Spotlight

From The Rev. Dr. Robert C. Sawyer

I hope that you will all join us for worship at 10 AM this Sunday when we have our Annual Celebration of our Country.  As always there will be wonderful music, the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and a time of fellowship on the lawn following the worship.  From Monday to Thursday of this week I have had the privilege of offering the invocation at the North Carolina House of Representatives.  Each of those prayers has been concerned with those powerful "unalienable rights" of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" found in the Declaration of Independence. 

As we prepare to celebrate the 233^rd birthday of our country let us offer prayers of thanksgiving for these rights and remember those signers of the Declaration of Independence, including William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, and John Penn of North Carolina, who willingly risked all that they had to make these rights available to all. Let us pledge ourselves never to take them for granted.  May our lives be a manifestation of the true meaning of liberty that calls us to reach out in love and concern for others.

For today's Hot Fun in the Summertime we'll be celebrating Independence Day by making "Uncle Sam Hats!"  Be sure to join us after the 10:00am worship service in front of the Duncan-Giersch Center. Remember that each week during most of the summer months, there will be a new craft designed to be completed in about five minutes, or just about the amount of time it takes for parents to enjoy a nice, cold glass of sweet tea!  Please come and enjoy!

Lisa Towle, a CGS parishioner and president of the Episcopal Church Women of the diocese, will be leading the women's delegation at General Convention as well as blogging from this triennial gathering of The Episcopal Church (TEC). She'll be part of a six-person team blogging for a national audience as part of TEC's "media hub", which will also provide live webcasting, video streaming, photos and Twitter feeds as part of a first-of-its-kind effort to give all Episcopalians opportunities to stay in touch with what's happening in Anaheim, CA, July 8-17. And as she did three years ago at the last General Convention, Lisa will maintain a blog focusing specifically on the Diocese of North Carolina's ECW delegates and its General Convention deputation. To access these blogs and other resources, go to http://www.ecw-nc.org/.