This Week's Pete's Epistle

23rd May, 2024

"Invite, Support, Encounter"

Congratulations to All of Our Graduates

As the school year comes to a close, we are thrilled to celebrate the incredible achievements of our graduates at every level of education. Whether you are graduating from kindergarten, high school, or college, your hard work, dedication, and perseverance have led you to this significant milestone. We couldn't be prouder of each and every one of you.

We also want to extend our heartfelt thanks to the families, friends, and educators who have supported our graduates throughout their journeys. Your encouragement, guidance, and unwavering support have been instrumental in helping them reach this moment.

As you all move forward, remember that graduation is not the end, but a new beginning. Embrace the opportunities and challenges that come your way, stay curious, remain resilient, and continue to strive for excellence. Congratulations to all of our graduates from kindergarten through college! We can't wait to see all the amazing things you will accomplish in the future.

Here's to Your Success!

From the Rector...

Our school, like many, concludes its traditional school year this week as we head into Memorial Day weekend. We will offer the prayer for heroic service to recognize those who gave their all in service of our country this weekend, and sing a song that celebrates and inspires our citizenship as spiritual people.

The snowbirds have departed Arizona and nice mornings are followed by mainly hot afternoons.

I said on Sunday that Deacon Gay’s responding to God’s call to develop a ministry to incarcerated women has not only blessed the lives of many women, it has changed us as a congregation. Serving others became a basic part of our being as Christians, and loving people who may not feel loved or respected enough.

The changing of roles in carrying out ministry is part of God’s plan for us. Deacon Gay will continue to bless us with her ministry, but she will have the opportunity to redirect some of her energy and be a good steward of herself, to sustain her journey and ministries.

God has ways for all of us to serve, and God wants us all to care for ourselves not as complacent, but as growing people focused on where we can be a blessing, and be blessed.

I hope your summer gives you moments of reflection about where you and God see your energy being renewed and focused, and your mind and imagination stirred by love.

In Christ’s love,

Pastor James

Warden’s Corner

What a colorful weekend at St. Peter’s. The Pentecost red theme in the Sanctuary is so pretty, it’s too bad it is only for 1 day! I hung the banners for Judy Saturday morning and will change them out this week! It was a beautiful service and a great message and heartfelt goodbye from Deacon Gay as she passes on the leadership of our Prison Ministry to Jayin Wavrik. If you missed her message and the testimonials by just a few of the hundreds of women who have been helped by her Prison Ministry you can see them here: Pentecost and Prison Ministry.

Your Vestry met last week and had a productive meeting. Judy Wilson led a committee to review church finances and the team came up with several recommendations but did not find any major issues. Your Vestry is fiscally responsible and we welcome the leadership of our new Treasurer Ken Remley. Another big item on the Vestry agenda was to identify and approve 3 new Vestry members to serve out the rest of the year and then they will likely be selected to complete a full Vestry term of up to 3 years at our next annual meeting.

I would like to welcome aboard and thank the following members:

Ian Anderson

Ian grew up with St. Peter’s and is currently an active member of our young adult group and a valued member of the Tech Team.

Sue Tearpak

Sue is a more recent arrival to St. Peter’s but has embraced our Faith Community and is active in the Daughters of the King and has supported many of our recent fellowship events.

Olufisayo Akinnaso

Fisayo and his wife Soba moved to Arizona a couple years ago and found St. Peter’s! You will see them with their little girl Dami Sundays at the 10 AM service. Fisayo supports the Tech Team and will be helping with our web presence and social media in the future.

Each of these new members will provide a fresh and unique perspective to your Vestry to help us grow in God’s love and to ensure our parish continues to flourish!

WV NAACP Youth Council Needs Volunteers and Snack Donations

You may recall that the West Valley chapter of the NAACP launched its youth council last fall and has been meeting monthly at St. Peter's. The youth have bonded and learned a lot over the school year. The group will be taking a break from regular meetings over the summer, but the leaders have organized a wonderful civic engagement program for 10 weeks while school is out. Youth ages 16-21 will be phone banking to encourage people to register to vote and exercise their suffrage rights. The youth will meet from 3-8 p.m. at St. Peter's on Tuesdays through Friday evenings, June 8th through August 19th. The youth will learn about voting, get phone bank training, and will even be paid a stipend for their work. But the youth council needs our help for this program!

First, they are looking for volunteers to supervise the youth phone banks. There is training for prospective volunteers. You can volunteer as little or as much as you like, on whichever dates work for your schedule.

Second, the youth council needs in-kind beverage/snack donations to keep fuel in the tank as the youth do their work. They are looking for donations of cases of sports drinks, juice, water, chips, crackers and other nonperishable, single serving snacks.

To volunteer or donate, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/QD4bNp5BvEA3ii4W6 . If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to call or text Claudine at 623-237-1080.

History of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church

Carter Wilson is updating the 'History of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church' for the Parish’s 60^th anniversary this year. He is interested in hearing from anyone with stories that they believe should be included, especially current or former parishioners who joined the parish in 1976 or earlier, or anyone who knows the names of any who joined by 1976. Contact Carter at carter@stpetersaz.org or 623-536-5286.

Community of Hope International (COHI)

Are you familiar with COHI? It’s a small group of St. Peter’s parishioners who are trained to visit those who would like a lay pastoral visit and/or to receive communion at home when unable to attend church for some reason. This lay pastoral care ministry is rooted in Benedictine Spirituality, to be a listening presence to those who are ill, grieving, lonely or dying. Volunteers in this ministry include Linda Schlabach (Ministry Lead), Carolyn Beougher, Shelley Krispin, Carol Churchill, Dave Goodwin, Barbara Wood and Phyllis Winters. To arrange a visit, contact outreach@stpetersaz.org or call the Church office if you’d prefer.

Volunteers for St. Peter's Juneteenth Booth

For the second year in a row, SP's will have a booth at Goodyear's Juneteenth celebration, which is from 6-9 p.m. on Wednesday, June 19th. Our primary goals are to support the celebration of this important holiday and to honor the African American community. We are looking for volunteers to work at our booth. Volunteers would need to arrive no later than 5 p.m. to help set up and to stay until we finish taking down our booth (approximately 9:30 p.m.). Volunteers would greet patrons, hand out swag and answer questions about SP's. If you are interested, please call or text Claudine at 623-237-1080.

Young Adult Group

Young Adult Group Summer Events

Our group is open to anyone between 18-39 and our Instagram page is: SPYAGroup.

We have two events this weekend:

Restaurant Meet-Up. On Friday, May 24th at 7:30 p.m., we are having a restaurant meet-up dinner event at Cheddar's in Goodyear . Jossie is our host. It will be a "Dutch treat" event where everyone pays for their own meal. If you would like to attend but have not RSVP'd to Jossie, please call or text Claudine at 623-237-1080.
The Pastor and the Pollinators. We are taking a field trip on the morning of Saturday, May 25th with Pastor James to visit his well-behaved beeyard. Spend some quality time with our pastor and learn something about a key part of our local ecosystem! We will meet at the church parking lot at 9 a.m., then carpool out to the beeyard. We will be stopping off for refreshing beverages on the way back to the church parking lot. Not everyone is comfortable with bees and that's ok. If you don't want to visit the beeyard, but would like to get refreshing beverages with us at the end of the field trip, contact Claudine for meet-up logistics.

Here are the other summer events we have planned so far:

Taco Bar and Origami. On Sunday, June 9th at 11:30 a.m., generous parishioners will treat the Young Adults to a free homecooked meal in Celebration Hall. Additionally, Lucia will be leading us in a fun and relaxing origami activity. All food and origami supplies will be provided!
June Game Night. On Saturday, June 22nd at 6:30 p.m., we will have our June game night hosted by Riv in the church library. Feel free to bring games and/or snacks to share.
Family Promise. On Saturday, July 6th at 4 p.m., we will cook and then serve a meal for guests staying at our parish campus for a week as part of the Family Promise interfaith ministry, which supports families experiencing homelessness. Our group will meet up at 4 p.m. in the kitchen of Celebration Hall to cook for the families and then will serve the meal at 6 p.m.
July Game Night. On Saturday, July 13th at 6:30 p.m., we will have our July game night. Ian will be our July host. You are welcome to bring games and/or snacks to share. We will meet in the church library.

VBS 2024: God's Family Tree

Dates: Monday—Friday, June 24-28,

Time: 8:00—11:00 a.m.

Ages: Children ages 3-10

June 24-28, all children ages 3-10 are invited to join us for a week of faith-filled fun as we explore what the story of Zacchaeus can teach us about living as part of God's family. Registration is now open! Pick up a registration form at church or download it from the St. Peter's website here; you can also register digitally on Realm.

Snack Donations: We are collecting donations of staple snack items for VBS week. Please consider contributing Ritz crackers, pretzel sticks, graham crackers, animal crackers, corn chips, gluten-free crackers, Rice Krispies treats, or Otter Pops. Watch for changes to this list as the weeks go by!

You may purchase tickets for this raffle from Paster James or Muriel Hiller.

Contact: outreach@stpetersaz.org

Community Outreach Ministry Advisory Panel (COMAP)

Facilitator: Carolyn Beougher

Volunteer Coordinator: Martie Polk

Veteran’s Ministry

St Peter’s Veteran’s Ministry is looking for a few extra helping hands for the monthly lunch on the fourth Friday of every month. It is an easy ministry to jump into because the committed ministry leads and volunteers have everything planned and scheduled—-we really do just need some willing hands and smiling faces to help out in the summer months.

The next lunch is Friday, May 25 and there are three opportunities to help:

Thursday 5/24: 2:30p-4:30p in the church kitchen bagging fried chicken and preparing biscuits
Friday 5/25: 9:30a-11:30a in the church kitchen, baking biscuits, portioning grapes and packing up food and supplies for transport to the U.S. Vet’s Center
Friday 5/25 10:30a-12:45p delivering and serving the lunch at U.S. Vets Center —meet at church kitchen to carpool

Ministry Lead: Marylyn Bradley

Contact: outreach@stpetersaz.org

Volunteer Opportunity: RePete!

St. Peter’s thrift store, RePete Boutique, is looking for volunteers to help sort donations and/or staff the store during open hours. The need is greater as we enter the summer months! Please see Donna White, Deacon Gary, or any of the other RePete volunteers if you are interested.

Children's Ministry Volunteer Opportunities

Nursery Volunteers are needed to assist Holly during the Sunday 10:00 service. Please contact Debbie Quick for details.

Join the VBS volunteer staff! No need to volunteer all week; we can work with your schedule. Help with decorating, do a presentation or take part in a skit, handle with sign-ins or sign-outs, guide a group of children. Please contact Debbie Quick (debra.quick@stpetersaz.org or 602-614-9799) if you can help!

Luncheon Volunteers

Volunteer Cooks Needed for June 9th Luncheon

A few times a year, we provide a "reverse potluck" meal to our Young Adult group to show them how much the parish values them. Our next luncheon is on Sunday, June 9th at 11:30 a.m. The taco bar concept was so popular last winter, we are repeating that approach. We need volunteers to provide various parts of the meal. Some items require cooking, while others do not. Please go to the Meal Train link to volunteer: https://mealtrain.com/0m3m0z. Alternately, there will be a paper sign up in the narthex at church at weekend services. Please feel free to call or text Claudine if you have questions or want to volunteer: 623-237-1080.

Diocesan Cycle of Prayer

This week we pray for St. Peter's, Litchfield Park

We also pray for our companion Diocese: The Diocese of Western Mexico, Bishop Ricardo Gomez Osnaya.

Read the weekly email newsletter for the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona here. This newsletter includes reflections from The Rt. Rev. Bishop Jennifer Reddall, news, events, and updates throughout the diocese.