Announcements for the week of March 1, 2009

The First Sunday of Lent

MISSION STATEMENT
The Church of the Holy Spirit (Episcopal) shares the love of Jesus through being a friendly community, participating in liturgically rich worship experiences, and by empowering individual ministries.

WORSHIP NEWS
WELCOME NEWCOMERS AND VISITORS
Please feel free to join us at the communion rail when it is time to receive Holy Communion. Our ushers and any member will be happy to assist if you have any questions during our worship. Jesus loves you! We are glad you are here.

Weather and Office Hours: With the change in weather, it is once again time to remind you that if the Bellevue Schools are closed, the church office will be closed. To see if weather or road conditions impact our weekend services please check our website and watch KETV’s scrolling closures for the latest updates.

YOUTH

CHRISTIAN ED

COMMUNICATIONS A big thank you to all who helped with the Shrove Tuesday pancake supper! Special thanks go to Dean and Joan Olander, Steve Smith, Phil Scarbrough, Josh Talmadge, Greg Scarbrough, Alex Culp, and Karen and Gary Gray.

Millennium Development Goals, A Special Part of the Episcopal Relief and Development Fund* What Can One Person Do? The MDGs and You At the start of the new millennium , leaders from 191 nations, including the United States, agreed on a plan to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015. Together, they created the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs): Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education for children Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseased Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Goal 8: Create a global partnership for development. During Lent, CHS will learn more about each of these goals. If you would like to further these goals, please place your donation in one of the envelopes located in your bulletin and at the end of each pew. Be sure to designate MDG on your check. Using budgeted resources, our outreach commission will match all contributions up to a total of $300. The current economic crisis that has sent shock waves through the U.S. has impacted poor countries even more. It is more important than ever to reach out to others as Jesus’ hands in the world.

* The Episcopal Relief and Development Fund has one of the lower management costs of charitable groups. My latest information was that 92% goes directly to the actual project. Episcopal Relief and Development has a great website that shows activities by country. See Jan Sinram (291-8235) if you have questions.

Do you need another Lenten devotion? If so, this is a good time to join us in Wednesday morning Bible class. We are just beginning to talk about how Christians read the psalms and will soon begin reading those psalms themselves. We welcome anyone who wants to join in gaining better knowledge of these beautiful poems. We meet after the Eucharist on Wednesday. Why not join in that celebration, too? Eucharist is at 9:30, class about 10:15.

The Prayer Chain is being revised! If you feel called to take part in this ministry please call Trudy Conley at 291-7793.

The Daughters of the King will be meeting with Fr. Tom today, March 1 after the 10:30 service. If you are interested in joining please come!

Flame Deadline: Don’t forget! Your information for the Flame must be in by next Sunday, March 8. You can turn it in to the office or give it to Mary Ruth, or put it in the Flame mailbox in the hallway. Emails to Mary Ruth are also acceptable.

Dinner in Abraham’s Tent: On March 27, the Omaha Tri-Faith Initiative will host a community dinner at the Qwest Center. Speakers from the Jewish, Muslim and Episcopal faiths (including our Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori) will address the development of the Omaha campus and ongoing efforts to increase our understanding of our shared heritage. Beginning March 1, registration for this event will be open to the general public. Therefore, if you are interested in attending, please go to the website trifaith.org and sign up by the end of February to ensure you have a seat at the table.

Rae E. Whitney Hymn Celebration will take place April 23-26 in Omaha. For times and places please see the flyer on the bulletin board in the undercroft.

Vestry Needs Each year the vestry seeks out members of our parish who feel called to take an active role in the leadership of our community. This year we have a few unfilled positions that oversee essential ministries of our parish. If you feel called to help provide parish oversight in the pastoral care or evangelism, ministries please contact Fr. Tom or Dean Olander.

Lenten Program Our 2009 Lenten Program will meet on Sunday evenings beginning tonight, March 1 at 5:30 pm with a shared soup supper. Starting at 6:00pm, Fr. Tom will begin our study of “Music in Worship” by taking a brief look at the history and role of service music in the mass. After hearing about some of the different types of service music available, we will sing some of them so that we can see how they can nourish and strengthen our faith and to see if there are some we (as a parish) like better than others. Over the next four Sundays of Lent, members of our parish will take turns telling the story behind many of our favorite hymns used throughout the church year and then we will get a chance to sing them. Each week our focus will be slightly different; March 8th we will look at hymns of Lent, March 15th we will look at hymns of Easter, March 22nd we will look at hymns of the church and faith, and March 29th we will look at hymns of Christian responsibility and mission. The evening’s activities should wrap up around 7:00 pm.

We hope that the timing of our program will allow and encourage many of our youth to participate. However, for youth that parents may feel are too young to enjoy the evenings activities we plan to offer a Lenten program that will enable them to make some simple musical instruments (to be played during the Palm Sunday procession), learn a song or two (that they will sing on Easter morning), and discover how a bell, when rung at the right time, can make a joyful noise as we take the first steps in developing a youth bell choir.

February 22, we launched the 2nd phase of the Sower’s Fund Project. Along with the display board in the undercroft, between services Sue Cox brought many of her hand-made unique, creative bags as inspiration for the “It’s In The Bag” project. A program or charity in the U.S. will be chosen as this year’s recipient of the Sower’s Fund and announced at Annual Council in November. Workshop dates to be announced soon. For more information contact Jane Stangl. 596-9477, tryjs@cox.net or Karen Gray at 339-5168, dynamoquail@msn.com. Check out the FREE DUCT TAPE offer at Menards good through Mar 1.

Our prayers of thanksgiving are offered with those who are celebrating birthdays this week, especially: Alexander Howard (Mar 2), Ryan Wagner (3), Tommy Thompson (7).

Our prayers of thanksgiving are also offered with those who are celebrating wedding anniversaries this week, especially: Jeff & Jane Stangl (Mar 3).