Pentecost/Whitsunday
May 31st, 2020

An Updated Message from the Rector

Dear Friends in Christ,

As of now, Saint Paul’s will have a phased-in reopening date of 1st July. Our first Sunday gathering is scheduled for 5th July. We don’t exactly know what Church will be like just yet, but we do know it won’t be like it was for some time now. As we make plans to reopen, we will continue to comply with Diocesan and government guidelines and best practices. We also look forward to opening Saint Paul’s for prayer and meditation through our Open Door ministry after 1st July.

Our buildings remain closed, but we are still a people of prayer who praise God in thanksgiving for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ! Each Sunday our subscribers will receive an email after 9 am containing a YouTube link to our channel for everyone to join in Morning Prayer with music, readings, and a sermon. It will not be live, so you can watch it at any time. A pdf of the Order of Service will be included so you can pray along. The same information will be available on the Temporary Online Worship tab here on our website.

Connect with us on Social Media:

Follow us on Instagram! @stpaulscarrollst

Like us on Facebook! St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Carroll St

One of the challenges we are facing – and where we could use your help – is stewardship. We realize that this pandemic has significant and long-lasting financial consequences for parishioners’ own finances, for St Paul’s ministry plan, and for the world’s economy. Some people have been asking how they can continue to give to St Paul’s. If you are used to putting your pledge in the offering plate, we ask you to kindly mail it to the Church. Alternatively, you can give both one-time and recurring gifts/pledges here through the Church’s website.  If your own financial situation is precarious, please reach out to the Church and we will do our best to help meet immediate needs. If you are in a position to keep your pledge, or even to give some more in these stressful times, we hope you will consider it prayerfully. We encourage you to hand in a pledge for 2020 if you have not done so already – or to revise your 2020 pledge if circumstances have changed. This will help give us the clearest picture of our present and future income so that we can prepare a revised and responsible budget.

While the Church is temporarily closed, please know that I am available to you to meet by phone, video-conferencing, by email, and by text messaging. Each of you is in my prayers. I know this is a tough and scary time. But never forget: Jesus Christ is Lord – “and neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8)

Faithfully,

Fr William Ogburn+
Rector
Office: 718-625-4126
rector@stpaulscarrollst.org

A Prayer for a Time of Great Sickness and Mortality 

O most mighty and merciful God, in this time of grievous sickness, we flee unto thee for succour.  Deliver us, we beseech thee, from our peril; give strength and skill to all those who minister to the sick; prosper the means made use of for their cure; and grant that, perceiving how frail and uncertain our life is, we may apply our hearts unto that heavenly wisdom which leadeth to eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The Book of Common Prayer, 1928 (p. 45)