Hello there. I hope all of you are well and are taking care of yourselves during this stretch of very hot days.

What’s Happening:

Algoma Trad is playing at the Chapel of the Intercession on St. Joseph Island this Wednesday, July 17 at 2pm. Bring a chair and water. All donations will be split between Algoma Trad and the Episcopal Endowment Fund.

Stuff-a-Stocking! This is to raise money towards the purchase of Christmas gifts for struggling families in our area. The families targeted for this particular ministry are those served by the Lunches for Learning program run by St. Vincent Place. Why are we doing this now? The Advent season is heavily burdened by a lot of different requests for money and gifts as we approach Christmas. The Stuff-a-Stocking campaign is asking for donations – whatever you can help with – now when we are not feeling pinched by a lot of “asks”.  

This campaign is in no way meant to replace the wonderful ministries of our local churches during the Advent and Christmas seasons of our calendar. 

Every dollar counts and the Algoma Angels appreciate anything you may give. You can start this fundraiser at any point…collecting coins, bills, tim cards, etc. on a Sunday morning during your fellowship time. The campaign will end on Sunday, August 25 – Christmas in August. 

Bread of Life: Throughout August, we will hear from the Gospel According to John in which Jesus is named repeatedly as the “bread of life”.  Please join me in being the bread of life for others in need as we collect sandwich toppings for our food banks so that hungry people can top their bread with life-giving food. The suggested schedule is: Sunday, Aug.4: Jam; Sunday, Aug.11:

Peanut Butter; Sunday, Aug.18: margarine/butter; and Sunday, Aug.25: canned meat (tuna, ham, chicken, etc.). 

Thank you! When we do these things we are doing the work of God through the work of the Church. 

A Liturgical Note for You…Sort of…

This isn’t exactly liturgical but it’s interesting…

We, strangely, do not have any calendar observances this week. However, in The Church of England tomorrow they will be marking the commemoration of St. Swithun, Bishop of Winchester, who died in about 863. He’s interesting plus he’ll help me to explain something else (the “Legendary Material” below).  He’s the Patron Saint of Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire and, actually, wasn’t so exciting in life as he was after his death. Many legends abound about this saint. For example, it is said that when an old woman who was jostled in a crowd and dropped her basket of eggs, he took pity on her and made her eggs whole again. His tomb became a major destination for pilgrims who had heard of his healing powers. These pilgrims would crawl in a tunnel (called the “Holy Hole”) in order to get as close as possible to the healing effects of the saint’s bones. For more info:   http://www.winchester-cathedral.org.uk/our-heritage/famous-people/st-swithun/

A Note on Legendary Material:  We’ve just heard the part of Mark’s Gospel that tells us the story of John the Baptist’s beheading. There are several interesting legends about that. After his head was removed from his body and was displayed on the platter, legend has it that John continued to speak. 

Why do we continue to pass on legends? Why do we actually have legendary material officially designated on our liturgical calendar (Mary’s mother, Anne, will be commemorated next week. She’s not mentioned in the Bible but she is mentioned elsewhere and there is an interesting legend associated with her…more on that next week).  For All the Saints says this about legendary material: “Every effort has been made to ensure the historical accuracy of the notices. However, certain Memorials and Commemorations involve the recounting of legends in order to explain their observance by the Church. No endorsement of the historical veracity of these legends is thereby implied or intended”(p.22 of For All the Saints).  Whether or not these stories are true, they do point to important characteristics of the people involved. For example, John continues to speak after his beheading because he had been called by God to be a prophet – to proclaim the coming of the Messiah, to tell people to prepare for his coming, and to speak God’s truth to those who were not following God’s ways.

Well, that’s all for now.

In the joy of Christ,

Susan