Weekly Worship Service
Sunday, October 10, 2021
- First Message: Wishful Thinking: A Seeker’s ABC by Frederick Buechner
- Gospel: Mark 10:17-31 Rich young ruler asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
10:00am – Eucharist Service In-person & Zoom with outdoor social time to follow for those worshipping in person and Zoom gathering for those worshipping virtually. The Rev. Susan Moss is our preacher and celebrant.
The new format for the 10am service has seemed to work well for those attending virtually. Please join via Zoom in the link below and the Zoom Host will share the Live Stream. This will allow all of those attending virtually to interact during the service.
What’s in this Weekly?
Worship Team
Pastoral visit to St. Mary’s by Bishop Loya
St. Mary’s Stewardship 2022
St. Mary’s COVID contingency planning
Children and Youth (and Talent!)
- Youth Group, Tweeners, Sunday School, and More!
- Did you miss the Talent Show or want to watch it again?
Communications
Prayers in the Weekly
Upcoming Events at Saint Mary’s
Worship Team
- Although the Worship Team didn’t get a lot of responses regarding the Lay Leader/Officiant using the lectern, most response was positive because “we’re in this together” and the lectern gives those worshipping with us via Zoom and those in the choir & band the best sound. So, we’ll continue having the Lay Leader/Officiant use the lectern for now.
- Again, not a lot of responses received regarding adding wine to Eucharist, but all the response received was positive. So starting on All Saints Day (Nov 7), we’ll have both bread and wine available for Eucharist! Look around and see if you have a little glass or cup to bring with you to church if you’d like wine. We will use the “pouring chalice” (with a pouring lip!) to pour a bit of wine into glasses that people bring. We’ll also supply small paper “cups” if you want wine but forget your glass.
- This Sunday, October 10, we’ll start ‘turning to face the middle aisle’ when we say our Baptismal promises to each other and to God. We can’t touch each other yet, but we can make eye contact with those across the aisle from us. We hope this will increase the sense of community we feel being together.
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!
Pastoral visit to St. Mary’s by Bishop Loya on October 13th
All current and former members of St. Mary’s are invited to participate in a pastoral visit by Bishop Craig Loya to St. Mary’s. This visit will address issues related to Rev. LeeAnne Watkin’s Title IV process (disciplinary procedures of the Episcopal church), including her removal by ECMN from active ministry. The bishop will be joined by Canon Karen Olson for this visit. The bishop welcomes and encourages your questions and concerns on these and other matters so that all can continue the journey toward understanding, healing and wholeness.
The pastoral visit will be on October 13 from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s, or people can participate via Zoom if they prefer. A Zoom link for the service appears below. In-person attendees will need to follow COVID protocols that require masking and social distance. For those who are interested, there will be adult-supervised childcare that night in the St. Mary’s Room, where a children’s video will be shown. Children should also be masked.
If you have questions about this upcoming visit, contact Warden Brian Nerbonne at michigander_guy@yahoo.com or The Rev. Susan Moss, our transition priest, at susan@saintmarysepiscopal.org.
To join the meeting via Zoom, Click HERE
Meeting ID: 834 5191 4590
Passcode: 456410
St. Mary’s Stewardship 2022
Dear St. Mary’s Family,
We have entered that time of year when stewardship is at the forefront of our minds. This year’s campaign will begin on Sunday, October 10th and run through Sunday, November 14th. We would like all pledges to be completed by that time.
We are looking at stewardship as something we do year-round and not just in the fall. Through your time, talent and treasure: leading committees, participating in talent shows, youth activities, singing in the choir and Sunday night bedtime stories (to name a few), we are stewards of our community.
This year’s theme: Faithful Belonging: Now and in the Future reflects that ongoing commitment.
Our goal this year is $190,000 in pledge income. Yes, it’s a big goal, but we can do it because we value our life together at St. Mary’s.
We have several ways that you can make your pledge:
- Paper pledge cards are available again this year. Please contact Cindy James at james.c.a@comcast.net or at 651-261-4884.
- Online pledge by accessing our stewardship page by clicking this link. Click HERE
- Electronic Funds transfer from your bank. Contact our treasurer, Rex Holzemer (rexaholzemer@gmail.com) for details on how this works.
- Click the CONTRIBUTE tab at the top of our website (Click HERE) and select “Give Now Online” from the menu to set up a Vanco account to put your pledge on a credit card or have it withdrawn from your bank account. Note: If you choose this option, please check the processing fee box (2.75% for credit cards and 1% for bank accounts) to help cover the processing fee. This fee will be included in your pledge statement at the end of the year, so you get the tax credit and St. Mary’s won’t have to pay the processing fee.
Not sure how much you are currently pledging? No problem: simply contact our pledge clerk (Enzo DeLuca) at pledgeclerk@saintmarysepiscopal.org and he will give you the information regarding your current pledge.
The stewardship committee thanks you for your time, talent and treasure. We welcome you to the 2022 Stewardship campaign: Faithful Belonging: Now and in the Future.
Cindy James and Jim Wheeler
St. Mary’s COVID contingency planning
ECMN guidelines for in-person worship include a threshold in COVID case numbers. If exceeded in the county where we worship, the recommendation is to switch to either outdoor or virtual worship. If you have been watching the news at all recently, you know that the Delta variant has pushed up case numbers to levels similar to what we saw this spring. We have yet to exceed the threshold set by ECMN, but people should pay attention to this email each weekend in case we need to pivot away from in-person services. In the case where we need to make a change, details will be shared in the Friday weekly about the format for that Sunday’s service. Yet another reason to read the Weekly each week!
St. Mary’s Children’s and Youth for Fall
St. Mary’s Website Hosting Going Green!
St. Mary’s website is now hosted by Green Geeks, a move that saves St. Mary’s money while also making a positive environmental impact. Green Geeks purchases wind power credits to replace three times the amount of energy a website uses every year. Didn’t think that websites used energy? From Green Geeks: “The Internet industry consumes enormous amounts of energy. The backbone of the Internet are data centers which hold millions of large servers, stacked on top of each other in racks, which are powered up and running all day every day. These servers consume enormous amounts of energy and to make sure that they do not overheat and fail, they are blasted with arctic temperature air all day every day. … In fact 40% of all of the energy used to power the internet is used to keep those servers from overheating. … Today, data centers account for 2% of the world’s carbon emissions, that is as much as the airline industry! Data Center pollution is expected to grow to 14% of the world’s carbon emissions, as much as the United States of America, by 2040.
Prayer Requests
Hello friends,
We may experience life’s ups and downs individually, but together as a beloved community we are called to show up for each other. One of the ways our community can show up for each other is through prayer. There is great power in prayer. In addition to our prayer chain, I’d like to add a section in the Weekly. It would be a public list because the Weekly is published on our website. My idea is that the list would be brief. If you missed a Sunday, you’d still be able to know what is on the hearts of those in this community. The list would be updated weekly with prayers remaining on the list for at least a month or longer if requested. For the Weekly that will go out on October 15th, please send me your prayer requests by October 11th. You can email me at claire1412@gmail.com.
Much love,
Claire H.
Upcoming Events at Saint Mary’s
Opportunities for Worship, Education, Choir, & Meet Ups
for the week of 10/8 – 10/14
Sunday, October 10, 2021
Eucharist Service In-Person and via Zoom
10:00am
Link
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Compline
7:30pm
Link
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Youth Group
6:30pm
Contact Mia for more information. Click HERE
Wednesday, October 13, 2021
Pastoral Visit to St. Mary’s by Bishop Loya
6:30pm
Link
Thursday, October 14, 2021
Tweeners
7:00pm
Contact Mia for more information. Click HERE
Thursday, October 14, 2021
Saint Mary’s Dinner Group
Contact Julie Thomas for more information. Click HERE.
Thursday, October 14, 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.