Parish Life Archives - St. Matthews Episcopal Church

Intergenerational VBS Meets Every Wednesday In July

July 9, 2021

Wanted By God: Intergenerational VBS
Wednesday Evenings in July (7th, 14th, 21st, & 28th)
6:30 – 8:00 p.m.

Week 1: We had a great evening creating our riding partners for our journey of faith. Not only did we make horses out of pool noodles we also discussed how the concepts of loyalty and commitment are important to our faith journey, using the book of Ruth as our setting. This coming Wednesday, July 14th, we will be discussing Moses’ encounter with the burning bush. See you next week!

Week 2: This week we had a wonderful time creating beautiful string art projects of crosses, hearts and horses. We also discussed Moses and the burning bush and how we can practice being aware and present to what God is doing within our world.

Week 3: We decorated and adorned our Prayer Journals and played BINGO. Journaling can help in many ways from helping to create a gratitude list, to writing about how your day went, as well as clarifying your thoughts. We discussed how journaling can assist us when we journey through those times of testing, similar to when Jesus entered the wilderness. We have one VBS Night left, Wednesday, July 28th. We will be visiting Jim & Susan Jung’s barn, giving us a truly authentic western flavor. If you are interested in attending please contact me so we have enough supplies. Fr. Tommy

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St. Matthew’s God Bless America 4th of July Picnic

June 17, 2021

Sunday, July 4 in the parish hall
After the 10:45 a.m. service (about noon)

Let’s celebrate coming back together in a big way!

The Fellowship committee will serve a holiday meal
of fried chicken, potato salad, individual bag of chips
and a brownie.
Water and tea will be provided.

Please Register On Realm to give us a head count for the meal.

A love offering will be accepted to cover the cost of the food and supplies.

You may want to bring lawn chairs, games (indoors or outside) or cards to play, or sidewalk chalk, etc. for the children.
(Be sure to dress in red, white and blue!)

Don’t miss it!

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Fun, Free Fellowship Wednesdays At. St. Matt’s

June 17, 2021

Wednesdays In June
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

All are invited.
Gather with friends (or make new ones!) and reconnect with your parish family
for an evening of fellowship and games every Wednesday evening in June.

Outdoors or in the parish hall depending on weather conditions.
Outdoor Tic Tac Toe, Corn Hole, and others.

Bring lawn chairs or blankets for seating outdoors
Bring your own picnic or snacks & drinks if desired.

Have a game to share, or have any questions?
Contact Trisha Voiles or Becky Olbon

See You There!

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Confirmation Service For Three Parishes At St. Matthew’s This Sunday April 18

April 16, 2021

Congratulations to those being confirmed this Sunday:

Becky Barringer, Jessie Barringer, Caroline Bond, Nadira Desamu-Thorpe, Neema Desamu-Thorpe, Jacob Steven Hurst, and James Chester Piechowiak.

They will be part of a group of 20 individuals from St. Matthew’s, St. Michael & All Angels parish in Stone Mountain and St. Patrick’s, Dunwoody, who will be confirmed by The Right Reverend Robert C. Wright this Sunday at 2:00 p.m. here at St. Matthew’s. Unfortunately, due to Covid restrictions on large gatherings, the service will be open to immediate family members by invitation only. ** Please keep our confirmands in your prayers as they take this step along their faith journey.

**You can watch the service livestreamed at 2:00 p.m. Sunday, April 18 at

St. Matthew’s Facebook Page

or St. Matt’sYouTube

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Warden’s Corner — Vestry Retreat

March 25, 2021

March 20, 2021

The new Vestry went on retreat last Saturday at Jim and Susan Jung’s horse farm. We had an amazing time getting to know each other and setting goals for St. Matthew’s. In true St. Matthew’s fashion, we began the day breaking bread together and celebrating Holy Eucharist, followed by spiritual reflection.

Susan, along with her horse assistants, led us through team building exercises that helped us learn more about each other’s talents and goals. We spend the better part of our day setting goals for St. Matthew’s for the upcoming year.
The goals that we came up with for this year are as follows:
1. Reopening the Church building and making sure that everyone feels comfortable coming back to the building.
2. Structural Changes in Stewardship, youth programs, inreach and outreach ministries.
3. Communication. We all realize this is a major issue we must address.

We all love our parish, and it is going to take all of us working together for the changes to happen, not just though of us serving on the Vestry. Springtime is a time of new beginnings and new opportunities, so I challenge you to reach out to your vestry members and ask how you can get more involved.
Peace,
Becky Olbon
Senior Warden

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Shrove Tuesday Pancakes Photos

February 18, 2021

St. Matt’s tradition for Shrove Tuesday each year has been for the Youth to serve a yummy pancake supper to the parish in the parish hall, complete with pancakes and all the trimmings, bacon and sausage, and a huge serving of fun and fellowship. This would be followed by the Burning of the Palms to prepare ashes for Ash Wednesday the following day. But of course since the 2020 Covid pandemic lingers into the beginning of 2021, this event could not occur this year. That didn’t mean that pancakes were off the menu, though.

Instead, families prepared pancake or waffles (or latkes!) at home, and posted the results on Facebook. Here are some of the great photos we received. Many thanks to all who made this a “together-separately” Shrove Tuesday to remember!

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Getting Ready For Lent: Shrove Tuesday Is February 16

February 12, 2021

Written by Mara DiGiovanni

It may be hard to believe it, but Lent is almost here again! The old liturgical season will start this week with Ash Wednesday, albeit in a new and more virtual way this year. Before we get to the familiar rites of Wednesday, we celebrate Shrove Tuesday, where, traditionally, we burn the palms of the previous year’s Holy Week, and also eat a LOT of pancakes. But why do we do these things, and how can that knowledge help us celebrate together during a time when we cannot gather as one body?

Let’s start by looking at the name itself; “shrove” is a form of the English word “shrive”, which means absolution of sin. The purpose of the Ash Wednesday service is to absolve the penitent of their sins, to wash them clean for the spiritual desert journey that is Lent. Likewise, the purpose of Shrove Tuesday is to prepare one’s pantry for the Lenten season. Traditionally, when Lent was celebrated, there were certain things that EVERYONE was expected to give up, EVERY YEAR. These things were generally rich foods, like sugar, milk and cream, and eggs, ingredients that pancakes use up a lot of, making them an efficient choice for one last pre-Lenten party!

One way we would like to encourage a little long-distance fellowship is by inviting you to share your favorite pancake recipes with each other. You can share your recipes on the St. Matthew’s Snellville Facebook page, try out someone else’s, maybe even post some photos a your syrupy stack, but most importantly, have a great Lent!

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We Say Goodbye To Mother Liz+

February 4, 2021

Sunday, January 31, St. Matthews parishioners masked up and faced down a chilly, drizzly winter day to bid adieu to our beloved Mother Liz Hendrick. The online service included the Concluding of a Pastoral Relationship ceremony, led by the Rev. Canon John Bolton, representing the Diocese of Atlanta. Mother Liz returned her keys to the Senior and Junior Wardens, and the Parish Register to the Altar Guild Director.

Mother Liz was presented a framed photo of her standing beside the Little Free Library erected in her honor. On behalf of Mother Liz, her family presented a new altar book to the church, and Maureen Rutherford, her close friend, presented a bench to be placed in the courtyard.

After the online service, carloads of families and individuals began arriving to receive drive-through communion. Then, they lined up again–bearing books for the Little Free Library and gifts and cards for Mother Liz—to say goodbye and see her off into a happy retirement with our prayers and blessings.

The Snellville Police Department was front and center, driving through with lights flashing in honor of Mother Liz. Officer Rankin presented her with a Retired Snellville Police Chaplain’s badge.

The Little Free Library will be well-stocked. More than 100 books were donated, from children’s books to fiction to non-fiction. The Library will be open to the community as well as parishioners. We hope you will come and browse the offerings, and bring a book to share with others.

Mother Liz’s final sermon ended with this: “My time with you is over, but God still has work for you to do.” She promised to pray for us, and asked for our prayers in return.

We’ll miss you, Mother Liz. We promise to keep doing God’s work and to keep you in our prayers. We thank you for the wonderful legacy of books and reading you have left us.

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Drive Through Nativity December 20, 4 – 5:30 p.m.

December 5, 2020

Drive-Thru Nativity – December 20th @ 4 pm – Experience the story of Christmas from the comfort of your car. A drive-thru nativity is a live nativity experience with actors and “animals” and all the sights and sounds of the birth of Jesus, but you drive past while practicing safe protocols. If you and your family are interested in participating in the Drive-Thru Nativity please contact Liz Livermont or Fr. Tommy.

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Church Preschool Approved For Opening

August 13, 2020

Earlier this month, the Church Preschool Board and the Vestry reviewed the documents Juanita Little had prepared for reopening the preschool. Juanita spent an inordinate amount of time going through CDC and other recommendations that applied to the safe opening of preschools. We so appreciate her time and effort spent in this; she was able to take a large volume of information and distill it into policies and procedures for reopening the preschool following CDC guidelines. After reviewing those documents, the Executive Board and the vestry approved reopening the preschool, provided that COVID 19 counts in the surrounding area served by the preschool do not dramatically go up. The current plan is to open the preschool on September 14.

The first question many of us might ask is, “Why the preschool and not the church building?” There are two key reasons for this. First, the diocese allows the Episcopal Schools and Preschools to go by the recommendations of the CDC, whereas the churches go by the decision of the bishop, based on input from his advisors. Second, the demographic for the preschool (predominantly young children and their teachers) is very different from the demographic for the church. Additionally, the preschool is designed to keep each class separate from the other classes – in teaching, and in exercise and bathroom breaks. This is not something we are able to do in the church.

Please know that we have teams working on preparing the church for a time when the buildings can be opened – we want to be ready to offer safe on-site worship as soon as we get clearance to do it. In the meantime, please join us if you can for online services: Monday and Friday Compline at 6 p.m., Tuesday and Thursday Morning Prayer at 8:00 a.m., Wednesday Healing Service at 10:00 a.m., and Sunday Worship at 10:00 a.m. All these services may be accessed using the link to Facebook on our website, or by going directly to the St. Matthews page on Facebook. And all the services are recorded, so you can watch them anytime!