"And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day? And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go."
St. Luke 14:3-4
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We welcomed Fr. Yossi back to St. Peter's after his visit to New Mexico! After attending the Morning Prayer service, he officiated at our beautiful Holy Communion service. Please note the Holy Communion Service only includes the Epistle and Gospel readings as the Psalm and Old Testament readings are traditionally part of the Morning Prayer service which we are now holding every Sunday at 9:15 am.
Fr. Paul delivered the sermon this past Sunday. He focused on the Gospel lesson from Luke 14:1-11. He reviewed three points brought out by Luke's message: invitations, hospitality, and humility. He concluded by reminding us God has invited us to his home for a wedding feast. God has extended his hospitality by providing us with profound spiritual cleansing in our Baptism which is continually renewed by the Holy Spirit as well clothing us in Christ's righteousness. God also created a new covenant with us by offering up the perfect, sufficient, sacrificial lamb, Jesus Christ. Every Sunday we get to participate in the New Covenant with the Triune God in His house, our church!
Please find the complete service at the following link:
Thank you Fr. Yossi and Fr. Paul for the beautiful service!
Br. Scott led our first 9:15 am Morning Prayer service this past Sunday. Thank you Br. Scott for all your time and commitment to St. Peter's!
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After services we welcomed our visitors - Fr. MIke and his lovely wife Nancy. They were visiting Fr. Paul from Michigan.
We also celebrated Fr.Yossi's birthday!! Happy Birthday!
Then we enjoyed wonderful food including meatballs with croissants, Caesar's Salad, a creamy lemon cake, and a birthday cake! All this delicious food was provided by Rose Marie, Lynn, and Diane. Thank you all for the delicious food!
St. Peter's was blessed this past Sunday with three wonderful priests! A beautiful and blessed early fall Sunday!
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This past Sunday Fr. Yossi continued with confirmation classes in preparation for Bishop Jones' visit in mid December. Fr. Yossi began his review of the Holy Communion service including the Liturgy of the Word, the Liturgy of the Sacrament, the Consecration, and the the Communion of the Faithful. While the classes are specifically designed for the people to be confirmed, all are welcome to attend. The classes start at 10 am - a pot of coffee will be on!
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Our Annual Congregational Meeting is coming up in November, just before the beginning of Advent. At that meeting we must submit and approve an operating budget for the next church year. In order to establish a budget we must ask for pledges. Please prayerfully consider and submit your pledge by Sunday, October 1. Daryl has blank pledge sheets in the Narthex. As in the past, we ask only for anonymous pledges dropped in the offertory plate or sent in the mail to the church. The pledge slips will be tallied and then destroyed as we do not track pledges.
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Time to catch up on our church and yard maintenance after this crazy summer. We have scheduled a Fall Yard Work Day for Saturday Oct. 7 @ 10 am. The outside work includes trimming bushes, pulling weeds, mulching, etc. . .
We also hope to get some work done inside the church including replacing the Sanctuary light bulbs, replacing the toilet flappers, general cleaning, etc.
Please join us as we keep the church looking nice! Please bring your garden tools and your lunch!
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Our next Potluck Luncheon is on Sunday, October 8! Please bring a dish to share!
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We will participate in blessing the animals at Petwork's Humane Society in Kingsport. The date has been moved from St. Francis's Feast Day (Oct 4) to Saturday October 28. This allows for both the blessing of the animals in the shelter and for the opportunity for more people to bring their pets for a blessing. The time has not been determined yet. Volunteers to assist Fr. Yossi are needed! Parishioners are also invited to attend and have their pets blessed!
Fr. Yossi is also speaking with The Animal Shelter of Sullivan County about blessing the animals in that shelter. Hopefully there will be more information to come.
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Sue continues to lead our weekly online prayer group on Discord every Thursday at 2 pm. Thank you so much Sue for taking the time each week to lead our prayers! If you have a special prayer request but cannot join us, please send your request to Sue. Please contact me if you would like to join us on Discord.
However, because Sue has rehearsal conflicts and Synod obligations, the online prayer meetings scheduled for October 5 and October 12 are cancelled.
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Our next Women's Bible Study is on Wed. October 4 @ 11 am at the church. We are using "The First 24" for our study guide. This is an in depth study of Mark 1:21-45 - the first 24 hours of Jesus' public ministry. The guide is available on Amazon. Please remember to bring the book, your bible, and a lunch!
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Several members of St. Peter's will be attending the Anglican Joint Synod in Orlando FL the week of Oct 8. Fr. Yossi, Fr. Paul, Br. Scott, Sue, Teresa, Diane, and Rosalind are planning to attend. Please keep them in your prayers as they prepare for and travel to the Synod.
The Anglican Province of America (APA), the Anglican Catholic Church (ACC), and the Anglican Church in America (ACA), are three branches of the continuing Anglican movement in United States which have pledged to seek “full, institutional, and organic union with each other.” Every third year they meet together in a joint Synod. St. Peter's is a member church of the APA.
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This past week, Teresa was installed as the president of the Elizabethton Kiwanis Club. Congratulations, Teresa!!
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