St. Paul’s Family Worship Weekly Postcard- May 7, 2020
| Blessings to St. Paul’s Beloved Family Eucharist Congregation! |
| God Sightings |
| Where have you noticed God this week? Introducing…God Sightings. The new “where have you seen/noticed God?” section of our weekly family postcard. You are invited to share the moments you notice God in your daily life. Snap a picture or create a piece of art, like a drawing, with a brief description and email it to Katie at katieholicky@stpaulsmaine.org. Each week we will feature a God Sighting in the weekly postcard! |
| I have noticed God in the gift of this large homemade wind chime… and the sweet neighbors who created it. We pass it each day on our walk or bike ride and as the wind catches the different objects hanging I am reminded of the Holy Spirit that inspires us and moves with us. – Rev. Katie Holicky |
| Spend some time with our new Assistant Rector |
I would love to invite each of you to reach out! Please contact me via email at katieholicky@stpaulsmaine.org and we will find some time to connect for coffee via Zoom or over the phone. I would love to hear more about your journeys of faith and all that you love about and hope for St. Paul’s. I am so excited to spend time getting to know you all! With Peace,Katie |
| All Things Youth |
| Hello St. Paul’s Middle and High School Youth! I look forward to getting to know you all by spending some time together soon! Please join us Monday 5/11 3-4 pm via Zoom here. We will check in, pray, and make a plan for spending time together in the coming weeks. Additional Zoom info here: Link:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84960252269?pwd=alM5ZUs2cFdyQ1NmSDZVQ0dEU0IrUT09Meeting ID: 849 6025 2269Password: YouthHigh Schoolers: Don’t forget you are always invited to participate in the Diocese of Maine Youth weekly Compline. Fridays 8 pmClick https://zoom.us/j/91229046535 to join, or call (301) 715-8592, Meeting ID: 912 2904 6535 |
| Join Us for Worship |
| Join us this Sunday, May 10, the 5th Sunday of Easter9:30 – 10:10 a.m. Rev. Katie Holicky will lead us in a time of story, prayer, and sharing with our friends! Here is the link for the Zoom gathering.10:30 a.m. Morning Prayer, on the Facebook live feed11:30 a.m. Virtual Coffee Hour on Zoom. Here is the Zoom link. |
| Fun Things for Families |
| Here are some helpful resources to keep you and your family faithfully connecting during this season at home. Family Sunday School brought to you by SparkHouse! Enjoy some faith based family time. This resource includes a video with songs and stories, an info/ activity sheet and coloring page! Building Faith Brick by Brick brings Legos and Bible stories together for this playful way to explore scripture. Parents, all questions/ prompts are included in each lesson! Enjoy some Bible Stories brought us by Godly Play. Well suited for the youngest among us. From paper print outs to how to make-your-own 3D labyrinths, use these ideas for finger labyrinths for a grounding moment. Parents and teens, are you looking for a way to deepen your daily prayer practice? Pray As You Go. Here is a helpful website, also available as an app for your smartphone or tablet, that offers you a daily practice of readings, prayers and even musically Psalms! Here are some helpful articles for talking with your children about COVID-19.* Building Faith has a helpful article about how to talk about COVID-19 with your children. The CDC has also provided some helpful information for supporting children during this time. |
| To read the Sunday Paper Junior Click Here. |
| How St. Paul’s is Staying Connected |
| Connecting by Phone A team led by Hugh Savage and Cliff Ruprecht are standing by to join our Lay Pastoral Visitors to deliver meals to any parishioner in need. They also will connect by phone with parishioners who might feel more isolated by our closing. If you or someone you know would benefit from a call please let us know. Volunteers are also welcome. Please email the Parish Office or call and leave a message on the phone 207-725-5342. Also the Vestry and volunteers will be making phone calls over the next few weeks to parishioners for conversation and pastoral care. The Work of the Church / Meetings We are working to find alternate ways to connect digitally in small groups and for meetings. Regularly meeting small groups are starting to meet virtually using the internet and phones if video is not available. Watch your email for more information from your group leaders. Any group leader interested in having your group meet virtually please be in contact with the parish office by email at stpauls@stpaulsmaine.org. We have instructions and can walk you through the process. Zoom (video calls) already happening include: Holy Stitchers, Men’s Group, Women’s Group, Prayer Group, Healing Prayer Team, Thursday Healing Prayer Service, Women’s Bible Study, Finance Committee, Vestry, Rectors and Warden’s meetings, Staff meetings, Choir, Church School, and Sunday Morning Bible Story Time. The Parish Office We have invested in the capability to work digitally as an administrative staff from our homes. The Parish Office will be utilized only by the limited few (entering one at a time) who need to keep us updated financially and check the mail. Those who have emergency financial needs may come to St. Paul’s on Wednesday between 10:00 am-Noon to meet with the Rector. When you arrive at the entrance off the parking lot, please use the intercom-the small black box to the right of the door-to let us know you’re there. |
| Thank You for Keeping up with Your PledgeBecause we will be continuing to pay our bills, we are even more grateful for electronic giving. To make your electronic offering to St. Paul’s go to to stpaulsmaine.org or text your gift amount to (207) 407-5069. And we will be receiving mail in our PO Box 195, so feel free to mail your check. Thank you! Do you have at home records of any St. Paul’s organization? If so, the archivist and the history sub-committee would love to see them. We are trying to build as complete a picture of church life as we can, including details of parish activities. It would be great if you felt you could donate any records; please give them to Charlie Priest (cpriest1@comcast.net) and if you want the records back for some reason, please talk let him know. Thank you! |
| Request for retired electronics If you have an electronic device that you or someone you know has recently ‘retired’ from use, please email our Senior Warden, Cliff Ruprecht or the Rector with what you have. We will follow up with you. We hope to be able to equip members who wish to be connected electronically, but need a compatible device. |
| Celebrating with Gratitude In this, our 175th year of existence, we may not be able to meet for celebratory events (which we’ll hold after this virus calms down), but the anniversary committee has come up with a common project we can all take part in, separately together. We’d like to sponsor a project to make/collect 175 items of warm clothing to be donated to The Gathering Place, or Tedford Housing, or wherever they might be needed next winter. Hats, mittens, and socks are especially in demand, so items can be small. If you can make them, so much the better; if you can’t, perhaps you could purchase them from local craftspeople, to help both the makers and the recipients. We’re announcing the project now so that people who knit or crochet can busy themselves now, while we are staying at home! Besides the practical value of the items, the process of making or procuring them might help us to be mindful of how blessed we are and of the pressing needs of many of our neighbors. Distribution of the items will be handled by the Outreach Committee. |
Anyone interested in simple, basic patterns for making hats, socks, or mittens may access them shortly on a link we’ll provide shortly (we’re still collecting them). And anyone who would like a supply of sock or hat yarn should contact Carol Martin (cmartin@northpark.edu) or Charla Spann (chaspann13@gmail.com); we have several stashes we can draw upon, and we can arrange for home drop-offs. The sock patterns are for tube socks, so you don’t need to make heels! Even beginning knitters among us would be able to complete them with ease; they’re simpler to make than the mittens we made in our workshop this winter. |
| Documenting the Stories Please be thinking now of what details you might include in an account of your experience of this difficult time. The 175th anniversary committee will shortly be asking you to write or draw a short account, in order to gain the fullest account we can of how our community has weathered this remarkable period. Are you a high school or elementary or middle school student? A grandparent? A healthcare worker? A mask-maker? A small child? A college student? Someone working from home? Someone home schooling, maybe for the first time? We’d like to hear all of your stories. We’re still considering just how we’ll use your responses: Perhaps in a scrap book for the archives (which we’ll all be able to access once we get back together), perhaps in a vestibule display, perhaps in a booklet we could all have, similar to our Lenten meditations. For now, please start thinking and jotting notes or sketches! |
| Preparing for our Future On Wednesday May 6th, our rector met with eight other parishioners (listed below) to discuss our continued evolution as a community of faith in how to prepare for our future in the present and post-world of COVID-19. As is so reflective of these times, there are no set answers or definitive plans. We agreed that the future is uncertain and that we must continue to be diligent in listening to our governor, medical and epidemiology experts while being cognizant of the needs of those around us. Ensuring the health of all and maintaining a steady effort to defeat this virus must remain foremost in our thinking. Fortunately, we are blessed with helpful leadership from our bishop and the national church as can be read in the bishop’s letter to the diocese. In short we realize that we can take some small steps toward an eventual rejoining as a community: the purchase of masks for parishioners who might not have them, developing our capability of on-line services via Facebook and/or Zoom to include you, the parishioner, in the services; enhancing our infrastructure to enable a more robust use of computers and smart devices within the church when we do meet again in fellowship, and thinking about access and safe distancing, as well as the modalities of services, holy communion, and plate collection, and more. We know that some would wish an immediate return to the church. Others have expressed deep concern about returning too soon. This will be a slow and deliberative process involving faith, trust and preparation. We cannot rush to this decision. We will continue to meet to discuss our next steps, while remaining in touch with the reality that we face in Maine and nationwide. In blessing and peace. Pat Ryan and Paul Womer, co-chairs; the Revs. Carolyn Eklund and Katie Holicky, Myrna Koonce, Cliff Ruprecht, Hugh Savage, Ralph Thivierge, and Nancy Whitehouse. |
| How to Help and Where to Find Help in Maine |
| Resources in Brunswick Link to Support Brunswick Facebook page Link to Fred Horch’s Support Brunswick Resource Guide Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program – Many more people are turning to food banks for assistance as businesses close and government assistance falls short of covering expenses. Good Shepherd Food Bank has estimated that there is an increase of 39% in people needing assistance. With grocery store shelves short of product, MCHPP receives fewer food donations from stores and they must buy items directly to supply to their clients. The best way that the people of St. Paul’s can continue to support MCHPP is to write a check and send it to them. NO AMOUNT IS TOO SMALL. Their address is MCHPP, 12 Tenney Way, Brunswick, ME 04011. Thank you for your continued support! |
| St. Paul’s Online This Week Click to Join Sunday 5/10 Zoom 9:30 am Family Story, Prayer & Sharing Facebook 10:30 am Morning Prayer Zoom 11:30 am Virtual Coffee Hour Monday-Saturday Facebook 7:30 am Morning Prayer Facebook 7:30 pm Compline Tuesday 5/12 Zoom 9:30 am Holy Stitchers Zoom12:30 pm Bible Study Wednesday 5/13 Link to Meeting Format 7:30 am Men’s Group – contact Al Niese at 406-2396 Rick Wile at 756-0095 or Paul Womer at 449-7425 Zoom7:00 pm Choir Thursday 5/14 Zoom 11:00 am Healing Prayer Service Zoom Noon Prayer Group |
