St. John's Episcopal Church

Beginning with the sermon preached on Sunday, March 8, 2009, St. John's has begun recording the audio of our sermons and posting them online where they are able to be downloaded in mp3 format. This allows the sermons to be placed on portable music devices, burned to cds, or listened to right off of a computer.

We now have several sermons online, including Palm Sunday and Easter. The archive will keep older sermons permanently as well as update each Sunday with that week's newest message. The host site for the sermons also has a place to leave comments, so feel free to leave any feedback or engage in a conversation about a message that particularly moved you or provoked thought on a subject.

This could prove to be a great tool for allowing people to hear the gospel message even if they don't attend church. Feel free (in fact please do) to give the link to the podcasts to any friends, family, or aquaintences, especially those who have no church home.

The host site of the podcast can be found by clicking on the "Sermon Audio" link on the navigation bar to the left, or by going to sermons.stjohnsulysses.com. Bookmark it in your browser.

Our lending library is growing. We now have four book shelves, though only two have books yet. There are more books waiting to be added to the shelves and there has been a nice flow of new books being donated. This is a great resource and there are some really good books in the library, so please make good use of this resource in your own walk with Christ.

Remember, all you need to do is fill out your name on the card in one of the books and leave it in the box. Keep the book as long as you want and bring it back when you are done. It is that simple.

St. John's has postponed its open pantry, previously scheduled for July 11, for the purpose of giving us more time to prepare and get the word out to the community. Given that so many people are gone for so much time in the summer, it seems better to reschedule this event for shortly the start of the school year. This gives us more time to gather as many groceries as we can, as well as having more people in town in the critical weeks leading up to the open pantry itself.

Thank you for your support and enthusiasm in this ministry, and please continue collecting non-perishables as found on the grocery list given out at church. A new date will be announced soon.

Thank you all for your attendance and excitement for our adult education class on Anglican/Episcopal Church history. For those of you who missed any of the sessions, we will be offering make-up classes beginning in July. Basically, for those who missed classes, please let Fr. Mike know whether you want to be a part of any of the make-up sessions. As long as there is enough interest, the entire four week class, or just those requested will be offered in July and August.

Beginning in September, a new series will begin. The topic will be basic Christian theology, helping us to understand what precisely we believe and why we believe it.