Jesus said . . . I am the good shepherd; and know my sheep, and am known of mine, even as the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd.
John 10:14-16
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Fr. Scott led a beautiful Holy Communion Service this past Sunday. His sermon focused on the Good Shepherd message from the Gospel lesson for this Sunday. Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd defending us from Satan and giving us access to a resurrected life. We thank God especially for all the saints gone before us both here and at all the churches expressing their ministry through us.
The complete version of Fr. Scott's sermon may be found at the following link at 30:30 mark.
Thank you, Fr. Scott for a wonderful, timely sermon!
Please note our services are now live streaming to YouTube from Facebook. The link will still be on Facebook though people will have to click on the link and watch on YouTube. Thank you Matt for doing such a great job as our new technology expert!
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During the service today, Mike discussed several of the churches that contributed so much to St. Peter's. On this Good Shepherd Sunday, he focused on The Church of the Good Shepherd Anglican Church in Abingdon, VA. He presented the following information:
Good Morning,
Welcome to the first Good Shepherd Sunday. I would like to thank Fr. Scott and the Mission Committee for allowing us to have this special opportunity to remember those that have gone before and helped us along the way.
Any of us who have read at least some of the articles in THE TRINITARIAN are familiar with the term “The Continuing Church”. The term, of course, refers to those of us that continued to worship in the traditional manner and chose not to go off in an unfortunate direction with some others. I would like to slightly change the phrase, for this discussion, to “Continuing the Church”.
Many of us have had the heartbreaking experience of having to close a parish and dispose of the financial assets and paraphernalia, AKA “The Holy Hardware”. Good Shepherd was fortunate in having St. Peter the Apostle and other parishes to help us “Continue the church” by passing on a variety of our assets as other parishes had blessed us by passing their assets to us. If you look in the front of the pew Prayer Books and Hymnals you may see the long, chain of custody, stamped there. Some of these same books have made it all the way to Austin Texas to help a start-up parish. Other parish assets have gone to another start-up parish near Bedford, Virginia. A significant gift was made to the APA Seminarian support fund.
St. Peter’s has by far received the most of any individual parish including, the music machine, books, Stations of the Cross, a Processional Cross, cash contributions, long candle lighter, flags, Lectern and Baptismal Font. It has been a delight to us from Good Shepherd to see this “Holy Hardware” still in service and to “Continue the Church”!
One of the significant things that stimulated us to think of this special day was St. Timothy’s generous gift to “Continue the Church” by helping us to pay off our mortgage! Also, we remember that St. Andrew's contributed funds for both the down payment to purchase the church building and for a new roof on the church along with giving us cruets, hymnals, prayer books, and kneelers. St. Matthew's loaned us money for purchasing the church property and later forgave all interest paid and due them when the Diocese assumed that loan. We don’t want their generosity to be forgotten and recommend having a special Sunday to remember them.
Hardware and cash aren’t the only connections that help to “Continue the Church.” We have recently learned that our new Bishop was confirmed at Good Shepherd when he was an undergraduate at Emory & Henry College. The first time I visited Good Shepherd a tall slender gentleman with a wonderful Georgia accent by the name of Ed Hill was reading Morning Prayer and I knew that I had come home. Several years later, shortly after I showed up on the doorstep of St. Peter’s, a nice lady that had just moved back to Kingsport from New York visited St. Peter’s. As conversations often do, one thing lead to another I discovered that the gentleman with the very pleasant Georgia accent was none other than the lady’s father and that was my first conversation with our own, Rosalind Hill Cantrall .
People, history and connections also “ Continue the Church."
Claudia, Mike, and Elsa were members of The Church of the Good Shepherd . . .
As were Margaret and Sigrid!
My parents, Ed and Charlotte Hill beside the altar at The Church of the Good Shepherd.
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After services we enjoyed wonderful food provided by Rose Marie and Carole. They served nachos, fruit, ham biscuits, cheese ball, and several desserts!
Deborah and Matt's baby girl is due May 11th! After eating, we hosted a church baby shower for them. Deborah's only request was for diapers! Teresa brought a cake to celebrate the impending arrival of their beautiful baby girl!
While Deborah and Matt opened presents (lots of boxes of diapers), their children made great use of the nursery!
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In Christian Education Fr. Scott and Scott reviewed their experiences at the Anglican Province of America Spring Retreat at the Ridgecrest Conference Center in Black Mountain, North Carolina this past week.
Two big pieces of news:
1. Fr. Scott completed all the Canonical requirements to be accepted as an APA priest. He was originally ordained in the ACNA Church and had to complete the process outlined in the APA Canons to become a fully recognized APA priest.
2. Scott advanced another step in his pursuit of the Diaconate, passing the tests to move from an Aspirant to a Postulant and being accepted into the Nashotah Seminary in Wisconsin.
Congratulations to both Fr. Scott and Scott!
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