Nativity Newsletter

Mission Committee Member Focus this week is James McCormick, Jr. Warden

Fifty years ago if somebody had predicted, “James, in the year 2025 you will be all settled down. You will be living in a small town in Mississippi. You will be retired from teaching Statistics. You will be a grandpa, and you will be active in the local Episcopal church.” Eighteen-year-old James would have laughed long and hard at the absolute absurdity of such a bizarre future for myself.

You see, my ‘life plan’ 50 years ago was to ride my bicycle to Tierra del Fuego and then turn around and ride to Alaska. That travel adventure did not happen. Instead, I am enjoying a marvelous and fulfilling life journey filled with love, family, and fun. The fulfilling journey led Juawice and me here to Water Valley in 2019. We love it here. Nativity Episcopal Church has been a vital part of our life here in Water Valley. We have found friendship and inspiration through our involvement in this little church.

Personally, I am deeply skeptical of all things Theological — but I thoroughly believe in this little church. I believe in this little church because it truly is a place where we ‘lift our hearts to the Lord’. It is a place that prioritizes helping people. I think Nativity has the whole “with gladness and singleness of heart” thing dialed in solid.

I am proud to be serving as Nativity’s Junior Warden. Also, there is absolutely no truth to those rumors about me building an AI VicarBot in my garage.

Sunday, July 27, 2025 - Rev. Ann L. Whitaker, TSSF - Holy Eucharist - 10:30 a.m.

Lessons for Sunday

Hosea 1:2-10

Psalm 85

Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19)

Luke 11:1-13

Message from Rev. Ann L. Whitaker, TSSF

Calling all students, homeschoolers, professors, teachers, school workers, school board members, and lifelong learners: A Back to School Blessing is scheduled at Nativity for July 27. Children are invited to bring backpacks or other school supplies to the blessing. We will gather together to remember ALL learners for the 2025-2026 school year. I look forward to joining everyone for this special event.

Blessings,

Ann +

The Rev. Ann L. Whitaker, TSSF

Announcements:

Watermelon Carnival Nativity Lemonade Stand - two hour shifts. Set-up will be outside of Salt & Light Building. See sign-up sheet on Sunday. We need at least 3 people per shift starting at 8:00 am and ending at 4:00 pm.

Reflections

Reflections Week of July 14, 2025

I am a native of Booneville, Mississippi.  When I was born, I weighed 11 lbs. 6 ozs.  My sister, who is eight years older than me, weighed 9 pounds plus when she was born.  After my birth my mother decided that she didn’t want to have any more children because she was scared of what the next child might weigh!

I grew up in my local Methodist Church where my father was Church School Superintendent for many years.  When I was a child I may have asked my parents once if we were going to go to church on Sunday; but never had to ask again.  Because of my parents’ dedication to the church, I have eight years of perfect attendance Sunday school pins – eight years in a row!

I was a band nerd growing up and played drums both in both my high school and college bands.  I still play to this day and sometimes even get paid for it!

I’m a graduate of Mississippi State University with a B.S. degree in Business.  My work background is 41 years spent in banking and workforce development.  All of those years were spent helping others in one way or another. 

I fondly call Nativity “Our Little Church” because even though we’re small in number, we do big things in our community.  A highlight is that former Bishop Duncan Gray married my wife Dawn and me at Nativity.  I am honored to be Nativity’s treasurer and to be a part of moving our church forward.

Lessons for Sunday, July 20, 2025 - Morning Prayer with Joe York, LEM

Amos 8:1-12

Psalm 52

Colossians 1:15-28

Luke 10:38-42

Announcements

Volunteers Needed. 

Watermelon Carnival Nativity Lemonade Stand - two hour shifts. Set-up will be outside of Salt & Light Building. See sign-up sheet on Sunday. We need at least 3 people per shift starting at 8:00 am and ending at 4:00 pm.

Coffee Hour volunteers are needed. See sign-up sheet in the Salt & Light Building.

Flowers for the altar. If you would like to place flowers on the altar, there is a sign-up sheet in the back of the church. Also, if you want the Altar Guild to purchase the flowers for you, there are envelopes in the back of the pew. Sally Lott McLellan has been very gracious to offer her talent of flower arranging at no charge. A minimum donation of $40 is requested. Any left-over funds will be used by the Altar Guild for special occasions such as Christmas and Easter.

Church Administrator named.  The Mission Committee has designated Kathy Shoalmire as the church administrator. This is a non-paid position. She will continue to work with Alexe to get the newsletter out along with some other administrative duties. Kathy can be reached at kathybshoal@icloud.com or by text at (662) 801-6695.

Please let Kathy know now if you have prayer requests. We have two lists: 1. Public list and 2. Private list only shared with the Daughters of the King, who have taken a vow of confidentiality.

Coming Soon. Blessing of the backpacks by Rev. Ann Whitaker on 7/27/25.

Announcements! On August 10th, Bishop Dorothy Wells and former Bishop Michael Curry will meet in Jackson, MS for a conversation about Emmett Till.

Nativity Newsletter

Meet our Mission Committee Members. Each week we will focus on one member of our Church of the Nativity Mission Committee. Barbara Phillips agreed to go first and let us know her thoughts about Nativity and something about herself. Here is what she has to say.

BARBARA'S THOUGHTS ABOUT CHURCH OF THE NATIVITY

A friend sent a note to me including this idea - “We are always looking forward to a future where we will find the things we’re looking for.”  The assumed universality of the idea kept bugging me and, eventually, connected with my experiences and feelings about my relationship with this Church of the Nativity. 

Yes, the “Church of the Nativity” is a lovely structure. Looking at it last Sunday, it seems to want to be in a lovely village in the English countryside. And here it sits in Water Valley. As lovely as it is and as much as I appreciate the beauty of its simplicity, the meaningful relationship isn’t with the “Church” as building or its quirky renditions of the liturgies, rituals, and sacraments of the Episcopal Church. [Yes, “quirky” to a Cradle Episcopalian, ‘cause y’all don’t know how to behave) This “Church” is spectacularly and uniquely defined by the members of the congregation in their collective intentionality to form the Beloved Community.  

Instead of “always looking forward to a future”, the collective Spirit of the congregation seems to be to look in the present for the thing we are looking for. And more than that – we seem committed to being – not finding – what we are looking for.  As Armanda Gorman concludes in her poem The Hill We Cllimb:

we will rise from the sunbaked South, we will rebuild, reconcile, and recover in every

known nook of our nation in every corner called our country our people

diverse and beautiful will emerge battered and beautiful, when the day comes

we step out of the shade aflame and unafraid, the new dawn blooms as we free

it, for there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it, if only we’re

brave enough to be it.

Especially during these days and times, it surprises no one more than me that I have found my people in a quirky little church in Water Valley.

Barbara Y. Phillips, a social justice feminist, is a writer, sometimes law professor, recovering civil rights lawyer, former Program Officer at the Ford Foundation whose creative nonfiction and other tidbits can be found at BarbaraYPhillips.substack.com. She was born in the Appalachia of southwest Virginia, grew up in Memphis with summers at the Virginia farm of her grandparents, and began her relationship with Mississippi during 1971 first as a Macalester College student engaged in an oral history project, returning after graduation as a community organizer to support the 1971 campaigns of Charles Ever for governor and the first major effort to elect Black local officials since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. After a series of “returns” to the state since then, she has finally made Oxford, Mississippi and Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts her homes during retirement.

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Prayer Request

Richard (father of Dawn Denham)

Steve (father of Katelyn Dilliard)

Pam (friend of Becky Kelly)

Bob ((nephew of Becky Kelly)

Don (brother-in-law of Becky Kelly)

Betty (aunt of Kathy Shoalmire)

Daughters of the King is an international order for women committed to prayer, service, and evangelism. The Nativity DOK members are Jacki Kellum, Liz Reynolds, Kathy Shoalmire, Karen Simard, and Anne Winebrenner. Fell free to share prayer requests with any of the members. We have all taken a vow of confidentiality and a commitment to daily prayer.

Lessons for Sunday, July 6 - Rev. Ann Whitaker, Celebrant

2 Kings 5:1-14Psalm 30Galatians 6:(1-6)7-16Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Announcements! On August 10th, Bishop Dorothy Wells and former Bishop Michael Curry will meet in Jackson, MS for a conversation about Emmett Till. Details here.