The Church of the Good Shepherd

8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist
in the Church

A spoken, contemplative service that uses traditional language.

View the 8:00 a.m. Service Leaflet

10:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist
in the Church and Live-Streamed at gslive.org

An elegant, modern language service with music. 

View the 10:30 a.m. Service Leaflet
Watch the 10:30 a.m. Live-Stream

SIGN-UPs NO LONGER REQUIRED…

But to be as safe as possible at the indoor worship services, everyone is required to…
sign-in when you arrive (in case we need to do contact tracing),
wear a mask,
and observe social distance of at least 6 feet.

Easter Vigil

6:00 a.m. in the Church
Click here for the service leaflet.
Click here to watch the livestream.

Festival Holy Eucharist for Easter

10:30 a.m. Drive-In Service in the Church Parking Lot
(the choral prelude begins at 10:15 a.m.)
Click here for the service leaflet.

SIGN-UPs NO LONGER REQUIRED…

But to be as safe as possible at the indoor worship services, everyone is required to…
sign-in when you arrive (in case we need to do contact tracing),
wear a mask,
and observe social distance of at least 6 feet.

Maundy Thursday (April 1)

6:30 p.m. 
Holy Eucharist and Stripping of the Altar (in the Church)
Click here for the service leaflet.
Click here to watch the livestream. 

Good Friday (April 2)

12:00 noon 
Stations of the Cross (in the Outdoor Gardens)
Click here for the service leaflet.

6:30 p.m.
Liturgy for Good Friday and Chanting of the Passion Gospel (in the Church) 
Click here for the service leaflet.
Click here to watch the livestream.

Each year the church is adorned with lilies for our Easter services (this year the flower guild will also adorn the parish hall entrance with lilies for the drive-in service). To donate Easter lilies in memory of someone who has died or in thanksgiving for someone who is still living, download a form at here.

Live Stream Worship with Drive-Thru Communion

Sundays at 10:30 a.m.
(the prelude begins around 10:25 a.m.)

Click here for the service leaflet.
Click here to watch the live-stream.

After you watch the service on the internet, you can drive to the church to receive communion, which will be offered in the church parking lot until 12:30 p.m.

• When you arrive, the Driver and any Passengers should remain inside your vehicle and roll down the window (remember to wear a mask).  
• The Presider will come to your vehicle and administer the Communion bread.

Compline

Sundays at 7:00 p.m.

Click here for the service leaflet.
Click here to watch the live-stream.

Compline is one of the ancient services of the daily office (services that mark specific times during the day) and has been observed by Christians for centuries to mark the closing of each day. To help us still our minds and experience the holy in our midst, during Lent we will live-stream a simple, chanted Compline from the church using the version in our Book of Common Prayer (page 127).

Dear friends,

What a blessed experience it has been for me to complete my diaconal service at the Church of the Good Shepherd.  What it means in my vocation to be a deacon, a servant leader, could never have been complete without the culmination of my ministry with the poor and oppressed of Rocky Mount.  This ministry that you have given space and support to is a powerful statement of mission. 

After discussion and Bishop Rodman, I have notified your rector, Matt Johnson, of my retirement from an active diaconal ministry.  There are two reasons.  First, I have reached the age specified by the national church for retirement (72).  With the years, I have had to accept a decline in energy and alertness that compliments the job.  Secondly, I wish to spend more time with my family without feeling the tension that duty to the church sometimes creates.

I leave you with an excerpt from the sermon that I wrote for Ash Wednesday, but was unable to deliver due to Covid 19 concerns.

Isaiah 58: 1-12
Psalm 103 or 103: 8-14
2 Corinthians 5: 20b-6:10
Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-21

Every day, God implores us to “look around”, [just] “look around” (1). And if you do “look around” in all the dreaded corners of Rocky Mount—you will see the homeless and forlorn walking the streets looking for their next meal; look in Wal-Marts—especially Wal-Marts if you don’t shop there and you will see the dejected and the “poor in spirit”; look  from the church parking across those railroad tracks.  From every direction leading to this church, you will see the faces of the poor and broken.  

God sent his only son, Jesus Christ to us in human form, and Jesus took his place on earth beside the lowly, the poor, the sick and suffering.  So if we want to stand beside Jesus, where will we place ourselves in this world?  “In the New Testament, [Jesus] identifies with humanity, especially with the least of us. If we want to know Jesus, we cannot ignore one another. In Matthew 25, it is clear that, if we want to see Jesus, we need to look into our neighbor’s eyes. Whatever we do for our neighbor, Jesus says, we do for him” (2).  And if you want these ashes to mean anything between you and God, you must feel compassion for the least of them.  And when you do, the Lord says that “your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight (3).  The prophet tells us that with God’s help we can use the old rubble that we see across those railroad tracks to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of the past.  We can “restore old ruins, and renovate, [and] make the community livable again” (4).

In the Diocesan Webinar on February 9, 2021, Dr. William Barber called these actions “a moral revolution of values” and said “we cannot be at ease.”  If we receive these ashes tonight, we must walk away committed to repentance and restoration. We must be willing to look around and look into the eyes of the suffering and rejected in these lonely streets. And we must commit ourselves to a new creation, a restored community, built by the hands and help of all who live here.   Only then will we reap his amazing grace.

Amen.  Amen.

Thank you, my sisters and brothers.  Velinda+

(1) Lyrics from Broadway play Hamilton.
(2) Smith, Helen. “Spirituality and Justice for All: To Experience Life Fully, Our Worship and Work Must Be One . The Presbyterian Record   Vol.128,Iss.1, (Jan 2004): 42-43.
(3) Isaiah 58. The Message Bible.
(4) Isaiah 58. The Message Bible.

Wednesday, February 17th
12:00 noon and 6:30 p.m.

On Ash Wednesday Christians around the world will mark the beginning of Lent with the imposition of ashes.  During this ancient ritual one is marked with an ash cross on the forehead and told “remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” 

This year the administration of ashes will be “touch free” and will be offered at:

• 12:00 noon
  Live Stream service with Drive-Thru Eucharist and Ashes 
  Service leaflet available here.
  After you watch the service on the internet at gslive.org, you can drive to the church to receive ashes and communion (ashes and communion will be available until 2:00 p.m.)
• 6:30 p.m.
  Drive-In Eucharist and Ashes 
  Service leaflet available here.
  You can park in the church parking lot and participate in the service, which will be in front of the parish hall and broadcast on FM radio, from your car.

8:00 a.m. Public Worship Temporally Suspended

• Click here for the 8:00 a.m. service leaflet.

Due to the number of COVID cases in Nash and Edgecombe counties, Good Shepherd is temporally suspending services of Holy Eucharist at 8:00 a.m. Although we still still offer an outdoor liturgy of Morning Prayer, attendance is discouraged (except for those who may be going through a spiritual crisis) until we can gather more safely.

9:00 a.m. Bible Study

• Click here to participate in the group (meeting ID 933 2447 5602, password Shepherd). To participate via phone, dial (301) 715-8592 and enter the meeting ID.

The Sunday morning Bible meets each week via zoom 9:00 until 9:45 a.m. All are invited to join in for a discussion of the day’s gospel reading and how it applies to our lives. No preparation or commitment required.

10:30 a.m. Worship Live Stream

• Click here to tune live stream or to watch recordings of previous services (and remember to subscribe to our YouTube channel)
• Click here for the service leaflet.

To help us join together as the Body of Christ while we stay at home, we’ll continue to live stream our service each Sunday at 10:30 a.m. (the prelude begins around 10:25 a.m.) for as long as the moratorium on public worship is in effect.

Tuesday, February 16th

Although the pandemic doesn’t allow us to gather together for this annual event, Emily and Paul Bondy’s famous seafood-free Louisiana Gumbo will be available for carry-out.

Here’s the scoop:

1. Order
   Contact Tom Parker, our Parish Administrator, here or at 252-442-1134 and let him know how much you would like:
   $10 for a pint
   $15 for a quart
   (Proceeds will go towards Good Shepherd’s outreach ministries.)

1. Pick-Up
   Come to the church on Shrove Tuesday (February 16th) between 4:30 and 6:00 p.m. to pick-up you Gumbo (you can pay by cash or write a check to “Church of the Good Shepherd” with “gumbo” in the memo line).

You’ll have to supply your own Mardi Gras beads and decorations this year, but we’ll plan a big party in 2022.