Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We’re now more than halfway through the fall season, and as the weather outside cools down, life at St. Paul’s continues to heat up (and not just because of the boiler). Keep an eye out in future eNews correspondence for all the goings on during the the Advent season.
In the coming weeks, however, we will be celebrating a few very special occasions. First will be taking place this Sunday at 2:30 PM. Join us Sunday afternoon as the St. Paul’s community along with Woolastook Presbytery hold a covenanting service for Rev. Michelle Armstrong. Though 5 months in, the covenanting service is a special time where we make promises to one another for the work in which God is calling us all to take part. In that vein as we celebrate our new ministry, as per presbytery tradition, there will be an offering to support mission and service to help with the churches wider mission. During the service symbols of ministry will be exchanged between St. Paul’s members and Rev. Michelle, and between ministers Rev. Michelle and Rev. Richard that remind us of the cooperative and collaborative work that we are about. Join us to mark the occasion!
Another time of celebration is fast approaching in the form of our Anniversary service. Normally held close to the first of November (with November 4th being St. Paul’s actual anniversary) we’ve taken the month and a few weeks of October to tell our story, how we serve one another and the surrounding community. This will all culminate in a service of story sharing where we hear from some of those who have benefitted from the work that St. Paul’s is about, and from Bill Randall, our guest speaker, whose life and work has been focused on the importance of stories.
Speaking about how we serve, the Youth Group will be gathering this week on Friday, November 10th at 6:30 at St. Paul’s United Church. The focus for this weeks gathering will be servanthood and what that means for our youth. This gathering was rescheduled from November 3rd, and so mark your calendars for next week, Friday November 17th , the next Youth Group gathering which hopefully will involve releasing our creativity at Clay Cafe. Keep an eye on your email for more information and facebook for more information.
As with each week, we have our Women’s and Men’s groups meeting Mondays and Wednesdays respectively at 7 PM, as well as our Seniors Bible Study meeting on Tuesday at 10 AM, all of which takes place in the Ladies’ Parlour. This week however, we would like to highlight our Prayers in the Parlour which happens on Wednesday mornings at 10 AM for about 30 minutes. We want to invite you, if you are able to stop by and sit with the Holy Spirit as we pray out loud and in silence together. You don’t need to speak if you don’t want to, but the space is there if you wish to do so. It has been a blessing to those who have attended thus far, and we would like to expand our group to include any who would like to create more Holy space in their busy lives.
Along with all that is going on in the coming days and weeks, we hope you join us for regular worship this Sunday at 10:30 AM. We have been following the Narrative lectionary, and up until now we’ve heard stories of creation, escape, and hope for something new. Beginning this week we learn from the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, turning first to Amos 1:1-2; 5:14-15, 21-24 to hear just how important goodness and justice are to our God. The bulletin for this week can be downloaded here.
Yours in Christ,
Rev. Richard & Rev. Michelle