Love Never Ends pledge drive 2022

LOVE NEVER ENDS

The year 2022 began with the Omicron surge of Covid-19. Then a blizzard forced our Annual Meeting online. But we persevered together, continuing to move forward in love anyway we can. Starting at Easter, we began sharing the experience of communion again, including the wine and the altar rail. And a good thing too, because such sharing keeps us connected to the great cloud of witnesses that have gone before us, especially those many beloved parishioners who have died this year. They have left their indelible mark on our community of faith.

It is their memory we honor with this year’s stewardship theme, “Love Never Ends,” which comes from St. Paul’s famous poem about love in 1 Corinthians 13. While most often read at weddings, I much prefer to hear this reading at funerals. Indeed, I suggest it to every family that is grieving a loved one’s death. The Apostle Paul’s words about the eternal nature of love remind us that we are forever connected to one another and to all who have died through the everlasting love of God. We celebrate and nurture this loving connection through our practice of coming together as the Beloved Community of God here at our special place on Pearl Street.

PANELS TURNED ON, JANUARY

HIGHS OF 2022

In January we turned on 130 solar panels for the first time, and in their first six months of use, we produced over 40 megawatts of power (that’s a lot!). At Easter we brought back the sharing of communion wine and coming to the altar rail. We continued our joyful partnership with St. Luc’s school in Haiti. We began a children’s choir! And we finally installed the new red doors!!

NEW DOOR INSTALLATION, APRIL 2022

ALTAR GUILD PREPARING FOR EASTER 2022

COMING TOGETHER

To keep our Beloved Community going, we join together each year to fund God’s mission at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Over one hundred individuals and families pledge their financial resources to God’s mission as we plan for a 2023 budget of over $330,000. Your collective generosity allows us to say “Yes” to all the ways our loving God is moving in the life of this church. This year in particular we recognize that several of our longtime pledgers have died. While their spirits remain with us, we must come together to share the responsibility of covering the loss of their financial resources.

Funding God’s mission with our financial resources is a lot like pollination. We each bring our bounty to our hive here on Pearl Street, but each of our offerings is fairly meager on its own, just like the pollen a single bee carries with it. But taken together, our financial resources given back to God, can do great things – just like all those bees contributing to the greater whole, producing an abundance of honeycomb.

FOURTEEN YEAR PARTNERSHIP

This year marks the 14th anniversary of our partnership with St. Luc’s school in Mercery, Haiti. This blessed partnership of prayer, relationship-building, and education continues to serve over 300 students, who are able to have a stable learning environment that includes a hot lunch every day of the year. We heard recently from Fr. Semé that all grades (K-7) received combined marks in the 90th percentile last school year. Incredible! Thank you for your continued prayerful and financial support of this amazing partnership.

St. Mark’s,

THANK YOU

Thank you so much for being a part of our Beloved Community and for considering your financial pledge to God’s mission at St. Mark’s. In this packet you will find a full-page pledge card with several options for discerning your pledge for 2023. Please take that card with you in your prayer to God and make your pledge a joyful and faithful offering back to God. The St. Mark’s vestry invites you to join us and so many others in financially supporting God’s mission at St. Mark’s, where we celebrate together the beautiful truth that God’s love never ends.

Join us on Sunday, October 23rd for the return of

Meal-packing Event with the United Way!