Your hands can make a difference!

Join us for our annual Summer Picnic on Sunday, July 13 at noon after a special 10:30 a.m. joint worship service with Holy Nativity Episcopal Church! All are welcome!

Saint Paul's Episcopal Church is now the home of Scout Troop 7809! Regional leadership from our local district of Scouts of America, will be meeting interested families and youth on June 17th from 7:00 pm-8:00 pm at Saint Paul's Elkins Park, at 7809 Old York Road, Elkins Park, Pa. We will be discussing the mission of Scouting, activities, and some life lessons learned from Scouting!

Our next meeting will be at Deacon Jeannie Sachs' home at 324 Church Road at 7 p.m. on July 30.  Parking is limited so plan to carpool!

We will be reading Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. Please RSVP to Laura Pillsbury at 215-870-3476 or lauramspear@gmail.com if you plan to attend.

My Friends,Holy Week is upon us; a sacred time, as the season changes, so do our lives.  This season of sacred weather invites us to slow down, to be more intentional about the lessons of Jesus’ life! Consider all the tension, heartbreak, and the mystery that comes with it. It’s not always easy, nor is it comfortable and sometimes it draws us into uncomfortable places! This week reminds us that God does not shy away from suffering. God doesn't eliminate pain or pretend everything is fine. God does enter into the human experience—and into our doubts, our heartbreaks, our fears—that we sometimes experience! As Maundy Thursday invites us to a table— for a simple meal, shared among friends. Good Friday lowers us into sorrow and silence. Of those things in life that we have done, and left undone!  Holy Saturday asks us to be kind and patient to self and others. And then—then comes Easter morning, bursting with light, hope and all things possible.Holy Week doesn’t demand that we be strong—it asks us to be present!  To listen to those whom we don't always hear, feel or remember.This is a story of God’s love! The one who loves us so much that nothing—not even death—gets the last word.So wherever you are this week—whether your heart is overflowing or barely hanging on—I hope that you allow yourself to step into this sacred story. Not for answers, but for the truth: that love is stronger than fear, that grace is deeper than despair, and that Jesus walks with us, always.Wishing you peace, courage, and the quiet hope that grows even in the shadows!

God’s Peace, John

Inaugural meeting of St. Paul's Women's Book Club is on April 30 from 7-9 p.m! 

We will be discussing Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.  Housekeeping was written in 1980 and was a finalist for that year's Pulitzer Prize.  It's been on several "100 Greatest Novels of All Time" lists.  

Please RSVP to lauramspear@gmail.com or text/call 215-870-3476 if you are interested in joining us! We will meet at Anneke Krall's house at 303 Sterling Road in Elkins Park.

We are celebrating spring birthdays with an Afternoon Tea Party on March 22 from 2-5 p.m.! Please RSVP by March 9.

From the Diocese:

Please share with Veterans in your church! We would like to recognize those in our diocese who have served in the military from the World Wars to current. You do not need to have combat experience.  We would love to gather together, and interview you about your time in the military and how faith has played a part of your life. We will not ask any specifics that may be sensitive, and want you to share to your comfort level. The purpose is to create a video in recognition of those who served our country in our pews and pulpits for this year’s Veterans’ Day. There will be food and time to meet other fellow veterans in the diocese! Those who would like to participate will be sent the date and location via email. The interview would not take place until after Easter. Contact Rev. Canon Toneh Smyth at Tsmyth@diopa.org for any questions. Click Here to Participate

November 17 is Stewardship Sunday. Pledge cards for 2025 will be available after services, and will remain available through the end of the year. Pledge commitments can also be sent to Candace Majors, Accounting Warden, at cemajors@verizon.net.

"Songversation" is a combination of a mini-concert and a discussion with a network of people who have attended the concerts at St. Paul's. The goal is to talk about the Friends of St. Paul's Association and how the events and concerts are funded and presented. We will ask questions that give our audience the opportunity to share their experience at these productions and what inspires them to keep coming back.

Please read the latest from Deacon Jeannie on the ministry work she is currently leading:

Greetings Friends in Christ!

I am happy to have now been among you for about six months. Thank you again for welcoming me to your community.

Below is a summary of the ministry work I am involved with, encouraging you to join in as well.

St. Stephen’s Ministry, Philadelphia, PA. Deacons across our Diocese both run and support the ministry work there that serve people who are un-homed, families of patients at Thomas Jefferson Hospital, along with artists and performing artists including The Lantern Theatre Company. In the nave of both Holy Nativity and St. Paul’s Elkins Park church are bins with a list taped to the top outlining specific needs for the people St. Stephen’s serves. The easiest way to help is to pick an item on the list and sponsor it for a time. Please consider small, trial-sized products that are easy to tote. If you travel, please save for us the hotel-sized bath products as these are ideal for use. Merchants who offer “buy-one, get-one free” sales provide great ways to help: buy one for yourself and donate the other to St. Stephen’s. For clothing: please ensure all clothing items are washed and folded before putting them into the bin; this makes it much easier for the volunteer staff at St. Stephen’s to stack and store. I will ensure to make at least a monthly trip downtown to get it in their pantry.

Bright Lights Hats and Mittens Ministry. Calling all knitters and crocheters! Last December, I heard a woman tell her story on NPR, a woman who had a life on the street. One Christmas Eve she was gifted, a brightly-colored hat and mitten set after a Christmas Eve service and meal. She told me how much that meant to her, that she had such a beautiful, special item, hand-made, unlike the typical dull brown and gray items that generally came her way. She felt loved and seen, and warmed. This ministry honors that woman and her story. Our goal is 50 hats (feel free to add mittens, too) by November 1, 2024, which will go to St. Stephen’s. Any pattern you choose is fine, as long as the colors are bright and cheery. Stripes are also great! There is a DioPA posting for this, directing participants to send completed items to my attention, care of St. Paul’s Elkins Park. I’ve also arranged Meet-Up sessions at our local yarn shop, Stitch Central, 128 E. Glenside Avenue, Glenside, PA 19038. These will occur every second Wednesday of each month for the rest of this year: August 14th, September 11th, October 9th, November 13th, December 11th. Time: 2pm-3pm. Please join us! We hope to encourage knitters and crocheters from across DioPA to join as they are able, although you do not have to attend the Meet-Up to participate. All are welcome. Stitch Central has a wonderful space for us to use and I hope it will also encourage and support our local small craft business.

Lamentations Support Group. In the spring, all deacons in the Diocese of Pennsylvania participated in mental health first aid training to prepare us for leading support groups around the Diocese. Bishop Gutierrez feels that we have a need in our communities for people to share the burdens of their hearts and lives, and that deacons are the ministers he would like to attend to these needs in a group setting. I will be leading a group called, “Lamentations; How to Grieve with God.” The scripture basis for this program is the Book of Lamentations by the Prophet Jeremiah. I encourage anyone who would like to participate to read this book for context. We will meet monthly after services, alternating between Holy Nativity and St. Paul’s Elkins Park, beginning August 11th at Holy Nativity Church (about 12:30 pm) and September 8th at St. Paul’s Elkins Park at about 10:30 am). Meetings will last about an hour. These are open to anyone who would like to attend.

Please reach out to me directly with questions: 856-217-5100 (text or call) or email greenjeangardens@me.com

Thank you so much, Rev. Jeannie Sachs, Deacon

St. Stephen's Homeless outreach ministry is in need of donations!  Please see the attached list or ask Deacon Jeannie Sachs if you have questions.

Get tickets at www.avaopera.org! 

Please see below for some tragic news from our friends at Wyncote Farm, and a request for help:

On November 25, Farmer Nala Bloom of Wyncote Academy and Wyncote Farm was killed in a traffic crash. (The previous week, our urban agriculture teacher left for other responsibilities.)

Farmer Nick Lodise (pictured above) will be teaching urban agriculture at Wyncote Academy until further notice. However, Wyncote's maple season starts in a few short weeks. We have over 300 maple trees identified as we enter our third season of sugaring. Tapping trees and collecting syrup is a responsibility that Nick and Nala would ordinarily be undertaking together. However, Nick will be covering classes and so we desperately need your help to collect sap.

Happily, we have two wonderful super volunteers to run our evaporator, and we have equipment, and the inspiring memory of Nala's energy and hard work. However, we need you to sling some buckets. 

I’ll be donating the use of my van for the season. (The maple van was also damaged in the accident.) In first week of the new year, after our kick-off in December I still have classes to teach, as well, so we need you to sign-up. 

Please also forward this request to your network of people who care about environmental education and urban agriculture, which provides such wonderful learning opportunities to the students of Wyncote Academy and our larger community.  

Please call me at 215-778-3784 with questions. 

We will hold boils (open to the public, at which you can see the syrup made and taste it on waffles) on Sundays and Wednesdays (possibly starting as early as December 31 or the first week of January)  at the Ashbourne Tract at 7827 Old York Road, Elkins Park. We will also be training volunteers to use the evaporator (at the sugar shack on the Ashbourne tract) and how to jar the syrup (with the gracious support of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, whose kitchen we use.)

Of course, all this is dependent on the weather, sap flow and you.

Please step up. And please accept our gratitude for all you do. 

Sincerely, 

Adrienne (Redd) 

Online & Individualized Education, Community Outreach,

Co-founder Urban Agriculture at Wyncote Academy 

www.WyncoteAcademy.org 

215-778-3784

Our friends at Wyncote Farms have provided the information below on the service for Nala Bloom of Wyncote Farm:

The memorial services for Nala Bloom will be held next Wednesday, Dec 6

Joseph J. McGoldrick Funeral Home

507 West Avenue 

Jenkintown, PA 19046

Viewing from 10 am - 11 am

Service starts at 11:00 am

Lawnview Cemetery 

500 Huntingdon Pike

Rockledge, PA 19046

We ask everyone to wear bright colors in celebration of her beautiful life. If not, that's perfectly fine.

Join us on Sunday, September 24 at noon for a celebration of Father Paul's work as he retires from full-time ministry! Contact the office if you still need to RSVP!

Please plan to attend one of two upcoming Parish Planning meetings as we prepare for Father Paul's retirement.  LIVE meeting is at 11:00 a.m. Sunday, February 19, after services at the church.  ZOOM meeting for those who cannot attend live will be at 7:00 p.m on Tuesday, February 21.

Sundays 10 a.m-4 p.m. through March. Eggs, honey, winter greens, and much more!

Join us for our second annual Trunk or Treat on Saturday, October 29 from 12-4 pm!

Bring your pets for our annual Blessing of the Animals during Family Communion on 10/2!

Join us for a free concert sponsored by the Friends of St. Paul’s!

Making a Great Change: The Women of Old York Road.

Sponsored by the Penn State Abington Public History Curriculum and by Lise Marlowe, winner of the Teacher of the Year Award from the History Channel, and by the Friends of St. Paul's Elkins Park.

With Carol Faulkner, author of Lucretia Mott's Heresy: Abolition and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America and Karen Smyles, WHYY, producer of The Montiers: An American Story.

Food available for purchase.

Oak Lane Maple is sugar tapping at St. Paul's! Maple boils will take place the weekend of February 5 and goats from the Philly Goat Project will also be on-site! Photo credits to Wyncote Academy and Jamie Giambrone Photography.

The Friends of St. Paul’s present two holiday concerts for the 2021 season: Home for the Holidays on December 11 at 7:30 p.m. and Bach by Candlelight on December 18 at 7:30 p.m. Both will be live-streamed on the St. Paul’s website.

We will celebrate Juneteenth Sunday and Father's Day with a special outdoor service and music followed by a barbeque picnic. Also available via Zoom.

June 6 will be our first Sunday Eucharist in the sanctuary! The service will continue to be available on Zoom as well, and the in-sanctuary congregation will be able to join those on Zoom for our virtual Coffee Hour. All are asked to wear masks unless they are solo singing or speaking to the congregation. Bread and wine will be individually prepackaged for Holy Eucharist.255904

via Zoom

NOW ONLINE - Choral Evensong in a Time of Pandemic - With Prayers and Songs for our Country On the Eve of our Election

VIDEO LINK: https://vimeo.com/474834389

When Thomas Cranmer wrote the original Book of Common Prayer, he combined all of the individual evening prayer services said by monks into one: Evening Prayer. The profound, sacramental poetry of the service immediately attracted composers, and Choral Evensong immediately became a musical art form of the English-speaking world: literally thousands of versions have been composed by major composers, each containing choral settings of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis prayers from the Gospel of Luke. These are powerful songs of redemption, of freedom and release, of God's blessings, and of relief from poverty. The accompanying sung responses amplify God's call for social justice, and our worshipful plea for God's mercy; keeping us safely through the night.

The choral portions of our service began as an All Saints Evensong at St. Peter's Church in the Great Valley. We have added special music of decidedly different genres, prayers, and songs for God's mercy, as we ask that our pandemic Passover us this night, and forevermore. And we ask God's blessings on our country and on all its people on the occasion of our election.

We give special thanks to the Rector and her assistant, to the Music Director, and to the extensive and glorious music program of St. Peter's in the Great Valley, and to the choir section leaders and members for this magnificent "virtual choir" achievement; and for all that they do for our larger Church. Each member in several steps learned their music and added their voice and video to the recorded accompaniment individually at home using cellphones, tablets, and cameras - and they were all then synchronized into a virtual video choir. Having had to sacrifice the joy of singing together, each member of the choir dedicated themselves to the hard tasks involved in making this work; all to the glory of God. We give thanks to God that they have shared this with us for our worship.

Finally, give great thanks to David, Tess, and Shango for their gifts to us every Sunday and beyond. While they are very careful with safe distancing and masks as they gather in our sanctuary, we recognize that they are taking a risk in their praise of God, and we keep them constantly in our prayers. We are truly blessed with musical excellence, as well as with their courage, again all to the glory of God.  electionevensong

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