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Christ Church East Norwalk eNews
THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
ROGATION SUNDAY 

O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding: Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises, which exceed all that we can desire; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.



 
  • Pastoral Needs: Call Fr Montgomery if you simply want to talk during this time! Best times are Wednesday-Friday 9-5 and Saturday 9-12....but call when you need to! 917-470-9623
  • Pledges/Donations: Mail is collected daily at the Church Office so please, if you are able, keep current with your pledge. OR click HERE to make a donation safely via PayPal
  • Digital Reality: Remember that Coffee Hour is broadcast on FaceBook. Share, and remember it is in public.
Dear friends and Members of Christ Church,
Alleluia, Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. 

"To open or not to re-open?" That is not the question. With apologies to the Prince of Denmark and Mr Shakespeare......

We find ourselves in strange times. And on the tip of everyone's tongue is "When can we get back to normal". And the real answer that no one wants to hear is things will never be the same again. We will never get back to "normal" if by normal we mean that things are just as they were on March 10th. We are always in transition in life and in the midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic we are at one and the same time more disrupted and more static than in anyone's memory. Our "normal" routine and support of non-household family, jobs, in person church life, school, community organizations, everything has been turned upside down. Healthy families and organizations (like Christ Church!) have created ways to engage like our Zoom services and FaceBook Livestream worship and Coffee Hour. We are calling each other on the phone. We are, as we are able and as is safe, helping each other particularly those who are most vulnerable in this crisis. WELL DONE!

And yet we are dying to re-open! The real news is that even if we could open the doors tomorrow  the reality is that as leaders of church and state we have a higher responsibility than to do what most of us want. Our first responsibility is to keep people safe and protect the vulnerable (even from their own bad decisions) so that once this crisis is past or at least truly managed, we can ALL come together again because we are all alive and well. 

To that end, the Bishop of Connecticut, in consultation with the Governor of Connecticut has issued Directions for churches coming together physically in Phase II of the State re-opening (post June 20). Your Vestry and I are hard at work to find safe ways we can be near each other and support each other during this time and going forward. 

You can see the Bishop's Directions by clicking on the image below: 
We will continue to stream digitally once the liturgy returns to our building as those who are most vulnerable are encouraged to stay safe and stay home even after June 20.  For those who choose to come to church, we will work together to make the place clean and safe! Do look at the directions and come to me with suggestions as to ways in light of them we can be helpful to you in your life and our common life together. 

SO PLEASE -- IF YOU HAVE NOT ALREADY -- GET A WEB CAM FOR YOUR COMPUTER OR A SMARTPHONE OR TABLET AND INTERACT WITH ZOOM EACH SUNDAY AT 10! Those who have their faces visible and see others are finding this experience rich. (not the same, of course or what we would rather -- I get it. I feel it -- but rich nonetheless. For all of us this is the new normal and for some of us it will be the continuing normal for some time. For others who have joined us during this time it is how they are coming to know the love we show for each other in Christ. Barbara Judson called me on Friday and in 5 minutes we had her Zooming away on her new smartphone. If you have any questions call me or Barbara! If your priest and Altar Guild can do it....anyone can! If you are not feeling as connected as you would like to be and you are not Zooming Sunday at 10 there is a simple solution! Ask Barbara! 



Alleluia, Christ is risen. The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia. 


See you "in" church.....and HAPPY EASTER!

in Christ,
Fr Ian Montgomery
 
Easter Service and Coffee Hour 10 am,

ZOOM
To connect via Zoom, click HERE or go to: https://zoom.us/j/460978476
FaceBook
To view only via the Face book page Click HERE and scroll to Video section or go to: https://www.facebook.com/christepiscopalchurch/
Telephone
To dial in and listen (and be able to speak) during coffee hour, dial this number: +1 646 558 8656  and then put in this Meeting ID: 460 978 476
YouTube  Click HERE to access the Church website and navigate to YouTube to watch it on your TV -- you could combine this with dialing in on your telephone for Coffee Hour for a full experience if you can't manage ZOOM on the computer or other device. 

 
All Meetings and Activities on campus have been postponed or canceled until further notice. All members are asked to NOT to come to the church building. Only officers who need to carry on the business of the church will be coming to it and they should be left alone in as sanitized an environment as possible. 
 
ECCT CYCLE OF PRAYER:  Pray for St. James’, New Haven; St. John’s, New Haven; St. Luke’s, New Haven; Companions in Mission for Publishing & Communication, Education for Ministry leaders and students.

ANGLICAN CYCLE OF PRAYER:  Pray for the Anglican Church of Korea and its Primate.  (The Church made headlines recently when it sent a Covid-19 aid package to the Diocese of New York in the US-based Episcopal Church; blessed by the Bishop of Daejeon and the Primate of Korea., Archbishop Moses Nagjun Yoo.

ROGATION SUNDAY:  The Sunday before  Ascension Sunday is called Rogation Sunday.  It is a day of prayer, fasting, and processions as a formal means of asking God for a good harvest, protection against natural disasters and forgiveness of sins.


VIGIL LIGHT:  The vigil light burns this week with prayers for America's farmers and ranchers who continue to put their lives at risk during the pandemic to bring food to our tables.

CHECK IT OUT!          
Joyce Generoso is hosting a ZOOM Yoga Fusion class on Wednesday nights.  Please contact her for details!
Joyce:  Cell 203-984-3050

 

The First Lesson
Acts 17:22-31

Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,

‘For we too are his offspring.’

Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Psalm 66:7-18
Jubilate Deo

7 Bless our God, you peoples; *
make the voice of his praise to be heard;

8 Who holds our souls in life, *
and will not allow our feet to slip.

9 For you, O God, have proved us; *
you have tried us just as silver is tried.

10 You brought us into the snare; *
you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.

11 You let enemies ride over our heads;
we went through fire and water; *
but you brought us out into a place of refreshment.

12 I will enter your house with burnt-offerings
and will pay you my vows, *
which I promised with my lips
and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.

13 I will offer you sacrifices of fat beasts
with the smoke of rams; *
I will give you oxen and goats.

14 Come and listen, all you who fear God, *
and I will tell you what he has done for me.

15 I called out to him with my mouth, *
and his praise was on my tongue.

16 If I had found evil in my heart, *
the Lord would not have heard me;

17 But in truth God has heard me; *
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

18 Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, *
nor withheld his love from me.

The Second Lesson
1 Peter 3:13-22

Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you-- not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

The Gospel
John 14:15-21

Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

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CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
2 Emerson Street (at the corner of Gregory Boulevard)
East Norwalk, CT 06855-1330


Our email address is:
office@christepiscopalnorwalkct.org

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Christ Episcopal Church · 2 Emerson Street · Norwalk, Connecticut 06855 · USA

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