St. Hilda St. Patrick Episcopal Church

Peace Corps Project/Fundraiser

Sarah Brown, daughter of Andrea Brown, director of our Music Camp this summer, is a Peace Corps volunteer in Niono, Mali. The people in the town are very poor, and the women want to purchase a rice field and farm it themselves so they can have independent income and augment what little they have.

Sunday, June 17, 6:30PM to 8:30PM there will be a concert at Northshore United Church of Christ in Woodinville, (on 168th St., right off the Woodinville-Duvall Rd.). Two bands in which Andrea plays, the Cascade Brass Quintet and the 188th St. Klezmer Band, will provide the music. Some of her best students will also perform.

If you can’t make it to the concert, but would like to contribute to help the women of Niono, checks can be sent to Philby Brown Peace Corps Fund, 20118 - 192nd Ave. N.E., Woodinville, WA 98077. Philby is Sarah’s sister, and is promoting this fundraiser for the Peace Corps. Hope you can make it to the concert and meet Andrea and her daughters. Questions, call Mary at 425-743-4655.

Do you consider yourself a member of a particular community? Do you give all of your time and attention to that particular community? On the other hand, do you consider yourself a member of a variety of communities? Do you divide your time and attention equally between these communities? How do you prioritize where your time and attention go? Are you able to articulate which (if any) community is more important, or do you respond to what seems most urgent? Do you recognize that there is a difference between urgency and importance, and does that play a part in your decision-making about where, when, and why you spend your time and attention? 

I’m asking these questions for a reason: As we plan for a new church year, we want you to recognize how and where this particular community fits for you. Would you take the time to answer these questions: 

• Who or what is most important in my life?

 

• Am I sure that I want this to be what is most important to me?

 

• What does this mean in terms of how and where I spend my time and attention?

 

• Is there a way I can re-prioritize my time and attention so that they are spent on who or what is truly the most important to me?

 

Our culture makes many different demands upon us, and people develop assumptions based on popularity of opinion, without questioning whether the popular opinion is the one to which they actually subscribe. 

It’s time for us to answer who we are as a community, without the veil of popular opinion, and without bowing to what culture dictates. What is most important to us, and what is the focus of our community? 

We have a huge amount to offer to one another and the larger community and culture around us. But we first need to determine what it is that is important to us as members of this particular community. Will you think on this? Will you then respond to our community in a new creative and visionary way?  Mary Gates