NEWS
The Presiding Bishop's Teaching on Liturgy at the APA Spring Retreat 2022 - Session 1
You can find the text of his teaching here.
REMINDER: Annual Meeting: April 24, 2022
Hello Everyone,
Our annual Parish meeting will be April 24 immediately following the 10:00 am service. There will only be one service that Sunday.
In addition to the regular Rector, financial and committee reports, we will be voting on a proposed By-Law change. Please review the attached document which includes the current By-Law, the proposed change, and the reasons the Vestry is proposing this change. If you have any questions or concerns about the proposed change, please speak to Fr. Wes, Cathy Gates or any other Vestry member. It is important for everyone to attend the meeting to vote on the proposed change.
The meeting will be followed by one of our scrumptious pot lucks! Be sure to stay for the good food and fellowship. A sign-up sheet is on the sign-up board outside the nursery. Let us know what you're bringing and how many people are coming with you.
Cathy Gates
Senior Warden
h) 410-672-7597
c) 443-928-2980
The Presiding Bishop’s Easter Message 2022
Below is Bishop Chandler Holder Jones’ Easter Message:
2022 Lenten Appeal
You can find the original 2022 Lenten Appeal here.
From the Presiding Bishop:
Having dedicated our Lenten Appeal efforts on our domestic missions during these past several years we are once again shifting our focus to our foreign missions and their needs.
Our effort this year will be to collect funds for the construction of churches in both the Philippines and Haiti. Both countries have an overarching Roman Catholic ethos and the presence of a permanent building is viewed as a sign of the seriousness of the Church’s efforts in those parts. While we have managed in the past holding services under a large mango tree in the Philippines or in the courtyard of the school or converted classrooms in Haiti, the churches in both of these places now have land, both donated and purchased, on which proper churches can be built.
There are currently two churches that have been completed and a third one under construction in the Philippines and the potential for still three more, and there are two properties that we currently own in Haiti. The goal for this year’s Lenten Appeal is to raise sufficient funds to complete the construction of five new churches (three in the Philippines and two in Haiti). Our Goal as in previous years is $100,000, which will be divided proportionally between the two places. Our churches, unlike the Roman Catholic placement of churches, will be in the local communities where the people live and will not require them to travel great distances on Sundays in order to participate in weekly worship services. The presence of these churches will change the lives of many in these communities and provide tremendous opportunities for evangelism and the growth of God’s kingdom. At least one of the churches in the Philippines will be constructed in a community of one of the unreached indigenous groups on the island of Mindoro.
I am asking each individual within our churches to make a Lenten offering of $1.50 per day for the 40 days of Lent (a total of $60 per person), or more as our Lord leads you. We will need one hundred percent participation in order to achieve this goal. Please make this a family project for Lent. Your generous gifts will enable God’s kingdom to grow and expand in both these countries and help to provide eternal hope to people who are in extreme poverty and hardship.
Please pray every day during Lent that God will use our offering to show His great mercy on the people of the Philippines and Haiti.
Checks should be made payable to your local church with a notation in the memo field “APA Lenten Appeal 2022.” I ask each church treasurer to combine the monies and send one church check to the APA Treasurer (Mr. Dan Wilder, Wilder Accounting, 3208 W State Rd 426, Ste 2060, Oviedo, FL 32765) with the designation “APA Lenten Appeal 2022.”
Please make your Lenten Offering by April 24 if possible.
In Christ,
The Most Rev. Chandler Holder Jones, SSC, Presiding Bishop
Ukrainian Relief with the Polish National Catholic Church
Dearly beloved in Christ,
We have before us this Lent a tremendous opportunity through which to exercise the Christian works of mercy. Our brethren in the Polish National Catholic Church in Poland are going to extraordinary lengths to bring the love of God to refugees from Ukraine who are escaping the Russian invasion.
The Polish National Catholics are providing food and shelter, receiving refugees into their own homes, offering medical care and services, and more, all of which activity is being funded from their own parishes. The PNCC is soliciting funds from many sources in order to assist in this mission.
We orthodox Anglicans, engaged as we are in dialogue with the PNCC, are especially encouraged to contribute directly to the effort.
Donations may be sent directly the Office of the Prime Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church, 1006 Pittston Avenue, Scranton, Pennsylvania 18505-4109.
Please make cheques payable to The Polish National Catholic Church, with the word 'Ukraine' in the memo line.
The Polish parishes require more financial support so as to provide some small measure of comfort and dignity to the suffering people making their escape to safety. We are now presented with the privilege of doing our part and practicing our Lenten discipline of almsgiving by sharing in this relief work.
Let us pray fervently for the peace of Ukraine and for the welfare, preservation, and freedom of the Ukrainian people. God bless you!
In Our Blessed Lord,
+Chad
March Old Time Bible Hour Reading: St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Sermons on Song of Songs
The next meeting of the Old Time Bible Hour is March 22 at 7pm. It will be preceded by Evening Prayer in the Chapel at 6:30.
The Old Time Bible Hour is a study that meets once a month and looks at how to read Scripture through the lens of Christians that have gone before us.
This month, we will be reading a selection of St. Bernard of Clairvaux’s Sermon’s on Song of Songs. You can download them below.
Lenten Preparation Retreat: "Turn Thou Us, O Good Lord, and So Shall We be Turned: Fasting, Examen, and Confession"
On Saturday, February 26th at 9am, we will gather for a half-day retreat to help us better prepare for Lent! The retreat will focus on three important Lenten disciplines: fasting, self-examination, and confession. Fasting is when we eat less in order to master our passions and desires. Self-examination is reflecting on our conduct in light of God’s commands and holiness. Confession is a biblical practice that we do after self-reflection.
Here is the schedule for the day:
9:00-9:15 Morning Prayer
9:15-9:30 Refreshments
9:30-10:15 Session 1
10:15-10:20 Break
10:20-11 Session 2
11:00-11:05 Break
11:05-11:45 Session 3
12 Mass
