Sundays
8:30am Worship Service, Rite 1
9:30am Bible Study in Griswold Room and via zoom
10:30am Sunday School (Godly Play)
10:30am Worship Service, Rite 2
Welcome to Saint Ann's 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.
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.
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.
Parish Goals
Grow deep and wide in the love or our Lord; deepen ministries within our parish and expand ministries beyond our parish.
Spread the love of God in Jesus Christ in all aspects of communication: in person, one to one; in print, signage, social media, and marketing.
Explore and put in place a “right sized” model for our parish. In all aspects of our common life, develop a plan to “live within our means.”
Save the Dates
Holy Week Schedule:
March 24 ~ Palm Sunday
8:30 am ~ Holy Eucharist Rite 2 with Blessing of the
Palms and Reading of the Passion
10:30 am ~ Holy Eucharist Rite 2 with choir, Blessing of the
Palms and Dramatic Reading of the Passion
March 26 ~ Morning Prayer
10:00 am ~ via Zoom
March 27 ~ Earth Tenebrae
3:00 pm ~ in the Memorial Garden
March 28 ~ Maundy Thursday Liturgy
3:00 pm ~ Creation Stations of the Cross
6:00 pm ~ Agape Meal (sign up in the Griswold Room)
7:00 pm ~ Holy Eucharist with choir, Washing of the Feet, Stripping of the Altar and dedication of new communion pottery
March 29 ~ Good Friday Liturgy
Noon ~ Good Friday Liturgy with choir and Reserved Sacrament
3:00 pm ~ Stations of the Cross
March 30 ~ Holy Saturday
5:00 pm in the Memorial Garden
7:00 pm The Great Vigil of Easter at St. John’s, Essex.
All are welcome.*
March 31 ~ Easter Day
6:00 am ~ Sunrise Service at the CT River Museum, Essex
6:15 am ~ Sunrise Service at Griswold Point, Old Lyme
8:30 am ~ Festival Eucharist Rite 2 with choir and brass
10:30 am ~ Festival Eucharist Rite 2 with choir and brass
April 1 ~ Easter Monday - OFFICE CLOSED
11:00 am ~ Holy Eucharist at Essex Meadows
Maundy Thursday Agape Meal
"A New Command I Give You: Love One Another."
Two thousand years haven't diminished the radical power of Jesus's commandment at that Last Supper. Agape is the Greek word for the love amongst us. It's a love that is selfless and accepts and serves others. As early Christians commemorated the last meal that Jesus shared with His disciples in the manner of their Judaic heritage, a Maundy Thursday Agape Meal allows us an opportunity to participate in this tradition and celebrate our beloved community.
Please join us on Thursday, March 28th, at 6:00 in the Griswold Room preceding the 7:00 service. (Sign up on the counter in the Griswold Room.) The meal is simple, reflecting the middle eastern foods of the first century. Soup, olives and cheese will be provided. We ask that each participant or family unit bring a loaf of bread to share in communal fellowship, and a non-perishable food to share our blessings with the Shoreline Soup Pantry.
The Great Vigil of Easter
March 30, 7:00 PM BEGINNING IN THE AMPHITHEATER
Elaborate and dramatic, this service utilizes all the senses as we recount salvation history and revel in the saving power of God’s great mercy. There will be incense at this service. The liturgy intended as the first (and arguably, the primary) celebration of Easter is also known as the Great Vigil. The service begins in darkness and consists of four parts: The Service of Light (kindling of new fire, lighting the Paschal candle, the Exsultet); The Service of Lessons (readings from the Hebrew Scriptures interspersed with canticles, and prayers); Christian Initiation (Holy Baptism) or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows; and the Eucharist.
Through this liturgy, the church recovers an ancient practice of keeping the Easter feast. You are also encouraged to bring bells of all kinds to ring out with joy at the Easter proclamation this night!
Lenten Book Study
Tuesdays, February 20 - March 26 from 4 to 5pm
If the Bible isn’t a science book, instruction manual, or position paper, then what is it? New York Times bestselling author Rachel Held Evans invites readers on a journey of rediscovery as she explores the magic of the Bible, engaging the old, familiar stories in new ways that honor the past and enlighten the present.
Drawing upon recent scholarship and literary analysis, Evans creatively retells our favorite Bible stories, explaining their contexts and possible interpretations, and then connects these ancient stories to our present-day ones. Using her well-honed literary instincts and experience in both evangelical and mainline Protestant traditions, Evans discovers a way of understanding that avoids noncommittal liberalism on one hand and strident literalism on the other.
Readers are invited to fall in love with Scripture all over again without checking their intellect--or their imaginations--at the door.
Lenten Book Study will be held Tuesdays, February 20 – March 26 from 4 to 5pm in the Griswold Room and via Zoom, led by Charlie Potts and Mother Anita. You may purchase a copy of Inspired for $12.50 by calling the parish office.
Mite Box Mission Project
We're hoping your mite box is heavy with coins. Perhaps you've been thankful for so many blessings, you've even had to tape up the sides! Well, mite box collection is just around the corner. Remember to bring your mite box to church on Easter Sunday where a large, cheerfully decorated basket will be located in the Narthex, ready to accept all of our donations.
Becca Pote, Jr. Warden
Swords to Plowshares Northeast
April 14 at Saint Ann's
We are pleased to host a presentation by the Right Revered James E. Curry about Swords to Plowshares on Sunday April 14 at 9:30 in the Griswold Room. Bishop Curry will also be presiding and preaching at both the 8:30 and the 10:30 services on April 14 at Saint Ann’s.
Sword to Plowshares Northeast is a non-profit organization based in New Haven, CT, that invites people to give in their guns to GiveBacks and BuyBacks and then in partnership with local police departments destroys the guns and transforms them into gardening tools and jewelry using traditional blacksmithing and woodturning skills.
Demonstration at noon! At noon that day, Bishop Curry will set up his forge in the parking lot of Saint Ann’s for a demonstration of how weapons are transformed into tools of life.
All are welcome to attend the talk, as well as the demonstration.
Bishop Curry was ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1985, retiring in 2014 as Bishop Suffragan of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, a position he held for 14 years. He is a founding member of Bishops United Against Gun Violence. He is convener for the Swords to Plowshares Ministry Network of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut and is a co-founder and Chief Blacksmith of Swords to Plowshares Northeast in New Haven. He works with faith communities and secular organizations throughout the Northeast to create public witness to challenge violence through the transformation of guns into garden tools, the expansion of community gardens, educational programs with youth empowerment programs, creative liturgy, the arts, and legislative advocacy.
Event Calendar
Click on an individual event for more details.