Good day St. Paul's,

In lieu of in-person gatherings, Services and Live Streams continue to be available on our YouTube Channel (found HERE). The bulletin for this Sunday will be available on the Sermon page of the website Sunday morning.

As always, please read on for new announcements as well as reminders of previous announcements.

Sincerely, RJ Chambers

New Items

New (and Old) Giving Options
St. Paul's is now set up to receive emailed e-transfers. If you would like to give to St. Paul's during this time, the following options are available:

  • E-transfer: E-transfers may be emailed to the office
  • Pre-Authorized Debit (one time or monthly): If you would like to set up a one-time or monthly pre-authorized debit giving, please email the office and RJ will send you the correct form.
  • Credit Transaction (one time or monthly): If you would like to set up a one-time or monthly credit gift, please email the office and RJ will send you the correct form. 
  • Cash or Cheque: Cash can be dropped off at the church anytime during open church hours. Cheques can be left in the church mailbox, dropped off during open hours, or mailed to the church office at any time.  

Facebook Group for Parishioners
We now have a private group for the St. Paul's congregation that will be used for special updates - mainly personal prayer requests, bulletin board information, etc. If you would like to join this group, please email the office and RJ will send you the link.

St. Paul's Projection Ministry
St. Paul's is hoping to bring back use of projection when we are able to meet again. This serves a dual purpose:

  • As St. Paul's and the Anglican Diocese of Edmonton begin working out a plan for reopening Anglican churches to public gatherings, it will be important for us to minimize person-to-person contact as much as possible. This includes eliminating person-to-person handling of objects such as offering plates and bulletins.
  • In the surveys distributed at our February AGM, a common response was that St. Paul's need to cut back on the use of paper in the Sunday service. By bringing back the projection ministry, this will address both of these concerns.

If you would like to serve in this way, please contact the church office. Training will be required for everyone on this team (including retraining for those who were involved before due to the time away from this area). We plan to move some of the items in the sound booth so that a soundperson could potentially do both jobs the same week if there are soundpeople interested in serving in both areas.

Repeated Items (from Previous Email Notices)    

Thank You Parish Clean-Uppers
Thank you to the many of you who have come over the last couple of weeks to clean up the grounds of the church!! Big thanks to Andrew for bringing his leaf pick-up machine!

Fabric Masks
We now have fabric masks available in the church foyer. Suggested donation is $10.00 cash/ mask if you have the financial means to pay. A number of masks are being gifted to the All Nations Centre for Newcomers. Donations will be used to purchase supplies for more masks and to support our Food Pantry. Thanks to Barb D., Carol R., Laura R., Terry B., and Kjeryn A. who have done the finishing works on the masks. Please contact the church office if you would like to be part of the (physically distanced!) mask-making work-bees in the future. We also appreciate ongoing donations of clean, large T-shirts that we cut up and use for mask ties, and good quality cotton or cotton/polyester fabric with a tight weave. Masks can be picked up and supplies dropped off during hours that the church building is open.

Building Work/Activity
Even though gatherings are not happening, we are taking this time to do some much needed projects around the building. Over the last week and the coming weeks, hard floors are being cleaned and re-sealed and we will start carpet cleaning in the weeks to come. We are doing our best to make the building as clean as possible once we are able to open our doors again. We have also been replacing light bulbs around the building (thanks Gene and Peter!) and doing some other random projects here and there. We also have some basement painting to get done. If you have some free time and like to paint or do prep work (tape corners, lay down drop cloths, organize painting materials), please email the church office as RJ will schedule people to come and go to ensure we maintain proper physical distancing. If you have any other skills that you think would be useful to donate your time and would like to serve in that way, please contact the office as we are sure we can come up with something for you to help with

St. Paul's "Stories of Hope"
There are now three videos available in the St. Paul's Stories of Hope series. You can find the videos on our website by visiting the Blogs page and looking for any blogs titled "Fellowship". Thank you to Jodi Penner for taking on this initiative. If you would like to submit a video, please email it to Jodi directly or send it to the office and we will forward it to Jodi.

St. Paul's Open Hours - Please Call Ahead
If you plan to come into St. Paul's for prayer or to drop off food or other items, please call ahead before you come. Myron will try to be onsite during the open prayer hours but sometimes has pastoral emergencies that take him offsite and RJ will be working from home until gathering restrictions are lifted. The Sanctuary and Chapel will generally be open for prayer from 10:00AM-Noon Monday-Thursday and Saturday (NOT OPEN Fridays and Sundays). Entry will only be available through the Alley Door. Again, please call ahead before you come to be sure someone is onsite. Please hand sanitize upon entry and keep a distance of at least two metres from other individuals. 

Hands To Hearts Cards Available
Parishioners may drop in to pick up a handmade card during the hours that the church is open. The cards are available on a table across from the main washrooms. Please sanitize your hands prior to handling the cards.

Puzzle Exchange at St. Paul's
Puzzles can be dropped off at St. Paul's during open church hours. All dropped off puzzles will be sanitized and be made available for pickup a few days later. If you would like to contribute to this initiative but are unable to come into the office to drop off/pick up, please contact the office and we will arrange for a no-contact pick up/drop off. 

Care and Concern
Though services have been suspended, we are still the church and our Care and Concern Team is ready to help. If you need groceries delivered, errands run, or other services at this time, please let us know. The church is still operating even if we cannot meet closely together at this time.

Prayer
Please continue to be in prayer for all of those who may be immuno-compromised or otherwise vulnerable.