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St.

Paul’s

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCHMARCH 2010—VOLUME 35, ISSUE 3

Potential and Kinetic Energy

By The Very Rev. Dr. Gordon F. Weller

Church EventsFebruary

In January, the 4 F's grouphad a tour of MSU’s cyclo-tron, which is one of theworld's finest. We all wereawed by the scope of theproject and the energythat was produced by this"machine."

Nancy Sheldon

has written an article aboutthe visit elsewhere in thisedition. The visit stirredsome of my recessive inter-ests in physics. I have al-ways enjoyed science and,except for the priesthood,might have gone in thatdirection.Several days later I hap-pened to see the program,"Are You Smarter Than aFifth Grader" on television.Most of you know thepremise: the contestant hasto answer questions that afirst- through fifth-gradermight have to answer inschool. As long as the con-testant can answer thequestions correctly, he orshe can advance. Miss aquestion (or drop out tokeep the money) and thecontestant has to look di-rectly into the camera andstate "I am not smarterthan a fifth grader." It canbe somewhat humiliating tosay the least. Very fewhave gone all the way.The fourth grade sciencequestion that caught myattention (because I knewthe answer) was "Whatare the two kinds of en-ergy that are present inthe world?” The title of thisarticle gives the answer.The contestant dropped outto keep what he alreadyhad and had to face thecamera and make his ad-mission of ignorance.As we enter the season ofLent, it occurs to me thatthere are two kinds ofChristian Energy as well.The first is potential Chris-tian Energy, which is en-ergy at rest. A rockperched on the top of a hillhas potential energy; it iswaiting to fall. But until itstarts to move, the onlyenergy it has is potential.The other kind is KineticChristian energy, energy inmotion. The crawling cater-pillar and the atom racingat one-half the speed oflight both possess kineticenergy, energy in motion.On Ash Wednesday andthe First Sunday of Lent,we all were called to the"Observance of a HolyLent." We were called tobe Kinetic Christians, Chris-tians on the move. If oncewe were the unmoving rock-on-the-hill kind of a Chris-tian, the season of Epiph-any was supposed to bethat little push that trans-forms potential Energy andpotential Christians into theKinetic kind of ChristianGod intends.Because this is also a sea-son for self examination,we all have to ask our-selves, "What kind ofChristian am I?"

1,8,15,22

ENTEN

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EVIEWS

EALING

ISSION

SILS C

OLLECTION

OUSEHOLD

ABARET

A Step Well WorthConsidering

by Sue Millar

I’ll wager that most of you have heard of The Householdof God Conference --- but I would also wager that mostof you probably don’t know very much about it.For thirteen years the diocesan Whitaker School of Theol-ogy has sponsored the Household of God conference forour Diocese. During these years, the Conference has ex-plored various dimensions of how stewardship is not onlyabout time, treasure and talent, but is a creedal statementwe make with our whole being.This year’s one-day conference will held Saturday, March20, at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Royal Oak. The topic

Bible Study for Those Who Don’t Have Time for Bible Study

By Dr. Stephen R. Lange, Minister of Music

In order to help bring the mountain to Mohammed (in a type of inter-faith, perhaps not completely appropriate, meta-phor), the Adult Christian Education and Formation Committee is offering four Bible study classes after church duringLent. On February 28, March 7, March 14, and March 21, adult Bible study classes that will be based on the lection-ary will be offered after church. (Worship will last from 10 to 11 a.m.—now there’s a leap of faith!—and will be fol-lowed by youth education classes and adult classes.) Classes will be finished by 11:55 a.m., so you’ll still have time tohave a cup of coffee (if you haven’t already had one in your class), socialize, browse the ERD book sale and still bedone by 12:15 p.m.. The leaders for these classes are

Laura Julier, Carol Ingells, Larry Clark, and Greg Wortley

.Please come and test these spiritual waters which, unlike the waters of the River Jordan as described in a spiritual aschilly and cold, we hope, will be warm in fellowship and heated by the flame of the Holy Spirit. To engage in a bit ofhyperbole, the Children of Israel would never have known what the Promised Land really looked like unless they hadbeen willing to cross over the Jordan River. And they found it was even better than they could have imagined, a placeflowing with milk and honey. Please join us.for this year’s conference will be Body, Mind and Spirit:Health for Holy People.The Rev. Mpho Tutu will be the conference presenter. Ms.Tutu is the daughter of Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Di-rector of the Tutu Institute for Prayer and Pilgrimage, Al-exandria, VA.If you wonder what it means to be faithful; how to re-spond to the challenges of today; and where God is in allthis, then join us at St. John’s! The invitation to attend isaddressed to all of us: lay people, clergy, vestry mem-bers, trustees, educators, other church leaders, stewardshipteam members. For details, call me at 675-5665 or visitthe website atwww.whitakerschool.org/id13.html Chuck and I have attended these conferences since theystarted and we always come away enlightened, inspiredand renewed. Hope to see you there!

Lenten Lunch-N-BookReviews

By Dr. Stephen R. Lange, Minister of Music

Are you looking for some great books to read? For somespiritual inspiration? For something to challenge and enrichyour life? Then plan to attend our annual Lenten Lunch-N-Book Reviews to be held on five Mondays in Lent, begin-ning February 22. The schedule for each Monday is 11:30a.m. Holy Eucharist, 12 noon-12:30 p.m. Lunch and Fellow-ship, 12:30 to 1 p.m. Book Review. (Please sign up if youplan to eat lunch. It will be provided by A Catered Affairefor $4.50.) The schedule for the reviews is:



March 1 - Gordon Weller will review

The Fingerprintsof God: the search for theScience of Spirituality

by Bar-bara Bradley Haggerty



March 8 -

Chris Couch

will review

Mennonite in a LittleBlack Dress

by Rhoda Janzen



March 15 -

Chuck Millar

will review

Earth Community,Earth Ethics

by Larry L. Rasmussen



March 22 - Richard Sauerzopf will review

The Mountainof Silence

by Kyriacos C. Markides



March 29 - Nancy Lange will review

Have a Little Faith

by Mitch Albom and Stephen Lange will review

TheReason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism

by Timo-thy Keller

You do not need to have read the books before they arereviewed. Just come and enjoy the stimulation. Friends,neighbors, whoever are cordially invited to attend!Page 2

Maundy Thursday EcumenicalAgape Meal

By The Very Rev. Dr. Gordon F. Weller

Thursday evening, April 1 will be the ninth anniversary of our Ecu-menical Maundy Thursday evening Agape meal; our commemorationof the events of the Thursday before the Crucifixion. This year fourparishes will participate, St. Paul's, Central United Methodist, ChristCommunity (formerly First Baptist), and Judson Memorial Baptist. Wewill celebrate the Last Supper, the Foot Washing, Jesus’ time in thegarden with his disciples, and conclude with the powerful"ceremonial" Stripping of the Altar. The evening begins at 5:45 p.m.in the Church with an opening Hymn Sing and will conclude by 8 p.m.As always we will have a Seder similar to the one which Jesus celebrated with his disciples. Reservations are a must.Please sign up at Church or call the parish office.

Vestry goes on Retreat

By The Very Rev. Dr. Gordon F. Weller

For the tenth successive year, the Vestry went on retreat the weekend following the Annual meeting. For the fourth yearwe have gone to the Weber Center in Adrian. The purpose is to allow the new members of the vestry to become well ac-quainted with the continuing members and to review the past year's achievements as well as plan for the future. In addi-tion the comments of the parish, made at the Annual Meeting, were discussed and evaluated with a thought of how to bestrespond to these remarks. It was a rewarding and productive time for all.This year's Vestry includes:

Jeff Kressler

, Senior Warden,

Sally Lawrence

, Jr. Warden,

Pam Irwin,

Secretary,

Julie Young

, Treasurer,

GoldieAdele

Mary Lea Benson

Sally Boron, John Craig, Barb Heany, Matt Ferguson, Roger Fowler, John Nevin, BobbieTisdale,

and

Greg Ward.

To see pictures from the Vestry Retreat, turn to page

Mardi Gras

By The Very Rev. Dr. Gordon F. Weller

Sunday evening, February 14 saw a wonderful celebra-tion of Mardi Gras held in the Merrifield room andChurch. There we were fifty plus people in the buildingeating shrimp Jambalaya, collard greens, corn bread andcrawfish chowder. Sr. Warden Jeff Kressler put together asix piece Jazz band so everyone was well entertainedwith the music and even some dancing. At seven o'clock thehearty band of revelers processed from the MerrifieldRoom to the Church singing "When the Saints go marchingIn" and lead by trumpet and trombone. Everyone had agood time and bid the joyous season of Epiphany goodby and began the preparation for Lent.

Good Friday

By The Very Rev. Dr. Gordon F. Weller

This year St Paul's will host the downtown Church's Ecu-menical Serve on Good Friday, April 2nd. It begins atnoon and will last approximately one hour. This year'spreacher will be Michael Dunkleburger from Christ Com-munity Church (formerly 1st Baptist). The service will befollowed by an opportunity for fellowship with a soup andsalad luncheon in the Merrifield Room. Please plan on be-ing present.Page 3