St. Paul’s Family Worship Weekly Postcard 4-15-21
| Blessings to St. Paul’s Beloved Family Eucharist Congregation! |
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| Join us for Worship Join us this Sunday, April 18 Third Sunday of Easter 9:30 a.m. Rev. Carolyn Eklund, Rev. Mary Lee Wile 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. Spiritual Eucharist on St. Paul’s Facebook Live 11:30 a.m. Explore the Sermon over Coffee. Here is the Zoom link  Family Ministries Sunday Schedule 9:30-10:10 am: Family Worship via Zoom 1:00-2:00 pm on 2nd & 4th Sundays: Middle & High School Youth Group in the Garden 2:30-3:30 pm: Family Group in the Garden NO Youth Group or Family Group 4/18. Happy School Vacation! A Prayer for Easter  A Prayer for Easter from Common Prayer for Children and Families In these 50 days of Easter we pray… Through Jesus, God’s love claimed victory over death, and opened for us the gate of new life forever. Lead us, risen Christ into the mystery of Easter and fill us with your Holy Spirit so we can join you in building your kin-dom of justice and love. Amen. All Things Youth  Hello St. Paul’s Middle & High School Youth! 2nd & 4th Sundays from 1-2 p.m. in the Garden. Please wear a mask, practice physical distance, and bring your own water and snack should you need them. NO Youth Group 4/18. Happy School Vacation! Gather with Youth from Around the Diocese Let’s Talk About It: Compline + Conversation for 9th-12th graders Fourth Sundays from 7:00-8:30 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88633651492 Pray, Play, Connect: A Fun and Prayerful Space for 6th-12th graders Third Mondays from 7:00-8:30 PM https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81625716888  Connect on Instagram Follow us @maineyouth_episcopals! Family Groups  Family Group continues to meet in the Garden at 2:30 – 3:30 pm each Sunday. If you are interested in joining a Family Group please reach out to Rev. Katie. Please note: Wear a mask and practice physical distance. NO Family Group 4/18. Happy School Vacation! Faith at Home  Here are some helpful resources to keep you and your family faithfully connecting. Holy Troublemakers and Unconventional Saints. An illustrated children’s storybook about people of diverse faiths who rocked the religious boat on behalf of love and justice. Common Prayer for Children and Families. Whimsical, simple illustrations and prayers drawn from Episcopal prayer resources Common Prayer for Children and Families is a collection of prayers and liturgies written for kids and the adults or communities who pray with them. Faith at Home, lectionary based family devotions. Enjoy some Bible Stories brought us by Godly Play. Well suited for the youngest among us. Parents and teens, are you looking for a way to deepen your daily prayer practice? Order of Saint Helena offers a free Daily Office “App” for smartphones and tablets. Check out these inclusive language daily office prayers. Visit their website by clicking the link above to learn more about this community of women in the Episcopal Church. 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! Justice Resources  Check out the new children’s book Netflix show: Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices The Center for Racial Justice in Education has some great resources to help families in the work of racial justice. Family Sermon by Rev. Dr. Mark Bozzuti-Jones about the sin of racism. A list of resources from some Episcopal friends in North Carolina. A short family guide to supporting racial justice now. Book Lists: (various social justice topics, including racial justice) Social Justice Books; A Teaching for Change Project Act for Social Justice Embrace Race: “Diverse” Books for Children Anti-Racism Books for Elementary Students Indigo Arts Alliance Book list 21 Anti-Racism Videos To Share With Kids: These helpful videos cover a variety of topics to help us talk together about race and racial justice. They’re Not Too Young to Talk About Race: This helpful chart breaks down concepts of race that children can engage with based upon age. Justice Book Bags! We have a beautiful collection of justice-oriented and inclusive books for children. If you would like to borrow a justice book bag, please reach out to Rev. Katie Holicky to schedule a time to pick up books. Katie’s Corner  Stories from Katie’s Corner: Lent 2021: Snacks and Naps! Advent 4: Joy Advent 3: Love Advent 2: Peace Advent 1: Hope Gratitude Many Hands, A Penobscot Indian Story Take-Home Bags  This school year, in addition to other offerings, we will try on “take home formation”. Stop by church and grab your family’s monthly bag with simple activities. Contact Katie to schedule a time to pick up your bag or let her know if you’d like it dropped off at your home. Sunday Junior Paper – Click to Read!  Parish Office Hours Precautions to Observe While you are in the building of St. Paul’s We love you. We do not wish to spread the virus to those we love. That’s why… 1. Masks are required at all times. 2. Sign in for contact tracing. 3. No more than six people at a time in entire building. 4. Stay six feet or more apart. 5. Only one person at a time in parish office. (Please make arrangements with staff if you need to meet one-on-one in person.) Click for Parish Office Hours St. Paul’s Ministries – Moving Outside As the weather improves, some St. Paul’s ministry meetings are starting up again in the Memorial Garden. Here are some upcoming dates to note: · Earth Care ministry group will meet in person Sunday, April 25 at 1:00 pm. · Sharing and Caring will meet Wednesday May, 5 at 11:00 am with May 12 as a rain date. · Lay Pastoral Visitors will meet Wednesday, May 19 at 12:30 pm.  Coffee Cans Needed  The Lay Pastoral Visitors bring altar flowers to parishioners who are home bound, in nursing facilities, or the hospital. We have always covered empty coffee cans that you folks have saved for us, and they were perfect for flower arrangements. At this time we are in need of more! If you have any that you wouldn’t mind saving for us, please call or email the church office (stpauls@stpaulsmaine.org) with your name and number, and one of the LPV can arrange a convenient time to meet you at church to drop them off. Sacred Ground Program Offered  Have you been wondering about how you might learn more about the history of racism in our nation and how you might consider your own call to anti-racism learning and formation? Have you been wondering about joining a Sacred Ground Circle? This Spring St. Paul’s will begin a second round of Sacred Ground Circles! If you are interested in joining please email Rev. Katie Holicky. For more information on Sacred Ground click here. World Too Beautiful World Too Beautiful – An Online Contemplative GatheringFirst & Third Wednesdays of Each Month @ 5:45 pm World Too Beautiful, a collaboration between St. Luke’s Cathedral and the Diocese of Maine, is a twice-monthly musical and meditative gathering that focuses on beauty, interconnection, harmony, mutual encouragement, and healing. Bring a candle to light during our prayer time. For more information and the Zoom link visit https://www.episcopalmaine.org/ministry/world-too-beautiful Faith in Maine Series  Faith in Maine – A Podcast of the Episcopal Diocese of Maine Listen to the latest episode of the Way of Love series podcast on http://faithinmaine.org/. The Faith in Maine podcast can be found on any platform where podcasts are found, including iTunes, Spotify, Pocket Casts and more. The Faith in Maine podcast and this latest episode is now also accessible by telephone! The permanent phone number is: 207-223-6402. Feel free to give a call and listen. While the phone number stays the same, the podcasts you hear will update when we release new podcasts. You can also subscribe so that you don’t miss any episodes! Camp Bishopswood  Located in the beautiful woods of mid-coast Maine, Bishopswood is an Episcopal coed overnight camp affordable and open to all youths ages 6-16. The camp is open again and accepting registrations now at https://www.bishopswood.org/. Scholorships are available through St. Paul’s. Please email the office if you are interested (stpauls@stpaulsmaine.org). MCHPP Future Plans Last week I offered two examples of how MCHPP helps in different ways. This week’s focus is on some of their future plans as they continue to provide for their clients. MCHPP is endeavoring to find a larger space in order to make their operation more efficient. It will enable them to provide for the increase in demand for their services during this continuing pandemic. Last year they served over 64,000 meals, an increase of 56% over 2019, They have expanded their mobile food pantries that go to Lisbon and Harpswell. During 2019, those mobile food pantries were visited over 2,500 times—an increase of 127%. Use of the Brunswick food pantry increased 12% over 2019. MCHPP is still providing food to school age children during the hybrid schedule they are under. This is a comment from an anonymous client: “If this place wasn’t here, a lot of people would be going without any food”. We do not now when the pandemic will end. What we do know is that the need to provide for the food insecure will continue long after it does. Please consider contributing to MCHPP so that they can continue their vital mission. Their address is MCHPP, 12 Tenney Way, Brunswick, ME 04011. Thank you, Bill Edman. St. Paul’s Weekly Calendar |
