The Reverend Dr. Deborah Jackson

It is with great pleasure that I announce that the Reverend Dr. Deborah Jackson has agreed to be our National Junior Chaplain.  Mother Deborah is a native of Jacksonville, Florida, and currently serves as the Associate Dean for Community Life at The School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. She served as a priest at several churches in the Diocese of Florida before beginning this position in Sewanee last fall. She is delighted to be back in Sewanee at The School of Theology, having graduated from there with her Masters of Divinity in 2007.

Mother Deborah has been a Daughter of the King for over ten years, and her daughter was a Junior Daughter for a short while.  Daughters in Province IV may remember her from the retreat she led a couple of years ago at Kanuga.  I know that she has some wonderful ideas and skills to bring to the Junior Daughters.  Hopefully, we will be hearing from her on the Junior Daughters Facebook page soon, and perhaps even in the Junior Directress Yahoo Group.  She joined the team too late to get an article from her published in the next Junior Messenger, since it is currently in production, but perhaps in the following one.  In one form of communication or another, we look forward to hearing directly from her before too long.

Susan Keith

National Junior Daughter Directress

Have your chapters finished their quilt squares?  We need to have them all in before the Junior Directress Retreat in August.  We cannot lay the quilt out without knowing how many squares we will have (no placeholders allowed). 

Please finish them and send them in to St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Attn: Brandylee Marsh, 15415 N Eldridge Pkwy, Cypress, TX 77429.  If you have questions about the quilt squares, email me Susan Keith.

If you haven't already, now is the time to register for the National Junior Directress Retreat at Camp Allen, August 7-10, 2014.  Click here to register.

Susan Keith

Junior Daughters National Directress

The dues packets for the next fiscal year, 2014-2015, are currently being printed and assembled for mailing in the next couple of weeks. Chapter Presidents should expect to receive their packets by the beginning of June.  If you do not receive your packet, please contact the National Office at (770) 517-8552 ext 24 to determine the status of your specific packet.

Dues ($40) for Fiscal Year 2014-2015 are due on September 1, 2014.  Please collect your chapter's dues over the summer in order to meet the submission deadline.  

We are delighted to let you know that this may be the final year we do Chapter Dues Packets!  As the Order transitions to a new membership software (see information below), the dues payment process will change to allow individual Daughters to pay their dues directly.

As many of you know, I've been seeking ideas for service projects and have asked for chapters to let me know what they are doing.  At our Colorado Assembly retreat, Joan Dalrymple told me about a service project her chapter in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, does at Christmastime.  They work with a grocery chain that is willing to provide non-perishable food for Christmas Dinners.  Parishioners are also invited to offer donations so gift certificates for a turkey can be included.  Once the food has been gathered, the chapter puts the food in bags with handles, includes a gift certificate for the turkey and a prayer of blessing.  The bag is then tied with ribbon and taken to "Lift", the local thrift store, which distributes them to those who need them.  I love this project because it has a beginning and an end, the entire chapter can work together to accomplish a wonderful service, and it works for any holiday.  Small communities could benefit especially well from this project.

If your chapter has a special service project that involves the whole chapter working together, and is willing to share, please send it to me at Lyn Zolman  and I'll add it to my "basket" to share with other chapters through Cross+Links or the Royal Cross.

Lyn Zolman

Service and Evangelism Chair

The deadline to submit "Around the Province" articles, photos, or other news items for inclusion in the Summer edition of The Royal Cross is June 15, 2014.  Any submissions received after June 15 will be included in the Winter 2015 edition of The  Royal Cross.  The Fall issue of The Royal Cross will be our special Triennial 2015 edition, dedicated to bringing you all the information you need to plan and prepare for Triennial 2015.  Thank you for your cooperation.

Ann Holmes

Royal Cross Editor

The search - 

for self,

for wisdom,

for love,

for truth,

for justice,

for God - 

is strenuous and unending.

We need good companions

in order to persevere in it.

In good company,

in a community of conviction,

the quest never loses its relevance,

its urgency,

or its savor.

Kaye Ashe, OP

Sinsinawa Dominicans