A copy of the monthly

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

Church Office: 100 North Main St. - Manchester, NH 03102

603-622-8632

www.standrewsmanchester.com Email address: standrewsmanchester@comcast.net

Reverend Daniel R. Collier, Rector

I hope that this letter finds you well! As we enter the month of May, we draw closer to the end of the 2007-2008 Program Year at Saint Andrew’s Church. This year has been a very busy and wonderful period in the parish community. And building on the momentum of the present year, we now prepare for 2008-2009.

One of the focus areas of the present year has been the Adult Education Program.

Christian education and formation is such an important part of our journey of faith, for ideally it supports and empowers us to explore and deepen our beliefs and our faith. It also offers us resources to care for the health of our spiritual lives, to care for each other, and to care for the needs of the world. In this way, Christian education helps us all to live into our Baptismal Covenant.

During this year, our Christian education efforts have focused primarily on the adult members of the Saint Andrew’s community. And we have developed a certain rhythm of life in this area with an Adult Education Series offered every other month. The four educational series offered this year included:

The education series meetings have taken place each Sunday within the given month from 8:00pm – 8:30pm, before the celebration of Holy Eucharist. And I have found the conversations and the sharing of the participants in these meetings to be quite helpful and enriching.

Having initiated this program of Adult Education in the present year, it is my hope that we can begin a program for our children next year. Such a program may be quite modest in size and scope initially, but a beginning is exactly what is needed. As I develop this program, I would very much like to hear your thoughts and reflections. And so on the last page of this Newsletter you will find a brief questionnaire that asks you to imagine what a successful Christian education program might look like at Saint Andrew’s Church. The questionnaire focuses on three faith areas that serve as the foundation of our lives as Christians: Holy Scripture, Worship/Liturgy and Christian Living. These areas represent God’s Word through which we are assured of God’s great love for us and for the world; they represent the Worship and Sacraments through which we celebrate and draw close to that transforming love, and they represent our invitation to live out in our daily lives the love that we encounter in Word and Worship. And so these areas also represent the foundation of Christian education.

I would respectfully ask all parish members to complete the questionnaire, because hearing from a many members as possible will truly enrich the planning process. And I thank you in advance for your willingness to complete this questionnaire.

Each year the Diocese sends people to St Andrews to perform an “Internal Assessment”. This is not just an audit on our bank accounts but they also look at how we pay bills, how we count the weekly donations, if we have a current insurance policy, if our pension and tax payments are current and a whole lot more.

Last year they suggested that we have a photographic record of St Andrew’s physical assets. Well, after almost a year of putting it off, the vestry has created a photo CD of St Andrew’s property. We have pictures of the altar and all the silver chalices, patens, bowls, etc that we use each Sunday. Also, we have pictures of each stained glass window, the organ, the gold crosses and all the vestments that Fr Dan wears. Plus we have the ECW silver tea/coffee service and all the equipment in the kitchen, refrigerators, dish washer, stove and all the dishes.

We have one photo CD in the church office and one was sent to the Diocese to be stored in their archives. When I sent the photo CD to the diocesan archivist, Mary Brundrett, she e-mailed back to me saying “Your CD of real assets of St Andrews arrived in my mailbox today! I just finished viewing it… great pictures. This is a great and most valuable idea/model for other parishes to follow in the future!”

(Editor’s Note: We owe Jack and those who helped him, a big note of thanks! This was not an easy task, nor one that was quickly accomplished. It required identifying pieces, then laying out everything individually as it was to be photographed, placement of the yardstick to indicate the size of the object, rewrapping it and returning everything to its proper place, and so much more. Thank you, Jack.)

Ø Pentecost Sunday is May 11, which is also Mother’s Day. The color on the altar that day will be red to signify the Holy Spirit….We are hoping that all those who have something red to wear to will do…so……

Ø Congratulations to Susan Tomasetti who will receive a master’s degree in Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University at the school’s May 17^th graduation ceremony.

Ø The weekend of May 17^th will find the Hickok’s in Waitsfield, VT for the wedding of their son Andrew to Andrea Klayman of Swampscott, MA. They will be married at the Round Barn Inn with four generations of family in attendance. Please keep them in your prayers as they begin their new life together.

Ø Clean up day – May 10^th. Not able to participate but would like help? A donation of recyclable brown yard bags would be appreciated by those who do come to rake and sweep.

Ø The Altar Guild would like to thank those people who have brought in coffee cans and a couple of vases. There is always an on-going need, so please don’t toss -- Recycle!

Ø There are still some open dates on the Flower Calendar beginning in June. Please check our bulletin board.

The Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire will sponsor a

2008 Spring Event, entitled

“Letting Out the Secret – The Episcopal Church in the 21^st Century: changing technology and practice in evangelism,

Liturgy and communication.”

There will be speakers, panels, workshops and more!

Date: Saturday, June 21^st, 2008

Location: Yet to be determined. However it will be noted in following bulletins, newsletters as well as on the bulletin board. You can check on line at www.nhepiscopal.org.

Well Ladies, Spring has finally gotten here. It’s time to think of new things for our group to get involved in. We would like to have a meeting this month to share our ideas. We canvassed the group to see which day of the week seemed the best to get together. Most of you circled Wednesday. Therefore, we will have our next meeting on Wednesday 21^st at 7:00 PM in the Parish Hall. We look forward to seeing you all there.

On April 21^st the work finally began on our Chimney & Roof project. The first phase of the project was to get the two massive chimneys repaired. The picture on the left is of Keith of KT Masonry washing down one of the chimneys before starting the repair.

The next phase of the project, repairing the slate on the church roof, will start sometime in late May/early June by our slate roofing professional, Bill Ready. Bill was recommended to us by Grace Church and works mainly with slate roofs. When some of the vestry talked to him about doing our roof he brought in some pictures of his work, the word spectacular comes to mind!

Present: Fr. Dan Collier, Barbara Hickok, Barbara Inglis, Fran LaSalle, Matt Swank, Jack Koller, Sue Tomasetti, R P Hale, Mariette Lefebvre and Jean Aspinwall

The February 2008 minutes were reviewed and motion to accept was made by Matt and seconded by Jack. All approved.

Ø The report was reviewed and a motion to accept was made by Matt and seconded by RP. The motion was approved by all.

Jack reported that a rebate in the amount of $400.00 had been received from Keyspan for gas for Conant St.

Ø Jack also received a note from Bishop Robinson in thanks for our continued effort to pay our fair share to the diocese. (2007 is the first year in a lengthy time that we have paid our fair share although our payment remains to be less than our assessment)

Ø Matt reported that March 18, 2008, the building inspection for an occupancy permit for Conant St. property is scheduled.

Ø There is a stewardship event being held April 5, 2008, at the Barbara Harris Conference Center in Greenfield NH. Fr. Dan will attend; however the event is open to anyone who would have an interest in attending.

Ø The exciting planned Celebration of a New Ministry will be at 4:00 PM March 30, 2008. Pat Koller has volunteered to organize the reception and assistance from others would be welcome. A suggestion was put forward by Fran that vestry members wear name tags at the service.

Ø It was also decided that the collection taken at the service will be used for community outreach and donated to St. Andrew's food pantry.

Ø The Parochial Report is completed. Dan reviewed the components. Matt made the motion to accept it with a second made by Jean. All voted to approve and it will now be sent to the diocese in Concord.

Ø Fr. Dan's has a goal to send a survey in April to the parishioners for feedback regarding Christian education. The hope is to have something in place for autumn.

Ø The one addition to the calendar is to input the Adult Education program on Sunday at 8:00 am. Thanks to Fran for her effort in keeping the calendar items in order.

Ø Status of church roof and chimney repairs: The decision was made to award the contract to KT Masonry for the chimney repair and to fund the expense from the savings account for the roof purpose and from the general operation account. The consensus is that we will repay ourselves thus negating the need to negotiate a loan. The hope is that the work on the roof will begin in May. The motion was made by RP, seconded by Fran and approved by all in attendance.

Ø The guidelines for use of St. Andrew's property was reviewed and discussed. There were several updates and changes suggested. Fran and Matt will input the updates and the final draft will be reviewed at the April vestry meeting.

Ø The signs for the parking lot are ordered and have not been received at this time.

Ø Jack Koller has completed the photographing the church property and the contents.

Ø John Spring will order the choir robes this week. It will be approximately five weeks for delivery. Black walnut crosses are being made for the choir by RP.

Ø Barbara H. mentioned the need for a contract for a Rector to be signed as Dan will no longer be Priest-in-Charge.

Ø St. Andrew's has been nominated to be included in the 2009 archival calendar for the Episcopal Church. Fr. Dan will respond to this honor.

Ø The Thrift shop has a request to be open during food pantry operational days. They will need two volunteers for this purpose. Fran will prepare a sign up sheet for anyone who may be interested in manning the shop on any of the days needed.

Ø The parish phone directory needs to be updated. It was decided to include a form in the newsletter to obtain information needed to complete the directory.

The meeting adjourned with the saying of the Lord's Prayer and the Night Prayer.

To reach a vestry member please leave a message on the church’s office phone 603-622-8632 or refer to our Parish Directory for their contact information.

Spring is here! The cellar was a bee-hive of activity Saturday morning, lots of people wandered in that were at a sporting event at West High. A lot of patrons we have not seen for a while came in also. Every one was happy that we seemed to have what they needed. Our sales were over 200 dollars by the end of the day. It feels good to have such a positive feeling from the staff and the public. It feels like all the happiness from last Sunday just stayed around. We were all glad that Yvette joined us this week, we really needed an extra pair of hands.

Hello everyone! We had a wonderful morning in the cellar. Donations came in from a few different areas and for the most part they are long gone; in and out within hours. People were out and about and the mood was lighthearted.

Since the Sunday that Fr. Dan became ours officially we have had really good turnouts in the shop. I am not all that superstitious but perhaps Fr. Dan is our good luck charm.

Many new people visited and several returned that we have not seen in a while. A man came in today that has lost a lot of weight looking for temporary clothes on his way to his goal weight. It is nice to help. There are a lot of stories that our patrons share each week with us.

Speaking about good luck wasn't it nice to have Fr. Mac visit last week. I felt comfortable and warm to have an old friend visit. The first time I set foot at St. Andrews Fr. Mac explained the service to me - I was only 17 and engaged to be married. His initial kindness will never be forgotten.

As usual several ladies of the parish came in to help. Thanks to Gabby and Janet and Yvette, everything got sorted and put away. A bunch of people probably have the wrong change. Edna was stuck at home with sciatica and I should never be allowed to run the register.

It was a warm beautiful morning at St. Andrews. I think a lot of people have spring cleaning on their minds because the donations poured in from everywhere. Thankfully we had a bunch of new customers so it all worked out perfectly. Quite a few parishioners came in to bring in donations or sort through the things that came in. Each person is appreciated, our shop feels more and more like a community effort. When Danny has coffee waiting for us when we come in, I know it is going to be a good day!

Food came in from St. Peter’s our sister church in Londonderry, we are thankful to them for their thoughtfulness. At this point food is so difficult to get, that I wonder if we would have to turn hungry people away without the generosity of everyone. A parish is people; an extended parish is just so much more!

Thank God Edna's sciatica is better right now, so everyone got the correct change!

Everyone who receives this news letter in some way, some shape or form has contributed to our thrift shop. Pat yourselves on the back, take a bow, pop the cork, however you celebrate just do it. We have truly reached a milestone. The roof work has started, we all helped. Each replaced tile represents a lot of pots and pans and clothes and everything else you could get. Ethel shook every tree twice.

We did it, we did it together as a group, as a community. Ok put the glass down and clean out the closet, no one said we were done

Switching from liquid soap to bar soap not only saves money but it is good for the planet. If every household made the change we would use 2.5 million less plastic containers each year. That really helps our landfills because it takes about 100 years for a plastic bottle to decompose!

Next Month’s Newsletter Deadline has been extended due to the Memorial Day Holiday.

Deadline will be Wednesday, May 28^th

Is your ‘house’ ready? No, I don’t mean that building you live in; this is relative to our personal being. Having our house in order so that we are prepared to meet our Maker is something as Christians, we should always be conscious of doing.

Now what do you suppose we need to do to be prepared for the end of our life on earth and the beginning of our ‘ever after life’ in heaven? Have we treated people as we wish to be treated? Have we kept the Lord’s commandments? Have we professed our love – our belief – and our acceptance of Jesus? Do we ‘fudge’ our taxes or expense accounts? Do we consider little white lies okay but not big ones? Who decides what constitutes a big lie? Perhaps what appears to be small and insignificant to us could possibly have enormous consequences in particular to the one we deceive. And really who do we think we are fooling….God knows what we do no matter how clever we think we are. There is no little corner or nook for us to hide from Him. He knows what each of us thinks, and what is truly in our hearts.

So where does one begin to prepare oneself for the ‘life hereafter’? Church is the best step, and I don’t mean to preach to those of you who are not able to attend for a variety of reasons. But we need to reach out to those who don’t want to be bothered; those who don’t think this all applies to them. The many people who are so involved with ‘busyness’ that they don’t even give their faith a second thought. Don’t they deserve salvation? Is it too late for them? NEVER! God loves us and only wants us to acknowledge our love in return and accept Him as our personal Saviour. I do mean personal, a Saviour for and of each and every person. We can begin by looking for people who need salvation, peace and a respite from a busy lifestyle and invite them to join us Sunday mornings…let them learn about Jesus and his sacrifice – about people like Moses who answered God’s call. Let them read the Lord’s Prayer and the Ten Commandments and we can be ready to help them.

God calls everyone to assist in His work, open your heart not just your ears and listen carefully….it may be only a whisper.

Food for the soul: It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. One must work at it. Eleanor Roosevelt

Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Manchester, New Hampshire
Children’s Education Questionnaire

Please write down in the space below what you imagine a successful Christian Education program at Saint Andrew’s Church might look like in each of the three areas.

Please use the back of the questionnaire if you need more space. Completed questionnaires can be placed in the basket in the first pew of the Church.

Holy Scripture: (Which Bible stories from both the Old Testament and New Testament would you like addressed in the program?)

Worship/Liturgy: (In what parts of our Sunday Worship would you like the children to participate?)

Christian Living: (What Christian values should be addressed with the children through the program?)

Please use the reverse side for additional comments or is more space is required.