As you know, the Self-Study process, which is the first step toward our calling a new Rector, is in full swing, and the most important piece of it is all of you!  We will have several forums to address questions that the Committee has formed, so that you can tell us how you feel about Christ Church, your life here, your worship here, your involvement here.  In the Profile, we need to present Christ Church to prospective candidates, as it has been for the last few years, and as we hope it to be over the next few years, so we can try to match the right person to our needs and our vision.

That is why it is so important for all of you to participate in our discussions, which will include small groups for easier conversations.  We will be holding a series of forums, one after each service in mid September, and again in mid October.  The first series will be on Wednesday morning, Sept. 15, after each service, and then Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 18 & 19, with the theme of where we have been, what we have been doing, and how we have felt.   We will then hold another set of forums starting Wednesday, Oct. 13, and through the weekend of October 16 & 17, with the theme of where we hope to be in the next few years, our hopes and our dreams.  For anyone who wasn’t able to stay after a service, or anyone who wants to add something they thought of, we will have one weekday evening meeting, combining both themes, on Wednesday October 20. 

We will be printing the questions beforehand, in the Sunday Bulletin and in the email announcements, so you can think about them before the forums, with a list of all the dates.

Our time-line for the whole process will be to collect all the data by the end of October, draft the Profile by Thanksgiving, edit and format it for the web in December, so that the Search Committee will have the finished Profile by the beginning of the New Year, to present to prospective candidates.

Please be a part of this process.  It is your church, and we need you to help us define it, so we can become the church we want to be, and find a Rector who wants to help us on that journey, to the glory of God.
Thank you.

The Self-Study has begun to meet regularly.  We had our first meetings on August 17th and 24th.  

The most important part of this study will be your input, so that the Committee can form the responses you give at our parish gatherings and on our surveys into our Parish Profile, which will be the document on which candidates for Rector of Christ Church will rely. This will tell them who we are, and where we want to go and what we want to do over the next few years, so that the Search Committee can match up the right candidates to our needs and hopes.  That is why it is crucial that the greatest number of you come to as many of the parish meetings as possible.  

We will schedule those meetings at differing times during the weeks ahead to try to accommodate people’s various commitments.  Please watch for the dates and times in the Sunday bulletins and in the weekly email notices.  

Come with your ideas, and think about how you want your faith to be best supported and nurtured at Christ Church, to the glory of God, in our community, and beyond.  The Committee members are listed below, so that you may speak to them at any time with your visions and concerns.  Please keep us as well as the Search Committee in your prayers.

Dana Semeraro, Chair

       * Late News Flash!  Parish meetings will be held immediately after each service (Sat. evening as well as all three Sunday services) on the weekends of Sept. 18 & 19, and Oct.16 & 17 .  We will also schedule a couple of weekday evening meetings sometime in between those dates for those who cannot stay after their service.  Watch for more details to follow.

 One of the first questions I am usually asked is, “What shall we call you?”  If you are an adult who is comfortable calling me by my first name, I would prefer that you call me “Jim.”  If you are not comfortable calling me by my first name, I prefer that you call me “Father Jim.”  I would prefer that children call me “Father Jim.”

 I understand my job as your Interim Rector to consist of three main tasks.  The first is to provide you with pastoral care. I have always felt that a congregation needs to be cared for and ministered to if the members are expected to care for and minister to the world around them.  I hope to bring Holy Communion to all those who are home-bound at least once a month in addition to visits being made by Lay Eucharistic Visitors.  I also make hospital calls several times per week and daily if someone is in extreme condition.  When I first got out of seminary, I was blessed to work as Curate for the Rev. Gordon Stenning at St. Mary’s Church in Portsmouth.  The first piece of instruction he gave me was, “Jim, remember that people are not an interruption to our business.  People are our business.”  My door will always be open for pastoral and spiritual counseling or just for plain old conversation over a cup of coffee.  The second task is to preach, teach and administer the Sacraments of the Church.  I look forward to sharing this ministry with those retired clergy who are members of Christ Church and the Rev. Empy Schneider and will depend on them to acquaint me with local custom until I settle in.  The third task is to work with the Diocesan Consultant and help shepherd the vestry and the various committees that will be formed and entrusted with the task of the search process as you prepare to call your new rector.

 I want to get back to the issue of pastoral care for a moment.  In 1996, Congress enacted the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).  One of the primary concerns of this act was to protect patient confidentiality.  Consequently, hospitals, nursing homes and other health care agencies are not to discuss patients with anyone other than spouses or those who serve as health care proxies.  This piece of legislation is, unfortunately, being interpreted far too stringently by many in the medical establishment because they are afraid of litigation.  Because of this, hospitals and nursing homes no longer notify clergy that parishioners have been hospitalized or are in extreme or dire condition and far too many people are falling through the cracks.  If family members do not notify the clergy, we have no way of knowing that someone is in need of the pastoral care of the church.  I dealt with this in my last two parishes by having “Emergency Notification Cards” printed up and each person or family was to take enough cards that one was to be kept in each person’s wallet or purse, one was to be kept by the primary telephone in the house, and one was to be given to the person who would be the responsible party in case of emergency or hospitalization.  I have asked our Senior Warden, Shirley Andrews, to get some of these cards printed up so that we can get them to you.  I want to be sure that you receive timely pastoral care when you need it.

Again, I look forward to getting to know you and am excited about the prospect of ministering to you and with you.

Jim+

Holy Eucharist

Saturday 5 pm and Sunday 7:45 am – Rite I

 (spoken service)

Family Eucharist

 Sunday 9:30 am – Rite II

(contemporary music)

Choral Eucharist

Sunday 10:45 am – Rite II

 (traditional service with organ/choir)

 The Arts Commission of Christ Church will open its 2010-2011 season on Sunday, September 19^th at 4:00 p.m. with a lecture by Peter S. Hawkins, Professor of Religion and Literature at the Yale Divinity School.

 Those of you fortunate enough to have attended Spencer Reece’s poetry reading last April might remember Dr. Hawkins, who introduced Spencer in a most engaging way. We expect this topic and presentation to be no less compelling.

 Professor Hawkins will lead us in considering age-old questions about life after death. He surmises, “According the polls, most of us believe that there is an afterlife; but what is it? No one knows if there is, in fact, a postmortem existence, but in times of crisis, or as we age, we speculate about what might await us. What does the Bible or the Church have to say? What food for thought does Dante provide us in his purported journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven? What good might come to us from faithful speculation about what Shakespeare’s Hamlet calls the ‘undiscovered country’ of eternity? These are some of the questions I will engage in my talk, which is very much meant to open into a discussion with my audience.”

 For those wishing to explore these thoughts beforehand, Professor Hawkins’s book, “Undiscovered Country: Imagining the World to Come” (New York: Seabury Books, 2009) will be available at Other Tiger Bookstore, 90 High Street in Westerly. There will also be copies available at the lecture.

There will be a potluck dinner/meeting for Sunday School Teachers and volunteers on Sunday, August 29th at 6 pm in the Parish Hall.  If you are interested in volunteering your time in the classrooms or with event planning, please come.

9 am – 12 noon

ages 3 to 12

Free!!

Volunteers needed – all ages

Fun for all!!

music, games, snacks, crafts

For more information or registration call:

Church Office 596-0197

Wendy Walsh 377-2814

The Seminarian Changes Course at

        for the congregants of Christ Church, Westerly

 He has been famous for some time–

for his humility as much as his poetry–

and because has turned toward God. 

He has turned toward serving God,

enduring years of study and supplication

at an age most men have settled into comfortable habits.

We are seated in the sanctuary.

We’ve read in unison from The Book of Common Prayer.

We’ve sung the old hymns whose words we still fudge,

their melodies from a time of simpler living,

more complicated music.

He approaches the altar dressed in a postulant’s white robe,

holding with somber concentration the pitcher and basin

with which the priest washes

before Communion. She drapes the towel she uses

to dry her hands

over his extended forearm.

He bows and moves away.

It is a privilege to witness complete engagement in ritual.

After the service, we move through a long breezeway,

its polished linoleum floors, its windows on a memorial garden

just beginning its April awakening,

to the Parish hall’s faded blue walls.

There is coffee, hot water for tea,

and a tray homemade goodies—

cupcakes, brownies, and gingerbread crucifixes

gleaming with sugar—

arranged on a folding table draped

with a well-mended cloth.

In a crowd of muted Episcopalians

he is not difficult to spot. 

He has shed his robe

and the clerk’s polish borne of years of attention

to cut, trim, and finish

lay on him undimmed. His French cuffs ease

a perfect inch below the sleeves

of his navy blue pin-striped suit.

After the church guitarist’s songs

and a introduction from the divinity school professor

who oversees his entrance to the priesthood’s lofty,

distant offices, he takes the podium timidly.

He thanks the congregation for its guidance, his mother

for her enduring love.

He begins to read his poems,

poems of unabashed devotion.

The microphone cuts out from time

to time, as though the wind is turning

a degree or two.

He’s unaware that some of his lines go unheard,

and that the three starched white tips

of his pocket square

point slightly toward his heart  

like a schooner sailing the blue depth of his chest,

bound for deeper waters, other weathers.

Our summer worship schedule will be a Saturday 5 PM spoken liturgy (Rite I) and two Sunday Services:

9:30 Service alternating as follows:

June 20, 27 – Choral. July 4 – Choral. July 18, 25 – Family. Aug 1, 8 – Choral. Aug 15, 22 – Family. Aug 29 – Choral. Sept 5 – Family