1895 Laurel, Saint Paul MN 55104

Saint Mary's Episcopal Church

1895 Laurel Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104

  • Curious?
    • Who are we and why are we here?
    • Who is Jesus?
    • Episco-What?
    • Clergy Leadership & Pastoral Care
    • Membership
    • LGBTQIA+ Folks Belong Here
    • Staff
    • Money and Stewardship
  • Worship
    • Worship
    • Weddings
    • Baptism
    • Funerals
    • Lay Ministry Instructions
  • Calendars
    • Main Calendar
    • St. Mary’s Events Calendar
    • Sunday Bible Readings (lectionary)
  • Children & Youth
    • Beginnings
    • Sunday School
    • Children 4-6 Grade – Tweeners
    • Youth
  • Building Use
  • Sermons
  • Contact
  • Contribute
    • Money and Stewardship
    • How to give
    • Give Now Online
    • Faithful Belonging – Stewardship for 2022
    • Planned Giving

Saint Mary’s Weekly – September 17, 2021

September 16, 2021 by communications


Weekly Worship Service
Sunday, September 19, 2021

NEW: An 8:00am service this Sunday! See “The Return of a Morning Prayer Service” below for more information.

Worship In-Person & Live Streamed with social time to follow for those worshipping in person.—10:00am

 

This Sunday The Rev. Carol Arney will be our Preacher and Celebrant, so we’ll have Eucharist.

  • First Message: James 3:13-4:3, 7-8a
  • Gospel: Mark 9:30-37

For the Live Stream worship service on September 19, 2021 Click HERE

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


What’s in this Weekly?

Worship Team

  • The Return of a Morning Prayer Service!
  • What’s New?

September is Rally Month at St. Mary’s!

  • Listening Sessions
  • Family Event

St. Mary’s COVID contingency planning

  • Guidelines from ECMN

ECMN News

  • Newsletter and Items of Note

Stewardship at St. Mary’s

  • Join the Stewardship Committee

Sunday Morning Lay Ministry

  • Gearing up for Fall

Children and Youth

  • Survey and Update

Pastoral visit to St. Mary’s by Bishop Loya

  • Mark your calendars for October 13th, 6:30pm-8:30pm

Pastoral Care

  • A Letter from Brian Nerbonne, Warden

Communications

  • Website Maintenance

Upcoming Events at Saint Mary’s


Worship Team

The Return of a Morning Prayer Service!

There will be a second worship service this Sunday, September 19th at 8:00am via Zoom! 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 will be used at 10am Morning Prayer services. After this service they will decide whether to do another 8:00am service or two in October. All are welcome to join them!

To join the September 19th Morning Prayer service via Zoom, Click HERE
If asked for a passcode, enter 171895
If asked for a meeting ID, enter 878 4182 3048

To join by cell phone only (voice only, no video),
call: 312-626-6799
Enter Meeting ID 878 4182 3048
If asked for a passcode, use 171895
 
For the Morning Prayer Service Bulletin – Click HERE
 
What’s New?
  • To listen to the sermon given by The Rev. Susan Moss on September 12, Click HERE.
  • What do your Gramma’s antique sherry glass and the shot glass you bought while on vacation have in common???? Your first reaction might be “Lordie, Lordie, I can’t imagine they have anything in common!” But wait just a minute! The Worship Team is looking at ways we might bring wine back into our Eucharist…and the common denominator could be those mis-matched glasses mentioned above! Each person who would like to receive wine along with the bread would bring a small glass of some kind with them to church. When it’s time for communion, that glass would accompany the person and a small amount of wine would be poured from the “pouring chalice” (a chalice with a small pouring lip) into each person’s glass. So, what do you think of this idea? How important is it to you to have both bread and wine? The Worship Team is seeking feedback on this idea…both positive and negative. We look forward to hearing from you! Click on the feedback link below.
  • “Bags for Kids”:  Thanks to Kitty McFarland we now have sanitized “Bags for Kids” to have while they’re in church and then to take home with them…single use only! Kitty put items in a Ziploc bag…some with markers and paper, others with crayons and an activity booklet. Thank you, Kitty, for keeping our children in mind!

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!

Return to Top


September is Rally Month at St. Mary’s! (updated for 9/17/21)

Yes, this year we are having Rally Month instead of a Rally Day. There are so many fun and exciting events being planned that we need a whole month to fit them all into our schedule.
 
Below, you will find details on the events coming up in September. They include blessing of the back packs, an ice cream social, community meetings and even a talent show. All will be available live or virtually. Get them on your calendar now.  
 
You don’t want to miss any of these events as we kick off the fall season, Sunday school and welcome everyone back to St. Mary’s from their summer adventures.
 
We look forward to seeing you,
 
The St. Mary’s Vestry
 
Listening Sessions
 
We have decided to refresh our documents that go along with the rector job search. We want to get a sense of who the community is now. The last survey asked people to think back to a time before the pandemic and we may not be the same at this point in time. We are asking for your help to make this refresh. We are holding Community Listening Sessions and you are invited to participate. There are three opportunities; two sessions are virtual and one is in-person. Please join us with your input!
 
The remaining sessions are:
 
September 19, 2021
After Church (~11:30am)
In person session
 
September 19, 2021
7:00pm – 8:30pm
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2442755100?pwd=ZVFYR01OVnIranYwNmtvSElmR3lwQT09
Meeting ID: 244 275 5100
Passcode: church
 
Family Event
 
On September 26, 2021 we are going to have an in-person screening of a video talent show made by the community! The plan is to have the screening right after church so that the community that is there in- person can stay to watch the show. We will simultaneously either livestream it or do a virtual way to watch as well. I am looking for people who would like to share their talents! Let Mia know if you are interested!
Text her now at 570-269-9688!
 
Please join us as we celebrate St. Mary’s and each other this September!
 

Return to Top


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!

Return to Top


ECMN News

Similar to the Saint Mary’s Weekly, ECMN emails out a weekly newsletter. If you do not already receive ECMN News, you can click on “Receive Updates” at the bottom of the ECMN website to subscribe – https://episcopalmn.org/.

A couple of items of note from this week’s newsletter:

Dwelling in Scripture
Following on the Bishop’s invitation above, please see here for the scriptures we are invited to dwell in together, as well as instructions for how to engage Dwelling in the Word and Gospel-Based Discipleship.

Celebratory Evensong on Sunday, September 19 at 5:00pm

That service will be live streamed here.

Return to Top


Stewardship at St. Mary’s

Our season of Stewardship will soon be upon us.

Are you interested in helping St. Mary’s grow? Are you wondering where our money comes from? If you answered YES to these questions, our community is asking each of you to consider whether participation with the Stewardship committee could be your ministry at St. Mary’s. 

We are looking for more people (we’d love to have a committee of 6 – 8 people!) to participate in the Stewardship committee and help us move into the next phase of stewardship at St. Mary’s.  

As so many things are changing in our church (and all churches), we would like to adopt some new models and are looking for people with energy and ideas. We would like to move toward a model of stewardship that is a year-round endeavor and with balanced focuses on time, talent, and treasure. In these past few years, we have shown how much of our church life we can manage and move forward with strong laity; we want to recognize and encourage this as we look to our future.

Our first team meeting will be Sept. 30th at 7:00pm via Zoom. We will discuss this year’s stewardship campaign, the different ways we give to St. Mary’s, and what activities and events will be scheduled to keep stewardship in our minds throughout the year. One resource we recognized through the ECMN diocese that we will study as a possible starting point is Project Resource (https://project-resource.org/annual-giving).

If you are interested in joining the team, please contact Cindy James (james.c.a@comcast.net) or Jim Wheeler (james.jw.wheeler@gmail.com) for the link to Zoom meeting. 

In faith,

Cindy James
Jim Wheeler
Enzo DeLuca (pledge clerk)
Rex Holzemer (treasurer)

Return to Top


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.

Return to Top


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 22, 2021 from 6:30-8pm on Wednesday nights 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:
We were planning on starting Tweeners on September 22, 2021– but I heard from a few participants that the date and time do not work for them.  I am in the process of reaching out to find a better time for Tweener youth.  If you are interested in Tweeners and NEW (from last year) please reach out to Mia so she can coordinate schedules with you.
 
Sunday School:
I have only received 4 parent surveys– if you are interested in providing feedback on Sunday school– I do need some more responses!  Please fill out the survey.

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.  
 

Return to Top


Pastoral visit to St. Mary’s by Bishop Loya

Bishop Loya is planning a visit to St. Mary’s from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. on October 13. His purpose for this visit is to hear questions and concerns from our congregation surrounding the Title IV process of our former rector, Rev. LeeAnne Watkins. More details about this event will be available soon, but for now we ask people interested in attending to save the date. Expect more information in a future email from St. Mary’s.

Return to Top


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 your service to St. Mary’s in this role!

Brian Nerbonne, Warden

Return to Top


Website Maintenance

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be doing some behind-the-scenes maintenance on the St. Mary’s website. It may have some periods of downtime, when you aren’t able to access it. If that happens, please rest assured that it will be up and running again within 24 hours. With questions, please email communications@saintmarysepiscopal.org

Return to Top


Upcoming Events at Saint Mary’s
Opportunities for Worship, Education, Choir, & Meet Ups
for the week of 9/17 – 9/23

Sunday, September 19, 2021
Morning Prayer Worship via Zoom
8:00am
Link

Sunday, September 19, 2021
Worship In-Person and Live Stream
10:00am
Link

Sunday, September 19, 2021
Listening Session (information above)
11:30am (In-person)
7:00pm (via Zoom)

Monday, September 20, 2021
LGBTQ+ Gathering
6:30pm
Contact Eily Marlow for details and link Click HERE

Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Finance Committee Meeting
6:30pm
Contact Finance for details and link Click HERE

Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Compline
8:30pm
Contact Rev. Cindi for details and link Click HERE

Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Youth Group
6:30pm
Contact Mia for more information. Click HERE

Thursday, September 23, 2021
Saint Mary’s Dinner Group
Contact Julie Thomas for more information. Click HERE.

Thursday, September 23, 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.

Return to Top


 

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.

 

© 2022 · St. Mary’s Episcopal Church