Ministries

At Saint Mary’s, we cultivate a sense of gratitude for the abundant ways in which God blesses us and our parish community. God is the first and greatest Giver. Being made in God’s image, we strive to give and to live openly and generously by sharing our time, talents, and treasure. In volunteering at St. Mary’s or in the community and financially supporting the church’s many ministries and our outreach partners, we express our gratitude and our trust in God’s loving provision of all that we need. Our service consists of three facets: internal ministries; external ministries; and organizations with which we affiliate. 

Ministering Within St. Mary’s

At St. Mary’s, we seek to exemplify God’s love and care to all our parishioners and their families, particularly in difficult times. Churches should be places of healing, physically, mentally, and spiritually. We pray that all our members will feel welcome to bring concerns to our clergy and our healing teams.

Through the church, the body of Christ, we come to understand the meaning of health as the harmony of body, mind, and spirit that we find in our relationships with God and with each other. And through our Pastoral Care ministry, we reaffirm the church’s role in ministering to the whole person. We become God’s instruments of healing.

The Pastoral Care team reaches out to share God’s love through Christ in a variety of ways. They include visits, phone calls, emails, and get-well cards to those who are ill, homebound, or grieving the loss of loved ones. The team meets monthly to review the list of those in need of support, and to work with the clergy to ensure that we extend the ministry of healing to all those in need. The team also offers an ongoing St. Mary’s Grief Support Group. This meets weekly, both in-person and remotely via Zoom. Recently, we have also introduced a new opportunity: a twelve-week Bereavement Group, titled “Understanding Your Grief,” and facilitated by a hospice chaplain.

Hospitality represents another God-given responsibility of our entire congregation. This takes many forms. Among them: greeters who meet worshippers as they enter the church; volunteers who make and provide food for coffee hours and ongoing activities; parishioners who form committees and hold special functions such as Christmas events, springtime Daffodil Teas, and other parish-wide activities throughout the year; and those who make small gifts and coordinate funeral receptions.

Many of our ongoing activities exemplify our Episcopal nature by involving food. These include after-worship gatherings such as coffee hours; lemonade-on-the-lawn; ice cream socials; receptions for the “five o’clock flock” that attends Saturday evening services, including a monthly Taizé offering; and newcomers’ receptions. And on monthly Sunday afternoons from September to June, our “Movie Theology” group shows films with an ethical dimension – accompanied, of course, by popcorn, desserts, or soup made by volunteers.

Ministering Beyond St. Mary’s

St. Mary’s builds its outreach ministries around Matthew’s Gospel 25:35-36, in which Jesus commands his followers. He says:

I was hungry and you fed me,

I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,

I was homeless and you gave me a room,

I was shivering and you gave me clothes,

I was sick and you stopped to visit,

I was in prison and you came to me.

St. Mary’s volunteers fulfill those commands in a variety of ways. We provide and serve meals once a month for the Miracle Kitchen at the Salvation Army. We also serve meals monthly at the Faith Family Kitchen and interfaith Coalition Food Program. We offer small gifts in appreciation at our Annual Veterans Drive-through each year, and Thanksgiving Meals to those in need. We provide clothing and gifts for families at Christmas time through our Angel Tree Program. We established, and continue to support, the Amazing Grace Camp. This provides a week-long summer camp experience for children of incarcerated parents. In 2021, we established Financial Assistance in Re-entry (FAIR), a program that offers low-interest loans to formerly incarcerated individuals as they seek to resume their lives. We hold vaccination clinics for all. And St. Mary’s Outreach Committee annually disburses over $50,000 to local, national, and international partners in mission.