Last Tuesday Gerald Fritz’s day started off a lot like every other. Around half past 10 he embarked on a leisurely stroll from his four-bedroom parsonage on South Water street and crossed town to the Espresso Love coffee shop.

Before he’d rounded the corner by the courthouse, he spotted a young acquaintance. “’S’up, Jerry?” the man greeted him. “How you behaving?” Jerry asked. They high-fived and continued on in opposite directions.

The Federated Church of Edgartown is sending volunteers on a 10-day mission to New Orleans in November to continue the rebuilding work the church youth group began last December.

With the passing of the second anniversary of Katrina, and with so much left incomplete, inadequate, or non-existent in this still-ravaged area, the volunteers feel called to lend additional physical, emotional and spiritual support.

When the Edgartown Federated Church choir sang their first notes at a church service in Padua, Italy on April 15, they heard something they don’t usually hear on the Vineyard — their own voices reverberating back to them along the endless walls and high ceilings of the Basilica, sometimes for as long as eight seconds.

The choir was performing in St. Anthony’s Basilica in Padua, Italy, in front of a crowd of 1,000, as part of their ten-day tour of Northern Italy.