Episcopal Church of Our Saviour

Lent is a time of preparation for Christians through prayer, repentance, self-denial, and alms-giving for the commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.  While Lenten habits of self-denial are not as extreme today as they were in the Early Church, modern Christians traditionally give up something that is near and dear to them, an indulgence, or a bad habit, and contribute the funds they save through self-denial to a charity or to the church as acts of repentance and alms giving.   

As you know the mortgage is of great concern to the membership of Our Saviour as is the amount of interest Our Saviour has to pay every month as debt service.  During Lent the Stewardship Committee will be sponsoring a Lenten Alms Campaign called “Alms for the Mortgage”.  Beginning on February 26^th and continuing each Sunday through Palm Sunday, there will be an extra set of baskets at the stairs.  As you go  up to take communion, please prayerfully consider placing your Lenten Alms in the “Alms for the Mortgage”.  It is an opportunity to become  better stewards of God’s house.

Would you like to get to know our new Priest-in-Charge a little better? 

Janice and her husband, Pierre, have three children and four grandchildren. She has a Bachelor of Arts and Master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a Master’s of  Divinity from Duke Divinity School, and a Master’s of Sacred Theology from the University of the South, Sewanee.  Janice comes to Our Saviour after serving as the rector for eight years at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Prior to St. Bede’s, Janice served as a rector for eight years at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.

Janice brings to Our Saviour a great many spiritual, liturgical, pastoral, and leadership skills that will help our parish mature and grow both internally and in the community.  Janice begins her ministry here on Sunday, March 4, 2012.

You have a chance to meet The Rev. Janice Chalaron and get to speak with her at one of the following “Meet and Greets:”

• March 13
• March 15
• March 20
• March 22

The small group will meet with The Rev. Janice Chalaron at 6:15 p.m. each of those nights in the parish hall; Compline will follow each “Meet and Greet” at 7:00 p.m. in the church.

To make a reservation, please email Barbara at Barbara@ecoos.org, or call the church office on or before March 4. You will be notified of the time for your scheduled “Meet and Greet.”

COOS ANNUAL CHILI COOK-OFF: 01/29/12
Mark your calendars for Sunday, January 29, for the Annual
Chili Cook-off.  This year, all proceeds will be designated for

the Habitat for Humanity Faith House.

Join us in the parish hall after the 10:30 service on January 29.
Many crock-pots of chili (including veggie chili) will be served, all
prepared by anonymous COOS secret chefs.  Come hungry and plan to sample the chili. A celebrity panel will be judging the entries to decide on the winner.

If you are interested in entering the contest, please contact Linda Campfield via email: Lcampfield@comporium.net or voicemail: 366.7332.  We also need volunteers to bring other items such as condiments for the chili, cornbread, desserts, and PBJ sandwiches or chicken nuggets for the children who do not prefer chili.  Contact Linda if you can bring something.

Tickets go on sale during the month of January in the parish hall after both services.  On the day of the cook-off, we will have two entry lines…one express lane for those with pre-purchased tickets; and another line for those who buy tickets at the door…..so avoid the wait….buy your tickets ahead of time to get in the “fast lane to chili.”

Ticket prices (all you can eat or until it runs out)

Adults:  $7.00

Children (up to 10 years old):   $3.00
Family of 4 or more:  $20.00

Takeout:  $5.00 (per single serving)

Remember: “Eat Chili for Habitat for Humanity”

Bishop Duvall will be with the congregation at both the 8:00 a.m. service and the 10:30 a.m. service. At the 10:30 a.m. Eucharist, we will have several baptisms and confirmations. Following the service, there will be a Festive Coffee Hour. We hope you will join us for this special occasion of his visit!

AND THAT’S WHAT CHURCH WARDENS DO!

As you can see from the title that a catchy tune from Camelot has been running through my mind as I write this on October 12.
When Dudley and I became Wardens in February, we thought we were in office for a normal year with him caring for the building and grounds, me taking care of the finances; both of us on a number of committees and attending vestry meetings. It was very daunting when Charlie Foss at our early Wardens’ meetings kept emphasizing to me that if a priest is not available, the responsibility of the functioning of the church falls to the Senior Warden. It was even more daunting when he announced his retirement and then Mary Cat also departed. Charlie Foss left with us ( as his gift to Our Saviour ) a planned service rota though August, and with the help of Fr. Diggs, Fr. Walters, Fr. Mills, and Fr. Dunbar, we have a service rota through the end of 2011. Due to our lack of full time clergy some changes for this year had to be made.
First, we will not be having a service on Thanksgiving. There will be a Wednesday service that week and our supply priests will be spending Thanksgiving with their families.
Second, since neither Fr. Diggs nor Fr. Walters were available for the 11:00 pm service, Our Saviour will be having only one Christmas Eve Service at 4:00 in the afternoon.
Third, on advice from the diocese, even though a Sunday, we will be having only one service on Christmas Day at 10:00 am.
Last, there will be the regular two Sunday services on New Year’s Day, January 1, with our annual hymn sing.
Just because we are presently without a parish priest-in-charge, do not begin to think that Our Saviour is without leadership. You have twelve members of the Vestry who are devoted to this church, a dedicated staff, an active Day School, and many committees all working hard to make sure that Our Saviour has the leadership it needs in this time of transition.
The Diocese has been busy these past several months pre-screening possible candidates for priest-in-charge positions for Our Saviour and four other congregations. Our Vestry will be receiving information on October 17 and then will begin again our interview process. The Vestry will keep you up to date as we progress, but keep in mind that we are limited in what we can say when dealing with personnel issues.
So, what do the Wardens do at Our Saviour? They do everything, with the advice and counsel of the rest of the Vestry that is usually done by a parish priest, to keep the church running except perform the sacraments; and, even for those we have to make provisions. So have faith that God will provide; keep us in your prayers; and, help by participating in church activities as we prepare for our future.

God Bless you all.

Genevieve Long
Sr. Warden

Check out our latest acorn newsletter and see what’s happening at ECOOS!  Here are some things to look for:  Stewardship news, Choir Retreat, Halloween party; our middle schoolers are going to Gravatt  and the Diocese Convention will be in Aiken, SC!

Welcome to the new Our Saviour website! You’ll notice that our old name, oursaviourrockhill.org now redirects to this new site, with a new domain name: ecoos.org That’s short for the Episcopal Church of Our Saviour. This will make the site much easier to find for visitors and share with your friends. Please bookmark, tweet, facebook, email, and share us any way you want, now with less typing! Remember, we’re now ecoos.org

You can find most of your favorite areas of the old site by clicking the black navigation bar above. Directions, contact information, links to the Acorn Newsletter, and information regarding the Our Saviour Foundation are all there. We’ll be adding a calendar soon, too.

At the very top of the page, you’ll find a link to our facebook page (blue with the white f). The orange icon is a link to our RSS feed. You can click that and receive email updates for whenever we update our site or post a new newsletter, or you can subscribe with a “feedreader” (like the Google Reader) that pulls in all the new information from all of your favorite websites, including news sites, blogs, and more. Here’s more info: RSS in Plain English.