The devastating hurricane that swept through the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos, as well as up the Eastern seaboard of the United States leaves many communities in great need.
Please click here to find out more on how you can help.
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Basket Auction Volunteers Needed
The annual St. Edward’s Basket Auction will be starting on September 15th!
So. . . you know what that means! We need basket makers!
Our goal is a variety of 17 food-themed baskets. You get the ingredients & make the basket yourselves or let us know if you need a basket and we’ll help! And. . .We wrap and tag!
We have had great response but we are seeking 5 more baskets as of August 9th!
The most important thing is to pick something you can have fun making!
Ideas or thought-starters are with sign-up sheet in the parish hall on the coffee table. Baskets are due 09/09/19!
Thank you for your ministry in helping make this year another fun & successful event!
St. Edward’s School Supply Drive
Thanks to all who donated funds and school supplies items. With your generosity, we were able to supply 27 backpacks and ample supplies to fill them for children in a variety of grades. Through the Hempfield Food Pantry, organizers put together wonderful backpacks to distribute to families in need.
Thank you to our Social Outreach Ministry for their dedication in organizing our School Supply Drive each year.
Episcopal Home Sunday – August 4, 2019
Remember, this Sunday, August 4th is Episcopal Home Sunday. With special prayers for the residents of The Episcopal Home and an ingathering of personal care items for the residents – don’t forget to bring your donation! St. Edward’s supports this non-profit mission in our diocese. Here is a link to inform you of specific personal care items they need & other ways to help.
https://episcopalhome.com/our-mis…/volunteering/how-to-help/
Young Virtuoso Pianist Xinyue Zhang to Play at St. Edward’s in Free August Concert
Xinyue “Sissi” Zhang, a talented virtuoso pianist, returns to St. Edward’s Episcopal Church to present a free concert featuring music by Chopin, Brahms, Bach and more on Friday, August 2, 2019 at 7:30 p.m. The church is located at 2453 Harrisburg Pike in Lancaster, and, although the event is free, an offering will be taken.
At the August 2 concert, Zhang will play Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Minor, Chopin’s Etude Op. 1, No. 1 in C Major, Beethoven’s Sonata No. 7 in D Major, Chopin’s Ballade No. 1, and works by Brahms and Rachmaninoff.
Zhang first performed at St. Edward’s in 2015 when she was a student at Lancaster Mennonite School. She is now a junior at United World College in Changshu, China, but continues to take lessons from Lititz resident Xun Pan, head of the Lancaster International Piano Festival and faculty member at Millersville University, through FaceTime and other video apps.
“We meet once a week,” says Pan, “and normally it’s very early—7:00 a.m. here—since we have a 12-hour time difference. I also see her in person when I travel to China or she is in the U.S. for short periods.”
Born in 2002, Zhang gave her premiere solo piano concert at the age of ten. She made history as the youngest pianist who performed professionally in her native city, Suzhou, China. Since then, she has performed various concerts in China, Hong Kong, Korea, Turkey, and the United States. Judges from international piano competitions have said of her: “ She is born for music and the stage.”
The concert is part of the Rev. Canon Stephen C. Casey Cultural Events Series at St. Edward’s showcasing the church’s fellowship outreach.
St. Edward’s Episcopal Church is a community of faith, giving to God, giving to each other, giving to the world. On the web at: www.Sainteds.org. For more information, call the church at 717.898.6276
Embrace Open House at St. Edward’s
As we follow in the steps of “What We Believe” as Episcopalians, St. Edward’s is taking the opportunity to invite people who may have abandoned their faith because of prejudice they may have faced in other congregations, and to offer a local “safe space” for people of any identity and/or orientation by opening our doors to welcome and affirm the LGBTQ community members.
On Sunday, July 21st we will be part of the Pride Week Open Houses in partnership with Embrace, a local organization supporting Lancaster’s LGBTQ people of faith. We will be joining many other churches in the Lancaster County faith community in the hopes that we can connect members of the LGBTQ community with open and affirming worship and fellowship, especially at St. Edward’s.
As is highlighted on our The Episcopal Church website:
We Episcopalians believe in a loving, liberating, and life-giving God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As constituent members of the Anglican Communion in the United States, we are descendants of and partners with the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church, and are part of the third largest group of Christians in the world.
We believe in following the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection saved the world.
We have a legacy of inclusion, aspiring to tell and exemplify God’s love for every human being; women and men serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in our church. Laypeople and clergy cooperate as leaders at all levels of our church. Leadership is a gift from God, and can be expressed by all people in our church, regardless of sexual identity or orientation.
We believe that God loves you – no exceptions.
On June 12, 2019, during Pride Month, our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry offered his statement that honors LGBTQ Episcopalians, which you can read by clicking this link below or visiting the St. Edward’s website on the “What We Believe” page.
Presiding Bishop’s Pride Month statement honors LGBTQ Episcopalians
We hope you will join us on July 21st at your worship service of choice – 8 AM or 10:15 AM and coffee/fellowship hours, and show our brothers and sisters of the LGBTQ community what a welcoming and faith-affirming parish St. Edward’s is and will always be.
The Day of Pentecost: Whitsunday – June 9, 2019
St. Edward’s welcomes you to join us for Pentecost Sunday, June 9th! Rite I – 8:00 AM and Rite II – 10:15 AM blended service with traditional and contemporary worship music. We look forward to seeing you. Wear red!
St. Edward’s Spring Clean Up – Sunday, May 5th
Sweaty Sunday: MAY 5TH after the 8 am & 10:15 am services.
Wear your sweats and jeans to church and stay awhile to help with some spring clean-up outdoors & indoors. We will be holding the event Rain or shine! Our plan is to be finished by 2:00 – 2:30 PM.
We will be raking, filing in a pothole, weeding, trimming, painting, window washing and whatever else needs to be done to spruce up our parish and beautify our grounds.
JOIN US AS WE COME TOGETHER AS A COMMUNITY OF FAITH! Many hands make light work and we will have a nice meal to share in keeping with the Cinco de Mayo tradition of the day!
Celebrate Easter at St. Edward’s
Come celebrate with us at St. Edward’s!
Holy Saturday: April 20th – 7:30 PM – The Great Vigil of Easter
Easter Sunday – April 21st
8:00 AM Holy Eucharist Rite I
10:15 AM Festival Holy Eucharist Rite II
UTO Ingathering Press Release
Many times, we participate in projects, such as UTO Ingathering, and we never really know how much of an impact parish-wide participation can have on the final outcomes of such fundraising. St. Edward’s raised $581.58 last year during the UTO Ingathering which helped in fundraising over $1.5 million throughout The Episcopal Church in 2018. Thank you for supporting the various outreach programs of The Episcopal Church.
[April 15, 2019] The United Thank Offering (UTO) Ingathering is set to award $1,535,740.55 in 2019, thanks to increased giving by people from across the church in 2018. UTO funds are granted on an annual basis to support mission across The Episcopal Church and throughout the Anglican Communion.
The UTO 2018 Ingathering reflects an increase in giving of $15,495.15 over the 2017 thank offerings. Fifty-three Episcopal dioceses increased their giving. For a complete breakdown in giving by Province and Diocese since 2000, please visit: https://unitedthankoffering.com/ingathering
“We are so very grateful for everyone who participates in UTO each year,” shared UTO staff officer, Heather Melton. “Not only because your thank offerings go on to fund innovative mission and ministry in The Episcopal Church through UTO grants, but also because we believe that gratitude is an important and needed expression of faith in the world today. If you think about the Ingathering as an expression of the good things God is doing in the midst of us, then at a dime a piece, that means Episcopalians experienced almost 11 million blessings in 2018.”
Since 1889, UTO has collected and granted $138,629,911.07 in thank offerings to support innovative mission and ministry in The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion through 5,257 grants. For the full list of grants awarded by UTO, please visit: https://unitedthankoffering.com/granting/1883-2018-grant-list/ The 2019 grants, funded by the 2018 Ingathering, will be announced mid-June 2019.
UTO was founded to encourage Episcopalians to notice the good things happening in their daily lives and make small thank offerings in a UTO Blue Box or through the UTO Blue Box app. The following year, 100% of those thank offerings are awarded as grants. For more information on UTO, or how to participate, please visit www.episcopalchurch.org/uto.