The Labyrinth Walk
Thursday, February 22, 2018

Rector Search Committee
Amy Hawkins, Chair
Brad Teague
Scotty Bell
Dinah Reed
Taylor Tennison
Jay Ruud
Amanda Moore
Jane Harris
Karen McNutt
Prayer for Discernment
Almighty God, giver of every good gift: Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall choose a rector for this parish, that we may receive a faithful pastor, one who will care for your people and equip us for our ministries; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Altar Lenten Candlesticks
Lent is a time of simplicity, a time when we remove bits of excess from our lives in order to make room for Christ, a time to strip away distractions in order to reorient our focus from our will to God's will. This Lent you will notice a new "stripping away" on our altar. In keeping with the call to simplicity and authentic contrition, we. have removed the brass candlesticks, and replaced them with beautiful, yet simple, wooden ones. These candlesticks were designed and handcrafted by member Steve Hurd. Using the wood from an old kneeler, and scraps he had on hand in his woodshed, Steve fashioned these sticks to compliment the wooden cross that is built the area behind the altar table. The use of  repurposed wood, including the materials from the kneeler, is a beautiful Lenten reminder that God loves and desires our whole selves - not just the pretty or shinny parts- but the the broken, the plain, and the seemingly useless bits as well. A reminded that many of us could use during this season of contemplation.
Wishing you many Lenten Blessings-Jerusalem

God created a nice yard............
For you to walk on and play in, not to park your car on. Please park your cars on pavement areas of the church. Parking your car on the grass, especially behind the Parish Hall, damages our beautiful campus. Reminder that when using the Morgan House, all vehicles will need to be parked on Mitchell Street or in the church parking lot.
Adult Forum
We will be discussing what makes a good theology.  Discussion points are based on the work of John Macquarrie in his book titled "Principles of Christian Theology", second edition.  No previous exposure to the book or the topic is necessary.

Adult Forum meets Sundays from 10 - 11 AM in the library.  Please join us!
We Need You! (yes, you!)
CALLING ALL VOLUNTEERS
Do you make an outstanding casserole, bread, or something else tasty?  Do you enjoy meeting  newcomers to St. Peter's and making them feel welcome?  Do you have a heart to help honor those from St. Peter's who have passed?  If so, we have some excellent volunteer opportunities for you!  The Vestry has identified three areas that, due to our congregation's growth, that are in need of some attention.  
 
Three new committees are being formed and we hope you'll consider (please, pretty please) volunteering some time for them. They are:
 
  1. Casserole / Hospitality Committee - The church is often asked to provide snacks, light meals, or casseroles for groups (funerals, meetings, etc.) and we need a group that would be willing to prepare and heat up these meals as needed.  Please contact Tracy Simpson if you're interested!
  2. Newcomer's Committee - We continue to see many new faces each week at St. Peter's and it's critical we establish some great relationships up front.  This group would come up with ways to engage with our newcomer's so they feel the warmth and love that is St. Peter's.  Please contact Jerusalem Greer if this is something you are called to do.
  3. Columbarium Committee - The church has a landscaping master plan for the courtyard, but the Columbarium is in need of some immediate attention, specifically concerning drainage and record-keeping.  Please contact Leigh Ann Warriner if you're willing to help.

Lenten Noonday Prayers
The Daughters of the King will be leading Noonday Prayer and Stations of the Cross at 12:00 p.m. each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday during Lent (beginning Feb. 16).  Compline will be led each Tuesday and Thursday evening at 5:00 p.m. (beginning Feb. 15).  All are invited to participate.
St. Peter's Text Messaging
The Parish Office is sending text alerts to your cellphone. We promise that we will not overwhelm you with texts, but will only use it for emergencies (services cancelled due to inclement weather, last minute times and changes to programs). Please make sure John Churchwell has your correct cell number. You can also tell John if you do not want to receive text messages from the office. Send your number to John at john.churchwell@stpetersconway.com or call the Parish Office at 501-329-8174.
Wednesday Brown Bag Book Club 
Is an impostor robbing you of God's love? We've bought into the lie that we are worthy of God's love only when our lives are going well. If our families are happy or our jobs are meaningful, life is a success. But when life begins to fall through the cracks and embarrassing sins threaten to reveal our less-than-perfect identity, we scramble to keep up a good front to present to the world and to God.
 
Brennan Manning encourages us to let go of the impostor lifestyle and freely accept our belovedness as a child of the heavenly Father. In Him there is life.
 
Join us Wednesdays, at noon, for Brown Bag Book Club. We will start Bennan Manning's book, Abba's Child, on February 21. Please contact Rev. Dr. Linda Brown, Deacon, with any questions.
Email: linda.brown@stpetersconway.com      
cell: 501.590.0631

February Stewardship
The total operating offerings for February so far total $44,624.47. Thank you for making your financial support of St Peter's a priority.
Dollar Bills 
All $1 bills  in the offering plate this Sunday will go to the Discretionary Fund.     
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
February 22
February 23
February 24
February 25
February 26

5:00pm
Compline
7:00pm
Evening Bible Study
(Morgan House)
12:00pm
Noonday Prayers
4:00pm

Conway Locally Grown
(Parish Hall)
4:00pm
FriYay Cooking Club
(Morgan House)

 





9:00am
Food Pantry
9:00am
Vestry Retreat


7:30am
Rite I
8:50am
Library Class
9:00am
Enriching our Worship Eucharist
10:00am
Ministry Team Training
Choir Practice
Adult Forum
Family Formation
Church in a Changing World
11:00am
Rite II
7:00pm
Contemplative Quaker Fellowship
(Classroom 4)
  
12:00pm
Noonday Prayers
12:15pm
After-Noon Bible Study
(Library)
6:30pm
Narcotics Anonymous
(Morgan House)





 







Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
February 27
February 28
March 1
March 2
March 3
10:00am
Parish Admin
Workshop
5:00pm
Compline
5:30pm
EfM
(Classroom 2)     

  
 
12:00pm
Noonday Prayers
12:00pm
BrownBag Book Club
1:30pm
Library Reserved
2:00pm

Staff Meeting
3:30pm
EYC
5:30pm
Fledglings Writing Group
(Library)
6:30pm
Narcotics Anonymous
(Morgan House)
7:00pm
Holy Communion and Prayers for Healing
7:00pm
Canterbury Coffeehouse
(Parish Hall)
5:00pm
Compline
7:00pm
Evening Bible Study
(Morgan House)
7:00pm
Circle of Trust
(Library)









12:00pm
Noonday Prayers
4:00pm

Conway Locally Grown
(Parish Hall)
5:30pm
Girl Scouts 6057
(Morgan House)






9:00am
Food Pantry
9:00am
Parish Hall Reserved
















Save the Date!
 
February 24   Vestry Retreat, All Souls Church, Scott, Arkansas

March 11      Spring Forward - Time Change

March 19 - March 23 Spring Break

March 25       Vestry Meeting
  
April 1           Easter Sunday 
March  Anniversaries

Jay Ruud and Stacey Jones  3/2

February 25 - March 3 Birthdays
   
Mary Essert
3/2
O God, our times are in your hand: Look with favor, we pray, on your servants, as they begin another year. Grant that they may grow in wisdom and grace, and strengthen their trust in your goodness all the days of their lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Book of Common Prayer, page 830
This week's Food Pantry Need

2 cans tuna/water; 2 pkgs pasta, 2 cans pasta sauce
Pantry Musings 
"There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment; and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because he first loved us. . . ."
I John 4.18,19

These two sentences are today's readings during the first week of our Lenten study this year. Love is the basic theme and it should come as no surprise that perfect love casts out fear. But, who among us can claim that he or she has perfect love? To make such a claim for ourselves is to have an inflated ego, a gross exaggeration of the truth, or a failure to be in touch with reality. I know no one who has mastered the requirements for perfection of any sort, do you? It is true that we love because Christ first loved us. It is also true that we are able to love because someone else first loved us. Without knowing love, no matter how imperfect, we are unable to respond to them or to others in love. But to respond to another in love does not mean that that love is perfect. Most mothers check to make sure that their infant has all five fingers and toes when they are born. Two arms and legs are assumed. There is an underlying fear, it is difficult to manage without these appendages in life. My mother checked to see if my ears were close to my head. Her's were not and she apparently suffered the ridicule of her fellow students because of that. Our imperfections may take on a variety of forms, but they are there no matter what. That does not mean that we are not loved.  Rather, it means we are not loved perfectly. Only God has that capacity. -- Ann Drake
 
Scripture Readings for Sunday, February 25, 2017.
 9:00am Service will lead the Psalm and read from
  Romans. 

Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, "I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous." Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, "As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.
God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her."

Psalm 22:22-30
22 Praise the Lord, you that fear him; *
    stand in awe of him, O offspring of Israel;
    all you of Jacob's line, give glory.
23 For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty;
    neither does he hide his face from them; *
    but when they cry to him he hears them.
24 My praise is of him in the great assembly; *
    I will perform my vows in the presence of those who worship him.
25 The poor shall eat and be satisfied,
    and those who seek the Lord shall praise him: *
    "May your heart live for ever!"
26 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, *
    and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.
27 For kingship belongs to the Lord; *
    he rules over the nations.
28 To him alone all who sleep in the earth bow down in worship; *
    all who go down to the dust fall before him.
29 My soul shall live for him;
    my descendants shall serve him; *
    they shall be known as the Lord'S for ever.
30 They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn *
     the saving deeds that he has done.

Romans 4:13-25
For the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") -in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become "the father of many nations," according to what was said, "So numerous shall your descendants be." He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith "was reckoned to him as righteousness." Now the words, "it was reckoned to him," were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.

Mark 8:31-38
Jesus began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
 
 

 
Prayers of the People 
Prayers and Petitions: 
Shannon; Anisa; Nikki; Meredith; Glenn; David; Sandy; Enderlin Family; Kaden and David; Daniel; Porcaro Family; Citizens of Syria; Rita; Audrea; Jimmy; Nick; Fred; Kay; Liz; Nancy; Susan; Andy; Aaron; Jenn; Stoneman-Douglas High School; John; Maysel; Beth; John; Kip; Ward. 

In Loving Support for:
Micah; Sam; Mouaz; Natalie.

In Constant Prayer for our Future Rector, whomever God leads to us.

In Continued Prayers for:  
Sara Edmondson, Helen Snipan, Jacquie Seroy, Martha Denson, Fred and Lillian Petrucelli,
Richard Boosey, Rowena Malone.  
 
Thanksgivings:
We give thanks for the people of St. Peter's and visitors with us this week.
We give thanks for: Scotty and Debbie Bell; Stewart Bell; David Benedict and Carey; Marcia Bernauer; Rebecca and Aidan Billy; Lesley Bingham; Marianne Black; Dakota Blackmon; Richard Boosey; Walker Bowles.
We give thanks for the First Church of the Nazarene.  
We give thanks for the Unitarian Universalist Church in Little Rock.
We give thanks for our Rector Search Committee Member, Jane Harris.
We give thanks for The Right Rev. Carlos Lainfiesta, Suffragan Bishop of Western Guatemala
We give thanks for The Iglesia Anglicana de la Region Central de America, The Most Revd Sturdie Downs Primate of IARCA & Bishop of Nicaragua.
We give thanks for the Episcopal Community Services at St. Martin in the Fields, Philadelphia.
 
The Departed: 
Margie    
 
Ministry Team 4
Claire Losardo, Team Leader

7:30am
9:00am
11:00am
Lectors
Ann Drake
Dave Campbell
Jay Ruud
Stacey Jones
Ushers
Sandra Hamilton
Drew Spurgers
Kevin Phelps
Daniel Grayling
Nancy Thompson
Oblationers
 
Norma Smothers
Joe Arn
Carolyn Scott
Greeters
Pam Holt
Tracy Simpson
Wade Simpson
Erin Weindorf
Deana Weindorf
Austin Losardo
Claire Losardo
Eucharistic Visitor

Dan Allen
Doug Stroud
Eucharistic Minister
Stacey Coleman
Dan Allen
Jay Ruud
Acolytes

AM: Miles Greer
C: Aiden Hill





AM: Christopher Walters
C:Berris Teague
T1: Cooper Teague
T2: Hutson Teague
G: Ashlyn Readnour


Vestry Counters


Chris Odom
Tom Renten
Altar Guild


Team 4

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