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The Holy Cross Herald July 2010 The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross + 51 West Main Street + North East, PA

           ”By  the  power  of  the  holy  cross…  

July

Calendar 4 – Sixth Sunday after Pentecost Independence Day – pray for our nation! 5 – Bible study and supper 6 pm 7 – Simple Supper 11 – Seventh Sunday after Pentecost Marion Durchman’s 90th birthday party 18 – Eighth Sunday after Pentecost Visit from Canon Martha Ishman Parish breakfast 9:30 am Baptism of Lydia Jane Best 19 – Bible study and supper 6 pm 21 – Crafting Group 1 pm 25 – Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

July Birthdays 2 – Joan Page Karen Allen 13 – Ann Edwards 25 – Anne Bardol 28 – Peggy Stow

Choir Notes by Neal Durchman

The choir is on its summer break and the organist is taking a break, as well. Harold has graciously offered to take over at the organ for the month of July, so I might have a few Sundays without being "on du-ty" - and I’m sure we will all be glad to see

Harold back in his familiar place. Neal +

Kitchen Update

The kitchen project is nearing completion

with the installation of the 3-bowl sink and the spray arm over the garbage disposer. The hand-washing sink is the fi-nal piece of installation needed, and that will be completed soon. The filters will be replaced in the range hood, the fire extin-guisher properly stationed – and then we can call the Health Department to pro-vide us with our annual license.

Anne Bardol has also now completed the food-service certification course and test, giving us one more person qualified to su-

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pervise our food-outreach efforts. Thanks to all who have donated money, time and effort to this project, the fulfillment of another one of God’s dreams for HC. +

New Bible study schedule

The Bible study will resume after its ‘vaca-tion’ at a new time – Monday evenings – and new members are welcome (one has already signed up)! Having disposed of Leviticus in one action-packed session in May, we will begin the book of Numbers on the 5th, so everyone is invited to read the first se- veral chapters in prepara- tion for the class. A simple supper will be provided to keep us going through what is always a stimulating discussion. +

HC the party place

On the 11th, HC will host the 90th birth-day party of Marion Durchman, Neal’s mother and friend of the parish. Family and friends are invited to gather in the parish hall around 12:30.

Parishioners and friends of the parish are reminded that requests to use our beautiful and accessible buildings for fa-mily and group events– parties, weddings, informational programs, meetings – are most welcome at any time. Making our facilities available in this way is part of our outreach to the local community, and we are actively seeking what needs we may fulfill. GECAC and the NE Cham-

ber of Commerce have expressed interest in holding programs at HC, and we would be glad to hear from other organi-zations as well. Spread the word! +

Pledge Statements

Mid-year pledge state- ments will be available on Sunday, July 4th. Please pick yours up, look at it and let Anne Bardol know about any corrections you feel need to be made. Your support has enabled the wonderful transitions at Holy Cross. What are they? Just look around…

Visit from Canon Martha We hope everyone will try to be at wor-ship on the 18th, as the day will be full of important events. It begins with the monthly parish breakfast at its new time (moved from the first Sunday so as not to compete with the Simple Suppers), and continues with a visit from the Canon to the Ordinary (bishop), Rev. Martha Ish-man. We will be glad to welcome Martha for this, her first official visit to HC. She will preside at the eucharist and meet with the Bishop’s Commitee afterward to help us with discernment of our mission in North East.

Also on the 18th we will celebrate the bap-tism of Lydia Jane Best, granddaughter of

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Karen and Jeff Allen, daughter of Greg and Jennifer Allen Best (recently returned to the Erie area from Ohio), and sister of Evy and Charlie. +

Crafting Group by Debby Seifert

Mark your calendars!!!!!!! - and let’s have some fun. The crafting group will meet Wednesday, July 21, at 1:00 PM in the Parish Hall. We need to get serious about making more of our quilted purses to sell at the diocesan convention in November (as in-vited by Carly Rowe). We have patterns for both the purses we made last winter (the ones that practically walked out of the church on their own) and a smaller version, instructions and materials - you bring a sewing machine (if you can) and neutral color thread and shears. Come join us for some work and fellowship, and bring your friends along! +

                                                                                   Treasurer’s Report

by Neal Durchman

We have received a statement from Fiske Associates, showing our remaining bal-ance due as $2054, out of a total bill of $33,304. We have been able to pay over $31,000 since the beginning of the year! I am amazed. The bank accounts are in good shape ($2600 in savings), and all bills are current. God is good, and we are truly blessed. That being said, I also en-

courage everyone to continue to be faith-ful in giving toward God's work. While we are taking time off and enjoying the summer, regular expenses also continue.+

Lights! Camera! . . .

Do you yearn to see your name in lights? Have your photographs published on the new HC website? Here’s your big chance! A ‘first draft’ of the site has been created by Blue Blaze Associates Sandy and Becky Taccone, and it’s a knockout. The home page features links to church history, acti-vities and questions visitors might ask, as well as a beautiful, shifting photographic display of scenes of the church, its people and doings. And WE NEED PHOTO-GRAPHS to place on the site. If you would like yours to be chosen, get them to Anne Bardol or Lisa Furey as soon as possible. We hope to have the site up and running within a month or two, so if you have photos to share or ideas about what needs to be included, don’t wait – get them in now!  +

UNDER CONSTRUCTION. . . .

Did somebody say “building”

again ????

The Bishop’s Committee has been discus-sing, and approved receiving bids on, the proposed storage ‘wall’ in the parish hall.

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Charles Taccone has drawn up detailed plans and specifications, from which Glenn Shunk has proposed a series of closets costing about $2500 (more than originally estimated because of the diffi-culty of moving the radiators along that wall). Construction will start in mid-July. Thanks be to God that we have funds on hand to cover the project’s costs. +

CALLING ALL GOLFERS!

Efforts are underway to bring back the Holy

Cross golf outing and pic-nic in mid- August. We will play golf at Lakeside Golf Course on Route 5; and the picnic will be af-

terward at Holy Cross. Mark your calen- dars for Aug. 14th (rain date, Aug. 15th).

Everyone is invited to the picnic, whether you’re a golfer or not, and asked to bring a dish to share. Hot dogs, hamburgers, place settings and beverages will be provi-ded. Invite friends who enjoy golfing and picnics to join us in the renewal of this tournament. More information concern-ing cost and tee-times will follow. If you and your friends would be interested in participating, let Anne Bardol know as soon as possible. +

New parish administrator

At the vicar’s request, the Bishop’s Committee has

decided to hire Anne Bardol as Parish Ad-ministrator. Anne, who is also Bishop’s Warden of the parish, acolyte master and former treasurer, decided two years ago to commit herself to being at the church for 4 hours a day, two days a week, to keep it open for visitors, members and general community needs. Her experiment has borne good fruit: she insures that HC al-ways has an ‘available’ person for all sorts of needs; and she has also relieved the vicar of several tasks at which she is very good and the vicar is very bad. For some time it has seemed appropriate, in view of the usefulness of what she does, the seri-ousness of her commitment and the par-ish’s need for new structures, to regular-ise her position and make it a part of HC’s emerging self-understanding. As we continue to try to design the church we think we are called to be, and face the need to prepare ourselves for our next vi-car, a parish administrator seemed like something we would want to have in place for the present, and through future transitions. Anne’s modest salary of $200/month will not strain the church’s finances: it will come from a reduction in the vicar’s compensation, as Anne will be doing things that the vicar will no longer need to do. Anne will be commissioned for her new position on July 4. Welcome to HC’s newest staff member! +

Parish record….

Entered into membership:

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Margaret Louise Rousch Resumed active membership: Laurie Schultz Beach

We welcome Peggy and Laurie into our fellowship!

A problem that we at HC haven’t had to give much

thought to in the past is parking on Sunday morn-ings. It’s actually a ‘good’ problem for us to have, because it means that a lot of people want to come to church! But its ‘unintended consequences’ affect our abi-lity to be the welcoming parish we want to be. Things are less than ideal now; and as present members grow older, and new ones arrive, they can only get worse.

Many parishioners now do park away from church entrances, leaving spaces in front of our doors and next to the access-ramp open for guests and those with spe-cial needs. But sometimes both Main and Pearl Sts. are pretty well filled up with us ‘regulars’, leaving nowhere at all for any-one who might be coming to church for the first time, or back to church after, say, being ill. At least one older member did this, and simply had to drive back home again– everyone who got there before her had taken up every space from which she could have gotten in. (We can only hope that many potential members haven't had to do the same thing.)

Now if you’re someone who needs to be right up next to the church in order to get in, then for goodness’ sake park in one of the most accessible spaces and consider that it’s there for you. But if you’re one of the rest of us, who just park where we find a space without giving it a thought, here are some suggestions: - If you’re bringing in cargo, it’s easier to unload via the back door than anywhere else; so do yourself a favor and park there if you have stuff to bring in (we can make unlocking that door part of the morning routine, just like the front and side doors now). As we grow, we’re probably going to have to turn the back yard into a per -manent parking area anyway, so we may as well get used to it.

- If you’re like most of us and need more exercise than you get, remember how we are always being told to park some dis-tance from where we’re trying to go and walk to it a little farther than we strictly have to. Some of us already do this rou-tinely; but maybe more of us can park in the Bella lot, or in front of Super Stitch and take a refreshing hike over to HC. It will be as good for our health as it is for our ability to welcome guests.

Any and all suggestions for other ways to mitigate or solve our parking problems will be warmly welcomed by the BC. +

Don’t forget that the North East Council of Churches’

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fall project of outfit- ting needy children with school supplies will be going into high gear next month. If you find great buys on clothes, school equip-ment and such in the summer sales, stock up and bring it to the church so we have a head start on our contributions! +

OUTDOOR  ACTIVITIES  

Many thanks to Tom Schultz, sexton extraordinaire, for the great job on trimming all the outside bu-shes and edging the sidewalks around the church, as well as his regular mowing and cleaning gigs. Thanks to Tom, Anne Bar-dol and Debby Seifert, also, for the beau-tiful planters and plantings at the entran-ces and on the east side. The bushes, an-nuals and perennials are making our out-doors into a real garden-spot. (Construc-tion bonuses: the ‘new’ planters are the casings for the old and very dangerous spotlights once above the altar, recycled; and the east-side garden is undoubtedly growing as well as it is thanks to all the bat-droppings from the ceiling.) +

Oh, no, not again Dep’t……

(or: the rustle of tiny wings….)

Now that the heating season is over, there have been questions about whether or not we need to leave the fans in the sanctuary on all the time, as in the winter. The answer is: YES! In winter

the fans justify their use of electricity by distributing heat. Unfortunately, what we need them for now is discouraging bats, whose traces have begun to appear yet again (yes, friends, we are back to aerial warfare once more….). So please do leave the fans on, even when they aren’t need-ed for temperature-control. +

The Last Word

. . .

Like the rest of you, I’m always amazed at the abundance of resources this tiny parish has at its command. Or, rather, the abundance we have under command – the way everything we need seems (as a BC member put it) ‘to drop down from Heaven’ into our laps, when we ask for it in faith that we need it for some-thing God wants for us. Where does it all come from? God, of course, but by way of intermediaries– the people of this parish, our diocese, our friends near and far, people who hear of our need and respond to it. When I take account of that fact, my question be-comes not ‘where does it come from?’, but ‘why does it come to us, among all the uses people could find for their time, talent and treasure? What is it about Holy Cross that makes so many people so generous to us, so willing to make our cause their own?’ I think the answer is in what this parish, in its smallness and vulnerability, has done with

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that: we have, as St. Francis (following Jesus) would say, ‘made ourselves small’ – taken the path of humility, of trust in the power of the holy cross. We ask first with all our hearts if we’re doing what God wants for us, and then we go forward in joy and the kind of child-like trust our Lord commands, and wind up in thankfulness for the miracles we see done – and the trust, joy and gratitude are conta-gious, the kind of thing others want to parti-cipate in. Our daily experience causes us to meet the United Thank Offering’s goal ‘to increase the community of thankful people’. It’s created a whole parish that moves along day by day in a sort of delighted surprise at all that God has done for us and through us. No wonder other people want a piece of that action. Wouldn’t anyone? Carol +

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In our prayers . . . Healing: Dick, Nancy, Gary, Carl, Frida, Jonathan, Larry, Jennifer, Susan, Lib, Bob, Charlotte, Deb, Emory, Sam, Jean, Allen, Sandy, Danielle, Dan, Jim, Kathy, Dora, Lexie, Selah, Pam & Ashton, Benita, Donny, Steve, Carol, Carol, Kim, Peg, Mary Liz, Molly, Bill, Mary, Bob, Adam, Howard, Jim, Kevin, Eileen, Stephanie, Linda, Gerrie, Lou, George, Cathy, Pat, Pam, John, Bernard, Delaney, Marian, Josh, Peggy, Marion, Isabel, Justin, Joseph, Bill; our armed forces; the sick, hungry, unemployed, homeless, lonely, bereaved or afraid Our national leaders; the United Nations; Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Burma, Tibet, China, Congo, Haiti Our church: Our mission, leaders and ministries +

July Service List

JULY 4 JULY 11 JULY 18 JULY 25

Altar guild Marian Currie Rea Jean DallaTorre Deb Huck Lisa Furey

Greeters - Volunteers -

Acolytes - Lisa Furey, Lexie Schultz -

Lector Tom Schultz Peggy Stow Joan Page Margaret Johnson

Chalice Larry Sabia Anne Bardol Allen Hathaway Larry Sabia

Coffee Margaret Johnson Martha Weed Debbie Seifert Marian Currie

Tellers C. Huck/J. Hopkins M. Currie/M. Weed B. Kolakowski/A. Bardol L. Furey /L. Sabia

Trash Joanne Hopkins

Many thanks to all who volunteer for these important jobs!

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+ Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross + 51 West Main Street North East, PA 16428

The Holy Cross Herald is the monthly publication of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross, 51 West Main Street in North East, 16428 – also at (814) 725-4679, or on the Web at www.holycrossne.org. Subscribe to the e-edition online – just send your e-mail address to post@holycrossne.org. Whoever you are, the Episcopal Church welcomes you! We seek to worship God in openness, charity and joy, and serve our neighbors near and far.

Weekly Calendar

Sunday 8:30 & 10:30 am - Holy Eucharist 9:30 am – Breakfast (third Sunday of month) 11:30 am - Coffee and fellowship

Monday 6 pm – Bible study and supper Parish hall upstairs 8 pm - Alcoholics Anonymous open meeting Downstairs lounge

Wednesday (1st Weds.) 6 pm Simple Supper Parish hall 6:30 pm (Sept.– May) Choir practice (3rd Weds.) Craft Group Parish hall

in this issue:

Baptism - p. 2 Bat /fan report - p. 4 Birthdays - p. 1 Calendar - p. 1 Canon Martha’s visit - p. 2 Crafting group - p. 3 Construction update - p. 3 Golf outing revival - p. 4 Parish record - p. 4 Parking news - p. 5

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Pledge updates - p. 2 Prayer list - p. 3 Treasurer’s report - p. 3 Website update - p. 3