The Rev. Canon Martha Hubbard

Sermon and Postscript for Morning Prayer on Sunday, October 11, 2020

recorded via Zoom by

The Rev Canon Martha L. Hubbard

Canon for the Northern & Western Region

The Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts

Farewell from Rev. Melissa Buono

“I will give thanks to you, O Lord, with my whole heart;

I will tell of all your marvelous works.” (Psalm 9:1)

Dearest Friends of Good Shepherd,

Thanks be to God for each one of you! I am blessed beyond measure for having had this time of transition with you. You opened your hearts and your sanctuary to this Lutheran pastor and her family, and I am forever grateful to God for having provided this opportunity for shared ministry!

Thank you for the wonderful send-off on Sunday — from the chocolate covered oreos, and the “We will miss you banner” to the presentation of gifts (and toys for Anika) as well as the in-person and drive-by farewells — it was a grand morning! My heart is filled to overflowing with the expressions of love and signs of appreciation that you shared with me, John and Anika. The photo book, “With Grateful Hearts from the Parishioners of Good Shepherd” is full of beautiful memories of our time together - treasures for a lifetime! You will always hold a special place in our hearts.

Thank you for your partnership in helping to prepare CGS for Rev. Ellie Terry’s rectorship. Together we have accomplished a great deal! In addition to worship, we’ve studied God’s Word and sought to live it out in the relationships with our many and varied mission partners. As members of the Body of Christ, may you continue to be known for your good works and service to all who are in need.

I leave you with a charge to continue to care for each other, especially remembering those who are unable to sign on to zoom or come to the church for worship. I encourage you to use your new church directory to keep in touch. Consider praying over the names and faces each day. Send a card to say, “Thinking of you,” “Greetings from Good Shepherd,” or “How can we pray for you today?” These small acts of kindness will go a long way to keep you connected during this challenging time of COVID-19.

In the next phase of your journey, may you continue to be blessed as you are a blessing to others. Keep your sense of humor intact and remember to look for the good in each day. Know that you are deeply loved by God! Farewell and God bless you!

Yours in faith,

+Melissa

"Reclaim Our Vote" Initiative

This month, a group of Good Shepherd volunteers is writing 350 postcards for Reclaim Our Vote, a non-partisan organization that is working to encourage minority voting in states with voter suppression. The postcards inform and mobilize voters of color to make sure they are registered and they know how to get a ballot and vote. The Center for Common Ground, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, runs this campaign which has sent almost 5 million postcards in 2020.

Esperanza Academy COVID response

Esperanza Academy is a tuition-free independent middle school in the Episcopal tradition welcoming girls of diverse faiths, races, and cultures from Lawrence MA. Good Shepherd has had a long relationship with the school since its start 14 years ago.

Jadi Taveras, head of Esperanza Academy, gave an inspiring Zoom update on the school’s response to COVID-19. He shared the effects of COVID on students and families of color—the high risks, barriers, and the fact that COVID is magnifying the often invisible inequities. He highlighted three main focus areas for the school: Esperanza’s commitment and innovation in anti-racist teaching, the strength of their community partnerships, and an updated mission statement and core values. The school’s work with students and families using Restorative Justice Circles is an example at the local level of what Ibram X. Kendi’s book How to Be an Anti-Racist is all about.

Learning will be remote the first four weeks of school and then go hybrid with some on-line and some in-school learning. The school will be open for the most vulnerable learners and they are offering a daily pick-up lunch. The level of response and action at Esperanza goes beyond academic skills to embracing and supporting these students of color and their families. To quote Jadi, “Esperanza is a home and safe place for the girls.” We plan to share the recording of this update when it becomes available later this month. Meanwhile to learn more about Esperanza, go to esperanzaacademy.org.

Esperanza Mission for 2020-21 Academic year:

Through the 2020-21 academic year Esperanza will deliver a holistic program focused on addressing the academic and social disparities that impact our students and their families as a result of the covid 19 pandemic. We will continue to be a school that focuses on the growth of each student through culturally responsive teaching and prioritizing restorative justice practices. We will maintain our relationship-centric ethos and our commitment to our program that honors and celebrates the cultural, linguistic, familial and navigational capital of the families from Lawrence MA.

Christmas wreath fundraiser

Dear friends, this year we hope to continue our tradition of selling Christmas wreaths as a holiday fund raiser. The choices will be the same as last year with red, burgundy, wintergreen and cranberry bows. It would simplify everything if we stick to the 25” wreaths and eliminate “swags” this year! Prices have gone up a bit: Classic (red) will be $28, Victorian (burgundy) will be $30, and Cranberry Splash and Wintergreen will be $32. We will try to have them delivered by the week before Thanksgiving so we can have them up for the whole holiday season. We should be able to keep a safe distance throughout the sale process. You can begin placing orders Sept 15th. For more information or to place your order, contact us or sign up at church.

Victorian wreath

Cranberry wreath

Classic wreath

Adult Formation

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

The Adult Formation group continues to meet via Zoom on Sunday mornings after worship. This has been a wonderful opportunity to connect through a variety of resources. Throughout the summer, the group read and discussed Barbara Brown Taylor’s An Altar in the World. This book challenged each of us to see our faith reflected in ordinary everyday occurrences. Each chapter highlighted a way in which to experience God as One who is integral to our lives beyond our experience of worship. With a treasure trove of personal stories, Taylor shared some of the ways that her faith has been challenged and stretched thus bringing her to an understanding of God’s presence in everyday encounters from the grocery store clerk to the occasional power outage. Her reflections invited us to think about our own encounters with the Divine in places we’d least expect.

The next series of Adult Formation discussion will focus on the Sabbath poems of Wendell Berry, American novelist, poet, essayist, environmental activist, cultural critic, and farmer. “For nearly thirty-five years, Wendell Berry has been at work on a series of poems occasioned by his solitary Sunday walks around his farm in Kentucky. From riverfront and meadows, to grass fields and woodlots, every inch of this hillside farm lives in these poems, as do the poet’s constant companions in memory and occasion, family and animals, who have with Berry created his Home Place with love and gratitude.” The book is called This Day: New and Collected Sabbath Poems 1979-2012 and is available through special order at the Silver Unicorn Bookstore and at your local library. Please plan to join us on Sundays at 10:45am - 12:00 pm via Zoom as we delve into these treasured writings. The Zoom link is available in the weekly e-blast.

+Melissa

Good Shepherd Music

On Friday, August 28th, two builders from Andover Organ Company visited Church of the Good Shepherd to take back with them several ranks of wooden pipes from our beloved Hook & Hastings tracker organ, 1892. These pipes, made of pine and original to the organ, will be repaired and voiced for some weeks to come at their shop in Methuen.*

What this means is that, although the organ is still playable, there are three stops I will not be able to use; two on the Swell - upper keyboard manual, and one on the Great - lower manual. Additionally there are some notes or keys which will not sound within certain stops. Those of you that participate in live Zoom services on Sundays may notice this difference in certain music I present; in other repertoire, not so much. I will no doubt also play more music on the piano in light of the absence of my usual range of various colors or instrumental sounds at this time. Please bear with me.

On another note (ha!), in the coming months I plan to add additional musicians to our gatherings, including the possibility of soloists and/or vocal duets! It’s been great to have Ray Lyons playing live with me in the sanctuary from the start, and we are separately practicing another piece slated for September.

September 8th marks one year since I began my work here at CGS, so I’d like to say how gracious, generous and congenial all of you have been as I navigate my way in this most wonderful advent in Episcopal music ministry! I have enjoyed working with you, having some laughs here and there, and otherwise doing our best to provide the congregation with music as befits our particular parish. I look forward to the future, learning and growing in my role as church musician.

Deborah Colageo

News from the Transition Team

Hello. Emmanuel Aronie here, a member of the COGS Transition Team. We are responsible for meeting and greeting our new rector, Rev. Ellie Terry. Secondly, of saying goodbye and good luck to our dear Rev. Melissa Buono, who has beautifully shepherded us all through these many months, some of them quite difficult.

During our first meeting while discussing what might make the transition easier for Ellie, I came up with an idea which will be nourishing and possibly inspiring for any church member. We are asking all who feel moved to write a little bio about yourselves or your entire family in whatever way your creative self directs introducing yourself, so that before we even meet with Reverend Ellie, she may feel some comfort about all the people she will come to know. This could be short; in print, 300-500 words, or a short introductory video, or perhaps paint a picture of welcome, sing a song, play an instrument, etc.

Does that get your creative juices flowing ? I hope so. And, in these times of Covid, it’s a real way to get close, while we cannot be close in the old ways we are used to, so, this may help convey our collective joy at receiving and communing with our new Rector.

Please send your various forms of biographies by Sept 27th.

The Search Committee stands adjourned!

The Search Committee is pleased to report that we successfully completed our work and recommended the Rev. Ellie Terry to the vestry to be our next Rector. Ellie impressed us with her lively personality, intelligence, warmth and sincerity, and we very much look forward to her joining us in October. We can move forward with confidence knowing that we are in good hands!

The Search Process was complicated, of course, by the COVID-19 pandemic. While our diocese suspended search activities for an extended period in the spring, search processes in other dioceses proceeded apace. The committee felt a sense of urgency to complete our work, knowing that the highly qualified candidates that we were considering were almost certainly looking at other opportunities. We are grateful that the Holy Spirit led us to Ellie, and we’re excited about what God has in store for us together at Church of the Good Shepherd.

The Church was very well served by this group of 10 faithful women and men. Without exception, this was a group of passionate, articulate, insightful and faithful people. We discussed energetically and argued respectfully. Each offered his or her opinion and perspective effectively and challenged the points of view of others on the committee. We worked extremely hard, prayed faithfully, laughed easily and may have shed a tear or two. It is important to stress that all our decisions were made by consensus; not everyone may have agreed, but everyone supported the final decision.

The committee would like to thank the Parish for your faithful support and patience! We knew that there were members of our prayer team holding us up whenever we met. We felt the presence of the Holy Spirit guide and encourage us. We’re grateful for all of the feedback, phone calls, letters, conversations, emails and points of view. Your voices were heard and guided our discernment.

And with that, the committee stands adjourned! Thanks to the members of the committee. Well done all! Search Committee Members: Kristen Bates, Wendy Fedderson, Debby Flint-Baum, Ellen Harland, Tom Hoch, Neal Ogle, Chris O’Leary, Rafael Pupo, Bev Ridpath, Elgin Summerfelt

Building update

Lots of things are different in this COVID time, but some things never change: Roofs get old and need replacing. Most roofs are expected to last about 30 years. The church’s roof is 35! We have talked about needing to replace ours for years now, and we can’t keep postponing it; we need a complete roof replacement. A couple of years ago, we had major ice dams and in removing the ice dams it became clear that parts of the sanctuary roof were rotted. If we wait longer, the damage underneath the shingles is only going to get worse and become much more expensive. We don’t think it is wise to wait another winter. (We don’t want to wait until we are ‘baptized’ by water dripping from the ceiling…)

We have some funds set aside in our Major Repairs Designated Fund for this project, about $45,000, funds that were set aside from previous years’ savings and from parishioners anticipating this need. However, initial estimates are around $60,000 to replace the entire roof, and we know that we may have significant additional expenses to replace sections of the wood layer that has rotted beneath the shingles. We can’t know how much until the current roof is removed.

The bottom line is we need your help! We expect to need an additional 20 to 30 thousand dollars to complete this project. We know this is a financially difficult time for some, but if you are able, please make a gift toward the roof replacement. Be sure to designate that it is for the roof. Thank you for helping us with this essential repair. A major improvement we have completed this summer is our internet. We now have Verizon Fios, high speed fiber optic internet, with new wiring into the sanctuary to enable a better upload of our online services. When we return to the building, you will also find that Wi-Fi internet access is available in all parts of the church, from the library to the Sunday School rooms.

In other property news, we are finally moving toward achieving one of our first strategic plan goals, to enable the congregation to hear better in the sanctuary. Why now, you may ask, when we are not currently able to be IN the sanctuary? Because for us to hold outdoor services, certain audio equipment is needed, and this is not something we have. Rather than spend money on something that only addresses this short-term need, we are purchasing components which will become the core of an improved audio system in our sanctuary. We met with a sound engineer to discuss our needs, and we are getting a modern digital mixer (to replace the antique electronics we currently use from the 1980s), an improved headset microphone for our priest, and two speakers that we will use to amplify our service outside. These components are ‘Phase one’ which will allow us to have outdoor worship and should also improve the audio quality of our online worship. ‘Phase two,’ to be purchased later, will add six more speakers and make it easier for everyone to hear well in the sanctuary.