News
Do you have news to share?
Write the article and email it to Paula Hunsicker, pkhunsicker@icloud.com

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Our Sunday Service ​is at 10 am.
Please join in!

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From the Rector
Gratitude for Retirement messages
Bill and I have been deeply moved by messages of caring and support in response to my retirement announcement. Please know that we are profoundly grateful for your thoughtfulness in sharing such heartfelt, meaningful expressions.
Our last Sunday at St. Mark's will be Sunday, October 1, 2023, 10 am, after which I will retire from full-time parish ministry in the Episcopal Church.

Read the Rector's Retirement Letter Here

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Blessing of the Animals Oct. 8, 5 pm
St. Mark's will sponsor its annual Blessing of the Animals on Sunday, October 8 at 5 pm on the church grounds. The Feast of St. Francis of Assisi falls on October 4 and our celebration is tied to that day. We celebrate our community blessing on the Sunday closest to Francis' day.
 
Join us and bring your furry, feathered or hoofed friends for a blessing. Children are encouraged to bring a stuffed animal to be blessed if they do not have a pet. Large animals can be brought in trailers, but are welcome to join us on the lawn if they are on a lead. Small animals, reptiles or fish should be in a container or crate. If your pet is shy or does not play well with others, bring a photo of the pet and we will bless them too.
 
We will pray for the wonderful creation with which God has blessed us and recommit ourselves to efforts to protect all the earth's creatures. The entire community of Los Olivos and the surrounding valley are welcome. Members of the community will lead the prayer. For more information, contact Mary Benedict at 323-919-3307.

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Vestry News

• A Sunday supply (substitute) priest has been secured for each week through November 13. We are expecting to have an interim priest sometime late November or early December.
  
• We are in need of a team (ideally 4-5 people) for publishing the Sunday service leaflet. We have an editor, and one copy writer but we still need an additional copy writer and someone with publishing experience in producing newsletters.

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​Learn more…
…about our Santa Barbara County Food Action Plan and how ourCommunity Kitchen can help address the priority goals of the Plan — and help our neighbors be healthier and more food secure.

Click for County Food Action Plan

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Prayer List and Prayer Chain available
The prayer chain and the prayer list are available to you.
CLICK TO READ MORE: Prayer List & Prayer Group Available 
For prayer requests, you can also use the online Prayer Request  (also find a hotlink on our home page at smitv.org .)

Adding St. Mark's to your estate planning
Planned giving is enormously important to the long-term life of St. Mark's-in-the-Valley.
CLICK FOR MORE INFORMATION: Estate Planning

Clergy and staff email addresses
CLICK FOR ALL CLERGY AND STAFF EMAIL ADDRESSES: Clergy & Staff Email Addresses

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Celebrations - week of October 1
Birthdays
10/1 Joan Speirs 
10/4 Darian Salisbury 
10/6 Ron Roark 
10/6 George Wright 
10/8 Murphy Brewer
Anniversaries     
10/1 Mary Beth and Carl Johnson

Serving This Sunday, October 1 at 10 am
Vestry Officer of the Day (VOD)
LynnRae Dunn
Refreshments Host
Vestry Members
Acolytes
LynnRae Dunn
Refreshments Host
Vestry Members
Acolytes
Bob Jennings, Zack Seaman, Stacy Cannon
Chalice Bearers
Bob Jennings
Barbara Brown
Counters
Jeannie May, Marnie Olmstead
Reader
Maureen McKenna
Prayers
Mary Beth Johnson
Altar Guild
Yvonne Lowe, Elida Ambler, Mary Beth Johnson, Jayne Papers
Ushers
Priscilla Higgins, Candy Waldron, Michelle Britton
Childcare
Halle and Harloe Swanson       

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Calendar

Key Dates

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CONTACT CLERGY & STAFF

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Our Prayer List

Make a Prayer Request

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Pray with Our Lady of Guadalupe
​at St. Mark's-in-the-Valley

Click for Guadalupe Prayer Folder (PDF)

All are invited to come by St. Mark's-in-the-Valley to pray with Our Lady of Guadalupe anytime. Her Feast Day is December 12. A folder of prayers and coloring pages for children are prepared and in the church. Colorful flowers, traditionally presented to Guadalupe on her feast day, were made by St. Mark's Preschool children. Thanks to Yvonne Lowe for assisting with the preparations. Thank you to Leslie Zuller and to the "Frame Lady" Susan Granger for assisting with our Guadalupe image, cleaning and framing in time for her feast day.

La Señora de Guadalupe, first appeared to a peasant named Juan Diego on December 12, 1531, in Tepeyac Hill, in modern day Mexico City. Speaking to him in Nahuatl, the language of the Mexica (or Aztec), she asked that a shrine or church be built on that spot. A series of appearances followed.
After the first appearance, Juan Diego visited Juan de Zumárraga, who was Archbishop of what is now Mexico City. Zumárraga dismissed him in disbelief and asked that Juan Diego provide proof of his story and proof of the Lady’s identity.
Juan Diego returned to the hill and encountered La Señora de Guadalupe again. She told him to climb to the top of the hill and pick some flowers to present to the Archbishop.
Although it was winter and nothing should have been in bloom, Juan Diego found an abundance of flowers of a type he had never seen before. The Virgin bundled the flowers into Juan's cloak (tilma in Spanish).
When Juan Diego presented the tilma of exotic flowers to Zumárraga, the flowers fell out and he recognized them as Castilian roses, which are not found in Mexico. What was even more significant, however, was that the tilma had been miraculously imprinted with a colorful image of La Señora de Guadalupe herself.
The tilma, preserved since that date shows the familiar image of the Virgin of Guadalupe, an indigenous woman standing on a crescent moon, wrapped in stars on her mantle, with a sunburst of light emanating from her.
The image has layers of meanings and associations for indigenous people, and people of Mexican descent generally, many of whom recognize in her the Mexica goddess Coatlaxopeuh, another name for Earth Mother Tonantzin, to whom offerings were made on that same hill of Tepeyac hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spaniards.
The tilma is the most sacred object in Mexico. Among many, she is considered to be the Queen of Mexico and Patroness of the Americas. Over 20 million people visit the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe each year, now situated on the very same hill on which she initially appeared to Juan Diego.
La fiesta de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe (Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe) is celebrated in Mexico, the United States, and in many countries around the world on December 12 each year. 

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