Dear friends,
As we get closer to our first services for this upcoming Sunday, we continue to work through our service bulletins and logistics for welcoming people back to St. Edward’s. We know how important Sunday worship is to everyone and whether you are worshipping in-person, starting this Sunday, or via our YouTube Livestream, please know that we are one community under God and we are all worshipping together.
A few items of note:
We will start to have our altar flowers back in the sanctuary. The yearly Altar Flower chart is quite empty, and as you know, our flowers are at an expense of $100/week and are made possible by the generous donations of people signing up to contribute flowers “in memory of” or “in thanksgiving for” a loved one in their lives. It would be wonderful if we could keep this ministry going with donations, of any amount, made payable to St. Edward’s and marked “altar flowers” in the memo line. We will be printing the remembrances in the Sunday bulletins.
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We continue to support the Hempfield Area Food Pantry. They are not accepting food, but are accepting monetary donations. Donations of any amount made payable to St. Edward’s and marked “food pantry” would be most appreciated as we continue to serve this important organization that services the wider community. During the summer months when school programs that may have provided take-out meals for students, and may not offer as robust a program when school is not in session, it is so important for these families to remain healthy and not food poor. We thank you for your generosity.
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Starting next week, we will be transitioning to 2 messages per week: A message on Monday that will update people on the upcoming week’s events and other offerings and a message on Thursday from Father Rick.
I know many people were so grateful for the “Daily Message” that carried us through those 90 days of quarantine during “Covidtide.” Now we look forward to all of the new ministry and opportunities that we can engage in! It will be on Zoom, for the present time, but we can embrace the technology to brainstorm on ideas for how St. Edward’s can outreach to the wider community, or how we can engage in spiritual formation, as well as take advantage of the Bible Study and Friday Evening Prayer that have been so faithfully led by our lay persons.
I just want to say how grateful I am to the parish and all of the wonderful ways everyone has navigated these extraordinary circumstances. In small ways and large, our parish family has reached out and made a difference to the parish office, to Father Rick, to our church building, to the wider community, as good stewards to St. Edward’s, and most importantly, to each other, and we are so lucky to have these opportunities of extraordinary grace to which we can give thanks to God.
Be well. Stay safe. Keep the Faith. We look forward to this upcoming weekend!
Michelle
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We continue to make exciting improvements to our sanctuary space and are in the process of planning improvements to the Memorial Garden. If parishioners wish to be give, financially, to support these important projects, please contact Father Rick directly, or the parish office. We have been very blessed with the continuous generosity of our St. Edward’s parishioners.
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