For 16th Sunday after Pentecost, September 20, 2020: Sunday School Meets Non-Digitally; UN International Day of Peace Observance; Pop-Up Tag Sale; South Central Region Convocation; Gun BuyBack & Swords to Plowshares; Outreach through Personal Care Bags;

Sunday School to Meet 5:30p.m. this Sunday
Sunday School families are invited to gather in the parish backyard Sunday, September 20 at 5:30p.m. for fellowship, a bite to eat, and a brief Bible story.  This is for children and youth plus their parents/guardians.

The UN International Day of Peace will be observed on Monday, September 21 on the Guilford Green beginning at 11:45a.m.  The celebration will include recognition of the peace-making work of the organizers of Guilford's Human Rights Commission, and of the young woman who collected and delivered Covid relief food and supplies to the Navajo Nation.  The UN's resolutions creating the Day of Peace, and other supportive statements, will also be read.

Pop-up Tag Sale has been scheduled by our Tag Sale Team for this Saturday, September 26, from 9a.m.-Noon in the driveway between the church buildings and the rectory.  The Team welcomes helpers with set-up on Friday beginning at 10a.m. and then to staff the sale on Saturday. Contact Elena Philips or Janice Novack for details.

The South Central Region Fall Convocation will meet via Zoom on Saturday, September 26 from 9-11a.m. to discern the "Next Right Thing(s)" to advance Racial Justice, Healing and Reconciliation.  Speakers will include Milford's Chief of Police, the Rev. Rowena Kemp and Dr. Suzy Burke.  The convocation is open to all parishioners within our South Central Region of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut.  Get more information and register here. 

Gun BuyBack & Swords to Plowshares:
Partnering with the Ethan Miller Song Foundation and Swords into Plowshares Northeast, the Guilford Police Department will hold a voluntary gun buyback and safe firearm storage event on Saturday, September 26 from 10a.m. to 2p.m.  Our Bishop Jim Curry (suffragan, retired) led the organizing of Swords into Plowshares in the Northeast, bringing the practice of reforging abandoned firearms into gardening tools to our region.

Outreach through Personal Care Bags:
Our Outreach Team is joining with our ECW for a fall program to provide bags of personal care items.  Following the pattern initiated by our ECW earlier this year, parishioners will be invited to take a quart zip-lock bag and fill it with the personal care items on the enclosed shopping list.  Bags are available just inside the Parish Hall center door during Office Hours 10a.m.-3p.m.  Bags may be returned there, or during the Consecration Sunday Open House on Sunday, October 4. 
The bags will be shared with those served by New Haven's Chapel-on-the-Green on a Sunday evening later in October.
 
Summer Worship Schedule Continues:
Phase 3 of re-opening remains on hold as COVID-19 infections increase locally; so, our summer pattern of Sunday worship continues.
Morning Prayer in the Garden is offered at 9a.m., with a brief version of the sermon This remains our only in-person worship offering. Please dress warmly this week, and remember to bring a mask, a lawn chair.
Our celebration of The Holy Eucharist is offered via livestream at 10a.m., with Spiritual Communion, hymns, organ and a soloist.

Virtual Coffee Hour:
YFNR will host Coffee Hour via Zoom this Sunday, September 20 at 11:30a.m. by clicking this new link. Please note the time and the new link; please disregard past ones.  Apologies to those who were unable to connect last week.
 
Sunday Intercessions:
Please send the people and concerns you would like included in the Prayers of the People. by replying to these announcements or the "Let us pray" message.

Wednesday Order for Evening & Thursday Bible Study .. have both returned.  See the calendar to the left for times and links.

Thanks to all who are mailing in your offerings!  
Although our in-person connections remains limited, the routine of the parish resumes amidst all the ways that support and maintain our common life.  So, as you are able, in your current financial situation, please continue your financial support of our common life by bringing your offering to the 9a.m. service in the Garden, or by sending your offerings to Christ Church, PO Box 574, Guilford, CT 06437.  Your offering will be presented at the altar; it will be physically present, as you remain safely elsewhere.
In the faith, hope and love of Christ,
Harrison+
YFNR
p.s.  This isn't an announcement, but I feel the need to take note here of the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  I have been moved by what I have read and heard today including from our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's statement and the joint one from Washington National Cathedral and the Bishop of Washington.  You can read them here and here, respectively. 
The Justice died as the Jewish celebration of Rosh Hashanah began.  As the Jewish calendar begins a new year, we may pray for Justice Ginsburg, "Shanah Tovah" (Good Year) as she enters into life without the pain that had been her constant companion in recent months.  For we who remain, perhaps comes the responsibility to continue her work, to actively seek equal justice with compassion and mercy for all.