To Apply for a 2013 Valle Country Fair Grant
Click here to read who is qualified and to download a PDF of grant application.
|
Holy Eucharist, Rite II is celebrated Sundays
Holy Eucharist and Healing Service are Wednesdays at 8:00 a.m. at Holy Cross. Everyone is always welcome to all services.
Holy Cross Weekly Announcements
for May 22, 2013
Bishop Porter Taylor's
Weekly Reflection
Prayer List
Please hold these people in your healing prayers this week:
Ruth, John, Jim, Muriel, Beverly, Tom, Debbie, Darcy, Mary, Sandy, William, JoAnn, Elizabeth, Eugene, Andrew, Jeff, Shawn, James, Preston, Spencer, Jack, Jesse & Michelle, Grace, Arlene, Mildred, Richard, Ethan, Charlie, Chris & Dick, Bart & Holly, George, Bob, Thomas, Lynda, Scott, Kim R., Megan, Bill, Julia, Rudy, Curt & family, Diane
St. John's Summer Concert Series begins this Sunday with our own Holy Cross Choirs opening up this new season
so make plans to attend with covered dish picnic dinner on the lawn following each concert.
Concerts are free and all are welcome!
Jeanne Jolly performs July 7th, August 4th is Jimmy Stokes with brass quintet, and closing out the series is the (now) traditional annual Labor Day weekend visit and performance of Trinity Cathedral Choir. Ya'll come!
Please support the Capital Campaign Fund by joining us for the 4 th of July Holy Cross style. Larry and Robin Byerly, Tav and Kim Gauss and Dan and Carolyn Sheperd would like to invite you for an afternoon of good music with our friends, The Neighbors, a fantastic bluegrass band, at the Gauss House at 269 Cross Creek Trail, Banner Elk. An Eastern North Carolina BBQ with all the fixins will be provided to go with the music (kid friendly fare will be available, too). $25.00 per person, with children under 18 free, will go to the Holy Cross Capital Campaign. Go to the Banner Elk Parade for a great taste of Americana. Come picnic with us. Spend a couple hours listening, dancing and singing with a great band. Then off to find fireworks after dark. Your family’s holiday could not be simpler. Call Kathy to make reservations. See you at noon-thirty on Independence Day.
This past weekend, my six month old grandson, Mattis Taylor, came to stay with us (and, yes, his parents tagged along).
On Saturday
, my nephew got married at All Souls.
On Sunday
I confirmed three new Episcopalians at Glendale Springs, and
on Monday at 2:15
a category five tornado ripped through Moore, Oklahoma killing at least 24 people.
We proclaim the mystery of faith: "Christ has died. Christ is Risen. Christ will come again." At every moment someone is dying and someone is being born. Each day someone weeps because a life opens and someone weeps because a life closes. Our two pictures of the Blessed Virgin Mary holding her son are at birth and death: the Madonna and the Pieta. We weep with the people of Oklahoma and we pray for the dead and those who love them. We give our money to help them--through Episcopal Relief and Development . We also give thanks that God has incarnated in this world and is in all of it: joy and sorrow; birth and death; creation and destruction. As I was driving to Church Sunday , I listened to "On Being" on NPR. Krista Tippet was interviewing Andrew Zolli who wrote Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back. He said that he grew up with a belief that we could "engineer the future"; that through our efforts we could achieve "risk mitigation." He learned that to be resilient we must practice "risk adaptation" because it's a First World illusion that somehow we can avoid tragedy and pain and loss. The world is too interconnected and there are times when we are very small, as in Oklahoma on Monday . Plus, pain and loss are part of being alive. My word is not "resilient" but "faithful." To live faithful lives is to live with open hands and open hearts. The news about the tornado in Moore, OK was filled with stories of amazing faithfulness: stories of compassion and bravery and consolation -- especially the actions of the teachers of the elementary schools. On Monday afternoon there were no Democrats or Republicans; no progressives or conservatives; no rich or poor. There was just humanity; just fellow human beings feeling a common pain, a common compassion and a common hope. The words spoken were "I'm sorry," "I hope," "Thank God," "Lord, have mercy" "How can I help?" My prayer is that the people of Moore, OK not go back to normal nor that the people of Western North Carolina move on either. Every moment is an emergency for someone and a blessing for someone else. Our world has gotten so small that we ought to remember this. Our response should be to model the best of how people reacted to the tragedy in Oklahoma and live lives of care, compassion, and concern for the goodness of every human being each day.
+Porter
|