From Ila:
Dear Social Concerns folk,
Helena Tailey's baby was born Sunday, by C-section, as he was not in a good position. Shigeko says he is beautiful. Helena probably comes home today. We're working on having a "shower" sometime soon, to welcome the baby (I think this will be important psychologically for the parents). I gather Gail Gibbon and Mary Green Lamb will be the leaders in this venture. Stay tuned! We'll let you know if there are any immediate needs. I've heard his name is Kevin, but I also heard that an earlier proposed name was Micah ["And what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?"] I sorta hope Micah has slipped in as one of his names.
SOCIAL CONCERNS MEETING SUN. MARCH 11, after 10 A.M. Mass sends us out to love and serve the Lord. Could we please please please start 10 minutes after the Mass ends? Womble library. Bring a friend. Lots of bits and pieces to discuss, including Fowler Fund(s), activities in March and April. Call or e-mail Peggy Van Norman to add agenda items.
There's a need for bulk food supplies for a combined No More Deaths / Mexican volunteer effort just across the line to greet migrants "voluntarily repatriated" (read dumped from a bus to walk over a bridge at the Mariposa truck crossing outside Nogales, Sonora). Some arrive with nothing, and their injuries sometimes have not been treated at the ICE [Immigration & Customs Enforcement] detention centers. I'm going to try to find out what's most needed, to see if we could help a bit with this, as well as the small migrant packs we will make March 25. Sending our packs down is NOT cost effective, and they are needed in the field. Neither the small packs nor the effort in Nogales "encourages" immigration; both relieve suffering, and the former can help save lives.
ILA ABERNATHY
ST. MICHAEL'S HAS A NEW WEBSITE! After three years of the St. Michael & All Angels piggybacking on Karen's personal website, mavarin.com, our parish has a new "domain" of its own: http://www.smallangelstucson.org. It's short for Saint Michael & All Angels. Neat, huh? It should be easier to remember than http://smaa.mavarin.com/smaa.html, and a little easier to type. Click on the link here or on the sidebar, or type smallangelstucson.org into your favorite web browser, and it will take you to the new site. So far it's basically the same one as before, but I've done a little updating, and will do more as we go along. One major change already is this: the regular schedule of services, and everything else that happens at the same time each week, is now posted without specific dates on both our home page and our schedule page. One time events will be posted here, and eventually in a Google Calendar format which I haven't set up yet. This way, visitors to the site will know the Mass times are probably valid, even if I get a little behind in my updating. And selected people will be able to add events to the calendar instead of waiting for me to do it.
Other changes on the horizon:
- Newer and better photos on the Community and Ministry pages. Most of those come from two or three years (and cameras) ago! We can do better than that.
- Sermon podcasting in a better format than the files we've been uploading to mavarin.com. You'll be able to subscribe to an RSS feed, which basically means that you'll be able to easily find out what's new, and listen at your leisure.
- More contributors to the St. Michael's blogs - I hope! Will you be one of them? If you have announcements from time to time about one of the groups that carry on St. Michael's many ministries, we can make it easy to get them on here.
Karen
