I delight in those banners that hang in our church: "Love God, Love Others, Serve the World". St Francis is doing just that during this Lenten season.

Love God. We increase our love for God by learning about the way in which God loves us. With the easing of COVID restrictions, now is the time to come back to worship or join us for our Lenten series on Wednesday evenings. We continue to live stream our 10:00 service and we hope you will join our Tuesday evening Zoom study on the Passion of Jesus. Whether live or virtually, please join us in worship and devotion.

Love Others. One of the best ways you can love your neighbor as yourself is to get vaccinated. We eased our masking restrictions in keeping with State and County guidelines, so you are no longer required to mask indoors. However, we encourage you to continue wearing a mask, particularly if you are unvaccinated. You will see that the choir continues to mask while singing and you might want to consider wearing a mask while entering and departing the church, singing, and when receiving communion. Whether you mask or not, we thank you for respecting one another in love and know that you are welcome. Thank you for keeping our community safe.

Serve the World. This last week, your Vestry authorized the expenditure of $25,000 for refugee relief in Ukraine. This money will be administered through Episcopal Relief and Development. Many of you have watched the unfolding crisis in Ukraine and we thank you for your continued prayer. This is a tangible way that we can help those in distress.

There are many other ways we can live out the words on those banners. What will you do?

Daylight Savings Time begins this weekend.

Remember to set your clocks forward one hour before you head to bed on Saturday!

Molly Young, daughter of Mark and Leslie Young will be baptized this Sunday, 13 March, in our 8:00 service. Mark and Leslie were married in our chapel and they want Molly baptized there. Welcome to the family, Molly!

During Lent, as we prepare for Easter, we will be holding a 5-week online Bible Study course that will dive into the stories of the final week of Jesus’s earthly life.

To supplement our studies, we plan to use a book by Amy-Jill Levine called "Entering the Passion of Jesus, A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week."

Anyone is welcome to join. Feel free to invite others you feel would be interested in participating. Simply email Jack Hailwood or Suellen Eslinger if you plan to attend so we can email you class handouts in advance of each session as well as the Zoom link.

More details to follow. See you all then!

6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Parish Hall.

Supper ($8 pp/$20 per family)

Enjoy fellowship and a delicious meal cooked by our Friars (Men's group).

Take an evening off from cooking and then Jerry+ will present a four-part series based on 'The Wheel'. A model for Christian living based on a balanced Christian life centered in Jesus Christ. The four dimensions are the Word, Prayer, Witness, and Fellowship.

Join us!

For many years St. Francis has participated in St. Luke's ministry to the unhoused in Long Beach. Gayle Taylor currently leads our Outreach, and has dedicated her time and energy unstintingly to this very important cause. Now she needs a back-up to help her keep the Ministry performing at its high level.

Right now, we provide 120 bagged lunches and soup at St. Luke’s on the third Saturday of the odd-numbered months of the year (January, March, May, July, September and November, for a total of six times per year).

If you think you might be interested, or just want to find out more, please contact either of our Vestry co-leaders for Outreach - Dick Briggs, or Sue Egan.

Our sixth Annual Parish-written Lenten Devotional is here.

Written by and for members of our own St. Francis community there is a daily writing for the scripture for each day in Lent.

Episcopal Relief & Development is mobilizing with Anglican agencies and other partners in order to provide humanitarian assistance to people fleeing the violence in Ukraine.

“Ecumenical and orthodox faith networks are on the ground in the border areas of Poland and Hungary,” said Abagail Nelson, Executive Vice President, Episcopal Relief & Development. “We will continue to coordinate with these networks, in order to meet the needs of people who have been displaced.”

Please pray for all those affected and if you can, click here to donate to Episcopal Relief & Development’s International Disaster Response Fund.

Note - be very careful of scams relating to Ukraine support. Even if it looks as though someone you know has contacted you by email or text message asking directly for money/gift cards etc., DO NOT send anything until you have spoken directly to them on the phone or in person to confirm they are not being impersonated by a scammer.

The annual St. Francis Rummage Sale has been scheduled for later this year and so it's time to start organizing and cleaning those cupboards and closets. We will start accepting your donations around the first week in July. As always we will need helpers all month long to sort, price, clean and display all of the wonderful treasures. Put that date on your calendar. Questions call Gloria 310-375-8916.

We offer free childcare in the nursery on the Parish Hall stage, during 10am worship; pre-K thru 5th grade—Meet in classrooms at 9:55 a.m. Children re-join their families in Church in time for Communion. Contact: Kristina Pelá.

Teens (6th-12th grades)—Meet Sundays 4:00—6:00 p.m. Contact: Wayne —901-219-6564.

8:00 a.m. - Rite I in-person worship in the Chapel, with two hymns (for those fully vaccinated). This service is not live-streamed.

10:00 a.m. - Rite II in-person worship in the main church with music. Live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube, and available for watching later.

Please contact Kristina Pelá to arrange for a Lay Eucharistic Minister to safely bring you communion.

A spiritual mind and body practice!

Parish Hall (masks must still be worn). No set fees - classes are free-will offering. Questions? Jill Fenske

Meditation, followed by a quiet time of conversation.

Excited to start again!!!

Susie Zimmerman hopes many people feel welcome to join.

Contact - Susie Zimmerman

Need someone's email, or even map directions to their home?

Go to https://servantkeeper.com/directory/sfc/login

The password is Romans12:4-5

Bookmark the link on your phone or computer and let your browser save the password and you will always be up to date with information!

We are here to do our best to help you with whatever you may need. We know circumstances can be difficult at any time. For help of any kind, or just for a Zoom or Facetime or phone call, please email or call Jerry+ .

310-594-7984

Enews is sent weekly on Thursday afternoons: email Susan with your requests.

Click here for The Episcopal News Update

Office main line - 310 375 4617

The Rev. Jerry Sather 310-594-7984

Mark Bennett 310-594-7416

Susan Marshall 310-594-8427

Elaine Mistele 310-594-8268