June, July & August 2019

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From the Rector

Dear St. Thomas Community,

It is hard to believe that in a very short time, I will be a father. The last eight months, Lorrin and I have waited in joyful expectation, planning, preparing, and hoping. We are extraordinarily excited to welcome our baby daughter into the world, and look forward to introducing her to all of you. God certainly is good.

In 2017, the Diocese of Ohio passed legislation extending eight-week parental leave to both parents. This is a very generous policy, given that many parents in the United States receive little to no paid leave following the birth of their child. I am extraordinarily grateful to the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, and my parish family at St. Thomas, for affording me this opportunity to entirely focus on my family for eight weeks this summer. This time will be incredibly precious to Lorrin, baby, and me. Thank you.

During these eight weeks, which will begin after our baby girl is born (due date is June 6), the liturgy will be led by a combination of lay volunteers and The Rev. Kelly Aughenbaugh, who is presently the Vicar at St. John’s, Ohio City and the Curate at St. Peter’s, Lakewood. She is a gifted preacher and an incredibly faithful priest. Likewise, I have compiled a list of local clergy who can be

available in the event of a pastoral emergency. Expect that list to be public in the very near future. However, routine pastoral visits, other than Lay Eucharistic Visitation will be on hiatus, during the time of my leave.

Needless to say, I will not be available during this time. Peggy Zambounis, our Senior Warden, is the delegated point person during my absence. Please feel free to contact her during this time, however, my expectation is that no major decisions regarding the parish be made during my leave. Vestry, of course, will continue to meet in order to address routine decisions under Peggy’s leadership. I will be receiving a weekly report from Ginny Kubiak, our Parish Administrator, regarding happenings in the parish. Please do not call, e-mail, or text me during this time. I will be contacted by Peggy and, or Ginny in the event of an emergency that requires my attention.

Thank you all for your understanding, love, and care. I am truly grateful for this opportunity and look forward to being back in the saddle in late July or early August. All of this is truly a blessing.

Blessings,

Dave Radzik+

Pastoral Care

During Fr. Dave’s paternity leave, several clergy members have graciously agreed to be available for any pastoral care needs or emergencies that should arise.

If you should have need of pastoral care, please call the church office and speak with our Parish Administrator, Ginny at 440-234-5241 or our Sr. Warden Peggy Zambounis at 440-582-1807 and they will relay the information and have the clergy person assigned for that week contact you.

Fifty-Year Member Recognition

Did you join St. Thomas in 1969 or prior? We will recognize all our 50-year and plus members during services July 13 & 14. Please call Ginny, in the church office, at 440-234-5241 to add your name to the list or drop us an e-mail at [email protected].

Youth Misssion Trip

Do you feel the call to serve? Would you like to help those who are in need? Are you looking for a way to deepen your faith through service to others? If so, please consider joining with other St. Thomas Youth on our annual Mission Trip to Lotts Creek, Kentucky on June 21-28, 2019.

We work with other churches to help the community and school located in the Appalachian area of Kentucky. On previous trips we have planted gardens, cleaned and painted areas of the school for the next year, helped hang drywall, mend porches, and volunteered at the local food pantry.

Can’t attend, but would like to help out in other ways? As we prepare for this year’s trip, we are also in need of your financial support. Your donation helps defray the travel cost for each young person that attends. To make a monetary contribution, please make your check payable to St. Thomas, and indicate “Lotts Creek” in the memo line or on the outside of your envelope.

If you would like more information about becoming a part of our Youth Mission Trip, please speak to Bart Hancock or Alyse Hancock-Philipps.

Seminary Appeal.  Can you help?

Los Amigos Episcopales is sponsoring a memorial fund honoring the late Rt. Rev. Martín Barahona, retired bishop of El Salvador.

Purpose of funds: Provide study materials and meals for seminarians at the seminary in San Salvador.

Appeal Dates: preferred before August 1, 2019.

Checks payable to: Los Amigos Episcopales. Send to: Los Amigos Episcopales, 50 E. Bagley Rd. Berea, OH 44017

Or

Donate on line: www.losamigosepiscopales.org

September/October 2019 Wayfarer

by Ginny Kibiak

Articles for the September/October issue of the Wayfarer are due by August 20, 2019. Please forward articles to the church e-mail address at: [email protected].

Photos are always welcome!!! Please submit your photos of St. Thomas events to the above e-mail address for publication.

Thank you in advance for promptly sending your articles and observing the submission due date.

Prayer Group

by Clint Anderson

Our faithful members gather together every Monday at 7:00 in the Church Office to study God’s Word, to give praise, thanksgiving, and glory to God, and to lift up our prayer requests for the world, our country, our church, our friends, and anyone for whom God’s Spirit directs us to pray.

We are currently studying Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians. It is a powerful and insightful letter of spiritual life and direction. We would love to have you join us for our weekly meetings!

If you have any prayer requests or if you have questions about the Prayer Group, please contact Clint Anderson at [email protected].

Outreach

by Ruth Ihde

Our next meeting will be on June 12 and we need all the ideas we can muster. Please join us.

We are happy that the Veterans’ Meet and Greet project is growing nicely. For our June 28 veterans’ lunch we will serve slider sandwiches, relishes, and macaroni salad, with a scrumptious dessert of ice cream with toppings and whipped cream. The program will be a guest speaker from Pleasantview Care Center/Legacy Place.

Additional outreach this summer will be our usual lunch for kids program, the week beginning July 8. Laura Gaba has graciously volunteered to lead this program, and will be asking for volunteers to help out.

Paper Recycling Bin

by Carl Scheu

It’s Easy being Green!

We have just received notification that we are not meeting our goal for our recycling paper bin and recycle goals. For those of you not aware, the green and yellow bin in our parking lot is a paper recycling bin, this is not a cost to the church but is a financial benefit. Unlike our regular dumpster we actually get paid when it’s emptied as opposed to costing us each time it’s emptied.

In essence, this is another means of contributing a little extra to St. Thomas other than fulfilling your pledge. Best part is, bringing all your clean waste paper and cardboard saves you in other ways as well.

The more you recycle the less you throw out, so you’ll save on garbage bags, and more importantly dragging those bags of trash down to the curb. Even if your local city does recycle paper, if you’re being good about it you probably have more than fits in your bin, so you’ll also save on not having to buy an extra bin (ok so this may be a stretch, but there are some other benefits).

Ways recycling paper helps St. Thomas:

• ☺ Benefits the church financially
• ☺ You’re doing something to benefit our ecology and reducing carbon emissions
• ☺ the more you recycle the less trees that need to be used to make paper (more carbon emissions savings)
• ☺ Doing little things like dropping off any papers and programs after church rather than throwing them in garbage saves on emptying the garbage bin at church, saving us money as opposed to costing us more
• ☺ It gives you an excuse to go through old papers, magazines and clutter at home. Can you say use for Junk Mail?

Also if we don’t get better at utilizing our bin, we’ll lose our bin. This will incur the following costs:

1. The loss of the revenue
2. More costs for garbage removal as we’ll likely fill our dumpster more frequently
3. This will be further aggravated by not being able to use the paper recycle bin for cardboard from our events such as Foodbank distribution, STAR and Veterans’ luncheons

Ok, so let’s all start bringing our cardboard and paper into church and keep this revenue stream with the church as well as contributing to the ministry of taking care of the world the Lord has provided us.

Just to help out here is a quick list of what you can and can’t put into the green and yellow recycle bin at St Thomas.

You can bring:

• Clean paper; note paper, newspaper, junk mail, the cardboard core from toilet paper and paper towels, shredded paper (can be in a plastic bag)
• Magazines, catalogs, spiral bound notebooks (do not need to remove metal coil), books (can be bound with cover), phone books
• Clean cardboard such as shipping boxes, cereal and other food boxes (without wax, metal or foil inserts), packing cardboard (please break down your cardboard boxes so there is more room in the bin)

 DON’T put in:

• Glass, plastic or any kind of metal
• Dirty paper such as used paper towels, food wrappers with grease or food residue, milk cartons, 3-ring binders
• Dirty cardboard such as soiled food boxes, donut boxes or pizza boxes

Thanks for all your help in keeping this ministry of conservation of God’s planet .

Socrates Café

by Clint Anderson

If you enjoy lively and insightful discussions about philosophy and life, please come and give Socrates Cafe a try! We are an official member of a worldwide Socrates Cafe network of more than 600 groups. We meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 7:00.

All group attendees are welcome to submit questions for discussion. For each meeting, we pick a question ahead of time and we then have no trouble discussing it for about an hour and a half.

Here are a few of our recent topics:

• “From where do we get compassion?”
• “What is the difference between joy and happiness? Or are they the same?”
• “Are we responsible for ALL of our actions?”

You don’t need to consider yourself a philosopher to be part of Socrates Café. Just come and see what you think. We’d love to have you join us!

If you have any questions, feel free to contact Clint Anderson at [email protected].

Veterans’ Meet & Greet

by Clint Anderson

We continue to meet on the last Friday of each month in Harkess Hall to say thank you to those who have served our country and to give them support and encouragement. (not to mention a hearty lunch and good fellowship)!

People start coming in around 10:00 for a time of open fellowship and sharing, with the lunch beginning at 11:30. Following the lunch, we have a program with various speakers or entertainers. At our April meeting, dog trainer Chuck Stella brought his service dog and shared all the things a service dog can do. Our May meeting featured one of our veterans, Dale Eckert, who led us in a patriotic sing-a-long. On June 28, we will have a guest speaker from Pleasantview Care Center/Legacy Place Assisted Living, who will share about the services available to veterans and families. Stay tuned for more details on the July gathering, which will take place on Friday, July 26.

All veterans and spouses are welcome to join us for our Meet & Greets. No reservations are needed. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Clint Anderson, Ruth Ihde, or Ginny in the church office at 440-234-5241 or [email protected]. We look forward to seeing you!

Amazon Smiles

St. Thomas has signed up for the Amazon Smile program. When shopping on Amazon, log onto smile.amazon.com and chose St. Thomas Episcopal Church of Berea as the charity you would like to support (or type in our custom charity link below). We earn .05% on all eligible purchases.

St. Thomas Work Day

by Anita Cooper

Our work day on April 13 was a huge success! With many parish members providing a helping hand, along with the help of Boy Scout Troop 228, we were able to accomplish a good amount of work. The sanctuary and chapel were spruced up for Easter services. The native gardens got some cleaning. The shed behind Harkess Hall was cleared out, shelves were repaired and we found that there is indeed a lot of storage space to use. The yard was raked and mowed, beds were cleaned. Everything looks so nice after the much needed spring cleaning. Thank you all for your help!

Annual Parish Picnic & Outdoor Worship Service

Our annual parish picnic and outdoor worship service will be at 10:00 am on Sunday, August 18, at the Ohio Guidestone Farm 24567 West Road, Olmsted Falls. Look for a sign-up

sheet and driving directions soon. St. Thomas will provide burgers, hot dogs, buns and condiments; we ask that parish members bring a side dish or dessert to share. You are welcome to bring a lawn chair or blanket, if you would rather not sit on the picnic benches.

Reminder: This is a zero-waste picnic! Please bring your own plates, napkins, utensils and drinks, and take them with you when you leave. Come join us for worship, food, fellowship and fun!

Landscaping & Lawn Mowing

by Anita Cooper

A map of the beds that need watching and a sign-up sheet for mowing are posted on the office window. If you have any questions, please contact Anita Cooper at 330-635-3752 or Tim Cooper at 440-724-1290.

Anita will not be able to work in the flower beds or mow this season due to her recent surgery; she has strict orders from her physician! Many thanks to those who have signed up to help.

We desperately need others in the parish to step up and help with the landscaping this season!

Summer Feeding Program

St. Thomas is planning to participate again in the Summer lunch distribution program sponsored by Berea-area churches. This program is vital to area children who do not have access to the free or reduced lunches provided during the school year.

We have chosen the week of July 8 through July 12 to participate and Laura Gaba has graciously accepted to head up our week to pack and distribute the lunches.

Volunteers are needed to help pack lunches and also to distribute lunches. Sign-up sheets, which include volunteer positions and times, are posted on the bulletin board.

Lunches will be given out at the following locations:

People’s Community Church 631 N. Rocky River Drive, Berea
and
St. Mary’s Catholic Church 265 Baker St, Berea

To help subsidize the cost of distributing an anticipated 450 lunches, we are asking for donations of jars of peanut butter and jelly and pouches of juice. A donation table is set-up in the hallway under the coat rack. Monetary donations are also very much appreciated to help defray our costs.

Please indicate “Feeding Kids” on your check or outside of your envelope and put in the offering plate or on the parish administrator’s desk.

If you have any questions, please contact Laura Gaba at [email protected] or 440-897-0089.