St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Canton, Ohio
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God Love You,
No Exceptions​

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
425 Cleveland Ave. SW
Canton, OH 44702

Sunday services begin at 10:30 a.m.

St. Paul Early Summer Newsletter
Discernment, a message from Fr. Joe and Mo. Kay, Stark Pride, Easter Joy
​and the Episcopal Church in today's world

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 The Episcopal Church in today's world

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Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe says, in light of the Trump Administration order to resettle white South Africans while all others are kept out, the Church is ending its public-private resettlement partnership. But it is building other avenues, including with the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, which has resettled 140,000 people.

"It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years. I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country. I also grieve that victims of religious persecution, including Christians, have not been granted refuge in recent months."
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Here is the Bishop's letter in full:
 
May 12, 2025
 
Dear People of God in The Episcopal Church:
I am writing today with some significant news about Episcopal Migration Ministries, the organization that leads The Episcopal Church’s refugee resettlement ministry.

Since January, the previously bipartisan U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in which we participate has essentially shut down. Virtually no new refugees have arrived, hundreds of staff in resettlement agencies around the country have been laid off, and funding for resettling refugees who have already arrived has been uncertain. Then, just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees.

In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step. Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government.

I want to be very clear about why we made this decision—and what we believe lies ahead for Episcopal Migration Ministries’ vital work.

It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years. I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country. I also grieve that victims of religious persecution, including Christians, have not been granted refuge in recent months.
As Christians, we must be guided not by political vagaries, but by the sure and certain knowledge that the kingdom of God is revealed to us in the struggles of those on the margins. Jesus tells us to care for the poor and vulnerable as we would care for him, and we must follow that command. Right now, what that means is ending our participation in the federal government’s refugee resettlement program and investing our resources in serving migrants in other ways.

For nearly 40 years, Episcopal Migration Ministries has put hands and feet to our church’s commitment to seek and serve Christ in migrants and refugees. We have served nearly 110,000 refugees during this time, many of whom are now American citizens and beloved members of our communities, workplaces, and neighborhoods. Over the years, EMM has resettled individuals from Ukraine, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Myanmar. We have supported vulnerable populations from across the globe, regardless of nationality.

Since March, a dedicated team of Episcopal Migration Ministries employees has fulfilled our commitment to serve people who arrived just before or in the first days of the new administration. Now that we are ending our involvement in federally funded refugee resettlement, we have asked the administration to work toward a mutual agreement that will allow us to wind down all federally funded services by the end of the federal fiscal year in September. We are working with the affected staff members to provide extensive outplacement services and severance packages.

I have said before that no change in political fortunes alters our commitment to stand with the world’s most vulnerable people, and I want to reaffirm that promise. While our public-private partnership as a refugee resettlement agency is no longer viable, we are hard at work on a churchwide plan to support migrants and refugees through:
  • Diocesan partnerships: We have vibrant ministries around the church serving migrants of all kinds. Episcopalians support newcomers through education, direct service, and advocacy. Our dioceses also work to address the root causes of migration. We pledge to redouble our efforts to support these ministries and the migrants among us.
  • Global connections: We will invest in our ministries that support forced migrants throughout the countries and territories of The Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion. This includes our powerful ministry in Europe, where the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe has served more than 140,000 refugees in the last two years, primarily from North Africa, Ukraine, and Central Asia. We will continue to work with our dioceses and Anglican partners throughout Central America to help those seeking safety.
  • Continued support for refugees: While new refugee arrivals and funding have been curtailed by the current administration, thousands of refugees welcomed by Episcopal Migration Ministries in previous years still need support. We will invite Episcopalians to connect with resettled refugees and explore how to continue services we have long provided—language services, continuing education, support with childcare, and job training. If refugee resettlement begins again with the support of private sponsors, we will explore those new possibilities. 
  • Fundraising: It is important to understand the scale of federal grant money from which we are stepping away. In most recent years, Episcopal Migration Ministries received more than $50 million annually in federal funds. This is not a loss that can be bridged with donor funds or proceeds from investments. However, we will raise funds for new and expanded migration ministries across the church and for our partners in this ministry. You can contribute to this new work by making a donation on the Episcopal Migration Ministries website.
In the coming weeks, Episcopal Migration Ministries will share more news about how to be involved. In the meantime, please pray for vetted refugees who have not been granted permission to come to this country, for the staff who will be affected by the end of these federal grants, and for everyone who grieves the end of our federal refugee resettlement work.
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May our faith in the Risen Christ, who draws all people to himself, sustain and guide us through the tumult of these times.
 
The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe
Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church


Ideas pour in and out as we discern our future together

Thanks to everyone who participated in our first parish-wide meeting last Sunday to discern the next steps and long-term future of St. Paul's. We enjoyed a meal together (of course!) and reviewed finances, history, missions and some 75 first-blush ideas for our future, touching on worship, community, service and communion with God, each other and our neighbors.

The thread that wove through nearly all the ideas can perhaps best be characterized as treasuring and nurturing relationships.

The Rev. Jessie Dodson led the meeting and during the service that preceeded it, she and the parish blessed the Discernment Committee that will help us hone our mission and search for our new clergy partner.

The members of the committee are: Kelli Green, Rick Enslen, David Swope, Linda Heitger, Molly Weisel, Carol Sutek, Demi Carrothers, Douglas Colmery and (ex-officio) M.L. Schultze. Please keep them and the entire St. Paul's family in your prayers.
​​

Our next meeting will be June 1 following service, in the Guild Hall. Please plan to attend; your input matters in so many ways!

This week
​(and beyond) with St. Paul's
Click here for video of  previous services
Click here for our our service bulletin
Sunday, May 18
Daughters of the King, 9 a.m. in the Guild Hall
Holy Eucharist, 10:30 a.m.
​Discernment Committee meeting, following service.

Tuesday, May 20
Courageous Conversations on Race Relations,  the Guild Hall; dinner begins at 6 p.m., discussion at 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, May 21
Small Group Study in the library at 10 a.m.

Thursday, May 22
Choire rehearsal, 7 p.m.

Thursday, June 5, 4 p.m.

 Interfaith Violence Prevention Coalition of Stark County will hold its second Wear Orange community gathering and service, Canton Centennial Plaza. 

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Activities at St. Paul's are livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube

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.​​​​​​

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.

The joy of celebrating Easter ​and Baptism 
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Presiding Bishop Rowe's Easter Message
"The long-awaited Messiah fashioned himself not as a political conqueror but as a peacemaker. Our Savior upended notions of worldly power by taking on the role of a servant and washing the feet of his followers. For Jesus, the vulnerable and the marginalized are in focus, and his ears are attuned to their voices."
                                                                                                       Bishop Sean Rowe
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Dear Friends in Christ:

Luke’s Gospel tells us that on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Joanna went to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. When they got there, the stone had been rolled away, and they heard the message that transformed their world—and ours: “He is not here. He is risen.”

On that Easter morning, the women who had been the last protectors and pastors at the cross on Good Friday became the first to witness and proclaim the resurrection. Scripture tells us, however, that their good news was not met with joy. The news that Jesus had risen from the dead was received as an idle tale, as nonsense—in one dynamic translation, as nothing more than women’s trinkets. In the fraught and divided world in which these first evangelists lived, they were on the margins, and their word counted for nothing.

How quickly the apostles forgot what Jesus had modeled days before on Palm Sunday and at the Last Supper. The long-awaited Messiah fashioned himself not as a political conqueror but as a peacemaker. Our Savior upended notions of worldly power by taking on the role of a servant and washing the feet of his followers. For Jesus, the vulnerable and the marginalized are in focus, and his ears are attuned to their voices.

As we proclaim the resurrection in our own time and place, let us always remember that the kingdom of God is revealed to us most clearly by those who are dispossessed by the powers and principalities of this world. Let us celebrate the joy of Easter by seeking and serving the resurrected Christ in the lives and the witness of those who have been silenced, persecuted, and marginalized.

​May God bless you and all those you love this Easter.
The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe
Presiding Bishop, The Episcopal Church


Commemorating Good Friday and the sacrifice and love of our Lord
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​St. Paul's began the observence of the Triduum, from the Latin "three days," commemoration of Holy Week with an Agape dinner and Maundy Thursday service, followed by a quiet processional into the Sanctuary for the stripping of the altar. The stripping accompanied our Music Director Edward Grimes' chanting of Psalm 22, which begins:

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1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.
3 Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the one Israel praises.
4 In you our ancestors put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.

At noon today (Good Friday), we observed Stations of the Cross, and processed to Crossroads United Methodist Church from St. Paul's to commemorate together Good Friday with a joint service observing Christ's sacrifice and unselfish love. Father Joe gave the homily, which asked us to understand consider Good Friday the training ground for us to fully understand God's power and love.

​Easter Sunday will be celebrated with music, Holy Eucharist, joy and Hallelujahs at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Presiding Bishop Rowe on the bombing of al-Ahli Hospital, an Episcopal Ministry
'During these sacred days, as you encounter the suffering and sacrifice of our Redeemer and come again to the joy of the Resurrection, please pray for all of the people of the land where Jesus lived, died, and rose again.'
                                             Bishop Sean Rowe

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April 14, 2025

​Dear People of God in The Episcopal Church:

​Early this Palm Sunday morning, we received confirmation that al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, a ministry of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, was hit last night by Israeli missiles. The diocese and many media outlets report that the emergency department, the pharmacy, the chapel, and other essential facilities have been severely damaged, and patients are without shelter or medical care. Read more about the attack from the American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem.

No matter how we understand the causes of violence in the Holy Land, we can surely agree that we must support our fellow Anglicans in alleviating the devastating humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Gaza.

As we begin our Holy Week journey, I ask you to:
  • Pray for the staff of al-Ahli Hospital, giving thanks for their courage and sacrifice, and for its patients, who are in pain and danger without lifesaving care. The American Friends of the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem offer this prayer and litany that I commend to you.
  • Join me in giving generously to the Good Friday Offering, which supports the ministries of the Diocese of Jerusalem, including al-Ahli Hospital. For more than a century, Episcopalians have supported ministry in the land of Jesus with an offering on Good Friday; and especially now, the need is greater than ever.
  • Write to your members of Congress, asking them to support a permanent ceasefire; a just, sustained peace in the Holy Land; and humanitarian aid for those suffering in Gaza. Find information about The Episcopal Church’s response to the crisis and resources from the Office of Government Relations on our website.
During these sacred days, as you encounter the suffering and sacrifice of our Redeemer and come again to the joy of the Resurrection, please pray for all of the people of the land where Jesus lived, died, and rose again. May God grant them a future free of violence and suffering.
Faithfully,​

​
The Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe
Presiding Bishop
The Episcopal Church

Lots of ways you can serve at St. Paul's
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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!! 


​Please join us for services in-person or online on our Facebook page and YouTube channel every Sunday beginning at 10:25 a.m.

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​​​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

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​​​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.​​

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."
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To experience the complete sermon, click here
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.
​
“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.

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
​
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.
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For more images of the day and information on ordination, go to the "more" tab or click here.

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St. Paul's Episcopal Church
425 Cleveland Avenue SW,  Canton, OH   44702  
​

​330-455-0286

 [email protected]

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