English Congregation’s Calendar  

                2014-2015  

Advent – Christmas – Epiphany Year B

November 30          Candle of Hope, A Prophet's Prayer of Hope

December 7             Candle of Peace, Shepherds Behold a Great Light

December 14           Candle of Joy, Shepherds’ Lessons and Carols

December 21           Candle of Love, Waiting for our Savior’s Love

December 24           Combined English and Chinese Christmas Eve   

                                Candle Light Service 8PM

December 25  English Christmas Service at 9:30AM

December 28           First Sunday after Christmas

                                Father Tom Reese, Supply from New York

January 4                Second Sunday after Christmas

                               Father Tom Reese, Supply from New York

January 11              First Sunday after Epiphany

                               Father Tom Reese, Supply from New York

January 18              Second Sunday after Epiphany

                               The Rev. Lily, Rector

January 25    Third Sunday after Epiphany

                       Combined English-Chinese Service

                       The Rev. Lily Chung, Rector 

                       Annual Parish Meeting

                       [Lily’s Farewell Sunday]

February 1            Presentation of Jesus in the Temple

                            The Rev. Philip Lin Li-Feng, Our New Rector

                            Bill Bryson, Preacher and Leader for Boy Scouts Sunday

                             

February 8                 Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

                                  Father Barker Returns from Leave

February 15               Last Sunday after Epiphany

February 22            1^st Lent

Autumn Beginnings

Greetings to Good Shepherd’s Koinonia Pilgrims:

In North America the autumn leaves have turned to red and gold, yellow, and browns signaling their sap descending into winter’s hibernation.  However, for us at Mu Ai Tang, [Good Shepherd Church], our sap’s energy is rising as we throw ourselves into a new school year, work projects, and liturgical hopes for Advent and Christmas.

Our excitement grows between the festival of St. Francis Sunday, October 5 when we bless our brother and sister animals and Advent, November 30.  We celebrate All Saints Sunday, November 2.   Some of us will join with friends and family for America’s Thanksgiving Day on November 27. 

As we mark these days of harvest thanksgiving and the festival of Christ the King, the end of the liturgical year, November 23, our hearts rejoice in God’s many blessings and mercies. 

I encourage all of us to join in our koinonia opportunities to intimately participate in our worship and fellowship as these autumn days shorten and darken before we welcome the light of Christ into the world on Christmas Day.   Sign up to read on Sunday, bring a special food offering for our coffee hour, bring a friend to church, join special choir presentations, join the acolyte training, sing a little bolder, and share the peace with more cheer, belong, believe, and befriend in these shorter, darker, colder, wetter days of autumn and winter and let your light and spirit brighten all our world.

Love, hope, and Peace,

Father Herbert

My Summer Sojourn Home to USA

Greetings to Good Shepherd’s Koinonia Pilgrims:

Next Tuesday, 29 July, I will depart for the remainder of the summer to my retirement home in Arizona.  If you know Scottsdale, Arizona then you will know that I will not be escaping summer heat.  I am only exchanging humid temperatures for dry, desert ones.  That is the bad news for me.  Yet, before you begin to sympathize with me, I assure you all that, in truth, I will find beaches.   I plan trips to San Diego, Virginia Beach, and St. Lucia in the Caribbean.  Don’t cry for me Mu Ai Tang (Good Shepherd Church).

My good friend, Thomas Reese, will be caring for our English congregation during my absence.  Thomas is the Rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Forrest Hills, Queens, and New York. Some of you will remember that he was with us last summer.

I trust that you will enjoy his preaching and warm pastoral presence.  Please extent to him our special Good Shepherd Koinonia welcome.  Tom will be with us from August 4 to August 31.  I will return September 3.

I regret that I will miss our joint congregational retreat on August 2 and 3.  I pray that you all will have a spiritual journey together and make new friends as you share in the beauty of Taiwan’s highlands. 

For those who will not be going on the retreat, remember that Good Shepherd Church will have no worship services on August 3^rd in either the English or the Chinese congregations. Please pass this news to your friends and neighbors.

I hope that you all will have a summer filled with joyful, seasonal growth that will result in a rich harvest of memories that will warm you through fall and winter.  

Love and prayers,

Herbert

SUMMER CALENDAR    2014

YEAR A    SUNDAYS AFTER PENTECOST: http://www.lectionarypage.net/

For 23 weeks, each of the Sundays following the Day of Pentecost point us to consider the meaning of the church as a new people of God.  I will be giving a series of sermons that consider the Spirit of Pentecost as an ever-present power that alters our life eternally.  The Holy Spirit not only transforms our solitary life, but also the life of the world.

June 8             Day of Pentecost

June 15           Trinity  Sunday                     English Service  0930

June 22         2rd Sunday after Pentecost English Proper 7

                     Combined English/Mandarin Service  09:30

June 29          3^rd  Sunday after Pentecost    Proper 8

July 6            4^th Sunday after Pentecost   English Service  09:30    Proper 9

July 13         5^th  Sunday After Pentecost      Proper 10

July 20         6^th  Sunday After Pentecost         Proper 11

                     English Service 0930   Mandarin Chinese Service 1100

July 27         7^th  Sunday After Pentecost          Proper 12

                 

                 

August 3          No Church Services – Both Congregations on Retreat                                                   8^th  Sunday After             Pentecost         Proper 13

Father Herbert Barker on Summer Leave in August.

August 10         9th Sunday After Pentecost         Proper 14

                         English Service 0930   Celebrant & Preacher:

The Rev. Thomas Reese from St Luke’s, Forrest Hills, New York

August 17        10^th  Sunday After Pentecost            Proper 15

English Service  0930  Celebrant & Preacher: The Rev. Thomas Reese

August 14       Father Herbert Barker’s 72^nd birthday!  Father Barker officially retires as priest in the Episcopal Church after 50 years in a preaching ministry in the United Methodist Church and in the Episcopal Church.

August 24  11^th Sunday After Pentecost      Proper 16

                    English Service 0930

Celebrant and Preacher:

The Rev. Thomas Reese

August 31         12^th Sunday After Pentecost                  Proper 17

                          Combined English/Mandarin Chinese Service 0930

                          Celebrant and Preacher: The Rev. Thomas Reese

September 7  13^th Sunday After Pentecost  English Service 09:30

Celebrant and Preacher: Father Herbert J. Barker

Calendar for Lent and Easter 2014

  March 2          Last Sunday after Epiphany                                          Pot Luck Fellowship Brunch             11AM-1PM

March 9  "The imposition of ashes" will mark    for us the beginning of Lent

March 16 2^nd Sunday in Lent

March 23        3^rd Sunday in Lent                               

Combined English/Chinese Worship Service

March 30        4^th Sunday in Lent

April 6             5^th Sunday in Lent

April 13           Palm Sunday                                                                 Combined English/Chinese Worship Service

April 17 Maundy Thursday 

Love Feast and Foot Washing         Service      7PM

April 18 Good Friday Service       12 Noon

April 19 Easter Vigil                      8PM

April 20      Easter                          9:30AM

April 27                  2^nd Sunday of Easter                 


Guest Preacher    

The Rev. Thomas Brackett, Missioner, 

Church Planting and Ministry Redevelopment - Diocesan and Congregational Ministries