St. Peter's Episcopal Church

05/12/2026

You are warmly invited to celebrate with the people of St. Peter's and Rev. Myrna Koonce as they move into new ministry together. The service is at 4 pm on Sunday, June 7. All are welcome!

05/09/2026

What a joyful day as Emily Ainsworth Keniston was ordained to the transitional diaconate! She will serve as transitional deacon right here at St. Peter’s. We are indeed blessed!

04/30/2026

Our own Emily Keniston will be ordained as transitional deacon on Saturday, May 9, and we are overjoyed! Please join us in person or virtually on the St. Luke’s You Tube channel.

04/17/2026

On April 12, we celebrated Father Tom Mousin's ministry with us for the past five years and wished him all blessings as he moves into retirement and new paths of living out the way of Jesus. Thank you, Father Tom! We will miss you dearly!

04/09/2026

04/01/2026

Join us for our Holy Week and Easter Services

Maundy Thursday: Thursday, April 2nd
Mass at 7:00 PM We recall the institution of Holy Communion by Jesus at the Last Supper.

Good Friday Service: Friday April 3rd
at 7:00 PM The Prayer Book Service for Good Friday, including the Passion Gospel from St. John

Easter Day: Sunday, April 5th
Festival Mass at 9:00 AM We celebrate the resurrection, including special music, incense, and a celebratory coffee hour after the service.

03/29/2026

God is good! All of us welcome Rev. Myrna Koonce as Priest In
Charge of St. Peter's.

Congratulations to St. Peter’s, Portland, on calling the Rev. Myrna Koonce to be their priest in charge! Myrna is not new to St. Peter’s, having served there as a postulant intern in 2023 and 2024. She started her current ministry on March 1 under a new diocesan program that allows a recently ordained priest to work alongside an experienced priest for a short period of time. Outgoing priest in charge Tom Mousin, who has been at St. Peter’s since 2021, is serving as consulting priest until his retirement on April 19.
Ordained to the priesthood last November, Myrna holds a master’s in theological studies from Church Divinity School of the Pacific. Before being called to ministry, she worked primarily in early childhood education. She and her husband of 40 years, Paul Saucier, have two adult children. Learn more about Myrna here https://stpetersepiscopalportme.org/staff/ and please join us in welcoming her to her new ministry!

02/24/2026

Welcome to our new Priest-In-Charge, the Rev. Myrna Koonce
See the news from our Senior Warden and Rector below:

From the Senior Warden:

Dear Members and Friends of St. Peter’s,

I am delighted to share with you the news that upon the unanimous recommendation of our Search Committee, the Vestry voted unanimously to call the Rev. Myrna Koonce as our next Priest-in-Charge. The Rev. Koonce has accepted the call for this half-time position, and we will be welcoming her this coming Sunday, March 1st. She comes to us with considerable experience as an educator, a chaplain, and as a longtime lay leader at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brunswick. Some of us already know her from her time serving with us as a Postulant Intern. I know she is eager to meet with those of you who have joined us since then.

Her arrival before the departure of our rector is part of a new coadjutor model offered by the Diocese of Maine, in which a newly ordained priest works alongside the outgoing rector for a period of time. Father Mousin’s last Sunday will still be April 19th, as previously announced. In his letter that follows, he explains more about how this model will be implemented over the next two months. During this period, we will also have time to give God thanks and recognize the work of our Search Committee in bringing us to this place.

I know you will join me in extending a warm St. Peter’s welcome to the Rev. Koonce. Please pray for our two priests, for our parish, and for all the ministries through which we are called to serve God and our neighbors.

In Christ’s love,
Anita Chandler,
Senior Warden

From the Rector:

Dear Friends,
As our Senior Warden has shared with you, the Vestry has called the Rev. Myrna Koonce to be the new Priest-in-Charge of St. Peter’s Church. I could not be more pleased with the work of the Search Committee and the Vesty’s decision. As many of you know, the Rev. Koonce served with us as a Postulant Intern in 2023 and 2024, when many of you and I quickly became aware of her many gifts for pastoral and priestly leadership. I look forward to working with her over the next two months.

While it is often the case that parishes engage in a lengthy discernment process after the departure of a priest, with an interim priest serving until a new priest is called, we are engaging in a new model here in the Diocese of Maine. The Vestry agreed to consider this model when the Search Committee was commissioned to begin its work. The intention of this model is to allow for a newly ordained priest in the diocese to work alongside an experienced priest for a limited amount of time. Such an arrangement can be invaluable for the new priest and create a smoother transition in pastoral leadership.

The Rev. Koonce will start her new ministry with us on March 1 while I am still serving you. We will serve you jointly until my last Sunday of service, April 19th. She will be your new Priest-in-Charge, and I will continue to serve you as Consulting Priest until I leave in April. Together, we will share in the liturgical, pastoral, and administrative responsibilities of leading the parish. She and I both will be available to answer questions you may have, even as we will be eager to hear about your hopes for what lies ahead for St. Peter’s.

As our Senior Warden Anita Chandler wrote, we will have time in the weeks ahead to give thanks to the Seach Committee and the Vestry for their faithful work. Throughout this time, may we move forward trusting that with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, Christ will be made known in our midst and in the ways that we share God’s love with the world.

Faithfully,
Fr. Tom

01/06/2026

Happy Epiphany

Dear Friends,

Today, January 6th, we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany. The day marks the culmination of our Christmas celebrations, and traditionally is a time when we recall the arrival of the wise ones in Bethlehem, who followed a star to worship a new born king. Sometimes referred to as kings themselves, or magi, tradition suggests that they were astrologers or priests from eastern regions.

We speak of three wisemen, but St. Matthew, in his telling of the story, does not indicate how many there were. He does specify that three gifts were brought, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. By the Middle Ages, names were attributed to three visitors: Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchior.

While we will not have a worship service today, there are a couple of ways you can observe this feast at home. Perhaps you have already had some wise figures making their way to your creche at home, getting closer during each day of Christmas - today they reach their destination. Our creche at church will be up for one last Sunday this week to mark the arrival of those following the star.

If you have not already done so in your daily prayer, you may wish to read the assigned lessons for today:

Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm 72:1-7
Ephesians 3:1-12
Matthew 2:1-12

Also, some of us have adopted the custom of "Chalking the Doors," marking the lintels over the entrances to our homes with an Epiphany blessing. If you have chalk at home, you might do so today, making these marks:

20 + C + M + B + 26

The letters C M B come from the traditional (9th century) names for the "three kings" -- Caspar, Melchior & Balthazar. Some also suggest the letters stand for "Christus Mansionem Benedicat" which means "May Christ bless this dwelling!"

We will have some chalk at church this Sunday if you would like to do this when you get home after church.

However you observe this day, I wish you a holy and a happy Epiphany.

Peace,
Fr. Tom

12/24/2025

Keeping Advent
Wednesday December 24, 2025
John 1:14
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
Word Made Flesh.
Whenever I read a contemporary translation of John1:14, I cannot help but hear in my head the King James Version of that sentence, particularly the first part of the verse: “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
“Dwelt” - that is the word that resonates with me. Yes, the Word made flesh in Jesus lived among us. But to dwell suggests more than living among us. It means inhabiting a place, a dwelling.
To me that implies a level of true intimacy. We get to know very well the people with whom we dwell. God knows each of us very well. God knew and knows the condition of every human heart God knows of our deepest desires to love and to serve, and of all the ways in which we have harmed and hurt one another and been led astray. Yet God chose to dwell in the midst of us, and continues to do so.
On this eve of the Christmas Feast, we once again can invite Jesus Christ to dwell not only among us, but also within us, so that the love and the light of God will shine forth from us to a world so much in need of both.
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Merry Watters and I thank you for using the calendar in your devotions this Advent. We have appreciated hearing both from those who use the calendar and those who have been reading my daily email messages. We wish you a holy and happy Christmas, and a blessed New Year.
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Two additional notes as we reach the end of Advent:
Last year, my sister Gwen shared a lovely idea with me. She colors in her Advent calendar each day, as do I. She thought we would enjoy seeing each other's completed calendars. I will post mine on my page later today and if you want to reply to that post you can post a picture of your own calendar.
Since we first created this calendar, Merry and I have sent it out freely and encouraged folks to make copies and distribute them. Since I began these daily email devotions, I have incurred some costs in maintaining the contact list and sending them out. If you would like to make a donation in gratitude for these devotions, you may do so by finding information on the Donation page of my website: thomasmousin.com

Thank you to all those of you who have already made a donation.

12/23/2025

Keeping Advent
Tuesday December 23, 2025

Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.”

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife but had no marital relations with her until she had given birth to a son, and he named him Jesus.

Remember a dream.

In yesterday’s scripture from Luke we read of Mary being addressed directly by the angel Gabriel, and of her eventual response:

When Mary first heard Gabriel’s voice
she trembled at his word.
But faith prevailed, she made the choice
and life within her stirred.

In today’s reading from Matthew, we learn that Joseph was also addressed by an angel, though this time in a dream:
Then Joseph, dreaming, heard his call,

“Fear not,” the angel said.
And faith prevailed, with axe and awl,
he made a cradle bed.

The stories suggest that the circumstances surrounding the coming of Jesus into the world caused both these parents to wonder, to tremble, and to be afraid. Ultimately, both moved beyond whatever fears they had and assented to God’s purpose for them:

The love that Mary bears within
and Joseph’s firm embrace
Will show a world worn weak by sin
God’s good and gracious face.

You may not be able to remember a dream in which an angel or the voice of God spoke to you. Perhaps you can remember a time of experiencing either what felt like a prompting from God, a call from God, or some sense of God’s presence in your life - a time that may have evoked awe and fear simultaneously. Mary and Joseph overcame whatever fears or doubts they may have had, and turned in the direction of wonder and awe.

By faith, they gave their assent. May we do so as well:

So when, O God, you beckon us
and fears and doubts arise,
Let faith prevail, confirm our trust,
O Love, you will abide!

The stanzas of the poem above are from the 2013 Advent Calendar poem.

Find the calendar here: https://thomasmousin.com