From the Rector

Peace be with you. It was truly a gift this year to be able have a summer church school program. Thanks go out to Lisa McConarty (daughter of Dick and Pat Simpson) who was visiting from Alaska! This past Sunday the summer program concluded with a skit for the congregation in which they sang "Jesus Loves Me" in English, Spanish, Chinese and sign language. It was obvious that the experience was a good one. I am enclosing in this issue Lisa's address and e-mail address for anyone who would like to stay in touch with her.

St. Anne's is also thankful to Sharon Checrallah and Cyndi Hopkins for co-directing the church school last year. They were able to integrate a worship service into their curriculum and to invite several people to teach. Both Cyndi and Sharon will be taking a rest from teaching this year so that they can spend more time in church singing in the choir and serving as lector and LEM.

In their absence I have re-designed the church school curriculum as follows: The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program, which was for ages 3-6, will now serve ages 3-10 (up to and including grade 4). A mentoring program is in place for grades 5 and 6, which will be taught each week by a different member of the parish. Some of the topics covered will include how we got the Bible, the patriarchs, the Temple, what people ate and how they lived during Bible times, how the church came to be, how people earned a living, what Rome has to do with Jerusalem, and the Holy Wars. If you are interested in teaching one week out of the year, please speak to me. Grades 7 & 8 will be a Confirmation class and will be taught by John Geen. This will be in preparation for Confirmation on February 24, 2002 with assisting Bishop Arthur Walmsly, retired bishop from Connecticut.

For some reason many children and youth have not been faithful about attendance to the church school program. No one gains by a lack of dedication. To change this trend it will be the case this year that no one will be able to serve on the altar as acolyte or be in the youth group (for grades 2-8) unless they also attend church school. If a student (or parent) is unhappy with what the children are learning, please let me know.

Additions to our calendar for the fall include a Men's Breakfast meeting beginning on September 24, and a Newcomers reception in October. The Serendipity group will meet at the church the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month to be more receptive to newcomers. On September 9 Kathy Jeffrey will preach at both services about her journey before and after her heart transplant last January 29. A special reception will be held in her honor following the 10 AM service. The Welcome Back brunch and church school registration will be on September 16.

Thank yous are in order for all those who spent time this summer keeping up the gardens, mowing lawns and cleaning the inside of the church and Thrift shop. Thank you to Chris Dickie fir summarizing Church activities in history form for the last 20 years. And thank you to Louise Hunt for researching information on the two big stained-glass windows at the front and back of the church. It is our hope to put together a booklet on all the stained glass windows, but any information on them is conspicuously absent. I have asked Bob Worth, a former Senior Warden, for information about the windows. He has agreed to help. Because of Bob Newell and Dave Choupourian, we now have a microphone in the overflow area. This should make it easier for families to hear the services. Elsie Cann has purchased a wrought iron rail for the steps up to the Nichols room. Barbara Rogers is contributing to the cost of the outdoor outlets. This list could go on and on. So, thank you to everyone for the gifts that you bring to this church home.

Faithfully,

Peggy