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The Week of March 9-14, 2021
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Presiding Bishop: Love in the Time of the Coronavirus
March 15, 2020
The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry preached on March 15 as part of the Washington National Cathedral's first Sunday service after in-person worship was suspended in the Diocese of Washington and in many dioceses around the church. The entire service was streamed live from the cathedral, where about a dozen vested, well-spaced clergy and laity led worship without a congregation in the cavernous nave where presidential funerals are held. Curry broadcast his sermon from his home in North Carolina, in keeping with the Church's guidance to avoid unnecessary travel and in-person gatherings. Anyone who has ever heard the presiding bishop preach will be unsurprised to know that his message was about love. "When I was a little boy, I learned a song in Sunday school that many of you probably learned as well. It said, quite simply, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, yes. Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me.
Yes, Jesus loves me, for the Bible tells me so. Sometimes the most profound and important things come in the simplest of packages, not simplistic, not necessarily easy to do, but simple.
He quoted from the most well-known verse in the Bible, then connected that to the virus among us: John 3:16 says it so well. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that all who believe in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Later at that last supper, Jesus said to his disciples, no one has greater love than his, but that they give up their life for their friends. That kind of love must be contagious, and that kind of contagious love can change the world. We will fight this particular contagion and all of our preexisting social contagions and divisions by the disciplined labor of love. Love working through medical folk, love working through leaders, love working through each one of us who can help and heal maybe in small ways but add them up and they make a profound difference. Maybe even something as small as voluntarily worshiping God online instead of in person, especially if that will help somebody else. Jesus loves me. This I know.
--Shawn Prater-Lee
To be redirected to the Lectionary Page and get a digital copy of the readings
Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22; Ephesians 2:1-10;
John 3:14-21
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The Sunday sermon
John 2: 13-22, Temples Made with Hands
There is a word that became part of American vernacular at some point during the 1820s, and it is still being used today. The word is "conniption." It is speculated that it was the creation of some frontiersman who wanted an eloquent, Latin-sounding name for what would otherwise be called a fit or a tantrum. The dictionary defines the word in question as "an act of frenzied anger or other strong emotion."
We can read its definition in the dictionary, but one does not truly understand what a conniption is until one actually witnesses one. I am willing to bet that every parent listening to me at this moment can recall his or her child having a conniption. But I've got to tell you, I can recall my parents having a debate concerning who was going to take me to purchase my Easter suit. It was during my twelfth year of life. Ordinarily my mother took me by subway downtown to buy my new suit. But for some reason that year, my father wanted to take me. He won the debate and off we went. When we returned, at my mother's request, I put the suit on so she could see it. I came out into the living room, and immediately my mother had a conniption. And her opening remark was "He disappears in that suit." You see, my father bought a double breasted, brown gabardines suit; and I guess it was close in color to my complexion. And my mother couldn't stop complaining. Needless to say because of her perpetual conniption the suit went back.
Today's gospel is somewhat jarring because it describes Jesus having a conniption. And the thought of Jesus having a conniption is, at first blush, an awkward and embarrassing one, since we are more used to thinking of him as a gentle, kind, and loving person. But not in this gospel story. He went to Jerusalem for the Passover and he entered the temple. There he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves; and money changers exchanging foreign coins for temple currency. He made a whip and used it to drive the tradesmen and the animal out of the temple, telling them, not very gently, that they will not turn his Father's house into a marketplace.
The disciples had to be as shocked as I was, when I saw a similar reaction manifested by my mother when I modeled my new Easter suit. However, at some point they must have remembered that such behavior was to be expected of the Messiah who, upon his arrival, was predicted to cleanse God's temple and restore it to what God intended it to be. In Scripture, Zechariah describes the coming of God's Messiah as a time in which the temple would be cleansed and restored..."and there shall no longer be traders in the house of the Lord on that day." So, as unsightly and unsettling as Jesus' actions were, they were also a sign of who he really was.
We can only imagine how threatened the Jewish leaders witnessing the event must have felt. They wanted to know where he got the authority to disrupt their system of ritual sacrifice. Jesus' response is not at all understood by the Jewish leaders. He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." They respond by saying, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" They didn't understand Jesus. Neither did the disciples understand that he was telling them that God's presence on earth was now to be found in Jesus, rather than in a temple made of stone. And the disciples really didn't understand this, not until his resurrection on Easter morning. John reminds us: "After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken."
I remember a story I was told by a Protestant minister friend. A new minister was coming to a rather affluent and ornate church. The pulpit sat in the center of the chancel; and it was made of the finest, rich-looking wood with beautiful carvings. One his first Sunday, the church members were astonished when they came to church to find the huge, beautiful pulpit removed, and the minister in a suit, rather than a robe. "I know you are used to seeing lots of pretty stuff up here, but there is too much in the world that Christ came to save that isn't pretty, that needs our attention. I know you are used to seeing a beautiful pulpit up here for me to lean on, but I'm going to lean on you."
There were many in the church who were drawn to the man, and his understanding of the gospel. But eventually the inevitable happened. He was fired, and the pulpit and other ornate accoutrements were returned to their proper places.
So, we gather today to worship not in a splendid looking parish church, but in the humbleness of our homes. And we give thanks for and we rejoice in the opportunity we have to worship in common. And may we always remember that it is not the church building that makes our worship sacred, but the fact that whenever, wherever, and however we come together, there will be Christ in the midst of us because we are the "body of Christ.
--Fr. C. Allan Ford
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PARISH NEWS
From February 26th through the month of March, St. Paul's Episcopal Church Food Pantry has been selected to receive a $1 donation for every $9.99 Bloomin' 4 Good Bouquet with the red circle sticker sold at the stores located at 2540 South Road, Poughkeepsie, Rt. 9 Hyde Park and Burnett Blvd, Poughkeepsie.
--Charlie & Jeannie Henderson
SMALL BLESSINGS BAG SALE 
--Bobbie Gordon
ZOOM CHURCH LINK FOR ALL SERVICES
Sunday Services will be on ZOOM until further notice
Our Zoom connections remain the same and are Meeting ID: 823 3911 5280 One tap mobile +16465588656,,82339115280# US (New York) +13017158592,,82339115280# US (Germantown) Dial by your location +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YOUTUBE CHANNEL We now have a YouTube channel. To get there PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW: or search on YouTube for St. Paul's Poughkeepsie. We hope to put copies of all of our online services there.
A NOTE FROM THE TREASURY TEAM
Total deposits for the past week - $4340 ($2825 for the Food Pantry). Many thanks to all who have been generously supporting the Food Pantry.
We're looking forward to seeing you on Zoom until further notice.
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COMMUNITY NEWS  --Janet Quade
 --Shawn Prater-Lee
The Church Club of New York
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The Church of St. John's in the Village
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In order to understand the role of African Americans in shaping New York City, we need to go back to the very beginning. As long as there has been a New York City, there have been African Americans here. The present talk looks at colonial New Amsterdam/New York.
In the Dutch era, "half-free" African Americans were allotted farms along Minetta Creek in the Village. In the English era, slaveholding became so widespread that, of all American cities, only
Charleston, South Carolina, had a greater percentage of
households with at least one enslaved person.
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Save the Dates!
Tuesday, March 24, 2021
via Zoom
6:00 - 7:00 pm
In Service to Seafarers: from Tall-masted Ships to Today -
The Seamen's Church Institute
with
The Reverend Mark Nestlehutt
President and Executive Director
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Tuesday, May 18, 2021
via Zoom
An Evening with The Rt. Rev. Mary D. Glasspool
Bishop Assistant
The Episcopal Diocese of New York
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The Church Club of New York
Executive Director: Susan Ridgeway
Phone: (212) 828-7418
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--The Rev. Dcn. Julett Butler
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Our Journey through Lent
Is not this the fast that I choose...?
A Welcome Reflection by Allison Duvall
Dear friends,
Thank you for your interest in being part of Episcopal Migration Ministries' journey through the Lenten season. We are grateful to have you join us for daily prayer, devotions, and reflection.
Beginning on Ash Wednesday, February 17, we will post a daily devotional ( subscribe to receive by email) that offers a reflection on a portion of Isaiah 58:6-12, pondering the text and its meaning through the lens of migration. You are welcome to invite others to join, and we encourage you to forward the emails along. We will also share the daily devotions on our social media channels, and welcome you to share. As you pray and engage with the devotions, you will be joining with so many others across the Episcopal Church and the country who are doing the same. Together, #WeAreEMM: we form a community of prayer, reflection, and action.
Throughout the daily devotional series, we will share ways that you can become more involved in the work of Episcopal Migration Ministries. We also invite you to share the ways that you are involved in migration ministry. We would love to hear from you. EMM is a ministry of the whole Church and her people. Through this work, we welcome, support, and advocate for our newest neighbors, and are met by Christ and transformed in the process.
Blessings to you this Lenten season. We are grateful to walk with you.
EMM Church Engagement Team
Subscribe to Lenten Daily Devotions
EMM's Lenten Daily Devotions are possible because of the generous volunteer efforts of members of EMM's Asylum & Detention Ministry Network. We extend our gratitude to Ana Reza, Diocese of the Rio Grande, BA Miskowiec, director of West Virginia Interfaith Refugee Ministry, Flor Saldivar, Diocese of West Texas, Michelina Nicotera-Taxiera, Diocese of Arizona, and The Rev. Michael Wallins, Diocese of the Rio Grande, for their work to make the daily devotions a reality.
Previous Lenten Devotions:
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--Shawn Prater-Lee
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MARCH BIRTHDAYS
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20 Stacey Rosborough
| 26 Josephine Zeleznik
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21 Linda Aileen SuBois
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29 Danya Clarke
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14 Kattyann Goodwin
| Lisl Prater-Lee
| 30 Stuart Ballinger
| 17 Deborah Marie Williams
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24 Alice J. Leigh
| 31 Rose Marie Proctor
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25 Michael Van Pelt
| Peter Bedrossian
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18 Shirley Pharr
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26 Karen A. Reid
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Please keep those on our parish prayer list in your minds and in your
prayers, especially at this time of separation and isolation.
Intercessions
MARCH 2021
Our prayers are asked for:
Marie; Nora; Tyler & Molly; Janett; Kay, Katherine, Renate; Angie; Frank Burnett, Food Panty Volunteers, victims of Human/Sex Trafficking; Burton family; Lillian, Matthew, Sasha; Paul & Donna, Margaret, Joe, G.J., Aleta, Plain family, Melius family; Ibadan Diocese, All Saints' Church, Oni family; Gary, Legend; Rhonda, Joe, Ann, all Teachers, Parents, Students, Theodore, John, Paul, Kathy, George, Janett, Renate, and Notoe; Sharon Greene, Owen, Agnes, Norma; McLauren family; Graham family; Wood family; Braxton family; Lori, Steven, Jim, Seth; Phil; All essential workers; Beryl & Glen, Vincent family; George; Daniel Mizell and family; Liz, Martha; Eileen; the Butler, Richards and Barrett families; Fr. Allan and family; St. Paul's Vestry; Darien family; Richardson family; Sherow family; Edna Clarke,Michelle, Kathy B.; Carola and Violet; Whitman, Medical Reserve Corp. of Dutchess County, The Laken family; All Parishioners; Kairos International, Catherine, Michelle, Yamily; G.J., Joe; Lois, Matthew, Lillian; Lynita, Perry, Melius family, Sasha; Stacey, Linda, Phil, Jody; Tucker family, Branch family, Atkinson family; Alison, McGhan, Sterling, Unah, Avonel, Kim, Santos family, Madeline, Bramble, Charlie, Cynthia, Gencia, Val, Joanne, Janet, Corkey, Pelaez, Josephs-Clarke family, Dixon family, Paulette, Jarah, Mertlyn; Adam, Paul, Andrew & family, Douglas family, Ron, Dave, Liz; Jill, Lana, Andrew, Susan; Schneider family, all in need; Susie; Sherry, Claudia
Please "Like" our page to stay up to date with all services and events.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church-Poughkeepsie
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'In Service to God & You' 
Our food pantry volunteers are in active service at St. Paul's these days. We give thanks to them and thanks to God for their willingness to help us by helping others. |
THIS WEEK'S CALENDAR
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| TUE 9
| 10:00am Food Pantry & Thrift Shop
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| WED 10
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10:00am Food Pantry & Thrift Shop
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| THU 11
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10:00am Food Pantry & Thrift Shop
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| SAT 13
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10:00am Building & Grounds
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| SUN 14
| 10:00am Zoom - Rite II, Ante Communion
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME |
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