August 26, 2021
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
From the Rector
By the Rev. Donna S. Mote, PhD

Dear People of St Paul’s,

Grace and peace.

When I arrived in Key West in late May, I met St Paul’s parish administrator Lisa McCarthy for the first time. It wasn’t long before we were regularly laughing together about all kinds of things.

Lisa has played a tremendous role in my rather easy adaptation to life here on the island and at St Paul’s. With the unflappability of a nurse (her first career) and the expertise and insight of a banker (her second career), she has provided me with a strong orientation to systems at St Paul’s and advised me on countless decisions small and large.

I truly love and appreciate Lisa and will miss her enormously. And I celebrate with her in her well-discerned decision to return to her home state of Ohio and hometown of Tuscarawas.

The congregation of St Paul’s has been indeed fortunate to have Lisa’s capable assistance since back during the early days of COVID-19 lockdown. I’m very glad that she is open to continuing much of her work for St Paul’s remotely. We will try this as an experiment, and, if it is copacetic on both sides, extend our collaboration with Lisa for some time to come.
As Ray mentioned in his column last week, if you would like to send a card or other expression of thanks and farewell to Lisa, please send it to the church address. Only Lisa will read these, and if your card should arrive after her last in-person day at St Paul’s (August 31), we will forward it by mail to her in Ohio.

And, if you are interested in the possibility of volunteering some hours each week in the church office, which will be fairly empty without Lisa, to answer the phone, collect the mail, and a few other tasks, please be in touch to express your interest.

We wish you Godspeed, Lisa, and we give thanks to God for your contributions to our life as St Paul’s, Key West.

With you on the journey,

Donna+

This Week's News Highlights

Mask Reminder

We ask that everyone, both vaccinated and unvaccinated persons, please wear a mask inside the nave, including before, during, and after the in-person services.
Also note that the congregation will not sing, although cantor Dean Warden will still sing a solo.

Other than the changes noted, the services will proceed as usual. There is ample space for self regulated social distancing. Communion under one kind (bread) will still be distributed at the altar. When receiving the bread, please remain masked, return to your seat and reverently consume the consecrated wafer.

Please join us if you are able.

Our Service This Week

Holy Eucharist, Rite II will be at 7:30AM. This is a quiet, intimate spoken service.

Holy Eucharist, Rite II will also be celebrated at 10:00AM with music and incense. This service will also be live streamed on Facebook Live.
Brick Project Ongoing

An ongoing way to support the restoration and preservation of St. Paul's. You can order your brick(s) here.

Proceeds help preserve our iconic church and grounds for future generations.
Sunday's Service

Holy Eucharist will be celebrated at 7:30AM and 10:00AM on Sunday. The 10:00AM service will also be streamed on Facebook (if Facebook cooperates with the connection). There is definitely room for all. Please join us if you can.

To join via Facebook (at 10:00AM), 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. (You may need to refresh the page a few times if the "live" window does not appear promptly at the appointed time.)

You can open or download the bulletin for the 10:00AM Sunday service here.
Junior Warden's Report
By Greta Philips-Ford
Check Electric has replaced the fluorescent lights behind the stained glass windows on either side of the altar with LED lights. These formerly dark windows now glow. To those of you who contributed to the window lighting, THANK YOU. Your gifts have made this possible.

The next set of lights to be done are the two stained glass windows in the north and south towers.
Our Avocado Tree is in fruit!

Please join us Saturday morning at 9:00AM for a little sweat and fellowship--we will continue to work on items stored in the classroom/meeting room in Holy Innocents Hall. 

Upcoming projects - - we are looking for participants for the Holiday/Christmas Parade!
See you Saturday between 9AM and noon!
Tom Ford and Caroline Timura re-organizing the Christmas decorations and hanging them back in their place in the storage room above the sacristy.
Senior Warden's Report
By Ray Warren

To Quote the Beatles: "Help, We Need Somebody!"

This past week illustrated both the incredible contribution made by volunteers, and the fragility of our volunteer “bench”. Some people ask when we’ll be able to return to “normal”, referring to the old days when we had a full time groundskeeper and a full time administrator. The answer is “maybe never, but probably not for at least the next few years”. And, even if we did, we’d still need volunteers.

Thanks to the flowering of volunteer activity in the past year and a half, long delayed and deferred projects have been tackled and completed, new areas for lay spiritual leadership have opened, and our budget remains strong in the face of continuing pandemic stresses.

Here are some specific examples of how you can help.

A corps of five individuals (occasionally supplemented by others) reads morning and evening prayer every weekday on Facebook. This ministry started when the church was not open at all and has continued to serve both locals and those who are away.
Given the nature of people’s schedules (especially for those working in Key West), changes and substitutions become necessary (often on short notice). But the readers (Samantha, Lisa, Bruce, Mary, and Tim) have self-organized and can almost always re-arrange their schedules. Still, it can be a struggle.

Reading Morning or Evening Prayer can be done from anywhere. (In the summer Lisa Laskow does it from Pennsylvania and some of the others do it from their homes in the Keys.) A regular commitment would be great, but being trained and being a willing relief person would also be great. Please consider it. To volunteer contact Padre Donna or me and we’ll put you in touch with the proper folk.

- - -
As mentioned by our Padre above, we also need help in the office. Even when we hire a replacement for Lisa (though I doubt she can ever truly be replaced), we need to stretch that part time job with part time volunteers. Again, please consider it.

- - -
Personally, I am struggling with the editing and production of this newsletter. Before me it was very ably edited and produced by parishioner Jim McCloud. But since April of 2020, I’ve done it every week (without missing a week or missing the Thursday deadline) every week. This included one week when I had a stomach flu (and lost six pounds) and even when I have been out of town on vacation or family business. It is a bit of a burden for one person but could be a very interesting project for a team.

You can help with the newsletter from anywhere. You don’t have to do it all. Text and pictures can be edited and inserted from any computer.

There is a huge (but important) ongoing project to rename over a year’s uploaded photographs (to the Constant Contact account) with common names to make them searchable. (“32231.jpeg” isn’t going to help when searching for a photograph in six months!) This little project can be done in bits and pieces over time from home and would be an incredible service.

If you’d like to try your hand at working with Constant Contact, being an assistant editor and helping prepare the weekly emails (which are essentially web pages), let me know.

It really does take a village to run a living community.
Contacts:

Parish Rector: The Rev Donna S. Mote, PhD: rector@stpaulskeywest.org

Sr. Warden: Ray Warrenseniorwarden@stpaulskeywest.org

Jr. Warden: Greta Philips-Fordjuniorwarden@stpaulskeywest.org

Epistle Editoreditor@stpaulskeywest.org

Church office (and administrator Lisa McCarthy): info@stpaulskeywest.org

Church office phone: 305-296-5142

Church mailing address: 401 Duval Street, Key West FL 33040. Pledges and offerings can be mailed here or made electronically at the church giving page.
"From The Organ" Returns!

By Tim Peterson
"From the Organ" is back! Please join us in person, with masks, or on "Facebook Live", on Thursday, September 2, 2021 at noon. We missed everyone last month, so we hope to see you there.
Remember that you can also find prior recordings of many past concerts and musical offerings 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 7:30AM and 5:00PM on weekdays.

Thanks to Bruce Hagemann, Lisa Laskow, Mary Simmons, Samantha Hall and Tim Peterson 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

Brittany (Sherri Hodies’ daughter), Beth and Jon Peterson (sister-in-law and brother of Tim), Al (Kitty Roberts’ partner), Joseph Lyles, David Sweeting, Sandy Highsmith, Carla Harper (sister of Joseph Lyles), Judy Denton Ping, Ken Reed, Mickey Malgrat, John Shaver, Joe Wittreich, Sarah, Steve Sika, Maxon Faraldo, Leslie Steele, Jeff Minalga, Daniel Hess (friend of Joseph Lyles), Tom Hojinowski (Dave and Irene Eyer's nephew-in-law), Dave, Pat and Pete

We pray for the departed and their loved ones

Elsa Colligan (mother of Kip Colligan), Delia Marlene Sparks (mother of Linda Sparks), Isaac Archer

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

(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 August Birthdays

MaryCarlin Porter 08/03
Mason Whiteside 08/03
John Carlock 08/04
Robert Burchett 08/06
Judi Carlock 08/06
David Sweeting 08/07
William McBride 08/08
Kyler Palmeno 08/09
Bobby Highsmith 08/10
Rachel Wilcox 08/10
Norman Vincent Alexander 08/11
Warren Chalmers 08/11
Lacy Pischke 08/16
Ben Simmons 08/16
Norman Bruein IV 08/19
Phyllis Pita 08/19
Wynn Steinkamp 08/19
Linda Acevedo 08/21
Isabel Steinkamp 08/22
Aidan Wilcox 08/25
Grayson Thomas Acevedo 08/26
Zachary Albury 08/26
Carolyn Blackwell 08/26
Chris Hall 08/26
Barbara Neagley 08/26
Keith Grahman 08/27
Stephen Gahan 08/29
Juan Mayancela 08/31
(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 August Anniversaries

Susanne Woods & Anne Shaver 08/01
Tom & Clare Keller 08/04
Alex & Mitch Paternaud Lavoie 08/05
Richard & Julia Pischke 08/09
Mike & Lisa Benfield 08/13
Dave and Kay Holfinger 08/22
Ross & Barbara Neagley 08/26
Nancy & Niles Noblitt 08/28
Tom Bond & Ray Warren 08/29
Michelle & Tom Valvoda 08/30
John & Carolyn Sangston 08/31
Reminders
Sunday School will resume when possible.
Back issues of The Epistle are available here.

Send questions and comments to the editor of this newsletter here.