CLICK HERE for the August edition of the Happenings

Please note that many streets surrounding St. Mary's will have limited access beginning at 8am. Be aware as you head to church in the morning that you may need to take an alternate route. The car show runs from 10am-3pm.

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry is among an estimated 650 Anglican bishops worldwide—including more than 100 Episcopal bishops—attending the #lambethconference in Canterbury, England, through Aug. 7.

CLICK HERE to listen to his video message

CLICK HERE to read the headlines from Lambeth conference from the Episcopal News Service

The vestry officers and priests of St. Mary’s and St. John’s met on Tuesday evening, July 12, to continue to explore the benefits and opportunities of pursuing a merger. The energy level was high around the realization of what we can do together (outreach activities, Christian education, music program, fellowship events, etc.) in God’s name throughout the greater Manchester and Vernon region by combining resources. Next steps include a meeting with Bishop Laura and both vestries on September 10 to outline the ECCT process to officially request permission to pursue a merger, and further conversations among the officers, vestries and parish members of both churches.

The ECCT merger process is a new process, and there are many questions around what it entails. Some of these questions were raised at this year’s Annual Meeting. If you have additional questions, please let me know before the September 10 meeting as we want the meeting to be as informative as possible. We will distribute a summary of what was covered as soon as possible after the meeting.

Joy Dorin

joyeaux@cox.net

860-614-8183

Our last collection day will be Sunday, August 28^th. The next day we will deliver them to the Bennet in time for distribution to the teachers and students before the first day of school on September 6^th. Thank you for your continued support of this outreach to the Manchester community.

St. Mary's Day will be celebrated with Holy Eucharist on August 21st. We will continue the tradition of adorning the wooden cross with flowers from our gardens. Please bring a few flowers from home with you to the 9am service.

At June’s meeting, your vestry voted to phase in updates and improvements to the various signs on St. Mary’s lawn. Over the next couple of weeks, the large wooden frame with the small, square signs and the Growing Our Faith banner will come down, and the banner will be hung on the church railing. For the next iteration of the large sign (the wooden frame), our plan is to design a sign/banner that reflects our commitment to doing God’s work in the community.

Additionally, the large, white sign with the 9 a.m. service time and live stream information will be removed as it did not weather well. The information on this sign will now be displayed on the property’s two wooden signs; the horizontal sign at the edge of the lawn by the parking lot, and the pole sign at the corner of Park and Church, which will also be updated to include the name of our current Priest-in-Charge Rev. Dr. Shaw

 Pool Party and Barbeque

Sunday, August 14, 2022

We invite those attending to sign up to provide one of the following items appetizer, dessert or salad    

 CLICK HERE for the RSVP form

Please reply by Monday, August 8

This short service from The Book of Common Prayer can be found in the BCP on page 127 or you may access the prayer book online at www.bcponline.org.

If you would like to make a pledge for 2022 to the mission of St. Mary's Church please CLICK HERE for the form and return it to the office at any point in the year.