Offerings: 6-28
6/28/2014It‘s officially Winter
Though she has been on the job since July 1, it wasn't until almost a year later, on June 20 and 21, that Cantor Amanda Winter was formally installed as a member of the clergy at Temple Shomer Emunim in Sylvania.
Family members and people influential to her development, including the rabbi from her home congregation, Rabbi Kathy Cohen of Temple Emanuel in Roanake, Va., and her fellow cantor and former Toledoan Andrea Markowicz, now serving Am Shalom in Glencoe, Ill., took part in the Friday and Saturday Shabbat services.
Besides providing sacred music for services, Cantor Winter also helps children prepare for their Bar and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, and they took part in the Saturday service.
Maumee churchgoing
Three Maumee churches are getting ahead of July 4 with their own functions.
The Rev. Tony Scott calls the Freedom Celebration “probably the biggest Christian event” of the season, and he is the host. It will take place at Pastor Scott's Church on Strayer, 3000 Strayer Rd., Maumee, Sunday at 6 p.m., and admission is free. The church festival offers many activities, including a zip line, helicopter rides, and inflatable structures for children. The duo L-E-D—Light Ends Darkness, featured on the recently released CD The Action Bible Remixed, will give a live performance. A 5K run is scheduled for 7 p.m. along with a kids' fun run, and then there will be fireworks at dusk.
Cornerstone Church is making a shift, of sorts, because of the July 4 long weekend. The church at 1520 Reynolds Rd. will not hold its usual Thursday night service this week, but will hold a worship and prayer night a day before, on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
And First Presbyterian Church, 200 E. Broadway St., holds the second of its free summer outdoor concerts Wednesday from 6 to 7:30 p.m., featuring Glass City Steel, the 11-member steel drum band from the Toeldo School for the Arts. Blankets and lawn chairs are allowed, as are nonalcohollic beverages and snacks. The church will provide some free refereshments, as well.
1,000 plus years of service
Sister Mary Virginia Wenninger heads the list of Sisters of Notre Dame who celebrate jubilees Sunday and July 6. She is at the top because she is celebrating 75 years in the holy order. Two sisters are 10 years behind, sisters Mary Joetta Sneider and Mary Damian Meng, then five have 60th anniversaries. Eight mark their 50th, two have 40 years, and Sister Mary Lizette Hoevel seems very much the new person, with “only” 25 years of service. As an indicator of their being sisters, all the women took names that are based on Mary, Jesus' mother. This group has 15 Marys, two Marias, and two Maries.
Book from Findlay
Marlena Graves of Findlay, who writes for the “Her.meneutics” blog at christianitytoday.com, is now also an author of a book on paper, the recently published A Beautiful Disaster: Finding Hope in the Midst of Brokenness, published by Brazos Press. By telling her experiences of growing up in a house where mental illness and poverty were present and giving some biblical insights, Ms. Graves explains some aspects of suffering and gives the concept of desert spirituality as a way to cope.