Emmanuel Episcopal Church

Stop Hunger Now ships meals to Dominican Republic

Stop Hunger Now indicates shipment of the ten thousand meals we purchased and packed has been sent to the Dominican Republic.  Thank you for helping.

 

Fr R Christopher Heying

 

 

Friends of Stop Hunger Now,

 

We are delighted to announce that meals from your meal packaging event have been shipped in a container with 285,120 meals from our Lynchburg warehouse. The meals will be received by our in-country partner CitiHope International.

 

With 42% of the population below the poverty line, food shortage is prevalent throughout the Dominican Republic. CitiHope provides food and other resources to schools, orphanages and other needy people and takes an active role in the distribution and monitoring. CitiHope supports sustainable educational and development programs that empower locals to create strong, self-sufficient communities. 

 

Citihope's country director in the Dominican Re

​public says,

"We consider this not to be 'charity' but a real investment in humanity. The school and orphanage programs help our country so much by creating a future of responsible citizens that contribute to the improvement of our society. These children come from families that cannot supply even one meal a day for their children and don't understand the purpose of education. So the motivation comes from the food!...These SHN donations are a defining component that heals a nation, multi-dimensionally."

 

For more information, please visit:  http://citihope.org/

 

Visit www.stophungernow.org for more information on how to continue your involvement in the fight against hunger and follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/stophungernow for updates, videos and photos from the field.  

Thank you for generously donating your time as a volunteer with Stop Hunger Now. 

Service Bulletin for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Download 10262014 Proper 25a Draft

Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost - All of It Belongs to God

Matthew 22:15-22

Homily by Fr R Christopher Heying

“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.” 

In this well-known response to the question put to him about the licitness of paying tax, Jesus is not articulating a carefully developed philosophy about the separation of church and state, somehow dividing the world into two distinct and perhaps opposing realms.  Rather, Jesus maneuvers past a trap being laid for him.   

Here in the Temple precincts things are heating up, for the Pharisees have made up their minds.  They have already decided what is needed and have only to figure out how to get it, and politics, they say, make odd bed fellows. 

So here the disciples of the Pharisees come with natural enemies in tow, the Herodians who support Roman rule with its payment of the census tax which to the Pharisees was hated symbol representing Roman dominance of a land given to the Jews by God, the Roman denarius being particularly problematic for it bore the idolatrous image of Caesar and the blasphemous inscription, Tiberius Caesar, august son of the divine Augustus, high priest. 

And so here they come to trap Jesus, for they know that they must get him out of the way, by discrediting him if they can, by killing him if they must. They begin with somewhat artless flattery: we know you are a person with no regard for opinion polls and will tell us straight up—is it okay to pay tax to Caesar or not?

Service Bulletin for the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Download 10192014 Proper 24a

Homily for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost - A Call for Peace

Matthew 22:1-14

Homily by Fr R Christopher Heying

I hope you will agree with me, I hope you will agree with me to leave, for a moment anyway, that disconcerting image with which our gospel reading has just left us, the boorish man who slipped into the wedding party in a T-shirt and booty shorts now bound hand and foot in the outer darkness, where there is only weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Because I would like us to turn to that “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding that guards are hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” which Paul proclaims, even as he bids us focus on whatever is true, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, so that if there be any excellence, anything worthy of praise, we should think about these things.”

“That we should keep on doing the things that we have learned and received and heard and seen in Paul, so that the God of peace will be with you.”

This peace is so much more pleasant, is it not, than that gnashing of teeth in a darkness that yields no solace?

Service Bulletin for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Download 10122014 Proper 23a

Chatham Concert Series Begins Today!

Kicking off the Chatham Concert Series’ seventh season, the Rainier Trio will play “Romantic Music and More!”  The program includes masterworks by Mozart, Schumann, Glinka and Mendelssohn. Following the concert, talk with performers and friends at the reception provided by Chatham First.

Romantic Music and More with the Rainier Trio

Friday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m.

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, 66 North Main Street, Chatham

Admission is by donation at the door for the musicians

Service Bulletin for the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost

Download 10052014 Proper 22a

Emmanuel's Rejoicing for October 2014 Is Now Online

  The October 2014 issue of Emmanuel's Rejoicing, a periodic newsletter containing news and information for parishioners and friends of Emmanuel, is now online. The current issue includes:

• 2014 Annual Picnic a Delight (more photos here),

• A Call to Trust and Transformation,

• Centering Prayer,

• Stop Hunger Now,

• The Reader's Reward, and

• Blessing the Coles' Window.

 

Click  here to read the October issue online.

Earlier issues of Emmanuel Newsletters may be viewed here.

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