Rector’s Newsletter

Dearly Beloved,

Confirmation    Join us this Saturday, May 2, 11:00 a.m., at Trinity Episcopal Church in Highland Park for the Waukegan Deanery's Confirmation Service. Bishop Jeffrey Lee will preach, baptize, confirm, and receive into the Episcopal Church candidates from around our Deanery, including our own parishioners Christopher Boutros, Martin Esgar, Derek Hill, Michael Hill, Grayson Peacock, Aurora Raimondi, Diane Rugen, Chloe Seghers, Brian Stephens-Hotopp, Kelsey Travis, and Philip York.

Care Packages    This past Sunday Cissy Singleton and Nuala Kurokawa provided the wonderful Red, White, and Blue cake and other wonderful refreshments at our Adult Forum to express their thanks to St. Gregory's for supporting their Troop Support Ministry. As I mentioned at all three of our services Sunday, it has been our privilege and joy to support them in their important ministry both to the troops and to their families.

Five days earlier, Cissy addressed our most recent Care Package assemblers with these words:

"Greetings and welcome to the 25^th Care Package Event at St. Gregory's Church. Four years ago almost to the day we had our 1^st Troop Care Package Event.  Nuala and I never anticipated that what we began then would still be going full speed ahead today. We continue to be in awe of the overwhelming support of this ministry. I have asked myself over the last few weeks how we can measure the success of our efforts over the last four years and I have realized there are many ways.

• We can measure success in the thousands of packages that we have sent.
• We can measure success in the thank you letters that we have received, the flags of honor, and the appreciation certificates― most recently from Gigi Banjak.
• We can measure success in the outreach and participation of community members outside St. Gregory's including Brownie and Scout Troops, other churches and schools. In January Ben Berger a grade schooler from Highland Park and his mother attended because they wanted to help and donate to our cause.
• We can measure success in responding to AnySoldier.com requests like that of Mike Becerra an Illinois National Guardsmen who submitted his name because his unit did not have enough to eat and he was told if he registered on AnySoldier.com he would get care packages and have extra food for his unit.
• We can measure success in the hugs of thanks received from David Kurokawa, Nathan Stopps, Chris Kelly, and Mike Becerra.
• We can measure our success in the friendships and bonds that have grown over the years as we have worked together.  I treasure all of them― especially my friendship with Nuala.  This ministry brought the two of us together and has brought all of us together.  For this I will be forever grateful.
• We can measure success in the fact every member of St. Gregory's has participated in this ministry by volunteering, donating, writing letters, or praying each week for the deployed troops on our prayer list.
• Tonight we can also measure success in the fact that we celebrate our 25^th Troop Care Package Assembly night. It is a milestone moment and Nuala and I thank you.

There may not be media here tonight but God is watching.  He knows our work.  He knows that we share his love in the work that we do.  May God bless each of you and may he bless everyone who will receive a box we pack tonight."  

Conscientious Candidates    What's a Rector to do when confronted with not one, or two, but four outstanding possibilities for Archacolyte? Devise an elegant solution! So Dimitri Sinnaduray and Ellie Christenson will succeed this year's Junior High School Archacolytes, Nick Raimondi and Scott Schaper, during May; and a year from now Emma Martin and Jocelyn York will become our Archacolytes. Ellie and Dimitri will be inducted along with all our other acolytes on the Sunday after All Saints Day, as is our custom. Our gratitude to Scott and Nick for their excellent work this past year.

Contagion        General symptoms of the swine flu include sudden onset of fever (100.4+ F), headache, cough, achy joints, nasal congestion, and general fatigue. If you or your children develop flu-like symptoms, home isolation is important in curtailing the spread of this flu. Redouble the practice of good hygiene, most importantly by frequently washing your hands. For more information, please visit the Centers for Disease Control's website: www.cdc.gov/swineflu

Faithfully yours,

"We are ambassadors for Christ, God appealing to the world through us." 2 Corinthians 5:20