| This Week at St. Luke’s |
| Public Health Indicators: here Event risk assessment: here. Free COVID test from Durham County here. Click here and scroll down for Online Worship Bulletin Saturday 9:30 Girl Scouts – Johnson Hall Easter Sunday 8 am In-person Worship (without music) signup here The Rev. Dr. Rhonda M. Lee, Preacher/Celebrant 9 am Coffee Hour 9:30 In-person Worship signup here The Rev. Dr. Rhonda M. Lee, Preacher/Celebrant 10:30 Coffee Hour Monday 10:30 Memorial Service for Victor Carnes 6:30 Vestry – Zoom Tuesday 6:30 Men’s Dinner – Johnson Hall Wednesday 11:30 Prayer and Share on Zoom 6 Bell Rehearsal 7 Evangelism Committee on Zoom 7:30 Choir RehearsalThursday 7 pm Bible Study on Zoom Friday 1:00 Connections and Support Group by Zoom |
| New This Week |
| Coffee Hour News After both services on Easter Sunday, we will be offering decaf and regular coffee, hot tea, water, orange juice, and a few individually prepackaged foods for your enjoyment in the Sprague Room. Please feel free to take food and drink outside if you do not feel comfortable eating/drinking around unmasked persons. There will be several hand sanitizer stations available in the Sprague Room. Hopefully we can continue providing Coffee Hour food and drink after Easter week if all goes well and Covid numbers do not start to rise again. Hospitality coordinator, Beth Bonner. Deadline for the May newsletter is April 24. If you can get your articles in ahead of time, all the better. Godly Play will happen on: April 24, May 1, May 15 and June 5. A special invitation: If you find your family at church on a Sunday when Godly Play is not planned, you are invited to enter the space with your child. Follow their lead, let them show you a story and ask them what they remember about that story. Use the art supplies and create something together. Or just pull out the Legos or clay and watch them play. There is no right or wrong, just enjoy the sacred space with your child. At some point you can ask them to put everything away and return to worship for communion together. (If you go to the classroom and another family is there, don’t assume they will watch your child, stay with your child and see what they would like to show you in the space). During the Eucharist, the consecrated wine will be available to all and communion will be received around the altar rail. Reception of the Blood of Christ will be by intinction. Only the priest (or lay eucharistic minister) will lightly intinct the wafer for you, and then drop the wafer into your hand. Communicants will not intinct their own wafers. If you want to receive the wine, please approach the priest with your hands cupped in front of you, as most of us typically already do. If you do not want to receive the wine, please approach with your hands together as if in prayer, and then open them to receive the dry wafer. Please remember that the consecrated bread (or wine) alone does constitute full Communion, and you may receive the wine, or not, as you feel led. We believe this practice of distributing the wine, from a silver chalice and without the priest’s fingers touching the wine, is as safe as we can make it. Please see the invitation below from Muslim neighbors to break their Ramadan fast with them. Interim Rector Rhonda Lee participated in this several years ago and found the experience to be both informative and beautiful. Please email Rhonda if you would like to go, and she will reply to the hosts on behalf of St. Luke’s. Randy Griffin is willing to carpool.“The Divan Center, established by the Turkish American Community in the Research Triangle Area, invites members of your congregation to share our table to break bread together with our community members in the month of Ramadan. It is our tradition to break our fast with our friends and neighbors during this sacred month. We plan to start our event at 7:00 pm with a welcome speech and a brief presentation on our traditions and practices at the Month of Ramadan. We will start our dinner at around 7:45 pm with the sunset after our evening prayer. At that time, our guests can get to know each other while enjoying some delicious Turkish food. We can accommodate 7 guests from your group. Ramadan Friendship Dinner, Date: Friday, April 22 @ 7:00 pm, Venue: Bond Park Community Center, 150 Metro Park Dr, Cary, NC 27513” (Participation is free of charge) |
| Announcements |
| Congregational meetings coming up! This spring and fall, as part of her work as our interim rector, Rhonda will be facilitating two sets of congregational meetings focusing specifically on transition. Each meeting will last about an hour and a half. Each parishioner is asked to attend one meeting in the spring, and one in the fall. The spring meetings will take place on: Sunday 15 May right after church, in the nave Monday 23 May, 7 p.m., on Zoom Tuesday 24 May, 7 p.m., on Zoom Sunday 5 June right after church, in the nave. At the spring meetings, you will have the opportunity to share feelings, needs, and questions about transition at St. Luke’s. This sharing will take place in small groups and in the plenary. Everyone will be invited to speak; no one will be required to. Please plan to attend one of these meetings! Your voice matters in taking stock of who St. Luke’s is and who we want to be, as we prepare to develop a parish profile and to call a new rector next year. Vestry Minutes AvailabilityThe vestry meets the third Monday of each month. Minutes of the meetings are taken and hard copies for viewing are kept in the Kramer Room library. Because of COVID protocols and staff mostly working remotely, the church is normally kept locked.If you would like a copy of the minutes, please call or email Kathy (Parish Administrator) and request an electronic copy be sent to your email. Or, if no computer access, you may also request a hard copy be mailed to you. Thanks to all who have contributed to restocking our food pantry. What a bounty! Please continue your generosity! The need is great and we want to be able to say ‘yes’ when we get calls about food. Thanks again. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me Jan Freeman. Attention all PayPal payers! We have a new QR payment code for St Luke’s! For now please use this link https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=XEKW3QU38GWNC until we update our website. Thank you for your patience as we update our social media platforms and for your attention regarding this matter. . The clergy and vestry have resolved that masks will be optional in worship for fully vaccinated participants. Masks will continue to be required when singing at this time. Diocesan policy requires that unvaccinated persons wear a mask at all times. In making this decision, we have taken into account the facts that Durham has lifted its mask mandate, and our bishops have left masking requirements up to local discernment (while requiring masking for unvaccinated persons). One section of distanced, pod seating is available with no kneelers. Fully vaccinated persons may still choose to mask during worship, even when not singing. When considering whether or not to mask, please take into account your own risk factors and the possible vulnerability of your neighbors. And please be kind to each other always, as we move into a phase where some of us will be masked and some of us unmasked. Please remember: No gathering can be completely safe. Unvaccinated people remain more susceptible to contracting COVID-19, and to severe disease, hospitalization, and death. Singing and removal of masks can increase transmission. We will continue Sign-Up Genius registration, for now, to facilitate contact tracing if needed. We will continue to refrain from passing of the peace for now. We will continue to offer only the host at communion for now. The offering plate will remain at the entrance, not passed, for now. We will continue virtual worship offerings (as we started before Covid.) Fall Fling scheduled!! Mark your calendars and hold on to your donations for the Fall Fling (huge yard sale) October 15th! Drop off scheduled for Oct 9-14 to Johnson Hall. The committee can use your help in planning for a safe, long-awaited, community sale! Please contact Joan Hodges, Lisa D’Amico, or Beth Bonner to help. All proceeds go to Outreach. CONTACT UPDATESUp-to date contact information can be found online at ACS, or the ChurchLife App for your phone or tablet. Contact Kathy if you have any problems logging onto ACS. You can also ask Kathy to send you a paper directory if needed. |
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