"Enter into His gates with thanksgiving" Psalm 100:4

Dear people of St. Paul's,

As we begin to turn our focus to the end of summer, I hope that you have had time for rest and renewal. This summer has been busy at St. Paul's, even as the staff have made time for much needed rest and vacation. We have so much to be thankful for as reflected in Psalm 100:4 “ Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful to him, and bless his name.” As we gather together more fully in September, I look forward to celebrating God’s abundance with you all. Until then, I wanted to share some important updates.

Nearly 40 children attended our "Blessed are the Peacemakers" Vacation Bible School led Ann Post supported with an amazing team of assistant teachers. Three inspiring and lively courtyard concerts, under the direction of David Johnson, brought in a full crowd from the community and the parish. Our Sunday services in the Meadow continue to be well attended as we are drawn closer to God while amidst Creation. (The last Meadow service is tomorrow morning at 9:30.)

Thanks to all of your contributions from the Springtime Building Campaign, we have been making significant improvements to our campus. The Memorial Garden work is complete. We are nearing completion of replacing the concrete slabs and blocks in the front of the church. As you can see from the photo, the power washing has given a fresh, new look to the entire exterior of the building. Up next will be repainting the exterior doors and replacing the water wells. Thank you to the vestry for their leadership and vision on launching this building campaign.

As part of our planned building improvements, several stained glasses windows in the sanctuary are being repaired and will be reinstalled in early September. We also replaced a large air conditioning system in the school wing. For increased security for the church and school, the new electronic key lock system has been installed and will be on-line within the next month. Many thanks to Building & Grounds Committee chairs Jack Carr and Gary Ashley and the entire committee for all this work.

The congregational garden is flourishing with pounds and pounds of vegetables donated to Neighbor-to-Neighbor along with our weekly canned and boxed food collection every Thursday morning in the parking lot. The pollinator garden is nourishing bees and birds for God's creation. Much appreciation for our watering and gardening team of Jack Carr, Bill Mills, Susan Foster, Jaye Richey and Nancy Dickinson. Thanks to all who regularly collect the N2N food donations under the guidance of Jaye Richey and Lori Jackson.

In staffing news, please join me in welcoming our new sexton Miguel Plaza who begins with us on August 28th. Miguel will work 20 hours per week which includes a full morning on Sundays. Miguel is very familiar with our buildings as he has been working for our cleaning company for the past five years.

The Day School continues to thrive, with our enrollment over 100 children. Most of our classes are waitlisted. Our teachers are readying their classrooms to welcome the children back the week of September 5th. Please join me in extending our deep thanks to Lisa Adorno, and all the day school staff for their love and care for the children. Due to the growth of the school, we will add a new classroom in the downstairs lunchroom which requires upgrades. Under the direction of Gary Ashley, we have obtained the necessary building permits, bid a contractor and will begin construction next week. Fencing will be placed around the back of the church beginning next week. We anticipate that the construction will take less than one month (depending on the weather.) Much gratitude to the entire school board for their work on this. In September, we will welcome two new board members- Jonathan Wells and Jaye Richey.

Also in September, St. Paul’s welcomes Greenwich Choral Society to our space as they have decided to make our building their new home for weekly rehearsals and board meetings. We are delighted about this collaboration.

Blessings on the final days of summer. As always please be in touch with comments or suggestions.

With hope in Christ,

Stephanie