| This Week at St. Luke’s |
| Public Health Indicators: here Free COVID test from Durham County here. Click here and scroll down for the online Worship Bulletin. We ask that if someone attends a service and then tests positive for covid, that they please contact the Interim Rector or Sr. Warden for both pastoral care needs and also to inform others who may have come in close contact. Sunday, October 30 8 and 10:30am Holy Eucharist – masks recommended, required while singing The Rev. Dr. Rhonda M. Lee, Preacher and Presider 9:10 – 10 am Adult Learning – Kramer Room 12 – 7 pm Pumpkin Patch Monday, October 31 1 – 7 pm Pumpkin Patch Tuesday, November 1 Rector time certain’s office day Wednesday, November 2 set up for Christmas Fling 8 am Morning Prayer on Zoom 11:30 am Prayer and Share on Zoom 5:30 pm Bell Rehearsal – Nave 7 pm Adult Choir Rehearsal – Nave Thursday, November 3 set up for Christmas Fling 11 am Music Lessons – Nave 7 pm Bible Study on ZoomFriday, November 4 Set up for Christmas Fling 1:00 pm Connections and Support Group by Zoom Saturday, November 5 8 am Christmas Fling 9 am Altar Guild – Nave 10 am Girl Scouts – Gray Building |
| New This Week |
| The Procrastinators’ Challenge – To those of you who listen to WUNC, the “Procrastinators’ Challenge” will sound familiar: a final push on the final day of their annual fundraising drive. This week, St. Luke’s Every Member Canvas Campaign is at its final hours. The Stewardship Team wants to remind all faithful members to send in your pledge for 2023. To date, we have 71 pledges totaling $263,820. For purposes of comparison, last fall’s campaign ended with 114 pledges amounting to $344,000. There’s time this week to make up that gap, so if you have not yet pledged, please take a few moments to do so. If you give via ACS, please take a minute and designate your pledge by emailing Kathy Barnes. She will then add your pledge to our collective parish total.In exchange for your pledge, we wish we could give you a free dream trip to ‘a place of your choice.’ Alas, we will give you our gratitude and a Prayer of Thanksgiving for your commitment to our church home and all of its goodness, both now and to come. Presiding Bishop Nominating Committee Releases Church-wide Survey Deadline: Monday, October 31 The Episcopal Church Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop invites all Episcopalians to participate in a survey to help the committee develop a profile of the skills, qualities and gifts the church seeks in its next presiding bishop, considering what the church and world may look like in the next decade. The survey—which takes about 15 minutes to complete—asks respondents to define the most important issues facing The Episcopal Church and the world in the next 10 years, as well as the foremost gifts or skills the next presiding bishop will need to lead the church. Participants are also asked to rank in importance areas of experience for the presiding bishop to have. Learn more and participate. (Links to English, Spanish and French) Introduction to Dismantling Racism: Reclaiming Our Baptismal Promise Friday, November 11, 5-8 p.m., and Saturday, November 12, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. | Zoom Racial healing and reconciliation are fundamental to our ongoing spiritual formation. Please join the Diocese for this interactive workshop designed to deepen our spiritual commitment to dismantle racism as participants in the Jesus movement. Through presentations, prayer, story sharing, videos and small group discussion, we will explore how the sin of racism impacts all of our lives. We will ground our work together biblically and sacramentally by renewing our baptismal vows—to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of all human beings. Contact Jenny Beaumont with questions. Register. Come join us for the last garden workday of the year at St Luke’s on November 12th from 8-10. We will be dead heading (extreme pruning) a lot of the perennials. Thanks to all of those who consider building community in this way! Be sure to bring your gloves and water and pruners! Any questions, contact Daniel Emory. St. Luke’s Hoodies – Back by Popular Demand For the first time since 2015, you’ll have the opportunity to show your St. Luke’s pride with a new hoodie. We’ll be ordering the same hoodies you’ve seen people wearing around church, the purple ones with the embroidered St. Luke’s name and logo on the front. If you missed the chance to order a hoodie in 2015, or if your 2015 hoodie has worn out, now’s your chance to get one. While we don’t have all the details worked out with the vendor yet, we’ll be taking pre-orders for these hoodies over the next few weeks. There will be two styles available, pullover and zippered, in a full range of sizes: Youth S, M, L and Adult S to XXXL. Look for order forms in the Sprague Room. Still to be determined are the final prices and the delivery date. The best guess for the prices is $20-$23 for the adult sizes, a bit less for the youth sizes. We’re planning to turn in our order around November 15. The vendor can’t commit to a delivery date, because like so many other small businesses, staffing is an issue for them. Last Date to Order Belize Pecans is October 31 St. Luke’s is once again selling delicious South Georgia pecans to raise money for Holy Cross Anglican School in Belize. We’re selling pecans in the same two varieties as in previous years: Plain and Dark Chocolate Covered, both for $11.50 for a one-pound bag. All pecans are fresh from this year’s crop. You may fill out an order form in the Sprague Room and leave it in the box, or order online at https://forms.gle/VTAZf9k4nrSZyAzDA .Instructions for paying for your pecans are included on the forms. The deadline for placing your order and making your payment to St. Luke’s is October 31. Note that to guarantee that you get the pecans you want, you must order by the deadline. We often have a few additional bags available for sale later, but that’s because we must order entire 24-bag cases of each variety. For example, if we have orders for 55 bags of one of the varieties, then we will order four cases and have 23 extra bags to sell. If, however, we have orders for only 54 bags, then we will order three cases and there will be no extra bags. If you’ve already ordered and think you might want more bags, increase your order now to make sure you’re not disappointed. Pecans will arrive from Georgia in time for us to distribute them before Thanksgiving. Questions? Contact Bob Moore. |
| Announcements |
| Preowned Christmas Decorations Sale, Saturday, November 5th, 8 am – 12 noon. We will receive donations on Wednesday – Friday, Nov 2-4. Volunteers are needed to help set up Johnson Hall, help with pre-pricing items Wednesday through Friday, Nov 2-4. Cashiers and sales persons are needed for the sale Saturday, Nov 5. Contact Beth Bonner to help. Voting at St. Luke’s too! There will be a preliminary meeting of the parish on October 30th to report on vestry nominations, take nominations from the floor, and inform regarding amendments to 2 sections in the bylaws. Our election for the vestry, as well as bylaws amendment approval, will be on November 13th after both services. Peace, Lisa D’Amico, Ted Triebel, Julia Hoyle (St. Luke’s 2022 Vestry Nomination Committee) Fall 2022 Adult Learning Offerings, Sunday mornings, 9:10-10:00, Kramer Room(opposite the narthex/vestibule as you enter the church from the north side visitor parking) Please note: on Sundays when no adult learning is offered, we will enjoy extended fellowship time. October: Diocesan Intern Kate Rademacher will lead a four-part series, “Finding Rest in a Weary World”. October 30: Protecting the Right to Rest for All. Copies of Kate’s most recent book, Reclaiming Rest, are available free of charge in the Sprague Room (next to the Kramer Room), courtesy of the Adult Learning Budget. First come, first served. November: Rector Rhonda Lee will lead a discussion of the communion of saints.· November 6: What is the communion of saints?· November 13: How good does a saint have to be?· November 20: Making friends with the saints. December: Diocesan Intern Kate Rademacher will lead a discussion of evangelism, adapted from the curriculum, Embracing Evangelism—The Episcopal Church.· December 4: Embracing Evangelism by Sharing Our Stories· December 11: Embracing Evangelism in the Age of Social Media Confirmation/Reception/Reaffirmation/Inquirers’ Class: A Joint Venture Between St. Luke’s and St. Joseph’s. If you’re new to St. Luke’s or the Episcopal Church and want to learn more; if it’s time for you to be confirmed, or to be received into the Episcopal Church if you’ve already been confirmed in another Christian tradition; if you’re feeling called to reaffirm your Christian faith: Please participate in an adult formation opportunity jointly offered by The Rev. Dr. Lauren F. Winner of St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church and our own Rector Time Certain Rhonda M. Lee. We expect that the group will include members of both congregations. Dates: Tuesdays the 8th, 15th, and 29th of November, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Topics: 8 November: Reading the Bible as Episcopalians 15 November: Prayer 29 November: Sacraments Location: St. Luke’s, Kramer Room (next to the narthex/vestibule as you enter from the north side visitor parking).The date of confirmation/reception/reaffirmation is still to be determined and will depend on the date of a bishop’s visit or a convocation-wide confirmation service. Need more information? Ask Rhonda. Attention St. Lukers on Facebook! Please lend us your eyes for a moment. If you have a Facebook account, St. Luke’s needs your help, to help our posts and events to be seen more widely. If you think for a moment, you may realize that although you have “liked” our Facebook page, you may rarely see our posts in your feed. (What, you haven’t liked and followed our page? Please remedy that: https://www.facebook.com/stlukesdurham.) Why? Facebook doesn’t automatically show you every post from places you have liked. It will show you the popular posts, that is, the ones that get a certain number of reactions and comments. The more posts you react to, the more you will see. If you “share” them (and that’s the “holy grail” here), they will become more popular and be shown to more of St. Luke’s followers and their friends. Why is this important? We have geared back up to holding major events; as you all know we are in a flurry of activity in October. Facebook is one way we publicize our events. In fact, “I saw the event on Facebook”, overheard at the Blessing of the Animals, was a statement from someone from the community. One thing you can do to help keep up interest in a month-long event like the Pumpkin Patch is to comment on our page about your experience: “What beautiful weather for the Pumpkin Patch this afternoon! I came home with the perfect soon-to-be jack-o-lantern.” Soon we’ll focus on the Christmas decorations sale in coming up in early November. If you see the event announcement (“St. Luke’s Episcopal Church added an event”), in your feed, check that you are either “interested” or “going”. Keep visiting our page and commenting on our posts throughout November and December as we head into Advent and Christmas. Thank you from the Evangelism and Communications Committee, and all the planners of our events! “Cast your vote, not on a partisan basis, not based on your biases, but vote your values. Vote the values of human dignity and equality. Vote the values of the rock on which this country was built. Vote.” -The Most Rev. Michael Curry Fall is voting season! Early voting begins October 20- Nonpartisan voter resources are available here. And here’s an appeal from The Rev. Sally Johnston and Ms. Aleta Payne of the Bishops’ Council of Advice on Public Policy: “We call on all churches to encourage members to get out to vote. This is not to say who to vote for, but to encourage informed, active, activated voters. You all are trusted narrators in time when there is such mistrust and doubt. The Episcopal Church does not take positions on any political candidates or parties, and clergy are not allowed to tell others how to vote.” Just vote! And encourage your friends and neighbors to vote, too. St. Luke’s Needlework Ministry (formerly Prayer Shawl Ministry) – Do you knit or crochet? Do you want to learn? Do you have yarn that you would like to donate? St. Luke’s Prayer Shawl Ministry could use your help. Prayer Shawls are given to people who are ill, recovering from an illness, or grieving the loss of a loved one. In addition to prayer shawls, we also make chemo caps for the Duke Blood Cancer Center and are hoping to start making scarves for homeless neighbors. We do our knitting at home and meet once a month in the Kramer room to knit/crochet and enjoy each other’s company (date and time to be determined.) However, it is not necessary to attend the meetings to participate. If you are interested, please contact Grams Gutknecht for more information. Rector time certain’s office day Rector Rhonda Lee is normally in the church office on Tuesdays, approximately 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feel free to stop by or make an appointment to see her then. Before dropping by, you might want to call to make sure she hasn’t stepped out for lunch, or stepped into another meeting. Exceptions to this “office day” will be announced ahead of time whenever possible. If Tuesdays don’t work for you, please call or email Rhonda to make an appointment for another day. Join us online for Morning Prayer – Wednesdays at 8am – Join our diocesan intern, Kate Rademacher, for Morning Prayer on Zoom on Wednesday mornings at 8am. As part of her discernment to potential ordination, Kate is strongly encouraged to pray the Daily Office, and she is eager to do this in community with people at St. Luke’s who may want to participate. Whether you have a long-standing practice of praying the Daily Office or whether it’s brand new to you, everyone is welcome! Join us online using this Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3dsRusD . For questions, please contact Kate by email at: intern-kate@stlukesdurham.org |
| Please be advised that neither the clergy nor your vestry will ever ask for help, gift cards, etc. through emails or text messages. Recently, bogus texts have been received by some in the parish. CONTACT UPDATES – Up-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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