The Remarks

Wednesday, February 1, 2023

Mid-Week Retreats

Please join us each Wednesday for food, fun, and fellowship.

5:00 pm | "Celebration of Discipline" Book Study | Room 111

5:30 pm | Wednesday Night Fellowship Supper | Wade Hall

6:30 pm | Vespers | Room 209 

6:30 pm | "Jesus and the Disinherited" Book Study | Room 205

7:30 pm | Chancel Choir Rehearsal | Choir Room | 3rd Floor Education Building 

Sunday, February 5, 2023

5th Sunday after Epiphany

(Re)Building a Legacy: Ignoring the Critics

Nehemiah 4:1-6

Rev. Carolyn Stephens, Preaching

Celebrating Rev. Dr. Josh Noblitt

We know there are persons God sends our way to enrich our journey of faith, and over time we are blessed not only by their ministry, but also by their friendship. Rev. Josh is one of those persons, and Saint Mark has been truly blessed by his ministry and friendship. 

Sunday, March 5th, we will have the opportunity to celebrate Rev. Josh’s ministry at Saint Mark. It will be his last Sunday with us, and he will be preaching at both the 9am and 11am services.

There will be a reception for him in Wade Hall from 9:45-10:45am. Please come on out or hear Josh and to celebrate him.

Make Your Mark Day

"Make Your Mark" Day is back!

Join us on Saturday, February 18th from 9 am – 1 pm as we gather to spruce up our space while enjoying time together. We are looking for at least 60 people this time - yes, we want to make this this biggest one ever. There will be projects for ages 8+ and all physical abilities.

Arrive for breakfast around 8:45 and start making your mark from 9 am to 1 pm, with lunch provided. You will still have time to enjoy your weekend as well as have some fun with your Saint Mark family. 

Sign up and share your project passion via this link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Feb18-Park-MakeYourMarkDay

Sunday Morning 11 AM Service Volunteer Opportunities

We are looking for volunteers to help lead and serve during our Sunday 11 AM service. 

Communion Servers

This important ministry always needs additional persons. We are in need of persons who will serve alongside the clergy team. Training will be provided.

Worship Liturgists

We are seeking persons to participate in serving as liturgists in worship, for the reading of the Scripture lessons. Training will be available.

To sign up, please contact Robert Gilleo at RJGilleo@stmarkumc.org. Thank you.

Children's Ministry Volunteers Needed

The Children’s Ministry is in need of four to six volunteers to help facilitate our nursery on an alternating schedule. If you LOVE babies and toddlers and can provide a one and a half to two-hour service once a month, WE NEED YOU! 

Please contact Sheila Stephens at sstephens@stmarkumc.org.

Technology Volunteers Needed

We need volunteers to help set-up our technology on Sunday mornings in the various Sunday school classrooms. If you are able to assist, please reach out to Johnny Sims at johnny@techiebud.com. Thank you.

Children's Ministry Fund Raising Project

Help support the Children's Ministry by purchasing one of these limited edition ball caps for $25. See Sheila Stephens or email here at sstephens@stmarkumc.org. Quantities are limited.

Social Justice Corner

Book Recommendation: 

Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America

by Patrick Phillips (2016)

Forsyth County, just north of Atlanta but within the Atlanta Metropolitan Area, is the wealthiest and fastest-growing county in Georgia with an all-too-often forgotten history of racial hate and injustice. Blood at the Root is a “compendium of those horrors and a catalog of shame.”

Early one morning in September 1912, an 18-year-old white girl named Mae Crow was found badly beaten in the woods of the Forsyth County and later died. Young black men were accused of her ripe and murder. A white mob of 4,000 people dragged one of the men out of the jail, beat him to death, and mutilated and dragged his body behind a wagon before hanging him from a telephone pole in the Cumming town square. The coroner's inquest found the cause of death to be “a gunshot by an unknown assailant.” The two other teenagers were hung after a one-day trial by an all-white jury.

Soon bands of white night riders launched a coordinated campaign of arson and terror, driving all 1098 black citizens out of the county. In the wake of the expulsions, whites harvested the crops and took over the livestock of their former neighbors and quietly laid claim to the “abandoned” land. The landowners and their descendants have never been reimbursed.

During the 1950s and ’60s, there were no “colored” water fountains in the courthouse or “whites only” diners in the county seat; there was no black population to segregate. Forsyth County remained white through most of the 20th century. Twenty-six years ago (1997), African-Americans numbered just 39 in a population of 75,739. A black man or woman couldn’t so much as drive through without being run out.

In 1987, a local citizen and several national civil rights leaders organized a “Brotherhood March.” They were almost immediately overpowered by rock-throwing hordes screaming hate-filled invectives. “We white people won,” crowed the head of the Forsyth County Defense League to The New York Times, “and the n****** are on the run.”

Note: Drawn from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forsyth_County,_Georgia and https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/15/books/review-blood-at-the-root-a-tale-of-racial-cleansing-close-to-home.html#:~:text=“Blood%20at%20the%20Root”%20is%20a%20compendium%20of,abstract%20this%20purge%20had%20become%2C%20even%20to%20him.

Pauli Murray Documentary

Black Herstory Focus

February 12:

• Part One - Pauli Murray Documentary - Wade Hall - 9:40-10:30 am

February 19:

• Part Two – Pauli Murray Documentary – Wade Hall – 9:40-10:30 am

February 26:

• Presentation/Discussion - Rosita Stevens-Holsey author and niece of Pauli Murray
• Book signing immediately following 11:00 am worship Interactions Classroom

Black History | Herstory Month Display | Wade Hall

BIG THANK YOU to Percy Moten for conceptualizing the Black History | Herstory Display in Wade Hall.

Desserts Needed

Our baker who graciously provides desserts for our Tuesday Supper Club on a weekly basis will be traveling later this year. We need volunteers to assist making desserts while she is away or to donate towards the purchase of desserts.

Dates desserts are needed: February 28, March 7, March 14, April 4, April 11, and April 18, 2023.

Please contact Viveca Richards at viveca1956@gmail.com or via phone at 864-884-1206 for further details.

Wednesday Night Book Group

"Jesus and the Disinherited"

The Wednesday Night Book group will be reading "Jesus and the Disinherited" by Howard Thurman between January 25th-March 1st. This book is "famously known as the text that Martin Luther King Jr. sought inspiration from in the days leading up to the Montgomery bus boycott." Howard Thurman (1900-1981) demonstrates how the gospel may be read as a manual of resistance for the poor and disenfranchised. Hatred does not empower--it decays. Only through self-love and love of one another can God's justice prevail. Join us Wednesdays in person or on Zoom as we read and discuss these powerful chapters - one each week. If you have questions, please contact Michelle Levan at michelle.levan@gmail.com or by phone at 404-405-0274.

Update and Donations Needed

We are continuing to make progress with the buildout at Wiggins House...smoke detectors have been installed, ceiling tiles have been finished out, so all is new, clean, and safe. We do have some finishing work to complete, and the furniture needs to be assembled. Now we are ready for basic living needs.

If you would like to support our Wiggins House relaunch, please visit our Amazon.com wish list and consider donating: https://a.co/6IVJP2d Thank you.  

Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to witness the events of the Gospels? Imagine being in the boat with the disciples on the Sea of Galilee when Jesus spoke to the storm or standing on the Mount of Olives beside a weeping Jesus. Although going back in time is not possible, you can go where the events of the Bible took place - the Holy Land. Pastor Carolyn is putting together a group who are interested in going to the Holy Land this fall.

INFORMATION SESSION

We will have an information session after the 11 AM service on Sunday, February 19, 2023 in Wade Hall. Please join us along with the Rev. Dr. Jamie Jenkins. For more information and to download flyer, click here.

Disciple I Fast Track Bible Study

Disciple I Fast Track Bible Study is a 24-week in-depth review of the Old and New Testaments. The study comprises 15 to 30 minutes a day of bible reading and dynamic group discussions during the weekly meeting. The purpose is not to make you a Bible scholar, but to enhance your spiritual journey as a disciple of Christ. The study will begin the first week of Lent and continue for 12 weeks covering the Old Testament. The study will begin again in the fall for 12 weeks covering the New Testament. The book for the first session is $17 and scholarships are available.

There will be 5 class times offered with different leaders for each class…

·        Sunday morning during Sunday School hour

·        Sunday evening from 6:00 till 7:30…in person

·        Sunday evening from 6:00 till 7:30…virtual

·        Wednesday afternoon from 3:30 till 5:00

·        Wednesday evening from 6:30 till 8:00

“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work”

- 2 Timothy 3:16-17.

Please join us. For more information,

please contact Paul Winslow at plwinslow3@gmail.com or call/text 757-646-3278.

Starting today, February 1, 2023, prayer requests will remain on the list for four weeks before rotating off. To make sure your friends and/or loved ones remain on the prayer list, to share a new prayer request and/or a joy or celebration, please email Sheila Stephens at sstephens@stmarkumc.org or note it on our online Connection card during Sunday Morning Worship or on the prayer request cards in the pews.

If you wish to be removed from the prayer list, please email either Sheila Stephens at sstephens@stmarkumc.org or Robert Gilleo at rjgilleo@stmarkumc.org. Thank you.

To contact us after hours in case of an emergency, call 1-800-673-0411.

This Week's Prayer Requests

• Floyd Barnett
• Rev. Dr. Carol Rawlinson

Continuing Prayer Requests

• AJ and family
• Frank Atkinson's parents  
• Tommy Barron
• Beth Bass
• Barbara Bolden
• Bob Brown's brother Mike Brown
• Emily Toscano's mother Joy Clare
• Eddie Clark-Duke's mother
• Pam Davis
• Audra Dial's mother, Myrna
• Doug Dorough
• Jane Douglass
• Tim Driver
• Jay Drew's father
• Rich Figurido
• Eddie Gammill's parents
• Bill Cox's brother-in-law, David Green
• Jake Green
• Noel Guilford
• Joseph Hackett's sister Omer Kelly
• Jason Henderson's father Carl
• Robert Kalf Sr.
• Keno, Greg and family
• Jeff King
• Trudy Lee-Barber
• Ford Lindsay's wife
• Hayden McArthur's grandmother Sarah
• Eric Steverson's cousin Rose McGhee
• Mia Musciano-Howard's parents Jennie and Carmine 
• Doug Dorough's step-sister, Juanita Pate
• The Pigg/Prudent family
• Teddy Robey
• Mattie Robinson and family
• Jimmy Scandrick
• Derek Shipp and family
• Johnny Sims's stepmother, Brenda
• LuAlice Waite

Your Tithes and Offerings

Text to Give

Saint Mark’s assigned number for text donations is 844-703-1444 and the keyword is 'operating'. To give via text, text the word ‘operating’, a space, and the amount you would like to give. For example, to give $25, text 844-703-1444 operating 25.

SecureGive

Follow the prompts to sign in to your existing account (or to create a new account) with SecureGive. For assistance, contact Deana Hilton in the church office (404-873-2636). Secure online contribution

Gifts to Saint Mark

Betsy Moore gave a gift to Saint Mark in memory of her mother, Mary Clapp Woelper.

Cheryl Thompson gave a gift to the Saint Mark Breakfast Club in memory of Chris Fletcher.

Weekly sermons (audio only)

are available on Saint Mark's Podcast channel 

https://stmarkumc.church/Podcast

Subscribe to our YouTube Channel

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1. Go to https://stmarkumc.church/YouTube
2. Click on the "Subscribe" button is the upper right corner under the header.
3. You are subscribed!

Frances Winship Walters Chapel & Parlor

During the months of January and February, the Frances Winship Walters Chapel will be closed for interior repairs. The Sunday 9 AM service will meet in the Sanctuary. The parlor is also closed for the months of January & February.

Filming Road Closures

Wednesday, February 1 - Friday, February 3, 2023

February 1-3 (7am-7pm): Peachtree Street NE (Southbound) travel lane closure between 3rd and Ponce de Leon Ave. (24 hours) Ponce de Leon north curb parking lane between Peachtree and West Peachtree.

February 2 (7pm-6am): Peachtree Street FULL CLOSURE between 3rd and Ponce de Leon.

The Remarks is a weekly publication of Saint Mark United Methodist Church, Atlanta, Georgia.

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