Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Lent begins on February 17 with Ash Wednesday. When people first began to keep Lent as a period of thoughtful preparation before celebrating the great mysteries of Holy Week and Easter, it was a very short period of only a few days. During this time, strict fasting was the rule. Later on the time set aside for Lent expanded and the strict fasting came to be replaced by fasting only on certain days combined with abstinence of meat on other days. In our time, although people continue to practice fasting and abstinence from time to time, for many people Lent has become a period in which they give up something as a spiritual exercise. These days other people rather than giving up something prefer to add an extra duty, which can take many forms. Whatever approach we take, Lent should be different from the rest of our year. It is a time for looking at ourselves, who we are, how we live, and especially perhaps what is really important in our lives.

For a number of years we have had a Lenten program. This has varied from year to year in what is involved but has normally been combined with a short service and a very light meal of soup and bread. This year, the program will center around a series of religious icons. Icons are a form of religious art mainly associated with the Orthodox churches. From an artistic view point they are governed by rules very different from the western art which we are accustomed to, and therefore oblige us to look differently at scenes and images we know but are used to seeing in a different way. The approach this year will be to look at these icons and to ask ourselves first of all what do they tell us about the event they depict, and secondly what do they tell us about we react to these events and how important are they for our life as believers.

We are going to meet this year at 5 PM on Wednesday evenings and begin with Evening Prayer followed by soup and bread, followed by the program. The entire program should be over by about 6:30 PM. I hope that many of you will attend, as this is a joint adventure for all of us. Sometimes we get so used to the set images in our religious life that they lose some of their force and looking at them through different eyes and in a different way will help us recapture their importance and significance.

I hope that for all of us this Lent will be a prayerful time and one in which we can all grow.

Yours in Christ,
Fr. Michael +

Please help,
Fr. Michael+

The congregation at the 2010 Annual Meeting elected a new Junior Warden and 5 new Vestry members. Elected to Junior Warden for 2 years is Michael Sommer. Elected to a 1-year Vestry term is Chris Stringfellow, replacing Neil Holaday. Elected to a 2-year term to replace Michael Sommer is Ed Mueller. Elected to 3-year Vestry terms were Sue Doornek, Betsy Holmes, and Sue Peck. Thank you for joining with our other officers your time and talents.

Also, We give our thanks and appreciation to outgoing Senior Warden, Jim Stringfellow, and Vestry members, Larry Washburn, Melanie Cornale-Susedik, and Jamie Verley. Job well done!

Congratulations to the following people who were elected as delegates to the Diocesan Convention:Amy and Steve Cook, Sue Doornek, and Krislyn Holaday-Wondrachek. The elected alternates to the delegates are Sue Peck, Jim Stringfellow, John Halvorsen, Larrry & Dana Washburn.

FREE HEALTH CARE CLINIC

The Open Door Free Clinic for the uninsured and underinsured between the ages of 19 and 64 will be open every Wednesday in the months of February, March, and April, 2010.

The clinic is located inside Unity Lutheran Church at 1025 E. Oklahoma Avenue.

Sign-in is at 5:00 PM and the medical staff will see patient’s from 6:00 to 8:30 PM, or until the last patient has been seen. No one 18 or under will be seen.

Submitted by,
Georgia Seis, Chaplain

The tickets will be about $20 as I have many coupons to use if I purchase the tickets. Think about this and let me know if you are interested in the evening

Submitted by
Marge Lower
mrgrtlower@yahoo.com

Wheaton Franciscan Hospice is committed to helping families achieve the right to die with dignity and compassion in the comfort of their own home. To support this mission we are looking for volunteers with the loving heart and hands of a good neighbor. Many satisfying volunteer opportunities are available, from in-office clerical help to nurturing patients and caregivers.

We provide 16 hours of free training, on two consecutive Saturdays, for anyone interested in learning more about home hospice care. Training will be scheduled in your area for early February. Learn about Wheaton Franciscan Hospice volunteer opportunities in the greater Milwaukee or Racine areas, by calling Pam Balthazor at 414-874-6170 or 252-884-2980.

We are in need of some help at St. John’s Home Chapel in Milwaukee. We are hoping that you are interested in helping us with our needs about 2 or 3 times a year. Not a big commitment, but your help is very much needed.

Here is some information about our service at St. John's:
St. John's Chaplain is Rev. Don Hands. The St. John's residents are readers and chalice bearers every other week but there are very few that are able to be active in the
service.

Sunday service is held from 10:00 – 11:00 AM in the new chapel. Please plan to arrive about 9:45 AM.
If you are willing to volunteer, we need help with volunteers to be readers and chalice bearers. One person may perform both roles. Chalice is passed both at the rail and in the pews. Father Hands is very helpful, and will be glad to show how to do this. There are no lay vestments, so you don’t have to worry about that.

A volunteer church is usually scheduled about once every 12 - 20 weeks depending upon parish preference and number of volunteers from the church. We honor all requests for time of year or number of service that one can volunteer. We will also gladly send a copy of the schedule to your church office for planning purposes. We try to get the schedule out at least 3 weeks before it begins and schedule for at least 6 months at a time. I am the scheduler and contact person for this service however, I do not have any official role or function at St. John's. I can be reached via Email address, bmangiafico@hotmail.com or at home, 262-246-8611. I am a member at St. Alban's, Sussex.

Out next schedule will begin February 11 and run thru August 2010.

The Chapel is indeed beautiful and the music is wonderful. For our elderly Episcopalians the service is a very important tie to their prior lives and often, for many, is the one lasting memory as others fade. I hope that you will find this ministry as fulfilling as I do whether you attend once a year or 4 years a year.
Please contact me if you are interested in volunteering, and if you are currently a reader and/or chalice bearer. When you reply, please be sure to include an email address. We send the schedule via Email as much as possible. Thank you in advance for your willingness to share your Christian talents with our elderly.

Barbara Mangiafico
bmangiafico@hotmail.com
262-248-8611
St. John's Home Service schedule volunteer

The Peck Family would like to thank the St. Luke’s Family for their prayers, calls and kind thoughts during Dean’s recent surgery. Dean’s procedure went well although he had to stay one night. His pacemaker has been regenerated and we hope this lasts for >5 years (the longer the better).

We also want to set the record straight. Some people thought that Dean was barking at the Annual meeting. The truth is that Tiiu snuck Rufus in and Rufus was heard barking. Dean has been trained well and he does not bark although he has been know to grumble, object or state his opposition quite eloquently. The only barking in our house comes from our new puppy-Tullia.

An Article Written by Jenavieve Verley
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Sunday, January 17, 2010

We all know that we should work together, that all people, no matter what color their skin is, what god they pray to, their gender, or how much money their families make, should be working with one another to improve our families, our neighborhoods, our cities and the world.

The problem is that a lot of us are "talking the talk," but how many of us are really "walking the walk" like Dr. Martin Luther King did?

If we were really working together to support families, how many kids would be turning to gangs and drugs? How many kids would be going to be hungry, or not have a bed at all? How many parents would be without jobs?

If we were really working together to take care of our neighborhoods, how many streets would still be covered with garbage? How many houses and yards would be ugly and falling apart? How many neighborhoods would you be scared to walk in?

If we were really working with one another, how many cities wold have to cut funding to schools to take care of things like crime and welfare for people who don’t really need it?

If you were really working with your family and your neighbors and everyone in your city to improve this great country and world, would you be living in a world with poverty, pollution and wars?

Just take a second to think about…. What are you really doing?

If you can’t think of anything, you’re not alone.

Working together for real is not going to be easy. It’s going to take effort. Making real changes to fix our problems will take more that just complaining about them and wishing they were gone. We can’t wait for someone else to come up with solutions.

We ARE that someone else? We need to put aside our prejudice, indifference, intolerance and laziness to work with each other, to save our families, neighborhoods, cities and the world, because Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream, and I do, too!

On Sunday, January 10, 2010, our Parish held its Annual Meeting. At that meeting, I made a presentation to the Parish asking you all to consider some major renovations to our Church Facility. Our facility was built between 1950-1954, and the Youth Building was added in 1964. The next major renovation project we completed was in approximately 2000, when we added a Handicapped Access Lift.

We are very much in need of some renovations to our facility. With the consent of the Vestry, I made a list of possible projects we might complete in order to modernize and upgrade our facility, which will help us to attract new members, retain our current members and raise our profile in our community. At this point, we have seen a dip in membership and in pledges between 1999 and 2009, and my hope is that you will agree the time is now to rebuild—both in people and in "bricks and mortar."

If you weren’t able to attend our Annual Meeting, I want to make sure that you can also be part of this important discussion. Here are the possible projects (and their projected costs) that we discussed:

Here, we hope to move all the books out of the current Library, and into the Lounge. Then, the current Library would become a dedicated Nursery, separate from the Bride’s Room across the Narthex. The new Nursery would have new furniture, carpeting, paint, window treatments, and a light fixture, along with a speaker for sound so that parents with their children could still experience the service. The Bride’s Room, with that wonderful large mirror, will also have a facelift of new furniture, carpeting, paint, window treatments, and a new light fixture. This room also needs a new speaker for sound because the current one does not work well and sometimes doesn’t work at all. Approximate Cost: $9750.00

The Entryway and Narthex are very much in need of new lighting. Those would be the only real changes to those areas, since the beautiful stone decorative flooring is still in very good shape, and an important part of our past. The Nave of the church (where the pews are) is very much in need of new flooring. This part of the project would focus on removing the current asbestos tile in the church and replacing it with new, non-asbestos flooring (comparable in style). Approximate Cost: $22,300.00

You may recall that we did update our Sound System last year, with the help of a generous donor. However, we only undertook part of that project for cost reasons. These proposed upgrades would basically complete that job and make the sound of the service much clearer and easier for people to hear. It would include a new amplifier and speaker in the center, hanging from the ceiling (replacing the old, original one), and a new rack to house the amplifier and other sound equipment. Approximate Cost: $3845.00.

Anyone who has been to our church knows that these two restrooms—both the women’s and the men’s—are in desperate need of renovation. This proposal would basically remove everything that is currently in those rooms and replace it all with new, upgraded equipment—from the tile on the floor to the light fixtures on the ceiling. This is the most expensive of our proposed projects, as bathrooms are always expensive to remodel. And, while many important changes are being considered, many were excited to hear that we would finally be able to have hot water in these restrooms! Approximate Cost: $47,850.00

This is the space where we host all of our major social events… from the Hobo Dinners of years ago to the Spaghetti Dinners of today, this is where we come to meet and greet one another. This project would remove the asbestos flooring and replace it, while replacing the current light fixtures, window treatments, and a fresh new coat of paint in the room. Approximate Cost: $23,670.00.

This room would basically consist of new flooring, new paint and window treatments. Approximate Cost: $2100.00.

This is, of course, the house next door to the church, which Fr. Michael currently uses for an Office. The Vestry also meets there, and some gatherings are held there. Here, we would hope to replace the current flooring (carpeting and linoleum) with new carpeting and laminate flooring, throughout the first floor. We also priced replacing the carpeting which currently runs up the stairs to the second floor hallway, as it really seems to need replacing. This also includes a new coat of paint on the first floor. Approximate Cost: $5850.00.

These are expensive projects. And, having been treasurer of St. Luke’s for the past 12 years, I also believe that numbers are important. So, here they are:

Bride’s Room/Nursery $9,750.00
Sanctuary & Entryway/Narthex $22,300.00
Sound System Upgrades $3,845.00
Downstairs Bathrooms $47,850.00
Guild Hall $23,670.00
Choir Room $2,100.00
Rectory $5,850.00

Now, I know what you’re asking… How will we pay for this?!? This is a very important question. We have to be good stewards of the money we are given, and we cannot make financial decisions lightly.

There are many possibilities. We can pursue grants and donations, just as we did when we installed the Handicapped Lift. We can also use our Endowment Funds. We have approximately $162,334.20 in current Endowment Funds, plus about $40,000.00 which we have raised so far for our new Roof. But, we would need a plan to rebuild the Endowment if we choose to use some of it for these projects. How do we rebuild it?

As some of you know, I am an Attorney. My practice areas include Estate Planning. If the Parish decides to move forward with this project, and to fund it with Endowment funds, I will prepare a Will for anyone in the Parish—for free—so long as they agree to leave a gift in their Will to St. Luke’s Episcopal Church for either $1000 or 10% of your net estate. I strongly believe in this project, and I am willing to donate my time to make sure that it happens, and to ensure that we don’t drain all of our resources in doing it

Talk to your Vestry members. We will be discussing this proposal at the February Vestry Meeting. The Vestry Members will have to vote on whether they believe there is enough support within the Parish to move forward with a second round of bids (which is required under our Bylaws if we are to proceed), and to schedule a Special Parish Meeting to vote as a Parish on what should be done. So, make sure you talk to these people, and that YOUR voice is heard: Sue Doornek, Sue Peck, Betsy Holmes, Dean Peck, Lanny Melville, Ed Mueller, Jaime Verley, Mike Bossow, and Chris Stringfellow. Remember, the Vestry meets on Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. in the Rectory. Any Parish Member may attend this meeting. Or, just make sure that a Vestry member knows how you feel.

Since the Annual Meeting, I have had a lot of people suggest other projects, beyond those described here, that we should consider. All of these ideas are important, and the Parish will have to decide what is important here and what isn’t. Here are some of those ideas:

Adding a Parking Lot in the open area on the Clement Avenue side;

Plaster or Dry-wall the cement block in the Nave area of the church and paint it white or cream-color to brighten up and modernize the church area

Sign on Clement Avenue with Events posted

New Sign on Herman and Euclid to replace the old one

New "Media Center" in Guild Hall (including a projector, screen, etc. for presentations which would allow the Hall to be rented out for Conferences, both by parish members and community members

Remember: all ideas are welcome. We have to work together, think together and pray

Asthma School-This free asthma education program is offered on an individual basis to help you and your loved ones learn what triggers your asthma attachk; how and when to use medication; and how to use a peak flow meter to determine how well your’re breathing. Please call for an appointment at 414-489-4256.

How Healthy Are Your Bones? A DEXA bone density test uses special x-rays to measure the amount of calcium in your bones. To schedule a DEXA bone density test at Aurora St. Luke’s South Shore, call 414-747-7474

Every Monday from 8 AM – 4:30 PM-Hearing Aids and Hearing Testing - Full services ranging from hearing testing through hearing aid fitting and follow-up are offered throught Aurora St. Luke’s South Shore’s Audiology Department. To schedule an appointment, call 414-489-4072. Costs vary depending on services rendered. Most insurance accepted.

5900 S. Lake Drive, Cudahy, WI 53110 www.aurorahealthcare.org