What's Happening at St. Francis this week

Thursday Announcements-February 13, 2025­­­­
 
ERIN’S EPISTLETTES

​A Message from Mary

​I am honored and humbled to be called and selected to serve you as your Senior Warden.  My commitment to you is that I will work collaboratively with my fellow vestry members and Reverend Erin to create a vision and plan of action that reflects God’s dream for our congregation.

As we discussed in the Annual Meeting, we face significant challenges relative to insuring our church’s continued viability in the future.  It will take all of us, moving forward in the same direction, to safeguard the legacy of St Francis Episcopal Church and make certain God’s mission and vision for her are sustainable.

To that end, at the Annual Meeting, we determined the need for a formal Stewardship Committee to focus on our financial resources and congregational engagement.  This will be a special committee under the Vestry.  Five people have already stepped forward to participate.  I extend my personal invitation to you to join us on this journey.

Consider Paul’s words to the church in Rome: “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.  We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.”  (Romans 12: 4 – 6)

I ask you to prayerfully consider what gifts you have to offer to this important committee.  If you are able and willing to participate, please let me or Reverend Erin know.   If you are unable to participate at this time, I ask you to lift up the work of this committee in your talks with God.

God’s Peace, 
Mary
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• Thank you to all who attended our Sunday's Annual Meeting. I appreciate your questions and ideas and remain open to continued conversation. 
  • As we work together to reduce our deficit, I ask your focus be on improving processes rather than criticizing people. Our processes, especially those related to communication, need work. The involvement of the people of our parish will be critical in finding solutions to our challenges, financial and otherwise. Most importantly, relationships between people are foundational to our shared ministry work. It's important those relationships are positive and encouraging. 
  • Hard copies of the Annual Meeting report packet are available in the narthex. An electronic copy can be downloaded from the homepage of our website through next week. 
  • I'll make another announcement when the minutes of the annual meeting are available. Thank you, Stephanie Schingle, for your willingness to take this on. 

 

• Around the time of the Annual Meeting, there's often an increased interest in church administration. A few related reminders: 
  • With the exception of executive session (which happens very rarely), Vestry meetings are open to members of the parish. 
  • These meetings generally happen on the third Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. Scheduling information, including exceptions to this pattern, will be communicated in the enews and the Sunday bulletin. It can also be found on the calendar on our website. 
  • A binder of vestry related documents, including agendas, minutes and financial reports is available for check-out from the library. This information goes back to the beginning of my tenure and will continue to be updated after every meeting. I'm happy to print out or email any of this documentation on request. 

 
 

🎶🎵🎶 Liturgical Notes 🎶🎵🎶 
January/February 2025 ~ by the Rev. Erin Rath
Sunday, January 12 marked the beginning of a new season in the church year: Epiphany. The day of Epiphany recalls the wise men's arrival, with gifts in hand, at the manger which cradled the infant Jesus. It comes immediately after the short season of Christmas, often called "the twelve days of Christmas," so named for the twelve days between Christmas Day and the celebration of Epiphany. In many Christian cultures, particularly in the Orthodox world, Epiphany is the primary day of celebration rather than Christmas. The light and insight the star above Bethlehem gifted the wise men, which ultimately led them to Jesus' cradle, become common themes of this season. These themes are mentioned throughout our current prayers of the people, which were composed specifically for this season. Though the six forms of the Prayers of the People provided in the Book of Common Prayer (1979) are worthy of regular use and reflection, I do not feel they address these themes as explicitly as this season and the needs of our time call for. The instructions (often referred to as rubrics) at the beginning of the Prayers of the People in the BCP not only allow for but encourage prayers to be composed beyond the bounds of the forms printed therein. The only requirement is that any composed Prayers of the People include the topics listed in the rubrics (see BCP page 383).  
In addition to the Book of Common Prayer, Enriching Our Worship 1 (approved in 1997 and published in 1998) provides extensive liturgical resources for morning and evening prayer and Eucharist. Seasonal blessings are provided in the Book of Occasional Services (originally published in 1979 and most recently revised in 2018). In this current season of our shared worship life, in addition to utilizing the contemporary form of the Lord's Prayer, we're using a post communion prayer from Enriching Our Worship 1. (We used a different post communion prayer from Enriching Our Worship 1 during the seasons of Advent and Christmas.) The blessing being used this season is from the Book of Occasional Services, as are most of the lengthier blessings utilized over the course of the liturgical year. We'll take a closer look at some of the theological themes brought out by the various post communion prayers in a future Liturgical Notes. If you have a topic or question you'd like addressed in an upcoming Liturgical Notes, please let me know. To those who've read to the end, I thank you for your interest. 
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Ministry Teams, February 16, 9am
Musician                       Nancy Meier
Media Team                  Charlie Kennedy
Ushers                          Monica Shambaugh, Jamie Selzer
Acolyte Master             Clark Wisniewski
Acolytes                        Charlie Selzer, Elliot Selzer
Lector/Intercessor       Bill Mann
Eucharistic Minister    Jane Sayre
Altar Guild               Collette Suhr, Ann Peterson, Jane Sayre
Coffee Hosts           Diane Morrison, Nancy Kepler

Flowers:
Jack Webb         In memory of Jack’s father, Lem J. Webb

Upcoming Events at St. Francis:
This Sunday is the third Sunday of the month, so our loose offerings will go toward the Rector's Discretionary Fund.
Lectionary Study and Compline, Tuesday 2pm, Library
In Person Eucharist, Mary Chapel, 12:15pm and 6pm
Men’s Bible Study Thursday, 8am
Discipleship Group. Thursday @ 12pm
The Vestry Meeting had been rescheduled to Tuesday, February 25 @ 6pm
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​From the Office—Ann’s Announcements – Happy Valentine’s Day




​Birthdays
Stacy Bach                             February 17
John Selzer                            February 19
Evelyn Anderson-Saenz         February 22
Alyssa Harvey                        February 22
Peggy Wymore                       February 22
 
Prayer Requests
Prayer requests need to be received by Tuesday, if you’d like them to be printed in the bulletin.You may call (308) 632-4626 (leave a message) or email [email protected].

The Forward Day by Day’s for February-April are available in regular and large print.  If you’d like either of these mailed to you, please email us or call the church office.

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