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Worship Schedule
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8am and 10am Holy Eucharist 9:45am Nursery
Wednesday
7am service with Holy Eucharist
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'Participants in Worship'
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Click here for 'Participants in Worship' names on our website.
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Quick Links |
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Join Our List
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Christian Formation
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Exciting opportunities are coming in 2014!
Please see the list of upcoming events. Come to Youth Group and find out about: Pilgrimage, Diocesan Events and a National Urban Mission with E.Y.E.
As the spring unfolds, we will be learning about Hunger in our community and how we can have an impact. Our youth will be creating 3 capstone murals with Mrs. Ray and Heather Annis which will beautify our Youth Space.
We need some parents to volunteer to provide lunch. And we also need volunteer Youth Leaders to help support this growing and important ministry.
Prayerfully consider joining us.
Children:
Feb 2 Church School, Bring Soup!
Feb 9 Children in Church
Feb 16 Church School
Youth:
Feb 2 Youth Group 11:15-12:15
'Souperbowl of Caring'
Feb 9 Youth Group 11:15-12:15
'New Urban Farmers' Adult Forum
Feb 16 Youth Group 11:15-12:15
Feb 17-20 ECC Winter Camp Grades 7-11
Feb 23 Youth Group 11:15-12:15
Capstone Art Mural #1 12:30-1:30
Upcoming:
Mar 4 Pancake Supper
Mar 9 Crossroads Adult Forum
April 4-6 Spring Conference
April 19 Good Friday Hunger Walk
April 26-27 30 Hour Famine
May 2-4 Happening
May 9-10 Nightwatch
May 18 ECC Open House
July 13-16 EYE Episcopal Youth Event
July 16-23 Pilgrimage to Iona, Scotland
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Volunteer!
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To volunteer please contact:
(John Lawlor) |
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Collection Baskets
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We have four (4) collection baskets at the back of the church designated for:
Homeless Shelters
and Meal Sites
Small or travel-sized toiletries including chapstick, razors, shaving cream, toothbrushes, toothpaste, new socks and underwear
Food Pantries
Non-perishable food for Camp street Ministries and Providence In-Town
Bin of the Month
(February)
Harrington Hall Men's Shelter
New or gently used men's boots
Backpack Express
Weekend food for the Providence School System's neediest students including: beans, tuna, peanut butter, pasta, mac & cheese, cereal, milk boxes, canned vegetables or fruit
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LINKS
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All the latest news on the
'Thrifty Goose' |
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Outreach
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Monthly Food Collection
Please bring non-perishable food items to church each week for local food pantries.
Feburary's collection will go to Camp Street Ministries.
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Epiphany Soup Kitchen at S. Stephen's
Volunteers needed on the fourth Saturday of the month from 3-5pm (the next date is February 22nd)
Donations of small or travel-sized toiletries including chapstick, razors, shaving cream, toilet paper, new socks, underwear, tooth- brushes and toothpaste, are needed. Contact John Lawlor at 434-9769 or email him at
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The Cloak
The work we do in our Cloak outreach ministries at St. Martin's has a direct effect on the lives of needy families in the Providence area.
Every month, we work to deliver clothes, shoes, socks, home goods, books and toys to a number of local, non-profits including our new partnership with Harrington Hall, RI's largest 'overflow' men's shelter.
There are many volunteer opportunities for you to get involved with this ministry. They include: Drivers, Bin Packers, Laundry Helper.
Please let us know if the Spirit moves you to participate.
February's Bin:
New or gently used men's boots.
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From the Rector
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A couple of years ago I was responding to a set of questions, one of which asked me to write about a hero of mine. This was in an explicitly Christian context, so I didn't use what immediately came to mind, but it was: Pete Seeger. Pete Seeger seems to have lived, at least from what I could see, a thoroughly authentic life. From his commitment to folk music, through the McCarthy blacklisting period, to the civil rights and antiwar movements, to his concern for the environment, Seeger's life and involvements had an integrity that seemed to never waver. There must have been temptations and opportunities to go for fame and money and easy acceptance, but he was consistent to the end. From that came a great authority and power.
Jesus in the Gospels seems to reserve his most scathing critique for those who exhibit hypocrisy. The Pharisees come in for criticism over and over for preaching one thing and doing another. Jesus, in turn receives the crowds' admiration and amazement that he "teaches with authority" - what he says lines up with who he is and how he lives his life.
Are we not called to the same authenticity of life? Are we not invited to let the Spirit of God, the presence of Christ, shape us and form us and live through us so that we become the light of the world, the salt of the earth? May we open ourselves to the Spirit so that we become more and more who we have been created to be. Good night, Pete.
Fr. Bill+
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Church Closing Information
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Please
log into your favorite radio or television station website for an immediate up-to-date list of closings, delays or for emergency information.
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Click here for this Sunday's readings: Malachi 3:1-4
Hebrews 2:14-18
Luke 2:22-40
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Thrifty Goose open 9am-12noon
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Healing Prayers at 11:15am in the Chapel
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Youth Group at 11:15am: Souperbowl of Caring. Collect soup for donation to TAP-IN. In celebration of the Chinese New Year,
we will be having Chinese food for lunch.
Please join us.
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Lenten Programs
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Soup and Study
Please join Fr. Bill and Racquel Ray for mid-week nourishment throughout Lent. We will share a soup supper, provided by Amos House and study scripture using the Gospel reading for the coming Sunday. We will meet for the five Wednesdays in Lent from 6:00pm - 8:00pm on March 12, 19, 26 and April 2, 9.
Lenten Devotionals
Help us build a Lenten Devotional 2014! We are seeking 40 participants to create a piece for the Lenten Devotional. Using the daily Gospel reading, create: a written reflection, essay, poem or visual art. Please have your creation in by Thursday February 20th. There will be a sign-up chart in the Great Hall or e-mail/speak with Racquel Ray at rray@stmaprtinsprov.org.
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Message from the Discernment Committee
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A note from the Discernment Team (otherwise known as the Search Committee): We are 4 women and 4 men who have been asked by the vestry and the wardens to find the next rector for Saint Martin's.
We have been meeting regularly since late September. We have studied the Ministry Profiles of 10 candidates and narrowed the group down to 7 for initial conversations. At this point we have had 6 initial conversations and I think it's fair to say that we have some very good choices. Within the next few weeks, we will narrow the group down and begin speaking to references.
It is a considerable exercise that we are going through. The effort to find someone who will come close to meeting our needs as a spiritual guide is a tall order. I was so nervous before the first interview last week. So many of my own hopes and dreams rest on these conversations . . . and so many of your hopes and dreams, too, are resting on our finding the right person. Who will demonstrate pastoral care by their very nature?
We are looking for someone who cares about each of us and about our church community, someone who will be passionate about the Gospel, someone who is interested in what and where the Episcopal Church is going, without throwing out the baby with the bath water. Someone who understands money, and who will bring about the change necessary to increase membership!
We have been blessed to have a wonderful interim rector in Father Bill, who has really brought continuity to the worship, the liturgy, and the community of Saint Martin's. I am grateful for the ongoing prayers of the Prayer Group and the rest of congregation.
If I could get anything across to you about this process that we are going through, it would be that we all, every one of us, have our own particular hopes for the person we are trying to hire. In our spiritual lives there is room for our own metaphysical needs and the needs of this congregation. There is enough love in our hearts to discern where God is leading us.
Mary Gray
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'Walk in my Shoes'
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We all put on our pants one leg
at a time.
I heard this a lot when I was a young woman working in Hollywood. There is no need to act as if these movie stars are any different from me, we all put out pants on one leg at a time.
And, I urge you to consider for a moment and in those moments that you tie your shoes or pull up on your boot straps ... one at a time... consider that we are all human.
We are all cut of the same cloth. We all have particular needs.
My work with the Cloak keeps me grounded in the everydayness of socks and underwear. And, with winter temperatures, there is now a new need for boots and shoes.
So today, we are starting a campaign...
'Walk in my shoes'
$30 buys a new pair of men's work boots. Buy 1 or 5, but please consider buying something to help. Or, give us your gently used shoes and boots. When you are homeless, your boots are your car, your boots are your transportation.
Please put your boot donations in the 'bin of the month' for
Harrington House.
Through boots, we will bring the glory of God to the streets of Providence.
Mary Curtis Gray
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Mark Your Calendar!
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Sunday, February 9th: Adult Forum - Adult Form resumes on February 9th with New Urban Farmers as our guest. "New Urban Farmers work to increase healthy food access and nurture minds in the city of Pawtucket, city of Central Falls, town of Warren and surrounding areas by eliminating barriers to healthy food and empowering low-income individuals, families, and at-risk-youth with education and collaboration. Through a small system of satellite farms within the city - not only can we grow food but we can rebuild our community - Growing minds is our job - what grows from there is limitless! It is our belief that the community that grows together - GROWS together! Please come visit our farm soon and see what we can all do to grow our own food, in our own spaces, all year long." - NUF More information on NUF can be found at http://www.newurbanfarmers.com/
**CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) Crop Shares will be available at their visit! You can buy shares that the farm uses to buy and plant their crops. When the harvest starts, you will get (usually a weekly) delivery of fresh produce. Emily Jodka and Bleu Grijalva are a fine example of living the Gospel of Christ in our communities.
Get your coffee after the service and join the discussion.
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Report from the Nominating Committee
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The Nominating Committee is pleased to propose the following parishioners for:
Senior Warden
Elizabeth Welshman
Junior Warden
Sean Mulholland
Vestry
Thomas Calhoun
John Lawlor
Jennifer Potter
Joseleyne Slade
The Committee proposes the following parishioners as Diocesan Convention delegates and alternate delegates:
Delegates:
Kate Chute
Meg LoPresti
Arline Walker
Alternate delegate:
John Staniunas
The Nominating Comm. consists of:
3 outgoing Vestry members:
David Whitman (chair), Rosalind Ditson, Kurt Loell
4 non-Vestry members:
Charlie Bodell, Beth Ellis, Peter Dennehy, Melissa Hughes.
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Backpacks Project Update
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In partnership with Sodexo, food service provider for Providence Public Schools, St. Martin's fills and delivers backpacks weekly for 3 special needs students at Hope High School.
Our support provides essential nourishment when these students and their families would otherwise go hungry each weekend. Our youth assist with packing backpacks whenever church school is in session! (Collection basket at back of church)
We especially need the following items:
Proteins: beans, tuna, peanut butter, nuts
Dairy: shelf stable milk (individual drink boxes preferred)
Vegetables and fruit: canned goods or fruit cups, applesauce, raisins or other dried fruit
Other canned goods: soup, canned pasta sauce or canned ravioli
Grains: cereal (smaller or individual boxes preferred), oatmeal (packets preferred), rice, pasta, macaroni & cheese, ramen or other noodles, crackers
Snacks or treats: pretzels, popcorn, cookies, juice boxes, granola bars
** There is a designated collection basket at the back of the church.
** Please be mindful of expiration dates, and that everything must be transported inside a backpack - individually wrapped servings are helpful for many items, and no glass jars, please! We also welcome monetary donations: please make out any checks to St. Martin's and mark them with "Backpacks" in the memo. Periodic volunteers are needed to help shop for items in bulk, assist with packing, and/or help with delivery - if you can help, please contact Melissa S. Hughes by email at melissashughes@gmail.com. Thank you, St. Martin's, for your continued help to feed hungry children in our neighborhood! Want to help support this unique community project? Please click here to find out how you can help! Thank you, St. Martin's, for helping feed hungry children! |
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