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Epistle May 11, 2022

A Message from Libby    

I will not be with you on Sundays for several weeks, as I fulfill a long-standing prior commitment to help St. John’s in Williamstown during their Rector’s paternity leave. However, I will still work with Jean in the office most Wednesdays and continue collaborating with our parish wardens, who provide such sound leadership. Please e-mail (libby_wade@yahoo.com) or call (270-519-6934) if you need me during this time. The Rev. Jane Tillman and Verger Darryl Lafferty will lead Sunday worship for the rest of May. Please let them know how much you appreciate their faithful and loving service to St. Paul’s. 


In this week’s Gospel lesson, which takes place at the Last Supper, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment to love one another as he has loved them. And furthermore, Jesus tells them, the world will know them as disciples by their love. Sadly, we often fail at this. Striving to love one another as Christ loved us isn’t easy, yet it is our calling as Christians. May we at St. Paul’s feel God’s love surrounding us and share that love with each other and the world.   

Gideon's Garden planting day

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 Saturday, June 4, 10 a.m.

Our sister church, Grace Church in the Southern Berkshires, invites you to help plant Gideon’s Garden. This annual event is full of camaraderie as volunteers plant and water tender young vegetables and fruits to be harvested throughout the growing season and donated to various feeding programs and food pantries, including Lee Food Pantry. If you like to dig in the dirt and want to spend an hour or two furthering the mission of feeding the hungry, bring your trowel and gloves to Gideon’s Garden on Division Street near Taft Farm in Great Barrington at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 4.  

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The Lee Food Pantry on May 14

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St. Paul’s Serves at Lee Food Pantry – Saturday, May 14

From 10 a.m. – Noon on Saturday, May 14, a team from St. Paul’s will be in charge of distributing food to anyone who needs a little help providing for themselves or their family. About a dozen people from the St. Paul’s community volunteer every second Saturday, with 6-8 present at a time. Volunteers frequently note the blessings they receive through this service to others. Last month, a Food Pantry recipient handed a note to one of the volunteers saying, “Thank you all for your help, kindness, and care.” Blessings abound! Jim Wade is our Food Pantry Coordinator; contact him if you want to find out how to get more involved in this very worthwhile mission.

Appalachian Trail Magic is back

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2022 Appalachian Trail Mini-Mission Day Trip    

June - August, 2022 in Sheffield


Begun in 2018 as a shared ministry of two Sheffield churches, First Congregational (UCC) and Christ Trinity (Episcopal/Lutheran), Mini-Mission Trip, Trail Magic is back. You can share in this fun mission of hospitality, spending a day outdoors chatting with hikers and friends while sharing refreshments! One St. Paul’s team has already formed to serve on Saturday, August 9. We hope to field another team from St. Paul’s. Training will be provided. The flyer on the bell tower bulletin board has more information, so does the link below. To join a team, please e-mail Libby Wade or speak with Martha Bodine. 

Appalachian Trail Magic in Sheffield

Community in Faith Adult Forum

Tuesdays, May 17, 24, 31  

7:00 pm via Zoom

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Our three-parish Community in Faith Adult Forum continues on Tuesday, May 17th with a lectionary- based Bible Study facilitated by the Rev. Tina Rathbone, Rector of Grace Church. The group meets on Zoom to focus on the ways stories from the Gospel come to life through our own journeys of love, struggle and (sometimes stumbling) faith. The link is below and on our website. Come join us!  

Community in Faith Adult Forum

Regular Worship Services


Sundays at 8:00 AM

In-Person & Indoors



Sundays at 10:00 AM

In-person, Indoors and Live-streamed


Wednesday Morning Prayer via Zoom at 8:30 a.m.

Worship links

Sunday Worship Teams (If you exchange shifts with someone, please notify the Church Office by Wednesday morning at office@stpaulsstockbridge.org.)

Worship Team - May 15

 Celebrant/

    Preacher    The Rev. Jane Tillman

8:00 Reader   Rob Maloney

 10:00 Usher/Greeter Anne Covell

 10:00 Reader Bill Higgins

Worship Team - May 22

 Officiant/

    Preacher    Darryl Lafferty

8:00 Reader Darryl Lafferty

 10:00 Usher/Greeter Martha Bodine

 10:00 Reader Kendra MacLeod


Junior and Senior Wardens will speak at 8 & 10

Parish Prayer List

  • People we pray for on Sundays: Sarah, Bruce, Robert
  • Long-term prayer list: Piers, Katrina, Rich, Karen, Michael, Tom, Khali, George, Doug,
  • George, David, Barbara, Christy, John, Peter & Darryl, Jim, Florence
  • Those who have died: Dillon’s mother, Karen Streifeneder
  • Our partners at Grace Church, Great Barrington and their priest Tina Rathbone; Christ Trinity Church, Episcopal-Lutheran, Sheffield and their priest Erik Karas; the Austen Riggs community and the Riverbrook Residence; victims of war, violence, abuse, persecution and disaster at home and abroad; those impacted by the pandemic
  • Outreach Ministry of the Week: Cathedral of the Beloved
  • Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: Trinity Church, Milford
  • Anglican Cycle of Prayer: The Scottish Episcopal Church
  • Birthday:  Scott Muir (May 12th)
  • Anniversaries: Tom & Anne Skakel (May 20th), Charlie & Deborah Piccinnini (May 20th), Bill Higgins & Anne Covell (May 21st)

Morning has broken

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This week we began a five-week study of different forms of prayer beginning with prayers of thanksgiving. After considerable discussion we likened prayers of thanksgiving to the sense of dawn on a far horizon, that morning has broken.

 

Morning has broken

Loving, all-seeing God who springs anew every morning

You fill us with joy each day

We sing a new song of thanksgiving for your creation.

Amen.

Education for Ministry

A Sheffield concert you don't want to miss - June 11, 4:00

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Christ Trinity Church presents the second concert of its 2022 Lich Gate Concerts series, featuring music for string quartet. Artistic Director and Concert Violinist Jorge Ávila, also a Sheffield resident, has programmed Ludwig van Beethoven's String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18, a work so grounded in 18th-century musical tradition that it earned the nickname "Komplimentierungsquartett" or "quartet of bows and curtseys." Jorge has paired this with William Grant Still's Lyric String Quartette. Often called the "Dean of Afro-American Composers," Still composed almost 200 works, including symphonies, ballets, operas, choral and vocal works, and chamber music. The Sheffield Town Park Pavilion at 4:00 on June 11th.

Lich Gate Concerts

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Contact

St. Paul’s Episcopal Church

29 Main Street, P.O. Box 704

Stockbridge, MA 01262

Church Office Voicemail: (413) 298-4913

Email: office@stpaulsstockbridge.org

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