WEEKLY WORSHIP Services
Sunday Schedule
8:00 am Holy Eucharist (Rite I), In-Person
9:15 am Education Hour
10:30 am Holy Eucharist (Rite II) with music, In-Person and on the Zoom Worship Channel
Wednesdays
12 noon Holy Eucharist (Rite II), In-Person
The Worship Bulletin for this Sunday is below!
Regular Weekly Schedule
Sundays:
8:00am Worship: Holy Eucharist (Rite I); In-Person, Masks Optional
Coffee Hour in the Fellowship Hall at the conclusion of the service
9:15 am Education Hour
10:30am Worship: Holy Eucharist (Rite II, with music); In-Person, Masks Optional (also live-streamed via our Worship Zoom Channel)
Coffee Hour in the Fellowship Hall at the conclusion of the service
Mondays:
Compline at 8:30 p.m. (Worship ZOOM)
Tuesdays:
Morning Silence at 7:30 a.m. (Worship ZOOM)
Compline at 8:30 p.m. (Worship ZOOM)
Wednesdays:
Morning Prayer at 8:00 a.m. (Worship ZOOM)
In-Person Eucharist at Noon (Church)
For Those Who Live Alone (Meeting ZOOM) at 5:30 p.m. hosted by Margaret Brill (first Wednesday of the month)
Parish Choir at 6:30 p.m. hosted by Jason Wright
Compline at 8:30 p.m. (Worship ZOOM)
Thursdays:
Compline at 8:30 p.m. (Worship ZOOM)
Fridays:
Morning Prayer at 8:00 a.m. (Worship ZOOM)
Compline at 8:30 p.m. (Worship ZOOM)
To join online, by video, click on the links below or use the link provided in the weekly email.
These meetings are password protected; please email or call the office for the passwords.
St. Matthew’s Zoom WORSHIP Channel: https://zoom.us/j/2782817521
St. Matthew’s Zoom MEETING Channel: https://zoom.us/j/8648313120
St. Matthew’s Formation CHANNEL: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8793263231
These are our links. In general you should use the first for Worship, the second for Meetings, and the third for Christian Formation and Special Programs, etc.
To call in by phone,
dial 1-929-205-6099, then Meeting ID 278 281 7521 for Worship, Meeting ID 864 831 3120 for Meetings, and 7463513601 for the Formation Channel. This will allow you to participate by audio only.
From the Rector, the Rev. Robert Fruehwirth
The Rector’s December Newsletter Article – December 2022
Three Vignettes from Norwich
One. John frequented Norwich Cathedral and the City Library for 40 years. He was homeless, at times suffering severe mental illness and was known for muttering off-color complaints through liturgies. He called everyone, without exception, Sid. When he died this fall the Cathedral celebrated a solemn high requiem for him, with all pomp and circumstance, former choir members attending from all of England. It’s the kind of service usually reserved for a Lord. The last shall be first.
Two. A small parish church in central Norwich turned the back third of its nave into a coffee shop where payment is optional for food and drink. Many eat for free but the shop still turns a profit. The parish is thriving because of this ministry, parishioners volunteering at the cafe during the week and worshiping on Sunday.
Three. On Saturday Nov. 12 I held a quiet day at St. Julian’s. We listened to Julian of Norwich’s Revelations, wrote our responses, and shared reflections. The temperature in the nave hovered at 50 because energy costs have forced most parishes to leave buildings unheated, yet 40 attended. People spoke frankly of the suffering God had allowed in their lives, and wondered about the accompaniment of divine love through their pain, yet without resolving it. It was a moving, truthful and intimate community.These experiences from my six days in Norwich stand out as revelations of divine love. Returning to St. Matthew’s, I am enthused to begin Advent with all of you onSunday Nov. 27. Whereas Lent invites us into personal reflections, Advent invites us into the terrible yearning of humanity, and creation itself, for God. We suffer the gap between what we have made of our human world and God’s intention. We grieve how far sin has distorted us, how absent God is in our relations. Such grief is actually our sharing in, our mirroring of, God’s great yearning for us, deeper than creation itself. We don’t have answers or clever solutions to any of this, but in spiritual poverty, we watch wait. We keep silence, hold vigil.
Brothers and sisters, if we make our hearts big with this Advent waiting, we will have receive anew the coming of God’s Word at Christmas, always creative, ever new. ThisWord is something we can never predict or control or even expect. Yet with this Word we find new ways to be in our world; we receive new values, we discover a different light.We end up doing things that are revelations of God’s love here and now, in the Piedmont of North Carolina.
I urge you to make time this Advent for silence and reflection — maybe just 10minutes a day. Keep a daily journal by writing a note to God each day about your daily life. Pray the Daily Office. Meditate. Commit to a walk each day.
God bless us all in this holy season, watching and waiting
–Robert Fruehwirth
from the Blog
The Rector’s October Newsletter Letter
Dear Sisters and Brothers, Never before have I been so proud of my parish. In a time of pandemic, when ordinary parish life remains limited, we are expanding on many fronts. We are training up laity for spiritual leadership across the parish. We are signing up for prayer sessions, Bible studies, and formation groups, and…
When Everything Changes by David Arcus
My life changed in mid-March of this year, as did everyone else’s. We all were faced with how to keep as many things going as before. But we also tried to adjust our lives, learn new technology, take on new tasks, and dispense with routines we took for granted. Me – I grumbled a lot.…