In addition to complimentary cupcakes, Communion Kits and Ashes for Ash Wednesday will be distributed in sealed packaging. You will also receive a Household Lenten Kit which includes the daily devotional “Living Well Through Lent,” an Alleluia Coloring Page, and a “Bless this Mess” Lenten Calendar. Supplies and Instructions for all materials will be included in the kit.

Ash Wednesday

Our Ash Wednesday Service will be available to watch on our YouTube Channel. You can pick up Ashes during the Fat Tuesday Drive-Thru Festival on Tuesday the 16th from 4-6pm. Directions for Imposition of Ashes at home will be given during the YouTube service.

During our Lenten Season, we will be offering opportunities to pick up Communion kits to receive during our Holy Eucharist Rite II service on our YouTube Channel. Beginning on Tuesday, February 16 from 4-6pm, Communion kits for two Sunday services will be available for pick-up at the church. Simply drive by the main office entrance and remain in your car. Please mark your calendars for the next distribution dates, if you would like to receive Communion kits:

“Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (I John 4:7-8)

The Great Belonging six-week Book Study with Rev. Cameron Randle

Author Charlotte Donlon has written a book uniquely relevant to our times. In The Great Belonging: How Loneliness Leads Us to Each Other, Donlon acknowledges that loneliness is thought to have reached epidemic proportions. This is especially true in the midst of a world pandemic. Yet Donlon argues that we can, and should, accept loneliness as a normal companion on our life journeys. Her experience as a spiritual director and writer has convinced her that loneliness is an inherent part of the human condition. We ought to encounter it with an attitude of curiosity, she posits.

In this year’s Lenten book study, we will explore five areas of belonging: to ourselves, to others, to art, to places and to God. Within each category, we’ll examine how loneliness can actually point us to a stronger understanding of what it means to belong. In her Foreward to The Great Belonging, author and Episcopal priest Lauren Winner says, “ …loneliness is a right response—an insightful response—to the ways intimacy and distance are insistently threaded together in all our lives.”

Please contact the Parish Book Store at 757-425-0114 to reserve your copy of The Great Belonging. A Zoom link will be emailed each week, providing entry to the online session.

Praise, Hearing God’s voice, Relinquishment, Forgiveness, Listening Prayer, and Lament, are six practices we will discuss and implement during this devotional study. You can register for the study by sending an email to Rev. Melody at [email protected]. Email registration is required as there is a short, 5-minute devotional reading which will be sent via email before each group meeting. Please contact Rev. Melody with any questions. A notebook or journal is recommended for the study.

This Friday (February 5) is the First Friday of the Month. First Friday Men's Breakfast will meet, as has become our custom, on ZOOM. Just click here to join the meeting (Meeting ID: 821 8176 1088; Passcode: ESC#1). Please note, I have set this as a recurring meeting so this link will be good for future breakfasts as long as we have to ZOOM. I will open the ZOOM at 7:00, our formal (?) meeting will begin at 7:30 and end no later than 8:30. We will discuss all of the goings on at church and the readings for next Sunday, which can be found here. Please try to join us. I know it is early for some, but sometimes it's good to get up a little earlier than usual once in a while. We will all be made richer by your presence.

The Community of the Gospel invites all to join in Lectio in Lent. The event is free of charge. Zoom invites will be issued to those who sign up ahead of time at this Doodle poll. Additional information may be obtained from Br. Daniel-Chad Hoffman, CG Guardian at [email protected]. See more in Episcopal News Service.

The final prayer in the Morning Daily Office is the Prayer Attributed to St. Chrysostom. It’s a beautiful and uplifting prayer; the rhythm and the message are comforting and familiar. In it Jesus’ promise in Matthew 18:20 is repeated “you have promised through your well-beloved Son that when two or three are gathered together in his Name you will be in the midst of them…”

Join us for the Daily Morning Office each morning (except Sunday) and see for yourself. Try it for a couple of days and see if you don’t feel His presence right there in front of your computer. We begin at 7:30 AM sharp and are done by 8:00 AM. It is a great way to start your day. Join us won’t you? All are invited, all are welcome! Just click here to join.

The Pantry served 412 families Saturday, as our numbers creep back up following the last federal stimulus checks in late December. Pantry guests continue to tell us how much the help with food means to them and what a difference it makes in their daily lives.

Yesterday’s mail brought good news! We received a $3,000 grant from the Phase Foundation, a grant for which we applied last year. This grant will go a long way to help us serve our community.

Did you know that many of our Saturday volunteers are teens choosing to do their required school community service hours at the Pantry? If you are a high school or middle school student needing service hours we can help. Contact Kay O’Reilly at [email protected] to sign up.

Blue-ray video disc recordings are now available of the organ recital played by Dr. Martin Sunderland on Nov. 22, 2020 at Eastern Shore Chapel. Purchases of the recital disc are $20. Please contact Dr. Sunderland, [email protected], should you wish to purchase a copy.

Thanks to all who have ordered from bookshop.org/shop/parishbookstore. The Parish Book Store made $300 from those sales (30% from each book’s purchase price). But that is not all! Because we are affiliated with bookshop.org, we earned a 10% share of its overall profits (over $10 million from books purchased through its web site) which came to $1,895! The Parish Book Store has ended this pandemic-stricken year IN THE BLACK! Please continue to order books from bookshop.org/shop/parishbookstore, and remember, we are open by appointment. Call us (757-425-0114) or email us ([email protected]) and we will set up a time to meet at your convenience.

Parish Day School is preparing for our 2021-2022 School year registration. This process opened on Feb. 1, 2021 online for our current families and church parishioners. Please contact [email protected] or call 757-491-6130 if you are interested in registering a student for preschool. 

Each morning (except Sunday) a group gathers on ZOOM to practice Daily Morning Prayer. It is lay led, each day with a different leader. Since March 25 we have had 221 services with over 800 attendees. Average attendance is 3.6 souls. Attendance has improved in December, average is 4.5 souls! Join us for a Holy Spirit filled thirty minutes – a glorious way to start your day. The service starts promptly at 7:30 am and is completed by 8:00. Click here or go to ZOOM.US and enter meeting number 562 715 368; passcode John1513. If you are more inclined, Evening Prayer is available also. ZOOM meeting number 869 9363 5805 password Ex1414. The service starts at 7:00 pm.

Join friends and teachers, by Zoom, as they meet and discuss lessons from this year’s curriculum – Feasting on the Word. Confirmation classes for students in the Senior High Class meet on the first and third Sundays of the month during the regular Sunday School hour at 9:10 a.m. Classes on the second and fourth Sundays include Lectionary based topics. To discuss formation needs or other questions, please contact Patti Glowatsky ([email protected]), Director of Family Formation:

If you would like a prayer card sent to your deployed service member please contact Bill Hunter at [email protected] or 757-402-6384. Please let Bill know if deployed military members have returned so that he can welcome them back and remove them from the deployed military prayer list. Sponsors should contact Bill with contact info for formerly deployed members.

The Chapel Chimes is distributed every Wednesday.

If you would like to submit an article to the Chapel Chimes email

please send an email to Ann Turner, [email protected],

with "CHIMES SUBMISSION" in the subject line.

Deadline is every Tuesday at 5 pm.