It was announced Sunday that Reverend Dr. Randall Partin will be our new pastor starting July 1st. He currently is the Provost of the New Mexico Conference and the assistant to Bishop Bledsoe. In past churches he has started community gardens and other community outreach ministries. He has involved youth and young adults in mission trips and mission projects. He has leadership strengths which include visioning, action planning and execution of those visions. He will be creating a series of videos to tell us more about him which will be shown during the Sunday services.

Both Pastor Randall and his wife Susan are familiar with St. Johns since they worship with us in the Abide service. His wife Susan has her counseling practice here at St. John’s. They have two young adult daughters that because of COVID are both living at home instead of on campus. The family picture was taken at Disney World over a year ago.

SPRC is planning ways for helping Pastor Randall to get acquainted with our congregation so watch the newsletter for information.

A Huge Thank You to all of our 20+ volunteers who hand-delivered special Valentines to some of our older St John’s members this Valentines weekend. The staff identified a group of 53 individuals and couples with whom we wanted to share God’s love with and a few cookies the Kitchen Ministry made, too. Thank you for being the hands and feet of Christ this week!

“What is special about being a Methodist?” “What is going on at St. John’s?” “Where do I fit in?”

These are key questions that newcomers ask about our church and we are having a Zoom orientation class to discuss the answers. Visitors and new members are the primary focus for the class, but those who have been around awhile are invited to reorient and re-energize themselves by entering the discussion. It's a great place to get to know others at St. John's as well.

  The class will take place four Thursday evenings at 7 PM. The first class will start Thursday, March 4, 2021, and we’ll end on Thursday, March 25. We will meet on Zoom to get acquainted and discuss the topics (our Christian faith, Methodism, St. John’s, where's my place.)

  To register for the class and for any questions, contact Jack and Carol Nuzum at 265-5241 or jcnuzum@juno.com.

Each Lenten season, as a church community, we focus on a spiritual practice together. Many of us have our individual disciplines and practices for Lent, but it is very meaningful to have a spiritual practice that we are all nurturing and developing. In the past few years, we have engaged in Lectio Divina, Centering Prayer, Sabbath rest, the examen, and other spiritual endeavors. This Lent, we will practice Visio Divina. Each week, we will take the sermon text from Sunday, picking an image, painting, or photograph that we might find in a book or through Googling that scripture. Here are the steps for Visio Divina:

-Read John 2:1-11 (The Wedding at Cana)

-Look at the image you have found of the miracle of the changing of water to wine, and let your eyes stay with the very first thing that you see.

-Keep your attention on that one part of the image that first catches your eye.

-Breathe deeply and let yourself gaze at that part of the image for a minute or so.

-Now, let your eyes gaze at the whole image. Take your time and look at every part of the photograph or painting. See it all. Reflect on the image for a minute or so.

Consider the following questions:

-What emotions and feelings does this image evoke in you?

-What does the image stir up in you, bring forth in you?

-Meditate on these thoughts.

-How does this image lead you into an attitude of prayer? Let the prayer take form in you. Write it down if you desire.

-Offer your prayer to God in a final time of silence.

-Journal any thoughts or prayers that came to mind in heart during the practice.

Debra Syme (friend of Jean Jones) is the recipient for the prayer quilt on display for February 23 - March 8.

In lieu of tying knots, please pray this prayer (or your own prayer): “Merciful Father, please hold Debra tight in your embrace as she faces medical challenges in her life. Show her your mercy, relieve her fears and anxieties and grant her a quiet mind and an expectant heart. Amen”

This Lenten Season, the Fish Fry Committee wants you to know that even though we are not conducting the dinners this year because of the Corona virus, we will return next year once COVID-19, hopefully, is under control.

The dinners were designed to enhance fellowship within our congregation and also within the Albuquerque community. While not the face-to-face fellowship we crave, we are asking that you keep the spirit of the dinners alive this year by contacting people that you either worked with or socialized with during the dinners. Take a minute to let these people know by phone, email, or cards that you miss them and miss being with them.

We are also asking that you consider giving some of what you normally spend on the dinners to the Lenten Offering at church that will be collected during March so that the money can go to some of the charities that the Fish Fry Dinners would normally support. With so many in need within our community, we believe this might help relieve some of the pain that our community is experiencing!

Thank you in advance for helping to keep the Lenten Fish Fry Dinners’ spirit alive!

"St. John's Food and Garden Ministry" will be the topic of our upcoming Zoom meeting of United Methodist Women on Thursday, March 4th. Chef Tim and Regina Hampton will present the program, and, with Spring quickly approaching, we can expect to get the latest updates emerging from this ever-growing St. John's ministry. The program begins at 10:00 am, and, as always, everyone is invited to attend. To receive the Zoom invitation, please contact Regina at hamptonmason1@msn.com.

Moonlight Walk in Bosque near Campbell Road (Easy)

Many people are astonished by how bright the moonlight can be and how easily our daily business fades away under such illumination. This time is set aside for several Lenten themes.

Moonrise is about 6:45 during twilight. Meet at the church (east parking lot) at 6 or at the trailhead at 6:20. Please RSVP to Mike Furnish, mdfurnish@comcast.net. If you are interested in leading a devotion, please let me know!

Other near-future trips planned:

Saturday, March 20: Location TBD (morning; easy)

Palm Sunday, March 28: Joint trip with the Youth to Tomé Hill (afternoon; moderate).

Easter Sunday, April 4: Sunrise walk to Travertine Falls outside of Tijeras (5:30 meetup; moderate).

Weekly Lenten Zoom Study, based on the book Wind in the Wilderness: A Lenten study from the Prophets (D. J. del Rosario; available from Cokesbury). Tuesdays at 7 PM, led by our Certified Lay Ministers, beginning Feb. 16th. The chapters: Building a skyscraper, Sticks and stones, Worst baby names ever, Nine words that changed everything, Present in the waiting, A taste of the good life, and If a tree falls in the woods... . The first chapter raises interesting questions about when we find ourselves in a deep hole as the Israelites did during the Exile and how the experience changes us, drawing on texts from Isaiah 9 and 53. It goes from there. There are daily Scripture readings as well. To register please contact Michael Furnish (mdfurnish@comcast.net ). We are exploring continuing this after Easter with Adam Hamilton’s The Walk, led by Joe Marshall, CLM.

The added drive-through food distribution is for February only and will be on Thursdays, Feb. 4, 11, 18 and 25, at 11:00 am at Highland High School. Find more information on the RRFB Webpage.

Church Women United, an ecumenical Christian women’s gathering, will be holding a World Day of Prayer service on Friday, March 5th via Zoom. The service is written by the women of Vanuatu (a tropical archipelago in the South Pacific) with the theme, “Build on a Strong Foundation” where land is not viewed as a thing to be owned, but as vital to the existence of humans and animals in sustaining their livelihood. You are invited to join us at 9:30 a.m. for checking in with one another over coffee, tea, cocoa. The program will begin at 10:00. A Zoom link will be sent out a day or two before. If you would like to be included, please contact Marilyn Stoops at mstoops@swcp.com or call 265-8358.

Over the next several months we will be calling to update our contact information in our Shelby database. We know you get lots of crank calls but this isn’t one of them. When we call, we will want to verify your address, phone numbers, email addresses and birthdates. The caller will identify themselves as being from St. John’s and updating Shelby.

Plan to join us on Saturday, March 6th, at 9 a.m. via Zoom, as Dee Dee Heffner leads us in our Conference-wide UMW Spiritual Retreat entitled, "Into the Light". Among other activities, Dee Dee will help us explore Biblical themes of light that shine a light on Deaconesses and Home Missioners who "share the light" of Jesus through their wide variety of ministries. The retreat will consist of breakout sessions, and attendees will receive an email, asking them to have several items available during the Zoom event. There is no fee to attend, but a registration form must be submitted no later than March 3rd, in order to receive the Zoom invitation. To receive a registration form by mail or email, please contact Mary Beth Spletzer at 508-4829 or mbspletzer@gmail.com. We hope you'll join us for "Into the Light"!

Parents and Students, to keep our community going amidst the pandemic, yet socially safe, the Youth Ministry is going to host an ILR gathering at the church parking lot/Zuni playground on the fourth Sunday of each month this semester. We will start this Sunday, February 28th, 4:00-5:15PM. All participants need to wear a mask, plus a coat, hat, and gloves, and stay 6-ft apart. Our usual Zoom Youth Group will not occur this Sunday, but will be back up next week: http://bit.ly/Spring2021UMYF (case sensitive)

St. John’s will live-stream a worship service on Sunday morning at 9:30 am (Contemporary) on the Abide Facebook page and 11:00 am (Traditional) on our Youtube Channel. We hope you’ll worship with us! (Pastor Pam will lead, along with Shea Perry, Jim Ahrend, and Matt Greer). We hope that you’ll participate by singing and praying at home! Any questions? Email Matt at mgreer@stjohns-abq.org.

Sunday Community Activities: Click HERE to view all Sunday School Classes & groups! Join us in the virtual Sonshine Coffee Zoom immediately following the 11:00 am Worship with church Leadership Team members hosting. Zoom link is HERE

  February is the month we have the opportunity to support United Methodist Missionaries. As past recipients have retired, we have two missionaries to introduce.

    First, Desiree Segura-April. She lives in Honduras with her husband (also a UMC missionary) and son Nikolas. She is a Resource Person for Children at Risk Ministries in Latin America and the Caribbean. She partners with churches and other organizations to provide safe places for children to experience holistic and creative Christian education.

   Our second missionary is Dr. Belinda Forbes. She and her husband (also a doctor) and their two daughters live in Managua, Nicaragua. She works with Accion Medica Christiana (AMC), a Nicaraguan Christian Medical group, which specializes in health and development in impoverished rural communities. As a dentist, Dr. Forbes works with a community based primary dental health program where she also mentors volunteers and interfaces with AMC's international partner organizations.

   So this month, we have the opportunity to help people who don't have access to medical and dental services, and to help children who need a safe and loving place in the midst of often chaotic lives to learn about God's love. Please give generously.

Stephen Ministers are members of St. John’s who have gone through 50 hours of training to provide high quality, confidential Christian care to individuals experiencing a crisis or life challenge such as divorce, grief, job loss, hospitalization, relocation, or loneliness.

If you or someone you know could benefit from the care of a Stephen Minister, please call the office 505-883-9717 or email stephenministry@stjohns-abq.org

www.stjohns-abq.org

(505) 883-9717

2626 Arizona St NE | Albuquerque, NM 87110

Office Hours (call only): Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 2:00 pm