The Lion's Roar

August, 2022

A Message from Father Rick...

As I write this, we are in the throws of our first week of hosting a family through HOME of Somerset County. And, how wonderful it is!

To all who have contributed, helped rehab the rooms we’re using, are hosting, sleeping over, and providing meals: Thank you.

I’ve been excited about our upcoming work with HOME for a while now, but so far it has exceeded my wildest expectations. What a beautiful opportunity to get to know people, and let them get to know you. Very, very quickly the line between the “helpers” and those “being helped” dissolves completely, and we’re just people, and then very soon after that, friends.

That is the kind of ministry that Jesus demonstrated in his own life. He was right there with people, in the midst of their lives, offering himself to them in the most loving of ways.

If you haven’t had an opportunity to join us this go-around, I absolutely recommend getting involved when we do it again. You won’t regret it.

Peace,

Fr Rick

Warden's Corner

July was a very busy month with the ordination of Chip Rubendall as Deacon, moving through the capital campaign in earnest and our first experience with the HOME program.

First, I want to say how proud I am of Chip’s accomplishment and also thank Fr. Rick for all of his work and dedication in supporting Chip in his development and advancement through this process.

We have also made great progress with the capital campaign with about a third of parishioners submitting pledges so far (we will be providing an update on where we stand soon). We will be working hard over the next two months to wrap up the capital campaign and to work with the diocese to refinance our mortgage with the expectation that we will be paying down a substantial amount of the principal balance with the expectation we will pay it off in the next couple years.

Also, we had our first visitors staying with the church this last week of July and all indications this is a great start to our ability to support those in need in our region. Finally, when we return from the post-summer schedules in September, we will have the parish picnic on September 11th to celebrate getting back together and we will be planning other gatherings as we move into the fall to have chances to participate in fellowship. I hope you all get to enjoy the rest of your summers!

Sean

Curbing Hunger

There is a link to the online Curbing Hunger site right here: https://amplify.ampyourgood.com/user/campaigns/4015 where you can purchase food and it will be delivered to the Food Bank for you.

Please do what you can, and spread the word—and even consider coming to weed, tend, and pick at the garden—so that our neighbors won’t go hungry this summer.

Father Rick will be taking off the month of August to spend time with his family and see Zoe off to college.

Father Joseph Leigh and Deacon Chip will be celebrating with us on Sundays in August

Weekly Offerings in August

Sunday 8am Holy Eucharist Rite I

9:15am Holy Eucharist Rite II

Aug 3rd & 17th Keansburg Soup Kitchen

Save the Date - September 11 - Church Service & Picnic at Ross Farm

Visit our website stmarksbr.org for links and schedules to all upcoming services, bulletins, music offerings, signups, and more.

HOME, Our First Experience

First, a big thank you to all our volunteers. Dinners were served, breakfasts were made or premade, and our hosts extended warm welcomes and fellowship to our young family. Rooms have been redesigned, a shower was built and a kitchenette created. All was appreciated.

Our young family of two sisters were amazing. The loss of their mother this past spring, resulted in their homelessness. With strong work ethics, they are both working and striving towards independence. We are very blessed to support them on their journey. Each night the sisters expressed their gratitude for all that we provided and to each person that extended a hand.

Our first experience was a ‘soft landing’, we expect our future guests may have very different challenges and, perhaps, be just starting their journey towards independence. We look forward to meeting these new families, and the ‘graduation’ of our young family to their own home. When??? No date set, but we will need a full complement of volunteers again, and we thank you all for your willingness to serve

God bless and thank you all again,

Mary & Ann

Finance Report

2022 Year-to-Date (YTD, through June) Financial Results

Operating Income is $227K, $15K (or 7%) favorable to budget, driven by full and partial year pledge income and donations received year-to-date, offset partially by unfavorable Buildings Use Donations.
Operating Expenses is $190K, -$10K (or -5%) unfavorable to budget, driven by Buildings Maintenance expenses (burst pipe / flood damage) and timing of expenses.
Operating Net Income is $37K, $5K favorable to budget, driven by favorable operating income cited above.

September Rockets are back!

If you would like to build a rocket for the September Picnic Launch - email the church office this week to reserve your rocket kit. The rockets will be super easy to build this year.

NEW Sunday School Program for the Fall

We are making plans for an exciting Fall Sunday School program, structured a bit different from past years. Typically in the fall we cover Old-Testament Bible stories with a focus on God’s rules teaching all of us how to get along with each other. This fall we will also include some fun-filled lessons on God’s other rules, how the world works through the science God created. This Sunday School Science program is for pre-K to 5th grade held during our 10 a.m. Sunday services beginning late September. For more information or if you would like to help with the program please reach out to John Lyga or Kristen Hauser.

Laughter in the Pews

2022 Annual Used Book Sale

To Benefit our Local Libraries and Scholarships for Young Women

When: Thursday, August 4 12-8 pm (25% Surcharge)

Friday, August 5 12-8 pm

Saturday, August 6 9-3 pm

Where: Bernardsville Middle School

141 Seney Drive, Bernardsville, NJ 07924

Call/Text 908-313-8421 or info@somersethillsaauw.org

It’s NJ, Please Bring Your Own Bag

The Adult Forum

The Adult Forum will begin again in mid-September, with the first topic being “Praying with Scripture.” We’re going to look at some tried-and-true ways of taking the words of the Bible and using them for prayer.

We’ll explore how St Benedict of Nursia encouraged his 5th century monks to pray, and we’ll look at some more modern applications of Benedict’s work. We’ll look at how St Ignatius Loyola encouraged us to pray in his book, “The Spiritual Exercises,” and then we’ll do a few more “hands on” methods.

Starting Sunday September 18th, we’re going to go back to doing the Forum, live-and-in-person, from 9 till 9:45. AND, starting Wednesday September 21st, we’re ALSO going to reprise the Forum at 7:30PM, live-on-Zoom. So, there will be two opportunities to plug into the Forum each week.

If you’ve never taken part in the Forum, I encourage you to give it a try. It’s such a fun community of people who enjoy each other’s presence every bit as much as we enjoy the substance of the discussions.

See you there!

Fr Rick

Fellowship News

Summer is quickly passing. The summer coffee hour schedule is available on the St. Mark’s website or look for the scan code on the clipboard in the narthex to help navigate you to the electronic sign up. (thanks to Marliese Knill for setting it up) Also, this fall in September we will be having the kick-off picnic at Ross Farm on September 11th. We are looking forward to seeing everyone as the kids return to school.

Buildings News

Thank you to the volunteers that continue to refresh and repair our facilities!

Our lower-level hall way and rooms look so beautiful and welcoming to our first HOME guests. You can read about the program elsewhere in the ROAR. I just want to acknowledge all the volunteers that have worked tirelessly this year to achieve this outcome including the Ridge student volunteers. With a facility as large as ours there are always projects to do. Thank you all for stepping up and pitching in.

Roofing Update

Phase 1 of the roofing project is complete with the roofers on site July 27 to install the custom-made skylights. We have eliminated the lower two skylights as these routinely get overrun by water runoff from the steep sanctuary roof and leak. The old skylights were so bad that they had water in between the two layers of insulated glass. We want to carefully stain and polyurethanes the new pine boards to match the existing ceiling. If you love detailed painting and don’t mind being up on a tall step ladder, this is a project you do not want to miss out on. (See pics below)

Parish Hall Work to start in August

We will be installing a new beautiful vinyl floor in the parish hall during August. It will make the room shine. Unfortunately, we will need to delay the ceiling painting until 2023 as we have some additional work that needs to be done including replacing some of the fixtures and cleaning out the vents. Hopefully we have the funding to start this at the beginning of the year.

Painters needed

Thank you to all who have helped paint the remainder of the lower-level hall. We only have a small section left to do by the J2A and Music rooms. If you would like to help with this project, contact the office or John Lyga.

St. Marks Fixers – Buildings and Grounds Commission

We would like to get a few more members to help out fixing all sorts of stuff around the church buildings. We meet once a month to go over projects that need fixing and often share some homebrew while we chat. You do not need any skills to join, just interested in helping and learning. We do not have an August meeting but will meet the third Tuesday in September. Contact John Lyga or the church office to sign up.

God's Giving Garden

We are rapidly approaching 2000 lbs harvested and will hit this major milestone by early August. This puts us in great shape to hit our target for this season of 3000 lbs donated, and the veggies, herbs and overall garden are a joy to behold!

This has all been made possible by our amazing volunteers this year, who have worked diligently to provide seedlings, assist with our garden expansion, and help on a week-to-week basis. Many thanks to all!

Garden work sessions are Tues, Thurs and Sat mornings 9-noon, throughout the summer and Fall. Come join us!”

Each week Fr Rick produces a short video on one of the Sunday lessons—specifically with the children and youth of the church in mind.

Save the date for our next Food Truck event! Saturday, October 8th at 6pm at the church. More details coming soon.

August Birthdays

8-1 Adelene Sant Foster

8-2 Carole Pasquale

8-3 Danielle Lupo

Lisa Overley

8-4 Bill Coffin

8-6 Samantha Glass

Lia Knill

8-7 Morgan Defeo

Samantha Lunny

8-11 Bill Walsh

Claudia Van Loo
8-12 Lisa Keenan

Laura Mooney
8-13 Sarah Post

8-14 Jean Kendall

Kevin Larner
8-15 Buck Kirch

Jensen Vaughan
8-16 Soren Van Loo

8-17 Emma Hale

Peter Phillips

8-18 Robert Buesser
Jeffery Heiner
Kristen Lunny
Kiyomi Urbas

8-20 Bonnie Kelly

Emie Williams
Miles Kochek

8-21 David Taylor

8-22 Sophia Donelan

Tom Mooney
8-25 Bruce Walker

Tosan Eweka
Matthew Seitz
8-26 Jessica Solon

8-27 Hannah Richardson

8-28 Kevin Lazo
Phillip Mousally
Rebecca Moussally
8-31 Matt Lanese

Anniversaries

8-6 Mike & Ann Millan

8-9 Robert & Jennifer Phillips

Chris & Kaitlynn Vella

8-10 Joe & Lorri Layton

8/27 Bill & Betsy Coffin

8-28 John & Theresa Wojnar

Ushers Needed

We could use a couple more ushers for our 10am services (9:15 summer schedule). Even if you can help out one Sunday, it would be very helpful. You would only need to serve once every 5 or 6 weeks, Please email Jim Martucci at Jim.martucci@verizon.net if you are interested. Thank you.

Rummage Sale - September 16th & 17th

The lazy days of summer...great time to look around our homes and gardens and decide what we no longer need or want. We are so grateful for all the wonderful donations we get from you, our parishioners and friends. (We cannot accept items before September 11th)

Please keep in mind the items we cannot accept:

Mattresses or box springs

Electronic equipment over 5 years old.

Computers without hard drive or chips older than Pentium or non-color monitors.

Dot matrix printers.

Cribs or Baby equipment over 5 years old (safety code issues)

Sporting equipment over 5 years old

Large exercise equipment

Large furniture pieces

Christmas tree stands

Suitcases without wheels

Analog TV, VHS Tapes or Cassettes

Gas operated machinery

A Favor Please:

Toys - please bundle parts together

Men’s suits and jackets – please mark the size and pin to lapel.

Mark linen sizes

Books – only current novels, historical & children’s books

Shoes – only in good condition.

Vestry Members:

Rector: The Rev. Richard M.C. Morley

Senior Warden: Sean Gogerty

Junior Warden: Martha Heiner

Buildings: John Lyga

Christian Ed. Kristen Hauser

Comm. / Evangelism: Marliese Knill

Fellowship: Sandy Gogerty

Finance: Matt Seitz

Grounds: Steve Kujan

Membership: Lily Chan

Outreach: Jody Hough

Stewardship: Gerald Creighton

Non-Vestry Positions:
Warden Emeritus: Jeff West
Treasurer: Teri Passarello
Recording Treasurer: Doug Post
Assistant Treasurer: Bruce Walker
Sunday School Director: John Lyga
J2A Coordinator: Chip Rubendall
Music Director: Mike McCormick

Parish Admin: Ann Millan

Sexton: Martin Hale

Our Online Directory

Have you downloaded our online directory app to your smart phone or tablet yet? It's really easy and so convenient to have! Follow this link for step-by-step instructions.

Prefer to use your computer? No problem! Click here for instructions on how to get connected with your computer.

Once you are in the directory you will be able to update your own information and even upload a new photo.

Give the office a call if you need any assistance.