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).

We Tithe as a parish and we need your recommendations
We donate 10% of our collections 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. Please let the Parish Council know about worthy organizations that you would like us 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 need assistance from the fund, contact Peggy Montgomery.

Membership Care Prayer List
If you have a joy or concern you would like to share on the prayer list please contact someone on the pastoral team.

Jessica Rowley 314.918.2766;

Frank Krebs 314.740.1160;

We have a SafeChurch Policy to protect our children and other vulnerable populations.

Fundraising

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!

ECC Midwest

Partner Communities

Emmaus

Oshkosh, Wisconsin

San Damiano

Little Rock, Arkansas

St. Jerome

Tulsa, Oklahoma

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 ).

The Weekly News
January 2, 2104

Epiphany

Saturday, January 4, 2014

5:00 pm

Readings: Is 60:1-6; Eph 3:2-3a, 5-6; Mt 2:1-12

Presider: Jessica Rowley

Homilist: George von Stamwitz

Readers: Jenn Lay, Ceci Paul

Eucharistic Ministers: Marty Campbell, Barbara Harris, Mary Jordan

If you are not able to serve in your scheduled ministry, please let Steve know when you get a substitute so that we can publish the correct names in the newsletter. Thanks.

scampbell@ppcsinc.org or call or text 314.603.9991.

Communal Works of Service Committee

A New Year, A Fresh Opportunity

Perhaps now is the right time for you to join the Communal Works of Service Committee. This past year we organized a retreat day with guests from our sister community Spiritus Christi, two work days and a participation in a walking tour at Fr. Dickson's Cemetery, implementation of micro-lending, and two discussion groups engaging The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

This coming year we hope to mobilize actively working against mass incarceration, initiate participation in a ministry that will serve others outside of the U.S., continue with work days and micro-lending, engage in another book discussion geared toward racial/economic justice, and more fully embrace ecological spirituality in practice. If you wish to help facilitate (organize and plan) works of service that would be performed by our community, please contact Clarence Heller (636.256.6516, marclar123@aol.com).

Mass Incarceration: Slavery Revisited?

Sunday, January 12, 2014

2:00 - 4:00 pm

Missouri History Museum

Did you know that one out of every 100 people in the U.S. is currently incarcerated, and that while the US only makes up 5% of the world population, it incarcerates 25% of the world's prison population?

There are currently more African American men incarcerated today than were enslaved before emancipation, and the U.S. incarcerates more of its African American population than did South Africa at the height of apartheid. $50 billion of our tax money is spent annually on incarcerations. This is due to the current system of mass incarceration, fueled by the prison industrial complex.

Come to the MO History Museum on January 12, 2014 from 2:00 - 4:00 pm for a free community forum and panel of activists, researchers, lawyers, and former inmates to learn more about the current system of mass incarceration: what it is, how did we get here, and how is it affecting our neighbors and communities.

Then come back to the History Museum on February 9, 2014 from 2:00 - 4:00 pm to learn about local efforts to dismantle this current system and how you can get involved in being part of the solution. Come out and put your faith into action to abolish a system that prioritizes profits over people.

For the flyer, click here.

Healing Our Wounds and Finding

Our Way Forward

January 25, 2013

1:00 to 4:00 pm

All SCF Members are encouraged to participate in a Healing Our Wounds and Finding Our Way Forward gathering on Saturday, January 25 from 1:00 to 4:00 pm. It is hoped that this event will mark the beginning of a new defining attribute for Sts. Clare & Francis as a community committed to exercising the graces of reconciliation, compassion and forgiveness with each other.

The facilitator for this gathering will be Dave Ebenhoh - husband, father, spiritual director, artist, writer, consultant, coach and friend (www.stillwaterspeaks.com).

Let us together mediate the love that God is offering through the community we continue to build and nurture.

Homilies null

George's homily from December 21, Evolving on the Edges, and all homilies from Sts. Clare & Francis, can be found at http://scfhomilies.wordpress.com/.

ECC News

News of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion

The Presiding Bishop Nominating Committee will conclude its current phase of discernment and recommend three candidates for Presiding Bishop in January, 2014. Subsequently, there will be a process for additional floor nominations, in anticipation of the Synod in 2014.

~~~~~

The next Communion Synod will be held in Aurora, CO from October 7-10, 2014. It is in the context of our Synod meetings that we most fully witness, experience and celebrate the wonderful, diverse and beautiful thing the Spirit of Love is unfolding among us. It is also in the context of our Synods that we witness and experience the full participation of all of the baptized, as the House of Laity and the House of Pastors meet to consider and decide upon various issues for our Communion. And, it will be in the context of our upcoming Synod that the full participation of all of the baptized will be evident as we discern and elect our next Presiding Bishop.

Sponsored by Friends of SCF

Peter & Paul Community Services

Trivia Night

Saturday, January 11, 2014

St. Justin Parish

11910 Eddie & Park Road 63126

Doors Open 6:45 pm

Play Begins 7:30 pm

$20 per person, 8 persons per table

To Register, call Jane at 314.588.7111 ext. 209 or register online here.

~~~~~

Month of Guided Prayer

An Ecumenical Retreat in Everyday Life

Meet one-on-one with a prayer guide one hour each week for four consecutive weeks. Morning, afternoon and evening meeting times available. Co-hosted by First Presbyterian (in Kirkwood) and Webster Groves Presbyterian Churches. Starts January 26, 2014. For more information, or to register, visit www.weekofguidedprayer.org or contact Clarence Heller at 636.256.6515 or marclar123@aol.com.

~~~~~

Mary Magdalene - The Road Less Traveled

February 7 - 9, 2014

Retreat presented by SCF member Marilyn Koncen

Il Ritiro

For information, go to www.il-ritiro.org.

For registration info, e-mail il.ritiro@gmail.com, or call 636.274.0554.

Marilyn's phone contact is 314.776.0554.

random sightings

wisdom...reflection...insight...amusement

Christ was not born for you and you and you and you. Christ was born for

all y'all. Together. And that is our gift. And that is our power. And that is the good news of great joy we can take from this place and out into the streets of this city. That we do not need to be divided. That what makes us holy is not our individual power but our common fragility. That we are at our best and brightest and oh our most beautiful when we allow ourselves together to be vulnerable with one another. To see and treat one another as sisters and brothers, and to put our lives in each other's hands just as God put God's life in our hands that night in that stable.

Rev. Michael Kinman

Dean, Christ Church Cathedral

Sts. Clare & Francis offers information about other organizations and activities as a way of providing information that we feel is useful or relevant to our members and to the public. As an Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) organization, Sts. Clare & Francis is required to abide by certain rules. Sts. Clare & Francis is absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Sts. Clare & Francis is also prohibited from devoting a substantial part of its activities to attempting to influence legislation. As a result of these rules, we do not specifically endorse these organizations or activities nor do they specifically represent the views of Sts. Clare & Francis, to the extent that doing so would jeopardize Sts. Clare & Francis' standing as a Section 501(c)(3) organization.

If you have an item that you wish to submit for publication in the Weekly News, please send it to

Steve Campbell no later than noon on Wednesday of the week you would like it to appear. If you cannot send an

e-mail, you may contact Steve at 314.603.9991.