St. Patrick’s Day Celebration at Beacon Harbor

On Sunday, March 17th, our youth group will meet for lunch after the 10:30 service. Following lunch, they'll head out and put together a St. Patrick's Day celebration their friends at Beacon Harbor.

Last month, we had a huge turnout for the Mardi Gras celebration - so much that we were over capacity for the space.

This month, Beacon Harbor has asked that we bring just EYC members and designated adult volunteers. For this reason, the scheduled parade has been canceled.

In the future, we look forward to hosting our Beacon Harbor friends at our space where we have more room!

Outreach Committee Update

The new year is in full-swing, and the Nativity Outreach Committee wanted to share a quick rundown of where we as a church family finished our outreach program in 2018 and where we are headed in 2019. After speaking with community leaders across Leflore County and after many discussions within the six-member Nativity Outreach Committee, it was decided that our outreach focus for 2018 and 2019 would be on ministries to school-aged children. With that in mind here is where our outreach monies were spent:

• In November, the Outreach Committee teamed up with the Episcopal Church Women to fund catfish dinners for close to 600 families through the Community Food Pantry at a total cost of $2000.

• In December, after a request was made by Delta Streets, Nativity contributed $1200 towards Literature books that were needed for the high school English classes. These books were purchased from Turnrow.

• In January 2019, we received a request from ArtPlace to partially fund the work of a FoodCorps member, Rachael Harvey, as she works with students at Threadgill Primary. Rachael teaches classes, develops school gardens and helps students explore healthy eating. Our contribution to this ministry is $1875.

In the future, we will be discerning new areas where we can be helpful, not only financially, but as bodies of Christ in our community, with an ongoing focus on ministries to school-aged children. Our goal is to keep our congregation “in the know,” and also to present opportunities to volunteer. So stay tuned!

Episcopal Church Women Fall Meeting

Ladies of Nativity Church, please join us for our ECW Fall Meeting on Wednesday, October 17 at noon! We will provide a light lunch and discuss ECW responsibilities for the year. The Rev. Peter Gray has asked that we concentrate our service to the community on the Growing Families Ministry and also to offer our support to the Pastoral Care Committee and the Funeral Guild. While we are together, we will discuss ideas on how we can best serve our church in these ministries.

If you have other projects or events that you would like the Episcopal Church Women to consider, please let us know so that we can add it to our agenda for the meeting. We look forward to serving our God, our church and our community with you ladies this year.

Please respond by Friday, October 12, 2018
Church office: 662-453-7786 or email: syoung@pak12.com
Dues: $20.00

Nativity Day School Fish Fry

The Nativity Day School’s biggest fundraiser of the year is just around the corner! Let us make dinner for you and your family on Thursday, November 8, the same night as the downtown Holiday Open House. Tickets will soon be available from Nativity Day School parents as well as the church office. All proceeds go to support this ministry of Nativity Church.

Ministry to Growing Families

The Episcopal Church Women are working to consolidate all of Nativity’s ministries to growing families under one umbrella. These include, reaching out and praying for expectant parents and those considering adoption, delivering celebratory yard signs when the child comes home, organizing meals for the family, and creating personalized banners for the day of their baptism. If you would like to join this ministry, contact Lindsay Powers at 466-1114.

A Note from Peter (May 2018)

The Rev. Peter Gray

Late last month, Steve Iwanski shared with the EYC that his time as Nativity’s youth minister will come to a close in late October. In June, Steve will have served faithfully on the staff of Nativity for four years. During that time, he has built deep relationships, led mission trips, organized parish wide fellowship and Vacation Bible School, carried youth to Diocesan retreats, worshiped with us, helped our kids take leadership in worship, nurtured our older kids' spiritual growth, and played ceaselessly with the little ones in our WeeYC. He has done all this while perfectly balancing warmth, accessibility, and maturity. Steve's ministry among us has truly been a blessing.

When Steve began work as Nativity's youth minister, he was newly married, had just completed his time teaching at J.Z. George High School, and was a part-time bookseller at Turnrow. Four years later, Steve is the manager of Turnrow, the founder of the Greenwood Shakespeare Project, the incoming President of the Greenwood Little Theater, and Sarah and Steve's son Nate will be two in July. To everything there is a time and a season, Ecclesiastes reminds us, and Steve is entering a new season with different opportunities for ministry.

In June, Nativity will welcome the Rev. Phillip Parker, freshly-graduated from the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, as a part-time Priest Associate and Youth Minister at Nativity. Before seminary, Phillip lived in Southaven and worked as an outpatient therapist for youth and families in Tunica through the Region One Mental Health Center. Last summer, he served as the chaplain to the young adult staff at Camp Bratton-Green. The Executive Committee and I interviewed Phillip, and we are excited about his professional background and also his warmth, his kindness, and his commitment to nurturing the spiritual development of our kids.

Phillip and his wife Amanda are the parents of two children: Connor, who will be entering the 9th grade next year, and McKenzie, who will be in the 4th grade. Amanda will be working as a Special Education teacher in Marks, and the family will live in Sumner where Phillip will be the clergy-in-charge for Church of the Advent. This unique arrangement of sharing staff is not totally novel for us, since our churches already share a youth group! Three Sundays per month, Phillip will preach and celebrate in Sumner. One Sunday per month, he will be present at Nativity for both services and the Sunday School hour. This arrangement will allow him the opportunity to worship with our youth group and build relationships with adults and younger children on a regular basis. On those Sundays, lay leaders at Church of the Advent will lead Morning Prayer.

The overlap of Steve and Phillip's time this fall is purposeful. I hope that Steve's continuing presence will help our youth be at ease as they get to know Phillip and build relationships with him. In addition, I hope that Phillip will gain an appreciation of our existing youth programming by shadowing Steve for a bit before he begins designing his own Sunday evening programs.

As you can tell, I am grateful for the excellent ministry Steve has done these past many years, and I am excited about the opportunities that Phillip will bring upon his arrival. If you have questions, please be in touch! In the meantime, hold Steve, Phillip, and our youth in your prayers!

Peter+