Parish Life Archives - St. Matthews Episcopal Church

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!

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Families Attend St. Matthew’s Virtual VBS

July 24, 2020

FAMILIES ATTEND ST. MATTHEW’S VIRTUAL VBS

This year’s Virtual VBS invited the whole family to participate. VBS consisted of exploring “Godly Joy in Worship,” by creating and enriching a family’s Home Altar Space. Families enhanced their Home Altar Space through the ministries of Altar Guild, Flower Guild, Music, and Bread Guild and learned how to incorporate nature in their Sacred Space. Thank you to all who worked to put this VBS together. To view these videos, check out our StMattsSnellville YouTube videos from the week’s Worship presenters.

If you were not able to attend or would like to create or enrich your Home Altar Space we have posted all the videos on our website. We also have additional Activity Bags for those interested. Please contact Fr. Tommy to coordinate.

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Musings

July 2, 2020

As we move from June to July and head to an Independence Day weekend, my prayers continue to be for your good health and your safety. Last week I provided information from the Diocese of Atlanta about the decision to allow churches to reopen after July 1, provided the churches follow a list of safe practices. First and foremost, we would LOVE to have worship available on campus, but we want to be sure we can offer a space where everyone feels confident they are safe. We have a number of teams working on ideas for worship, gathering materials needed to disinfect the buildings after use, signage to remind us of what each of us can do to best keep the areas safe for ourselves and for others, and logistics around how to gather no more than 35-50 people on a given Sunday. Even as we do this work, we are mindful that the increasing number of cases in Gwinnett County may delay our opening beyond July. So, I was excited to see a wonderful offer from the Diocese!

Working through a consulting group called “Holy Cow Consulting” (you gotta love the name!), the diocese has underwritten the cost for any parish to survey its members on how they are engaging in worship and other online options; it also asks questions about your needs or what concerns you or your family has, and what measures we need to take to help you feel safe to regather when the time comes. The survey is only 17 questions and it takes no more than ten minutes to complete. The consulting group will collect the data, analyze the data for our parish, compare our responses to other churches in the diocese and then meet with us to discuss the results. You will be able to take the survey any time between July 8 and July 15. If everyone participates in the survey, we will obtain some very good information and guidance on how to use the data, all at no charge to the parish.

For me, it is wonderful to be talking and planning about the possibility of on-campus worship. However, when that happens, please know that Father Tommy and I are committed to continuing on-line services so that we reach as many members of St. Matthew’s as possible. Stay tuned for more information on all of this.

Have a safe and happy Fourth!!!! Mother Liz+

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Musings: What Will On-Site Worship Look Like At St. Matt’s In 2020?

June 26, 2020

As found in my article last week, Bishop Wright is allowing worship on campus beginning with the first Sunday in July, but with policies and procedures in place to create a safe worship service for those who attend. Putting a system in place to meet these requirements means that we will not have in-sanctuary worship until sometime in August or September. However, we WILL be continuing services online and that will be true even after we open.

When we do open the sanctuary for worship, the service will look very different from what it was in January and February. Let me share some of the significant details:

1. We can only have a maximum of 50 people in the sanctuary at one time, including those leading worship, the ushers, greeters, lectors, etc.
2. To comply with the limited attendance, you will need to sign up to attend a service, either on-line or by calling the office (for those who are uncomfortable trying to make reservations on-line), and will either be assigned seating or allowed a selection of seats. We are required to keep every other row empty and to seat singles, couples or family groups at least six feet apart. And we are required to wear masks during the service.
3. It will be very important that you sit in your assigned seat for contact-tracing purposes, should that become necessary.
4. So once we get here, what will the service look like?
a. Entering the church will look a lot like entering many retail stores during this time, with one-way markings to come in and go out. Ushers will help us maintain social distance in the courtyard and narthex until we are able to enter and be seated.
b. To avoid cross-contamination we will not be able to use prayer books, hymnals or service bulletins, so we are exploring the temporary use of video screens, or perhaps providing instructions on downloading the service bulletin to your phone or tablet.
c. At this time, the bishop is not allowing Holy Communion, so worship will either be Morning Prayer or Ante-Communion, such as we are doing on-line right now.
d. Due to the risks of spreading the virus by singing, we will not be able to sing the hymns for a while. We will still have Kyle at the organ, and beautiful music WILL occur on Sunday.
e. Passing of the Peace will be from where you are seated.

I would imagine by this time you might be wondering, “what’s left?”
1. We will be able to see and greet each other.
2. We will be able to see the sunlight coming through the St. Matthew’s window and the colors reflected on the altar.
3. We will have time to sit quietly and breathe in the Spirit that we feel when we are in the sanctuary.
4. We will have beautiful music to lift our spirits and our hearts.
5. We will be able to see our beautiful gardens, blooming in all of God’s glory.

Thank you for your continued prayers for St. Matthew’s as we strive to move forward during this pandemic. Please continue to pray for those working to “open” the church building and plan services that are both meaningful and safe for the those attending.

Beloved, I know that the times we are in are challenging. There will be a time when this has passed and we will be able to come together in full community again. Until then, we will use the technology available to keep us connected, remembering that the church has not closed because the church is US. And we WILL continue to be church!
God’s Peace,
Mother Liz+

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Bishop Wright Announces Phase One Reopening of Churches

June 19, 2020

On Wednesday, Bishop Wright announced to the clergy that churches in the Diocese of Atlanta may begin holding services in the church after July 1, with the first services being held on or after July 5. While this is good news, it also comes with a series of very specific requirements designed to ensure that when we meet together in the sanctuary for worship, we offer the safest space possible for all concerned.

The Advisory Committee met last night to discuss how we might move forward, now that we have the diocesan requirements and guidelines. There is a lot of planning and preparation required before we come together again as community, balancing our desire to worship together with creating the safest space possible for all our members.

While we have been given the permission to begin worship in the sanctuary, it will be awhile until we will be ready, and there is much to be done.

While we have been given the permission to begin worship in the sanctuary, it will be awhile until we will be ready, and there is much to be done. Consideration must be given to such stipulations as limited attendance and safety spacing, contact tracing, disinfection of the space, the challenge of worshiping without bulletins, hymnals or prayer books, and for a time, no Communion. As we review the diocesan requirements with various groups that help plan worship, we will get a better idea of the timeline. When we know more, we will share that information with you, with regular updates both in the Messenger, on our website and on our Facebook page. We can also use the Zoom coffee hour to give you the latest information.

While we long to worship together again in the sanctuary, it’s good to remember that the Church is not “closed”. WE are the Church, and we continue to do God’s work in God’s Kingdom. I ask your prayers for those who are engaged in the project to get us ready for on-campus worship. I know how anxious I am to see everyone again, and I’m sure that you feel the same way. However, the times in which we live means we must always err on the side of safety.
Blessings, Mother Liz+