Important Information

All Public Activities
currently suspended indefinitely,
Including the June 10th Strawberry Festival.

Join Us for Church Services
We welcome you to Join Us for
Weekly Worship or Bible Study via Zoom!
To do so, please contact Pastor Tom by email at stjohnhillchurch@frontier.com or by phone at 717.362.9519 for information about how to join us with an internet-connected device or by calling in with a telephone.

Also, you are welcome to tune in any time at all to our YouTube Channel to view previous Zoom worship or other worship resources we have posted there!
Prayer for a Pandemic: by Cameron Bellm
May we who are merely inconvenienced
Remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors
Remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home
Remember those who must choose between preserving
their health or making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our
children when their schools close
Remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips
Remember those that have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money
in the tumult of the economic market
Remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at home
Remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country, let us choose love.
During this time when we cannot
physically wrap our arms around each other,
Let us yet find ways to be the loving
embrace of God to our neighbors. Amen.
Our Mission
St. John congregation, responding to the call of the Holy Spirit through the Gospel, unites together to preach and teach the Word, administer the sacraments, and carry out God’s mission. With God’s guidance and grace, we strive to boldly proclaim by word and action the reconciling Gospel of Jesus: Working together for justice and peace, and caring for those in need in our community and world. We invite everyone to join us wherever you are on your faith journey.

Connecting with us!

Current Schedule
Come visit us every Sunday!
9:00am - SONDay Celebration
9:00am - Adult Sunday School, Confirmation Class, Youth Sunday School
10:15am - Worship with Celebration Time
Congregation YouTube Page
Listen to our Sunday Services!
St. John's YouTube Channel
Social Media
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/stjohnhillchurch

Pastor's Letter - June

Dear Friends in Jesus,

As we continue our journey through these unprecedented-in-our-lifetimes days, this St. John’s Epistle once again reflects our inability to plan and schedule on the scale of a month at a time and so it once again does not include a Worship Schedule or a Calendar.  (As I said last month, please be watching the weekly digital bulletin, and especially emails from Miss Laurie and from me, for news about upcoming events as we go along.)  The other thing this newsletter does not include is the schedule of the many workdays leading up to our Annual Strawberry Festival, which has been cancelled for this year.  Most likely, you had already heard that the pavilion will be quiet in the days leading up to and including June 10 but that we are extremely blessed to be able to do without the funds which would have been raised, thanks to the strong support we have received in recent Festivals and the careful stewardship of those funds raised.  In prayerful hope we look forward to June of 2021…  

BUT, please don’t think that all is cancellation and gloom – far from it!!  God, no different from any other time, has been active and on the move, leading us for instance to a new and vibrant worship life via the Zoom platform – at 9:30am on Sundays beginning May 24.  If you haven’t yet had a chance to give our Zoom worship a try, please do so!!  Weekly log-in/call-in information is contained in my (for now weekly on Friday) congregational family update emails or please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time for that information.

Starting on Sunday, June 7, both Miss Laurie and I will be leading a Zoom faith formation experience each Sunday morning from 8:45 to 9:15.  The plan is that all interested persons will sign-in/call-in via Zoom as before, just at this new time, following which (via the magic of “Zoom Rooms”) the older folks and adults will “go with” me for a time of Summer Bible Study and the younger folks will “go with” Miss Laurie for a SONDay Celebration.  Then, at 9:15, we will “come back” from our rooms in time to catch up with everyone else who is signing in/calling in for worship at 9:30. 

And plans are already being made for a different sort of Vacation Bible School experience in July and August (please see Miss Laurie’s letter which follows mine for a sneak peek at how that might work) and Youth Group is beginning planning for Zoom activities as I write these lines, with much more to come on that!

The bottom line is that God is Good and Great and Gracious – absolutely no change there from pre-COVID-19 times.  What has changed is that, no matter where we look, we can’t escape the hard truth of just how much we are not in control of our lives and times (a truth which is also absolutely no different from pre-COVID-19 times, but which is now an in-our-faces reality 24/7), and that is getting increasingly hard to take.  And so we all are getting increasingly cranky and stressed and frightened.  And, when you add to that the voices of politicians who are not above using these times to score political points and the voices of media members who are always on the lookout for higher ratings, it makes for a real witches’ brew of negativity and “un-love”.  Which is all the more reason why we absolutely must stay close to God and to God’s Word and to each other as the People of God (at the very least via regular “Zooming” to worship)!  

That is also all the more reason why we need to keep praying, maybe most especially the Prayer for a Pandemic which again follows this letter.  I find that it helps me to keep me and my needs in perspective – not saying that my struggles or yours are small things or that they don’t matter, but rather that, if we are going to pray as Jesus has taught us, we need to take the big view – the God view – which also has the effect of keeping my stuff and your stuff in perspective – a perspective we all need, especially now!     

Thank you for your kindness in reading, and for your continued partnership in this congregational family ministry that we share, no matter how differently it may be done for now!

Pastor Tom

News from Miss Laurie, Young Christians Minister

Happy June, everyone! Call me crazy, but it feels like ordering on-line and getting take-out have become our new “normal”. We are “zooming” and emailing and face timing and finding all kinds of ways to stay connected. I’m even getting used to wearing a mask … sort of.

In the midst of the tragedy brought on by the pandemic, God helps us cope. He gives us creative ways to deal with the uncertainty. He gives us glimpses of hope.

Here at St. John’s, we want to keep YOUR hopes up, too, so mark your calendars for the following upcoming events:
  • Beginning June 7th , we’re going to have SONday Celebration Zoom Time from 8:45 to 9:15 each Sunday morning before the 9:30 Zoom Worship Service!
  • On Wednesday, July 22nd , we’re planning a one-night, virtual VBS program on Zoom featuring Craft Time, Science Time, Bible Story Time and more! There will be music and fun activities for young people of all ages!
  • We’re following that up with a Drive-In Movie Night on Friday, July 24th !
  • Stay tuned for more videos with Sunny as well!

Mark your calendars and join us for the fun! We’ll keep you posted on the details! All our activities, of course, will be dependent upon the church’s recommendations on social distancing. But we WILL find ways to appropriately engage!!

Have an awesome June and keep the CELEBRATION, and HOPE, in your hearts!!

Miss Laurie
Photo used under Creative Commons from Salm3n