St. Barnabas Episcopal Church

The St. Barnabas Vestry met last Saturday and worked through a process of taking our Vision Statement–“A place of health, healing, and hope with unconditional love”–and putting some flesh on those bones to create a Mission Statement:

“St. Barnabas with God’s help will invite all people to a faith of prayer, worship, music, and outreach. We commit to providing a place of acceptance through engaging and listening non-judgmentally and following the model of Christ by building bridges to community and family.”

What do you think?

While the rest of the world has put away their bunny ears and Easter baskets, we continue to celebrate the joy and exhilaration of Easter. It is a season, not just a day. Over these next 50 days, we will hear the stories of how the early church began to spread and live into the mission of God as they learned it first from Jesus. More inspiring and incredible stories are coming our way. Stay tuned!

There are times when, for one reason or another, a priest is not available to be at the church for a service. But we have a provision in the Book of Common Prayer that, upon a bishop’s approval, we can use the services of a deacon to administer what is called “Communion by Extension.” Such an occasion has come up this weekend. Please join the Reverned Deacon Karyl Miller (pictured here with our priest Rev. Susan) for a Sunday liturgy of prayer, music, and sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ consecrated at the altar of St. Barnabas.

Our Annual Meeting is this Sunday! This is an opportunity to learn more about what our church has been doing in the past year, and to begin dreaming about where we can take things from here. We’ll start with taking a “family photo” at the end of our worship service in the sanctuary. We’ll have a potluck lunch (and we have some cooks in this congregation!) with coffee, tea, and water, and we’ll have presentations from our priest and the vestry wardens, an election of vestry members, and a chance to review the budget and give final approval to our bylaws from last year. Whether you’ve been with St. Barnabas for years…or only a few hours…we welcome you to come be a part of the picture.

This is what radical hospitality looks like. As the United Methodist Church goes through the pains of division within their denomination, St. Barnabas has offered a monthly worship space for those UMC members who find themselves without a church.

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.”—Hebrews 13:2.

O God, by the leading of a star you manifested your only Son
to the Peoples of the earth: Lead us, who know you now by
faith, to your presence, where we may see your glory face to
face; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

The weather outside is frightful. Not with rain or snow or sleet. But the temperatures overnight are going to be extremely cold for this time of year. And it comes on the celebration of when the Holy Family found itself out in a manger because there was no room at the inn.

For the unhoused, this weather is extremely dangerous. We are collecting blankets and other warm things, such as winter coats, to take to the Lowndes Associated Ministries to People (LAMP). Please bring items with you to either the Christmas Eve service on Saturday or Christmas Day service on Sunday. If you are near downtown, you can also take items there directly to the shelter at 714 Charlton Street.

You can now find us and share our videos from YouTube. Look for http://www.youtube.com/@st.barnabasepiscopal. We post most of our Sunday services, the sermon, and an occasional fun short video. Bookmark it and pass it along!

As we enter into November and the end of another church year, this is a wonderful time to reflect upon the things for which we are grateful. Maybe we have had a chance to emerge from our pandemic lockdown to venture out and visit family and friends we haven’t seen in a couple of years. Maybe we have learned to slow down and reassess what things we were leaving “undone” in our lives. Perhaps we’ve welcomed new family and friends into our circle. Or maybe we have just been happy to wake up and have another day in which to be alive. Whatever it might be, November affords us that opportunity to thank God for grace, for mercy, and for the chance to be a blessing in this world.

As we do that, we can always drop some spare change into one of our blue UTO boxes. These little boxes contain the monies that help The Episcopal Church do outreach and ministry throughout the country and the world. We will be collecting our blue boxes on Sunday, November 27th, the First Sunday of Advent, and sending the proceeds to the Untied Thank Offering. The monies will go toward grants for programs related to prison ministries. Thank you!