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Grow in Faith: Becoming Beloved Community
Please consider this invitation to Grow In Faith, as we examine how our Baptismal Covenant may guide us in our exploration of the nature of our Christian faith in relation to Racial Healing, Reconciliation, and Justice. Join us on Sunday, October 18 at 11:30 a.m. by Zoom, using the coffee hour link found on our website.
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 We’re all invited to Diocesan Convention this year! Like our own Annual Meeting in January, this annual gathering of the Diocese includes a worship service at which the Bishop addresses the Diocese, election of individuals to various offices of responsibility and other pieces of business, presentation and discussion of the diocesan budget, and fun videos of widely varying parish missions throughout the Diocese. (In 2017 the emergence of Saints James and Andrew was enthusiastically celebrated at Convention.) Ordinarily Convention takes place over one or two days in Springfield, and involves a registration fee as well as the commitment of travel.
This year’s Convention has been split into a series of virtual meetings, and is free to attend. What a golden opportunity to enjoy some great worship and learn and hear about the larger church body of which we are members, all from the comfort of your own couch! Here is the Convention Schedule:
Sunday – November 1: All Saints’ Day Choral Evensong 5:00 p.m.
Streamed on Facebook and YouTube – no registration necessary.
This service, celebrating All Saints’ Day, will serve as the annual Convention liturgy, and will include the Bishop’s address, as well as music and prayer.
Monday – November 2: Prayers for the Elections 7:00 p.m.
Streamed on Facebook and YouTube – no registration
Prayers for the November 3 General Election, led by our Deacons from locations around the Diocese.
Saturday – November 7: The 119th Convention of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts 9:00 a.m.
Zoom meeting, registration required -
REGISTER HERE
The streamlined business portion of the annual Convention including elections, budget and financial information, a look at the year ahead in mission, and other canonically-required elements.
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We are thrilled to be planning an ONLINE version of our popular Mistletoe Mart, and to offer you the opportunity to shop our new online catalog. Be sure to visit the Mini Mistletoe Mart To Go. You will be so glad you did!
All proceeds go to our Mission Fund which allows us to continue providing free meals and personal items to our community.
We hope you will enjoy the Mini Mistletoe Mart To Go!
Here’s how it works:
- The online catalog will be open from Monday, November 9 to Sunday, November 15, 2020
- Browse through our amazing products and click to buy whatever you like.
- Pick up your purchase(s) at the prearranged time at our drive up windows at Saints James and Andrew, 8 Church Street, Greenfield, Massachusetts
Di Kurkulonis, for the Fundraising Team
dkurkulonis@gmail.com
Sponsored by the Vestry and the Mission Team
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We held a special meeting of the Vestry on Tuesday, September 22 in order to have adequate time to discuss a series of additional topics. We spent the majority of our time discussing how SsJA might engage in the work of Becoming Beloved Community, a term used in the Episcopal Church which means to address racial injustice and grow as a community of reconcilers, justice-makers, and healers who share a passion for the dream of God. A few first steps we committed to are: displaying a banner on our campus which says, “No room for Racism”; encouraging parishioners to engage in this fall’s Grow in Faith series, which will all be focused on the work of becoming beloved community; and we are hoping to find some film opportunities we can share to promote awareness on the black experience in America. We recognize these steps are just the beginning of the work that lay ahead.
We also spent some time discussing the Vestry’s priorities concerning the worship experience offered online, after considering a wide diversity of feedback Heather, Molly, and Joe have received in the last several months. The most pressing concern relates to worshipers ability to hear the worship. We are exploring some options on how we might improve the hearing experience in worship.
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Notices and Announcements
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Reopening Status Update
All COVID-19 & Reopening Updates (view here)
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October Forward Day by Day is a booklet of daily inspirational meditations reflecting on a specific Bible passage, chosen from the daily lectionary readings. We typically have these booklets available for free at church. During this time of social distancing, here are some ways you can still access this rich resource.
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- Elizabeth "Betts" Bednarski departed this life on Friday afternoon, September 25. Our prayers are with Betts' family and friends as they celebrate a life of faith and grace.
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| May the soul of God's faithful servant rest in peace and may light perpetual shine upon her. |
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Sunday Soup and Sandwiches Update
 I wanted to let everyone know how our Sunday Sandwiches program is going. As you may know both Bread of Life and Cathedral in the Light stopped functioning in March. This left a large void, especially for those who rely on a meal on Sunday after the service on the common. Sunday Sandwiches has attempted to fill that void.
Each Sunday a small group of people, usually 5, meet at the church at 11 a.m. to make the sandwiches for the meal. There are usually either turkey and cheese or ham and cheese sandwiches, along with our "famous" peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I never knew there was a wrong way or a right way to make PB&J until this program started. The official Ss. James and Andrew way is to spread both slices of bread with the peanut butter and then put the jelly/jam on the peanut butter. This stops the bread from becoming soggy from the jam/jelly. Thanks Mike Maleno for this wonderful insight.
While the sandwiches are being prepared, another person prepares the sandwich bags. Items are placed in the lunch bags; chips, granola bar, peanut butter crackers, napkin and 2 Hershey kisses. For many of our guests, this is the only meal that they have between Saturday afternoon and Monday morning.
Each week a different soup is offered: clam chowder, cheeseburger soup, tortellini soup, beef orzo soup, corn chowder to name a few. Currently we are making 20 quarts of soup each week.
The number of meals initially started at 15-20, now we are up to 45-55 meals. This is great that we are fulfilling a need but it is sad in that there is such a need.
Meals are brought down to the Whiteman Room, where our take out windows are located. One window is for the soup and sandwich and we have another window to pass out beverages, usually coffee and water.
People have been asking how they can help. Donations of time, talent and treasure are always welcome.
If you are interested in donating food items here is a suggestion list: individually packaged granola bars, peanut butter crackers, individual serving sized chips, Hershey kisses, meats for the soup. If you would like to donate items to make soup, please contact Marie.
If you are interested in donating time Nancy Maleno does the scheduling for volunteers. She can be reached at nkmaleno@gmail.com. The schedule is made out a couple of months in advance. We have had a couple of children help out with the program and they have done a great job! If you find that you can not make it on a day that you are scheduled please switch with someone on the list. Also, this is a volunteer ministry but when someone doesn't show up, shows up late, and or leaves early it makes it difficult to accomplish everything that needs to be done in a short period of time. We have limited the group to 5 because of covid, but those 5 are needed for the full time. We meet at 11 a.m. and are usually cleaned up and ready to go by 12:45 p.m.
If you are interested in making the soup for any particular Sunday, please contact Marie, so the soup can be made following ServSafe regulations. We are currently making 20 quarts (5 gallons) of soup, which is a lot of soup!
Donations of treasure are always welcome. You can make a special donation to support our outreach by putting “Sunday Sandwiches” or “Mission” in the memo line.
Thanks to everyone who has donated their time, talent and treasure to this important ministry.
Thank you for all you do,
Marie Paquette, for the Sunday Sandwiches Program
1-413-772-2213
paqman3@comcast.net
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News and an Appeal From the Streets
 Our Emmaus Companions ministry continues in the face of the pandemic. God’s mercy never fails. It may be surprising to some that those who are homeless are very respectful about wearing masks in public. They do tend to be a little less diligent amongst themselves but when an “outsider” approaches they mask up pretty quickly. It is sort of similar to the way we are among our families. After all, the groups they are in are a part of are their families. They do long for things to return to the way they were before COVID as we all do.
Since we began this ministry, Saints James and Andrew has given over 150 blankets to those who live outdoors or who cannot afford to heat their apartments. Last week I gave the last two we had in storage to a young man who was living in his car because he needed to be close to the job he found. He could not afford gas to travel to and from work. So now, as the weather turns from cool to colder, we are in need of more blankets. In the past you have been incredibly generous and Charlie and I and the people we walk with are very, very grateful. Whenever I tell folks we are from Saints James and Andrew they always comment on how generous we are and wonderful the folks at our church are. They literally gush with gratitude. I wish you all could be there to hear it.
One of the realities of our current situation is that the number of homeless and food insecure brothers and sisters has grown and will continue to grow. Even families that are able to pay rent may not be able to afford fuel for heat. The blankets we give will be used to keep moms and dads and kids warm through the coming winter months. Two quick stories. A few months back as I was handing out a blanket to one of our homeless brothers when a woman came to me and sheepishly asked if maybe I had another blanket. As we talked she told me she was at Second Helpings so her three kids could get some food and they could bring some home to dad who was sleeping so he could get up and go to his nighttime job. Fortunately we had blankets for all three kiddos and mom and dad. They had been sleeping huddled together to stay warm and she gratefully said they would be warmer now. An older wheelchair-bound woman also asked me if I had a blanket. We had a big, heavy, synthetic fiber blanket that I gave her. Almost every time I see her now she tells me how warm she has been through the coldest weather because of that blanket.
So we are asking for warm, winter weight blankets. In the past we have received mattress covers and bedspreads that were given to us in good faith. The truth is that those are not helpful to folks who are cold and may be sleeping on the ground in a tent. Rev. Heather has set up an Amazon wish list for Emmaus Companions with some suggestions on the sorts of things you can donate if you don’t have spare blankets around the house. You can find the wish list HERE. Your purchase will go directly to the church to be given to folks in need. You will find wool blankets, sleeping bags and tents there. Thank you for your gift.
Please know that you are making a difference out there that is noticed and appreciated by all who receive your generosity. And please, if you can’t afford to donate anything, know that your prayers make a difference too. Your prayerful support strengthens us and makes it easier for Charlie and I to be out there. May God’s peace and strength be with us all.
Steve and Charlie Houghton, for Emmaus Companions
steve@firefact.com
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The Survival Center Food Pantry is accepting one bag per person on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The donations are isolated for 3 days before distribution. Donations are needed now more than ever!”
-Ella Ingraham
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Please donate plastic grocery bags. Our to-go food and pantry ministries need donations of clean, sturdy plastic shopping bags. (For now we have enough paper bags – thank you.) You can place them in the marked bin near the parking lot entrance to the parish hall on Sundays between 10:30 and 12:30 or Mondays between 3:00 and 6:00. No produce bags please. Thank you!
-Maggie Sweeney, for the Mission Team
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Surrendering privilege and wealth
By The Rev. Ed Gomez
This Sunday falls on the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi and, as if by design, all the readings speak to his exemplary life of practicing generosity. Living church in the time of COVID-19 has reconfirmed my views of poverty and generosity.
As I ponder today’s readings, Paul’s words pop out at me in Philippians, where he writes:
“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.”
He continues:
“For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ.”
In reflecting on the life of Francis and these words, I wish to suggest that we not romanticize his embrace of poverty, but rather focus on his Faith-Filled Generosity. His generosity allowed him to surrender his privilege and wealth, and to embrace and consider them “rubbish,” in order to be Jesus to those who need Him most.
When the church where I serve, San Pablo in Houston, closed doors for public worship, we opened a new way of church... one that provided drive-by food distribution and rental assistance for Houston’s most vulnerable people. Donations and volunteerism increased tenfold and online viewership flourished more than any Sunday attendance record in recent memory. The gifts came mainly from those we called “unchurched” or who do not consider themselves religious. The joy exuded in giving included dancing, socially distant high-fives and laughter through masks.
Our worship became solidarity and compassion, the religious became spiritual, the unchurched found their worship, and the poor heard and felt the Good News. I learned that practicing Faith-Filled Generosity as Francis did transforms and unites us all. A new Church for a new world.
Ed Gomez is pastor at Iglesia de San Pablo in Houston. He also serves on the boards of The Episcopal Network for Stewardship and Christian Church Homes.
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Prayer List: Names are on the list for 4 weeks, then removed. Feel free to add a name again.
Ann, Adri, Ronel, Kelsey, Robert, Donna, Betts, Melvin, Cody, Charlie, Felicia, and Felicia’s daughter and caregiver.
Contribute to The Newsletter: by emailing the office by Monday, October 12, 2020. Published on the first and third Thursdays of the month.
Our Mission:
We believe God is calling us to cultivate a community of love, joy, hope, and healing. Jesus is our model for a life of faith, compassion, hospitality, and service. We strive to be affirming and accessible, welcoming and inclusive; we seek to promote reconciliation, exercise responsible stewardship, and embrace ancient traditions for modern lives.
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Vestry Contact Information
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