Fourth of July Service This Sunday!

This Sunday at our 10:00am service, we will celebrate our Independence Day with a festive and patriotic liturgy! The American flag will process in as we sing our favorite patriotic hymns such as God Of Our Fathers, My Country ‘Tis Of Thee, O Beautiful For Spacious Skies (America The Beautiful), & A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.

Our Book of Common Prayer has special readings and prayers for this occasion, and we will include them this Sunday as well.

We are also hoping to purchase our own American flag and Episcopal flag to display in the narthex. If you would like to help us reach this goal, please donate through PayPal at the top right of the screen or send a check in to St. Nicholas at 69 Mobley Road, Hamilton, GA 31811 (and be sure to designate your gift to our flag fund).

So before you break out the fireworks and fire up the grill, come worship with us on this special day!

Thank God For Camelbaks!

It’s been a while since I posted about my weekly hikes. With the exception of vacation last week, I have been diligent in my weekly discipline. I still am amazed at the beauty of our Pine Mountain Trail and how much fun it is to hike on it, while at the same time, serving as my de facto labyrinth path on which I pray regularly.

Today I went on the 3 1/2 mile trek around the East End Loop, which starts at the Rocky Point parking lot and includes the White Candle and Beaver Pond Trails. It’s a great hike with a great overlook called “Odie’s Overlook.” This was after an early morning in Columbus at TAP, which I’m doing all week. Today we learned about prayer in the Hindu religion, how to make challah from the Jewish tradition, and banged on drums, as we focus on being “People of Peace.” Even on the first day, you can see the children laughing and playing, creating new relationships and learning about the cultures and traditions of one another. Read more

Your Week at St. Nick 20 - 26 June

Sunday, 20 June The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost/Father’s Day

 10:00am Holy Eucharist

Usher/Greeter

10:00am Tom and Sharon Cheatham

Readers

10:00am Marci Horne/Madison Martin

LEM

10:00am Graham Horne

Altar Guild

Sharon Cheatham/Suzie Eidson

Flower Guild

Bert Tomlin

Lemonade

Diane Hinnant

Acolytes

Austin Hubbard

Robin Kiltzke

Ivey Martin

Tuesday, 22 June

6:30pm  Vestry Meeting

Happy Birthday!

6/24     Will Bailey

6/26     Bill Hogg

Difference Between Us & Baptists

A friend of mine shared this with me yesterday. It was pretty timely considering I was just talking to some Baptist friends last night about the Episcopal Church and who we are and what we believe. So the next time your Baptist friends ask you what’s the difference between us and Baptists, maybe this cartoon will help.

You can find more lighthearted cartoons at Reverendfun.com.

Bless This House

Thank you, thank you, a million times–THANK YOU!!! On behalf of all of us, I wanted to take a moment and thank everyone who came to our Celebration and Blessing of a New Home on Saturday. Over 50 people dropped in throughout the day, and about 40 were there for the house blessing itself. We were so overwhelmed by love, gifts, hugs, and food! What a gracious and loving community of people St. Nicholas is! Thank you to Peggy Martin, Drucye Price, Sheila Dixon, and the rest of the Vestry for all their help in organizing the day! Thank you for all the food, all the gifts, and most of all, for your presence!

Not only did we celebrate God’s gift of this house, but also the work of all the hands that helped in getting us into it! So many of you helped in painting, cleaning, moving, and working on this house. It was a true labor of love, and one that deepened our relationship with the family of St. Nicholas.

We love you all so much and feel so supported and loved by you. Thank you again for who you are and thanks be to God for this house, St. Nicholas, and many years of ministry and companionship ahead!

Here are some shots of the day by the wonderfully talented Lynn Hall.

Your Week at St. Nick 12 - 19 June 2010

Saturday, 12 June

2:00pm  New Home Blessing at the Jacksons

2:00 - 5:00pm Open House at the Jacksons

323 Hill Street, Hamilton, GA

Sunday, 13 June The Third Sunday after Pentecost

10:00am Holy Eucharist

Usher/Greeter

10:00am Lynn and Kenny Hall

Readers

10:00am Peggy Martin/Samantha Dixon

LEM

10:00am Michelle Moody

Altar Guild

Liz Dixon

Flower Guild

Gina Durham

Lemonade

Sheila Dixon

Acolytes

Dalton Avery

Abbey Avery

Cody Durham

Wednesday, 16 June

 4:00-5:30pm Finance Committee Meeting

Happy Birthday!

6/17    Barbara Bradley

6/17    Jackie Lintner

Happy Anniversary!

6/14    Clyde & Michelle Moody

6/16    Hal & Donna Armstrong

 Father Jeff on vacation 14 - 19 June

Can I Get An Amen?

This past Sunday, I experienced something I had never done before: preaching at a non-Episcopal church.

You may think this is extremely strange, and I freely admit, it is out of the norm. I was invited by the people of Christian Valley Church in Cataula to preach at their 11:00am service. Christian Valley is a church that is Baptist at it’s roots, and has recently dropped “Baptist” in order to be more inclusive to people in their area.

So how did I end up there?

A number of months ago, a member of Christian Valley, Garvin Gourie was at a wedding and met Vicky Partin, the missioner from Chattahoochee Valley Episcopal Ministries (CVEM). During their conversation, Garvin expressed interest in wanting to “team up” with a congregation in Harris County that was not traditionally African-American. Vicky mentioned St. Nicholas and our desire to grow, connect, and be open to all. So Garvin called me and we began to talk. Over many months, Garvin and his pastor, the Rev. Eric Seldon, Graham Horne, and I met to discuss ways we might bring our very different congregations together. Not only are we attempting to bridge cultural divides, but also denominational ones!

First, we all decided to try and engage in an outreach project together. We talked to Katherine Johnson and Connie Blackmon, who are champions for the Ferst Foundation literacy program, charged with helping children receive free books in order to increase literacy in our county. We hope to join with Christian Valley in spreading the word about this program. This is a project that we are still working on and hope to do together in the near future.

Next, Pastor Eric invited me to preach at Christian Valley. I hope to invite him to do the same at St. Nicholas soon.

Now I’ve preached in African-American Episcopal churches and I’ve attended services at Baptist and non-denonminational churches, but I have never preached anywhere other than an Episcopal church! So I was more than a bit nervous, being in front of a crowd that was unfamiliar and not used to hearing from an white, Episcopal priest. Doing new things is extremely uncomfortable.

The service was drenched in music. From old-timey Gospel hymns to contemporary and soulful praise music, we clapped and danced to the beat of God’s rhythm. As my 5-year-old Tai said, “We jammed out in that church!”

After praying prayers and hearing Scripture (which we do a lot in our service!), I was invited to the pulpit. Garvin visited St. Nicholas a while back and noticed that my sermons were only 15 minutes long, as opposed to a longer one in his church. So I had quite a feat before me in not only holding their attention, but drawing it out for at least 30 minutes!

I talked about how God takes our scarcity and grows it into abundance, drawing from the story of the widow in 1 Kings 17 and the widow from the Gospel of Mark who puts in two tiny coins. I related it to our hope in a better world, where there are no separations nor divisions. I got plenty of Amens!

I was so thankful to look out in the congregation and see the faces of the Butzons, the Johnsons, Graham, and my sweet family in the back row. Talk about support!

After the service, I was embraced with hugs and handshakes. Whether I did a good job or not, I could never tell because I was so welcomed by their community. I’ve only been in one warmer church, and that is St. Nicholas.

So where will this lead us? I’m sure there are folks in our congregation and the surrounding community that are uncomfortable that we’re stepping into unknown territory like this. We’re not seeking to combine our congregations, but rather share the gifts of community that God has given both of us. St. Nicholas has something unique and wonderful to share with Christian Valley and vice versa. Is it uncomfortable? Definitely. Is it exciting? Absolutely.

One more funny story: At Christian Valley, we also had communion, which was celebrated much differently than we do at St. Nicholas. A tray is passed around and everyone gets a piece of bread and a tiny cup of grape juice. My 3-year-old Bronwyn exclaimed after the service, “I loved that wine!”

I wonder what they’ll say when they taste our wine.

Small Churches Are Awesome!

On Facebook, I belong to a “group” called “People Who Are Rather Fond of the Episcopal Church.” The priest who created the group, Chris Yaw, posts articles and reflections every once in a while, giving all of us reasons to love our Church. The one below was posted last week and is particularly one of the many reasons I love St. Nicholas. While we hope to grow our church and the Kingdom of God, it’s important to remember what makes small churches so wonderful. Read more

June Newsletter

The June 2010 issue of the Spirit of St. Nicholas is up! Many apologies for the delay. Unfortunately, Drucye’s computer crashed in the middle of getting this issue together. Then, when she sent it to me on Sunday, somehow I didn’t get it! Yikes! Despite all that trouble, Drucye did a great job of getting this together, and we thank her for her hard work.

Many thanks to all our contributors! You can read it by clicking directly on the image of the issue to the left, or by going to our Newsletter Page and clicking on June 2010.

If you have any news for the July issue, please contact Drucye Price by June 15.

House Blessing

You’re invited to celebrate the Blessing of New Home with the Jackson family Saturday, June 12. The blessing will take place at 2:00pm, followed by an open house until 5:00pm. Feel free to come and drop in even for a few minutes as we celebrate this happy occasion! Our house is located at 323 Hill Street in Hamilton, directly behind Hamilton Baptist Church.

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