There seems to be very little interest in the animal blessing this afternoon, so we have cancelled the animal blessing.

As a reminder, the joint worship service this Sunday, September 6, is at 10:00 am at Rotary Park. There will not be a service at St John’s.

Bishop Doug Hahn will be visiting St. John’s on October 18. Anyone who would like to be confirmed, received into the Episcopal Church, or make a reaffirmation should contact Bruce Cory. We will be scheduling confirmation classes soon. There will be five sessions before the bishop’s visit on the following topics:

1. The Spiritual Journey
2. Theological Basics
3. History of the Church
4. The Structure of the Episcopal Church
5. The Sacraments and Ritual of the Church

Sponsors of those to be confirmed, as well as any other member who is interested in learning more about the Episcopal Church, are encouraged to attend these sessions, too.

Flood damage in Johnson County, KY. Photo from WHAS11 TV.

Vestry has voted to donate $100.00 worth of supplies to the flood relief effort in Johnson County, KY. Bruce Cory will purchase the supplies and they will be joined with the supplies donated by Grace on the Hill United Methodist Church and Union College. The local district of the United Methodist Church is renting a 10 foot box truck to transport the supplies to Johnson County to the United Methodist Committee on Relief support center in Paintsville, KY. Bruce and the Rev. David Miller, campus minister at Union College, will be driving the truck to Paintsville Saturday, July 25.

Help loading the truck at Grace on the Hill United Methodist Church will be appreciated. We will be loading the truck at 9:00 am Saturday morning. You can personally purchase supplies and bring them to Grace on the Hill that morning to be loaded on the truck. If you wish to make a monetary donation toward the $100.00 vestry has voted to donate, please make that donation in the offertory this Sunday, July 26, marked for Johnson County flood relief. Any cash donated by parishioners in excess of the $100.00 already designated will be forwarded to UMCOR as a cash donation to help the flood victims.

For some current information on the flood relief effort, this clip from WSAZ in West Virginia may be of interest: http://bit.ly/1DBwJ0a

Anyone available to help load the truck of the supplies going to Johnson County/Paintsville? We could use a couple people and maybe an extra handtruck Saturday morning at 8:30. We may also have a few youth from Grace on the Hill.

Bruce

I (Bruce) am going with David Miller, campus minister from Union College, this Saturday to help deliver some supplies collected at Union and at Grace on the HIll. If anyone wants to collect some supplies and either drop them off at the church by Friday, I can pick them up to put in with this trip, or meet us at Grace on the HIll on Saturday (we are leaving from Union at about 8:00 am to head to Corbin), please let me know.

Don’t forget that we have returned to offering Evening Prayer on Wednesdays at 6:00 pm at the church. Come and join us if you are able.

Evening Prayer is a short worship service that marks the end of the day. If you cannot join us in person, there are versions of Evening Prayer that you can pray in the Book of Common Prayer. The Prayer Book has a section titled Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families that begins on page 136, with a service for In the Early Evening on page 139. This is a simple order of prayer that I highly recommend as a starting place if you are not comfortable with the larger Evening Prayer service, which can be found on page 115 for Rite II (contemporary language) or page 61 for Rite I (traditional language).

An Order of Compline, found on page 127, is also a simple evening service, usually prayed before bedtime.

There are also resources for the daily prayer online. One of my favorites (though bit advanced as it offers several options) is St. Bede’s Breviary. The Mission of St. Clare also has some online, preformatted versions of Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer (including from the New Zealand Prayer Book and in español.) The Book of Common Prayer is also available online.

Or, you could take 10-15 minutes for quiet prayer, scripture reading and thought. Whatever you choose to do, whether it is with us at the church, with the Prayer Book, with an online devotional, or your own private prayer time, a discipline of personal and communal prayer is a valuable practice. One of the promise we make in the Baptismal Covenant is to “continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers”. I encourage you to find the pattern that works best for you to fulfill that promise.

A submission form has been created on the website for Prayers of the People. If you have a prayer request you would like added to the Prayers of the People during our Sunday services, please feel free to submit the request using this form.

You can make a submission by e-mail to bwcory@gmail.com , by submitting it in writing in the collection, or by talking with Bruce personally (and making sure he writes it down!).

Prayers will remain on the prayer list for one month from the date of submission. You are encouraged to resubmit the prayer request at that time to have it remain on the list for additional time.

The announcement was omitted from last Sunday’s bulletin, but we are still having our regular end-of-the-month potluck lunch this Sunday, June 28. Bring a dish or drink to share. All are welcome! Plan to fellowship with each other. Our pot luck schedule shifts in October and November, depending upon the Bishop’s visit and our Annual Meeting, but otherwise it will remain as the last Sunday of the month.

As mentioned in the announcements, we currently have nine participating members in the Kroger Community Rewards program. Additionally, even current participating members must re-register in August!

Here are the instructions for registering your Kroger card with Kroger Community Rewards:

1. Visit http://www.kroger.com/communityrewards
2. Scroll down to find your location and click “Enroll Now”
3. Sign in to your online account, or create an account
4. Find and select our organization, and click “Save”

If you need it, our organization number is 47782, but you should be able to find us by searching the list.