Updated June 6, 2022
Hybrid Worship Services and Other St. Mary’s Programs
St. Mary’s offers a hybrid Sunday worship service. You may attend in person or via Zoom. Find more information here. We are committed to continue with a hybrid worship model, having learned that live online worship allows people with transportation or health issues to worship regularly with our community.
Our contemplative service is offered in person and via Zoom at 7:00pm every Thursday. Click here to learn more about our contemplative service.
Use the following links to see more details or contact information about other St. Mary’s programs:
- Weekly Contemplative Service
- Dining on Thursdays
- Men’s Group
- Tweeners (4th – 6th Grade)
- Youth Group
- Beginnings (for families with kids birth-5)
- Vestry, Finance Committee, Communications Committee
- Adult Choir (contact Music Director)
- LGBTQ+ Group
- Sunday School
What’s next?
We continue to prepare the ground for our future, which will continue to prioritize:
- Greater accessibility for all;
- Building a Church for our present and for the future;
- Connecting with other faith communities;
- Continuing our commitment to activism and community service as an integral part of our relationship with God; and
- Continuing to show up with our whole, messy, beautiful selves.
There is much love and sincerity at work here. We are watching and listening for the Spirit at work in us. We continue to work towards worship services and gatherings – virtual and in-person – that fulfill the community and faith needs of everyone at Saint Mary’s.
This is not our table; it’s God’s table. All are invited, no exceptions.
What was it like during the pandemic?
In March of 2020, we made our foray into the world of online worship services. Our guiding principles were:
- Live broadcast of worship
- Meeting the spiritual needs of our community with a single service
- Fostering our social connections
- Living in grace and flexibility with each other, and honoring our individual and community needs for activity and for rest.
In order to pull off a weekly live service, we had to reduce our scope from three Sunday morning services to one. Music was an important part of two of the three Sunday services, and our music team innovated their approach and technology tools. We all learned to check our mute status, to be patient with screen shares, and how to manage the logistics of congregational singing and spoken responses. While online worship did not meet all the diverse spiritual needs of the community, it allowed us the capacity to step into community in different (online) ways.
We even managed to produce some special events and services:
- Summer outdoor (socially-distanced and masked) Sunday Services in Newell Park
- Community Talent Show (November)
- “Community and Carols” (members shared personal stories and music, in lieu of Lessons and Carols)
- Christmas Pageant (youth-created)
- Youth-led Sunday services
- Entirely lay-led and lay-created Sunday services (Nov 2020 – Feb 2021)
- Children’s Easter Vigil (youth-created, April 2021)
God is good, all the time.