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What a delight it was to feel the positive energy at our annual meeting last Sunday as we reviewed where we are right now, welcomed and blessed new and outgoing parish leaders, and looked forward to the year to come! It was also the kick-off of our long-talked about organ restoration campaign. Those repairs have already begun as anyone can see on Sunday mornings these days. We'll celebrate the organ's return with its rebuilt keyboard in a mater of weeks, and, as gifts from our members and many friends near and far come in, we'll turn our attention to the pipes that make such marvelous sounds.

Lent arrives on Wednesday! That means we need everyone's help to eat

pancakes, butter, syrup, and bacon on Tuesday evening so that we are ready for the physical and spiritual clearing that is Lent. We have two Ash Wednesday services the next day. If you are unfamiliar with that service, it is unlike any other of the calendar year and has room for some thoughts and feelings that demand respect but often struggle to find a space where they can be expressed. Likewise, Lent will deeply shape our Sunday worship for the following five Sundays. Please take special notice of the class on various forms of prayer that I am offering on those Sundays because numerous people have found these practices to be profoundly helpful in their personal lives–often when other things have failed them.

Paul+

St. Peter’s Community Prayers

We pray for the people on

our parish prayer list:

~

Maryann, Valerie, Joan, Helen, Harry, Adam, Sarah, Margo, Meredith, and Rosalina

Mark Your Calendars!



• Tuesday, March 4th - Shrove Tuesday Pancake Dinner at 5:30-7PM (Parish Hall)

• Wednesday, March 5th - Ash Wednesday services at 12PM and 7PM

• Sunday, March 9th – “Prayer Matters” class begins in parish hall at 9am



Children are particularly gifted at taking part in this Christian observance and are most welcome!

Get Your Ash Wednesday Ashes at St. Peter’s Wednesday March 5th



There will be two services to start your Lent off right: a simple, brief, spoken service in the chapel at noon and a full service with choir at 7pm in the main church. In either version, the truth of our mortality and various shortcomings is swept up into the good news of Jesus. 

PRAYER MATTERS: SUNDAYS IN LENT 9 AM PARISH HALL

Prayer is a form of practiced attention that can be learned and countless people have found it to be extremely helpful in their everyday lives. Rev. Paul will offer a five-week series in Lent each Sunday between our services where a different prayer practice will be taught every week. We will start each week at the beginning. No prior experience of prayer will be assumed. 

• 3/9: Common Prayer: Finding your voice in the words of others
• 3/16: Walking prayers and other bodily meditations
• 3/23: Praying while reading: Recovering a valuable Christian practice
• 3/30: Personal private prayer: Transforming your alone time
• 4/6 “Praying without ceasing”: How is it possible?

Organ Restoration Fund Launch

After sixty-five years of faithful service, our beloved Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ is in dire need of restoration. The vestry and the wider church community have had many conversations and conducted much research weighing all repair options over the last two years. We are excited to announce the official launch of the Organ Fund Campaign. The Vestry has approved this campaign to raise $150,000 over four years to make the necessary repairs.

Why now?

The organ can no longer be reliably played since its components are rapidly deteriorating. Many pipes no longer make sound, and more and more of the basic stops on the organ are no longer useable. The vestry of St. Peter’s has confidence that we can raise the money to restore this treasure of an instrument, and believes this campaign demonstrates our faith in the current health of St. Peter’s and its commitment to its bright future.

How can you help?

We ask you to consider donating to support this project. Gifts to this special fund would be in addition to one’s annual pledge and could be given annually over four years or in one lump sum. 

Other ways to give:

• Realm (the church's online giving–make sure to click “Organ Fund” on the drop-down menu)
• Stock gift
• Check (made payable to the church with "Organ Fund" on the memo line)

If you have any questions, please contact Bobby DeRegis (drderegis@verizon.net) or Anne Ruggles (asruggles@gmail.com). We want to make donating as easy as possible! Please see the separate e-blast announcement for more details HERE or visit the special page on our website HERE

It’s Time to Pledge: 2025 Stewardship Campaign

We invite you to lift up your hearts in prayer and ask: “How can I contribute to the flourishing of this church and community?” If you have pledged in the past, but have yet to renew your pledge, or if you care about this church and have not pledged in the past, please follow this link and enter your pledge online on the stewardship page of our website.

A reminder that neither Rev. Paul nor any of the lay leaders of this church will ever text or email you directly asking you for money or donations. There is a rise in “phishing” scams where someone posts from a phone number or email that appears to be from clergy or lay leaders and attempts to steal money from parishioners or others on our mailing list, usually requesting the purchase of gift cards. When you think you've received a suspicious communication, please report it to your service provider and contact Rev. Paul and Emily in the office. We strongly encourage everyone to verify communications involving money with a personal phone call not only at St. Peter's, but with all institutions.

Snow Cancellation Notification Policy

Although we encourage frequent attendance at our worship services, the safety of our members is our highest priority. Therefore, if our leadership believes that weather conditions pose a danger to our members, we will cancel either the 8am or 10am service or both. Under such circumstances by 7am Sunday morning, we will send an all parish email notifying members that services will not be held and a snow cancellation notice will appear on the first page of our main website. If we have services, but you choose to remain home, our online worship, currently best accessed through our Facebook page, can be an excellent option.

Sign Up to be a Worship Leader/Lay Assistant

Updates to Prayers of the People

If you would like to include a family member or loved one on the prayer list, please contact Emily at office@stpetersweston.org

or call the office at 781-891-3200

Sunday Flower Donations!

If you wish to make a flower donation in memory of or in honor of a person or event that matters to you, please sign your name on the flower calendar in the Narthex of the church as you walk in. You may either donate by placing your donation in the collection plate or go to the St. Peter’s website to donate online. The Donate button is located in the top right corner of the homepage or you can use this LINK.  In the drop-down menu, select “Flower Donation.” 

Please contact Helen Stock (helenstock2@gmail.com) as to the type of flower arrangements you prefer and contact Emily (office@stpetersweston.org) as to the wording you would like to appear in the bulletin.

St. Peter’s YouTube Page Revived



St. Peter’s created a YouTube page during the pandemic that was well used during that time, but not at all after that. It is now revived and you can expect to see short edifying videos of all kinds there appearing periodically. For example, some of Rev. Paul’s sermons at St. Peter’s are now there to be seen or re-seen. To find the YouTube page, just click on the YouTube button at the upper right corner of the church’s main webpage or at the bottom of this weekly email. You can also subscribe to be notified of new content. 

Afghan Ministry Update

We are doing our best to keep things as close to normal in the Afghan community while balancing the need to inform as to how to handle ICE visits which are underway in Manchester. So far no one in our group has been adversely impacted. This was school vacation week and we held two different activities for the kids on Tuesday. We took 12 elementary school age boys to a field trip at the Boston Museum of Science. They had a blast! We used library passes to get half off admission and fortunately there was enough money left in the NH Episcopal Diocese youth enrichment grant to cover expenses. The girls had a dance and crafting party at Grace church in Manchester and led a conga line through the church hall. There are too many kids now to do one activity. Breaking them up is a lot easier on everyone involved. We hope to have a boxing club outing for the middle and high school boys soon. Ramadan begins this weekend and fasting will get underway. The ICB has once again been kind in donating bags of food for the families which will be delivered next week. A Needham Muslim group is donating gift cards and the mosque in Andover will be providing food and household bags for Eid. Please continue to pray for the Manchester community and for people everywhere that are being targeted directly and indirectly by the current administration. 



Thank you for your ongoing support.

Hansi & Karen

Dear St. Peters,

As you can imagine, it’s been a busy few weeks as we adapt to the threats to our community. As we did with the covid pandemic, we are pivoting our services and training to be able to meet the needs of Waltham's low-income and immigrant residents. WATCH has updated our data policies and office management strategies to safeguard data of our clients to the best of our ability. We continue to offer remote options for most services so that clients can receive support on housing and basic needs from their home. 

We’ve also been very active identifying resources from trusted sources for our community members who are concerned about deportation. 

See our immigration resource guide here. We continue to update this and share with our community as new information and resources become available. We have packets of information we are sharing with our clients and ESL students with know your rights information and family planning resources in the case of a family member being deported.

Despite these threats, our clients continue to need help with housing and meeting their basic needs. Our walk in housing clinics on Tuesday nights from 5-6:30 have been very busy as well as daily walk-in traffic Mon-Fri 10-4 at our front lobby resource center. 

We continue to focus on our core programs despite the challenges.

• ESL, GED and Citizenship Classes
• Drop in Housing Help
• Referrals for Basic Needs
• Family Preparedness to manage risks of deportation
• Job Clinic Help: resumes, interview prep, job leads
• Computer and Financial Management Workshops
• First Time Home Buyer Courses

All these critical programs are made available to Waltham residents with your generous support!

Looking ahead, we wanted to invite you to our Spring Event at the Gore Place again this year- May 22, 5-7:30pm. We all need something positive to look forward to and a way to celebrate our wonderful, diverse community!  Please consider a sponsorship for our spring event!

We also still need help in our Adult Ed classes Mon, Wed 10am - 12, Mon-Thurs 6-8pm. Interested volunteers can email Nafisa@watchcdc.org No training necessary. 

In partnership,

Daria Gere, Executive Director

Do You Have a Pastoral Need?

For pastoral support or emergencies or for any other church matter, please call the Rev. Paul at the office (781-891-3200). We encourage you to let him know if you are in the hospital or have some other need that calls for pastoral support.

Did you know you can give to St. Peter’s securely through our online giving site? Make your pledge, give one-time or designate a special gift to one of our ministries.

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church | 320 Boston Post Road | Weston, MA 02493

www.stpetersweston.org