St. Brendan the Navigator Episcopal Church
Our Mission: "To Love, Praise, Welcome and Serve"
| | Seventh Sunday after Pentecost | | | |
Worship this Sunday:
10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist
The Rev. Donna Downs, presiding
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Celtic Eventide
Sunday at 5 p.m. in the Parish Hall
Join us for this service of poetry, silence, music, prayer, and reflection.
Our reflector will be Mary Jane Poole.
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All services and meetings will be held both in-person and via Zoom unless otherwise designated.
| | | | 9:00 a.m. Women's Breakfast at Stonecutters Kitchen | | | | 4:30 p.m. Meditation/Silent Prayer (Zoom) | | | | |
10:00 a.m. In-person Meditation
10:30 a.m. Phenomenology of Illness study with Prof. Peter Antich
4:00 p.m. Choir rehearsal
| | | | 8:30 a.m. Men's Breakfast | | | | |
9:30 a.m. Lev Sherman's service in the Memorial Garden
10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist with Pastor Elaine Hewes presiding
11:30 a.m. Annual Meeting
| | | | 4:00 - 6:00 p.m. Annual Lobster Picnic | | | | 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Session A on Antigone | | | | Celebration of the lives of Tony and Pat Stoneburner | | | | 10:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Session B on Antigone | | | | 17th Annual St. Brendan Women's Retreat | | Sixth Sunday after Pentecost | | |
"A sermon given on the occasion of our nation's 250th birthday."
Click below for the video recording of Pastor Elaine's sermon.
A text copy is available here.
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Attention is the doorway to gratitude, the doorway to wonder,
the doorway to reciprocity.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
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For all you have done, thank you.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As July 8 marked the one-year anniversary of Michael’s death, I want to thank you for all the love and care you have showered upon me over the past year. Truly, I have felt your support every day as I have moved through the strange and uncharted territory of loss and grief. When friends and colleagues have asked me how I could return to work so quickly, I’ve told them that it’s my work with you on behalf of the Gospel that has been my solace and joy, and oftentimes the very thing that has inspired me to get up in the morning and keep putting one foot in front of the other. Thank you for your prayers, your good humor, and your accompanying love.
One of the poems that has been most important to me over the past year is a poem by Jan Richardson entitled “Blessing the Distance,” which you will find printed below. Since we all grieve the loss of someone in our lives, I wanted you to know how much this poem has meant to me. May it be the blessing for you that it has been for me.
With deepest gratitude, I thank you for all you have been and done for me since Michael’s death. He loved the St. Brendan community. And I still sense his presence on Sunday morning when we all gather for worship, as well as in other moments when I’m in the sanctuary alone. It’s such a profound gift to know that death does not have the last word, and to know, as Jan Richardson says at the end of her poem, that even when we grieve the passing of a loved one, “everything that breathes between us is blessing, and all that beats between us is grace.”
In gratitude for you all,
Elaine
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Blessing the Distance
It is a mystery to me
how as the distance
between us grows,
the larger this blessing
becomes,
as if the shape of it
depends on absence,
as if it finds its form
not by what
it can cling to
but by the space
that arcs
between us.
As this blessing
makes its way,
first it will cease
to measure itself
by time.
Then it will release
how attached it has become
to this place
where we have lived,
where we have learned
to know one another
in proximity and
presence.
Next this blessing
will abandon
the patterns
in which it moved,
the habits that helped it
recognize itself,
the familiar pathways
it traced.
Finally this blessing
will touch its fingers
to your brow,
your eyes,
your mouth;
it will hold
your beloved face
in both its hands,
and then
it will let you go;
it will loose you
into your life;
it will leave
each hindering thing
until all that breathes
between us
is blessing
and all that beats
between us
is grace.
—Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
Jan's website: janrichardson.com
| | | Giving our Priorities Shape (GPS) Action Item | | |
As an Episcopal faith community in Deer Isle, Maine, how do we commemorate the 250th year of the Declaration of Independence?
An article in the Episcopal News Service (click the link below) is worth a read, reflecting on the Episcopal Church's history and intimate involvement with the new government from the late 1700's forward.
In the article, Bishop Sean Rowe and others reflect on the ever-widening divergence between the practices and goals of the United States Government and the Episcopal Church.
Sean Rowe writes: "It's time for the church to stand in solidarity with those who have no voice, to speak up. It means us taking a hard look at the systemic work that still has to be done … to make lives different, to bring people closer into relationship with God, to show love in the world."
How are we at St Brendan's giving shape to the priorities of our mission statement:
"to serve the needs of one another and of those on the island, the peninsula and throughout the world."
| | Notice of Annual Meeting on July 19 | | |
ST. BRENDAN THE NAVIGATOR
NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING
Pursuant of Article IV, Section 1 of the Bylaws, notice is hereby given that the Annual Meeting of the Members of St. Brendan the Navigator will be held on July 19, 2026 at 11:30 a.m. to conduct the following business:
1. To elect a Senior Warden for one year
2. To elect a Junior Warden for one year
3. To elect a Clerk for one year
4. To elect a Treasurer for one year
5. To elect one Member-at-Large to the Vestry to serve a three-year term
6. To elect one Member-at-Large to the Vestry to serve one remaining year of a three-year term
7. To elect Diocesan Convention Delegates and Alternates
8. To terminate the St. Brendan "Endowment Fund"
9. Q&A session for Ministries
10. Other business that properly comes to the Annual Meeting
Location: St. Brendan the Navigator in the sanctuary and via Zoom
Cindy Beyer, Clerk
Dated: July 9, 2026
| | Sign up for the Annual Lobster Picnic | | |
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Saturday, July 25th at 4:00 p.m.
Please let us know whether you plan to attend the annual Lobster Picnic and how many people you will bring. We also need to know what you will bring to add to our picnic. Sign up at church this Sunday or click below. Please sign up by July 20th.
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Cindy Beyer has a new schedule for July through September for Sunday coffee hour hostesses and hosts. I am responsible for scheduling assistants. If you would like to help out some Sunday, please let me know at church or call me at 460-1260.
Thank you.
Skip Greenlaw
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The 17th Annual St. Brendan Women's Retreat will be from Tuesday, September 8 to Friday, September 11, at the Diocese of Maine's Camp Bishopswood near Camden.
The inclusive cost is $300.00. Scholarship assistance is available.
For more information or if you plan to attend, contact Martha Dane at
mndane-114@hotmail.com or 207-947-8043.
| | Education & Spiritual Development Ministry | | | | |
"Your word is a lantern to my feet
and a light upon my path."
Psalm 119:105
Zoom Meditation/Silent Prayer at 4:30 p.m.
Readings, poems, and prayers are shared before a period of silence.
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10:00 a.m. Wednesdays
In-Person Meditation/Silent Prayer at St. Brendan
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Bible Study
Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.
A Study of the Phenomenology of Illness continues
with Dr. Peter Antich
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Del Bright – 2
Emily Hawkins – 9
Lynne Ensworth – 10
John Arrison – 13
Sophie Webb – 14
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Scott Cleveland – 18
Luke Williams – 21
Tallulah Pickens – 21
Heather Corey – 25
Ann Williams – 28
Cindy Beyer – 29
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Marcia Scott will be at the Hibbard Nursing Home until July 17. She very much appreciates cards. Keeping in touch with the people at St. Brendan's is very important to her. Her address is:
Marcia Scott
c/o Hibbard Nursing Home, Inc. Room 52
1037 W. Main Street
Dover-Foxcroft, ME 04426
| | We pray for those in special need: | | |
Susan Stitham
Harry Vickerson
Julie M.
Danny Judkins
Cathy Johnson
Meg Graham
Charlie Putnam
Judson Brown
Mike S.
Meredydd Cooper
Henna Torrey Roy
Jerry
Agnes and Billy
Gwyn Murray
Sally
Beth Kyser
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David
Preston Henderson
Tammie Cox
Tyler Goss
Kate Hallen & Bob Blum
Judith Jerome
Mimi Maslan
Judy Miller
Megan
Bishop Thomas Brown
Naomi
Anne Burton
Hewit
Mary Ann and Terry
Nishah
Corbin
Rebecca
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Rebecca
Pam B
Jaxson
Heather Corey
Stephen Gill
Bill Scaife
Brent Was
Gary and Wellesley
Mary Lawrence Hicks and family
Nancy Greene
Peter Brown
Seth
Linda Shepard and family
Marcia Scott
Carol Stoneburner
| | We pray, also, for those who love and care for them. | | |
We continue to hold in prayer those in our community who have recently lost loved ones; among them are the Stoneburner, Sherman, and Hewes families.
We pray for our nation, our president and vice-president, and all elected and appointed leaders.
We pray for all peacemakers and all those who work for justice; may we be found in their ranks.
We pray for all those serving in the armed forces of our country.
We pray for Sarah Mullally, Archbishop of Canterbury; Hosam, Bishop of Jerusalem; Sean, our Presiding Bishop; and Thomas, our Bishop.
In the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer, we pray for St. George's, Tenants Harbor, St. Cuthbert's, MacMahan Island, and for those who make their living from the land and the sea.
In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, we pray for the Province of the Episcopal Church of
South Sudan.
On the Island and Peninsula, we pray for Soul’s Outreach Church, Sedgwick.
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Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
In reading through the Gospel according to Matthew, we now reach a section of parables that Jesus told to reveal the nature of God’s Kingdom. This particular parable of the Sower describes the basis for our growth in faith and ministry. We must be rooted in the Word of God. Our weekly gathering in Eucharist and our daily prayer and scripture reading are essential parts of this rootedness. We also meet Christ, the living Word of God, in ministry to the poor, the sick, and the neglected.
The first reading from Isaiah also uses the image of planting a crop. Its promise is that God is to be counted on to bring about in us growth into holiness. Just as rain waters the earth and can be counted on to bring about the growth of plants, so God’s presence within our community is bringing about growth in righteousness.
In the second reading today, Paul continues to elaborate on the nature of the new life we have received in baptism. As we live in the Spirit rather than according to the world (the flesh), we are discovering more fully that we have been adopted by God as children. Thus we can count on God’s faithfulness to us and on our ultimate glorification and eternal life.
We gather to hear God’s Word. That Word is not simply the objective written scriptures, however. Above all, the Word is Christ and our celebration centers on meeting him and receiving him, the Word of God incarnate.
Notes on the Sunday Readings and Seasons of the Church Year. Copyright © 2009 by Michael W. Merriman. Church Publishing Incorporated, New York
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Office Hours: Tuesday 9:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Pastor Elaine Hewes
Tel: 207-479-5651
elaine.hewes@gmail.com
Emergency Contacts:
| | Warden - John Arrison, 207-505-2474 arrison17@gmail.com | | Warden - Allen Downs 207-348-2560 agdowns53@gmail.com | | |
Emily Hawkins - Treasurer
Cindy Beyer - Clerk
Beth Carter
Kassie Grey
George Pazuniak
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