Greetings on a Fahrenheit One Day in Vermont!

Bill and I returned an hour or so ago from the UPS Store where we mailed two large cartons filled with warm coats, jackets, sweaters, and hats and a pair of gloves to The Rev. Jerry Kramer of the Church of the Annunciation in New Orleans.  Timothy saw the appeal in the ACN Newsletter for warm clothing for folks living in the Lower Ninth Ward and responded.  The amazing part is that the counters recorded an offering of $55 in cash at our Sat. meeting of Timothy, and the charges for 48 pounds and two cartons came to $54.92!

The meeting on Sat. at Washington Winn's home was, in Jill's words, "splendid".  We were extremely fortunate to have The Rev. Alex Cameron, who lives right here in Vermont and is a manager of engineering projects at GE Healthcare, as our celebrant.  After introducing himself and telling us his background, he gave a powerful homily, which was both homily and in-depth Bible study, on Isaiah 6 which begins:  In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne..."  He gave us the historical context, explicated the importance of being seated (posture of authority), the difficulty of finding words to convey the meaning of "holy", explained the fearsome aspect of seraphim and cherubim, provided the link between King Uzziah's long and stable reign and the period of uncertainty and change which followed, and highlighted Isaiah's use of "fire"  to signify God's judgement and the grace of God in providing atonement for sin.  On the one hand this passage about Isaiah's commission contains promise of God's glory and on the other the terror of God's judgement.   We were held spellbound.  Many people told Alex he was welcome to come back again.  In other words, we sheep were fed.

Dwight MacPherson ably assisted.  And Wash provided a charming surprise:  he played "Onward Christian Soldiers" on the Winns' 1890 Music Box, a lovely sound from a pierced brass disk.  The food after the service hit the spot.  With the temperature hovering just above zero, we had three pots of delicious soup and "Grandma Willey's Baked Beans" recipe to choose from, homemade bread and butter, cheese, a potato casserole and salads.  The host surprised Judy Hellman  and Nathaniel Norton with a cake inscribed with their names, to acknowledge the fact that Judy and Nat, who met at last July's meeting of Timothy, became engaged last week.  And speaking of surprises, Akol and Thiei returned to Timothy and brought with them one month old Deng.

If anything was less than perfect, it was our singing.  The absence from the scene of Diane, Kathy, Arabella and Kelsey was indeed felt when we tried to raise our voices and sing.  Come back, Oh Musical Ones!

At the meeting we covered a number of items starting with the Calendar of future Timothy Anglican Home Fellowship meetings:

Sat. March 3  The Rev. Michael Neufeld (of the Diocese of Albany) and his wife Ellen (who celebrated for us in December) at the home of Tina Kurrelmeyer in Shelburne.  10:30 a.m.  364 Clearwater Road, Shelburne, VT  05482

Sat. April 14   The Rev. Peter Pierson (of the Diocese of Albany)and his wife Mary at the home of Bill and Ann Hogan in Shelburne.  This will include the baptism of Deng Aguek.

Sat. May 5      The Rev. James Gunn of Fitchburg, MA  at the home of Diane Ames and Terry Russell in Quechee.

Sat. June 16   The Rev. Christopher Leighton ( of St. Paul's Darien) at "Thendara" the home of Elizabeth Cowap Price in Vergennes.

Sat. July 21     The Rev. Michael McKinnon (of Holy Trinity Church, Marlborough, MA and chaplain to FIFNA-New England) at the home of Glenn and Ellie Martin in Jericho.

Another date coming up to which Timothy is invited  is the first annual Chapter Meeting of the ACN New England Convocation on Sat. February 24 in Coventry, RI.

Elected to serve as voting representatives of Timothy are:  Bill Hogan and Dwight MacPherson, with backup alternate Ann Hogan.

Treasurer's Report:  from July through January Revenues of $2,780.00  Expenses of $1,485.10.  Net revenues of $1,294.90.  The counters reported an offerings collectiion of $295.00 from the February 3 meeting.

We collected warm clothing to be sent on Feb. 5 to Church of the Annunciation in New Orleans and voted to approve mission expense (noted above) to cover the shipping.

Dwight reported on the delightful opportunity to hear and meet Archbishop Benjamin Nzimbi of Kenya and Bishop Ranji and others at a conference at Christ Church, Hamilton, MA on Monday Jan. 22.  They are impressive godly men and women who came to strengthen and encourage the faithful in New England.  One exchange Dwight picked up on was the Archbishop's expression of how much they would welcome Bibles in his Province.  There is a scarcity of Bibles --sometimes the one Bible has to be passed around in church.  Dwight suggested that members of our group look into finding primary sources of Bibles that could be shipped directly to Kenya.  Various suggestions were made and will need to be followed up.

Aare Ilves, who serves on the Convocation's Calendar and Planning work group, along with Arabella, Diane and Bill, reported on their work group's meeting in Keene, NH on Sat. Jan. 20.  In brief:  they recommend four sessions of teaching on Anglican Essentials in four locations in New England.  In addition, they recommend three Discipleship School weekends (Friday evening and all day Saturday)  during the year.  The weekend of August 10-11 was nominated to be held in Vermont.    Aare read the list of names which the group came up with for these special weekend events (which conclude with ecumenical "Signal Fire" gatherings) and asked for further suggestions to add to the list.  Those attending Saturday's Timothy meeting came up with these:  The Rev. Dr. Grant Lemarquand (Diocese of Montreal),  Paul Zahl,  Peter Moore, John Guest, John Yates, Ellis and Cynthia Brust, and any African Anglican bishops who happen to be in the United States at the time of the events.

Faithfully,

Ann