The Parish of
St. Mary and St. Jude
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Message from the Interim Rector, The Reverend Frances CoxMy Dear Sisters and Brothers, Endings and beginnings are much on my mind these days. They happen in little ways and big every day. Many of the Gospel lessons for this summer focus on planting and harvests. Beginnings and Endings. They are a part of all our lives. Sometimes we are more aware than others. Sometimes we can ignore them. Sometimes we cannot. At the end of August I will cease to be the Interim Rector of this parish. You will prepare to welcome your new Rector late in September. This next month is a time for us to take stock, to give thanks for all that God has done in our midst, sometimes because of what we have done and sometimes in spite of what we have done. It is also a time to seek forgiveness for those things which have been left undone, or have been hurtful to one another. It is a time to let go and move forward. Saying goodbye to what has been is difficult sometimes but essential if we are to truly say hello to what will be. Many of you have asked where I will go next. As I write this I am in the interview process myself and cannot yet tell you where I will be going. God has not yet revealed that information. I can tell you that you will go with me in my thoughts and prayers and the many memories we share. I will miss you all very much. It is always hard to say goodbye. On Sunday, the 18th of August we will have the liturgical ending of my time with you since the following Sunday, the 25th is our Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Consecration of St Mary's by-the-Sea. August 31 will be my last day with you. I look forward in the years to come to reading in these pages of the new and exciting things that God will be doing in your midst, and keeping up with the beginnings and endings in the life of this parish. In Christ's Peace and Joy, Frances+ From the Interim Rector's Bulletin Board Important Dates this Month August 11, Centennial celebration of The Union Congregational Church of Seal Harbor August 17, Church Fair August 18, Liturgy celebrates the ministry of our interim rector August 21, Vestry meeting, 4:30PM August 25, Service in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the consecration of St. Mary's-by-the-Sea An Invitation to all from our neighbors The Union Congregational Church of Seal Harbor, United Church of Christ, joyfully invites you to celebrate its 100th Anniversary Service of Dedication on the Village Green, on August 11, 2002 at 3:30 p.m. Speaker: The Rev. Dr. Kenneth C. Brookes Reception: The Stone Church (Seal Harbor) at 5:30 p.m. Hosted by Mr. & Mrs. Finlay Matheson LABORS OF LOVE Third in a series of "Profiles in Ministry" Lucy Smith grew up in a parish that produced six bishops. Malcolm Peabody, whose family still summers in Northeast Harbor, was one of them. There must be something in the water in Lucy's hometown of Lawrence, Massachusetts that moves good people into ministry. If so, it is obvious that Lucy drank deeply. In the summer of 1939, Mt. Holyoke College student Lucy Lee came here to work at the Kimball House. She met Dick Smith and two years later rector Jim McElroy married them in our winter chapel. For twenty years Lucy worked full time for her husband's business. Then, in the 1960s she became more and more involved in church work. Lucy helped teach Sunday School when it was jointly held with the Union Church and attended by more than two dozen students. She attended ECW meetings and helped with the fair. Someone discovered that Lucy could play the piano, and in 1973 she began filling in as organist "here, there, and everywhere." She, Katherine Tracy, Grace Herrick, George Harms, and Miss Pendleton all played at St. Mary's-by-the-Sea. Lucy also played at St. Jude's and at St. James-in-the-Woods. In 1976 she took over the ministry of parish treasurer from Julia Manchester and held that position for twenty-three years. Preparing for and attending nearly three hundred vestry meetings speaks volumes about dedication and perseverance. In the 1980s Lucy began perhaps her most rewarding ministry. Tiffy Burr handed her the Altar Guild checkbook and asked her to take over. It was not long before she took on additional responsibilities. Under the tutelage of Kathy Suminsby and Tiffy Burr, she learned the language of the altar - paten, veil, burse, ambry - and the rituals of setting up for services, laundering linens, ordering wafers, wine and candles, polishing brass, and moving from summer churches to the winter chapel. Today, Lucy's health doesn't permit her to participate as actively. She hopes that the younger generations will take an interest in this ministry, adding with a twinkle that Altar Guild work is nothing a man couldn't do. It is worth considering and so are its rewards. For Lucy: "It is very satisfying. When you go to church, you look up at the beautiful altar and you know that you prepared it. More than just coming to church, it makes you feel a part of the service." Service. There's that word again. What motivates Lucy to serve? I suspect it's more than just something in the water. Charlie Tyson PARISH CALLS NEW RECTOR We wish to welcome the Reverend David J. Lucey to the Parish of St. Mary and St. Jude as our Rector Elect. Reverend Lucey and his family, wife Katherine and their five children (ages 9 weeks to 13), will join us early this fall after discerning a Call to new ministry in July. Reverend Lucey has been Associate to the Rector at St. Matthew's, Bedford, New York since June of 1999. There, Revered Lucey provided leadership in all areas of parish life with a special focus on youth. He managed a very large Sunday School, planned and implemented a Junior Youth Group program, and initiated a Senior Youth Group program. And, under his guidance, the youth choir at St. Matthew's rose from 15 to 25 participants in one year. From September 1997 to June 1999, Reverend Lucey served as an intern at the Church of the Heavenly Rest, in New York City, which offered him experience in the broad spectrum of parish life including adult education, liturgy, preaching, and responsibility for the Children's Chapel. From May 1986 to September 1997, he served at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York City in lay ministries that include Assistant Treasurer, lay reader, DOCC facilitator, adult Sunday School teacher, Cursillo, and the Healing Team. Reverend Lucey received his Masters in Divinity from The General Theological Seminary in New York in 1999. His work experience from 1981 to 1996 evidences a solid accounting and banking background. He holds a Masters in Business Administration from Wake Forest University and a B.A. in Economics from Hampden-Sydney College, graduating Cum Laude. We look forward to meeting and welcoming our new Rector Elect David J. Lucey and his family at our Centennial Celebration service on August 25th when they will be on vacation in Maine. Then, in late fall, Bishop Knudsen will come to St. Mary's-by-the-Sea to perform a Celebration of New Ministry, the formal induction of Reverend Lucey as our new rector. Please plan to attend these joyous occasions -- the celebration of our Centennial Anniversary and the beginning of Reverend Lucey's new ministry in our parish family. TO THE SEARCH COMMITTEE: Well done, thou good and faithful servants! At the beginning of the year 2001 God (working through your vestry) called together a very motley crew. What they had in common was a love of the Lord and a commitment to this parish. While meeting together they came to know each other very well and learned to use each ones gifts to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts. Your Search Committee, Sheila Smallidge and Lynda Tyson Co-chairs, Mark Bucklin, James Clunan, Michael Dennis, Ellen Kappes, Lydia Lyman, and Sydney Roberts Rockefeller, have toiled long and hard on your behalf. They met often (sometimes once a week and sometimes five days in a row). They ate together a lot, laughed together, shed a few tears together, talked to a lot of people, and offered your vestry the name of the current Rector-elect. Please give them your thanks when you see them. Frances+ MEMORIAL GIFT On Sunday, July 21, 2002 the new book stand for the altar at St. Jude's was dedicated to the Glory of God and in Thanksgiving for the lives of Dr. Ernest G. and Mildred W. Stillman. Tams Redfield executed the design for us to match the other lovely wooden pieces, which were made some years ago by her father. |
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P.O. Box 105, Northeast Harbor, Maine 04662 Tel: 207/276-5588 Fax: 207/276-3220