Jeanne Rikkers, Cristosal, discussing the important work in Central America

Cristosal is an Episcopal-based human rights organization working in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Since 2017, Cristosal has responded to over 2 million victims of forced displaced caused by violence. There is a crisis happening and they need our help. Click here to watch a video illustrating what is happening. Jeanne Rikkers, Research and Learning Director from Cristosal spoke at all services on Sunday about the important work Cristosal is doing and how Good Shepherd can be involved.

Cristoal has a four-pronged mission:

1. Equipping human rights leaders with knowledge and tools for action through research and learning

2. Protecting people displaced by violence through victim accompaniment

3. Repairing the lingering effects of rights violations through strategic litigation

4. Building environments where peace is possible through community development

The newest issue of the Shepherd's Staff

A Word from the Fold

October 2019 Edition of the Season Shepherd’s Staff

What’s not to love about the month of October? Yes, I like all the New England seasons for the variety it brings but autumn and especially October is my favorite of all. The air is full of the smell of harvest from apples to corn to squash. Of the favorite fall activities, visiting a local orchard for apple picking is at the top of the list for me.

Here at Good Shepherd there is a great deal going on as well.

From the rectory getting a face lift with a fresh coat of paint, to the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts assisting with the clean up of the grounds at the rectory and church. And though we are still looking for a part-time co-ordinator, the church school is off and running with the help of so many people in our congregation. Thank you everyone who has stepped up to lead a class, donate time, money, and LEGO bricks, to volunteers in the nursery and those serving as Safe Church Hall Monitors, to the fantastic mission-focused curriculum made available to our students. This is going to be a terrific program year!

Adult education will begin this month with the Sunday morning group as well as the Hop, Skip, Jump Bible Study, details of which you will find in this newsletter. There’s Bread and Banter lunch for retirees, and a place for those who knit and/or crochet in the prayer shawl ministry. We can always use your help with the stewardship of our buildings and keeping an eye on projects to be done to improve the physical plant of Good Shepherd.

If it’s social events you’d like to see, be sure to check out this month’s Chili-Oke! Make a pot of your favorite chili for a contest which will judge whose dish is the best in a number of categories. Combine this with the music of Karaoke, and it makes for a really fun evening! The next day a team of Good Shepherd walkers will participate in the annual CROPWALK at First Parish in Concord. This 3.5 mile stroll through the National Park is a great community event that brings people together from all the surrounding towns. This year we are looking forward to having the participation of our church school as they create and carry a Good Shepherd banner.

Whether you are new to this community of faith, or a longtime partner of the parish, and everyone in between, we hope you will connect with us for worship or coffee hour, or any of the upcoming events.

Yours in faith,

Melissa

Undies Sundays

“Hunger and homelessness happen for a number of reasons; a job loss, an illness, a divorce or a disability.  Whatever the reason Lowell Transitional Living Center is here to help by providing a full range of services aimed at lifting people up.  LTLC helps open doors for our most vulnerable citizens and believes everyone deserves a safe place to call home. For so many who have lost hope, our dedicated staff and high quality programs restore dignity one person and a time” (LTLC)

During the month of October we will be collecting socks, underwear, warm hats, gloves etc. for the Lowell Transitional Living Center.

Good Shepherd’s relationship goes back over 20 years, beginning with parishioners volunteering at the shelter and a drive to collect men's white socks for their clients. This evolved into the “Undies Sundays” program, a one-month drive in the fall to collect socks, underwear, warm hats, gloves, etc. Over the years Good Shepherd has raised money to purchase 60 cots for the emergency winter program, donated 100 pillows, 100 blankets, and monies for special programs. 

During the month of October, please bring your donations to the church where there will be a designated area for drop off. E-mail Helene Gagliano at hgagliano@verizon.net with any questions.

Praying for those in Dorian's path

Good Shepherd’s Prayer Chain will be praying for safety for those in the path of Dorian. If you have family or friends in the hurricane’s path we would be happy to pray for them by name. Submit your prayer request.

All New Monthly Multi-Generational Misson Sundays

This fall we will see a redesign of the monthly New Eu(charist) For All Ages worship. The “New Eu”, as it was known, provided the congregation with the opportunity to worship all together and encouraged the young people to serve as ushers, greeters, and lectors. There was also a “carpet time” children’s message for the youngest members. At its inception about 7 years ago, this worship format was well received, though lately it seems that the NewEu has needed an upgrade.

This summer, I’ve been working with members of the the Mission Outreach Committee about ways to highlight the various ministries that our parish supports. Together we have re-imagined the “New Eu” to be a Multi-generational Mission Sunday. The 1st Sunday of the month will feature a different mission of the parish in the sermon and/or with invited speakers from one of the organizations supported by CGS. Young people will continue to have opportunities to serve during the worship and where possible will be paired with an older member of the parish in that task.

We are very excited to announce that the Sunday school will also be connected to the Mission Sundays through age appropriate projects featuring the local food pantry, the CROP Hunger Walk, the Lowell Transitional Living Center, Esperanza Academy, and our companion community in El Ocotillo, El Salvador. In addition to Bible lessons, the children will study issues connected with each mission - from hunger on a local and global scale to homelessness, from building relationships to understanding the concept of accompaniment with versus charity for others.

Chuba Udokwu will be our first presenter on Sunday, September 15 at both the 8am and 10am services. He will share his personal experience with the CROP Hunger Walk organization. The Sunday School will also participate by making a banner that they will present at worship and carry in the CROP Hunger Walk on Sunday, October 20 in Concord.

Our first Multi-Gen Mission Sunday will be October 6 and will include a Blessing of the Animals in recognition of St. Francis of Assisi. Also as part of that Mission Service, we will welcome back Jeanne Rikkers, Cristosal’s Director of the Center for Research and Learning to share with us some of the collaborative work she is doing with communities in El Salvador.

I hope you will plan to join us as we celebrate the work of many in our congregation who give of their time and talent to a variety of organizations.

We are grateful for these ministries, and we look forward to hearing about some of them in this exciting new program year.

Melissa

September update from the Rector Search Committee

The Rector Search Committee has been working faithfully and steadily since last spring. Our group is made up of people from both the 8 AM and the 10 AM services. We range from relative newcomers to seasoned parishioners. But most importantly, we are committed to being open to the Spirit in all that we do. We are almost finished with one of the biggest steps in the process, namely writing the Parish Profile. This is an important part of the process, as we want to give prospective candidates an accurate sense of who we are as a community, and how we try to live out the Gospel beyond the Sunday Services. The next step will be to have the document published on the diocesan website and nationally. Then when applications start to come in, we will begin to review them and move towards interviewing candidates. Our hope is to begin interviewing by the New Year.

We are very hopeful and confident that the Spirit will lead the right person here. It is very important to the entire group that the whole parish feels included in the process. To accomplish that we had a parish wide meeting and have recently put up posters on which people could add their input on such topics as why Good Shepherd is important to them, and where they see this parish going in the future. If you have any comments or questions, please contact us.

The committee includes: Chris O’Leary, chair, Elgin Summerfelt, Rafael Pupo, Tom Hoch, Ellen Harland, Bev Ridpath, Deb Flint-Baum, Kristen Bates, Wendy Feddersen and Neal Ogle. Please continue to keep the committee in your prayers as we move forward in this process.

For the committee,

Ellen Harland

The newest issue of the Shepherd's Staff!

A Word from the Fold

September 2019 edition of the Seasonal Shepherd's Staff

Dear Friends in Christ,

I hope you all have had a terrific summer enjoying some carefree relaxing days with family and friends. I’m chuckling a bit as I write this thinking about how we look forward all winter and spring to the lazy days of summer and sometimes they are anything but. After shuffling kids to and from camp, and organizing visits with relatives and friends near and far, and mapping out vacation plans, these summer days often wind up busier than the rest of the year. I think however, that it’s the change in routine that we long for; eating meals outside, walks on the beach and hikes in the mountains, longer daylight hours, and get aways to vacation homes. Regardless of how you’ve enjoyed this summer, I pray you found some space to stop for a moment and reconnect with God, taking in the beauty of the natural world around us.

Today I am grateful for cooler temperatures and even for the clouds hanging over Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island which is where I am as I write this “word from the fold.” This place is a source of relaxation and rejuvenation for our family in the midst of the hustle and bustle of life. And I am thankful for the time away after a busy summer of planning and preparing for the new program year at Good Shepherd!

While the search committee has been busy writing the church profile, I’ve been meeting with the Wardens, the Vestry, Mission Outreach and Christian Education members getting things ready for the September kick-off. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone at our Re-gathering Sunday celebrations taking place on September 15. This is the day that church school begins and worship will be followed by an ice cream social!

There are lots of opportunities to get involved here at Good Shepherd. I hope you’ll visit our Ministry Fair on Sunday, September 29 after both services and find a way that you can plug in and share your gifts and talents. This year’s fair will feature sign ups for the various service ministries within the church from altar guild to lector ministry, from choir to coffee hour host, and lots more. You will find in this edition of the Shepherd Staff an article about the new Multi-Generational Mission Sunday and how we are working to integrate the Church School with our Outreach Ministries.

Enjoy these waning days of summer! I look forward to welcoming you all in September as we continue in our journey of faith finding ways to walk in love and in service to the Lord.

Faithfully,

Melissa

A resolution asking the Diocese to be a Safe Haven

You likely heard the news that last week, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) at their Churchwide Assembly (i.e. General Convention), adopted a resolution that, among other things declared the ELCA to be a sanctuary denomination. Many people are asking what does this mean?

The following is an excerpt from a statement released by the ELCA: "Our call to love our neighbor is central to our faith. In our baptismal covenant we promise to strive for peace and justice in all the world. One of the ways we live out this vow is through our commitment to welcoming the stranger. With this declaration, we publicly state that walking alongside refugees and immigrants is a matter of faith." Read the full article here.

You may be asking what does this have to do us at Church of the Good Shepherd? While the ELCA is the first to make this declaration for the whole denomination, there are several Episcopal Dioceses in the U.S. that have also taken similar action. The Dioceses of Washington, New Jersey and North Carolina to name three.

As such, the CGS Vestry is writing a resolution to request that the Episcopal Diocese in Massachusetts be made a safe haven. This Resolution will be submitted to the Diocese for consideration by the Resolution Committee with the goal that it will be put forward at the Diocesan Convention on Nov. 2. The Resolution must be submitted according to the format of the Diocese and by the September 5 deadline.

To be clear, this is a Resolution asking the Diocese to be a Safe Haven. This means that individual congregations within the Diocese will be free to determine what being a safe haven means for their particular community. There is no specific action being dictated to any congregation with regard to their participation.

The reason for this Resolution is to put forth a call to the Church as a whole, and the Diocese in particular, to take a moral stand. As people of God who seek to live according to the teaching of God's Son, Jesus Christ, our faith requires us to act. For in our Baptism and Confirmation, we promise to "strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being."

Moreover, it's important to understand that this resolution is not asking congregations to hide or harbor anyone in their churches, nor is it about breaking the law. The actions that this resolution will encourage are generic to finding ways to accompany our sisters and brothers in faith to live safely. Ways that congregations can help include providing resources from purchasing school supplies for children in a congregation to providing prayers and pastoral care, to name a few.

If this resolution passes at General Convention, we will host parish-wide conversations in order to discern what shape this will take for CGS. For now, a resolution committee is being formed to get the document in the required format to submit to the Diocese. If you have questions, please contact us.

The Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Dear Friends,

It has been such an emotional week in the aftermath of last weekend's acts of violence and the loss of so many innocent lives. As an antidote to the on-going media coverage, I offer you this video of the Prayer of St. Francis sung by Angelina of the Catholic network EWTN. Also known as the Peace Prayer, the words are very familiar as we have sung this in worship at Good Shepherd.

- Melissa

The Peace Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there's doubt true faith in you.

Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there's despair in life, let me bring hope,
Where there is darkness, only light,
And where there's sadness, ever joy.

O Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive.
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.

O Master grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
And to love as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
In giving of ourselves that we receive.
And in dying that we're born to eternal life.

Make me a channel of your peace.

Praying the Daily Office

At the conclusion of my sermon on Sunday, I said that Jesus' message to Martha and Mary are relevant for us today in that it is time to let worry and distraction about the "many things" fall by the wayside. I also suggested that perhaps we might hear Jesus' words to Martha for ourselves, not as a rebuke, but as an invitation to step off the treadmill of life, even for just a few minutes a day, to savor Jesus' presence in our lives, and to catch a glimpse of that one and only thing needed, which is to know the love of God for you and for all people.

One way that you might seek to rest in Jesus' presence is in the practice of praying the Daily Office which includes Morning, Noon, and Evening Prayer. You can find the liturgy for these prayers in the Book of Common Prayer in the section entitled The Daily Office. One of the ways I've found to be helpful is to listen to an audio version of the prayers. If you are interested, here's the audio link. Another resource for reading the office on your own can be found here.

It would be great to pause three times a day for prayer, however, I realize that most people don't have the bandwidth for that. I would suggest starting with one of the prayers and commit to practicing it for a month. It's a wonderful way to connect with God at the start, mid-point, or end of the day to be grounded in the love of God and to remember that which is vital for life, God's immeasurable love for us made known in the person and work of God's Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Blessings,

Melissa