Summer is the season to spend time away with family and friends. Just a reminder that when you are away, our church bills still continue. Please try to keep up with your giving to CHS while you are away. Here are several ways to do this: ![]() Paypal – CHS has a Paypal account. You can find the link in both of the weekly emails and near the bottom of our website's home page. Just look for the "Donate" button! Seven percent (7%) of charitable giving to CHS comes in through PayPal. (FYI – Paypal charges CHS a small fee for transactions) US Mail – Your contribution can be sent by US mail to us at 3 Haytown Rd, Lebanon NJ 08833. Sixty percent (60%) of charitable giving to CHS comes in through Personal checks. Bank Bill Pay – Add Church of the Holy Spirit to the Payee list in your bank’s online bill pay program. Most banks offer this service with no fee. Thirty percent (30%) of charitable giving to CHS comes in via Bank Bill Pay. If you have any questions or concerns about your giving, please reach out to
Eva Lesniak (stewardship) @ [email protected] or Sally Bird (treasurer) @ [email protected]. Thank you Finance Committee ![]() Dear friends, I have successfully reserved, "The Personal Librarian," by Marie Benedict, for Saturday, September 7, as our next selection. You will recall that we had wanted to read this book, but it was reserved months in advance. Since we're taking off the summer months, it was easy to reserve it for the fall. It's a highly acclaimed book, recounting the true story of J. P. Morgan's personal librarian, Bell de Costa Greene, a black woman passing as white. She is the daughter of the first black Harvard graduate, but she uses her Portuguese identity as the reason for her dark complexion. She leaves a lasting legacy of having curated a famous collection of artworks, manuscripts, and books. It was on The New York Times' bestseller list for weeks and received countless awards for its writing. Sounds like a great read for us!! Enjoy your summer off, and be safe!! Warm regards, Suzanne Join ECS-NJ to Help Get Out the VoteJoin ECS-NJ in an important justice ministry – helping eligible NJ residents to vote. We need volunteers to be trained and then in their free time--evenings, weekends, whatever is available--help make sure that everyone eligible in your area is registered, educated, and gets out to vote.
Contact Canon Clara Gregory or Catherine Ambos at [email protected] for further information or to join the effort. The New Jersey voter registration is 21 days before the election, or October 15. Our Contact Information Episcopal Community Services - New Jersey P.O. Box # 7559 Ewing, NJ 08628 (609) 394-5281 https://dioceseofnj.org/ecs/ ![]() Summer Music Would you like to share your musical talents with the congregation over the summer? We’re looking for instrumentalists and vocalists to present a selection for the prelude, postlude, or Offertory. Contact Alexei for scheduling at [email protected] or talk to him before or after service. ![]() Looking for Lay Eucharistic Visitors Would you be interested in bringing communion to one of our parishioners unable to physically make it to church? This could be a very quiet, peaceful moment to share with a soul hungry for nourishment. Your presence would be a blessing for both of you. There is a minimal amount of time required to learn and prepare to participate in this ministry (15 minutes). Scheduling visits is very flexible. Please contact Deacon Dot Hospador ([email protected] or (908) 335-4055) if you would like further information. ![]() Service Auction Planning The Service Auction proceeds are so important to our ongoing outreach as a parish. Eva would like to share Jane Paradiso’s high-level recommendations about the next team that takes on the planning of this fundraiser. By breaking down the work into smaller wedges of discreet effort, more of us can rally around running the auction together to make it a success again this fall. For details, contact Eva, [email protected]. If you look around CHS, you will notice a number of new items, comfortable, matching chairs in the St. Martin and St. Julian rooms, (What, we don’t have to sit on that crazy assortment anymore!!??) as well as a very large computer monitor to be used for Zoom calls, Movies for the Youth Group, etc.in the St. Julian room. Additionally new folding tables and chairs in the closet in Dove Hall. A big note of thanks to Diane Hrozencik and her friend John who made that possible with many trips back and forth to the Johnson and Johnson facility to pick them up and deliver them.
Thank you Diane and John for continuing to make CHS more comfortable!!! We appreciate you!! ![]() We are now a licensed sober living facility! The Butterfly House, located in Flemington, New Jersey, is officially open! We can accommodate up to 10 women, but we need your help. Furniture and appliances are needed: New or lightly used
Items will only be accepted after prior viewing. Please send pictures to [email protected] or [email protected]. You can also view our wish list by clicking on the link. We extend our gratitude to everyone who has already made donations. Your support is greatly appreciated. If you know someone who may benefit from staying at the Butterfly House, please contact Megan LaRue-Barker at (908) 806-4220 ext. 228 or [email protected]. ![]() The Mommy & Me House is a spacious residence located in Hunterdon County that provides a haven for mothers and young children survivors of domestic abuse. The house has a large yard for the children to play in and is conveniently located next to a daycare. We aim to accommodate 5 mothers, each with up to two children under the age of 5. We are also in need of adult and children’s furniture including beds, children's furniture, and other necessary items to set up a home for mothers with young children. If you would like to support us by donating new or lightly used furniture/items, please contact our office at (908) 806-4220, ext. 326 or 323, or send us an email at [email protected]. We would greatly appreciate your support. You can also check out our wish list by clicking on the link below.
We are currently accepting applications for our Mommy & Me program. If you or someone you would benefit from the services we offer, please contact Kitima at (908) 806-4220, ext. 223, or email her at [email protected]. Embark on a journey of cultural and spiritual exploration as we delve into the rich tapestry of diverse faith traditions. Guided visits to six different faiths offer a unique opportunity to foster interfaith understanding and appreciation while learning about various religious practices, beliefs, and communities.
Equip yourself with the knowledge and skills needed to engage thoughtfully and respectfully with people of diverse faith backgrounds through visits that foster empathy, and mutual understanding across religious divides. The Journey includes visits to a Synagogue, Buddhist Centre, Greek Orthodox Church, Hindu Temple, Mosque, and Sikh Temple, and will be led by knowledgeable guides who will offer:
If you are interested in participating or have any questions, please contact Deacon Michelleslie at [email protected]. Visits usually occur on Fridays and Saturdays from June to through August. Dates will be available soon. Space is limited. ![]() Open Cupboard Food Pantry has partnered with Hunterdon Health and they are re-opening on April 15th in the Clinton area. They will be temporarily setting up shop in the Clinton Health & Wellness Center, located on Route 31 North, Clinton. As of May 1, they expect to start serving clients. Our parish can resume donating food, and Katie and I will be happy to bring donations to the Pantry. ANY NON-PERISHABLE ITEMS ARE WELCOME!!!! Thank you! Suzanne Sunday Services
In Person and Online - Holy Communion at 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. During this time of the Covid-19 epidemic, we will follow the diocesan guidelines. Find the most recent update here > CHS Worship is also on FaceBook Live (available without Facebook) 8:00 a.m. - Holy Communion Church of the Holy Spirit is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/96238557143?pwd=SUlqdVpqUHdTdVdOWUY5U1BpU0NBUT09 Meeting ID: 962 3855 7143 Passcode: 087656 FaceBook Live site link http://tinyurl.com/CHSWorship or http://online.churchholyspirit.net 10:00 a.m. - Holy Communion Church of the Holy Spirit is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/91376817129?pwd=WGg5SGZyRnN5RmtyNWp3UVQwbFFzUT09 Meeting ID: 913 7681 7129 Passcode: 254800 FaceBook Live site link http://tinyurl.com/CHSWorship or http://online.churchholyspirit.net Follow and pray along using the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) Calling All Knitters and Crocheters Since the onset of the pandemic, the Shawl Ministry at the NJ Women's Prison has been shut down. No shawls are currently being made by the inmates of the prison. Consequently, our stock of shawls for distribution by CHS to persons in need is being maintained by the Knit/Crochet & Chat group that meets on Monday afternoons.. If you are a knitter or crocheter, think about picking up your needles and hooks to help replenish our supply. Yarn is available in the hallway bins adjacent to the church office. If you need patterns or advice (or encouragement), ask any member of the Kint/Crochet & Chat group.
Welcome to the CHS Master Calendar
The CHS Master Calendar was created to consolidate the multiple calendars that were being used previously. Not all those calendars were up to date; many did not have the same events listed. The ability to see details on the many events happening at CHS was not available on all the calendars. Google calendar became the obvious choice: it allows us to access one site for all events, to manage those events in one place, including details as needed; embed the calendar on the CHS website; and allow for dynamic changes. A change made on the master immediately becomes visible on all linked versions. If a change is made to the master, it appears immediately on the web version and it will appear on your version as well. You can access the CHS calendar from your computer, laptop, smart phone or tablet. To see the calendar on the website, go to www.churchholyspirit.org and scroll to the bottom of the page. Use the arrows below the header to see future or past months. Move to the far right and select if you wish to see a week or month at a time or click Agenda for a listing of events. Details are available for many events. To have the calendar on your computer or other device, copy and paste or type this URL into your browser: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=chs.calendar%40churchholyspirit.net&ctz=America%2FNew_York A limited number of people have administrative permission: Marge Keller, the Office Admin, Webmaster and CHS News editor. If you wish to have an event added to the calendar, contact one of them. To check facility availability, please contact the Office Admin. The Deacon calls the People to prayer saying
A sign has been given to us. A child shall be born for us and wrapped in bands of cloth and laid in a manger. Let us gather in one spirit as we pray to you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. Intercessor: Caring for another person means kindness in touch, and tenderness in words, to surrender our own needs and wants as we attend to the other. And when we’re holding and caring for another, we can’t do much else. And when you tend to a little child, you have to put it all down in order to pick up the baby. Gracious God, we’re busy, we tired, we’re full of pressure, and worries, and yet you call us, like Mary and Joseph, to kneel down and pick up the baby, and so, we pray you, O lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. Intercessor: Even if you’re a toddler yourself; even if you’re a preteen; even if you’re 95; even if you’ve never remembered ever holding a baby; even if you know nothing about birthin’ babies; you’ll still have some idea as your gaze on something so helpless, that first things are first, and when something is fighting for its life, you’ve got to stop what you are doing and so, we pray you, O lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. Intercessor: Even if we can’t, or won’t or will never want to have a baby, we sometimes need to know that Jesus is the only thing we need to hold on to. Even when we don’t know what else to do, we pray you, O lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. Even when there is nothing else we can do, we pray to you O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. It’s just true. When you’re holding a baby, there’s not much else you can do . . . except just hold it, and love it, and pray. And honestly, the baby can’t do all that much either, we pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. The two of you just sort of . . . melt into one another. You just sort of . . . exist . . . together. we pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. I don’t know what it is you came to church for here today, Why you’re here or how easy or hard it was to come here, we pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. Whether you know it or not, you have come here for one thing, and one thing only. You have come here to hold the Baby. we pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. Whether you know it or not he is the One who has brought you here and really, there is nothing else you can do. You just hold him. And love him, And pray. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. But be forewarned, for this comes at great cost. To hold this Baby— this Jesus whom we proclaim - means you are going to have to put some things down. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. When you hold this Baby, nothing else matters. Everything else falls away. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. When you hold this Baby, the war makers must put down their weapons and all their garments rolled in blood. The oppressors must put down their rods. The emperors must put down their censuses. The shepherds must put down their staffs. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. The judges must put down their gavels. The bankers their pencils. The farmers their plows. The nurses their stethoscopes The journalists their laptops. The teachers their books. The janitors their brooms. The interns their clipboards. The internet trolls their keyboards. The leaders their egos. Priests and Bishops their collars We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. When you and I hold this Baby— when we hold this Jesus— everything else must fall away: our cell phones, our distractions, our ambitions, our rights, our wrongs, our hurts, our grievances . . . our power. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. “Whatever that is you’re doin,’ you gotta put it down and come hold this baby.” But here’s the final twist. Here’s the insane grace of it all. For all that you and I have to lay aside— for all the power that we have to let go in order to hold this Baby— the thing is he has already gone first. Yeah, you have to give up a lot in order to hold a baby, but think of how much more you have to give up in order to BE the baby. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. He could have come any way he wanted. As a mighty warrior. As a fearsome beast. As a rich king with swagger, and prestige, and power. But instead, this Baby— this Jesus— came like this. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. Whatever it was he was doing, he put it down all those years ago so he could come and rest right there next to your beating heart. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. So, my friends, what is it? What is it that you get to lay aside, even if just for this one moment? The Creator of your soul has put down everything he had, because all he ever really wanted . . . was just to be with you. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. So whatever that is you’re doing, put it down. Come on. Hold the baby. There’s nothing else you can do. You just hold him. And love him. And pray. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. And when you do, when put everything down, and hold and love and pray and melt together, You get to become the Christ to others. Let us find the Christ Child in all God’s children who have no one to hold them, Let us hand over the wounds of loneliness and desperation within our own hearts we hide from others and even ourselves, Let us allow ourselves to be held who have the memory of wrong etched on our bodies and in our minds. Let us find the Christ Child in this planet in crisis and reach out, and hold, love, and pray. We pray you, O Lord, People Help us put it all down and pick up the baby. Adapted from a sermon of Lonnie Lacy+ by Philip Car-Jones+ The Quirinius Project ![]() It’s time for a census — the “Quirinius” Census. ** No, not the 2020 nation-wide census. Our own Church of the Holy Spirit census. To record all who are a part of CHS and to give our parish leadership more information about how to develop programs to reach as many as possible. To make it easy for newcomers to identify themselves. SO: we’ve developed an online Community Sign-up. Introduction: Help us include you in our common life! This form is to help us get to know you better and to welcome you and your family into the community of Church of the Holy Spirit. We want to be sure you feel included in our common mission across the seasons of the Church Year, so accurate records are vital in keeping our communications meaningful and efficient. Since each of us is a unique individual, beloved of God, you are asked to have a separate entry for each member of your family. All information provided will be used only by Church of the Holy Spirit, not published, and never provided to anyone else. The deadline to gather this information is October 15, 2019, so please go to the website and enter your information as soon as possible. If there are other members of your family who are part of CHS, even if they are not living at home, please encourage them to do the same. We ask the parents of small children to complete the sign-up for them. We want all included! Here’s how to do it: Go to the Church of the Holy Spirit website on your computer, tablet or smartphone https:// www.churchholyspirit.org Click on “About Us”, then “Who We Are”, then “Community Sign-up”. (Or go directly to https://www.churchholyspirit.org/community-sign-up.html ) Enter your information. Please respond to all the items. Click “Submit”. You’re done! Start over with other family members who are too young to do it themselves. **FUN FACT: This is called the Quirinius census, from the passage in St. Luke’s gospel “In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria.” Whaling is a form of pfishing known as whaling. It doesn't just affect us! The Diocese of Newark has recently had a series of these attacks and has published an article explaining the phenomenon and what you can do about it.
"You receive an email that appears to be from the Bishop, or your clergy person, asking you to take some kind of action – click a link, download an attachment, wire money to a specified account, purchase gift cards and reply with the serial numbers, or simply to reply quickly. Watch out – it could be a form of email “phishing” known as “whaling.” "Whereas “phishing” involves sending a fraudulent email to a large group of people in the hope that a few will respond, “whaling” involves forging communications that look like they’re from the “big phish” in an organization, i.e. the “whale.” For us, this usually means the Bishop or a clergy person, although it could be someone else in authority. "Because these emails are usually crafted more carefully than your standard “phishing” email, they can be more difficult to detect." Read the whole article, but here are some brief suggestions about what to do:
Please know that no clergy person, Deacon Dot, your wardens or your Vestry would never make such a request. They will never ask for personal information, money, gift cards or anything else by email or on social media. Ignore any such request and, if possible, report it to your ISP as a fraud/scam. One email looked like this: I am not in the position to make a phone call at the moment as i am in a meeting and that is why i am contacting you via email. I will like you to help handle a personal matter. I would need you to help send out couple of gift cards to a family member in school concerning her project.and i will need this handled immediately. Kindly let me know if you are available to run this task right now so i can advise the quantity and domination. Pay attention and stay safe! Faithfully, |
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