Holy Comforter E-Messenger for Sunday,
May 5, 2024
New This Week
Upcoming Events
Articles of Interest
Worship
Ministry Offerings
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Good Samaritan Sunday 5/5
May 5 is Good Samaritan Sunday. You are invited to bring food for our food pantry friends to the Altar Table after the Offertory Anthem during our Presentation hymn. The pantry can use any food you bring at any time, and we particularly need cereal, dry pasta, and family-size snacks (cookies, chips, crackers, etc.).
Our guests appreciate toiletries and household goods such as paper towels and cleaning fluid. We cannot take used clothing. We need grocery-sized paper bags, but we don't need plastic bags. Thank you for supporting our neighbors in need.
Electronics Recycling Event - May 4th
Electronics Recycling Event- Securis Richmond
May 4th @ 10:00 am - 2:00 pm
Securis, CVWMA's electronics recycling event vendor, has a facility in Richmond located at 8419 Glazebrook Avenue (near Staples Mill and Hermitage Roads). They host events on the first Saturday of every month from 10 am- 2 pm to collect ewaste. Plan to arrive prior to 2 pm as Securis is unable to help customers who arrive after 2 pm. Anybody in the Greater Richmond Area is welcome at these monthly events.
It's free except for a few difficult to recycle items like screens and hard drives that cost between $5 and $10.
James River Singers Concert - 5/17
TWO NIGHTS LEFT for Airswimming!
Friday, 4/3 and Saturday, 4/4 are the last 2 performances of Airswimming directed by Melissa Rayford at Richmond Triangle Players. Melissa is the daughter of Julie Edwards.
From David Timberline's review in Richmond's on-line Style Weekly, 4/17/24:
"One of the reasons the play 'Waiting for Godot' is now considered a classic is that playwright Samuel Beckett dramatized how the relationship between two individuals can serve as an anchor and a sort of salvation amidst the cruelty and absurdity of life.
Playwright Charlotte Jones did much the same with 1997's 'Airswimming,' the tragicomic tale now getting a smart and entertaining staging at Richmond Triangle Players (RTP). A story of two women relegated to an insane asylum, the play's humor is heightened by the specifically British tenor of the banter. At the same time, the tragedy is deepened due to it being based on a true story....
However, similar to the experience of watching 'Godot,' being lost in the limbo of 'Airswimming' can be enlightening, heartening, and transformative even as we're reminded how harsh the world can be. With the help of her cast, Rayford delivers a poignant illustration of the sometimes life-saving love between two people."
Link to purchase tickets: https://rtriangle.org/
Hoco Celebrates Earth Day
Next Sunday, May 5, we will have a special Creation Eucharist, followed by a Garden Planting Day from 12-2 pm, when grownups and children are invited to plant flowers in the new Creation Garden. Please bring work gloves and trowels if you have them.
Gender Affirming Service
Click here to volunteer.
Our Vestry Appoints Don Ellison as Treasurer
We are thankful that Don is our treasurer as he brings experience to the position from St. Mark's on Capitol Hill, where served as treasurer. We thank Jamey Hooks for his time as treasurer and his ongoing work as an assistant treasurer. David Lehman is also an assistant treasurer.
Help Needed - Join the Team!
Would you like to serve as an acolyte, Eucharistic Minister, or Crucifer? We need to add to our ranks to cover the roles each Sunday. These are wonderful ways to serve God and our community. Serving in these ways can be joyful and spiritually significant for you. Please speak with one of our clergy or Anne Snyder for more information. Training will be provided.
Pledges and Thank You Notes
The Messenger Newsletter
The first issue of the new seasonal Messenger will be published June 1. The Editorial Board, in addition to editor Bruce MacAlister, rector Hilary Smith, and eMessenger editor Chris Hall, now includes Laura Hunt, Dale Davis, and our new layout person, Keyan Herron.
Vestry Meetings
Our vestry meetings are on a new day and have a new time. We now meet on the 4th Monday of the month from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm in the Conference Room, which is next to the Food Pantry. Vestry meetings are open to all. There is a Zoom option though we encourage in-person attendance. We are meeting this Monday and the Zoom link will be, https://urichmond.zoom.us/j/4138512253 which is a new one.
Connection Time This Week
Connection Time will be hosted by Marie McGranahan-Turner this week. Thank you so much for volunteering!
Do you enjoy gathering with your fellow parishioners after church? Maybe sharing a quick bite and a cup of coffee? Please consider going to https://bit.ly/hoco_connections and signing up to host on a future Sunday. No experience is necessary - if you need help hosting for the first time, just note that in your signup. Thanks!
Welcome to the Church of the Holy Comforter (HoCo)! Here is Some General Information
Join us at church on Sundays at 10:00 am for a service of the Holy Eucharist. We often use prayers from Enriching our Worship, which offers expansive images of God. We live stream our Sunday morning service on FaceBook and post it to be seen at your convenience on FaceBook and YouTube.
Parish office hours are Mondays through Thursdays, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm but do vary. Contact Vera Limn, our office assistant, to confirm the hours if you plan to visit the office. Email Vera by using office@hoco.org or call 804-355-3251.
If you have a pastoral emergency, at any time of day, call our Rector, Hilary, or Deacon Joe (their numbers can be found in the parish directory). Hilary's email is hbshococlergy@gmail.com and Joe's email is Deacon@hoco.org. If you would like to schedule an appointment to talk with Hilary, Joe, or another member of our parish clergy, please email or call to schedule a time.
If you would like to make a financial offering, you may use online giving or US Mail. Thank you for supporting God's ministry to our local community and beyond through HoCo.
This Week's Worship Bulletin
Metro Richmond at Prayer (Richmond Hill Cycle of Prayer)
We pray for health care in Metropolitan Richmond: For persons living with terminal illnesses and for their families, friends, and communities. For persons working to find cures for diseases.
Evangelism Resources
Please enjoy these evangelism resources from the Episcopal Church, and these cards that may be useful for prayer and thinking about how to share your faith.
Informal Artists of HoCo announces UFOs – Un Finished Objects
We'll meet in the Conference room from 10:30 - noon (ish) on Tuesdays to work on our own personal projects. Knitting, sketching, drawing, writing... good conversation and busy hands! All are welcome - bring a friend. Contact Kipley Herr if you have any questions.
HoCo Book Group
The HoCo Book Group, which just thoroughly enjoyed The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb, has chosen Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald for its May read. (Our pattern has been to alternate fiction and non-fiction books).
Here is a brief description from Goodreads of May's selection, which was published in 2020 and was the Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Best Science & Technology (2020).
Animals don't exist in order to teach us things, but that is what they have always done, and most of what they teach us is what we think we know about ourselves...
Click here for all the details!
Sunday Morning Adult Class
The Sunday Morning Class continues its current curriculum The History of Christianity II: From the Reformation to the Modern Megachurch. The presenter is Dr. Molly Worthen, associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a freelance journalist. The primary focus of this 36-lecture DVD-based course is to place Christianity in its historical context as it transforms from a relatively homogenous entity at the end of the Middle Ages into the diverse global religion of today. Presentations explore the basic ideas (and paradoxes) of Christian theology; see how these ideas are embedded in real life; introduce some of history's most fascinating characters; and see how secular modernity and globalization have transformed Christianity. We will conclude this curriculum on Sunday, June 23rd.
Lectionary Study
Join us on Zoom, at 4 pm, on Thursdays. The Zoom link is found on our website, hoco.org. We consider the biblical readings for the coming Sunday. Our rector, Hilary, leads this time of reflection and discussion. This is a great way to prepare for Sunday! We will be on break for Holy Week and Easter Week, March 28 and April 4.
Monday Evening Classes Continue
Adult FormationThe Monday Evening Class continues via Zoom on Monday nights from 7:00 to 8:00pm, The current curriculum is The Fall of the Pagans and the Origins of Medieval Christianity with Dr. Kenneth W. Harl, Professor of Classical and Byzantine History at Tulane University. The course scope: "The conversion of the classical world to Christianity is one of the fundamental changes in Western civilization that has been matched only by the discovery of the New Word and the industrial revolution. This course explains the reasons for the clash between the pagans ('worshippers of the ancestral gods') and the early Christians that ended in the Christianizing of the Roman world between the 4th and 6th centuries A. D." We will conclude this 24-part series on Monday June 10th. Contact is Peggy Hombs.
Tuesday Morning Book Group
Tuesdays at 11:00 am. We are discussing the book, Ladder to the Light, by Bp. Steven Charleston. We meet in the parlor. All are welcome at any time. We will be discussing this book through May, at least.