God Loves You, No Exceptions
​Experience God's love at

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
425 Cleveland Ave. SW
Canton, OH 44702
Sunday services begin at 10:30 a.m.

Children's Sunday School
​ begins this Sunday

Beginning on Sunday, March 23, the St. Nicholas Chapel will reopen for children's lessons and activities at St. Paul's. Thanks to Linda, Samantha and Paul for preparing the space in short-order. 

Programming will begin with a "soft launch" during the service, with the children heading to the chapel just before the Gospel and returning for the end of service. In the fall, we'll offer more formal Sunday school education programming.
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If anyone would like to be part of the children's ministry, please let us know and we'll ensure you get the Safe Church training required of everyone working with children.

StarkFresh is on the move;
come join the caravan

StarkFresh, a partner with St. Paul's social justice and food ministries including Courageous Conversations and Thanksgiving Baskets, is on the move to new digs across Cherry Avenue NE. Here's more information from our friends at StarkFresh and LOTS more volunteer opportunities.
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From our friends at StarkFresh:
We are SO excited to share that our Canton store is relocating! But, don't worry, we're not going far. We'll be moving across the street to 314 Cherry Ave NE!
With a big move, comes a big lift -- literally and figuratively, so here are some important details:
- Our Canton location will be closed starting Monday, March 24. We will re-open at our new location on Monday, April 14.
You can sign up to volunteers for everything from packing to pushing to renovating the new location beginning today and continuing through March 31. To find out more and sign up, follow this link.
Please see Douglas Colmery for more information.

Travel with us through  'The Last Week'

On Sundays after service throughout Lent, the Revs. Kay and Joe Ashby are offering a class based on the book “The Last Week” by John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg.

The book explores what the Gospels really say about the week from Palm Sunday to Easter, and gives us a glimpse of the Jesus who "is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church's traditional teachings.”

The book will also be featured in the Wednesday Bible Study. So please, join us about 20 minutes after Sunday service or at 10 a.m. Wednesdays throughout Lent.

Beautify our sanctuary and honor our loved ones

Judge temporarily blocks raids on some churches

A federal judge in Maryland has temporaily blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement from raiding some Baptist, Quaker and Sikh houses of worship.

The lawsuit is similar to one filed by the Episcopal Church and 26 other denominations over the Trump Administration's attempt to rescind protections that have been in place for decades. For more information on the decision, click here.

Episcopal Church joins religious freedom lawsuit challenging ICE enforcement actions in churches

“This lawsuit is about protecting our ability to live out the Gospel without fear or interference.”
                      Julia Ayala Harris, president of The Episcopal House of Deputies
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​February 11, 2025
Office of Public Affairs
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The Episcopal Church is among dozens of multifaith plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging the U.S. government’s recent rescission of guidelines that limited immigration enforcement in sensitive areas such as churches, schools, and hospitals. The suit was filed this morning in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection.

Faith groups joining this lawsuit claim that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) actions in and around places of worship without a judicial warrant burden religious exercise in violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The complaint, filed against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, argues that these enforcement actions interfere with the plaintiffs’ ability to fulfill the religious mandate to welcome and serve immigrants.

Referring to this lawsuit, Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe said that in God’s kingdom, immigrants and refugees are not at the edges, fearful and alone, but are the very center of God’s story.  

“We believe their struggles reveal the heart of God, and we cannot worship freely if some among us live in fear,” he said. “We are seeking the ability to fully gather and follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves.”

As alleged in the complaint, there are Episcopal congregations across the United States that have already seen decreased attendance at worship services and social service ministries due to fears of ICE actions. In some places, even congregants with documented legal status are choosing to stay home for fear they may be mistakenly arrested based on their appearance.

“Welcoming the stranger is not a political act—it’s a sacred obligation. When immigrants walk through our church doors, they’re not entering as outsiders; they are stepping into the heart of our faith, where their dignity and stories are embraced as reflections of God’s love,” said Julia Ayala Harris, president of The Episcopal Church’s House of Deputies. “This lawsuit is about protecting our ability to live out the Gospel without fear or interference.”

Co-plaintiffs in the suit include representatives from many Christian and Jewish traditions, including Baptists, Brethren, Disciples, Evangelicals, Lutherans, Mennonites, Methodists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Unitarian Universalists, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, Kehilla Community Synagogue, Reconstructing Judaism, and the Union for Reform Judaism.

“We are told by the rulers of our day that the rich shall be first; that compassion is a weakness; that we should regard the migrants and strangers among us with fear and contempt,” Bishop Rowe said. “But I ask us all to see that our true citizenship is in God’s kingdom, where the meek shall inherit the earth, the merciful shall receive mercy, and the captives shall go free.”

Welcome to St. Paul's,
the Revs. Joe and Kay Ashby

Kay and Joe Ashby joined St. Paul's Sunday for their first service  as our long-term supply priests. Joe's sermon encouraged us to hope and aim high as we take our next steps.

Presiding Bishop Rowe says
people on the margins are at the center of God's world

"In God’s kingdom, immigrants and refugees, transgender people, the poor and the marginalized are not at the edges, fearful and alone. They are at the center of the Gospel story."
By Meredyth Albright
​For The Living Church

In a sermon during his ceremonial seating at Washington National Cathedral (on Feb. 2, 2025) Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe posed the question of what our lives would be like if we realized that Christ is among us.

“What if we saw Christ in each other? What if we understood what it meant — for real — that Christ is among us? In one of us, all of us, in this kingdom, inverted, turned upside down, and made for the healing, and wholeness of the world,” he said.

“We need to find the face of Christ in the faces of marginalized,” Rowe said, adding that in Christ’s kingdom, “the people at the edge are in the center.”

Acknowledging the nation’s deep partisan divides, revealed in dramatically different responses to the sermon preached by Washington Bishop Mariann Budde in the same pulpit less than two weeks earlier, Rowe said that “we live in a world in which the enemy is bound and determined to sow division among us. God did not come to us as a strong man. God came first as a child.”

“We need to greet with peace those who voted for the candidate we can’t stand; to be in the Communion line alongside people who don’t look like us, live like us, or even love like us,” he said.

Rowe’s sermon was built on the words and actions of Simeon and Anna, who greeted the infant Christ, as recounted in the Gospel reading from Luke 3 for the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord.

We know people like Simeon and Anna, he said, in our congregations. “These are the people that have been around. They’re always around, they’re always there, and they’ve been old your whole life. On this day, they come to tell the stories because these are the people that tell the stories even when no one wants to hear them,” he said.

Adding a bit of humor, Rowe said, “I am sure being told your child is the Savior of the world is a big thing, but you would think they have been catching on by now — you know, after the magi and Egypt.

“In this world order, falling comes before rising,” Rowe said, drawing on a prophecy pronounced by Simeon. “In God’s kingdom, the immigrants and refugees, transgender people, the poor and the marginalized, are not at the edges, fearful and alone. They are at the center of the gospel story. The boundaries are not just extended. Those who are considered at the margin, they are at the center. They are the bearers of the salvation of the world. Their struggles reveal to us the kingdom of God.

“In this kingdom,” Rowe said, “modest parents, the woman at the well, the leper in need of healing,” are the center.

General Convention established Washington National Cathedral as the seat of the Presiding Bishop in 1941, just three years after it ruled that a bishop elected to the office must resign the diocesan see. The Most Rev. Henry Knox Sherrill was the first bishop to be ceremonially seated in the cathedral in 1947.

The Presiding Bishop’s formal installation generally has been held at the same time as the seating since then. But Rowe chose shortly after his election last June to have a scaled-down service in the small chapel of the Episcopal Church Center in New York City, a sign of his intention to “begin this ministry in a new way.” That service was held on November 2.

Using his primatial crosier, Rowe knocked three times on the door to the cathedral at the beginning of the service, a tradition drawn from the rite for the consecration of a church.
During the singing of the anthem “Ecce, Sacerdos magnus” (“Behold, a great priest”) by Edward Elgar, Rowe was led to a stall in the north side of the cathedral’s great choir.

The Glastonbury Cathedra, also on the north side of the great choir, is where presiding bishops have sometimes been seated in the past. This Neo-Romanesque throne was constructed early in the 20th century of stones from Glastonbury Abbey, the legendary birthplace of Christianity in Britain. It is inscribed with the four elements of the Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral: “Holy Scripture and Apostolic Creed ✜ Holy Sacrament and Apostolic Church.”

At the end of the service, Bishop Budde celebrated Bishop Rowe’s leadership.

“I need to tell you why he was chosen by colleagues on the first ballot,” she said. “He is by far one of the kindest, smartest, caring people who I have ever met, helping our church adapt and expand our witness throughout this country and the world,” she said.
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“You need to know he is our very best friend in high places, except for Jesus.”

The Rev. Meredyth Albright is a longtime journalist and rector of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Rhinelander, Wisc.
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This week
​(and beyond) with St. Paul's
Sunday, March 16, 10:30 a.m.
Second Sunday in Lent, Holy Eucharist followed by
St. Patty's cake and celebration
and
"The Last Week" Lenten study in the Guild Hall.

Tuesday, March 18, 6 p.m. 
Courageous Conversations on Race Relations focuses on white fagility and how that can limit us all. Dinner begins at 6 p.m.

Wednesday, March 19
Bible Study "The Last Week," 10 a.m.
Vestry meeting via Zoom, 7 a.m.

Thursday, March 20, 7 p.m.
Choir rehearsal in the Sanctuary. If you'd like to Lift Your Voice, please let Music Director Edward Grimes know.

Friday, March 21, 6 p.m.
Stations of the Cross, 6 p.m.
In the Sanctuary

Saturday, March 22, 11-12:30
H.O.T. Lunch with our neighbors in the Guild Hall

Sunday, March 23, 10:30 a.m.
Holy Eucharist and Children's services
and
"The Last Week" Lenten study in the Guild Hall.

Tuesday, March 25, 6:30 p.m.
Social Justice Book Group, "James" in the Guild Hall

Wednesday, March 26, 7:30 p.m.
St. Paul's night out at  the Broadway show, "Come from Away"
What is an Episcopalian?
​We at St. Paul's welcome you. If this is your first contact with St. Paul's or any Episcopal church, we invite you to explore the Seekers Center, which offers a detailed look at our traditions, practices and the application of our beliefs in today’s world. Please join our church family to see us firsthand in all-encompassing, loving action.​​​​​​
Activities at St. Paul's are livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube
Lots of ways you can serve at St. Paul's
As the St. Paul Family continues to grow, we want to ensure that everyone has a chance to engage and assist with the work we have placed before us. To carry out this work, we need to draw upon the gifts, talents, and skill sets of everyone.
 
We are currently looking for people to serve in the following ways:
  • Greeters on Sunday Mornings
  • Grant Committee to assist with securing funds
  • Christian Formation Committee to assist with the growth and spirituality programming of the congregation
  • Lectors to present the lessons on Sunday
  • Choir members
  • Acolytes: Crucifer, Torchbearers, Eucharistic Ministers
  • Lay Eucharistic Visitors to help visit the sick and homebound and provide communion
  • Audio/Video
There are so many more ways to be involved at St. Paul's. Please consider how you might serve. For more information or to sign up for a particular area, please email the Church Office with your contact information at [email protected], or call 330-506-6647.
Remember, every member is a minister!! 
Our Mission
​​​St. Paul’s is an exceptionally welcoming Episcopal community in downtown Canton, grounded in faith, called by God’s Love to minister to the world.
​Please join us for services in-person or online on our Facebook page and YouTube channel every Sunday beginning at 10:25 a.m.
​​​St. Paul's Episcopal Church
425 Cleveland Avenue S.W.
Canton, OH 44702-1625​​​
​Our secretary, Peggy, remains in the office Monday thru Thursday
8:00-Noon.
There are no office hours on Fridays.
The office email is [email protected];
and you may leave a message on the phone voicemail 
​(330)455-0286
​​​Giving made easier
​The Diocese of Ohio has partnered with Giving Tools to help with online stewardship for St. Paul's and other parishes. Please click on the church icon at left to visit our Online Giving page.​​
A rare and joyous day
Clergy, congregants, family and other well-wishers pack St. Paul's to celebrate the ordination of the Rev. Robin Woodberry
PictureBishop Mark Hollingsworth Jr. presents newly ordained priest, the Rev. Robin Woodberry to a crowd of nearly 200 at St. Paul's Saturday morning (June 3). Rev. Woodberry is the fifth generation of pastors in her family and her mother, Gena Thornton, delivered the homily. Rev. Woodberry's husband, Anthony, helped her don her priestly vestments. Photo by David Rotthoff.
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PictureClergy from different denominations and throughout the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio gathered with Bishop Hollingsworth for the laying on of hands during the Rev. Woodberry's ordination. Photo by David Rotthoff
Nearly 200 people gathered at St. Paul's Saturday morning to celebrate the consecration of the Rev. Robin Woodberry to the priesthood.

Robin's service of ordination is the last planned by Bishop Mark Hollingworth Jr., who is retiring. Celebrating with him were clergy from differing denominations and from throughout Ohio, including Robin's mother, the Rev. Gena Thornton, who delivered the homily. Robin is the fifth generation of women clergy in her family.

They were joined by family, friends, congregants and friends of St. Paul's and of Robin's. The choirs of three churches -- St. Paul's, St. Timothy's Massillon and Christ Church Hudson -- joined together for the service with works including "The Work of Love," an original piece composed by Andrew Bolden for the day.

Robin has been deacon-in-charge at St. Paul's since last summer, following her ordination as a transitional deacon, a step toward the priesthood. A native of Youngstown, she was licensed a minister in the Baptist tradition in 1995 and ordained 10 years later at New Bethel Baptist Church. She holds a doctor of ministry degree from the Southern Bible Institute and Seminary in Augusta, Ga. She is the former nominating chairperson for the National Board of Church Women United and executive director of the Mahoning Valley Association of Churches.

She became a member of the Episcopal Church in 2017, and began her seminary studies at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif.  She has completed her studies at Bexley Seabury Seminary in Chicago, has been elected to the Episcopal Community Services Committee and serves on the church’s Commission for Racial Understanding.


Here is message from the Rev. Robin Woodberry, St. Paul's new priest-in-charge
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There will never be enough words to say how completely grateful and thankful I am to each one who has been a part of this journey. Whether you played a role at the beginning, in the middle, or in the last few weeks, I would not be here today if it were not for you. I thank you for your prayers, your words of encouragement, your spiritual direction, and your love. To my family who has given the most so that I could do what God was asking of me, thank you for your sacrifice of love! I give honor to my ancestors and the four generations of ministers on whose shoulders I stand.

To my husband Anthony, we had no idea what we were in for when we got married 37 years ago, but God did. I could not have served in ministry had you not been there with me. I praise God for you! To the Ordination Committee who pulled together such a memorable occasion in such a short time, thank you!
And, to this great St. Paul’s family, God heard your prayers, brought us together, and set us on a path to do great and mighty things, in Jesus’ Name!

I love you all, Robin.
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Above: During the litany, then-Deacon Woodberry lies full length and face down on the floor as a gesture of humility and devotion. Right: Bishop Hollingsworth offers the prayers of consecration, which include: "May she exalt you, O Lord, in the midst of your people; offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to you; boldly proclaim the gospel of salvation; and rightly administer the sacraments of the New Covenant. Make her a faithful pastor, a patient teacher, and a wise counselor. Grant that in all things she may serve without reproach, so that your people may be strengthened and your Name glorified in all the world. All this we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever." Photo by David Rotthoff
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Among those participating in the ordination were the Rev. Gena Thornton, Robin's mother (left rear), and Maureen Woods Major and Jon Coventry (right rear), whose own journey to the priesthood began at St. Paul's. Photo by David Rotthoff
To view the entire service, click on this Facebook link.
​For more images of the day and information on ordination, go to the "more" tab or click here.
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