March 2011 Volume 52 Issue 3

It is the Vision of Christ Church to be an open, welcoming Episcopal congregation living the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the power of the Holy Spirit, we seek to nurture our spiritual growth through worship and prayer, learning and teaching, support and service. We aspire to put God’s love into action within our own lives, in our congregation and in our world.

In This Issue

The Journey of Lent p. 2

Lenten Practices at

Christ Church p.3

Christ Church Habitat

Work Day p.4

Vestry Notes p. 6

Lenten Diaper Drive p.7

Choral Evensong p. 8

Youth Summer Mission

Trip p. 9

Pennies for Peace p.9

Three Choirs Festival

Sunday, March 6 at 5 p.m.

at Grace Church, Salem

T he combined youth choirs from Christ Church, Andover, Grace Church, Salem, and All Saints Church, Chelmsford join together to sing for

their third annual Three Choirs Festival. A Lessons and Carols Service will be sung reflecting the Church Year beginning with readings from Advent, Christ-mas, and Epiphany through Lent, Easter, Pentecost, All Saints and the Feast of Christ the King. Our St. Cecilia Choristers and Schola have been working hard all year to prepare for this special service. Come and hear them sing! A recep-tion follows the service.

Services

March 9, 2011

7:00 a.m. 12:00 p.m. 7:30 p.m.

Holy Eucharist with the

Imposition of Ashes in the church.

From the Rector’s Desk

I t’s been so long since we’ve had a change in our staff, we almost don’t know what to think! For nearly four years now, Adam Shoemaker has served faithfully here at Christ Church, first as Curate, and after two years, as Assis-

tant Rector. He now follows his calling to the Diocese of North Carolina where he will serve as Rector of the Church of the Holy Comforter in the town of Bur-lington. They will be as blessed as we have been to have Adam join them in their ministry. And we are honored to have played a role in helping prepare Adam to become the rector in such a wonderful parish.

On the final two Sundays of March we will have a send-off for Adam and his wife, Courtney. On March 20th, Courtney will be our guest preacher. Serving at St. Stephen’s in Lynn these past three years, she has had her own busy ministry, and we haven’t seen much of her here. But this will be our chance to have her preach in our parish at least once! And after the late service on the 20th, we’ll have a special celebration (Lent notwithstanding) in the Parish Hall to send them off with our blessing and to thank Adam for his ministry with us. I hope you’ll all plan to be with us. On March 27th Adam will preach his final sermon at Christ Church, and the following Sunday, he begins as rector at Holy Comforter.

We will all miss Adam – perhaps I more than most! He has been a very com-panionable colleague, an eager learner, and someone I could always depend on to follow through with even the most challenging situations. He has touched many lives through his ministry with our youth, his pastoral care, his preaching, and his leadership in our Christian Education and a variety of other ministries.

Even as we say our farewells to Adam, many are wondering what happens next for us here. We will be without a full-time assistant for about four months, from

Continued on p. 5...

The Prophet

Life at Christ Church

Page 2 Volume 52, Issue 3

The Journey

of Lent

The Rev. Adam Shoemaker

S hortly after our trip to Egypt was can-celed, the leader of

the Christian pilgrimage that we had been planning to take sent Courtney and me and our fellow pilgrims the following poem by Mary de LaValette as food for our continued pilgrimage: “I do not have to go to sacred places in far-off lands. The ground I stand on is holy.

Here, in this little garden I tend, my pilgrimage ends. The wild honey-bees; the hummingbird moth; the flickering fireflies at dusk are a mi-crocosm of the universe.

Each seed that grows; each spade of soil is full of miracles.

And I toil and sweat and watch and wonder and am full of love. Living in place in this place, for truth and beauty dwell here.” This poem served as a helpful reminder to us of the truism that we people of God are always on pilgrimage whether we get on a plane and travel a great distance or whether we stay in the comfort of our own homes. We are always on a jour-ney becoming ever more nearly the person that God has created us to be. The question is merely how well we are doing at paying attention to that perpetual journey of the soul. The season of Lent, that begins this year with Ash Wednes-day on March 9th, is a time in our church calendar when we Christians are invited to refocus ourselves and delve more deeply into our own journey with God. Lent is a time to slow down and pay renewed attention to that journey and to intentionally try and reflect, in some tangible way, as a men-tor and friend of mine once put it, on ―who we are and whose we are.‖ I am always grateful for this 40-day period of Lent (which is intended to mirror Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness prior to beginning his public ministry) for the way in which it can prepare us for Easter. Life can often move so fast and be-come so cluttered with unnecessary distractions that it is always helpful for me to be invited again to re-focus myself and re-discover my center of gravity so to speak. It is usu-ally a great help to me in getting to Easter with a renewed

sense of my faith in God. People have a variety of ways of intentionally observing this season but some common practices involve the discipline of doing without something that we might feel is a distraction (such as television or Facebook or junk food) or taking something on (such as a set time of prayer or quiet time each day or each week or participating in a Lenten program at church). However you do it, I invite you to this Lenten invitation to journey in some tangible way and to join us for worship on Sunday mornings. I invite you to slow down and pay attention to God’s presence in your life so that you may be reminded of who you are and whose you are. Such a reminder could be life-changing. Blessings, Adam

Continued

Journey of Lent continued .

Merrimack Valley Project

Relationship-Building, Leadership

Development, and Community

Concerns

M errimack Valley Project (MVP) is an interfaith organization that brings together congregations and community groups throughout the region to

focus on community concerns. The organization finds its strength and direction from the relationships of its mem-bers. It’s through these discussions and through listening campaigns that the organization decides which issues to focus on. MVP is offering a two-hour training in relation-ship-building and one-to-one dialogue. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone who is interested in congregational development, active listening, outreach, and social justice issues. It’s also a great way to meet leaders from other churches throughout the valley. The training will be held on March 10 from 7 –9 p.m. at the MVP office at 1045 Es-sex Street, Lawrence. For more information, contact Rose-marie Buxton at 978-683-7055. MVP is continuing to work on the foreclosure issue. Over the spring, citizens from our member groups are meeting with members of our state legislature to ask that they co-sponsor a bill requiring the foreclosure process to be han-dled through the courts. More on our progress on this issue next month!

Life at Christ Church

The Prophet Page 3 Volume 52, Issue 3

Lenten Practices at

Christ Church

T here are several opportunities being offered this year for your Lenten practice:

Join one of our Bible study groups: Tuesday morn-ing (7 a.m.), Tuesday afternoon (2 p.m.) or Wednesday evening (6 p.m.) each week

Come to our Sunday Forum series on the Bi-ble: Reading Scripture Through Other Eyes – a series of lectures and panel discussions from this year’s Trin-ity Institute, featuring Walter Brueggemann and others (11:30 a.m. on Sunday) – See article on this page.

Join our Wednesday morning book group for Lent as we read and discuss Barbara Brown Taylor’s An Altar in the World (8:30 a.m.) beginning the week after Ash Wednesday (March 16). Buy your own book at a local bookstore or online.

Go with a group from Christ Church to the Mu-seum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, March 16 (see separate article on this page for details

Participate in the Women’s Group March meeting —Drawing Closer to God: The practice of personal prayer (March 21 at 7:30 p.m.)

Use one of the daily Lenten devotional guides from Episcopal Relief and Development. You’ll find them at the back of the church and in the Parish Hall begin-ning on the Last Sunday after the Epiphany (March 6). You can also sign up to receive a daily email meditation during Lent by signing up on the ERD website at http://www.er-d.org/lent/.

Reading Scripture Through

Other Eyes

D o we read scripture on our own, deciding what to believe? Do we read them as part of a group, with a similar mindset? Do we read them with a world

view?

Often in times of change, we find our grounding in reading scripture. But what we read and believe may be different from what someone around the world reads and believes.

Trinity Institute’s 41st National Theological Conference was held in January, led by an international panel of distin-guished speakers. We will show highlights of this year’s event featuring biblical scholars and writers, including Wal-ter Brueggemann, Mary Gordon, Teresa Okure, and Gerald West. We will explore the theory and practice of Bible study that is authentic and transformative. Speakers will address topics including:

What concerns do scholars have when reading scrip-ture?

What does an ordinary reader bring?

How does our culture influence what truths we may find in scripture?

How do we read scripture together?

Reading Scripture through Other Eyes will consider these ques-tions and others in order to help us become more conscious of what we are looking for when we return to the Bible as a source of inspiration.

We will meet in the Parlor on three Sundays during Lent at

11:30 a.m. – March 13, April 3, April 10.

Daylight Savings

Begins on

March 13

D aylight Savings Time is be observed from the second Sunday in March until the first Sunday in Novem-

ber. Remember to turn your clocks forward before going to bed on March 12.

An Introduction to the

World of Russian Icons

J oin a group from Christ Church on a pilgrimage to Clin-ton, Massachusetts, and the Museum of Russian Icons. This museum houses the largest collection of

Russian Icons in North America, and one of the largest pri-vate collections outside Russia. It has works of master icon writers, and is now hosting a special exhibition titled ―Treasures from Moscow: Icons from the Andrey Rublev Museum.‖

We will carpool from Christ Church leaving at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 16, and returning by 3 pm. Think of it as a Lenten field trip/retreat day with some very nice fellow parishioners! Contact Debbie Moskal at 978-475-0529 ext. 10 if you have any questions.

Life at Christ Church

The Prophet Volume 52, Issue 12 Page 4

Christ Church

Habitat for

Humanity

Work Day

On March 19

I nterested in joining fellow Christ Church parishioners, men and women, in working on a Habitat for Humanity project? The next Christ Church Habitat for Humanity

work day is scheduled for Saturday, March 19. Please join the Men’s Ministry and your fellow parishioners in this great experience. If you are interested, contact David Tringali at david_tringali@verizon.net.

Communion

Enrichment Class for

2nd and 3rd Graders

Begins in March

D uring Lent, we will again offer a special Commun-ion Enrichment opportunity, for both our 2nd and 3rd grade church school class and their par-

ents, to reflect upon some of Jesus’ parables that speak di-rectly to our need to remain in a healthy and balanced rela-tionship with God and one another. This enrichment opportunity consists of the following: Four Meditations for adults and children: March 6th, ―Jesus, the True Vine‖, March 13th, ―Abiding in Jesus, the True Vine‖, March 20th, ―The Found Sheep & The Found Coin‖ and March 27th, ―the Forgiving Father‖. A Children’s Retreat – Saturday, April 2nd from 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ending with a family potluck lunch Communion Enrichment Sunday, April 3rd during the 10 a.m. service During these Sundays of Lent, we will offer meditations to adults from 9:00-9:45 a.m. and to children from 9:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. The same meditations are being offered to chil-dren and adults simultaneously to foster a discussion be-tween parent and child. The parables in these meditations are profound expressions of God’s deep desire and search-ing love. This love longs to draw us into communion with God and one another and helps to shape our understanding of the relational nature of the Sacrament of Holy Commun-ion. Regular participation in the Eucharist is a way that we continue to remain in this very important ―communion‖ – a communion, in fact, that is vital to our well-being as God’s beloved children. This enrichment program again draws from curriculum from the highly popular Christian formation program, The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd which has been used all year in our 2nd and 3rd grade classroom and occasionally in our pre-K class. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is an approach to the reli-gious formation of children that is rooted in the Bible, the liturgy of the church, and the educational principles of Maria Montessori.

Confirmation Class

Attending Cityreach Retreat

in Boston

O n Friday evening, March 11th, our confirmation class will be venturing into Boston to participate in Ecclesia Ministries' Cityreach retreat. Ecclesia is

an Episcopal ministry to the homeless that holds worship services, each Sunday of the year (regardless of weather), out on the Boston Common. The Cityreach program is of-fered to both high school and college-aged students and is designed to immerse participants into the realities of life for the urban poor of Boston. The retreat is led, in part, by homeless or formerly homeless men and women who are part of the Ecclesia community and is always an eye-opening experience. While on the retreat, our class will hear testimonials from homeless people and will then be taken on a tour of the Boston streets with an eye to what life is like when one regularly sleeps on those streets. There will be ample time for reflection and, on Saturday morning, a chance for more interaction when retreatants will hand out clothes to those who regularly come to St. Paul's Cathedral, our diocese's headquarters, looking for help. Our class is currently holding a clothing drive (boxes are set up in the Parish Hall) to collect as much as we can to contribute to what will get distributed on the Saturday of the retreat. The items most needed are new white socks and underwear for men (80%) in sizes large and extra large. Also needed in used or good condition are back packs, tote bags, fanny packs and small suitcases with wheels. Experiences from this retreat will be shared once the class returns to Christ Church.

Life at Christ Church

The Prophet Page 5 Volume 52, Issue 2

The Thrift Shop

The Thrift Shop Board

L ike the rest of us, we at the Thrift Shop are especially looking forward to spring

this year! What a winter this has been … many days closed due to poor weather and many days when shoppers were reluctant to venture out of their homes - let alone shop - due to the cold! The mountains of snow outside our door are finally disappearing, however, and our end-of-the-month sale has been so popular that we anticipate rebound-ing revenue as the weather improves. Our donations to the greater Merrimack Valley have not slowed down during this period … Lola regularly picks up unsold items and brings them to several locations where they are sorted and distrib-uted to needy folks. She left last week with a full carload! One of our customers (not a parishioner) noticed the Con-firmation class appeal for City Reach and arrived at the Shop with a donation of men’s underwear which has already been deposited in the Parish Hall box. We have new faces as take-in assistants which makes every-one’s job easier. We are always looking for men and women who have a few hours to commit to every week. Contact Norm Scarpulla or talk to a manager or one of the volun-teers. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to hear how much fun you can have while making a great contribution to the par-ish and the community. We are open Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and the first three Saturdays of the month from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Look for us on Facebook!!

April through July. During that interim time period, I have asked the Rev. Jim Dodson to provide some part-time pas-toral assistance. Jim, as many of you know, is a retired United Methodist minister who served congregations in Minnesota and Maine. He has been a part of our congrega-tion now for about five years since his marriage to Frances Jennings Dodson. He recently retired (again), this time from being a Hospice chaplain, and now has some time to give us. Many of the programmatic areas of Adam’s minis-try will continue through the spring and summer months with the established lay leadership of those ministries, and with staff support from Mary Ann Lennon, Debbie Moskal, and myself.

We will also begin a search for a new Curate/Assistant Rec-tor. We are beginning now to assemble a search committee that will assist me in the selection of a new deacon or priest to fill this role. The committee will consist of a broadly representative group of parishioners. They will be involved in writing the job description, soliciting and screening candi-dates, interviewing finalists for the job, and making a rec-ommendation to me on who to hire. We hope to issue a call soon after Easter, and have the new person in place around the first of August.

We have been blessed with wonderful curates and assistant clergy at Christ Church. And this parish has played an im-portant role in the formation of many who have gone on from here to serve in other places. We all know how im-portant these people have been in the life of our parish, so please pray with me that we will be open and discerning in our selection of yet another person who will be an inspira-tion to us, and help us grow in new ways.

March 9 begins our forty day journey through Lent. It is a time for self-examination and preparation of ourselves for the promise of resurrected Life at Easter – no less so for our whole parish community than for every one of us as individuals. The season of Lent corresponds nicely with the period of our search for a new Curate, so I especially ask you to join me in prayer (and fasting if you will) as we prepare ourselves for what will come. I know there will be unexpected blessings – yes even from what now feels like a very big loss.

See you in church!

Rector continued from p. 1. All-Parish Information Meeting

March 27, 2011

11:30 a.m. in the Parish Hall

T hings will be happening here in our building soon! Come and hear the latest developments on our Building Project:

Timeline for construction

Scope of the project

Plans for worship during construction

And other questions that arise

Everyone is welcome. Come and be part of this important conversation about our future.

Life at Christ Church

The Prophet Volume 52, Issue 1 Page 6

Vestry Notes

Alison Novello, Sr. Warden

I n the fall of 2010, a generous bequest was received from the estate of Everett Hilton. 75% of the gift was placed in the Marland Fund, as required under vestry

policy for any unrestricted bequest. At the Annual Meeting it was announced that the remaining 25% ($95,000) was available to fund various needs within Christ Church. After listening to many suggestions and much discussion, the Ves-try voted in their February meeting to allocate the funds as follows. Christian Edducation Discretionary Fund for Catechesis of the Good Shepherd through 5th grade $10,000 Renovation of façade and windows at Park Street Property (Thrift Shop) $10,000 Replacement of windows at back of church building $25,000 Emergency Building Fund $25,000 Renew & Rejoice capital campaign $25,000

Total $95,000

Christian Education Discretionary This fund will allow us to work outside the limits of our constrained annual budgets to fund innovative ideas in Christian Education, particularly the ongoing implementa-tion of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. It will also help us purchase new curriculum materials for other classes up through grade 5.

Window façade at Park Street (Thrift Shop) This window façade has been in need of replacement for many years and will greatly help with heating costs and safety concerns.

Replacement of Back Windows With additional funding from the Thrift Shop, this will al-low for much needed replacement of the windows and the siding at the back of the church. This has been a priority since 2005, and was slated to be done last summer before we had the leaks in the church, which then had to take pri-ority.

Emergency Fund: Tower Partial funding for needed repairs to the bell tower prior to the start of the balcony project, with remaining funds to be kept for future emergencies.

Renew & Rejoice

This is to help us to continue to be on our way to a more complete project. Our aim was to address some of our con-cerns for parts of our building that are not included in the Renew & Rejoice Campaign, as well as acknowledge the im-portance of this Campaign.

There were many choices of what to do with this money and we felt that this combination displays a good distribu-tion. We continue to be exceedingly grateful to Everett Hilton for this bequest.

A Note about Everett Hilton

E verett Hilton was a teenager at Christ Church in the 1920s or 30s. His parents were not members, but he came to Christ Church because of the youth

group. He was always interested in golf, and in fact was a caddy at a local golf course. One of the men for whom he caddied gave him stock in Acushnet, a company he had founded. Everett became very wealthy as the stock was successful in later years. By the time he wrote his will many years later, he had lived in different places in Massachusetts and attended a number of churches, but he always remem-bered what a wonderful youth group he was part of at Christ Church, and he was determined to leave a substantial amount of money to the parish. His initial gift of $1 million came soon after his death in the late 1960s. The recent gift of $380,000 was the residual of a trust he had set up for a relative. When she died last year at the age of 102, Christ Church became the beneficiary of the trust.

Continued…

Vestry continued.

Treasurer’s Corner

Bill Hastings

T he Parish just approved a budget of $525K at the 2011 Annual Meeting, but we have only raised $505K to date. If we don't bridge the gap in the

next month, I will be proposing a revised balanced budget to the Vestry in March. This has been an expensive year so far for snow removal, but Mark has done a great job only spending where needed for safety of people and our build-ings. We are also continuing to see the fruits of our energy savings initiatives resulting in lower gas consumption in January. We're pleased to see that annual pledge payments were high in January, but pledge payments for Renew and Rejoice are behind the payment forecasted dates by 50K. Please check with your R&R pledge payment schedule or contact Maria Chan as fulfilling these payments on schedule will reduce the bank loan and interest payments required.

Life at Christ Church

The Prophet Page 7 Volume 52, Issue 1

April Prophet

Articles Due

T he deadline for the April Prophet is Wednesday, March 16th. By this date, parishioners are

encouraged to submit articles about the life of the congregation, events or committees to Debbie Moskal, (dmoskal@christchurchandover.org) Director of Commu-nications.

Welcome Brandon Bigelow

to the Vestry

Y ou might have noticed that ―TBA‖ in the Vestry Class of 2012 in last month’s Prophet. We’re happy to announce that Brandon Bigelow has accepted a

one-year appointment to this unexpired term. Brandon, together with his wife Tracy Blueman and their three chil-dren have been members at Christ Church for the past eight years. Brandon is a partner at the law firm of Bing-ham McCutcheon, where he represents the New England Patriots and other clients. On Sundays he is one of our 4th-5th grade teachers in the Sunday School. We’re thrilled to have him on the Vestry!

Mardi Gras

Pancake Supper

Hosted by the

J2A

T uesday, March 8th the J2A group will be hosting a Mardi Gras Pancake sup-

per. This is a kick-off of their fundraising efforts for their Pilgrimage in 2012. Besides the traditional pancakes and sausage, there will be games and activities for children and burning of the palms. The youth of the church will also be celebrating Adam and all he has meant to them. Please sign up on the bulletin board outside the Parish Hall. Tickets are $8 or $25 for a family over three. The new J2A youth are looking forward to seeing you all!

Please Help

Communities Together

Lenten Underwear &

Diaper Drive

T his will be the 14th year Communities Together (formerly Greater Lawrence Council of Churches) has collected diapers, pull-ups and small children’s

underwear during Lent. Nearly 20,000 items were collected last year alone. The collection is shared between eight and 12 social service agencies able to reach those most in need. Food stamps and WIC vouchers cannot be used to pur-chase diapers. Unfortunately, the need never goes away and, in fact, seems to increase during periods when our economy is struggling. Poverty in Lawrence is still a significant prob-lem, especially for young families with small children.

Please join the Wednesday morning worship group that supports this worthwhile mission. Just one package will make a difference to a youngster in need. Collection boxes will be placed in the Parish Hall, well-marked for diapers, pull-ups and undies. Please leave any size for diapers and pull-ups and age 2/3 to 10/12 for boys and girls undies.

Communities Together

2011 Lenten Services

March 9 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church 90 Broadway, Methuen, MA Homilist: The Rev. Linda Kreil

March 16 Forest Street Union Church 15 Forest Street, Methuen, MA Homilist: The Rev. William Waters, OSA

March 23 First United Methodist Church 57 Peters Street, North Andover, MA Homilist: The Rev. Jonathan Drury

March 30 West Parish Church 129 Reservation Road, Andover, MA Homilist: The Rev. Dr. A.S. Daley

April 6 First-Calvary Baptist Church 586 Massachusetts Ave., N. Andover, MA Homilist: the Rev. Richard Knight

April 13 Lawrence General Hospital, Kurth Auditorium 1 General Street, Lawrence, MA Homilist: Hospital Staff These services provide a variety of worship experiences and foster understanding of the traditions of the host churches. All services begin at 12:00 noon and are followed by a light lunch.

Guess Who’s

Coming to Dinner

Carol Reid & Meg Walker

O ur next Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner event will be on March 26 at 6:30

p.m. We hope to see you there as we celebrate a much an-ticipated springtime. We will be putting the dinner groups together around March 10 so please let me know by then if you are able to attend, will be able to host, and how many people you can accommodate. We had a difficult time finding enough host houses in January so please consider hosting in March if you have not done so this season (a season runs from Septem-ber through May). There will be one more dinner party on May 21. Please contact us at carolreid@comcast.net or Meg Walker at megwalker@comcast.net. We look forward to hearing from you by March 10.

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The Prophet Volume 52, Issue 1 Page 8

Women’s Group to

Meet

March 21

T he Women's Group will meet on Monday, March 21, at 7:30 p.m. As a way to en-

hance our Lenten disciplines, our evening will be devoted to the practice of prayer. (In other words: God - if we are go-ing to be friends, we HAVE to find a time to get together!) We will break down into groups to explore various ap-proaches to prayer, such as praying with the Book of Com-mon Prayer, praying with children, Lectio Divina, and Cen-tering Prayer, according to people's interest.

Community Support

for Christ Church

Children’s Center

Christy Harvey, Director of the Children’s Center

D id you know that for the past 13 years, over 150 residents and business professionals have

contributed to our annual fundraising event? Many of our friends and neighbors come together to support our school by raising the money we need to offer a variety of family and community events, fund two full-time scholarships, and purchase equipment for our classrooms. This year we will be hosting our annual Spring Social and Fundraiser on Fri-day, May 6th at Salvatore's in Lawrence. This event will feature a silent auction highlighting unique gifts from local businesses and community members. Would you like to help? Please consider donating an item for the silent or live auction. Do you have season tickets to a local sport's team? Maybe a vacation home with a week that you know will go unused? Or are you a budding artist, ready to share your work? We would love to have you showcase your donation at our event. Auction items are greatly appreciated, and when you choose to make a dona-tion, your family, business or organization will be high-lighted as a sponsor of our event. Please contact Christy Harvey at charvey@christchurchandover.org to join in the fun!

Choral Evensong

Sunday, March 20 at 5:00 p.m.

Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis by Herbert Murrill

Evening Hymn by H. Balfour Gardiner

Sung by the Parish Choir of Christ Church

John Skelton, Organist

Barbara Bruns, Conductor

Save the Date!!!

Vestry Gala

The Evening of

Saturday, May 7th

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The Prophet Page 9 Volume 52, Issue 1

Summer Youth Mission Trip

Being Planned

Y outh Mission Trip is being planned for this sum-mer! All teenagers in grades 7-12 are invited to come on our biennial youth mission trip, which will

take place this coming summer. Interested teens and their parents are encouraged to attend an organizational meet-ing on Sunday, March 13 at 11:30 a.m. in the Meeting Room. We have more details including possible dates, itin-eraries and possible locations. If you can’t make the meet-ing, but are interested in going, please contact Matt Lennon at jmlennon@gmail.com.

Pennies for Peace

B eginning in October, our Children’s Chapel offering has been going towards sup-

porting the Pennies for Peace program. In addition, the Wednesday morning worship and breakfast group has been contributing to the Pennies for Peace program. Pennies for Peace was started by a man named Greg Mortenson, author of the popular book Three Cups of Tea that chronicles his experiences in some of the most notorious places of Af-ghanistan and Pakistan. Mortenson, who works to build girls’ schools in these countries because of the lack of op-portunity for girls, started Pennies for Peace as a way for school children around the world to be involved in this ef-fort. The goal is to collect as many pennies as possible to be sent to Mr. Mortenson’s organization to further his impor-tant work. It has been said that, through this campaign, children have already helped to raise over a million pennies world-wide! It’s a wonderful way for children to help other children and to get the message that all of us can make a big difference through seemingly small gestures of goodwill.

Greetings from

Pennies for Peace!

Thank you for your incredible support and dedication to provide community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghani-stan. We hope your experience with Pen-nies for Peace has taught you more about a part of the world that you may have known little about, and you learned about your power as a philanthropist - one penny at a time.

When you give children in Pakistan and Afghanistan an education, you give them hope for a better future. And when you participate in Pennies for Peace you give yourselves hope for a better future through cross-cultural understand-ing and a solution-oriented approach.

Please share your experience with others and have them visit us at www.penniesforpeace.org to begin to make a dif-ference to thousands of children half a world away. Thank you for participating in Pennies for Peace and making a positive impact on a global scale - one penny at a time!

Thank You for the

Goats!

T o see a video ―Thank You!‖ from the recipients of goats from our Goats for Rwanda project, go to

the home page of our website www.christchurchandover.org, and click on the link that’s just beneath the welcome message. It’s wonderful and inspi-rational! Christ Church parishioners and friends have raised more than $8,000 so far for REACH Rwanda, which has enabled them to purchase 270 goats for Rwandan families. You can still purchase a goat for Rwanda, either by paying by PayPal on that same page on our website, or by sending a check for $30 per goat to Christ Church, c/o Maria Chan, 25 Central St., Andover, MA 01810. Please write ―Goats for Rwanda‖ in the memo line.

Another Opportunity to Give

to Haiti

K athy Grant was one of the Christ Church parish-ioners who went to Haiti in January. She and her teenage daughter Elizabeth Walther-Grant are

going to Haiti again over school vacation week (April 15-22). While Kathy was in Haiti, she saw many mothers who were using both hands to carry their babies, as they do not have enough cloth to make a baby sling. It is very difficult to walk up and down uneven steps and dusty, rocky roads without falling while both hands are occupied with some-thing fragile – a baby.

If anyone in the congregation has leftover baby slings, baby front packs or baby backpacks to donate, these baby carri-ers would be greatly appreciated. Please contact Kathy at grant_kathleen@yahoo.com or call her at 978-470-0586.

JEFFREY SHILLING GILL — jgill@christchurchandover.org

ADAM J. SHOEMAKER — ashoemaker@christchurchandover.org

BARBARA A. BRUNS — bbruns@christchurchandover.org

CATHERINE ROSEN

MARIA L. CHAN — mchan@christchurchandover.org

DEBORAH K. MOSKAL -- dmoskal@christchurchandover.org

MARY ANN LENNON — mlennon@christchurchandover.org

LIZ DIETZ

CHRISTY HARVEY— charvey@christchurchandover.org

FRANCES J. DODSON- andoverthriftshop@comcast.net

MARK POMERLEAU — mpomerleau@christchurchandover.org

IAN BATES, PETER NOVELLO

978/475-0529 - Hours 9 AM - 3 PM

978/475-9707

978/475-9557

978/475-0957

978/475-4037

978/807-4687

Rector

Assistant Rector

Minister of Music

Head Verger

Business Manager

Director of communications

Asst. for Membership Development

Sunday Church School Coordinator

Director of the Children’s Center

Head Manager, Thrift Shop

Sexton

Sunday Sextons

Parish Office (Glebe House) - Tuesdays— Fridays

Parish Hall

Fax Number

Andover Thrift Shop

Christ Church Children’s Center

Emergency Pastoral Calls

The Parish of Christ Church - 25 Central Street - Andover, MA 01810-3780

Web Site Address – www.christchurchandover.org

Diocese of Massachusetts - Web Site Address - www.diomass.org

The Episcopal Church - www.episcopalchurch.org

The Prophet The Parish of Christ Church 25 Central Street Andover, MA 01810-3780 www.christchurchandover.org

Periodical

The Prophet (604-860) is published monthly except for Janu-

ary, July and August by the Parish of Christ Church, 25

Central Street, Andover, MA 01810-3780. Periodicals postage

paid at Andover, MA. Postmaster. Send address change to

THE PROPHET, 25 Central Street, Andover, MA 01810-3780.

Page 10 The Prophet Volume 52, Issue 1

Life at Christ Church

Worship Schedule

Sundays

8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist 10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist

Wednesdays 7:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist in the

North Chapel followed by breakfast in the Parish Hall