8:00 a.m. Spoken Holy Eucharist

10:30 a.m. Choral Holy Eucharist with Blessing of the Animals

4:30 p.m. Celtic contemplative service

Preacher: The Reverend Hope Eakins

**It’s the first Sunday of the month, which is our designated day for bringing nonperishable food donations for the Seventh Day Adventist Food Pantry. Please place your donations in the wagon in the back of the church. Thank you!**

Click here for a service preview – Besides a preview of the service music and bulletin for upcoming services, this link also provides access to sermon texts, podcasts and live-stream service videos.

The first Celtic service of the program year will be this Sunday, October 7, at 4:30 p.m. Celtic services, a joint program of St. John’s and St. James’s, feature silence, prayer, reflection, meditation, chant, and music from many traditions. All are welcome to explore this fresh way of connecting with God and finding nourishment for your spirit. The service starts at 4:30 with an extended period of silence.

This Saturday, please stop by from 9 to 10 a.m. for a brief work session in the Cloister Garden to pull up annuals, trim back perennials and prep the garden for the winter. Wear your gardening clothes and bring gloves and clippers if you have them.

Choir member Danielle Foint donated her entire crop of beautiful pumpkins and squashes, which we are selling to support next summer’s choir trip to Washington, DC. Prices: $3 for small, $5 for medium, $8 for large. Payment is by honor system: Stop by to pick out your pumpkins during the week or on Sunday morning. Put your payment in the offering plate, or drop off or mail it to the church office. Please provide EXACT cash or a check payable to St. John’s with “PUMPKINS” in the memo line. Use your best judgment as to whether a pumpkin is small, medium, or large! Proceeds will cover youth chorister scholarships for the DC trip.

Come have dinner and socialize with other parishioners in their homes on Friday, October 12. Dine Around dinners are an opportunity for parishioners to get to know each other better and enjoy a good dinner and conversation. All adults are welcome—married, single, of all ages, long-time parishioners and newcomers. Several dinners will be hosted at parishioners’ homes at the same time. Don’t miss this fun evening! The Dine Around committee will match you with a host, who will reach out to let you know what you can contribute to the dinner. To sign up to attend or serve as a host, look for the clipboard in Hubbard Hall, call the church office or email Kim Byrd at [email protected]. This Sunday, October 7, is the deadline to sign up.

Men’s Bible Study—now gluten free! This week we’re reading the Crucifixion: Matthew 27:32-44, Mark 15:21-32, Luke 23:26-43. We meet every Thursday, 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. in the Reception Room. Join us!

Fourteen St. John’s members, several friends from other parishes, and our clergy Susan Pinkerton, Bill Eakins and Hope Eakins recently returned from a long-anticipated pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Read about their trip and see photos here: https://stjohnspilgrims.travellerspoint.com They will share more about their journey at a Sunday morning Faith Forum later this fall, date TBA. They are pictured here at St. George’s in Jerusalem, where they stayed for a portion of the trip.

EVERYONE is welcome to attend the Newcomers Reception, whether you are brand new, or have been here a while and just want to learn more and meet people, or have been here a long time and would like to share with others why you call St. John’s home. We’ll serve heavy appetizers and beverages, and the reception will end promptly at 7:00 so the Vestry can continue to their monthly meeting. Please join us!

St. John’s has a “Lost and Found” area in the coat closet just outside the Education Wing. We’ve built up quite a collection of jackets, scarves, mobility aids, reading glasses, water bottles and more. Please stop by to see if anything belongs to you! Anything still there on November 1 will be donated. Thank you!!!

Theologian and writer Diana Butler Bass will speak on Saturday, October 27 at 7 p.m. at First Church in West Hartford Center (12 South Main Street).

Dr. Bass’s topic is Gratitude as Resilience: Why We Need to Be Grateful Now. Nearly everyone knows that gratitude is good, but why is it often so hard to practice? With the upcoming season of thanksgiving—and our political moment—in mind, Dr. Bass will explore the misconceptions we bring to gratefulness. She suggests the radical possibility that gratitude is just what we need right now to live together with joy and hope.

Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She is the author of nine books; her latest, Grateful: The Transformative Power of Giving Thanks came out last April.

Registration is required to attend. Please follow this link to reserve your spot!