St Anne’s Community Dog Show and Pet Blessing Co Chairs: Dave Baumgartner, Miechi Petro, Brenda Rigdon
Mark your calendars now for the Dog Show on October 7th ! Registration opens at 9:30, first class starts at 10 a.m. You do NOT want to miss this fantastic new event! The Dog show is a Fundraiser and a Friend-raiser. We hope to bring lots of folks to our church’s backyard for a day of FUN, FOOD, and FUR!
All profits from this event will benefit our outreach programs, including our new food ministries. AND if you have a furry canine member of your family, I hope you will sign them up to participate too!
All dogs are welcome: purebred, rescued, mixed breed and Heinz 57. Come “Strut Your Mutt” with us on October 7th . The show includes 4 classes: Waggiest Tail, Best Trick, Dog and Owner Look-alike and Best Costume! Judges for the day are area “celebrities” Suzie Light, Jeff Grose and Dr. Tom Howard. The emcees for the event are our own Dave Baumgartner and Jay Rigdon. There will be an agility demonstration, and then folks are invited to have their dogs attempt the agility course too, just for fun. The event is being broadcast live on the radio on station WIOE, to encourage lots of folks from the region to come down for the fun and the food at our concession stand. And dogs in attendance can visit the Pet Blessing Tent, and receive a blessing to celebrate St Francis Day.
Admission is free, but a free will donation of a can of food for the food pantry is encouraged. Don’t miss out on the fun—and sign up on the poster in Rose Hall if you’d like to help us with this great new event for our church community.
SAMS
Saint Anne’s Mens Society focuses on outreach in the community; works with ECW on the annual sale; serves the Advent dinner to the parish; and enjoys fellowship with one another. All men of the parish are members of SAMS. This ministry meets monthly.
Mission
The mission of SAMS is as follows: “Reach out to all men of our congregation to create and sustain a partnership based on Christ’s teachings, to promote fellowship and foster service to our parish and larger community.”
Membership
Membership in SAMS is open to all men who are 18 years of age or older and who are members or parishioners of record at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church.
Meetings
SAMS holds regular meetings, normally on the first Thursday of the month. These meetings are generally informal and include a light meal, a time of fellowship, a business meeting and devotions.
Generally held in Rose Hall (the fellowship hall) at St. Anne’s, meetings start at 6:30 and are completed within an 60 to 90 minutes.
Fellowship
Occasionally guests are invited to speak to the group. At times meetings may be held on a boat or lakeside or at somebody’s home to catch up on the big game after the meeting has ended. Regardless the meetings allow us to get to know each other better and to share our lives more fully with one another.
Christian Growth
The men of St. Anne’s are committed growing closer to God, following and learning from Christ’s teachings and the lessons of the Bible. Each meeting will have a short devotional to help us better understand God’s purpose in our lives. These reflections can be a simple story, or a meaningful experience. The focus is on God’s will and meaning in our lives.
Ministry
As noted in Romans 12:6-8, all people have gifts. These spiritual gifts, given by God and embodied by us, shine forth in the services we provide. SAMS is committed to using these gifts to fulfill the mission of God. By showing Christ-like love for our church, our neighbors and our community, SAMS commits all resources to these ministries.
The St. Anne’s Annual Sale is conducted during the first full week of June. This annual event gathers donations from the community and these items are then sold to raise funds for our ministries. The proceeds from this sale are spilt between the Episcopal Church Women (ECW) and SAMS.
Monetary Donations
Monetary donations are given each year to various organizations and groups. Recurring donations from SAMS include:
- The Salvation Army
- Our Father’s House
- Habitat for Humanity
- Baker Youth Club
- SAMS Scholarship ($500 annually for 4 years)
- YMCA
- WCHS Prom for Special Needs
- Summer Camp / Mission Trips
SAMS reserves a portion of all money raised for discretionary expenditures, based on the needs of the community; including providing funds for the Priest’s Discretionary fund and monthly outreach.
Mailing List
If you would like to be included in the SAMS email list, please contact our current president, Dave Baumgartner at bigkatdj@gmail.com).
Episcopal Church Women (ECW)
ECW is a caring community of women at St. Anne’s. Our mission is to empower each other to live the life for which Christ called us by sharing his love through outreach, fellowship, and spiritual growth.
Monthly Outreach Projects
- January–Beaman Home-We provide pajamas and slippers for Beaman Home residents.
- February–Fellowship Missions-We contribute needed personal care items such as toiletries, paper products, etc. for this community mission program.
- March–BABE – Beds and Britches Etc. We will have a baby shower to buy supplies that young mothers can use vouchers to purchase.
- April –CASA Court Appointed Special Advocates
- May–Salvation Army Food Pantry-We will collect food items to help stock our local Salvation Army Food Pantry.
- June–St. Margaret’s House Day Shelter –Started by the Diocese of Northern Indiana and located at the Cathedral of St. James. We will collect items needed to provide the care they provide for the clients that come to the facility.
- July–Soup Kitchen-We prepare a hot meal and serve hungry individuals and families as part of community-wide soup kitchen.
- August–Habitat for Humanity – We will have a housewarming shower and collect funds for current and future builds.
- September-WCHS Pantry– We collect food for Warsaw Community High School students. Students have access to this pantry after school.
- October–Animal Welfare League-We collect monetary donations and supplies for animals at this local animal shelter as part of our church-wide blessing of animals in honor of St. Francis of Assisi.
- November-Thanksgiving Baskets-We provide a basket of food filled with everything needed for a Thanksgiving meal. For over 225 families in Warsaw and surrounding towns.
- December–Hat & Mitten Tree-We collect hats and mittens for children in the Title One Schools
Spiritual Growth
We have an annual Retreat at the Wawasee Episcopal Center. It was March 10-11, 2023. The theme for 2023 is “Take Me Away! Recharging by Resting in the Lord.” Friday evening is a casual evening with snacks, games, and fellowship. Saturday we do a mosaic tile and share pieces of our lives that have helped us grow on our journey. There is a signup sheet in Rose Hall.
Fellowship
We meet in the parlor on the 2nd Sunday of the month following the 10:15 Service. ECW members are also actively involved with Parish Life and Parish Social Committees.
For ECW updates, please access “The Visitor” on the Home Page.
Every July we celebrate our Patron Saint, Saint Anne, with a combined Eucharist at 10 a.m. followed by a Brunch or Parish Picnic. This year we will Celebrate on July 23, 2023. The meal will be a carry-in brunch. Please sign up on the bulletin board for either a main dish, side dish, vegetable, salad, muffins or dessert. If the weather permits, we have been known to celebrate with “Mass on the Grass” on the lots behind the church and have our Picnic outdoors. If it is raining, or it’s to hot, we celebrate the Eucharist indoors and have our “picnic” in Rose Hall.
The Tuesday before Ash Wednesday is a day for celebrating. Traditionally it was the day that Christians cleaned the flour, sugar, and butter out of their pantries to make way for the fasting during Lent that begins on Ash Wednesday. At Saint Anne’s our tradition is to have a celebration in the evening on Fat Tuesday. Some years we have a pancake supper, some years we have Pasta and Decadent Desserts. We usually have a Children’s Mardi Gras mask making station followed by a Children’s Mardi Gras Parade through the Parish Hall.
During Covid we started having “Drive through Donuts” which became a big hit with the community and those in our neighborhood. We hosted again in 2023 “Drive-in Donuts” from 4:00 pm-6:00 pm on February 21 at the church entrance.
Open Mic Night
Save the date for our Stewardship Celebration November 3, 2023. Our Stewardship Theme this year is “Rooted in Abundance”. During the stewardship season you will hear the following prayer over the offerings collected each week: “Creator God, may these gifts honor the work you have given us to do here in this place. May we bless, break, and share these gifts of time, talent, and treasure with our neighbors, being rooted in joy, rooted in love, and rooted in Abundance. Amen.”
Stewardship is also the purposeful use of our Time and our Talent, in addition to our Treasure. To highlight our many gifts of time and talent, we celebrate the Stewardship Season in November each year with our Open Mic Night Stewardship Celebration. Members of our Parish over the age of 21 come together, to enjoy a show. Our Parishioners have played the piano, the banjo, the guitar. They have sung, danced, told jokes, demonstrated science experiments, recited poetry and haiku! It is always fun, always interesting, and always great fellowship. Please plan to join us this November. You do not want to miss it!
After the 10:15 a.m. service, there is a Hospitality Hour in Rose Hall, with coffee, refreshments, and good conversation. This is a great way to make connections and find out more about our church!!
Our 2023 Convention is scheduled for Saturday, November 4, 2023 at St. Michael and All Angels, South Bend.
More details will be available shortly as the Diocese of Norther Indiana plans for our Diocesan Convention.