The Eagle, April 2005

Dear Friends,

It is the morning after Easter. I find I can only reflect with deep gratitude upon all the work done by so very many to make the services of these last days powerful and moving and beautiful. The Altar Guild, Richard Busch and the Choir and the Saint John’s Choristers, Vanessa Fiorito and her family (who oversaw the Egg Hunt), the Flower Committee, the Acolytes, the Greeters, Layreaders and Chalice Bearers, those who kept vigil with our Lord on the night of His betrayal, the Reverend Susan McCone who so ably assisted at services during the week, the Office Staff…and many others who did their part to lead us to the day of the Resurrection. To each individual who cared enough to offer him or herself in this endeavor, I extend my deep and heartfelt thanks.

I pray that all of us, in these fifty days of Easter, will find new life coming into those parts of our journey where we might most wish it to come, and that the peace which passeth all understanding may come more and more to be a part of each of our lives.

Guest Preachers of Note

May 1^st ~ The Reverend Rod Garner, a priest in the Church of England, will be our guest preacher. Father Garner is visiting four Episcopal churches in the area and is a fine preacher and one that you will want very much to make a point of hearing.

May 8^th ~ The Reverend John Andrew, rector emeritus of St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, has most remarkably kindly agreed to be our guest preacher at the 10.00 am service. Father Andrew was, for many years, one of the guiding lights in the religious community of New York City and a powerful force for good in that community. He is one of the Church’s very finest preachers and is most generous of his acceptance of our invitation to preach here.

May 22^nd ~ the Right Reverend James Curry, Suffragan Bishop of the Diocese of Connecticut, will make the annual Episcopal visitation to Saint John’s on this date and will be the preacher at the 10.00 am service. Bishop Curry was a seminary classmate of the Rector’s and has been a good friend to Saint John’s over the years. This is a wonderful opportunity to be with him to celebrate the life of this place.

Do mark your calendars now to be certain that you do not miss these wonderful opportunities to hear these three men proclaim the word of God in the pulpit of Saint John’s.

Ziti Dinner ~ The Youth Group will be hosting a Ziti Dinner on April 23^rd at 5.30pm to 7.00 pm in the Parish House. Please make an effort to support them in this effort. It is an important part of their fundraising for their trip to Appalachia this year to help those in need in that severely depressed portion of the country. Food is always plentiful and good at these dinners, and you certainly will be doing a good deed in addition to having a fine meal.

Important News about the Silent Auction for the Bazaar ~ There is an effort underway to encourage members of the parish to “put on their thinking caps” about how they might support the Silent Auction. We are ready to begin receiving items for the Silent Auction and ask that you contact Ann Burton (868-2003) or Chris Boshears (868-9340) to let them know what it is you have and when you might like to bring it by. What is very important this year is for us to begin now to think about various goods and services that might be very attractive parts of the Silent Auction. By this we refer to the possibility of members of the Parish offering a stay in homes they may have in other parts of the country or the world; tickets to various sporting events; the opportunity to attend the opera or a symphony (perhaps with an opportunity to stay overnight in an apartment in New York); etc, etc. Items such as these have tremendous appeal to all sorts of people, and, in addition to all of the usual wonderful parts of our Bazaar, will do much to enhance the undertaking.

Loaves and Fishes ~ Saint John’s is next scheduled to serve at Loaves and Fishes on April 15th. Please sign up on the Parish Hall bulletin board to help and pick up a pan from the table in the Parish Hall, fill it with a hearty concoction, and return it to Saint John’s no later than Noon on the 15th. You may also feel free to bring the pan back at any time convenient for you prior to that and put it in the refrigerator or freezer as may be most appropriate.

Rummage Sale ~ It would be a fine thing if we were able, again this year, to have the Saint John’s Rummage Sale during June. In order to do that, three or four members of the Parish are going to need to step forward and let the Rector know of a willingness on their part to oversee this endeavor. If you believe that the Rummage Sale is worthy of pursuing and are willing to take a role in overseeing it, please contact the Rector at 868-2527.

Windsor Report ~ The Deanery discussion of The Windsor Report (which was cancelled last month because of inclement weather) will take place on April 5^th at 7.00 at Saint Michael’s in Litchfield.

Vestry News ~ At its regularly scheduled meeting of Sunday, March 20, 2005 the following received attention:

· The Treasurer’s Report was received as submitted though note was made that it was only for one half of the month of March and would, in future, be structured to show only complete months.

· Stewardship ~ The Stewardship Committee continues to look forward to hearing from those parishioners who have yet to pledge this year. It is terribly important that this happen fairly shortly in order that The Vestry be able to continue its work of responsibly and prudently planning for the financial life of Saint John’s.

· By-Laws ~ Mary Schinke has undertaken to continue the review and formulation of the by-laws project undertaken originally by David Knutsen. This project will continue and, hopefully, be completed before the end of the year.

· Rector’s Absence ~ The Vestry approved the Rector’s absence on Sunday, April 3^rd. The Reverend Rowan Greer will be the celebrant and preacher at both the 8.00 and 10.00am services on that day.

· Special Reports ~ One of the new initiatives undertaken by the Vestry this year is to invite leaders in various areas of the life of Saint John’s to be with them at a meeting in order to bring to the Vestry any information, concerns, etc. that they feel might be edifying to the life of Saint John’s. These meetings are also seen as times in which the Vestry can be apprised of manners of which it can be supportive of the work of these leaders throughout the Parish.

Saint John's Bridge Luncheon ~ On Wednesday, May 11^th from Noon to 4.00pm in the Parish House, the Annual Saint John's Bridge Luncheon will take place. Under the leadership of Carol Ward and Marion Pennell, a wonderful luncheon kicks off the afternoon followed by three hours of first-rate bridge. Please put together a table or indicate that you would like to play (and Marion will assign you to a foursome in which you will be comfortable). Many prizes will be awarded, and, if history repeats itself, a very good time will be had by all. Please contact Marion Pennell with questions (868.7654).

Youth Group News ~ The next major event for the Youth Group will be a Ziti Dinner on Saturday, April 23rd from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. If you can help in any way, please plan to be there. We'll probably start cooking at about 3:00 p.m. and there's a lot of set-up and other preparations. We'll also serve dessert, so try to come with a cake or cookies that you've made ahead of time.

We expect some of the people from Trinity, Torrington to join us, which will be great since many hands make light work.

Please watch for more news from me about this event -- and more-- in April and May.

Stewardship for the year 2005 ~ The Stewardship Campaign is moving ahead apace. If you are considering supporting Saint John’s in this current fiscal year and have not done so yet, please contact the Office and we will forward a pledge card to you.

Music Notes ~ This past month, for the thirty-fifth time in my thirty-five consecutive years as a church musician, I was confronted (and puzzled) by the phenomenon I can only call ‘Easter Music Dearth’, a phenomenon that becomes more puzzling with each passing year. I mean to say.... Advent? Epiphany? No problem. Lots of great music. Christmas? A veritable embarrassment of riches. And as far as Lent and Holy Week are concerned, what can I say? The penitential season leading up to the passion and death of Christ has certainly inspired composers to produce some of the greatest and most profound expressions of the human spirit in the whole of western art. I refer here not only to such obvious examples as Bach’s St. Matthew and St. John Passions, but to the innumerable shorter though no less deeply and truthfully felt responses to these events by Schütz, Victoria, Haydn, Wagner, Penderezki, and on and on.

But then we come up to Easter, and what do we find? Nothing like the treasure trove we would expect. Oh, to be sure, there are somewonderful pieces of Easter music out there, but surely not as many as there ought to be given the magnitude of the event being portrayed. Much of the sum total of music composed in celebration of the Resurrection seems to me oddly blank and lifeless, most especially the noisy, pompous, trumpet-and-timpani-festooned sort. Unfortunately I have no solution to offer. To do that, one would have to understand the puzzle far better than I do.

Continuing in this somewhat petulant vein, a vein which I promise to abandon presently, and for which I apologize...

This year, as everyone knows, Easter arrived about as early as ever the moon allows it, underscoring what I’ve long regarded as a shortcoming in the overall design of the liturgical year (see what I mean? complaints, complaints), to wit: the time between Christmas and Easter is far too short. The progress of Christ’s life on earth seems uncomfortably compressed. Birth, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, all encompassed within half a year or less. And then what? We are confronted with what often feels like an endless parade of ‘Sundays After Pentecost’ to get through before the next Advent ushers in a new cycle of observances.

With absolutely no hope of acceptance, I would propose the idea of moving Christmas to a much earlier date (late October? mid-November?) thereby significantly extending Epiphany-tide. From the church musician’s point of view, if from nobody else’s, this would be a boon. It would provide a chance to offer much more of the rich Christmas/Epiphany repertoire than is possible under the current system. I would, of course, never be so bold as to suggest a re-positioning of Easter Sunday itself. Heaven knows enough battle has already been done through the centuries over that particular issue. And Lent simply has to be the forty days and forty nights, excluding Sundays, leading up to Easter. So it, too, is tamper-proof.

No. There’s no getting round it. Christmas is the event that has to be rescheduled, notwithstanding the frightful turmoil such a move would cause, especially within the mercantile system. Life as we know it would probably cease to exist, which may or may not be a good thing.

Ah well, so much for pointless carping. It is, after all, only a few days after Easter; a time when choir directors and organists are given to wild imaginings.

Onward to April. By now it has arrived, and bids fair to live up to the role implied for it in the 'March comes in like a lion and goes out like a you-know-what' simile by being a placid lamb of a month, especially in comparison with the feverish March just gone by. This is a good thing, as it will afford us all some much required breathing space to prepare for a bang-up May. On the 8th of May, the Yale Whiffenpoofs will be on hand for the final program of this season’s St. John’s Concert Series. The following weekend (Friday the 13th and Sunday the 15th) the St. John’s Chorale will present its spring concert, performing both books of Brahms’ beloved Liebeslieder Walzer, as well as a selection of delightful English Victorian Partsongs. The weekend after that, on Sunday the 22nd, there will take place a glorious service of Evensong in observance of Trinity Sunday. Quite a month!

Best wishes, therefore, for a calm, rejuvenating, and not overly showerful April.