Rector – Grace & Grub Dinner Fellowship
We’re putting on the grub! An ad hoc group of people passionate about building up fellowship and ways we can care for one another as a family at St. James’ has come up with some ideas for new ministries, the first of which – Grace & Grub dinners – will begin next month.
Groups will meet on 2nd Saturday of each month, March through June, for potluck dinners (the grub part) and getting to know each other better (the grace part). Whether you bring your kids, come solo, or with your best friend in the parish – we’ll laugh, talk, and pray together.
Sign Up
Sign-ups will run from 2/10 through 2/24. Leave the rest to the organizing team, as they’ll assign groups of 
eight or more, with a mix of singles, couples, and families with children. Several host families have already signed on and will be in charge of planning for individual groups.
The organizing team offers this reflection on why you might join Grub & Grace:
Why?
In last Sunday’s sermon Kristin+ focused in part on our identity as “individual” Christians versus “corporate” Christians as understood by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians. He wrote that our “church” identity is more important than our individual identity. He also compared the composition of the church to the human body’s different parts. Each one of us, from the youngest to the oldest, plays a vital part in forming the Body of Christ at St. James’. We gather for corporate worship on Sunday, but equally important is the “building up” of the body in fellowship – spending time together sharing who we are and enjoying each other’s company.
None of us can say “I am St. James’ church”, but we can legitimately say “We are St. James’ church”. Fellowship is that necessary investment all of us need to make in each other. It happens when we get to know one another through sharing food and conversation. It is where we discover our spiritual gifts, and grow in grace and fellowship with the Lord.
Please Join Us!
We’re looking forward to breaking bread, laughing, playing, and sharing with YOU as we grow deeper in relationship with one another and with God! If you have questions please connect with Lynda Ellis, Phillip Massay, Cheryl Windsor, Lucy Winston, or Blix Winston.
Yours in God’s peace,
Kristin+
Formation
SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWS
9:30 – 10:15 a.m. Lower Level
Preschool through High School
Sunday School classes are well into the winter session of Living the Good News curriculum. Despite the winter weather challenges, we had a well attended group activity in January. With all the parish family donations of granola bars, fruit cups and juice boxes, the children put together 100 breakfasts-in-a-bag. All of the bags were creatively decorated by the children for use at the Shepherd’s Staff, a Christian outreach and support center in Westminster. Thank you for your donations.
What Happening in February?
It’s February already……and we are now making plans for the beginning of Lent. On February 24th during our monthly group activity, Mary Anne and Rick Smith, the local representatives for A is for Africa, will be present to tell of their latest adventures. Our classes will hear how our annual mite box coins are helping the children of Matim Primary School in Tanzania. You are welcome to join us on the 24th at 9:30 a.m. in the lower level.
We give thanks to our dedicated Sunday School teachers and we are very appreciative of our parent volunteers. Perhaps you would like to participate by reading a Bible Story to our little ones once a month. It’s a wonderful way to get to know the children and a meaningful ministry.
Yvette Allen – Preschool Bible Stories
Betsy Davis and Jessica Bahorich – Kindergarten-2nd Grades
Natalie DelRegno – 3rd-5th Grades
Joan Fader and Peter Sabonis – Middle-High School
Nancy Nanavaty – 4th Sunday Group Activities
Mara Snyder – Children’s Music
A Lenten Series: Holy Living & Holy Dying
One of the best gifts you can give your family is planning ahead for the end of life – and as morbid as it may sound, it can be joyful and bring peace of mind. This Lent we will host a four part Sunday series where you will have the opportunity to consider financial directives, medical directives, burial choices, and planning for your memorial service. Please join us for any or all sessions.
Sundays 11:45-1:00
3/10 – Making a Will & Planned Giving – Charles Cloughen, Planned Giving Consultant, Diocese of Maryland
3/17 – Honoring Your Wishes: An Advanced Directive Workshop – The Rev. Joshua Rodriguez-Hobbes, Episcopal Chaplain to the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
3/24 – Making Pre-Arrangements: Burial Choices – Jeffrey Titcomb, Funeral Director, Stauffer Funeral Home & Laura Davis, St. James’ Parish Administrator
3/31 – Planning Your Memorial Service! – The Rev. Kristin Krantz, Rector & Richard Drehoff, Music Director
Music/Choir
Hi everyone! In celebration of Black History Month, I wanted to take a moment to talk a bit about the Episcopal church’s African American Hymnal and its namesake: “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
The hymnal was compiled under the supervision of the Office of Black Ministries of the Episcopal Church. It includes service music and several psalm settings in addition to the Negro spirituals, gospel songs, and hymns. The version of the Lord’s Prayer that we currently sing at the 10:30 service comes from this hymnal; it was written Betty Carr Pulkingham, a North Carolina-based composer and music educator who spent a vast majority of her lifetime working to bridge western classical musicianship with African and Native American folk styles. For Black History Month, Kristin and I have gone through this hymnal and selected a few hymns by African American composers and Traditional Negro Spirituals for each Sunday of the month.
Lift Every Voice and Sing!
The hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” was written by composer J. Rosamond Johnson, who’s known almost universally by black Americans but often overlooked by white Americans. Johnson’s musical training took place first at the New England Conservatory in Boston before he traveled to London to further his studies. He soon moved to the Big Apple with his brother, Bob Cole, where the duo wrote a number of songs, as well as two operettas featuring black casts.
The lyrics to “Lift Every Voice and Sing” were penned by J. Rosamond Johnson’s brother, James Weldon Johnson, who wrote the text and performed it as part of a celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. The piece was coined as the “Negro National Anthem” by the NAACP in 1919 (often referred to as the “Black National Anthem” today); it played a prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement and continues to serve as fight for civil rights in the United States.
Here’s a pretty standard version of the hymn with the text included:
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
let our rejoicing rise,
high as the list’ning skies, let it resound loud as the rolling sea
sing a song full of faith that the dark past has taught us,
sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
bitter the chast’ning rod,
felt in the day that hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
have not our weary feet,
come to the place on which our fathers sighed?
we have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last
where the white gleam of our star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
thou who has by thy might,
led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray
lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met thee,
least our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget thee,
shadowed beneath the hand,
may we forever stand,
true to our God,
True to our native land.
My favorite choral version is the arrangement composed by Roland M. Carter:
A lovely a capella version performed by students at Oakwood University:
In 2008 Rene Marie actually performed the lyrics to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner in efforts to highlight continual racial conflicts in the United States:
Beyoncé even included it in her performance at Coachella last year:
WEEKLY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Office Schedule for the week of February 10.
Monday – Thursday 10-4.
A Service of Healing and Hope after reproductive loss
On Saturday, February 9th at 7:00 pm you are invited to gather for a service of healing and hope for those who
have experienced loss through miscarriage, stillbirth, abortion, placing a child for adoption, having a failed adoption placement, or inability to conceive. It is designed to offer a space for grieving and healing through prayer, hearing God’s word, anointing, and the sharing of stories. Everyone who has experienced these losses – both women and men – is invited to attend, whether your loss is a recent hurt or something that has been with you for decades. If you know someone for whom this service would be meaningful please share this information with them and invite them to come. Please contact Rev. Kristin+ (rector@stjamesmtairy.org / 443.902.0106) with any questions.
Reach the Mountaintop! ~ Summer Service Trip to Appalachia
We’re returning to Barnes Mountain and St. Timothy’s Outreach Center this July – and the deadline to sign up is NOW!
Join folks from St. James’ and St. Andrew’s, Glenwood for a week of community building and construction projects in Kentucky from July 21-27. New this year will be a day trip to Berea College for our youth and local teens, as well as a deeper partnership with them in planning and running day camp and on work sites.
Interested adults and teenagers 15+ need to contact Kristin+ by FEBRUARY 24 to register and make a $200 deposit toward the total trip cost of $450. We will work with participants to do fundraising to help cover the balance!
Questions? Call, text, or email Kristin+.
A is for Africa Presentation on Sunday, February 24
Join us on Sunday, February 24 at 9:30 am when we welcome Mary Anne and Rick Smith who will update us on this important ministry. Every year in Lent, our Sunday School children (and anyone else who wants to!) collect money in mite boxes to be donated to A is for Africa and the work they do with school children at Matim. Come see the slideshow and pick up your mite box!
Prayer Rotation
Please join the Daughters of the King in praying for each parishioner in rotation during 2018 by taking this notice home and by posting it where it will remind you to pray on a daily basis for the needs and blessings of:
Christina Young
Justin Acacio (Zayden, Maui, Asher)
Matthew & Heather Albertson (Emily, Elizabeth)
A member of the Daughters of the King will be contacting you this week for special prayer requests.
Readings for the 5 Epiphany, February 10, 2019 :
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 138
1 Corinthians 15:1-11
Luke 5:1-11
Commemorations for the week of February 10, 2019:
