St. Matthew's Messenger
Small window

 This Week At St. Matthew's
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Good Shepherd Sunday

Fourth Sunday of Easter
During the COVID-19 outbreak, St. Matthew's is practicing Social Distancing which means the physical building is closed. However, God's PEOPLE are the Church, and our common life continues. Please join us on Facebook Live (see below for details), and be sure to reach out to others in the community by phone, Skype, FaceTime or email to stay connected, as we navigate this uncertain time together. God is with us; all will be well.

Daily Morning and Evening Worship
Monday through Friday (except Wednesday) 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Wednesdays at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Saturdays at 6:00 p.m. ONLY

Due to connection issues created by
high online traffic, we are pre-recording Sunday services. All online video services will be posted on the

This Sunday, May 3


Online Video Service 


Fourth Sunday of Easter
10:00 a.m.



You don't have to belong to Facebook to join the Facebook Live sessions. Come check it out!
(Videos remain posted online if you wish to watch them at a later time.)



Mother's Day Crafts -- With Mother’s Day approaching (next Sunday!) here are a few links that contain some easy and meaningful crafts to create to celebrate and honor Mom.



Christian Formation - Sundays at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom

Our virtual Sunday School Zoom sessions have been tremendously successful! Children and adults learn, laugh, sing, and pray together. It's been a wonderful way to fellowship as the body of Christ! 

We need additional volunteers to lead lessons.     Please consider teaming up with a friend and leading a lesson on one of the remaining Sundays.   Most lessons have included a short scripture reading, discussion, video, craft, and song. The children and parents enjoy simply being and learning together!

Please sign up for a teaching spot for Sunny's Kids (Grades K-5), Youth (6-12), and Adult sessions:   Christian Formation - Sunday School Sign-up

Questions? Please contact Andrew Whatley (Co-Director for K-12 grades) andrew_whatley@comcast.net and Crystal Furman (Co-Director for Adult Education) at crystal.furman@gmail.com
FORWARD DAY BY DAY
Miss your Forward Day By Day devotional booklets? The church office is currently closed but during this interim time you can find their daily messages here.


Please don't hesitate to contact either Mother Liz or Fr. Tommy
if you or your family have need of assistance or counsel.

Musical Musings from Kyle:
May 3, 2020
Good Shepherd Sunday

MUSIC NOTES

This coming Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The Collect, Psalm 23 and Gospel (John 10:1-10) appointed for the day include imagery of sheep and the Good Shepherd.

Psalm 23 has inspired many composers, poets, artists and hymn writers over the millennia. To read the full article and hear some beautiful music , click here.

May is our Food Drive Month for the SE Gwinnett Co-Op!

Local food banks need help in a BIG WAY right now and we are ready to show them our support. 

The co-op has requested we focus on the following items for our food drive:
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Canned tuna
Canned chicken
Canned pasta (i.e. Spaghetti-os, etc.)


There are 4 ways to participate in the St. Matthew’s food drive this month:
  • Drop off food outside St. Matthew’s each Saturday in May from 9am-11am
  • Drop off food at the co-op during posted hours - https://www.segwinnettcoop.org/toserve
  • Ship food directly to the co-op from Amazon, Costco, Sam’s and other retailers
to 55 Grayson Industrial Parkway Grayson, GA 30017

If you have any questions please contact Jennifer Papadatos at jenniday1229@yahoo.com Thank you!
THE ANNUAL FODAC RUN, WALK AND ROLL GOES VIRTUAL!! MAY 9

Charity events are the main source of funding for FODAC (Friends of Disabled Adults & Children). The annual RWnR is an event that St Matthew’s members have proudly participated in annually for over 10 years and would like to participate again this year.

You can learn more about this charity at their website https://www.fodac.org/ and see specifically what they have done to help during the pandemic

Check our website to see how you can participate on May 9th, or make a donation. You can sign up to participate here .
Wash Your Hands...From Nancy Griner, MD.

Who needs Happy Birthday x 2 or Baby Shark song to wash your hands when the Lord's Prayer takes exactly 20 seconds? It has yet to disappoint me when I time it!!
Around St. Matt's
Prayer For The Parish
Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (BCP, p. 817)
Birthdays and Anniversaries This Week
5/3 - 5/9/2020

Birthdays: Liam Furman, Senna Fitzpatrick, Russell Bronaugh, Andrew Byron, Dee DeWitt, Debbie Lott

Anniversaries: Anthony & Courtney Heaps, Mary & Roy Vore
MORE Easter Season At Home During COVID

We miss your faces! Please send us some pics.

We need your photos! Online church as a family, SS activities, birthday or anniversary celebrations COVID-style, or How-We-Spent-Our-Time-During COVID!

If you have photos you'd like featured here, please share them via St. Matthew's Facebook Page or send them to registrar@stmatthewssnellville.org . We'd love to see them! We'll include more photos in The Messenger each week. Thanks!





Youth Group meeting this Sunday via Zoom Video Conferencing
from 5 – 6 p.m.

Zoom invites will be sent to your e-mail the Saturday before. If you do not receive the Zoom invite on Saturday, or if you have any questions, please contact

Financial Giving in REALM

It's easy! Go to the church website, www.itsthepeople.org . Click on the blue Give Online button near the center of the page, and follow the prompts to choose the desired fund designation from the drop-down menu.

If you wish to set up an automatic gift, you can do so by logging into REALM and choosing Giving from the left side of the page. You will have options for credit card information, etc. on the next screens. You can also set up recurring gifts/payments in Realm if you wish.

If you have trouble logging into Realm, please contact Susan Carson.

Thriving Spiritually During the Pandemic

NEW! The Forward Day By Day meditations included in the printed booklets made available at the church are also found online. While these printed books are not available due to the closure of the church building, you can find these messages daily by clicking on this link: https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/
Bookmark this link on your browser so you can find it easily each day.









Books:

“The Rule of Benedict: A Spirituality for the 21st Century”, by Joan Chittister, O.S.B.

 “The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For and Believe”, by Richard Rohr, O.F.M.

"Praying the Psalms", by Thomas Merton, O.S.C. O.


Creating a Sacred Space At Home:


From Mother Liz+ -- An article by Dr. Jonathan P. Smith, Lecturer in Epidemiology, Yale School of Public Health.  Reprinted with permission.

Here's an analysis of social distancing dynamics and disease transmission written by an epidemiologist:.
"Hey everybody, as an infectious disease epidemiologist, at this point feel morally obligated to provide some information on what we are seeing from a transmissiodynamic perspective and how they apply to the social distancing measures. Like any good scientist I have noticed two things that are either not articulated or not present in the "literature" of social media. I am also tagging my much smarter infectious disease epidemiologist friends for peer review of this post. Please correct me if I am wrong (seriously).
Specifically, I want to make two aspects of these measures very clear and unambiguous. For the full article, click here.


For Information on the Corona Virus,
COVID-19, go to the Centers For Disease Control (CDC) website:

For local updates visit the Georgia health department website:   https://dph.georgia.gov/  



THE REALM CORNER

Regarding A Parish Directory


Based on the feedback we have received, we have adjusted settings in Realm to allow us to print a directory of active members once the church office is open again. If you are logged into Realm you should be able to access the full directory online now, however. We appreciate your patience while we work to complete the process and hope to run printed copies in the near future.

If you find errors or omissions in the online directory information, please email registrar@stmatthewssnellville.org with the details. Thank you!

If do not wish to appear in the directory, please Opt Out via email to registrar@stmatthewssnellville.org . Thanks.


If you have not yet logged into REALM, please contact Susan Carson .


Small window


St. Matthew's Episcopal Church | Ph 770-979-4210 | admin@stmatthewssnellville.org | www.itsthepeople.org