Dear Friends,
It has been a busy summer at St. Paul. In addition to our usual summer activities, we began a construction renovation project on the education wing in July. This is a major overhaul of the building which we have been planning for the last several years. If you haven’t been by the church to see the new windows, new siding going up, scraping and painting of the whole church, please come by. It’s wonderful to see what is happening. The new windows let in much more light, and they are easy to use!
Robin Carlo, our new Assistant for Family Ministry and Outreach, has been working and planning this summer. We are excited to announce that Rally Day will be on September 15th. In a departure from past years, we are meeting at 9:15 a.m. on Sundays. Our theme this fall is Creation. Many churches have begun using these lovely autumn Sundays as a time to focus on creation in their classes and worship.
The Yard Sale was lovely and successful, even in the midst of our construction project. It was smaller in terms of items for sale, as we did not have rummage sales this year. But the crowd was delightful, a steady stream of shoppers, who enjoyed delicious food, found bargains, and chatted with neighborhood friends and visitors. Our thanks to Yard Sale organizers.
This spring, we decided to form a new peace and justice group. We’ve had one in the past, focused on racism from 2015-2018. The group wanted to study Pope Francis’ Laudato Si this summer, and met on the beach, when the weather permitted to read and discuss the Pope’s powerful encyclical on the climate crisis and our response as followers of Jesus. The group will continue to meet this fall, focused on care for creation and climate change.
We have a new organizer for our Open Door/Cape Ann Food Pantry commitment to provide meals four times a year. One of the evenings was in late July, and as always, our beef stew was a hit. Thank you to all who made that possible.
In late August, I participated in an annual ecumenical and interfaith arts camp, Cape Ann Arts Alive, held at St. John’s Episcopal Church. This year our theme was the 400th anniversary of Gloucester, which is coming in 2023. The children come from all over Cape Ann, some as far away as Cambridge. The program is funded by grants from the Episcopal Diocese, and other cultural associations.
Much more has happened of course. These are some of the highlights. We look forward to worship returning to 10:00 a.m. next week, September 1st. There is a month left of summer–and we hope you enjoy it.
Pastor Anne