The numbers look good this year at St. John’s. Eleven Baptisms, a good list of confirmations receptions and transfers, a strong pledge base and small surplus going into December, and an Average Sunday Attendance (there is the real number for any church) of 110, up 15 from last year. But cautious thanksgiving, not jubilant self-congratulation is in order. After all, we have buried some very active members and seen good friends and members of our parish move away. And our ASA is significantly skewed by the fact that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year and the fact that we had excellent attendance at both Christmas Eve services, which count toward Sunday attendance. All the same, good things are happening at St. John’s. We offer three Communion Services each week in our Church, all of which are well attended. Two regular Bible studies are joined by a strong EFM program to provide Christian Education opportunities for our members. We have a regular presence for Prayer and Communion distribution in two nursing homes. We offer weekly lay led evening prayer at the church and also at the chapel at Pickering House, the home of our local tri-county hospice program. We have a regular presence in the county jail, the transitions center, and in SEPTA- the tri-county jail in Nelsonville (Bill McCleery, assisted by Chuck Canter even baptized two men there this year!) We have had good participation serving meals to the poor in Jackson and Hocking counties, and the support of our parish for the local Lutheran Social Services food pantry continues. We continue to support missions ranging from Haiti to Liberia to East Asia and beyond, and youth work in Pennslyvania. We support work among single mothers in our own community and provided hats and mittens to needy children in our own public schools. Our building is used by AA and Alanon, Fairhope Hospice, the Lancaster Festival Art Walk, and a group of local elementary school cheerleaders regularly. Special needs students from Lancaster High School come to our church every week during the school year for on-site job training experience. All of these things and more are supported by all of the administrative and service structures such as altar guild, choir, office volunteers, and the like that make up the daily labour of the people of God at St. John’s. We support the ministries of the Episcopal church directly through Episcopal Community Services Foundation, Support for the Anglican Diocese of Jerusalem on Good Friday, support for the Dohn's- medical missionnaries in the Dominican Republic, and direct giving to two Episcopal Seminaries at Nashotah House and in Ambridge PA. This year, we saw one of our own families, the Canters, graduate from the House and accept a church appointment in the Episcopal diocese of San Diego. We have been pleased to support the Good Earth Farm and Common Friars, our relatively new Episcopal Monastery in Athens. Our own Emily Crawford served as a summer intern there during her break from Washington and Lee. .We also pay our diocesan Mission Share fully and on time this and every year. These are a few of the highlights of who we are and what we do here at St. John’s, and there are many more things we do to serve God and our fellows here and around the world. Thank you all for your generous support and service.
2011 has also seen some big changes about how we do business at St. John’s and in the look of the Church. First for the capital projects: We have new roofs on both buildings which should serve us for years to come. A major masonry project was conducted on the west end of the church which included the rebuilding of both towers. Many thanks to Glenn Newman, a long-time friend of this parish for doing the work. He saved us substantial amounts of money with his patient and careful workmanship. Thanks also to Martin Taylor, our good neighbor, who cooperated with us and Fairfield Federal to stabilize and reconstruct the wall that marks our property line. Last year, our vestry decided to adopt a plan of “Common Ministry” or increased lay involvement in the running of the church. A significant component of that plan was the replacing of our Church secretary with volunteer workers. It has been a learning process, but the transition has been made successfully, thanks to the hard work of Tom Hammer, Schyler Crawford, and all of our office volunteers. We hit a milestone in 2011 when our treasurer, Lowell Stallsmith, celebrated his twenty fifth year in that position. Thanks Lowell for a job well done. We continued to get to know each other better thanks to the monthly fellowship breakfasts organized by Mark and Mary Alice Perrine and their crews. Suzie Cork and the folks at Shaw’s continued to conduct the popular cooking classes which have brought joy to so many and raised a considerable sum for our parish. Many thanks are also in order to the Fairfield Anglican Fellowship, an independent mission support agency and registered 501c3 for their continued substantial support of our mission through the payment of utilities and support for individual projects of our parish and their support of the Common Friars in Athens. Thanks to all who support St. John’s by their labor, their giving of money and time and prayer, and by living the gospel every day. We are truly blessed, and if 2011 is any indicator of who we are, I anticipate a great 2012 here on behalf of the kingdom of God.
Faithfully,
Bill+
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