news

St.

Paul’s

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF ST. PAUL’S EPISCOPAL CHURCHMay 2010 — VOLUME 35, ISSUE 5

The recent events in our church family havecertainly tested our “mettle.” The recent ill-nesses of the

Rev. Gordon Weller

and the

Rev. Richard Sauerzopf

have left us with therealization of how much we depend on ourclergy. What is truly enlightening is the re-sponse from the parish as soon as we foundourselves without our spiritual leader, albeit temporarily. Because of the efforts anddedication of the St. Paul’s staff, committee chairs and vestry members, the work of St.Paul’s has and will continue! We are indebted to the

Rev. Deacon Bill Fineout

for coor-dinating the staff duties and to the

Rev. Chuck Millar

for being the celebrant on April18 at the last minute! I don’t know what we would have done without them.St. Paul’s is very fortunate to have several clergy help us out with various events takingplace in the weeks ahead. The

Rev. Jannel Glennie

will be the celebrant at both the 8and 10 a.m. services for April 25 and May 2. The

Rev. Carol Spangenberg

from St.John’s in Charlotte has kindly committed herself to do the Tuesday morning Eucharistservices and also the Monday “4 F’s” get-togethers. We have

Carol Ingells

and ChuckMillar who have volunteered to help with pastoral care. St. Paul’s memorial service forPeggy Brede on the afternoon of May 2 will be done by the

Rev.

Ron Byrd

. We oweall of these wonderful people a debt of gratitude!What really indicates the strength of our church are the many outstanding leaders whohave come forward to help. We truly are a “People United!”

By Jeff Kressler, Sr. Warden

Church EventsMay

INISTRY

AIR

B&PW C

ORPORATE

OMMUNION

; 4F

ONFIRMATION

LASSES

STATE

LANNING

EMINAR

SCENSION

INNER

AND

UCHARIST

. A

ELRED

’

EETING

STATE

LANNING

EMINAR

Abbreviated SPN

By Christine Caswell, Editor

Due to all of the recent events discussed above in

Jeff Kressler’s

article and the increased duties put on and assumedby staff and volunteers, this is a much abbreviated version of SPN. Hopefully, all upcoming events are listed on theWeb site or the Sunday bulletin. We also hope to have everyone and everything back up to speed soon (in time forthe SPN to take a two-month summer hiatus). Thanks for everyone’s patience.

“We Are a PeopleUnited”

Confirmation Classes

This year’s Spring Confirmation for the Lansing area is scheduled for May 8, at 10:30 a.m., at All Saints', East Lansing.As always, it offers people the opportunity to come before the Bishop and declare your intention to God and thisbranch of the Church. Three options are available. The first is to confirm your Baptismal vows. This is for those baptizedas an infant and now ready to "Confirm" those vows as an adult. The second option is to be "received" into this branchof the Church. Perhaps you were baptized or confirmed as an adult in another branch of the Church? This is the oppor-tunity to be welcomed into this Episcopal branch. Finally, there is the opportunity to "reaffirm" your commitment to Godand the Church. We all should take these opportunities during the course of our lives because it often gives the HolySpirit a willing heart to work with.

B&PW

By Nancy Rudd, President

The May meeting of the B&PW Guild is Tuesday, May11. We meet in the Hill Room at6 p.m. Our program this month will be our yearly ser-vice project. Please bring all your greeting cards tobundle.Our corporate communion is Sunday, May 3 at 8 a.m.,followed by breakfast. Let

Debby Pierce

know if youwill be attending this event or the May dinner. Cost ofthe dinner is $8. Join us for either the corporate com-munion, an evening of delicious food and great com-panionship or both.

Ascension Day, Dinner andEucharist

On Thursday, May 13, at 6 p.m., St. Paul’s will have itssecond annual Deacon’s Dinner Fundraiser for streetministry. The Ascension Day Eucharist will follow at 7p.m.This year’s dinner will feature the “best Soups of St.Paul’s” donated by volunteer chefs. We will also havehearty grilled cheese sandwiches for the children of allages.We still need a couple volunteers to donate a pot oftheir gourmet soup. Please mark your calendars now.We will have a signup sheet in the lobby area. Don’tmiss this opportunity to attend our gourmet soup kitchenand fundraiser. Come and enjoy our best soups, fellow-ship, and worship for a good cause. Cost is whateveryou are willing to donate.

Thank You forOffice Help

By Bobbi Tisdale,Vestry Member

Thank you to the followingvolunteers for coveringoffice duties during OfficeManager

Kathleen John-son's

vacation:

LynZynda, Marti Repaskey,Joyce Renfrew, JulieFletcher, Lille Foster

and

Barb Richardson

. All ofthese people did an out-standing job keeping theoffice running. A specialthank you to Julie formaking sure Fr. Wellerreceived prompt medical

4 F’s

By Nancy Sheldon

There has been a change in plans fromwhat has been previously announced.We will not be able to visit the ButterflyGardens at MSU, so are moving our endof the year picnic to May 3 at myhouse. We will continue our interestingstudy of the psalms with Dr. Lange.Please sign up outside of the MerrifieldRoom or call the church office to make areservation or request a ride. Our picnicwill also include our annual book shareand next year’s planning time. We’lllook forward to seeing you!

United ThankOfferingMay 9

By Nancy Milne, ECW

Mother’s Day, May 9 at both services, isagain the time for St. Paul’s springUnited Thank Offering. UTO’s purpose isto help us appreciate the small andlarge blessings in our lives as we give tohelp meet the needs of other churches.All our gifts are given in one-yeargrants to encourage the fulfillment ofthe church’s mission.Page 2

Estate Planning Seminars

By Peter Sheldon, St. Paul’s Legal Counsel

As one aspect of St. Paul's Planned Giving Program, which was first announced last year, I will be conducting the an es-tate planning seminar with

Don Lawrence

on three different Wednesdays at 6:15 p.m. in the Van Atta room: April 28;May 12; and May 26. The seminar is open to St. Paul's parishioners and their families and will be approximately onehour long, including a question and answer period. Even if you have an estate plan in place, you are encouraged to at-tend one of these three sessions because there is currently a good deal of uncertainty as to the direction Congress maytake in restructuring our federal estate tax law, and, as a result, it may be well for certain individuals to consider amend-ing their current estate plans to address that uncertainty. We hope to see you at one of the sessions.Pa

Evangelism & Communications

By Sally Lawrence, Vestry Member

You spoke, we listened! Check out our new St. Paul’s signon the east side of the building. We are now checking onthe feasibility of signs that will indicate parking in theramp when it is available. Pictures are being snappedfor our vestry and staff pictorial display, and we hopeto have that up soon. Our communications chair,

MattFerguson,

has been busy making wonderful improve-ments to our St. Paul’s Web site (http://stpaulslansing.org/

) and has been busy learning to useour new video camera. If you noticed the great video ofour Easter Service on the St. Paul’s Web site, then youknow it was put to great use already!Also, we would like to have a presence in the Silver Bellsparade this year but to do so plans must be made soon.We could use help with this project, so if you are inter-ested contact

Sally Lawrence or Bill Fineout

.Finally, a gentle reminder to keep looking around forthat new face on Sunday morning; then greet that per-son with a warm welcome. Invite him or her up for coffeein the Merrifield room if possible and introduce the new-comer around.

Save these Dates

June 6 Graduations Sunday—Be sure to getthe name of your graduate to the of-fice.June 13 Parish PicnicJune 21-25 Tentative dates for Vacation BibleSchoolJuly 21 Deanery Picnic and Eucharist at HawkIsland Park

Job Well Done!

By Sally Lawrence, Vestry Member

If any of you have ever ventured to the undercroft,you probably found it to be a pretty scary place.Not any more, however. Thanks to the efforts of

Max

and

Debby Pierce,

Dillon John, John Irwin,Deacon Bill Fineout, Doug Holmes

and

Don Law-rence

, it has a whole new look. While waiting forson

Mathieu

to finish a music lesson,

Alex Weisner

even made countless trips up the stairs carryingtrash! Now it not only looks great, but you canprobably find what you are looking for. Thanksguys, for all your hard work.