For those who have been faithfully tending the children of VC and for those who would like to be a part of doing so, we will be meeting this Wednesday, Nov. 16, at 7pm in the St. E studio to check in and begin discussing long-term plans for shepherding our kids. Hope to see you there!

The following was sent in by Mary Ellen:  

As some people probably already know, the Courtland Ave House Church (that meets at Ben and Mary Ellen’s house) has been working since February with the city of Norwood to get improvements done to Upper Millcrest Park. This Thursday August 11 we are having a community meeting at the Community Center (the big brick building behind St. Elizabeth’s). It will be from 7-9 and is a vital part of moving forward toward a master plan for the space. We have hopes that the mayor will be there, and are working towards asking the city to allocate money for this project. Please come if you can, even for part of the meeting.

The following comes to us from Becca Swartzendruber. She and her husband, Nathan, are expecting the arrival of their first child in about two weeks!  

Nathan and I are asking for help with house projects such as scraping, painting and moving furniture in the next few weeks as our due date approaches. Any help you could offer would be much appreciated. Email us at beccajayne1@gmail.com or fishpatrol@gmail.com.

On Thursday June 23 Courtland Ave House Church is having a work day at the upper millcrest park. Please consider coming out and helping us if you can. It is going to be potluck dinner.  6:30 -9pm

We will be

• tilling up the picnic area and planting mulch
• Cleaning up the plantings that we already did and maybe adding some annuals
• Planting some more around the bath house

It seems like the best bet for planting around the picnic area would be in planters. Does anyone have any or know where we could get large ones, preferably plastic, or something not glass.

Mulch has been delivered. Picnic tables have been delivered. Now we just need to finish phase 1 of this project!

–

Mary Ellen Mitchell

As promised in this afternoon’s worship gathering, two polls have been initiated that give VC folks the opportunity to offer our perspectives on where and when our Discernment Gatherings should take place each week during the season of Pentecost.

Each poll has three options:  Yes, (Yes), and No.  The (Yes) option says you’re willing to meet in the space or are ok with the time, but not necessarily passionately for or against.

The first poll is an attempt to answer the question:

“What time will we gather in the season of Pentecost?  Should we continue meeting at 4 pm followed by dinner together?  On the morning at 10 am?  At 11 am? Either morning option, we would follow up with lunch.”

Click on this sentence to follow the link to the poll.

The second poll is an attempt to answer the question:

“Where will we meet in the season of Pentecost? Will we meet upstairs (where a window A/C unit will help deal with the heat from being higher up), or will we meet in the large worship space downstairs?”

Click on this sentence to follow the link to the poll.

Special Thanks to Don McNeel and his team for their in-kind donation of labor to work on preservation of St. Elizabeth. After spending several hours repairing the roof, his hope is that it is finally water tight. This is a great gift to our community!

The following was sent in by Laura Menze:

In honor of warming weather and a desire for easy-access community prayer during this season of discernment, morning prayer is transitioning again to meeting in St. E’s following a winter of meeting in the warmer apartments. We gather Monday through Fridays at 7am for morning prayers. (As no Springtime Phyllis Tickle prayer books have been found and we will not have internet access, we will likely be using the Common Prayer book. Bring your copy should you have one.) Following prayers we usually eat breakfast together prior to departing for work by 7:45. Contact VC communications for more info or to connect with Laura.

Whiz Kids is looking for tutors (especially male) for their rebooted Norwood site at Williams Elementary School.

Contact person: Sandra Kelley, illinikelley@yahoo.com
Start date: Feb 10 training, Feb 17 launch
Commitment: 4:00-5:30 every Thursday until May.
More info: Go to http://www.citygospelmission.com/whizkids.html and click the volunteer button on the right-hand side of the page

The newly formed Courtland Ave. house church would like to invite folks to join us for an advent wreath making activity in Studio E: Thursday November 18 6:30- 8:30 pm. We will provide dinner. This activity is kid friendly and free.

Please RSVP to mary ellen at maryellenmitchell@gmail.com before November 17 so we can buy supplies and food.

Check out THIS new page, which will link to short articles written by our pastors.  This is intended to be something pastoral, encouraging and envisioning.  The first post, “The Saint is a Medicine” is already up!

Join us Monday, October 25th from 7:30-8:30 pm at The Speckled Bird for an informational meeting about the next CTM Street Psalms Community Intensive: Image is Everything; Finding God’s Breath in Man’s Dust. This is an incredible opportunity to learn how we can best serve our neighbors and folks in hard places, and join a theological conversation with a community of servants all over the world from Guatemala to India. The actual intensive will be Nov 18-20 at the Speckled Bird. Contact Jeremiah with questions at jeremiahgriswold@mac.com. Or to go to the Intensive Resource page.

The pray and play is cancelled for this coming Tuesday, September 14. It will return September 28 from 11:30-1pm in the children’s room of St. E’s.

Vineyard Central’s Janet McNeel, Laura Menze, Nathan Myers and Joshua Hanauer attended the training session provided by StepUp Prison Mentoring. On Tuesday August 10th they will be paired with residents of River City Correctional Center located in Camp Washington. After that initial introduction, each mentor will meet with their resident for three months while they are still in River City and for three additional months post release.

Our community was selected by Don Whittaker after he noticed many of those released from River City were living in Norwood and they had no church with which to connect those individuals. We are in a unique position to be a near constant presence to these men and women in need of a community who will care for them, provide a positive example to follow and assist in transitioning back into society.

Please take a moment and pray for each of these by name and for the relationships they will attempt to foster over the coming months. If you find yourself interested and wanting to assist in this specific ministry please contact Joshua Hanauer :: joshuahanauer@me.com