Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, February 20 at 10 a.m. in the Conference Room. We will begin with 20 min. of Contemplative Prayer followed with the continuation of our study on Falling Upward by Fr. Richard Rohr. All are welcome to join us! No experience necessary.
The Women at the Well are hosting their annual Soup Sale on February 9th and 10th. Pre-orders are now being taken through February 3rd. You can place orders for Italian Wedding Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup and Vegetarian Chili by ordering after church on February 2nd or 3rd. Orders can also be made by emailing Diane Wall at markdiwall@comcast.net. The cost is $8 per quart and payments can be made with cash or check.
The pre-sold soup will be distributed on the 9th and 10th after the church services. Each kind of soup can also be purchased on the 10th. This year we will be offering a special limited amount of Bacon Cheddar Potato soup for sale on the 10th. It will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. Proceeds from the Soup Sale will benefit the Wasilnak Scholarship Fund.
The December Taize Service will be held on Saturday, December 22 at the 5:30 p.m. service. This is a contemplative service focused on chant, scripture and silent reflection, followed by the Eucharist. Take time from the chaos to reflect on the true meaning of this holy season.
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ANNUAL PITMAN CHURCH OF THE GOOD SHEPHERD
“HOLLY FAIR” SET FOR SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1st
The Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church of Pitman (Gloucester County) is pleased to announce that it will again hold its annual “Holly Fair” on Saturday, December 1st from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm.
Popular with area residents celebrating the start of the Christmas season, the Holly Fair features 25 area crafters with a wide array of unique handmade gifts, including home-made crafts created by Church parishioners. (Crafters interested in participating may register by November 26th by emailing goodshepherdpitman@gmail.com or visiting goodshepherdpitman.org)
Food abounds in the Good Shepherd Restaurant, featuring homemade soups, sandwiches for breakfast and lunch and more! Take out service is also available. A variety of delicious holiday favorite homemade baked goods will also be offered and our popular cookies by the pound offer is returning!
The popular St. Nick’s Children’s Craft Center is returning, and bargains galore can be found in the Christmas Store, the Dollar Store and the More than a Dollar Store featuring new and gently used holiday decorations, household items, gifts and trinkets.
A limited supply of fresh wreaths and grave blankets will be available for sale, but come early as they are always a sell-out.
The Good Shepherd Choir will be performing throughout the day to entertain you while you shop. With caroling, the smell of soups and baked goods, and the colors of Christmas abounding, you’ll really get into the spirit of the season!
Good Shepherd is conveniently located at 315 Highland Terrace (at Wildwood Avenue) in historic Pitman, Gloucester County. It is easily accessible from Route 55, Delsea Drive (Route 47), Woodbury-Glassboro Road (Route 553) and Broadway/Main Street.
For more information and/or to participate as a crafter, please visit the Church’s website at www.goodshepherdpitman.org, email goodshepherdpitman@gmail.com, or call the church office at 856-589-8209.
On Sunday, November 11th we will be celebrating both Veteran’s day and the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Armistice ending World War I during our 10AM Sunday Service. If you have your uniform, memorabilia or photographs of you or your family members time in the military, please bring it with you to share with everyone that day. We will be setting up space in the Parish hall for display. Local veterans groups have been asked to join us for our service as well.
Our monthly breakfast will also start that day beginning at 9AM.
Stewardship = Time + Talent + Treasure. The focus of our campaign is to highlight the many ministries that take place here at Good Shepherd because they represent so much time, talent and treasure given by you, our Good Shepherd family.
Our ministries are plentiful and the fabric of our church. Throughout the month, some of our parishioners will reflect on what serving in these ministries has meant to them.
Our campaign will end the weekend of October 27 and 28 with our Festival of Ministries. You are invited to see what we all do for each other, our community and our world with our time, talent and treasure.
Festival of Ministries Preview with Wine and Cheese
Saturday, October 27th after the 5:30 service
Festival of Ministries
Sunday, Oct 28 after the 10:00 service
Good Shepherd depends on your financial support to be able to operate and continue to grow. Letters and Estimate of Giving Cards have been sent out to our church family members who did not pledge in the Spring. We ask you to prayerfully consider your gift to support the work of Christ at Good Shepherd. If you pledged in the Spring, thank you! We are most grateful for your support.
Please return your card before or during the events celebrating Good Shepherd at the close of the campaign on October 28th.
Thank you for your continuous and generous support with your time, talent and treasure.
Together in Christ,
The Stewardship Committee and your Vestry
The time is almost here. Next Friday, July 19th at 7:00 PM is the Good Shepherd Family Quiz Bowl. Teams are forming and we need your team! We will be selling tickets and signing up teams this weekend. If you will not be at church this weekend and you would like to form a team or do not have a team and want to come, just email Diane Wall at markdiwall@comcast.net. You can pay at the door. The cost is $10/person and children under 12 are free.
This event is being sponsored by the Women at the Well and the proceeds will benefit the Well Fund. We are very close to reaching our goal of $5,000. Thank you to everyone who has supported us through this project.
The Women at the Well have a wonderful evening of family fun planned for October 19th in the Parish Hall. They are hosting Good Shepherd’s first ever Family Quiz Bowl. It is being led by Brian Startare, Quizzo host extraordinaire. Participants are invited to bring a team of 4-6 family members and/or friends, as well as their own refreshments. There will be questions for people of all ages and prizes will be awarded to the top three teams. Admission is $10 per person, children under 12 are free. Tickets will be sold after church every weekend up through October 15th.
The Women at the Well are very close to reaching their goal of $5,000 raised by the end of 2018 to fund a well through Episcopal Relief and Development. The proceeds from this event will benefit the well project.
Our next Brotherhood of St. Andrew meeting is scheduled for this coming Wednesday (9/5) at 7 PM in the conference room at church. We are beginning to prepare for our Brotherhood lunch which coincides with the Bishop’s visit for the confirmand service. We hope you can be there.
For more information regarding the Brotherhood please visit the Brotherhood Website.
More commonly, churches maintain their youth Christian education program for grades K through eighth. At Good Shepherd, we believe it’s important (arguably even more important) for our older kids to participate in some sort of youth education program. Let’s face it, high school is tough–and it seems kids face even more challenges these days.
One of the goals of our Sunday school program is to not only provide our children the knowledge of God’s love, but also understand how His love can help guide them even after they exit the ‘big red doors’ each Sunday. For our High School students, this means providing the opportunity to hear how our adult parishioners implement their faith into their day-to-day lives. One way we do this is through our High School guest speaker program.
Last year the students were fortunate to engage and interact with some of our adult parishioners; hearing first hand about challenges, overcoming obstacles, volunteer work, and other topics that demonstrate the act of implementing the guidance and support they receive through knowing and understanding God’s love.
After each guest speaker discussion, we always receive very positive feedback from the students. High schooler, Victoria Nelson shares her experience with the program.”
“Having guest speakers coming into the high school class has given me a different perspective on how others live their daily lives. The guest speakers speak on a topic that relates to their job or something they have to deal with; they talk on how their church life and faith helps them get through this thing they talk about. This exposes us to other careers, organizations, and issues going on that we can do or help with. When the speakers come into the class, they allow use to have a better idea of why having a faith in the “real world” is important.”
We typically include a guest speaker as each month as part of the high school curriculum. In order to continue this program’s success, we need your help! Please contact Amanda McNally or Kathy Pastiu if you’d like to be a guest speaker or would like to know more about the program.
We’re starting off with a bang this fall! Everyone
needs a Homecoming celebration. Let’s have one
here! Maybe, for one reason or another (you may not
even remember why!) you have just not been
attending church for the past few weeks, months,
maybe years.
Homecoming Sunday gives you the
opportunity to check us out again! Refresh your
memories of Church of the Good Shepherd.
Reintroduce yourself to the flock! Become
acquainted or better acquainted with our wonderful,
meaningful ministries, both inreach and outreach.
Enjoy the company of your Good Shepherd Family!
On Saturday, September 8, after the 5:30 PM
service, we celebrate Homecoming Eve. On
Sunday, September 9, after the 10 AM service, we
celebrate Homecoming Sunday.
Come enjoy hot dogs and chips, corn on the cob, lemonade and
other treats!
Please bring your favorite dessert to share!
Our efforts to “Go Green” at the Church of the Good Shepherd have been quite successful. Many thanks to our Property Committee for making many valuable changes in that direction before it was even decided to officially “Go Green”! We have new boilers, locked thermostats, new commercial dishwasher, new LED light bulbs, etc.
During our June Vestry meeting, we agreed to form a Green Team to implement environmentally friendly changes at the Church. A lot has been accomplished since that decision was made. We specifically focused our efforts on reducing the use of paper, plastic and Styrofoam during Coffee Hour. On July 22, 2018, we kicked off our campaign by using ceramic plates, cups and serving dishes in lieu of paper and plastic products. Since then, we have started using real silverware rather than disposable plastic utensils. We also switched to using the Church of the Good Shepherd mugs since the old ceramic cups simply aren’t practical as they are very small and difficult to manage.
The response from parishioners has been overwhelmingly positive, and the support and encouragement from our Coffee Hour hosts has been tremendous. We have received several great suggestions to make the Coffee Hour process easier. Please keep those ideas coming! We also created a brand new Going Green logo to make our announcements easier to spot. Many thanks to Katherine Kaltwasser for creating this for us!
We have a significant amount of non-recyclable products already stored in our kitchen. We know that there will be occasions when using ceramic dishware is simply not practical and these may be the times to use the products we already have in stock. Additionally, we currently serve cold beverages using non-recyclable plastic cups (as they are not recyclable in Pitman). We are looking into different options to resolve this.
The support of Good Shepherd as we strive to be good stewards of the Earth is greatly appreciated, although not surprising! Thanks everyone!
Adult choir practice begins September 6th at 7PM in the choir room and resumes singing at the “Welcome Home” Sunday morning 10AM service on September 9th. We are always looking for new members. If you are interested please contact Meg Cornely or speak to any choir member for more information.
Did you know that by being a woman member of Good Shepherd, you are a member of our chapter of Episcopal Church Women. Women at the Well is Good Shepherd’s chapter of the NJ Diocese ECW. We encourage any woman who would like to be involved with Women at the Well to join us at our meetings. Attendance is not mandatory if you join us. It is more about fellowship and getting involved in our outreach projects. We have fun while coming up with ways to help others.
Our meetings are the second Monday of the month from September to June. We usually meet at 7:00 PM in the parish hall. Our first meeting of this season is September 10th. Please come out and join us and see what we are all about!
Come help make more Squirrels’ Nest envelopes during Coffee Hour on Sunday, August 19. Together it will be fun and be done in a blink!
Have ideas for our Sunday School program? Interested in helping out? Join us Thursday, August 16th from 7pm – 8pm in the conference room to plan for the upcoming school year!
Also, please be sure to register your students!
The classrooms are quiet during these lazy, hot days of summer but before we know it, when the bell rings during the service, the children will soon be flooding through the doors to join their families. The start of the 2018/2019 Sunday School year is only eight Sundays away and preparations are in full swing!
Registration for the 2018/2019 year is open using the registration link here. The calendar is now posted and we have some great activities planned, but in order to ensure we have another successful year, we need your help! Please prayerfully consider volunteering for one of the many volunteer roles within our program. A few areas you can consider lending a hand…
Teachers:
We know you’re busy so we’ve simplified the teaching process. Teachers now volunteer for four to five-week terms and are paired with a partner (you are welcome to choose your teaching partner). Curriculum is simple with no prep needed and although its self-explanatory, we do offer training for anyone interested.
Sign up to teach on the board in the Parish Hall or contact Amanda McNally or Kathy Pastiu.
Bible Story-tellers:
Unable to commit to a teaching term but still enjoy working with kids? Volunteering to tell a Bible story is for you! Our story-tellers select a Sunday of their choosing to spend 10 to 15 minutes at the start of the service telling a Bible story to the children.
Sign up to tell a Bible story on the board in the Parish Hall or contact Pat Braidwood.
Youth Fellowship Leaders:
Four Sundays per year we hold a Youth Fellowship lesson with the entire Sunday School. Youth Fellowship can be a lesson based on the lectionary or an outreach activity.
Interested in leading a Youth Fellowship? Sign up on the board in the Parish Hall or contact Amanda or Kathy. We can help you choose and plan your activity.
Committee Leaders:
Prefer to help out ‘behind the scenes’? Starting this year, we will be re-introducing Sunday School committees which will include; Program Events, Teacher Recruitment and Children’s Snack. More information regarding committees will be forthcoming. If you are interested in signing up for a committee, please contact Amanda or Kathy.
Whether you decide volunteer or simply register your child to attend, we are thrilled you are a part of our Sunday School program and are looking forward to another successful year!
