St. John's Episcopal Church - Tower Grove
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  • St. John's Episcopal Church
  • Welcome!
    • New Here?
    • Get in Touch
    • Map and Directions
    • St. John's History
    • Clergy, Staff, Vestry
    • Links
  • Worship
    • Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals
    • Choir
    • Acolytes, Chalice Bearers and Lectors
    • Altar Guild
    • Greeters and Ushers
  • Serving Our Neighbors
    • Peace Meal
    • Winter Outreach
    • Episcopal City Mission
    • Isaiah 58 Ministries
    • Tower Grove Pride Festival
  • Education
    • Children and Youth Christian Education
    • Adult Christian Education
  • St. John's as a Community
    • Coffee Hour
    • Young Adult Group
    • Book Group
    • Pastoral Care
  • Calendar
  • Blog
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2/21/2021 0 Comments

The Sunday Sermon: What are You Giving Up?

By the Reverend Nancy Emmel-Gunn
​Our Gospel reading is found in the first chapter of Mark.    This passage is immediately after the first verses of Mark, where we are introduced to John, who is doing the business of baptizing people.  Mark doesn’t tell us what Jesus has been up to this point in his now adult life.  Other Gospel writers tell us Jesus’ earthly parents knew from divine visitations that that was a special baby, the very son of God.  But we are not provided a history of Jesus’ home life or vocation. 
​We can, however, use our theological imagination.  Perhaps Jesus was living with his parents, working in his father’s carpentry business, coming home each night to a nice meal cooked by Mom, spending time with his family and friends, and being a good, observant, young Jewish man.  

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2/18/2021 0 Comments

The Ash Wednesday Gospel & Sermon: February 17, 2021

Deacon Nancy Emmel-Gunn reads the Gospel (​Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21), and then Bishop Deon Johnson preaches the Ash Wednesday sermon.
If you'd like to watch the entire Ash Wednesday service, it's available on the St. John's Facebook page.
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2/17/2021 0 Comments

Ash Wednesday: Service Information and Bulletin

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​Bishop Deon Johnson will preside over our St. John's Ash Wednesday service.  The service will be on Zoom; the link to join will be available in the eblast.  Bishop Deon and Deacon Nancy will celebrate the service at St. John's but the readers will interface on Zoom.  We will celebrate both Word and Table. Because of bad weather conditions, we have decided not to open the church after the service for the imposition of ashes as we had originally planned.  We hope you can join us.  But most importantly, be safe and take care!
We will also livestream the service on FB LIve. If you've like to follow along there, go to our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/towergrovechurch
The service bulletin is available to download below:
ash_wednesday_february_17_2021.pdf
File Size: 937 kb
File Type: pdf
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2/15/2021 0 Comments

The Sunday Sermon: Clouds, Mountains, and God

By the Reverend Canon Doris Westfall
​“Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” Mark 9:7
​Clouds, mountains, and God.  They go together like coffee and cream, peanut butter and jelly, bread and wine.  In other words, where you find one you will often find the other.  In today’s readings we have what are known as theophanies, visible encounters with God.

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2/9/2021 0 Comments

The Sunday Sermon: Who Belongs in the Household of Faith?

After a reading of the Gospel by the Reverend Nancy Emmel, the Reverend Rebecca Ragland preaches on the question "Who belongs in the household of faith?"
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1/24/2021 0 Comments

The Sunday Sermon & 2020 Priest's Annual Report: Speak, Lord, for Your Servants are Listening

By the Reverend Sally S. Weaver
Pastor Sally preached this sermons on January 17, 2021.
In today’s reading from Hebrew Scriptures, we hear of young Samuel, apprentice to Eli, the priest at Shiloh.  We’re told that “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.”  That’s the way it felt in mid-March 2020.  Covid-19 had caused us to shut the doors of St. John’s Church.  We no longer gathered together for worship on Sunday mornings to hear the word of the Lord.  And while Covid continued to spread and the death toll to rise, the vision for our future as a vibrant Church community was unclear.

​As things we had taken for granted ceased – everyday interactions, children in schools, hugs – we felt uncertain about how to proceed.  Like Samuel and Eli, we weren’t sure how to interpret our new circumstances.  But we knew that more than ever we needed one another to faithfully hear and follow the whisperings of the Holy Spirit.  St. John’s Church since mid-March 2020 can be characterized as a community saying, “Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.”

​​This sermon serves as my priest’s report for St. John’s Annual Meeting which will occur immediately following this worship service.  Given the year that 2020 was, it wouldn’t be a surprise to hear from me that all that was accomplished was survival.  Surviving a pandemic is no small achievement.  That, however, does not begin to describe St. John’s in 2020.  Thanks to God’s working through us, we have much to celebrate today.
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The Peace Meal continued in 2020, despite the pandemic.

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1/19/2021 0 Comments

Racial Justice Committee Launches the Racial Reconciliation Speaker Series

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"2019-07-19 15.07.44" by whiteknuckled is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

​In the wake of the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd this past summer, we at St. John’s Tower Grove, along with the rest of the country, began to ask ourselves: how are we complicit in maintaining the system of racial inequity that allows these events to happen again and again?
​We have been hard at work asking difficult questions and putting together a series of educational opportunities to help us continue in this self-reflection. As a result of this work, St. John’s Tower Grove is proud to launch a new speaker series aimed at facilitating discussions surrounding race, power, and privilege in our community.
To kick off the inaugural event, we have secured Wendy Werner, founding board member, past chair, and current vice-chair of ArchCity Defenders as our speaker for the evening.
ArchCity Defenders is a holistic legal advocacy organization that combats the criminalization of poverty and state violence, especially in communities of color. ArchCity Defenders’ foundation of civil and criminal legal representation, social services, impact litigation, policy and media advocacy, and community collaboration achieves and inspires justice and equitable outcomes for people throughout the St. Louis region and beyond.
​Please join us on Sunday, January 31st at 6pm via zoom: ​
​https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82387807279?pwd=K0srSTEycHdkN2Q1bjErMTRMZWJLZz09
Meeting ID: 823 8780 7279; ​Passcode: 641467
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1/18/2021 0 Comments

The Sunday Children's Sermon: The Magi

By the Reverend Sally S. Weaver
PictureErcole Ramazzani, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Pastor Sally gave this sermon on January 3, 2021.

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Just as we do with the weather, the Church marks time in seasons.  Beginning Nov 29, we celebrated the Church season of Advent for 4 weeks.  Then on Dec 25, we began celebrating the season of Christmas.  How long is the Church season of Christmas?  I’ll give you a hint – “On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…”  Yes, it’s 12 days long, which means it ends on the night of Jan 5.  For you Shakespeare buffs, his play Twelfth Night refers to the last day of Christmas; it was written to be performed on Jan 5.

​On Jan 6 we begin the season of Epiphany.  We’re moving Epiphany up a bit, celebrating it today (Jan 3), since we’re together on Sundays.  What is the important event that we remember on Jan 6, the day of the Epiphany?  Yes, the arrival of the wise men who come to visit the baby Jesus.

​But why in the world is it called “the Epiphany” rather than “the arrival of guys with gifts.”  An epiphany happens when we suddenly understand or see something that we didn’t before.  It’s an “ah ha!” moment.  Have you ever had the experience of trying to put something back together and you can’t figure out how it goes.  You try and you try.  Then all of a sudden it’s clear – you have an epiphany -- you see how to reconstruct it.


​So we said that the Epiphany celebrates the visit of the wise men bearing gifts to the baby Jesus.  If this is an epiphany, what is it that is revealed?  What is suddenly clear that wasn’t before?  What is made clear is: that Jesus is not just for a certain, select group of people called the Jews.  Jesus is for everyone.  The wise men who visit Jesus are not Jewish.  In the place where Jesus lived, people who weren’t Jews were called “Gentiles.”  The wise men were Gentiles.

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12/21/2020 0 Comments

The Vestry Bulletin Board: November 2020 Minutes

The Vestry has approved the minutes of its November meeting; they're available below.

​Remember that members of the congregation are welcome to observe Vestry meetings: please contact Senor Warden John Eads for the Zoom link to upcoming meetings.
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november_22_2020_vestry_meeting.pdf
File Size: 56 kb
File Type: pdf
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12/14/2020 0 Comments

The Sunday Sermon: Rejoice

by the Reverend Sally S. Weaver
Today is Gaudete (gow-day-tay) Sunday.  Gaudete is a Latin word meaning “rejoice.”  In Advent, we prepare for the coming of Jesus.  But on Gaudete Sunday, we break out of our posture of waiting and anticipating and let loose with rejoicing.  Even the Advent candle we light on this day recognizes this change in attitude.  It’s a different color – pink rather than blue.  Just looking at the Advent wreath, we can see that we are more than halfway through this season of expectation.  Even as the days outside grow shorter and the nights longer, in our hearts the light grows, the darkness dissipates.

​From the Church’s perspective, the Advent wreath is a recent custom.  It gained popularity in Europe in the 1800s and was brought to the United States in the 1900s by German immigrants.  Surely we must classify as a new thing anything that’s been around as a church tradition only 100 years!  A parishioner from my childhood church claims she’s been around longer than that.  The point of this is to let you know that the symbolism of Advent wreaths is newly created and evolving.  One recent idea is that the pink candle, the Gaudete Sunday candle, symbolizes the Virgin Mary.  Whether this has any basis in history I don’t know, but it does work well and fit nicely with our liturgy.
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"Rejoice!" by OakleyOriginals is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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    Various members of the St. John's congregation contribute to this blog. For editorial suggestions, contact Jeff McIntire-Strasburg at jeff.strasburg1968@gmail.com

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St. John's Episcopal Church
3664 Arsenal St.
St. Louis, MO 63116

(314) 772-3970

Sunday worship at 10:30 a.m.

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