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This Week
"At a Glance"
Saturday, November 27
5:00pm Eucharist and Leander Baptism
Tuesday, November 30
4:30pm Pastoral Team |  |
Want to add an event to the calendar? Contact Jessica (314.918.2766). |
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General Info | |
The Parish Council meets on the third Wednesday of the month. Members: Anne Knight, Frank Krebs, George von Stamwitz, Jessica Rowley, Nancy Wamser, Sheila Leander, Steve Campbell, Sue Stolze.
We frequently have community gatherings called Convocations where we discuss the
vision of the community. Dates and times are announced in this newsletter.
The Parish 0ffice is located at Eden Theological Seminary, 475 E. Lockwood, Saint Louis, MO 63119. Frank and Jessica are available for appointments 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Tuesday through Friday.
Jessica: 314.918.2766,
Frank: 314.918.2767.
We have an initiative to connect people to small faith sharing groups. If you are interested in joining a small group, please contact Jessica Rowley (314.918.2766 or email).
Do you have friends who would like to know more about Sts. Clare & Francis?
Would you be willing to invite them to your house for an hour or so to hear about us? Frank is willing to come to your home to share the story of SCF with your friends.
We Tithe as a parish and we need your recommendations
We have committed to tithing as a parish. We donate 10% of all that we collect in our offerings to worthy causes. We do this as an act of faith, trusting that, in doing this, we will still be able to meet our financial needs. We have received a number of wonderful suggestions. Please continue to let the Parish Council know about worthy organizations that you would like us as a community to contribute to. Information needed: your name, name of organization you are suggesting, to whom check should be made payable, where to send check and to whose attention. Please send your suggestions to Marilyn Tenholder.
Matthew 25 The Matthew 25 Fund helps members in our community who need financial assistance. All information concerning the people with whom we work is held in the strictest confidence. If you would like to contribute to this fund, make your check payable to Matthew 25, and place it in the collection basket. If you would like to donate cash, put it in an envelope labeled "Matthew 25" and place it in the collection basket. If you need assistance from the fund, you can contact We have a SafeChurch Policy to protect our children and other vulnerable populations. |
| Fundraising |
Do you shop at Schnucks?
Please keep our Schnucks E-Scrip fund raiser in mind when you shop. If you don't already have an E-Scrip card, please call Marilyn Tenholder (314.323.1467) and she will get one to you. There is no charge and all you have to do is activate it by either a phone call or by going online. Simply show the card when you check out and a percentage of your purchase cost will be rebated back to Sts. Clare & Francis. Thank you! SCF Online Booksale Please consider donating books to the Sts. Clare & Francis Online Book sale Fundraiser. All proceeds, net of fees, will go to Sts. Clare & Francis. We are looking for good quality new or used books on religion, spirituality, self-  help, business, textbooks, cookbooks, psychology, books signed by the author and children's books. We will accept books from other categories, too, but fiction (especially paperback) doesn't sell very well. You can bring your books to the weekly Mass on Saturdays at 5:00 pm or you can arrange for pickup by calling Art Maines at 314.518.1973. If you have questions about the sale or books you'd like to donate, you can call Art at the same number. 
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COMMUNITY CORNER...our family news
(It is good for us to know what's happening in each other's lives. If you have any news you'd like to share with the community, please email Steve ). |
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The Weekly News
November 25, 2010 |
First Week of Advent
Saturday, November 27th, 2010 5:00 p.m.
Presider: Frank Krebs
Homilist: George von Stamwitz
Server: Marty Campbell
Lectors: Mary Hart, Art Maines
Sacristan: Bernard Barth
Eucharistic Ministers: Mary B. Jordan, Mary Ellen Kruger, Joann Noll
Children's Liturgy: No Children's Liturgy today.
This week we will baptize Wyatt Gustav Leander.
If you are unable to serve in your scheduled ministry, please let Jessica know when you get a substitute so that we can publish the correct names in the newsletter. Thanks so much. Jessica Rowley (314.918.2766). |
Convocation: Everyday Sacred
We welcome Clarence Heller, who will lead us in a reflection and discussion on the everyday sacred in our lives.
Join us Saturday, December 4th at 3:00 pm and begin the season of Advent focused on the quiet beauty of our everyday sacred. Clarence will be using art and reflections from his newly published book. You can learn more at http://www.clarenceheller.com/. |
Be with your community of faith on the longest night of the year as we embrace the darkness and anticipate the birth of the light. Join us for a simple service Tuesday, December 21 at
7 p.m. with fellowship to follow. |
Christmas at SCF
Celebrate Christmas with Sts. Clare & Francis, Saturday, December 25th at 5 p.m.
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Roadmap to Regional Communion
We at SCF and our sister communities in Little Rock (San Damiano) and Oshkosh (Emmaus) have been working for over a year to draw up a roadmap for becoming a local church (i.e., region or diocese). Once drawn, every community would then vote on whether to follow this map together.
The provisional Regional Council that was set up to do this work believes there ought to be a sufficient number of "mature and stable" communities before moving forward. A new ECC community, St. Jerome's in Tulsa, is interested in joining us. Many of you may have met members of St. Jerome, including their pastor, Bishop Rick Hollingsworth, at the Synod.
St. Jerome certainly fits the description "mature and stable." Though they just joined the ECC, they have been around for years; and, coming out of the Anglican tradition, they have a strong practice of lay leadership. Each parish council of the original three communities and St. Jerome's must OK this arrangement.
Our parish council at SCF, while inclined to say yes, wants to listen to the voice of the whole community before deciding. So please let myself or Steve Campbell, our Servant of Unity, or any member of the parish council know your thoughts about this matter before our next meeting on December 15th. Thanks.
Your brother, Frank |
Homilies
Frank's homily from November 20, Domination or Self-Donation, has been posted and is available, along with other archived homilies preached at Sts. Clare & Francis, |
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A Call for Mentors and Tutors
 Please consider giving one hour a week of your time to help urban youth see and believe in their possiblities.
UrbanFuture, www.urbanfuturestl.org, is looking for mentors and tutors to help 4th - 8th grade St. Louis Public school students (mostly in Southside schools) prepare to succeed in high school and beyond.
Less than 40% of students at Roosevelt High School (where most of these student are headed) will graduate from high school. You have the ability to change that!
This program is organized, structured and gets results. Please call 314.776.3434 for further questions, or contact Sue Nauert at 314.849.6475 or suenauert@gmail.com for further info or if you might be the least bit interested. |
Your Input Requested In the summer and fall of 2008, members of Sts. Clare & Francis held a series of meetings to develop a Pastoral Plan for the parish. The Plan was published in the winter of 2008. The plan is divided into four sections: 1. Decision Making Structures; 2. Community Designs; 3. Worship and Spiritual Development; and 4. Service Channels (Works of Justice and Compassion).
At its November meeting, the parish council will be reviewing Section 3 of the plan.
We invite your input. Does the plan need updating? Should anything be added, or removed from the plan? What are we doing well, and where are there opportunities for us to do better?
The fourth section, Service Channels, will be up on the Forum section of the Sts. Clare & Francis website soon. To see it, go to: http://www.stsclareandfrancis.org/site/forum/. (The Forum portion of the website requires you to log in. If you haven't registered yet, click the "Register" button and follow the instructions.)
Once you've logged in, scroll down and click on "Pastoral Plan 2010" to see the first section. You can then give your input by clicking "post reply" at the bottom, or send your input to any member of the parish council. Thanks! |
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random sightings
wisdom..reflection...insight...amusement
The house lights go off and the footlights come on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the curtain to rise.
In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are poised. The conductor has raised his baton. In the silence of a midwinter dusk, there is far off...in the deeps of it...somewhere...a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself.
You hold your breath to listen...
For a second you catch a whiff of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you've never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart...
The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens.
Advent is the name of that moment.
Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark
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