St. Paul's Episcopal Church |
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This Week's News Highlights
Our Service This Week
Holy Eucharist on Facebook and for those in person will be at 8:30AM on Sunday. See below for how to attend by either mode of participation. Please consider the current state of the pandemic in making your decision about attending this service, or any other, in person. Facebook Live continues to be a safe and meaningful way to join in worship each Sunday.
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Pledge Campaign Needs You!
Please consider filling out your 2021 pledge form and returning it to the church today. This is a crucial part of our joint stewardship.
You can download this year's pledge form here. Once downloaded you can return the form in one of several ways:
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Forms can be filled out and mailed to the church office at 401 Duval Street, Key West, Florida, 33040,
- Forms can be placed in the collection plate at a Sunday service.
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As an alternative to filling out the form, members and friends of St. Paul's can have their pledge entered by simply sending an email to the office in which the essential information from the form is conveyed in an email.
For example: "Please enter my pledge for $xxx for the year 2021. I expect that this amount will be donated weekly" [or monthly, or quarterly, or yearly as the case may be.] That's it. No form required.
All pledges are confidential and will not be shared with other members. Pledges are always aspirational and no person is required to fulfill a pledge if conditions change in the person's life.
Search Committee Excitement Builds
Exciting news from the Search Committee. Resumes have been read. Some decisions have been made. Zoom interviews are on the horizon.
The nature of the process requires confidentiality so no details have been revealed outside of the committee. But there is a palpable sense of excitement as the process of selecting a new rector moves forward with real momentum.
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Please Buy A Brick and Build a Legacy
Brick sales are going well! We are about to place the order for the first new grouping. Let's work on the next one. Please consider joining in this project. You can order your brick(s) here.
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Sunday's Service
Join us Sunday for Holy Eucharist at 8:30AM. Sign up in advance to attend in person (see above) or join us on Facebook.
To join 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". 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.)
Did you know you DO NOT need to have a Facebook account to view the service or visit our Facebook page? Simply use the Facebook page link to go directly to our Facebook page (even if you don't have your own Facebook account). Follow the directions above.
You can open or download the bulletin for the Sunday service here.
This information is important.
Currently, a limited number of people are allowed to attend services in accordance with diocesan protocols. If you would like to attend, you will be asked to sign up in advance. Contact information will be required.
- Your name and the names of any family or household members who will attend with you.
- Your email address
- Your cell phone number
Email is greatly preferred, but reservations can also be made by calling the church office at 305-296-5142. If nobody answers please leave a message with the information.
(Walk-ins will be accommodated if space allows but please pre-register whenever possible.)
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Junior Warden's Report
By Greta Philips-Ford
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Please join us Saturday from 9AM until 11AM to work on projects (safely distanced, masked and often outdoors on the church campus).
On a scale beyond volunteer effort, the long delayed work on repairing the badly damaged north corner of the church (the sacristy/military chapel side) has begun.
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This is a MAJOR project and is happening none too soon. The crews have found major deterioration of the concrete walls. But work is progressing well, and the result should be a rehabilitated wall, a reconstructed window that has been a source of water intrusion and, hopefully, the end of persistent water damage in that section. (Just in time for the upcoming rainy season.) |
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Thanks to all who contributed to the crucial building restoration fund and made this project a reality.
Elsewhere, orchids are blooming in the Memorial Garden, crews have been cleaning the parish hall porch and Ken Bagge has repainted the floor in the cloister (side porch) between the south tower and the Mary chapel door.
Progress!
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Don't Miss This TRUE Fund opportunity!
A generous anonymous donor has offered to match donations to the TRUE Fund up to a total of $1,500 in matching funds.
We are very close to being able to claim this entire matching amount.
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Please consider making your TRUE fund contribution today. If you would like to help, please send a check to the office marked as TRUE Fund or use the church giving page. If you donate electronically be sure to indicate TRUE Fund in the field for "special instructions to the seller".
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Senior Warden's Report
By Ray Warren
Many of you remember Fran Ford. Fran was a force of nature in Key West and a devoted member of St. Paul's. I know I used to love seeing her (and her trademark hats) each Sunday and was saddened immensely when she passed away. Her funeral was one of the packed church affairs when people from all walks of life attended.
One of Fran's legacies was the Fran Ford White-Crowned Pigeon Preserve on Government Road. The Keys Weekly newspaper recently ran an article about the preserve.
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In addition to some very interesting information about Fran, the article commends a certain Eric Whiteside for work this summer on improving and restoring the preserve. I did not know Eric when he was very young, but I remember him as an church acolyte when he was in high school. And I have to say that his parents, Mark and Lila Whiteside (co-chair of the Search Committee) clearly (as we said back in North Carolina) "raised him right".
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Oh, and speaking of Fran. Her son Tom and daughter-in-law, Greta Philips-Ford (our junior warden) can be found most Saturdays doing manual labor at the church campus.
St. Paul's is woven into the Key West community and our tradition of giving back to the community is strong. Let us all resolve to do our part to pay it forward. All of us.
And kudos to Eric. Well done.
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Who IS THAT WOMAN and who is pointing at her?
The photo, that has previously been used to illustrate the pledge campaign article above, is of a painting of the widow described in the Gospels of Mark and Luke.
According to the Bible, Jesus (pictured in the background) "observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents. Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, 'Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood."
It is never about amount, and your personal information and pledge amount is NEVER shared with others. But, in the aggregate, a sufficient number of pledges is a reasonable marker of parish health. It is a way to declare our allegiance to St. Paul's. Please join in affirming your commitment to St. Paul's today. Every mite counts.
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Contacts:
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.
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Monthly Online Organ Series Returns
“From the Organ”, March edition, will stream live, this Thursday, March 4, 2021 at noon on Facebook live.
Tim started this popular series way back in March 2020, and it now continues monthly, the first Thursday of each month. This month will feature Ann McFarland (organist and Key West United Methodist Church), John Penkoske (organist and Grace Lutheran Church and Peace Covenant Presbyterian Church), Tom Scheck (retired organist from Upperville, Virginia and full-time Key West resident), and Linda Sparks (past organist at St Paul’s). They all hope to see you online!
Remember, you can find prior recordings of past concerts and musical offerings on St Paul’s Facebook page, or on YouTube.
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We Pray Each Day
Daily Morning and Evening Prayer is being offered on Facebook Live at 7:30AM and 500PM on weekdays.
Thanks to Bruce Hagemann, Lisa Laskow, Mary Simmons, Samantha Hall, Sarah 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 Robert’s partner), Zane Wruble (daughter of Katleen Bratton), Christian Swanson, Crystal Cates, Tom Bond, Chuck Hammond, Joseph Lyles and the Curry family.
We pray for the departed and their loved ones
"Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servants"
(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 February Birthdays
E.A. Jackson Morris 2/4
Donald R. Curry 2/6
Niles Noblitt 2/6
Steven Mungall 2/7
Brody McClaughlin 2/8
Rena Mobley 2/11
Liz Kern 2/13
Ronald Acevedo 2/14
Robert Wilcox 2/16
Susanne Schott 2/17
Clare Keller 2/18
Marisa Conaty 2/19
Bob Lamere 2/24
Anthony Sperling 2/24
Kathleen Zuiderveen 2/24
Janette Chalmers 2/25
Sylvia Hicks 2/25
Wendy Holifield 2/26
Nancy Noblitt 2/27
(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 February Anniversaries:
Susan & Brad Hahn Gilman 2/1
Betty & Edward Toppino 2/12
Bud & Sylvia Halldorson 2/14
Ruth & Bob Lamere 2/15
Larry & Brooke Myers 2/15
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Reminders
Sunday school is canceled during the virus emergency.
Back issues of The Epistle are available here.
Send questions and comments to the editor of this newsletter here.
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Tel. (305) 296-5142
Pastoral Emergencies (317) 414-4194
Office closed during the virus emergency
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