The angelus A Newsletter of St. George’s Church, Newburgh May 2018

Hark! In this issue:

And mark your calendars for these upcoming events: Birthdays & 2 This Month: Anniversaries

4/30-5/2 Diocesan Priests’ Conference (Fr. Dustin Away) Feasibility Study 2 5/5&6 St. George’s Open for Sacred Sites Open House Program (p. 7) Non-Fundraiser 2 5/6 SGFS Hosts Farewell Fellowship Time for the Sipples (p. 13) Baptism 2 5/9-5/22 Parish Administrator Out of Office, returning 5/23 Food Pantry 3 5/9 Senior Girls Friendly Meeting (p.13) 5/12 Newburgh Girl Power Conference (p. 5) Magnificat 4 5/12 Diaconal Ordination of David McDonald at Cathedral Girl Power 5 5/12 Cemetery Work Day (p. 11) Haiti Project 6 5/13 Episcopal Charities Sunday Sacred Sites 7 5/13 Newburgh Chamber Music Concert (p. 12) 5/26 Cemetery Work Day (p. 11) Treasurer 7 5/28 Newburgh Memorial Day Parade, 10am PayPal 8

Coming Up: Episcobuild 8 AFEDJ 8 6/1-30 St. George’s Non-Fundraiser Fundraiser (p. 2) 6/2 Parish Work Day and BBQ (p. 9) Warden’s Word 9 Advent6/3 at St. GeorgeNewburgh’s looking Chorale to come, Concert be alrt stay awake pay attention, plan for the year toWork come Day/BBQ with the 9 budget, but live in this moment as it may be your last. Deacon’s Corner 10 ClaimFrom a bit theof the seretyRector of the Garden Vigil on Maundy Thursday in Advent with “Silent Nights” Cemetery Life 11 Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Chamber Music 12 any of you know that I lived for a time in Istanbul, RenewalWorks 12 M Turkey. One of the most powerful spiritual images from that time, which I carry with me to this day, is the Sr. Girls Friendly 13 “Sama” dance and music ceremony of the Mevlevi Order of Newsletter 14 the Sufis, known as “Whirling Dervishes.” As the worship- Numbers pers spin around and around, they hold their arms extended out from them, always with one palm facing up, and the other down. The reason is as beautiful as it is elegant. They are seeking, through their dance, to making an offering of their body to channel the love of God down from heaven to the earth below. They place their very bodies, all that they are, in service to God for the purpose of realizing God’s vision for the world. It seems to me that we are very much doing the same dance here at St. George’s Church! We are now and will continue to channel love and transformation out into our world locally and abroad through our partnerships with Newburgh (Habitat for Humanity), Haiti (The Haiti Project), and the Holy Land (AFEDJ), as well as through our own Outreach Missions. We are also now reaching a hand toward our own church grounds and programming through our Work Days, Capital Campaign, and Spring Fundraiser. What a delight and honor it is to be standing in the midst of such movement of God in our midst! Shall we dance? Yours in Christ,

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Upcoming Birthdays

Upcoming Birthdays for

5/3 William Mensah Saint George’s: 5/6 Bridget Baumann 5/7 Mekhira Boykin-Newkirk The Non-Fundraiser 5/11 Luke Baumann

5/14 Dustin Trowbridge Fundraiser

5/16 Talyn Stapinsky undraising! Everyone’s favorite subject...... After F spending time on the finance committee and work- 5/17 Ann Roberts ing on the first quarterly report and realizing that we have a fundraising goal of $7000, YIKES, which we 5/24 Madison Sukhai have made no effort to get to yet, we had a long discus- 5/26 Brett Baumann sion at vestry. Catherine is working hard to come up with some fantastic ideas for raising money. She needs 5/28 Vonnie Hubbard your help in making these fantastic ideas come to frui- tion. 5/30 Margaret Sipple The dreaded yard sale was mentioned. Are you ready to clean out your basements and attics? How Upcoming Anniversaries about sitting outside in the church courtyard for hours in the hot sun or worse, what to do if it rains. No wor- 5/4 Raymond and Bette Schleinkofer ries, we are instituting the wonderful “NON“ fundrais- er, fundraiser. That’s right people, no need to go up in 5/16 Alan and Linda Nucifore those hot dusty attics or down in the basement to look for . No need to feel guilty about not wanting 5/20 Robert and Melanie Menzie to sit in the sun all day or feel guilty for not buying something that you don’t really need just to support 5/27 Craig and Sue Zahn your church. For the month of June, we will be taking monetary donations for a no-frills fundraiser. All 5/30 Balrie and Florence Lawrence you have to do is write a check to St. George’s church and note in the memo line “fundraiser”. All St. George’s the reward and none of the work. Building Restoration Progress: Fundraising is not a one person job. We all have a responsibility to do our part to keep our church going. Please support St. George’s church by helping The Feasibility Study to achieve our goal.

t. George’s has now entered into the next steps of Thanks, S our building restoration efforts! On April 23rd, Sue Preece, parishioners received surveys to offer their feedback Warden in Phase II of our Capital Campaign: “The Feasibility Study.” Parishioner input will be essential for our HOLY Interested in planning committee to determine the scope of our up- coming project to restore and modernize our beloved BAPTISM Holy Baptism at St. George’s Church. We hope that you will make St. George’s your voice heard in that process by setting aside 15 minutes to prayerfully and thoughtfully offer your Church? opinions and priorities in your survey response. The next appointed date for Baptisms is May 20th, We have a major opportunity before us to cel- 2018—Pentecost Sunday. If you or a member of ebrate the 200th anniversary of the completion of St. your family is interested in this holy celebration of George’s by restoring her past and preparing for her Christian initiation, please notify Fr. Dustin right future. Thank you for taking part in this essential stage away to begin preparations. of the project! 2

I attended a conference with Deacon Vonnie at Aquinas Hall. It was about food waste. Representatives from the government, Paul Stermer director of the Food Bank of the Hudson Valley, Stiles Najic from the Cor- nell Cooperative were there to name a few. The discus- sions went from food waste to compost. Volunteers visit NEWS local farms to harvest crops or market leftovers that are not being sold. The average family spends $1500 a year on wasted food. As much as 25% of the food produced A Mission of St. George’s Church, Newburgh in the US goes to waste. It’s so easy to go to a super- market and buy something again because it wasn’t con- ast month students from Marlboro High School sumed and had to be thrown out. We have people starv- L National Honor Society visited the pantry. Their ing in America. 36% of college students do not have purpose was to perform community service. They had a enough to eat and we throw food out. Food for thought, clothing at Dollar General and brought the cloth- do you waste food? ing to our pantry. A total of 172 pieces was donated. I attended a webinar on putting social media to They carried bread from my car and placed it into our work. It was ran by Rachael Crosby and Sunny Law- freezers. They broke down recycling and also gave out rence representative from Episcopal Charities. They cat/dog food. (pictured here is my grandson Brennan discussed ways for us as a pantry to spread the word of Diana and Stephen Gyurits). what we do. The emphasis was on focusing on our mis- sion and to highlight our positive work. They suggested we have a wall on Facebook, which we now have up and runinng. HPNAP has awarded the Regional Food Bank funding to provide 1% Fat Free Milk. Because of posi- tive feedback this money was used to purchase Stewarts milk cards. Instead of giving clients the cards I pick the milk up at Stewarts in Middlehope. This is to assure the cards are not wasted.

April is National Library Week. The New- burgh Free Library did a program called Food for Fines whereas by donating non-perishable items fines are removed. Felicia DaVolio Teen and Outreach Librarian is shown here with a custodian bringing food to the pantry collected at the Newburgh and Town of New- burgh libraries.

I am an animal lover. I have mentioned before my love for dogs. Recently I went to the SPCA with Linda and brought bleach and flannel sheets. I could hear a lady that volunteers there say “oh good we can use them for the puppies”. If anyone has old beddings they don’t want please meet me at the parking lot across from St. George’s. I will gladly bring them to the shel- ter. Thanks.

Al Nucifore, Food Pantry Chair

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black women in the US have alarmingly higher rates of pregnancy and childbirth complications than white women. These higher rates hold true even for affluent MAGNIFICAT and highly educated black women, so they cannot be explained by different access to healthcare or by pov- any wonderful things have erty. The health effects are the result of the double M happened for me recently. whammy of racism and sexism. They are the result of I paid my tuition deposit and black women having to constantly make their way in will enter Union Theological settings where they are subtly or overtly discriminated Seminary in the fall. I had a against. Settings where who they are is not acknowl- lovely and special Holy Week in edged, not valued, or worse. And those effects go which I worshipped up a storm deep, into the physiology of their bodies. from Thursday to Sunday, shut- Reading that article was sobering for me. And tling back and forth between affirming too. I decided not to fight my exhaustion, Holy Cross Monastery and St. but to indulge myself a bit. I let myself have the four- George’s as I have been doing hour nap on Sunday afternoon. I didn’t force myself to for the past three years. This get up and go to the gym. I took myself outside, to year was especially great be- admire the trees, to notice the bulbs coming up, to cause I had no embarrassment about my need to do as even revel in the little snow flurries so stubbornly re- much church as possible, so I could just enjoy it with- fusing to leave. I let myself have the chocolate. …Ok, out inhibition. maybe that last part wasn’t the healthiest thing, but Despite all that, after Easter I didn’t experience a high whatever. or glow. In fact, I had a few weeks of exhaustion, seri- Realizing what a stress and strain it is to be at ous crabbiness, and trouble getting up in the morning. I my job right now helped. Giving my body the rest it had struggled with diet and exercise all throughout needed helped. And getting myself outdoors, some- Lent, but after Easter any self-discipline just fell off a thing that has always been healing for me, really cliff. I was hitting the chocolate hard, and had no moti- helped. vation or energy for the gym. What are the things that drain and exhaust What the on Earth was going on? A little let-down up- you? We all have them. Some of them are places, or on going back to work after the high of Easter is one situations, or people, that cannot be avoided. But if thing. But this was more like a mild depression. How you can’t change those things, you can at least name could I not be happy and grateful for the many bless- them and acknowledge them. You can also think ings in my life? about what things support, feed and heal you. And At some point during the few weeks of my post you can make an effort to do more of those things. To -Easter funk, I had a little insight into my situation. write them into your daily and weekly plans. A pre- Yes, seminary is getting closer and more real. More scription, so to speak. people in my life know what’s going on with me. If good fellowship, food, and a little light work Heck, during this time I even had a haircut, and when are medicine for your soul, you should plan to join in my hairdresser asked, “So what’s new?” I actually told the fun at St. George’s church work day and barbeque her. And yes, I had a totally indulgent and unashamed on Saturday, June 2, from 10-1. We will do little pro- Holy Week of glorious worship, without worrying who jects like cleaning out closets, weeding and picking up saw me praying in whatever ridiculous way I was pray- in the courtyard and sidewalk, and throwing out old ing. It’s all quite heady, healthy, and free-feeling. items from the kitchen. This year there will also be And it might explain why dragging myself into cleaning up in St. George’s cemetery, just a few blocks work the past few weeks felt so painful. After putting from the church, for those who would like more out- parts of my life into different boxes for so many years – door work. Then at 12:00 we will all gather in the my regular psychiatry work, my LGBT mental health cemetery for hamburgers on the grill and potluck advocacy, and my church life –finally everything is lunch. As of this writing we are looking for someone coming together. And it feels great. So, the one piece who gets joy out of grilling, and can bring a grill to the that is still separate -- my hospital work, where I have cemetery that day for that part of the festivities. If you not yet announced my departure – that piece feels ex- are that person, please get in touch with me! hausting and crushing. Not having integration and wholeness in one’s life can sometimes be more than just tiring. Having to Mary Barber hide parts of yourself or split them off can have serious health consequences. This was all laid out shockingly and disturbingly in a recent New York Times Magazine article about black mothers. Research has showed that

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A Mission of St. George’s Church Newburgh, NY

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New York Haiti Project updates:

Meet Fr. Phanord

Fr. Phanord with his godson Andrew Owen

In August 2012 the bishop assigned Fr. Phanord to serve the church in Bondeau. At the time the church was called St. Mary Magdalene Episcopal Church. Since there was a Catholic church in the area with the same name, Fr. Phanord changed the name of the church to Good Samaritan Episco- Fr. Phanord in Bondeau, Haiti pal Church. The church and the he New York Haiti Project is blessed to have a school have T wonderful partner in Martel. The Rev. Jean grown during Fr. Berthold Phanord has been a priest in the Episcopal Phanord’s tenure Diocese of Haiti for 16 years. He was born in Trouin, in Bondeau. The Good Samaritan Episcopal Church, Bondeau, 2015 a small village near Leogane. Leogane is in between community has Port au Prince and Martel. Fr. Phanord was baptised grown in the knowledge and love of God and his son in Trouin at St Mark's Episcopal Church as a boy. He Jesus Christ. In 2015 a beautiful new church was conse- moved to Port au Prince with his family when he was crated in Bondeau. It was built to withstand natural dis- 12, where he was confirmed at St. Martin of asters. In October 2016 Hurricane Mat- Tours Episcopal Church. He served there as thew plowed across southern Haiti. head of the acolytes. The church weathered the hurricane Fr. Phanord started his career as an with minimal damage. accountant. But his priest and his church com- Fr Phanord is passionate about munity at St. Martin encouraged him to ex- spreading God’s love to the people of plore God’s call to the priesthood. He gradu- Haiti. Our work in Martel, where we ated seminary from Codrington College in are working together to plant a new Barbados in 2002, and began his ministry at church and school, is the latest exam- St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Leogane. ple of Fr. Phanord’s work of evange- He also served as the administrator for Saint lism and community development. Croix Hospital in Leogane while he was Fr. Phanord and his wife Patri- Priest in Charge of St. Matthew’s. Fr. Phan- cia have a daughter named Bencie, 4. ord planted four new churches during his nine She is his pride and joy. years in Leogane. In 2009 Fr. Phanord partnered with Please keep Fr. Phanord, his family Holy Innocent’s Episcopal Church, Atlanta to and his ministry in your prayers. build a beautiful new sanctuary for St. Mat- thew’s. On January 12th, 2010, less than a year after it was completed, the earthquake struck. The epicenter was in Leogane. It com- Bencie, dressed up for pletely destroyed the church. Carnival, 2018

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Who are our Friends in Martel?

he Mistal family T donated 10 acres of land to the Episcopal Church in 2016. That land sits on a bluff with a beautiful view of the Caribbean Sea. Madam Nelson is a member of the Mistal family. You can see her picture be- low. Madam Nelson is a lovely woman who laughs easily. She serves as the director of St. Luke’s Episcopal Madam Nelson Land in Martel to be donated for St. Luke’s School and School in Martel. Prior Church. Gaston’s home is in the background. to St. Luke's she was the director of the nearby Catho- lic school for over 10 years. Her siblings are Benita, Maudlaire and Jean Beniste. All four of them are col- lege graduates. During our February visit we met with two other families that wants to donate land. Madam Louilia is donating a large parcel of land in the foothills above the Sacred Sites Open House school, about 10 at St. George’s Church, minutes’ walk. We are Saturday & Sunday, May 5th and 6th, prayerfully discerning 11am-2pm how God is calling us to use this land. Louilia, who is donating land in the A man named t. George’s will soon be opening its doors to the foothills above St. Luke’s Episco- Gaston is also donating S public as part of a state-wide “Sacred Sites Open pal Church and School in Martel a piece of land that ad- House,” organized by The New York Landmarks joins the St. Luke’s Conservancy. St. George’s was awarded a grant from campus. This will increase the footprint of the NYLC to partially fund our major Architectural Con- campus significantly, allowing future projects like a ditions Report. We are delighted to have this oppor- guesthouse and a clinic. Below I include a photo of the tunity to show off our treasured Sacred Site to our land. Gaston lives in the house on the hill on the left community! side of the photo.

Please keep the community of Martel in your prayers. Leadership Update: More to come!

Christ’s peace, Treasurer Appointed! Sam+ t. George’s Vestry is delighted to announce The Rev. Sam Owen Priest in Charge S that Alleyne Fraser has accepted an a ap- The Haitian Congregation pointment of Treasurer for 2018. On behalf of a of the Good Samaritan grateful vestry and congregation, Episcopal Church Thank You, Alleyne!

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Another Easy Way of Giving to St. George’s Church!

n Sunday, April 22nd, members of St. George’s O joined those of other Episcobuild congregations of our region for Habitat for Humanity’s annual “Walk for Housing.” Thanks to all those who partici- pated in this outreach event, either through walking or sponsoring our team of walkers. The final tally for “PalPal” is now up on our website! St. George’s was $1,675!

ou are hopefully aware that St. George’s has a link Y on our website’s Home Page to Amazon.com. If you navigate to Amazon.com through that link, St. George’s will automatically receive a portion of your order price. This connection annually brings in several hundred dollars to St. George’s. Now, we have a new feature on our website to facilitate giving to St. George’s. Through the PayPal service, anyone with a credit or debit card can make a direct deposit to St. George’s checking account. Just click the PayPal “Donate” link on the lower center of t. George’s recognized Good Fri- our website main page, and follow the prompts to make S day with our annual collection for your donation (no PayPal account necessary!). As a non The American Friends of the Episcopal -profit organization, St. George’s is charged a reduced Diocese of Jerusalem. Our collection service fee rate of approximately 2% per transaction. this year to support Anglican outreach This feature will now allow anyone, anywhere to programming in the Holy Land totaled contribute to all the good churning through and spread- $367. Thank you for you support of this international ing out through our community and world. branch of St. George’s missions.

Here’s the PayPal.com Link!

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Warden’s Word: t’s hard to believe that the month of I April is almost over. It has been ex- tremely busy for me, as spring fever has finally started to take hold. The month certainly started with a bang. The Easter Sunday service was beauti- ful as always. It was wonderful to see so many faces in church. As we pro- cessed through the courtyard on our way into church a saw a squirrel in the garden chewing on what I thought was a nut, but upon closer examination, I realized he was eating a peanut butter cup that the Easter Bunny had hid- den. Even the squirrels were rejoicing on Easter morning. As you know, Linda and I have become firmly entrenched in the workings of the office over the last few months. It has been quite an education. Due to our lack of treasurer we did our best to try and put together a first Quarter report for vestry. With a ton of help from Elaine Maddox and Carl we successfully accomplished just that. Even Alleyne came in one morning to pitch in and help with it. Since then she has graciously agreed to take the reins and be our treasurer. Thank You again Alleyne! We are all so grateful for your commitment to St George’s. Also this month, Father Dustin, Mary Barber and myself took a trip to the cathedral to meet with the ad- justment board. Hopefully you are all aware that we have St. George’s been paying a reduced assessment to the diocese for the past several years. You might be asking, what is an as- sessment? We pay a percentage of all our income to the Work Day and Barbeque diocese. I think of it as our “” to the diocese. All par- ishes are required to pay this. Recently they have re- Saturday, June 2, 10-1 vamped the assessment guidelines to try and get all the churches paying what is their fair share. The plan is to be (held this year in the church and cemetery!) at our full assessment in 3 years time. Last year, we went and pled our case to the ad- Help clean out closets, trim shrubs, justment board and asked for an increase of $5000 or do small repair projects, 46% for 2018 and were approved. This year we went pick up and trim in the cemetery down and asked for an increase of $6000 for 2019 and haven’t heard yet if we are approved. Our assessment should be about $25000 per year and the plan is to reach Closing with a that goal by 2020. So please remember that every time BBQ and potluck you donate to St. George’s, a portion of that goes to the diocese. in the Cemetery at Noon We also reap the benefits of paying this money to the diocese. A portion of that goes to Episcopal Chari- (Washington and S Johnston Street) ties and goes to providing loans. Already this year our parish missions have received $18000 in grants from Have fun caring for our church and cemetery, Episcopal Charities. That is more money than we have with a great meal at the end! paid the diocese in assessment. It took me a while to wrap my head around this whole finance thing. If you have any questions feel free to ask any of the finance Brought to you by St. George’s RenewalWorks committee people and we will do our best to answer committee, connecting service with Spirit them. I can’t wait to see what May has in store for us. Hope- fully some warmer weather. see Mary Barber for more info! Sue Preece, Warden 9

Finally, the Food Pantry director, Alan Nucifore THE DEACON’S and I also attended another training program given by the New York State Department of Health AIDS Insti- tute Opioid Overdose Prevention. The town of New CORNER Windsor sponsored the training. We attended this train- ing, so we could become certified to administer nalox- one to reverse an opioid overdose. After the training we each received kits with 2 doses of naloxone. There are Waste and other parishioners who have completed the training, but many more trained people are needed. Addiction We’ve all heard and many of us have been per- sonally touched by the opioid epidemic rampant in this country. Not a week goes by without media reports of t’s been a busy spring so far. In addition to the usual people dying from drug overdoses. We see it in our I food ministry work I was able to attend several pro- community and unfortunately, we see it in our outreach grams which will help with the work at both St. ministries like St. George’s Food Pantry and Shepherd’s George’s and Shepherd’s Kitchen. Kitchen. Some of us have first hand experience with this horrible epidemic in our own families. We learned that opioid addiction is a disease. We must think of it as a disease in the same way we think about other diseases. Opioid addiction affects a broad spectrum of the population, not just poor people of color living in urban areas. Orange County has a huge problem. And not a week goes by without the Times Herald Record reporting death by overdoes. Just this morning a young man living near Port Jervis died of an overdose. Opioid addiction affects adults of all ages with a growing number of people over the age of 35. It affects teen-agers, veterans and grandmothers. Many times, the addiction begins with a surgery and a prescription for pain medication and progresses to addiction to heroin. The Food Pantry director, Alan Nucifore and I The New York State Health Department hopes attended the Food Waste Reduction Conference held at to train ten of thousands of people to administer this life Mount St. Mary’s College on April 17, 2018. What a saving drug. The problem is that big. As our trainer diverse group of agencies working on addressing food admitted, NYS is just trying everything to try to get waste in the United States and the world, including the ahead of this and not making much headway. If you are federal E.P.A, NYSDEC, Orange County Resource interested in more information or would like to attend Recovery, Cornell Cooperative Extension – Gleaning training, please talk to Alan or me. Program and Food Bank of Northeast New York. We Not a bad use of our time…one hour to poten- learned that roughly one third of the food produced in tially be able to save a life, someone’s child or parent. the world for human consumption every year — ap- Addiction is insidious and affects all of us. proximately 1.3 billion tons gets wasted, ending up in landfills. Reducing food waste by just 15% would be Deacon Vonnie enough to feed more than 25 million Americans every year. It’s estimated that the average American wastes $1,500 of food each year. In the United States about 40% of all food is wasted every year. Much of the food ends up in landfills and yet 1 in 5 children in the Unit- ed States lives with hunger. It’s difficult to understand why so many children are hungry in this rich nation. More to come on this issue. Episcopal Charities had a webinar about using social media to benefit outreach ministries. I think I now have a basic understanding of Twitter and Insta- gram. It’s important to tell the story of the people we serve. And of the people who make the food ministries possible.

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They also see to the playing of "Taps". Their visit to St. George's Cemetery is always very moving and Cemetery Life imbued with tender feeling, it seems to me. I always try to be present for their brief, but meaningful visit. I like to thank them aloud for the new flag and thank them in the quiet of my soul for their acts of faithfulness. It is so genuine, with no play acting involved. At this juncture, the cemetery committee and I would like to thank Peter and Margaret Sipple for their acting in plays to benefit St. George's Cemetery. The Sipples are moving away this month, but they are leaving behind sweet memories of their performances in "Love Letters" (in which they portrayed the two protagonists) ay our efforts to maintain, restore, and preserve and "Ancestral Voices" ( in which they each played two M St. George's Cemetery blossom in the month of roles). Both these theatrical pieces were by A. R. Gurney. May. May is a month of remembrance and of flow- Margaret also appeared as two different characters in ers. May we not forget the community at rest at St. "The Long Christmas Dinner", a one-act play by George's Cemetery and those who love them. Thornton Wilder. These productions were very well re- Work sessions are slated for May 12 and May ceived by the general public as well as by St. George's 26 to prepare the grounds for Mothers' Day and Memo- parishioners. They increased awareness of our cemetery rial Day. Bring gloves. If you have loppers, bring them and were successes financially, as well as artistically. As along. Most of all what is required is the heart and will producer of these shows and cemetery committee chair, I to care for this 7.4 acre burial site entrusted to us. It is a will always remember the Sipples in a special place in sacred site and a place of natural beauty. Participating my heart where gratitude dwells and grows. They gave in its life can add to your own life. If you like to garden, so much of themselves both for the good of the cemetery come. If you like history, come. If you like exercise, and the truth in the productions. (On a personal note, It come. If you like helping, come. If you like being out- made me happy and did a service for the play when Mar- doors, come. If you like, just come for twenty minutes. garet and Peter were reunited on the dramatic stage re- The cemetery committee will be grateful for any time cently in "The Curious Savage" by John Patrick. The you can give. play was not a benefit for the cemetery, but was produced The cemetery committee is grateful to land- to benefit the parish. As the producer, I was grateful that scape professionals Bill Rose and his crew who will be Margaret agreed to take on the lead role. Her character tending the lawn and grounds again beginning in spring. was onstage throughout most of the play and so much They always go above and beyond. Bill's teenage sons relied on her. I was also very grateful when Peter volun- Ryan and Matthew have also contributed through their teered to step into a part that had been vacated and did a community service time at the cemetery. Last February great, even noteworthy job.) Our best to the Sipples who students from Millbrook School also dedicated time and gave their very best. service to St. George's Cemetery. This was mentioned in On May 21, the cemetery committee will meet to previous Cemetery Life articles. Here, their names are do our very best as we put the finishing touches on listed: Drew Moriarty, Spencer Madsen, Zoe Tucker, our planning for a fun event to take place on June 24 Avery Garhart, Eliza Lindsay, Joseph Grossman, A.J. from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the parish hall. It is a "reunion" of Morales, Nick Rayman, and Emma Swirl. Their faculty folks who have family or friends buried in St. George's advisors were Nancy Keller-Coffey and Dave Whiting. Cemetery. The committee is dying to find out more about Thanks, once again, to all of them. the people now at rest in St. George's Cemetery. They all Thank you also to David McTamaney who year have a story. We are trying to find as many relatives, after year procures the American flags that are placed at friends, admirers, and descendants as we can. We would the graves of veterans buried in our cemetery just before love to hear their stores about visiting the cemetery and Memorial Day.The flags will be placed at the work ses- we are guessing they might like to find out more about sion on Saturday, May 26. If you would like to assist their neighbors in the cemetery. If you have family or with that, come over to the cemetery, located at 147 friends buried in our cemetery or know people who do, Washington Street at 3:30 p.m. that day. The gates will please notify me or another committee member: Mary be open to you. Barber, Tia Bennett, Melania Fontanez, Chuck Greeney, This month the entrance gates will be open from Leslie Hoffman, and the Rev. Wayne Schmidt. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 13, Mothers' Day, and Memorial Day, Monday, May 28. On Sunday, May 27, May forget-me-nots, daffodils, and hyacinths and loving the gates will be open from 8 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. to wel- service give you joy this spring. come the veterans who motorcade to city cemeteries and other places of significance relating to the war Catherine Costello. dead. The veterans literally and figuratively salute their Cemetery Committee Chair fallen comrades. 11

RenewalWorks @ St. George’s Goals for 2017-2018 PRAY. READ. CONNECT.

Set aside time in Participate together Commit to Sharing Kindness Advent for family in the reading the in the New Year, Join the and personal Gospel of Luke and Health of Body and Spirit devotions, and Learn the Acts of the this Lent, and then come the basics of Apostles this Lent together, parishioners of all Discerning God’s and Eastertide. ages, to join in a Parish Day presence and of Work and Service with a direction in your Fellowship Cook-Out. life. Continuing in May! Coming up in June!

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reminder of God's loving embrace and the human Senior Girls’ touch as well. We are knit together in commu- Friendly Society nity. Just as we stood In that holy circle of bless- News ing on April 11, we sat together to hear the story of George Augustus Selwyn, Bishop of New appy Maytime! A once popular tradition was May Zealand and Lichfield. H Basket Day which was celebrated by fashioning We were taken with his small baskets filled with flowers or treats and left anon- life of service and the ymously at the door of a neighbor or friend on the first skills he was given and of May. used to care for the peo- This year the Senior Girls' Friendly is inviting ple God gave him. We all learned so much about this you to participate in a month long collection we are holy man that day. It was marvelous to see how inter- sponsoring to be good neighbors and friends to our ested Margaret Sipple was in Bishop Selwyn's life, as neighbors and friends from St. George's Food Pantry. Margaret had spent time in New Zealand. It was Mar- Beginning on May 6th and running through May garet' s last SGF time with us and It was special that 31st, there will be a basket in the John Brown Room to she was given the opportunity to choose the form collect the following items: toothpaste, toothbrushes, used for the prayers of the people that day. Margaret dental floss, mouthwash, shampoo, conditioner, soap, was so pleased and so were we. We love Margaret handcream, deodorant, and other toiletries. and wish her well We would appreciate your help in this spring- (along with Peter) in time initiative to serve our food pantry neighbors just as the years ahead. Also, you help us in our fall collection for the Christmas At to Margaret, we say, Sea Program of the Seamen's Church Institute. The "Happy Birthday" to items collected beginning in May will be distributed in you on May 30th. We June at St. George's Food Pantry. So, please look for will be thinking of our basket on May 6th. you fondly on that Also, on Sunday, May 6th, the Senior Girls' day and always. We Friendly will be hosting the fellowship hour in the are so glad for your John Brown Room, following the 10 a.m. service. We active and positive are planning a festive fellowship time as we celebrate participation in our Margaret and Peter Sipple on their last Sunday at St. SGF. In addition, we George's before their move to Connecticut. We had will always remember the wonderful presentation you signed on to sponsor the fellowship time for the first made to us on your family trip to India. Sunday in May before we knew it would be the Sipples' The next SGF meeting is slated for Wednes- farewell Sunday. day, May 9th. We come together for the Eucharist at Once we learned of the special nature of that noon and then share in lunch bringing our own sand- time, we became doubly glad we had chosen that date, wiches, but partaking in dessert, provided by particu- as we are so pleased to honor the Sipples and their sig- lar members at each meeting. You are decidedly wel- nificant contributions to the life of St. George's. If you come to be part of our gathering. In April 2017, Suel- feel you would like to provide a dish, you may contact len Nelson joined us around the table. Since then Suellen Nelson, who is the SGF food coordinator for Suellen has contributed much to the SGF by her knit- this event. Suellen may be contacted at (914) 475-2130 ting for the SCI Christmas at Sea Program, her knit- or at [email protected]. Gail Ahearn has ting of prayer shawls, and her contributions of planned the menu and other festive elements. We hope thoughtful ideas and delicious desserts and special that you will be present for the fellowship hour that we treats. Besides all that Suellen now serves as our vice are putting together as it promises to be a deli- president. cious, beautiful, love-filled, and exquisite time together You may not become quite so active, but you with the Sipples and fellow parishioners. will find opportunities to serve God and others There was a fine turnout of SGF members for through the SGF. our April 11 gathering. Our time together began in the chapel with the noontime Eucharist. During the service three prayer shawls were blessed with all attending tak- Catherine Costello, ing part. The prayer shawl ministry is a meaningful of- SGFS President fering of the SGF at St. George's. It is a comforting 13

a look at the numbers:

ere, below, is your update from our church records about Sunday worship attendance, Sunday School At- H tendance, and weekly offerings for the month of April so far. Average Sunday attendance for this period was 82 , down 20% from 102 last year. Note: Figures for the 5th Sunday in April will be included in the next newsletter.

1 April 2 April 3 April 4 April

THIS YEAR (2018) Easter 8am Attendance 18 9 12 12 10am Attendance 124 64 45 45 Total Attendance 142 73 57 57 Pledge & Plate Offerings $4,122 $1,586 $2,021 $3,013 Sunday School Attendance XX 5 5 2

LAST YEAR (2017) Palm Sunday Easter 8am Attendance 15 18 18 11 10am Attendance 57 71 158 62 Total Attendance 72 89 176 71 Pledge & Plate Offerings $2,564 $2,661 $4,507 $889 Sunday School Attendance 6 XX XX 11 Belong at St. George’s Church Sunday Worship Wednesday Worship

8am Holy Eucharist Rite I (Said) 12:10 p.m. Holy Eucharist 10am Choral Holy Eucharist Rite II (Sung) (in the Chapel)

6:30pm Evening Prayer Sunday School: 9:45am, All Ages (in the upstairs classrooms) (in the Chapel)

Contact Us St. George’s Church phone: 845.561.5355 105 Grand Street [email protected] Newburgh, NY 12550 www.stgeorgesch.com

Office hours: Tues.-Fri. 9am-1pm

The Angelus

The Angelus is the monthly newsletter of St. George’s Church, Newburgh, New York. Submissions of articles, parish announcements, and photographs are welcomed. Please email your submissions by the 24th of the month to: [email protected].

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