What’s Happening at St. Paul’s 2-12
 What’s Happening at St. Paul’s |
It’s been nearly a year since we have had the dramatic shift in how we gather and worship. March 8 was the last time we gathered in-person for 9:30 a.m. Family Eucharist in the Great Hall and at 8 and 10:30 for Eucharist in the Nave. We were in the season of Lent when the dangers of the coronavirus became evident, and we virtually “gave up” in-person worship for Lent. It was a safety measure that we did not realize we would still be navigating this season of Lent 2021. And yet, with resilience, faith, generosity, and joyful adapting, the people of St. Paul’s are finding ways to worship, pray and serve safely and patiently as we await our friends, loved ones, neighbors, and strangers to be inoculated with the vaccine against the coronavirus. Thank you and thanks be to God for your health, faith, patience, hope, and love. We will observe a holy Ash Wednesday and Lent in a new way, but with just as much, and maybe more meaning as we lean more heavily on God, and trust in Christ’s love for us and for this world for which he gave his life. ASH WEDNESDAY, THIS WEDNESDAY, March 17, 2021: 1. You are invited to join St. Paul’s for a holy observance of Ash Wednesday, this Wednesday, February 17, 2021. 2. 10:00 a.m. St. Paul’s parking lot palm blessing. Join us in the parking lot for an in-person, masked, distanced blessing of the ashes. We will offer you a blessing, too, and instructions on how to place the ashes in a cross on your own forehead. Bring your household or neighbor “safe pod” with you and you may share placing the cross of ashes on each other’s foreheads as a sign of God’s mercy and our immortality. 3. From 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. you may drop by St. Paul’s to pick up your Lenten bag that contains a small container of the consecrated ashes, a prayer card, and the 2021 Lenten Devotional book that members of St. Paul’s wrote. 4. 12:00 p.m. the Ash Wednesday Liturgy will be broadcast from the Nave on Facebook Live. Randy Day our Music Ministry Director will provide the music. I will be preaching. Join us to begin our Lenten journey together in holiness. “I invite you…in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us…[bow] before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.” (BCP, p. 265) With love and hope for a holy Lent, Carolyn+ Sunday, February 14 The Last Sunday after the Epiphany  9:30 a.m. Family Worship Rev. Katie Holicky and musician Susan Brown will lead us in a time of song, prayer, story, and sharing with our friends! Here is the link for the Zoom gathering. Click here for the 9:30 Family Worship Booklet  10:30 a.m. Diocesan Spiritual Eucharist This pre-recorded service was created by the Racial Justice Council, in honor of Absalom Jones, with participation from clergy and lay folk from across the diocese and beyond. Click on the links below: To watch for the Worship Booklet for the St. Paul’s Announcements Readings Isaiah 42:5-9 Mark 15:12-15 Lectionary Page  Explore the Sermon over coffee on Zoom Sunday, 11:30 am Join in for a facilitated virtual gathering to check in with each other and explore the morning’s sermon. Click here to join. Parish Announcements  Lenten Meditation Booklets are now available! You may pick up a copy during Parish Office Hours or on Ash Wednesday at the Parking Lot Liturgy (10 am—11:30 am). If you’d like a book mailed or delivered, please contact the church office (email stpauls@stpaulsmaine.org).  Ash Wednesday Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent. Join us for this special day! 10:00 a.m.—Parking Lot Liturgy Blessing of the ashes after which we will be present until 11:30 to distribute your own ashes and the St. Paul’s Lenten Daily Meditations booklet written by St. Paul’s parishioners. Noon – Ash Wednesday Spiritual Eucharist with music on Facebook live. Click here for the worship bulletin. Upcoming Worship & Activities Daily Morning Prayer and Compline — Join us every morning and evening on St. Paul’s Facebook Live for Morning Prayer and Compline, 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Looking Ahead February 21, First Sunday of Lent 9:30 Family Worhsip 10:30 Spiritual Eucharist, The Great Litany February 20 (back-up date February 21) – Ice FishingDrop-in 11:00 a.m.—3:00 p.m.—Ice Fishing Outing at Pleasant Pond. Contact katieholicky@stpaulsmaine.org for information and to sign up. Third Sundays from 4:00 -5:00 p.m. – Zoom Soup and Scripture Chat NEXT SUNDAY, February 21, Mark 8:31-38 March 21, Mark 11:1-11April 18, John 10:12-18 First Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. – Zoom Hymn Sings Next Hymn Sing is March 3 Zoom Lenten Program Offered by the Society of Saint John the Evangelist Believed to be the last Gospel written (by whom is a bit of a question, although many believe that John is John the son of Zebedee), the Gospel of John is beloved by many. Because it is not one of the Synoptic Gospels, which tell what Jesus did, John’s Gospel dwells more on who Jesus is, most obviously in his “I am” statements. The author’s self-proclaimed purpose in writing this Gospel is explained in John 20:30-31: “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” Many people love John’s Gospel for its beautiful poetic language, its “spirituality of love and intimacy,” and its frequent use of symbolic language and metaphors, but those very things that are unique about the Gospel also can make it difficult to understand. The Society of Saint John the Evangelist (SSJE), an Episcopal monastery in Massachusetts, is offering a Zoom “eight-week retreat and course of study” that “will provide an overview of the Gospel of John and introduce participants to its major themes.” Br. David Vryhof is the presenter. Here are all the details you need to know to sign up. Registration: https://www.ssje.org/prayingjohn/ Dates: Tuesdays—February 9, 16, 23, March 2 (not March 9), 16, 23, 30, April 6 Time: 7:30 p.m.-8:15 p.m. This is such a special opportunity, and it’s free. I hope many of you will participate. Pam Nugent Adult Formation Congratulations to James E. Ford who was elected to serve on the Maine State Board of Education. We are delighted that in this role James will share his vision and passion for education and justice for all the people of Maine. Mid Coast Hunger Prevention Program When you went to Sunday School. if you did, you probably learned the song. “Jesus loves the little children”. With the Covid-19 virus and its variations infecting many Americans and causing economic hardship, those affected need assistance putting food on the table. Children suffer the most because they do not understand why they are not getting nutritious meals all the time and they rely on others to help them. With the hybrid education program, children only go to school two days a week. School is where many of them get nutritious meals they need to enable them to learn. Their families have to rely even more on food banks to feed their families at home. MCHPP only provides non-perishable food. They still have to go to a supermarket to buy meat, produce, and other necessities. Any unforeseen expense can cause havoc with the amount of money families have to spend on food, sending more and more to MCHPP for assistance. Your donation, in any amount, will help those in need. If you can, please make a pledge of a weekly or monthly amount to MCHPP. They are very appreciative of any amount that you can give. Their address is MCHPP, 12 Tenney Way, Brunswick, ME 04011. Prayer Requests Pray for St. John’s in Bangor and St. Paul’s in Brunswick Pray for the wardens and vestries of the congregations in the Diocese of MainePray for Anderson, Andrew, Cedric, Jason, Michael, Richard, and all in the military. Pray for those who have died remembering especially the close friend of Nick and the late Edith Smith, Richard Breen who died this week. We pray for: Christy, Ryan & family, Ray, John, David, Judi, Nick, Bob, Kathy, Skip, the Blackburn family, Willow, Ann, Jim, Lollie, James, Dave, Caroline, Jeffrey, Carol, Roger W, Harlan, Shirley, and Peter Jennifer, John, Reeve, Victor, Travis & family, Ben, Diane, Nate, Priscilla, Garrett, Elliot, Marcia, Lynn, Bill, Bob, Paul, Sue, Nan, Clare, Cameron, Barbara, Carol, Chris+, Christy, Michael, Ryan, and Jacob Matthew, Herb, Gair, baby Thomas, Jason, Annie, Terry, Mark, Donelda, Sudie, Pat, Marie, Michael, Debbie, Carol, Robbie, Ron, Hope, Therese, Lois, Bob, Sally, Virginia, Steve, and Luke Call or email the parish office if you would like a name to be placed on the prayer list. The names will be removed after three months unless otherwise notified. Click here for this week’s calendar |
