St. Martin's Newsletter
   Weekly E-News June 17, 2016
Worship Schedule

Sunday  
   8:00am  Holy Eucharist
   8:45am  Bible Study 
   9:15am  Nursery
   9:30am  Holy Eucharist with choir
and sermon 
     10:45am   Christian Formation 
Tuesday-Friday
9am Morning Prayer in the Chapel
Wednesday
                                                              7am service with Holy Eucharist


In the wake of the tragic slaying in Orlando our airwaves are filled with commentary, some informative but most of it simply media filling space on the airwaves. Is it a terrorist attack, or a hate crime? Is it the work of a mentally ill man or more motivated by his internal struggle with his own ambivalent sexual feelings? Certainly, from the testimony of his ex-wife, Omar Mateen seems to have been a personality disordered and violent man, like all the other mass shooters a man with deep and irreconcilable flaws in their characters.
 
One concern is that the Christian Church, when it acts as an institution of patriarchal society is a principal source and support for homophobia, albeit disguised as religious belief. It took the Church 1800 years to come to terms with the clear Scriptural support for slavery and the subjugation of women, and declare such Scriptures expression of historical context and contradictory of the Revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Today, a section of the Christian voice continues to practice a deep hypocrisy that champions the selection of texts isolated from their original context and contradictory to the teaching of Jesus, as support for the view that God shares their pathological hatred for homosexuals. Thus a loud Christian voice continues to energize homophobia -an attitude of hatred and the source of violence against the LGBTQ community. Isn't time we admit our culpability and repent?
 
Another concern is that Congress has failed to enact legislation to ensure the public safety of the citizenry. I refer to the inability to legislate against the possession of military grade assault weapons and ammunition. The rights conferred by the Second Amendment is a completely different matter from the commercial availability of military hardware to individuals, who in simply desiring to own such weapons signal a danger to others. In other areas of life we certainly legislate against instruments of public and personal endangerment in the interests of public safety. I detect the operation in the philosophy of the NRA another kind of a religion - one that equally plays on fear. It's time congress admitted its culpability and act upon the will of 80% of Americans across the political spectrum.
 
No society can offer its citizens watertight protection from harm at the hands of unstable individuals.

 +
Remember, this Sunday, we review chapters 7-9 of The Story in the Adult Forum.
Questions are already posted on the website here.
 
See you in Church, this Sunday!
 
Mark+
Tomorrow, Saturday June 18

This Saturday is St. Martin's day at the soup kitchen at S. Stephen's. We need helpers from 2pm to 4pm. If you can help please let me know.

Thanks, Gail Peet 
401-439-9342 
Summer Worship Schedule 

July 3rd through September 4th 
9:15am Nursery
9:30am Holy Eucharist with sermon
+
Sundays, July 17th & August 21st 
Christian Formation - ' The Story ' 
10:45am 

Please click here for Participants list for Sunday, June 19th.  
READINGS THIS WEEK

 
1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a (OT)
Galatians 3:23-29   (NT)
Luke 8:26-39 (Gospel)
 Click here for this Sunday's readings.
     THIS SUNDAY
8am  Holy Eucharist
+ 
8:45am Bible Study   
+   
9:15am  Nursery
+
9:30am Holy Eucharist with choir and sermon 
+
Healing Prayers during Communion
( this and every Sunday)
+
Discussion of The Story Chapters 7-9 during the Formation Hour.  
Copies of The Story are still available. 
 + 
Gluten Free Hosts available at the altar rail. 
MORNING PRAYER
    
Morning Prayer is said in the Chapel of the Church at 9am on Tuesday through Friday each week. All are welcome!
               Mark+
Biblebox
(Weekly Bible Study) 
Luke 8:26-39
To dig a little behind the Gospel text for this Sunday, take a look at this week's  Working Preacher in preparation for discussion at our weekly Sunday Bible study at 8:30am in the Church Office this week.


We want to extend our sincere thanks to all who contributed to the Knitting Ministry this year. Through your kind and loving efforts we were able to give comfort to many of our own parishioners and others who needed the hug of a shawl, as well as countless newborns who went home cozy because of an adorable hat knit by your caring hands.  The friendship and closeness we feel toward each other because of this ministry is an added bonus. We are thrilled with the success of this ministry and hope to continue to expand this wonderful opportunity in the coming year.  Have a safe and fun-filled summer! ( And please keep knitting!) 
Blessings, 
Linda Brookhart and Natasha Lofgren
Coming Up 

Sunday
Sunday, June 26th
End-of-Year Story 
Join us for our special End-of-Year Story during the Formation hour following the 9:30am service. We will celebrate our achievements made over the last program year and identify a couple of key issues crucial to our moving forward.  
The aim of the End-of-Year Story is to give us an overall sense of where we are in our growing into becoming more fit for God's purpose. The Vestry leadership has worked hard to create this special presentation. They will also host coffee hour.
We are hoping for a big turnout, so please come!
...
The Women's Spirituality Group  
will meet at Jane Taylor's home in Narragansett
for a potluck party at 6pm.
Contact Susan Allen for more info at susan_heuck_allen@brown.edu   

[Correction to step #4 below...please take note]

St. Martin's joins the Amazon Smile Program!
St. Martin's has registered with Amazon's charitable giving program which is called Amazon Smile. Under Amazon Smile, ½ of 1% of all your purchases go a to a charity of your choice. Parishioners can now designate St. Martin's to receive ½ of 1% of their Amazon purchases.  
Here is how to participate:
  1. Go to smile.amazon.com
  2. Enroll in program by giving your email address and your regular Amazon password
  3. The next page will welcome you to the program and show a default charity such as the Audubon Society. Next to the default charity name will be a small arrow asking if you want to change the charity. Click on the arrow.
  4. Type in St. Martins Parish (exactly) in the box and our name will come up. Click select.
  5. After this, when purchasing from Amazon you must go through smile.amazon.com for you purchases to qualify.
  6. Price, service and selection is exactly the same as on the 'normal' Amazon web site. Subscribers to Amazon Prime can use the Smile program.
If you have any questions please contact the office. (And thank you!!)