The Weekly News
December 21, 2017
|
|
Fourth Sunday of Advent
Saturday, December 23, 2017
5:00 pm
Pres
ider:
Jim Schratz
Homilist:
Jim Schratz
Readers:
Art Maines, Karen Diehl
Eucharistic Ministers:
Mary Jordan, Suzanne Schloemann, Mary Ellen Kruger
Sacristan:
Lorraine Tiffin
Location:
204 East Lockwood, 63119
|
|
Sunday, December 24, 2017
9:00 am
Presider:
Jim Schratz
Homilist:
Jim Schratz
Location:
Mead Center, 1
7 Selma Avenue, 63119
|
|
Vigil of Christmas
Sunday, December 24, 2017
5:00 pm
Pres
ider:
Frank Krebs
Homilist:
Frank Krebs
Readers:
Joey Leible, Therese Gabriel
Eucharistic Ministers:
Mary Ellen Kruger, Mary Jordan, Mallory Rusch
Location:
Leible's house, 830 Craig Forest Lane 63122
|
|
Christmas Day
Monday, December 25, 2017
10:00 am
Readings:
Is 9:1-6; Ti 3:4-7; Lk 2:15-20
Pres
ider:
Kay Schmitt
Homilist:
Kay Schmitt
Reader:
Sue Self
Eucharistic Ministers:
Barbara Harris
Location:
Mead Center,
17 Selma Avenue, 63119
|
|
Performance Review Feedback Cards
The Parish Council would like to receive parishioners' feedback to assist in the annual performance reviews of SCF staff -- Frank, Jim, Kay and Ann. This helps to ensure that the reviews are meaningful and reflect the insight of our members. Accordingly, we ask that you return your completed feedback cards this weekend at Mass and deposit them in the box on the Welcome Table.
|
|
Budget Convocation
Saturday, January 13, 2018
4:15 pm
The SCF Finance Committee and Parish Council will do a brief presentation of our 2018 budget. It will be held before Mass on Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 4:15 pm. We will meet in the Fireside Room at church. Everyone is encouraged to attend and we hope to be able to answer all questions.
|
|
Open Parish Council Meetings
The monthly meetings of the Parish Council are open to all SCF members. The Council meets on the
third Wednesday of each month at 6:45 pm
in one of the Peace UCC classrooms. If you have a question for the Parish Council or just want to learn how it operates, you are encouraged to attend a meeting.
|
|
Monday, January 1, 2018
1:00 pm
Therese & Judy’s
7236 Southwest Avenue 63143
Please bring an appetizer or snack to share.
Extra parking at Schlafly’s next door.
Please rsvp 314.607.7087 or 314.839.2225
|
|
Mark your calendars now!
Saturday, January 20, 2018
3:45 pm in the Fireside Room
Talk by Tracey Howe-Koch from Interfaith Power and Light about why global warming is a justice issue and why caring for our environment is a faith issue.
Saturday, February 10, 2018
Join the Green Team in viewing the movie "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. Attend First Saturday appetizers/cocktails (on the 2nd Saturday!) after Mass followed by the showing of the movie.
|
|
The Kiva Club extended a loan last August to the San Pablo Group in Peru.
One of the members is Señora Aurelia. She is 50 years old and has a partner and three children. She works in her business of raising fruits. She has a plot of land where she raises bananas, coffee, mandarins, and oranges. She is an enterprising and hard-working person who through her business is raising her family. Her dream is to expand her cultivated land. She applied for the loan to buy seeds and fertilizers.
The other members have animal sales, agriculture, a grocery store, and fruit sales businesses.
Señora Aurelia expressed gratitude to those who have helped her realize her dream, and she promises to make the payments on her account on the established schedule.
This loan focuses on isolated rural populations in the under-served Andean mountain communities and especially targets women, providing zero interest loans. The local Peruvian lending group, which Kiva partners with, is able to make long, costly trips to the isolated rural borrowers who need help most.
|
|
Social Justice Books and Movies
The voting results are in! The two movies receiving the most votes are Poverty, Inc. (2016) and The Brainwashing of My Dad (2015). We anticipate having movie nights to view and discuss these movies in May and August, respectively. The three books receiving the most votes are Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi by Richard Rohr OFM (2014), A New Garden Ethic: Cultivating Defiant Compassion for an Uncertain Future by Benjamin Vogt (2017) and We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2017). We plan to engage the first book during Lent, and the other two in the summer and the fall, respectively. Further details to be announced later.
Should you wish to on your own view/read the other great movies and books that were nominated, here they are.
Movies:
13th (2016), Before the Flood (2016), Food Inc. (2008), Hidden Figures (2016).
Books:
Dear White Christians: For Those Still Longing for Racial Reconciliation by Jennifer Harvey (2014), Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman (first published 1949), Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way by Walter Wink (2003), Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann (2017), Small Great Things: A Novel by Jodi Picoult (2016), Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson (2017), The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (2015), The Madhouse Effect: How Climate Change Denial Is Threatening Our Planet, Destroying Our Politics, and Driving Us Crazy by Michael Mann and Tom Toles (2016), The Underground Railroad: A Novel by Colson Whitehead (2016), UnPoverty: Rich Lessons from the Working Poor by Mark Lutz (2010), When We Rise: My Life in the Movement by Cleve Jones (2016).
Please mark your calendar for our first movie, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power (2017) which will be shown after Mass on Saturday, February 10.
Any questions about this may be directed to Clarence Heller at
[email protected]
or 314.258.9066.
|
|
Communal Work of Service Opportunity: Karen House
Karen House (the Catholic Worker house) is in need of people to cook dinner. Make dinner at your house and bring it, bring food to cook at the house, or cook the food provided by the house according to their meal plan. There are 30 people for dinner every night at 6:00 pm. Cooking is a great option for groups of 3 to 6 people. In the past, this was an on-going work of service for the SCF Community, and it could be again if there is sufficient interest in serving in this way. If interested, please contact Clarence Heller at
[email protected]
(also indicate whether you would be willing to help organize this activity). More info regarding Karen House at
http://newsite.karenhousecw.org
.
|
|
Homilies
Hear Frank Krebs' homily from December 16:
The text of archived homilies can be found
here
.
|
|
The Caring Ministry at Sts. Clare & Francis brings the loving presence of God, through a caring companion on the journey, when life is difficult. When we find ourselves struggling with illness, grief, depression, relationships, stress, the Caring Ministry is a supportive and listening presence - not counseling or problem solving. Don't go it alone; contact Sue Self or one of our priests to find out more, and see if it's a fit for you. We want to care for you.
|
|
The Sts. Clare & Francis Prayer list is available for you to share prayer requests from you to your sisters and brothers who are walking this faith journey with you. Praying for one another when there are specific needs is one of the greatest ministries we can provide to one another. But, we cannot pray for events and happenings that we do not know about. Please share your prayers requests with the community. You can be as specific or general as you would like. Contact
Jim Schratz
with all prayer requests.
|
|
Parish Office Hours
The Sts. Clare & Francis Office, [483 E Lockwood Ave, Ste. 3, Schultz Hall (Door B) – Eden Theological Seminary, Webster Groves, MO 63119] will be open each week on Mondays, from 10:00 am – 1:00 pm and Thursdays from 1:00 – 4:00 pm. Although someone is here more often than that, I am in and out much of the time. So I am making a concerted effort to have posted hours to be more available to people who might want to drop by.
Thanks!
Jim
|
|
Grief and Resilience for Challenging Times
Saturday, January 13, 2018
9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Cost: $45
Wondering how to deal with your anxiety about 2018? The Work that Reconnects is a set of dynamic group work and grief work practices which empower us to respond creatively to world crises and cultural trauma rather than feeling overwhelmed, isolated, or paralyzed by fear. As we honor our pain, we transcend the cultural story of separation and re-discover our innate connections with each other and all of life, as well as the self-healing power of this magnificent planet which seeks to source us. These processes developed by Joanna Macy support activist and all caring people to become well-resourced agents of change.
Join Caroyln Griffeth as she guides us through grief to resilience in these challenging times.
|
Deep Tides: A Morning Dive into Music, Movement, and Meditation
Saturday, February 17, 2018
9:30 a.m. – noon
Cost: $32.23
Poetry is the ancient language of human culture, the language of myth and hymn and story from earliest times.
Something in the rhythm, musicality and symbolic imagery of a poem invites us to touch into the deeper places of the heart, drops us into a more intimate space with ourselves, and there we may find the mother tongue of our souls.
A poem can be medicine as well as an ally and wisdom teacher to sail with us through troubled seas.
You don’t have even have to like poetry to find this Dive into poems a deeply transforming process.
Over the course of the morning’s Dive into Music and Poems, you will be invited to immerse yourself. to allow the tidal wash of music, movement, meditation, and poetry take you into an energized, restful and transformative space. During this process you can let yourself sink deeper into the flow of sound and poetry as into a mythic sea. Nothing is required of you. As we re-surface from the depths onto solid ground again, the group will be offered the opportunity to do a little journaling, and to share anything about the experience they would like. All is entirely voluntary.
Wendy Sarno
has been serving as a spiritual guide for many years. She leads retreats and workshops on a variety of topics designed to nourish the soul and lead toward greater wholeness. She is a founding associate with woman’Space. Much of her work with groups involves the use of writing to facilitate the collecting of individual stories and aid in spiritual exploration. She is a devoted initiate in Kim Rosen’s Poetry Depths Mystery School. Her greatest joy is working with others as they allow a poem to open and reveal the deepest language of soul. Wendy recently published her first book Writings from Wild Soul available at
Blurb.com.
Suggested reading: Saved By a Poem, Kim Rosen
.....
|
Tree House
Prayer Circles
First Wednesday of the month
7:00 - 8:30 pm
Sts. Clare & Francis Ecumenical Catholic Community
204 E. Lockwood Avenue
Webster Groves, 63119
Third Wednesday of the month
1:00 - 2:30 pm
Library Headquarters
East Room
St. Louis County Library
1640 S. Lindbergh Boulevard
Frontenac, MO 63131
|
|
random sightings
wisdom...reflection...insight...amusement
|
|
To look with the eyes of a child
To fully be in the moment
To be fully engaged with what is present in the now
To look with eyes full of wonderment
As if beholding it all for the first time
Victoria Mattal
|
|
Parish Council News
To see Parish Council meeting minutes or the Parish Constitution and Bylaws, click the appropriate link:
Members
(click name to contact by e-mail)
:
|
|
Finance Committee
Members
(click name to contact by e-mail)
:
|
|
Ecumenical Catholic Communion
ECC Financials
ECC Midwest Partner Communities
Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Chicago, Illinois
Little Rock, Arkansas
Tulsa, Oklahoma
|
|
All Saints ECC
Our Mission Church
We meet at:
Trinity United Church of Christ
47 North Douglas Avenue
Belleville, IL 62220
Our Metro East ECC Mission Church meets every Sunday at 9:30
am.
Our chapel is in the lower level of Trinity UCC.
Directions from St. Louis:
Hwy. 64 East to Exit 12;
RIGHT onto #159/IL St. Continue 5 miles to Douglas Ave.
(railroad crossing)
LEFT on Douglas Ave. to church.
For information, contact:
Rev. Frank Krebs (314.740.1160) or Rev. Kay Schmitt (314.620.9511). Contact Kay if you wish to ride with her.
All are welcome.
|
|
General Info
The
Parish Office
is located at Eden Theological Seminary, 483 East Lockwood, Suite 3, St. Louis, MO 63119.
Frank
or
Jim
are available for appointments. You can also reach Frank at 314.740.1160 or Jim at 314.896.0125.
To Schedule Meetings at Peace UCC:
Contact Kelly, the church secretary, to get it on their calendar.
314.968.1727
Matthew 25
The Matthew 25 Fund helps members in our community who need financial assistance. All information concerning the people with whom we work is held in the strictest confidence. If you would like to contribute to this fund, make your check payable to Matthew 25, and place it in the collection basket. If you need assistance from the fund, contact
Peggy Montgomery
.
We have a
SafeChurch Policy
to protect our children and other vulnerable populations
.
|
|
The Sts. Clare & Francis
Lands’ End Store
In partnership with Lands’ End, you can now purchase clothing and other items embroidered with the Sts. Clare & Francis logo (below). Just follow the link above. If you have any questions, please contact
[email protected]
.
|
|
Fundraising
Please keep our Schnucks E-Scrip fund raiser in mind when you shop. If you don't already have an E-Scrip card, please call Marilyn Tenholder (314.323.1467) and she will get one to you. There is no charge and all you have to do is activate it by either a phone call or by going online. Simply show the card when you check out and a percentage of your purchase cost will be rebated back to Sts. Clare & Francis. Thank you!!
|
|
Sts. Clare & Francis offers information about other organizations and activities that we feel is useful or relevant to our members and to the public. As an Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3) organization, Sts. Clare & Francis is required to abide by certain rules. Sts. Clare & Francis is prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Sts. Clare & Francis is also prohibited from devoting a substantial part of its activities to attempting to influence legislation. As a result of these rules, we do not specifically endorse these organizations or activities nor do they specifically represent the views of Sts. Clare & Francis, to the extent that doing so would jeopardize Sts. Clare & Francis' standing as a Section 501(c)(3) organization.
|
|
If you have an item that you wish to submit for publication in the Weekly News, please send it to
Steve Campbell
no later than noon on Wednesday of the week you would like it to appear. If you cannot send an e-mail, you may call or text Steve at 314.603.9991.
|
|
Sts. Clare & Francis ECC
Church
: 204 East Lockwood Avenue | St. Louis | MO|63119
Office
: 483 East Lockwood Ave. | Suite 3 | St. Louis | MO | 63119
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
