April 16, 2020
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Rector's Message

This coming Sunday is the Gospel lesson is the story of Doubting Thomas. We Episcopalians love Thomas. We know that our doubts have a place in the life of faith. This is especially true this year. As we celebrate Easter at this strange time, we might wonder and also doubt the idea of Resurrection.

Thankfully, God understands our mixed reactions. Indeed one resurrection story says the women who heard the angel tell of the resurrection left "with fear and great joy." As we look for the new life Christ has for us in these perilous times, let us bring all of who we are, our fears and doubt, as well as our joy and hope, trusting God to receive it all and meet us as we are. 
Sunday's Service
Join us Sunday for Holy Eucharist at 9:30 AM 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 can open or download the bulletin for the Sunday service here .

New Worship Oppourtunities
Bruce Hagemann and The Rev. Steve Carlsen will be offering Morning and Evening Prayer on Facebook live starting Monday, April 20. Morning Prayer will be offered at 8:30 AM. Evening Prayer will be at 5:00 PM with meditation.

Both opportunities are now offered Monday through Thursday. We will be looking for volunteers to say the prayers on Friday. Help us say the prayers of the Church together. 

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.
Senior Warden Notes
Ray Warren
St. Paul's is blessed with groups of "unsung heroes" who volunteer for quiet, but essential, roles out of the limelight. Now, while we are on pause from being on the church campus, I'd like to acknowledge some of the wonderful people who toil quietly in ways we don't always see.

Each week (in regular times when we're not closed down) certain things have to be made ready for two Sunday services and one Wednesday service. The "altar guild" is a group of parishioners who do that. They prepare the wafers, wine and vessels for all three Eucharistic services. They also fill the candles (which are really oil torches) in the church and polish the brass items like candlesticks and crosses. (Polishing is hard work!)

Kudos to Greta Schneider, Lisa Laskow, Phyllis Pita and Jane Burchett, for that invisible, but necessary, work. And, special thanks to Kim Grizzle-Malgrat who is often the only one left in the summer when she fills candles in the un-air-conditioned church (it can be stifling in August and September) and sets up the service items alone.

For years Sandy Highsmith faithfully laundered and ironed the linens used on Sunday, for which we should all be grateful. Now the leader of the altar guild, Wendy Niven, (who I have it on good authority is not a fan of ironing) has stepped in to fill that role - in a addition to a plethora of other volunteer activities.

Quiet work. Not flashy. But very important.

(If I missed an altar guild person, let me know so I can fix that next week when we mention other unsung heroes)

Know Your History

Did you know that May Johnson, whose 19th century diary entries are featured daily in the Key West Citizen, was a daughter of St. Paul's? That she was married in the third church (the one destroyed by the 1909 hurricane) pictured above?

Stay tuned for some exciting details about Ms. Johnson and her life from our resident historian David Eyer in an upcoming Epistle .
Reminders
Sunday school is canceled during the virus emergency.
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