Special Services

Our 2008 High School Graduates are…

Nick, Tim, Chris & Dan

May 4th

Graduation Sunday!

Let’s honor our graduating

seniors between Services

Congratulations

Cards of Thanks:
ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

To…

Tracy

Sarah

Christy

Ronna

Harlan & Noelle

Cathi

Verne

For teaching this year!

To…

Deacon Betsy, Dave & Kathy

for helping with the inter-age group

       Thanks to:

Everyone who stayed after church on Rogation Sunday to help “Spruce Up” St. Stephen’s.

Thanks to Kathy for organizing, thanks to all for helping make St. Stephen’s shine!

Congratulations to…

Courtney & Austin

Married April 26th

And soon to be married…

Shelly & Ryan

May 31st

Good bless their marriages 

The Annual Willa Cather

Spring Conference

This years conference will take place in Red Cloud June 5-7, 2008.  Registration materials are available at willacather.org.  On the evening of Thursday, June 5th, there will be an Evensong led by Fr. Peek with the assistance of the St. Juliana Choir under the direction of John English.  You are, of course, invited to the Evensong; and you may consider attending the conference if the topic, Willa Cather and her Contemporaries, interests you.

Also mark your 2009 calendars.  On April 24-25 of 2009, one of the speakers will be former Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold.  The 2009 conference will feature a Taize service.

Could you help sponsor

a child this year to go to

Summer Camp?

The cost is $175.00 per child.  Any amount that you can afford would help offset camp cost for our families.  Let’s make sure that every child or young person at St. Stephen’s has the opportunity to go to camp this summer!

Vacation Bible School

August 4th-8th

We’ll need even more help than we had last year for “Jerusalem Marketplace” so if you can help us this year, please call Kathy Stoddard or Noelle Ptomey.  We thank you in advance for any help you can provide this year!

Camp Counselors Needed

If you would like to be a camp counselor this year please call Noelle.

 Classifieds

Our prayers go out
 

From Deacon Betsy
 

Eucharistic Visitors

How You Can Help

The Eucharistic Visitors and I would love to have you join our team. If your work and family responsibilities, or your own difficulty getting out and about, make it impossible for you to become a Eucharistic Visitor, you can still help in two ways. You can pray for the Eucharistic Visitors, and you can help us recruit more Eucharistic Visitors by speaking with people whom you see as good prospects for this ministry. The Eucharistic Visitors go out once a month; the length of time for the visits varies.  We would love to have enough people in this ministry that each EV pair would visit only one or two places, and that everyone would get a month off on a regular basis.

Please pray for the Eucharistic Visitors:

Thanksgiving for their willingness to faithfully carry out this vital ministry;

That our Eucharistic Visitors might continue to find joy and meaning in this ministry;

That the people who receive communion from the Eucharistic Visitors find through it strength and a sense of community;

That others who might be called to this ministry say “Here I am” and join the EV team.

If you want to know more about becoming a Eucharistic Visitor, see Deacon Betsy.

Little Seeds of Hope

The HOPE (Healing Our Planet Earth) conference I attended last month was a wonderful experience, and I’m eager to share more of that experience with all of you.  The conference’s major presentations, from Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, theologian Sally McFague, and Bishop Steven Charleston from the Episcopal Divinity School, will be available in the next few weeks for download from the conference website (www.healingourplanetearth.org).  Several people have expressed interest in hearing and seeing these presentations, and I’ll try to figure out a good way to share them with you.

As I said in the Rogation Sunday sermon, everyone can help stop and reverse the damage to God’s creation. We all can make small changes, planting little seeds of hope. With Earth Day celebrated in April, we have had the opportunity this spring to read and hear many suggestions of things we can do. The Saint Stephen’s mugs have reappeared at coffee hour to offer an alternative to Styrofoam. Other simple things can be done at home, in the parish, or at work: turning off lights when we leave a room, replacing burned out incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, making sure faucets are turned off all the way when not in use.

You no doubt are familiar with some of the other small changes you can make. Think of the earth when you are caring for your lawn and garden this year: use water wisely, and use chemicals sparingly (or not at all). Maybe some of your errands can be done on foot rather than in a car. When you go to the store, take your own shopping bags with you; the plastic vs. paper dilemma (neither is good for the environment) is easily solved when you bring your own bag.

We all know what to do. We simply need to care enough for our relationship with God and God’s creation to put it into action. 

Six “W”s about Fr. Chuck Peek

joining us at St. Stephens:

Rudyard Kipling was, among other things, a journalist; and he coined a little poem that used to sit in a lot of daily paper news rooms.  With apologies to Mr. Kipling should memory not serve quite accurately, it goes something like this:

I have six honest serving men;

They serve me well and true.

Their names are what and where and when

And which and how and who.

WHAT

Fr. Peek will be our new Rector.  The Rector is the pastor, administrator, and celebrant.  The ministry of a priest is just one of the ordained ministries (besides Deacon and Bishop) and just one of the host of ministries of the whole body of the church (evangelizing, teaching, praying, worshiping, serving, caring, etc.)

WHERE

Fr. Peek will move to Grand Island sometime this summer, no later than August.  Because Nancy will continue with her last year teaching at UNK, they’ll do some commuting the first year.  Then Nancy will join Fr. here.

WHEN

Fr. Peek will be on location with us by September 2.  In the meantime he is making pastoral calls on people with critical needs and preparing (or supervising the preparation) of six couples to be married at St. Stephens, as well as working with the vestry and other parish organizations and celebrating some Sunday services.

WHICH

There is no way one person can perform all the ministries of a church, and no way a church can follow up on every opportunity that comes its way.  There’s a difference between the merely urgent and the truly important, and we need to pray for the guidance necessary to see where God is leading us and which efforts God can bless.

HOW

Fr. Peek will carry out his part in our ministries by being faithful to three principles of ministry.  He will try to preach Christ as clearly and truly as he knows how.  He will love us all regardless of how we respond to his preaching.  He will move with those prepared to follow the moving Spirit of God.

WHO

Among us, Fr. Peek will be a fellow Christian; for us, Fr. Peek will be our priest.

From Fr. Peek

MOVING FORWARD

(Getting Our Act Together)

Each part of your body does its own work for you.  Just so, each ministry of the church contributes to fulfilling our baptismal covenant.  Christ came to cast out the demons of ignorance, disease, and sin—and Christ’s Church exists to make new Christians to continue Christ’s work.  What we each do and how we go about it is vital if we want to be a parish that serves God’s purposes for us.

You each have a gift.  Which of the areas below would your gift best serve?

SERVICE

Covenant

Seek and Serve Christ in All Persons

Service means outreach, the parish reaching out to others.  The New Testament speaks of this as “Diakonoi”—serving, attending to needs.  The Deacon plays a leadership role in this area.

WORSHIP

Covenant:

Continue in the breaking of bread and the prayers; repent and return to the Lord

Worship: all the ways we, in community, praise and thank our Creator.  The New Testament calls this “Leitourgia” or liturgy: not just gathering for worship but making worship meaningful. It is appropriate for the priest to play a special role here.

EVANGELISM

Covenant:

Proclaim by Word and Example the Good News of God in Christ

The Gospel calls us to share the Good News, to draw others into the worshiping and serving community, to witness to God’s work in our lives. The New Testament word is “Kerygma”; it signifies that, by word or example, we intend on being the living Gospel others meet.

EDUCATION

Covenant:

Continue in the apostle’s teaching

The church has the responsibility to educate its members and each member has a responsibility to continue learning the faith and how to practice it.  The New Testament calls the teaching ministry “didache” but also calls it “therapeutics”:  to change lives through teaching and learning together.

PASTORAL CARE

Covenant:

Respect the Dignity of Every Human Being; continue in the Apostles’ fellowship

Fellowship and caring for one another are at the heart of coming to know Christ in the Church.  The New Testament word is “Koinonia”: we are a community, not a loose assortment of “lone rangers.”  The Parish Nurse has a significant role to play here.

STEWARDSHIP

Covenant:

Catechism: Do you put your whole trust in God’s grace and love?  I do. 

We can sum up a lot of the charge that Jesus gives us simply: put your money where your mouth is!  We have a heritage, a physical plant, a diocesan relationship, and for all of that we must be good stewards.  That stewardship requires daily attention and long-range planning.  In the New Testament, the word is the same as for our idea of “home economics”—the household and its proper management: “oikonomos.”

In the days to come, I will be asking each of you to commit to serving in one of these areas.  Please begin praying now for God to show you where you can best help with God’s work.  Meanwhile, watch in the entry hall for fuller descriptions of each of these areas of ministry.

In Christ,

Fr. Peek

Youth Page

Acolyte Schedule

10:30 a.m.

8:00 a.m. Servers/Cross

May 4

8:00 a.m.—Steve

Server—Briana

Cross—Nate

Torches—Dustin & Danielle

May 11

8:00 a.m.—Arena

Server—Tim

Cross—Tim

Torches—Tyler & Rowan

May 18

8:00 a.m.—Steve

Server—Sara Beth

Cross—Mary

Torches—Karla & Tyler

May 25

8:00 a.m.—Arena

Server—Angela

Cross—Angela

Torches—Corey & Abby

Camp Comeca 2008

Grades 9-12  July 17th-20th

Grades 4-8               July 28th– Aug 1st

Contact Noelle Ptomey for more information or registration questions at 402-604-0229.

Happening #30

Don’t miss this faith filled weekend!

Grades 9-12       Labor Day Weekend

From The Bishop

Birthdays

John Richardson
Emmaline Goodman
Jennifer Cook
Lane Leisinger
Nathan Reisinger
Daryl Baxter
Todd Crittenden
Peggy Rauch
Mickey Fowler
Betsy Bennett
Jayson Stoddard
Collin Jepson
Jeffry Vinson
Makauous Asabit
Briana Mead
Leslie Lewis
Ree Ann Regier

5/1        Mike & Donna Smith

5/21      Bud & JoAnne Rasmussen

5/25      Duane & Shirley Dunning

Parish Cycle of Prayer 

Week 1

Dan, Arena, Jared, Sarah, Samantha & Axel; Marguerite

Week 2

Georgian, Justice, Vicki, Isabelle & William; Warren & Lois

Week 3

Dave, Christy, Ryan & Collin; Jim & Pat;

Week 4

Daniel & Brittany; Angela; Joe, Ronna & Abigail

Worship Schedule

Calendar
 

Prayer Chain Starters: Mary K.or Donna