Mary and Martha Circle

The Mary and Martha Circle meets monthly in the homes of our members. We have time for friendship, fellowship, refreshments, Scripture reading, and prayer. Each month we are inspired and encouraged by guest speakers who inform us of new ways to live the Christian life in our home, church and community.

All women of the parish are invited to join and participate in the Mary and Martha Circle and and we look forward to having fun, growing and working together. Please call St. Peter's Church (850) 701-0664 or Norine Labitzke (850) 878-0645 for more information.

We have committed ourselves to three projects and we are proud of their successes.

  1. We support our two seminarians and their families, Townsend Waddill and David Adams. We pray for them daily and send them monthly CARE packages and news.

husband wife and child  woman and man in church

  1. Our second project is the Lemonade Brigade of St. Peter's. Every Sunday morning our circle members serve lemonade and coffee on the front lawn of the church between the services. This provides parishoners joyful opportunities for chat, fun, fellowship, and greeting newcomers. It also provides a visible sign to the passers by on busy Thomasville Road of the enthusiasm, spirit and life of St. Peter's.

  2. We have just begun our third major project, the Connections. This is to be a book of brief biographies of the members of our Circle. We hope it will help us to get to know each other better. We look forward to seeing it expand into the St. Peter's Parish Yellow Pages so that when we set out to let "our fingers do the walking" in search of a product of service we can check out the trusted providers from our parish membership first.

Our first Christmas handmade arts and crafts auction is being planned for 2007.

St. Peter's shield - small About the Mary and Martha Circle

The Mary and Martha Circle, (sometimes affectionately abbreviated to the M&Ms) began at St. Peter's Anglican Church in Tallahassee in 2006. We are a diverse group of women of all ages and backgrounds who share a commitment to Jesus Christ, our Church, our community and to each other.

We chose to name our circle Mary and Martha because these two women in the Bible aptly represent the diversity of our gifts, interests, and talents. Some Christian writers have seen Mary as representing Contemplation (prayer and devotion), and Martha as representing Action (good works, helping others); or love of God and love of neighbor respectively.

Martha is often regarded as a "homemaker" type of woman, concerned with household details and hopspitality. Mary often is seen as a more scholarly or spiritual woman, with a feminist personality. Martha lived her faith in her actions of serving others. However, she was distracted by the worries of the world. She allowed even her service to God to distract her from enjoying His presence in the person of Jesus. Martha serves as a warning to us to not get so caught up in the activities of serving God that we forget or are too busy to spend time with Him. As important as service is it can't take the place of relationships, with God and with people.

Mary's actions reveal her godly priorities. She sat at the feet of Jesus to learn from Him as His disciple. He was more important to her than her possessions, which she willingly gave for Him. She is a great example to us of someone with an unwavering focus on Jesus. Together they teach us the importance of balance in living the Christian life.