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Please join us this Sunday at 5:00 p.m. for a special service of Solemn Evensong. Prayers will be offered for the people of Haiti, and the offering will go to the support the efforts of Episcopal Relief and Development in Haiti. Music will be provided by the Adult and Senior Youth Choirs and will feature American composers Sowerby and Jernigan (yes, our own David Jernigan). The settings for the canticles are among those that will be taken to England when our choir tours in 2011. The service will include the use of incense.
 
Please note that there will be no Youth Group this Sunday because of the Evensong service.
 
Episcopal ministry has been significant in Haitian history; both the Episcopal Cathedral and its School were lost in the earthquake.  Please come to support in prayer – in word and deed – those who continue to be in great need.
 
Another exciting project for responding to the needs in Haiti is described below by Allan Atherton. This project would be an amazing blessing for any of our households -- or several banding together -- to assemble. Allan writes:
 
"I know you are all doing great things for Haiti, but I want to tell you about a direct-impact solid attack on the misery there that could use more support.
 
You may know of Father Millien, the first (now retired) priest at L’Eglise de L’Epipanie housed in St. John’s Stamford. He has flown with a team (Doctor, nurse and four others) to Carrefour, Haiti, at the epicenter of the earthquake. They have established a clinic in the guest House of the Good Samaritan School which, thanks to the initial influx of 24 duffel bags of medical supplies, treats 100 victims a day.
 
As organized by St. John’s, Fr. Millien’s wife Mona and members of Old St. Andrews Bloomfield, additional teams are stuffing
 

• Pedialyte
• PediaSure
  
• powered baby food
  
• diapers
  
• onesies
  
• baby blankets and pajamas
  
• children's allergy meds
  
• children and infant pain meds
  
• diarrhea meds for children
  

 
into large duffle bags or suit ases with wheels for transport. These are conveyed via the Dominican Republic into Haiti on an airline carrier that is allowing them bring up to 50 bags of supplies.
 
The next trip is scheduled for this week and more trips are in the offing.
 
If you can arrange for some of your Haitian support contributions to come to St, John’s Stamford, tagged for “Haitian Relief” and sent to
 
St. John's Episcopal Church
628 Main Street
Stamford, CT 06901
 
I think you can be assured that the contribution will have a direct and immediate impact.
 
Your efforts and this one make me proud to be an Episcopalian. God Bless."
 
Not Your Grandparents' Pancake Supper:  Come for Mardi Gras, a jazz band, pancakes and fixin’s, Tuesday, February 16, at 5:00 p.m. in the gymnasium. Yes, a jazz band, a jazz worship service, with face painting and bead stringing for children; plenty of “Fat Tuesday” food and good fellowship, all under the direction of David Jernigan.
 
Please consider volunteering for “Advertising”, “Set Up”, “Cooking”, “Clean-Up”, “Face-Painting”, “Bead Stringing” supervision.  Call or email the parish office and let David know he can count on you.   We hope to serve in excess of one hundred people. Bring your neighbors, family, and friends.
 
News from the Annual Parish Meeting: The business of last Sunday’s Annual Parish Meeting was expedited by the high energy and enthusiasm of all who attended. Clearly the written reports, while summarizing the ministry at St. Thomas’s, can only provide a snapshot of all that happens here. In many ways ,the work of the meeting was like the dance of the Blessed Trinity -- each individual attending to and affirming the work of another.
 
This Sunday we will remember in our prayers of thanksgiving the dedicated service of those whose term of office is completed: Philip Ball, Warden; Trip Hartigan, Clerk; Michael Dunlap, Cate Horton, Dawn Lorentson, Vestry; Prakash Thomas, Parish Representative to the Day School Board; Larry Michaud and Diane Robertson, Auxiliary Vestry.
 
Prayers will also be offered for those elected to office, succeeding the above: Pat Sabosik, Philip Ball, Mark Branch, Katherine Carbutti, Jucinda Fenn-Hodson, and Kathleen Phipps. Elected to continue in office: Bob Carroll and Steve Hudd.
 
A flurry of activity among those volunteering for ministry is noteworthy: Larry Michaud, Lou Nemeth, Bruce Salender and Gary Robison will share in delivering food offered each Sunday for St. Paul and St. James’ food pantry.  Mary Peitler (fondly known to her grandsons as Berry) and one of those grandsons, three-year-old Nolan Lederman, have volunteered to deliver bread to guests who worship at St. Thomas’s for the first time. What a joy for anyone answering their door to meet “Berry” and “Noley” there with a fresh loaf of bread.
 
St. Thomas’s now has gluten-free hosts available for Sunday Eucharist. Our own Frances Gambardella has made us aware of folks with allergies to wheat products, and her own parish’s response to those allergies. We have a supply of hosts on hand, and any who need them should notify one of the clergy before the service begins. Do share this information with neighbors, friends and family.
 
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