This Sunday's Readings - 14th Sunday after Pentecost
Israel's greatest time of anxiety and uncertainty came with the tumultuous time of the Babylonian captivity. It was a time of great loss and fear. Yet it was also a time of immense soul-searching and creativity. It is in this time that Israel writes its greatest story - The Exodus. It is also in this time that Israel begins to celebrate and relive this story in their greatest feast - The Passover. Handed on from generation to generation each Israelite reclaims the Exodus as their own story. Jesus saw his own life as its fulfillment and most importantly, once again, we too must claim it as our own.
Our 9:30 am Sunday in-person Eucharist will be live-streamed. The live stream will be available around that time at St. Peter's Facebook Page or via the link at stpetersmountainlakes.org.
The Sunday Bulletin for Pentecost 14 is available HERE.
The Sunday Readingsare available HERE.(During the Season of Pentecost we will read the "Track 1" lessons.)
Action Auction
Saturday, September 12 - 5 PM to 7 PM
Our 45th Annual Action Auction is only days away! The Action Auction and Outreach committees, and our very talented musicians have been hard at work to bring us a night of fun, fellowship, and great music.
Spread the word! There are wonderful things to share with family and friends and all of it is in support of work that is so critical right now!
Sunday School
Sunday School begins September 13 at 10:30 am via ZOOM
We have 29 children registered to begin Godly Play via Zoom beginning Sunday, September 13 at 10:30 am. Our goal is to finish the session each time by 11:10 am.
If you have not done so already please register your children and confirm the e-mail address to use for the ZOOM invite by sending an email with their names to Liz Muller at alizmuller@yahoo.com.
The 2020-21 Sunday School schedule is attached HERE.
Outreach
With joy we look forward to next week's Action Auction and thank you for your generosity to our neighbors in need.
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus…Philippians 4:19
Indeed, the Lord has provided. It is with great gratitude that our parish looks forward to a fiscally sound financial picture for 2020.
It is with this in mind that the vestry voted to donate all the funds raised from our 2020 Action Auction to our parish Outreach efforts. For many years a share of proceeds from the Action Auction would be earmarked for community support through our Outreach efforts. Fortunately, this year we are in a position to share your generosity even more with our broader community. Given the events of this year there is no doubt that the needs of those around us have magnified in intensity and type. We thank God that we have both the means and opportunity to contribute to addressing this enormous need.
The Outreach Committee has spent the last several months researching, interviewing and vetting nearly ten local organizations potentially eligible for our support. The committee felt strongly that the efforts should go to support local city and county causes, focus on the needs exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic such as homelessness and mental health and address populations that are not the most visible such as poor mothers and their newborn babies. Each organization was researched by a member of the Outreach committee; a group of 2-3 committee members interviewed the principles of the organizations and discussed potential opportunities for support. Finally, the recommendations were brought to the full committee and a decision was made to support four organizations. These four are: North Porch Women and Infant Center, Mental Health Association of Morris and Essex, nourish.NJ and Family Promise of Morris County. North Porch and Mental Health Association (MHA) are long-time beneficiaries of St. Peters Outreach efforts. Nourish and Family Promise are new and exciting opportunities for us to expand our giving and help allay the difficulties of homelessness and hunger exacerbated by this awful pandemic.
Below is a list and an easy link to a description of the organization’s charitable remit as well as how St. Peters either plans to support or has supported the organization in the past.
More about our Partners:
North Porch: northporch.org St. Peters has supported North Porch for over ten years. North Porch fills the gap in emergency situations when needy families are displaced or have shortfalls in their budget. North Porth will provide diapers, formula, baby food wipes and toiletry items.
Mental Health Associates of Morris and Essex:www.mhaessexmorris.orgThe mission of the Mental Health Association of Essex and Morris, Inc. is to promote mental health, including the integration of physical healthcare, to improve the care and treatment of individuals with mental illness, and to remove the stigma associated with emotional and mental disorders. As a community organization, the MHA accomplishes this mission through advocacy, education, prevention, early intervention, treatment and service.
nourish.NJ: nourishnj.org nourish.NJ's fundamental offering is meals -- and they proudly say they haven't missed a meal in over 25 years! But they do more: they help people with housing, with medical needs, with finding jobs, with veteran's issues, with counselling, and so on. They have licensed social workers available to help when counselling needs arise, and they work through many volunteers, with over 3,000 people involved over the years.
nourish.NJ currently operates out of Morristown and uses Church of the Redeemer as the base for their breakfast and lunch meal programs, but they are in the process of shifting their operations to Boonton, so we will soon be our neighbors.
Family Promise: www.familypromisemorris.org The mission of Family Promise is to work with families who are homeless (for whatever reason), and steer them toward suitable housing. In normal (non-COVID) times they arrange for families to stay for a week at a church for supper and overnight, and then move on to another church. During the pandemic they are finding static locations (usually hotels/motels) where families can stay for longer periods of time.
All Family Promise clients are in Morris County, as are all the churches they work with. Their network includes 24 churches actively engaged in housing FP clients for a week at a time, and 80 churches supporting FP in other ways. Some 1,600 people volunteer in some capacity during the course of a year.
