St. Mary's Episcopal Church ~ Afton, MN
Serving God's people in the Lower St. Croix Valley since 1863
Fr. Scott is hosting Wednesday Morning Worship and Kaffeeklatsch at 9:30 each week.
Fr. Scott is hosting Wednesday Morning Worship and Kaffeeklatsch at 9:30 each week. We’ll gather for a simple service of Holy Communion followed by coffee and conversation. Topics will include current events, Bible study, local happenings, or anything else we decide to bring up. Stop by and join us when you can!
Bishop Craig Loya will visit St. Mary’s on Sunday, June 20th. Bring your lawn chair for a special baptismal liturgy in the Memorial Garden at 9:30 AM to welcome him. The Bishop will host a town hall style conversation at a reception following the service. Join us to give Bishop Craig a genuine St. Mary’s welcome!
“Lawn Chair Liturgies” in the Memorial Garden at St. Mary’s beginning at 9:30 on Sunday morning, July 5th, weather permitting.
At a recent meeting with clergy in charge of parishes, Bishop Loya gave us discretion to begin limited outdoor worship as of July 1. It is my intention to hold “Lawn Chair Liturgies” in the Memorial Garden at St. Mary’s beginning at 9:30 on Sunday morning, July 5th, weather permitting.
Our order of worship will be quite abbreviated, and there will be no celebration of the Holy Eucharist at this time. Worshipers will be expected to comply with all current disease transmission prevention guidelines including:
We recommend you bring lawn chairs or a blanket to sit on — no chairs will be provided. Remember that the Memorial Garden lawn is a bit uneven and the grass may be quite wet from dew or overnight rain. Worship materials will be provided for one-time use each week.
For now, we will encourage everyone to depart immediately following the worship service. We may be able to stay for some form of a BYO coffee and fellowship time later in the summer if disease transmission levels continue to decrease.
The church building and Guild Hall remain closed pending authorization to reopen from Bishop Loya.
I have mixed feelings about gathering again, even outdoors. While I long to be together with all of you, I have an even greater longing to keep everyone safe and healthy. Most of us fall into the “at increased risk” category for Covid-19 infection. We are relying on you to follow our safety and health guidelines to protect yourself and others.
The danger of infection has not passed, and we must all be diligent in adhering to the disease transmission prevention guidelines. We may need to suspend outdoor worship if there is an increase in the Covid-19 infection rate in the future.
We know that some of you may choose to stay safe at home for a while longer, and we will continue to provide worship resources and pastoral support by email and telephone for the foreseeable future.
Stay safe, stay well, and I look forward to seeing you again soon!
Blessings,
Join us on Wednesday evenings at 6:30 for our Lenten Soup Supper Series focusing on The Way of Love: Practices for a Jesus-Centered Life developed by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.
Our Annual Harvest Festival Potluck Dinner and Dance is Saturday, November 2. Music by the Back Porch Band begins at 5:00 pm with dinner at 6:00. Bring your friends, neighbors, family and a favorite dish to share. Suggested donation is $10 per adult.
All proceeds benefit area food programs through Second Harvest Heartland Food Bank.
First Nations Kitchen is a ministry of All Saints’ Episcopal Indian Mission in Minneapolis and has been serving healthy, organic, traditional indigenous food in a welcoming, family environment every Sunday evening since 2008.
In the First Nations Kitchen model, volunteers prepare different entrées each week. Guests choose which entrée they would like. Those volunteers who prepare and serve the meal are welcome to eat with the guests. In this way, participation becomes interaction and relationships can begin to develop.
Dinner prep starts at 1:30 pm and clean-up usually ends before 7:30 pm. We will share the various duties with St. Luke’s – Minneapolis congregation, splitting either prep time (1:30 – 3:30 pm) or serving time (5 – 7:30 pm) with members from St. Luke’s.
St. Mary’s is signed up for either a food-prep shift or a serving shift at First Nations Kitchen on the following dates in 2020:
Let Deacon Maureen know if you are interested in participating in this ministry. Add the dates to your calendar now. She’ll send out reminders as well.
How are we, as people of faith, called to care for the “least of these” in our community?
Join us for our Second Saturday Study Group to learn how we are called to serve the “least of these” who suffer from hunger, homelessness and addiction. This series of discussions will be held on the second Saturdays of October, November and December. We will learn how hunger, homelessness and addiction impact our community and society at large, and we will begin to discern how we are called to respond. “Just as you did it to one of the least of these…you did it to me.”
Like the apostles, we long to learn to pray as Jesus prayed: with faith, fire and fervency. Too often, however, we’re not sure how to begin, what to say, or even if our prayers will be heard and answered. This four-session discussion series will explore the four traditional forms of prayer: Praise, Petition, Intercession and Thanksgiving. We’ll learn that praying is a simple tool everyone has been given to enter into a conversation with God. We will discover the wealth of resources for prayer in the Book of Common Prayer and learn the basics for developing a rewarding prayer life with some down to earth tips from best-selling author and pastor Max Lucado.
Join us at 9:35 a.m. on the second Saturday of October, November, December and January to learn, share, explore and experience how a simple practice of prayer can enhance and enrich our conversation with God. There are no books to buy, no homework to do, and no attendance requirement; just a space to learn, grow and share.
Join us at 9:30 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month as we delve deeper into topics important to the faith journey of all Christians. These one-hour discussion groups are informal and everyone is welcome to join us when your schedule permits.
Our current discussion series focuses on C. S. Lewis’ masterwork, Mere Christianity. Discussion topics will include: How do we differentiate right from wrong? Who is God? What is Free Will? How should Christians behave? Why is hope so vital to humans? Why is there a Trinity? What is the cost of being Christian?
One of the most popular and beloved introductions to the concept of faith ever written, Mere Christianity is a collection of scintillating brilliance which remains strikingly fresh for the modern reader, and which confirms C. S. Lewis’s reputation as one of the leading Christian writers and thinkers of our age. The book brings together C. S. Lewis’s legendary radio broadcasts during the World War II years, in which he set out simply to “explain and defend the belief that has been common to nearly all Christians at all times.” Rejecting the boundaries that divide Christianity’s many denominations, Mere Christianity provides an unequalled opportunity for believers and nonbelievers alike to absorb a powerful, rational case for the Christian faith. A forceful and accessible discussion of Christian belief, Mere Christianity is one of the most widely read and discussed introductions to Christianity ever written. Lewis uncovers common ground upon which all Christians can stand together.
Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. A close friend and colleague of J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. Lewis wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over one hundred million copies and have been adapted into three major motion pictures.