Emmanuel Episcopal Church

The Pruden Parish Press for May 2013 Is Now Online

The May 2013 issue of The Pruden Parish Press, a periodic newsletter containing news and information for parishioners and friends of Emmanuel, is being published this week. The current issue includes:

• Mother's Day Brunch May 12th,

• Greetings from your vestry,

• My Spiritual Journey,

• Calendar Notes for May - July,

• Hall and Gallops Close Chatham Concert Series,

• Easter Season at Emmanuel, and

• Spotlight on the Vestry - Carol Ann Fletcher.

 

Click  here to read the May issue online.

Earlier issues may be viewed at The Pruden Parish Press.

To receive future issues by mail, please call or email the Parish Office.

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter - Alleluia. Christ is risen.

Acts 11:1-18
Psalm 148
Revelation 21:1-6
John 13:31-35

Homily by Fr R Christopher Heying

Alleluia. Christ is risen.  The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. 

On this Day 29 of the Great Fifty Days of Easter, it is a happy thing that our waning emotional fervor has not tempered in the least the church’s bold Easter proclamation this morning: Jesus is risen from the dead and that changes everything.

We see this in the four visions that the church gives us in this morning’s lessons, three that are straightforward and obvious and one that, while more obscure, has within it the very key to resurrection and its transformation of everything. 

Our lessons reveal that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead was not only something that happened about two thousand years ago but has ongoing consequences for us and for the whole world.  What we once may have imagined as being not only impossible but even undesirable or unacceptable has come to us with the unqualified stamp of God’s acceptance, God’s approval. 

What we thought had been written in stone and unalterable has been utterly transformed by the one who never ceases to make all things new.  And that all of these amazing, wondrous and transformative things happen through the one thing that you and I arrogantly thought we knew so much about, only to discover we might have been as tone-deaf as those first disciples who heard, who even saw and touched for themselves, and yet had no understanding at all, but, thankfully, it is not that we love God but that God loves us.

Service Bulletin for the Fifth Sunday of Easter

Download the Service Bulletin for the Fifth Sunday in Easter

The Feast of Alphege

The Collect -

O loving God, your martyr bishop Alphege of Canterbury suffered violent death when he refused to permit a ransom to be extorted from his people: Grant that all pastors of your flock may pattern themselves on the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for the sheep; and who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Click here to learn more about Alphege of Canterbury.

Mother's Day Brunch at Emmanuel - May 12th

Charles Williams and Michael Rose will host this year's Mother's Day Brunch at Emmanuel on Sunday, May 12th following the morning worship service.

All are welcome but please help us know if you (and any guests) are coming by signing up on the sheet in the hall leading to the parish hall.

Service Bulletin for the Fourth Sunday of Easter

Download the Service Bulletin for the Fourth Sunday of Easter 4C-1

Service Bulletin for the Third Sunday of Easter

Download the Service Bulletin for the Third Sunday of Easter

Hall & Gallops Close Chatham Concert Season

By Susan Paynter

Wow.  Talk about a grand finale!  The April 5 Chatham Concert Series season finale, held at Emmanuel, was nothing short of an all-out love fest.

The concert-goers loved Ashley Hall’s charming engagement with the audience as she personally introduced each piece she played: relaying here a story from her own career, there a tale about the composer or a famous performer of the upcoming number.

More important, we were astounded by Hall’s virtuosity on the cornet.  Joe, who in his youth dabbled on the trumpet, kept whispering to me, “How does she do that?”

I couldn’t help but glance from time to time at a friend across the aisle who used to play brass in big bands.  He was mesmerized, smiling and shaking his head, and he leapt to his feet with applause after the final note before intermission.

But even those of us who’ve never blown a horn knew we were in the presence of something very special.  To say the applause was extended doesn’t do it justice: we were smitten!

Then there was Wayne Gallops on the piano.  What pizzazz.  His background in popular and classical music as well as jazz enabled him to match the temper and style of each piece of the varied program.  The two played wonderfully in concert and we were all astounded to hear this was their first performance together. 

Hall and Gallops showed their appreciation for each other in that way musicians do during an ovation.  You could tell it was anything but a de rigueur gesture.  They were genuinely delighted with one another.

And with us.  They say there’s nothing a musician values more than an appreciative audience and we certainly gave them that, to their obvious pleasure.

Hall selected a diverse program, designed to display the many moods and colors the cornet is capable of evoking and representing composers of the 19^th, 20^th, and 21^st centuries from the U.S., the U.K, and Europe.

Each piece had its charm, but if I had to bet on the audience favorites I’d put my money on Jules Levy’s “Grand Russian Fantasia” and Jean-Baptiste Arban’s variations on “Le Carnaval de Venise.”  Both were written to show what the cornet is capable of doing and it was thrilling to hear what that instrument, on the lips and in the hands of a master like Hall, can do.

Homily for the Second Sunday of Easter - My Lord and my God!

Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29
John 20:19-31

Homily by Fr R Christopher Heying

I think it is fair to say that most of us in the course of our life have had and will have doubts and crises of faith. 

At times a certain doctrine or a tightly held opinion may seem to unravel before critical examination or growing indifference.    What we once were so dang clear about may grow blurry with shifting values and changing norms. Over a long, protracted period, a belief can fade until it disappears into the darkness. 

At other times, a crisis of faith may come crashing through the door like a thief in a home invasion who robs us of things we have held so dear, not the valuables but the values, our sense of security, our trust, our good name and carefully guarded reputation, our carefully constructed self-definition.  The peg that we have hung our life on can come loose and in a split second our equilibrium is lost.

Be it subtle and slow or definite and immediate, most of us will at some time be confronted with significant challenge to our belief structure.

Such was the case of course not only with Thomas but each of the twelve.  Despite repeated teachings that he must suffer and die and then rise again, no one expected the resurrection.  It was only through an encounter with the risen Lord, his bidding peace, his showing them his wounds, that they were able to rejoice at seeing the Lord.

Service Bulletin for the Second Sunday of Easter

Download the Service Bulletin for the Second Sunday of Easter

Chatham Concert Series Finale Friday, April 5th at 7 pm - A Trumpeter's Holiday

Trumpeter Ashley Hall and pianist Dr. R. Wayne Gallops will present a fun and engaging evening of music written for the cornet, which was one of the primary forms of entertainment in America in the early twentieth century.

Cornet soloists like Jules Levy and Herbert L. Clarke, were the pop stars of the day, drawing huge crowds of people to witness their mind-boggling virtuosity, technique and artistry.  This program will consist of colorful and virtuosic works for the cornet from the United States, France and England and will explore the variety of colors that the cornet is capable of producing. 

Ashley is originally from Wytheville, Virginia, is the principal trumpeter of the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and is an internationally recognized trumpet soloist. Dr. R. Wayne Gallops serves as Director of Bands and Music Education at Radford University and has recorded with numerous classical / jazz ensembles and artists.

7:00 p.m. Friday, April 5, 2013

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 66 North Main Street, Chatham