St. Mary's is excited to announce new formation offerings for our congregation.

(1) For children specifically, every two weeks we will provide a video with a Read-along. Books carefully chosen by our Formation Team will be read aloud by a St. Mary's parishioner and uploaded to YouTube. Parents can share the videos with their children and discussion questions will be provided. The books we read together will help us better understand and consider the theme of the season we are in. For the fall, the books will help us to explore what it means to Walk in Love.

(2) Once a month, we will offer a Family Dinner for our whole St. Mary's family (everyone is welcome!) We will share our meal together. After dinner, adults will have a program together while the children will have a program on the lower level of the Parish House. See below for more details.

(3) Once a month you will receive an email just like this one, with links to the read-along books, information about other formation offerings at St. Mary's, and other resources and fun opportunities to learn.

We realize that at St. Mary's our formation happens in so many ways already: through worship, service, fellowship, and play. We hope this program will simply deepen our formation experience as we continue our walk with God!

Our Fall Theme: Walk in Love

Walk in love as Christ loved us, and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God. - Ephesians 5:2

Read-a-long: Be Kind

This month's read-a-long is "Be Kind", written by Pat Zietlow Miller and Illustrated by Jen Hill. Our reader this month is Jason DeFalco. Jason has been at St. Mary's since 2019. He attends church with his husband David and their sons Jae and Matthew. Jason is on the vestry and leads our Christian Formation team.

Here are the discussion questions for this book.

Look for a hard copy of the book in the entryway when you head into church on Sunday.

Interested in reading one of our monthly books for the read-a-long? Email us at formation@smcportsmouth.org!

A story about how to be kind, and how kindness matters.

FORMATION THROUGH ACTION

There are many ways to grow in your faith by being involved in different ministries at St. Mary's.

On the second Thursday of every month, volunteers from St. Mary's provide a meal at a Soup Kitchen at St. Paul's Methodist Church in Newport. We are always looking for new volunteers to take part in this important ministry. Sign up to be involved online, or email sk@smcportsmouth.org for more information!

CONTEMPLATIVE CORNER

Richard Rohr is a Jesuit priest and author who wrote, among other books, The Universal Christ, which members of our church read together this past spring.

One of the many resources available through the Center for Action and Contemplation is a daily meditation email. The Daily Meditations are email reflections featuring Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation (CAC) faculty, as well as guest teachers and authors, reflecting on the wisdom and practices of thChristian contemplative tradition. Sign up to receive these emails.