Holy Comforter E-Messenger for Sunday,
April 13, 2025
New This Week
Lent
Upcoming Events
Articles of Interest
Worship
Ministry Offerings
Church Calendar
Social Media
Volunteers Needed for Easter Egg Hunt
Calling all Easter Bunnies! We are looking for folks to help fill and hide Easter eggs. If you have plastic eggs left over from last year, please consider refilling with candy this year, or buying new, and bringing to the parish hall conference room EARLY Easter Sunday. Otherwise, contact Mary Davis or Tracy Councill to let us know you can help out. We will have a filling session after the Saturday morning church service @ 12:15, April 19.
A Letter from Our Senior Warden
Church Calendar
There's a new way to get to the church calendar: click on the link to the left, below "Ministry Offerings."
Note that once the calendar has loaded, you can change the view to "Week" or "Month" by clicking on the "Schedule" button at the top right.
Lenten Resources for 2025
Please enjoy these resources for the season of Lent:
- Devotionals from Sanctified Art: https://www.hoco.org/pdf/lent_devotional_2025.pdf
- Lenten Meditations from Episcopal Relief and Development
- In English: https://www.episcopalrelief.org/church-in-action/lent/
- Para español: https://www.episcopalrelief.org/church-in-action/cuaresma/meditaciones-de-cuaresma-5-8-de-marzo-2025/
- The Society Of St. John The Evangelist - Daily Word: https://www.ssje.org/word/
Lent Madness 2025!
Click on the image above to see the full article.
Pastoral Care Committee/Ministry Meeting - April 13
Please join us for a pastoral care ministry meeting in the parlor on Sunday, April 13, after the 10:00 am service. If you would like to help care for our members by calling them, visiting, praying for them, sending cards, providing a meal when needed, doing small home repairs/projects or driving someone to an appointment, please join us next Sunday. We would also love to hear your ideas for how we can support each other.
Reception for Hilary - April 27
Our Rector, Hilary+, will be concluding her ministry with us on Sunday, April 27. Hilary came to us in 2013; join us on Sunday, April 27 to celebrate our shared ministry and send Hilary forth with our prayers and thanks.
Saint Of The Week: Alfred the Great
Two statues of Alfred the Great: one from his capital of Winchester, showing the warrior king who defeated the Vikings; the second from his birthplace in Oxfordshire showing the devout scholar and lawgiver.
Click on either image to hear more about him.
Required Safe Church Training
From Hilary+
There is a required Safe Church Training for you as someone who is involved with a ministry listed in the PDF found here. As well, everyone with a key to the church or parish house needs to take the training. If you don't really need the key, and don't want to do the training, please let me know and turn the key in to me or the office. Thanks!
I would love to have your certificates on file, showing that you have completed the required training, in the office before the end of April. If you do not complete the course, you cannot continue to serve in this ministry. Here you will find the information on how to take the classes online. You can do one part at a time; you do not need to do it all at once. I have to do it too! Attached is the grid showing what classes you need to take. The instructions needed to take these online classes are below.
Safe Church Registration Code and information on how to enroll:
Church Name: Episcopal Diocese of Virginia - Holy Comforter, Richmond Registration Code: reg-ediovirginia-804-holycomforterrichmond
To Enroll into the Safe Church Training:
1. Go to https://www.praesidiumacademy.com/redeem
2. Create a new account: Fill in your contact information including First Name, Last Name, Email Address, and desired Password.
3. Enter the appropriate registration code for your organization - See above
4. Click Validate to confirm registration code.
5. Click the checkbox to agree to the Terms & Conditions.
6. Click Redeem.
7. Write down your user login and password for future reference.
8. Answer the Registration Questions about your status and role within the organization.
9. Click Save & Continue.
10. To begin taking training immediately, scroll down and click a course to start the content.
Holy Week With Jesus Text Experience Returns For 2025
Click on the image above to read all about it.
All the Saints
Parishioner Laura Hunt has been recording talks about a different Saint each week for some time now - see below for this week's Saint, Thomas Traherne.
Now, you can listen to past talks about saints with a click of a link. Chris Hall has kindly, brilliantly set up a dedicated page on the HoCo website. Check it out here: https://www.hoco.org/saints.htm
Thank you Laura!
Connection Time - An Important Part Of Growing Our Community
Spending time together after church helps us know each other better, and meet newcomers, and help them to feel welcomed and included. We plan to have Connection Time every Sunday with or without food. To make it less complicated and easier to help, we have updated the Sign-up Genius
(https://bit.ly/hoco_connections) with these options and are asking that one person take one task on a Sunday:
- Drinks: making coffee, putting out a pitcher of water
- Putting snacks out that will be provided by Parish Life and will be in the kitchen
- Clean-up after Connections
Please consider signing up for one or more options.
If you have any questions, please contact Susan Boze, the vestry person for Parish Life. Thanks for taking part in this important ministry!
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.
Parish office hours are Mondays through Thursdays, 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.
If you have a pastoral emergency, at any time of day, call our Rector, Hilary (her number can be found in the parish directory ). Hilary's email is hbshococlergy@gmail.com. If you would like to schedule an appointment to talk with Hilary, 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
Click on the image above to read this week's bulletin.
Wednesday Worship At Church
Meets for 20 minutes of Centering Prayer at 11:45 am and half an hour of Holy Eucharist at 12:15 pm.
Metro Richmond at Prayer (Richmond Hill Cycle of Prayer)
We pray for the Spirit of the Resurrection in Metropolitan Richmond: To remove any spirit of contentiousness, prejudice, greed, jealousy, or enjoyment of others’ troubles. For a spirit of humility, respecting and appreciating the gifts and contributions of all.
Monday Night Adult Formation
On February 24 we begin a new program entitled Embracing the Prophets in Contemporary Culture, presented by Walter Bruggeman, a six-part study considering how we may "confront today's 'Pharaohs'". The Hebrew prophets can be our inspiration to speak truth to power in the present age. We meet via Zoom every Monday from 7:00-8:00 pm. You can find the Zoom link on the HoCo website. Any questions, please contact Maria Scott, ntrvrt1958@gmail.com.
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.
Tuesday Morning Book Group - 11am in Hilary's Office
Starting on March 11, we begin with a book on spiritual practices to support us in these trying times and at any time: Strength For The Journey, by Renee Miller.
HoCo Book Group - Next Meeting in May
The HoCo Book group will NOT meet in April, as our regular date Tuesday, April 15th) falls in Holy Week. Our next regularly scheduled Book Group will be on Tuesday, May 20th, at 7:00pm via Zoom link provided separately closer to the date.
For our May 20th gathering, we will be reading A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan. A historical thriller, which was published in 2023 at 404 pages and won a number of awards, the book "tells the riveting story of the Klan's rise to power in the 1920's, the cunning con man who drove that rise, and the woman who stopped them."
Here a brief summary:
"The Roaring Twenties-the Jazz Age-was also the height of the uniquely American hate group the Ku Klux Klan. They hate Blacks, Jews, Catholics, and immigrants in equal measure, and took radical steps t deny them the American promise. And behind their takeover of the Heartland and the Qwest was a charismatic charlatan named D. C. Stephenson.
Within two years of Stephenson's arrival in Indiana, he'd become the Grand Dragon of the state and led the group out of the shadows to be celebrated at local churches, family picnics, and town gatherings. Judges, prosecutors, governors, and senators proudly proclaimed their membership. But at the peak of Stephenson's influence, it was a seemingly powerless woman-Madge Oberholtzer---whose deathbed testimony revealed his secret cruelties and finally brought the Klan to their knees."
Contact: Peggy Hombs
The Current Messenger
Click on the image above to see this season's issue.