The Ordination of Father Tuck

February 4, 2010 in Altar Decoration, Architecture, Linens, Metalware, Potpourri, Special services | Tags: | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

Please click on the link below the vintage print to view a wonderful video made by Karen Vorbeck Williams at St. Stephen’s Church in Providence on the occasion of the ordination of Fr. Tuck on January 23th. The music on the video is from the S. Stephen’s Schola Cantorum’s album Stephen Full of Grace .  The Most Rev’d Frank T. Griswold ordained the Rev’d Michael G. Tuck to the Sacred Order of Priests.

 I know you will also enjoy seeing the beautiful chapel with the singular glass Gothic screen, the vestments, and the glorious procession.

Thanks, Karen!

http://www.sstephens.org/Photos.html#anchor_204

Crocheted Corners

February 3, 2010 in Altar Decoration, Altar Guild Projects, Altar Lace, Church Embroidery, Crochet Patterns, Dream Sacristy, Linens, We get mail | Tags: | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

We had an email about crocheted edgings on three or four corners and here is a pattern which addresses that situation and is also lovely, The Cross & Tudor Rose pattern has been around for awhile and was revived in the late 1960’s when needlecrafts again became popular. Notice how smooth and flat the corners lay using this approach for small linens or large ones. Just left mouse click on the photo and a larger version will open up for you to print out.

Candlemas

February 2, 2010 in Feastdays | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

The Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple celebrates an early episode in the life of Jesus, and falls on or around 2 February. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, it is one of the twelve Great Feasts, and is sometimes called Hypapante (lit., ‘Meeting’ in Greek). Other traditional names include Candlemas, the Feast of the Purification of the Virgin, and the Meeting of the Lord. In many Western liturgical churches, Vespers (or Compline) on the Feast of the Presentation marks the end of the Epiphany season. In the Church of England, the Presentation of Christ in the Temple is a Principal Feast celebrated either on 2 February or on the Sunday between 28 January and 3 February.  In some churches in our diocese, all the candles used for the Church Year are blessed on this day and the throats of the parishioners are blessed using two crossed candles held beneath the throat.

Tomorrow:  February 3rd is the feast in the Latin Rite of St. Blaise the Martyr, a saint often associated with the blessing of throats. For more about St. Blaise visit this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Blaise

Update on Haiti

January 21, 2010 in Announcements | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

January 16th re: The Sisters of St. Margaret

. . ..So far we know the Episcopal Church in Haiti has lost a cathedral, the Society of St. Margaret Convent, Holy Trinity Complex, College St. Pierre, and a Jubilee Center. The Bishop is alive, but has no place to live. The four missionaries are all accounted for – Mallory Holding, Jude Harmon, Oge Beauvoir and his wife Serette. The three sisters of St. Margaret who were at the convent are also alive, unhurt, and doing what they can to help in the football field of what used to be College St. Pierre.

How can Rhode Island help? 

  • Join us for “Music and Prayers for Haiti; A Benefit for Earthquake Relief” at 4pm on Sunday January 24th at the Cathedral of St. John, 271 North Main Street, Providence, RI. The evening will include music from a variety of Episcopal Choirs and brief comments from two Haitian speakers.  Donation offerings will be collected, make all checks out to Episcopal Charities, with “Haiti” noted on the Memo line. Email liz@episcopalri.org for more information. All proceeds will go to the earthquake relief initiatives of Episcopal Relief & Development and the Society of St. Margaret in Haiti.

Recommended Places to Donate:

  • Donate to Episcopal Relief & Development online at https://www.er-d.org/donate-select.php or by calling 800-334-7626 ext 5129.   ERD has a four star rating on Charity Navigator and meets all 20 standards of the Better Business Bureau.
  • Donate to The Episcopal Charities of Rhode Island’s Haiti Fund by calling (401)-274-4500 x234 peggy@episcopalri.org
  • Donate to the Sisters of St. Margaret, http://www.ssmbos.com/Pages/Haiti.html or mail a check to The Society of St. Margaret, 17 Highland Park Street, Boston, MA 02119

Raise Awareness in your parish and beyond:

  • Place a link to Episcopal Relief & Development on your congregation’s home page. http://www.er-d.org   
  • Check for updates on the Haiti page on Episcopal Relief & Development website http://www.er-d.org/HaitiEarthquakeResponse and our Diocesan blog www.episcopalri.blogspot.com
  • Share this information on Sunday and in your bulletin inserts. Bulletin inserts from Episcopal Relief & Development are available in both Spanish and English. http://www.er-d.org/BulletinInsertsCT/  
  • Please do not encourage anyone to travel to Haiti, as priority must be given to first responders and a few relief agencies so as not to over-burden the already compromised infrastructure.  

Thank you for all that you do in our Church.

Peace, Ruth Meteer

Communications Officer

The Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island

275 North Main St

Providence, RI 02903

(401) 274-4500

www.episcopalri.org

Haiti & the Sisters of St. Margaret

January 21, 2010 in Announcements, Catalogues & Artisans, Church Embroidery, Linens, Potpourri, Prayers, We get mail | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

Some altar guilds in the state have ordered small linens from the Sisters of St. Margaret in Haiti.  The convent motherhouse is in Massachusetts with a special mission in Haiti which has helped the local neighborhood by teaching sewing skills.  Sister Adele was usually the contact for ordering the small linens, all beautifully hemmed and embroidered.  The letter below from our bishop gives an update on their situation there.

Dear Friends,

We have all heard the devastating news from Haiti, and I’m sure that you prayed for the people of the country and the Diocese of Haiti. I have just (11AM) received news that St. Margaret’s convent, school, and orphanage have been destroyed, along with the Cathedral and Bishop’s residence. There is no word about the three sisters stationed there, the children at the orphanage, or the bishop and his family. If any of you receive word, please contact me as soon as possible.

Some of you have asked about donations. I have just received an SOS from Episcopal Relief and Development, and from the Society of St. Margaret. In the name of the diocese I will forward immediately, $3,000 to ERD and $2,000 to the sisters. Further contributions can be made to these entities, earmarked for Haiti. Funds sent to the Diocese, earmarked for Haiti or ERD, will be sent to ERD, as soon as possible. Please see below for information on how to make a donation.

Please keep me in your prayers as well, for one of the sisters in Haiti is a very close friend of mine.

In Christ,

+Gerry Wolf 

Society of St. Margaret

17 Highland Park Street

Boston, MA 02119-7120

http://www.ssmbos.com/Pages/Haiti.html

Episcopal Relief and Development

P.O. Box 7058
Merrifield,VA 22116-7058

Favorite Catalogues

January 13, 2010 in Art, Catalogues & Artisans, Church Decorating, Dream Sacristy, Furnishings, Gardens & Flower Shows, Hard to Find Supplies, Incense, Needs & Requests, Potpourri, Seasonal Needs, Suppliers | by Shelley Dziedzic | 3 comments

Happy New Year!  I have been down with the flu bug along with many others for the past two weeks.  I am hoping you have taken many great photos of your church decorated for Christmas and will share with us here. 

The catalogues are starting to come into my office so it must be January!  I love looking through all of the religious goods catalogues and finding new items.  You may want to keep one of those stand-up storage files in your sacristy for your supply catalogues.  Almy’s and Egan’s usually are sent routinely to the church office, but all companies will be delighted to send a catalogue and sometimes even fabric swatches and samples upon request.  If you have a good resource, please send me the company name so we can share it here. I will be posting catalogue resources this year beginning with Monastery Icons http://www.monasteryicons.com/

The company has a beautiful line of icons.  I ordered the St. Damiano crucifix to the left a few years ago for Taize prayer services.  You will enjoy surfing their website for cards, beautiful jewelry, statues, garden statuary, Celtic designs, incense, banners, and many other kinds of religious items.  There is a link on the site to request a free catalogue.  Perhaps someone in your altar guild will be appointed to maintain a catalogue supply archive for your sacristy.  It is always a help to have a catalogue with photos at the ready when a donor comes forward wishing to donate an item to the church.

Beauty in Unexpected Places

December 24, 2009 in Altar Decoration, Altar Guild Projects, Christmas, Church "Crawls", Church Decorating, Church Flowers, Seasonal Needs | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

Pew ends, wreaths on front doors and of course the altar are the usual and first places which come to mind when we set about making the sanctuary beautiful for Christmas.  And Christmas must carry on long after the 24th and look fresh and green.  On the to-do list of every altar guild is the upkeep and watering of the potted plants, the misting of fresh greens, and the constant refreshing of drooping floral decorations over the next 10 days. 

Sometimes, when decorating,  it is good to enter the front door of your church as if you were a visitor and not a long-term parishioner who knows every nook and cranny- or bring someone new into your church to get a fresh perspective.  Where does the eye rest when you first come in?  Is there a spot for a pedestal, a wreath, an arrangement?  The photo below is just inside a busy side entry at St. John’s, Newport.  It is a beautiful cobalt blue stained glass window with a very wide ledge in front.  Walmart’s had this 14″ Holy Family statue set for $12.99.  It makes a wonderful grouping for the Feast of the Holy Family, and a pleasant place to contemplate when one first enters the vestibule. Various greens, twigs, wild moss, rosemary sprigs,and potted small trees with a snowdrift of German statice for snow make up the very simple arrangement which is long-lasting and easy to do.

Don’t forget the rector’s pulpit!  Fresh green garland around the top, or a green wreath on the front of the pulpit will make an appealing focal point which will be noticed during the sermon.  This particular wineglass pulpit at St. John’s has a little staircase with a newelpost finial of St. Augustine.  The arrangement uses the wonderful eucalyptus with the large silvery frosty berries and aromatic greens arranged in a copper cone container along with beaded eucalyptus, white alstromeria and laurel leaves.  This arrangement lasted two weeks!  Every little niche and quiet corner may be the place for a few unexpected and sweet-smelling flowers or greens for Christmastide.  When large arrangements start to fade, salvage still-fresh blooms and greens to make up smaller arrangements for new places.  The possibilities are endless and pleasing-as well as economical.

Anthuriums for Christmas

December 21, 2009 in Altar Decoration, Christmas, Church "Crawls", Church Decorating, Church Flowers, Church Symbols, Feastdays | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

If you have a small shrine in a side aisle or chapel, don’t forget to add a few fresh greens and flowers over the niche or at the base of the statue when doing festival flowers.  This is a polychromed woodcarving by Davis D”Ambly of Philadelphia of a young St. John.  St. John is portrayed in the familiar coral and green vesture, with his symbol of the snake and chalice.  The diapered stenciled door panels in red and blue is a treatment often seen in English churches.

The pedestal to the left of the niche has a bit of a surprise for Christmas- anthuriums!  Usually thought of for tropical and exotic floral arrangements- anthuriums are actually a good value as they last a long time if properly tended-and the true red works well with poinsettia and traditional Christmas decoration.

A Christmas Past

December 20, 2009 in Altar Decoration, Brass and metalware, Christmas, Church Flowers, Cleaning Products- New & Improved!, Feastdays, Metalware, Paraments, Potpourri | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

While searching out last year’s boxed cards, I found a few photos from 2000 at St. John the Evangelist in Newport.  I will post some of these over the next few days leading up to Christmas Eve.  This one is probably a good one for this weekend as I imagine all over America the Altar Guild has been busy polishing brass and silver! How I wish I had a digital camera back in those days! 

This was our first “”white Christmas”- no red poinsettias.  The altar frontal was our oldest dating to about the building of the church in 1893.  This was the year of taking out all of our old brass, polishing it like the top of the Chrysler Building(which took weeks of hard work) – and putting up the huge altar cross which had been given from historic Trinity church when St. John’s was a mission on The Point.  The altar decoration was copied identically from one of the oldest photos in the church archive. I forget exactly how many candles went up- over 40- but Father said the heat was terrific and he needed oven mitts and an asbestos chasuble!

What did our brass squad use? MAAS metal cleaner-much better than Brasso or Never Dull.  And for silver?- Wright’s silver cream!

Outside were white bag luminaries up and down the street and up the front steps of Washington St.  White velvet ribbons, white poinsettias and white roses on the altar-  truly a Night of Light to remember always.

Rose Sunday Flowers

December 11, 2009 in Advent, Altar Decoration, Church Flowers, Feastdays, Potpourri, Special services, Vestments, We get mail | Tags: , | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

A few emails have come in this week about decorating for Rose Sunday on the 13th.  Rose refers to the color of the hangings and vestments, not the flower- although roses are beautiful, if somewhat expensive this time of year.  I like the Advent wreath below, which for Rose Sunday has been embellished slightly with a touch of lavender caspia, purple statice and a few pink blossoms picked into the greens.  The inexpensive small shrub roses would be ideal.  Since the Rose Sunday decoration will be coming down when Sunday has ended, it is a good idea to have a simple, modest display against the greens some churches use throughout Advent. 

A few simple pink roses in a vase of pristine water on the bulletin table at the back of church is a welcoming touch that announces this Sunday of Refreshment.  If your church is very large, with a great altar and reredos, you might consider something on a larger scale, in proportion to the worship space which can be seen from the back of church.  A custom which I kept at one of my former parishes was to use two very large stone altar urns filled with pink roses in several shades, lavender caspia, and salal greens, which at the end of the services would be dismantled and the roses going to the mothers of the parish or in bud vases to shut-ins or parishioners in the hospital . 

Here is a formal altar arrangement of matched silver vases using the purple, blue and pink colors of Advent with pink gerbera daisies as the pink rounds focus, and purple stocks and delphiniums for the spikes.  At this time of year, this would be an expensive flower choice.  I am a big fan of carnations, which are a bargain just now, and are especially lovely when used as the sole flower in the arrangement, large single heads mixed with  multi-headed miniature carnation stems, and silvery eucalyptus for greens and spikes.

Here is an arrangement I did of yellow roses which sets elevated behind a center tabernacle.  Several bricks are used which are hidden behind to raise up the arrangement, and a long plastic green window box holds 4 bricks of Oasis foam inside.  This arrangement uses 24 long stemmed, large-headed roses and could be very effective done in shades of pink roses for Rose Sunday.

Here is a simple loose asymmetrical arrangement using lilies and freesia (costly at this time of year).  Local supermarkets do have some very pretty pink lilies just now, but it is more the shape than the flower type of interest here. This could be done just as nicely with small pink roses, a few larger pink roses, and the baby’s breath or some purple statice.  This is one of a pair, with the opposite side reversed on the other side of the cross.

Throughout the coming weeks, do have someone from the altar guild designated to take photographs of your church decorations- how often do we wish we had done this when January rolls around? It is a practical record for future altar guilds  and a treasure for the church archives.  For those altar guilds having Christmas parties over the next two weeks, be sure to take a group photo and put the names and date on the back.  An altar guild photo album will provide so many wonderful memories over the years. And please do send in photos of your Advent and Christmas decorations to share here!  (Revdma@aol.com)

A Touch of Glitter

December 9, 2009 in Altar Guild Projects, Christmas, Church Decorating, Church Flowers, Feastdays, Potpourri, Seasonal Needs | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

Martha Stewart’s Crystal Glitter

I was excited to find Martha Stewart’s excellent fine glitter at Walmart’s yesterday.  This is the old-fashioned lovely stuff which has a glint like sun on new-fallen snow.  Although I run from a “Vegas” Christmas decor for churches in general, a touch of crystal or silvery glitter on natural branches, applied with a light hand, can add a whole new dimension.

A cardboard box lid makes a handy tray for overall ”glittering”  of foliage and twigs. Spray adhesive (comes in a can like hairspray) is just the thing, applied lightly. Sprinkle glitter immediately over wet adhesive, wait a few moments, then tap off excess and catch it for reuse in the cardboard lid. For spot glittering, tacky glue, or other liquid adhesives and clear glues are effective. A few glittered twigs or sprigs of greens and foliage in pew ends catch the glow of candlelight in a darkened church on Christmas Eve night.  The aim is not to overdo the gilding and glittering!  A little will go a long way, and will look like the diamond glint of snow.

One year my decorating scheme was Glad Tidings By the Sea as our parish was right on Narragansett Bay.  We used strands of white  lights which were encased by scallop shells (still available at the Christmas Tree Shop), pearl roping, and many beautiful sand dollars and seashells just kissed with silver and crystal glitter, small aqua and silver balls, and feather sea gulls- lovely!

Natural silvery birch branches simply arranged in a garden urn (which may be faux-finished to look like wrought iron or stone) add a wintery touch without the glitter. No birch branches handy?  Any type of branch can receive a light aerosol spray painting of white or silver-nature’s own sculpture can’t be beat!  The aim is to achieve as natural a look as possible when gilding or applying glitter.  Red, green, blue, rainbow and other colored glitters will produce an artificial effect you will want to avoid like the flu!  Another product is Sno-flock which produces a white snowy coating on branches and greens.  This product has been around for many years, and with a controlled finger on the nozzle, can be used to get a wonderful snowy effect.  Glitter- it’s a GOOD thing.

 

Eucalyptus for Christmas

December 8, 2009 in Christmas, Church Flowers, Potpourri | by Shelley Dziedzic | Leave a comment

Looking for something besides the usual red poinsettia for Christmas decorating? With Rose Sunday coming fast, are you ready for Greening Sunday at your church? The flower appeal letter has gone out, notices are appearing in church bulletins, and all over America altar guild flower
arrangers are sending in their orders to florists and nurseries this week. Busy times ahead indeed. One “green” which is often overlooked is the versatile eucalyptus.

There are many varieties of eucalyptus, native to Australia-both in tree and shrub form.  Florists in America generally use the familiar tall, spiky variety or another type that  is called in the trade, “seeded or beaded” eucalyptus shown on the wreath above.  “Beaded Euc” has glorious silvery-sage green oval leaves and plump clusters of dense green-yellow beads.  Both will dry beautifully, and make a gorgeous wreath all by themselves.  I like to pick in clusters of beaded euc into my festive Christmas greenery for contrast.  The little wooden green picks are perfect for this, but not essential. It smells heavenly, can take some dry indoor abuse and still look great, and has a lovely natural look.  Usually I favor all-natural materials, but I do love this wreath in the photo above, which is finished off with several sizes of silvery mercury-silver balls.  The balls complement the silvery color of the eucalyptus.  Silver, gold and white are always appropriate for Christmas decoration for churches- in fact, I prefer them to red and green-which are  more secular colors.

There is another variety of eucalyptus, a little harder to find, called silver dollar, which droops gracefully, features large, rounded leaves and wonderful big blue-green seed pods.  Eucalyptus also is fabulous used in pew ends, lasts a long time and is great for all those with stuffy headcolds.  Many is the parishioner I have beheld bending over to take a good whiff of the eucalyptus!

Creamy ivory or sage velvet ribbon looks great if you need to add a bow or a swag festoon or rosette, and a touch of metallic silver is – divine!

Saint Columba's Chapel, Middletown

click photo for website

 

February 2010
M T W T F S S
« Jan    
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728