7 from Kevin - Feb 2023
Kevin Jeske-Polyak • February 1, 2023
- Our Doorstep Ministry group will be offering hot oatmeal during the coldest months that lay ahead along with the lunches they regularly provide to our neighbors in need. The oatmeal, provided by Faith Promise North, will be packaged in 8 oz. paper hot cups with lids.
- Special thanks to the Daughters of the King and the Thursday Morning Discussion Group for their participation in the 6-week “Embracing Episcopal Evangelism” series. Participants have learned how to seek, name, and celebrate the presence of God in their lives and in the lives of their neighbors.
- We are pleased to welcome the Old North Knoxville Neighborhood Association, (ONK), back to St. James for their regular meetings on the 4th Monday of each month. St. James is proud to be a part of this historic neighborhood defined by the triangle formed by Central Street, Broadway, and Woodland Avenue, as well as the area east of Broadway bounded by Cecil Avenue, Sixth Avenue, Glenwood Avenue and Broadway.
- When St. James was preparing for the demolition work in the parish hall and kitchen, we had to move items stored in those areas, and move fast! Most of those items were loaded onto trucks and taken to a professional storage unit. Special thanks to Lee Creech for generously paying the monthly rental fee for the church.
- Mark & Susan Abell are very diligent in keeping our soft beverage vending machine adequately stocked with Coca-Cola products. If you know of a business or individual that would like to donate, (or sell at a reasonable price), a reliable vending machine, please contact Mark at mabell3368@sbcglobal.net. If we own our machine, we can stock it with a greater variety of beverages at less cost.
- St. James is pleased to resume offering meeting space to Allies of Knoxville's Immigrant Neighbors, (AKIN), for their monthly meetings on the 3rd Wednesday of each month. AKIN is a Knoxville network that works to support issues related to immigrants and refugees and promote just policies towards immigration.
- St. James is grateful to Fadi Aboush and
Three Rivers Market
for providing the
bottled water which is distributed through our Doorstep Ministry in exchange for the use of our space for monthly board meetings. Did you know about 60% of our body is made up of water? Water plays many important roles in the body including flushing waste, regulating body temperature, transporting nutrients and aiding in digestion.
Friends and Neighbors, This Sunday is Mother's Day and also Good Shepherd Sunday. Both celebrations have been shaped and changed over the years. Good Shepherd Sunday got the name as we do read the passage from John 10 about Jesus the Good Shepherd, and Mother's Day has roots going back to Mothering Sunday in England. The establishment of Mother's Day in the United States was motivated by the recognition of the work of Ann Reeves Jarvis, Julia Ward Howe, and Anna M. Jarvis. These women worked for sanitary health care for soldiers and were advocates for peace during the Civil War. They imagined a union of mothers who would call for peace because mothers knew so deeply the loss of their children to war. Mothering and shepherding call for similar qualities of protection and care.
We continue celebrating Easter as we move into a month full of celebrations and transitions. I am looking forward to just hanging out with folks this Saturday night at our spaghetti dinner. You can find details about that in this email. Please mark your calendars for the annual Justice Knox Celebration on May 19 from 6:30 PM- 8:30 PM at First Presbyterian Church. We will have dinner and share stories about the next steps. You will also be asked to consider making an investment in the work of Justice Knox. I hope that you will consider giving to this important ministry.
Alleluia. Christ is risen. We celebrated the resurrection with so much joy this past Sunday. The Easter feast continues for 50 days. Thank you to everyone who made Holy Week and Easter Sunday so special. You helped people feel welcomed to this place where we proclaim the welcoming love of Christ in word, deed, song, Easter egg hunts, and something good to eat. We welcome others because we have known the love of Christ and want to share it.
Friends and Neighbors, As we journey through Holy Week, I encourage you to pause and consider those events that lead us to the joyful celebration of Easter. May that also be reflected in our lives. We walk through hard things and know that God is with us. We hold to the hope that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Friends and Neighbors, As the weather teases us with warm days followed by chilly ones, we enter Holy Week. You have probably heard me encouraging folks to experience the journey to the cross and the grave so we might celebrate the resurrection with that insight. God has shared this human experience and is with us in the darkness and the light. Our liturgies of Holy Week take us on that journey with Jesus and remind us that God is indeed with us on our own journeys.