Episcopal Church in Snellville, GA
St. Matthew’s is pleased to welcome our new rector, The Reverend Timothy Meyers. Fr. Tim’s first Sunday is January 8, 2023. We invite you to come worship the Lord Jesus Christ with us in community at either 8:00 a.m. or 10:30 a.m. Breakfast is served at 9:00 a.m., with Sunday School and Christian Education classes from 9:30 – 10:15 a.m. We look forward to seeing you there!
Click the link below to view Fr. Tim’s message.
Tim’s invitation to worship.MOV – Google Drive
August Update on Our Ministries at St. Matthew’s
from Trisha Voiles, Sr. Warden
Building & Grounds has had another busy month! We began the month scaring the attendees of the Wednesday Healing Prayer service when they arrived for the service by having a parking lot full of Snellville and Gwinnett Police officers. BUT The reason was for protection training–and not crime. John Eberhart had attended a Homeland Security Presentation sponsored by the Diocese and had the speaker come speak with our local law enforcement, the vestry, and the preschool directors. We walked the campus and received a security audit. We discovered there are grants to help purchase systems for the church, and many other tips and procedures we will be working on in the next months/year.
Other projects: B&G is having the roof repaired over the Parish Hall where a leak is causing the parish hall ceiling to peel away. The roof is now repaired, and bids are coming in for the ceiling. Have you noticed the front courtyard sidewalk dipping? This is another issue that is being repaired. Apparently, the ground below was being compressed, but PolyLift has been able to lift and level it to eliminate the tripping hazard. Thank you to our Building and Grounds Team for their vigilance.
Christian Education began the CE year with a wonderful Sign-Up Circus. There were clowns, popcorn, facepainting, and even an elephant (although it was one of the wonderful balloon creations along with turtles, ladybugs, swords). The children and youth classes will begin full force this week. The adult classes met initially last week and will resume on September 11. And come out for our August Adult Forums! We will be having informational sessions to help you listen for God’s Gifts to help you serve St. Matthews (Stewardship-but don’t let that keep you away or you will miss the fun.) and an Update of the new rector search with the Parish Profile Presentation.
Youth Group began last weekend with a wonderful Youth Retreat up at Camp Mikell! What a great way to build the group with a “Be At Peace” theme. This school year the Youth Group has hired two interns to help guild the spiritual growth in the program. Caroline Bowen and Jessie Hurst are former Youth members, returning to share God’s Love with our young adults.
Some Upcoming Dates – Mark your calendar to be involved in our ministries:
August 26 – Restaurant Foyers: Universal Joint, Lawrenceville, Dinner at 7pm
August 29 – Outreach Co-op Dinner
September 17 – St. Matthew’s Gwinnett Stripers Baseball Game (Stripers are a type of fish known in the GA waters.)
September 25 – St. Matthew’s Celebration Luncheon and Ministry Fair
October 8 – Vestry and Committee Chairs Planning Meeting
October 9 – Blessing of the Animals
Wow! What a fun week surfing through the scriptures at VBS! The sanctuary was transformed to a coral reef and the parish hall was home to a tiki bar and beach scene. You may feel like you’re under the sea thanks to Becky Olbon’s handiwork with the window decorations.
We had a smaller than usual group of campers but it was the perfect way to get back in to the swing of things after a 2-year hiatus. Most of our campers were from the community so we’re hoping some will return to St. Matt’s for Sunday School and church.
Thanks so much to all our adult and youth volunteers who made VBS happen! We had many “VBS veterans” and many “rookies” who made it a great week for everyone. Huge thanks to our center leaders: Juanita Little (crafts), Trisha Voiles and Cheryl Wheeler (snack and Bible story), Karen Whitehead and Rich Morris (music), and Greg Andrews and Kenny Adkins (recreation). Jessie Hurst organized the youth, and Susan Carson helped with registration and check in. Our Shepherds were Betty Medlin, Carol Maneol, Carol Walsh, Jay Jones, Josh Hurst, Judith Kimsey, Mona Livermont and Liz Livermont. And additional volunteers in Snack, Bible Story and Crafts were Gail Sawyer, Beth DiGiovanni, Nancy Griner, Sharon Hansen, Susan Adkins, Vicki Conway and Paula Pownell. And Karen Wilson even taught yoga during Recreation one day!
Our youth volunteer force was small but mighty: Becky and Jessie Barringer, Maddie Ferrell-Mixon, Mia Lewis, Rory Morris, Stanley Livermont and Jacob Hurst.
Thank you all for answering the call to be the hands and feet of Jesus at VBS!
Terri Hurst and Becky Olbon
Co-Directors
St. Matt’s VBS!
Here’s just a few photos from our Easter Sunday at St. Matthew’s. If you have photos from the day that you’d like to add to our collection, please send them to
admin@stmatthewssnellville.org.
Annual Parish Meeting
January 23, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. in the parish hall or online via Zoom (see newsletter for details)
You will be able to vote in person or via Zoom:
Ballot Link for Zoom Meeting attendees.
Please view the reports here:
Annual Report 2021 Complete-Candidates and Reports
St Matthews Annual Mtg Minutes 2021 2.21.21 Final
Click the links to view the candidate’s bios.
Vestry slate will be approved on Sunday, January 23 at the Annual Parish meeting, 9:00 a.m.
Our 10th Annual St. Matthews Car Show turned out to be a great success this year. Some of the best vintage classic cars, trucks and motorcycles in Georgia were in attendance to the tune of over ninety cars. We had a fantastic Silent Auction with over 30 items and we had bidders on every single one of them. We had several new arts and craft vendors and, last but not least, we had Tipsy Pig who brought us great ribs, chicken, and barbeque.
Family Promise of Gwinnett County, who works to help homeless families in the area, was the recipient of a whopping $20,000 donation. We couldn’t have done it without our sponsorships, our volunteers, our Bake Sale, Knit Pearl and Pray, our Kids Zone, the car registrations, vendor fees and the monies raised from our silent auction. Plus Bishop Rob was here with us to pick the Bishop’s Choice trophy recipient and stayed with us through the trophy presentations.
A great big Thank you to all that helped to make this show such a great Outreach and Fellowship event. The Car Show Committee, our volunteers, all of our sponsors, those who supported us with your prayers and encouragement and all of St. Matthews , we thank you all!!
Have you ever wondered about our beautiful pavilion, and how it came to be? Check out the new display at the pavilion chronicling the history of this structure and the important role it’s had in the fellowship events at St. Matt’s. To see the display, click here. (Note: the old plaque did not photograph well and is missing in the graphic. To see the full display, check it out in the in the current pavilion, located next to the rear parking lot.
Our thanks to all those instrumental in the planning, funding, building, and completion of our St. Matt’s pavilion since its inception. Special thanks to the Oren Morris Chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew at St. Matt’s, those Boy Scouts from our Scout Troop 533, whose Eagle projects centered on the pavilion, and to Phil Morgan for his work in putting together and erecting the history display.
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
