We have been asking everyone to help in recruiting a new rector. This is a targeted request to those snowbirds who have connections to their summer home church. Please reach to see if your leadership at your summer church knows of any candidates. We are getting close to the closing of the job announcement - November 5 but there may still be time to help us find someone who would be a great fit for St.Monica's. The job is posted on the Episcopal News Service job board where all openings are covered. Thank you for any help you can provide.
Weekly eNews for
Oct 29th, 2026
MENU
NEW THIS WEEK
FROM OUR SR. WARDEN
What a glorious concert we had last Sunday evening. Everything flowed together including the reception afterwards which filled the Parish Hall. The sanctuary was nearly full, the choir and musicians were great and Allen Stock was a magnificent master of ceremonies while directing the choir and playing the organ at the same time. It was truly a heartwarming event. Bishop Sharf sent us a congratulatory letter that was uplifting, the organ was officially dedicated, and our history was overviewed. I believe the efforts did justice to the 35th Anniversary of St. Monica's, the new organ, and the 250th birthday of our nation.
Thank you to all who had roles to play. A huge thank you to all those who donated to the organ fund and made it possible for us to have such a magnificent instrument. During the ceremony we thanked the donor's group as a whole. Again a special thank you to Allen Stock who had a germ of an idea for a concert a few months ago and like the mustard seed in Mark's gospel, that seed grew into an enormous bush covering us all with love and gratitude. Please thank Allen when you see him.
A PLEA FOR HELP!
WE NEED YOU! JOIN THE ALTER GUILD
St. Monica’s Altar Guild is looking for new volunteers to help prepare our church for worship at both services.
No experience is necessary! We will provide all the training you need. All we ask is a willing heart and a desire to serve.
Being part of the Altar Guild is a meaningful way to serve our church and help make each worship service special.
Interested in joining or learning more? Please contact Heather Williamson for more information.
We would love to have you join our team!
YOU ARE INVITED
2027 Annual Stewardship Campaign
We’re kicking off our 2027 Annual Stewardship Campaign, and we’d love for you to join us! Please stay after the 10:00 a.m. service on Sunday, November 15, 2026 for a supercharged reprise of last year’s hugely successful Stewardship Brunch again hosted by the St. Monica’s Stewardship Committee and graciously underwritten by one of our parishioners.
Enjoy an extra special brunch (the menu has been kicked up a few notches from last year’s really great one), warm fellowship, and a few laughs as we celebrate all the ways we share our Time, Talent, and Treasure in service to God and one another.
To make the morning even more fun, we’ll host a Trivia Contest with prizes for the winners and plenty of good-natured competition!
This joyful gathering marks the official launch of our 2027 Stewardship Campaign - an opportunity for each of us, whether full-time or seasonal parishioners, to prayerfully consider our pledge for the coming year.
THINGS TO COME
NOVEMBER PLATE OFFERING
HARVEST TIME MINISTRIES OF BONITA SPRINGS
During the weekend of
November 7 and 8, St. Monica’s will collect our plate offerings to support
Harvest Time Ministries of Bonita Springs.
Harvest Time Ministries serves local farmworker families who work tirelessly planting and harvesting the fruits and vegetables we enjoy every day. Through the generosity of our community, this ministry provides food, clothing, and compassionate support to families in need.
Your generosity makes a difference!
Every contribution helps support these hardworking families and reminds them that their community cares.
How to Give:
- Place cash or checks in the offering plate during worship.
- Make checks payable to St. Monica’s Episcopal Church, with Harvest Time Ministries noted in the memo line.
Thank you for helping St. Monica’s extend God's love and care to our neighbors in need.
For questions, please contact Heather Williamson or Fred Cable.
LADIES & GENTS LUNCHEON
Join us for our next Fellowship Lunch on Monday, November 9, at 12:30 PM at Old 41, located at 25091 Bernwood Drive in Bonita Springs.
This will be our final Luncheon of 2026, as we take a break during the busy December holiday season. Our monthly lunches will resume in January 2027. We hope you can join us for one last afternoon of good food and wonderful fellowship before the new year!
MISION PENIEL
We are scheduled to serve at Mision Peniel on 10/23, 12/4, 2/12, and 4/23 this season. If you are not familiar with this service, it is a wonderful day of packing and distributing food and other items to the farmworkers of Immokolee and their families. Please let me know if you would like to join us for any or all of the dates, particularly the October date as it is coming up. Text is the best way to reach me. We will meet at St. Monica’s at 1:00 to carpool and will return around 6:30. I always recommend bringing water, a snack, comfortable shoes, a hat, and a St. Monica’s tee shirt if you own one.
Thanks in advance! Debbie Corey
Do you knit or crochet? Now to Nov 2026
CAN you help me, help sick and premature babies in Uganda?
Let me introduce myself, my name is Ellen Milan. I am a member of St Monica’s and a retired neonatal intensive care nurse and a volunteer with Health Volunteers Overseas, a private non-profit dedicated to improving the availability and quality of health care in developing countries through training and education of local health care providers. I have been teaching, and working with, Ugandan neonatal healthcare providers, and families of sick and premature babies, since 2001.
DID YOU KNOW… newborns (especially prematures) can lose a significant amount of heat from their heads (the largest surface area of their bodies), which puts them at risk for hypothermia (low body temperature). Hypothermia in the newborn period is considered an important contributor to newborn morbidity (illness) and mortality (death) especially in low-resource countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes newborn thermal care as a critical component of essential newborn care.
Premature births are common in Uganda and other parts of Africa and this is due in part to the high rate of “natural twinning”. Twins and higher order multiples (triplets or more) have an increase risk of being born prematurely.
Covering a baby’s head can make a substantial impact in avoiding hypothermia even in the smallest of babies. Knit and crochet hats can be life saving.
God willing, I will return to Uganda in November 2026.
If you have any questions or would like more information, you can find me in the directory located HERE.
With gratitude, Ellen Milan
LET'S MAKE A CHILD SMILE THIS CHRISTMAS
Gift of Giving with Fostering Success
St. Monica’s parishioners are invited to join Fostering Success for its annual Gift of Giving event on Saturday, December 5, 2026, at Super Target, 2415 Tarpon Bay Blvd. in Naples.
Volunteers will be paired with a foster child and spend a couple of hours helping them shop for Christmas gifts for their siblings and foster parents. Each child will receive a gift card, which has already been generously provided by another donor, so all that is needed from volunteers is their time and a willingness to help make the day special.
Melanie and Janet have participated for the past three years and say it is a wonderful experience. There is something especially meaningful about watching the children carefully choose gifts for the people they love.
If you would like to participate this year, please contact Melanie Rose for more information or to let her know you are interested.
BULLETIN BOARD
DO YOU FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK?
If not, you’re missing out on all the fun things happening around St. Monica’s. Be sure to follow our page so you can stay connected with photos, events, and moments from our parish family.
STAY SAFE ONLINE - YOU ARE A TARGET!
Have you ever received an email that looked like it came from us, your bank, or even a friend, only to wonder if it was really legitimate?
Scammers are becoming more convincing every day, and churches are one of their favorite targets. That's why we've created a new Online Safety & Security page filled with simple tips to help you recognize scams, protect your personal information, and know what warning signs to watch for. The page explains how scammers impersonate trusted people, why they target churches, and the easy steps you can take to stay safe online.
Take just a few minutes to explore this valuable resource & share with others. It could help you avoid becoming the next target.
👉 Visit our Online Safety & Security page < HERE >
COME PRAY WITH US
Your faith and scripture will come alive as we pray together. We invite you to spend a special hour with us each week.
All are welcome to gather in the church sanctuary every Tuesday at 10 am. We will praise God with song, read and pray with Scripture, share faith experiences, share intercessory prayer for our needs and the needs of others and also healing prayer.
For more information contact Theresa Miller
NAME BADGES HELP KEEP ATTENDANCE
Please take a moment to find and wear your name tags because it makes it easier for visitors and other parishioners to recognize you by name and allows the office to note your attendance. As you leave the church, please leave them in the baskets near the doors and they will be placed back on the board for pick up the following weekend.
REGULAR CHURCH GATHERINGS
Zoom Only
- Contemplative Prayer: Wednesdays, 11am – Zoom
In-Person and Zoom
- Bible Study: Fridays, 9am – Library
- Men's Book Group: Mondays, 9:30am – Conference Room
In-Person Only
- Prayer and Faith Sharing: Tuesdays, 10am – Church
- Ladies & Gents Luncheon: 2nd Monday, 12:30pm – Different locations
Please email the church office for the link and password to the Zoom meetings.
OFFERING ENVELOPES - Just as a Reminder
We are so grateful for your ongoing generosity and faithful giving. Every offering you give helps us continue the mission and ministry of St. Monica’s, and we truly appreciate it.
That said, we have a small but important request: please do not tape the flaps of your offering envelopes
The envelope flaps are designed to stay closed once you seal them with the glue inside the flap. When tape is added, it makes it much harder for our office staff to open them quickly and carefully. It slows down the processing, increases the risk of tearing checks or cash inside, and adds extra steps to what is already a detailed task
We know the intention behind taping is likely to keep the contents secure, but we assure you the envelopes are kept safe and handled with care from plate to processing
Thank you for helping us by leaving the flap untaped, it’s a small act that makes a big difference.
A ST. MONICA'S PRAYER
Dear Friends,
In our Tuesday staff meeting we ended with St. Monica's prayer. It was for her son to return to the church. When he finally returned he became the future Saint and Bishop Augustine of Hippo who became a prominent Christian theologian and philosopher.
We thought we might share it with you:
St. Monica, I need your prayers. You know exactly how I'm feeling because you once felt it yourself. I'm hurting, hopeless, and in despair. I desperately want my child to return to Christ in his Church but I can't do it alone. I need God's help. Please join me in begging the Lord's powerful grace to flow into my child's life. Ask the Lord Jesus to soften his heart, prepare a path for his conversion, and activate the Holy Spirit in his life. Amen.
OCTOBER ANNIVERSARIES
10/3
Scott & Stacey McCurdy
10/6
Chuck & Charla McHenry
10/13
Ned & Sara Meekins
10/20
Bruce & Rita Allen
10/22
John & Marilynn Dessauer
BIRTHDAYS
10/3
James Mullen
Frank Shrewsbury
Shirley Woolaway
10/6
Jim Gatter
George Lackey
Michael McCampbell
10/12
Ruth Leigh
Nancy Moritz
10/14
Muriel Burkett
10/21
Lorraine Maurer
10/22
Mary Gentzle
Kathy Romatzick
10/24
Stacey McCurdy
10/27
Wil Ward
10/28
Betty Cable
PRAYERS & VISITS
PASTORAL CARE
If you go to or are going into the hospital, or your spouse, partner, or family member is experiencing a pastoral or health care issue, please contact the
church office during office hours after hours please reach out to Deacon Ken McCaslin at 610.608.0704.
PASTORAL CARE MESSAGE
Your clergy are here to walk with you. Pastoral care is an important part of the ministry of the clergy, so please don't be shy! At any time reach out to one of us and we would be happy to talk to you, anoint you, pray with you, or walk with you. If something is going on medically or otherwise in your life, let us know. If you are going into the hospital, let us know ahead of time so we can visit, and, more importantly, be praying with and for you.
ACCESSING THE PRAYER LIST:
For the safety and privacy of our members, the Prayer List will no longer be published on the website or included in the eNews, as both are publicly accessible.
We understand how important this list is to our church family, and we want to ensure you can still access it in the following ways:
1. Online Access: Log in to our Members Directory. Once logged in, click on "Additional Pages" and select "Prayer List".
2. Printed Copies: Printed versions are available at any of our services or can be picked up from the front office.
Thank you for your understanding and support as we prioritize the privacy and safety of our members.
If someone would like to receive our eNews, they do not need to wait for the church office. The fastest way to sign up is to visit our website: www.stmonicasnaples.org, click the orange “THIS WEEK” button, and select “Sign up for the Weekly eNews.” Once they complete the form, they will begin receiving the eNews every Thursday at 5PM.
If someone has already contacted the office or signed up but has not received the eNews by the following week, please ask them to follow up so we can confirm their email address was entered correctly.
Thank you for helping others stay connected and informed about what is happening at St. Monica’s.