The Lion's Roar
October, 2022
A Message from Father Rick...
Last fall we used a grant that we had received to throw a food truck event in the parking lot. We called the whole “tribe”—the whole parish “family”—which had been dispersed by COVID for far too long.
We had hoped that it would be this great energizing event which would bring everyone back together.
And it was indeed wonderful! It was so much fun, and we saw a lot of familiar faces that we hadn’t seen in a long time.
And then… Omicron hit, and by Christmas so many of us crawled back into our little COVID bubbles.
So, undaunted, we’re trying it again! This October 22nd, we’re using the same grant we received last year to throw yet another food truck event—with the sole purpose of gathering the tribe again, and encouraging people to come to their St Mark’s home again.
I do hope that you sign up and that you indeed come! It’s completely FREE, and it will be great to see everyone, to enjoy the good food, to play some games—and to get some energy focused back on our spiritual home.
See you there!
Fr Rick
We had hoped that it would be this great energizing event which would bring everyone back together.
And it was indeed wonderful! It was so much fun, and we saw a lot of familiar faces that we hadn’t seen in a long time.
And then… Omicron hit, and by Christmas so many of us crawled back into our little COVID bubbles.
So, undaunted, we’re trying it again! This October 22nd, we’re using the same grant we received last year to throw yet another food truck event—with the sole purpose of gathering the tribe again, and encouraging people to come to their St Mark’s home again.
I do hope that you sign up and that you indeed come! It’s completely FREE, and it will be great to see everyone, to enjoy the good food, to play some games—and to get some energy focused back on our spiritual home.
See you there!
Fr Rick
Weekly Offerings in October
Saturday 5pm Holy Eucharist Rite II, in the Chapel
Sunday 8am Holy Eucharist Rite I
10am Holy Eucharist Rite II
9am The Forum, Praying with Scripture
Monday 10am Morning Prayer via Zoom
Wednesday 9am Holy Eucharist Rite II
7:30pm The Forum, Praying with Scripture
Oct 5 & 19 - Keansburg Soup Kitchen
Oct 9 - Blessing of the Animals at the 10am service
Oct 22 - Food Truck Event
Visit our website stmarksbr.org for links and schedules to all upcoming services, bulletins, music offerings, signups, and more.
Warden's Corner
Now that the summer is over and we head into the school year, we are seeing a lot of people come back to various services and events at the church. We had another very successful Fall rummage sale and we welcomed back a large group with the annual church picnic. We have the food truck event coming up on October 22nd and we are excited to see a lot of familiar faces and new faces there.
We just wrapped up the Capital Campaign and it was a big success. We have reached most of the way to our stretch goal, which will put us on a strong financial footing for future years as we cover some large capital improvements and pay down our mortgage over the next couple years. Thank you to all who so generously pledged to this campaign and if you haven’t had a chance to submit a pledge yet, we will still accept whatever you can do to support the future of our church. I want to especially thank Martha Heiner, Jim Nishimura and of course, Father Rick, for all of their hard work in making this a campaign that was so successful, that we have had other parishes ask about how to run a campaign like ours - this is a testament to the strong parish family we have here at St. Mark’s.
Sean Gogerty
Pet Blessing - Sunday, 10/9 at the 10am service
Bring your furry, feathered, scaled and stuffed friends over to the parish hall on Oct 9th for a blessing from Father Rick.
2022 Food Trucks
Join us in the church parking lot on October 22nd from 6pm to 9pm for food, fun and fellowship! You MUST sign up in order to attend as we can only accommodate up to 125 people. There are limited spots left! If you are signing up for your family please indicate the names of all members or guests. If you need help with this please email Marliese (knillmarliese@gmail.com).
Keansburg Soup Kitchen - 10/5
On Wednesday, 10/5, we are heading down to serve lunch. Please visit our needs list if you are able to contribute a meatloaf (or two!). The recipe for our Keansburg meatloaf can be found on the link.
Finance Report
2022 Year-to-Date (YTD, through Aug) Financial Results
- Operating Income is $261K, $8K (or 3%) favorable to budget, driven by full and partial year pledge income and donations received year-to-date, offset partially by unfavorable Buildings Use Donations.
- Operating Expenses is $249K, -$5K (or -2%) unfavorable to budget, driven by higher utility (energy) costs, building cleaning expenses (note St. Mark’s has returned to its pre-COVID full cleaning schedule), Buildings Maintenance expenses, and timing of expenses.
- Operating Net Income is $12K, $2K favorable to budget, driven by favorable operating income cited above.
Sunday School News
Given the low attendance we have experienced so far this fall for our new Sunday School program offering, we are going to pause Sunday morning, 10 a.m. Sunday School for the next several weeks. Father' Rick's weekly video lessons are available on the top of our website or through the link here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy_j3xRxYHIaxVTpSZUywNsKUiJrgbCZt . Zaccheus's Treehouse in the balcony will continue to be open during Sunday for children to stretch out while the family participates in the services.
Rick and Kristen Hauser will be reaching out to families (and of course you should feel free to reach out to us) in the coming weeks to learn from you how best to move forward to provide a community for St. Mark's children. In the meantime, we hope to see St. Mark's children of all ages at the FoodTruck event on October 22nd.
Local Wildflower Honey Available
limited quantity, available in the office or the narthex this Sunday.
Bee-made from neighborhood flowers collected at Madisonville & Ross Farm Apiaries.
$20 (pint jar)
All sales to benefit Ross Farm Giving Garden
Laughter in the Pews
Whenever ChangKuo sings a solo, we all look forward to those beautiful - and powerful - high notes toward the end.
Buildings News
It has been one year since we formally started the St. Marks Buildings & Grounds project needs postings with regularly updated needs posted for volunteers to work on around our facility. To date, a total of 61 projects were recorded and updated both on-line and on the bulletin board in the Parish Hall.
Currently, we have a total of 33 projects completed, 6 on hold for 2023 for funding, 7 in progress, which leaves only 15 currently available. All I can say is WOW, this is truly remarkable . Together we were able to get so much work done. The projects were anything from painting a wall to working with a contractor to getting a new floor installed and everything in between. A big THANK YOU to all the volunteers.
If you would like to pick a project to work on alone or with a group, please send a note to the church office or to John Lyga. With church buildings as large as ours we always have some good projects to work on waiting for you.
Fellowship News
October 2nd Coffee Hour will feature gingerbread and apples! (Fall is here!) Also available - cuttings of "chocolate" mint. A feature plant in the Morley's new Lewis Street garden, chocolate mint is a well behaved, fragrant plant to have around. It roots well on a kitchen window.
The fall picnic was enjoyed by many in the Memorial Garden after a rain delay took us out of Ross Farm’s venue and into the following weekend. The kids had fun in the bounce house Father Rick was so kind to include for the event. Thanks to all that contributed some wonderful homemade salads and desserts. Also a great thanks to those that helped with the clean-up.
The coffee hour is simple act of service to provide back to your home church. Consider signing up for one Sunday after the ten a.m. service. Not familiar with the coffee hour set-up? Sandy Gogerty will be glad to give you a lesson. It’s a really nice way to get to know one another and enjoy some relaxing time together.
I hope everyone is looking forward to the second annual food truck event. Marliese Knill is helping to organize this event, so please make sure to sign -up so we can plan for the number of attendees.
Brewery Tour Group Starts October 13thOur first meeting of the Monthly Brewery Touring Group is Thursday October 13th at 7:30 pm. We will be visiting Glenbrook Brewery in Morristown. Each month on the second Thursday we will get together for a trip to a different local brewpub with new and old St. Mark's friends. Please send a note to John Lyga (jwlyga@gmail.com) or the church office if you are interested so we can set aside enough tables at the Brewpub.
God's Giving Garden
Our Giving Garden continues to be a joy to behold and provide wonderful bounty, as it takes on Fall beauty. We are headed for a donated 4500 lbs in this, our 8th season — toppng our prior record of 2459 lbs by a TON!
We are so grateful to the efforts of our knowledgeable, dedicated team of weekly volunteers, several of whom are St. Mark’s parishioners like Jody Hough. Another, John Lyga, is also our beekeeper and has built a wonderful new enclosure for our expanding number of hives. The honey produced is the best around, and proceeds from the sale of jars help to fund our garden activities. We have jars for sale in the church office - your immune system will thank you! In addition, we have enough honey this year to donate 36 jars. Thank you for your ongoing support!
Jan Williams
Work sessions remain on Tues, Thurs and Sat mornings. 9- noon, through October.
The new beehive enclosure
Go Team!
Fall 2022 Rummage Sale Thank You!
We would like to thank the many St. Mark’s parishioners who graciously volunteered their time to make the 2022 Fall Rummage Sale such a huge success. We netted over $9,500! It was so heartwarming to see the St. Mark’s community come together for such an important and worthy cause. We are happy that we had another successful Rummage Sale, but most importantly we are gratified by the incredible fellowship shared with each other. We hope you all enjoyed participating in the Rummage Sale.
So congratulations and thank you for another successful Rummage Sale.
Harry Woods, Kit McLaughlan and Annabelle Wilmer
October Birthdays
10/3 Noelle Luongo
10/4 Kristi Phillips
Jason Wiatroski
10/7 Gerry Acheson
10/8 Jennifer Solon
Libby Denechaud
Boyd McKoane
Alexander Sockolof
10/9 Danielle Gogerty
10/11 Bill Richardson
10/12 Eileen Barna
10/13 Janet Williams
Paul Chiappetta
10/14 Phoebe Menter
Anne Post
10/15 Betsy Coffin
Molly Walsh
Elizabeth Walsh
10/17 Justin Lazo
10/18 Casiana Omick
10/21 Daniel Ittycheria
Vivian Sheppard
10/22 Ella Hargy
10/24 Ally Denechaud
10/26 James Post
10/28 Adelaida Conover
10/30 Karen Morley
Paige Salmon
10/31 Jason van der Valk
Anniversaries
10/2 Tom & Sharon Defeo
10/5 Bernie & Meg Jewson
10/7 Jeff & Martha Heiner
10/8 Rick & Julie Sheppard
10/11 Bill & Adriane Walsh
10/12 Ben & Winny Hargy
10/21 Gerald & Christina Creighton
10/23 Philip & Rebecca Moussally
10/24 Jim & Carol DeCoste
Jim & Eileen Barna
Vestry Members:
Rector: The Rev. Richard M.C. Morley
Senior Warden: Sean Gogerty
Junior Warden: Martha Heiner
Buildings: John Lyga
Christian Ed. Kristen Hauser
Comm. / Evangelism: Marliese Knill
Fellowship: Sandy Gogerty
Finance: Matt Seitz
Grounds: Steve Kujan
Membership: Lily Chan
Outreach: Jody Hough
Stewardship: Gerald Creighton
Non-Vestry Positions:
Warden Emeritus: Jeff West
Treasurer: Teri Passarello
Recording Treasurer: Doug Post
Assistant Treasurer: Bruce Walker
Sunday School Director: John Lyga
J2A Coordinator: Chip Rubendall
Music Director: Mike McCormick
Warden Emeritus: Jeff West
Treasurer: Teri Passarello
Recording Treasurer: Doug Post
Assistant Treasurer: Bruce Walker
Sunday School Director: John Lyga
J2A Coordinator: Chip Rubendall
Music Director: Mike McCormick
Parish Admin: Ann Millan
Sexton: Martin Hale
Our Online Directory
Have you downloaded our online directory app to your smart phone or tablet yet? It's really easy and so convenient to have! Follow this link for step-by-step instructions.
Prefer to use your computer? No problem! Click here for instructions on how to get connected with your computer.
Once you are in the directory you will be able to update your own information and even upload a new photo.
Give the office a call if you need any assistance.
