All Saints Day - Name That Saint

The All Saints Day celebrations begin this Friday at 6:00 pm. Everyone is invited to join us for fun, games, food, bonfire, s'mores, hay-ride and more. Everyone is invited to dress as their favorite Saint. A special prize will be given to the best Saint costumes!

52nd General Council of the Reformed Episcopal Church

L-R: Rev. Michael Mobley, Alyssa Mobley, Rev. Canon Brad Cunningham, and delegates Nancy & Ralph Robison, all standing in front of the organ (c.1880) at Church of our Lord, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

From October 22-25, our church celebrated its 135th anniversary with a wonderful general council in Victoria, British Columbia. Although the primary function of a General Council (which happens only once every three years) is to conduct business, there is also much worship and fellowship. This year's preacher was the Rev. Dr. Justin Terry, Dean of Trinity Episcopal School For Ministry in Ambridge, PA. Although business meeting are usually dull, our business meeting was so fantastic that dozens of parishes joined our church and more are expected to do the same.

If you would like to hear more about what happened at general council, please attend the adult Sunday school class on November 1.

A Year with St. Clare

Dedicated to the Patron Saint of needle pointers, the St. Clare's Guild is made up of women and men who give tremendous time and talent and resources to glorify God in the beauty of his church. After more than a year of work, the needle pointing of some of the kneelers is being completed. Below are some sneak peeks at the three that are complete. There are also a few snapshots of some (but not all) of the guilders at work.

New Ancient Baptismal Font

Thanks to the generosity of the Howard Templeton Memorial Fund, we have added an antique marble font to our liturgical furnishings. We will dedicate the font on September 7 at the Rally Day Eucharist service. During this service we will tell the amazing story of how over the past 100 years or so this font traveled from Europe to Pennsylvania to Arkansas via ebay. Wait till you hear how much it cost! (Howard must be loving this!)

























The detail below shows a carving we added to this side of the bowl. This carving repeats the original hand carved design on the opposite side of the bowl.

Chicken Fest 2008

Here are a few pictures of our latest fund raiser. Thanks to Chris and Mickey Baugh for spearheading this wildly successful event. Many, many people worked hard to make this such a great event, raising thousands of dollars to help rebuild our heating and cooling system. Unfortunately, the photographer was exhausted by the 100+ degree weather and didn't get photos of everyone. Here are the ones he did get.






















Anthony and Chris

















The first chickens come off the grill























Mike outside

















Mike inside






















J.D.
















Linda


















Mickey

More About GAFCon

As is obvious from the post below, The Reformed Episcopal Church is a partner in GAFCon. Our church and her Holy Orders are recognized as a valid Anglican ministry in North America, along with our fellow members of the Common Cause Partnership.

Here is a summary of the importance of GAFCon to our Church from our Presiding Bishop, the Most Rev. Leonard Riches.

"GAFCON establishes a new alignment and marks a new beginning for faithful Anglicans throughout the world. In particular, it launches a new era of opportunity for the Reformed Episcopal Church. With joy and thanksgiving we take our place as members of a global family and fellowship, uniting in witness, mission, and purpose to bear testimony to Jesus Christ as the only Name whereby men must be saved, and to serve Him, together with all faithful Anglicans, in building His church."

To read Bishop Riches' letter in its entirety, click here.

GAFCon and the REC

Many of our folks have asked about our involvment in GAFCon in Jerusalem. Here is a great photo of our Suffragan Bishop Ray Sutton (left) and our Presiding Bishop Leonard Riches (right.) Here they are reading the official GAFCon statement before its official adoption on Sunday morning. Keep our bishops in your prayers as they return from Jerusalem today.

Vacation Church Camp

Here is a photo of the participants in our inaugural Vacation Church Camp. We are blessed in deed. Hopefully, more pictures will show up shortly.

Children's Chapel

Fr. Michael leads Children's Chapel each week. We have been so blessed to see our children's ministry double in size in the six months since Fr. Michael joined our family. Just look at those beautiful faces. This is just the second week of Children's chapel, and the chapel is still developing. Children ages three through third grade process to their own chapel and participate in their own liturgy. Then they process back to the Nave to participate in Holy Communion with the whole church. We love our kids!

Pentecostal Baptisms

On Pentecost Sunday, we had the honor of baptizing two beautiful children, Anecia and Cache.

Anecia was all smiles.




















Cache was a little more laid back about the event.
















Nini was in a hurry, pulling Father back to the font for her blessing. Thus the blur!




















Mike and Cache tried to keep up.




































As the choir sang, "Cache and Anecia, God claims you!"

Episcopal Visit 2008

Earlier in May we welcomed Bishop Royal Grote to our parish. While visiting, he gave the Sacrament of Baptism to Madison, one of our newest members and soon to be acolyte.

































And of course we tried to feed the Bishop well so that Mrs. Bishop wouldn't have to worry.






















But then again, this parish loves to eat!































We're going to need a bigger parish hall!

I've found God, says man who cracked the genome

by Steven Swinford
The Sunday Times
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article673663.ece
June 11, 2006

THE scientist who led the team that cracked the human genome is to publish a book explaining why he now believes in the existence of God and is convinced that miracles are real.

Though this great scientist does not arrive at orthodox Christian conclusions yet, his testimony is a welcome breathe of fresh, honest air. Someday, God willing, he may take the next step in his own logic and conclude, "if God chose to use some other method than evolution to create man, even if today's scientists haven't figured out how, who are we to argue?" Fr. Brad+

On miracles he says, "If one is willing to accept the existence of God or some supernatural force outside nature then it is not a logical problem to admit that, occasionally, a supernatural force might stage an invasion." Fascinating idea - allowing logic to get in the middle of science! Read it all by clicking the link above.

Cute and with a Purpose

This child is adorable - and demonstrates the importance of music in the transmission of the faith. She makes it clear that we should be diligent, deliberate and careful in our selection of music in worship. What we sing is what our children will know of God.

Happy Easter

Easter 2008 began with another record breaking attendance (shattering our old record!) as worshipers packed the house to shout Alleluia! The Lord is risen!

Children brought Easter baskets filled with brightly colored eggs.

We celebrated the Sacrament of Holy Baptism!

Three young men were born into the Kingdom of Christ! And two young ladies received their first Holy Communion! See them all dressed in white?

At the end of the service, Fr. Brad explained the symbolism of the easter egg and then gave the traditional Easter Blessing of the Eggs.

Look at all these beautiful children. Thanks be to God!

Then came the recessional and we all went to the parish hall for a feast.
See the new Paschal Candle?

Time to eat!

One very proud and happy grandmother.

Let's get this part over with - there's candy to be found!















The child who is always happy.

YUM!

Now that's a handsome young Anglican!

Hey, Look. It's Fr. Michael's first Easter at St. Timothy's. Welcome, Fr. Michael. And thanks for all the Easter fun.

And, finally, time for the Annual Easter Egg Hunt!


That smile is worth it all!

This is serious work!





















Dakota hands out the awards. Thanks Dakota for all the hard work.

Holy Week Schedule

Holy Week is March 16-23

• Palm Sunday
  Liturgy of the Palms with Eucharist @ 10:30 am
  
  
• Holy Monday
  Eucharist @ 12:10 pm
  
  
• Holy Tuesday
  Eucharist @ 12:10 pm
  
  
• Holy Wednesday
  Eucharist @ 12:10 pm
  
  
• Maundy Thursday
  Eucharist and Stripping of the Altar @ 6:00 pm
  
  
• Good Friday
  Stations of the Cross @ 12:10 pm & 6:00 pm
  
  
• Resurrection Sunday (Easter Day)
  Eucharist @ 10:30 am
  No Sunday school today
  Eucharist with Baptisms
  Lunch and reception following
  Easter-Egg hunt for children