8:00 a.m. – Spoken Holy Eucharist

9:30 a.m. – Sunday School & Faith Forum: Holy Places around the World

10:30 a.m. – Choral Holy Eucharist

11:45 a.m. – Lunch Lecture Series Part 1 – Please RSVP (details below)

5:00 p.m. – Choral Evensong, open to guest singers (3:15 rehearsal, RSVP below)

5:00 p.m. – EYC @ Evensong, followed by scavenger hunt and dinner

Not so! Continue your education and deepen your faith every Sunday at 9:30 a.m. at the Faith Forum in Hubbard Hall. Topics and formats are varied, and coffee and bagels are provided. Join us!

This Sunday: Holy Places around the World, 9:30 a.m.

This week’s Faith Forum features our priest associates, Bill and Hope Eakins, sharing stories from their around-the-world cruise and the variety of faith communities and religious expression they encountered. Grab a cup of coffee and a bagel, and join the rector in Hubbard Hall.

St. John’s will host a three-part luncheon lecture series on The Art & Architecture of Faith, at which Michael J. Crosbie, Ph.D., FAIA, will offer a series of presentations on the roles that architecture and art play in the lives of faith communities. Dr. Crosbie is professor of architecture at the University of Hartford’s College of Engineering, Technology, and Architecture, and former chair of the Department of Architecture and associate dean. He is editor-in-chief of Faith & Form, a quarterly journal on religious art and architecture. He is also a frequent contributor to Architectural Record and writes about architecture and design for the Hartford Courant.

Dr. Crosbie’s programs will take place after the 10:30 service on September 22, September 29, and October 6, in Hubbard Hall. Lunch will be served free of charge, with donations accepted. Please RSVP to the parish office by TODAY so we have an accurate count for lunch, and invite a friend!

The ancient and beautiful service of Choral Evensong is presented on the fourth Sunday of selected months at St. John’s. For our first Evensong of the program year, we’re issuing an open invitation to singers from St. John’s as well as other churches in the area. Do you love to sing Evensong? Join us at 3:15 p.m. to be part of the choir! If you plan to sing, please RSVP to Scott Lamlein at [email protected] or 860-523-5201 x 324.

This fall, we are offering Christian education for children, youth and adults EVERY Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Our fall 2019 schedule includes Faith Forums for adults, Sunday school for children and youth ages 3 to 18, nursery care for infants and toddlers, and several intergenerational programs that will bring everyone together. Click here for a PDF flyer with the fall 2019 program schedule (note that it is two pages — adults on one side, children and youth on the other).

Acolyte Training is scheduled for Sunday, September 29 from 12:00-2:00. Lunch will be provided. New and returning acolytes should attend! Children and Youth grades 5-12 are eligible to acolyte. Acolytes serve on a rotating basis at the 10:30 service and at other important services throughout the church year.

After Acolyte Training, stick around for ACOLYTE OLYMPICS with the EYC, from 2PM to 4PM. You do not have to be an acolyte to come to Acolyte Olympics! It will be silly and fun.

Please RSVP for the acolyte training using this form. The RSVP form also includes a poll where you can give your Sunday availability from September through January, to help with acolyte scheduling.

We will continue to give away vegetables from our community garden on Sundays, after the 10:30 service, until the growing season ends. Please stay and help out — we regularly have a dozen or more people waiting to receive veggies, and it only takes 20 or 30 minutes to give out everything we have. If you have an abundance of vegetables from your own garden, you’re welcome to bring them to church and add them to the giveaway!

Bring in non-perishable food donations. Donations go to the Seventh Day Adventist Church Food Pantry on Prospect Avenue, which is open every Wednesday to anyone who needs food: no ID check, no lists, no limits on how often patrons can visit. New this fall! – Children will begin bringing up food pantry items during the Offertory on Sunday, September 22. This serves two important purposes: it shows that the food collected is an offering to God, to be shared among the needy in our community; and, it involves the children more fully in the service. What will this look like? At the Offertory sentence, children may go to the back of the nave and pick up a food pantry item. They will walk with their item up the central isle and place the item in a basket on the chancel steps. Each child will carry one item at a time but may make multiple trips, until there are no more items to take up. Then an acolyte will move the baskets off the chancel steps. This is both a small change (it doesn’t require a rota, or planning meetings, or a budget) and a big change (added movement during the Offertory; children out of their seats). How can you help? Add the food pantry to your shopping list. Bring in food as often as you’d like. There is always a need. Invite your children or grandchildren to bring up food pantry items.

Help in the community vegetable garden on Wednesday mornings. Our curate, Margie Baker, will be in the garden (which is out back, behind the sexton’s house) from 8 to 10 a.m. on Wednesday mornings, weather permitting. All are welcome to stop by (kids are welcome with an adult) to help weed, water and harvest. You don’t need to sign up ahead of time, and you don’t have to stay for the whole two hours. Just come on by in your gardening clothes, and stay for as long as you can! If you’d like to help but that’s not a good time, contact the parish office to make other arrangements.

Give to vulnerable communities affected by Hurricane Dorian. Episcopal Relief and Development has established a Hurricane Relief Fund to allow them to respond quickly to communities affected by Dorian. Give online at www.episcopalrelief.org.

Women Together is a group that gathers weekly to explore our Christian faith and practice through book discussion, prayer and fellowship. We will resume meeting on Tuesday, September 10 at 2 p.m. Open the Door – A Journey to the True Self by Joyce Rupp is the focus of the first six-week session. The book is available at amazon.com and other booksellers, and includes a reflection for each day of the week. At our first meeting on September 10, we will discuss Week 1. Women Together meets every Tuesday from 2 to 3:15 p.m. in the Reception Room at St. John’s, and is currently attended by women from St. John’s and Trinity, but new members from any church are always welcome! For more information, contact Sarah Kieffer.

This international organ festival and competition is an annual event at Trinity College, and each year our choir joins with the choir of St. James’s along with the Trinity Chapel Singers in a Festival Evensong. Join us at Trinity College Chapel next Saturday, September 28, 5 p.m. In addition, our own John Nowacki will serve as narrator for the opening concert of the weekend, featuring the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and concert organist Christopher Houlihan. That event will be truly spectacular, and the first time in many years that the HSO has presented a major organ/orchestra program. It takes place at Trinity College on Friday, September 27, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $35-$55 at hartfordsympony.org