Let the programming year begin - Rector's Rambling for September 8, 2019

Our programming year gets off to its start this morning.  Although our primary calendar is ecclesiastical, following the church calendar for the various seasons and feasts, we also have the overlapping “school” calendar from September to May.  It is known in churches as the “programming year” since most of our classes, groups, and ministries tend to take place during the same time as the school year.

Speaking of school, we resume our Sunday School today.  The children meet right as the 10:00 AM service starts.  This month they will meet in the basement of the ministry center, but will move into the newly renovated undercroft space next month.  Please bring your children/grandparents right down there for the beginning of class.  They will join us upstairs later during worship.

Also making its return today is the full choir.  After a summer of wonderful quartets it is nice to have them back at full strength (or close to it as Dr. Lewis fills a last few positions).  Labor Day weekend Sunday, one of two per year without any choir accompaniment, was a nice reminder of how having them here helps us to sing better and greatly enriches our worship!

Also resuming this month, Saturday, September 14, is the regular monthly gatherings of the Daughters of the King.  If you are interested in this vital ministry of the parish, please contact any Daughter, easily recognized by their member pin.

Next week we have a Sunday outing, an afternoon of fun – BOWLING!  We will be heading a mile up Woodward to the Garden Bowl, the oldest bowling alley in the USA.  In October we will have a tour of historic Elmwood Cemetery, replete with the beautiful fall foliage.  Our founders, and most early parishioners from St. John’s, are buried in this cemetery on the east side of Detroit, near Martin Luther King Jr. High School.  It is also a lovely arboretum.

And of course, most importantly, just as you wouldn’t miss work or school except for the most grave circumstances, you should feel and act the same way about attending Church every Sunday.  You need to be here, and we need you here, for the greater glory of God.