EACH WEEK WE OFFER

BRASS POLISHING!

We need your help! Please sign up in Bott Hall for the Brass Polishing Guild.

TRANSITIONS

Transferred in: Please welcome (and add to your directory) Nancy and Geoff Pecoraro and their children Amanda, Geoffrey, and Christopher. 135 Ridgemont Drive, Fayetteville, GA 30215 (770) 716-3856. Welcome!

Died: Paul Baker on April 24. Jane Dreisbach on May 6. May the souls of the departed rest in eternal peace.

From Dede Dreisbach

Our family thanks you and your "family" so much for all the support and preparations for my mother’s interment in St. John’s garden. Your comforting words and kind attention to the details associated with preparing a service and reception to recognize a special life are most appreciated.

Mom had a special relationship with your parish and parishioners. She looked forward to her Thursday volunteer duties and thoroughly enjoyed her Bargain Shop involvement. It is so fitting that she is interred in St. John’s garden where her volunteer spirit could shine forever.

She was special, and she will be missed but often remembered.

ALTAR FLOWERS

You may honor loved ones by donating altar flowers for $30. Please call the Church office for available dates.

APRIL FINANCIAL REPORT

Pledge payments for April were $14,834. ($5,339 below budget). Pledge payments for the year to date are $6,084 below budget. Expenses for April were $26,122. Expenses for year to date are $4,069 over budget. To date, we are $10,153 behind budget. Please keep your pledge payments coming!

WORK DAY

It was cold, windy and raining. Sounds like a dreary day doesn’t it? But it wasn’t — it was a fun day. People were laughing and joking as they worked together and we got A LOT accomplished. Did you miss it? Well, the next time a work day is mentioned, mark it on your calendar and be there to see what you’ve been missing!

Seriously, A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who came out on May 18 and helped. We had several new faces and we greatly appreciate every one of you.

p.s. I’m told we have a phantom yard worker. He strolls in every day, pulls weeds (or whatever he sees that needs to be done) and disappears. Who could it be?

An Invitation for the Parish of St. John's:

FROM THE RECTOR

I recently had lunch with Blanche Shropshire and Ray Townsend (of our Outreach Commission) and Bonnie Copeland. Bonnie volunteers for the Fulton County Juvenile Justice System because she is concerned about children and families in need. She had been given my name by Rick Callaway , our Canon to the Ordinary at the Diocese.

Bonnie had called Rick because when he was rector of St. Julian’s in Douglasville, the parish had worked with the Douglas County Juvenile Court System to start an innovative program that has gone very well. The program helps the county solve a problem that often keeps families separated.

Courts often take children away from destructive family situations and work with the parents to enable the children to be to a safe, nurturing environment. Parents are given a list of goals they must accomplish before the children will be returned. In the meantime, they are allowed only supervised visitations.

The county was in desperate need of a place for supervised visitation and for trained supervisors. They worked with St. Julian’s to create the "New Beginnings" program. The parish provides a place for supervised visitations, and parishioners have been trained (about 3 hours) to be supervisors. The program has been a rousing success and is the pride and joy of St. Julian’s.

At lunch, Bonnie told us that Fulton County has one of the highest juvenile case loads in the country — over 5000 cases a year. St. John’s is in a zip code with the highest number of separated families in the metro area. Fulton County, however, provides only one place for supervised visitations on the Southside — at the government annex in Union City. It is very difficult for many people to get to; the facilities there are cramped and sterile; and it is only open during business hours (despite the fact that most parents are required to maintain employment , often at a job that does not allow flexible time off, in order to be reunited with their children).

The judges of the Fulton County Juvenile Court System want to duplicate Douglas County’s success and start a pilot project in our area. Bonnie called Rick and asked, "Do you Episcopalians have a presence in College Park?" Rick replied, "We sure do!"

We sure do! I hope you will come on June 9 to our Second Sunday Brunch and hear more about this exciting opportunity. There are lots of questions and details to be worked out, but I am very excited about the possibilities. I am aware , however, that my excitement is, in the final analysis, not very important. For this to work, the parish must be excited (and willing to commit). If you do this as a favor to me or just because I recommend it, it will end with a whimper.

So please come learn more , pray about it, and let us know. I’ve never heard of any church of any denomination that did not at least give lip service to helping families and children in need. But whether we help in this way or some other way, we need to ask ourselves: "What will be said of us when someone asks, ‘Do you Episcopalians have a presence in College Park?’"