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FATHER MARK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS 1) After last week's announcements, several people expressed interest in working with our friends at the Methodist Church to provide a simple bag lunch on Wednesdays, and so I committed us to try it next week. If you want to help, email me at frmarks@me.com. Here's what we will need:
2) Many of you already make your donations via online giving, which is a great and easy and safe way to keep your pledge up-to-date during this time of disruption. There is a new, even easier way to give electronically that probably lots of you already use for other things -- text giving. You can now text your donations to the church, using the same platform as we use for online giving, which is about the safest way there is. If you would like to try text giving, the number to use to donate is 308-252-3911. Here is link to a short tutorial starring an old person who is not that tech-savvy -- namely me! https://youtu.be/rxi3sDkvWBI 3) As of this morning, we are still hoping to re-open the church for public worship in two weeks -- Sunday, August 16th at 10:00 A.M. It will look and feel both familiar and awkward the first few times -- masks will be required, there will be no singing, and communion will be handled differently (see box below) -- but it will be the same liturgy and it will be the same sacred space and it will be so nice to be together. While we strongly encourage those who are at-risk to continue to participate online and not in-person just yet, we do welcome those who are low-risk and ready to get back. There will be no nursery or Godly Play, but families will be able to sit and worship together, so parents don't worry about kids -- believe me, any noise will be a welcome change from what we have had around here lately :) Here is this week's graph of new cases in our counties:  Celebrating Communion Among many changes in our worship services while we must respect wearing masks and social distancing, Holy Communion may be the biggest collection of changes. This is simply an outline of how communion will happen. It may raise questions that you want to ask before our first service. You may also want to watch our livestream on Facebook to see communion in process before you decide to attend a service yourself. Picture yourself sitting in a pew, and the service has proceeded to the point where it is usually time for serving the communion:
GINA’S ANNOUNCEMENTS
Happy Birthday!! Happy Anniversary!! Mardell Schnell July 31 Jim & Suzi Calder August 1 Judith Widmaier July 31 Ralph & Melissa Moreno August 1 Justin Bohl August 2 Phillip & Colleen Kelly August 5 Jim Calder August 4 Prayer Requests: Please email your prayer requests to Gina at stfrancis@allophone.com. If you do not have email, just call the church and leave a message. The requests must be received on Tuesday’s before 12:00pm for them to be included in the Sunday Bulletin for that week. If the request is received after 12:00pm on Tuesday, they will be added to the next Sunday Bulletin. We will follow the same process and keep the names on for two weeks. Once the request is received it is added to the prayer list and then I email the names to have them added to the Prayer Chain and to the Daughters of the King. The Forward Day by Day Meditation for July 30, 2020 THURSDAY, July 30 William Wilberforce Luke 5:30 The Pharisees and their scribes were complaining to [Jesus’] disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” From the Archives: April 4, 1968 The concern Jesus displayed for obvious and spectacular sinners weighed heavily against his claim to represent God. Some suspected that Jesus did not know enough about righteousness to be able to recognize sin even when he saw it, while others supposed that he mingled with prostitutes and traitors because they were all of a kind. That he did this with saving purpose seems to have occurred to none of them. His eloquent parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son were formed to justify his concerns about lost people, but eloquence is wasted on those who will not hear. Violating the popular standards of righteousness is never acceptable. His association with tax collectors was especially unacceptable. To eat with such was to establish an unbreakable bond. Could their lostness justify such an action? MOVING FORWARD: When has your faith in Jesus prompted you to give up privilege or prestige? PRAY for the Dioceses of Massachusetts and Victoria Nyanza (Tanzania) Ps [70], 71 * 74 | Judges 4:4-23 | Acts 1:15-26 | Matthew 27:55-66 Gina’s Office Hours Tuesday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (at the church) Wednesday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (work from home) Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (work from home) FATHER MARK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS COVID-19 Re-Entry News -- Last night the vestry met and reviewed our parish re-opening plan and the most current available data, and it was decided that unless the new case trends rise between now and then, we will hold our first public worship in the sanctuary on Sunday, August 16th at 10:00 A.M. The vestry and I will continue to track the numbers and if things change for the worse we will postpone until decline occurs, but as of this morning, we are proceeding with this plan. There will be many more communications about this in the coming weeks, including a video tutorial about how we will safely share communion, but the bullet points are these:
Here is this week's chart of cases. The dotted 14-day average trendline is the marker we are following.  GINA’S ANNOUNCEMENTS
Happy Birthday!! Happy Anniversary!! Adam Moreno July 23 Kevin & Monica Lehr July 23 Sarah Williams July 26 Steve Shaw July 28 Alyson Anderson-Saenz July 29 1) Prayer Requests: Please email your prayer requests to Gina at stfrancis@allophone.com. If you do not have email, just call the church and leave a message. The requests must be received on Tuesday’s before 12:00pm for them to be included in the Sunday Bulletin for that week. If the request is received after 12:00pm on Tuesday, they will be added to the next Sunday Bulletin. We will follow the same process and keep the names on for two weeks. 2) ALL IN-PERSON SERVICES SUSPENDED FOR NOW SUNDAY’S 10 A.M. SERVICES WILL BE LIVE STREAMED ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE – Saint Francis Episcopal Church (Saint must be spelled out, do not abbreviate) If you do not have Facebook, you can go to our website www.saintf.org 3) System Updates: Thank you to everyone who responded. If any of your information changes please let Gina or Father Mark know. You can email us at stfrancis@allophone.com or call 308-632-4626 and leave a message. The Forward Day by Day Meditation for July 23, 2020THURSDAY, July 23 John CassianActs 9:10-12 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so he might regain his sight.” From the Archives: December 4, 1943 We recently learned of a striking experience on the islands of the Inland Sea near Japan. A sailor approached a priest and asked him to call upon a friend in deep spiritual need. The missionary, tired out after a hard day’s work, turned to a recent convert and said, “I am dreadfully tired. Won’t you go and take him a Bible?” The friend replied, “No, teacher. It is not time to take that man a Bible. That book is yours, and now, thank God, it is mine also, but it is not time to take that man a Bible. Teacher, that man is reading you yet awhile. As Christ lives in you, so he lives in that man, and as he fails in you, he fails in that man.” The missionary could not sleep that night. Before daybreak, he set out to see the man. Let us be silent for a space and listen for that still small voice. MOVING FORWARD: Who is reading you? Who is calling out to you with a spiritual need. PRAY for the Dioceses of Masasi (Tanzania) and Upper Shire (Malawi) Ps 50 * [59, 60] or 66, 67 | Joshua 9:3-21 | Romans 15:1-13 | Matthew 26:69-75 Gina’s Office Hours Tuesday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (at the church) Wednesday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (work from home) Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (work from home) FATHER MARK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS 1) On Sunday Sarah Schaaf and her mother hosted another Laundry Love at the East Overland Laundromat. The response was great and lots of folks were served and the whole thing was just super positive! Thanks Sarah and mom for keeping us in the outreach business even in these times of difficulty and distraction. You are an inspiration to me and to us! 2) Copies of the latest issue of the Forward Day-by-Day devotional are in and available. You can either stop in and pick one up (Tuesdays 9-1 are sure bets to find the church open) or call Gina and she'll gladly mail one out to you! 3) We are inching our way toward a date for resuming in-person worship. As you can see from the graph below the 14-day trendline (dotted line) for new cases in our counties is steady to slightly lower. If this continues for the next couple of weeks I'll be able to call the Bishop and set a Sunday for re-opening. I know that many will still feel most comfortable joining us online, but I know, too, that many other are ready and anxious to get back together. In the meantime we are getting our sanitation plan and supplies in place and things are coming together almost daily. As long as we don't see a spike in new cases I'm hopeful that we'll be back in some form on the premises by fall.  GINA’S ANNOUNCEMENTS Happy Birthday!! Happy Anniversary!! Trudy Schnell July 19 John & Jamie Selzer July 20 Gary Larson July 22 1)Prayer Requests: Please email your prayer requests to Gina at stfrancis@allophone.com. If you do not have email, just call the church and leave a message. The requests must be received on Tuesday’s before 12:00pm for them to be included in the Sunday Bulletin for that week. If the request is received after 12:00pm on Tuesday, they will be added to the next Sunday Bulletin. We will follow the same process and keep the names on for two weeks. 2) ALL IN-PERSON SERVICES SUSPENDED FOR NOW SUNDAY’S 10 A.M. SERVICES WILL BE LIVE STREAMED ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE – Saint Francis Episcopal Church (Saint must be spelled out, do not abbreviate) If you do not have Facebook, you can go to our website www.saintf.org 3) System Updates: Thank you to everyone who responded. If any of your information changes please let Gina or Father Mark know. You can email us at stfrancis@allophone.com or call 308-632-4626 and leave a message. A message from Gina Most of you know that I also work at Walmart when I am not doing work for the church. I mention this because I know that during these difficult times, many people are worried and stressed. What I have found is even though I have a mask on while I work, I smile at every person I see and have been told that even though they can’t see my smile, they see it in my eyes. Remember the power of a genuine smile can change a persons day and remind them that God is in control and that everything is going to be okay.  Gina’s Office Hours
Tuesday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (at the church) Wednesday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (work from home) Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (work from home) FATHER MARK’S ANNOUNCEMENTS 1. With special permission from the Bishop, this Sunday’s online service will include the in-person baptism of our newest brother in Christ Bryan Ugwu, son of proud parents Dennis and Luchi! The caveat is that we will have to keep to the 10-person limit in the church and follow all the same distance and safety protocols that we are planning to use once we are allowed to regather in larger groups for worship. So – look for some new wrinkles, including a change in the order of service at communion/blessing/dismissal. All this is in keeping with the goal of making church safe once we come together again. However it looks, I am so delighted to be doing this baptism! Join me in welcoming Bryan into our church family! 2. COVID cases are on the rise locally, so don’t be fooled – keep practicing social distancing and keep wearing your mask when you are out in public and keep washing your hands. Defeating the virus is the fastest way to return to worship. I know I have personally been less diligent lately and I have to constantly remind myself that this thing is here and it is no joke. Some local churches are reopening, and some are not. We are still in the “not” group for now, but tracking the cases daily and weekly, watching for the signs that the virus is decreasing in the counties we serve, and ready to go once that is true. We have just begun to get creative with our livestream, and Scott and crew have more nice touches in store going forward. 3. Don’t forget that we have three ways to prayer for one another and our loved ones in the church. If you or someone you know would like prayers for healing or blessings of any kind, you can let Regina know and she will get them added to the:
GINA’S ANNOUNCEMENTS
Happy Birthday!! Happy Anniversary!! Adena Taylor July 1 Alan & Jan Johnson July 1 Joyce Walsh July 2 Matt & Jeane Anderson July 2 Marvin Lamont July 5 Fernando & Sara Moreno July 5 Adam Haack July 9 Daniel Harvey July 9 1) Prayer Requests: Please email your prayer requests to Gina at stfrancis@allophone.com. If you do not have email, just call the church and leave a message. The requests must be received on Tuesday’s before 12:00pm for them to be included in the Sunday Bulletin for that week. If the request is received after 12:00pm on Tuesday, they will be added to the next Sunday Bulletin. We will follow the same process and keep the names on for two weeks. 2) ALL IN-PERSON SERVICES SUSPENDED FOR NOW SUNDAY’S 10 A.M. SERVICES WILL BE LIVE STREAMED ON OUR FACEBOOK PAGE – Saint Francis Episcopal Church (Saint must be spelled out, do not abbreviate) If you do not have Facebook, you can go to our website www.saintf.org 3) System Updates: I am updating our information database and want to make sure I have all the correct information such as names, addresses, spouses and/or minor children, birthdays, anniversaries, phone numbers and email addresses. If possible, please send an email to me at stfrancis@allophone.com with you or your family’s current information, it would be appreciated. ***Thank you to everyone who has responded with their information. I do not have a time limit on updates, so just respond when you can. The Forward Day by Day Meditation for July 2, 2020 THURSDAY, July 2 Moses the Black Matthew 20:27-28 And whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. From the Archives: July 25, 1946 From the human viewpoint, the training given to James was wasted: all that time of discipleship with Jesus, all the teaching and example, all the understanding of the inner circle—and then to be killed when his real ministry of leadership had just begun. No labor in God’s name is in vain. James once wanted prominence and position. He obtained them but not as he had imagined. He became a saint rather than Jesus’ grand vizier. And he became so not by his ability or by pulling wires but by witnessing and suffering for Jesus. We may long for greatness, and we can have it: the greatness thrust upon us by those we loved while they ill-treated and persecuted us. MOVING FORWARD: What may be holding you back? Offer it up to Jesus—ask him for direction and peace. PRAY for the Dioceses of Makurdi (Nigeria) and Thika (Kenya) Ps 131, 132, [133] * 134, 135 | Numbers 23:11-26 | Romans 8:1-11 | Matthew 22:1-14 Gina’s Office Hours Tuesday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (at the church) Wednesday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (work from home) Thursday 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (work from home) |
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Archives
June 2023
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