6th Sunday after the Epiphany: Annual Parish Meeting Gratitude; Slavery Documentary at the Library; Prayer on Presidents' Day

February 16, 2020
Dear Hearts,
 
Our Annual Parish Meeting  on February 9th certainly reaffirmed my conviction that I am "the luckiest fool in the Kingdom" to be the Rector of Christ Church!  We enjoyed a hearty soup lunch, enjoyed being together, did our business with dispatch, ate a great many clementines and brownies, and gratefully learned more about our recent history.  We thanked those stepping down from their service and looked ahead with the election of new officers.

Thanks to the crew who set the tables, made the soup and baked the brownies, those who warmed the soup on Sunday morning and served it, and all who helped with the clean-up, especially those remaining until all was tidied up!

At the meeting we thanked Rose Robinson for her three years of creative and faithful service as our Senior Warden; we also thanked her Vestry colleagues Rebecca Evans, Mitra Kish and Bob McNamara.

We elected Susan Leonard as Senior Warden, Alicia Bacon as Junior Warden, Ed Seibert as Treaurer pro tem, and Janice Novak as Parish Clerk for one-year terms, and Richard Formica, Michael Haggans and Lucy Papandrea to three-year terms as Vestry Members.  

A highlight of the meeting was the premiere of two History Timeline panels for the 1990-2019 period.  Draft copies of the whole project are available for review and ordering!  We had a lively discussion of what was included and might be included, and have Pat Daunic to thank for her skill and persistence in bringing this project to fruition.

The Witness Stones Project will show the documentary, "SLAVERY By Another Name" at the Guilford Free Library on Thursday, February 20 at 6:30p.m.  They describe the film this way: 
August 2019 marked 400 years since the first Africans arrived as slaves on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia. What happened to those Africans, and to all those stolen and brought here in the centuries following, is a stain on America’s history that most would rather forget. It happened, it’s over, and that is that. Unfortunately, that is far from the case. Those guiding principles and ideologies of slavery continue to play out in our society today. If we do not admit to and learn from our history, we are doomed to repeat it.
Guilford Witness Stones Projects invites you to join us in the viewing of ¨Slavery By Another Name,¨ a 2012 documentary that challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation.  Film run time is approx 90 min. There will be time for a brief discussion following the film.  Light refreshments will be served.
This program is free and open to all. Please register online, by phone, or in person at the reference desk.
Guilford Free Library ~ 203-453-8282 ~ www.guilfordfreelibrary.org 

Were I in town, I would certainly register and plan to attend.

Monday is Presidents' Day.  Please join me in offering the Prayer Book's prayer "For the President of the United States and all in Civil Authority;"

O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world: We
commend this nation to thy merciful care, that, being guided
by thy Providence, we may dwell secure in thy peace. Grant
to the President of the United States, the Governor of this
State, and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know
and to do thy will. Fill them with the love of truth and
righteousness, and make them ever mindful of their calling
to serve this people in thy fear; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who liveth and reigneth with thee and the
Holy Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

In faith and hope,
Harrison+
YFNR
p.s.:  Your Friendly Neighborhood Rector is on his annual winter break through February 21.  Please welcome our own Lynda Tyson+ to celebrate and preach on Sunday, February 16.  Please direct bulletin announcements to Mark Sullivan at MarkCEC@snet.net.  Mark and Sheward Hagerty are monitoring Voice Mail and parish email.  Please contact them in the event of a pastoral emergency.