St. Matthews Episcopal Church

Episcopal Church in Snellville, GA

“Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily.”
— Saint Francis de Sales

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

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

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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Volunteers Needed — SE Gwinnett Cooperative Ministry

The National Guard soldiers who have been assisting at the Co-Op since the beginning of COVID, have been  recalled, and there is a dire need for more volunteers to help ensure the continued smooth process of food distribution to the clients. Anyone interested please contact Dot Desjardin at ddesjardin@segwinnettcoop.org

Volunteer Skills Needed:
• Able to easily lift 20 lb box
• Ability to stand and walk on concrete floor for long periods of time
• Willing to take and follow directions from team leads and CoOp management
• Set up Canopy Tents and 6-8ft tables outside
• Easily work both indoors and outdoors as needed

Special Volunteer Skills
• Able to use a pallet jack to help unload and safely move pallets of food

Pantry Shift Hours:
• Mondays 1st shift: 9am-1pm 2nd Shift: 2pm – 7pm
• Tuesdays and Thursdays: 9am – 12n
• Wednesdays and Fridays: 8:30am – 12n
• Saturdays: 10am -12n
All volunteers must:
• Wear closed toed shoes
• Masks are required for unvaccinated volunteers and anyone preferring to wear one

To see other current outreach needs and area resources, please visit our Outreach page.



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Hymn Highlights: Music For Rogation Days

Our opening hymn this coming Sunday (5/8/2021) is hymn #292, “O Jesus, crowned with all renown”, a hymn for Rogation Days by Archbishop of Canterbury Edward White Benson (1829-1896). Archbishop Benson is perhaps best remembered as the creator of Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in 1880 when he was Bishop of Truro. Hymn 292 was written in 1860 whilst he was headmaster of Wellington College. This hymn first appeared in The Hymnal 1916.

Traditionally, the three days before Ascension Day are observed as Rogation Days. The Sunday before the Ascension, the Sixth Sunday of Easter, is traditionally known as Rogation Sunday. These are days of prayer to ask God’s blessing on crops, for an abundant harvest, and protection from natural disasters. Traditionally the parish vicar, wardens, choir boys, and others would process around boundaries of the parish, carrying long sticks, while occasionally stopping to recite or chant Psalms or the Litany of Saints. This procession around the geographical area of the parish was known as “beating the bounds”. Rogation days were also a time for people of the parish to settle disputes and disagreements to come together as a community. See the following link for more information on the history of Rogation Days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eLmFv-ilXA  

In The Hymnal 1982, hymn #292 is paired with the tune Kingsfold. Kingsfold was originally an English folksong that Ralph Vaughan Williams arranged for The English Hymnal, 1906 where it was paired with the text “I heard the voice of Jesus say”. Vaughan Williams first heard the tune in the village of Kingsfold in northwest Sussex where the text was about “Dives and Lazarus”. The tune was used by Vaughan Williams in Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus for string orchestra and harp which you can listen to here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQoP9iLwoos

O Jesus, crowned with all renown

1. O Jesus, crowned with all renown,
since thou, the earth hast trod,
thou reignest and by thee come down
henceforth the gifts of God.
Thine is the health and thine the wealth
that in our halls abound,
and thine the beauty and the joy
with which the years are crowned.

2.Lord, in their change, let frost and heat,
and winds and dews be given;
all fostering power, all influence sweet,
breathe from the bounteous heaven.
Attemper fair and gentle air
the sunshine and the rain,
that kindly earth with timely birth
may yield her fruits again:

3.That we may feed the poor aright,
and, gathering round thy throne,
here, in the holy angel’s sight,
repay thee of thine own:
That we may praise thee all our days,
and with the Father’s Name,
and with the Holy Spirit’s gifts,
the Savior’s love proclaim.

Edward White Benson (1829-1896)



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Shrove Tuesday Pancakes Photos

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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We Say Goodbye To Mother Liz+

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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Knit Crochet and Pray Items Help Rosebud Episcopal Mission and Local Needs

2/12/2021 UPDATE!
Thanks to the generosity of St. Matthew’s parishioners and the work of Knit Crochet & Pray members, we are mailing four boxes to Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota with the following in the shipment:
23 sets of hats/scarves/gloves
31 sets of hats/scarves
13 extra hats
5 extra pairs of gloves/mittens
1 pair of socks.
Their temperatures were actually minus35 degrees last week and a wind chill of -35 this week!
36 sets of hats and scarves and a box of flat plastic flashlights twill go to the homeless at the Church of the Common Ground.
KCP continues to work on more mittens, scarves and hats for Rosebud, as well as chemo caps for chemo patients in the Atlanta area. Thank you for generosity, and thank you, KCP! If you are interested in helping with this active group’s efforts, please contact Beth DIGiovanni.

Original Post: Help St. Matt’s Knit, Crochet, Pray Ministry With January Giving

We would like to invite you to help the children on Rosebud and our local homeless at the Church of the Common Ground to stay warm this winter. During the month of January we are asking for contributions of clean used sweaters and/or fleece and/or warm yarn. These items may be dropped off at church in the plastic bin (with a KCP sign on it) in the back of the church by the bench. The KCP members will make mittens from the sweaters and fleece and hats/scarves from the yarn. The KCP has made the work for Rosebud one of its continuous projects.

Rosebud Episcopal Mission was established in 1889 for the Lakota Tribe in South Dakota.  According to the 2017 census the population was 11, 354 with over 4,000 children now between the ages of 4-18 years (Mother Lauren Stanley,2020), and it covers an area of 1,970.362 square miles. The 2017 census reported 39.7% of the residents had incomes below the poverty level. It is divided into the Mission East under Rev. Anne Henninger with four churches and the Mission West under Rev. Dr. Lauren Stanley, Superintending Presbyter, with eight churches.

Our church found out about Rosebud when our postulate at the time, Nancee Cekuta (now Reverend Nancee at Holy Trinity in Fayetteville, NC), was assigned by our diocese to work there one summer. She came back telling us of the great needs on the reservation, especially for children waiting for buses  in extreme cold. Since that time, our church, led by the St. Matthew’s Knit, Crochet, and Pray Ministry (KCP), has collected and made donations of hats, scarves, and gloves for the school-aged children (ages 4-18 years) on the Rosebud Reservation. South Dakota and Rosebud have been hard hit by COVID-19; Mother Lauren is recovering from her second COVID-19 case.

Thank you so much for helping those in need.

 

From Mother Lauren at Rosebud Episcopal Mission

To: Beth DiGiovanni, Knit, Crochet and Pray
Date: 12/30/2020 8:09 PM

Subject: All of the knitted items have gone out and we had a blast giving them out!!!

Oh, Beth, this has been SOOOO fun this year. We put the hats, scarves and gloves in the stockings that we gave out via the GLORY program, and then gave more to the White Buffalo Calf Woman’s Society (the domestic violence and sexual abuse shelter for women and their families).
And everyone was overjoyed!!!!

WIth COVID, we haven’t been able to gather our children … so we went to them instead and delivered to parents and grandparents, so the kids could open the gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas.

I’m attaching one photo … because it’s just so darned cute! Little one wore it all night, and all the next day!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! All y’all really helped make Christmas in a really weird year seem so much more normal for our children!

Blessings and peace,
Lauren

The Rev. Dr. Lauren R. Stanley
Superintending Presbyter, Rosebud Episcopal Mission (West)



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Outreach Project — SE Gwinnett Co-Op’s Winter Wonder

Co-Op’s Winter Wonder 2020 Christmas Assistance Program

Once again the Southeast Gwinnett Food Co-Op is offering gift cards as their Christmas assistance program to eligible clients who have minor children living in their household. This small offering will help the heads of house–holds care for their children’s needs and remind them that they have friends walking alongside of them.

You are invited to make a donation in the form of a $25 Walmart gift card. Gift cards can be placed in the special collection container before or after all Sunday’s outside services, dropped off at the church parking lot on Saturday afternoons 10/24,10/31,11/7 and 11/14 from 12-2pm or given to Jennifer Papadatos, Cheryl Wheeler, Greg Andrews or Dotty Merrifield. All donations must be submitted by November 16th.



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Outreach Project – St. Matthew’s Preschool Supply Drive

OUTREACH — PRESCHOOL DONATION DRIVE
Final Week wraps up!
We are excited to be welcoming children back to St. Matthew’s Preschool and Kindergarten for the 2020-2021 school year!
October 3rd-October 31st the Outreach Committee will be collecting supplies for St. Matthew’s Preschool and Kindergarten. Donations can be left in the donation bin found at the back covered entrance to the church (handicapped entrance) starting October 3rd. If your donation is too large for the bin please contact Jennifer or Juanita to arrange for drop off. Please avoid dropping off items during preschool carpool times (9:30am-10:00am and 1:30pm-2:00pm).
If you wish to ship items directly to the preschool, send to:
St. Matthew’s Preschool
1520 Oak Rd.
Snellville, GA 30078
To learn more about our wonderful St. Matthew’s Preschool, click here.



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Holy Cow Survey Results

The results for the survey conducted at St. Matthew’s in July are below. One file contains graphs of the questions around reopening. The other file contains all of the free text comments that were written by parishioners. On Friday, Holy Cow will meet with clergy and wardens to discuss the results for the diocese. We should learn how our results compare with other parishes. An updated report, which will summarize both the results from St. Matthew’s and how St. Matthew’s compares to other churches in the diocese will be published in the October 2 copy of The Messenger.

Holy Cow Survey St. Matthews Graphs

Holy Cow Survey St. Matthews Free Text Response



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At St. Matthew’s, our MISSION is to continue the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, by serving the greater community through loving its children, caring for the unfortunate and witnessing to the healing power of God’s love.

The St. Matthew's campus is in the process of re-opening following the pandemic shutdown.Click here for details