Sunday School Update: Lessons in love from MLK

Dear St. John’s familes,

This week we are offering a one room schoolhouse in the Pre-K room for MLK Day.

Martin Luther King offers an important lesson about love for our children.

This holiday is a great opportunity to talk to children about important values Dr. King emphasized, like love, peace, and racial and cultural equality. It’s also a good time to talk about simple ways that kids can help keep his dreams and wisdom alive. And you’re never too young to start a life of activism.

In the spirit of Martin Luther King’s life of service and activism, we invite you to participate in the St. John’s day of service for School on Wheels this Monday, Jan. 20th. Limited spots remain! Ages 5+ (with a parent) are welcome.

School on Wheels provides educational support—including tutoring, mentoring, and school supplies—to Massachusetts students facing homelessness and poverty. Over 11,000 students in the Bay State have received backpacks and school supplies from School on Wheels. More information about the organization can be found at sowma.org.

You can help in two ways: sign up via the link below to volunteer Jan. 20 at their site in East Bridgewater and/or donate NEW books and school materials. Books for children grades 5–12 are particularly needed! (Buttonwood has a wonderful selection!)

Donations can be left in the bin at the side entrance or in the donation bin in the narthex.

Thank you for your support!

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Supplies Needed:

• New books for kids K–12 (Grades 5–12 are especially needed)

• Quality backpacks for kids K–12, 17” or longer

• Pencil boxes and zipper pouches

• Dixon Ticonderoga pencils

• Hand sanitizer and face masks

• Jumbo pencils and large erasers

• Safety scissors for children (must be blunt)

• Glue sticks

• Large covered pencil sharpeners

• Blue, red, and black pens

• 8-pack sets of washable markers

• 12-pack sets of colored pencils

• Flexible plastic rulers

• Highlighters

• Pack of index cards (100 count)

• Square root and scientific calculators

• Shiny Pocket folders

• Composition notebooks

• Doodle pads

• Single subject, wide ruled notebooks

• 1” binders and dividers

• Crayons and fun pencils

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Alexis MacElhiney

Sunday School Director & Youth Coordinator

MLK Day of Service: School on Wheels

Please join St. John’s in supporting School on Wheels in Massachusetts for this year’s MLK Day of Service! School on Wheels provides educational support—including tutoring, mentoring, and school supplies—to Massachusetts students facing homelessness and poverty. Over 11,000 students in the Bay State have received backpacks and school supplies from School on Wheels. More information about the organization can be found at sowma.org.

You can help in two ways: 

• Sign up here to volunteer January 20th at their site in East Bridgewater; and/or

• Donate NEW books and school materials. Books for children grades 5 and higher are particularly needed. (Buttonwood has a wonderful selection!)

Donations can be left in the bin at the side entrance or in the donation bin in the narthex.

Thank you for your support!

Angel and Warming Trees

Starting Sunday, Nov. 24, you will see two decorated Christmas trees in the church entryway. One is a Warming Tree to go with our traditional Angel Tree.

On the Angel Tree, each ornament is a gift tag with a gift request on the front and instructions printed on the back. Please help us make a Christmas wish come true for a person in need by taking an ornament or two, purchasing the requested gift, and returning the gift and tag to the church office by Tues., Dec. 6.

A second tree, our Warming Tree, is also in the narthex. If you would like to provide hat and gloves/mittens for age 0–18, feel free to take a reminder flyer from the tree. Kindly return your gift and hang it on the tree by December 6.

Please leave all gifts unwrapped.

Thank you for your generous support. The gifts will be distributed to the following organizations in time for their Christmas gatherings:

• Quincy Family Resource Center helps families to access and navigate resources in the local community.

• Wellspring provides support and skills to people facing challenge to their financial, physical and/or emotional well-being to help them achieve independence and self-sufficiency.

• South Shore Healthy Families offers home visiting services for young parents and their children, providing information about parenting and child development.

• Youth Programs of St. Stephen’s in Boston serve neighborhood children by providing them with a safe, challenging and supportive community in which they can thrive.

From the Rector: Finding the prayerful threads in community

“Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”

1 Corinthians 12:4-7

Over the last few weeks, I have been struck once more at how engaged our community is. We have witnessed the marvel that is The Not-So-Spooky Haunted House, thanks to the gargantuan efforts of Dan and Kaja Fickes, their daughters Elise and Kristi, John Lanza, and our incredible parishioners, and children and youth volunteers. I have also seen our Holiday Boutique appear more noticeably on the horizon, as plans are coming together around another major holiday event. We gathered for coffee hour at the Rectory last Sunday, as well as many of our parishioners engaging in our wider community through the Hingham Historical Society’s Tavern Night. Turns out St. John’s has quite the presence there!

Just when things seemed to calm down, I then found myself in meetings with Sunday School leaders, planning this Sunday’s All-Ages Worship and Stewardship Sermon; as well as our Outreach Committee’s meeting, a planning meeting for the South Africa trip, and of course our Wednesday morning Eucharist. And that’s before you get to our Transition Committee’s Wine and Cheese Evenings, the Men’s Group’s monthly meeting, our monthly Finance Committee meeting, and our community’s participation at the consecration of our new Bishop! A few of these events, I confess, I ultimately couldn’t attend because of clashes and, frankly, exhaustion! Oh, and I’m being instituted here on November 19 …!

When I was discerning, interviewing, and then finally preparing for arriving at St. John’s, I knew there would be a great deal of activity. Everyone in this community leads a busy life, to say the least! This was one of the things that inspired Devon and I the most about coming here. One of the great gifts of parish life is precisely what St. John’s does best, and that is, put simply, gathering. Through this we share our gifts and grow in our relationship with God through each of the particular aspects of parish life that draws us in and speaks to us most immediately. And at the heart of all these gatherings is prayer. Whether it is at a social event, a fundraiser, a committee or ministry meeting, or indeed an act of worship in and of itself; prayer is an essential part of each these. And prayer is part of even those gatherings which one might not immediately anticipate being explicitly spiritual or theological.

The last two weeks have felt like journeying a St. John’s “road map.” It began with the Eucharist on Sunday, from which point we left the parish church, going out into the world to engage in all the usual things that occupy our lives. And, in the midst of this, whether you are a priest, an administrator, a doctor, an accountant, or … fill in the blank … you find yourself back in our parish, sharing the gifts that you bring, and which make who you are with the community around you. There’s an interconnectivity between all these elements: a prayerful thread which ties everything together. Each act of gathering connects to another, from worship to social, from Haunted House to fundraising, from Hingham to South Africa and back, from one generation to another. As we move into a busy time of year, and approach a new liturgical year, how we navigate those specific prayerful threads that underlie our shared life will be an important theme, for “to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” And I am excited to walk that journey with you.

The Rev. Edward Thornley

Rector of The Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist

Sunday School Update: Sunday School supports Outreach

Dear St. John’s families,

We are participating in Outreach’s food drive for WellSpring! Nearly one in four Americans experience food insecurity. This is a great way to teach children how they can help their neighbors. Please bring one of the following items and drop in the colorful bin downstairs in the Sunday School.

• Cereal

• Dry pasta

• Microwaveable mac and cheese

• Chef Boyardee canned products

• Canned tuna fish

• Peanut butter

• Jelly

• Granola Bars

This week is All Ages Worship! Wear your Halloween costume to church! For those of you not familiar, this is our 10 a.m. worship service that is geared towards children, though all are welcome! Some adults have said this is their favorite type of service. We will be treated to the choristers singing and Fr. Ed demonstrating one of our favorite Godly Play lessons from the gospel of Matthew. We need a few more ushers, greeters, and acolytes: please email me to sign up!

Afterwards, at coffee hour, we will be selling the beautiful birdhouses made by the Sunday School and Youth Group kids. Proceeds will be going towards the South Africa trip next summer.