Weekly Announcements
Table of Contents     This week at St. Luke’s
     New This Week
      Ongoing Announcements
      How can I help?

     Birthdays
This Week at St. Luke’s
In-person worship is suspended until AT LEAST MID-OCTOBER.
Public Health Indicators can be found here and an event risk assessment tool is here.

Click Here for this week’s complete bulletin for our Sunday 10am worship.

Today
5pm Listen to Organ Practice and Recording Here
Saturday
Rector Reflection on Facebook
Sunday
   10am Spiritual Communion on Facebook 
    Sermon and Godly Play Story posts on Facebook
    11am Coffee Hour on Zoom link
    8pm Youth Group on Zoom 
Tuesday
   7:00  Storytime on Facebook
   7:00  NEW Online Bible Study on Zoom
Wednesday
   Noon Prayer and Share NEW Zoom link
   5:00-6:30 Care Package Items Drop-Off
Thursday
   3pm  Worship Recording (sign up to help here)
Friday
   8:30am Good News Garden Tending
   1pm Connections & Support Group NEW Zoom link
   5pm Watch Organ recording here
Saturday
   8:30  Work Day on site
   
New This Week
WEEKLY ONLINE BIBLE STUDY
Many people indicated interest in a weekly online Bible Study.  We will begin on Tuesday, September 8th and plan to meet weekly from 7:00-8:00pm on this Zoom link. We will use material from The Episcopal Church on readings for the upcoming Sunday.  This week’s material is here

COLLEGE CARE PACKAGE ITEMS DUE
You are invited to contribute cards, letters, gift cards, funny items, inspirations, shelf-stable snacks & more to care packages that we will send to our members who are away at college. 
Please drop off your items THIS Wed, Sept 9th between 5:00-6:30 in the breezeway at St. Luke’s.  If you have questions or need more information, please contact Laura.
To receive donations and pack our boxes, sign up here.

SACRED GROUND
St. Luke’s will be participating in Sacred Ground, a Film-Based  Dialogue Series on Race and Faith.  We will meet online on the 4th Monday of each month from 7:00-8:30. Over the year, we will read two books and between each session will have about 90 minutes of watching and reading.  Registration is free, but required.  Please sign up here.

HIKING GROUP
Many members expressed an interest in taking Nature Walks.  Our first walk will be Sept 26th along the Confluence Trail in Hillsborough. A second walk is tentatively scheduled for Oct 10th. We will follow COVID protocols of the diocese and government.  
If you have not yet signed up for St. Luke’s Nature Walks and are interested in joining, please send a message to Bill Gutknecht or Karen Gray.  Those on our list will be sent an e-mail inviting you to sign up for the walks.  Included will be directions, descriptions of the trail, time, rain date and further instructions.  
Announcements
USHERS NEEDED: COVID PROTOCOLS
Our next step in preparing for small, in-person worship is to train a team of Usher/Greeter who understand all the COVID-era precautions we must have in place and are willing to ensure best practices are followed by all.  Please let Helen know if you are willing to be a part of this team.  When we have enough responses, we will hold a training.  Thanks!

LISTEN TO OUR ORGAN TODAY
If you have been missing the sounds of our Moller pipe organ, here’s an opportunity for you. Kaye will be in the church recording some organ music for upcoming services and will broadcast her recording session over Zoom TODAY Sept 4 at 5pm. This will be a casual affair and not like a recital — there will probably be some stops and starts and a redo or two! But if you’d like to listen, you are welcome to join her. Just click on this link at 5pm on Sept 4.

WORSHIP/MUSIC YOUTUBE PAGE
We are working to make our worship and music more easily accessible, which includes creating a YouTube page.  It only has a few items at the moment, but later this fall we plan to post our weekly worship as well as special music on this site.  Thanks to Music Director Kaye Saunders for coordinating this effort.

ST. LUKE’S CONNECTIONS & SUPPORT GROUP
Members of the former St. Luke’s Grief Group are opening the weekly group Zoom meeting to anyone in the St. Luke’s community who would benefit from regular support for any reason (eg grief, loneliness, illness, anxiety or any stressful situation etc).  Join us every week, or drop in anytime you need a little extra support in a loving, faith-filled support group.  
We meet every Friday on Zoom from 1pm – 2pm. 
We start the meeting with a short devotion, we share our “cheers, tears, fears, tender moments” and often share a children’s book that, in the tradition of Jesus’ parables, gives us strength for our journey.  We share any prayer concerns (personal, community) and close the meeting with prayer.
In order to make this a safe and welcoming group, we observe the following group covenants:
1–Confidentiality (what is shared here stays here)
2–No apologies for any feelings or circumstances
3–It’s ok to laugh, it’s ok to cry (feelings are ok)
4–You can share or NOT share your “story”
5–Grief is grief (or any need for support is an acceptable need for support)
6–Do not give advice unless asked

SIGN UP TO READ
We are looking for many more readers for worship.  If you are able to use Zoom and available some Thursday(s) from 3:00-4:30, please sign up to read for worship using our new iVolunteer.
 
How Can I Help?
VOTE FAITHFULLY
Presiding Bishop Curry says, “It is a Christian obligation to vote, and more than that, it is the church’s responsibility to get the souls to the polls.” (more info here
Due to COVID-19, many of us may want to avoid in-person voting this year.  You can download the request form for an absentee ballot here. Deadline for submitting the request form is 5pm Tue Oct 27, but we encourage you to do it now to compensate for any delays.  The ballot will be mailed to you and must be returned to the county board of elections by Nov 3, 2020.  Again, due to possible postal delays, it is advisable to mail your ballot by mid-October. 

GOOD NEWS COMMUNITY GARDEN
Mary Beth Berkley is coordinating discussions between St. Luke’s, St. Titus, and El Buen Pastor about creating a Good News community garden to grow food and deepen relationships among the congregations.  We’re looking for folks interested in vegetable gardening and/or building community! Want to know more or get involved?  Contact Mary Beth.

TEMPORARY VESTRY CLERK NEEDED
Please contact Helen  if you would be willing to be Clerk of the Vestry for the second half of 2020.  Duties include taking minutes at all vestry meetings, Parish Council, and Parish-wide meetings; edit and distribute minutes, and work with the Parish Administrator to file appropriately.  Ability to take notes quickly, comfort with Word, Google Docs and Zoom required.  

“FED UP” FOOD DISTRIBUTION
The local Poor People’s Campaign is doing a twice-monthly food distribution called “Fed Up!”  If you would like to donate or participate, click here and sign up for their mailing list. 

KEEP CLERGY IN THE LOOP
Please make sure to keep the clergy in the loop if there are any needs or concerns you have or you know about.  You can e-mail Helen at any time.  

REMEMBER, Your clergy will not send you e-mail or texts messages asking for gift cards or financial help.  Be suspicious of anything that comes outside of these announcements.  Do not respond to the request, but call the clergy person or create a separate e-mail to rector@stlukesdurham.org to verify. 
 
Full Length Articles
No full-length articles this week.

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