The Lion's Roar

October 2020

Father Rick will hold a Blessing of the Animals at 3pm this Sunday. Bring your walking shoes - a group dog walk around the park to follow.

Confirmation Zoom classes will begin this Sunday evening, Oct 4th, at 7pm.  Follow this Zoom Link to join Father Rick and Chip Rubendall.

Monday         Morning Prayer, on Facebook and YouTube 

Tuesday        7pm Devotion, on Instagram 

Wednesday   9am Holy Eucharist Rite II in the Sanctuary

                       7pm  The Forum - The Stars Beneath Us
Thursday      12noon Midday Mindfulness on Facebook

Saturday       5pm Holy Eucharist Rite II 

Sunday         8am Holy Eucharist Rite I

Sunday         10am Holy Eucharist Rite II 

                      Confirmation Class, 7pm via Zoom

All our services are also broadcast on Youtube and Facebook. In addition, they can be seen directly from the front page of our website.

We checked in with the Food Bank and they are in particular need of mini-boxes of cereal, as well as instant and ground coffee.  If you are willing to donate, please place in the link and Jackie Taylor with pick up and deliver (thanks Jackie!).

As you know, the Foodbank is in great demand these days. You can help by making a monetary donation by clicking here.  This will allow the staff to purchase  much needed food to deal with the increase in demand at their door. Thank you!

My dear friends,  

In these times of masks, lock downs, and virus infection concerns, it is easy for all our us to feel disconnected and, I am sorry to say, sometimes alone.  It has not been an easy 6 months and we still have a road to travel back to normality.  Many of you have been challenged not only by the pandemic, but by your own health and well-being challenges.  You have been in our thoughts and prayers.  But despite these drawbacks, there has been many opportunities for us to feel ‘together’ although just a little more separated (or virtual) than we would like.  We have remained together spiritually.  

I see many of you out and about in Basking Ridge, especially during the summer and even periodically in person at church as we tentatively returned to ‘normal’ service.  Service, prayer, and mindfulness sessions have still continued online and often in the open air.  I know many of you have enjoyed and been challenged by the online book discussions during the year. We have also continued to do great work at Ross Farm, for Curbing Hunger, the Food banks….to mention but a few.    I, for one, am optimistic and look forward to the rest of 2020 and the challenges of 2021...together.  

For these reasons, we are entering into this years season of stewardship with the theme of togetherness as a congregation.  We will get through this together.  We sincerely appreciate your ongoing financial support to the mission of St. Mark’s in 2020 and we hope we can depend on your support for 2021.  For the next month, please take the opportunity to consider pledging to St. Mark’s.  As we develop a budget for 2021, you have our commitment to faithfully apply your pledge to continue our mission.  You should be receiving pledge cards in the mail during October and please join us at Sunday service for some regular updates during the month. I look forward to seeing you virtually and hearing from you.

Gerry McDonnell

Usually, when one thinks of faith, science, and the Bible, the opening pages of Genesis come to mind. However, cosmic themes appear throughout scripture, and perhaps the strangest such appearance is found in the book of Job. When the character Job is beaten down by a series of terrible losses despite his morally unimpeachable life, he pleads to God for justice and God responds with the longest divine speech in the Bible. This speech does not explain or defend suffering, nor is it an apology for Job’s afflictions. It is instead a tour of the cosmos unlike anything else in the Bible. Job is presented with a universe that stands in accord with certain aspects of modern scientific thought: it values experience over tradition, offers a radical critique of anthropomorphic views of God, and removes human beings from the center of all things. Please join the class as we read through Paul Wallace’s Stars Beneath Us, which combines Job, personal narrative, humor, science, and theology as it promotes open and constructive dialogue between the Jewish and Christian religious traditions and modern science.