Anglican Hit Parade

Results of a communion-wide online poll from 2002 on the one hymn you'd take to a desert island.

Holy Eucharist this Fall!

Father Mark Moore of Monroe will be joining us and leading us in the service of Holy Eucharist on Sundays. Our last regularly scheduled Morning Prayer is Sunday, August 31. Come worshop with us on September 7 and helps us give Father Moore a great welcome!

Farmers' Market Starts Tuesday

The Sandy Hook Organic Farmers' Market will begin its season Tuesday, June 24. Hours are 2-6 pm. The market will be in the area above the St. John's parking lots.

No Service June 15, but an Alternative

Due to a divergence of schedules, we had to cancel Sunday worship at St. John's for June 15. We will be back together next week, June 22. There looks to be a good possibility of having a priest lead us in Holy Eucharist next week.

For June 15, The Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer and the Rev. Dr. Catharine Randall, who have been wonderful leaders of our worship since Palm Sunday, have invited us to their first services at St. John's in Washington, CT on June 15. Services there are Holy Eucharist at 8 and 10.

Two Kinds of Worship at St. John's

Holy Eucharist is our communion service, and must be led by a priest or bishop. All baptized Christians are welcome to receive communion at St. John's. For the Biblical basis and more information on the Holy Eucharist service, please read this article in An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church.

Morning Prayer is a service consisting of prayers, Bible readings, and psalms. It may be led by a lay person, the usual practice at St. John's. The practice of morning worship traces its origins to Jewish sunrise worship that became part of the daily cycle of prayer in Christian monasteries. You can find out more from An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church; scroll down almost to the bottom of the page for three Morning Prayer links.

Music at St. John's

Yes, we have it. Our excellent organist, Marilyn Thompson, retired to Florida over a year ago. After some experiments with silence and a cappella singing, we settled on recorded music. The backbone of our music is the 1982 Hymnal, with other music as a supplement. We rely mainly on the CD Hymnal (organ, piano and orchestrations of traditional hymns), Forty Anglican/Episcopal Hymns, and Music Resources for Smaller Churches. The other music is from personal collections and ranges from folk to classical to rock to new age to techno to gospel. Singing and listening to music enhances worship, and we aren’t shy about mixing styles in our one Sunday service.

After a Long Absence

In spite of the parish blogger missing quite a bit of time (music for Sunday trumps blogging), things are going along well at St. John's. The Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer led our worship as we observed Palm/Passion Sunday and celebrated Christ’s Resurrection on Easter. The Rev. Dr. Catherine Randall celebrated Holy Eucharist with us on the second Sunday of Easter. The past two weeks have been Morning Prayer, led by parishioners. Starting this Sunday, we will be blessed to have either Rev. Dr. Balmer or the Rev. Dr. Randall leading our celebration of Holy Eucharist on Sundays into the summer. It’s been great to welcome both priests and numerous visitors to St. John’s over the Easter season.