. (Time: 5:15.) This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark, and it is Holy Week. And it is an unusual Holy Week – in some ways it reminds me of Holy Week back in pandemic where there was so much worry and anxiety and fear that that seemed to impact everything that we did. But there’s a big difference. Back then, our worship had to happen online, and now our worship happens in person. And I want to encourage you this week to make an effort to go to as many Holy Week services as you can. I know it sounds like I say that every single year, and I do say it every single year, but this year is different, and different in that way that it was during pandemic. This year, there’s a level of worry and a level of anxiety that is not going to go away. There’s a sense of danger that some are feeling – not everybody. There’s the danger that people feel personally and that they also feel about family members. The way people order their lives has been changing dramatically, deciding whether they can fly out of the country or fly into the country, and as families had plans, this is a time where families are often together, some are discovering that it just doesn’t make sense to do that right now. There’s too much uncertainty about how they would make it safely home, whether that is coming or going into the United States. This is real worry, and when we’re worried about our work and we’re worried about our family members, when we’re worried about the state of the nation and how its governance is going to work with us or against us, that is deeply concerning. As someone said to me, “These are the things that keep me up at night. I get so worried I can’t sleep.” So again, I say during this week, especially when so many of our churches and our congregations are gathered to worship, get yourself to as many as you possibly can, and in part, it is to put yourself in the presence of God with other people. There is something about sitting in a quiet space with other people who are praying that connects us, not only to the other people, but connects us deeply to the divine, and the loving presence, the powerful presence that God has for and with us. So being in a service with other people gives us that kind of connection. It’s different than doing it on your own. And can you do it on your own? Sure, but it’s different when you are doing that within a group of people. Also, pay attention to the readings. Pay attention to the lyrics of the music. Pay attention to the words and see in what ways they speak to you. And I tell people in services all the time, tear that piece out, or take a picture of it so it’s on your device. Or tear that little piece out and let it be a bookmark or put it on your mirror. Put it where you’re going to look at it every single day and keep going back to those words. If something catches your attention in a service, if they’re words or a phrase or a verse or the turn of a phrase in a hymn, let that minister to you through the week. I would also say this: now is the time to be bold and ask for what you need. If you are sitting in a pew in an Episcopal Church and you need somebody to pray for you, I tell you, either speak to the person who is sitting next to you and ask, “Would you pray for me or with me?” Ask them to do that. Most Episcopalians will. If you feel too shy to do that, you go directly up to that priest after the service and ask them to lay hands on you and pray for you. There’s no reason for us to sit isolated, alone, and worried, and afraid, and when we reach out to each other and when we allow God into the situation with us, not only do we feel God’s presence and blessing, and not only do we put our worry in front of God and we can let it go, but also we can start to hear the way God is trying to guide us. God does not plan for us to sit hopeless and helpless and afraid. God has plans for every single one of us to live a life that is full of joy, that is making meaning and has a purpose, and that purpose usually involves taking care of other people that belong to God too in some way, and God does not mean for us to be alone. So it is Holy Week. Wherever you are, I ask you, I offer it to you. I urge you to embrace it, go and receive what you need from other people who faithful, from the sacraments, and from sitting in the presence of God with the community. God bless you, and God bless you in this Holy Week. April 02, 2025 (To read more about what is happening in the diocese click here.)
What churches that grow seem to have in common, says Bishop Hughes, is not chasing church growth – it is their members growing their own spiritual lives. Ironically, these church wind up growing without chasing growth, because what they have is irresistible to the people who visit them. (Time: 6:13.) Video Transcript This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. I have been listening to people talk about the level of fear and worry they have about things happening in the United States, but also things happening across the world. And primarily that worry is driven from a sense of kind of not knowing how to face the challenge that’s in front of us right now. All the while, worried even more about the challenge that will arrive tomorrow, that we don’t even know about yet. And for some people, underneath that is a real sense of danger, a loss of personal safety. All of this has been difficult. I’m aware too, though, as those conversations about worry happen amongst Episcopalians, that there’s an overriding worry that Episcopalians have when we get together, and that is about the decline of the church. That people are so scared about our churches closing, so scared about having so few people sitting in church, and truly, truly worried about that focus on, how do we get more people to come here? How do we get young families? How do we get more people in pews and more people pledging so our church can continue doing its ministry? And I want to offer you a different way of looking at this, and that is this. I am a lifelong Episcopalian, which means I’m a lifelong Christian. I’ve seen many churches grow. I’ve been in churches that have grown. I’ve led churches that have grown. I’ve also seen churches that cannot seem to get out of their own way and do not grow no matter what they try and do. But I want to talk first about what churches that grow seem to have in common, and it is this. They are not chasing growth. What they are chasing is growth in their own spiritual lives, growth in their faith life. But they’re not chasing the growth of the church. In these churches, I’m keenly aware, they come together as community and as individuals to put themselves in the presence of God – and sometimes that means worship together, sometimes that means a quiet prayer on their own, or praying with a small group of people – but these are people who put themselves in the presence of God. And another way they put themselves in the presence of God is they study deeply the teachings of Jesus Christ, not just so that they can name them or rattle them off in an argument, but they study the teachings of Jesus so that they can pattern their life after the way Jesus taught the disciples and apostles to pattern their life. To be the kind of person who is always looking to the least around us and serving those who are the least. I’ve also noticed that in these churches, these two things – regularly putting themselves in the presence of God, and working to learn about Jesus and about His ministry – leads to an awareness, an ability to see, hear and know the wisdom that comes from the Holy Spirit. These are parishes that are very clear about what God is asking them to do as individuals, and what God is asking them to do as a church. And it changes everything when someone comes in to visit them, because visitors very often remark on how joyful the church is, that there’s a robustness to the worship, that people are actually singing. They’re not just holding the hymnal and allowing someone else to do the singing, that they are singing. That they are offering their own voice, that the prayers are energetic, and the individual prayers and biddings that come after are often very touching. That these are people who will pray with you, who will ask how you are, and will lay a hand on you and say a prayer for you and then check on you the next week to see how you’re doing. That in these kinds of churches, there is a clear sense – you can almost hear the hovering of the Holy Spirit. There’s a sense of deep peace and knowledge about what the church is doing and its focus in the world and its focus amongst its own community. These churches have something unique and special that only comes from truly working on their own spiritual lives and sharing their knowledge and love of God with other people. Ironically, without chasing growth, they wind up growing because what they have is irresistible to people who come and visit them. I want to offer this to you in the coming, the last few weeks and days of Lent as we head into Holy Week and Easter, because we know we will have people visiting during those times, people do head back to church, especially in Holy Week and Easter. I want to invite you to do all that you can, to put yourself in the presence of God. Do all that you can with those who you attend church with, to learn about the teachings of Jesus and to pattern your life along that way. I want to invite you, as you sit in church with the beloved members of your community, to be listening to the way the Holy Spirit is moving. And I ask you to trust me, that if you do these things, the joy, the peace, the love and the wisdom that you have will be irresistible. It may grow your church, but it most definitely will bring healing and transformation to the people who surround our churches and who desperately want to know that they are loved by somebody. March 19, 2025 (To read more about what is happening in the diocese click here.)
This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. This past Sunday marked the five-year anniversary of the start of pandemic in our diocese. It was five years ago this Sunday, with about 48 hours’ notice, that all of our churches began to refrain or fast from gathering together to worship on site in their buildings. They had 48 hours to get online, and most of us did not have that equipment. It was a scurried, hurried, frantic start, and people got online any way that they could, whether it was YouTube or Facebook or Zoom – however they did it, our churches were worshiping online that Sunday. I would say that Sunday was not our best moment online. It was certainly bumpy, but we were there. We were together. That was our first lesson of pandemic: how to change quickly, and how to stay together. Pandemic was hard on us. There were so many losses, many of them tragic, not all of them to COVID, but we were bereft, especially because funerals could only have 10 people attend. So there was not that time for friends and family to gather in an extended way and to remember together the person who left us. We still feel that loss of the year and a half that funerals were that small, even though memorial services waited, we still feel that loss. I am also aware that when we take the time to look back at those pandemic times, we can see the many ways that we were shaped by God into being the people that we needed to be to get through pandemic, not just for ourselves, but to make sure that our neighbors got through pandemic too. First of all, it was the use of that word – that our neighbors weren’t just the people in our churches or just the people next door to our churches – that that word “neighbor” became very expansive. It became all people. It became all people that belong to God, and that means everybody, because everybody belongs to God. It was important to us that no one go hungry. We did everything we could to make sure that people had food wherever they were in northern New Jersey, that there was no loss that way. We made sure that people had friendship, that they had company, conversations that took place on front porches or through a window; many the phone call or online gatherings. People found ways to stay in touch with people, to get Communion to people, to pray for people. We learned how important that was. We also learned how to face hard things. It wasn’t just the hardships of COVID we had to face and our own personal losses, but we faced those racial killings. We didn’t try to name them something else. We didn’t ignore them. We faced them as harsh and as shameful and as hard as they were. We looked directly at them, and then we asked ourselves, what is God calling us to do? And we got busy in terms of making sure that people were safe, everywhere that we have churches, and everywhere that we go, that that has been important to us. It’s important for us to remember not only the losses and the people that, whose memories that we hold dear, but to remember how we grew, how we grew as faithful people who could stand on our feet, who could change and change quickly, who could make sure that people felt connected, make sure people had food, make sure people knew that they had company and that they had care and they could face hard things. All of this is important because it prepared us for the moment that we are facing now. There is trouble in our land, there is trouble in our world, and it is going to take strong people, faithful people, people who can face the truth, people who care about their neighbors and people who see their neighbors as being people all over the whole wide world. It is going to take people like that, people who came through a pandemic, not by their own will or might, but by the grace of God. People who by God’s grace, also grew to be people who are strong enough, who are faithful enough, and who are brave enough to face this present and the future before us. Remember who you are. March 5, 2025 (To read more about what is happening in the diocese click here.)
On Ash Wednesday, Bishop Hughes reminds us that making a bold statement about our faith is especially important in the world that we’re in right now. Our piety, prayer, fasting, giving – all of that can remain private, but our faith needs to be something that people can see. (Time: 5:29.) This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. It is Ash Wednesday, and the first day of Lent. Most Episcopalians will observe that by attending a service at some point during the day. Some of you probably already have, some of you might have it at noon today or sometime this evening, and during that service, there are two specific things that you’re going to hear. There are things you’ll do, but there are things that you’re going to hear. One of those is an invitation to a holy Lent. I want to read you a part of it. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self examination and repentance, by prayer, fasting and self denial, and by reading and meditating on God’s Holy Word. And we do all those things, not just to prove that we are faithful, but we do those things so that we turn ourselves to God. That word repentance that is in there, repentance means turning back, turning away from something else and turning back over to God. You’ll also hear from the sixth chapter of Matthew – and Matthew talks very specifically about these same things that you’ll hear in the invitation to a holy Lent – talks about the way that we pray, the way we give to others, the way we stay in relationship with God, the way we fast. And he says in that particular piece of the gospel that when we do those things, we don’t do them to make a fuss about ourselves or to humble brag about our faith. No, we do it in secret, that our piety, our way of practicing the faith, is done in secret so that God can work with us, and it is not about what we’re doing in front of other people, but is about our being in relationship with God. And that piety is private. That’s something that’s very important to Episcopalians. We like a private piety. I want to add a third thing, because one of the things that we do on Ash Wednesday is to receive ashes, and those ashes are a very bold statement. It really is literally burned up ashes. Ashes are used to mark the sign of a cross on our forehead, as a symbol of who we belong to, as a symbol of our mortality, and as a symbol of what we believe in – that one day we will be raised again the same way that Jesus was raised. There is something about those ashes walking around on us that defies everything that we hear in that service, which is to be quiet about your piety, but still make a bold statement – that your faith makes a bold statement. And I want to say, this third piece of making a bold statement is especially important in the world that we’re in right now. That your piety, your prayer, your fasting, your giving, all of that can remain private, but your faith, your faith needs to be public. It needs to be as public as those ashes that are on your face. Your faith needs to be something that people can see. I keep remembering all that we heard about Jimmy Carter, about President Carter and his death. How many stories people talked about him saying, I have to make this decision, because my faith tells me I must make a decision. I need to help people get into a home – my faith tells me I must do that. That he was open in talking about his faith, and he was open in making faithful decisions. We’re going to have to make those decisions going forward, and it is our faith that makes those decisions. I’ve been struck by the number of people who have told me that the whole notion of keeping people safe in church sounds like I am telling them to break the law. There is no law that tells us we cannot be kind to our neighbor. There is no law that tells us we cannot see to the safety of those who are endangered. As a matter of fact, our laws actually protect safety. They actually tell us how to do that, and the law for us as Christians that really guides how our faith happens in the world is the one that says, Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. I want to invite you along as a part of that invitation to a holy Lent, to look for the ways that you can make someone feel welcome, to look for the ways that you can make someone feel safe, to look for the ways that you can assure those who are afraid and those who have been targeted for cruelty – there is nothing else to call it but targeted for cruelty – that you look for the ways that you can help and assist them. That can be lawfully done in the United States, and it can also be done as a faithful Christian in a way that upholds not only the greatest commandment – that would mean the greatest law that Jesus gave us – but would uphold every vow in the Baptismal Covenant that has been given to us. Do your prayers in secret, but do your faith in public. In this time of confusion and chaos, Bishop Hughes invites us to remember that God, who called all creation into being, is with us and even now is calling into being compassion, courage, faithfulness, and justice. (Time: 5:16.) Video Transcript This is Bishop Hughes in the Diocese of Newark. One of the things I do when I am facing a challenge or confusion or a time like the time that we’re in right now, is to ask myself, what does it remind me of in Scripture? I find the Bible very helpful to use to think through life. And so as I think about the situation that I’m facing, I ask that question, what does it remind me of in Scripture? And when I’ve been asking that question over the last two weeks – and it really has been the last two weeks that things have been full of intense change – when I ask that question, what comes to mind to me the most often is the very first story in Holy Scripture, and that is the creation story. And I think what draws me to that story, which is one of my favorites, is it tells us something about who God is, that God calls things into being, that God makes order out of chaos, that God created everything on the planet. God called all those things good. And when God called humankind into being, God called us in God’s image in some way, saying, let us make humankind, and let us make humankind in our image. Just that right alone, let us make humankind in our image says something about the vastness of who God is. We tend to think of God as this one person, but God is so much bigger than we can even imagine, think of, or describe. That all brings me great comfort in a time of confusion and chaos and a time where there are people who are really – terrified is the word – very scared about what might happen to them, and people who are navigating all those things around them, that in the midst of this, God is calling things into being. So as confusion and chaos continue, I’m going to invite you to do what I do, and start looking for how God is calling things into being. I think some of the things you can see. One, that there have been plenty of compassionate responses around us, that God is calling compassion into being – that when you see something happening to somebody else, if you know that person well, or even if you don’t know that person well, and your heart goes out to them, God is calling that into being. God is calling care into being. God is calling respect into being. God is calling justice into being. God is also calling this enjoyment of diversity, of all the differences that there are between us, and the many ways that we take a look at that and we even celebrate it. This is just the beginning of Black History Month. We celebrate the diversity that is Black History, and take some time to say, okay, in a world where our baseline is European culture, and our baseline is white, and especially in The Episcopal Church, where our Book of Common Prayer comes from England, and therefore it’s based on English culture, and that is the way we worship, and that we have our being together. But in the midst of that, we honor the diversity that is around us, and we see that not only as a blessing, but we see that as a way God calls things into being. God didn’t just call one animal and one plant and one person and one planet and one star. God called all kinds, all variations of those things, and all of them working together. And remembering the way God calls things into being and the vastness of God’s creativity and the joy that God took in that creation is a helpful reminder in the midst of this time that while things may seem simply confusing or simply dangerous, that even In the midst of that, there are people around us, many of them in our churches, many of them are clergy, many of them are laity, many of them who are leaning into compassion. Who are working as hard and as creatively as they can to show care for others. That all of that is coming into being at the same time. God is calling on our courage and God is calling on our faithfulness. We are not in this alone, and anytime that we have some sense of not quite knowing how to act, I invite you to ask that same question, what does this remind me of in Scripture? Scripture is a story of how God has been with God’s people at all times. So there are stories, there are things, there are prophecies, there are verses, there are words that can bring us hope and bring us the comfort that we need at any given time. And right now, it’s important to know that God that brought all of this into being is with us right now, working hard to bring goodness and to bring justice and to bring order where there is chaos. January 24, 2025
“Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” – Matthew 28:20b Dear Companions on the Journey, What a week it has been. Worship and service projects commemorated the prophetic witness and impactful ministry of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States was celebrated at multiple festive occasions, including at a prayer service where Bishop Mariann Budde, Diocese of Washington, ended her sermon with a plea for mercy for those who fear what will come. All this took place by Tuesday of this week, as Executive Orders ushered in all sorts of changes, some impacting our churches. On Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained people at a Newark business. There is much demanding our attention. In this letter I want to focus on who we are as faith communities and how we treat each other in church. I will send a letter next week with specific guidelines and recommendations for Christian responses to Executive Orders that may affect our congregations. The people, lay and ordained, of our diocese are diverse in many ways including political party affiliation. This week, much like just after the election when we gathered at Convention, there are a variety of responses to all that I named above. On Sunday morning when we gather for worship, some will be delighted and excited by the changes this week brought. Some will be shocked and sad, while others will have had their worst fears confirmed. All those reactions will shape what we need and experience at church this Sunday. It is important for us to embrace our baptismal promises in our interactions with each other, especially these two:
I encourage every one of us to release our partisan political viewpoint while at church and instead to step fully into the role of follower of Jesus Christ. On Sunday we have a chance to care for each other as a treasured gift given to us to support our faith journey. We should ask each other if we are okay and then listen to the response. We need to ask each other for prayer, and we need to pray right then and there. Let coffee hour be a place where we talk about how God guided us through the week. We need to leave church having given and received the support of each other. In other words, Sunday is an opportunity for us to care for each other as God cares for us. Our practice of seeing each other as Christ sees us and loving each other will help us treat each other with respect. When you love somebody, you cannot help but want justice and peace for them too. The more we do this with each other, the more we will do it in our homes, schools, neighborhoods, and workplaces. Our faith can and will change the dynamic of all that is around us, if with God’s help, we choose to lead our lives guided by Jesus’ teaching. We are not alone. God does not forget or overlook us. We are always in God’s sight. Grace and peace, Bishop Hughes January 31, 2025
“Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” Matthew 25: 38 – 40 Dear Companions on the Journey, We are in the season of Epiphany, the time when the church and her people celebrate the three magi arriving in Bethlehem. Their story, along with the stories of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and John the Baptist, are all marked by dreams, prophets, and angelic messengers. Amid the chaos and confusion inflicted upon a people by a census requiring travel to hometowns, God was guiding every participant in this uniquely divine and human drama. I am writing to encourage you in a time of chaos and confusion in our land. The unleashing of merciless directives in the form of Executive Orders has upended the lives of many people we know and love in our families, congregations, and communities. Shock, outrage, and fear are normal responses to these current circumstances. And yet even in these times, God does not leave us. In fact, when the least among us are troubled, God expects us to turn to them, using our gifts, knowledge, and resources to ease suffering, heal the afflicted, and assure the afraid that they are always in God’s sight. Let there be no doubt, it is not by happenstance that God gives us the opportunity to serve the least among us. It is God’s expectation that we will live into the divine and holy vision of a world transformed by God’s love, mercy, and justice. As we learned in the pandemic years, we have an expanding capacity to care for the least among us. We can expect that God will give us insight and wisdom in dreams, messages, and prophecies as God has so often done when God’s people need to see and be the light of Christ. The Executive Order rescinding protected status for churches, schools, and hospitals was shocking and had immediate impact in Northern New Jersey. The loss of safe spaces is especially grievous to churches. The church has been, is now, and will always be God’s house. The church is always home, for all of God’s people, at all times, regardless of circumstance or status. To treat it as one more secular place to bring harm to God’s people is the direct opposite of the teachings of Jesus Christ and ignores the freedoms of religion enshrined in the First Amendment. Work in our diocese is well underway to prepare and support congregations and ministries primarily comprised of and/or serving people of color in the event they need to respond to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Additionally, clergy of color will be trained next week to avoid becoming collateral detainees as they make pastoral visits to hospitals or schools. This kind of preparation is not solely for the clergy and congregations of color, however. It is a ministry the entirety of our diocese is called to support. These are simple and practical ways that every congregation and member of our diocese can support immigrants and the people who serve them:
Grace and peace, Bishop Hughes Greetings to Members and Friends of St. John’s, Near and Far,
The Vestry gathered on September 19 to discuss the life of St. John’s, covering everything from our finances to managing the tasks that keep our doors open and welcoming to both new and familiar faces. St. John’s has a long and rich history in Boonton, and we deeply appreciate the members who, even after moving away or being unable to attend in person, remain connected with us. We delight in greeting the people who join us in person. We’re delighted to announce that Robert Gangewere is back to lead our music program, with Christian Carozza alternating Sundays as our organist. We also want to extend our gratitude to Wyatt Sikora, who has moved on to other opportunities after contributing his musical talents to our services. Joan and Debbie have been working diligently to prepare the Wilson House for rental and get the Rectory ready for sale. We’re happy to report that the Wilson House has been rented to a wonderful family who is engaged in local ministry. Additionally, we are renting the Parish Hall on Wednesdays to another religious group active in the community. Sharon Liparini and Sandra Lee Schubert will be attending the School of Ministry: Worship Leader training this Wednesday and again in October. You are welcome to join them—registration is open until Monday, September 23. Learn more here: School for Ministry: Worship Leader Training Across the diocese, many churches are facing challenges due to a shortage of clergy and declining attendance. Our Vestry, along with the diocese, is considering how best to respond. You can read more about these conversations in The VOICE Online: Who Will We Be in Ministry Going Forward? Every week, St. John’s opens its doors for the Saturday Luncheon Social, where local faith communities provide a meal for our neighbors. This Saturday, St. John’s is hosting, and we’ll be serving tacos with a side of fellowship! Want to lend a hand? Join us at 11 a.m. in the Parish Hall to help with setup, serving, and cleanup. Lunch will be served from noon to 1 p.m. Even if you’re not volunteering, you’re welcome to come by and enjoy a meal! Our Sunday morning prayer service is at 9:30 a.m. for the remainder of September. Starting October 6, we will return to our winter schedule with services at 10:30 a.m. We’re excited to welcome Canon Wright that day for a special visit. We are actively seeking fun ideas for fundraisers and volunteers to support the work of the church. Many hands make light work! If you have suggestions or are interested in volunteering, please email us at admin(at)stjohnsboonton.org. Prayer List If you’d like to add someone to the parish prayer list or request the removal of a name, please contact Kathy Cascone at mailto:casconek(at)yahoo.com Communication Staying informed is especially important during times of transition. Here are some ways to stay connected: - If your email changes, let Sharon Liparini know so you can continue receiving parish announcements. - Visit our website, Facebook page, and other social media channels for updates. (Reach out to Sandra Lee Schubert if you’d like to assist with posting photos and events.) - Subscribe to [The VOICE Online](https://dioceseofnewark.org/e-news), the diocesan newsletter published every other Wednesday, to keep up with news, events, and features from around the diocese. Save the Dates:
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AuthorSArticles are posted by the Communication team, Archives
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St. John's Church
226 Cornelia Street Boonton, NJ 07005 |
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