The Year in Review. January. June. April. Episcopal Church Women Diocese of Chicago. November/December The Newsletter for the

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1 The Newsletter for the Episcopal Church Women Diocese of Chicago November/December 2017 The Year in Review January June It may not seem like much, but we started our second year of publishing The Mirror six times each year. We continue to offer each edition in print as well as the electronic version. The third Altar Guild Conference was held at St. John s, Naperville. Our featured present was Rose Jarecki who demonstrated silversmithing. Workshops on vestment repair, knotted rosaries, altar guild and the National Cathedral Your board started the summer with a retreat at the St. Edward & Christ retreat center in Joliet. We began planning ways to help make our ECW more responsive to our members. More photos on page 3. April Hats were everywhere as we celebrated women in the church at St. Thomas, Chicago. Keynote speaker, Ms Monica Moss, dancers from St. Thomas and readers who presented portions of the book Crowns made for a very wonderful day. We honored retiring board member Johnnie Newton and The Rev. Dr. Fulton Porter celebrated Eucharist with us. Province V Annual meeting was held at St. David s in Lansing, MI.

2 The Diocesan Mirror November/December 2017 Page 2 All written correspondence to the ECW should be sent to the address below: Episcopal Church Women Diocese of Chicago 65 East Huron Street Chicago IL ECW President Beth C. Petti president@ecwchicago.org The Mirror is available online: Please send articles to: editor@ecwchicago.org Find us on Facebook: Like us and share! Help spread the news about ECW! Submission deadlines are the 25th of the month. If you would like to receive a print or electronic copy of The MIRROR: membership@ecwchicago.org Helen Mensing United Thank Offering Diocesan Coordinator uto@ecwchicago.org Church Periodical Club cpc@ecwchicago.org President s Message It s a race to the finish! At least that s what my calendar is telling me! The end of the year comes up to meet me while I rush to finish all my projects so I can relax. I think that we all feel a bit of a crush as we jump from Halloween and All Saints to Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas. Is there something that you do to help slow things down, to be more intentional? Our women s retreat at DeKoven was one of those things I chose to do to support myself. Sharing the weekend away from home, with long-time friends and newly made friends, I had the blessed opportunity to really nurture my spirit. This year-end edition of The Mirro really brings home for me the wonderful year I was able to experience with the women from the Diocese. We re planning for next year be sure to mark your calendars! - and I am especially looking forward to getting out to parishes and speaking with the women and church leaders about the women in our diocese. This year we inaugurated a new program, Women of Honor and we were delighted with the response. Profiles of these amazing women will be posted online after the first of the year when we announce the Distinguished Woman from the Diocese of Chicago who will be honored at the ECW National Triennial meeting in Austin, Texas, July Have a blessed holiday season from Thanksgiving straight through to New Year s! ECW Directories The ECW will be providing printed copies of the diocesan directory and will make them available at the Diocesan Convention on November at the ECW table in the exhibit hall. Each book contains listings for all the churches, their addresses, phone numbers, and other contact information. Our directory also includes a variety of useful listings and background on the ECW in Chicago. These directories are a handy reference for your church office or women s ministry leaders. We are offering copies at no charge.

3 The Diocesan Mirror November/December 2017 Page 3 United Thank Offering Celebrates Founder s 165th Birthday Most people know that every weekday Morning Prayer and the Eucharist are held in the chapel at the Episcopal Church Center in New York. But did you know that the tradition of noontime worship began in the old Church Center building in Julia Chester Emery s office? When Julia started working for the Board of Missions, she would stop work each day at noon to pray. Many people, and often time visitors, would gather around in her office to pray together. This tradition became so popular that it became a part of the schedule of the staff of the Presiding Bishop. Cookies and Cocoa Friday after Thanksgiving Annual Libertyville Tree Lighting & St. Lawrence Open House A 10-plus year St. Lawrence tradition! We invite the community in from the cold to warm up and enjoy a cup of HOT Cocoa and Cookies, this year on Friday, November 24, during the tree lighting ceremony and the arrival of Santa in downtown Libertyville. This is a great time for all to join together in holy anticipation of the beginning of Advent. If you are interested in volunteering and we are also looking for bakers - please contact Marlies at St. Lawrence Episcopal Church 125 W. Church Street Libertyville United Thank Offering Fall Ingathering United Thank Offering gifts are always welcome! Please forward your thank offerings to the address below. UTO Diocesan Coordinator ECW 65 East Huron St. Chicago, IL Please combine all offerings and draft one check for your gift to UTO, made payable to: United Thank Offering Helen Mensing, Coordinator UTO@ecwchicago.org Prayers of Thanks These prayers were written during the Fall Gathering & Retreat. Dear Father, Bless this table, the food, and the fellowship with our sisters. Strengthen our bodies daily and protect our souls. We thank you Lord for sharing yourself with us and inviting us to share with each other through this food & fellowship that nourishes our souls and bodies. Amen Heavenly Father, that our souls may be fed at this table of community and our bodies nourished by the blessing of this food., we give thanks for all the lives that have contributed to the creation of this meal. May we demonstrate our appreciation by going forth with nourished bodies to nourish the souls of all your children. We give thanks to you, oh Lord. Amen

4 The Diocesan Mirror November/December 2017 Page 4 The Year in Review October The Women s Fall Gathering & Retreat was held the last weekend in October at the beautiful DeKoven Retreat Center. Women from across the diocese and several from the Diocese of Springfield, including our retreat leader Rev. Mollie Ward, spent time learning, reflecting, laughing and singing SAVE THE DATE: 2018 Women s Gathering & Retreat October 26-28, 2018

5 The Diocesan Mirror November/December 2017 Page Honored Woman of the Diocese of Chicago In Memoriam Joanne Furnish This is our first year of honoring a woman from each parish of the diocese. We requested nominations for several months and we now have our inaugural class of 15 nominees! Women from across the diocese who have served their churches and communities with distinction. Teachers, youth ministers, musicians and women who have been wardens, vestry members and committee chairs. Their interests range from knitting, feeding, fundraising to childcare, elder care and chaplaincy. They serve their churches as lay readers, lay eucharistic ministers and as altar guild members. Our first group of nominees are an outstanding group of women. They will be honored at the diocesan ECW Annual Meeting, April 28, 2018 at St. James, West Dundee. The ECW board will convene a committee to vote on the Distinguished Woman of the diocese. She will be honored at the ECW national meeting, Triennial, in July The Distinguished Woman will be announced in January. See us at Convention! Meet us at our exhibit table and pick up a new diocesan phone directory, information about United Thank Offering and copies of The Mirror for your friends. New this year is a dedicated ECW room the Maple Room where we will have guest speakers on Friday including presentations by our Recognition Grant and Phoebe Griswold Grant award winners, UTO and an ECW presentation. Our room is open Friday and Saturday for enjoying lunch and knitting. President Beth Petti will be speaking at Friday s business session and announcing the recipients of the ECW Recognition Grant and the Phoebe Griswold Grant. November 24, 1936 October 5, 2017 Joanne was a member of the ECW Board as well as the diocesan coordinator for the United Thank Offering. She made three mission trips with the ECW to Honduras and Panama and was a delegate or alternate to several Triennial meetings of the national ECW. As an active member of Trinity Church, Wheaton, Joanne was responsible for bringing the knitting ministry to the church even though she was not a knitter! She had most recently served as president of the ECW guild, St. Julian s. Joanne had been living with lymphoma for 3 years prior to her death. Her husband, Paul, died a week earlier from a series of strokes. Please keep their daughters Carol and Lynn in your prayers. Memorial gifts may be directed to Episcopal Church Women (ECW) - St. Julian's Guild of Trinity Episcopal Church, 130 N. West St., Wheaton, IL 60187

6 The Diocesan Mirror November/December 2017 Page 6 January Mirror published 4 Board Meeting ONLINE February 1 Board Meeting March Mirror published 1 Board meeting 2018 Calendar April 1 Easter 5 Board meeting St. James, West Dundee Province V ECW Convention DeKoven Retreat Center Racine, WI July Mirror published June NO BOARD MEETING 2 Altar Guild Conference Church of the Holy Comforter, Kenilworth NO BOARD MEETING 5-13 Triennial Meeting Austin, Texas September Mirror published August 2 Board meeting President s luncheon 6 Board meeting A Letter from Our 2015 Phoebe Griswold Grant Recipient The Rev. Paula Englehorn Episcopal Church of St. George, Macomb The semester is half over and I thought the women of ECW would like to see some pictures of our activity with WIU University music students and the Wesley Village retirement Center. This first semester is going very well. Because of your generous grant we are able to provide music every Saturday for Wesley Village. One week the music students go the Retirement Center and the next to the Medical Center. This is the pattern for the semester. The two music therapy students have put together a sing-a-long booklet for the residents, and the people at Wesley Village enjoy having the 28 ECW Annual Meeting St. James, West Dundee May Mirror published 3 Board meeting Holy Comforter, Kenilworth October 4 Board meeting St. James Commons Fall Retreat DeKoven Retreat Center Racine, WI November Mirror published Diocesan Convention singalong book. We also have two talented music students who are part of the WIU President s International String quartet who are playing for the people of Wesley Village. (Cont. on page 7)

7 The Diocesan Mirror November/December 2017 Page 7 (Continued from page 6) Grant Recipient The music therapy students names are Heather Johnson and Emma Kavachevich. The string quartet violinist is Vlad Hontila from Romania, and the cellist is Nathalie Hernández from Mexico. I know many of the Chicago people in our Diocese would find it hard to travel to Macomb in the middle of the week. This year we plan to record the music and make CDs, the CDs will be available for purchase and go toward our scholarship fund. We re also hoping to make a video of the concert so some of you in our Diocese, who live so far away, will be able to enjoy the concert with us. The photos feature students from past years who played for us and benefited from our music scholarship program. We re having our next Scholarship concert on Wednesday January 24 at 7:30. It s our Folk Music Concert and will feature Western Illinois University s award winning Presidents String Quartet. This year the Quartet features young people from South America, Mexico and Romania.

8 Seasons Greetings From your ECW Board Beth Petti Maryfran Crist Diane Edwards Helen Mensing Jane McCarron The Rev. Trilby Murray May Anstee Kaye Wertz Judy Greaves Linda Toberman Susan O Brien Episcopal Church Women Diocese of Chicago 65 East Huron Street Chicago IL Return Service Requested