October 22, 2020
St. Paul's Episcopal Church

This Week's News Highlights

Our service this week

Please Note That Our Sunday Service time has changed to 8:30 AM. for the foreseeable future. In addition to live services for a limited number of participants, Facebook Live broadcasts of the service will continue.
We welcome a visiting priest this Sunday.

Father Haughton is still in Jamaica attending to the burial of his late mother. This Sunday our celebrant will be the Rev. Mercedes Busto from Miami.

The Rev. Busto was born in Havana, Cuba, and was ordained to the priesthood at Trinity Cathedral in Miami in May 2014. She served Trinity Cathedral as Associate Priest in August 2016, and served as Cathedral Vicar from February 2018 through September 2020.

Before entering into ordained ministry, the Rev. Busto worked as a lawyer for over 30 years, including serving as Chancellor for the Diocese of Southeast Florida for nine years.

We are indeed honored to have such a distinguished priest to lead us. Please join us for the service of Holy Eucharist, Rite II at 8:30 AM on Sunday either via Facebook or in person as outlined below.

News about the parish profile

Bishop Eaton has personally reviewed the proposed parish profile and suggested minor changes. The Search Committee is incorporating these changes. Our bishop will meet with the Search Committee next week. Please pray for all involved as St. Paul's embarks on the next phase of our search process.

Procedures to reserve your space at services

Currently, a limited number of people are allowed to attend services in accordance with diocesan protocols. If you would like to attend, you will be asked to sign up in advance. Contact information will be required.

To attend a Sunday please send an email to info@stpaulskeywest.org indicating the following information:

  • Your name and the names of any family or household members who will attend with you.
  • Your email address
  • Your cell phone number

Email is greatly preferred, but reservations can also be made by calling the church office at 305-296-5142. If nobody answers please leave a message with the information.

To allow for a proper count, and to allow volunteers to prepare for your attendance, please complete your reservation by 2 PM on the Thursday before the Sunday you wish to attend. Please remember that you must wear a mask for the entire service and please arrive 10 minutes before the service begins.

Please note that you need to notify us EVERY week you want to attend. We do not currently have a system to automatically roll over regular attendees. So please notify the office each week you can attend.

(Note: We do have some space this week if you want to send your reservation on Friday.)

On the other hand, you do not need to wait until the same week to reserve a seat for an upcoming service. Feel free to go ahead and email your information as soon as you are confident you wish to attend. The sooner we have a good count the better.
Sunday's Service

Join us Sunday for Holy Eucharist at 8:30 AM. Sign up in advance to attend in person (see above) or join us on Facebook.

To join via Facebook, go to the church Facebook page at the appropriate time and look for the window showing that "St. Paul's Key West is now live." Click on the window.

Did you know you DO NOT need to have a Facebook account to view the service or visit our Facebook page? Simply use the Facebook page link to go directly to our Facebook page.

You can open or download the bulletin for the Sunday service here.

Junior Warden's Report
By Greta Philips-Ford
Greta continues to work tirelessly on the issues affecting our campus and physical structures. Business matters prevented her from offering a full report this week, but stay tuned for important news next week.
Senior Warden Notes
Ray Warren
The Covid-19 spike that is sweeping the country has not spared Key West. This week three of the better known establishments in town closed for several days and tested all staff because one or more staffers became infected. We are grateful to the businesses for taking pro-active and responsible action. That is what is needed.

I continue to feel good about how we conduct our services. We have room for ample spacing, we do not linger, we require masks and we do not sing (sadly) to minimize risk. We will continue to allow attendance as long as conditions permit, but we also promised the diocese that we would pause again if conditions require. We will do what needs to be done to protect the health of all.

For those of you returning for the season I commend this Facebook site to you for the latest news on which businesses are putting safety first in our community. We all have a duty to mask up and safeguard each other.
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Below you'll see the prayer list that is published here and also in the weekly church bulletin. Those listed are also remembered in the Sunday Eucharist service. I am asking you to help us keep the list up to date. If you want to add somebody to a list or to retain somebody after four weeks, please let Tim know at tim@stpaulskeywest.org. Several names are about to rotate off the list and we want to continue to pray for those in continuing need. (And to add those about whom we will not know without you.)

And, please remember that celebrations and thanksgivings are as worthy of our attention as times of trouble and sadness.
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Finally, Key West once had at least four Episcopal churches. Two of them, St. John's and Holy Innocents, are no longer with us. But Holy Innocents existed within the lifetime of many of our current members. Indeed, some of our members were once members of Holy Innocents.

I am sure that Dave Eyer can fill us in on the history of Holy Innocents (and I hope he will). But since we have living history in our midst (those who were part of that parish) I would love to hear your personal memories. If you have memories to share, please write to me at seniorwarden@stpaulskeywest.org.

I know that church mergers and church closures are often painful and I don't want to revive any pain that may have been felt. But many of us would benefit from knowing more about the Episcopal tradition on our island from your firsthand perspective.

Moreover, since many members of our church family came from Holy Innocents, that history is part of our history. So, please help us fill in the blanks and remember, with joy, that part of our past. What special memories do you have of that congregation? What was it like to worship there? What was congregational life like?

We think of history as the cold dead past. So, it is blessing to hear about history from those who lived it.

I'm an old reporter, so I won't publish any names or attribute any comments you do not wish to have attributed to you. (I am accustomed to sentences like "according to a member at the time...") But I feel strongly that this part of Key West history should be remembered and celebrated. So, if you were part of Holy Innocents, or lived on the island when it was active, I look forward to hearing your memories.

Praise the Lord, Tim is returning ..... with reinforcements.

The next "From the Organ", will take place on Thursday, November 5, 2020 at noon, live on Facebook. Tim plans to present monthly organ concerts, and will invite other local organists to join with him, to play on the southernmost pipe organ, here at St. Paul's, More details to come, but be sure to put the date on your calendar.

In the interim, you can find prior recordings of Tim’s concerts on St Paul’s Facebook page, or on YouTube.

We Pray Each Day

Daily Morning and Evening Prayer is being offered on Facebook Live at 730 AM and 5 PM on weekdays.

Thanks to Lisa Laskow, Mary Simmons, Samantha Hall, Sarah Hall, Tim Peterson and Bruce Hagemann for volunteering to officiate at these sacred moments.

To join in the prayers via Facebook, go to the church Facebook page at the appropriate time and look for the window showing that "St. Paul's Key West is now live." Then click on the window.

"Like" us and turn on live notifications to get a reminder whenever we are offering prayers.

Please pray this week for healing for

Freddy Varela
Betty Curry
Sherri Hodies' daughter, Brittanny
Beth and Jon Peterson
Ed Castro
Mickey Malgrat

We pray for the departed and their loved ones:

David Ford, Sheila Taylor, Dink Bruce, Genevieve Sylvis
and Ena Haughton.

"Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servants"

(Send your prayer requests to Tim@stpaulskeywest.org for future publication and to be included in the Sunday service. By default requests will be listed for four (4) weeks. But if the need continues, please let us know.)

We celebrate these October birthdays

Danielle Marsical 10/01
Peter Graniela 10/02 
Betty Topino   10/03 
Edward Cabrera 10/04
Richard Pischke   10/08
Fr. Lenworth Haughton 10/08
Aleida Alexander  10/10
Denise Grahamn   10/11
Tiffany Hendry 10/13
David Horan   10/14
Kim Grizzle-Malgrat 10/15 
Katherine Ward  10/17
Tom Bond  10/19 
Martin Hindsley 10/20
Julie Wallace 10/20
Ross Neagley 10/21
Frankie Grizzle-Malgrat 10/22
Eric Whiteside 10/23
Terry Garcia 10/25
CloeAnn Garrison 10/25
Shirley Sweeting 10/27
Stanley Kuzmech 10/28
Mary Simmons  10/28
Jan Malpass 10/29
Angela Richardson 10/30

(If your name is missing from this month's birthday list please send a note to info@stpaulskeywest.org so we can add it.)

We Celebrate October Anniversaries: 

Walter & Joanna Schmida 10/17, Tony & Barbara Tirman-Marcussen 10/25 
Dave Eyer is conducting research. His history column will return.
Reminders
Sunday school is canceled during the virus emergency.
Back issues of The Epistle available here.

These communications are currently edited by Senior Warden Ray Warren. Send questions and comments to the editor here.