April 15, 2021
St. Paul's Episcopal Church

This Week's News Highlights

Our Service This Week

Holy Eucharist on Facebook and for those in person will be at 8:30AM on Sunday. See below for how to attend by either mode of participation.
Important Visitors. Important Decisions. Time for Prayer

St. Paul's had several visitors in the past two weeks, but alas, we're only able to show a photograph of one of them.

Among the others were two candidates for rector and their spouses. After several very intense days of meetings, briefings and discussions, members of the search committee are left with a momentous choice. The committee will meet early next week, to try and reach a consensus and potentially choose a person to whom to extend a call.

Both are strong candidates and nobody should envy the Search Committee in weighing the matter. Please pray for discernment and wisdom as we enter this critical stage.

Power Grid Blues

If you usually attend services via Facebook Live on Sunday you were forced to miss last week. We are sorry for that. A power outage affected the church fifteen minutes before the service began and ended just as the service ended. With no Internet or power it was not possible to broadcast the service.

God willing, we will be back on Facebook this Sunday at 8:30AM.

Restoring and Preserving St. Paul's One Brick At A Time

A new set of bricks, representing love, remembrances and faith as expressed by parishioners, was recently set in the Memorial Garden. (The latest grouping is pictured.) Please consider joining in this project. You can order your brick(s) here.

Proceeds help preserve our iconic church and grounds for future generations.
Sunday's Service

Join us Sunday for Holy Eucharist at 8:30AM. Sign up in advance to attend in person or join us on Facebook.

To join via Facebook, go to the church Facebook page at the appropriate time and look for the window showing that "St. Paul's Key West is now live". Click on the window. (You may need to refresh the page a few times if the "live" window does not appear promptly at the appointed time.)

Did you know you DO NOT need to have a Facebook account to view the service or visit our Facebook page? Simply use the Facebook page link to go directly to our Facebook page (even if you don't have your own Facebook account). Follow the directions above.

You can open or download the bulletin for the Sunday service here.

To attend a Sunday service please send an email to info@stpaulskeywest.org indicating the following information:

  • Your name and the names of any family or household members who will attend with you.
  • Your email address
  • Your cell phone number

Email is greatly preferred, but reservations can also be made by calling the church office at 305-296-5142. If nobody answers please leave a message with the information.

(Walk-ins will be accommodated if space allows but please pre-register whenever possible.)
Junior Warden's Report
By Greta Philips-Ford
This week's report will be short as we have all been very busy with the visits of rector candidates in the past two weeks, plus our Saturday volunteer efforts.

For the first time in many years, our historic rectory hosted potential St. Paul's rectors for a total of six nights.

Volunteers will again gather at the church this Saturday from 9AM until 11AM to continue the work of maintaining our campus. This is a real way you can contribute, so please consider joining us.
As an example of some of the ongoing work, Ken Bagge and Ed Hinkle are pictured with the gingerbread woodwork for the historic rectory porch.

Tim McCoy, Sonny McCoy's grandson, cut the pieces. It really does take a community to maintain our heritage.
Senior Warden's Report
By Ray Warren

Proud of What We Are

Excited About Where We Are Going

We have an incredible congregation. I was so proud that the candidates for rector who came to our campus in the past two weeks found a well organized three days of meaningful interactions and events. The planning alone was awesome.

The candidates found a well maintained church campus and an eager congregation ready to move forward and resume fuller congregational life when conditions permit.

So many people were involved that it is impossible to name or thank them all properly. I just know this. Things happened on schedule. The historic rectory looked as good as a building of that age ever could. The memorial garden was beautiful.

I didn't make it happen. Our incredible Search Committee made it happen. Our volunteer sexton (Ken Bagge and his helpers) made it happen. Our Junior Warden (Greta Philips-Ford) made it happen. There were literally several dozen or more people involved and we should all be proud.

Special thanks to all Search Committee members.

Co-chairs Lilla Whiteside and Bruce Hagemann have an amazing team in Donald Curry, David Eyer, Susanne Woods, Clare Keller, Kyle Campbell, Tiffany Hendry, and Lisa Laskow. I watched almost every one of them work tirelessly over a two week period. Indeed, I don't think many realize what a time commitment the whole process involves.

They are an amazing group of leaders.

- - -
Our administrator Lisa McCarthy will be back this week. Please bear with her as she catches up with a bit of a backlog. Volunteers can't replace a hard working professional. And bear with me as I catch up on some deferred correspondence.

- - -
I was very pleased that we were able to obtain appointments for a family of three at Winn Dixie this coming week for Covid-19 vaccinations.

If you need assistance setting up and appointment, please contact the office (info@stpaulskeywest.org or 305-296-5142). The sooner we can reduce the range for variants to arise, and strive toward herd immunity, the sooner we can return to more normal activities as a community.
Help Make a Difference!

Here's a chance to provide a valuable medical service.

You can lower your senior warden's blood pressure by going online right now and memorializing what you already intend to do this year for St. Paul's. Coming up with pithy graphics to encourage participation in our annual pledge campaign is stressful. 😉

Your help in getting rid of this particular box in the newsletter is greatly appreciated. And deepest thanks to the 35 families who are already on board.

You can find more information and enter your pledge here. Please help us get to our goal and put an end to these pesky reminders.
Contacts:

Sr. Warden Ray Warren: seniorwarden@stpaulskeywest.org

Jr. Warden Greta Philips-Ford: juniorwarden@stpaulskeywest.org

Epistle Editor: editor@stpaulskeywest.org

Church office (and administrator Lisa McCarthy): info@stpaulskeywest.org

Church office phone: 305-296-5142

Church mailing address: 401 Duval Street, Key West FL 33040. Pledges and offerings can be mailed here or made electronically at the church giving page.
Music During the Pandemic

Stay tuned for the next "From the Organ" concert the first Thursday in May. In the interim, you can also find prior recordings of many past concerts and musical offerings on St Paul’s Facebook page, or on YouTube.
We Pray Each Day

Daily Morning and Evening Prayer is being offered on Facebook Live at 7:30AM and 500PM on weekdays.

Thanks to Bruce Hagemann, Lisa Laskow, Mary Simmons, Samantha Hall, Sarah Hall and Tim Peterson for volunteering to officiate at these sacred moments.

To join in the prayers via Facebook, go to the church Facebook page at the appropriate time and look for the window showing that "St. Paul's Key West is now live." Then click on the window.

"Like" us and turn on live notifications to get a reminder whenever we are offering prayers.

Please pray this week for healing for

Brittany (Sherri Hodies’ daughter), Beth and Jon Peterson (sister-in-law and brother of Tim), Al (Kitty Robert’s partner), Peter Nanos, Joseph Lyles, Danny Sweeting, Carolyn Sangston, Ed Hinkle and Cari Varela.


We pray for the departed and their loved ones

Charles "Chuck" Hammond and Kathryn Heldt (mother of Lisa McCarthy)

"Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant"

(Send your prayer requests to Tim@stpaulskeywest.org for future publication and to be included in the Sunday service. By default requests will be listed for four (4) weeks. But if the need continues, please let us know.)

We celebrate these April Birthdays

Jerry Poole, 4/2
Grace Highsmith 4/3
Ivan Stanke 4/4
Brad Hahn 4/5
Ashley Cook 4/8
Carol Wilusz 4/9
Kay Holfinger 4/11
Derek Nelson 4/11
Mitch Paternaud 4/12
Thomas Reeder 4/12
Joyce Seeney 4/13
Richard Griffith 4/14
Glenda Hoffman 4/17
Diane King 4/17
Sheila Barker 4/19
Chasity Wynter Cyrillien 4/19
Walter Schmida 4/19
Monica McLaughlin 4/22
Roger Sweeting 4/24
Alona Marius4/25
Damon Byrd 4/26
Laurence Marius 4/27
Stephanie Ford 4/28
Angie Mendez 4/30
Jim Schufreider 4/30

(If your name is missing from this month's birthday list please send a note to info@stpaulskeywest.org so we can add it.)

We Celebrate April Anniversaries: 

Sheila and Ron Barker 4/1
Bryant Jones and Jennifer Bardy 4/11
Carol and Jeffrey Burnham 4/21
Bill and Jan Malpass 4/22
Bo and Sylvia Hicks 4/23
Chimo and Linda Acevedo 4/30
Tom Ford and Greta Philips-Ford 4/30
Reminders
Sunday school is canceled during the virus emergency.
Back issues of The Epistle are available here.

Send questions and comments to the editor of this newsletter here.