Good Morning from the Church Mouse
Friday, October 16, 2020
20 Pentecost, Proper 24, Year A
Sunday, October 18, 2020

please join us in the way best for you ....

Option 1

At 10:30 a.m. we will offer limited seating by reservation.

Upon arrival
your temperature will be taken
and an usher will seat you according to the reserved seating chart.

Those who are school age and above
will be required to wear a face mask at all times.
(we have extras in case you forget yours!)

A hand sanitizer station is available as you enter the church.


RSVP's are required for safety precautions.

Please notify Debi by text at 405 385 2503
We will need to know how many in your family will be attending.
Please RSVP by Noon on Friday, October 9th.


All Service Bulletins are to be removed
and trashed outside of the building
by reserved participants and altar servers.


Option 2

The Service will also be available by zoom Sunday morning.

Log into the zoom session on our webpage.

The Service bulletin is available on the website
and by clicking here.

Please print the bulletin
before the Service begins
as we cannot show the bulletin as a part of our live zoom Service.


The Altar Flowers are given to the Glory of God and in thanksgiving for Jennifer, Hilary, Edwin, Jarod, Hayden, Evelyn, and Oliver by Katie and Bob Fellows.


Our wonderful Worship Crew will be:

Rev. Mary...................................................Celebrant
Jay Boyington............................................ Lay Reader
Anna Kiespert.............. ..............................Acolyte
Dalton Parsons ...........................................Video Technology
Gerry Frank ................................................Organist
Renee & Alan Bodine .................................Altar Guild Member
Stephen Baker ............................................Pastoral Care Greeter




We are fortunate that we have the volunteers, the technology, and the support of the St. Andrew's community to allow us to worship safely.


Be safe and be well.

Rev. Mary
"Christ has no body now, but yours. No hands, no feet on earth, but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ looks compassion into the world.Yours are the feet with which Christ walks to do good. Yours are the hands with which Christ blesses the world." - Theresa of Avila
Does anyone remember Outreach?

Well, here’s an easy one.

We can set out the basket for the next few weeks at church and Jim will see to getting the goods to Our Daily Bread
who will coordinate distribution of the items. If you have any questions, please call or text Jim McCollom at 405 762 9059.

  • You can find 10oz bottles of laundry detergent (6 loads per bottle) for $1.00 at Dollar Tree.
Meridian Technology Center

Brad Rickelman, Assistant Director of Entrepreneurial Services at the Meridian Technology Center for Business Development, was recently elected to serve on the board of directors for the International Business Innovation Association (@TheInBIA).
Tiny Paws Kitten Rescue

We weren’t able to hold our spring baby shower so we are in desperate need of supplies with the influx of kittens this year has brought. So - PLEASE come OUT and support our fall fundraiser for the kittens.

IT IS ALL DRIVE THROUGH FOR COVID SAFETY. You never even have to leave your vehicle. Thank you so much from all the little lives you are saving!!
Living Compass

A Closer Listen

In the middle of a Zoom call that my wife and I recently had with some friends, I had a genuine aha moment, one that reminded me of an important lesson I had learned years ago. Knowing that my wife is an avid reader, my friends asked her what she was currently reading. She explained that she has just finished an excellent book entitled, The Housekeeper and the Professor, written by Yoko Ogawa. Our friends were curious to hear more, and so they asked her lots of follow up questions. The more questions they asked, the more details she shared. And that is when I had my aha moment.

After we ended our call, I shared my insight with my wife. I explained that I had, of course, noticed her reading the book about which she had just been talking. Until the Zoom call with our friends, though, I hadn’t known anything about the book, nor anything about how much she loved the book. The reason I didn’t know any of this was apparent. I had never asked. I had never asked her about the book itself nor about her reaction to it. Insert facepalm here.

I don’t think I am alone in what I experienced. I’m guessing that most of us have had a similar experience of learning something new about someone close to us by listening to them speak with others.

Just before the pandemic hit, Kate Murphy’s new book entitled You’re Not Listening: What You're Missing and Why It Matters was released. In it, she introduces the term closeness-communication bias, which the book explores. Here’s what she said about her preparation for writing the book:
“During my two years researching my book on listening, I learned something incredibly ironic about interpersonal communication: The closer we feel toward someone, the less likely we are to listen carefully to them”

As Murphy explains, it is easy for us to become complacent when it comes to listening to our family and friends. We may feel that we already know each other so well that there isn’t anything really new to learn about each other. On the other hand, when we interact with people we don’t know well, we will find ourselves being much more curious and attentive to what they have to say.

For most of us, the pandemic is shrinking our social network, and so we may find ourselves interacting with the same people from one day to the next. Rather than seeing this as a limitation, perhaps we could reframe it as an opportunity to get to know these people better.

I hope my aha moment will inspire you, as it did me, to take some initiative to be more curious and to listen more attentively to the people with whom you are spending so much time.

By Scott Stoner, for Living Compass
Center for Action and Contemplation

The year was 1944 and the world was holding its breath. As a second world war ravaged on, humanity was still stumbling through the wake of the previous one. It’s no coincidence that in that same year Thomas Keating entered the Trappist Order— continuing a quest to help the world learn to breathe again.
Fr. Keating answered a call to transform Christianity by reconnecting with its mystical roots. After attending Yale and Fordham University, even in the midst of uncertain health, he traveled the world— guiding monastic communities, leading workshops, recording videos, and writing countless books, articles and poetry. As he navigated life’s many ordeals, Fr. Keating never lost his passion to move contemplation back to the central experience of Christianity.
Fr. Keating helped to found the 20th century contemplative prayer movement, devoting his life to bringing Centering Prayer out of monasteries, making it available for anyone longing for union with the Divine.
Centering Prayer invites us into a realm beyond thoughts, images, and words, entering into a mysterious emptiness that appears abandoned and cavernous. Once we let go of fear and the need to control, we rest in the vastness. Only then do we see what Fr. Keating felt all along—that the emptiness already was and always is filled with the heart of God.

I have been thinking about all the people I may overlook during these difficult days. It is so easy for that to happen. As we are all distracted by the daily toll collected by the virus and as we are focused on the election process already happening around us, it is no wonder that we can look away from the people in need who are always there. So many people who live beneath the headlines. The lives of the poor continue in their struggle. Single parents keep working hard. Bullied children wake up to a familiar pain. The lonely watch the clock and the hungry search for food. If we only take a moment to look around, we see that every day we are offered an opportunity to be aware of those who need us. Even in the midst of historic events: we have the chance to change another life for the better.

The Rt. Rev. Steven Charleston,
a Native American elder, author, and retired Episcopal Bishop of Alaska.
We understand the hardship and financial stress the COVID pandemic has been for everyone. We recognize and understand, an individual can do and give only what is prudent for their circumstance. Whatever support you can give will be deeply appreciated.

You can make your offerings or contributions through Tithely , make arrangements through your bank to have a check mailed to the church, or just drop a check in the mail (P.O. Box 938, Stillwater, OK 74076).

Stay safe and God be with you.”
EYC (Episcopal Youth Community)

We welcome all youth in grades 6-12 to join us. We will begin this year meeting virtually over Google Groups.

This year for EYC is going to be a little different. With all the challenges our youth are experiencing at this time due to COVID-19, we want to create a safe space for our youth to be able to share and explore the unique challenges they are experiencing framing them in how can their faith and God’s love can help them through these unique times. We invite our youth and their parents to share with our youth ministry leaders the challenges they are facing. This will allow us as a group to explore some of the direct challenges they are facing during this very unique times.

If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to contact Stephen Baker at 405-990-0028.

Looking forward to seeing all our youth.

St. Andrew’s EYC Team
A Seed A Day

Seed of Encouragement

What you decree, SHALL BE!!! Speak over yourself... Encourage yourself... Boldly confess each day that you will not stop declaring God's promises to you! Speak what you desire until you see it manifest!!! Declare healing over your body. Declare increase, abundance and prosperity for your house. Declare supernatural favor over your life. Declare that God is restoring DOUBLE for your trouble. Declare doors of opportunity and promotion are opening for you. Declare that you are pressing toward greatness and you refuse to give up or turn back to what has been. Refuse to agree with or speak anything that is contrary to God's promises... because what you speak is what SHALL BE and what you confess is what you WILL POSSESS!!!

You will also decide and decree a thing, and it will be established for you; And the light [of God’s favor] will shine upon your ways. Job‬ ‭22:28‬
Forward Day by Day, October 16

Hugh, Nicholas, and Thomas

Ecclesiasticus 1:3
The height of heaven, the breadth of the earth, the abyss, and wisdom—who can search them out?

I’m fortunate to live within a day’s drive of two abysses: Arizona’s Grand Canyon and Wall Street, a desert pathway surrounded by vertical, towering orange walls on a well-traveled hike in Bryce Canyon, Utah.

It is virtually impossible to see Wall Street from the top of the canyon, but it takes less than half an hour’s walk—descending 500 vertical feet—to reach it. Conversely, the river at the bottom of the Grand Canyon is visible from the top, but the trail to the bottom is more than eight miles long and the elevation drops 5,000 feet.

Some think of an abyss as bottomless, but even the deepest has a floor. What is challenging is understanding the true immensity of an abyss. This is Sirach’s point. He equates an abyss with wisdom because, with both, we cannot grasp the whole. At any given time, we can only know in part. There is always more to see and learn.

MOVING FORWARD: Are you facing an abyss of sorts in your own life? Pray for God’s strength, courage, and patience to navigate through the known and unknown.

PRAY for the Church of the Province of Myanmar

Upcoming events around the Diocese

October 19 Ordination of the Rev. Lance Schmitz



November 7 Diocesan Convention
(Each of the titles below are clickable links

Digital Ministry Resources
Birthdays

October 16 - Steve Miller
October 21 - Rena Bond
October 27 - Gerry Frank
October 28 - Andie Wilber

Anniversaries