Weekly Newsletter | February 23, 2021
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Join Us Online for Worship Every Sunday at 10:00 a.m.
We are happy to have people from all over the world worshipping with us online through the livestream on our Facebook page. If you miss any of our services, you can find them on our website and Facebook page.
Share prayer requests with us by sending them to prayers@smlutheran.org. If you would like us to include them in the Prayers of the Church during Sunday worship, please make note of that.
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Morning and Evening Prayer on Wednesdays in Lent: Beginning on February 24, you are invited to join us ONLINE for weekly Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer worship services that are offered each Wednesday in Lent.
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The Morning Prayer service, featuring a beautiful musical setting by Marty Haugen, will be available as a podcast on our website.
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The Evening Prayer service, featuring music that is new to us at St. Mark’s, will be livestreamed at 7:30 p.m. on our Facebook page and also available on our St. Mark's website.
What does this mean? Exploration of Luther’s Catechism: Sundays (February 21, March 7, March 14 and March 21) at 4:00 p.m. with Pastor Hallie Parkins and Deacon Ingelaurie Lisher Contact Pastor Hallie for more information.
St. Mark's School of Theology Podcast is going to continue with the Exploration of Luther’s Catechism: Sundays: February 28, March 14 and March 28 with Pastor Hallie Parkins.
Take time to pause in Lent: Fridays from 12-12:30 p.m. are a time for this. Beginning February 19 and continuing each week through March 26, give yourself a moment of Grace for your life, find a time to experience God's Peace for you. Create space for you to just BE and hear the word of God--all you have to do is show up. Contact Ingelaurie Lisher for the Zoom link to join in.
Living Well through Lent discussion group via Zoom
(for those who want to go deeper with the readings with the support of a small group,) Thursdays 5:30-6:30 p.m. during Lent, starting February 25.
Communion Bread baking over Zoom: Saturday, March 27, 10:00 a.m.
Click here to see all opportunities available during Lent.
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Wednesday Night Dinners at St. Mark's are Back—Well Virtually that is! |
Here is how it will go:
1. Each household will make their own dinner— this week's meal is Dijon Chicken. Click here for the recipe. If you aren’t quite ready to eat by 6:00 p.m. or are done eating, no problem, just join on in for the conversation.
2. Log into Zoom—Teresa will send out the link, to those who have signed up, by the Monday night before.
3. After we gather for an opening prayer, participants will be put into table groups for a time of conversation and catching up. Around 6:30 p.m. we will come back together for birthdays/anniversaries, then you can finish your meal on your own.
Looking forward to “seeing” you once again on Wednesday nights, even if it is over Zoom.
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Children, Youth, and Family Faith Formation |
Storytime videos can be found on our website or email Ingelaurie to be added to the weekly email list.
Weekly Story time PreK-K: “CHILDREN’S STORYTIME” Lent 2021 (God’s Stories and Ours) February 28 (Abraham); March 7 (Moses and the 10 Commandments); March 14 (Moses and the Bronze Serpent); March 21 (Jesus and Hard Things); March 28 (Palm Sunday).
1-4th grade: Lent 2021
Video/Story Sundays: February 28 (Abraham), March 14 (Moses and the Bronze Serpent) and March 28 (Palm Sunday)
Zoom class at 9-9:45a.m. with Hollye Piercy and Joshua Minnis: March 7(Moses and the 10 Commandments), and March 21(Hard Things).
5-12th grade youth:
Contact Ingelaurie if you want more information on any of the following Faith Formation opportunities during the season of Lent:
5-8th grade students:
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Minecraft builds: Sundays, 11:00 a.m. (March 7, March 14, and March 28); adding 11:30-noon on February 28 to make up for the 21st; Wednesdays, 4 p.m. (February 24, March 10, March 17, and March 31); link has been emailed out to all families who signed up.
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Wrinkle in Time Book group: Sunday, February 28, March 7, March 14, and March 21; 11-11:30 a.m. with Angelie and Ingelaurie. Books are being ordered this week and can be sent to homes of those who need them.
9-12th High School youth:
- Midweek check in and evening prayer: 7:20-8:10 p.m.;email Ingelaurie if you haven't received the Zoom link.
- Look for a Digital Escape room event coming up in April!
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Adult Faith Formation
Young Adults: In Lent, St. Mark's pub theology night will merge the young adults at St. Leo's for a faith sharing group on Tuesday March 2, at 7 p.m. Please email Pastor Hallie for a link to join.
St. Mark's Reads! Calling all readers, bookworms, and storytellers for our St. Mark's Reads. This spring, we invite you to read the book Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi, and gather online with your St. Mark's friends for a discussion night. We have two opportunities, 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 20, or 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, to gather and discuss the book as a whole. For more information, please email Pastor Hallie. Please register here for the Zoom link.
You are invited to an ecumenical faith sharing group for all ages with St. Leo's on Sunday evenings in Lent at 7 p.m. These groups will provide an opportunity for you to share more about your faith in conversation with members of St. Leo's parish. Jerry Waterhouse, director of RCIA at St. Leo's parish, will host the meetings. Click here to join the Zoom meeting.
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Grief support group: Friday, February 26, at 11:00 a.m.
Support groups last about an hour and are designed for anyone desiring support as they care for a loved one or journey through grief. Contact Pastor Sigi for more information and Zoom link.
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Emergency Food Network Hunger Walk and 5K |
This year, register as an individual, or consider donating instead of participating.
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Once again this year St. Mark’s is supporting our local Habitat affiliate’s Building on Faith project. The first wall of the house is made up of boards signed by members and volunteers of the supporting churches – we call this the “Wall of Hope.” Please help us fill the St Mark’s board with lots of signatures! We will have the board in the upper parking lot this Sunday, February 28, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. Please stop by! If you have any questions regarding this event, or would like to learn more about Habitat for Humanity, please contact Tom Roberts, tlaroberts516@gmail.com , 253-208-7964.
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Moral Voices, Moral Choices |
The Peace and Justice Committee at St. Mark's invites us all to use our moral voices to advocate for justice and to make moral choices in our personal behavior.
Your actions make a difference. HB 1342 to eliminate school lunch copays passed the state House 95-1 and is now in the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee. While some of you may be thinking, “it would have passed anyway,” remember that there are many, many bills introduced every session, and the way to help make a bill a priority is to contact your legislators. Look for bills and subjects you care about here.
This week is a good time to catch up on the City of Tacoma’s Affordable Housing Action Strategy. City Council will be hearing a report at their Study Session at noon, Tuesday, February 23. The portion of the strategy called the “Home in Tacoma” project has a Feb. 8 update here.
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Antiracism Resources
Over the past few months, many members at St. Mark’s have been engaged in an urgent conversation about racial justice. The killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others have brought into focus the reality of systemic racism in our country and in our church. We have begun this journey through book studies, movie discussions, and extended conversation.
We all find ourselves in different places on this journey. Fortunately, there are abundant resources available to help us. St. Mark’s Peace and Justice committee hopes that you will look at the attached list and find some useful tools. We will be posting this on the church website soon, and we welcome new additions to the list.
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Chase the Chill
We continue to collect items for Chase the Chill through these cold winter months. Useful items are hats, scarves, mittens/gloves, and socks. The many generous donations we have already received have been given to those living on the streets here in Tacoma and are greatly appreciated. We are also collecting gently used coats, blankets, and other warm clothing. These items will be delivered to Peace Community Center, which has a clothing ministry serving the Hilltop neighborhood. Items can be delivered to St. Mark’s any time before 4 p.m. on Wednesdays. Please place your items in a bag and leave them outside the office door near the fountain. If you have any questions or need to coordinate a different time for drop off, contact Teresa Handy at 253-752-4966 x112 or teresa.handy@smlutheran.org. Thanks!
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Information from Vaccine Bookers Organization |
The Vaccine Bookers (vaccinebookers@gmail.com) team has completed seven Zoom training sessions between February 2nd-8th. We now have a video of the training available to help you learn how to schedule your COVID vaccine. We also have Word documents to support you with understanding how to navigate the "system" (actually, many systems).
With thousands of e-mails asking for help, we want to focus on training as many folks as possible so you can get your vaccine scheduled and help others secure their appointments. It can be a tedious and cumbersome process, so be persistent and patient. Please help your community fight COVID by sharing this information with your family, friends, and neighbors. You can do this!
On the website and on Facebook, you will find resources and documents to help you in your search. We try post updates on places that may have appointments available as we find them.
Vaccine Bookers Facebook: This is a public site, so you don’t have to have a FB account to access this site, which is updated daily.
Most sincerely,
Vaccine Bookers Washington
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St. Mark's Lutheran Church by The Narrows
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