Come and build into your week some time for a shared meal and community, an opportunity to learn about and exzperience a particular kind of prayer/spirituality from our tradition, and engage in reflection together. Please click to see more!
Every Tuesday morning, from 9 am - 11 am, a group of dedicated women gather at Our Lady Queen of Peace in the Hospitality Room to serve their community with their needles. These women are active in their community in many different ways, but enjoy spending a few hours together each week to sit down and chat while their fingers make quick work of the graciously donated yarn that they receive. Everyone seems to have a niche: some knit, some crochet, some love the color purple, and others hate to work with fuzzy yarn. Some of the women are parishioners at OLQP, others at STM, and still others outside of our own cluster. These women support each other in the same tender manner that they support the most vulreable among us. They have seen each other through life's joys and it's sorrows, all the while, yarn in hand. This year, through their generous donation of time and talent, they have made over 395 sets of items between June and November of 2019! Some of these sets include a child's sized hat, a scarf and mittens for children attending RCSD School # 34 and Mary's Place. Many sets of warm winter accessories have gone out to the House of Mercy, among others, to help keep the homeless men and women in our community safe and warm. The women of the knitting group also make baby blankets and hats for the annual Respect Life Baby Shower in October and lap robes for adults who might be homebound or ill. If you are interested in joining, please either contact Beth Watkins at h.elizabeth.watkins@gmail.com, or just show up!
Thanks to all who contributed to this year’s Mitten Tree Collection. Over 340 mittens were distributed, representing 6 different local agencies. In the letters of thanks we received, comments included “Your gifts help us shine brighter during this holiday season, sustaining hope through time of darkness” (Willow), “Your continued generosity made it possible for each patient to receive a gift” (Rochester Psychiatric Center), “Largely in part to you, we are able to help those who sometimes get discouraged as they try to move forward” (Andrews Center), and “Your donation made it possible for Brighton Food Cupboard to help families and individuals who are in crisis or are coping with day to day financial demands, helping to provide desperately needed support and food.” Among the thank you notes that we received, there was a letter sent by a Mitten gift certificate recipient. In his letter, he thanked his “friends at St Thomas More and Queen of Peace” for the great Christmas gift. He went on to say that it made their Christmas and at the end of the letter was the request, “please pray for our family that things may change.” The Mitten Tree truly represents the best of the Christmas spirit. Your generosity reached far beyond our parish community to provide light, hope, support and happiness to others. May God bless you all.
Please join us once a month, from January until May, for Sacred Music at St. Thomas More. This organ recital series will occur on the Mary Wegman Organ on the following Sundays at 4:00 pm. January 26, 2020 Alden Wright & Benjamin Henderson February 2, 2020 James Kealey March 15, 2020 Sarah Johnson April 19, 2020 Caroline Robinson May 3, 2020 Ivan Bosnar $10.00 suggested donation. Please contact Connor Doran at connor.doran@dor.org for any questions. We hope to see you there!
This winter we are asking all of our parishioners to completely update their contact information. We attempted to fill in the gaps last winter with a short form left in the pews, but unfortunately, we didn't capture all of the data that we were hoping to. As a result, we are working together to complete a total overhaul of our census- with a goal to have it completed by the end of February. Accurate and complete contact information is necessary so that we can serve you better in the future. As a staff, we have worked together to generate a completely new census form which more efficiently collects the contact information that matters in 2020. This includes updated entries for individual e-mail addresses and cell phone numbers as well as demographic information, special needs, and sacraments.