Author: Parish Admin

March News: Outreach, Flowers, & a Note From Fr. Will

Post author By Parish Admin
Post date March 10, 2022
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A Note From Fr. Will

While leading our Ash Wednesday services last week, I was struck by the end of the exhortation that calls in the name of the Church, ‘to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.’

These basic tasks of the Christian life, self-examination, prayer, and meditation on Scripture, are easy to lose track of in the hustle of our everyday lives. Lent, though, calls us back to these basics as practices and devotions we should pursue throughout the year. The call back to these basic practices is not arbitrary. We turn to them because they train us in our knowledge of God, our expectation of God in our lives, and our growth in holiness. Like many of the small, regular, and basic practices of our lives, though, we easily let them slip away.

My intention during Lent, and hopefully beyond, will be to set aside each Monday to pray, to read Scripture, and to prayerfully envision our future as a parish. Naming and blocking out space for these devotions are necessary if we are to give them a prominent place in our lives. I hope that you also will reflect on when in your week you might set aside some time to give to God in a special way. These times of personal devotion and worship allow us to see where God is calling us in faith and in mission in our own lives. Just as a basketball player needs to keep shooting free throws each day to maintain their ability, so we need to continually give time to these basic practices as we look to maintain our faith in the days, months, and years ahead. My prayer is that these practices will not be another burden but a way into the joy of the Christian life and a time of refreshment.

–Fr. Will

Easter Flowers

Orders for Easter Flowers are now open and can be done online at christchurchchattanooga.org/giving/ or by mailing a check with a note with the dedications on it.

Due to supply chain issues, we do ask that your orders be in by March 13th.

Outreach News

We Need Groceries

Thank you kindly for your donations last month to CNP Haiti. Together we raised $400 and matched that with money from Outreach. Our gift will cover the cost of enough Plumpy’nut to bring about a dozen children back from severe malnutrition to a normal weight.

We are still focused on feeding the hungry, now much closer to home. Rebecca Smith is working on a walk-up, outdoor food pantry for Christ Church. We hope to have enough groceries to fill it up as soon as she gets it mounted on the wall. We need food in pop-top cans – soup, stew, tuna, fruit – nutritious food that needs no tools to open. We can also use wrapped plastic cutlery from take-out for eating on-the-go.

At the same time, we’ve received a call for help from MetMin. They helped 131 people in January; by February that number had nearly tripled (332). MetMin needs reusable bags for carrying food, as well as canned soup, canned fruit, and small bags of dry dog food for pets.

Please bring a few of these items with you whenever you come to church. If you aren’t coming in person but still want to help, you can donate to Outreach and mark your gift for Groceries.

General News

Lenten Schedule

Lent begins on the 2nd of March this year. We will have a number of opportunities to slow down in anticipation of Easter and to recenter our faith once more on Jesus Christ. Our focus at Christ Church will be creating times to work on those holy habits of prayer, Scripture, and sacrament and to dwell in Christ’s presence.

On March 1 at 6 pm we will serve pancakes in conjunction with Project Canterbury. In our tradition, the day before Ash Wednesday, Shrove Tuesday, has been a time to make our confession and to have some festive pancakes before Lent begins.

Also on March 1st, Fr. Will will be available in the church to hear confession, from 12 pm to 1 pm, and again from 5 pm to 6pm.

On March 2, Ash Wednesday, we will have a said service at noon and a sung service at 6 pm. Ashes will be distributed at both services.

Following Ash Wednesday, we will begin a new schedule of midweek services.

On Tuesday evenings (beginning on March 8) we will have time for eucharistic adoration at 6 pm. Fr. Will will be spending time looking at the holy habits of prayer and reading Scripture following adoration. On March 22 Fr. Roy Pollina will join us to present on his book Justified by Her Children: Deeds of Courage Confronting a Tradition of Racism. Fr. Pollina’s book will be available for sale at a discount at the event.
On Thursday mornings (beginning on March 10) we will have an early eucharist at 8 am.

Holy Week begins April 10 with Palm Sunday and concludes April 17 on Easter. Holy Week marks the high point of our liturgical year and ritual life together. If you are able please make plans to attend these important holy days including Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter.

Outreach

February Outreach News

GAME DONATIONS
Thank you so much for your donations of games for the Chattanooga Charter School of Excellence! You brought us enough to fill four large boxes. Jennifer Holdaway took the games to school, and the students had trouble believing that people who didn’t know them would buy so many games for them. The club teacher said it made a big difference in the children’s attitudes. They wrote us a thank-you note signed by seventeen students and a teacher. Jennifer will post the note in Fox Hall.

COMMUNITY KITCHEN–New Board Members
The Kitchen voted with enthusiasm to approve our two candidates for this year’s Board: Ray Barney and Ginger Sanzo. Ray is in frequent communication with the Kitchen staff, and before the pandemic began, both she and Ginger worked to prepare and serve meals there on a regular basis. The Outreach Committee offers thanks to Johanna Miller and Brooke Montague for their CK Board service for the past several years.

CNP HAITI–We want to provide Plumpy’Nut!
Our December effort to raise money for the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti did not work as we had hoped. As we reflected on that at our February meeting, we realized that December had a lot going on, and our Fox Hall publicity was probably not seen by many parishioners. In conjunction with Black History Month, we are trying again. Please make a donation to CNP Haiti, and we will request that your money be used to buy Plumpy’Nut, the therapeutic food that can restore a child suffering from acute malnutrition back to health in a short period of time. Outreach will match your February gifts up to a total of $450. You can give either online or by check (offering plate or mail to church office). Write it to Christ Church and mark it for Outreach–CNP. Thank you for your generosity.

LET’s TALK T-SHIRTS–We have a project for you.

T-shirt production is one of the larger industries in Haiti, with garment production employing 57,000 people. Workers can expect wages of $3.50 to $7 (US Dollars) per day for their factory labor. Working conditions are difficult; workers have struggled to survive during the COVID pandemic.

T-shirts made in Haiti are shipped to the US (we have a trade agreement that was set up to benefit Haiti) and sold under the brands of Gildan, Hanes, and Walmart. At Walmart, you can buy one of them for around $5. Remember, that’s a day’s wage for the person who made your shirt.

Timberland, an ethical US company, is working to return sustainable cotton production to Haiti. Cotton was once Haiti’s fourth-largest agricultural export but the industry collapsed in the 1980s. Through efforts by Timberland, Haitians will be able to own more of the resources and retain a larger profit.

What does this have to do with Christ Church? During the month of February we are asking you to donate to one of our Outreach partners, the Children’s Nutrition Program of Haiti. And we thought it would be fun to learn a bit about the country where our partner is working.

This week, we have a project for you. We are asking you to count the number of t-shirts you have, then choose your own multiplier…a nickel, a dime, a dollar…and make a contribution to CNP based on your result. Make your gift to Christ Church Outreach and designate it for CNP Haiti.

While you’re counting, pull out the shirts you’d like to pass along and donate them to a place like Northside Neighborhood House or the Chattanooga Community Kitchen.

We don’t know that your contribution will directly help the person who made your shirt, but it may help their community. And this month, Outreach will match all donations up to a total of $450.

Christian Education

Adult Education Series: Absalom Jones & William Douglass

Post author By Parish Admin
Post date February 10, 2022
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Our focus in the next few weeks will be a series of sermons from African-American leaders in the Episcopal Church.

Absalom Jones and William Douglass were the first two rectors of the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia. Jones established the church in 1792 after splitting from a Methodist Church and was ordained priest by William White, the Presiding Bishop.

The sermons are available online at http://anglicanhistory.org/usa/ajones/thanksgiving1808.html and https://readux.ecds.emory.edu/books/emory:b4vjd/pdf/, and also available in the book of sermons published by Seminary Street Press, “Absalom Jones & William Douglass: Early Sermons from the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas, Philadelphia,”

Feb. 13th: This Sunday marks the day when the Episcopal Church commemorates Jones in its calendar. We will begin by reading Jones’s “Thanksgiving Sermon.” The sermon gives thanks for the passing of the ‘Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves’ in 1807 in the United States that took effect on January 1, 1808 and a similar law in the United Kingdom, ‘An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade’ which received Royal Assent on March 25, 1807.

Feb. 20th: Last week we began discussing the famous Thanksgiving Sermon of Absalom Jones. Our time this Sunday will begin by looking again at that sermon before moving on to sermons preached by Jones’s successor William Douglass. Our focus will be on the first two sermons, ‘The God of Hope’ and ‘Peace in Christ.’ These two sermons give us a window into the spiritual life of the congregation at that time.

Feb. 27th: Our reading of sermons from the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas in Philadelphia continues this week. We will look at sermons III and IV by William Douglass. Sermon III picks up on a few verses from 1 John about the ‘well-beloved Gaius’ and the way of life he pursued that allowed his soul to prosper. Sermon IV takes up the weighty matter of the practices of mutual forbearance and forgiveness within the church. Douglass picks through the difficult terrain of how we forgive each other and how we cultivate a spirit of forgiveness.

Mar. 6th: This week, we will consider sermons 5 and 6 which examine the concept of Grieving the Holy Spirit as well as God’s power, justice, and mercy. In particular, we will review Douglass’ examples of these things that may be observed in our lives and consider the continued applicability even more than 150 years later.

Mar. 13th: Our sermons from William Douglass this week focus on the need for wisdom and the pursuit of our own peace. Especially in sermon VIII, we see Douglass’s ability to set practical matters of our life in conversation with theological doctrine. What does our relationship to eternity mean for our own time? Douglass gives sermon VIII during a time of cholera and turns to a sense of God’s eternity as a source of comfort during a time of great illness. I am sure that Douglass’s reflections will provide ample opportunity for our discussion with him and with each other.

Mar. 20th: We are now coming close to the end of our sermons from William Douglass. Appropriately the focus of these sermons is on time and the fact that everything must come to an end. Douglass draws connections between our current life and the life to come. Is he just offering us a little consolation for our earthly suffering or something more? These sermons will give us an opportunity to discuss how our present life relates to a life beyond death and to the eternal God.

Mar. 27th: Our time with William Douglass comes to an end this week with the last two sermons in our book. We are fittingly taking up two different themes in these sermons: repentance and death. Douglass explores the dynamics of drawing close to God when we seem distant from God in sermon XI. What is required of us in this repair of our relationship with God? And, finally, the last sermon in this collection is a funeral sermon for Rev. Peter Williams. While looking to Rev. Williams life, the sermon also explores what it is for the faithful to pass away.

Sunday mornings at 9:15, you can access our meeting by any of the following methods:

1. Click here – https://zoom.us/j/91297837526

2. Go to Zoom.us, click “Join Meeting” & enter Meeting ID: 912 9783 7526

3. On your cell, call (312) 626-6799 and enter Meeting ID 912 9783 7526#

General News

January Outreach Project: Board Games!

Post author By Parish Admin
Post date January 13, 2022
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One of the clubs at Chattanooga Charter School of Excellence needs board games. The club meets bimonthly to play, and students develop skills in creating strategies and solving problems while they have fun. They had been loaned some games, but those were returned when the owner moved away. These are middle school students, so games for ages 12 and up will be appropriate.

Games need not be new. Clean out your closets and see what you find! If you have no games to offer, we will be glad to shop gently used or tax-free for you. Make a donation to Christ Church Outreach and designate it for Games.

If you have games to give, you can bring them to Christ Church: leave them in the Narthex, or drop them by the office. For other arrangements, please contact parishioner Jennifer Holdaway, School Counselor at CCSE, at jennholdaway@hotmail.com

General News

Bishop Brian Cole’s Visit to Adult Ed: Adaptation and Deep Hospitality

Post author By Parish Admin
Post date January 6, 2022
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A title card saying "Bishop's Visit to Adult Ed: Adaptation and Deep Hospitality"

This past Sunday’s Adult Forum welcomed Bishop Brian Cole, who led our small group along with Fr. Will in exploring what it means to be a disciple of Christ in today’s changing social climate.

As he does with each annual visit to our Adult Ed gathering, Bishop Cole engaged us in thought-provoking discussion, suggesting that COVID has brought the church not only a challenge, but also an opportunity. While East Tennessee churches have been struggling with attendance and funds, this unprecedented change to our status quo is forcing us to adapt and experiment. We’re offering more online and hybrid opportunities. We’re meeting people where they are. We’re redefining what it means to be a member of a church community.

The Bishop told us a story of a church in Lexington, years before COVID. After the June 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, this church wanted to offer a chance for those mourning to come and pray, so they offered a midweek Compline service at 9 p.m. More than 100 people showed up; most didn’t return. Rather than seeing so many one-time attendees as a sign of failure on the church’s part, the church considered its Compline a success. The church saw a need in its community, and the community was open to giving the church—and God—a chance to meet that need.

According to Bishop Cole, the church at large is called to offer “deep hospitality.” He says that insiders will care for the institution of the church while others take interest in the broader issues. There is a porous border between the people within the church and the people around the church, and our group left this discussion feeling called to step outside our historical habit of being service providers in favor of inviting others to join in. Ray Barney pointed out Fr. Will’s particular kindness to people experiencing homelessness. Paul Womack suggested that lapsed Christians may need a safe space to talk. We discussed Southside Abbey’s faithful, nontraditional community; our Outreach Committee’s pre-COVID fruit giveaways; and the fundamental ministry of feeding people.

Bishop Cole referenced St. Augustine, reminding us that church is a place for rest, a place to be loved. We’re called to invite people to show us their wounds of where the church has hurt them, to serve counter-culturally, to evangelize without conquest.

Next week, although our Bishop won’t be with us, we’ll be continuing our discussion of Catholic Evangelism. If you would like to listen, to talk, to learn, or just to start your Sunday morning with your Christ Church family, then this group may be just right for you.

General News

December at Christ Church

Post author By Parish Admin
Post date December 3, 2021
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Upcoming Events

Feasts in December

St. Thomas, Apostle
Dec. 21st – 9:00 am

Christmas Eve
Dec. 24th – 9:30 pm

Christmas Day
Dec. 25th – 10:30 am – A simple, spoken eucharist

Other Events

Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols by Chorus Angelorum
December 5th, 7:00 pm

Dec. Vestry Meeting
December 19th – Noon
If you would like to attend the Vestry Meeting via Zoom please contact the office.

Regular Services

Sunday

8 am – Holy Eucharist, Rite I
9:15 am – Adult Education
10:30 am – Holy Eucharist, Rite II

Monday – Thursday

9 am – Morning Prayer & Mass

Birthdays

4th: Barbara K.; Ralph
9th: Brian
12th: Charlotte; Teddy

19th: Katye
20th: Nancy P.
31st: Andy

A Note from Fr. Will

Advent is upon us. For a season when we think of ourselves as waiting and biding our time, there are many things happening and developing here at Christ Church. Our Annual Meeting took place on the First Sunday in Advent. We were able to elect our new members of the Vestry, Susan Brooks, Karla Fowkes, and Jennifer McKinney, to help lead the parish in the years to come. The meeting also served as a helpful time for us to check in with each other as a parish family. Speaking with folks during and after the meeting, I was struck by the very real sense of hope we have for the year ahead despite our worries and anxieties about just what that year will hold.

The practice of hope in a difficult and unknown time also came up on the feast of Nicholas Ferrar (1592-1637) on the first of December. Ferrar was a friend of George Herbert, courtier, and member of Parliament who was on an upward trajectory. He left the ladder of success behind to retreat with his family to the village of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire. At Little Gidding, he and his family restored the local church, tended to the local people, and committed themselves to regular worship. The family worshipped daily according to the Book of Common Prayer and recited the entire Psalter each day. The little community, with Ferrar ordained a deacon but without a priest, exerted a great power and influence on the church and the larger spiritual world. Ferrar and his family found an anchor in a hope in the spiritual life as they recited the Psalter and cared for the poor. Those may seem like small things, but they were what God called Ferrar to do and those small things made a great difference. T.S. Eliot testified to the continued power of Ferrar’s prayer in his poem ‘Little Gidding’ writing

You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more
Than an order of words, the conscious occupation
Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.

Prayer led Ferrar to Little Gidding just as that prayer drew Eliot there in his own time. What power will our prayer have here? What difference will turning our minds and hearts to God make in the days and months to come?

–Fr. Will

Stewardship for 2022

We have been together as priest and parish for a little over a year now. In many ways that past year has been anything other than normal. People oftentimes talk to me about that future coming day when things will be back to normal, when regular life will resume. I know what they mean, of…
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Christian Education

Adult Education Series: Catholic Evangelism

Post author By Parish Admin
Post date December 2, 2021
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Our discussions for this series will be based around the work of the current Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, who wrote a book Catholic Evangelism for the Affirming Catholicism book series. Cottrell’s work focuses on how churches can create a culture of evangelism while remaining open, affirming, and Anglo-Catholic.

Dec. 5th: We’ll begin our series by focusing on the initial section of Catholic Evangelism that defines and explores the meaning of evangelism, evangelization, and mission. It will be helpful for our discussion if you can reflect ahead of time on two topics. First, what role do we think discipleship and making disciples plays in our parish? Second, what part does our own spirituality play in the work of evangelism? Do we pray for new people? How does our spirituality manifest itself (or not) in our lives?

Dec. 12th: The reading will remain the same from last week, but our discussion will be about our own lives of discipleship as something we are inviting people into as a church. We will be able to talk about the practices that sustain our own journey in the faith as well as what are some potential hindrances to sharing that faith with others. Please take some time to reflect before our time together on prayers and practices that fill your heart and help you strive to lead the Sermon on the Mount life we talked about last week.

Dec. 19th & 26th: Our focus this week will be on the purpose of the church and its mission. To get our discussion going please take some time to complete the sentence ‘The reason we have a church here is…’ If you need some help to think about this prompt try asking yourself what would be missing if Christ Church wasn’t here or what sort of church you think Jesus wants us to be. There are no wrong answers! Your replies will help us get our discussion going as we think about our own approach to evangelism here at Christ Church.

Jan. 2nd: We will continue our discussion of Catholic Evangelism with some assistance from our very own bishop. Bishop Cole will join us to reflect on the first part of the book. I am hoping we will be able to pick up some of the discussion from this past week on the statements about what we have a church for here at Christ Church. Taking time to think through this shared vision is important ahead of the next section in the book on the kind of evangelism we can pursue. It is important to know what we are inviting people into before we start to invite them.

Jan. 9th: Our journey continues this week as we move into the next chapter of our book (pgs 19-30). The focus of this chapter is on understanding evangelism as journeying alongside other people in their journey of faith. We will discuss this way of accompaniment as it leads into a growth spiral for ourselves and for others. A helpful exercise before our discussion will be for you to think some about opportunities at Christ Church and other churches where you have experienced the kind of growth Cottrell talks about in this chapter.

Jan. 16th & 23rd: We will continue to look at the same reading from last week. Our focus this week will be on the spiritual growth diagram on page 26. Looking at this diagram, and talking through it, will allow us to share how our own faith journeys have progressed along the circle as well as how we might invite others into the journey. I especially want us to spend some time before our meeting reflecting on how Christ Church has served to move us along on our faith journey or even how it has not met that need as of now. Hopefully this session will be a time for us to share some stories and to look to the future.

Jan. 30th: This week we are moving into the final sections of Stephen Cottrell’s book on Catholic Evangelism. We will be reading the chapters that describe the shifts in involvement in the parish community. We will try to get a better sense of what those changes from seekers into travelers into pilgrims mean for others and for ourselves, as well as try to think through some of the practical aspects of making those changes. Our question for this week and the next will be “What does it look like for Christ Church to be a missionary church?”

Feb. 6th: We are wrapping up our study of Stephen Cottrell’s Catholic Evangelism. Picking up on last week’s conversation about what we find life-giving in our parish, we will turn to think about how we are listening to those outside the church. One key aspect of evangelism is learning to listen to those around us.

Sunday mornings at 9:15, you can access our meeting by any of the following methods:

Click here – https://zoom.us/j/91297837526
Or
Go to Zoom.us, click “Join Meeting” & enter Meeting ID: 912 9783 7526
Or
On your cell, call (312) 626-6799 and enter Meeting ID 912 9783 7526#

General News

Annual Meeting 2021

The Christ Church Annual Meeting will be this Sunday, November 28th at 12 pm. We hope you will attend, either in-person or by Zoom.

The Vestry Nominees are:

Susan Brooks
Karla Fowkes
Alline Ingle
Jennifer McKinney

Meeting Agenda

Outreach Report

Zoom details:

Click here – https://zoom.us/j/99539518954
Or
Go to Zoom.us, click “Join Meeting” & enter Meeting ID: 995 3951 8954
Or
On your cell, call (312) 626-6799 and enter Meeting ID 995 3951 8954#

General News