St. Martin's Episcopal Church

The St. Martin's Garden ministry, staffed by dedicated volunteers, works year round to grow fresh produce in a large garden plot on our parish grounds. The produce is then donated to Circle of Concern, a local food pantry that serve the western part of St. Louis County

St. Martin's Social Justice Committee  engages in study and education about social justice issues including immigration, prison reform, segregation and its ongoing legacy, among others. The Social Justice Committee organizes forums and opportunities for learning and engagement with other organizations within our area and within our diocese.

On the second Tuesday of each month from 4-7 pm, volunteers from St. Martin's meet at Winchester Cleaners  near our parish to offer fellowship and assistance to people in need of clean laundry. We come equipped with qursters, detergent, and lots of love.

Our Blessing Box in front of our parish is a registered Little Free Pantry. It is kept stocked with food, feminine and personal care supplies, school supplies, books, and seasonal items such as water in the summer and gloves and warm socks in the winter. It was built by one of our Scouts and is maintained by donations from the parish.

Our Narcan Box sits alongside our Blessing Box, made available on the same principle of making resources available to the community. As the scourge of opiod addiction continues to devastate all communities, without respect to age, race, or class, St. Martin's maintains this box with free doses of Narcan, which provides hope if administered to those overdosing to allow them to survive and be treated. Narcan will not harm anyone should they not be actually overdosing. At this time, this is one of the few Narcan Boxes in West County. Each box of Narcan contains two doses to counteract overdose. We are grateful to the Diocesan Recovery Minstry for providing the material, to Mr. Kevin Fitzgerald for building and installing the box, and for both our parishioners and Episcopal Recovery Minsitry for making the doses of Narcan available.

Everybody's Story Children's library has books for infants through young adults. These books seek to include EVERYONE's story: LGBTQ+,  Indigenous cultures, people of every ethnicity and of every ancestral background, youg and old, of al genders and eras. There are stories here to inspire everyone! Books are available to be checked out or used while at parish activities. Our collection keeps growing! Come check it out!

During the program year, our children's chapel seeks to engage our youngest members in learning about stories from scripture and tradition, with fun activities, snacks, and a music lesson each week. Children's chapel is led by volunteer teachers using a curriculum from Virginia Theological Seminary, and occurs after the Children's message at the start of the 10:30 am princpal service; children return after the announcmeents before Holy Communion. Children also get to demonstrate what they learn by sharing their musical gifts with the parish regularly. Attendance at children's chapel is strictly voluntary; children are welcome to remain in wroship with their families and use our soft space near the front of the nave, should that be preferred.

Children's chapel also sponsors Breakfast with St Nick on the Saturday nearest the Feast day of St. Nicholas on December 6, as well as Breakfast with the Bunny on a Saturday near the end of Lent-- see our website for more information.