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ECC Midwest
Partner Communities | |
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Little Rock, Arkansas
Tulsa, Oklahoma
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This Week
"At a Glance"
7:00 am Centering Prayer
Saturday, March 26
5:00 pm Mass
Tuesday, March 29
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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. The office is being renovated during the month of December. Frank and Jessica are available for appointments. You can reach them at... Jessica: 314.283.4697, Frank: 314.740.1160.
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
March 24, 2011 |
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Third Week of Lent
Saturday, March 26, 2011 5:00 p.m.
Readings: Ex 17:3-7; Rom 5:1-2, 5-8;
Presider/Homilist: Jessica Rowley
Lectors: Mary Hart, Jenn Lay
Sacristan: Jessica Rowley (and anyone around to assist)
Eucharistic Ministers: Mary Ellen Kruger, Art Maines, Joann Noll
Children's Church: Sue Nauert, Paul Nauert
Lenten Witness: Barbara Harris
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). |
All Are Welcome at Chrism Mass
 When I became President of the ECC House of Pastors (i.e., the body that represents the clergy of the Communion), I had to resign as ECC Vicar for the Midwest. Bishop Rick Hollingsworth has now become the vicar. (Bishop Rick's community, St. Jerome in Tulsa, recently joined the ECC and became a part of the Midwest Region.)
Rick invites anyone who can to come to a Chrism Mass on April 15th at his parish church. Bishop Rick will consecrate oils, which we will use for various sacraments during the year. This is an opportunity for anyone who could make it to express our unity with the greater church. We would meet at St. Jerome on Thursday evening, April 14th for dinner and conversation. Then the Chrism Mass would be on Friday morning, April 15th after a light breakfast around 10:00 AM. We'll return after that. Let me know if you are interested in joining me.
-Frank
frank.krebs@stsclareandfrancis.org. |
Financial Report
A financial report for Sts. Clare & Francis parish as of February 28, 2011 is available here. |
Sacristans Needed
Jessica is looking for a couple more people to help with set-up and clean-up of our liturgical space on Saturdays, especially as her maternity leave draws near. If you can help with the ministry, even if it's only for the summer, please contact her at jessica.rowley@stsclareandfrancis.org or 314.918.2766.
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Parish Retreat!
Discovering our Thin Places
April 8 - 9, 2011
Rockhaven
$40 for commuter (scholarship money available)
Overnight accomidations are full, but there is still space if you would like to commute.
Download a registration brochure here.
 Please set aside April 8 - 9 for a parish retreat with Stefan Andre Waligur.
Please note, the dates have shifted to Friday evening and Saturday. We will begin at 7:00 pm Friday evening and conclude in time to drive to Webster Groves for Mass on Saturday.
One of the highlights of the ECC Synod in October was a Celtic prayer experience in which Stefan led the music. We are thrilled that he has agreed to come back to St. Louis for this retreat.
His website describes him as a contemplative, musician/composer, and retreat leader. |
Tridu-what?
Learning about and preparing for the high point of our liturgical year
The word Triduum, three days, refers to the period of time from the Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday until evening prayer on Easter Sunday.
This section of the newsletter during the season of Lent will help us prepare for these three important days. We hope you will not only be inspired to attend the liturgical celebrations of the Triduum this year, but also enter more deeply into their mystery.
The power of Holy Thursday liturgy is in its unique gestures, which summon us to memories and hopes of what it means to die and rise in Christ. A gesture like the washing of feet can convey in its own special and strong way our calling to do that, our need to have it done to us, the little ways that we die and rise in such washing and being washed. The gestures say what it means to "pass over," to be church.
Liturgy With Style and Grace, Gabe Huck
They are assembled, astounded, bewildered,
round him who, like a sage centered at last,
withdraws from those to whom he once belonged
and flows beyond them as some foreigner.
The former solitude comes over him
which raised him to perform his profound acts;
again he'll wander in the olive grove,
and those who love him will now run from him.
He summons them to the final meal
and (as a shot shoos birds from sheaves)
he shoos their hand from bread
with his word: they flutter up to him;
they flap about the table anxiously
searching for some way out. But he,
like an evening hour, is everywhere.
The Last Supper, Rainer Maria Rilke
Join us...
April 21, 2011, 7:00 pm Holy Thursday
Mass of the Lord's Supper
April 22, 2011, 7:00 pm God's Friday Service
with Evangelical UCC
April 23, 2011, 7:30 pm Easter Vigil Service
Holy Saturday |
Liturgy Book 
Discussion Continues
If you enjoy reflecting on liturgy and your experience, please come! We will continue discussing the second section of Gabe Huck's Liturgy with Style and Grace on Friday, April 4, 12:30 - 2:00 pm at the parish office at Eden. |
Lenten Practice: Meditation
 A group of SCF members have been meeting on Friday morning at 7:00 a.m. at church to meditate together. They would like to open it up to anyone who wishes to join them. Maybe Lent is a good excuse to start (or try) meditating. The group usually has a short check in, then meditates for maybe 20 minutes, then has a short time for sharing, and finished up by 8:00 a.m. Please join us. Beginners are welcome! Contact Frank with any questions at frank.krebs@stsclareandfrancis.org.
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Frank's Lenten Blogs
Frank will blog during Lent again this year. Last year he did a series on prayer. This year he is going to be blogging about the relationship between prayer and the rest of our lives. To follow just go to the SCF website and under "our community" click on SCF Blog, or just click here. |
Who is Noticing?
Here are some interesting factoids:
· Our SCF Facebook page has 72 "monthly active users."
· Our homilies posted on our SCF website had an average of 753 views after a couple of weeks of being posted.
· Our SCF blog at our website, though only now getting ramped up again, had over a thousand, sometimes close to 2000 views during last summer.
We are sending out a signal that a lot of people are paying attention to. |
Homilies
 Frank's homily from March 19, From Wonder to Liberation, along with other archived homilies from Sts. Clare & Francis, is available at http://scfhomilies.posterous.com. You may have a friend you want to share the link with. |
Events Sponsored by Friends of SCF
L'Arche Bowling
Sunday, March 27, 2011
1:30 - 3:30pm
Strike 'n Spare Lanes
1309 N. Lindbergh 63132
$15 in advance
$20 at the door
Friends of L'Arche St. Louis invites you to have a ball BOWLING. Price includes 2 games of bowling and shoe rental. Proceeds will go toward renovating & furnishing the new L'Arche home in Maplewood.
Make checks payable to Friends of L'Arche St. Louis and mail to Kay Calcaterra, 311 Violet Lane, St. Louis, MO 63119 (please include number of people in your group).
For more information, contact Kay at 314-962-4599 or at kch63119@sbcglobal.net.
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Woman's Place
Springtime Trivia Night
April 9, 2011
Doors open, 6:30 pm
Trivia begins, 7:15 pm
St. Gerard Majella Parish Center
Ballas & Dougherty Ferry Road
$20 per person, Tables of eight
For reservations, send a check payable to Woman's Place to:
R.J. Hall, 403 S. Van Buren Ave., Kirkwood, MO 63122
Please make reservation by April 1.
For information, call 314.966.6084.
All proceeds benefit Woman's Place, a drop-in center for adult women experiencing the effectgs of relationship violence. A ministry of the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, its mission is to help women break the cycle of violence and facilitate their trnaition toward safety, personal power and dignity.
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 Catholic Action Network
Visioning Meeting
May 15, 2011
1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
The Former CSAT Building
(Center for Theology and Social Analysis)
1077 South Newstead Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63110
(in the Forest Park Southeast Neighborhood)
Catholic Action Network (CAN) is planning a visioning meeting for our upcoming work. We would like members of the Sts. Clare & Francis Community to come help us create the future at CAN by attending. If you are interested, please contact John Powell at jpowell@vdoh.org. For more information about CAN, click here. |
random sightings
wisdom...reflection...insight...amusement
Too many people come into community to find something...to belong to a dynamic group...to find a life which approaches the ideal. If we come into community without knowing that the reason we come is to discover the mystery of forgiveness, we will soon be disappointed.
Jean Vanier
Community and Growth |
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