November 7th, 2025 | Pastor Rachel

Hi Beloved Friends,

      The approaching holidays are a wonderful time of joy and celebration, but they can also be a source of stress, frustration or loneliness, especially if you are unable to be with loved ones this holiday season. Or perhaps your source of stress comes from the fact that you will be with your family members over the holiday season, and you are not quite sure where the conversation will lead. As we enter into the last eight weeks of the year, Pastor Charlie and I decided to insert a three-week sermon series right before Advent that serves as a sort of “mini Lent.” The series, entitled “Turn, Turn, Turn” will encourage each of us to make moves that draw our focus back to God and, in turn (see what I did there), back to each other.

 I invite you to bring an open mind and curiosity each week as we provide you with a series of prompts and exercises. The first week bears an instruction to turn down the noise. What are the areas of your life that seem to cause you the most distraction, that lead you to lose sight of God and God’s people? Which voices are the loudest? If they’re not offering a message of God’s grace, love and reconciliation, perhaps it’s time to “turn down the noise”.

The next week, we’ll ask you to turn off the screens. Now, I get it. Everything uses screens, so this is a near impossibility. We know you cannot realistically turn off your screens for the whole week, especially if you are working a job or attending a school which requires the use of technology. And technology can be a wonderful gift of connection that we do not want to diminish. However, use this instruction as a prompt of reflection and substitution. Where are you using screens when you could be turning them off? What time might you get back that could be used to spend time with God if you put down the device or turned off the TV?

Finally, as we enter into the week of Thanksgiving, we ask you to turn toward each other. Actually, we hope you will do that on November 20 at our ecumenical Thanksgiving Dinner and service from 5-7 here at Memorial. RSVP by calling the church office. Or join the community for a meal at St. Peter’s on Thanksgiving Day. In a time where loneliness reigns supreme, we have the opportunity to be a source of comfort and goodness in each other’s lives. But you have to be together, taking the good, the bad, and the annoying. Embrace the community of your choice- family (blood or choice), friends, church, sports- but do something with them throughout the week, practicing what it means to be in good and pleasing relationship with each other.

Finally, we have one last request for this series. Bring a Bible to church each week. It can be your family Bible or a children’s Bible or the dog-eared, overused Bible you use every day. Just bring one. If you do not have a Bible at home, we’ll be sure to have one for you to use (surprise! We have them in the backs of pews and seats every week if you did not know). We want you to physically turn to the Scripture we are reading each week and sit in the Word of God.

Please join us for what I anticipate will be a very hopeful and encouraging series.

With grace and Peace,

Pastor Rachel

October 31st, 2025 | Rev. Dr. Mark Charles

Dear Memorial Family,

How can it be October 31st already? As we move into November, we start as we always do - by marking one of the most sacred and comforting days in our church year: All Saints' Sunday.

At all our worship services this weekend, we will pause to remember those beloved saints from our Memorial family who have entered eternal life in the past year. As we name them, we will ring a bell and light a candle in their memory. This is a powerful, sacred moment of remembrance that we know is especially helpful for the families who mourn.

Beyond those we have loved and lost recently, we also give profound thanks for the entire great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us—for their faithfulness, for the influence they had in our lives, and for how they faithfully told us the story of God's great love, the Gospel. This is the community that holds us together in grace.

As we honor the saints, we must also continue their work of mission. Tomorrow, November 1st, due to the current government shutdown, vast numbers of Americans will lose their SNAP benefits. This is an immediate crisis that strips families of their ability to put food on their tables and will put immense pressure on food banks and feeding ministries in the weeks ahead.

This is a moment where our commitment to ensure that Christ’s love shows up must meet the immediate needs of our neighbors.

We are all in a position to help in some way. I invite you to respond with extra, wholehearted generosity this Sunday morning by bringing non-perishable food items for Barnabas to church.

(The most requested items for Barnabas right now are: Canned fruits and vegetables (low sodium/low sugar), Canned beans and proteins (tuna or chicken), Whole grains (pasta and rice.)

Other ways you can help through Memorial are by making a financial donation marked for one of our faithful feeding ministry partners: Gracie's Kitchen or IDN.

You can hear a direct and heartfelt call to action from our Bishop, Tom Berlin, in this short video: HERE.

And you can learn more about our local feeding ministries and how you can help HERE.

Let us come together this Sunday to both remember the saints and emulate their boundless generosity.

Blessings

Pastor Charlie

P.S. A Couple of Other Reminders!

1. We gain an extra hour of sleep this weekend as Daylight Saving Time ends! Please remember to set your clocks back one hour so you can join us on time for our All Saints' services.

2. As I always say, "It’s never too late to make a pledge!” We are still receiving completed pledge cards. Feel free to return them in the offering plate or drop them by/mail them in to the church office at your convenience. Or use our digital pledge card HERE.

October 24th, 2025 | Rev. Rachel Williams

Dear Friends,

               Our stewardship series Wholehearted draws to a close this week with a saint known for their myriad of wisdom and gifts used for the glorification of God. Pastor Charlie and I had so much fun preparing for this sermon series because we could dive into the interesting lives of many saints (more than what we could feasibly conceive of in a series!), and the striking commonality between all of their lives is their “yes” to God, even if that “yes” meant turning from the comfort and expectations of their lived reality, even if it meant entering into abject poverty, even if it meant the loss of their life. Following Christ is a sacrifice for all who love him.

 Saints do not become saints in their lifetime, nor should they make that the ideal, but one may be considered for sainthood after living an exceptionally holy life (that and performing at least two witnessed miracles). And though many of us are not on our way to canonization, there are many paths to sainthood. By learning more about their lives, we are inspired to listen to how God calls us to follow God. We are all called to holiness in this life if we are to choose a life in Christ.

Is there something stirring within you to draw closer to Christ? What steps might you take to live a life wholly for God? This Sunday, we’ll invite you to bring your financial pledge cards forward during a time of reflection and consecration. These pledges will help us plan for the near future, but they will also allow us to envision how we might serve more people in Fernandina Beach, Nassau County, and the world in years to come. I hope to see you Sunday!

With grace and peace,

Pastor Rachel