Worship Schedule – 2023
Monday
- Evening Prayer - 5 pm
- Held in the Lady Chapel
Tuesday
- First Tuesday each month
- Recovery Eucharist 5:30 PM
Wednesday
- Healing Eucharist 1st Wednesday
- Evening Prayer - 5 pm
Thursday
Friday
- Evening Prayer - 5 pm
- Held in the Lady Chapel
Saturday
- Holy Eucharist - 5 pm
- Rite II with Music
- Hymns & Service Music
Sunday
- Holy Eucharist - 8 am
- Rite I
- Spoken Service using Traditional Language
Sunday
- Choral Eucharist - 10 am
- Rite II
- Sunday School
Lectionary
The lectionary is an ordered system for reading the Holy Scriptures at the eucharist and the daily offices. It is usually presented in the form of a table of references for the psalms and readings for the various days of the liturgical year, although it may be a separate book containing the actual texts of the readings. You can consult the readings for each month here:
Downloads
Altar Servers
Altar servers are integral to worship at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, from setting up the altar book to reading lessons, lighting candles, passing the offertory plates, ringing the sanctus bells and holding the chalice. The lay leader has overall responsibility to ensure that all acolyte duties are performed and to assist the celebrant. In addition, he should check the sanctuary before the service to ensure that all is ready.
These duties include checking and turning on sound system, making sure the offering plates are in proper position and the credence table is set-up with the veil. Other acolyte duties include marking the lectionary and preparing the altar book. In addition, the thurifer is responsible for making sure the thurible is ready for incense burning. The thurifer is the acolyte responsible for swinging the thurible during the eucharist. That means arriving early, emptying ashes from the thurible and putting new incense to burn.
Downloads
Altar Guild
The altar guild is a volunteer group of the parish whose duty is to care for the altar, vestments, vessels and altar linens of the parish. Altar guild members prepare the sanctuary for services and clean up afterwards. They frequently supervise the decoration of the sanctuary of the parish with flowers.
Altar guild members also prepare the sanctuary for special services such as baptisms, funerals and Easter Sunday. For a baptism, for example, they prepare the baptismal towel and arrange the special candles. There are specific instructions for the altar guild. These include how to fold the linens, set the chalices and fill the candles with oil.
Downloads
Order Flowers for St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
Altar Flowers
Step One
Telephone the church office at 1-239-992-4343 and discuss your choice of dates for the flowers with the staff. Once you have agreed on a date and any other arrangements, proceed to the next steps: the contact form and payment via online donation.
Step Two
Second Step – Complete the form below and click the “SEND” Button
Step Three
Click on the link below to Pay for the Flowers $120 or a different amount as agreed with the office staff.
PAY FOR FLOWERS – CLICK HERE
St. Mary’s Music Program 2022
Music at St. Mary’s
The Adult Choir enhances worship at St. Mary’s. Led by organist and choir master Bill Elliott, choir sings a variety of classical literature that complements the liturgy. The choir performs music in four parts, featuring seasoned choir members as well as the voices of Florida Gulf Coast University students.
Our Instruments
The chancel is home to three superb instruments. The Gober tracker pipe organ, built in 2008, was originally constructed to be a house organ. This organ was installed at St. Mary’s in 2021. The Yamaha 7’ grand piano is used weekly for performance and rehearsal. Finally, the Phillip Bay Flemish single manual harpsichord was built in 2018 and was recently installed at St. Mary’s.
New Choir Members Welcome!
Singers interested in joining the St. Mary’s Choir are encouraged to contact Bill Elliott. He can be reached by calling the church office at (239) 992-4343, or by emailing him at [email protected].
Our Organist and Choir Master
Bill Elliott joined the St. Mary’s parish staff in 2021. Bill hails from Louisville, Kentucky, where as a boy he attended Christ Church Cathedral. He earned a BA from Union College, Kentucky, in church music and organ performance and an MM in organ performance with concentrations in vocal pedagogy and music theory from the University of Kentucky at Lexington. Additional training includes earning a diploma from the Academy for Organists in Haarlem, the Netherlands and the Archbishop’s diploma from the Royal School of Church Music in Croydon, England. He spent a year in Paris, studying with Andre Marchal and serving as the assistant organist at the American Episcopal Cathedral of the Holy Trinity. He returned to the United States to join the music faculty at Aquinas College, Grand Rapids, Michigan and to be the organist and choirmaster at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, the former cathedral of the diocese. Before coming to St. Mary’s, Bill led the music program at Church of the Epiphany in Cape Coral.
