Greetings from St. Anne's Episcopal Church! I hope you raised a glass to St. Anne herself yesterday, because July 26th is reserved in the Anglican calendar for the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The prayer appointed in the lectionary reads:
Almighty God, heavenly Father, we remember in thanksgiving this day the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and we pray that we all may be made one in the heavenly family of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
WORSHIP
We meet Sundays at 10am in Lackey Chapel, 105 University Drive, Conway, SC. Click here for a map.
Please note that on Sunday, August 18 we will not meet at Lackey Chapel, but instead will participate in a joint worship service with the new Episcopal Church at Myrtle Beach. On that day we'll meet at Coastal Carolina University's Myrtle Beach Education Center on the Corner of Bypass 17 and 79th Avenue North Myrtle Beach.
MINISTRY
Our support for the new worship group in Myrtle Beach will likely provide more mission opportunities for our congregation. Not only are we assisting the Myrtle Beach church materially (just as churches such as St. Stephen's in Heathsville, VA assisted us when we were starting out), but it won't be long until we will have a sister congregation with whom we can collaborate on programs and outreach. If you are of a providential turn of mind, you might wonder if St. Anne's was blessed so completely upon formation (with people, resources, space, and joy) so that we might be in a position to help another parish in its early hours. It would appear, to paraphrase Mark Twain, that reports of the death of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina were greatly exaggerated.
The Summer Come-As-You are Bible Study has two more weeks left to go, but it's still not too late to join. We meet on Wednesdays at 7pm and study the readings for the following Sunday. This readings for our Wednesday, July 31 meeting are
The Bible Study meets at 4649 Westwind Dr. in Carolina Forest, Myrtle Beach. Click here for a map.
ORGANIZATION
Your Mission Committee met on July 15, 2013 and July 21, 2013. The minutes from all Mission Committee meetings are on the website at stanneconway.org
Our recent meetings have been predominately about next steps for our parish. Our growth has been gratifying and unexpected. We want to be ready for the challenges ahead, but we want to preserve that which has brought us together in the first place: A simple vision of worship and community that was, in the words of an eminent theologian, "indiscriminately inclusive." Through these discussions, we able to draft a mission statement that we believe captures St. Anne's in three sentences:
St. Anne’s Episcopal Church strives to be a joyous community that welcomes all people who seek to know Christ in their minds, hearts, and lives.
We gather together at God’s table, offering diverse gifts but of one spirit, becoming the body of Christ and gratefully receiving God’s grace.
We go out into a broken world, guided by scripture, tradition, and reason, honoring Christ’s command to serve others, believing that through God’s presence in our community, we can advance God’s kingdom in the world.
What do you think?
See you Sunday,
Dan Ennis
Senior Warden
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