Full Moon Maple

Photo by: C. L. Fornari

November

By: Maggie Dietz

Show's over, folks. And didn't October do

A bang-up job? Crisp breezes, full-throated cries

Of migrating geese, low-floating coral moon.

Nothing left but fool's gold in the trees.

Did I love it enough, the full-throttle foliage,

While it lasted? Was I dazzled? The bees

Have up and quit their last-ditch flights of forage

And gone to shiver in their winter clusters.

Field mice hit the barns, big squirrels gorge

On busted chestnuts. A sky like hardened plaster

Hovers. The pasty river, its next of kin,

Coughs up reed grass fat as feather dusters.

Even the swarms of kids have given in

To winter's big excuse, boxed-in allure:

TVs ricochet light behind pulled curtains.

The days throw up a closed sign around four.

The hapless customer who'd wanted something

Arrives to find lights out, a bolted door.

A Special Invitation

Our friends at First Lutheran Church have extended an invitation to join them this Wednesday night, November 1 for a special Service for Peace.

"The service will meet at 7:00pm at the usual time for the Sacred Journey worship, but it will be focused especially on readings, prayer and music seeking God’s blessing of peace in our troubled world. We will also have Communion. If you are able, join us before at 6:00 for a Pot Luck dinner."

All Saints' Sunday Names Are Due Today!

If you would like to have someone remembered in our prayers on All Saints’ Sunday, please use our online form below and submit it no later than Noon on Wednesday, November 1. 

If you have any questions or need additional help, please contact our parish administrator, Julie Remie.

https://forms.gle/hpEyreuzZ5nDgQ1V7

Ministry Notes

Creation Care Column from Pastor Russ

Praise the Lord from the earth,

You sea monsters and all deeps;

Fire and hail, snow and clouds,

Stormy wind, fulfilling God’s word;

Mountains and all hills,

Fruit trees and all cedars;

Beasts and all cattle;

Creeping things and winged fowl...

Let them praise the name of the Lord,

For God’s name alone is exalted;

God’s glory is above earth and heaven.

    —Psalm 148



We know God through the things that God has made. The first foundation of any true

religious seeing is, quite simply, learning how to see and love what is. If we don’t know how to love what’s right in front of us, then we don’t know how to see what is. So, we must start with a stone! We move from the stone to the plant world and learn how to appreciate growing things and see God in them. In all of the natural world, we see the vestigia Dei, which means the fingerprints or footprints of God. Perhaps once we can see God in plants and animals, we might learn to see God in our neighbors. And then we might learn to love the world. The soul is prepared. The soul is freed, and it has learned how to see and how to receive and how to move in and out from itself. Such individuals might well begin to understand how to love God.

Adapted from Richard Rohr



Search Committee Corner

Plenty has happened since last month’s update. The Search Committee has completed the Parish Profile and made it available on three websites: our own, that of our Diocese of Massachusetts, and the Episcopal News Service’s. ENS also features our search on its social media outlet. Here’s the link to that posting:

https://www.facebook.com/EpiscopalNewsENS/posts/pfbid02sxgPAGCjoEGgVwmhiJkm3PgUEPF8PrzefmGqmiquyBU9cz2rkQKypyypmQJs38gwl

The Search Committee will be grateful if you could "like it" and share it, if you haven’t done so already. Producing the Profile involved a collective effort by both the entire membership of the Search Committee and other members of our church community. Vestry member Jane Martin helped to choose the photos. Melody Martin, who designs St. Mary’s website, undertook the same task for the Profile. Father Scott, the Rev. Elisabeth Tunney, our consultant, and the Rev. Kelly O’Connell, Canon for Transition Ministry, provided critical advice. Particular kudos go to Allison Bresette, St. Mary’s Communications and Community Engagement Coordinator, Parish Administrator Julie Remie, and Treasurer Barry Olofsson. Allison, helped by Julie, worked tirelessly on inputting text and illustrations into the system – doing extra proofreading along the way. Allison also designed the PDF for the Diocesan website. Barry spent several hours organizing financial material that the Diocese requires to include in and to accompany the Profile.

We have given clergy interested in our rectorship until November 16 to “discern with us”. As of October 25, a dozen had submitted their application materials. Meanwhile, we’re working on the evaluation methodology we’ll use to discern candidates. This will include criteria we’ll apply to choosing candidates who will meet with us on Zoom and the range of questions that we’ll ask them. We aim to apply the criteria in a fair and inclusive manner – by asking the same questions of each candidate whom we interview, for example. After Zoom interviews, we expect to arrange visits to the parishes of the top candidates. In light of those visits, we’ll invite the top three to Barnstable. Then we’ll determine our next rector.

If you have any questions or comments for us, you can now email them directly to our email address: search@stmarys-church.org.

Pastoral Care

Your Pastoral Care Team is sharing an informative article about the dangers of the RSV virus along with recommendations from the CDC as to whom should receive vaccinations. Click here to learn more.

Coming Events

Outreach

Garden Committee News

Fall is the busiest time of year for our Garden Committee. We are having regular Saturday morning work parties every other week throughout the Fall. All are welcome to join us!

Our next Garden Work Days:

Saturdays at 9:00 AM

November 4

November 18

A GIANT THANK YOU to the Project Forward Students and their teacher for the hard work they put in restoring the War Memorial Garden. The old woody azaleas were removed and the area is being replanted with white azaleas and mountain laurel. A wonderful accomplishment just in time for Veteran's Day. Be sure to stroll back towards the Gazebo to visit the monument.

We have been chipping away at our list of work to tackle this Fall. This is what is next on our list:

• Kitchen Garden

weed and mulch walkways

• War Memorial Restoration

Replace the diseased and woody azaleas.

Edge and mulch the area.

• Father Nicholson's Grave

Need to give this area some TLC and plant some shade loving plants.

• Daffodil Butterfly Meadow

Cut back the Joe Pye weed.

Plant about 800 new daffodil bulbs in late November or early December. We will need LOTS of helpers this planting day!