A Celebration for Black History Month

A message from the Diocese:

Dear Members and Friends of St. Augustine's,

You are cordially invited to attend, and to bring a friend, our Annual Black History Program. This is a presentation to the community, by the community, for the community, to celebrate "Black History Month" and to showcase our talents in vocal, dance, and visual arts. We hope and pray that you will enjoy this presentation as much as we enjoy bringing it to you. See you on Sunday, February 8, at 4:00 pm at St. Augustine's Church, Prospect and Atlantic Aves. in Asbury Park. Thanks again. See you there!!

Are You Having a "Blue Christmas?"

Not everyone finds joy in the Christmas season. Sometimes feels of sorrow can cause isolation when you see the happiness of others during December. There is no need to feel alone during this month, though.

A service which addresses the spiritual needs of people who find the Christmas season depressing will be held on Sunday, 21 December at 5 pm in All Saints Church in Lakewood. People may feel blue for many reasons: job loss, poor health, financial worries, or the death of a loved one. The "Blue Christmas" service acknowledges such sadness and concern while trying to help people learn they are not alone with such feelings. The service helps those who mourn and struggle to know that God is present-and God's Word comes to shine light into our darkness. Join us in All Saints' Church, Second Street and Route 9, Lakewood, NJ. For further information, please call All Saints' Church office at 732-367-0933.

A Time for Prayerful Mediatation

As we prepare for Tuesday's presidential election, it becomes very important to approach the voting booth with prayers for God to guide our choice. Join with Father Hartt and other members of our Holy Spirit family as we open our chapel downstairs at 7 pm Monday for prayer and meditation.

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage, we humbly beseech Thee we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance; and from every evil way. Defend our liberties and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to Thy law, we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in

Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Time is Growing Short to Help the Meadowview Nursing Home Christmas Party

Once again this year, our fabulous ladies of the Episcopal Church Women are asking for your help to provide the residents of Meadowview, the Nursing Home of Atlantic County, with a happy Christmas. Each Sunday from now until December 14, 2008, we will have a donation bottle out on our Coffee Hour table in the Fellowship Hall. We hope to collect at least $400 so we may be certain that each patient gets 2 small Christmas gifts, as well as to provide the party food. We are also collecting handmade shawls to warm the hearts of those who are easily chilled. Please give until it feels good! Thank you.

Good Food and Fun Coming Soon

Our First Friday Potluck Supper will have something new added for November 2008: we'll follow our delicious meal with Crazy Bingo! It's a lot of fun. Bring a dish to share (plan on enough for six people so all can taste your culinary expertise) and three $1 gifts (just get them at the dollar store- nothing expensive, just fun treats). Dinner begins at 6 pm on November 7th downstairs in the Undercroft. After the food, the fun begins. Be there or be sorry!

The Magnetic Church, Part 1

You heard us announce it from the altar. You read about it here. Now you can begin to share in the knowledge that we gained during our trips to Trenton last month.

A dedicated group of us – Vicar’s Secretary Eileen Minett, Vestry members Jim Robbins, Evie Brown, Ed Nuttall and myself, in addition to Father Terry – traveled up Rt. 539 to the cathedral, some of us both Friday and Saturday, in an effort to learn how to make our church more visitor friendly and welcoming to everyone. We listened as Andrew Weeks discussed steps that we can take to help the unchurched discover a home with Christ, and then with us. We examined our communications such as this newsletter, for instance, and learned how to be more inclusive and accessible. Some points should have been obvious but weren’t, for we took them for granted. Other points needed to be brought to our attention.

I plan to run this as a continuing feature, because it is important for everyone to be aware of the reason behind any changes we consider. We need your help and feedback to be effective.

For instance, at our last Vestry meeting we spoke about our Sunday fellowship. An observation was made that we frequently gravitate to sit with friends exclusively and virtually ignore visitors. We decided to implement a suggestion to reduce the number of tables available after the services with the intention of encouraging a flow of people and conversations with new faces. The experiment resulted in a return to our original configuration as a result of popular opinion.

Now, the compromise is this: with the tables back, we need everyone to be responsible for speaking to at least one new face every week, someone with whom you don’t normally converse. Try a new seat. You may get a new view in more ways than one!

New Support Group Meeting at Holy Spirit

Are you a grandparent? Are you a grandparent raising your grandchildren? As we mentioned last month, The Center for Healing and Wholeness, sponsored by the First United Methodist Church of Tuckerton, will offer a support group facilitated by our own Anna Tews in our own Mary White Library beginning on June 3.

The brochure explains:

Many grandparents are still struggling with the parenting role, whether with their children, grandchildren, or both. Keeping with that, our group will discuss some common issues. The meeting will offer each of us the chance to share our knowledge, hopes and strengths. Together, we will decide what areas of concern we would like to explore. We will have guest speakers and activities. Please join us as we focus on such topics as:

• when marriages fail
• sense of loss due to the inability to visit your grandchild
• changes in your social life due to raising a grandchild
• long-distance grandparenting
• step-grandparenting
• care and wellbeing of the grandparent as parent
• real issues in raising grandchildren
• tensions between parent and grandparent

The purpose of this support group is to provide a safe environment where individuals receive support, guidance, and validation.

This support group meets the first and third Tuesday of each month, starting June 3, 2008, from 10:00 am until 11:30 am. To register, please call (609)296-8300. Walk-ins are welcome!

The support group is free of charge. Donations are always appreciated to assist with the cost of materials.

Anna tells us that she is excited to start this new service project. Holding the meetings in our Library, with our nursery across the hall, is a major help for the attendees even though babysitting is not provided.

Ernie Tews says that he’s just glad she will get the chance to use her degree in psychology!

Holy Spirit Has A New Association!

Have you heard about the Center for Healing and Wholeness? Headquartered in the First United Methodist Church on Green Street, the Center brings together people in our community with trained staff who help support them during difficult times. The Center’s mission statement says it “is an interfaith and interdisciplinary center dedicated to serving the community.” Support groups meet once or twice a month for 1-1/2 hours each session. Counselors and facilitators guide the members. The groups do ask for donations to defray costs, purchase literature and provide light refreshments.

Currently these groups are meeting each month in FUMC:

• Chronic Pain, 2nd & 4th Thursdays, 7 pm- 8:30 pm


• Living Beyond Grief, 2nd & 4th Tuesdays, 7 pm– 8:30 pm


• Parenting, 1st Tuesday, 7 pm– 8:30 pm

Here’s the exciting news: beginning in June, our own Anna Tews will facilitate a support group for Grandparents (especially grandparents raising grandchildren) which will meet the 2nd & 4th Tuesdays from 10 am to 11:30 am here in HS. She’ll be in our library, with the nursery across the hall available for the children to play. Other groups under discussion include Achieving Economic Goals and Families of Deployed Military Personnel. Call their office at 296-8300 to sign up.

It's Mardi Gras Time Again!

Are you ready? We have an early Easter this year (March 23), so Ash Wednesday falls on February 6– the day after the Presidential primary here in New Jersey! That means the Saturday before Ash Wednesday is February 2– Groundhog Day. How scrambled up is that?

It also means that you better scramble to buy your tickets to our second annual Mardi Gras celebration dinner. Holy Spirit’s answer to Emeril, Anna and Ernie Tews, have whipped up a fabulous menu to be served family-style beginning at 6 pm. This year’s dinner will still only cost $17.00 per person, but here’s what you’ll get: salad/appetizer; your choice of seafood or chicken gumbo; and chicken & sausage etouffee for the main course. Dessert will be New Orleans bread pudding served with bourbon sauce and whipped cream, along with King cake.

Purchase your tickets after each Sunday service. Elizabeth Hill will help you after the 8 am service, and Carol Lofton after the 10:30 am. Last date of sale will be January 27, if any still remain, and no tickets will be sold at the door. Once again, seating is by reservation, but we can accommodate group if you notify us in advance. Just tell us how many will join you, and we’ll block off your seats.

If you need more info, or want to join in the fun, please call the parish office. We still need help decorating, setting up, cooking and serving. Oh– did I mention the 50/50 raffle?

Mardi Gras is the end of Carnival, which always begins on Twelfth Night (Epiphany, January 6) and ends on Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday. Mardi Gras celebrations are held throughout the world, but surely you will have no more fun anywhere else than with us in HS!

A Gift From a Friend: Priceless

Have you ever had a friend give you a gift that you were not expecting to receive? How did you feel? Were you embarrassed? Did you want to give your friend something back in return? How could you do that graciously, especially if the gift meant something special to your friend or had a great value attached?

Well, Someone has given you a great gift. He gave His life for your salvation. Jesus is that friend, of course. We have an idea for something that you can give Him back in return. At the same time, you can give a friend here on earth a gift even MasterCard would call “priceless”: the gift of eternal life.

January 27, 2008 will be the first Invite A Friend Sunday in the Diocese of New Jersey. The entire Diocese– all 160 parishes! - will participate in this great event to help the “unchurched” (meaning the 80% of the American population who are not associated with any organized religious groups) feel comfortable enough to try to attend one of our services. You will play a major part because you can be a “bridge to God” for a friend who no longer attends church, or never did in the first place.
Think about it. You probably have regular contact with six or seven people who have only been to church for a wedding or a funeral during the past 6 months, if they’ve been at all. These are the people who would never think to attend a Christmas church service, much less an annual meeting!

We call them your “circle of contacts.” These are the people that become your circle for sharing the good news of everlasting life through Jesus. We can suggest at least eight categories: Neighbors; hobby and recreation friends, like your fishing buddies or quilting ladies; co-workers (be careful here not to stop on corporate toes, but let people know how happy you are in your church, and make them feel comfortable asking you questions); personal friends; contacts in clubs and organizations, like the Red Hatters; relatives; newcomers to our community; and families with new babies. You may not know someone in each category, or you may know more than one person in a particular category. That’s okay. These are just general guidelines. Pray for your contacts daily, and ask God to send the Holy Spirit to you. As you pray for your friend, ask God to reveal a need in his/her life which may give you the opportunity to tell your friend how your faith sustains you.

Rely on the Holy Spirit for help. Don’t think that you need to do this alone. Remember how God sent the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost to help His disciples? Ask Him to help you now.

Be prepared to answer some hard questions. Start by asking yourself some, such as: what prompted me to visit this congregation when I was looking for a new church home? Was it just because it was Episcopal? Why did I become a member of Holy Spirit? What is special and unique about our congregation that would appeal to guests? What would someone new to our congregation receive by becoming one of us? What would our congregation gain by inviting friends to visit with us for worship and other activities? Do I really want new people in our congregation (be honest with yourself. Why or why not?)? Would new people be welcomed in our congregation?

I would answer the last question with an unqualified “yes.” We have learned to greet strange faces and welcome them to coffee hour, or to the altar rail. We must continue to seek them out at the “Sign of the Peace.”

We have a lot to do in the next few weeks leading up to Invite A Friend Sunday. You will receive lots more info as the weeks pass. Please begin now to consider who might benefit from an invitation issued personally by you. As Episcopalians, we will definitely “step out of our comfort zone” when we begin to speak about our faith. But if you begin to prepare now, and drop a few hints occasionally that you are willing to discuss your faith if anyone has questions, you may open the door for others to reach out to God through you.

Now that’s “paying it forward” in a big way! What a great gift to give your friend– at no charge to you! Truly a “Priceless” gift!

Free Community Dinner, December 26

Looking for a few good people to cook, serve and clean up on Boxing Day, the British holiday for servants to return home. Join us for a home-cooked meal in thanks for God's blessings. To reserve your seat, call the parish office.

ECW Christmas Celebration at Meadowview Nursing Home, December 19

Our ECW provides gifts and party fixings for all 177 residents so they may celebrate Our Lord’s birth. ECW prepares throughout the year for this very special celebration with the residents of Meadowview, many of whom receive no visitors and receive no gifts from family. For more information, contact the parish office.

Giving Thanks by Planting Trees

We’ve lived the nightmare ourselves. Pictures of flames reaching into the night-blackened skies tell of unfathomable damage to the denizens of the arroyos and mountains. Stories of the wildfires in southern California bring back some recent memories for those of us who live among the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey.

For five days last May, we experienced the same fears as our brothers and sisters across the country. We prayed for our neighbors and friends as over 6,000 people were evacuated during the fires, which eventually consumed more than 18,000 acres of woods. Through the grace of God, we were luckier than the Californians: no one died. Fire destroyed five homes, and damaged thirteen others. God’s rain came late Wednesday night, and aided the fire fighters in their battle.

Our fire was set accidentally; the California fires were set, in part, deliberately by arsonists. At least seven people died, and estimates say 2,300 homes were destroyed in California. Despite Do you know the purpose of your “little blue box?” Many of us have gotten them for years without fully understanding their existence.

The United Thank Offering began life in 1889. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church met every three years, and the Women’s Auxiliary held worship services during the convention. During the 1886 service, over 500 women attended but only $87 was collected. A delegate from Pittsburgh, Mrs. Ida Soule, was horrified by the miniscule amount. She spoke with Julia Emery, who agreed that more knowledge of the intended recipients of the money might inspire people to be more generous. Just before the next Triennial Meeting, Ms. Emery published a letter in the Spirit of Missions from Mrs. Soule designating the intended recipients. Thus began the UTO.

The mission of the United Thank Offering is to encourage people to offer daily prayers of thanksgiving to God. The donation made daily will be tangible evidence of thanks.

According to the UTO Website, “God calls each of us to grow in awareness of God, our own relationship with God, and our relationship in community with all whom God has created. As habits of daily thankful prayer mature, our personal relationship with God grows. Daily prayers of thanksgiving strengthen our being and doing. The blue box can be a reminder of our many blessings. Uniting our own gifts of thanks with those of others keeps us in thankful relationship with them and with all of creation.

In sharing our thank offerings with those throughout the Communion who seek to address compelling human need and extend the mission of the Church, we deepen our sense of participation in the lives of others. The shared prayer and money offerings help others to respond to God’s call and to grow in their own deepened sense of living within the greater Christian community. Through our shared stories, God calls us to continue to grow into the fullness of the Kingdom.”

These little “mite boxes” provided grants of $2.4 million last year, and funded Episcopal projects such as the completion of a hospital in Pakistan, the building of a new church in Homer, Alaska, and the inauguration of a Sunday school program in Jackson, Mississippi. Remember the goals when the ECW collects.

Homeless Outreach

We are supporting two ministries to the homeless: The Atlantic City Rescue Mission and The Lakewood Outreach Ministry. You can help by providing new towels, tooth paste and brushes, shampoo, bar soap, disposable razors, combs, brushes, toilet tissue and disposable diapers.

Items may be placed in the two large boxes in the Fellowship Hall marked for our ministry to the homeless. For more information, please contact the parish office at 609-296-9618. Please note that clothing is not needed at this time.

Fellowship Dinners

On the last Wednesday of each month, we are offering a free hot meal to anyone who shows up. Leave your wallets home! Please call the parish office at 609-296-9618 to make your reservation.

The Craft Group

The Craft Group meets on Wednesdays from 10 am to 3 pm. Everyone is welcome. Bring your lunch; coffee, tea, soda are available. Our current year's outreach project is making lap robes for Meadowview Nursing Home. If you knit or crochet, but can't come on Wednesdays and would like to work on this project from home, let us know. We can supply you with yarn.