A Shovel to Spare?
Do you have an extra snow shovel or two laying around your garage that you can spare? If so, please bring one in! We don't mind if it's used (or well-loved, as I like to call it). We're looking for one for the Michigan Avenue entrance and one for the parish hall (Harrison Street) entrance. There's often a little extra snow lying around there waiting for the shovel that we can never find! (* If none show up by the 16th, we'll purchase two for the purpose.)
Save the Date - Annual Meeting on 1/16
This is a friendly reminder that our Annual Meeting is scheduled for 1/16 immediately after the dismissal. We will remain seated and move directly into our business meeting, keeping it as brief as possible. Please plan to attend. We must have quorum in order to conduct our business, which primarily includes passing a budget and electing leadership for 2022.
Speaking of leadership, we are still looking for a Junior Warden!
Community Dinners - Main Dish
Will you donate a main dish for one of our Community Dinners? There are 12 dinners a year and we are currently planning for approximately 30 people per meal. If providing one on your own is a challenge, but you would still like to help out, we can make arrangements to share a month or find someone who would be willing to cook the ingredients you provide. Our next dinner is Tuesday January 25th.
The Sign-up sheet is on the Harrison Street bulletin board and questions can be directed to Mike Konieczny (theeleventhofnowhere@gmail.com) or Margie Bender (mabender3@gmail.com).
Collecting Christmas Card (fronts)
As you reset your home from the holidays, if you're not a keeper of Christmas cards you received, would you consider donating them for our Christmas at Sea program? The Seamen's Church Institute collects Christmas card fronts (simply tear them at the bend) and uses them to write notes of appreciation to be sent to the mariners with their knit/crocheted items. Please bring them to church and leave them at the usher stations. I will collect them from there.
Thank you, Mother Michelle.
Our New Community Partners!
Did you know that we have two new community partners here at St. Paul's?
In November we offered our parish hall, and some storage space in the freshly cleaned former choir room in the basement, to The Service League. They meet the first Thursdays of the month and are excited to call St. Paul's their home. Most of you know The Service League is a wonderful women's organization dedicated to community service here in LaPorte. We are thrilled to have them call St. Paul's their home!
In December we offered our unused former counters' room in the church office to Arts in the Park. They will be renting that room, and occasionally using the front office meeting space, for all of their Arts in the Park needs. We are thrilled to welcome this wonderful community program to our St. Paul's space. And for those of you who remember Fr. Kanestrom, his daughter Julia Kanestrom is the Executive Director.
God continues to do great things, right here at St. Paul's! It's wonderful to stop and notice them.
This Week at St. Paul's
Mother Michelle Walker
Dear St. Paul's Family,
On Thursday morning we celebrated a spoken Eucharist for the Feast of the Epiphany. The wise men, who have been traveling along the interior of our church building, made it to the baby Jesus in our creche. During the sermon I shared with the congregation thoughts about light. An Epiphany is a revelation, in this case the revelation of the birth of the Savior of the world, and this one was discovered because the wise men were brave enough to follow the light of a star that led them to Jesus. (The Gospel for Epiphany is Matthew 2:1-12.)
The light of the star that led the wise men, the light of the world revealed to us in that manger, the light of the day that signals the morning - light is a vital aspect of our lives. As the light of the morning sun dawns on this frigid and white morning, after a long dark night, I am reminded that the promise of light sustains our faith. We seek it; expect it; long for it; miss it; and revel in it. May this season of Epiphany be a constant reminder of the light ... the sUn, the sOn, and our reflection of both in the world.
Many years ago I was introduced to the poet Mary Oliver. I leave you with this poem from her 2004 Collection entitled "Why I Wake Early".
Hello, sun in my face.
Hello, you who make the morning
and spread it over the fields
and into the faces of the tulips
and the nodding morning glories,
and into the windows of, even, the
miserable and the crotchety -
best preacher that ever was,
dear star, that just happens
to be where you are in the universe
to keep us from ever-dakrness,
to ease us with warm toughing,
to hold us in the great hands of light -
good morning, good morning, good morning.
Watch, now, how I start the day
in happiness, in kindness.
Blessings,
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 (c)