Announcements for Week Ending February 19th, 2012

Announcements

• The Heart of St. Michael's Annual Dinner - Join us for a savory gourmet dinner and wine on Tuesday, February 14th, prepared by our own Chef Andy. Just $25 per person. There are a few reservations left. The reservation sheets for the nine tables, with each Host’s name, are located in the back of church. Proceeds go to the “Faith Promise” budget line that helps to serve St. Michael’s ministries.

• The Episcopal Church Women (ECW) will meet this Wednesday (February 15th) at 10:30 AM in the Parish Center. All women of the Prarish are welcome and urged to attend.

• The February issue of The Messenger is finally here! Click here or on the sidebar for your copy.

• Sunday, February 19 ~ Social Action Committee regular meeting follows 10:15 a.m. Mass. Join us in the Womble Library where everyone has a voice, and if needed, a vote. Meeting begins promptly, 10 minutes after the Postlude ends. Agenda items: Peggy VanNorman, Chair

• Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. Join us for PANCAKES! Donations of sausage, syrup, juice and fruit are graciously accepted. Join us February 21 at 5:30 pm ! Taize Prayer service follows at 6:45 pm. All Welcome!

• Save the date ~ Friday, February 24th ~ Movie and Pizza Night. $5.00 per person for a movie, pizza, friendship and fellowship. The movie The Way starring Emilio Estevez and MartinSheen. Sign-up sheets in back of church.

• Attention: Altar Guild Members ~Tuesday, February 21 at 9:00AM, we will be preparing the church for Lent by ironing, changing out linens, etc. We need as much help as possible; if your schedule allows, please come in to assist. Thank you.

• Columbarium Flowers ~ the cemetery will be cleared of flowers for the Lenten Season. Mementos will be left in place. You may remove your own flowers or they will be placed in a box for retrieval later.

• February 26 - Jimmye Hillman publication party (reading, book signing, and reception) at St. Michael’s at 4:00 PM. Sponsored by St. Michael’s, the UA Poetry Center and UA Press. Parishioner Jimmye’s book, Hogs, Mules and Yellow Dogs, a memoir about growing up on a Mississippi dirt farm during the Depression, will be on sale at a discount. Save the date!

• Upcoming event at St. Michael’s ~ Saturday, March 3 at 7:30 pm ~ viola recital by Melissa Hamilton, a member of St. Michael’s Chamber Players. Melissa currently performs with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the Tucson Chamber Artists. A free~will offering may be made at the door.

• Sunday Lectionary Bible Study continues twice on Wednesdays – 10:00 AM and 6:30 PM in the Womble Library. All are welcome!

• Women’s Bible Study continues each Wednesday at 6:30 PM in the Parish Center. All women are welcome!

• Adult Bible Study continues each Sunday at 9 AM in the Womble Library. We are currently studying the history of the New Testament. All are welcome!

Opportunities for Giving

LENTEN OPPORTUNITY: United Thank Offering – Sharing Blessings Everyday
UTO boxes will be distributed this week and at a later date will be collected. Lent is a great opportunity, as well as other times, for self denial, and then giving to others less fortunate. United Thank Offering is the Mission Outreach of the Episcopal Church. Share your blessings daily and fill the box. Please be as generous as your circumstances will allow.

TIHAN COLLECTION OF ESSENTIAL ITEMS FOR AROUND 80 PEOPLE 
SUFFERING FROM HIV/AIDS!
St. Michaels is sponsoring “Poz Café” on the 15th of March. We are collecting toiletries to be handed out at the end of the meal. Shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, toothpaste, individually wrapped toilet rolls, etc. None of which may be bought with food stamps. One brown grocery bag filled with donated toiletries is very much appreciated. If you are able to help, there is the gold “treasure chest” in the back of church where you may place your gifts. (Regular or large sizes are preferred.) Donations may also be brought to the parish office. We thank you for your generosity. Call Tish Newell for more information – 514-8182

Jimmye Hillman Reading and Reception

Come to a reading, book signing and reception for parishioner Jimmye Hillman's new memoir, Hogs, Mules and Yellow Dogs, Sunday, February 26th at 4 PM in the Parish Center.

Jan Lockett Memorial

Jan Lockett, a longtime parishioner at St. Michael's, died peacefully at about 10 PM Saturday night, January 21st, from kidney failure and a severe lung infection. She was a former member of both the parish choir and the Masterworks Chorale. Jan's many interests included opera, fantasy novels, cats and social causes. An avid crafter, Jan knitted, crocheted, beaded and tatted for herself, for friends and (especially) for charity. She leaves behind two parents in New Mexico and a surviving brother and sister back east.

Jan's books, craft supplies, dulcimer, sheet music etc. will be made available to parishioners over the next two weeks, with all donations applied toward her memorial service and memorial fund. Everything else, including furniture, will be sold or donated for the same purpose.

Her memorial service will be at St. Michael's at 11 AM on Saturday, February 4th.

May her soul, and the souls of the departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen †

Jan Lockett and Her Cats - An Update from Ila Abernathy

Dear Social Action folk, and a few others:

I don't think Jan would mind being mentioned in company with cats and cooperation.

Jan -- Robin Jorstad-Donaldson reports that Jan's condition continues to deteriorate, rapidly. Prayers, maybe a little hand-holding for those who know her well and feel called to visit. At TMC palliative care. I'll repeat the benediction sent out earlier: "The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace." (Numbers 6:24-26)

Cats -- So many cooks we spend most of our time e-mailing! Plans have shifted as the situation alters. The e-mail flow will slow.

Flash -- Ana, the neighbor who has fed Jan's cats, telephoned this morning to report that "Flash" was now confined in the humane trap Francha and I had set Saturday (he got food one day without springing it). Plan was to take him for shots and neutering tomorrow morning, but he would have had to stay in the trap overnight. Instead, one of The Hermitage board moved heaven and earth for an immediate placement at the Hermitage. I took him over and signed him in this afternoon. Though unsocialized, he's behaving very well -- frightened but curious, occasionally inquiring what's going on, but not yowling. Gold. I'm wondering if he's polydactylous (extra toes). Anyone interested in him now or later will need to go through the Hermitage. He's probably between 6 and 9 months old, box-trained, never been outside. Here is what Mother Clare says about him: "Finally met Flash--what a gorgeous gorgeous cat--liquid copper eyes. He was quietly resting in his kennel watching everything with big eyes but not hissing when we came close. This is a good sign to my way of thinking. Is it an ideal placement? Certainly it's his best hope for now. I tried to tell him that today was the luckiest day of his life."

Sweet Pea -- Spayed today, courtesy of Spay and Neuter Solutions. She was going into heat, so it was a bit more complicated than it would have been otherwise. Resting overnight at the vet's. Tested negative for leukemia. Tomorrow she gets her leukemia shot, last of her series, and will be released. I discover, after having had her in my house and seen her miraculous ability to get along with my cantankerous cats, that I'm not quite ready to sign her over to the Hermitage, after which all arrangements reside with them. Will bring her home for a few days of R&R, and hope that that perfect permanent placement with friends of Jan (or friends of friends) will materialize. The Hermitage is waiting and will receive her if there is no permanent placement, but I don't want to strain that patience. Please let me know if you are interested, preferably before the weekend. At this point a free cat, up to date on shots, short-haired, tortie, world's best easy-care model -- and, as everyone says, very beautiful. If you don't have the photos Karen took, e-mail me and I will forward. [Note -- keeping her with me a few days will not hurt Flash, as they would be in different sectors of the Hermitage.]

Hermitage adoption record -- I was really impressed with the young adoptions coordinator, who told me the Hermitage accepted approximately 497 cats last year and placed approximately 376 in adoptive homes -- just over 75%. I think that's phenomenal. Of course, kittens are adopted first.

DONATIONS to honor Jan and thank those involved:

Make a tax-deductible donation to The Hermitage (5278 E. 21st Street, Tucson 85711, www.hermitagecatshelter.org) or Spay and Neuter Solutions (P.O Box 762, Cortaro, AZ 85652, or www.spayandneutersoluntions.org), noting "Flash" or "Sweet Pea" and "Lockett" on the memo line. Sweet Pea's spay cost $60, and I paid for the immunizations. I estimate that neutering and shots for Flash through the Hermitage will cost $150 to $200. If you can, give a little extra for another pet in need.

Music: Jan loves music and once sang with Masterworks Chorale. Among her belongings we found over a decade of their programs, carefully filed. A donation to Tucson Masterworks Chorale or to St. Michael's Choir honoring Jan would be much appreciated.

COOPERATION -- Karen B. has worked nonstop on Jan's behalf. Meanwhile, I am amused that Mother Clare and I seem to operate on the "you say tomayto and I say tomahto" principle: she knows the Hermitage, I know Spay and Neuter Solutions; she volunteers for Humane Borders, I volunteer for Samaritans. Between us, and among the others involved, we cover a lot of territory.

Extraordinary neighbor -- I'd like to find a special way to thank Ana Rivera, neighbor of Patti and Jan. She knew Patti more than Jan. Arranged for Patti's 4 dogs to be relocated to homes when Patti failed significantly, and has fed and talked to the cats for months. She also visits Patti in a closed unit for dementia patients, more or less weekly.

Thanks also to Miller Pet Hospital, that gave Sweet Pea a free examination and accepted the reduced rate for spaying.

Ila

The Messenger at Last!

Apologies! We had several delays in getting The Messenger out this month. Here it is at last!

Just a few reminders:

Tuesday
6:45 PM - Taize Meditation Prayer Service ~ in Church

Wednesday
10:00 AM and 6:30 PM ~ Lectionary Bible Study - Womble Library
10:30 AM ~ ECW Women's Meeting ~ All women invited ~ Parish Center
6:30 PM ~ Women's Bible Study ~ All Women Invited ~ Parish Center

Saturday
9:00 AM ~ Vestry Meeting ~ Parish Center
7:30 PM ~ St. Michael’s Chamber Players concert, “Flute, Friends and Fun”

Karen

Come to the Concert!

St. Michael and All Angels Parish and School

is pleased to present

St. Michael’s Chamber Players

performing a program “Flute, Friends and Fun”

• Sonata for Flute and Keyboard, BWV 1030, J. S. Bach

• Five Melodies for Violin and Piano, Op. 35 bis, S. Prokofiev

• Serenade for Flute, Violin and Viola, Op. 25, Beethoven

Saturday, 21 January 2012, 7:30 pm

602 N. Wilmot Road (at 5th Street)

Free will offering. Suggested donation $15.00. 

Reception following.

Members of St. Michael’s Chamber Players are gifted professional musicians who have individually performed with many orchestras locally, across the U.S. and the world.

• Alexander Lipay, flute, is a graduate of Thornton School of Music (USC), has performed as soloist widely in the US, France and Russia, and is Principal Flutist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra since 2006.

• Alexander Tentser, piano, received his piano education at the Russian Music Academy in Moscow. He has appeared with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra as guest soloist.

• Anna Gendler, violin, is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory in Russia, and has been a member of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra since 1991.

• Melissa Hamilton, viola, is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, and currently performs with the Tucson Symphony and the Tucson Chamber Artists.

For further information, please contact the St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Parish office at (520) 886-7292, or visit the St. Michael’s website at http://smallangelstucson.org/music.html. Or click here for a copy of the program.

Notes From the Parish Office

St. Michael and All Angels Church and Parish Day School

wish each and every one

A Very Blessed and Peaceful New Year!

New Year’s Eve
Mass 5pm ~ Festive gathering in Parish Center following Mass.

Feast of The Most Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ ~ New Year’s Day
7:45 am Mass
9:00 am Family Mass
9:45am Sunday School and Child Care
10:15 am High Mass
12:30 pm Misa en Espanol
THERE WILL BE NO 5:00 PM MASS

• Parish Offices will be closed, Monday, January 2, 2012
• Friday, January 6 ~ Feast of the Epiphany ~ Mass at 6:00 pm followed by the Epiphany Dinner in the Parish Center. The meal will include tabbouleh and other choice offerings, including the traditional “Epiphany Cake”. The cake will be baked by whoever found the “ring” in their piece of Epiphany Cake last year!
• Begin the New Year with Meditation – Taize Meditation prayer service this Tuesday, January 3 at 6:45 PM in Church. All are welcome.
• Epiphany gifts for Primavera – help to fill the treasure chest in the back of church with new socks and underwear and new or gently used gloves, hats or caps, sweatshirts, jackets and sweaters for distribution to Tucson’s homeless population by Primivera’s shelter and other programs.