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A Message from Rev. Hannah….
531 West College Avenue, Jonesboro, AR 72401 March 2017
The Missive
A beloved tradition at St. Mark’s is our all-night vigil from the end of the Maundy Thursday service to
the start of our noon Good Friday service. Members of our congregation can sign up to sit for an hour in
solitude and prayer in the John Roberts Chapel, along with our unconsumed, consecrated bread and wine.
On his final night on earth, Christ asked his disciples to stay awake with him while he prayed in the Gar-
den of Gethsemane. Part of our commemoration of that night is that we too keep vigil. A sign-up sheet
will be in the Narthex beginning Sunday, March 4th.
To keep vigil literally means to stay awake to wait and witness when we would normally be asleep. We
have a long history with vigil keeping, dating back even before Christ’s beckoning of the disciples in
Gethsemane. This is where the idea of wake comes from. From our Jewish roots, we have the practice
staying with a body from the time of death to the time of burial.
At its height of churchmanship, the Roman Church recognized an intricate Liturgy of Hours, also taken
from a Jewish practice, which marks the hours of each day with psalms and prayers. While many monas-
tics still participate in this Divine Office, for most of us, the last vestige of this once daily ritual is a ser-
vice of Tenebrae.
Tenebrae began as a special observance of Matins and Lauds (nighttime and dawn prayers) beginning at
sundown the evening before Maundy Thursday and ending at dawn the morning after Good Friday. (We
call this period of time the Triduum, and it is our holiest time,) Today, Tenebrae is typically observed
once during Holy Week. It consists of a series of psalms, anthems, and scripture readings, during which
candles are gradually extinguished until a single light remains. This year we will gather for a service of
Tenebrae on the Wednesday of Holy Week, March 28, at 7:30pm.
I invite and encourage everyone to participate in both our service of Tenebrae and our overnight vigil the
following night. Keeping vigil is an important spiritual practice that is especially meaningful during Lent.
As we at St. Mark’s continue on our journey towards the cross, keeping vigil is faith practice that can en-
hance our penitence and contemplation - not to mention it is a form of both prayer and fasting - as well
as bring us together in our experience of the Christ’s final days and Passion. I hope to see you there.
Lenten Blessings,
Hannah+
Holy Week
And Easter
2018
Winterstar Retreat for Youth
Winterstar is the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas’ annual Spring Re-
treat for youth in the 6th-12th grade. The weekend begins at Camp
Mitchell Friday March 9th at 8pm with registration and ends
Sunday, March 11th at 11:00am. The weekend includes games,
music, worship services, hiking, sports, hammocking and even more
Camp goodness.
Attending from St. Mark’s will be Abigale and Kayden Gillis, Breana
Johnson, Olivia Joy Langford, Rowan Pringle, Kathryn Davis, Brylee Lenter,
Zoie Lenter,and Kaleb Crossland. Going with them will be Stephanie Matthews, and
Matt Stone.
Two Saints Kitchen/ Announcement The Two Saints Kitchen is in need of van drivers! No special training or license is required, and the van is fully insured. We're looking for a few people willing to make a few pick ups on
a Saturday morning every 5 to 6 weeks. The van service is a much needed part of our Two Saints ministry, and we don't want to let our friends down. If you are inter-ested and available, please email Rev. Hannah at [email protected]
Sunday/ March 25 Palm Sunday Service
Services at 8:00am & 10:00am
6:30 pm Taize Service
Wed./March 28 7:30pm Tenebrae Service
Thurs./ March 29 7:00pm Maundy Thursday Service and
stripping of the Altar
Fri./ March 30 Noon Good Friday Liturgy &
7:00pm Stations of the Cross
Sat./ March 31 8:00p m The Great Easter Vigil and
Reception
Sun./ April 1 Easter Sunday
Services at 8:00am & 10:00am
Easter Egg Hunt to
Follow 10 am Service
Christian Formation for Children
Children’s Ministries
Lent is about preparation. We prepare our hearts and minds for Good Friday and Easter, those days that mark Christ’s passion and then his victory over death. The purpose of these forty days is to help us prepare for Easter when we will renew our baptismal commitments.
Our children in the Christian Education program celebrated our “Fat Tuesday” with a Valen-tines Party on the 14th . Afterwards, families had the opportunity to attend the Ash Wednesday services where we were imprinted with the sign of the cross.
Our families were encouraged in participating in a special Lenten activity which includes the three principles of Lent: Prayer, fasting, and Almsgiving (Giving). The good works of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving help us focus our attention on what is important in life. And if we can think of our Lenten promises as a “good work” to be taken on and shift our focus away from what we “give up,” we will find that our Lenten prayers and devotionals will be richer and more fruitful.
Families who participated in the Sunday morning Liturgy of the Word with Children and the Christian Ed students received a Family Lenten devotional to help them prepare for Easter.
Please keep in mind that we are always looking for volunteers to help teach in our Christian Education program and to work with our children during our Sunday morning Liturgy of the
Word with Children program. Please pray and consider what role you should have in the formation of children. Contact Rev. Hannah or Rose Mary ([email protected] or
935-0236) for more information. Continue to pray for God’s blessings over our ministries for children.
Easter Lilies and Helping Neighbors Donations for Easter
Sign-up sheets are on the table in the Narthex for Easter donations. For $20 you may choose to
donate flowers to decorate our Nave for Easter and/or you may donate gifts of money to
Helping Neighbors. Please use your check’s memo line to indicate
which you are donating, or write on the envelope if you use one for a
cash donation. Thanks!
Learn Safe Cycling at St. Mark’s
The Northeast Arkansas Bicycle Coalition is offering its Smart Cycling
101 course. Covering bike basics, riding technique, road safety and basic
traffic law and skills, Smart Cycling has something for every level of
rider. The two-day course is Friday evening of presentations at the Parish Hall, followed
by Saturday morning drills on the bike. Cost is $20 for this League of American Bicyclists
sanctioned nine-hour course. To learn more, contact Bill Smith or go to
Facebook.com/NEABC. Meeting Thursday, March 8 and Friday, March 23 at 6-7pm
ECW met on February 20th. The next meeting is March 10th in the conference room,
9:30 am hospitality and 10:00 am meeting.
All Women of St. Mark’s are always Welcome!
Men’s Club will meet Thursday, March 15th at 6:00 pm in the parish Hall. Terry Barnett will be cooking cornbeef and cabbage for our St. Patrick's Day meal.
Helping Neighbors Food Pantry Rarely does Helping Neighbors do anything con-nected to national news. However, this week I no-ticed something related to a program we distrib-ute. President Trump recently proposed replacing at least part of the SNAP (food stamp) program with "Harvest" boxes of food in order to save $120 billion dollars. This is not a new idea. At present time, Indian Reservations, adults over 60 under the poverty line, and emergency food programs such as hurricane relief are all eligible for food box programs. At Helping Neighbors, we distribute the CSFP (Commodity Supplemental Food Program) boxes for the Food Nutrition Services of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. CSFP boxes supplement nutrition to adults over 60 who qualify financially. The boxes of food include canned fruit, canned vegetables, shelf-stable milk, cheese, whole grain noodles and cereals, dry beans, canned meat, canned poultry, and canned fish. They are all exactly alike and do not have food specifically for specialized diets. The publicity brochure states that participants should consult with their physicians or dietitians to fit these foods into heart healthy, diabetic, lactose free, gluten free, or allergy free diets. Before February 6, 2014, the CSFP program included WIC recipients: women, children, and in-fants. But since February 6. 2014, women and children are excluded. The proposal on the table is for the boxes to take the place of just over half of a $90.00 debit card of the SNAP program. Those receiving below $90,00 dollars in food debit cards would not receive the boxes. SNAP is a nutrition program for families living below 130% of the poverty line. A qualifying family of three would have to earn less than $26,556,00 a year. To put this in perspec-tive, most retail clerks are paid near minimum wage and 25% of retail clerks are college educat-ed. At the Arkansas minimum wage of $8.50, a person's yearly earning would be $17,680.00. SNAP recipients are the working poor. Helping Neighbors distributes approximately 120 CSFP boxes for Srs. on the second Friday of each month. Our volunteers from St. Mark's help all of this to be possible by sharing the workload. Thanks be to God for our loving congregation. Sincerely, Rhinda Kesselring
This Vermont CSFP box is exactly like the boxes distributed to Srs. in Arkansas
St. Mark’s Day School
03/02 Kollin Vaughn
3/03 Ken Brewer
03/03 Sonia Westburg
3/05 Jody Long
3/10 Nathan Lowe
3/10 Wes Westenrieder
3/10 Caitlin White
3/11 Phillip Wells
3/12 Hillary Creech
3/13 Traci Chance
3/16 Tiffany Cunningham
3/19 Hope Smith
3/21 Amelia Haynes
03/25 Tiffany Troutt
3/27 Jennifer Engleken
3/27 Dana Moses
3/28 Jessica Odom
3/29 Celeste Robinette
3/30 Kerry Tew
March Anniversaries
3/17 Robert and Hillary Creech
3/17 Patrick and Sara Land
It's hard to believe how quickly the school year is passing! March is already here and St. Mark's will be closed March 19th through the 23rd for Spring Break. Enrollment for the "In School" children and children of St. Mark;s Episcopal church families will begin soon. Be on the lookout for further notice.
Sincerely,
Peggy Stripling
St. Mark’s Day School Director
Upcoming Events...
March 2018
March 4 Daughter’s of the King
Confirmation Class & Gospel of John Group
March 10 ECW
March 11 Confirmation Class & Gospel of John Group
March 15 Men’s Club
March 18 Confirmation Class & Gospel of John Group
Spring Break is March 19-23
March 25 Confirmation Class & Gospel of John Group
March 3 – Team 2
March 10– Team 3
March 17–Team 4
March 24- Team 5
March 31- Team 6
Financial Update
February Year to Date
Pledges and Offerings Received $ 20,040 $ 37,511
Needed to meet budget $ 32,144 $ 64,290
Budget Surplus (Shortfall) ($ 12,104) ($ 26,779)
Actual Expenses Paid $ 20,752 $ 37,946
Actual (Shortfall) $ 8,819 $ 434
Loan Balance $144,398
Two Saints’ Schedule
For March
