 Sunday Soup & Sandwiches to Close at the End of October
After much prayer and consideration, the Episcopal Church of Saints James and Andrew has decided to wind down one of their feeding ministries, Sunday Soup & Sandwiches. This free take-away meal takes place every Sunday at 11:30 am and offers soup, sandwiches, fruit, granola bars, two Hershey kisses, and a beverage to guests who are greeted by name, as relationships have built between volunteers and guests. The meal began in March 2020 when another local meal on the town common made the difficult decision to shut down due to the pandemic. Saints James and Andrew felt they could offer a temporary program to fill the void until things re-opened. They imagined this would be for two weeks. Church leaders could hardly have guessed how long the pandemic would last, or how great the need for these meals would truly be. The program has grown steadily over the last five years, from a handful of guests in the first couple of weeks, to as many as 317 meals served on a recent Sunday. An average of 255 meals were served each week in 2024. The program has primarily been funded by one time grants, the parish’s budget, and a small but faithful group of donors composed of individuals, local faith communities and businesses. Volunteers largely consist of parish members and members of other faith communities throughout Franklin County. Every six months, program leaders would meet to determine if they felt they could continue with the meal for another six months. During this conversation this past fall, it was clear core leaders would need to step back in the coming year. This change, combined with the increasing demand for meals, the parish’s limited capacity, concern for volunteer burnout, and the ongoing challenge of funding led volunteers to begin an intentional process of discerning whether it was time to conclude the meal. Program leaders explored alternative options before recommending the meal wrap up in 2025 to the larger group of volunteers and donors. The program leaders’ decision was affirmed by volunteers, donors, church leadership, and the entire parish at their January Annual Meeting. It is a bittersweet decision. The parish remains acutely aware of the increasing need for meals like Sunday Soup & Sandwiches. Yet volunteers also know they’ve made a fundamental difference in the quality of life for their neighbors here in Franklin County - particularly amongst those living rough. Coordinator Erica Burns said, “Helping our community for the last 5 years has been an extremely rewarding experience for all of us that have helped offer this service over the years. Getting to know our regular meal guests has been a pleasure for our team. Food insecurity is a huge issue in our area with prices skyrocketing in every aspect of our lives, and no one should have to go hungry. We are a small, but very dedicated team of volunteers, and are sad to see this program go with the need being so great. Unfortunately, we have become stretched to our limits, and hope that another group in our community can help feed our neighbors in our place. We look forward to serving our community this year, just as we have been since we started!" The meals will continue as planned through the end of October. The parish is determined to get the word out so folks understand this meal will be coming to an end, and asks the community to help spread the word. It is the parish’s sincere hope that just as they once filled a gap, the larger community may find a way to come together and address what will be a new gap in the meal programs offered in Greenfield. The church will continue to offer Second Helpings, a free community meal offered each Monday at 4:30 p.m. in partnership with Deerfield Academy. This meal program will celebrate their 25th anniversary this spring. If you would like more information on this topic, please see Meals & More or Contact us.  Dear Friends of Saints James and Andrew,
We tell the world who we are, and who we believe God is calling us to be, in our mission statement. This is included in the footer of all our correspondence, worship leaflets, website, and even on a banner outside the church. We have incorporated these values into our common life, and we strive to embody them in our ministry and outreach efforts. It’s a journey; one we make joyfully together in faith. Mission and Vision: We believe God is calling us to cultivate a community of love, joy, hope, and healing. Jesus is our model for a life of faith, compassion, hospitality, and service. We strive to be affirming and accessible, welcoming and inclusive; we seek to promote reconciliation, exercise responsible stewardship, and embrace ancient traditions for modern lives. Here are some of the ways we lived into this mission in 2024. We created beautiful worship together and welcomed new members into our community. We blessed chalk; gardeners and their tools; bicycles; backpacks; and animals. We featured Stations of the Cross focused on overcoming racism, and offered a variety of teaching sermons. We introduced Pentecost and Advent services of Lessons & Carols. We launched a new regular bible study to support our Lay Preachers Guild in their sermon preparation. We continue to cherish our monthly Coffee and Conversation. We lived into the sacraments and sacramental rites of our tradition. We baptized Max Barbato, Wendy Herzig, and Emmalina Jones-Burke into the body of Christ. We bid farewell to members Audrey Arms; Ced Bannister; John and Betts Bednarski; Quentin and Mary Murrell Faulkner; Felicia Finck; Rick Gwosch, and Lorraine Penick - entrusting them to God and the saints in light. We successfully launched a new midweek eucharist led by our Missioner, Rev. Jimmy Pickett. Our Pastoral Care Team brought eucharist to those on our visitation list (27 visits) and many more pastoral check-ins. We witnessed the fruit of our two year holy experiment with Missioner Rev. Jimmy Pickett, whose work focuses on spiritual formation and will conclude in November 2025. There were opportunities for dinner church and book studies. Of particular note is our growing ministry to children and families. We began with monthly dinners and in Advent launched a new children’s chapel program. We welcomed Preciosa Pagan on staff as a paid childcare assistant, and Cara Hins, as the volunteer coordinator. We launched a successful new outreach ministry, Bach’s Lunch, funded by a one time diocesan grant. These free midweek concerts feature many of the professional musicians within our parish, and some beyond. People are invited to bring a bag lunch and enjoy the beauty of the music and the church. Each concert averaged about 50 people, and they have been well received by the wider community. With full hearts we have continued to offer two weekly feeding ministries, an essentials pantry, a fiber arts ministry, creation care programming, a companioning ministry, a community labyrinth, cheering at the Pride Parade, and we raised nearly $3,000 for St. Matthew’s School in Haiti. At times the need around us was so great, we nearly overwhelmed our own capacity. We will need to continue discerning how to adapt our outreach efforts to better reflect our current realities, as it relates to our human and financial resources. We navigated a variety of staffing changes with intention and care. We began a culture shift around how staffing supports our buildings, which house our mission and ministries. Some of these changes include: the retirement of longtime Sexton, Steve Hussey, and Interim Sexton, Deb Parker; expanding the scope of Parish Administrator Aaron McMurray’s role to meet current facility and property use needs; and onboarding Collective Cleaners to manage twice weekly cleanings of our entire facility. We had a successful year of sharing our space with the wider community through our property use program, where we welcomed Marietta Skeen into Upper Room 1 and Pioneer Valley Symphony music lessons into the Lower Level. We cared for our facility, as Property tended to both long term deferred maintenance and routine maintenance. There were sinkholes to fill, basements to seal, a courtyard to refinish, kitchen equipment that required replacing; and trim to replace (with a new material that will last 100 years!). A taskforce began exploring the future of the Strong House. The generosity of this community never ceases to amaze, as people share their time, talent, and treasure to help us embrace and embody our mission and ministry. Whether your work is visible or behind the scenes - thank you. Let us continue to walk in love. With peace and gratitude, Rev. Heather J. Blais, Rector Dear Friends of Saints James and Andrew,
This past spring, we hired Deb Parker as our Facilities staff to address our cleaning, event, security, on call, and other facility needs. She has done great work for us, including making several efficiencies. This fall Deb’s schedule changed, and we came to the mutual decision that her time with us would conclude on November 23, following the Mistletoe Mart & Craft Faire. Please join me in thanking Deb for a job well done. We’ve spent the last two years experimenting, analyzing and learning about our staffing needs. As the Vestry looked to the future, we decided to go in a new direction. We have hired our current Office Administrator, Aaron McMurray, as our new Parish Administrator, effective November 1. Aaron has a background in supporting churches administratively, as well as, in a facilities management role. Aaron will continue to be responsible for all of their current tasks around parish administration and communication, property use, plus event set up/take down, property on call, security, minor repairs, liaising with the Property Committee around meeting contractors and keeping up certifications. Moving forward, Aaron will have the overall responsibility, being the point person, for the day to day operation of our spaces. We believe this change:
We are also entertaining the notion and weighing the pros and cons of hiring a staff person v. hiring a cleaning service. We have learned from other churches with large, active facilities how helpful it was to make such a shift. We are currently collecting the information from cleaning services, but we believe it is worth the Vestry’s serious consideration. We hope to make a decision within the next couple of weeks. Another staffing change relates to our Missioner, the Rev. Jimmy Pickett. We hired Rev. Jimmy to serve as our Missioner for Formation, Community, and Mission as part of a two year holy experiment with our diocese and St. John’s, Athol. The position was ⅔ time, with ⅓ time in each parish, and Rev. Jimmy supplemented this work with agricultural work. He has done excellent work building a community on Wednesday mornings with those who gather for Holy Eucharist, as well as his work with our young families ministry. As we looked back on the first year together, we realized his work was heavily under the umbrella of formation. We’ve changed his title to Missioner for Formation and his work for the second year will be focused primarily on continuing the great work he has already begun. This is a time specific job, and Rev. Jimmy will conclude his time with us in late 2025. Meanwhile, St. John’s, Athol, have increased his time to ½ time, allowing him to focus more fully on parish ministry and take a step back from agricultural work. As the young families ministry has experimented and grown this last year, we made the decision to shift to some Sunday morning programming a couple of times a month starting in Advent. This ministry will be run by parents, caregivers, and other parishioners excited with engaging our young parishioners. Rev. Jimmy is currently overseeing the hiring process so we might pay for a second adult to help manage childcare (kids who need to be brought to the restrooms or require a bit of support in listening or engaging with the programming). If you know anyone who would be a good fit for this role who is over 18, please contact Rev. Jimmy at [email protected]. Likewise, if you are excited to potentially work with our young kids on a rota of other volunteers, please speak to Rev. Jimmy or myself. Thank you for your ongoing love, care, and support for the James and Andrew community, and your faithfulness to the mission and ministry God has called our parish into during this chapter. May God continue to bless the work happening here, and may all we do be to the glory of God. Peace, Rev. Heather J. Blais, on behalf of Clergy & Vestry |
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We believe God is calling us to cultivate a community of love, joy, hope, and healing. Jesus is our model for a life of faith, compassion, hospitality, and service. We strive to be affirming and accessible, welcoming and inclusive; we seek to promote reconciliation, exercise responsible stewardship, and embrace ancient traditions for modern lives.
Office HoursTuesday, Thursday, Friday
9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Our gardens and grounds are open from dawn to dusk for the community to pray, rest, be. Please help us take care of this sacred space by following the outdoor ethic & principle of “leave no trace.” |
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Worship Times10 a.m. In-Person Worship & Livestreamed
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