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FATHER MARK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS 1) Daughters of the King is an Episcopal women’s group devoted to the study and practice of prayer within a local small group setting. Call Beth McKibbin at (308) 641-3993 for more information or to join. The time commitment is minimal but the rewards for individuals and for the parish are immense. I am strongly encouraging the women of this parish to take a look at this. It is life- changing and parish-changing. I know this for a fact. 2) WE DID IT! After a year of COVID restrictions and online-only worship, we had an extremely successful and moving Holy Week and Easter gathering both online and in-person, and it was spectacular to be back together with you again! Thank you so much to everyone who made these services so special — our administrative staff, assisting clergy, musicians, acolytes, readers/intercessors, eucharistic ministers, ushers, A/V techs, cleaning crew, and, of course, those who attended and participated at home or her at the church. It’s been a long, long season of isolation and disappointment, but we are moving toward a new and glorious future that is only now becoming clear. I am excited for this parish! 3) Recent 7-day moving average number of local cases is at 5 — the lowest I have seen since tracking it. Let’s hope this trend continues. Get your vaccines, keep masking and distancing. We are finding a new normal, and it seems pretty good. 4) For the past year we haven’t had any in-person programs, but that’s about to change. In a few weeks I plan to return to in-person bible study with one or more groups, while keeping at least one online zoom study that has included some from outside our region. I think this new hybrid model will be important in programs as well as worship. More announcements on this later in April. 5) If you or your child volunteers in any role on Sundays for worship, we will continue to manually schedule these roles through April, but later in the month will go back to sending electronic requests for availability and scheduling volunteers through our online Ministry Scheduler Plus (MSP) program. So watch for that email somewhere around the April 15th and be sure to put in your availability for May. Just one more way things are returning to normal in this parish. 6) The Bishops’s Visitation is Wednesday, May 19th and we will celebrate Holy Eucharist that evening at 6:00 P.M. If you or your youth are planning to be Confirmed or Received this year, please make sure Gina or I have your name on our list of candidates. Right now I have Beth M., Gary and Karen L., and Linda R. as adults, and Max M., Nate K., Victoria S., and Elliot S., as youth. Am I missing anyone?  Happy Birthday!! Ann Peterson April 8 Hadlee McKeehan April 10 Barb Manasek April 14 LOST AND FOUND Found – A case for glasses was found after the Maundy Thursday Service. Lost – A single key on a keychain with silver decoration. Prayer Requests ** Please make sure your request is received by Wednesday of each week. You may call (308)632-4626 (leave a message), email stfrancis@allophone.com or mail to: St. Francis Episcopal Church P.O. Box 1201 Scottsbluff, NE 69361 Forward Day by Day Booklets We still have some of the Forward Day by Day’s for February, March & April in regular and large print. We just received the Forward Day by Day’s for May, June and July in regular and large print. If you would like any of these mailed to you, please email or call the church. NATIONAL ALL IS OURS DAY – APRIL 8 Observed each year on April 8th, National All Is Ours Day takes us along three views of appreciation. Either celebrate both approaches to the day or pick the one that best suits you. The first approach to the day can be looked at as a time to reflect on all of the beauty of nature and all the wonderful things in life. Rarely do we have the time to explore all that nature offers us. Something as simple as the variety of birds that inhabit a local park or backyard can surprise us. Venturing further out, we can discover our National Parks or trail system. Whether we look up to the skies or closer at the new spring blooms, taking in our surroundings is a spectacular gift to enjoy. The second way to celebrate the day is by appreciating everything we have. Even when we don’t have much, what we do have is a blessing. This approach encourages counting those blessings and avoiding thinking about the things we do not have. A third way to view the day is by sharing all that we have. Regardless of what we have, sharing it seems to make tough times easier when we all work together. The greatest times and the greatest things in life are those that are shared. No matter which approach you take to celebrating the day, it’s an excellent way to refocus negative energy into a positive purpose. Enjoy the beauty that belongs to everyone, count those blessings or share all you have to make tough times easier.  FATHER MARK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS 1) Tonight we begin our 3-day service marking the last night, final day, and first morning of the Passion of the Christ. All of us growing up came to know and anticipate the joy of Easter Morning in our homes. It would be years before I understood that as meaningful and joyous it was to celebrate the day with eggs and baskets and candy, there was a deeper spiritual joy that comes from the memory and the mystery of the empty tomb. Again, it was many more years later that I first entered into that mystery through the church celebration of the Triduum — Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Great Vigil of Easter — where I heard the stories read and felt the great impact of taking them seriously. If you want to join me in this moving annual event, come to church tonight at 6:00 P.M., and come back tomorrow at noon or 6:00 and then Saturday night or Sunday morning. You will be amazed at how differently you see and experience Easter. 2) Speaking of Easter Morning — since seating in the sanctuary is still limited to 50 or so, it might be best to consider taking advantage of the Saturday night Vigil or the early 8:00 A.M. service, both of which will not be full to capacity. If you plan to come at 10:00 A.M. Sunday, I would advise arriving a little earlier than usual. There will be overflow seating in the parish hall in any event. 3) As we start to think about further re-openings in our church, the first areas on our minds are those which can be done safely by small groups in large areas. Bible Studies and discussion groups will start to regather soon, probably in the parish hall, as will other meetings of groups, teams, and guilds. Obviously zoom meetings will continue to be an option for any groups who find that best. At this point, we are thinking Youth Group, Godly Play, and Nursery will not regather until Fall. 4) While we plan which groups and meetings to restart, we are also committing to a number of new ideas and projects focused on the community and outreach. Watch for more information on those things in the weeks and months to come. Overall, it feels like we are in a good place and should rest here for a bit before moving forward. This is what progress feels like, and I am deeply grateful for it. 5) Our Wednesday Sandwich Ministry is growing — in the past several months we have seen more and more demand and we are now running out of sandwiches in fifteen minutes. So we have decided to up our number to 50 bag lunches every other week. Thanks so much to our great volunteers who shop, make the lunches, and distribute them every other week. If you’d like to help, call Gina and she’ll get you connected. 6) The Bishop will be here and we will celebrate Holy Eucharist in the church Wednesday evening, May 19th, at 6:00 P.M. He will be Confirming and Receiving candidates at that time, so if you would like to be Confirmed (or Received if you were Confirmed in another tradition) please let Gina or myself know ASAP. There is still time to get you on the list. 7) Many thanks to Rick Anderson and Steve Shaw, who built our new flower tables in the sanctuary. You’ll be able to enjoy them this Sunday as they will be holding beautiful Easter Lillies.  GINA’S ANNOUNCEMENTS
Happy Birthday!! Dan Dickinson April 1 Dante Anderson-Saenz April 3 Scott Harvey April 4 Prayer Requests ** Please make sure your request is received by Wednesday of each week. You may call (308)632-4626 (leave a message), email stfrancis@allophone.com or mail to: St. Francis Episcopal Church P.O. Box 1201 Scottsbluff, NE 69361 Forward Day by Day Booklets We still have some of the Forward Day by Day’s for February, March & April in regular and large print. We just received the Forward Day by Day’s for May, June and July in regular and large print. If you would like any of these mailed to you, please email or call the church. DAUGHTERS OF THE KING This is a National Group of Episcopal Women who commit to pray and work regularly for the mission and ministries of their local parish and the wider church. I have personally seen the fruits of having a DOK Chapter – both for the parish and for the women involved – and so am very happy to announce a diocesan discernment/training to be offered via Zoom by Omaha members Sandra Squires and Carol Ott. Our own Beth McKibbon. Beth leads our small but growing DOK group and will be your local contact. Here is the information about the meetings: “Discernment classes will meet 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Monday mornings starting April 5. Sandra will start promptly at 10 a.m. If someone needs assistance with joining Zoom, Sandra or Carol Ott will practice with them before April 5th. The meeting dates are: April 5, 19, 26, May 3,17, 24, June 7, 21 (Note that there will not be sessions on April 12 and May 10, and May 31 which is Memorial Day.)” For more information you can email Beth at bethmckibbin@yahoo.com APRIL FOOLS’ DAY HISTORY We would be fools to think we knew precisely when April Fools’ Day was originally celebrated. However, April Fools' Day shares similarities with other days full of fools, tricks, and merry-making. Some believe the day is celebrated in honor of the trickery Mother Nature plays on us this time of year with her unpredictable weather. Another possible connection is the Indian tradition of Holi. The day is celebrated on March 31st and practices the same foolery as April Fools’ Day. So does the Roman festival of Hilaria which was celebrated on March 25th. The earliest known reference to April Fools’ Day is in Chaucer’s 1392 Nun’s Priest’s Tale. Even so, the reference is so vague, and possibly not even occurring on the first of April, leaving doubt as to whether it is the first reference. Other scholars point to the reformation of the calendar by Pope Gregory and the Gregorian calendar we used today in the 1500s in France. The new year would take place in April, not January as it does now. The theory is that those who continued to celebrate the new year on April 1st were called Poisson d’Avril (April fish) and pranks would be played on them. In 1582, France accepted the Gregorian calendar, but reforms had already been taking place. In Britain in 1776, there is a clear and reliable reference to April foolishness in an article in Gentlemans Magazine. Reference to a custom in the kingdom of making fools of people on the first day of April. It addresses the day being the culmination of an eight-day feast and the beginning of a new year. Noted Foolery Newspapers, television, radio and social media have had their fun on April Fools’ Day. Check out all this April 1 foolishness:
early soon realized who the donkeys on display really were.
publications of the first-ever published picture of a real flying saucer.
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April 2021
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