| This Week at St. Luke’s |
| NOTE: ALL NEW ZOOM LINKS as of 8/1/20 In-person worship is suspended until AT LEAST SEPTEMBER. Public Health Indicators can be found here Click here for this week’s compete bulletin for our Sunday 10am worship. Saturday 9am Rector Reflection on Facebook Sunday 10am Spiritual Communion on Facebook Sermon and Godly Play Story posts on Facebook 11am Coffee Hour on NEW Zoom link 8pm Youth Group on Zoom Monday 6:00 Extra Vestry Meeting Tuesday 6:30 Virtual VBS on Zoom 7:00 Storytime on Facebook Wednesday Noon Prayer and Share NEW Zoom link 7:15 Bell Ringing for Peace Thursday 3pm Worship Recording 5pm Graduate Celebration Friday 1pm Anxiety & Grief Group Google Hangout |
| New This Week |
| NEW ZOOM LINKS! As of August 1st, we are moving all our Zoom meetings to our new St. Luke’s Zoom Account. Please make sure to use the updated links. COMPLETE YOUR SURVEY If you have not yet turned in your survey about fall activities, please do so this week. Each member of your household should fill out their own survey. HELP FARMWORKERS In Person: The Episcopal Farmworker Ministry continues to provide vital support to farmworkers. They need more distribution helpers. If you are able and willing to spend the day outside of Wilson on the 2nd or 4th Saturday of the month, contact Juan. By Donating: Last year, EFWM helped 170 children with school supplies. This year, 400 children have asked for help. If you are able to donate funds for supplies, click here. BELOVED NEIGHBORS The Episcopal Farmworker Ministry is offering a 6-session online program about History, Race and Immigration at 10am on Saturday mornings beginning August 22. For more information or to register, click here. 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. BELL RINGING FOR PEACE St. Luke’s will take part in the Sister Cities Bell Ringing for Peace, which celebrates 75 years of peace between the US and Japan. (The US bombed the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945). Our Sister City of Toyama has asked us to ring bells at 7:15pm on Wed, Aug 5th. People are encouraged to ring bells at home, too. |
| Announcements |
| GARDEN DAY AUGUST 8, 7:30-9:30am Eileen Morgan, the leader of our August Garden Day, invites you to join with a dedicated group of St. Lukers to do some late summer garden care (e.g. weeding and sprucing up our campus). Bring a mask, your favorite hydration liquid, and gardening tools. We’ll get started early to “beat the heat.” FORWARD DAY BY DAY The August-October Forward Day by Day booklets have arrived. If you would like to use this daily reflection tool, please contact Kathy and she will mail you a booklet. (You can also access the meditations online here, or listen to the podcast here.) LEAP UPDATE This spring, LEAP teachers created almost-daily videos for their students, and the videos continue this summer. They have delivered 4 boxes of materials to each student’s home, and called each family every week. The Board approved new spending on produce, grocery cards, and rent help. This fall, their goal is to provide tablets for all students. They will begin with virtual learning, then move to outdoor learning, and eventually plan to return indoors. To support this important work or find out more, click here. HEALTH-E FROM HOME UNC is offering a free 8-week program to support you making small changes for a healthier life. They are evaluating how this program can support people stuck at home more because of COVID-19. To learn more, click here. DEALING WITH STRESS WEBINAR The Diocese of North Carolina encourages you to join one of these webinars about Dealing With Stress, Anxiety and Grief. August 18th at 7pm: For Parents August 20th at 7pm: Focus on Adults |
| How Can I Help? |
| 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. ADAPTIVE P.E. EQUIPMENT One of our St. Luke’s children uses adaptive PE equipment at school. Because school will be at home this fall, his teacher is asking for at-home supplies for all the children who need mobility-accessible equipment. If you would like to purchase some of this needed equipment, click here. 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. 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 Article |
| The Birth of the Good News Garden ‘Proclaim the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words…’ is a sentiment often attributed to St. Francis — and one that, especially in today’s world, might be viewed as an urgent challenge to all of us to find new ways to put our faith into action. One new way is presently taking shape at this very minute, right here in Durham… in the form of a Good News Garden. The concept of a Good News Garden was born in the midst of this persistent pandemic; in a nation that is, at the same time, awakening to the cries for a long-needed response to its terrible racial inequities; and taking place on our increasingly environmentally-wounded planet. Yes, we are in need of much healing… but we recognize God’s desire for us to also find, even in this broken world, the beauty and joy of His creation. Congregants from St. Titus’ and St. Luke’s have come together — with an open invitation to El Buen Pastor to join us — to translate the vision of a Good News Garden into a reality. By working together, praying together, and – one day, when COVID-19 recedes – breaking bread together, we hope to nurture our small piece of earth through good gardening practices; sharing good food from the garden with those in need; and working together – all of us – toward that Kingdom of God that Jesus so lovingly describes. Through prayer, we reach inside ourselves; and through action, we reach out to others, in the faith that we can form a more inclusive and loving community than we could ever hope to achieve alone as individuals, or even as isolated congregations. On July 15th, seven members from St. Titus’ and St. Luke’s attended (via Zoom) the first formal Good News Garden meeting. Several others were not able to attend but also expressed keen interest in participating in this project. A wonderful spirit characterized this first meeting, with subsequent work now underway: Garden plots at St. Titus’ have been identified as an excellent and central garden location for our Good News Garden. Permission to use these plots for our garden has generously been granted by the St. Titus Vestry. Continued efforts to connect with El Buen Pastor are ongoing, with invitations also extended to all congregants of St. Titus’ and St. Luke’s to join this Good News Garden effort. On July 27th, soil samples of the proposed garden plots were taken, to be submitted for analysis, as an early step in garden preparation.In the meantime, specific plans for garden layout and seeding remain as ‘works in progress’, as do plans to clarify how we will work together and communicate with each other. Safety measures, including how to work with social-distancing also are being thoroughly considered and carefully formulated. As you can see, much work remains, as does the potential for much joy and connection as can happen when people come together to work hard and to work together as followers of Jesus. If this project appeals to you, please consider joining us. We welcome you! Contact Co-leaders: Mary Hawkins and Mary Beth Berkley. |
