What’s Happening at Good Shepherd
Palm Sunday Performance Next Sunday, March 25th at 3pm, our sister church, St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, (400 West Wendell St., Endicott, NY) will be hosting a free choral and instrumental performance called Declare His Glory, a concert of sacred and classical music. There will be many guest artists with congregational singing as well. The concert is free to attend, a free will offering will be taken if you feel led to give.
Easter Schedule Many of you have asked about the Holy Week schedule for this year. Look for more detailed information to come, but for now, here are the dates and times:
3/28 Tennebrae 7:00pm
3/29 Maundy Thursday 6:30pm
3/30 Good Friday Service Noon
Stations of the Cross 7:00pm
3/31 The Great Easter Vigil 8:00pm
4/1 Easter Day 8:00am and 10:30am
SYNOD facilities projects and preparation are being managed by Tyler VanFossen. Please email him if you would like some flexible, do-at-your-convenience tasks around church, as well as be put on the work crew email list. Talk to him at church, or email him at tvf.arrowhead@gmail.com
CANA East Synod Our diocese, CANA East has asked Good Shepherd to host the annual Synod meeting again this year. It’s an honor that Good Shepherd has been chosen to host this event again, and we are looking forward to it! On May 3rd-5th, close to 300 clergy and lay people from around the country will come together to decide church business, and to worship and fellowship together. This year’s theme is: The Divine Allurement of God – Archbishop Cranmer’s Missional and Pastoral Principles for the 21st Century.
The Rev. Canon Dr. Ashley Null, our guest speaker, is one of the foremost experts on Thomas Cranmer. He travels widely throughout the Anglican Communion, teaching regularly on the godly, biblical heritage of Anglicanism in the Americas, Europe, Africa and Australia.
Many things will need to be done to prepare for this event, and many hands will be needed. In the coming weeks, you’ll be hearing about opportunities to serve by painting, cleaning, reorganizing, decorating, and even helping with some construction work! Please consider coming in to help beautify Good Shepherd as we prepare to host this exciting event.
There will also be a great need for volunteers during the event. If you are able to come and volunteer for part of the event, please let Stephanie in the office know by email or a phone call. We’ll be looking for volunteers to help with serving meals, cleaning, keeping refreshment areas well stocked, running small errands, child care, parking coordination, and ushers. If you’d like to attend the event, you can register at the CANA East website. The cost is $100 if you register before March 1, and $135 after March 2 for the full event. If you’d like to attend for free, then please contact Stephanie to sign up as a volunteer.
Good Shepherd Coffee Hour There’s been a trend as of late for people to spend time visiting in the sanctuary after the 10:30 service. It’s wonderful to see that so many relationships have formed, and that Good Shepherd’s parishioners love spending time together. However, this is problematic for two reasons. Firstly, there are often events scheduled to happen in the sanctuary immediately following the 10:30 service. It is difficult to have these events in an orderly manner when there is noise and commotion happening in the room. Secondly, (and more importantly) when visitors come to Good Shepherd, they are encouraged to go downstairs and get to know people. If a visitor goes downstairs and finds a mostly empty hall, they don’t get to know many people and can go away feeling unwelcome. For both of these reasons, please do go downstairs and have a nice lunch, or a cup of coffee and spend some time visiting and building the community of Good Shepherd.
Scheduling Reminder If you need to make an appointment with Pastor Matt, please be sure to contact Stephanie directly at gs.binghamton@gmail.com.
Often when people come to speak with Matt after the service on Sunday, he’s already been working for over nine hours, and doesn’t always remember to put it into the calendar. This can cause double bookings or forgotten appointments. Please keep in mind that the office is closed on Mondays and Fridays, but you can always leave a message. Thank you so much for your understanding.
An Offer of Prayer The prayer team prays for the needs of the church on a weekly basis. If you have a specific request (Praise or intercession) please fill out a card and place it in the “prayer box” by the bulletin boards in the parish hall. All prayers are kept confidential.
Saratoga Easter Request Please consider contributing small individually wrapped candy or small gifts for our annual Saratoga Easter party which will be held on March 28th. If you would prefer to contribute funds, that would also be appreciated. We will be serving fresh fruit and cookies that the children will have baked with us. We will also be sharing the gospel using “resurrection eggs”. Please pray for the party and always for these dear children!
Ongoing Ministries
Good Shepherd Youth Group Each Sunday evening, the youth of Good Shepherd meet for fellowship and worship. Any young person between the ages of 12 and 18 are welcome to attend. Led by Good Shepherd member Tyler VanFossen. For more information, contact the Good Shepherd office at (607)723-8032. There will be no Youth Group on the night of March 18th (tomorrow).
If you’d like to know how to help or be involved, please contact Tyler VanFossen.
Bread and Wine If you are interested in joining a group of ladies for a monthly supper and discussion, please contact Liz Hull. The group is currently reading a book called Money, Possessions and Eternity, by Randy Alcorn. The next meeting will be at 6pm on 3/10 at the Hull home.
Health and Wellness Our bodies are “the tents” that the Lord has given us to house our souls. Begin to take care of the body which God Has given you. Check your blood pressure, blood sugar, and weight every Sunday in the Parish Hall 9-10AM. Please see Dolly Shaller or Carmen Swoffer-Penna for more details.
Last Week
Last Week in Christian Ed Sometime in the early 300’s a tall handsome pastor with an excellent singing voice began to teach that “there was a time when the Son was not” and thus began one of the greatest theological conflicts in church history. We are at the very beginning of our study of the Great Councils and we turned last week to the Council of Nicea, the most important council (since it dealt with the very nature and essence of God) and yet it is also, perhaps, the least understood. We discussed the historical context, the theological issues, the political machinations, and the practical importance of the council. You can listen to the recording here.
Last Week’s Sermon was called ‘The Great Shepherd of the Sheep’. It was based on Hebrews 13:15-25. It can be listened to or downloaded here.
Mission Group Discussion Questions
Read Hebrews 13:15-25
1) In what specific ways do you continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God?
- How can you more readily acknowledge who God is in your daily routines?
2) What are the good things that we should not neglect to do?
- Which good things must you pray for strength to do well? How can you do them better?
- In what ways can believers share what they have? How have you shared or been shared with?
- Why are doing good and sharing what you have sacrifices?
3) What characterizes a congregation that obeys and submits to their pastor? What characterizes one that does not?
- Why should a congregation obey and submit?
- Which kind of a congregation are we? What specific reasons make you say this?
- How can we each improve in the ways we obey and submit to Father Matt and Tyler?
- How can we help them to serve us with joy and without groaning?
4) Turn back through the book of Hebrews. Which main ideas and themes have stuck with you throughout this study?
- Which ideas do you need to consider, study, and pray through more?
- How can we pray for each other to live by the main ideas of the gospel told to us in Hebrews?
Tuesday Morning Bible Study was cancelled this week due to the weather.
Preventing Grace Podcast Did you know that Matt and Anne have a podcast? They talk about everything from church polity to rustic breads. This week, you get two podcasts for the price of one! Firstly, in ‘Daylight Savings Time and a Sermon Review‘, Matt and Anne Kennedy discuss Daylight savings time and the insanity of the yearly time change, then they review a sermon preached at an Episcopal Church in which we are told that God never does any harm to anyone ever and that bad things happen to good people. Then in a second podcast called ‘Continuation or Cessation?’, Matt Kennedy offers a friendly response to an Anglican American Council video by Canon Phil Ashey promoting a continuationist/charismatic view the work of Holy Spirit. Matt clarifies and more fully articulates the cessationist view (that the sign gifts; prophecy, tongues, and words of knowledge ceased after the Apostolic age) while pointing to some weaknesses in common continuationist/charismatic premises.
You can catch up on all of the older podcast episodes here.
This Week
This Week in Christian Ed This Sunday we’ll continue our discussion of the Nicene Council which met in 325AD in response to the Arius who denied that Jesus was God incarnate. I laid out the theological context for the council last week, what people were thinking about Jesus and the Trinity in the 4th century, you can listen to that here. This week we will continue that discussion and add in some history and politics. Should be fun. Hope to see you there. Class begins at 9:15am on Sunday
This Sunday’s Sermon will be based on John 12:20-26
Some Greeks Seek Jesus
Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
Team Galatians is working on the altar this Sunday.
The readings for this week are Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews 5:1-10.
Chrisitine O. will be serving on the altar guild this Sunday.
Shepherd’s Bowl Team 4 is serving this week with the Beauharnois team (3/22).
To download a PDF of the 10:30 service bulletin, click on this link.
Have an item for the Update or an Announcement?
Email the secretary at:
gs.binghamton@gmail.com
by Monday night.