The few of us present were dressed in red! The church looked festive also “dressed” in red! And Bishop Thomas Brown was with us to celebrate Pentecost and bless our recently restored and moved baptistry window via a streamed service to the parish.
Your lay leadership team, from left to right: Kristen Burkholder, Faye Ward, Julian Sheffield, Deirdre Good, Rev. John Nieman, Kenneth Taylor and Audrey Klein-Leach. This group has been meeting after church starting in late January — and going for nearly 2 months — learning about leading Morning Prayer and preaching, mostly by rehearsing and receiving feedback. Many thanks to Rev. John for taking the time to encourage and support us in this important aspect of our church life going forward.
Ash Wednesday service will take place at noon via ZOOM.
The Imposition of Ashes will take place at 4:00 p.m. Participants must wear masks and remain in their cars parked in front of the church on Elm or Court Streets. We will come to you with the ashes. This is both to ensure physical distancing and to avoid the possibility of folks slipping on the snow and ice.
Next Sunday, November 1, is All Saints Day. One common practice on All Saints is to remember in the prayers all those parishioners who have died since last All Saints. We will remember this year Suzanne Fudge, Ray Hall, and Jeannette Piotti. If there are other loved ones you would like named, please email those names to the parish office by Tuesday, October 27th at [email protected].
This year you will have an opportunity to acknowledge other losses you’ve experienced as a result of the pandemic. During the service, there will be time for you to name whatever losses you are most grieving.
In addition to St. Margaret’s celebration of All Saints, the Greater Bay Area Ministerium (GBAM) will host a virtual service for the entire Belfast area to help folks within our communities express and acknowledge the grief that so many have been experiencing during these trying times, and to discover sources of hope as we look toward the future. “Lament and Hope: Grieving Our Losses, Blessing Our Future” will be a combination of a live streaming event along with pre-recorded portions and will take place on Sunday, November 1, 2020 at 2:00 pm. See the flyer in this issue of NFTP for more information on how to participate.
Ultimately, All Saints is not a somber occasion. It is a festival that points to the hope we share in Christ with all the saints. It is an opportunity to join with them in witness to that hope.
Peace, John+
A community event to acknowledge our losses and our hopes for the future is being offered virtually by GBAM: The Greater Bay Area Ministerium. Many changes and losses have occurred during the current pandemic that we have not been able to grieve together. GBAM would like to create a forum for honoring what people have been going through by putting words to the losses and challenges, provide a place for community voices to be heard and to lift up points of hope going forward. There will be readings, prayers, recordings of community members, and offerings of how we might keep hope alive. A ZOOM link is provided here for this offering, please share with friends and neighbors who might like to join in this event. The event will also be live streamed on the GBAM facebook page (see link below). We hope to see you there! DATE: Sunday, November 1, 2020 TIME: 2-2:45 pm ZOOM invite:https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87055573465?pwd=OXFXUmQ2dk04OFgyenRza1RaTGRXUT09 Zoom Meeting ID: 870 5557 3465 Passcode: GBAM GBAM Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/GBAM-Greater-Bay-Area-Ministerium-112668213940582
Presiding Bishop Curry will lead a live-streamed prayer service from the National Cathedral, Holding on to Hope: A National Service for Healing and Wholeness, on All Saints’ Sunday, November 1, 4:00-5:30PM. Amid pandemic, racial reckoning, and a historic election, the live-streamed service will gather Americans for prayer, song, lament, hope, and a call to love God and neighbor. FMI: https://episcopalchurch.org/holding-hope
Here we are, more than six months into a global pandemic which health experts tell us will continue for quite some time. The needles on our pines are turning brown with drought. Friends and family in other parts of the country are threatened by apocalyptic-class fires and hurricanes. The consequences of systemic racism challenge us to examine our own behaviors and assumptions, and tear at our hearts. We are in a time of unparalleled need for mutual support, prayer, human contact, and “two or three gathered together in Jesus’ name,” which is nonetheless a time when that very gathering puts many at serious risk.
St Margaret’s parish members have so far been spared by the virus at least, and we hope to continue that way. Our COVID Task Force (John+, Paul Mazur, Julian Sheffield, Elaine Bielenberg, and Chris Urick) met last week to discuss the possibility of in-person gatherings or worship. All agreed that the relatively low numbers of infection in Waldo County are no guarantee that we are safe from COVID. By continuing to persevere in following the safety guidelines given to us by our pandemic experts at the Maine CDC and beyond, we are providing protection to those we love and care for.
Because the danger of transmission in enclosed spaces with inadequate air-scrubbing ventilation particularly in cold weather when windows must be closed and heat recirculating, and given the size of our church, the vestry of St. Margaret’s has made the difficult decision not to return to inside worship and meetings once the weather cools. The vestry recognizes that this will disappoint many in our St Margaret’s community. We too long to see each other face to face; we too miss worshiping in our now even more beautiful church with its sparkling stained glass. We know that connecting through Zoom and telephone doesn’t meet all our needs for community. But the safety and well-being of all our parishioners, as well as care and love for our greater community, require that we take every measure to prevent St Margaret’s from being a source of the spread of COVID.
We, your Vestry, are working hard to provide the best Zoom worship experiences possible. Sunday’s service is followed by a coffee hour which, like all Zoom meetings, is accessible by telephone for those who cannot use a computer. We are adding weekly chats to our schedule and hope that many of you will participate, or join Compline. We also welcome suggestions about how we can connect and communicate with one another. If you have an idea for a small group that you would like to gather together, let us know and we will assist you in getting it going. Care Groups will be reconnecting as we enter Fall and Winter. We will renew our efforts to reach out to all our members via phone and e-mail. For those who need help in connecting via Zoom for the first time, we are here to help. Just let the parish office know! And if you would like to talk about the vestry’s decision, please do not hesitate to contact one of us.
Our buildings are now closed, but our hearts are open, our community is strong and our spirits are lifted by our care and love for one another.
Faithfully yours,
The Vestry of St. Margaret’s
Chris Urick and Elaine Bielenberg (Wardens), Kristen Burkholder, Jackie Curtis, Audrey Klein-Leach, Paul Mazur, Julian Sheffield, Faye Ward, Cynthia Zajac
Sunday, October 4th is the Feast Day of St. Francis and we invite you, your friends, and neighbors to bring your pets for the traditional “blessing of the animals” on the front lawn at 10:30AM. This is a long-standing tradition at St. Margaret’s and will continue despite the pandemic, but we do require that all humans wear a face mask!
Our first broadcast of Sunday worship went fairly well – just a few minor glitches!
This will be the way until further notice and we would like to see as many of you as possible. To log in to the service at 9:20 or so go to https://zoom.us/j/3747351210 .
Instructions: On Sunday morning at 9:20 am, click on the above link. You will be taken to a Zoom invite page. Click on OPEN ZOOM.US This will get you into the meeting but be patient while it loads.
When Zoom opens you will hear a doorbell. You should see John/Chris/Elaine in the big window. If you don’t see your face in a little window on top, go to the bottom task bar and remove the red slash line through the video icon. PLEASE MUTE YOUR DEVICE BY CLICKING ON THE MICROPHONE ICON IN BOTTOM LEFT CORNER OF SCREEN (IN TASK BAR). WHEN YOU SEE A RED DIAGONAL LINE THROUGH THE ICON IT IS MUTED.
If it says “the host needs to be on line” it just means you are early and we will be opening the host window very shortly.
Following the guidelines of CDC and State recommendations that limit group gatherings to 50, and for groups of Seniors to 10, we are planning to start streaming worship services effective March 22.
More information on how this will be accomplished will be posted in the next few days.
Women from four of Belfast’s churches this week agreed to participate in a dramatic Holy Week event: a retelling of the crucifixion story titled “Women of the Passion: A Journey to the Cross.”
Women from First Church, St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, First Baptist Church and St. Francis of Assisi Church will present “Women of the Passion” on Wednesday, April 8, at 5:30 p.m. at St. Margaret’s Church.
Organized much like traditional “Stations of the Cross,” this version features narration of each station by a woman mentioned in the Bible whose life was transformed by her encounter with Jesus. Fourteen women tell of their experience of him and then describe their emotion as they witness his crucifixion.
“Women of the Passion,” written more than 20 years ago by journalist Katie Sherrod for a parish retreat in Fort Worth, Texas, has been presented in hundreds of churches across the country since then. The moving stories come from Mary Magdalene, the woman taken in adultery, the woman with the flow of blood, the widow with her mite and nine more. Three meditations begin the observance and recount the anointing of Jesus by a woman, his denial by Peter and the dream of Pilate’s wife. The readings end with Mary’s grief as a mother over the loss of her son and the peace she finds as she places him in the tomb.
All are welcome to attend this retelling of the passion at St. Margaret’s Church, 95 Court St..
