Courtyard Coffee Hour, Y'all!

From Mother Nikki:

I am heartened by the recent CDC's guidance about vaccinated folks and masks (that we don’t have to wear them) and I am confident that our Diocesan guidelines will soon change to reflect on this good news. In the meantime, in staying open we will continue to pray for more equitable vaccine distribution, as well as continuing to pray for those affected physically and financially by this virus. And we will also continue to do what we have committed to do to honor God and love neighbor through following diocesan protocols.

While we still can’t serve food on the grounds, we can now eat and drink on the grounds, so if you’d like to join us in between Sunday services for Courtyard Coffee Hour, bring your thermos of your fav beverage, and anything as a snack or breakfast for yourself (just for you and your pod…sadly, we can’t yet share food with those outside our household), and hang out in the fresh air (yes, I’ll be outside…It’s a miracle!!).

Zoom Meeting Opportunities

New parish community offerings via Zoom:

• Stacie Court is hosting a weekly Zoom group, Let's Chat!, for women from the church.  The days and times sometimes vary, but it's very casual and anyone is welcome.  Everyone on the list is invited each week, and we all understand no one can do it every week.  Anyone interested in joining should email Stacie! 

• Book Club first Friday of the month @ 7PM ongoing for the foreseeable future. Email Lois Alworth if you are interested in participating.

• Lectionary Discussion Group via Zoom, every Thursday at 6:00pm beginning May 7th. Email Ken Taylor if you are interested in participating.

• Threads of Prayer, every other Tuesday at 1PM (May 5 & 19). Email Annette Bates if you are interested in participating. All knitters and crocheters welcome!

• Men's Group: 9AM on Saturdays.  Email Peter Rice

  Other groups have been meeting via Zoom as well, so if you've got a group already meeting in Zoom rooms, and want to widen your circle, let Kendall know so we can get the word out there!

VBS Update!

Summer Fun!  Beginning in mid June and going through early August, Vacation Bible School for all ages (kids and adults) will meet online with games, music, art, stories and more.  You'll be able to do the activities at whatever time works for you, then gather for a weekly Zoom meeting.  Please email Catherine Drewry to sign up, and include your mailing address for your supply packets. We are using Roger Hutchison's new book The Very Best Day for our theme, based on Bishop Curry's initiative called The Way of Love.

It’s still a holy Holy Week: a note from Mother Nikki

Deeply Beloved!
Virtual and digital hugs to all of you, this Holy Week. It's still holy because God is still here, loving us upholding us, helping us do love!  Many blessings be yours on this Wednesday in Holy Week. Let us pray...
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Since we are still sheltering in place, all our services this week are either from the Daily Office, or are simply the Liturgy of the Word portion of a service that is normally part of the Tridduum. I miss you terribly, but at least I get to see your beautiful smiling faces behind me on the office wall.  Thank you, Missy Hamlin for the beautiful collage.  (Those of you who didn't get pics in the directory, I'm working on those stick figures now). And it's so lovely to join you in your homes for Compline. I nearly cried seeing Peter and Ann in our YouTube channel in prayer. And there are more beautiful faces praying Compline all week!  I can't wait for that AND I still can't wait until we're all together again! So excited!!

Speaking of the YouTube Channel, click here to get there.

If you click the red Subscribe word (AND click on the picture of the bell , right next to that word) when you reach the channel, you'll get an email every time we put up a video. And regardless of whether you do any of that, when you go to the channel, you'll see all of our videos. 

On occasion, you'll see a video with the word 'premiere' in it. That means it can't be viewed until time for service, as referenced on the Holy Week schedule. After that service is over, it's there for viewing anytime anybody wants, from now until Jesus comes back. Have at it!!

Thank so many of you for joining us for Palm Sunday and for Compline this week, and please do join us for the services below on this week's schedule.  Links to Eucharist services from other churches will be below the schedule as well. You are beloved, and you are held by God. (Don't let nobody tell you any different!)

Here's a reminder of our Holy Week schedule: 

Monday - Saturday  Compline @ 7:30PM 
Maundy Thursday Service 6:00PM
Good Friday service 12:00 noon
Easter Vigil Saturday @ 8:30PM
Easter Sunday Morning Prayer 10:30AM Preacher: +Bishop Robert C. Wright

And again, for Sunday services with Eucharist, please see these websites. 

The Cathedral of St. Phillip
https://www.cathedralatl.org/

Easter Sunday Holy Eucharist at 6am, 8:45am, and 11:15am

Washington Cathedral 
https://cathedral.org/online/

Online Sunday Holy Eucharist: watch live on April 12 at 11:15 am 
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Deacon Rosalyn Panton (Mo. Nikki's Mom) shares with us the following resources from our Sister Diocese, the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia:

Holy Week 2020

These resources are offered to assist in engaging fully with Holy Week during a shelter in place order. While we can not gather in our churches to worship together, this presents an opportunity to bring Holy Week into you home more fully. We are grateful to Virginia Theological Seminary for assisting in curating resources for the Episcopal Church.

General Resources for those with children
The following resources are offered to assist families in this time of pandemic.
Coronavirus, Anxiety, Children and the Church by Angela Compton Nelson (Building Faith)

Faithful Parenting in a Pandemic by Wendy Claire Barrie (WendyClaireBarrie.com) offers some good ideas for different ages to engage, reflect on what's happening, etc. 

Look for the Gifts: Praying with Children During a Pandemic by Christine V. Hides (ChristineVHides.com) has a great idea for a prayer jar, but it's definitely not just for praying with children!

Holy Week at Home with Children: These two pdf files created by Kristen Pitts for Washington Episcopal School assist parents in talking with children about Holy Week.
Click here for Holy Week at Home for Pre-K.
Click here for Holy Week at Home for Grades 1-5.

Holy Week Resources for Families - Church Publishing created this free resource.
Holy Week, The Cross, and Children by Elizabeth Windsor (Building Faith) can give adults confidence talking about the tough stuff with children.
Holy Week At Home: Family Practices For The Triduum by Jerusalem Greer (Building Faith)

Maundy Thursday - Intergenerational
In church, footwashing during the liturgy and then stripping the altar of linens at the end of worship are the most striking elements. Here are two resources for Maundy Thursday, one for any age and one for children. Maundy Thursday is also part of The Great Three Days listed below.
Maundy Thursday Meal - A simple service for one or more people of any age to enjoy an agape style meal with the story of the Last Supper shared around the table. 
Maundy Thursday At Home: Stripping The Table by Jerusalem Greer (Building Faith)

Good Friday - Intergenerational
Stations of the Cross are a meaningful devotion that can be kept by an individual, as well as a couple or family. The following resources will assist you in these devotions.
Woodcuts: Artist Peggy Parker has given permission to print her Stations booklet so that you can place the wood cut prints around your home or yard in order to walk from station to station. Click here for woodcut images.
Stations of the Cross Meditations and Prayers: Frank and Victoria Logue wrote a set of brief meditations and prayers for home or church use top be prayed on the Fridays in Lent, especially on Good Friday. You can download a booklet to print front and back to make paper bulletins or download a PDF intended for reading on a smart phone or tablet. Click here for Stations booklet.Click here for Stations for smartphone.
Stations of the Cross for Children is offered for sale by Church Publishing and is very age appropriate:  Stations of the Cross for Children
Videos: Frank and Victoria's Stations of the Cross offered in print above are also available as a set of 1-minute videos. Frank worked on these with Joshua Varner, who created the music, and Louise Shipps, a visual artist who provided a second, objective 'eye' to help evaluate this work as it has progressed. These video Stations of the Cross use film of more recent examples of needless suffering alongside images of Christ's passion to challenge viewers to see how Jesus' death and resurrection can redeem all of the many times and ways the innocent have endured pain even to death. These are not for children. This is not an easy set of meditations, but a challenging one. Click here for the Stations of the Cross Videos.

The Great Three Days - Intergenerational
Thursday evening to Saturday evening are known in the church as the Great Three Days, The Triduum. These three services are really one event, stretched over the three days. 
The pdf linked here offers in home worship for each night. On each occasion you will need to set out one or more physical symbols: first, a bowl of water and a clean towel; then a cross or crucifix; and finally a bowl of water and a candle. After the last prayers on Saturday evening, do celebrate. It is Easter. Have at least one piece of chocolate or something else you love. 
Click here for The Great Three Days as a PDF.
Click here for The Great Three Days as a Word file.

Blessings and joy, Mother Nikki+

Be Encouraged: a note from Mother Nikki

Blessed Holy Week, Beloveds! 

Be of good courage! While we cannot live stream services from church, we have found a way to pre-record services more services from home. Thank you to all of you who joined us for Palm Sunday Morning Prayer. You can still find this service on our YouTube channel. 

Here's our Holy Week schedule: 

Monday - Saturday  Compline @ 7:30PM 

Maundy Thursday Service 6:00PM

Good Friday service 12:00 noon

Easter Sunday Morning Prayer 10:30AM 

Preacher: +Bishop Robert C. Wright

These will be available on our YouTube Channel . For all of these services, you can either follow along in your Book of Common Prayer or online at bcponline.org. The Stations of the Cross bulletin can still be found on our website.

If you click on SUBSCRIBE on the bell icon, you will receive an email from YouTube whenever the church has a new service available. 

All the services will be on YouTube from now until Jesus comes back so if you don't catch it at exactly the time of the 'premiere' (the scheduled time of the service), know that you can always watch it later. You won't miss a thing. You can also get to everything from our webpage.

Huge thank you's to all of our staff: Terri Tillman, Anthony Barkdoll, Missy Hamlin (lovely congregation art in my home office...you'll see what I mean), Jonathan Klein, Dakota Hamlin, David Stooksbury, and all who are leading Compline for us. 

Also, our sisters and brothers at Emmanuel Episcopal Church worked late into the night last Thursday night to pre-record Eucharists for Palm Sunday and Easter, to my knowledge. So please know that worship is available there as well.

And we'll keep you posted on any updates on our corporate worship as changes come. And always remember this: 

Romans 8:31-39 
God's Love in Christ Jesus

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Christ's Blessing, Healing, and Peace to you,

Mother Nikki+

Children's Notes from Catherine

Dear Parents,

I mailed packets to your children with bulletins and coloring sheets and a few other items for Holy Week and Easter.  One little craft I included is making butterflies from coffee filters and pipe cleaners.  Here's the link for instructions for that

I'm hopeful the packets will arrive in today's mail... but, they may wind up being a bit late.  

Here's a great You Tube video to walk through Holy Week with kids.  

Also, here's something I found that's lovely for the young and young at heart.
We are tentatively planning VBS for evenings the week of July 13-16...  Can't wait till we can all be back together again, and hope it's sooner than that!   Sending you and yours a big virtual hug!  Stay well!

Catherine