Saints Mary & Martha Church: December 2016

Friday, December 23, 2016

Christmas Day Mass...

Join us for Mass on Sunday, Christmas Day at 10:30am! Call 859-404-8374 if you need a ride. God bless you!

What a lovely, Jesus-centered time we had at the Bethany House Christmas Vespers! Hearing God’s Word, singing to him in Advent and Christmas carols, and enjoying fellowship with each other was a wonderful way to make our final preparation for the Feast of Our Lord’s Nativity on Christmas Day!

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

A Christmas Celebration...

Christmas Vespers at Bethany House

Join us as we sing Christmas Carols, hear the Salvation story in readings from Scripture, and sing “Silent Night” by candlelight!

It begins at 7:00pm on Thursday, December 22 at 408 Levee Road in Mt. Sterling (across from the MCHS football stadium).

We’d love to share this time with you!

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Chairs for Bethany House Fundraiser Update...

Hello, Friends!

Here's an update on the Bethany House Fundraiser for Chairs...

Through donations on Go-Fund-Me and donations mailed to Bethany House, we've already raised $200!!

You can help us by donating at...

Chairs for Bethany House Fundraiser

or by sending a check to...

Chairs for Bethany House Fundraiser

PO Box 502

Mount Sterling, KY

40353

Please consider a donation (in whatever amount) to this fundraiser – it will help us provide chairs for Bible studies, multiple weekly worship times, parenting classes, our Children's Guardian Angels support group meetings, and much more!

Thank you & God bless you!

Father Todd

Monday, December 5, 2016

Partnership with New Beginnings...

An announcement from the vicar of MAMA Chruch...

Dear friends,

I am absolutely delighted to share that Saints Mary and Martha Church will soon be sharing Bethany House (in Mount Sterling) with New Beginnings of Winchester!

New Beginnings equips expecting mothers with parenting classes, Bible study, and supply of physical needs. They also offer character classes (including abstinence encouragement), mentoring for new fathers, pregnancy tests, ultra sounds, and referrals for medical care.

As Anglicans, we are pro-life, and in partnering with New Beginnings we will be able to help foster pro-abundant life in the lives of women and men who are unexpectedly thrust into the role of parenting! Please take a moment to look at the New Beginnings of Winchester Facebook page (click on the link below)!

New Beginnings of Winchester

Please keep New Beginnings, Bethany House, and our outreach in Montgomery County in your prayers!

Father Todd Boyce,

Vicar of MAMA Church

at Bethany House

Thursday, December 1, 2016

A Surprising Discovery Tonight...

From the vicar…

Well, Bethany House was broken into and a note was left (on a dry erase board) apologizing for the broken glass. The man indicated that he was in need of warmth and shelter, and that he would never steal from the Church.

To his credit, nothing was missing, though it appears that he was drawn to three items in the Chapel: The Baptismal Font, the Chalice and Paten on the credence table, and the Tabernacle containing the Reserve Sacrament (each was moved, but unharmed). But it raises the question for us as Christians: How far does our hospitality go? Are we willing to follow Jesus when it's not easy?

I just returned from sitting in my car at Bethany House from Midnight until 1:00am, not so much to catch the man in the act (the Sheriff's Deputy who responded to our call believes he knows who the man is and we believe he's in need of our help), but to see his need being expressed.

Bethany House, as a community of Jesus-followers, is being pushed and pressed by the Lord right now. We've been praying for people to help. We've been praying for the Lord to flesh out his vision for our ministry. And, in a multitude of ways (including this evening's discovery), we believe that we're seeing the Lord's hand guiding and nudging us.

Though we would rather have been asked (thus avoiding the broken glass and repairs), there is something heart-warming about a soul seeking shelter in the Lord's house and leaving it unharmed. We know, now more than ever before, that Bethany House does not belong to us. As we say during the Mass "I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but speak the word only and my soul shall be healed."

Lord, send those to Bethany House who need your shelter, whose roofs are torn and tattered by the changes and chances of life.

Father Todd

Times, Seasons and Colors...

Dear friends,

The time of “purple” (the color of repentance and self-denial, the color of Lent) is upon us again. And as we enter the season of Lent, I’m reminded about being reminded! That’s right, I’m reminded to remember some wonderful things: What Lent was like in the parish in which I was raised; what it means to give myself over more completely to Jesus; what it feels like to journey (with deep purpose) through forty days of repentance and self-denial; and, above all, what it should mean to me that Jesus has invited me along for the journey.

As Saints Mary and Martha Church continues down a road filled with prayer and service, the invitation of Jesus should resound all the more clearly in our hearts and minds. We are a people who have committed themselves to gathering regularly around the Word of God as contained in Sacred Scripture and the holy Sacraments – especially Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. We hear that invitation week after week (at Sunday Mass) and day by day (as we pray Morning and Evening Prayer in our homes). In those moments, as God speaks to us in Scripture and Sacrament, we can rest assured that the invitation is being renewed to each of us.

“Are you with me?” is the fundamental question that echoes down the ages from the first moment God interacted with man. It’s a question that reaches its climax (over and over again) in the invitation of Jesus to take up our crosses and follow him. No matter who we are, where we are, what we are doing, or what we are thinking, this is the question that Jesus is pressing us to answer. God gives us the gift of Lent that we might be reminded of the invitation issued to us in Christ Jesus, that we might act upon it again and again, ever more deeply.

May this Lenten season be such a reminder in your life. May our Lord use it to fill your heart and mind with the knowledge of him who saves and renews us. And may his grace encompass you in these forty days of prayerful journeying!

Father Todd

A Few Things that Describe Us...

1. We’re a community of faith – we passionately believe that Jesus gave us the Church and calls us, as believers, to be a part of his Church. According to Scripture, we can’t possibly be who we’re called to be as individuals without participating in the life of our Church community.

2. We believe that pure, unadulterated, self-giving, outreaching love covers a multitude of sins – the grace of God offered to us in the sacrificial love of Jesus through the Presence of the Holy Spirit means that divine love is closer to us than our sins will ever be, all we need to do is reach out and ask for it.

3. We worship God because we want to offer him something – our first and greatest work in this life is not found in the career we’ve chosen, in our hobbies, or even in our families; it’s found in how we respond to God’s gift of salvation. Our most important work is the worship we offer to God. Only then can our families, our careers, and our pastimes make any sense and receive the attention they deserve.

4. We’ve chosen Saints Mary and Martha as our ‘patrons’ – in looking for a name for our parish, we wanted to make sure that we were listening to the Lord. The name of a parish should always match its unique mission – ours is to listen to the Lord like Saint Mary of Bethany and to work for the Lord like her sister, Saint Martha of Bethany (see Luke 10:38-42).

5. We are radically non-conformist – when the world prods us to relinquish our unique identity or mission in Christ, we lovingly explain that we’ve found something we’ll never give up.

6. We are Christians in the Anglican way – we’re not Anglicans because of some special or unique belief system. Anglicans simply believe the Bible to be the Word of God and affirm that belief through the Apostles and Nicene Creeds – that’s it.

7. We use the Book of Common Prayer as our guide in worship – the BCP allows us to pray God’s Word as worship. Because nearly 85% of the BCP is either direct quotation of Scripture or a paraphrase of Scripture – while the rest of points to Scriptural concepts – we don’t have to continually re-invent our way of worship.

Saints Mary & Martha Church

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Friday, December 23, 2016

Christmas Day Mass...

The Christmas Vespers...

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

A Christmas Celebration...

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Chairs for Bethany House Fundraiser Update...

Monday, December 5, 2016

Partnership with New Beginnings...

Thursday, December 1, 2016

A Surprising Discovery Tonight...

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Our Vicar

Our Bishop

Our Archbishop

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Times, Seasons and Colors...

A Few Things that Describe Us...

The Mission of Jesus...

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