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

Warrant of Annual Meeting

Pursuant to the By-Laws of the Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist, the Annual Meeting of the Parish shall be held on Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, in the Church Parish Hall immediately following the 10 a.m. service.

• To receive reports of the Priest & Wardens, the Officers, and Chairs of Committees, and other organizations of the parish;

• To elect members of the Vestry;

• To receive the budget for 2025;

• To receive and act upon resolutions and to transact such other business that may be brought before said Meeting.

With the concurrence of the Rev. Edward Thornley, and Wardens, Jody Jones Turner and Perrie O’Tierney-Ginn.

From the Rector: Finding the heart of St. John’s

Dear Friends,

I sat down at my desk this past Monday morning to begin writing my annual report for our upcoming annual meeting on January 26. It was a curious experience. For one thing, I haven’t been here for a year, and so I had to begin writing in such a way that acknowledged my somewhat limited experience. And yet, as soon as I started writing, I found myself recalling all the things Devon and I have already shared with you all in our mere six months with you. And while my first draft still very much feels like a long list of “thank yous”—which I’m sure isn’t a surprise—it was in the listing of events, the naming of individuals, and the seemingly endless thanksgivings that something special emerged. I became more aware of what holds this place together.

So, what holds this place together? Well, God, obviously. But how? One of the things that struck me, indeed as we were saying farewell to Buffy Gray on Sunday, was the deep interconnectivity of this parish. One of the hardest things to establish in any community, let alone a parish church, is a culture where people are genuinely embedded in each others’ lives in ways which are healthy, pastoral, and fruitful; where people truly care about each other, and where the connectivity is authentic and unforced. It may sound funny to say, but one of the most difficult jobs any parish has is nurturing such a Christian relationality; not because people, or indeed priests are that difficult, but because, especially in a wider culture of suspicion, skepticism, and irony, fostering such deep relationships is unusual, to say the least. And yet, it is possible. One of the great gifts of St. John’s, especially for someone entering the community afresh, is that this deeper level of engagement is already prevalent and heartfelt. It’s organic, and you sense it as soon as you walk through the door. And from there, having established that level of connection, one can then set about the “business” of worship, spirituality, and prayer in ever new ways.

Indeed, this is another unusual aspect of St. John’s. From the theological point of view of many in parish ministry, such community is often seen as the product of worship rather than something which we then bring to worship. Yet, as someone remarked to me recently, what often currently brings people through the door of St. John’s is the sense of community, and from there the worship begins. Those of you who first discovered this community through the Not-So-Spooky Haunted House, the Holiday Boutique, Summerfest, or one of our many social gatherings, for example, will perhaps testify to this. And so, we begin from a different angle, where community brings together the people for worship, and this is not unusual in the contemporary church. However, here lies our task as a parish: whatever may bring one through the door, how can we then nurture that sensation of being compelled? Once we are together in worship, how do we then grow that connection? Put in more spiritual terms, how do we pray? And how do we go on praying even when we leave? It is in questions such as those that we discover the heart of our shared journey in the heart of God.

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The Rev. Edward Thornley

Rector of The Episcopal Parish of St. John the Evangelist