September-2014-Parish

The Churchman
Sts. Peter and Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church
250 Woodside Road, Riverside, IL 60546 (708) 442-5250
Faith Active in Love
Dennis J. Lauritsen, Pastor
www.stspeterandpaulriverside.org
Volume 36
September 2014
Issue 9
We are called together by the Holy Spirit around Word and sacraments to glorify God the Father,
creator of all things through our Lord Jesus Christ. We trust God to nurture lives of faith and hope
as we serve and give witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world.
Organ Concert and Communion,
Wednesday, August 27th
“WORSHIP ON THE LAWN”
LITURGY OF HOLY COMMUNION
Opening of Sunday School Season
and the Annual Congregational Picnic
The congregation at Sts. Peter and Paul
invites you to join us on
Sunday, September 7th, 10:15 a.m.
for an outdoor worship service.
This occasion also marks the first day of the
Sunday school season with our
annual congregational picnic.
Music provided by
Double Identity
Please bring an appetizer, salad or
dessert to share. There is a sign-up sheet on
the bulletin board in the dining hall.
Beer and wine will be available for purchase.
The deadline for articles for the October, 2014
issue of the congregational newsletter is
Sunday, September 7th .
Thank you for being prompt!
Sts. Peter and Paul will present a recital featuring organist Vladimir
Kopacik of the Slovak Republic on Wednesday evening, August 27th
at 7:30 p.m. Kopacik will be performing works by J. S. Bach
(“Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele” and “Passacaglia in C minor”), Felix
Mendelssohn (“Sonata No. 6 in D minor, op. 65”), Robert Schumann
(“Sketches for Organ or Pedal Piano, op. 58”) and Jan Zimmer
(“Prelude and Double-Fugue in C sharp minor, op. 13b”). The recital
is free to the public.
Vladimir Kopacik was born in Galanta, Slovakia and began his
formal studies in church music in 2004 at the Music Conservatory in
Bratislava, specializing in sacred music including organ performance
with Marianna Gazdikova and choral conducting with Dusan Bill.
Following his examinations, Kopacik continued his studies in organ
with Peter Reiffers, and in March 2009, he won 1st Place (Category
II) among students from all music conservatories in the Slovak
Republic. He has also studied with Pavel Cerny and Jaroslav Tuma
at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague since 2010. During the
past academic year, Kopacik finished his international exchange
studies at the State University of Music and the Performing Arts in
Stuttgart, Germany, where he studied organ with Jürgen Essel.
Kopacik regularly performs concerts in the Slovak Republic as well
as abroad. In October 2012 he placed third in the International Organ
Competition held in Rumia,
Poland; and in May 2013,
participated in the international
competition of the Prague Spring
in the Czech Republic. In addition
to his studies with Bill, Reiffers,
Cerny, Tuma and Essel, Kopacik
has also attended master classes
and courses led by Michael
Gaelit, Michael Bouvard, Phillip
Lefebvre, Monika Melcova,
Olivier Latry and Bine Katrine
Bryndorf.
The recital will be preceded by a
liturgy of Holy Communion in the
Slovak language beginning at
6:00 p.m. Rev. Vladislav Iviciak
of the Slovak Evangelical Church
of the Augsburg Confession in Serbia and Director of the Ecumenical
Humanitarian Organization will preach and preside.
Official Pastoral Rites. . .
Thank You, Donna!
Funerals:
Steven Yezo, 74 years old, passed from this life on August 18th, 2014.
Services for Steven were held at Woodlawn Funeral Home on August
22nd.
In May of this past spring, Donna Tuider of our congregation
concluded sixteen years of service as director and teacher of the Sts.
Peter and Paul preschool which she was instrumental in founding and
organizing in 1997-98 together with members of the congregation and
then interim pastor Rev. John Gallagher.
During these years with the preschool Donna, who brought a
wealth of experience as a teacher in the public schools, has prepared
scores of children for Kindergarten in various local school districts,
many of whom are now well into their careers at universities and
colleges around the country. It has been truly gratifying for some of
us to see these children who have grown and matured over the years
in their classrooms and at holiday performances in grade school and
middle school as well as high school. In addition, many families
related to the preschool during this time became active households in
the life of the congregation. Some of these children were baptized and
a number have been confirmed at Sts. Peter and Paul. Donna has been
assisted in the preschool by several teacher aids, including our
Administrative Assistant Karen Rouleau, Grace Montalvo and Patty
Stachnik, along with several members of the congregation.
Many of us will carry fond memories of a classroom filled with
cheering, singing and laughing children, Halloween and Valentine’s
Day parties, Mothers’ Day teas, family pot-lucks and Thanksgiving
feasts, “Grey Squirrel” and “Peanut Butter ‘n Jelly,” Christmas
programs, Easter egg hunts, and graduation celebrations.
It is inconceivable to say how many lives have been touched
through the years by Donna’s faithful service and teaching ministry
among our children, families and communities. As St. Paul reminds
the church at Corinth, “The one who plants and the one who waters
have a common purpose… For we are God’s servants, working
together; you are God’s field, God’s building.” Thank you, Donna,
for the seeds you have planted and watered. And thanks be to God for
the growth—often hidden—but always fruitful.
Donna was recognized for her years of service in May 2013
together with Parish Musician David Richards and Administrative
Assistant Karen Rouleau.—DJL
Jan Sopoci, 89 years old, passed from this life on August 13th, 2014.
Services for Jan were held at Hitzeman Funeral Home on August
16th.
A private internment at Woodlawn Cemetery was held for Raymond
Bittner, 79 years old, who passed from this life on August 3rd, 2014.
Anna Skaritka, 89 years old, passed from this life on July 7th, 2014.
Funeral services for Anna were held at Sts. Peter and Paul on July
10th.
A committal service was held on July 9th at Mt. Vernon Cemetery in
Lemont for Edward Jansto, 89 years old, who passed from this life on
January 13th, 2014.
Baptism:
Devin Arnold Cathey and Ella Jean Cathey, son and daughter of
Raychelle Kroma and Rufus Cathey II, were baptized at Sts. Peter
and Paul on July 20th. Devin’s sponsors are Vinesha Brown, Dale
Hawes and Daniel Sundstrom. Ella’s sponsors are Sam Brown,
Nicole Pollan and Cathy Watson.
“WORSHIP ON THE LAWN”
Outdoor Worship, Opening Day of Sunday School
and Community &Congregational Picnic
September 7th
The congregation invites you to join us on Sunday, September 7th for
another “Worship on the Lawn” liturgy and the Annual Congregational Picnic marking the first day of the Sunday school year. The
Liturgy of Holy Communion is celebrated at 10:15 a.m (note the
beginning of the regular Sunday worship, education and choir
rehearsal schedule), followed by the picnic. Please bring food to
share (pot-luck) at the picnic and sign-up using the sheet on the
bulletin board in the church dining hall. Sloppy Joe, hot dogs and
soda will be provided. Join us for live music, fellowship and
conversation. Help is needed with set-up for the liturgy and picnic on
Saturday, September 6th at 10:00 a.m. as well as take-down on
Sunday following worship.
We Say “Thank You”
Thank you to everyone who made preparations for the outdoor
worship service and ice cream social on Sunday, July 20th. We also
thank those who have cared for the church grounds this summer
including hedge-trimming, lawn care and gardening.
Thank you to members of the congregation for providing bakery
donations and assisting at our booth in Guthrie Park on the Fourth of
July. The bake sale was very successful and enjoyed by many.
Thanks also to Tom Michaels for coordinating the parade walkers
who represented Sts. Peter and Paul in Riverside as well as
organizing our summer softball teams for many years.
At the May 15, 2014 meeting of the Congregation Council a motion
was made and passed to “discontinue the preschool at the end of the
current term” [per minutes of the meeting] due to insufficient
enrollment for the coming preschool year and summer camp
program.
Blessing of Teachers and Students
Almighty God, you give wisdom and knowledge. Grant teachers the
gift of joy and insight, and students the gift of diligence and openness,
that all may grow in what is good and honest and true. Support all
who teach and all who learn, that together we may know and follow
your ways; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Reprinted from Words for Worship, copyright 2001 Augsburg Fortress.
Used by permission of Augsburg Fortress.
For more information, news, photos and
sermons, visit us on the web at:
www.stspeterandpaulriverside.org.
Change wisely, dude…
by Andrea Palpant Dilley
A young writer has some advice for church leaders trying desperately
to attract and retain young people: change carefully and wisely.
What young people say they want in their 20s is not necessarily what
they want ten years later.
When I came back to church after a faith crisis in my early 20s,
the first one I attended regularly was a place called Praxis. It was the
kind of church where the young, hip pastor hoisted an infant into his
arms and said with sincerity, “Dude, I baptize you in the name of the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
The entire service had an air of informality. We sat in folding
chairs, sang rock-anthem praise and took clergy-free, buffet-style
communion. Once a month, the pastor would point to a table at the
back of the open-rafter sanctuary and invite us to “serve ourselves”
if we felt so compelled.
For two years, my husband and I attended Praxis while he did
graduate work at Arizona State University and I worked as a
documentary producer. As someone who had defected from the
church at age 23, I thought it was the perfect place for me: a young,
urban church located four blocks from Casey Moore’s Irish Pub, an
unchurchy church with a mix of sacred tradition and secular trend.
I’m not the first person ever to go low-church, and Praxis isn’t
the first institution to pursue that hard-to-get demographic: young
people. Across America today, thousands of clergy and congregations—even entire denominations—are running scared, desperately
trying to convince their youth that faith and church are culturally
relevant, forward-looking and alive.
For some, the instinct is to radically alter the old model: out
with the organ, in with the Fender. But as someone who left the
mainstream church and eventually returned, I’d like to offer a word
of advice to those who are so inclined: Don’t. Or at least proceed
with caution. Change carefully; change wisely, with thoughtfulness
and deliberation. What young people say we want in our 20s is not
necessarily what we want 10 years later.
Churches, of course, are right to worry. They’ve been losing
young people like me for years. A study released last fall by the Pew
Forum on Religion & Public Life found that not just liberal mainline
Protestants but also more conservative evangelical and “born-again”
Protestants are abandoning their religious attachments. Our
complaints against the church know no bounds: We don’t like the
politics. We want authenticity and openness. We demand a particular
worship aesthetic.
Churches often leap to meet these demands, and yet the arc of
my own story suggests that chasing after the most recent trend may
not be the answer. As I’ve written elsewhere, I was raised in a small
Presbyterian congregation but left and later returned to the church for
reasons too complex to summarize here.
When I slipped back in, I wanted what my own parents had
wanted in their hippie youth back in the 1970s: an anti-institutional
church that looked less like a church and more like a coffee house.
But after two years at Praxis, the coffee tasted thin.
I felt homeless in heart. I missed inter-generational community.
I missed hymns and historicity, sacraments and old aesthetics. I
missed the rich polity—even the irritation—of Presbytery.
In 2007, when my husband and I moved from Arizona to
Austin, Texas, and went in search of a church, we skipped the
nondenominationals and went straight to the traditionals. We found
an Anglican church where every Sunday morning we now watch
clergy process up the aisle wearing white vestments and carrying a
six-foot cross. We take communion from an ordained priest who
holds a chalice of blood-red wine and lays a hand of blessing on our
children. We sing the Lord’s Prayer and recite from the Book of
Common Prayer—in which not once in 1,001 pages does the word
“dude” ever appear.
In my 20s, liturgy seemed rote, but now in my 30s, it reminds
me that I’m part of an institution much larger and older than myself.
As the poet Czeslaw Milosz said, “The sacred exists and is stronger
than all our rebellions.”
Both my doubt and my faith, and even my ongoing frustrations
with the church itself, are part of a tradition that started before I was
born and will continue after I die. I rest in the assurance that I have
something to lean against, something to resist and, more importantly,
something that resists me.
Critics might say I’m an anomaly. My story, they would say,
isn’t typical of most young people. But that’s not the point. I can’t
alter statistics or trends. I can’t tell congregations or their pastors
what they need to change, if anything. I can’t speak to church
marketing or survival strategy, nor can I enter the fraught (and
important) theological debate between liberalism and conservatism,
which drives some of the attrition of young people.
What I offer instead is a word of encouragement that reminds
the church to take the long view. For more traditional congregations
that struggle to keep youth in the pews, take heart. The old model
isn’t necessarily lost. Praxis and churches like it have a place—they
draw people who would otherwise never set foot in church, people
who have a legitimate contemporary aesthetic that appreciates
informality and mainstream music. But your church has a place, too.
Consider the changes that people go through between age 22
and 32. Consider that some of us in time renew our appreciation for
the strengths of a traditional church: historically informed hierarchy
that claims accountability at multiple levels, historically informed
teaching that leans on theological complexity, and liturgically
informed worship that takes a high view of the sacraments and draws
on hymns from centuries past. Some of us want to walk into a
cathedral space that reminds us of the small place we inhabit in the
great arc of salvation history. We want to meet the Unmoved Mover
in an unmoved sanctuary.
So as you change—or as change is imposed upon you—keep
your historic identity and your ecclesial soul. Fight the urge for
perpetual reinvention, and don’t watch the roll book for young adults.
We’re sometimes fickle. When we come, if we come, meet us where
we are. Be present to our doubts and fears and frustrations. Walk with
us in the perplexing challenge of postmodern faith. Even so, your
church (and your denomination) might die. My generation and those
following might take it apart, brick by brick, absence by absence. But
the next generation might rebuild it. They might unearth the altar, the
chalice and the vestments and find them not medieval but enduring.
They might uncover the Book of Common Prayer and find it anything
but common.
—submitted by Pastor Lauritsen
Rummage and Bake Sale, October 25th
Donations are now being accepted for the Fall Festival Rummage and
Bake Sale scheduled for Saturday, October 25th. (Please note the
change of date.) Rummage items need to be clean and in good
working condition; and we ask that no clothing, computers, TVs, or
software be donated. Items may be brought to the church on Sunday
mornings or during the week when the church office is open. A
classroom in the lower hallway is posted for donations to be left
inside (please do not leave donations in the parking lot). For more
information, or if you have questions, please contact Vera Borysek.
September Happenings
“Worship on the Lawn”, Congregational Picnic
with First Day of Sunday School
Sunday, September 7th, 10:15 a.m.
Slovak Athletic Association Meeting
Wednesday, September 10th, 1-3 p.m.
Ladies Altar Guild Meeting
Thursday, September 11th, 12 noon
Myjavsky Group Meeting
Thursday, September 18th, 12-3 p.m.
SEPTEMBER
Sept. 1
Sept. 2
Sept. 3
Sept. 5
Sept. 7
Sept. 9
Sept. 10
Sept. 11
Milan Viskup
Emma Kovack
Martin Pennino
Ezekiel Wilson
Nathan Byrne
Julie Barcik
John Jakubec
Janice Decosola
Jon Hapgood
Dennis Horacek
Sept. 15 Deborah Jech
Sept. 16 Linda McShane
Sept. 17
Sept. 18
Sept. 22
Sept. 24
Sept. 27
Sept. 30
Benjamin Smith
Alyssa Farnham
Isabelle Myers
Sebastian Myers
Angeline Gomez
Betty Bagel
John Broussard
James Gaydusek
Charles Matthies
Mildred Cipar
Beverly Podzamsky
Church Council Meeting
Thursday, September 18th, 7:30 p.m.
Dorcas Society Meeting
Tuesday, September 23rd, 12 noon.
Co-Dependents Anonymous meets weekly on
Wednesday evenings
at 6:30 p.m. in the Friendship Room.
AA Big Book Study Group meets weekly on
Saturday mornings at 11 a.m. in the Friendship Room.
AA Group meets weekly on Saturday evenings
at 7 p.m. in the Friendship Room.
September 1, 1951: Nicholas and Mary Sasuta
September 5, 1998: Thomas and Lavinia Myers
September 6, 1997: Matthew and Janice Decosola
September 8, 1990: Scott and Mary Jo Meyers
September 13, 1997: James and Iveta Boyanchek
September 19, 2009: Christopher and Laura Teter
September 21, 2002: George and Joan Halas
September 24, 2000: James and Sandra Gaydusek
September 28, 1963: John and Emily Kostelancik
September 30, 1995: Branislav and Adriana Kubo
September Scripture Readings
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2 Corinthians 12:11-21 - Building up, not tearing down
Matthew 23:29-36 - The here and now
Ezekiel 33:1-6 - Pay attention
Ezekiel 33:7-11 - Speaking the truth in love
Psalm 119:33-40 - Sunflowers
Romans 13:8-14 - Setting priorities
Matthew 18:15-20 - Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
1 John 3:11-16 - Little Christs
Genesis 37:12-36 - Family matters
Genesis 45:1-20 - Out of control
Genesis 50:15-21 - A lesson in forgiveness
Psalm 103:1-13 - Restored to health
Romans 14:1-12 - Different folks
Matthew 18:21-35 - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost
1 Corinthians 1:18-24 - Holy Cross Day
2 Corinthians 13:1-4 - Third time’s a charm?
2 Corinthians 13:5-10 - When no one is watching
Jonah 3:10-4:11 - When it isn’t all about us
Psalm 145:1-8 - God’s wondrous works
Philippians 1:21-30 - Standing firm
Matthew 20:1-16 - Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Ephesians 2:4-10 - Matthew, Apostle and Evangelist
James 4:11-16 - Two prideful sins
Acts 13:32-41 - Too good to be true?
Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 - The blame game
Psalm 251-9 - Putting the past behind us
Philippians 2:1-13 - Great minds think alike
Matthew 21:23-32 - Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Luke 10:17-20 - Michael and All Angels
Colossians 2:16-23 - Freedom in Christ
From the Purpose of the Church and its
Ministry
by H. Richard Niebuhr
“What then is love and what do we mean by God and by neighbor
when we speak of the ultimate purpose of Church, and so of
theological education, as the increase of love of God and neighbor
among men? By love we mean at least these attitudes and actions:
rejoicing in the presence of the beloved, gratitude, reverence and
loyalty toward him. Love is rejoicing over the existence of the
beloved one; it is the desire that he be rather than not be; it is
longing for his presence when he is absent; it is happiness in the
thought of him; it is profound satisfaction over everything that
makes him great and glorious. Love is gratitude: it is thankfulness
for the existence of the beloved; it is the happy acceptance of
everything that he gives without the jealous feeling that the self
ought to be able to do as much; it is a gratitude that does not seek
equality; it is wonder over the other's gift of himself in companionship. Love is reverence: it keeps its distance even as it draws near;
it does not seek to absorb the other in the self or want to be
absorbed by it; it rejoices in the otherness of the other; it desires
the beloved to be what he is and does not seek to refashion him
into a replica of the self or to make him a means to the self's
advancement. As reverence love is and seeks knowledge of the
other, not by way of curiosity nor for the sake of gaining power but
in rejoicing and in wonder. In all such love there is an element of
that "holy fear" which is not a form of flight but rather deep
respect for the otherness of the beloved and the profound
unwillingness to violate his integrity. Love is loyalty; it is the
willingness to let the self be destroyed rather than that the other
cease to be; it is the commitment of the self by self-binding will to
make the other great. It is loyalty, too, to the other's cause—to his
loyalty. As there is no patriotism where only the country is loved
and not the country's cause—that for the sake of which the nation
exists—so there is no love of God where God's cause is not loved,
that which God loves and to which he has bound himself in
sovereign freedom.”
—submitted by Pastor Lauritsen
Reveling in Revelation
A Sermon for the Sunday
of the Holy Trinity
June 15th, 2014
Now the eleven disciples went to
Galilee, to the mountain to which
Jesus had directed them. When they
saw him, they worshiped him; but
Triskelion Element of some doubted. And Jesus came and
said to them, “All authority in heaven
Gothic Architecture
and on earth has been given to me.
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and
teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And
remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew
28:16-20).
Merciful God, in the stillness of our souls we listen for your
voice to know again that you are God. Quiet our restless hearts
with the knowledge that you stand with us in the shadows, keeping
watch over your own. Rekindle our faith and light the lamp of hope
within our hearts. Then deal with us as seems best to you, for
where you lead we can confidently go with Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
It often happens around this time of year that moms and dads
feel a particular urgency to hold on. We’d like to hold on to those
babies who were born to us about eighteen years ago; and we’d like
to hold on to those toddlers and tricycles, those ballerinas and bikes
and basketballs, those saxophones and trombones and violins, those
football jerseys and swim trophies and figure skates—even all
those trials and tribulations of the tumultuous teens with their late
night Saturday excursions. We’d like to hold on to it all, and we’d
like to hold on to you kids, too. All I have to do is glance at a photo
or two from some years ago of those little round faces and toothless
grins as a dull ache settles across my heart to know that I would
like to hold on. I suppose it’s in our nature to hold on to life.
Maybe our graduates, too, are trying to hold on, at least until the
grad parties are over, but the weeks of summer will move swiftly
by us, and September will unfurl its buoyant, colorful pennants of
colleges and universities and… autumnal change.
Remember that in John’s Gospel the first thing the risen Jesus
says to Mary on Easter morning when she finally recognizes him is,
“Don’t hold on to me… Don’t hold on to me because I have not yet
ascended to the Father. But go… go to my brothers… .” In
Matthew’s Gospel the first thing that the risen Jesus says to the
women, who do take hold of him (his feet) and worship him, is
“don’t be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee… .”
The word is “go,” “keep on moving,” as we heard in the first
sermon this morning, “don’t hold on.” When those eleven brothers
finally get to Galilee to that mystical mountain, they, too, worship
him… and doubt him, maybe both worship and doubt at the same
time, then they also are told to “go… go therefore and make
students (a literal rendering of a word that usually is translated
“disciples”) of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey
everything that I have commanded you.”
“Don’t hold on, but go and make students.” This sounds to
me like a good graduation theme.
“The wind blows where it wills,” Nicodemus, that teacher
and leader of the Pharisees, is told in John, “and you hear the
sound of it, but you don’t know whence it comes or whither it
goes… .”
“The wind blows where it chooses.”
At a recent wedding dinner, the father of the groom rose to
offer a toast to the newlyweds. In a very warm and tender way,
that father recalled the birth of his son, saying, “We were very
excited to welcome [our son] into our lives in January 1986 when
he was born. But then,” the father said softly in his delightful
Indian accent, “but then, life happened… life happened.”
Everyone in the room understood what he meant. Reality
reaches beyond excitement and expectations. Our families take us
places we would never have gone without them. And when you,
young people, were born to us, or brought to us, we had no dream
of how “life would happen” to you and to us. We can still hold you
in our arms, but we cannot hold on to you.
Our family dentist, who is a young father of a four-year old
daughter, asked me the other day, as he was grinding away on a
molar, if I thought there is a time that comes in a parent’s life
when you simply have to let go of your children, that is, when you
need to give them some slack and ease up on enforcing the rules.
Fortunately for me, because my cheek was shot-up with novocaine
and the suction tube was hanging over my lip, I wasn’t able to give
him a coherent answer even if I had one. I think I tried to say
something like, “Well, it’s a little early to think about that with a
four year-old but, not to worry, that little girl of yours will
eventually see to it that you ease up.”
“The wind blows where it wills,” and I suppose we can
hunker down and try to resist that wind, or we can let go, and
allow that wind to fill our sails, and let the Spirit move us where it
wills, not knowing what storms may lay ahead of us.
Often, it is as though we, like Peter and the others in their
little boat, are threatened by the possibility that God is truly a
moving, revealing, loving God who often shows up precisely when
the storms are fiercest, treading upon the waves in the hours of
early morning before dawn (Matthew 14:25; see also Psalm 77:19:
“Your way was through the sea, your path through the great
waters; yet your footprints were unseen”), moving through chaotic,
stormy places in our lives where we don’t expect God ever to
show up. To look at a marginal Jewish rabbi from Nazareth who
would not stay confined within the boundaries we attempt to create
for God, and confess that here is God in the most profound way we
can ever hope to experience God, well, this may be simply too
much for us so-called “enlightened” ones.
We hear today that “when they saw him [that is, the risen
Jesus], they worshiped him… and doubted him.” The phrase can
(and probably should) be translated this way. Yes, especially
Lutheran Christians would affirm that you can worship and you
can doubt at the same time—a very significant affirmation for
graduates who will, no doubt, have lots of doubts during the years
ahead and also for the rest of us who experience waves of doubt
for a lifetime. As has been said (Kierkegaard), “doubt is the
beginning of faith.” How can this be? Maybe because Jesus is God
in relationship, refusing to remain at a distance as some nebulous
concept in the shadowy realm of the abstract. Jesus is God-on-themove toward us, with us, among us in the Word, the Bath, the
Supper, the Church, the Communion of saints which spans the
ages. Thus, the Holy Trinity is first about worship, and then, a fardistant second, about understanding.
An image for the Trinity from the Orthodox Church which I
have cherished for many years is called perichoresis which literally
means “dancing around” something. It is “the dance of a
circle”—the kind of thing that we enjoy doing together at
weddings. In the Eastern Church the Spirit is usually considered to
have a feminine nature. “‘She’ is an indwelling Bride,” said
Clement of Alexandria, “the life-bearer of the faith.”
“There is a divine dance,” wrote John of Damascus, “that
takes place in the center of God, where Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
move around each other, serve each other, give themselves to each
other, and each know their part and live it out as fully as possible.”
Oh, that we, too, might move around each other, serve each other,
give ourselves to each other, breath with one another other, as
when we join our voices in song, and then, each know our part and
live it out as fully as possible—here in the circle-dance around the
Lord’s Table, a circle-dance always and forever opening up to
others who are waiting to revel in the eternal dance of God’s
revelation, singing in the chorus of the church on earth, all creation
and the host of heaven: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts,
heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest.”
Current, Benevolence and Freewill Offering Recap
Budgeted Offering: $3,269.00
June, 2014
Date
Weekly
Attendance
Offering
Received
6/1
6/8
6/15
6/22
6/29
75
61
80
44
77
$1,807.00
$3,673.00
$1,595.00
$2,153.00
$1,764.00
June, 2014 average attendance: 67
June, 2013 average attendance: 69
July, 2014
Date
Weekly
Attendance
Offering
Received
7/6
7/13
7/20
7/27
46
53
108
51
$3,517.00
$1,854.00
$1,948.00
$1,804.00
July, 2014 average attendance: 65
July, 2013 average attendance: 77
MEMORIALS AND HONORARIUMS
FOR THE CHURCH
Mendel and Sherwood Families, in memory of +Anne Hustava+
Dolores Krc, in memory of dear husband +John Krc+ on the 18th
anniversary of his passing.
Paul Kubecka and Anne Borsuk, in loving memory of beloved
mother and father +Zuzanna+ and +John Kubecka+
John and Emily Kostelancik, in memory of +Steven Mazur+
Milan Oklepek, in loving memory of +John+ and +Katerina
Oklepek+ on the 68th anniversary of their death.
IN MEMORY OF +ANNA SKARITKA+
Curtis and Betty Mitchell, in memory of dear mother
Martin Skaritka, in memory of sister-in-law
Robert and Donna Tuider
Mildred Riban
George Waldman and Susan Waldman
Robert and Linda Almady
The Kocourek Family
John and Shirley Kostelny
Larry and Gloria Martin
Adam Wroblewski and Sue Berg
Pete and Alice Drogos
Betty Kany and Family
Emil and Mildred Mendel
Frank and Ann Kmet
Annette Kozik
Marty and Ann Pennino
Marty Bzduch
Ray Bittner
Judy Broome
Myjava Club
Mildred Melka
Vera Borysek
Summer Worship Schedule through August 31st
9:15 a.m. Liturgy of Holy Communion
Sunday Worship Schedule
beginning September 14th
8:30 a.m. - Liturgy of the Word
10:15 a.m. - Liturgy of Holy Communion
Sunday, September 7th
10:15 a.m. Outdoor Liturgy of Holy Communion
with First Day of Sunday School and Church Picnic
Choir Rehearsals
Wednesdays, September 3rd, 10th, 17th and 24th at 7:30 p.m.
SEPTEMBER WORSHIP SCHEDULE
OCTOBER WORSHIP LEADERS
September 7th: (Outdoor Worship)
Greeters:
No greeters assigned.
Acolytes:
Sara Watkiss and Isabelle Boike
Assisting Minister: Tom Myers
Comm. Minister:
Joan Triska and Carrie Watkiss
Lectors:
Philip Painter and Keith Altavilla
Nursery Attendant: No nursery coverage.
Ushers:
Wally Kessler and Paul Watkiss
October 5th:
Greeters:
Acolyte:
Assisting Minister:
Comm. Minister:
Lectors:
Nursery Attendant:
Ushers:
Steve and Beverly Podzamsky
Hannah Boike
Charles Matthies
Shirley Wood
Tom and Lavinia Myers
Kristine Boike
Wally Kessler and Joan Triska
September 14th:
Greeters:
Acolytes:
Assisting Minister:
Comm. Minister:
Lectors:
Nursery Attendants:
Ushers:
Tad and Cathy Dabrowski
Rachel Michaels and Hannah Boike
John Broussard
Martin Pennino
Joanne Sefara and Robert Melnyk
Kristine Boike and Isabelle Boike
Wally Kessler and Ann Pennino
October 12th:
Greeters:
Acolyte:
Assisting Minister:
Comm. Minister:
Lectors:
Nursery Attendant:
Ushers:
Annette Kozik and Mildred Melka
Johnathan Haase
Lois Mika
Tom Myers
Dale Hawes and Shirley Wood
Isabelle Boike
Wally Kessler and Joan Triska
Edward and Joanne Sefara
Johnathan Haase and Jonathon Meyers
Carrie Watkiss
Anne Otjepka
Sheryl Hallmann and Mary Sasuta
Sara Watkiss
Wally Kessler and Joan Triska
October 19th:
Greeters:
Acolyte:
Assisting Minister:
Comm. Minister:
Lectors:
Nursery Attendant:
Ushers:
Larry and Ruth Bakalich
Rachel Michaels
Brandon Michaels
Joan Triska
Tom and Vicki Michaels
Sara Watkiss
Wally Kessler and Paul Watkiss
September 21st:
Greeters:
Acolytes:
Assisting Minister:
Comm. Minister:
Lectors:
Nursery Attendants:
Ushers:
September 28th:
Greeters:
Acolytes:
Assisting Minister:
Comm. Minister:
Lectors:
Nursery Attendant:
Ushers:
Anne Gavac and Mildred Melka
Sara Watkiss and Isabelle Boike
Tom Michaels
Vicki Michaels
Paul and Carrie Watkiss
Hannah Boike
Wally Kessler and Joan Triska
Reformation Sunday, October 26th:
Greeters:
Paul and Carrie Watkiss
Acolyte:
Sara Watkiss
Crucifer:
Jonathon Meyers
Assisting Minister: John Broussard
Comm. Minister:
Martin Pennino
Lectors:
John and Shirley Kostelny
Nursery Attendant: Hannah Boike
Ushers:
Ann Pennino and Janet Broussard
Altar Care and Sacristan
Jan Hapgood
Remember
If you are unable to keep your scheduled
date, please arrange for a replacement
and call the church office with the change.
Thank you.
Sacristan and Altar Care:
Anne Otjepka
Altar Flowers
June 29th: In memory of +Henry Sordel, Jr.+ on the anniversary
of his passing by remembering family.
July 6th:
We are in need of congregation members to serve as communion
ministers. If interested, please speak with Pastor Lauritsen or a
member of the Worship and Music Committee. Thank you.
In memory of parents +John+ and +Katerina Oklepek+
on the 68th anniversary of their death by remembering
son Milan.
July 27th :
You are invited to furnish bakery for our coffee hours which follow
the 8:30 and 10:15 a.m. liturgies on Sunday mornings. A sign-up
poster is located at the kitchen serving counter for you to use.
In memory of dear husband, father and grandfather
+Robert L. Kany+ on the 16th anniversary of his
passing by remembering wife Betty and family.
In memory of parents +Anne+ and +Jacob Drahos+ by
remembering family.
Aug. 17th: In celebration of the 94th Birthday of Irene Boor on
August 16th by loving sons William R. and Richard T.
and his family.
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
Sts. Peter and Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church
250 Woodside Road
Riverside, IL 60546
Postage Guaranteed
Non-Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
Riverside, IL
Permit No. 37
DATED MATERIAL
Good Soil
Every moment and every event of every person’s life on
earth plants something in her or his soul. For just as the
wind carries thousands of winged seeds, so each
moment brings with it germs of spiritual vitality that
come to rest imperceptibly in the minds and wills of men
and women. Most of these unnumbered seeds perish and
are lost, for such seeds as these cannot spring up
anywhere except in the good soil of freedom, spontaneity
and love (Thomas Merton).
Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church
250 Woodside Road, Riverside, IL 60546
(708) 442-5250; (708) 442-5264 (fax)
www.stspeterandpaulriverside.org
Dennis J. Lauritsen, pastor
[email protected]
Church (708) 442-5250
Council Members and Officers
Sts. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church
Saturday, October 25th, 2014
(Please note change of date)
9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Carrie Watkiss, President
Keith Altavilla
Kristine Boike
William Boor, Treasurer
Vera Borysek
John Broussard
Ivan Durkovic
Dale Hawes
Fred Kuzel, Secretary
Charles Matthies, Fin. Secretary
Robert Melnyk, Vice President
Brandon Michaels
Lunch served 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Rummage Items, Crafts,
Home-Baked Goods, Preserves
and Raffle
Organizations/Committee Chairpersons
Dorcas Society
Emily Kostelancik
Finance Committee
John Kostelny
Ladies’ Altar Guild
Susan Hrusik and Vera Borysek
Long Range Planning
Jan Hapgood
Maintenance
Jim Boyanchek
Missions and Outreach
Dan Tornil and Ramona Suffern
Mutual Ministry/Staff Support
Gary Drahos
Nominating Committee
John Broussard
Social Ministry
Nick Sasuta and Joanne Sefara
Stewardship
Thomas Michaels and Thomas Myers
Sunday School
Sheryl Hallmann
Worship and Music
Charles Matthies
Staff
Administrative Assistant
Parish Musician
Karen Rouleau
David Richards