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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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.

​
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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    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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