Serving Our Community
Advent Wreaths 
Everyone Can Make Thanksgiving Safer
Check out these tips from the CDC
Mark your calendars for a virtual Advent Wreath Making Party coming up soon!  A Zoom link will be sent in Monday's newsletter. 

We would love to see you make your own one-of-a-kind wreath from items around your home (some ideas will be featured in Monday's newsletter), however, if you prefer not to, St. Francis has some wreath forms and candle sets available, and we will be hosting a drive-though wreath supply pick-up on Sunday, November 29.
Let us know how you are loving and serving your neighbors in a healthy way​. E-mail us or post on our Facebook Community Group​.
Holiday Food Drive for Storehouse West
​A Message from our Contemplative Outreach Group 
​​Here are items that are needed:
canned green beans or vegetables
canned cranberries
instant mashed potatoes
gravy mix
canned pumpkin
boxed pie crust mix
yams 
evaporated milk.
Please deliver to Storehouse West.
As New Mexico enters another lockdown we would like to share a timely message from our Benedictine brothers in Weston, Vermont.
Prayer connects us...heart to heart.
 
Physical distancing (social distancing) in this time of the Covid-19 pandemic creates the illusion that we are not dynamically connected to one another.
 
Yet, through prayer, we are actually and wonderfully closer to one another than is physically possible.
 
Prayer brings us below the surface of our day-to-day interactions and ordinary awareness into contact with the life-force of each person we call to presence in God's loving Spirit.
 
Calling upon God in prayer for one another opens pathways of connection that are healing and transforming.
 
In prayer, we enter into the mystery of grace and blessing where love enables us to encounter and cherish one another on a deeper level of being...                          
 
heart-to-heart.
 
Your Brothers at Weston Priory, Weston, Vermont
Westonpriory.org

For more information on Contemplative Outreach NM, please send a message to conm2016@gmail.com.
​Meal Train for the Lenzos

As you know, Becca and Fr. Alex will be adding baby #4 to their family very soon!  Click here to help make life a little easier during this time by signing up to deliver a meal to them.  Consider dropping off your meal in containers that do not need to be returned.  Questions?  Email or call (896-1999) the Parish Office. 

​Your Vestry met recently and wants to share with you some of the work they are doing for you. Here are the highlights:

1. We prayed for you.
2. We approved expenditures for two building maintenance/improvement projects: a. a new pump for the baptismal font; b. transitioning our office space (and more) from fluorescent to LED lighting, which both completes needed lighting replacement and helps us to save energy/care for God's creation.
3. We celebrated the work we have been able to do to care for God's creation recently and started thinking about how to do more. Many thanks to Bruce Hunn, Creation Care Committee chair, who updated us on the work that has been done and challenging us to further action.
4. We started planning a Fall Stewardship Campaign--to help us all be good stewards of our time, talents, and treasures (money).

Thank you, St. Francis, for being faithful followers of Jesus.
Quarantine Ideas

​
​Note from -Laura Fields
St. Francis Nursery ​

Arts & Crafts Bags Available & Join In a Parish Art Display
I know quarantine has a lot of us indoors and there are only so many "new" exercises, recipes, Netflix shows, movies, and arts and crafts a person can try! Though I encourage you to let your inner child out! Don't see something for what it is or what YOU use it for, but rather what it could be- no matter how outlandish it may seem!

To help, I have put together a bag of crafts and miscellaneous items which I will be happy to safely deliver to your home.  The challenge being: create something, anything, no matter how wild it is! Feel free to personalize it, customize it, to your heart's content!

Once you've finished it up, drop it off by the Parish Office door and your projects will be proudly displayed in and around the church and in the office, adding a pop of color and personality, reminding us all that although we may be separated, we're still a community. 

If you are interested in having a bag of art supplies delivered to you, please click here.  Provide your name, address, and phone number and your bag will be on its way to you! ​
Past Examples of Service during Covid-19
The Church is still open! Chris Robertson delivers masks to Fr. Alex. Her work and the work of others for the health of the community and the glory of God is a sign of God's Kingdom and the witness of Christ's Body. If you have a mask, remember to wear it to keep our neighbors safe. If you need a mask, please contact John Monforte at jmonforte@aol.com or 505-350-9106. We'd love to get you one. Keep up the good work St. Francis, and stay the course!
Thanks be to God. -Fr. Alex+
​Parishioners Marceliano and Stephanie Varoz and Emilie Rowe pause for a selfie after a loving and safe, outdoor, socially distant visit.
Want to learn about ways you and your family can serve, contact us at stfechurch@gmail.com
or 505-896-1999