A community reshaping itself
to be fit for God's purpose
Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Early Thanksgiving E News!

We have moved to virtual services only.
Please use the Schedule of Services and Sunday Morning Reminder to tune in.

Advent is upon us, and so E News has donned fabulous purple robes,
and our priests have put on silly hats (see below).
We have also put together a playlist of Christmas music
for you to enjoy here, on YouTube.
The Rector's Epistle: Expectation

How intolerable waiting seems to be for most of us. We cope with the frustration of waiting by throwing all our energy into instant gratification. As soon as Thanksgiving is over, Christmas decorations go up and our ears are assailed with endless Christmas "music." By the first week of December, we are into the celebration of Christmas, and Christmas Day itself becomes the anticlimactic signal that Christmas is over no sooner than it arrived.

Advent Sunday signals the beginning of a new church-year. This Advent, may our focus be less on anticipation and more on expectation. Expectation is the waiting for something to come, but allowing it to come in its own time. Expectation cannot be rushed because it is fulfilled in our first being ready.

This Advent I would like to invite us into a meditation on the contrast between anticipation and expectation. Waiting with expectation is an experience of gradually living into a not-yet experience. As the hyped-up anticipation of Christmas can so easily substitute for the experience of Christmas itself, expectation allows Christmas to gradually take shape in us as we are changed and made ready for its arrival.

One thing we are learning through the pandemic experience is that waiting is not only something to be tolerated, but is also an invitation to ease off the throttle and SLOW DOWN - letting things take the time they need to fully emerge.

I wish us all a very happy Thanksgiving, even though it will be a different kind of experience for so many of us. Perhaps in the difference we might catch a deeper glimpse of what matters most in our lives, for which we are enormously thankful.

Be safe and stay sane,
Mark+
Interfaith Thanksgiving

Join us for a celebration of gratitude with our neighbors.

Click here for the webcast, which premiers at 7PM on Tuesday, November 24th.
Advent Gift Project

The ‘Our Hearts Are Open’ Advent Project will be virtual this year. We are buying gifts for 50 children under the care of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Please click here or call the office to sign up by December 6th. Bring your wrapped and labeled gifts to the church during office hours by December 13th.
Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness
Please click here for a full schedule of services and links to webcasts and livestreams.

Click here to subscribe to our YouTube Channel
to receive updates and to view the latest livestream.

Please click here for an electronic copy of the Eucharist booklet, or contact the office and we will mail one to you.
The Thrifty Goose
We are open for Fall shopping and accepting donations of new and gently-used fall and winter clothing and accessories. Email Heather Tingle for larger donations.

The Thrifty Goose is open
Wed and Sat, 10 am - 2 pm
Weekly Prayer List

This Advent we unite in prayer with expectation:
  • For a peaceful government transition
  • For racial justice, reconciliation, and healing
  • For the liberation of Black People, Indigenous People, and all People of Color
  • For the uplift and safety of Queer and Transgender people
  • And for those resisting the forces of hatred and fighting for equality and freedom.

As the seasons turn and the light changes, we pray:
  • For the land, rivers, sea, and sky
  • For climate justice and climate healing
  • For all those whose lives and livelihoods are in the path of climate destruction
  • And for the communities impacted by fire, flood, earthquake, and hurricane.

In a time of widespread illness, we pray for all those touched by Covid-19:
  • For those working on the frontlines, in hospitals and labs
  • For the ill and quarantined
  • For those grieving family or friends
  • And for those uninsured, underinsured, or lacking access to medical treatment.

We pray together for the dawning of a bright new day - in our world, in our nation, in our community, and in ourselves.

  • Those who have birthdays this week: Paul Bergeron, The Rev. Linda Griggs, Ellen Walsh, Jane Dennison, Anna Alford, Sephi Allen, Hilary Fagan, Robert Nyahkoon

  • Those who have been commended to us: Eidan, Angela, Chris, Melissa, Jeremiah, Scarlett, Virginia, Justin, Don, Michol, Mimi, Annette, Jean, Patrick, Paula, David, Ursula, Michael, Sam, Charlie, Truls, Jill, Christine, Katie, Beth, Linda, Tom, Tom, Chris, Martha, Timmans, Neal, Jennifer, Mark, Cynthia, Robin, Mariette, Isabella, Harry, Marvin, Gail, Sheila, Aldo & Madeleine, Patrick, Annette, Jaymi, Sanford, Elizabeth, Andy & Alice, Ashleigh, David, Marie, Larry, Wendy, Bobby, Tim, Irene, Perry, Denis, Krissy, Murielle, Darla, Quentin, Gabriel, and Sinclair, Jon, Alisa & Gray, Dorothy, Donna, Millie, Kenny, Denise, Ted, Claudia, Leo, Lecrecia
We prayerfully remember:
Joseph Bishkoff
Ariel Bourke
Robert Bradner
Caroline Curtis Bramhall
Magaret Brenna
Thomas Byrne
Elizabeth Howard Bowen Chase
Nina Chi
Deborah Dunning
Peter Freeman
Marguerite Howell
Ronald Jones
Pat Knowles
Jane Langmuir
Anne Marie Lindeborg
Mary Moore
Mary Anne Wood Murray
Diane Nicholas
Dorrie Nichols
Gordon Partington
Avery Plaw
Judith E Porteus
Rosalyn R Reynolds
Largie Richardson
Susan Rodgers
Travis Roy
Kay Sheldon
Christopher Smith
Frank Robert Sutherland
Audrey Hope Davis Trowbridge
Francis Wood
Ray Woodson
Carla Woodward
Michael

Lois Atwood
William Baker
Betty Bird
Sharon Burnett
Peter J D'Alesandre
Dorothy Beaumont Eichelberger
Chester Grover Eichelberger
Audrey Gebler
Milton Gebler
Devin Gold
Dorothy Eichelberger Heuck
Kenneth Heuck
Robert Heuck
Florence McKee Heuck
Janet Heuck
Nancy Heuck
Robert Heuck Jr.
Alfred Upham Howes
Fred Jellison
Ruth Jellison
Jean Johnson
Jack Kiddie
Jeanette Kiddie
Alice Landau
Esmeria Leather
Steven LoPresti
Elsa Lopusniak
Mack Lopusniak
Jean Mason
Betsy McMaster
Elizabeth Nigro
John Noel
J Rob Noel
Jane Fleming-Smith Pagan
Gwendolyn White Pagan
Albert Elwood Pagan
Oliver Elwood Pagan II
Don Schmidt
Christine Schneider
Iris Levine Shuey
Harold Stephen Smith
Rebecca Fleming Smith
Christopher Stenberg
Priscilla Throop
Frank Walker
Susan Warren
Marianne Welshman
Jim Welshman
Barbara Laurence Welshman
Links to:
St. Martin's Church | 50 Orchard Ave, Providence, RI 02906
(401) 751-2141