Weare, New Hampshire
2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
The weekday fasts and feasts that we celebrate here at Holy Cross always remind me of what a secularized world we live in, what a distance there is between the way the world sees things and the way we as members of the community of Christ are called to see them. Continue reading ‘Ash Wednesday February 25, 2009′
What do we offer
Our handsome new building is not only our church home; it is also a community center we offer for use by others. The Parish Hall downstairs offers meeting and dining space for as many as 150 people. The open space and flexible furniture are ideal of scout groups, parties, receptions and community group meetings.
The Parish Hall can seat more than 150 people for meals, parties, meetings.
Adjacent to the Parish Hall is a full modern kitchen. Upstairs the Gathering Space just inside the front door is a warm room with table and chairs suitable for meetings of a dozen or fewer people. For special occasions the Worship Space can also be used for meetings.
Arranging to use our facilities
To apply to use Holy Cross facilities, please first contact our Vicar, John McCausland, at 529-4740 or vicar@holycross-weare.org , to see if the date and time you want are available. If they are, he will send you a Building Use Application which you need to complete and return. We will make arrangements to meet you at the Community Center to show you around and discuss your needs and plans. Please be advised that most weekday afternoons and evenings are booked for the entire school year by scout and other groups.
Weare seniors enjoy a holiday meal served by the Girl Scouts in the Parish Hall.
Costs and other requirements
We do not have set fees for the use of the Community Center, preferring to offer it as a gift and counting on the generosity of users to make donations to help us defray our costs. If yours is a not for profit use, a nominal donation would be appropriate if you can afford it. If it is a private party or a for profit use, a more substantial donation would be expected, depending on the extent of your use, number of people involved, and your budget and finances. People using the space for private parties usually contribute at least $100.
We require that all trash be removed by you after your use and that you clean the space and return it to the state (including furniture set-up) in which you received it. You can also make arrangements to hire our cleaning service, which we recommend if you intend to serve a meal. For private parties where food is being served, we may require you to hire this service, in which case we may ask for a deposit to cover cleaning costs.
We reserve the right to decline to make our facilities available for uses inappropriate with the mission and ministry of Holy Cross or the Episcopal Church, or that might infringe on the rights of our neighbors. We have a policy regarding the serving of alcoholic beverages which must be complied with. Our Community Center is a smoke-free environment.
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
Mark 9:2-9
I am not usually into yard sales, which I realize means I miss out on one of the great opportunities of local life. But driving along Concord Stage Road one day last summer I saw a yard sale that I had to stop for. The reason was a mounted deer’s head, just the thing to bring home to Anne and hang on our screened porch. It turned out the deer’s head was priced beyond my reach (which may have saved my marriage). But browsing the sale was an experience I’m glad I had. Continue reading ‘Last Epiphany February 22, 2009′
Each year, the Vicar writes a Christmas story which he reads at the family service after blessing the creche.
Luke 2:1-20
“A crèche is a nativity scene. It’s just a fancy name for it.” Mrs. Harris explained. She was pulling into the driveway of the Binghams’ house. Sam and Katie were in the back seat.
“Wow!” Sam said. “The Binghams live in a fancy house too.” The house was indeed a large one, with big white columns at the front door.
“Now no talking about fancy, kids,” Mrs. Harris said. “You be polite. This was a very special invitation Mrs. B gave to you. And don’t touch anything. This is not a kid-friendly house. When I clean the house for them, I’m scared all the time that I’m going to break something. They got stuff that would cost more than your mom will make in her lifetime.”
Katie and Sam were careful to mind their mother’s warning. Continue reading ‘Christmas Eve December 24, 2008′
2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
Romans 16:25-27
Luke 1:26-38 [39-56]
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
–from the Nicene Creed
I don’t know how many of you this morning are still without power or phone service. It was the longest outage Anne and I have ever experienced: six days without power and then two more before the phone was restored. There was the darkness, reading by candlelight and kerosene lamp. There was the cold, though we kept the woodstove going. There was worry about pipes freezing and frozen food thawing. But most of all, there was the feeling of isolation.
We borrowed a cell phone from Alice St. Hilaire up the hill and began to call people—family, friends, parishioners—just to know they were still out there. We bought a little wind-up radio and listened to New Hampshire Public Radio tell me about the world beyond our walls. Trips to Colburn’s became about more than picking up the newspaper; people exchanged storm stories and offered each other help; strangers became friends. And I prayed, more than usual because I had the time and because I needed that connection too. I prayed a lot about waiting.
I’ve never been sure what those words in the Creed really mean, about Jesus “coming again in glory.” Continue reading ‘Advent 4 December 21, 2008′
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28
In the Great Thanksgiving prayer we are using in this season, Prayer B, we give thanks to God for creation, for the calling of Israel to be God’s people, and then for God’s “Word spoken through the prophets.” These figures we call prophets are of central importance in the history of salvation and their words—God’s Word spoken through them—remain of central importance today.
But who is a prophet? What is true prophecy—prophecy that speaks God’s Word? Continue reading ‘Advent 3 December 14, 2008′
Isaiah 40:1-11
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8
Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
–Isaiah 40:1
I begin with a piece of show and tell. This towel, or rather fragment of a towel, which was a dust rag after its towel days ended and then finally disintegrated in the washing machine into this scrap of cloth. “Can I throw it out now?” asked Anne. “No, give it to me. I want to keep it.”
You see, when it was a towel I was a child. Continue reading ‘Advent 2 December 7, 2008′
Isaiah 61:1-9
1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Mark 13:24-37
An English cyclist, out for a spin in the countryside, stops to visit a country church. “Once I am sure there’s nothing going on,” he says, “I step inside, letting the door thud shut.” He looks around, doing the sightseeing thing in the ancient building. “Back at the door/ I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence,/ Reflect the place was not worth stopping for.”
But then he is led to deeper reflection. What will it be like, some future day, “when churches fall completely out of use/. . . when [even] disbelief has gone?” People will have forgotten what the buildings meant, what they held. And yet, he says, “It pleases me to stand in silence here;/ A serious house on serious earth it is,/ . . . . And that much never can be obsolete,/ Since someone will forever be surprising/ A hunger in himself to be more serious,/ And gravitating with it to this ground,/ Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in . . . .”* Continue reading ‘Advent 1 November 30, 2008′
Matthew 25:31-46
[Come With Joy Sunday]
Over the doorways of many medieval churches are painted or carved scenes of the Last Judgment. They’re a little like the bulletin cover this morning, only the medieval Jesus does not look as mellow as he does in the cover clip art. He’s the judge, and a fierce one. At his left hand are the goats, and often also human souls plunging down to the fires of hell with devils and their pitchforks skewering them as they fall. At his right hand are the sheep, and human souls wafting up to heaven where angels await them. The scene was designed to strike terror into the hearts of worshipers and, not coincidentally, make them more dependent on the Church. Continue reading ‘Pentecost Last: Christ the King November 23, 2008′
Zephaniah 1:7, 12-18
1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
A parable like the one we heard this morning, the Parable of the Talents, is like a fine cut diamond. It has many facets, and though you have heard it many times, even like me preached on it many times, if suddenly you look upon it through another facet you may be struck by some quite new brilliance of insight. Continue reading ‘Pentecost 27 November 16, 2008′