Spring has finally come to the Eastern Shore! At least, this week has been warm and sunny, and feels like spring. The warm weather promises hope of better things to come: new green growth, plants pushing their brave fragile shoots up through the winter-brown earth, crocuses courageously blooming, the trees beginning to redden and bud out. We all look forward to seeing the resurrection of new life coming amongst us.

We have journeyed through the long season of winter and observed the 40 days of Lent. We celebrated Easter and the resurrection of the Son of God, Jesus Christ coming again amongst his family and friends. Now we are in the season of the 50 days of Easter. As Bishop Sue Moxley says “we have 50 days and 50 nights to celebrate the resurrection. What are the disciplines to celebrate Easter? How did we miss learning the disciplines of celebrating?” We have no problem observing Lent, with our wonderful Wednesday night Ecumenical services, now how do we begin to celebrate Easter and resurrection? It’s too early to plant our garden; the best we can do is rake the yard, and yearn for warmer temperatures, trying to catch a few golden rays of sunshine. The Book of Common Prayer (BCP) observes the Rogation Days – the blessing of the seeds in April. However, we on the Eastern Shore are not ready to bless our seeds, yet alone think about planting them. The best we can do in that spirit is to offer a blessing of our fishing fleet as they begin their lobster season.

Is that how we most appropriately celebrate the 50 days of Easter? Perhaps. Is there something else we should be celebrating? What about the anticipation of the Creator’s spring extravagance that will soon happen? The word that I often used in the past was abundance in reference to God’s love. However, the word I want us to focus on in this season of the 50 days of Easter is EXTRAVANGANCE, defined as ‘the quality of exceeding the appropriate limits of decorum’ or ‘a lack of prudence and care by someone in the management of resources’ (www.thefreedictionary.com). Exceeding the appropriate limits – a lack of prudence and care of our resources – now think of this word in relation to God’s creation that comes to life at spring time. God does not just give us one or two trees in bud that would be an economical and practical means; God blesses us extravagantly with huge tracts of forests in Nova Scotia that slowly begin to come back to life. We do not just have a couple of birds, returning from the south, we are blessed extravagantly with flocks of singing birds that just cannot wait to come to our feeders and delight us with their antics; birds that wake up with each morning with their joyful songs and sing most of the day. Our loving Creator does not just give us a few flowers to enjoy; God extravagantly provides many bouquets of colourful flowers and weeds upon which to feast our eyes. There is no limit to the vista of flowers, no lack of resources, no economy involved here – God richly blesses us with beautiful flowers (even when we try to get rid of the yellow dandelions growing in our lawns!)

These 50 days of Easter provide us with the opportunity to grow into the resurrection of Jesus, into the resurrection of new life coming amongst us. These 50 days of Easter are given to us as an extravagance of God’s love, coming alive in the beauty of the awakening earth around us.

Annie Dillard writes ‘if the landscape reveals one certainty, it is that the extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation.’ Creations examples of God’s extravagance challenges us to be openhanded, bighearted and large souled. Do we – having souls as large as the universe, give it all, the way God gives to us?

Let us come together during our Sunday worship services as a Parish family and celebrate! Let us journey together as a community, cherishing the sacred ground under our feet, let us enjoy the extravagance of God’s love, give back with all our heart and soul, and share the glory. Alleluia! Tricia Ingram, Rector

SUNDAY SERVICES –

MAY TO AUGUST.

Beginning on May 4 and continuing until June 29 both the 8:30am and 10:00am services will be in the same church, alternating weekly between St. Thomas and St. James. Check the newsletter calendars for location. For the months of July and August there will be one Sunday service only at 10:00am also alternating between churches. There will also be a Wednesday Evening Service at 7:00pm offered for July and August Location to be announced. Check calendars or Parish Phone at 889-3098 for information

St. JAMES – 165 YEARS OF MINISTRY

Join us in a Parish Celebration of Thanksgiving for St. James Church which will be 165 years old on July 6^th (1843 – 2008)

Special Sunday Worship with Bishop Sue Moxley, Celebrant, on July 6^th followed by a Strawberry Luncheon at the Hall

And

Actual Date Celebration, – July 9^th, at 7:00pm with guests from the past and present and fellowship to follow.

Please put these important dates on your calendar. More details to follow.

We’re looking for pictures and artifacts of the church and community to help commemorate this event. Please call Rev. Tricia at 889-3098 for more info.

Parish Function Planning Committee

The Parish Function Planning Committee will be very busy. (This committee raises money to help reduce the allotment for the 2 churches)

- Lobster Socials begin May 1 and continue every Thursday for 8 weeks at the Seniors’ Club, Meagher’s Grant Road

- Mother’s Day Breakfast put on by the men of the Parish on May 1`1 at the Hall

- Yard/Bake Sale – May 31 – 8:00am – 2:00pm (Drop off Noon – 6:00pm May 30 at the Hall.

- July 6 11am – 1pm Celebration Strawberry Luncheon – St. James Hall

- Part of Lion’s Fair at Eastern Shore Recreation Centre

a) Variety Show/ Bake Auction – July 17, 7:30pm

b) Free Will Offering Breakfast – July 19, 8:00 – 10:00am

Chowder Luncheon Noon – 2:00pm

And a Float in the Parade, too!

- August 17 11am – 1pm Blueberry Brunch – St. James Hall

Please volunteer to help in any way you can. We need you! Please contact:

Members – Donna Mosher – 889-2772

Henry Bowers 889-2323

Henry Boutilier 889-3763

Eldon/Eleanor Rudolph – 889-2353

Catherine Gordon – 889-2613

ST. JAMES HALL

St. James Hall is an important part of our Parish Community. Many parish planning session, Parish Council, Regional Council, Bible Study, Parish Fundraising events, fellowship following the Sunday Night Services, Sunday School (on alternate Sundays), etc. are held there. Because of the high cost of fuel and the cold winter, more oil was used as the building is heated Oct.- April. If you’re having a function, please consider booking the Hall for your event – we could use the extra bookings! Please call Catherine – 889-2613

MOTHERS’ UNION

Mother’s Union meets the third Monday evening of the month. This is a Parish
group and we have fourteen members. We do a variety of things from games night
to making crosses for Palm Sunday, weekender party to many work shops.
We send letters for the Good Shepherd list , do Christmas boxes for Mission to
Seafarers and in October we serve lunch and dessert at the Mission to Seafarers in Halifax. There is a Spring and Fall Rally and last year we went to the Spring Rally in Shelburne. We do cupcakes for Christmas Eve and Mothering Sunday in March we pass out flowers and cookies. We each have a secret prayer partner that we reveal at a Christmas Party.
We close for the summer by going out to eat in June.

Mothers’ Union welcomes as members anyone who supports our aim of Christian family life.

Submitted by Audrey William, Secretary

ST. THOMAS ACW

St. Thomas ACW has an active membership. We recently held a Dinner Theatre at the Petpeswick Yacht Club and raised over $1900.00 . Thanks to everyone who helped in any way! Our ACW members faithfully clean St. Thomas’s Church on a monthly basis, and also provide and operate the Thrift Shop, which will open on May 15, 2008.

Our meetings are held every second Monday evening in each month, except July and August at the home of one of our members. We encourage new membership any time!

Our next function will be the Spring Tea and Sale on May 10, 2008 at Petpeswick Yacht Club at 11:30am till 1; 00pm. Come and enjoy!

Submitted By, Donna Mosher, Secretary

ST. JAMES FINANCIAL REPORT

First of all, thanks to those who have increased their giving-it is noticed. There are still just two of us who have registered for the Pre-Authorized Remittance. You can have an amount deducted from you account (or put on your Visa or MasterCard) once a month. Just ask for your application form. Although year to date receipts are up, our allotment was increased this year by approximately $500. per month and we are currently $1600. behind. We have just repaired the stained glass window in the church closet/vestibule, and plowing and heating costs have been high this year. We also paid $283.23 towards the new sound system. A memorial gift of $500. was received for this purpose, and the Parish Function Planning Committee contributed $500. Parish Council have approved a loan of up to $2000. to cover the replacement of our oil tank, and we will be making monthly payment on this of $50. Our Cemetery account is the healthiest, due to Cemetery Fund Raiser. The annual cost of mowing can be as high as $900. We do have a small investment with the Diocese and receive quarterly payments in the vicinity of $50. or less. Please support our fund- raisers and save your Sobey’s slips.

Account Balances as of April are as follows:

General Account (thanks to April 14 Luncheon – $1785.19 ($460.00); Building Account – $492.46; Cemetery Account – $3,139.03; Memorial Account – $488.33

Nola Stoddart, Treasurer

ST. THOMAS FINANCIAL REPORT

O the Lord is good to me

And so I thank the Lord

For giving me the things I need

The sun and rain and apple seed…..

St. Thomas has been able to keep up with their allotment payments to date. One advantage we have right now is that we have 9 members using the Pre-authorized payment(PAR) system which ensures a very healthy sum coming into our account each month. We would certainly encourage others to consider this method of honoring their envelope donations. The ACW ‘s Dinner Theatre was a great success which enabled the group to make a lump sum payment of $2000.00 on the Furnace Loan. What would we do without the fund raising efforts of this small group: it is this group that makes up the difference in our allotment payments during the lean months . Our hats off to you all! We will shortly be receiving an HST tax rebate of approximately $1200.00 which will also be applied to the loan repayment leaving a balance of approximately $800.00. Money donated to the building fund is used primarily for maintenance, fuel and power costs. It is very important to contribute to this fund as it always necessary to build up an account against future large maintenance costs. We have a very beautiful building but like any other older structure we must be aware that there will be costly repairs down the road. To date(April 19) our Building Account stands at $1287.15, the General Account stands at $1185.52. Our monthly allotment payment to the Parish Treasurer is $3084.50.

Jane Doane, Treasurer

REGIONAL COUNCIL

The Regional Council of the Eastern Shore was held at St. James Hall in Head of Jeddore on April 19, 2008 and hosted by The Parish of Musquodoboit. Eleanor Keeping chaired this meeting with a great attendance from the Parish of Seaforth through to Port Bickerton Parishes.

Rev. David Fletcher led a Fresh Start program module to the Council Members which all enjoyed and participated in. Great conversation!

The meeting had many highlights, some of which were region reports from each Parish, Layreader report, Synod plans,and other interesting reports from the Eastern Shore area.

The Parish of Musquodoboit provided the lunch, which was enjoyed by all and special thanks to anyone who helped provide the lunch. Our next meeting will be held in June in the Ship Harbour Parish.

Submitted by Donna Mosher, Synod Delegate

SUNDAY SCHOOL

May 11 is our last day for Sunday School for the summer. We will start up again in Sept.

BIBLE SCHOOL

Come join us for Bible school on July 15,at St. James hall Time 10 to 12. All children are welcome.

LOBSTER SOCIALS

This year again we will be holding Lobster Socials on Thursday’s beginning on May 1st.and continuing for 8 weeks. They will be held at the Senior’s Centre on the Meagher’s Grant Road They will start at 730pm .For details on these contact Henry Boutilier 889-3763 or Eldon Rudolph 889-2353.