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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

Our Gospel is a Gospel of love and acceptance. It is a Gospel where Jesus literally says, "Let the children come to me." Vacation Bible School is a way that we live into that call. Thank you to all who have taught our children about the love of Christ, and God's presence in their lives. It has been a special week.

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

As the upcoming school year approaches at breakneck speed, I find myself inexplicably feeling a bit rushed. After two years of not traveling, I feel an urge to make up for lost time. I want to take my family to the beach and to the mountains. I want to go on hikes, fish, and enjoy an adventure. I am sure I am not alone in this. If you have the time, I encourage you to explore, but as always, I invite you to come back.

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

I have such great memories of Vacation Bible School. I remember playing games with friends. I remember the older students I looked up to with such awe, wondering in my mind, "Will I ever be big like them?" I remember VBS-themed snacks, meals, and even some of the songs and prayers. I wonder, do you remember?

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

I pray that you all are well and that you are able to enjoy some summertime adventures. Taking time for rest and self-care is important. If it has been a while since you have been to church, I invite you to come back. I believe maintaining our spirit is as important as maintaining a healthy mind and body. Have you taken some time to nurture your soul?

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. On this day, we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit given to each and every one of us. During this celebration we also will baptize six people into a life in Christ, into the shared baptismal waters of our faith. After the baptisms, we will commission our pilgrims as they prepare to head to Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago. I hope that you will each have the opportunity to attend.

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

I pledge to try to be a part of a solution that saves lives, but like many of you, I feel helpless. I pledge to try to move from beneath the pall. I lament my anguish to God because I am angry. I pray that this time the voices of the victims will be heard, for it is only in that hearing that the stain of the sin of inaction can be washed away by the waters of our baptisms. Perhaps then the pall can be lifted and the vanity will be gone.

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

I want to take some time as we celebrate Youth Sunday to say thank you to our many, many youth volunteers. Thank you to our Godly Play teachers, Children's Chapel leaders, 4th and 5th grade Sunday school teachers, middle school and high school teachers, youth group volunteers, Royal School of Church Music volunteers, acolyte masters, and the many of you who work behind the scenes to ensure that we have a Christ-centered, safe, and fun environment for our youth. The youth are not the future of our church -- they are a part of our present.

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch SMIF Weekly from Mitch SMIF

This Week from Mitch

Jesus spent a good portion of his ministry reminding people to 1) "not be afraid," and 2) to practice the actions of love through the breaking of bread together, prayers, joy, and loving one's neighbor as oneself. Jesus knew that joy, not hate, would strengthen the church. That love, not anger, would build the body up, and that love and determination, not fear and loathing, would bring new people to the faith. We celebrate because we know this to be true. I invite you to come out to our parish dance this weekend.

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

Next Saturday the 14th we will have a chance to break bread together and have fun! We will celebrate our youth program with a parish party and dance. I hope that you will dress up and come. I hope that you will play and dance and enjoy. I also hope that you will come prepared to donate to the youth program! A parish can not be healthy without a healthy youth program. The two go hand and hand. Our commitment to our youth now is an investment in our church's future.

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

As a fundraiser for their Camino de Santiago pilgrimage, our youth are throwing us a parish-wide dance party. It will be a chance to simply come together, raise some money for the pilgrimage, and have fun doing it.

The St. Martin's pilgrimage to the Camino de Santiago represents for us a step forward in our post-pandemic lives. It also represents our commitment to children and youth ministry. It is not a tourist trip; it is a pilgrimage -- one in which people will have an ample amount of time to walk and to pray. Time to be shaped by the roads that pilgrims have traveled for over a thousand years.

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This Week from Mitch
Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith Weekly from Mitch Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

Thank you to all who worked so hard to make Easter and Holy Week happen. Thank you to our volunteers, our choir, our altar guild, our auxiliary altar guild, our readers, our staff, and our clergy. If I am missing someone, please know I am grateful. My heart is truly filled with gratitude. Thank you!

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This Week from Mitch
Caitlyn Keith Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

I have longed to celebrate this Holy Week with you all. After two years of not being in the church, it is especially nice to be back with you all in our building, in our worship space, in our church home. Together we will pray, sing God's praises, and celebrate God's Glory. I pray that we will also share the story. The story of our faith and the story of our church home.

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This Week from Mitch
Caitlyn Keith Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

This Sunday we enter into the most holy time of our year -- Holy Week, a time set apart by the church in which all Christians are called on to pray and to contemplate the mighty acts of the cross. I am deeply happy to be able to move these services back inside of our church. I eagerly look forward to walking The Way of the Cross with you.

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This Week from Mitch
Caitlyn Keith Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

This Monday (April 4), St. Martin's will once again participate with 30 other churches in the Columbia and Forest Acres area in a listening process with MORE Justice. We will be asking our local elected officials to take steps towards curbing the rise of rent and lack of affordable housing in our city, the rise in gun violence currently facing Columbia, and mental health/crisis intervention training. Please pray for all involved as they seek to do the work of justice ministry in our community.

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This Week from Mitch
Caitlyn Keith Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

The heart of our church is worshiping the Lord our God and serving in Christ's name. It is a wonderful and special thing when our church is able to serve in meaningful and important ways.

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This Week from Mitch
Caitlyn Keith Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

I was asked this week where I found the Divine in the midst of the last two years. This question was hard for me. As a spiritual practice, one of the things that I try to do on a daily basis is to see the Divine presence in the world around me at least once each day, and to say, "Thank you" when I see it. It seems too corny and obvious to write, but I have found that the more you look for Christ, the more you find him. The question was hard because in the past two years, I have seen God a lot.

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This Week from Mitch
Caitlyn Keith Caitlyn Keith

This Week from Mitch

This weekend, Caitlyn and I will share with our vestry our dream of renewed evangelism -- our dream of renewed parish growth. We will share our dreams for worship and growth, for continued parish gatherings like our food truck round-up and our St. Martin's day pig roast. And we will share our dreams for giving of ourselves to others. I am praying that our weekend will be filled with mutual invitation, hopes, and dreams.

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