The Red Lodge Players will present a chamber music concert Sunday, January 31, at 3:00 pm at Saint John’s Episcopal Church.

The concert will benefit Heart Mountain Volunteer Medical Clinic.

The trio is led by violinist Randy Tracy, the Concert Master for the Billings Symphony and includes the symphony’s first chair cellist, David Heinzen and pianist Nancy Fonicello. The concert will include two of the most dramatic pieces in the chamber music repertory. The first will be Beethoven’s Piano Trio #1 in E, his first published work and the piece that earned him the accolade of ‘genius’ at the age of 23. After a brief intermission, the trio will perform Brahms Piano Trio #1, an immense masterpiece begun when he was 21. This was his first major composition and the first Brahms piece to be heard in America.

While these works date from the beginning of each composer’s career, they are fully developed compositions which herald the greatness that was to come from each man. This will be a concert of big, important and fully listenable music played in an intimate setting by well-known professionals.

Tickets are $20 per person; seating is limited. Make reservations by contacting Larry Dirksen at dirksenlawrence@yahoo.com. Call 623-363-5040 for additional information. A reception for the artists will follow.

Augusta, one of the young members of St. John’s, brought home a request from her school. The month of April sees both Earth Day and Arbor Day observed. Her school, Parkside Elementary, is promoting a recycling project and is asking for help with it. The Parkside Recycling Club would like to help set a new Guinness World Record by collecting OLD JEANS. The old jeans or denim will be used to insulate houses which have been damaged by the hurricanes, tornadoes or other natural disasters in the United States. It takes about 500 pairs of jeans to insulate an average size house. If anyone has any old jeans to donate, please drop them by Parkside School during the month of April. The collected jeans will be shipped to NG Kids/Set a Guinness World Record on June 1, 2009.

Tim Schoessler Performs At St. John’s Lenten Concert Series from Justine Larsen on Vimeo.

John Rapson Lenten Concert at St. John’s Episcopal Church from Justine Larsen on Vimeo.

Charlie Larsen will celebrate his 4th birthday on February 7… but we’ll have cake and ice cream on the 8th after Sunday’s service. Come down and wish the li’l stinker a happy birthday!

Sister Claire Joy of the Community of the Holy Spirit will be at St. John’s on the afternoon of Sunday, March 1. This is a rare and wonderful opportunity to talk with a gifted spiritual director for comfort, guidance or counsel. More information about her visit will be forthcoming as final arrangements for her tour of the Diocese of Wyoming are made final.

Many people are unaware that there are monastic orders, monks and nuns, in the Episcopal Church. Many people, Episcopalian and non-Episcopalians alike, think that women’s ordination in the Episcopal church makes women’s monastic orders obsolete. But The Community of the Holy Spirit in New York is a thriving, eco-spiritual center where women are invited to follow Christ by intentionally living out of the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience within the structure of a modified Augustinian Rule.

Women who are entering convents are older than their counterparts of 40 or more years ago. They have more life experience including careers, marriages, children and grandchildren. They are also computer literate and are creating blogs to share their experience of spiritual life. To read more about Sister Claire Joy’s life, visit her blog.

Baptism at St. John’s from Justine Larsen on Vimeo.

Young girl’s artwork done in response to the story of Jonah.