From the bulletin for The Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Oct 13, 2024)
Pastor’s Parish Update on Matters Various & Sundry
Chapel Stained Glass
If you haven’t been into the Adoration Chapel to see the newly-restored and installed windows, I highly recommend doing that. (All the more to adore our Eucharistic Lord there!) I knew they would look better once they were cleaned and the cracked and cloudy storm windows behind them were replaced. I didn’t imagine they would glister so brilliantly in the sunlight, however! The parish is deeply grateful to the Shrake families who enabled us to pay for this $74,000 unbudgeted project through a fund they have set up in honor of their deceased parents Jeanne and Jim, who were longtime Markers and among our original committed adorers from the chapel’s opening in 2011 to their deaths in 2018 and 2022.
And this is just the first step. Next year we hope to undertake a project that will protect the stained glass in the main church and prevent the water infiltration that so deteriorated the chapel windows. This will be “phase II” of the 2021 work to seal our Church’s exterior and free us to focus on its interior in future years. (More to come about that!)
Parish Directory
Remember when we took directory photos last May? The company warned us then that most parishes take between six months and a year to finish the final product. I laughed! At St. Mark’s? Never! Well, here we are six months later, still looking up phone numbers in our 2016 directory in which 73% of you are still just a twinkle in your pastor’s eye (himself but a twinkle in those days!)
My goal was to have this done in time for the new school year, but at this point we will be fortunate to have it ready for your oversized Christmas stockings.
Though there was ample parishioner interest and demand for the new directory (long overdue!), in the end we did not get enough volunteer commitment to offload this project from our overloaded staff (half of whom are part time but you’d never know it!). So, if you are interested in helping us get this thing across the finish line (before all those photos become outdated!), please let me or the office know. (Qualities that might make you suited to the task: having a pulse and a couple of free hours during the week, modest database or design skills, and a passion for facilitating connections at the parish.)
Another Connections Project
Completely unrelated, though not entirely: time and again it has come up in conversation how good it would be if St. Mark’s were in touch with its thousands of school alumni. Generations passed through our parish school during its 100+ years of existence, “many of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.” When the school closed in 2019, we effectively lost touch with all those alumni, however, except for the very few who are still part of the parish community. If you or someone you know is interested in helping the parish to reconnect with all those Markers in the diaspora, please let me know! We’d love to organize some kind of event or reunion for them next year, or at least get them on a mailing list.
Parish Soiree
Speaking of new initiatives, I am very excited about this one, which is much closer to becoming a reality. You should have got an invitation in the mail this past week. The “Parish Soiree,” a.k.a. State of the Parish event is intended to be a lovely evening gathering with your brothers and sisters in Christ at St. Mark’s. All adult parishioners are encouraged to attend. Besides schmoozing and schmingling with your favorite people, the idea behind the evening is to have something of a “family meeting” in which your pastor shares frankly about where our parish is at and where we want to go. We will also kick off our next installment of the “Rebuild My Church Appeal,” though I promise that the main purpose of the event is not to ask for money (but if we do, you will know why we are!)
I note here that Allie Fitzsimmons and Vivek Kuppamala and the lucky people invited to their wedding that night are excused. Wish I were eligible to bilocate!
Healing Mass
You are surely aware, too, that we have several members of our parish family who are suffering from far more serious conditions or recovering from the same. Next Friday we will host the first Healing Mass at St. Mark’s in recent memory. Though we unfortunately lack a holy priest with gifts of healing, we will seek to make up in numbers and in the fervor of our prayer. Come this Friday at 6pm to pray or to be prayed for! The evening will continue with a prayer vigil of adoration for little Ava Duchesne. (If you want to be anointed at the Mass, please register in advance so we can verify you are eligible for the sacrament).
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