Our traditional pancake supper marked Shrove Tuesday and was our last event before the Lenten season. The pancakes were exceptionally good this year and, as you can see from the slide show below, fueled face painting, mask making and all around fun.
Our Morning Prayer service on February 12 was made ever more special by the participation of a wide range of our youth classes. The 8th grade read the psalm. The 6th and 7th grades presented the Old Testament lesson. Najla Deep and Caroline Goode read the Epistle and the Gospel, respectively. The Treble and Chapel Choirs sang a humn. Gavin Brown, Missy Williams, Katharine Thompson and Bobby Aveson gave the sermon and a quartet of Meriwether Roberts, Kelsey Mathern, Kelly Scott and Beth Stephens sang during the offertory. It was a magnificent and joyful celebration of our young people and all the good things they do at and for St. Mary’s.
About a dozen of our very active parishioners gathered with John, Eleanor and David on a recent Saturday morning to explore ways to get even more of us engaged in parish activities. As Eleanor put it, “We want to give as many people as possible an opportunity to change their lives as our lives have been changed.” Wally Stettinius led off the discussion by noting our many successes. Things are really, really good at St. Mary’s. But, as Wally noted, “No organization can afford to sit on its laurels. Success can be toxic to your future.”
We broke up into three groups to deliberate on three key areas: Worship and Programs, Fellowship and Outreach. After more than an hour in our groups, we reconvened to share our ideas. To say that the sessions were productive would be a gross understatement. We developed a slew of ideas about new initiatives in each of the three areas and across all of our age groups.
We resolved to take all of our ideas and report them to the vestry and the committee heads. They will then come up with an annual plan for each of our committees and for all of our activities.
The Youth Group gathered in the church kitchen on Sunday, February 5, to make lunches for our Caritas guests and to join them in watching the Super Bowl. Caritas is a group of Richmond area congregations that provides shelter, food and transportation to people down on their luck and who might otherwise be on the street. St. Mary’s is a proud supporter of Caritas, and we are especially proud of the contribution our youth made on a night they might otherwise have been looking out for themselves. To read more about Caritas, visit http://www.caritasshelter.org.
