Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields: Weekly Field Notes

The Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields

Field Notes

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Prayer List

This Week's Lectionary

For Pastoral Care

Call 215-247-7466 and leave a message. If you are experiencing a pastoral emergency text or call the Rev. Laura Palmer at 267-418-0123. Please leave your name with any message.

Have you had an address, email, or phone number update? Send Your Update here

Should you wish to have something considered for inclusion in Field Notes, requests must be submitted by Tuesday at noon to lhershey@stmartinec.org. We will review your request and determine if its contents are appropriate for Field Notes and/or Sunday Announcements. Please note that some requests may be denied due to length constraints or unsuitability.

Sunday Worship

January 5th, 2025

The Feast of the Epiphany (observed)

8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist (spoken)

In person

9:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist for Children, Youth, & Families

In person

10:30 a.m. Choral Holy Eucharist

In person

A Note from

Rev. Laura

Christmas was a joy to share at St. Martin’s and the light that burned so brightly was the culmination of many hearts and hands in our parish that came together to celebrate the birth of our savior. Our staff, our choir, and our volunteers all worked above and beyond to make Christmas as joyful as it was blessed.

During the four services we held—in less than 24 hours—we welcomed over 600 to St. Martin’s. Continue reading here.

Features

Annual Parish Financial Meeting and Special Parish Meeting, Feb. 23rd, after 10:30 a.m. service

The Vestry has set Sunday, Feb. 23, as the date for the Annual Parish Financial Meeting, a requirement of the parish bylaws. The 2025 budget and the financial health of the parish will be reviewed. The meeting will be promptly after the 10:30 liturgy.

There will also be a Special Parish Meeting that day for the purpose of voting on a set of bylaws amendments that the Vestry endorsed at its December meeting. The amendments are basically fixes and clarifications to problematic and/or conflicting clauses in the current bylaws related to election of Vestry members and the scheduling

of parish meetings. None of the changes is intended to make major changes in parish operations.

Michael Martin Mills, the Vestry’s point person on the proposed amendments, will be available Sunday, January 12, after the 10:30 liturgy to meet with any parishioners who have questions on the package of amendments. To read the proposed changes, with explanatory remarks, click the button below:

St. Martin's Bylaw Amendments

Wednesday, January 8th, 2025

Food & Fellowship, 6 p.m.

Join the Chorister families, community members, and other St. Martin's parishioners for a meal before the Adult Forum at 7 p.m. All are welcome!

Wednesday January 8th, 2025,

Adult Forum at 7p.m.

Topic: Assisted Living Choices for Older Adults with Beth Slater-Plechner

This forum will explore the different kinds of facilities that provide independent and assisted living supports. It is designed for those who are looking for assisted living choices as well as friends/family who are helping loved ones make these decisions.

Epiphany Fireside Tea & Sherry

Sundays, Jan. 12th through Mar. 2nd

4:00 - 5:30 p.m. in the Houston Room

All are invited to attend a cozy gathering beside the Houston Room fireplace complete with tea, hot chocolate, and of course, per St. Martin's tradition, sherry! If you are able, please consider bringing a treat or additional beverage to share! RSVPs are not required.

Let's Light the Way Home!

2025 Annual Giving Update

Pledges to date: $515,717

79% of goal met so far!

158 households have pledged including

21 new or returning pledges

As of today, 158 families have pledged $515,717 to support St. Martin’s mission and ministry in 2025. For those of you who have yet to make a pledge, take a moment to think about what St. Martin’s means to you. In the past, in the present, in the future. As you think of these blessings, please also think about how to nourish, extend, and increase them. Your pledge does that.

Our Annual Giving pledge goal is $650,000. About 380 families consider themselves members of St. Martin’s. We need everyone who is lifted up by belonging to St. Martin’s to participate in the Annual Giving pledge campaign. Pledges received promptly will help us firm up our 2025 budget. It’s not too late to include your family into those pledging financial support to St. Martin’s for 2025!

Children, Youth, & Families

Dear St. Martin’s Family,

On Wednesday evenings, January 15th through March 5th, Diane Pierce and I will be hosting an intergenerational knitting prayer group from 4-5:30 p.m. in the Houston Room. More details to come!

In anticipation of that group beginning, we invite all donations of yarn, knitting needles, or crochet hooks: if you have anything you aren’t using that you’d be willing to share with our group, we will happily take them.

Please drop by the Parish House in the next week or so to leave them with me (I’ll be in the office Mon-Thurs next week) or outside the Polly Randall room (Fridays & Saturdays).

May the light of Christ fill you with joy in this coming season of Epiphany.

Love,

Rev. Luke

Announcements

Celebrating The Rev. Carol Duncan

Sunday, January 5th, 2025

Please join us this Sunday after the 10:30 a.m. service for a reception to honor and celebrate The Rev. Carol Duncan who’s retiring from her role as Deacon after 12 years of faithful and dedicated service to our parish.

Carol has lovingly and faithfully served St. Martin's. It is hard to think of an aspect of our lives together that has not included her in one way or another. Many of you may not realize that as a deacon, Carol was unpaid. Please be generous in contributing to the purse we have established to honor her years of Service to St. Martin's.

We have all been immeasurably blessed by her presence among us. While she will remain as a parishioner, which softens the news of her retirement, she will be stepping back from her ministerial roles here. I have been deeply grateful to serve alongside Carol as a clergy colleague.

~ Rev. Laura+

To contribute towards Rev. Carol's purse:

Go to the Giving page of St. Martin's website: https://www.stmartinec.org/give. Click the "Give Now" button. Under the "Select Fund" drop down menu, select "Purse Gifts". Please write “Rev.Carol’s Purse” in the memo line.
Or write a check to St. Martin's with "Rev. Carol's Purse" in the memo line. Please put it in the offering plate or leave it in Lorie Hershey’s mailbox in the Parish House.

Sunday, January 19th, 2025

Welcoming The Rev. Dr. Mary Barber

Mark your calendar for January 19th, when we welcome our new rector, The Rev. Dr. Mary Barber, at our Sunday services.

Following the 10:30 a.m. service we’ll host a Welcome Reception for her in the Parish Hall. All are welcome! Stay tuned for details regarding how you might contribute. Volunteers will be needed for set-up, clean-up, serving, and contributing food. Special touches are being planned!

If you have questions, please contact Debra Roberts.

A Message from the Infectious Diseases Committee

Friends, cases of influenza are surging across the country, right on schedule. Influenza A is the dominant strain, and like all flu, can be especially dangerous for young children and older adults, whose immune systems are not as robust as younger adults’. COVID, RSV, and pertussis are all making the rounds. There are vaccines for all these diseases and your Medicine Cabinet encourages you to consider getting your shots to protect yourself and others. In addition, there is a nasty mycoplasma (bacterial) pneumonia taking hold in many areas, including Philadelphia. There isn’t a vaccine for this, but good infection hygiene — hand washing, masking, and maintaining a healthy distance from people who are showing symptoms — can help keep you safe, as with all the respiratory bugs. If you have any symptoms of infection, please take good care of yourself and others by isolating. New tests are available that can rapidly diagnose either COVID or influenza, and you might consider having some on hand. Many insurance programs cover these. Good luck and good health! If you have any questions, please contact any of us.

~ Sandy Abrams, Jim Buehler, Dick Dupuis, Lydia Ogden, Nate Pierce

Sermons

Sermon Transcript

The Rev. Laura Palmer

December 22, 2024: Fourth Sunday of Advent

Mary’s audacious “Yes,” her bold and defiant courage are invisible in the iconic and often sentimental portraits we see of her. Mary is cloaked in a flowing robe, often blue, and holding her infant son with a serene smile. She is all of that too, but there is so much more that the church has minimized, ignored, or simply written out of the story. Her purity became important, not her power nor her prophetic voice. Continue reading here.

Sermon Transcript

The Rev. Laura Palmer

December 24, 2024: Christmas Eve

We Cannot Wait

We cannot wait till the world is sane

to raise our songs with joyful voice,

for to share our grief, to touch our pain,

He came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!

Merry Christmas! Rejoice! Rejoice! “We cannot wait till the world is sane to raise our songs with joyful voice,” poet Madeline L’Engle reminds us because Christmas is here. Christ has come. Continue reading here.

Sermon Transcript

The Rev. Luke Selles

December 25, 2024: Christmas Day

“But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

I like to imagine Mary telling this story to Luke, the writer of our Gospel. That last line that "Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart" is a small window into what that strange and glorious and perhaps terrifying night might have been like. Continue reading here.

Sermon Transcript

The Rev. Carol Duncan

December 29, 2024: First Sunday of Christmas

My dear friends, this is my last sermon as your Deacon. It gives me a chance to share the heart of my faith with you. You will recognize Richard Rohr’s influence. Before that, when I was in my early 20s, I was blessed to have Father Dennison as Rector of my church in Ohio. He frequently told friends that he was always late because he always enjoyed where he was so much. He practiced, in the late 60s, the ministry of presence. His lifestyle of loving his neighbor, all his neighbors, formed the foundation of my faith life. Continue reading here.