CHS News & Notes

Volume 13, Issue 8                                                                                          Newsletter  September  2010

We Welcome Rev. Hank Junkin on Sunday September 12^th

The Rev. Hays M. Junkin will serve as interim Rector and will start on Tuesday, September 7th. I encourage everyone to be in church the second Sunday in September, September 12, to welcome him. He likes to be called Hank, and during the meeting with the vestry he was enthusiastic about joining us. He has a very positive image of our church and exudes confidence in our ability to have a very successful search for the new Rector. Our challenge is to live up to his expectations.

Hank is currently retired and will come out of retirement to serve as our interim Rector. He lives in Derry, NH with his wife, the Rev. Sarah Rockwell, the Vicar at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Londonderry. Hank plans to continue to live in Derry and will commute to Plymouth. He will work at 85% of full time, but he assured the vestry that he will be available to meet our needs at the 100% level. His normal days of work will be of course Sunday, plus Tuesday through Thursday, and Saturday. He is looking forward to visiting with each member of the congregation to know first hand how his ministry can best serve the congregation. One of his first tasks will be to meet with families with children to develop programs that meet the needs of both the parents and the children. A confirmation class will be organized in the Fall.

Hank comes to us with 30 years of experience in parish ministry, serving 18 years as Rector at St. Andrew’s Church in Hopkinton. Most recently, from 2005 to 2008, he was the Priest-in-Charge Rector at St. James Church in Laconia. On the more personal side, his hobbies include golf, kayaking and hiking. I also learned that when Hank was at St. Andrew’s he conducted house blessings, a ritual that dates back to the earliest days of Christianity. I look forward to learning more about this when he arrives.

For the Vestry,

Bob Cochran

Long Range (5-year) Planning Committee

The planning committee members are Joan Bowers, Leon Desfosses, Jim Buttolph, Wavell Fogleman, Gwynna Smith and Bob Cochran. As God’s church in the world, our mission involves five activities:

Worship

Outreach

In-reach

Spiritual Formation (Christian Education)

Evangelism

The goal of the committee is to identify for each activity our strengths and challenges, constraints that hinder our effectiveness, and possible future actions. Spiritual Formation and Evangelism were discussed at the last two meetings. Joan Bowers presented the list of the Spiritual Formation opportunities at CHS from September 2009 to June 2010. She reported that the Saturday workshops and retreats for Lent and Advent were successful. A program to introduce newcomers to the Episcopal Church has not been held for a number of years. The challenges in Spiritual Formation involve leadership and stronger buy-in throughout the church for whatever is planned. Jim Buttolph defined evangelism as the practice of relaying information about a particular set of beliefs to others who do not hold these beliefs. He reviewed the church programs that involve people outside the church including the Wal-Mart free prayer offerings, the Farmers Market, the 20/20 Committee, and the AA, NA and Al-Anon programs held at Griswold Hall. Opportunities for evangelism are available through these and other outreach involvements.

Bob Cochran

Seekers and Sojourners

In the thirteen years that I have been volunteering at Adelynrood Retreat and Conference Center near Newburyport, Massachusetts, I have observed a gradual increase in the number of younger adults drawn there for personal retreats as Sojourners.

Although Adelynrood was founded by a group of Episcopal women in the early 20^th century to provide a retreat center for themselves and rest and respite for women mill workers and their children, thanks to a new internet presence ( www.Adelynrood.org) increasing numbers of seekers, men and women, old and young, are finding this special place.

The arrival of more and more people wanting to develop their spiritual lives is an  encouraging development in a part of the country with the lowest level of church attendance (35%) in the nation – but perhaps it should also challenge churches to try new approaches to spiritual formation since studies have shown that the typical American has tried out or chosen different pieces of varying spiritual traditions.

Last year I spoke with a young woman who had chosen to spend 24 hours away from her family so that she could finish reading the Franciscan Richard Rohr’s book Everything Belongs. This summer, during one week, we had a total of six Sojourners including two, a young man and a young woman, who were in their twenties.  Both, from very different family and religious backgrounds, were seeking a place offering quiet, peace, and time for spiritual reflection at times of change and dislocation in their lives.

Young seekers are out there – witness the astonishing popularity of the book and movie Eat, Pray, Love.  How will the church respond to their search?

(For more information on Adelynrood or about the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross which operates the retreat center, please speak with Joan Bowers.)

Submitted by Joan Bowers

Stewardship

The stewardship campaign for 2011 pledge commitments will begin in September. The goal for next year has yet to be finalized by the finance committee, but we are hoping that it will be close to, or better yet, equal to the amount pledged in 2010. 

We have been so blessed and give back out of love to support the work being done by the church.  God’s love for us never ends.  That is all we need to know.

We are working on a theme that will function similarly to the one we had last year with the apple tree.  It will track the progress of the campaign as we aim to celebrate a successful completion with a festive brunch on November 21.  Full participation, which is the ultimate goal, is necessary.

The treasurer’s report for this year shows that through July 2010, pledges are coming in fairly close to the targeted amount for the year.  This is appreciated and it is important that it continues.  However, if someone experiences difficulty maintaining their pledge payments, please contact the office or a stewardship committee member and let us know.

Faithfully yours,

Your Stewardship Committee

Changing Locks on our Buildings

We are in the planning stage of a program to re-key our three buildings and we need your help.  If you have a requirement for keys we will need to know for which of the buildings and for what activity or organization access is required.  There will be ample notice given to insure that existing key holders won’t be locked out, but we will need contact information.  To achieve this, we have a form to be completed by each key holder.  Forms are available at the CLC, Griswold and the Church. Thank you for your cooperation.

 Fred Gould, Junior Warden

State of the Church Finances

Just a brief report on how the church is managing with the budget.  Right up front you know that with Susan gone we have been only paying supply ministers for the last two months.  That means no benefit payments have been going out and that has helped the financial situation greatly.  As of the end of July, we are $300 in the red with expenses outpacing income; however we are $800 in the black relative to what our budget expectations were.  Pledges are running about $7000 behind budget expectations so it is expenses being down that is keeping us afloat.  You can see the latest Vestry Budget Report downstairs near the coffee hour tables.

Wavell Fogleman, Treasurer

ECW News

ECW will meet after three months of summer on Thursday, September 9th in Griswold Hall. We will meet at noon for a potluck lunch hosted by Barbara Brooks and Libby DesFosses.

The women of the Church of the Holy Spirit and friends are invited to join us for good food, fellowship and planning for the coming months.

Please bring soup, sandwiches, salad, or sweets. Call Barbara at 744-3597 or Libby at 744-5358 if you plan to attend. Don’t stay away if you are unable to bring a contribution. There is always plenty of food.

We thank Barbara Brooks and Bob Brooks and their volunteer team for the very successful Book Sales over the past months.  The sales have provided reasonably priced books to many avid readers in the community. Proceeds of the sales continue to support kitchen supplies, outreach and church work.

There will not be a Book Sale in September. Good used books will be available at CHS’s event at the Plymouth Town-wide Yard Sale on Saturday, September 11th..

Shirley Stockwell

Still trying to solve our Music Program for coming year

As you may or may not be aware, Noelle resigned as pianist/organist in mid-June.  We have struggled to keep supply musicians ever since.  Peggy Johnson will be with us now until mid-October except for two weeks.  Peggy has another possible job which does not require her to drive 45 minutes and pays a better salary.  If that job does not come through, she will be with us a while longer in the fall.  The choir has agreed to have practice on Sundays after 9:30 service so Peggy could direct us without having to come over twice in a week.

There are no other good prospects for a choir director or organist for the coming year as yet.  The Congregational Church is also looking without much luck.  Our searches are hampered greatly by our inability to meet the salary expectations of many organists and choir directors.  In the past year or so, we have had interviews with two candidates who walked away when they heard our salary offer.  This is something we as a church need to address if we value music as much as we say we do in all our surveys.  We have been extremely lucky to have college students who do not have the salary expectations of professional adults.  But that supply simply cannot be relied upon.  It does not appear that a keyboard person will be available from PSU this year and likely no choir director either.

Keep the music program in your prayers!

Wavell Fogleman. for the Choir

Town Wide Yard Sale

Church of the Holy Spirit will participate in the Town Wide Yard Sale on Saturday, September 11th at our site at 263 Highland Street.

In order to make the event a success, we need volunteers. We have several volunteer positions to fill which include:

cashiers

set up crews

clean up crews

a crew to assist Bob Cochran with picking up and setting up the bigger, heavier items for the sale

we also need volunteers who can circulate among the customers to take money for items so as to avoid the possible line at the cashier’s table.

But most of all we need customers. Tell everyone you know about our event. We are also looking for pricers. If you think you can price, give us a call. There is a sign up sheet for volunteers on the back table at the church.  The more merchandise we can accumulate and the more people we can tell about the event, the more success we will have. Keep looking through your treasures.

Plan to bring your treasures during the following hours:

Date                                                    Place                           Time

Wednesday, Sept. 8th                          Church Office               9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Thursday, Sept. 9th                              Griswold Hall               9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Friday, Sept. 10                                   Griswold Hall               9:00 a.m. - 12:00 noon

See you at the yard sale.

If you have any questions about the sale, please contact Paula Hancock.

Junior Warden Nears Completion of Term

Fred Gould will complete his three year term as Junior Warden this year. To allow for a smooth transition, the vestry is looking to identify Fred’s replacement now. This will allow the new Junior Warden to interact with Fred during the remaining three months of his term. Please contact a member of the vestry if you have an interest.

NEW CONTACT INFORMATION
GUY TILLSON has recently moved to North Conway in order to be closer to his workplace. 

His new contact information is:
GUY FREDERIC TILLSON
PO Box 1054
North Conway, New Hampshire 03818-1054
Phone: 603 356-3848
E-mail: mrguyft@earthlink.net

CHS News

Robert Brooks is our News Reporter for the Record Enterprise.  He has set up an email address for anyone who wishes to send him Church news to be put in the paper,

the address is: chsnews@hotmail.com

Bob needs to receive information by Thursday, a full week before the paper comes out.

PLYMOUTH FARMERS’ MARKET

Time: Every Thursday 3-6 p.m.,

May 27th through October 7th.

Location: 263 Highland St., Plymouth

Come support your local farms

& local economy.

September Birthdays

2

Michael Kilfoyle

6

Sandra Adams

Emma Horton

10

Ralph Oliver

12

Lew Overaker

15

Janet Carlisle

Ethan Whitman

18

Frank Griswold

22

Peggy Horton

23

Jim Ciemniewski

29

Frankie Witmer

Phoebe Day

30

Betty Batchelder

September Anniversaries

14

Marguerite & Dick Burne

15

Walt & Shirley Stockwell

24

Fred & Pam Gould

30

Doug & Sharon Smith

REMINDER

October

newsletter Article Submission deadline: September 17th