Dear Saints at St. Paul’s Church,
I missed seeing everyone Sunday when we had to cancel worship services due to adverse weather conditions. We made the call by 7:00 am and got the word out primarily by email blast and our website (www.stpaulschurch.org) – as well as our St. Paul’s Facebook site (St. Paul’s UMC Odessa). If you did not get the word, I apologize, and ask you to contact the church office to ensure we have your updated contact information, including an email address you check at home – if you have one – or best phone number to call. In the future, we may set up a phone tree for those who do not use email or the internet. We welcome other ideas as well to help get the word out to everyone. And thank you for your patience. If you made your way to the church building in the snow and ice to find the doors closed, I pray that you experienced God’s very special blessing for your dedication and faithfulness.
We also learned Saturday, January 12, that the Rev. Dr. Vaughan Hayden’s wife, Tammy Lynne Hayden, died suddenly in the morning, leaving her husband and two sons, Samuel and Joseph. Pastor Vaughan serves Townsend UMC. Services for Tammy Hayden will be held on Tuesday, January 15, 2019 at Immanuel United Methodist Church (209 Main Street, Townsend, DE 19734). Visitation hours will be from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm with the funeral service beginning at 7:00 pm. Please keep Pastor Vaughan, Samuel, and Joseph surrounded in prayer and they mourn this terrible loss.
Please also join us in prayer as our leadership team gathers this weekend for a retreat. As St. Paul’s UMC welcomes new friends and members and continues to grow in spiritual vitality and loving service to our neighbors, we feel a special burden of responsibility to make faithful choices for this wonderful community of faith. This is also a time of great promise and great change for the Church in America, especially. The fastest growing segment of religious affiliation in our country are the “Nones,” or people who are either fed up with or who have no interest in the Church. And during a season when these great United States are more divided and polarized than ever, our United Methodist Church prepares to vote on the issue of how to treat our LGBTQ members on February 23-26, 2019. We struggle to rediscover what United means.
For more information, review the Five Things You Need to Know UMC link, or watch the YouTube video prepared by the delegation from the Holsten Conference.
We are also working to figure out the best way to get the word out about church happenings. As Alice Mullins takes on responsibilities as our Treasurer, she cannot continue to edit the Midweek Memo, which takes between 6-8 hours a week. Kris Knarr, a friend of the church, is considering serving in this capacity, starting the end of this month, but this is an enormous task for one person. Megan Reitzes and June Stemmle do a great job taking and sharing pictures of our worship services, and several other staff and members of the church contribute articles and information on a regular basis. Thanks for your patience and suggestions as we work through this transition.
Your Partner in Christ,
