Holly in Snow

Creator of the stars of night,

your people’s everlasting light,

O Christ, Redeemer of us all,

we pray you, hear us when we call.

In sorrow that the ancient curse

should doom to death a universe,

you came to save a ruined race

with healing gifts of heav'nly grace.

When earth drew on to darkest night,

you came, but not in splendor bright,

not as a king, but the child

of Mary, virgin mother mild.

* excerpt from a 9th century Advent Hymn

Ministry Notes

Creation Care Column from Pastor Russ

Seeing the World as a Gift

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

“In the old times, when people’s lives were directly tied to the land, it was easy to know

the world as gift. When fall came, the skies would darken with flocks of geese, honking “Here

we are”. The people are hungry, winter is coming, and the geese fill the marshes with food. It is a gift, and the people receive it with thanksgiving, love and respect.

“For the greater part of human history, and in places in the world today, common

resources were the rule. But some invented a different story, a social construct in which

everything is a commodity to be bought and sold. The market economy has spread like wildfire, with uneven results for human well-being and devastation for the natural world. But it is just a story that we have told ourselves, and we are free to tell another, to reclaim the old one.

“One of these stories sustains the living systems on which we depend. One of these

stories opens the way to living in gratitude and amazement at the richness and generosity of the world. One of these stories asks us to bestow our own gifts in kind, to celebrate our kinship with the world. We can choose. If all the world is a commodity, how poor we grow. When all the world is a gift, how wealthy we become.”

Robin Wall Kimmerer is a mother, a scientist, a teacher and an enrolled member of the

Citizens Potawatomi Nation. She lives in Fabius, New York, where she is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Environmental Biology, and the founder and director of the Center for Native People and the Environment.

Search Committee Corner

The Search Committee has begun the latest phase in its task of identifying our next rector. During the past 15 months, we have overseen the CAT survey that so many parish members completed; created the Parish Profile on the basis of the CAT’s findings; and called for clergy members “to discern with us” about our vacant rectorship. By November 16, the final day for applicants to contact us, we had received expressions of interest from 23 members of the clergy. We’ve learned that this number is high for a parish of our size. Now, we have started to study the material that those applicants have provided. It consists typically of a cover letter, a CV or résumé, two sermons, and an Episcopal Church Ministry Portfolio. The latter is a document in which Episcopal priests list their experience in ministry. Just as important from our point of view, each portfolio contains its subject’s written responses to a series of queries about her or his ministry. Subjects include the individual’s specific successes, liturgical style, spiritual wellbeing, engagement in pastoral care, personal stewardship, and thoughts about the future of the church.

Before the window on applications closed, committee members had participated in a session of anti-bias training. Led by The Rev. Kelly O’Connell, our region’s Cannon for Transition Ministry, this was designed to ensure that we treat all applicants equally. Honoring that requirement, we waited until the deadline for applications had passed before inspecting any single one. Once we opened candidates’ materials, we began the first part of a multistage process that will lead us, with the Holy Spirit’ guidance, to determine whom to recommend to the Vestry as our next rector. Each committee member is scoring applications independently. We’ll agree on whom to interview via Zoom by consensus – an approach we’ll use throughout the search to determine which clergy we’ll visit in their parishes, whom we’ll invite to Barnstable, and ultimately which priest we recommend calling to St., Mary’s.

If you have any questions or comments for us, you can now email them directly to our email

address: search@stmarys-church.org.

A Note From Our Delegates

We were very honored to have Henry Ramage and Patrick Ramage serve as Saint Mary’s, delegates to the 238th Diocesan Convention of the Diocese of Massachusetts held in Danvers, MA on October 27, 2023. Please click here to read their report from the convention.

Pastoral Care

Your Pastoral Care Team is sharing an informative article about Fall prevention as we enter the winter months when driveways, steps and walkways are often treacherous. Click here to read the article entitled, Avoiding The Slip, Winter Fall Prevention.

Coming Events

Saint Mary's ~ A Community of Helpers



We want to take a moment to say THANK YOU to all of you who are the helping hands of Saint Mary's Outreach, serving in our Cape Cod Community and beyond. Whether it is through your devoted service to the operations of our church, or to Angels' Treasures Thrift Shop or, your generous donations to Rosebud, the turkey drive, the donation of time to Miracle Kitchen, our beautiful gardens, Faith Family Kitchen, supporting Veteran's, needy families and so many other ways you generously give. We see you Saint Mary's and we say;

Thank you for being God's hands in our world!

Outreach

Garden Committee News

If you get a chance, please do take a stroll through the gardens and notice all the hard work completed over time by our team of incredible volunteers, Project Forward students and professional landscapers. Things may not be in bloom but they are tidy and trimmed and in far better shape for the Spring than in a long time. Our Kitchen Garden has blueberry bushes and the walkways are lined with fresh stone to help with the swampy pathways. The playground fence has a fresh border planting of indigenous inkberry and beautiful wigellias. The Memorial Garden has been weeded and edged and cleaned up and THIS Saturday we will be planting close to 1000 bulbs, (WITH YOUR HELP WE HOPE!) The gardens are a true labor of love and we are deeply grateful to all those who are so dedicated to keeping them beautiful. Thank you all for your support!