First Saturday Reception and

Special Guests 

Please join us after Mass on January 7 for a few minutes of refreshments and fellowship in the Fireside Room. We will repeat the tradition started a year ago, inviting anyone/everyone who has leftover Christmas cookies, candies, and even fruitcake to bring them to the Fireside Room before Mass. At the reception we will share everyone’s leftovers with a hearty dose of conviviality. There will be zip-lock bags handy so that you can take your favorites home if you wish.  

Also on January 7, we welcome Nicole Cortes and Jessica Mayo, co-founders and co-directors of the Migrant & Immigrant Community Action Project (www.mica-project.org) to make a short announcement during Mass and be available afterwards to share information. Selected three times over the past 18 months by our SCF Community to receive tithing grants, the MICA Project is a community organization committed to working with low-income immigrants to overcome barriers to justice, utilizing legal services, organizing, advocacy, and education to promote the voice and human dignity of immigrant communities. In addition to a wide variety of cases (including family immigration, naturalization, removal defense, and asylum and refugee issues), the MICA Project works with victims and survivors of domestic violence. 

The need for the MICA Project’s work providing legal representation to immigrant families is more pressing than ever. They are hearing from clients every day who are confused and afraid, uncertain about what the changing landscape means for their families. Parents, spouses, children – all worried that their family will be broken apart by deportation. No matter the uncertain future, the MICA Project won’t back down. They will stand with the immigrant community and are in fact ramping up their work.

Parish Tithing 

As a parish, we donate 10% of our collections to worthy causes. We do this as an act of faith, trusting that, in doing this, we will still be able to meet our financial needs.  

We are inviting nominations for grant recipients be submitted no later than January 31 to Marilyn Tenholder in writing or [http://www.tenholder.net/SCFtithing]. This information will be compiled and as a community we will vote to select recipients. Voting will happen during March and grants awarded in April. This process happens on a regular schedule twice each year. A complete copy of the Tithing System document is available at http://scfecc.org/documents/2015/11/Tithing%20System.pdf. 

Nominating Criteria and Process  

• All nominations to be submitted either in email or in writing.
• Nominations to be limited to 501(c)3 entities, provided however that if the entity is a church or religious order, it is preferred that the nomination and subsequent grant (if approved) be specifically designated for ministries under the umbrella of that church or religious order.
• Nominations to include the name of the entity, its website if it has one, the contact person and address, two sentences describing the mission of the entity, one sentence describing why that entity is being nominated, and the amount of the suggested grant (the minimum grant amount is $100 and the maximum grant amount is $1,000).
• Nominations will not be accepted for entities whose mission or work conflicts with the values of the Sts. Clare & Francis Community.
• SCF members who hold a position of being able to direct or control donated funds (such as an officer, director, etc.) in an entity are ineligible to nominate such entity.
• Nominations that do not provide all of the requested information (identified above) and/or not meeting these criteria will not be accepted.  
  

22nd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration

Sunday, January 15, 2017

4:30 pm

Sts. Clare & Francis will be participating in this Community Celebration, which is organized by the Webster Groves Clergy Alliance. For a flyer with all the information, click here.

2017 Parish Budget Meeting

Immediately following Saturday evening Mass on January 28, we will have a brief meeting to explain the parish budget for 2017.  This will be a short, but very informative session. We hope you will be able to attend.

Salon

The next Salon will be held January 14, 2017 before Mass at 3:30 pm in Room 24. The topic is Millennials' View of Religion and the Catholic Church and Why so Many are Leaving

The Salon will be led by two SCF millennial members, Brittney and Sammi Liegl.

Please join us for a very interesting and informative discussion.

An outline from the last Salon (12/10/16) on “Money in Politics” can be found here.

Do you have any not-for-profit or fund-raising experience or ideas? Are you interested in serving on an SCF committee?
 
The Parish Council is forming a new committee — the Development Committee. Its focus will be to work closely with the Parish Council and the PR Committee to develop a strategic fund-raising plan for SCF to meet our annual (and maybe longer-term) fund-raising goals.
 
If you are interested in being a part of this new effort, please contact Mary Vonderheide at 314.805.2087 or Nancy Emmel at 314.753.9395. We would love to hear your new ideas!

All are invited to attend the Green Team meeting January 11, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. in the Fireside Room at church.  We will be discussing Lenten activities.  If you are interested in pursuing a greener life, come join us! 

Click here to see the LaVista Ecological Learning Center's current newsletter.  The lead article is a reflection on the encyclical Laudato Si and mental climate change.  You can also read two articles exploring green or natural burial, and the program calendar for LaVista for January-June is also included!

Before the Flood

January 10, 2017, 7:00 pm

Consider attending the Kirkwood Franciscan Sisters' Eco-film series.  "Before the Flood features Leonardo DiCaprio on a journey as a United Nations Messenger of Peace, traveling to five continents and the Arctic to witness climate change firsthand.  With unprecedented access to thought leaders around the world, DiCaprio searches for hope in a rising tide of catastrophic news. Please note that there is no admission fee but you MUST register in advance at 314.965.3700. 335 S. Kirkwood Rd., Kirkwood, MO
https://franciscansisters-olph.org/fsolph-events/12-6-film.html