St. Mary's Episcopal Church ~ Afton, MN

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Our Core Values

“No, we cannot compromise the core values of what we believe, and we believe every human being deserves to live and die in dignity. We believe all human beings are worthy of respect. We believe peace is not an option, but the only way forward for all of us to find what we pray for. We believe poverty and hunger are not inevitable but can be eradicated. We believe the Earth is alive and must be treated as a living being with whom we are in a profound relationship. We are open-minded, but we cannot compromise the core values of what we believe.”

Bishop Steven Charleston ~ October 10, 2023

Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund

Please give today to the Episcopal Relief and Development Hurricane Relief Fund

Please give today to the Episcopal Relief and Development Hurricane Relief Fund and help our partners and dioceses reach vulnerable communities devastated by hurricanes and other catastrophic storms. As we continue to assess ongoing needs in impacted areas, your urgent gift will enable us to respond now — and in the long run to aid in recovery.

Donate Here

Annual Rummage Sale

St. Mary’s Acknowledges First Nations

On November 27, 2022, St. Mary’s made a formal Land Acknowledgement honoring and respecting the Dakotah and Ojibwe peoples upon whose ancestral homelands our church building now stands. The land was formally ceded to the United States in the Dakotah and Ojibwe Treaties of 1837.

You can read more about these treaties here.

Creator, you made all people of every land. It is our responsibility to give thanks and respect to those who first occupied this land we are upon. We give thanks to the Dakotah and Ojibwe nations, the first people of this land. We offer our respect to those ancestors who may be interred in this land. We are also thankful for the gifts of the People of the land. Creator let us be of Good Mind to reconcile the mistreatment of this land and to those who have been displaced. With thankful and respectful hearts, we pray in Your name, Your son the Peacemaker and the Sacred Spirit. Amen.
From All Saint’s Episcopal Mission, Minneapolis

Access Lift Project Under Way

Earlier this year, St. Mary’s 35-year-old platform lift finally failed. The loss of the lift has made access to our undercroft level fellowship rooms and restrooms difficult, dangerous or impossible for many members of our community. Because the lift is so old, and because we installed that lift before the Americans with Disabilities Act codes, it cannot be repaired.

The Vestry explored alternatives, but it became apparent that a lift was the only practical solution to maintaining full access for all to the undercroft. After months of prayerful deliberation, the Vestry has determined that we need a lift to respect the dignity and full inclusion of all members and guests of St. Mary’s.

The new platform lift will cost over $39,000. Thanks to the generosity of our members and contributions from the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, St. Mary’s is proceeding with the Access Lift Project! We are counting on your continued generosity to help us complete this major capital improvement to our beloved church.

Won’t you make a gift today to ensure that all persons are fully included in the prayer life and fellowship of St. Mary’s?

You can make a one-time gift by check or at our online giving site.

Your gift will ensure St. Mary’s remains “a house of prayer for all people.” Isaiah 56:7

Thank you!

Give Online Button — Your recurring gift to St. Mary’s supports our ongoing ministries. Click the image above to make a secure, online donation.
Or mail your gift to:

St. Mary’s Church
PO Box 362
Afton, MN 55001.

Gardens of the Heart

Gardens are important to our understanding of God and our experience of Christian faith. As you enjoy the created beauty of the world, take a moment to reflect on our relationships with the whole of creation. Below are some reflections on those relationships by others.

Psalm 1

Blessed are the man and the woman
who have grown beyond their greed
and have put an end to their hatred
and no longer nourish illusions.
But they delight in the way things are
and keep their hearts open, day and night.
They are like trees planted near flowing rivers,
which bear fruit when they are ready.
Their leaves will not fall or wither.
Everything they do will succeed.

Translation by Stephen Mitchell

Gardens have been much on my heart and in my mind of late. Perhaps this is because of the vibrancy of the colors of the late summer flowers; perhaps because of the lushness of the fruits and vegetables of the summer harvest. Whatever the reason, I know that gardens are important to our understanding of God and our experience of Christian faith. Human existence begins in a garden. Jesus prayed in a garden the night before his crucifixion. The empty tomb of the Resurrection was in a garden.

Like a garden, our souls need tending and nurturing. Prayer, meditation, the Sacraments and the word of God in Scripture all nourish our souls. We are created beings who are more closely linked with creation than we often realize.

We are fortunate at St. Mary’s to be in the midst of magnificent gardens and amazing natural beauty. The historic Afton Town Square Park, Carpenter Nature Center, Afton State Park, St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park and even our own Memorial Garden offer beautiful trees, flowers and landscaping to reconnect us to God and creation. And I know that many of you have attractive yards and gardens at your own homes.

Take some time this summer to “stop and smell the roses.” Explore the gardens and landscapes of the St. Croix Valley, or the natural beauty of the state and regional park system. Turn off the air conditioner and open the windows of your home or automobile to let in the sounds and smells of creation. Tend your soul so it too may grow and flourish in the love of God and the glory of God’s creation. Store up the energy of the sun for the fallow season of winter that is all too close at hand.

As you enjoy the created beauty of the world, take a moment to reflect on our relationships with the whole of creation. Below are some reflections on those relationships by others. Perhaps you will be able to add your own experience of nature to the list. Enjoy, and God bless you.

“The soul cannot thrive in the absence of a garden.”
— Thomas Moore

“There is a little plant called reverence in the corner of my soul’s garden, which I love to have watered once a week.”
— Oliver Wendell Holmes

Grant me the ability to be alone,
May it be my custom to go outdoors each day
among the trees and grasses
among all growing things
and there may I be alone,
and enter into prayer
to talk with the one
that I belong to.

Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav

“I thank You God for this most amazing day; for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything which is natural which is infinite which is yes.”
— e.e. cummings

The Holy Trinity: Unity in Diversity

To confess God as Trinity reminds us that the heart of the universe is a relationship, a loving unity in the midst of diversity. As I’ve said many times, the Trinity reminds us that God’s essence is unity without uniformity and difference without division. That’s an amazing thing to claim about the nature of reality.

The wild diversity of humanity, and indeed the whole creation, is part of how we bear the image of God. To confess God as Trinity means that we can know and experience something closer to God’s very heart when we are forming kinship across lines of difference, when we are loving one another across all our diversity without the need to resolve or eliminate how we are different. We are called to build Beloved Community not because it is a nice thing to do, but because it is how we draw nearer to God.

The Rt. Rev. Craig Loya, X Bishop of Minnesota

Is there any health risk in drinking from the Common Cup at Holy Communion?

The CDC has found no documented transmission of any infectious disease has ever been traced to the use of a common communion cup.

The CDC has found no documented transmission of any infectious disease has ever been traced to the use of a common communion cup. The consensus of the CDC is that a theoretic risk of transmitting infectious diseases by using a common communion cup exists, but that the risk is so small that it is undetectable—you are far more likely to catch something by shaking someone’s hand than by drinking from the common cup.

Bishops Support Transgender Persons

Remembering My Friend, Archbishop Desmond Tutu

I have many fond memories of serving as Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s personal assistant in 2002 when he was in residence at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, MA. Sure, it was fun to meet and work with many world leaders and international journalists, but those experiences did not reveal the depth of Father’s intense and abiding faith in God that I came to cherish.

The most precious moments came during our daily celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, often with just the two of us present. We shared an intimate, holy connection with each other and with the Divine. Father spoke often of the “messy relationship” between the humanity and divinity of Christ: We are always trying to pull Jesus down into the mud even as he is lifting us up toward the glories of heaven. Together we prayed for an end to endemic disease, selfish violence and loveless cruelty. And we prayed that Christ would lift us up along with the poor and hungry and lonely and forgotten—all of us so profoundly in need of God’s grace and mercy.

It is fitting that Father should leave this temporal realm as we celebrate God’s most wonderful gift of the Word made flesh—eternal Love Incarnate. Perhaps that “messy relationship” is what binds him and us so closely to the heart of God.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant Desmond. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive him into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. May the angels rise to greet him and dance with him in joyful bliss. Amen.

Thank you!

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