Nativity Newsletter

Verger Coming Soon to Nativity

By Robbie Fisher

The word verger comes from the Latin virga, meaning rod or staff. Historically, vergers carried a ceremonial rod before clergy to clear a path through crowds. Today the role is more about order, hospitality, and the orderly flow of worship, although the function of a verger at Nativity will be tailored to fulfill the particular needs of our Church. Think of the verger as a kind of liturgical helper within the life of the church — sometimes behind the scenes, sometimes in plain sight — who can assist with the flow of worship, lend a hand with processions on feast days, the Bishop’s visitation and other special occasions, help welcome visiting clergy and acquaint them with our worship traditions and customs, and make newcomers feel oriented and at home. It is entirely a lay role; vergers are not ordained. In that sense, verging is simply one expression of the baptismal calling we all share.

Though a cradle Episcopalian — baptized at Chapel of the Cross in Rolling Fork, MS, raised and confirmed at St. James in Greenville, educated at the University of the South in Sewanee and a graduate of Education for Ministry — I was not aware of the role of vergers in the church until the 2024 General Convention in Louisville, KY. There I met Margaret McLarty, President of the Mississippi Chapter of the Vergers Guild of the Episcopal Church. She led me to the Vergers' Booth in the Exhibition Hall, introduced me to the Vergers Guild, and sent me home with reading materials and a suggestion to consider this service of lay ministry in addition to my service as a licensed Eucharistic Minister. The idea of becoming a verger took root in me. After prayerful consideration and encouragement from our Vicar, the Rt. Rev. Duncan M. Gray, III, I began “A course of Training for a Verger”, as elf-study course, in April 2025. I had originally planned to move rather quickly through the materials, but I soon realized the course would serve me and Nativity far better if completed thoughtfully and at a slow and more deliberate pace. I also appreciated that Nativity had a strong cadre of other lay leaders and church leadership to maintain and sustain the regular order of church worship quite well despite the absence of a vicar. So I took a contemplative sabbatical, spent time with each section of the course of study, and learned much about Nativity's history, its building and facilities, church seasons and liturgical customs and ways we might make worship more comfortable, safer, and accessible for everyone. I completed the coursework in February2026 and was certified by the national Vergers' Guild in March 2026.I will be commissioned as a Verger for Nativity on June 14, during our regular Sunday service when Duncan returns to celebrate Holy Eucharist with us. Sr. Warden Mary Beth Pulsifer and the Rev. Marian Fortner will be my presenters, with Tom Hardy serving as the Vergers' Guild of the Episcopal Church Representative. This fall, I will attend the 2026 Annual Conference of the Vergers' Guild in Norfolk, Virginia, where I look forward to deepening my formation and connecting with vergers from across the Church and nation. I look forward to serving Nativity in this new role and appreciate your support and encouragement. 

Sunday, June 7th - 2nd Sunday After Pentecost

Those Who Serve Celebrant: The Reverend Ann Whitaker

Music: *Brenda/Katherine Altar Guild: Karen

Lectors: Dawn and Joe

Offertory: Denny and Elijah

MC POD: Debbie

Lessons

• Hosea 5:15-6:6

  
  

  Psalm 50:7-15

  
  

  Romans 4:13-25

  
  

  Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Prayer Request

Vivienne Stroup and family

Kelcey, Austin, Aldrich, and baby Castien Roye (Due 9/26) 

Roxie - sister of Sally Lott McLellan

Will - friend of Jack Barry

Richard: father of Dawn Denham

Steve: father of Katelynn Dillard

William: friend of Margaret Love

Betty: aunt of Kathy Shoalmire

Seth: friend of. Patricia Krueger

The young men and women called into service

Peace in the Middle East and the world

The Mission Committee

Vicar Exploratory Committee

Those Who Serve Nativity

Collect for Nativity

Father of all wisdom and love,

In whose wisdom we trust and in whose love we dwell.

We come asking you to guide us as we search for a new shepherd for this flock, a new teacher for those who seek, and for a steadfast companion who will walk with us along the way.

All this we ask in the name of our creator, redeemer and sustainer, one God, whose mercy endures forever. Amen

Announcements

Nativity Women's Book Group : Our next book is The Gift of Years - Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister. We will start June 27th. We meet Saturdays at 9:00am in the front room of the Salt & Light. PLEASE JOIN US.

If you are going to Mound Bayou on June 20th for the Spiritual Formation Workshop, check your email from the Reverend Andy Andrews. He is seeking to collect the $30 prior to the workshop. If you do not know about the workshop or need a ride, please contact Kathy Shoalmire at (662)801-6695 or kathybshoal@gmail.com.

Announcements from the Sr. Warden - Mary Beth Pulsifer

1. I look forward to seeing you at our Immigrant Community workshop this coming Saturday from 1 to 2:30 at Salt and Light.

2. Save the Dates: June 13 and 14: Robbie Fisher will be commissioned as a Verger at Nativity(see above). Tom and Deborah Hardy and Marian and Tom Fortner are traveling from Hattiesburg to participate in the verger commissioning on June 14 and will join us for pre and post commissioning festivities.  We hope everyone will join for a church meal on Saturday evening, June 13 at 6:00 p.m.. Brisket will be provided by the church but please bring a side dish.  Duncan and Kathy Gray will join us for “Coffee Hour” post-service.

June Birthdays and Anniversaries

3 - Caspian Coughlin13 - Mary Beth Pulsifer24 - Robbie Fisher /Beth Mayeaux29 - Marty Pitre29 - Tom Kirkpatrick

Nativity Newsletter

Celebrating our Senior, Annaliese Coughlin

Annaliese graduated from the Mississippi School of Math and Science recently where she excelled academically and assumed several leadership roles in many extra-curricular activities. The North MS Herald recently highlighted her achievements which I am sure many of you have read. I asked Annaliese to share her plans with us. Here is what she had to say.

"I plan on attending the University College of Groningen in the Netherlands. This is essentially the honors program within the University of Groningen — it’s an English speaking program that accepts roughly 135 students each year. I plan to take classes that will support my path to law school, while simultaneously exploring new topics for fun! I’ve always wanted to go abroad, but it felt like a silly dream. Now it’s not, and I'm as excited as ever!"

Congratulations, Annaliese. We are so proud of your hard work and achievements. As you step into this next chapter later this summer, may you always walk boldly in faith, knowing your church family is cheering you on! It's been a sheer joy watching you grow.

Sunday, May 31st - Trinity Sunday

Those Who Serve

Morning Prayer: Michael Prager

Music: *Brenda/Katherine

Altar Guild: Vivian

Lectors: Alexe and Jack

Offertory: Vivienne and Rose

MC POD: April

Lessons

• Genesis 1:1-2:4a

• 2 Corinthians 13:11-13

• Matthew 28:16-20

• Psalm 8

• or Canticle 13 (or Canticle 2)

Collect for Nativity

Father of all wisdom and love,

In whose wisdom we trust and in whose love we dwell.

We come asking you to guide us as we search for a new shepherd for this flock, a new teacher for those who seek, and for a steadfast companion who will walk with us along the way.

All this we ask in the name of our creator, redeemer and sustainer, one God, whose mercy endures forever. Amen

Announcements

• Nativity Women's Book Group 

• Our next book is The Gift of Years - Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister. We will start June 27th/ We will meet Saturdays at 9:00am in the front room of the Salt & Light. PLEASE JOIN US.

Announcements from the Sr. Warden - Mary Beth Pulsifer

1. Anyone interested in working with us on the We Open Our Doors initiative, let me know. This initiative aims to foster deeper understanding, genuine fellowship, and a shared sense of belonging among the Christian faith communities by inviting participating churches to open their doors for a two hour community open house on selected dates. This idea came out of our recent Outreach workshop as a way to increase our capacity for community outreach through collaboration with other churches. 

2. Save the Date - June 6, 1 - 2:30 for our workshop on Immigrant Communities. Here is a description of the Mission of IAJE, one of our facilitators:

"Through grassroots organizing, transformative leadership development, and popular education, IAJE ignites and amplifies the power of Mississippi's immigrant communities, creating a vibrant progressive political home where dreams take flight, voices rise, and families unite to forge a future of justice, dignity, and collective liberation." learn more about IAJE and their programs by visiting www.iaje.us.

3. Two vacancies will be forthcoming on the Mission Committee next year. If you want to know more about it, please talk with Mary Beth.

4. Save the Date: On Sunday June 14, Robbie will be commissioned as a Verger at Nativity ( more on that to follow). The night before, on June 13, we will be having several folks from the Diocese coming down. Nativity will be hosting a church pot-luck supper at Salt and Light in which the meat will be provided and members are asked to bring sides. More details will follow shortly, but Save the Date! It will be fun, and a great way to show off our legendary Nativity hospitality!

Nativity Newsletter

Margaret Love Denman

by Sally Lott McLellan

If you want a conversational journey that hops from topic to topic, country to country, fact to fiction, reminisces to reality – Margaret Love Denman is your girl. I told her talking with her is like joyfully jumping from stone to stone in a quickly moving stream – balance is needed but the adventure makes it worthwhile!

Margaret Love moved to Water Valley in 2023 after selling her mother’s house in Oxford. A native of Oxford, she was a Gathright of the long-standing Gathright-Reed Drug Store on the Square. She grew up Presbyterian but found the Episcopal church through a college friend at Ole Miss, where she studied English, History and French. After finishing graduate school at Ole Miss and more graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she wrote her first novel, A Scrambling After Circumstance. During her teaching career she was at the University of New Hampshire for twenty years, twelve of which were as creative writing director. One of her books, Daily, Before Your Eyes, is a work of fiction based on a single woman on death row in Mississippi that took seven years to write, and if you read even a few pages you’ll understand why. There’s a good bit of legal-ese and also the culture of Parchman (where women were once housed), but most profoundly is the detail that describes the people and the settings and the feelings of sadness and angst and regret and forgiveness.

She came to Nativity in search of a community of people who have a strong sense of what others need. Community is the flame that keeps Margaret Love burning. She’s looked for community all her life, she said, but not many of us would have traveled to such lengths and heights and distances to secure that commitment. When “community” first became a guiding point in her life it was through Cursillo, a lay-led apostolic movement that began in Spain and functions across Catholic, Episcopal, and Methodist traditions (a short course in Christian living). Her first experience with Cursillo was 50 years ago and she’s had a committed and active role in it since then, serving as staff or doing “whatever needs to be done.” After finding Cursillo it was but a step (some would say a huge leap) to becoming a member of a community on the small island of Cumbray, Scotland, where she and her family lived for three years, living with and working with other people with Matthew 25 at the heart of their mission to be stewards of what God has provided. During that time she lived in a household of 18 (eight of whom were children) and only one bathroom --“That will teach you patience, for sure,” she said. She loved it so much she didn’t want to come home --and she knows her children still bear the fruit of having lived there, as they all believe that social justice is something that everyone should work toward. “They are all authentic, questioners, seekers.” she proudly says, and noted that it’s the same with Nativity with its open and loving community where its people have a sense of what others need.

“I’m sorry we don’t have a priest at Nativity, but look how well we’ve done because people show up. And it’s so encouraging to see that we are growing, even without a priest.” says Margaret Love.  “A church is not the priest, it is the people.”

She points our that heritage doesn’t have to be family, but it can be, and often is, the community that we find. Citing Psalm 16:5, You, O Lord, are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance.” We are family at Nativity, and that beautiful inheritance is being passed on.

Sunday, May 24th - Pentecost & Baptism

Those Who Serve

Celebrant: The Reverend Ann Whitaker

Music: Brenda/Katherine

LEM: Michael

Altar Guild: Vivian

Lectors: Sean and Tommy

Offertory: Benjamin and Herschel

MC POD: Patricia

Lessons

• Acts 2:1-21

• or Numbers 11:24-30

• 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13

• or Acts 2:1-21

• John 20:19-23

• or John 7:37-39

• Psalm 104:25-35, 37

The Flowers on the Altar Sunday are given to the Glory of God in thanksgiving for the life of Clyde Robinson who gave up his birthday flowers in February for Lent.

Collect for Nativity

Father of all wisdom and love,

In whose wisdom we trust and in whose love we dwell.

We come asking you to guide us as we search for a new shepherd for this flock, a new teacher for those who seek, and for a steadfast companion who will walk with us along the way.

All this we ask in the name of our creator, redeemer and sustainer, one God, whose mercy endures forever. Amen

Announcements

• Nativity Women's Book Group meets one last time Saturday from 9-10:30 Salt & Light. Book: The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. Available on Kindle, Audible, and print. This has been a great book which has led to some very good thought-provoking conversation.

• Our next book is The Gift of Years - Growing Older Gracefully by Joan Chittister. We will start June 27th due to the event listed under announcements. We will meet Saturdays at 9:00am in the front room of the Salt & Light. PLEASE JOIN US.

Announcements from the Sr. Warden - Mary Beth Pulsifer

1. Anyone interested in working with us on the We Open Our Doors initiative, let me know. This initiative aims to foster deeper understanding, genuine fellowship, and a shared sense of belonging among the Christian faith communities by inviting participating churches to open their doors for a two hour community open house on selected dates. This idea came out of our recent Outreach workshop as a way to increase our capacity for community outreach through collaboration with other churches. 

2. Save the Date - June 6, 1 - 2:30 for our workshop on Immigrant Communities. Here is a description of the Mission of IAJE, one of our facilitators:

"Through grassroots organizing, transformative leadership development, and popular education, IAJE ignites and amplifies the power of Mississippi's immigrant communities, creating a vibrant progressive political home where dreams take flight, voices rise, and families unite to forge a future of justice, dignity, and collective liberation." learn more about IAJE and their programs by visiting www.iaje.us.

3. Two vacancies will be forthcoming on the Mission Committee next year. If you want to know more about it, please talk with Mary Beth.