1895 Laurel, Saint Paul MN 55104

Saint Mary's Episcopal Church

1895 Laurel Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104

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Saint Mary’s Weekly – August 27, 2021

August 26, 2021 by communications


Weekly Worship Service
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Worship In-Person and Live Stream —10:00am.
Outdoor Social Hour to follow for in-person attendees.  (Joining virtually?  See below in “What’s New”.) 

This Sunday Erika Scheurer, a member at St. Mary’s, will be our Preacher, and it will be an adapted Morning Prayer service.

  • First Message: Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
  • Gospel: Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

NEW! For the Live Stream worship service on August 29, 2021 Click HERE

For the Service Bulletin – Click HERE
For the 2021 Summer Songbook – Click HERE


What’s in this Weekly?

Worship Team

  • Liturgy Matters
  • What’s New?

Search Update

  • A Note from Brian Nerbonne, Warden

Sunday Morning Lay Ministry

  • Gearing up for Fall

Children and Youth

  • Survey and Update

Pastoral Care

  • A Letter from Brian Nerbonne, Warden

Upcoming Events at Saint Mary’s


Worship Team

Liturgy Matters at St. Mary’s by The Rev. Susan M. Moss

Several have asked me to post the closing words of my sermon last Sunday. This was a day when St. Mary’s practices its time honored tradition: parents wrapping their high school graduates in a handmade quilt created by St. Mary’s members who had adorned each one with messages of encouragement and support; and then… sending the graduates out with their blessings as they head into their next chapter. 

…When the church works it’s a thing of extraordinary grace and beauty. 
Lives merge, hearts soften and exiles from a shallow culture look deep inside.
God given Diversity is taken as a gift and the genius of Bach and Beethoven 
finds a home.

In such sunlight people smile. People cry. People hold hands. 
People rise from the grave of this troubled world and breathe freely.

At a deep level I think this is what we seek. It is why we hang in with a 
troubled and frustrating institution. It is why we show up on Sunday and 
give sacrificially.  We sense that God’s grace is out there, ours for the asking. 
And we just want to see a glimpse of it, taste a taste, see the adult bend to the child, see lovers bring their love to God. See sufferers bring their suffering, see the fist unclench, see everyone, everyone! Treated with dignity and respect….

By the Rev. Tom Ehrich

What’s New?
  • To listen to the sermon given by The Rev. Susan Moss on August 22, Click HERE.
  • We welcomed our new audio and visual equipment last Sunday much to the pleasure of those watching the live stream via YouTube. The sound was great and the camera angles gave us clear views of the music team and all those leading worship. Thanks to Cindi Brickson for bringing this to fruition!! Patience, prayers and goodwill are still needed as more improvements will be forthcoming…Zoom coffee/social time will be coming as will the chat feature during live stream. Stay tuned for the addition of these features!
  • There will be a second Sunday worship service on September 19th at 8:00am! This will be hosted and led by those who attended the 7:45am service pre-COVID! This will be completely led by an Officiant (lay person), no clergy involvement. Instead of a sermon, they will discuss the readings for the day and create their own sermon! They will use the adapted Morning Prayer service that is being used at the 10:00am service. After this service they will decide whether to do another 8:00am service or two in October. All are welcome to join them! Please let us know at worship@saintmarysepiscopal.org.

Feedback is welcome!
Expect changes as we try things, see how they work and make improvements! Your feedback is more important than ever before to help us know what’s working well and what isn’t. Please send your thoughts, ideas, suggestions to the Worship Team.

Click HERE to give feedback. Thanks!

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Search Update

I am guessing many people at St. Mary’s are thinking about what might be next after our most recent rector candidate dropped out of our process. The vestry has been thinking about the same thing, and held a lengthy discussion of options. We have another vestry meeting on Tuesday, August 31 at 6:00 p.m. where we will talk about things further. We hope to have more details available to the congregation soon. In the meantime, we will appreciate your prayers for thoughtful discernment on next steps. If you have any thoughts or questions, please feel free to contact me.
 
Brian Nerbonne, Warden
michigander_guy@yahoo.com
612-810-7898

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Lay Ministry: Gearing up for Fall

Yes, fall is right around the corner and St. Mary’s needs YOU!! When we started in-person worship services, many of you signed up to help with Sunday morning lay ministries… Ushers, Greeters, Lay Leaders/Officiants and Vergers. Thanks to all of you who were able to do that!  

Now that summer is nearing an end and we’ll soon be settling into our fall/winter routines, it’s our hope that more of you will be able to help with these lay ministries. The goal is to have enough people assisting with these ministries so that no one will be asked to take on responsibilities more often than once each month. You can get more information or sign up now by contacting mauramccro@gmail.com.

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Update from Mia on Children’s and Youth for Fall

We have been in brainstorming mode to try to get some appropriate programming that kids and youth will be interested in for the fall (while keeping kids safe!) 
 
Here is what we know so far. 
 
Youth Group:
Youth Group will start up September (date TBD) in person with our Youth Leader, Kat Lewis!  Yay, welcome aboard Kat!  Check the Saint Mary’s Calendar for more up to date details about the Youth Group.  Since most youth group sessions will be indoors, masks are required.  The youth group may choose to do some outdoor gatherings as well!  
*I am still looking for an additional 1-2 adults who are interested in supporting and helping with youth group this year (in person). 
 
Tweeners:
Tweeners will be starting up virtually September 22, 2021 from 6-7pm on Wednesday nights.  I will be reaching out to families to see if they are interested in family led meet up dates for Tweens that are outdoor!  If you are a Tween parent, let me know if this is interesting to you!
 
Sunday School:
I am still not sure what we are going to do with Sunday school this year.  Below is a link to a survey that will help shape what we are going to do.  If you have a child in the 0-11 range, please fill out the survey to help guide my decisions around this for the year.
 

Parent Survey

Sunday Night Bed Time Stories:
As part of the Christian Formation plan for this year, I would like to do a Story time for our little kids.  Any congregation member can help with this idea.  I will be taking pictures of our Spark Story Bible and attaching the stories to a specific day.  Your job (if you so choose to accept it) would be to read the story and video tape yourself doing this. You would also have a chance to say a few words to the kids and let them know that they are missed and we all hope to be back together soon!  I would then distribute this in the weekly email so that our families can have Bible stories read to our littlest children on Sunday nights.  

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Pastoral Care

I am both happy and sad to announce that Rev. Cindi Brickson has a new job that will require her to step down from her role as Pastoral Care Minister. I am so appreciative that she stepped up to take on this role at St. Mary’s with gusto, going above and beyond individual pastoral care to found recurring care groups for LGBTQ+ people and elders, a quarterly healing circle, and curating the St. Mary’s prayer chain, to name a few. All of these efforts happened during a time when face to face interaction was very limited, and people needed virtual venues to connect and help heal one another from all of the trauma that is so present right now.

As we await the results of our search process that we hope will call our new rector this fall, St. Mary’s pastoral care programs will be more limited. Rev. Susan Moss will cover pastoral care emergencies, Eily Marlow has offered to continue to coordinate the LGBTQ+ and elder care groups, and Cindi plans to continue to lead the prayer chain and Tuesday evening Compline gatherings. The members of the pastoral care team look forward to working with a new rector to develop a robust pastoral care program at St. Mary’s once they are in place.

If you have any questions about this transition time for pastoral care, please reach out to Susan or me. Congratulations on your new job with ECMN, Cindi, and thank you for you service to St. Mary’s in this role!

Brian Nerbonne, Warden

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Upcoming Events at Saint Mary’s
Opportunities for Worship, Education, Choir, & Meet Ups
for the week of 8/27 – 9/2

Sunday, August 29, 2021
Worship In-person and Live Stream (Outdoor Social Hour to follow for in-person attendees)
10:00am
Link

Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Vestry Meeting – Special Session
6:00pm
Contact for details and a link Click HERE

Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Compline
8:30pm
Contact Rev. Cindi for details and link Click HERE

Thursday, September 2, 2021
Saint Mary’s Dinner Group
Contact Julie Thomas for more information. Click HERE.

Thursday, September 2, 2021
Thursday Evening Contemplative Service
Led by Erika Scheurer and Anna Clark
7:00pm
Link

Visit the Saint Mary’s Calendars page for more information on what is happening.

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Filed Under: Children and Youth, News, Pastoral Care, Weekly News and Announcements

covid 19 update

This page may not reflect St. Mary’s current programming, as we continue to emerge from the pandemic. As of June 2021, for example, we have both in-person and Zoom options for attending our Sunday 10:00 a.m. worship service.

Find the current status of all St. Mary’s programming and community activities on THIS PAGE. Join us!

Our decisions about how to conduct activities at St. Mary’s are guided by our belief that it is our duty to care for one another as children of God, as well as by guidance from the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota.

 

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