October 9, 2025

Our Capital Campaign,

"Rejoice and Blossom!"

Rejoice & Blossom!

Week 4 Invitation to Reflect & Share

We are eagerly anticipating the launch of our "Rejoice & Blossom" Capital Campaign at St. Mark’s on Saturday, November 1, 2025. In preparation for this big event, we are inviting each person in the St. Mark’s community to witness, reflect, respond to, and share the extraordinary things God is already doing within and among us, here at St. Mark’s and in every aspect of our lives. 

Please open your heart and respond to this week’s prompt digitally (using the link below) or manually (using the space provided in Sunday’s worship bulletin insert)

…a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Holy Way…

Who or what in your life helps you travel the Holy Way?

Click here to share your response to this week's (Week 4) reflection prompt!

 Art by Donnel Miller-Mutia

Click here to view the "Rejoice & Blossom!" Reflection Slideshow, Week 3

featuring community responses to the last week's community reflection question about JOY!

YOU'RE INVITED!

In 3 weeks we celebrate the launch of congregational fundraising for the renewal of our beloved church building. Our parish-wide Capital Campaign Kick-Off Fiesta is Saturday, November 1, and begins at 5:00 p.m. with a reception followed by a catered dinner and live music in a BIG tent in the West parking lot.

We look forward to your RSVP, so please scan the invitation QR code (above) or click here by Sunday, October 26. Click here to print a copy of the invitation. Contact capitalcampaign@stmarksabq.org with your questions.

WEST ADDITION TOURS

Q&A tours of the proposed West Addition will be offered immediately after Sunday services October 12, 19, and 26.



Assemble at the West Addition table in the Narthex. All are welcome!

The Capital Campaign contractor selection team has selected Hart Construction to provide construction services for the St. Mark’s

building renewal project. Hart Construction is familiar to many as the general contractor for Albuquerque’s iconic Sawmill Market, the popular 34,000-square-foot food hall, outdoor gathering place, and community gathering space. 

Widening the Welcome Prayer Meeting

Wednesdays on Zoom

7:30-8:00 PM

Join us for 30 minutes every Wednesday evening as we spiritually anchor the exciting work of St. Mark's building renewal and capital campaign in our larger spiritual goal of "Widening the Welcome to the Way of Love" at St. Mark's. This 30 minute gathering includes song, silence, prayer, and scripture reflection. All are welcome! This is the Widening the Welcome Prayer Meeting Zoom Link, and it stays the same every week. 

Whether or not you can join us on zoom on Wednesdays, we encourage you to spend time holding this project in prayer each week. You can access our Widening the Welcome Prayer Slides at any time. The slides include core prayers and scripture passages, as well as weekly scripture passages, and recordings of short, weekly spiritual reflections from Marcel Varoz (a new "Word from Marcel" is added each week!). Questions? Contact Mother Sylvia, or Stephanie & Marcel Varoz. 

Book Club

Saturday, November 1, 2025, 10:00 AM

Saint Mark’s Library

Book: You Dreamed of Empires 

By:Álvaro Enrigue, Natasha Wimmer (Translator)

Click here to read more but the book.

Contact Harrison Higgins if you have questions, or to RSVP.

Celebrating St. Mark's Artists

Taylor Spence

Artist Statement

I tell stories in my painting about what I have seen and experienced, what I imagine and have felt, and also what I have discovered in historical research. Style-wise I move around and

between post-impressionism, expressionism, social realism, and American magical expressionism (for want of a better term), but I am still figuring out my own painting language.

I love Charles Burchfield and Vincent Van Gogh above all other painters, but I also love George Innes, J. W. M. Turner, Joan Snyder, Emily Carr, and Kerry James Marshall. I think paintings need to be about something. Besides painting pictures, I also create murals. As a muralist, I aim to tell stories with images that serve to teach and also reconcile people to our shared American past. In 1993, I painted a historical mural about the Chinese Massacre of 1885 for the Community Fine Arts Center of Rock Springs, Wyoming. In 1999 I created a mixed-media fresco mural for World Trade Center

1 in New York City called Radio Tower. In 2012, In 2020 I created a large-scale mural about the history of information technology in New Mexico called Can You Hear I.T.? for the University of New Mexico.

The All Media Exhibit Will Be in The Library Until December 27th

Conversations On Retirement

Starts Monday November 10^th 9:00-10:30

Have you recently retired or planning to retire soon? Are you retired and working at finding a new rhythm and purpose? Would you like to have somewhere to talk about the 2^nd half of life with others in a supportive community that won’t try to tell you what to do?

St. Mark’s is beginning a Retirement Conversation Group that will meet once a month on the 2^nd Monday of the month from 9:00-10:30 am for coffee/tea, snacks and conversation in the St. Mark’s Library. We’ll plan monthly topics and do some reading together to help inform our conversation and enliven our thinking around retirement. This will be a safe place of support and encouragement for this important part of life’s journey.

Interested? Contact David Doolittle daviddoolittle@comcast.net and Fr. Christopher christopher@stmarksabq.org

October Youth Event

🎃 McCalls Pumpkin Patch🎃

Sunday October 19, 2025, 1:00 - 4:00 PM

Backup Plan:

If there is inclement weather, then we will go to

Cool Springz Trampoline park

1:00 - 3:00 PM

IMPORTANT DATES

GROW

Groups & Classes for All Ages

"Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship,

in the breaking of the bread and in the prayers?"

- Book of Common Prayer

SUNDAY MORNINGS @ 11:15AM

FOR ADULTS

(Not Just for) Newcomers Class (Stoney Chapel)

Sunday, October 12

This Week's Topic: History of the Anglicanism

FOR YOUTH

Kids (ages ~3-8): Godly Play 

Sunday, October 12

This Week's Lesson: 10 Best Ways

Tweens (ages ~8-11): Art & Bible

Young Teens (ages ~12-14): Holy Troublemakers 1

Older Teens (ages ~14-18): Holy Troublemakers 2

OTHER GROUPS AND CLASSES

Bible Study: Every Thursday at Noon (Library)

This Month's Topic: The Gospel of Luke, First Nations Version, Chapters 10-12

Parenting Group

Thursday, October 16, at 5:30 pm

Eldering Group

Sunday, October 18, at 9:30 am

STEPPING STONES

Community doesn't just "happen". Healthy communities depend on the intentional investment of time, energy, and effort by each individual. Each week we share a specific practice, or "Stepping Stone" that each one of us can take towards building a healthy, welcoming, vibrant community of belonging at St. Mark's. 

Widening the Welcome

This Week’s Stepping Stone: PRONOUNS

For the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

(1 Samuel 16:7)

Perhaps at some point you have been gathering for introductions in a group and felt resistant (or, more likely, just confused) when the leader invited you to introduce yourself by sharing your name and your pronouns.  

The human person is a profound and holy mystery. We know that every human person is a beloved child of God, created in God’s own image, fearfully, wonderfully, and uniquely made to reveal God’s love and glory in the world. But there is so much we do not know…. about one another, and about ourselves, for that matter!

We make assumptions about other people all day long. Many of these assumptions are based on appearances. But, as the Lord reminds Samuel in the verse above:  “The Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

One aspect of personal identity about which we often make assumptions based on outward appearances is gender. When a person shares their pronouns with us, they are inviting us to take a step to know them more deeply–to move beyond “outward appearances” and begin to “look on the heart”, as God does.  

For example, 

• If someone introduces himself with “He/Him” pronouns, he is probably sharing with you the knowledge that his gender identity is male.
• If someone introduces herself with “She/Her” pronouns, she is probably sharing with you the knowledge that her gender identity is female. 
• If someone introduces themselves with “They/Them” pronouns, they are probably sharing with you the knowledge that their gender identity is non-binary. 

Using the pronouns that a person shares with us enables us to demonstrate respect, love, and care for that person when we are speaking about them, just as using the name a person shares with us enables us to demonstrate respect, love, and care for that person when we are speaking to them.  

It is understandable to feel confused when someone introduces themselves in a way that is contrary to some assumption you made about them. It is normal to feel frustrated when learning to think, perceive, or use language in new ways as an adult. In general, the most loving and wise approach to sharing or processing your feelings of confusion, resistance, or frustration is in the context of a one-on-one conversation with a trusted friend, colleague, mentor or clergy-person. When you voice your struggles in a group setting you risk unintentionally harming or alienating members of the group whose personal vulnerabilities are likely unknown to you. 

We all make mistakes–especially when we’re learning something new. It is not uncommon to occasionally forget people’s pronouns–just as it is not uncommon to forget people’s names from time to time. When it happens, you don’t need to freak out, or beat yourself up, or avoid that person for all time, or call your priest to request an emergency confession. You just need to say something like, “I’m sorry, can you remind me of your name?” or “I’m sorry, can you remind me of your pronouns?” or just “I’m sorry. Let me try that again.” 

We need not–indeed, we cannot– fully understand or identify with any other person’s life and experience. Nevertheless, we can choose to sacrifice the comforts of pride and habit, we can choose to embrace the challenges of humility and change, and we can choose to strive to use one another’s names and pronouns in ways that support the deepening of our shared identity as Children of God, and our shared experience of belonging and belovedness.

DID YOU KNOW?

FAQ’s about Worship at St. Mark’s

THIS WEEK’S TOPIC: WHAT IS THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH ?

As the only U.S.-based member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, The Episcopal Church is part of the world’s third-largest group of Christians and currently has more than 1.5 million members.

While The Episcopal Church is headquartered in New York City, we are not a national church—we are a multinational denomination. The Episcopal Church welcomes all who worship Jesus Christ and comprises 106 dioceses and one mission area across 22 countries or territories.

We are denominational descendants of—and partners with—the Church of England and the Scottish Episcopal Church. 

The mission of the church, as stated in the Book of Common Prayer’s catechism, is “to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.” In step with that mission, The Episcopal Church follows Jesus into loving, liberating, and life-giving relationships with God, with each other, and with the earth. 

We are the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement.

As Episcopalians, we believe in and follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection saved the world. 

The Episcopal Church embraces a legacy of inclusion, aspiring to tell and exemplify God’s love for every human being; people of all genders and sexual orientations serve as bishops, priests, and deacons in our church. Laypeople and clergy work together in leadership and governance. We believe that God loves you – no exceptions.  

• For more on our Core Beliefs, click here.
• For a timeline of the History of the Episcopal Church, click here.  

SERVE

"Christ has no body but yours, no hands, no feet on earth but yours. 

Yours are the eyes with which God looks compassion on this world....

Yours are the hands with which God blesses all the world." 

Our Weekend to Serve the Homeless

On Saturday, October 11 at 11:00 AM, we will be packing lunches. On Sunday, October 12 at 1:15 PM, we will proceed with set-up, serving lunches, and engaging with the homeless. Bagels and cream cheese will be included as an additional snack to accompany our lunches, which require additional preparation. Michael has purchased a bagel cutter to help streamline the process.

An Update

Sherry and I met with Dean Kristi of St. John’s Cathedral to learn about Church Unbound, which operates as a chapter under the Cathedral's supervision and reports its service numbers to the parochial report. Dean Kristi expressed pride in the program. We shared our July study on participation, volunteers, food, and donations, which she very much appreciated and noted St. Marks was well organized. She also confirmed that Mother Chloe will retire in the spring after a benefit concert by the Cathedral Choir. We offered to assist with the transition.

Halloween Treats Once Again!

Purchased cellophane Halloween bags will need to be stuffed with candy treats Sunday, Oct. 26 during coffee hours. Can we count on you?

We do need the treats! Wrapped candy will do. Look for the labeled tub.

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest-time, if we do not give up.

VIGIL IN ESTANCIA FOR PEOPLE HELD IN TORRANCE COUNTY DETENTION FACILITY 

Please join the Dignity Not Detention - New Mexico coalition for a vigil honoring the people detained at the Torrance County Detention Facility in Estancia, NM. We will be gathering on Saturday, October 11, at 11:00am at Arthur Park in Estancia, where we will listen to testimonies from detained individuals and advocates for immigrant justice. The vigil will end at approximately 1:00pm. If you have questions, please contact Tiffany Wang at tiffany@innovationlawlab.org. If you cannot, please consider devoting this time to prayer for those detained or living in fear of arrest and detention. Please contact Elizabeth Williams

 (elizabeth.williams1915@gmail.com) with any questions.



Click here for Bishop Michael Hunn and the Diocese's most recent videos.

Letter from Sarah Shipman on the work ahead for Episcopal Migration Ministries

Dear friends,

As Christians, our faith is shaped by the biblical story of people whom God led into foreign lands to escape oppression. For 40 years, The Episcopal Church has expressed this faith in action through Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM), one of a handful of organizations partnering with the United States federal government to resettle refugees. In that time, we were blessed to serve nearly 110,000 newcomers of 87 nationalities. Read more.

An Evening with

Senator Cory Booker and Jon Meacham at Washington National Cathedral

Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith welcomes Canon Historian Jon Meacham and U.S. Senator Cory Booker for a discussion on the moral foundations of democracy, the challenges of our time, and the role of faith in shaping public life. All are welcome to join us in-person or online for an inspiring evening of conversation and reflection as we explore the intersection of faith, public life, and the future of democracy in America.

Download event program →

tickets In-Person |  Livestream

‘A Better Way’ Initiative

This event is part of the Cathedral’s ongoing “A Better Way” initiative—a series of programs designed to help Americans live together, learn from each other, and chart a path forward in these polarized times.

GIVE

USEFUL LINKS