Weekly Announcements, June 14, 2020

June 13, 2020

Youth Sunday: This Sunday is our Youth Sunday, Will Klotz and Yassy Harrison will be sharing their reflections. We will also include some pictures of our children and youth. Please join us!

Sunday Service at 10:30 am on YOUTUBE: Our service is once again pre-recorded. This allows us to include more people in our church family. You will find the service here: https://youtu.be/NNITSbS7aqo The link will also be posted on facebook.

This Sunday We Celebrate Our Graduates: 

High School 2020 Graduates

  • Yassy Harrison –  Bethal High School. Yassy has 4 exciting opportunities for her next step. She is undecided at this time.
  • Kaleigh Keller – Kecoughtan High School. Kaleigh plans to attend Thomas Nelson Community College in the fall and after two years transfer to James Madison University.
  • Will Klotz – Kecoughtan High School. Will plans to attend Randoph – Macon College in the fall.
  • August Olson – Kecoughtan High School. August plans to attend Roanoke College in the fall.
  • Darius Rowe – Hampton High School. Darius plans to attend Radford University in the fall.
  • Johnny McCarthy – Hampton High School. Johnny plans to attend Emory and Henry College in the fall.
  • Dominic Einselen (Grandson of Billie Einselen) – Staunton High School. Dominic plans to attend Virginia Commonwealth University in the fall.  

College 2020 Graduates

  • Thomas Bagley – Radford University with a BA in Media Studies.
  • Willy Martin – Hampden-Sydney College with a BS in Physics and a Minor in Math.
  • Jess Miller – University of Virginia with a BA in Media Studies with a Film Concentration. He will attend Oxford in the fall and study Publishing through Columbia University.
  • Thomas Miller – University of Virginia with a BA in Economics and a Concentration in Finance. He will begin working as a Business Analyst with Capital One in Richmond in August.
  • Sam Templeman – Virginia Tech with a BS in Finance and a Minor in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Growth.

Walk Your Faith: The clergy and vestry of St. John’s would like to invite you to a prayer walk for racial justice on June 19th at 6pm. Members of the downtown churches, Unity Commission ( and anyone who would like to attend) will gather at City Hall and walk to Emancipation Oak at Hampton University’s campus. Please wear masks and practice social distancing during the walk.

Re -Opening Committee: The senior warden and I have created a committee to look at how we can most safely re-open the church. This week the bishop provided a 10 page document detailing what must be done. You can find it at the end of this message. Re-opening is contingent on a 2 week decline in the number of coronavirus cases in the state of Virginia. While this is a wise decision, it means we still do not have a hard date for re-opening. That said, the committee and vestry can create a plan while we wait. Once we have a that plan, we have to submit it to the bishop for her approval. Once she has given it ( and the graphs are all saying that the number of cases is declining in our state) we can re-open. We will do our best to keep you up to date.

Online Giving: We have a new online giving platform making it easier to give online. You can find the link on our website here: https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithely/give-one-time/1893308

Disinfectant wipes desperately needed: Since we are not asking for donations of communion wine, we decided we would ask for disinfectant, which is much harder to come by. We know we will need these wipes as soon as we re-open. If you are at the store, and there are some available, please consider buying an extra for the church and donating it.

Lil’ Free Pantry Supplies:  We are looking for donations of shelf-stable, easy open, ready to eat products along with individually wrapped utensils, clean socks, and water. Our youth saw a need to serve their local community by creating a place for “Ready-to-Eat” food available 24/7.

To Contribute: Place items in the pantry (Note: it is a public space, so sanitize hands afterward) Or place items in the tub located by door under the green awning of the parish hall. Questions: 757-722-2567 or gro.notpmahsnhojts@eciffo.

Bible Study Re-Zooooms: Our Wednesday Bible study has restarted and we will meet via Zoom on Wednesday at 3:00 PM. We are continuing our study on The Revelation to John. Contact Mark if you would like to join in on the discussion. gro.notpmahsnhojts@kraM or 757-722-2567.