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Sundays
8:30am Worship Service, Rite 1
9:30am Bible Study in Griswold Room and via zoom
10:30am Worship Service, Rite 2
10:30am Godly Play
1/8
Welcome to Saint Ann's Episcopal Parish
Welcome to Saint Ann’s Old Lyme, an Episcopal Church in Connecticut on the coasts of the Connecticut River and Long Island Sound. We have been a welcoming community on the shoreline since 1883.
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We invite you to come and see us at Saint Ann’s Sundays as we share the love of God in Jesus Christ. Join us during the week for community events, educational programs and fellowship opportunities. Learn about our commitment to addressing poverty, homelessness, refugee resettlement, food insecurity and climate change.
Be with us in person and virtually in discovering God’s abundance and joy.
The Rev’d Dr. Anita Louise Schell, Rector
Saint Ann's
Mission Statement
We are a community of Christians,
open to all, who serve God in Jesus Christ through worship, education, mission and fellowship.
Save the Dates
March
9 - Fever 1793 ~ Lenten Book Study for Teens/Tweens – 10:30 am (Sundays through April 13)
11 - Tattoos on the Heart, weekly Lenten book class – 4 pm (Tuesdays through April 15)
14 - Stations of the Cross – 3 pm (Fridays through Lent)
23 - Griswold Forum with Roger Pasquier – 9:30 am
30 - Lenten Vespers Service – 4 pm
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LENTEN BOOK CHOSEN:
Boyle’s Tattoos on the Heart
March 11 - April 15, 4:00 pm
Purchase your Lenten reading ($11) now from the office, or borrow the book, and get started reading.
In person and online class led by Mother Anita and Charlie Potts. Zoom link above.
“For twenty years, Gregory Boyle has run Homeboy Industries, a gang-intervention program located in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, the gang capital of the world. In Tattoos on the Heart, he distills his experience working in the ghetto into a breathtaking series of parables inspired by faith.

Arranged by theme and filled with sparkling humor and glowing generosity, these essays offer a stirring look at how full our lives could be if we could find the joy in loving others and in being loved unconditionally. From giant, tattooed Cesar, shopping at JCPenney fresh out of prison, we learn how to feel worthy of God's love. From ten-year-old Lula we learn the importance of being known and acknowledged. From Pedro we understand the kind of patience necessary to rescue someone from the darkness. In each chapter we benefit from Boyle’s gentle, hard-earned wisdom.
These essays about universal kinship and redemption are moving examples of the power of unconditional love and the importance of fighting despair. Gorgeous and uplifting, Tattoos on the Heart reminds us that no life is less valuable than another.”
STATIONS OF THE CROSS
Fridays through Lent, 3pm​
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"Lest We Forget”
by Brother Bill Weisert
Every year, starting on Ash Wednesday we began a journey of preparation to the Glory of the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. We say extra prayers of penance, the church is decorated in purple, alleluias are eliminated, all to remind us of the preparation of the forty days.
But there is a more intense preparation for the glories of Easter and His Resurrection, the Way of the Cross. These Stations, an acceptable change of wording, trace certain events from the Last Supper in the upper room with His Disciples, minus Judas, through His Arrest and trials. All these events occurred over 24-36 hours, without rest.
We are tracing not just the events, but the agony of the flesh and the torture of the spirit which our Lord underwent. Jesus suffered doubt and the pangs of His impending death. We are asked to feel those emotions, to suffer the inner pangs. We don’t just recite the words of the stations, but meditate on, no, inwardly feel, His suffering.
I have done the Stations many times, and no matter which liturgy of the stations, or the language in which they are written, I have always felt something different, usually something deeper. Each time is a different experience.
The opening title is not original to me, but offered by my housemate, Chuck. He is Jewish and has an amazing understanding of different faiths coming from his first first wife, who was raised Roman Catholic. The Way of the Cross is not Roman only, but Lutheran, Methodist, and Anglican. I have had Baptist ministers participate. We all bring something different and receive something different each time.
Please join the Way on Fridays at 3PM in the Memorial Garden during Lent.
Lenten Book Study for Teens and Tweens: Fever 1793
Fridays through April 13
This book study will be led by Becca Pote and targets our older youth in a coffee house setting for discussions around faith, service, and community. During our time together, we will explore topics and themes through plots and characters in the book. Text will be supplemented by scripture and ancillary materials such as graphic organizers, background on Absalom Jones and the Free African Society, historical maps, and the science of malaria contagion and treatment.
Overarching Themes for Exploration:
What does it mean to be a Christian?
What do we mean by “Love thy neighbor as thyself?”
How did Jesus model and talk about how we should treat others?
Topics for Discussion:
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Family
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Friendship
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Hope
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Suffering
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Maturity
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Responsibility
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Racism
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Class Divisions
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Societal Norms
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Disease
Materials: Individual copies of the book, approximately $7.99 apiece Copies of supporting materials
Timeline: We will meet for six sessions from March 9th through April 13th.
GRISWOLD FORUM
Sunday, March 23, 9:30am
Author Roger Pasquier to talk on new book Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep
We are pleased to present Roger Pasquier, ornithologist, conservationist and author, in a talk on his book Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep on Sunday, March 23. The talk will be part of our Griswold Forums, taking place in the Griswold Room at the church at 9:30.
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Pasquier will discuss the evolution and benefits of sleep, focusing on how birds find shelter, keep warm, and stay alert, and recent discoveries that some birds can spend weeks and months in the air, sleeping while in flight. More interesting facts that Pasquier will discuss: Did you know that birds sleep in short bouts of several seconds or a few minutes, waking up to look around for danger, and then going back to sleep? Also, to increase their vigilance, birds can sleep shutting off only half their brain and one eye at a time, leaving them able to respond instantly to any alarm. Human impacts like artificial light and noise as well as climate change, however, are changing how and where birds can get a good night’s rest.
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​Copies of Roger’s book, Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep, will be available for purchase. The author will sign all books.
Roger Pasquier is an associate in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History. He spoke at Saint Ann’s last September about his previous book, Birds in Winter: Surviving the Most Challenging Season. His career has been in ornithology and in conservation, at BirdLife International, World Wildlife Fund-US, Environmental Defense Fund, and National Audubon Society. He is the author of several books on art history and on birds, including Painting Central Park; Masterpieces of Bird Art: Seven Hundred Years of Ornithological Illustration; Birds in Winter, and, this year, Birds at Rest: The Behavior and Ecology of Avian Sleep. Roger is a native New Yorker. His favorite birding places are Central Park and the Peruvian rainforest.
Event Calendar
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