Vicki McGrath

Amen!⚓️

We hired a choir director who understood that the choir is there to support the congregation in their worship and who also knows how to train people in singing. Not individual voice lessons, but choir training as a whole.

I left the classified briefing on Iran even more concerned about what comes next as Trump drags us into what's so clearly a war. 
 
This Administration has no plan. American lives are on the line.

The burse and veil were part of a set from c. 1950. The rest of the set is more recent, I think, but pre-1970.

Thanks!

I agree that plain black cassocks are the way to go. Amongst other reasons, a black cassock is a sign of our mortality (according to the Rev Dr Lizette Larson-Miller, faculty at Bexley-Seabury), fotting for Tenebrae.

Church altar set for Ash Wednesday.

First Sunday in Lent: Holy Eucharist, Rite 1 & Great Litany (spoken at 8am, chanted at 10am). Got it all in before the Great NJ Nor'easter of 2026. (Photo from Ash Wednesday) ⚓️

I'm glad. And I was happy to make the changes at my place when it was pointed out to me. A couple had filled out the baptismal firm for their child and had crossed out mother and father and simply written Parent on each line. I thanked them for it.

2/ learned from the CSM Sisters.

1/ ⚓️It started to come to a head after I was ordained because the Sisters would not have a woman priest celebrate the Eucharist. And then they sold the Peekskill convent and moved up to Albany. I've been able to be a much more active Associate with CSJB than I ever was with CSM. Still, I value all +

I had to change our baptismal info form from Mother and Father to Parent 1 and Parent 2.

⚓️Came here to say that very thing Kara. I became a CSM Associate when I was 20 when they were in Peekskill. It was so painful to see the Sisters move away from TEC. I withdrew from being an Associate there c. 2005, having bern inactive for many years. That's what led me to become a CSJB Associate ❤️

Cassock only. At my parish clergy and choir remove surplices and albs when the altar is stripped on Maundy Thursday. We put them back on for Easter Vigil. ⚓️

2/ ASA of 75, we had 14 kids age 5mos to 9yrs in our Children's Corner on Sunday, including 3 kids from a new family! TBTG! ⚓️

1/ ⚓️At our Vestry meeting this evening we reviewed the Parochial Report for 2025 which one person quipped was like filling out a text return for the IRS! But I was pleased that the average age of the parish was 45. Not super young, but not super old, either. In fact in our parish with an +

Altar flowers.

Sunday blessings on this very cold day! But the Church is nice and warm - at All Saints' Episcopal Church, Millington, NJ.

Amen! My mother was a librarian.

In a smallish parish you can't over-stress your folks: altar guild, choir, ushers, acolyte, etc....and the clergy!

Here's the pattern we settled on: greens up for Advent 4 with Advent altar hangings; cancel 8am service; MP at 10am; after that altar hangings; Christmas Eve services follow in the pm and night....fwiw.

How did you get it so soon? The publication date is Feb 7.

Holy Family Nativity figures.

Church altar.

Sunday blessings from All Saints' Church, Millington, NJ!

That's good! I enjoyed mine.

Christmas tree

Gallette du roi (French King Cake)

2/ important and valuable thing I can do. ⚓️

⚓️1/ I presided at Eucharist for Epiphany this evening at the Community of St John Baptist. One of the guests brought a gallette du roi (French King Cake) for dessert. It was delicious. With all that is going on in the world right now, feeding people with the Body and Blood of Christ seems the most +

May blessings abound for you and the Church!

Hee-hee!

Even though we won't be having a service on Tuesday, we held our Nativity pageant yesterday and will bless chalk and have star words available *next* Sunday, as well as de-greening after the later service. We also move the Holy Family figures to a small table in front of the altar until Candlemas.

Yes, this has been a hard return. We had our rehearsal today for tomorrow's Natvity/Epiphany Pageant, and I was really not enthused about going to a 9am Saturday rehearsal.

Bishop Baron gives me the creeps. He always seems to have a smarmy look on his face.

Oh geez! Holy Innocents should absolutely take precedence over Becket!