Markings Newsletter
Volume: 91 | Issue: 1
From Rev. Quentisha Davis Wiles, MSW, ASW, MDIV, Senior Pastor
Dear Saint Mark’s Family,
As we step into 2025, I’m filled with overwhelming joy and anticipation for our journey together under our theme: Living Our Faith.
What does it mean to truly live our faith? It’s more than just attending services or saying the right words. It’s about embodying Christ’s love in every moment, in every interaction, and through every act of compassion. Jesus didn’t just teach—He showed. When the crowds were hungry and the disciples suggested sending them away, Jesus challenged them with those powerful words: “You feed them” (Mark 6:37). This wasn’t just about physical bread, but about nurturing souls, building community, and taking personal responsibility for caring for one another.
Our call this year is to Thrive in Community and Compassionate Acts. This means:
– Intentionally connecting with one another
– Creating meaningful small group fellowships
– Supporting each other’s spiritual growth
– Witnessing God’s love through our actions
We’re not just a congregation—we’re a family. And families grow stronger when each member is truly seen, heard, and valued. Our small group fellowships aren’t just meetings; they’re sacred spaces where we can share our journeys, support each other’s struggles, and celebrate our victories. I’m inviting each of you to:
– Join a discipleship circle
– Commit to personal spiritual growth
– Reach out to someone new in our community
– Practice radical compassion
Our Living Our Faith Summit on January 12, 2025, will be a beautiful opportunity to step into this vision together. We’ll share our strategic plan, break bread in fellowship, and align our hearts with God’s purpose for Saint Mark’s.
This year, God is doing something extraordinary. I can feel it in my spirit—a renewal, an awakening, a deeper commitment to living out our faith authentically and courageously.
With boundless love, hope, and excitement for our journey ahead,
Pastor Q
P.S. Remember, “Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:17). Let’s bring our faith to life in 2025!
Living Our Faith Summit
Sunday, January 12, 2025
Following Worship Service
MacMurdo Hall (Downstairs from the Sanctuary)
Everyone* is welcome to join us for Conversation, Community, Chops, Cheesy Casseroles and more as we step into a fresh new year of bringing our faith to life. Learn more about the 2025 strategic plan, Living Our Faith, which will nourish Saint Mark’s vision and mission with a focus on its past, present, and future. Fellowship, memories, and conversation will be shared along with this delicious cuisine.
*Members, Visitors, Families, Singles, Children, Youth, Seekers, Everyone. Truly, everyone.
With Joy ~ Living Our Faith Event Planning Team
Saint Mark’s Choir Winter Kick-Off!
Saturday, January 18, 2025
12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
In the Choir Room (Down from the Sanctuary)
One of the best things you can do for your spiritual, mental, and physical health is to sing. Come check out our upcoming choir anthems and see if you might like to help us make a joyful noise!
Questions? Please see Rick Schlosser ~ rschlosser@stmarksumc.com
Living Our Faith - New Year!
I just want to take a moment to say a very Big Thank You to each and everyone in the Saint Mark’s Community for your commitment and service. Your commitment to the Vision and Mission has been outstanding. The year 2024 has been a whirlwind of blessings for this community and its commitment to Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace.
The Ministry, Mission, Vision, and Purpose of this community continues to get clearer and stronger. I certainly am looking forward to the next year with great excitement, and I hope you are feeling the same way about the opportunities that surround us and will challenge us in 2025.
The St. Mark’s Community continues to be strong in its commitment to serving our Lord. The community and leadership continue to graciously share their Gifts, Talents, Wisdom, and Time. We continue to be that beacon of Hope and Grace to the wider community and world that continues to face many challenges.
We continue to be inspired by our Pastor the Rev. Quentisha Davis-Wiles. Her visionary leadership keeps us challenged in the unending leverage of God’s grace telling us that we can achieve anything if we focus, stay true, and have the faith in our abilities to achieve and receive the blessings God has promised through love.
The coming year will require some heavy lifting to achieve some of the milestones that have been outlined in our Strategic Plan as we dive into “Living Our Faith”, but as with every challenge that has been faced by this community in years past, we will embrace the challenges and be blessed beyond our imaginations on the journey.
May each of us continue to grow in our commitments, faith, and beliefs on our spiritual journey individually and collectively. May each of us continue to share our Gifts, Talents, Wisdom, and Time in a way that continues the long tradition of ministry and activism here in this community we call Saint Mark’s. May we continue to be that light for all those who are seeking an experience to grow spiritually through Scripture, Tradition, Experience, and Reason on their spiritual journeys with our Lord.
Let us continue “Living Our Faith” through our Advocacy, Cultural Humility, Service, Inclusion, and Spirituality in the year 2025.
Happy New Year! ~ Christopher Harris, Lay Leader
Stamp Collection for UWF
United Women in Faith Collects stamps all year for the ‘Alliance Stamp Ministry’ which is an organization that collects new and used stamps to sell to collectors around the world. Common stamps are sold in 25 pound boxes to wholesalers. They also greatly appreciate collections and albums of stamps. All of the profit goes to purchase Sunday School Materials in Spanish. These materials are now being sold in 8 Latin American countries, plus Spain and the United States and are used by over 40 Protestant denominations. From its inception 1971, they have reached $1,191,300.00.
Please save your stamps by cutting off at least a 1/3 of the envelope around the stamp or just the whole corner of the envelope and we will trim to size. There will be a box in the Narthex the next few Sundays or give to Boni Fields.
Saint Mark’s & Sacramento ACT: A History from Howard Lawrence
Did you know Saint Mark’s is a founding member of Sacramento Area Congregations Together (ACT)? In 1991 twelve Sacramento area clergy, including our past Senior Pastor Don Fado, decided to create a faith-based community organizing network in Sacramento. ACT’s Mission statement reads. “Sacramento ACT exists to activate people to reclaim their faith; to create change and healing in the community. Sacramento ACT is a faith-based organization that develops people through the power of storytelling and relationships to identify community issues and solutions.”
Saint Mark’s members who become active in ACT are called leaders by Sacramento ACT. Through the years, Saint Mark’s ACT members/leaders have helped Sacramento ACT create and build a more just and equitable community. We helped ACT create the Parent Teacher Home Visit Organization. We worked to increase access to health care by expanding the County clinic system. Saint Mark’s youth helped lead the fight to persuade Regional Transit to create student bus fares. We have supported immigration reform. We’ve worked for criminal justice reform and safer streets. This is just a very abbreviated list of ACT accomplishments in the past 30 plus years.
For the past 11 plus years most of the Saint Mark’s ACT members/leaders have focused on the crisis of homelessness. We have helped cast a vison of a unified approach between our city, county and other local agencies to address the needs of people who are experiencing homelessness. Additionally, we have worked with community allies to address the lack of affordable housing. In early December we appeared before the Board of Supervisors to support an affordable housing project in the Mission Oaks neighborhood. The Supervisors approved the project. Both of these issues, housing and homelessness, are intertwined and difficult to tackle. However, we know our voice has been heard and positive results achieved by our advocacy.
ACT’s Mission statement is compatible with and supports Saint Mark’s Vison, Mission and Values. We look forward to being a part of Sacramento ACT and continuing to work for a more just community. We are planning a report back meeting to the congregation early next year. At this meeting we will also seek input from congregation members regarding future projects for ACT’s focus.
It was a Great ADVENTure!
Saint Mark’s Annual ADVENTure was enjoyed by 100+ people who spent the afternoon making Christmas items for their homes or to give as gifts. Neil Kohatsu and Rick Schlosser provided piano music making it a very festive occasion. A grocery cart decorated by the Sunday School kids was filled to the brim with food for Saint Mark’s Food Closet.
One of the highlights of the afternoon was having Deputy Robert Magee of the Sacramento Sheriff’s Toy Project come to receive the teddy bears made for the department. The Sew & Craft group sewed the bears beforehand then at ADVENTure they were stuffed and given colorful bows. Deputy Magee was very appreciative of the donation which will go to making needy children’s lives a little brighter.
Many thanks to all who helped make this day possible! ~ Boni Fields, Christy Stoughton & Margie Shunk
New Ministry: Second Saturday Winter Respite for the Unhoused
Planning is in the works for a ministry to provide a warm place for our homeless neighbors from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM each second Saturday. This will be branching out of Saint Mark’s Mercy Pedalers and will be supported by the Arden-Arcade HART.
This is a small step to provide a hot breakfast, cot, tv, puzzles, games and stress free space for those who are unsheltered. We will be serving up to 15 guests each second Saturday, and giving them a sack lunch to take with them. We will need volunteers to cook the breakfast, set up, clean up, prepare lunches and visit with guests. We hope to host our first day on January 11th. If you are interested in volunteering or in donating food or other items, please contact Jan Dell or Ron West.
The Angola 2024 Volunteer-in-Mission team (Joel and Françoise Bulaya, Jane Henderson, and Jim Eychaner) decided in September to support João Bruno as he works to complete secondary school with a focus on general nursing. We would also like to support students at Bom Jesus more broadly, and we know the St. Mark’s community will be generous. We have open channels for electronic communication with João and our other friends at Bom Jesus.
Making the most of your generosity for the Bom Jesus church and community will be complicated. We don’t know how many public and private schools serve at each level. We don’t know the quality of their teaching. We don’t know if the government actually pays the teachers assigned in the public schools or if those teachers turn up for work. Learning about and responding to the realities of education at Bom Jesus will be high priorities for the 2025 mission team. The next journey is scheduled for August 5—19, so we have time to learn and plan together.
A first meeting for anyone interested in joining the travel or support team is tentatively scheduled for January 11. The location and specific time are not yet set. Look for an email invitation and other announcements after the New Year.
Start the Year with Education in the Spotlight at UWF
On January 14 at 9:45 AM in MacMurdo Hall, United Women in Faith will begin 2025 with an introduction to the FACE (Family and Community Engagement) department of San Juan Unified School District. Created in 1960 with the merger of six school districts, San Juan has a rich tradition of helping students find academic success and achievement. The district website showcases a variety of family education and engagement opportunities including workshops, conferences, newsletters, volunteering and more!
Whether a child is a 7-year-old or a 17-year-old, research shows that students perform better academically and behaviorally if the student knows their parents are involved and have high expectations. Families Matter Conferences are a one-day conferences designed to offer workshops and resources that promote child development, improve student achievement and strengthen family engagement.
Community Care Hubs are regional pop-up community resource fairs organized across various schools and locations within the school district. These events are designed to bring essential resources and support services directly to families and students, making it easier for them to access the help they need in a convenient and welcoming environment. These events provide an excellent opportunity for departments and organizations to engage directly with the community, build relationships, and raise awareness about services and programs they offer. On Saturday, February 1, the UWF officers of the Los Rios District will present training for local officers at Hope UMC in South Sacramento.
A Book Discussion Group Can Aide Your Faith Journey ~ from Mike Jaske
A key part of Pastor Quentisha’s plan for 2025 is discipleship and getting everyone connected to a meaningful group as it builds community and provides support on the journey. These groups can focus on many activities. This article focuses on using a book discussion group to aide our faith journey. Many authors have described stages of human development as we grow and mature. One author applies these concepts to our faith and spiritual development using four sequential stages – simplicity, complexity, perplexity, and harmony. In a recent sermon, Pastor Q urges us to avoid spiritual stagnation.
How, then, can we embark upon a journey of faith development? A book discussion group that meets on a weekly basis is one approach. At Saint Mark’s, the Faith Pilgrimage group has been meeting continuously for over 40 years. I am the facilitator of this group – not its teacher. I don’t have good records about when this group got under way, but I do know that in 1987 we discussed “The Road Less Traveled” by M. Scott Peck. 89 books later we are just finishing Rev. Brian McLaren’s book “Do I Stay Christian?”
Here is how it works. When we are ready for a new book, we identify some options, we vote on which one to select, each member acquires it on their own or as part of a group purchase, we read a chapter or a section of a chapter each week, and then we get together to talk about it at the next session. When we meet there is generally some group discussion of “what’s happening” as a warm up. And then we react to the week’s reading. We try to let everyone have their say about that week’s reading, pose questions, disagree with the author, disagree with each other, etc. The discussion can wander afield, so once in a while the discussion gets reined in. Then we decide what to read for the next session. I would guess that we average around six months per book.
All of us have been influenced by this effort, but each to a different extent. I think all of us would now understand Jesus’ message of love and compassion as a call to work for the common good – a different way of the expressing the agape love that Pastor Q espouses. Some of us are probably in that stage of perplexity. I am convinced that this kind of ongoing exploration of faith is essential for each person. I strongly urge you all to organize other such groups and be supportive of them as they develop their own process, find materials, and start their journey.
Sunday School Happenings!
In January our word of the month is INCLUDE.
We will be learning what it means to include people and how Jesus did it. As always, we’ll have things to make, music to sing along with and games to play. Come find out what is hidden in the WONDER box each week and how it relates to the morning message. And don’t forget we have a Winter garden that we take care of.
Looking forward to seeing you in Sunday School!
Boni Fields, Sunday School Director
Mary Muret & Margie Shunk, Teachers
Mary Kohatsu, Garden & Children’s Music
4th Sunday Helper Needed
Sunday School is looking for a helper for 4th Sundays. This person will experience the joy of getting to know our young people ages kindergarten through 5th grade who are delightful! They will assist the teacher in the activities planned and be the second adult in the room which is part of Saint Mark’s Safe Gathering policy. If this is something you can do occasionally or every month, please contact Sharon Grieve.
Thanks so much for considering this important ministry for our young people.
Sharon Grieve, Children’s Ministry co-chair
