17May23

Yours in Christ,

Father Grant +

American culture finds its roots in individualism, and so, we Americans cling to a one-on-one relationship with Christ. However, Jesus was not a “one-man” show”. From the beginning, unlike other rabbis, He invited others to join Him. This Sunday’s gospel portrays Jesus even taking an additional step when He prays that all of us become one as He and the Father are one. Jesus is actually calling us to the glory of God, to the heights of heaven, through our love and union with each other. (Norm Carroll)

The Guild will meet tomorrow at 12:30 pm for a potluck lunch and a speaker informing us about managing our money after we retire. See you for prayers, lunch and our guest speaker, Marci Adams. This will be The Guilds final meeting until September. For more information or questions, please contact Lynne Coughlin at 954-741-6566. (Becky Fogleson)

The book club will be meeting int he Parish Hall on Thursday, May 25th. This will be the book club’s final in person lunch and discussion until September 28th. We will be meeting via Zoom in June, July and August. The book for this meeting is The Women Who Wrote the War: The Riveting Saga of World War II’s Daredevil Women Correspondents by Nancy Caldwell Sorel. You can watch a 45 minute discussion along with questions and answers with the author; The Women Who Wrote the War: View Here on CSPAN.

(Dorothy Seibert: dorothyseibert@comcast.net)

The Mommy’s Morning Out Ministry will formally end on June 2, 2023. Since the school and MMO have a similar clientele, the vestry and school decided to roll the MMO into the Early Childhood Program. We are reorganizing the Ministry Center to be more convenient for the Church and making it so that our parishioners can come into the Office, and we can have a space that is more suitable for our weekday ministries.

I am grateful to all who have made that ministry special and know that our school will benefit from the employees who will move from MMO to the school. (Fr. Grant Wiseman)

On Mother’s Day, May 14th, we had some wonderful music. Asael Cardona, our alto lead, sang Mama, a Rainbow to celebrate Mother’s Day. Our choir sang Love of the Lord to the accompaniment of an amazing flutist, Robert Billington. We are currently working

Take Care of this House; (from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue) by Bernstein; https://youtu.be/EH1yMUdXZvQ. So much love heart and love poured into this song

https://www.youtube.com@saintmarksepiscopalchurchc12 (Robin Dreyfuss)

Senior Warden, Mike Mullins, spoke to the 8 am and 10:30 am congregations on Visibility in Our Community: Visibility with a Purpose and establishing relevance in the greater community beyond Saint Mark’s. He highlighted that we are already doing this with the snack bags for the homeless, our support of the Pantry of Broward, and our attracting visitors and new members with our excellent music offerings. And the possibility of relaunching our nursing home and assisted living Eucharistic Program. If you have a passion to share your faith with others, talk to a member of the Vestry or Father Grant. Some ideas batting around are teaching kids to fish from our dock, relaunching a ministry for the hearing impaired, offering experiences to kids with autism, and socializing with card games or dominos. What inspires you? Shortly, there will be pew cards that ask, “What kind of service are you passionate about?” What unique skills and experience can you share with others regarding finance, marketing social work, teaching, computer lessons, or other areas? We can start with a few areas and then build upon our successes.

At the end of the announcements, Mike quoted some lines from Father Grant’s morning prayer on May 7th. “(God) You have equipped us all to the greater works to which You call us, and we need only step out in faith to begin a journey . . . may Your blessings be upon us all as we seek to do greater than we can ask or imagine.” Amen.

During the summer, many of us are traveling. The Family First Saturday events will not be held on the first Saturdays of June or July. They will come roaring back starting August 5th. We all look forward to their return.  

Our church web address is www.saintmarksftl.com. To view up-to-date, easy-to-read church and school schedules of meetings and activities CLICK HERE, this is a very useful tool. If you want to receive the weekly Parish Newsletter via email please sign up at https://saintmarksftl.com/#subscribenow and complete the Constant Contact form located on the right side of the web page. If you are interested submitting an article to our weekly Parish Newsletter email dorothyseibert@comcast.net. 

Father Grant has a daily prayer blog which he starts each morning. He shares this with all who would like to pray together at www.atwinfather.com. When you go to the prayer of the day, there is an option to receive the daily prayer in your email inbox so that you don’t have to type it in every day.

While there are certainly times where a priest is the appropriate caregiver, or perhaps is someone specifically requested, the responsibility for ‘the love and care of one another’ is bestowed on each of us by baptism and commandment, and not by ordination. Congregational care is provided when faithful people are present and listening compassionately while the faith of others is being tested; and also, when we can utilize our ‘spiritual’ gifts and acquired skills to address someone’s ‘temporal’ needs. In so doing, we are preaching, practicing, and personifying Christ’s unconditional love. If God has placed upon your heart a desire to grow this ministry, please seek out a member of your Vestry and share your thoughts on how best to proceed, and how you can contribute.

Father Grant can be reached by email at gwiseman@saintmarks.com, or at 954-334-0131. Our congregation can be reached by contacting the church office . . . seeking your input.

We invite you to post on our church website blog, https://saintmarksftl.com/submit-post/, which helps us keep up with the sharing of information. All information will be reviewed and considered for posting on the church website, Facebook page, and Instagram, as well as in this Parish News.