Fifth Sunday after Trinity

Today was the Fifth Sunday after Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after the Summer Solstice and the hottest Sunday of the Year to date. It was a beautiful day that began under clear skies with a sunrise temperature of 75°F; by the time church was over, we were at 97°F. With many people on travel, we had our lowest attendance since 20 August 2006 with only 16 people present for the service.

Jack Arnold and Father Acker provided music for the three gathering songs.

Father Acker’s Pre-Service Class - Around the Bible in 140 days by popular demand
Today continued the twenty week tour of the Bible, 10 minutes of teaching each Sunday, beginning at 8:30am.  The class started with one of the Collects for the Day, applicable to the subject at hand, in this case the Second Sunday in Advent:

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace, and ever hold fast, the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.          
Second Sunday of Advent BCPp92

Today we moved on to the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah is the story of judgment and grace; divided into two main parts with a transition:

• Chapters 1-35
o Stage drama
o God’s Judgment
• Chapters 36-39
o Historical background (who & what)
• Chapters 40-66
o Poetry
o God’s Grace

The book is the vision of Isaiah, son of Amoz, concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Ussiah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, the Kings of Judah and covers the following period:

• Uzziah ends 740BC
• Jotham 740-732
• Ahaz 732-715
• Hezekiah 715-686

The message is simple, Repent and Return to the Lord (a little R&R). If you keep heading in this direction, you won’t like where you end up. As in today’s Gospel, where Jesus told the fishermen what to do, God was telling the Israelites what He wanted them to do. Unlike Simon Peter, they would not hear Him, for the most part.

Will you hear?

Alice Acker read the Epistle, which came from the Third Chapter of the First Epistle of Saint Peter beginning at the Eighth Verse. Peter tells to be of one mind, have compassion and pity for each other, to be courteous, to give good to all our brethren, to return good for evil, to seek peace, to do good, not just talk good. Peter tells us to not only talk the talk, but walk the walk. To put ourselves in others places, understand when they fall short and make good things happen.

BE ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous: not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts.

Today’s Gospel started in the Fifth Chapter of the Gospel according to Saint Luke beginning at the First Verse. This is one of the classic stories of Jesus in the Bible. Jesus had gone down to Lake Gennesaret to pray and then speak to the people. As they pressed in on him, he asked Simon Peter to use his boat as a speaking platform. Speaking from a small boat near the beach is almost like speaking in an amphitheatre. When he finished talking to the people, he told Simon Peter to go out and set his nets. Simon pointed out they had fished all night with no result, but at His word, he would set his net. The net gathered an incredible catch that Simon Peter and his friends could not board. At that point, it was clear to Simon Peter he was in the presence of one far greater than himself. He fell to his knees, saying, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Then Jesus said, “Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” From then on Simon Peter followed Jesus.

Do not misunderstand, every day Jesus speaks to you telling you what to do. It is your choice, you can listen like Simon Peter, or you can ignore Jesus. He has the pony for the lottery. He wants to give it to you, all you have to do is accept. While He is a bit more subtle than a Drill Instructor, the question is the same, “Can you hear me?”

There are none so deaf as those who will not hear.

IT came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret, and saw two ships standing by the lake: but the fishermen were gone out of them, and were washing their nets. And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: never-theless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished, and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken: and so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him.

Sermon – Do you want the fish?

In today’s Gospel, it is clear Jesus know where the fish are. If you want the fish, all you need to do is what He tells you. Simon Peter and his crew had been fishing all night, with nary an anchovie. Up comes a carpenter’s son from Nazareth with the real word on the fish. What would you have said if you were Peter, “Man, I am dead tired. How about you show me the fish tomorrow?”

Our life is full of many things, some of this world, others seemingly not of this world, but of God and His world. No matter what they are if they get in the way of answering Jesus loud and clear with a, “Yes, Sir!” then they are just an impediment. They become a barrier to our eternal salvation.
The great English Catholic writer, G. K. Chesterton, once said: Christianity hasn’t been tried and found wanting; it’s been found difficult and not tried.

We say we want what God offers through His Son Jesus Christ. Then He tells us what to do and we are not willing to ever try doing it. Then, we express dissatisfaction with the results we get. Kind of reminds me of people who say a recipe they did not follow does not work.

The real question becomes not, “Can you hear me?” But, rather, “Will you hear me?”

Will you hear?

Birthdays and Anniversaries
We had no anniversaries today, but celebrated Stephanie Boyd’s 42nd birthday today.

After Church Hospitality
Martha Stevens brought today’s goodies. Quite fancy! There were cherry pie, watermelon slices, chocolate cupcake brownies and trail mix. They were all great. Thanks ever so much, Martha.

The Command Master Chief Brewer himself handled coffee making on behalf of Tim’s House of Coffee and Father Acker was up early to make his special low carb lemonade.

Thanks to both.

After church goodies providers as currently signed up:

Date Name
22 June 2008 Martha Stevens
29 June 2008 Stephanie Boyd
6 July 2008 Holly Lizak
13 July 2008 Annie Springer
20 July 2008 Dru Arnold

New Nametags
We had no new nametags today.

People in our Prayers - http://www.blessedtrinityprayerteam.blogspot.com/
Prayer is an extremely important activity.
It is not that God knows not our needs, for He surely does.  Yet, Jesus commanded us to ask God for those same needs.  In addition to the obvious of asking God for help, offering thanksgiving and the like, prayer helps us focus our thoughts on how we might do God's work.

The Prayer Team of the Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity was established to help our members and fellow Christians pray for those in need and to give thanks as well for the blessings we have been granted.

Who can be on the list?  Do I have to be a member of the Blessed Trinity Church to be prayed for? No!  The only qualification to be on the list is that you want our prayer team to pray for you.  We are Christians and are happy to pray for you, no matter who you are.  If you want help from God, you are our kind of people.

What is the commitment from the prayer team?
Each member of the team will pray for the desired outcome at last once per day.

How do I get myself or someone else on the prayer list?
You can email one of the prayer team leaders: Greg - gnchase@cox.net or Dru - dru@descansorodents.com, or call the church office at (619) 722-1772 or fill out a prayer card at church.

What should I ask for?
Depends on what you want.  Some people merely want God to be asked to heal their ills and be mentioned by their first name, others want a specific outcome and / or have more of their personal information known to the team.  Ask for what you want.  It is your desire and need for prayer the team is attempting to meet.  For typical examples, see the list below.

Updating the Team
If you are on our prayer list, or if you have submitted a person that you have asked us to pray for, please update one of the team members or Father Acker in person, by telephone or email.  It helps to be able to pray specifically for these individuals including their specific needs; plus if they get better, it is nice to give thanks!

Please note that on the green or orange cards at church, you can ask that those to be prayed for have their names disseminated to the "prayer team".  Those names will be said in church and appear here.  Or, you can ask that their names and purpose be kept confidential, then only Father Acker will know to pray for them.

Travel
Ken is on travel this week.
Aaron, Traci and Warren are on travel this week.
Don, Sandy and Nick are on travel this week.

Healing

 Betty, Annie (diabetes), Salvador (cancer), Betty, Marge, Uni, Bethany (collision), Greg (shoulder surgery), Karl, Kathy, Christian, Marie, Wanda, James (diabetes), Frank+ (brain tumor), Sarah, Tina, Mark, Lois, Jennette (altzhimers), Gary, Delores, Anna, Ruth, Theresa, Don (post surgery), Melanie, Connie, Tom, Crystal, Thomas, Hadley, Diane, Norm, Gregory, Terri, Mary, Edward, Bert, Carmen, Yolanda, Jodi, Ken, Sheila, Nancy, Leucrecia (cancer), Michele, Marybeth (broken foot, stroke), Bill (infection), Teiko, Ernie, Ray, Tamara, Betty, Hazel, Richard, Bruce (heart attack), Susanne, Paul (stroke), Ralph+ (eyes hip), Allison (kidney), Bill (ETOH poisoning), Fran (cataracts)
, Joy, Kai, Jay, Tim

Evelyn Hunt is just not feeling right. She has generalized shaking, pressure in her head, blurred vision, nausea and fatigue. They have not been able to determine the cause of the problem. Please pray for a determination of the cause of her problems, a cure and a cessation of the symptoms.

Fran's cousin Carl is in the Kingman, Arizona hospital with pancreatitis. He was in the ICU, but is doing much better now. His sister Sue and her husband Sam are with him. Please pray for Carl's quick and complete recovery.

Al is recovering from a heart attack. Please pray for his safe and successful recovery and also for his family.



Mary Parker was in the hospital with an infection. She was released to her home on Monday, 26 May 2008, Memorial Day. Please pray a prayer of thanksgiving and continue to pray for her full recovery and that she might be able to stay home.



Kay Denton (Mrs. Kay) – is home from the hospital now, though she continues to have with heart, kidney and lung difficulties with fluid buildup on the lungs and what may be a form of septic arthritis. She is doing much better. Every so often she has a flare-up of the severe shoulder pain, accompanied by chills and shivering- but the last time it happened was much relieved by Cortisone injections. Also, please pray for her to maintain her positive attitude. As always, she retains her trust in the Lord, she thankful to get her positive attitude back. Pray also for Mrs. Kay’s family and her close friend Len who are under great stress that they might also keep their trust in the Lord.

 Mrs. Kay asks that everyone who is praying for her know how grateful she is for their prayers.

Joy – She has a reoccurrence of abdominal cancer, which is non-operable. She is currently undergoing radiation treatment. She and her family ask your prayers for the treatment to do good and for her to tolerate it better. More importantly, she asks God’s help to deal with the pain and discomfort while keeping a positive attitude during what is a very trying time.

Greg Chase – was moving this weekend and last weekend. He finally made it through the move, but his back went out when he got out of bed last Sunday morning and last night he took a Flexoril and was out of it for 16 hours, thus missing church today. Please pray for a quick resolution to the back problem.

Nicole Ethridge - age 27, mother of two - Has a form of liver disease which is causing her liver to shut down. She is near dialysis and would like you to pray for her disease to go into remission so that she can keep off dialysis and avoid a liver transplant. She asks that you pray for her continued faith and good spirits, as well as strength to take care of her children.

Baby Marie, daughter of Bill and Andrea Baker of St. Andrew’s in Jacksonville, Oregon. Marie was born prematurely with immature lungs. She is now 2lbs. 2 oz.

Marie's lungs cannot function on their own. She has been on a high-frequency ventilator for 19 days. Over long periods of use, the ventilator itself can cause lung damage. Thus, a dilemma. That combined with having two lung viruses has put her in a position of relying only on a Miracle. Nothing more can be done medically for Marie. It is up to her and God's will. She is comfortable and doing extremely well in every other way. She is no longer on IVs for food, blood sugars are normal, no signs of jaundice. On one side there are high hopes; on the other side how much time is there for her here on earth?

Please pray that Marie will gain the function of her lungs and stay with us. Also, pray for the Baker family that they might maintain their trust in God and have strength throughout this ordeal.

Guidance

Lloyd & Jennifer, Bob to be guided to church
Ashley, Breyana, Vie, Asha, Cory, Heather, Holly, Ken, Maruja, Stella, Shelly, Jerry, Martha, Matt, Marci, Nicholas, Carmen, Mary, John, William, Joe, Alexander, Jonathan, Phil, Sandy, Larraine, Brad, Brian, Cindi, Uni, Jennifer, Greg, Ed, Ruthie, Margie, Phyllis, Walter, Doris-June, Rick, Carol, Susan, Curtis, Stephen, Donny, Chris, Eric (job), Andrew, Keith (job decision), Jeff, Penny, Sara, Mark

Economic Guidance and Assistance
St. Andrew’s Academy (Lake Almanor, CA) Father Brian Foos (headmaster) – Please pray for help and guidance for the school which is under severe pressure from economic down turn. You can pray and turn your heart towards this problem. If you can do something concrete to help them, contact Father Acker.


Homebound/Aged and Infirm

Mary, Donna, Betty, Noko, Adelaide, Evelyn, Lorraine, Ellie, Walter (skilled nursing)

Armed Forces & Contractors

Tillman, Patrick, Justin, Tim, Evan, Jim, RJ, Matt, Phillip, Tim, Oscar, Julian, Joe (USAF - Ali Al Salem AB, Kuwait)

Needs Employment

Stephen Pappin is looking for a job in the electronic power supply field and asks you pray for him to be guided to an opening where he can fit in, do well and help them prosper.

Thanksgiving

Steven - thanksgiving for a safe return from Bagdad, Iraq where he served with the US Army.

Jason & Matt - Completion of military service.

RJ and his entire unit returning from Iraq without casualties

Greg and Diane Chase give thanks for their son Nelson’s graduation from the University of San Diego.

Ben Lizak gives thanks for the successful angioplasty and great recovery he has made so far.

Patty - Evelyn Hunt's daughter – gives thanks for a successful surgery on Monday, 2 June 2008, an early return home and continued recovery from the surgery.

Fran Dexter's cataract surgery went very well. She said the surgery was a piece of cake. She is seeing things so brightly, and it is good and really amazing- a miracle. She said the surgery was worth it if for no other reason than the beautiful, bright swirling colors she saw during the operation, she wishes she were an artist, and she would paint it. Her only difficult part was the doctor asked to please be quiet, and stop talking, as he was trying to work!!!!

Caroline (age 10, leukemia recurrence) was sent home from Children's Hospital over the weekend as her immune system finally reached an acceptable range, enabling her to go home just in time for Father's Day.  If she remains fever-free during the next few weeks, she will enter City of Hope in Los Angeles on 30 June and will receive a bone marrow transplant within ten days. 

Please pray for Caroline to remain well, to receive the transplant with no further delays, and for the transplant to be a success so that she may enjoy a long life of loving and serving God and His people.  Pray for her family, too, as they relocate to Los Angeles for the next 6-12 months during Caroline's stay at City of Hope.

Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani - Thanksgiving for justice taking precedence over political correctness.

CAMP PENDLETON ---- A military judge has dismissed charges against a Marine officer accused of failing to investigate the killings of 24 Iraqis. Col. Steven Folsom dismissed charges Tuesday against Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani after defense attorneys raised valid and publicly acknowledged concerns a four-star general overseeing the prosecution improperly influenced the proceedings.

The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they can be refiled, but Folsom excluded Marine Forces Central Command from future involvement.

GAFCON – Lambeth – Unity – Schism

GAFCON is the conference of traditional Anglicans coming together to set a course for the Anglican Communion Worldwide in light of the heresy of the TEC – The Epsicopal Church, the Churches of England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, who seemingly have abandoned scripture for enlightenment.

Over 1000 senior leaders from seventeen provinces in the Anglican Communion, representing 35 million church-going Anglicans, have registered for the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON) in Jerusalem at the close of the online registration process. They include 280 bishops, almost all accompanied by their wives. Final attendance figures will depend on smooth processing of requested visas, and other factors.

GAFCON leaders have met in the period leading up to Pentecost with the leaders of Anglican, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Eastern Catholic churches and Palestinian Christians and Messianic Jews in Jerusalem to brief them on the nature and purpose of GAFCON. GAFCON is concerned to affirm the continuing presence of the Church in the Holy Land.

Lambeth
The Lambeth Conferences are the periodic, by invitation only, assemblies of bishops of the Anglican Communion. The conferences began in 1867 and they have now become one of the communion's four "Instruments of Communion". Nevertheless, the Archbishop of Canterbury stated, when sending out invitations to Lambeth 2008 in May 2007: "... the Lambeth Conference has no ‘constitution’ or formal powers; it is not a formal Synod or Council of the bishops of the Communion..."

These meetings were first suggested by Bishop John Henry Hopkins of Vermont in 1851, but the immediate impulse came from the colonial Church in Canada. In 1865 the synod of that province, in an urgent letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury (Dr Longley), represented the unsettlement of members of the Canadian Church caused by recent legal decisions of the Privy Council, and their alarm lest the revived action of Convocation "should leave us governed by canons different from those in force in England and Ireland, and thus cause us to drift into the status of an independent branch of the Roman Catholic Church."

They therefore requested him to call a "national synod of the bishops of the Anglican Church at home and abroad", to meet under his leadership. After consulting both houses of the Convocation of Canterbury, Archbishop Longley assented, and convened all the bishops of the Anglican Communion (then 144 in number) to meet at Lambeth in 1867.

Many Anglican bishops (amongst them the Archbishop of York and most of his suffragans) felt so doubtful as to the wisdom of such an assembly that they refused to attend it, and Dean Stanley declined to allow Westminster Abbey to be used for the closing service, giving as his reasons the partial character of the assembly, uncertainty as to the effect of its measures and "the presence of prelates not belonging to our Church."

Archbishop Longley said in his opening address, however, that they had no desire to assume "the functions of a general synod of all the churches in full communion with the Church of England," but merely to "discuss matters of practical interest, and pronounce what we deem expedient in resolutions which may serve as safe guides to future action." The resolutions of the Lambeth Conferences have never been regarded as synodical decrees, but their weight has increased with each conference.

Seventy-six bishops accepted the primate’s invitation to the first conference, which met at Lambeth on September 24, 1867, and sat for four days, the sessions being in private. The archbishop opened the conference with an address: deliberation followed; committees were appointed to report on special questions; resolutions were adopted, and an encyclical letter was addressed to the faithful of the Anglican Communion. Each of the subsequent conferences has been first received in Canterbury Cathedral and addressed by the archbishop from the chair of St. Augustine.

It has then met at Lambeth Palace, and after sitting for five days for deliberation upon the fixed subjects and appointment of committees, has adjourned, to meet again at the end of a fortnight and sit for five days more, to receive reports, adopt resolutions and to put forth the encyclical letter. From 1978 onwards the Conference has been held on the Canterbury campus of the University of Kent allowing the bishops to live and worship together on the same site for the first time

Unity
One of the goals of the Anglican Communion Worldwide is unity of the various national churches on matters of substance.

Schism
Division or separation; specifically (Eccl.), permanent division or separation in the Christian church; breach of unity among people of the same religious faith; the offense of seeking to produce division in a church without justifiable cause. [1913 Webster]

Comment
The Anglican Church worldwide is based on an association of independent national churches. Unlike the Roman church, it is not centrally ruled. The titular head of the world wide communion of the church is the Archbishop of Canterbury. Again, unlike the Roman Pope, he has no magical powers. He is not infallible, nor does he have any real power over the member churches. To date there has been unity, at least in theory, among the various national churches.

The problem child, so to speak, has been the American church, which started as the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America (PECUSA) and morphed in to the Episcopal Church of the United States of America (ECUSA), then The Episcopal Church (TEC) as it slid down the slope away from the Bible and into the pit. There is a two faceted problem, the first and most obvious is that TEC does not necessarily believe in anything and now includes homo and pan-sexuals as priests and bishops, marries them in churches, advocates odd rights, no longer believes in the necessity of Christ for salvation, or His deity for that matter. Before the rest of the world gets too comfortable, TEC has allies in the churches of the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

The second problem is the “Continuing Churches.” Various people, none led by bishops, formed new Anglican churches. Some like the Anglican Province of America (APA) and Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) are indistinguishable in theology and practices from the “old” PECUSA, others with theologies and practices that to say the least vary. Some parishes have broken away from TEC and aligned themselves with other provinces, such as the Southern Cone. Some of those provinces are at the level of the APA / REC, others are much closer to TEC in their theologies and practices.

What to do about them?

Well, Lambeth Conferences to date have been exercises in TEC and like minded forces from the UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia pushing the doctrine of Unity at all costs, study and delay following by commitment to do this or that, then following it up with doing what they please.

Finally, in response, GAFCON came about. The conservative (for that read Bible believing) forces decided to come together and form a plan. Many of them see no point in going to Lambeth to be fed the same line of lies and deception.

A couple of links you should visit:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7467758.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7468065.stm

The TEC & Company response, lead by the Archbishop of Canterbury, has been to characterize GAFCON as an attempt at schism.

A booklet issued by GAFCON 's organizers puts it this way: "We want unity… but not at the cost of re-writing the Bible to accommodate the latest cultural trend."

To that your Beadle says, “About time a bishop or two decided to lead his flock.”

Go GAFCON. When the dust settles, we will see if GAFCON was real or just an exercise in futility. We will get the real story because our own Bishop Boyce is there and he is a straight shooter.

Question that only you can ask
What would you like to know about our history, what we believe, what we do or how we operate?  Father Acker is looking for material for the continuing education class and the Beadle is looking for Thought for the Day material.  Help us help you.  Please send your question to the Beadle so we all can get an answer.  Just because you don’t know the answer to your question doesn’t mean you are the only one who doesn’t know.  But, if you don’t ask, no one will know.

I’d like to get a different point across or announce something
If you have a different point of view, I would be happy to give you room to get your point across.  While this publication is my perspective on events, I recognize not everyone may agree and that some people would like to express their own opinion.

If want to write an article or make an announcement, please forward your item to the Beadle (with a note as to whether or not you would like editing help) to the following address:  thebeadle@mac.com.

St. Andrew’s Academy
Our diocese is the sponsor of St. Andrew’s Academy (Lake Almanor, CA), the Headmaster Father Brian Foos left a successful aerospace career to become a priest and establish the school. The school, a K-12 operation with about three dozen students, runs on a shoestring budget, about $150,000.00 per year for the entire thing. The product is superior, the students rank in the high nineties percentile of graduating seniors. These kids are our future. They are the future of the church and the school needs to keep turning them out, not away. The economic downturn is crippling them. They have a budget shortfall of about $30,000.00.

As many of you know, the diocese’s 18 parishes had talked about contributing the money previously set aside to fund attendance at the APA Synod, which we will not be attending, and the annual diocesan meeting which has been converted into an electronic meeting, to help Bishop Boyce with the cost of attending GAFCON in Jerusalem.

Bishop Boyce feels strongly enough about the importance of St. Andrew’s academy that he has asked that those funds be donated to the school instead. Bishop Boyce is willing to spend his own money to go to GAFCON.

There are 18 parishes in the diocese. There is a $30,000.00 shortfall. If each parish carried its share, that would be $1,666.67 per parish. We are the smallest parish in the diocese. We made the commitment to send the school $2,000.00 and send Bishop Boyce the $1,500.00 we had budgeted for Synod travel to him to help cover his expenses at GAFCON.

Each member of the congregation was asked to donate what they could. No one should donate more than they can comfortably afford. Remember the “Widow’s Mite.” Give what you can, that is all. No more. If you cannot afford more than a single penny that you picked up in the parking lot. That is more than enough.

In the end, our parish came up with $2,113.00 to donate to St. Andrews Academy. The check will be going out as soon as Greg Chase can write it. We looked at the problem, came up with a plan, set a goal and exceeded the goal. Congratulations to the congregation.

If the tiny little parish with the big name of Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity can do their share, how about the rest of you?

Keeping Up to Date with the Parish and the World
In an effort to keep us in touch with each other and the Christian and non-Christian world, Father is posting updates at the Thursday Evening News, oddly enough on Thursdays. This is a nice mid-week update for us, drop in and take a look. It is also linked to from the various Beadle’s Blogs.

http://thursdayeveningnews.blogspot.com/

Epistle Readers
We post the list of Epistle Readers in the Beadle’s Report each week so you can either plan your attendance or your pre-reading as the spirit so moves you.

Date Reader
29 June 2008 Tim Macauley – Saint Peter’s Day, the Fisher of Men, read by the fisherman himself!
6 July 2008 Jan Macauley
13 July 2008 Hap Arnold
20 July 2008 Jack Arnold
27 July 2008 Dru Arnold

Parish Youth Camping Trip
The parish is planning a youth camping trip for summer. We have a tentative date of 15, 16 and 17 August 2008, that is Friday, Saturday and Sunday probably at Rathaus in Descanso. We will try to set the date in stone next Sunday.

We will meet at the Alpine Community Center parking lot on Friday morning, then take transport to a local camp area, which has not yet been solidified. We will drop our gear at the camp, then head out on a hike to lunch. After lunch, we will hike towards a pickup point, where we will join our transport back to the camp. The kids will finish setting up camp and cook dinner. After dinner, there will be some traditional camp activities and then to bed. Up early on Saturday morning, breakfast and off on another interesting hike to lunch. Again, back to camp in time to make dinner, more traditional camp activities and then to bed. Sunday morning will bring early rising for our Sunday service, breakfast and breaking camp. We expect to be back to the Alpine Community Center parking lot by about 1400 (2:00 pm) on Sunday, so everyone can go home and get some rest!

If you are interested, contact one of our hand picked volunteer Camp Masters:

Don Patton dpatton@cox.net
Mike Springer mspringer8@cox.net

Right now we are in the initial planning stage. Once we know who wants to go, we may open up the signup to other Anglican parishes.

The near future, as well as Next Sunday
Next Sunday is the Sixth Sunday after Trinity. Come next Sunday and see if Father Acker finally tells us what the Green Season means.

What about the pre-service class, will Father Acker lose his place or will he pick up where he left off? What about the sermon?  Will he preach on the Gospel or something all together different? Unless you come to the service, you will have to wait until you read the Beadle’s Report to find out.

See you next week on Sunday!

Alternate Sources of The Beadle’s Report
Father Acker posts a .pdf version of the current Beadle’s Report on the church website:
http://alpineanglican.com/BeadleReports.htm

An alternative version of the Beadle’s Report a single photograph and simple text is available at:
http://thebeadle.blogspot.com/

or with one photograph per issue and colorful text at

http://web.mac.com/thebeadle/iWeb/BeadleBlog/Blog/Blog.html

All back issues of the Beadle’s Reports are available on request from:

thebeadle@mac.com