The St. James Flower Guild provides plant and floral arrangements each week for the altar. This ministry is able to create arrangements based on the season and availability of local plants and flowers. If you wish to contribute with a donation, a chart is on the bulletin board in the Narthex to sign up and record the purpose of your donation. The cost is $30, and you may designate the person or persons you are commemorating or a reason for thanksgiving. There is room on the chart for more than one sign-up per week. Altar flowers are a special opportunity to celebrate a graduation, birth of a child, or remembrance of a loved one for all of the Parrish to share throughout the morning services. What better way than to provide flowers for God’s altar?
When you sign up for a week on the calendar, please sign your name and the reason you are donating. Checks to St. James in the amount of $30 should include “Altar Flowers” and the date of the remembrance or commemoration in the memo line. Your altar flower donations will be recorded along with your other contributions on your annual statement from St. James. The Flower Guild is able to contribute to the Altar Guild with the help of your donation. Linens and altar decor are important symbols of the Christian Year’s cycles; the preparatory seasons, the festival seasons, and the ordinary times of growth.
Each week the memorials and thanksgivings for that week will appear in the bulletin, and they will be read at the appropriate point during the Prayers of the People. You are welcome to take your floral arrangement after the 10:30 service. The Flower Guild will also distribute the flowers and arrangements to sick, hospitalized, or home-bound parishioners to brighten their day and remind them they are missed.
Easter and Christmas flowers are handled as separate opportunities for the Parish to sign up for memorials and thanksgivings. Please contact Linda Bonifant-Travers (301) 919-2795 or Ashley Conlon (301) 525-8060 if you need assistance in signing up.