Click here to view this month's Sunday readings & schedule. 
There is a schedule available on the bulletin board in the parish hall every Sunday. 

A Note From Our Rector About Worship and
COVID-19
Click here to view the message.

Online Visitor Card
If you are visiting with us, please click here to fill out a form so that we can get to know you better and connect you with our parish family.

Calling at St. Mark's Elementary Age Youth
On the St. Mark's Christian Formation website you will find an activity to help celebrate Advent at home.  It is a "Nativity Hunt" similar to a scavenger hunt using all sorts of things found at home.  What a fun way to celebrate Advent as we await the birth of Jesus.  Check it out!  For questions please contact Chris Abbott.

Episcopal Relief and Development alternative to Christmas Poinsettias
St. Mark's is  promoting Episcopal Relief and Development and their One Thousand Days of Love as a wonderful option (instead of Poinsettias, this Advent) for making much needed donations to children around the world.  Click here for the  ERD link. The link will allow you to make a donation in any amount and you can designate who you would like it to be in honor of or in memory of.  St. Mark's would still like to include the list of those being honored or in memory of in the bulletin, as in the past, so please forward that information to the church office. The ERD site is very easy to use and it immediately sends a receipt for tax purposes. The goal of $500 was set, but perhaps we can exceed that goal. (Why this change? No suppliers can guarantee that they can provide poinsettias for a late delivery date, shortly before Christmas, plus florists prices are exorbitant. We WILL have enough to decorate the altar, however.) If you have difficulty with the ERD site, Chris Abbott is happy to assist you!

Fort Bend Family Promise
Next year starting in January we are providing four weeks of meals to families that Fort Bend Family Promise is helping to stabilize: one week of meals per quarter in 2021. (This is a national ministry that works to stabilize families that are homeless into stable homes. All these families are identified through the school system and have children). January 4 through January 9 is our first week. Can you cook a meal for a group or deliver it? Let Rev. Susie know.
 
Donations for the Beacon 
Advent collection of items for the Beacon which serves the homeless in downtown Houston. This year in advent please bring, as you are able, the following items for the bin in the Narthex to be distributed later: 

• wallets

• reading glasses (powers 2 and 3 are most popular)

• socks 

• underwear (new, of course!). 

Christmas Caroling at St. Mark's
Mark your calendars! Let's sing carols outside with Tom Thompson leading us, on Sunday, December 20th at 9 a.m!  

EYC Christmas Gathering
Calling all youth in grades 6-12 to an early Christmas gathering on Friday, December 18 at 6:30 PM outside at St. Mark’s at the BBQ on the south side of the church. Come and remain socially distanced with your friends, but catch up with each other. Enjoy smores and sing along to lots of our Christmas favorite songs and carols. See if you can outsmart your friends by identifying the titles to some Christmas carols such as “Listen, Aerial Spirits Announcing” or “Miniscule Hamlet in the Near East”. Please RSVP to Chris Abbott so we can have plenty of smore materials.

Lessons & Carols
Please join us Sunday, December 13, at the 10:00 a.m. worship service, as we present A Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols with the St. Mark's choir, handbells, and chamber ensemble. 
 
Tuesday Bible Study
On Tuesdays, the Brown Bag Bible Study group will begin an overview of Isaiah, and then focus on the four Servant Songs of Isaiah, which will be a wonderful way to step into Advent together. We meet by Zoom on Tuesdays at noon.  Please email Rev. Susie if you are interested in joining.

Adult Christian Formation
On Wednesdays, at 1:00 p.m., via Zoom,  Adult Formation classes will resume, and we well be looking together at Presiding Bishop Michael Curry's book, "Love is the Way: Holding on to Hope in Troubling Times", published in 2020. It is available in a variety of digital and paper formats. Let Rev. Susie know by email if you are interested in joining the formation class.  (If you are interested, and have a conflict with that time, let Rev. Susie know, and she'll work to set up another group.)

Christian Formation Online 
Adult Christian Formation
Kids Kingdom 
Godly Play

St. Mark's Online Sermon's
Click here to watch sermon's on YouTube.
Click here to watch sermon's on Facebook.

St. Mark's Giving Tree
Click here for more information.

Donate Altar Flowers
Throughout the year, sponsoring altar flowers is a wonderful way to honor loved ones, commemorate a special occasion or simply give back to the glory of God. Click here to sign up to donate flowers.

Now Open: Part-Time Youth Minister Position
Click here for job description.
 
Outdoor & Indoor Worship has Begun!  
We have been celebrating the Eucharist outside and inside, with small numbers of church members, safely spaced apart.  Folks reported they were comfortable.  Remember to sign up and mask up, and dress for the weather. It was heartwarming and it was safely accomplished!

Welcoming Committee
The Welcome Committee needs your ideas! Charlie Phillips, vestry member and head of the welcome committee is seeking your creative ideas about how to welcome people to our church.  Please contact Charlie if you have ideas or would like to help in any way. Please email the church office at office@stmarksfortbend.org.

Sign up for text reminders! 
In an effort to help keep all of St. Mark’s parishioners informed you may sign up to get text message reminders for important events from Remind.  To receive messages via text, text @stmarksfb to 81010.
 
Support St. Mark’s When You Shop this Year
If you shop at Kroger, Randalls or Amazon you can give to St. Mark's every time you check out. 
· Kroger #90829),
· Randalls (go to any location to sign up. Our #12879)
· Amazon (76-0371687)

St. Mark's E-Newsletter
If you would like to have St. Mark's email a newsletter to you click here to start receiving St. Mark's Newsletters.
  
Pledges for 2021: Building a New Foundation
If you were away for Commitment Sunday or are new to St. Mark's you make pick up a pledge card at church or print a form. 

St. Mark's 2020 Annual Report
Click here to view the report.