______________________________________________________________________________________________________ “The purpose of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church is to share the good news of Jesus Christ through worship, discipleship, and service.” The Rev. Dr. Edward N. Kay, Pastor www.stpaulslutherville.org 410-252-3768 March 2021 Dear Church, I shared a couple of BellRinger issues ago that I was set to begin a new course of study at United Luther- an Seminary, and that began with my first class at the end of January. I am so thankful for the responses from all of you with my sharing about this endeavor – some celebratory, some critical, some with lots more questions. It shows me that you care, you’re paying attention, and you’re invested in my and our life together. My first class was focused around a deep reading of different passages of Scripture, looking hyper- critically at each verse and the wider cultural influences and implications of the story. For our final pa- per, just completed this past week, we were to choose our own passage to follow this formula. I chose the passage from Acts 10, which is a turning point from where the message of Jesus was to be pro- claimed and accepted in the emerging church. It’s a powerful, strange, beautiful story, and one that’s been sitting with me for a while now, so I appreciated the opportunity dig into it a little more. While my final paper for the class was over 10 pages, and I’ll share it with you once I get feedback from my professor, I thought I would share the conclusion from it in case you were interested. Happy read- ing! In Christ, Pastor Ed “While this is a story of the connection of two disparate groups of people, formerly separated by belief and location, it remains a powerful testimony of the way God can move to find a way when it seemed like there was no way before. Robinson and Wall say it like this: Contrary to much Christian theology and practice, this suggests that the field for mission and conversion may not be solely, or even primarily, outside the church doors, or in non-Christian cultures, or among those who have not yet met Christ. Peter’s conversion suggests that the mis- sion field may be, equally, inside out sanctuaries, in the life of our own congregations, and in our (continued on page 3)
“The purpose of St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church is to share the good news of Jesus Christ through worship, discipleship, and service.”
The Rev. Dr. Edward N. Kay, Pastor www.stpaulslutherville.org 410-252-3768
March 2021
Dear Church, I shared a couple of BellRinger issues ago that I was set to begin a new course of study at United Luther-an Seminary, and that began with my first class at the end of January. I am so thankful for the responses from all of you with my sharing about this endeavor – some celebratory, some critical, some with lots more questions. It shows me that you care, you’re paying attention, and you’re invested in my and our life together. My first class was focused around a deep reading of different passages of Scripture, looking hyper-critically at each verse and the wider cultural influences and implications of the story. For our final pa-per, just completed this past week, we were to choose our own passage to follow this formula. I chose the passage from Acts 10, which is a turning point from where the message of Jesus was to be pro-claimed and accepted in the emerging church. It’s a powerful, strange, beautiful story, and one that’s been sitting with me for a while now, so I appreciated the opportunity dig into it a little more. While my final paper for the class was over 10 pages, and I’ll share it with you once I get feedback from my professor, I thought I would share the conclusion from it in case you were interested. Happy read-ing! In Christ, Pastor Ed “While this is a story of the connection of two disparate groups of people, formerly separated by belief and location, it remains a powerful testimony of the way God can move to find a way when it seemed like there was no way before. Robinson and Wall say it like this:
Contrary to much Christian theology and practice, this suggests that the field for mission and conversion may not be solely, or even primarily, outside the church doors, or in non-Christian cultures, or among those who have not yet met Christ. Peter’s conversion suggests that the mis-sion field may be, equally, inside out sanctuaries, in the life of our own congregations, and in our
(continued on page 3)
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2020 Special Offering January Mar-Lu-Ridge $456 February United Lutheran Seminary $258 March St. Dysmas Prison Ministry $292 April St. Paul's Preschool Tuition Assistance $700 May ACTC $2,475 June Mar-Lu-Ridge $670 July ACTC $950
August Baltimore Lutheran Campus Ministry $540 September Moveable Feast $225 October ELCA Lutheran Disaster Re-sponse $397 November ELCA Hunger Appeal $360 December ELCA Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service $735 Additional received for ACTC $820
Your 2021 Congregation Council Leaders Executive Committee (officers):
Ann Kerns President
Pete Koehler Vice President
Karen Shea Treasurer
Penny Graf Secretary
Committee Representatives:
Steve Bagent Creative Fundraising and
Social Ministry
Aimee Green Worship & Music
Ann Kerns Gifts & Memorials
Pete Koehler Property (Chair)
Kristi Kresslein Preschool Liaison (Chair)
Lloyd McDonald
Kristen Mellecker LEAD Team
Tony South Finance Committee (Chair)
Pam Taylor Congregational Care
What Does Your Offering Help to Support?
What does our offering pay for? Each month we highlight bills paid here at St. Paul’s to help members better understand our costs.
Last month we paid an annual premium of $807.00 for Cyber Insurance and an annual elevator ser-
vice contract amount of $4,009.80 for the elevator in the Parish Hall.
2021 payments towards the mortgage with Mission Invest-ment Fund (MIF) total $14,986.00, which includes $7,982.63 towards the princi-pal of the mortgage and $7,003.37 in interest.
2021 income raised by the Creative Fundraising Commit-tee: $1,595. This amount will be paid towards the principal of the mortgage with MIF in January 2022.
A Preparing for Worship email is sent on Saturday mornings with the specific links and bulletins for each service for download.
9:00 a.m. Outdoor Worship
A drive-in worship service in our parking lot, where you stay in your car to listen over your FM radio, with live leadership on the lawn in front of Spangler Hall. This is an interactive Service of Word and Ta-ble with live accompaniment from Elaine Lindsay on the organ, playing hymns from our ELW hym-nal. Worshippers must sign-up in advance through our website or by calling the church office, and agree to follow safety and social distancing provisions. When you arrive, please put on your mask to exit your car and stop at the entrance table to pick-up pre-packaged Communion elements, and hold onto them until we share in the sacrament together. 11:00 a.m. Digital Worship
A digital service streamed through Facebook Live and the homepage of our St. Paul's website, which is available throughout the rest of the week or after 12:30 p.m. by our phone call-in service (443-952-3768). This is a full Service of the Word with musical accompaniment from Steve Dooley on guitar from a variety of musical genres. We celebrate Holy Communion during this service as well – please see our website for more information to prepare your heart and home for sharing in this sacrament.
Tuesday Bible Study
Our Bible study continues by meeting online over Zoom (videoconferencing) on Tuesdays at 12:30 p.m. and continuing each Tuesday midday throughout the month. Please see the weekly newsletter for de-tails to connect over phone or computer, along with the upcoming readings that we will be studying.
(continued from page 1) own land and culture. Conversion and transformation continue – and thus need to continue – in our lives and churches today because God is a living God, because God is still speaking, and be-cause God is doing a new thing (Isaiah 43:19). (from Robinson, Anthony B. and Wall, Robert W. Called to Be Church: The Book of Acts for A New Day. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2006.)
This speaks to how this story and experience of how people who were so separated from one another might be able to find common ground and new relationship through the actions of the Holy Spirit. Considering the divides that remain all too well alive in the church, let alone the wider world, this can be a story of much-needed hope and encouragement to carry on; that possibilities still remain. The sins of racism and white supremacy, LGBTQIA+ discrimination, misogyny, political ideology, ageism to both the lower and upper ends of the range, and clericalism as but a few of the divisions that pervade our churches and world. Perhaps this story of the way that God was able to bring about new life and new relationship between a Jew like Peter and a Gentile like Cornelius can still come about within the divi-sions in our own day and time.”
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Our Special Offering for March is The Community of St. Dysmas
God's purpose for the Community of St. Dysmas is to share the transforming power of Christ's love with persons incarcerated in the Maryland Department of Corrections and to support them upon their re-lease. Volunteers are worship leaders, provide music at worship, lead Bible studies, and assist with fi-nancial recordkeeping. Volunteers also serve to testify to the lessons of St. Dysmas for us to our com-munities and church.
We know that churches don't always meet in traditional worship spaces. Where two or three gather in Christ's name; our members reshape the most clearly felt lessons of St. Dysmas. Christ with us, Christ in us, Christ through us. We are equally strengthened by Christ's message of forgiveness.
Our special offering for March benefits our Lutheran congregation in the Maryland Correctional Sys-tem. Please be generous with your special offering envelopes or electronically give and indicate it is for St. Dysmas. Thank you.
Congregational Conversation Our congregational leadership invites you to a congregational conversation together on Sunday, Febru-ary 28 at 12:30 p.m. over Zoom. We are going to wait to officially hold the second half of our annual meeting until after Easter, so this is an opportunity to see one another, hear about the ending of the 2020 fiscal year, and field questions and topics of conversation. Please plan to join us by computer, tab-let, smartphone, or call in for this important time together! To join over Zoom with the app on your device, enter Meeting ID: 914 4068 8051 and Passcode: 964453. To call in, dial (301) 715-8592 and enter Meeting ID: 914 4068 8051 and Passcode: 964453. If you have any questions or topics of conversation, please be in touch with our Council President, Ann Kerns, or with Pastor Ed.
Midweek Lent Learning Space Beginning on Wednesday, February 24, and continuing on the Wednesdays in March from 7– 8 p.m., you are invited to join in conversation and learning through a video series from our DE-MD Synod’s Ra-cial Justice Ministry Team. Each week, we will begin gathered in a Zoom space, pause to watch the vid-eo for that week, and then engage in some conversation together. You can choose to come for one ses-sion, or make a commitment for the whole midweek season. You're welcome to RSVP through the Face-book Event for the series, or you can be reminded each Wednesday through the electronic newsletter, where the discussion for later that evening will be previewed each week. To join the Midweek Lent Learning Space over Zoom with the app on your device, enter Meeting ID: 910 5837 9024 and Passcode: 029185. To call in, dial (301) 715-8592 and enter Meeting ID: 910 5837 9024 and Passcode: 029185.
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Praying for Our Community (as of February 17, 2021)
Joan Bannon, John Becker, Jim Buechting, Gloria Engnoth, Christine Ferciot, Holly, Annette How-
ard, Elizabeth Jeppesen, Kendall Kelly, Luke Markins, Sara Reynolds, Michael Rhodey, Alexander Russo,
Carlton Shea, Marianna Shea, Mary Thomas, Lynne Ward, Dee Zimmer
Many Thanks
We received a thank you letter from Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) for our gift of $397 to Lutheran Disaster Response. Our gifts will help families and communities recover from disas-ters in the United States and around the world.
Easter Candy Sale Do you like Easter candy? Aren't cream-filled chocolate eggs delicious? Well, it's time to place your order! The Creative Fundraising Committee's handy, dandy, candy connoisseurs are ready to use their considerable candy making skills to create homemade chocolate treats for your upcoming Easter cele-brations. Orders are now being taken for the items listed below. Vanilla, Chocolate, Coconut, and Peanut Butter Cream-filled Milk and Dark Chocolate Covered Eggs………………………………………………….$1.50 each Solid Milk and Dark Chocolate Easter Themed Lollipops...................................................$2.00 each Milk and Dark Chocolate Dipped and Sprinkled Pretzels...................................................$1.00 each Milk and Dark Chocolate Bird's Nests with Jelly Beans.......................................................$4.00 each Once again you can enjoy this homemade goodness without having to make it yourself! To order, you may access the online order form via the St. Paul’s website, stpaulslutherville.org, or contact Bonnie Murphy at 410-560-6175 or send her an email . The deadline for ordering your candy is Sunday, March 21. The candy you have chosen will be packaged and available for pickup from the back door of Spangler Hall, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., on Saturday, March 27, the day before Palm Sunday. Online payments*, checks, or exact cash payments will be accepted in advance or on Saturday, March 27, the day of pickup. Advance payments can be made by mailing or dropping off to the church office, or in the Sunday Drive-In worship offering. No extra treats will be available for purchase that day--you must order in advance, so don't miss out! The candy will look perfect in your Easter basket and it will taste great too!! All proceeds from this sale go to the church Mortgage Fund. *To pay online, click “Contribute to St. Paul’s” on the St. Paul’s website, stpaulslutherville.org, and choose the "Other" section to indicate the amount of your payment, and include "Easter Candy" in the memo line. If you're paying by credit card, please help us retain all of the funds by choosing to offset the processing fees.
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3/1 Jon Anderson 3/1 Julie Anderson 3/3 Ann Marshall 3/5 Dave Grooms 3/7 Keri Sperati 3/9 Carly Brock 3/11 Sylvia Hesson 3/12 Cindy Russo 3/13 Bonnie Bond 3/14 Jim Brown 3/14 Zach Dooley 3/14 Chris Harris 3/16 Julie Bramble 3/16 Steve Bagent
3/19 Bob Schult 3/20 Kathy Lumsden 3/20 Elena Schwengel 3/20 Donna Muehleisen 3/21 Kimberly Dennis 3/23 Carolyn Brock 3/25 Austin Dase 3/25 Penny Graf 3/27 Brian Brock 3/29 Lou Ann Harman 3/31 Everett Gray
Happy Birthday! Have we missed someone? If your birthday is this month and you don’t see your name here, please let the church office know (410-252-3768 or [email protected]).
From the Archives
Mark Huffman was pastor longer than any other pastor (Nov. 1992-Nov. 2013), but not by much. In second place was John Naegele (Dec. 1970-Nov. 1991). Next was Henry Spangler (Mar. 1928-June 1948), then John Crigler (Sept. 1896-Jan. 1915). In fifth place was Donald Wayne Sanner (Sept. 1955-July 1970). Ron Garman Archivist
Those Who Grieve The family and friends of Joan Franklin, Sara Rollfinke's mother The family and friends of Charlie Wise, Jr.
Super Bowl Sunday Soup Sale a Success Your football team may not have won the Super Bowl this year, but thanks to all of you St. Paul's was a winner on February 7, Super Bowl Sunday! St. Paul's Creative Fundraising Committee would like thank everyone who so generously supported our Souper Bowl Sunday Soup Sale by purchasing 122 quarts of our delicious homemade soups. Because of all of you we were able to contribute $1,495 to the church Mortgage Fund. A very kind church member donation of $100 raised the final total to $1595! Special thanks to those who blessed us with additional monetary contributions when paying for their soup. Your support for the soup sale was SUPER! This event would not have been possible without the kind and generous donations of soup ingredients combined with the hard work and culinary talents of our "chef" committee members. They included Elaine Cirri, Barb Dougherty, Janice Hill, Susan Lilly and Bonnie Murphy. We must also thank Wayne and Jennifer Murphy for helping to pack the soup orders and distribute the soup on Super Bowl Satur-day. One final thank you to all involved and we hope that you will plan to support us again next year!
Happy Anniversary!
3/10 Neil & Pat Robinson 3/20 John & Sheila Carpenter 3/28 Mike & Donna Nagrabski
The month of March is known as Poison Prevention Month. The Maryland Poison Center reports ap-proximately 33,000 poisonings or overdoses a year. The Poison Center is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is staffed at all times by licensed pharmacists and nurses who have received additional training in clinical toxicology. Besides being a resource for poisoning, they also are able to help with pill identification, medicine mistakes (wrong amount, wrong time or wrong medicine), adverse reac-tions and concerns with household products (detergent pods, cleaning products etc.).
Visit www.mdpoison.com or www.UpandAway.org for more information.
THE NUMBER FOR MARYLAND POISON CENTER: 1-800-222-1222
Health Ministry: COVID-19
As the process of immunization takes place in our community and beyond, the CDC has shared on its website, www.CDC.gov, some helpful and important information to keep in mind when getting your vaccine .
After immunization some people may experience some common side effects:
1. pain or swelling in the arm in which you received the shot 2. some may experience a mild fever, chills, generalized achiness or headache 3. The CDC recommends talking with your doctor about over the counter (OTC) pain medication:
Also the CDC recommends taking this medication AFTER receiving the shot NOT BEFORE. It is recom-mended not to take these over OTC medicines before, as there is some question as to how these medicines may impact how well the vaccine works. For further information about COVID-19 and immunization go to www.CDC.gov or the www.FDA.gov.
Virtual Coffee Hour & Council on the Spot
Join us on the first Sunday of the month, Sunday, March 7, anytime between 10 a.m. - 10:45 a.m. to drop in for a Virtual Coffee Hour. Grab your favorite morning beverage, and log in over computer/device or the phone to see and hear one another in this digital space. We will also have a Council mem-ber present and available for a Council on the Spot, when the Zoom host will place you in a breakout room to share a joy, concern, question, or comment for our leadership. To join the Virtual Coffee Hour over Zoom with the app on your device, enter Meeting ID: 882 0244 7588 and Passcode: 819939. To call in, dial (301) 715-8592 and enter Meeting ID: 882 0244 7588 and Passcode: 819939.
