The TAG SALE is Here! Communications Director, Greetings from Sewanee

​27 September 2018
Dear Hearts,
The TAG SALE is here!  Many of you are coming together to organize an amazing amount of merchandise for this Saturday's Tag Sale.  I don't recall the contributions to the Sale previously taking over quite so many rooms!  Although members of the Evening ECW have worked for months to organize this event, it will take many more folks to display all the items for sale!  So, yes, your participation matters.

We can all participate in word-of-mouth PR for the sale!  Please encourage your friends and neighbors to stop by and see what treasures await them!  The forecast promises a lovely day for all Saturday's events on and around the Green.

Thanks so much to all the hardy folks who braved last Sunday's not-so-great forecast and grey skies to enjoy a fine "Picnic-Tables Picnic"  All four of the new tables were filled to capacity, while other folks stood to visit, hovered around the grills and the buffet tables.  This wasn't a dine-and-dash event; folks lingered to admire the handsome new tables, enjoy the fare, and catch up with one another. 

Thanks to all who donated generously towards the cost- of-materials for the new tables; the labor was supplied by Mark McNamara and the Scouts he organized as part of his Eagle Scout project.  (Organizing the picnic service crew of family and friends posed another leadership challenge for Mark.)  As of the end of the picnic, almost $1,200 had been received, and we had almost paid for the materials for two tables.  So, yes, your donation would help cover the cost of the other two tables.  Please make your check out to Christ Church with "Picnic Tables" in the memo line.
 
Our Faith Formation group had been talking for some time about how to more effectively tell our story to one another and to the broader community, especially about our programs for Faith Formation, e.g. Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Acolytes, and Middle and High School programs.  While Mark Sullivan manages our parish Facebook page and web site, individual program leaders are responsible for posting in the Courier and in other social media.  Once upon a time, an attractive listing in the Yellow Pages would do; not so today.   The Faith Formation group came to the conclusion that the entire range of our parish's programs would benefit from a more coordinated, regular and wide-ranging communication program. With that in mind, they wrote a job description, and a benefactor came forward to underwrite a very part-time (4 hours/week) Communications Director for one year.  Although I was in on these conversations from the beginning, they saw this proposal through while I was away in August, presenting it to the Vestry.  The Vestry has affirmed their support for this new staff position, accepted the gift (from an anonymous donor) for this one-year experiment, and authorized YFNR to seek someone to fill the position.  If you are curious, or interested, please contact me, and I'll send you the job description. I hope that we can begin interviews after October 9.

I'm writing to you from Sewanee, Tennessee, where the School of Theology's Alumni Lectures concluded yesterday.  (Today's my travel home day.)   This year's lecturer was Prof. Charles Marsh from the University of Virginia; those of you who are reading Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's Songs My Grandma Sang, may recognize him as the author of a highly recommended biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Strange Glory...Bishop Michael' quotes Marsh's biography to tell about the powerful  impact of the African-American spirituals and Gospel hymns that Bonhoeffer first encountered while studying in New York City in the early 1930's.  In his Sewanee lectures, Marsh expanded on that story and told about a 7-week spring road trip that Bonhoeffer took with some classmates through the Deep South.  Bonhoeffer's intransigent opposition to "Hitlerism" was shaped, says Marsh, by his experience of American racism and the redemptive faith of the African-American church.

And, No.  I did not escape a deluge of rain!  Sewanee, and its environs, have also experienced major rainfall and spectacular thunderstorms every day this week.  Between yesterday's storms, I was entranced by the flock (yes, flock) of hummingbirds at the feeders on my host's back deck.  I've never seen the like! 

I look forward to seeing y'all during the Tag Sale, and then as we rejoice on what y'all accomplished, during Sunday's worship. 
In faith, hope and love,
Harrison+
YFNR
 
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