Organ Concert at St. John 7pm Wednesday August 8

Douglas Beck, Organist-Choirmaster, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Old Town, Alexandria, VA will perform on St. John’s historic 1885 organ. The program will include traditional, jazzy and blues tunes from recent centuries including one inspired by Sting. This is music that you will probably not hear on Sunday morning!

There is no charge, but there will be a free will offering. We hope you can join us for an evening of glorious organ music. For questions, please call Ted Bromage at 244-3227.

More information here

St. Andrew’s and St. John’s Call a Rector

“The Reverend Richard A. Tardiff will be starting his life with us on October 1st. Dick and his wife Pamela will be joining us with a long list of talents, skills and dedication to the task at hand.”

Get the whole story here.

St. Andrew to Remain Open

Details here. Original story here.

Reminder!

The Bishop Search Committee wants to hear from you, this Saturday, July 8, from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. at St. John’s Church.Please attend if you possibly can and share your thoughts about:

What special gifts do we bring to the diocese?

What’s great about the Diocese of Maine?

What might make the Diocese perfect?

The Bishop Search Committee Wants to Hear from YOU!

At Diocesan Convention in October of 2007, we will elect the 9th bishop of Maine, to succeed Chilton Knudsen. The first step in the process that will culminate in that election is to “take a snapshot” of the diocese as it is at present, so that a diocesan profile that accurately reflects who we are can be given to potential candidates.

To make this “snapshot” as detailed and accurate as possible, the Bishop Search Committee is holding a series of meetings around the diocese during the month of July. One such meeting will be held at St. John's, Southwest Harbor, on Saturday, July 8, 9:30-11:30 a.m.

The committee would like to hear from every member of the diocese, and you are strongly encouraged to attend the meeting at St. John's – or one of the others (a complete schedule will be available by the beginning of July). Some thoughts to ponder before the meeting: what are the special gifts that your congregation contributes to the life of the diocese as a whole? What do you treasure about the diocese, that you would not like to see changed when the new bishop comes? What might be changed to make the diocese “perfect”?

If you cannot attend a meeting, perhaps you could share your thoughts with someone who can. The more information the committee has, the more accurate the profile will be.

Vesta Kowalski
For the Bishop Search Committee

Vote to Sell St. Andrew

In a decision of some moment to Episcopalians on Mount Desert Island, the members of the Parish of Saint Andrew and Saint John in a special parish meeting this past Sunday 30 April voted to sell Saint Andrew. Find out more at the parish web site here, here and here. The sale is not likely to happen quickly. It must first be endorsed by the Diocese. And in spite of this decision, seasonal services will resume at Saint Andrews at 8:00am Sunday June 4. Also, there will be a Taizé service at Saint Andrew at 7pm Sunday June 11.

We ask for your prayers as we move forward with this difficult choice.

The Church in Brit Lit - The Jumble Sale

As we gear up for our increasingly lucrative Quietside festival, it is fun to look at this type of fundraiser as it is presented in British fiction. One of the simplest versions is the ubiquitous Jumble Sale. All kinds of odds and ends are sold at such parish sales and one can easily revisit one’s old possessions. In A Glass of Blessings Barbara Pym describes Wilmet meeting a “distressed gentlewoman wearing a lavender-colored cardigan that I had sent to St. Luke’s last jumble sale…I could only suppose that one of the organizers of the sale had allowed Miss Prideaux a kind of preview of some of the best things, for I hated to think of her fragile old body being buffeted by the rough jumble sale crowd.” 
Elizabeth George in The Presence of the Enemy presents Stanley, a hapless garage mechanic, as a prime suspect of a child’s murder when part of the child’s school uniform turns up as a rag in his garage. The detective asks, “Can you tell us where you got the uniform?” 

“At the Jumble Stall.”

“What Jumble Stall?

“At the church fete. We have a church fete every spring and this year’s was Sunday. I took my gran because she had to work in the tea booth for an hour. It wasn’t worth taking her to the fete, going home, and coming back, so I hung about. That’s when I got the rags. They were selling them in the Jumble Stall. One pound fifty each. It was for a good cause. They’re raising money to restore one of the windows in the chancel.” 
Miss Prideaux and Stanley are typical Jumble Sale shoppers and the church benefits from their small purchases. Our Quietside Festival now has a chairman for a Jumble Table, so save your attic treasures and “white elephants”.   We can make this an important part of our festival.  And is Stanley the murderer?  Read The Presence of the Enemy and unravel the clues for yourself! 
CassWright  

June Taizé Service

There will be a Taizé service at 7:00pm Sunday June 11 at St. Andrew's in Seal Cove.

Islandwide Men’s Supper & Program at St. John

The men of St. Andrew & St. John invite island Episcopal Church men for an evening of fellowship, food and conversation in the undercroft on Monday, April 17^th. Since it’s tax time, the 6:00 p.m. meal will be “Hard Times Chili - Cincinnati’s Finest”. David Buccello, Chief Ranger at Acadia National Park will talk about the life and times of being a Park ranger. Please join us for this event.

Another Lenten study opportunity

Another Lenten study opportunity is offered beginning on March 7 (for five consecutive Tuesday evenings) from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. Fr. Appleyard will lead the group, which will focus on Suffering and the Courage of God, Exploring How Grace and Suffering Meet by Robert Corin Morris, in the undercroft of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Southwest Harbor. Please register at 288-4215.

Lenten Study Group

A second Lenten Study Group will meet at St. John’s Episcopal Church at nine o’clock on Sunday mornings from March 12 through March 26. The group will focus on the book Going Home: Jesus and Buddha as Brothers. The program will be led by Vesta Kowalski and all are welcome to take part. For information call 244-5459.

The Church in Brit Lit - Where is the Search Committee

A couple of months ago [before we were online - the editor] I shared with you the sentiments of Silas Marner’s neighbor as she expressed her love for the comforting presence of the church. This month I would like to focus on one of the major differences in the English Church and our American Episcopal Church. That is the selection of clergy for a parish and, in this case, the selection of the Bishop for the See of Barchester.

Anthony Trollope tells us that:

the death of old Dr. Grantly, who had for many
years filled that chair with meek authority, took
place exactly as the ministry of Lord ____ was
going to give place to Lord ____. The illness of
the good old man was long and lingering and it
became a matter of intense interest whether the
new appointment would be made by a
conservative or a liberal government.

The Bishop’s son, Archdeacon Grantly, had long
managed the affairs of the diocese and was the
known choice of the outgoing government. Alas
the old Bishop lingered too long and the choice
fell to the new government. Dr. Proudie was
appointed to the post.

He was a man born to move in high circles: at
least he thought so himself, and circumstances
had certainly sustained him in that view…He
had for years held some clerical office
appertaining to courtly matters, which enabled
him to live in London, and to entrust his parish
to his curate. He had been preacher to the royal
beefeaters, curator of theological manuscripts in
the Ecclesiastical Courts, chaplain to the
Queen’s yeomanry guard and almoner to his
Royal Highness Prince of Rappe-Blankenberg.

Although my enjoyment of Trollope’s
Barchester Towers is extreme, my feelings
suggest that we might celebrate the work of the
founding fathers who separated church and state
– and also celebrate the work of our own search
committee.

Cass Wright

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper at St. John

A Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper will be held at St. John in Southwest Harbor on February February 28 at 5:30 p.m. Sign up sheets are in the undercroft. St. John folk, please sign up. Other, please call the church office at 244-3229 to let us know you’re coming.

Bishop Knudsen to be inducted into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame

Our bishop, Chilton Knudsen, will be inducted into the Maine Women’s Hall of Fame at the University of Maine in Augusta on Saturday, March 18. St. John’s Evelyn Rowland helped start the approval process, and has information about attending the event.

Was anyone else from MDI involved in the process?

Evensong at St. John 6pm Thursday 2/2

Thursday, February 2 - Feast of the Presentation of Mary (Candlemas): Evensong at 6 PM. Rehearsal for St. John Singers and others at 5 PM.

Update: Service music will be Phos Hilaron S 27, Magnificat S 186, Nunc Dimitis S 251, and Hymns 258 and 259.