The Lion's Roar

I have to say how nice it is to not just be in the church alone, giving the service and the sermon to the lonely-glassy-eye of the camera! It’s nice to have people present, to gather together, to hear the prayers and responses of a congregation, and to share Communion together.

It’s clear that there were some who were very anxious to get back into the swing! And, it’s also clear that there’s also a good number of us who are still being cautious and careful—and I want to reiterate that I support anyone’s decision to be cautious and careful. I don’t want anyone to walk through our doors out of guilt or duty, and betray their instincts.

This is why we are going to continue to offer our services online for the foreseeable future—and honestly, we will probably be offering services online forever at this point.

For those who are dipping their toes back into worship here, I want you to know that we are trying to do it as safely as we know how. The Diocese of New Jersey put out a long and detailed list of protocols for us to follow. The Diocese then required us to submit a long and detailed response to those protocols, indicating exactly how we were planning on complying and implementing the protocols. The bishop then had to sign off on St Mark’s plan and give us permission to open things back up.

Almost every little detail has been meticulously thought through: sanitizing stations, seating charts, keeping a list of who attends services for contact-tracing purposes, and ensuring that all surfaces are cleaned after one service and before the next. Even the little details for Communion: the Bread that is distributed is kept covered through the whole service until it is ready to be dispersed, and I have sanitized my hands, and I bring it directly to the congregation so that no one has to leave their pew.

As I said in my sermon this weekend, I don’t know when things are going to get back to “normal.” I don’t know what “normal” is going to look like two weeks from now, or two months. But, loving our neighbor as ourselves through this pandemic will be of utmost importance to all of us here at St Mark’s, whether you’re tuning in from home or sitting in the fourth pew from the front.

Peace,

Rick

Weekly Offerings in July
Tuesday       7:00pm Music with Mike
Wednesday  10am Holy Eucharist Rite II in the Sanctuary (signup required)
Thursday      12noon Midday Mindfulness

Saturday       5:00pm Holy Eucharist Rite II in the Garden (signup required)

Sunday         10am Holy Eucharist Rite II in the Sanctuary (signup required)

We have donated 137 lbs so far, double last year on the same date.  Produce has gone to the Vets at Community Hope and God’s Co-is Pantry in Bernardsville, both our usual recipients.  We have also donated to the pop-up pantry in Bernardsville at St Bernard’s.  The food bank will start receiving produce again, too, but they were focusing on packaged produce that they were receiving in bulk from local stores like Costco.

We are fully planted for summer/early Fall crops now so we are optimistic that we will be able to help lots of folks again this year.  The carrot will be back in the Narthex soon! 🤣🥕

We are still not open for work sessions, but hope we can expand a bit next month.

We had two more blood drives in the month of June with amazing results!  

Look for details in the little Roar for the next drive on July 8th.

Parishioners were saddened to miss the mid-lent brunch, however, much of the food went to our outreach food service program in Keansburg. I hope everyone is keeping safe and not feeling isolated. Over the past month some parishioners were able to join church friends through St. Mark’s virtual coffee hour. Father Rick provided a link on the St. Mark’s home website page and many people enjoyed sharing their “stay-at-home” stories. Blessings to you all, may we all get through this together and be able to gather again soon for fellowship activities.

We have two books that we will be exploring this summer. The groups will meet on Zoom. You can use the link on our website to join in on the discussions.

St Mark’s Episcopal Church and Congregation B’Nai Israel will be joining together for a study of Moses: A Human Life by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg. Our joint gatherings will be held on Zoom, and will run 7PM to 8:30PM every Wednesday evening from July 1st to August 5th. Rabbi Robert Green and Fr Rick Morley will moderate the discussions. On July 1st, we're going to get to know each other and look at the introduction to the book.

Also, we will be getting together to chat about our questions, hopes, fears, ideas, experiences, and new revelations while reading White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo.  those discussions will take place via Zoom on Tuesday nights, starting July 7th at 7:30PM.

How wonderful it is to be able to get together to worship and have the beautiful St. Mark’s sanctuary open.  It is a little strange to have to wear a face mask, sit 6 feet apart and wave during the peace but it does feel good to be together.  St. Mark’s is cautiously opening, we will take it all slowly as outlined by State and Diocesan regulations but it is good to have the opportunity to worship in church as we all start to feel comfortable enough to return. 

As you may have noticed, the inoperable solar panels have been removed from the church roof. Thanks goes to Jim Lunny for the many months of negotiation with the solar company, and John Lyga for the coordination of the work! Additionally, the floors in the parish hall and hallways have had a deep cleaning and are sparkling. The building is ready, and we can look forward to happy times as we progress with living with COVID for the near future.

I wish you all a happy and safe summer and hope to see you in Church, even behind a facemask, as our comfort levels begin allowing us to gather again.  

Sincerely,

Joan Graff

Senior Warden

June had been a very active month for building.  The Rectory roof was replaced at the beginning of the month by Nicholson Roofing who did a super job.  There was significant roof rotting in the rear flat section and front porch and all was repaired at minimal additional cost to St. Marks.  In addition to the new roof, we have new gutters, leaders gutter guards and chimney caps all within budget and paid out of the funds set aside from the maintenance fund with no impact to the current annual budget.  

You also may have noticed our solar panels are gone.  We completed the work outlined in the March Lions Roar at ZERO cost to St. Marks. The solar panels have been an issue for the past few years and with Jim Lunny’s help we negotiated an exit strategy with Sunfarm Solar who contracted with Nicholson Roofing to remove the panels and flash and seal the bracket holes.  We will need to plan reroofing to this section of the roof within the next 2 years.  A number of smaller projects were also completed including replacing the rotted sill on the Memorial Garden facing window, strengthening the door latch to the Chapel exterior door and significant floor cleaning throughout the buildings, much of this latter work coordinated by Martin Hale.  We still have a number of projects we need to work on and could use some help.  Watch for the restart of the Buildings Volunteer Group Sign-Up Genius to pick a project to work on this summer.

Visit our new online store which has several styles of shirts. Light up your summer of semi-quarantine, your Zoom work calls, or your forays to the grocery store with a little St Mark's!