Messages from Rev. Dr. Barbara Elliott
November 2020 Reflection and Announcements
from The Rev. Dr. Barbara Elliott
Reflection
Hello on this Monday morning, the last day of November and the first week of Advent.
This past week during our Tuesday morning Bible Study, we were talking about how times are different this year. How now that we have gotten through the election, we are in this in-between time politically. And how, now that we have vaccines coming, we are in this in-between time as an economy, as families, as schools, as a church and regarding our own health. We are waiting. Last I heard we have several more months of this waiting.
As we come to these realizations, we are also in the church season of waiting: we are in Advent. Yesterday we lit the first candle of Advent, the candle that represents hope. And yes, we do need hope while we are waiting. Christmas will be as different for us this year as Thanksgiving has been, and perhaps healthier for us--? We can hope.
While we wait, it is important to know that ‘not everything is cancelled’…As Piglet from Winnie the Pooh has reminded us:
Sunshine is not cancelled
Love is not cancelled
Relationships are not cancelled
Naps are not cancelled
Devotion is not cancelled
Music is not cancelled
Dancing is not cancelled
Imagination is not cancelled
Kindness is not cancelled
Conversations are not cancelled
HOPE is not cancelled
May it be so… God’s blessings. –Barbara+
Announcements
November 16, 2020
Reflection
Good morning. It is Monday, November 16, and these are today’s Reflections and Announcements from St. Paul’s. This past week I was helping teach a college course, and as we concluded, I was invited to say something hopeful as we left the class and moved back into the world. It was interesting for me how that request left me pondering what I could say. As you all know, I am a hopeful and joyful person; this experience revealed that these days my optimism is stretched. Yes, I came up with something to say and closed the class, but I have been thinking about this since then.
Steven Charleston, a retired Bishop in Oklahoma who also worked as a younger priest in Minnesota, artfully described how we are living now*: “The heavy footsteps of hope are trying so hard to climb to higher ground, but are pulled down by the weight of growing numbers of human tears. These days will be remembered…for those who stepped forward to meet that pain, to heal it and to carry hope the last mile to mercy. Yes, we will weep over these dark days, but we will also celebrate and honor the heroes of this hour.” (*including my light edits)
These are times we reach deeply for our hope, remembering all we are grateful for, and thanking God each day for those who do essential work that we can continue. They bring us life and hope. They enact the love we are each called to, as we walk the Way of Love.
May we be love this week and bring love to all we meet along the way. This is how we know hope. AMEN
Announcements
November 9, 2020
Reflection
Good morning. Today is November 9, and yes, as I speak to you this morning, we do have a president (and vice-president)-elect. We have come through a unique election season, with strong partisan differences and conflicts. Whatever your politics, having the election behind us and a defined path moving forward is a relief for all.
These past weeks I have again recognized that most of the people I and we spend time with enjoy a lot of privilege. It is common to hear the advice that ‘now we need to be kind and keep living’ as we rebuild our relationships and communities. When I say, “I’ll wake up and just do what I have been doing”, it reflects my privilege—that I do not have to worry about my life. However, there are others around us who live on the edge. These folks have been and now are terrified of what is going to happen for them. Given COVID and the economy, their lives are literally hanging in the balance: no income, health insurance at risk, lots of illness in the community, and freedoms threatened. It is important that I—we—take a moment to think twice about this.
Yesterday in my sermon, I shared Bishop Loya’s suggestions that we can refill our lamps with prayer, speaking up, and getting involved to make needed changes. Those of us in our privileged space, need to speak up for those who are terrified and exhausted. Let us take these steps together, so we continue to create and walk the Way of Love. AMEN
Announcements
November 2, 2020
Reflection
Yesterday we celebrated All Saint’s Day, our annual Feast Day remembering those who have died before us—especially those who have died in the past twelve months. All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are Christian celebrations that were originally celebrated during summer months. Over time, other cultures influenced the timing of this important annual memorial.
The strongest influence on the scheduling of this celebration originated with the Irish Celts. Their festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-win) marked the beginning of the dark half of the year. Samhain was held on November 1 to honor the harvest and move the animals between pastures for protection from the elements. For the Celts, this was also the time when they had connection with the spirits of those who had died before; they identified these days as when the veil between the living and dead was particularly thin, so the spirits could be met, talked with, and appealed to for advice. It is also when otherworldly creatures—like fairies and leprechauns—were more likely to be active. Those who didn’t want to be contacted by the spirits actually wore costumes to avoid meeting their departed ancestors.
Many of these Celtic rituals were shared in common with the All Saint’s Day teachings brought by the Christian missionaries to Ireland. It is easy to see how the celebration, costumes, and connections with those who have gone before influenced each other and have become our annual Halloween, All Saint’s Day, and All Soul’s Day experiences between October 31 and November 2.
Whatever your beliefs and traditions, this history and our rituals bring us closer to those who have gone before us and our memories of times past. Today, these days we are preparing for our future in uncertain times. May our ancestors walk with us and protect us. AMEN
Announcements
Hello on this Monday morning, the last day of November and the first week of Advent.
This past week during our Tuesday morning Bible Study, we were talking about how times are different this year. How now that we have gotten through the election, we are in this in-between time politically. And how, now that we have vaccines coming, we are in this in-between time as an economy, as families, as schools, as a church and regarding our own health. We are waiting. Last I heard we have several more months of this waiting.
As we come to these realizations, we are also in the church season of waiting: we are in Advent. Yesterday we lit the first candle of Advent, the candle that represents hope. And yes, we do need hope while we are waiting. Christmas will be as different for us this year as Thanksgiving has been, and perhaps healthier for us--? We can hope.
While we wait, it is important to know that ‘not everything is cancelled’…As Piglet from Winnie the Pooh has reminded us:
Sunshine is not cancelled
Love is not cancelled
Relationships are not cancelled
Naps are not cancelled
Devotion is not cancelled
Music is not cancelled
Dancing is not cancelled
Imagination is not cancelled
Kindness is not cancelled
Conversations are not cancelled
HOPE is not cancelled
May it be so… God’s blessings. –Barbara+
Announcements
- What fun to light our own Advent Wreaths at home along with the wreath during our Sunday service in church! If you haven’t picked up your materials to prepare your own Advent Wreath, they are available in the McGiffert entrance, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm, through this week.
- Our annual Giving Tree is in the McGiffert entrance, too, with the decorations describing gifts for folks among our community partners. The paper decorations also include how to deliver the gift in a COVID-friendly way. Please take one with you to include them in our holidays.
- This week, we are beginning our Advent online sessions on Wednesday evenings at 6:00 pm for children and families, thanks to Joanne Erspamer and her elves. These recordings include a family video describing Advent preparation and food—like at our Advent festivals in the past. Also, each week a “Story with Mother Debra” will be part of the online session. Enjoy!
- We have so much to be grateful for as we settle into our Advent season. If you have not yet completed and returned your Pledge Card, please do, so that we can continue to build our future together.
- Thank you again for your ongoing support and gifting to St. Paul’s. As we move through December, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can pledge online, with text, or by mailing it to the Parish Office.
- Weekly online schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Advent Faith Formation for children and families
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline with Zoom check in
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Sunday: 10 am Worship Service and Zoom Coffee Hour
November 16, 2020
Reflection
Good morning. It is Monday, November 16, and these are today’s Reflections and Announcements from St. Paul’s. This past week I was helping teach a college course, and as we concluded, I was invited to say something hopeful as we left the class and moved back into the world. It was interesting for me how that request left me pondering what I could say. As you all know, I am a hopeful and joyful person; this experience revealed that these days my optimism is stretched. Yes, I came up with something to say and closed the class, but I have been thinking about this since then.
Steven Charleston, a retired Bishop in Oklahoma who also worked as a younger priest in Minnesota, artfully described how we are living now*: “The heavy footsteps of hope are trying so hard to climb to higher ground, but are pulled down by the weight of growing numbers of human tears. These days will be remembered…for those who stepped forward to meet that pain, to heal it and to carry hope the last mile to mercy. Yes, we will weep over these dark days, but we will also celebrate and honor the heroes of this hour.” (*including my light edits)
These are times we reach deeply for our hope, remembering all we are grateful for, and thanking God each day for those who do essential work that we can continue. They bring us life and hope. They enact the love we are each called to, as we walk the Way of Love.
May we be love this week and bring love to all we meet along the way. This is how we know hope. AMEN
Announcements
- Mother Debra has arrived in Duluth and moved into the lakeside home. Next Sunday, November 22, we will have a “Welcome Debra and John!” zoom following our service. Tune in at 11:00 am and meet them.
- We welcome Rachael Kresha as our organist and Tim Metcalfe as our videographer. You will see and hear their wonderful work this week and into the future!
- An invitation for those who are interested. You are invited to be part of the Duluth Transgender Day of Remembrance to be held virtually this Friday, November 20, at 7 pm. Please go to our webpage for information and the connection into the event.
- After carefully and joyfully recognizing God’s gifts, please complete and return your Pledge Cards before Thanksgiving so we can continue to build our future together.
- Thank you again for your ongoing support of St. Paul’s. As we move through the Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can submit your pledges online, by text, or by mailing a check to the office.
- Weekly online schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline with zoom check in
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Sunday: 10 am Sunday Service followed by Zoom Coffee Hour
November 9, 2020
Reflection
Good morning. Today is November 9, and yes, as I speak to you this morning, we do have a president (and vice-president)-elect. We have come through a unique election season, with strong partisan differences and conflicts. Whatever your politics, having the election behind us and a defined path moving forward is a relief for all.
These past weeks I have again recognized that most of the people I and we spend time with enjoy a lot of privilege. It is common to hear the advice that ‘now we need to be kind and keep living’ as we rebuild our relationships and communities. When I say, “I’ll wake up and just do what I have been doing”, it reflects my privilege—that I do not have to worry about my life. However, there are others around us who live on the edge. These folks have been and now are terrified of what is going to happen for them. Given COVID and the economy, their lives are literally hanging in the balance: no income, health insurance at risk, lots of illness in the community, and freedoms threatened. It is important that I—we—take a moment to think twice about this.
Yesterday in my sermon, I shared Bishop Loya’s suggestions that we can refill our lamps with prayer, speaking up, and getting involved to make needed changes. Those of us in our privileged space, need to speak up for those who are terrified and exhausted. Let us take these steps together, so we continue to create and walk the Way of Love. AMEN
Announcements
- This weekend there were some technical challenges with the Sunday service. Please know the service will again be available from Saturday noon on through our website, as well as on Facebook at 10:00 am Sunday morning.
- Since Tom Hamilton has left, we are welcoming Rachael Kresha as our organist and Timothy Metcalfe as our videographer. You will see and hear their wonderful work this week and into the future!
- Mother Debra has arrived in Duluth and moved into the home she and her husband will share in Lakeside. We are helping them get set up in their home, and they still need one more dresser for their clothes. Please contact Rita if you have one for them to use this year. Soon we will formally welcome her to St. Paul’s! Stay tuned.
- Our Messenger was emailed out October 30. I want to draw your attention to one of the articles (with pictures)—written by Craig Fellman about the repairs to our bell tower. Take a look! Yes, there is a big white wrapping around our bell tower—a package with lots happening inside of it! Enjoy.
- Thank you again for your ongoing support of St. Paul’s. As we move through the Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges online, by text, or by mailing a check to the Parish Office. Also, our Stewardship letters have been mailed, and pledge cards are to be returned by Thanksgiving. Please anticipate how you will support St. Paul’s as we build our future together.
- Weekly online schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Sunday: 10 am Worship Service
November 2, 2020
Reflection
Yesterday we celebrated All Saint’s Day, our annual Feast Day remembering those who have died before us—especially those who have died in the past twelve months. All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day are Christian celebrations that were originally celebrated during summer months. Over time, other cultures influenced the timing of this important annual memorial.
The strongest influence on the scheduling of this celebration originated with the Irish Celts. Their festival of Samhain (pronounced sow-win) marked the beginning of the dark half of the year. Samhain was held on November 1 to honor the harvest and move the animals between pastures for protection from the elements. For the Celts, this was also the time when they had connection with the spirits of those who had died before; they identified these days as when the veil between the living and dead was particularly thin, so the spirits could be met, talked with, and appealed to for advice. It is also when otherworldly creatures—like fairies and leprechauns—were more likely to be active. Those who didn’t want to be contacted by the spirits actually wore costumes to avoid meeting their departed ancestors.
Many of these Celtic rituals were shared in common with the All Saint’s Day teachings brought by the Christian missionaries to Ireland. It is easy to see how the celebration, costumes, and connections with those who have gone before influenced each other and have become our annual Halloween, All Saint’s Day, and All Soul’s Day experiences between October 31 and November 2.
Whatever your beliefs and traditions, this history and our rituals bring us closer to those who have gone before us and our memories of times past. Today, these days we are preparing for our future in uncertain times. May our ancestors walk with us and protect us. AMEN
Announcements
- Our Tom Hamilton will leave us and move to Germany a week from today. If you want to connect with him, please do so through the church during this week. Tom’s contact information will be available through our website and the office.
- We are looking forward to Advent which begins a month from now. As we plan, we are inviting help creating Advent wreath kits for families to pick up at church later this month. If you are interested in helping create these bags, please let Rita in the office know.
- Our Messenger was emailed out last Friday. I want to draw your attention to one of the articles (with pictures)—written by Craig Fellman about the repairs to our bell tower. Take a look! Yes, there is a big white wrapping around our bell tower—a package with lots happening inside of it! Enjoy.
- Thank you again for your on-going support of St. Paul’s. As we move through the Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledge online, by text, or by mailing a check to the office. Also, our Stewardship efforts are beginning; please anticipate how you will continue to support St. Paul’s as we build our future together.
- Weekly online schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Sunday: 10 am Worship Service
October 2020 Reflection and Announcements
from The Rev. Dr. Barbara Elliott
October 26, 2020
After being encouraged by some correspondence from our Bishop Craig Loya, I found myself making these observations:
Awe and wonder have been part of my life these past weeks. I have been amazed to see the variety of birds that have been moving through our part of the world as they hibernate south, and to watch our surroundings change with the season. Such amazing changes!
As I have observed my own awe watching the beauty of creation, some of the words in our baptismal liturgy come to mind. The prayer after the water is administered asks God to give us “. . .the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.” Yes, it is a gift!
Nonetheless, I also note, there are plenty of reasons for anxiety and despair these days. The world can be a hard place, and there are unending challenges in front of us.
And yet,
There are the birds.
There is the joy of children.
There is the beauty of our Lake.
There is the note that arrives from an old friend.
There is the excited dog greeting us at the end of a long day.
There are the quiet saints who reach out to keep our communities connected while we are physically apart.
There is the precious memory of a loving look or touch from a departed ancestor.
Everywhere around us, even with the uncertainty of the pandemic, the economy, and the election, God touches us with these moments of awe, pauses when we can notice God’s peace and love. I hope some of this awe catches you today. May it happen—it’s a remarkable thing to share with each other, too. AMEN
October 19, 2020
This past Saturday there were two zoomed funerals for people who have made a difference in Duluth. You likely know of Marilyn Bamford’s funeral which was through St Paul’s; the other was John Hawley’s, and it was celebrated through Peace Church. Both of these people improved the lives of us all—John began CHUM and multiple other community social safety nets; Marilyn worked one-person-at-a-time through her church work and her volunteer efforts at Safe Haven and Amberwing. It will be interesting to notice who steps forward into their shoes. We need to continue expanding Duluth’s efforts to care for all of its citizens.
How have these issues touched you? I have been thinking about all the people I may overlook during these difficult days. It is so easy for that to happen. As we are all distracted by the daily toll collected by the virus and as we are focused on the election process happening around us, it is no wonder that we can look away from the people in need who are always there.
So many people who live beneath the headlines. Single parents keep working hard. Bullied children wake up to a familiar pain. The lives of the poor continue in their struggle. The lonely watch the clock, and the hungry search for food.
Today, let’s take a moment to be aware of those who need us. Even in the midst of historic events: we have the chance to change another life for the better. Touching another’s life is walking the Way of Love. AMEN
[Thanks to Steve Charleston whose words echo in these thoughts, too…]
Announcements
After being encouraged by some correspondence from our Bishop Craig Loya, I found myself making these observations:
Awe and wonder have been part of my life these past weeks. I have been amazed to see the variety of birds that have been moving through our part of the world as they hibernate south, and to watch our surroundings change with the season. Such amazing changes!
As I have observed my own awe watching the beauty of creation, some of the words in our baptismal liturgy come to mind. The prayer after the water is administered asks God to give us “. . .the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.” Yes, it is a gift!
Nonetheless, I also note, there are plenty of reasons for anxiety and despair these days. The world can be a hard place, and there are unending challenges in front of us.
And yet,
There are the birds.
There is the joy of children.
There is the beauty of our Lake.
There is the note that arrives from an old friend.
There is the excited dog greeting us at the end of a long day.
There are the quiet saints who reach out to keep our communities connected while we are physically apart.
There is the precious memory of a loving look or touch from a departed ancestor.
Everywhere around us, even with the uncertainty of the pandemic, the economy, and the election, God touches us with these moments of awe, pauses when we can notice God’s peace and love. I hope some of this awe catches you today. May it happen—it’s a remarkable thing to share with each other, too. AMEN
- There are a couple of requests for pictures to be sent to Rita in the Office—both due before Wednesday of this week, October 28. First, please send a ‘selfie’ picture of your family to her. She will use it to create a new photo directory of us. The second picture request is related to our upcoming All Saints’ Day, November 1, 2020. We always recognize those who have died in the previous year in the church service on All Saints’. Please send the names (and a picture if you have one to share) of people in your life who have died this year to the office, so they can be part of that upcoming service.
- Early November is also when Tom Hamilton will leave us and move to Germany. We plan to honor his time at St. Paul’s and have a chance to say farewell at the zoom following the service next Sunday, on All Saint’s Day, November 1. Join us for these events! Tom’s contact information will also be available through our website and the office. The password for the zoom session is 1710, the street address of the church.
- We are looking forward to Advent which begins a month from now. As we plan, we are inviting help creating Advent wreath kits for families to pick up at church later this month. If you are interested in helping create these bags, please let Rita in the office know.
- Thank you again for your on-going support of St. Paul’s. As we move through the Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges using on-line, texting methods, or sending a check to the office. Also, our Stewardship efforts are beginning; please be anticipating how you will continue supporting St. Paul’s as we build our future together.
- Weekly online schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Sunday: 10 am Worship Service
October 19, 2020
This past Saturday there were two zoomed funerals for people who have made a difference in Duluth. You likely know of Marilyn Bamford’s funeral which was through St Paul’s; the other was John Hawley’s, and it was celebrated through Peace Church. Both of these people improved the lives of us all—John began CHUM and multiple other community social safety nets; Marilyn worked one-person-at-a-time through her church work and her volunteer efforts at Safe Haven and Amberwing. It will be interesting to notice who steps forward into their shoes. We need to continue expanding Duluth’s efforts to care for all of its citizens.
How have these issues touched you? I have been thinking about all the people I may overlook during these difficult days. It is so easy for that to happen. As we are all distracted by the daily toll collected by the virus and as we are focused on the election process happening around us, it is no wonder that we can look away from the people in need who are always there.
So many people who live beneath the headlines. Single parents keep working hard. Bullied children wake up to a familiar pain. The lives of the poor continue in their struggle. The lonely watch the clock, and the hungry search for food.
Today, let’s take a moment to be aware of those who need us. Even in the midst of historic events: we have the chance to change another life for the better. Touching another’s life is walking the Way of Love. AMEN
[Thanks to Steve Charleston whose words echo in these thoughts, too…]
Announcements
- There are a couple of requests for pictures to be sent to Rita in the Office. First, please send a ‘selfie’ picture of you or your family to her, ASAP. She will use it to create a new photo directory of us.
- The second picture request is related to our upcoming All Saints’ Day, November 1, 2020. We always recognize those who have died in the previous year in the church service on All Saints’. Please send the names (and a picture if you have one to share) of people in your life who have died this year to the office, so they can be part of that upcoming service. (must be received by Wednesday, October 28 to be included).
- Early November is also when Tom Hamilton will leave us and move to Germany. We plan to honor his time at St. Paul’s and have a chance to say farewell at the zoom following the service on All Saints’ Sunday, November 1. Join us for these events! Tom’s contact information will also be available through our website and the office.
- Thank you again for your ongoing support of St Paul’s. As we move through the Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges using online, text, or mailing a check to the Parish Office. Also, our Stewardship efforts are coming soon; please be anticipate how you will continue to support St. Paul’s as we build our future together.
- Weekly online schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Sunday: 10 am Worship Service
October 12, 2021
Good morning to you each on this October Monday morning. Yesterday, Sunday, as part of the sermon she gave, Dr. Liza Anderson talked about how Moses was the one who walked up the mountain and into the darkness to meet with God, while the others stayed below with Aaron and created an image of their imagined God. Liza also remarked that our meeting God is not easy and takes courage.
We are living in changed and challenging times—times that are in-between, and times when our relationships have had to change. This includes how God fits into the world: it is common to be questioning our relationship with God now, too. Is this true for you?
Some questions for you to ponder this week:
May God bless you with God’s presence and peace in these changed and challenging times. AMEN
Announcements
Good morning to you each on this October Monday morning. Yesterday, Sunday, as part of the sermon she gave, Dr. Liza Anderson talked about how Moses was the one who walked up the mountain and into the darkness to meet with God, while the others stayed below with Aaron and created an image of their imagined God. Liza also remarked that our meeting God is not easy and takes courage.
We are living in changed and challenging times—times that are in-between, and times when our relationships have had to change. This includes how God fits into the world: it is common to be questioning our relationship with God now, too. Is this true for you?
Some questions for you to ponder this week:
- Where have you recognized the divine in your life recently?
Place?
Pet?
Person?
Contemplation?
Nature?
Somewhere else? - Notice where the divine emerges into your awareness this week—and then tell someone about this experience.
May God bless you with God’s presence and peace in these changed and challenging times. AMEN
Announcements
- Our October Messenger has been delivered. There are a couple of places in the Messenger that request pictures be sent to Rita in the Parish Office. First, please send a ‘selfie’ picture of yourself or your family to her. She will use it to create a new photo directory of us.
- The second picture request is related to our upcoming All Saints’ Day, November 1, 2020. We always recognize those who have died in the previous year in the church service on All Saints’. Please send the names (and a picture if you have one to share) of people in your life who have died this year to the office, so they can be part of that upcoming service.
- Among the Messenger items is also more information about Reverend Debra Kissinger, our Interim Rector, who will join us in November. Enjoy her article about what Interim Ministry is all about—it is how we will transition to our Search process with her.
- You may have noticed the invitation to sign up for chores at church—a time we can be back in and around the building in very small numbers. This way we can keep the church prepared for our real return (when that can be...). This past weekend the kitchen and the front yard were being worked on—thank you!
- This next Saturday (October 17) we will be able to share Marilyn Bamford’s funeral using zoom. The zoom invitation will be available on the website and her CaringBridge site, and it will be followed by an online reception hosted by the Bamford family.
- Thank you again for your ongoing support of St. Paul’s. As we move through the Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges using online or text methods or by mailing a check to the office. Also, our Stewardship efforts are coming soon; please anticipate how you will continue to support St. Paul’s as we build our future together.
- Weekly online schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Sunday: 10 am Worship Service
October 5, 2020
Good morning to you each on this early October Monday morning. The past Saturday we blessed our animals in our drive-by community. I think we saw about 25 animals and their owners. Several of us were there—Margaret Thomas and I were blessing animals, Kathleen Halverson and Tanis were sharing treats, and others were there supporting us as well. Channel 6 came to interview (perhaps you saw it on their Saturday news broadcasts). In any case, it was lovely to connect again, if only among those of us who were able to bless each other with our presence.
I came across a Rainer Maria Rilke poem about Fall yesterday, which brought several emotions together for me. It offers windows for the end-of-day questions I often consider, especially if I have a chance to be talking with my grandchildren. I ask: What surprised you today? Then: What happened that made you feel hurt today? And the third questions: What are you grateful for now as we finish this day?
You might ask yourself those questions as well. In these uncertain times, I find them grounding—they allow me to recognize that despite the chaos around us, I am here, now, loving and encountering people and our dog. This is the poem:
Autumn
The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up,
As if orchards were dying high in space.
Each leaf falls as if it were motioning ‘no’.
And tonight the heavy earth is falling
away from all other stars in the loneliness.
We’re all falling. This hand here is falling.
And look at the other one. It’s in them all.
And yet there is Someone, whose hands
Infinitely calm, holding up all this falling.
Indeed, God is calm, sustaining us, and holding all this falling together. AMEN.
Announcements
Thank you again for your ongoing support of St. Paul’s. As we transition into Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges using online, texting, or mailing a check to the office. Information is online at www.stpaulsduluth.org
Good morning to you each on this early October Monday morning. The past Saturday we blessed our animals in our drive-by community. I think we saw about 25 animals and their owners. Several of us were there—Margaret Thomas and I were blessing animals, Kathleen Halverson and Tanis were sharing treats, and others were there supporting us as well. Channel 6 came to interview (perhaps you saw it on their Saturday news broadcasts). In any case, it was lovely to connect again, if only among those of us who were able to bless each other with our presence.
I came across a Rainer Maria Rilke poem about Fall yesterday, which brought several emotions together for me. It offers windows for the end-of-day questions I often consider, especially if I have a chance to be talking with my grandchildren. I ask: What surprised you today? Then: What happened that made you feel hurt today? And the third questions: What are you grateful for now as we finish this day?
You might ask yourself those questions as well. In these uncertain times, I find them grounding—they allow me to recognize that despite the chaos around us, I am here, now, loving and encountering people and our dog. This is the poem:
Autumn
The leaves are falling, falling as if from far up,
As if orchards were dying high in space.
Each leaf falls as if it were motioning ‘no’.
And tonight the heavy earth is falling
away from all other stars in the loneliness.
We’re all falling. This hand here is falling.
And look at the other one. It’s in them all.
And yet there is Someone, whose hands
Infinitely calm, holding up all this falling.
Indeed, God is calm, sustaining us, and holding all this falling together. AMEN.
Announcements
- Our October Messenger has been delivered. Among the items it includes is more information about Reverend Debra Kissinger, our Interim Rector, who will join us in November. Enjoy her article about what Interim Ministry is all about—it is how we will transition to our Search process.
- Also in the Messenger is the suggestion that we each send a ‘selfie’ picture to Rita in the office. She will use it to create a new photo directory of us for our Interim (and for all of us). Email it to [email protected] or mail a hard copy to the church.
- You may have noticed the invitation to sign up for chores at church—a time we can be back in the building in very small numbers. This way we can keep the church prepared for our real return (when that can be...). This past week end the kitchen and the front yard were being worked on—thank you!
- Also, November 1 is coming—and then we will be honoring All Saints’ Day. We always recognize those who have died in the previous year in the church service. Please send the names (and a picture if you have one to share) of people in your life who have died this year to the office, so they can be part of that upcoming service.
- Weekly online schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Sunday: 10 am Worship Service
Thank you again for your ongoing support of St. Paul’s. As we transition into Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges using online, texting, or mailing a check to the office. Information is online at www.stpaulsduluth.org
September 28, 2020 Reflection and Announcements
from The Rev. Dr. Barbara Elliott
Good morning—welcome to St. Paul’s Monday Reflections and Announcements, today, the 28th of September.
This past week end our new Bishop Loya presided over his first annual Episcopal Church in MN (ECMN) Convention. His sermon yesterday is worth listening to—go to ECMN’s webpage or Facebook page where it is posted.
Bishop Loya’s point, overall, is that our church is like a tree that is being challenged by an excruciating storm with health (pandemic), justice (Floyd George) and violence. Indeed, we are living all of our lives in this context.
Bishop Loya then observed that our way forward is to remember that we—you and I—are called to abide with Christ (from the day’s Gospel reading in John) as we live these days: to maintain our practices as we Walk the Way of Love. Each step. Each day.
Mother Teresa reminded us about how to do this when she said: “Our job is not to do great things. Our job is to do small things with Great Love.”
May it be so. God’s peace to you each through this week. —Reverend Barb
Announcements
Thank you again for your on-going support of St Paul’s. As we transition into Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges using online, texting methods, or mailing a check to the office. Information is online at www.stpaulsduluth.org
from The Rev. Dr. Barbara Elliott
Good morning—welcome to St. Paul’s Monday Reflections and Announcements, today, the 28th of September.
This past week end our new Bishop Loya presided over his first annual Episcopal Church in MN (ECMN) Convention. His sermon yesterday is worth listening to—go to ECMN’s webpage or Facebook page where it is posted.
Bishop Loya’s point, overall, is that our church is like a tree that is being challenged by an excruciating storm with health (pandemic), justice (Floyd George) and violence. Indeed, we are living all of our lives in this context.
Bishop Loya then observed that our way forward is to remember that we—you and I—are called to abide with Christ (from the day’s Gospel reading in John) as we live these days: to maintain our practices as we Walk the Way of Love. Each step. Each day.
Mother Teresa reminded us about how to do this when she said: “Our job is not to do great things. Our job is to do small things with Great Love.”
May it be so. God’s peace to you each through this week. —Reverend Barb
Announcements
- Reverend Debra Kissinger, our Interim Rector, will join us in November. She is coming from Massachusetts, and there is more information about her arrival in the Messenger this week.
- Next weekend, on Saturday, October 3, we will bless our animals! We celebrate St Francis day as Pet Blessing Day! Between 11:00 am-12:00 noon on Saturday morning, you are invited to bring your precious pets for a drive-by blessing. Bring them, or a picture of them, with you in your car to church on the Superior Street side. Rev. Margaret Thomas and I will be there to bless them.
- You may have noticed the invitation to sign up for chores at church—a time we can be back in the building in very small numbers. This way we can keep the church prepared for our real return (when that can be...). Some of the work will be cleaning up the dust in the Sanctuary from the Bell Tower work…
- The repairs on the Bell Tower continue too, as anticipated and scheduled. During weekdays, workers are removing the grout and mortar from between the stones, in preparation for new material that will keep the water outside.
- Weekly online schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Saturday: 9 am Community Connections
- Sunday: 10 am Service
Thank you again for your on-going support of St Paul’s. As we transition into Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges using online, texting methods, or mailing a check to the office. Information is online at www.stpaulsduluth.org
September 21, 2020 Reflection and Announcements
from The Rev. Dr. Barbara Elliott
Good morning—welcome to St. Paul’s Monday Reflections and Announcements.
We have had quite a week since we met last Monday, with some national losses we need to grieve. One is the death of supreme court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The other is that our country has now lost more than 200,000 lives due to COVID 19. Both of these milestones have been marked by our national church.
Our Presiding Bishop made these comments regarding RBG’s death:
“The late John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said, ‘while on earth God’s work must truly be our own.’ The sacred cause of liberty and justice, dignity and equality decreed by God and meant for all has been advanced because while on earth Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made God’s work her own. Because of her the ancient words of the prophet Micah to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God have found fulfillment. May we follow in her footprints. May she rest in the arms of the God who is love and the author of true justice.
Rest in Peace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Shalom. AMEN”
Regarding the deaths that are happening throughout the country, including here in St. Louis County, the Washington National Cathedral has responded as they described in this message:
“As our nation prepares to mark 200,000 lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington National Cathedral will toll its mourning bell 200 times -- once for every 1,000 dead -- on Sunday (Sept. 20) starting at 5 pm ET. We toll this 12-ton bell for every funeral held at the Cathedral. Funerals mourn the loss, but they also celebrate the lives of our loved ones and point us to the hope of resurrection. This gesture cannot replace the lives lost, but we hope it will help each American mourn the toll of this pandemic.
[Let us pray:]‘Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding: Deal graciously with those who mourn in their grief. Surround them with your love, that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your goodness, and strength to meet the days to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.’”
As I reflect on these days, I am also aware that we are now passing the Fall Equinox. Let us celebrate these days’ equal light and darkness, and as our light becomes less each day until December, may we sense God’s closeness in the darkness. AMEN
Announcements
We have an Interim Rector: Rev. Debra Kissinger will join us in November. She is coming from Massachusetts and there will be more information about her arrival in The Messenger.
October 3, Saturday, is Pet Blessing Day! We will have a 11:00 am drive-by Blessing for our precious pets. Drive your cars to Superior Street, in front of the church, with your pets—or bring a picture of them along. Rev. Margaret Thomas and I will be there to bless them.
You may have noticed the invitation to sign up for chores at church—a time we can be back in the building, keeping it prepared for our real return (when that can be...). Some of the work will be cleaning up the dust in the Sanctuary from the Bell Tower work.
The repairs on the Bell Tower continue too, as anticipated and scheduled. During weekdays, workers are removing the grout and mortar from between the stones, in preparation for new material that will keep the water outside.
Weekly on-line schedule:
from The Rev. Dr. Barbara Elliott
Good morning—welcome to St. Paul’s Monday Reflections and Announcements.
We have had quite a week since we met last Monday, with some national losses we need to grieve. One is the death of supreme court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The other is that our country has now lost more than 200,000 lives due to COVID 19. Both of these milestones have been marked by our national church.
Our Presiding Bishop made these comments regarding RBG’s death:
“The late John Fitzgerald Kennedy once said, ‘while on earth God’s work must truly be our own.’ The sacred cause of liberty and justice, dignity and equality decreed by God and meant for all has been advanced because while on earth Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made God’s work her own. Because of her the ancient words of the prophet Micah to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with God have found fulfillment. May we follow in her footprints. May she rest in the arms of the God who is love and the author of true justice.
Rest in Peace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Shalom. AMEN”
Regarding the deaths that are happening throughout the country, including here in St. Louis County, the Washington National Cathedral has responded as they described in this message:
“As our nation prepares to mark 200,000 lives lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington National Cathedral will toll its mourning bell 200 times -- once for every 1,000 dead -- on Sunday (Sept. 20) starting at 5 pm ET. We toll this 12-ton bell for every funeral held at the Cathedral. Funerals mourn the loss, but they also celebrate the lives of our loved ones and point us to the hope of resurrection. This gesture cannot replace the lives lost, but we hope it will help each American mourn the toll of this pandemic.
[Let us pray:]‘Most merciful God, whose wisdom is beyond our understanding: Deal graciously with those who mourn in their grief. Surround them with your love, that they may not be overwhelmed by their loss, but have confidence in your goodness, and strength to meet the days to come; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.’”
As I reflect on these days, I am also aware that we are now passing the Fall Equinox. Let us celebrate these days’ equal light and darkness, and as our light becomes less each day until December, may we sense God’s closeness in the darkness. AMEN
Announcements
We have an Interim Rector: Rev. Debra Kissinger will join us in November. She is coming from Massachusetts and there will be more information about her arrival in The Messenger.
October 3, Saturday, is Pet Blessing Day! We will have a 11:00 am drive-by Blessing for our precious pets. Drive your cars to Superior Street, in front of the church, with your pets—or bring a picture of them along. Rev. Margaret Thomas and I will be there to bless them.
You may have noticed the invitation to sign up for chores at church—a time we can be back in the building, keeping it prepared for our real return (when that can be...). Some of the work will be cleaning up the dust in the Sanctuary from the Bell Tower work.
The repairs on the Bell Tower continue too, as anticipated and scheduled. During weekdays, workers are removing the grout and mortar from between the stones, in preparation for new material that will keep the water outside.
Weekly on-line schedule:
- Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
- Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
- Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
- Thursday: 9 pm Compline
- Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
- Sunday: 10 am Service
Thank you again for your on-going support of St. Paul’s. As we transition into Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges online, texting or sending a check to the office. Information is online at stpaulsduluth.org
September 14, 2020 Reflection and Announcements
First, some thoughts in prayer and blessing as we all make our September transitions with school and schedule changes. Then, Announcements for the upcoming week… Reverend Barb
Back to School Blessings and Prayers
God of all wisdom, we praise you for gifting us with curiosity and learning. Give to all students, teachers and parents/caregivers a clear sense of your love. May they feel your presence throughout this school year. Guide their choices, their quest for knowledge, and their relationships.
For Students
To those who study, give curiosity, imagination, and patience to wait and work for insight. Fill their learning with joy. Help them to doubt with courage.
For Parents/Caregivers
We confess some days the worries of parenthood are as abundant as the joys. Guide us through the valleys, until we are all brought again to the mountaintop. May we always remember to pray: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference…
For Teachers and Educators
Grant our teachers an abundance of your wisdom. Prepare their hearts to welcome and love. Give them grace in their encounters, courage to face challenges, and strength when they feel weak. When they feel unseen, remind them we are overwhelmed with gratitude for the gifts they share with your children. May they see how their dedication forever impacts generations.
In blessing and with gratitude…AMEN
Announcements
September 14, 2020
First, some thoughts in prayer and blessing as we all make our September transitions with school and schedule changes. Then, Announcements for the upcoming week… Reverend Barb
Back to School Blessings and Prayers
God of all wisdom, we praise you for gifting us with curiosity and learning. Give to all students, teachers and parents/caregivers a clear sense of your love. May they feel your presence throughout this school year. Guide their choices, their quest for knowledge, and their relationships.
For Students
To those who study, give curiosity, imagination, and patience to wait and work for insight. Fill their learning with joy. Help them to doubt with courage.
For Parents/Caregivers
We confess some days the worries of parenthood are as abundant as the joys. Guide us through the valleys, until we are all brought again to the mountaintop. May we always remember to pray: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference…
For Teachers and Educators
Grant our teachers an abundance of your wisdom. Prepare their hearts to welcome and love. Give them grace in their encounters, courage to face challenges, and strength when they feel weak. When they feel unseen, remind them we are overwhelmed with gratitude for the gifts they share with your children. May they see how their dedication forever impacts generations.
In blessing and with gratitude…AMEN
Announcements
September 14, 2020
- Thank you again for your ongoing support of St. Paul’s. As we transition to Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges using online, texting or sending a check to the office. Information is online at stpaulsduluth.org/give
- Our Bell Tower continues its rehabilitation! You will see the scaffolding and its wrap in place when you visit or drive by the church, and our larger parking area is occupied by the contractors. A good time for this to be happening, since we are not using the building yet. There will be more coming about these efforts—our keeping the water out!—in the future, along with information about our Capital Campaign.
- Soon we will be able to announce more about our Interim Rector! In the next week the contracts will be finalized, and we can all know what to expect.
- If you are wanting to be in St. Paul’s again, watch for Buffy’s invitation to do bite-sized tasks, dusting the sanctuary, removing Prayer Books from the pews, and/or helping clean a particular space in the building you miss. We can all come in ones-and-twos to make a difference.
- Are you interested to help with Christian Formation/Sunday School? We are looking for volunteers to work with the children while we cannot be together—finding and promoting materials for the children and their families as they learn about our faith.
- Thanks to Tom Hamilton! Tom has taken on additional tasks recording and editing our online efforts! I personally am very grateful for his skills and energy—in addition to his amazing music efforts, too.
- Weekly online schedule:
Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
Thursday: 9 pm Compline
Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
Sunday: 10:00 am Service
September 14, 2020 Reflection and Announcements
First, some thoughts in prayer and blessing as we all make our September transitions with school and schedule changes. Then, Announcements for the upcoming week… Reverend Barb
Back to School Blessings and Prayers
God of all wisdom, we praise you for gifting us with curiosity and learning. Give to all students, teachers and parents/caregivers a clear sense of your love. May they feel your presence throughout this school year. Guide their choices, their quest for knowledge, and their relationships.
For Students
To those who study, give curiosity, imagination, and patience to wait and work for insight. Fill their learning with joy. Help them to doubt with courage.
For Parents/Caregivers
We confess some days the worries of parenthood are as abundant as the joys. Guide us through the valleys, until we are all brought again to the mountaintop. May we always remember to pray: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference…
For Teachers and Educators
Grant our teachers an abundance of your wisdom. Prepare their hearts to welcome and love. Give them grace in their encounters, courage to face challenges, and strength when they feel weak. When they feel unseen, remind them we are overwhelmed with gratitude for the gifts they share with your children. May they see how their dedication forever impacts generations.
In blessing and with gratitude…AMEN
Announcements
September 14, 2020
First, some thoughts in prayer and blessing as we all make our September transitions with school and schedule changes. Then, Announcements for the upcoming week… Reverend Barb
Back to School Blessings and Prayers
God of all wisdom, we praise you for gifting us with curiosity and learning. Give to all students, teachers and parents/caregivers a clear sense of your love. May they feel your presence throughout this school year. Guide their choices, their quest for knowledge, and their relationships.
For Students
To those who study, give curiosity, imagination, and patience to wait and work for insight. Fill their learning with joy. Help them to doubt with courage.
For Parents/Caregivers
We confess some days the worries of parenthood are as abundant as the joys. Guide us through the valleys, until we are all brought again to the mountaintop. May we always remember to pray: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference…
For Teachers and Educators
Grant our teachers an abundance of your wisdom. Prepare their hearts to welcome and love. Give them grace in their encounters, courage to face challenges, and strength when they feel weak. When they feel unseen, remind them we are overwhelmed with gratitude for the gifts they share with your children. May they see how their dedication forever impacts generations.
In blessing and with gratitude…AMEN
Announcements
September 14, 2020
- Thank you again for your ongoing support of St. Paul’s. As we transition to Fall, please continue your pledges and gifting to St. Paul’s. You can deliver your pledges using online, texting or sending a check to the office. Information is online at stpaulsduluth.org/give
- Our Bell Tower continues its rehabilitation! You will see the scaffolding and its wrap in place when you visit or drive by the church, and our larger parking area is occupied by the contractors. A good time for this to be happening, since we are not using the building yet. There will be more coming about these efforts—our keeping the water out!—in the future, along with information about our Capital Campaign.
- Soon we will be able to announce more about our Interim Rector! In the next week the contracts will be finalized, and we can all know what to expect.
- If you are wanting to be in St. Paul’s again, watch for Buffy’s invitation to do bite-sized tasks, dusting the sanctuary, removing Prayer Books from the pews, and/or helping clean a particular space in the building you miss. We can all come in ones-and-twos to make a difference.
- Are you interested to help with Christian Formation/Sunday School? We are looking for volunteers to work with the children while we cannot be together—finding and promoting materials for the children and their families as they learn about our faith.
- Thanks to Tom Hamilton! Tom has taken on additional tasks recording and editing our online efforts! I personally am very grateful for his skills and energy—in addition to his amazing music efforts, too.
- Weekly online schedule:
Monday: 9 am Reflection and Announcements
Tuesday: 9 am Bible Study via zoom
Wednesday: 6 pm Evening Prayer
Thursday: 9 pm Compline
Friday: 9 am Morning Prayer
Sunday: 10:00 am Service
Messages from our past Rector, Rev. Bill Van Oss
August 23, 2020 Message:
Let us pray,
God of love, I thank you for the blessing of serving as Rector of St. Paul’s for the past 14 years. I thank you for people who have faithfully come together for worship, learning, fellowship and outreach, who have embraced their baptismal covenant to seek and serve you in all persons, loving neighbor as self, and have strived for justice and peace as they respected the dignity of every human being. As our time together comes to a close, I ask you to bless the people of St. Paul’s, especially Nancy, Eirik, the Vestry, the staff, and other leaders, and to bless Sue, Luisa and I as we enter the next chapter of our lives. May we always cherish the memories and the love we shared with one another. In Jesus name we pray…. Amen
Reflection:
“Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices, who wonderous things has done, in whom his world rejoices; who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.”
Sue, Luisa and I want to thank those of you who came for the farewell drive-by yesterday afternoon. It was wonderful to see so many of you on a summer Sunday. We have been touched by your well-wishes in person and in emails, notes, texts, Facebook and calls. It has been a great 14 years together, and we pray that St. Paul’s continues to beacon of light in a sometimes dark world, a place where every person knows they are accepted and loved, a place where the Gospel is preached, taught and lived.
“O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us, to keep us in his grace, and guide us when perplexed, and free us from all ills in this world and the next.” God’s peace and blessings!
The Schedule for this Week:
Announcements:
Thank you to vestry member Buffy Helstrom who will be leading the safety team in making the determination about gatherings and worship during our current phase 1.5 of reopening. Indoor gatherings are still prohibited due to the infection rate in St. Louis county.
The scaffolding is complete! Our bell tower is being tuck pointed and the tower is surrounded by scaffolding. Please keep the workers in your prayers.
Outreach opportunities:
Loaves and Fishes is seeking winter gear, clothing and toiletries. Drop off at Dorothy Day: 11-1 or 5-7 Monday – Friday.
CHUM is looking for people to deliver meals. Call Ben: 605-690-7619 They are also looking for donations toward backpacks for students returning to school this fall. Check out chumduluth.org for more information. We are also still delivering sandwiches to the Steve O’Neil Apartments. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to participate.
Lifehouse needs adult toothbrushes, full size toothpaste and adult socks. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 102 West First Street
Northwoods needs recreational equipment, sunscreen, bug spray and small prizes. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 714 West College
More information about these and other outreach opportunities can be found on the Community Connections page of our website.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! Remember, you can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535.
We appreciate everyone striving to keep up with your pledge. Pledging is down compared to last year. We are sensitive to those experiencing financial hardship, and thank those who are able to step up during these uncertain and challenging times to support St. Paul’s.
Also, the recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
• Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
• Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
There will be EFM (Education for Ministry) courses offered this fall at St. Andrew’s. Check out the latest Messenger for details.
Masks are available for pickup or delivery. We want to be sure everyone has a mask. Contact the church office if you need one.
Be Safe and Well. +Bill
God of love, I thank you for the blessing of serving as Rector of St. Paul’s for the past 14 years. I thank you for people who have faithfully come together for worship, learning, fellowship and outreach, who have embraced their baptismal covenant to seek and serve you in all persons, loving neighbor as self, and have strived for justice and peace as they respected the dignity of every human being. As our time together comes to a close, I ask you to bless the people of St. Paul’s, especially Nancy, Eirik, the Vestry, the staff, and other leaders, and to bless Sue, Luisa and I as we enter the next chapter of our lives. May we always cherish the memories and the love we shared with one another. In Jesus name we pray…. Amen
Reflection:
“Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices, who wonderous things has done, in whom his world rejoices; who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.”
Sue, Luisa and I want to thank those of you who came for the farewell drive-by yesterday afternoon. It was wonderful to see so many of you on a summer Sunday. We have been touched by your well-wishes in person and in emails, notes, texts, Facebook and calls. It has been a great 14 years together, and we pray that St. Paul’s continues to beacon of light in a sometimes dark world, a place where every person knows they are accepted and loved, a place where the Gospel is preached, taught and lived.
“O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us, with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us, to keep us in his grace, and guide us when perplexed, and free us from all ills in this world and the next.” God’s peace and blessings!
The Schedule for this Week:
Announcements:
Thank you to vestry member Buffy Helstrom who will be leading the safety team in making the determination about gatherings and worship during our current phase 1.5 of reopening. Indoor gatherings are still prohibited due to the infection rate in St. Louis county.
The scaffolding is complete! Our bell tower is being tuck pointed and the tower is surrounded by scaffolding. Please keep the workers in your prayers.
Outreach opportunities:
Loaves and Fishes is seeking winter gear, clothing and toiletries. Drop off at Dorothy Day: 11-1 or 5-7 Monday – Friday.
CHUM is looking for people to deliver meals. Call Ben: 605-690-7619 They are also looking for donations toward backpacks for students returning to school this fall. Check out chumduluth.org for more information. We are also still delivering sandwiches to the Steve O’Neil Apartments. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to participate.
Lifehouse needs adult toothbrushes, full size toothpaste and adult socks. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 102 West First Street
Northwoods needs recreational equipment, sunscreen, bug spray and small prizes. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 714 West College
More information about these and other outreach opportunities can be found on the Community Connections page of our website.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! Remember, you can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535.
We appreciate everyone striving to keep up with your pledge. Pledging is down compared to last year. We are sensitive to those experiencing financial hardship, and thank those who are able to step up during these uncertain and challenging times to support St. Paul’s.
Also, the recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
• Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
• Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
There will be EFM (Education for Ministry) courses offered this fall at St. Andrew’s. Check out the latest Messenger for details.
Masks are available for pickup or delivery. We want to be sure everyone has a mask. Contact the church office if you need one.
Be Safe and Well. +Bill
August 17, 2020 Message:
Some of 1 Corinthians 12 for our prayer and reflection. St. Paul says this:
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot were to say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’, nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’ On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honourable we clothe with greater honour, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honour to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honoured, all rejoice together with it.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
And Thomas Merton says this:
“The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another.”
And Dr. Brené Brown defines connection as “the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.”
In next Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus tells Peter that Peter is the rock on which Jesus will build His church.
Peter? The one who just last week left the boat to venture our on the stormy sea only to panic and begin to sink. Peter? The one who misunderstood who Jesus was over and over again, the one to whom Jesus said “get behind me Satan.” Peter? The one who would deny Jesus three times when Jesus needed him most.
A few of important lessons about community and connectedness come through these passages from Paul, Merton, Brene Brown and Peter for me:
- God doesn’t need us to be perfect. God needs us to be faithful.
- Everyone has been given gifts for the building up of the kingdom. Our job is to recognize those gifts in ourselves, to point them out in others and to use them.
- Though we are physically apart for safety these days, we are spiritually connected. We are united by bonds of love.
Tuesday – Bible Study 9:00 a.m. Zoom link is on the website
Wednesday – Morning Prayer 9:00 a.m. on Facebook. Family Faith Time posted at noon.
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. Zoom fellowship following
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – Service at 10:00 a.m. (posted Saturday at noon) Zoom coffee hour to follow
Farewell!
Sue and I hope to see many of you at next Sunday’s farewell drive by. We will be on Superior Street on the corner of 17th and Superior. Drive up 17th Avenue. 2-5 pm.
Announcements:
Thank you to vestry member Buffy Helstrom who will be leading the safety team in making the determination about gatherings and worship during our current phase 1.5 of reopening. Indoor gatherings are still prohibited due to the infection rate in St. Louis county.
The scaffolding is complete! Our bell tower is being tuck pointed and the tower is surrounded by scaffolding. Please keep the workers in your prayers.
Outreach opportunities:
Loaves and Fishes is seeking winter gear, clothing and toiletries. Drop off at Dorothy Day: 11-1 or 5-7 Monday – Friday.
CHUM is looking for people to deliver meals. Call Ben: 605-690-7619 They are also looking for donations toward backpacks for students returning to school this fall. Check out chumduluth.org for more information. We are also still delivering sandwiches to the Steve O’Neil Apartments. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to participate.
Lifehouse needs adult toothbrushes, full size toothpaste and adult socks. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 102 West First Street
Northwoods needs recreational equipment, sunscreen, bug spray and small prizes. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 714 West College
More information about these and other outreach opportunities can be found on the Community Connections page of our website.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! Remember, you can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535.
We appreciate everyone striving to keep up with your pledge. Pledging is down compared to last year. We are sensitive to those experiencing financial hardship, and thank those who are able to step up during these uncertain and challenging times to support St. Paul’s.
Also, the recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
• Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
• Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
There will be EFM (Education for Ministry) courses offered this fall at St. Andrew’s. Check out the latest Messenger for details.
Masks are available for pickup or delivery. We want to be sure everyone has a mask. Contact the church office if you need one.
Be Safe and Well.
Bill
August 10, 2020 Message:
Prayer:
Almighty God, who are mother and father to us all,
Look upon your planet Earth divided.
Help us to know that we are all your children,
That all nations belong to one great family,
And that all of our religions lead to you.
Multiply our prayers in every land
Until the whole Earth becomes your congregation,
United in your love.
Sustain our vision of a peaceful future
And give us strength to work unceasingly
To make that vision real.
- Helen Weaver
Reflection:
Recently, Bishop Steve Charleston wrote this:
“It is not optimism that keeps me facing the future with confidence, but trust. Over many centuries my people have overcome great obstacles, survived great calamities, and endured great changes because they trusted in what they believed to be sacred. They trusted the Spirit. The test of their trust was often the test of their endurance. Life could be hard, but they never wavered in their faith that the Spirit would get them through to the other side. Like my ancestors I trust what I believe. These days are not easy. They test my faith and tempt me to give up, but nothing they confront me with will be able to shake me from my faith. I know that my ancestors are alive. I know that the Spirit is real. How can I help but look to the future with hope and confidence? Trust what you believe. Believe what you know. Know that you are loved by a Spirit who will never leave you. Face each day accordingly.”
Yesterday’s Gospel reading (Mt. ) was the story of the disciples caught in a great storm on the sea. Jesus came walking toward them on the water, and Peter doubted that it was Jesus (“Lord, if it is you”) and asked to be able to walk to Him on the water. Peter began to sink and cried out to be saved.
I suggested that the usual interpretation of that story, that Peter’s lack of faith made him unable to walk on water, might not be the only way to understand this passage. Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that Peter lacked faith, not in his water-walking abilities, but in the community. He should have stayed in the boat. He should have stayed with the community and kept pulling an oar until they found their way to Jesus together. The boat symbolizes the church. Instead of going off on his own, Peter would have been better off staying where he belonged, in the boat, with fellow disciples.
Bishop Steve is suggesting much the same thing in his reflection. Together, he and his people have faced mighty storms for many centuries and overcome them. They remain connected to ancestors, to each other, to the great Spirit, and together they are able to “face each day accordingly.” We are not alone on the stormy sea.
The Schedule for this Week:
Tuesday – Bible Study 9:00 a.m. Zoom link is on the website
Rev. Barb’s Book Group 6:00 pm
Wednesday – Morning Prayer 9:00 a.m. on Facebook. Family Faith Time posted at noon.
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. Zoom fellowship following
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings 9:00 a.m.
Saturday – Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – Service at 10:00 a.m. (posted Saturday at noon) Zoom coffee hour to follow
Announcements:
The scaffolding is almost complete! Our bell tower is going to be tuck pointed and the tower is surrounded by scaffolding. Please keep the workers in your prayers.
Bishop Craig and ECMN Missioner Canon Karen Olsen met with the vestry last week to discuss the transition process. Stay tuned for more information.
Outreach opportunities:
Loaves and Fishes is seeking winter gear, clothing and toiletries. Drop off at Dorothy Day: 11-1 or 5-7 Monday – Friday.
CHUM is looking for people to deliver meals. Call Ben: 605-690-7619 They are also looking for donations toward backpacks for students returning to school this fall. Check out chumduluth.org for more information. We are also still delivering sandwiches to the Steve O’Neil Apartments. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to participate.
Lifehouse needs adult toothbrushes, full size toothpaste and adult socks. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 102 West First Street
Northwoods needs recreational equipment, sunscreen, bug spray and small prizes. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 714 West College
More information about these and other outreach opportunities can be found on the Community Connections page of our website.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! Remember, you can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535.
We appreciate everyone striving to keep up with your pledge. Pledging is down compared to last year. We are sensitive to those experiencing financial hardship, and thank those who are able to step up during these uncertain and challenging times to support St. Paul’s.
Also, the recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
• Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
• Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
There will be EFM (Education for Ministry) courses offered this fall at St. Andrew’s. Check out the latest Messenger for details.
Rev. Barb’s Evening Bible Study group will be tomorrow, Tuesday evening, to discuss James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. Contact Barb for more details.
Masks are available for pickup or delivery. We want to be sure everyone has a mask. Contact the church office if you need one.
Be Safe and Well.
Bill
Almighty God, who are mother and father to us all,
Look upon your planet Earth divided.
Help us to know that we are all your children,
That all nations belong to one great family,
And that all of our religions lead to you.
Multiply our prayers in every land
Until the whole Earth becomes your congregation,
United in your love.
Sustain our vision of a peaceful future
And give us strength to work unceasingly
To make that vision real.
- Helen Weaver
Reflection:
Recently, Bishop Steve Charleston wrote this:
“It is not optimism that keeps me facing the future with confidence, but trust. Over many centuries my people have overcome great obstacles, survived great calamities, and endured great changes because they trusted in what they believed to be sacred. They trusted the Spirit. The test of their trust was often the test of their endurance. Life could be hard, but they never wavered in their faith that the Spirit would get them through to the other side. Like my ancestors I trust what I believe. These days are not easy. They test my faith and tempt me to give up, but nothing they confront me with will be able to shake me from my faith. I know that my ancestors are alive. I know that the Spirit is real. How can I help but look to the future with hope and confidence? Trust what you believe. Believe what you know. Know that you are loved by a Spirit who will never leave you. Face each day accordingly.”
Yesterday’s Gospel reading (Mt. ) was the story of the disciples caught in a great storm on the sea. Jesus came walking toward them on the water, and Peter doubted that it was Jesus (“Lord, if it is you”) and asked to be able to walk to Him on the water. Peter began to sink and cried out to be saved.
I suggested that the usual interpretation of that story, that Peter’s lack of faith made him unable to walk on water, might not be the only way to understand this passage. Barbara Brown Taylor suggests that Peter lacked faith, not in his water-walking abilities, but in the community. He should have stayed in the boat. He should have stayed with the community and kept pulling an oar until they found their way to Jesus together. The boat symbolizes the church. Instead of going off on his own, Peter would have been better off staying where he belonged, in the boat, with fellow disciples.
Bishop Steve is suggesting much the same thing in his reflection. Together, he and his people have faced mighty storms for many centuries and overcome them. They remain connected to ancestors, to each other, to the great Spirit, and together they are able to “face each day accordingly.” We are not alone on the stormy sea.
The Schedule for this Week:
Tuesday – Bible Study 9:00 a.m. Zoom link is on the website
Rev. Barb’s Book Group 6:00 pm
Wednesday – Morning Prayer 9:00 a.m. on Facebook. Family Faith Time posted at noon.
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. Zoom fellowship following
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings 9:00 a.m.
Saturday – Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – Service at 10:00 a.m. (posted Saturday at noon) Zoom coffee hour to follow
Announcements:
The scaffolding is almost complete! Our bell tower is going to be tuck pointed and the tower is surrounded by scaffolding. Please keep the workers in your prayers.
Bishop Craig and ECMN Missioner Canon Karen Olsen met with the vestry last week to discuss the transition process. Stay tuned for more information.
Outreach opportunities:
Loaves and Fishes is seeking winter gear, clothing and toiletries. Drop off at Dorothy Day: 11-1 or 5-7 Monday – Friday.
CHUM is looking for people to deliver meals. Call Ben: 605-690-7619 They are also looking for donations toward backpacks for students returning to school this fall. Check out chumduluth.org for more information. We are also still delivering sandwiches to the Steve O’Neil Apartments. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to participate.
Lifehouse needs adult toothbrushes, full size toothpaste and adult socks. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 102 West First Street
Northwoods needs recreational equipment, sunscreen, bug spray and small prizes. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 714 West College
More information about these and other outreach opportunities can be found on the Community Connections page of our website.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! Remember, you can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535.
We appreciate everyone striving to keep up with your pledge. Pledging is down compared to last year. We are sensitive to those experiencing financial hardship, and thank those who are able to step up during these uncertain and challenging times to support St. Paul’s.
Also, the recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
• Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
• Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
There will be EFM (Education for Ministry) courses offered this fall at St. Andrew’s. Check out the latest Messenger for details.
Rev. Barb’s Evening Bible Study group will be tomorrow, Tuesday evening, to discuss James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. Contact Barb for more details.
Masks are available for pickup or delivery. We want to be sure everyone has a mask. Contact the church office if you need one.
Be Safe and Well.
Bill
August 3, 2020 Message:
Prayer:
Almighty God, Source of all that is, Giver of every good gift: You create all people in your image and call us to love one another as you love us. We confess that we have failed to honor you in the great diversity of the human family. We have desired to live in freedom, while building walls between ourselves and others. We have longed to be known and accepted for who we are, while making judgements of others based on the color of skin, or the shape of features, or the varieties of human experience. We have tried to love our neighbors individually while yet benefitting from systems that hold those same neighbors in oppression. Forgive us, Holy God. Give us eyes to see you as you are revealed in all people. Strengthen us for the work of reconciliation rooted in love. Restore us in your image, to be beloved community, united in our diversity, even as you are one with Christ and the Spirit, Holy and undivided Trinity, now and for ever. Amen.
(created by a subcommittee of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music)
Reflection:
“Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?” (BCP p. 305) I was reminded of this baptismal vow as I listened to the tributes to John Lewis last week. A tireless worker for civil rights who stood up to the evils of racism and segregation, Congressman Lewis was not afraid to tie his work against racism with his faith. He said:
“The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.”
“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” (BCP p. 305). Another of our baptismal vows, reminds us that we bear the Divine image and are called to the way of love.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said this of the call to love in a 1967 address:
“When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: “Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God” [1 John 4:7].”
We, Christians, are equipped for the work of racial justice, reconciliation and healing. Following the way of love taught and lived by Jesus Christ, the way that inspired people like Dr. King and Congressman Lewis, we strive for justice and peace as we respect the dignity of every human being, loving, loving, loving our neighbor as ourselves. Dr. King’s monument in Washington DC remains unfinished because the work remains unfinished. Let us “do something,” each and every day, to understand and dismantle racism in all its ugly forms as we live Jesus’ way of love.
Announcements:
The scaffolding is going up! Our bell tower is going to be tuck pointed and the scaffolding is rising toward the heavens. Please keep the workers in your prayers.
Bishop Craig and ECMN Missioner Canon Karen Olsen have begun working with Nancy, Eirik and the vestry on the transition process. Stay tuned for more information.
Outreach opportunities:
Loaves and Fishes is seeking winter gear, clothing and toiletries. Drop off at Dorothy Day: 11-1 or 5-7 Monday – Friday.
CHUM is looking for people to deliver meals. Call Ben: 605-690-7619 They are also looking for donations toward backpacks for students returning to school this fall. Check out chumduluth.org for more information. We are also still delivering sandwiches to the Steve O’Neil Apartments. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to participate.
Lifehouse needs adult toothbrushes, full size toothpaste and adult socks. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 102 West First Street
Northwoods needs recreational equipment, sunscreen, bug spray and small prizes. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 714 West College
More information about these and other outreach opportunities can be found on the Community Connections page of our website.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! Remember, you can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535. We appreciate everyone striving to keep up with your pledge. Pledging is down compared to last year. We are sensitive to those experiencing financial hardship, and thank those who are able to step up during these uncertain and challenging times to support St. Paul’s.
Also, the recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
• Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
• Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
There will be EFM (Education for Ministry) courses offered this fall at St. Andrew’s. Check out the latest Messenger for details.
Rev. Barb’s Evening Bible Study group will be meeting Tuesday, August 11 to discuss James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. Contact Barb for more details.
Masks are available for pickup or delivery. We want to be sure everyone has a mask. Contact the church office if you need one.
Be Safe and Well.
Bill
Almighty God, Source of all that is, Giver of every good gift: You create all people in your image and call us to love one another as you love us. We confess that we have failed to honor you in the great diversity of the human family. We have desired to live in freedom, while building walls between ourselves and others. We have longed to be known and accepted for who we are, while making judgements of others based on the color of skin, or the shape of features, or the varieties of human experience. We have tried to love our neighbors individually while yet benefitting from systems that hold those same neighbors in oppression. Forgive us, Holy God. Give us eyes to see you as you are revealed in all people. Strengthen us for the work of reconciliation rooted in love. Restore us in your image, to be beloved community, united in our diversity, even as you are one with Christ and the Spirit, Holy and undivided Trinity, now and for ever. Amen.
(created by a subcommittee of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music)
Reflection:
“Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?” (BCP p. 305) I was reminded of this baptismal vow as I listened to the tributes to John Lewis last week. A tireless worker for civil rights who stood up to the evils of racism and segregation, Congressman Lewis was not afraid to tie his work against racism with his faith. He said:
“The civil rights movement was based on faith. Many of us who were participants in this movement saw our involvement as an extension of our faith. We saw ourselves doing the work of the Almighty. Segregation and racial discrimination were not in keeping with our faith, so we had to do something.”
“Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?” (BCP p. 305). Another of our baptismal vows, reminds us that we bear the Divine image and are called to the way of love.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said this of the call to love in a 1967 address:
“When I speak of love I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: “Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God” [1 John 4:7].”
We, Christians, are equipped for the work of racial justice, reconciliation and healing. Following the way of love taught and lived by Jesus Christ, the way that inspired people like Dr. King and Congressman Lewis, we strive for justice and peace as we respect the dignity of every human being, loving, loving, loving our neighbor as ourselves. Dr. King’s monument in Washington DC remains unfinished because the work remains unfinished. Let us “do something,” each and every day, to understand and dismantle racism in all its ugly forms as we live Jesus’ way of love.
Announcements:
The scaffolding is going up! Our bell tower is going to be tuck pointed and the scaffolding is rising toward the heavens. Please keep the workers in your prayers.
Bishop Craig and ECMN Missioner Canon Karen Olsen have begun working with Nancy, Eirik and the vestry on the transition process. Stay tuned for more information.
Outreach opportunities:
Loaves and Fishes is seeking winter gear, clothing and toiletries. Drop off at Dorothy Day: 11-1 or 5-7 Monday – Friday.
CHUM is looking for people to deliver meals. Call Ben: 605-690-7619 They are also looking for donations toward backpacks for students returning to school this fall. Check out chumduluth.org for more information. We are also still delivering sandwiches to the Steve O’Neil Apartments. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to participate.
Lifehouse needs adult toothbrushes, full size toothpaste and adult socks. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 102 West First Street
Northwoods needs recreational equipment, sunscreen, bug spray and small prizes. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 714 West College
More information about these and other outreach opportunities can be found on the Community Connections page of our website.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! Remember, you can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535. We appreciate everyone striving to keep up with your pledge. Pledging is down compared to last year. We are sensitive to those experiencing financial hardship, and thank those who are able to step up during these uncertain and challenging times to support St. Paul’s.
Also, the recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
• Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
• Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
There will be EFM (Education for Ministry) courses offered this fall at St. Andrew’s. Check out the latest Messenger for details.
Rev. Barb’s Evening Bible Study group will be meeting Tuesday, August 11 to discuss James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time. Contact Barb for more details.
Masks are available for pickup or delivery. We want to be sure everyone has a mask. Contact the church office if you need one.
Be Safe and Well.
Bill
July 27, 2020 Message:
Monday Message July 27 - Prayer
O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our sister Sue Meyer. We thank you for giving her to us, her family and friends, to know and to love as a companion on our earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth, until, by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Reflection
My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and make melody. Wake up, my spirit; awake, lute and harp; I myself will waken the dawn. I will confess you among the peoples, O Lord; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your loving-kindness is greater than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. (Psalm 108: 1-4)
This morning I will lead a graveside service for our dear friend and parishioner Sue Meyer. Tom Hamilton and I were discussing the service and he suggested this psalm as fitting for Sue. It most certainly is fitting. Sue loved music and singing in the choir. She sang God’s praises for decades in her life here in this world, and she is now singing God’s praises in the heavenly kingdom.
Obviously, one of the most difficult things about this pandemic and our church building being closed is not being able to gather for worship. Under ordinary circumstances, we would gather to tell the story of Jesus’ victory over death, celebrate Sue’s share in that victory, sing hymns like Beautiful Savior and O God Our Help in Ages Past and receive communion as a foretaste and promise of the life to come. Then we would gather in the parish hall for storytelling, fellowship and food.
Don’t get me wrong, the gathering of immediate family today will be meaningful, but limited. Our worship unites us with God and each other. It gives us a chance to support family in their time of grief and loss and remember that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” During this time it is important to remember that even a COVID quarantine cannot separate us from God and one another. We are united with bonds of love. Let us hang on to this truth, as we make our way through these days of physical separation and take every opportunity to reach out and support those who might be struggling, especially with loneliness, grief and loss.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible Study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning Prayer 9:00 a.m. Family Faith Time Beginning at noon
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. with Zoom gathering to follow
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! At 9:00 a.m.
Saturday – Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – Worship at 10:00 a.m. (service available beginning Saturday at noon) Zoom coffee hour to follow worship
Many thanks to everyone who helped with Virtual Bible School last week, especially our youth. VBS is available for viewing here. All ages will enjoy the music, stories and activities.
The scaffolding is going up! Our bell tower is going to be tuck pointed and the scaffolding is rising toward the heavens. Please keep the workers in your prayers.
Bishop Craig and ECMN Missioner Canon Karen Olson have begun working with Nancy, Eirik and the vestry on the transition process. Stay tuned for more information.
Outreach opportunities:
Loaves and Fishes is seeking winter gear, clothing and toiletries. Drop off at Dorothy Day: 11-1 or 5-7 Monday – Friday.
CHUM is looking for people to deliver meals. Call Ben: 605-690-7619
Lifehouse needs adult toothbrushes, full size toothpaste and adult socks. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 102 West First Street
Northwoods needs recreational equipment, sunscreen, bug spray and small prizes. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 714 West College
More information about these and other outreach opportunities can be found on the Community Connections page of our website.
With the governor’s order requiring masks in all public places - remember we have masks available for pick up in the church office or for delivery. Contact Rita 724-3535 for masks.
Becoming Beloved Community NOW gathers leaders for action
Online July 28-30
Racial justice and healing leaders and practitioners across The Episcopal Church will gather to build community, craft strategy, and equip each other for action during a series of “Becoming Beloved Community NOW” online gatherings at 3-5pm Central on July 28-30. Convened by the Presiding Officers’ Advisory Group on Beloved Community Implementation, the gatherings will focus on three urgent themes:
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and President of the House of Deputies Gay Clark Jennings will offer prayer and reflections throughout the sessions. Becoming Beloved Community NOW is open to the public. Register here to attend one, two, or all three gatherings.
Be Safe and Well,
Bill
O God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our sister Sue Meyer. We thank you for giving her to us, her family and friends, to know and to love as a companion on our earthly pilgrimage. In your boundless compassion, console us who mourn. Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence we may continue our course on earth, until, by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Reflection
My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and make melody. Wake up, my spirit; awake, lute and harp; I myself will waken the dawn. I will confess you among the peoples, O Lord; I will sing praises to you among the nations. For your loving-kindness is greater than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. (Psalm 108: 1-4)
This morning I will lead a graveside service for our dear friend and parishioner Sue Meyer. Tom Hamilton and I were discussing the service and he suggested this psalm as fitting for Sue. It most certainly is fitting. Sue loved music and singing in the choir. She sang God’s praises for decades in her life here in this world, and she is now singing God’s praises in the heavenly kingdom.
Obviously, one of the most difficult things about this pandemic and our church building being closed is not being able to gather for worship. Under ordinary circumstances, we would gather to tell the story of Jesus’ victory over death, celebrate Sue’s share in that victory, sing hymns like Beautiful Savior and O God Our Help in Ages Past and receive communion as a foretaste and promise of the life to come. Then we would gather in the parish hall for storytelling, fellowship and food.
Don’t get me wrong, the gathering of immediate family today will be meaningful, but limited. Our worship unites us with God and each other. It gives us a chance to support family in their time of grief and loss and remember that “neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” During this time it is important to remember that even a COVID quarantine cannot separate us from God and one another. We are united with bonds of love. Let us hang on to this truth, as we make our way through these days of physical separation and take every opportunity to reach out and support those who might be struggling, especially with loneliness, grief and loss.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible Study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning Prayer 9:00 a.m. Family Faith Time Beginning at noon
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. with Zoom gathering to follow
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! At 9:00 a.m.
Saturday – Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – Worship at 10:00 a.m. (service available beginning Saturday at noon) Zoom coffee hour to follow worship
Many thanks to everyone who helped with Virtual Bible School last week, especially our youth. VBS is available for viewing here. All ages will enjoy the music, stories and activities.
The scaffolding is going up! Our bell tower is going to be tuck pointed and the scaffolding is rising toward the heavens. Please keep the workers in your prayers.
Bishop Craig and ECMN Missioner Canon Karen Olson have begun working with Nancy, Eirik and the vestry on the transition process. Stay tuned for more information.
Outreach opportunities:
Loaves and Fishes is seeking winter gear, clothing and toiletries. Drop off at Dorothy Day: 11-1 or 5-7 Monday – Friday.
CHUM is looking for people to deliver meals. Call Ben: 605-690-7619
Lifehouse needs adult toothbrushes, full size toothpaste and adult socks. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 102 West First Street
Northwoods needs recreational equipment, sunscreen, bug spray and small prizes. Drop off 10-5 weekdays at 714 West College
More information about these and other outreach opportunities can be found on the Community Connections page of our website.
With the governor’s order requiring masks in all public places - remember we have masks available for pick up in the church office or for delivery. Contact Rita 724-3535 for masks.
Becoming Beloved Community NOW gathers leaders for action
Online July 28-30
Racial justice and healing leaders and practitioners across The Episcopal Church will gather to build community, craft strategy, and equip each other for action during a series of “Becoming Beloved Community NOW” online gatherings at 3-5pm Central on July 28-30. Convened by the Presiding Officers’ Advisory Group on Beloved Community Implementation, the gatherings will focus on three urgent themes:
- Truth - Telling the truth about participation in white supremacy and racial oppression. (Tuesday, July 28)
- Justice - Changing racist systems, especially “criminal” justice and public health/COVID response. (Wednesday, July 29)
- Healing - Breaking free of white supremacy via training and formation (Thursday, July 30).
Presiding Bishop Michael Curry and President of the House of Deputies Gay Clark Jennings will offer prayer and reflections throughout the sessions. Becoming Beloved Community NOW is open to the public. Register here to attend one, two, or all three gatherings.
Be Safe and Well,
Bill
July 20, 2020 Message:
A Prayer for Our Uncertain Times
May we who are merely inconvenienced remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home remember those who must choose between preserving their health and making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips remember those who have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at home remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country, let us choose love.
And during this time when we may not be able to physically wrap our arms around each other, let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors. Amen.
- Written by Rev. Dr. William J Barber II
Morning Reflection:
You have likely heard that I have accepted the call to become the next rector at St. Michael and All Angels Church on Sanibel Island Florida. I feel incredibly blessed and excited to begin this next chapter of ministry. Sue and I deeply appreciate all the thoughtful and heartfelt emails, texts, Facebook posts and calls last week. We have truly felt God’s guidance on every step of our discernment journey. We are also grateful for 14 years of ministry at St. Paul’s.
Bishop Craig has already been in touch with wardens Nancy Schuldt and Eirik Rennan. ECMN missioners will be working with the vestry to secure an interim rector and begin the search for a new rector. These kinds of transitions require lots of time and energy. I encourage you to keep looking for ways to jump in and help out.
We remain in phase 1.5 of our phases of reopening. This means the church building remains closed. Small, outdoor gatherings with masks and safe physical distancing are allowed.
This is Virtual Bible School Week! Even if you didn’t pick up a box, you are welcome to watch the videos that will be posted Monday – Thursday at 8:00 a.m. on Facebook and on our website. All ages will enjoy the music, stories and fun activities built around our theme: “Who is our Neighbor?”
From our Friends at Loaves & Fishes
Loaves and Fishes is one of several organizations that coordinates an annual event called Community Connect. This event, which often draws 300+ people, is typically hosted at the Damiano Center and is a one day event for low income folks to access a number of different services at one place at one time. Some of the services available include: housing advocacy, DV services, haircuts, foot care, flu shots, insurance navigators, warrant resolutions, voter registration, assistance with birth certificates/id, a warm meal, toiletries/winter gear give away, etc. Obviously, in light of COVID-19, this year's Community Connect event will look very different. Our current plan is to host a scaled-down event in the parking lot of the Damiano Center on September 17th. Despite many unknowns, we do know that this year we would really like to put an emphasis on winter and camping gear distribution, especially as many drop-in shelter spaces now have limited hours and space.
Collecting donations is also much more complicated this year as the Domiano has temporarily stopped accepting donations. We have secured a storage space off-site to safely sort and store donations until the day event. We are now looking to the Duluth community to help us collect winter gear and toiletries. One simple way to help is to share with members of your congregation that Loaves & Fishes is looking for donations of new/slightly used tents, tarps, sleeping bags, boots, coats, hats, mittens, & scarves. We are also collecting socks, tooth brushes, toothpaste chapstick, nail clippers, soap, deodorant, and hand warmers. Donations can be accepted at Dorothy Day House (1712 Jefferson Street) Monday to Saturday from 11:00-1:00 or from 5:00-7:00, call (218)724-2054 and a volunteer will meet you at your car. All donations are needed by September 7th at the latest. Monetary donations for Community Connect can be made out to Damiano with Community Connect in the memo.
And From our Friends at CHUM
CHUM is looking for volunteers to deliver meals to individuals who have been moved from the shelter to the Downtown Duluth Inn on 2nd Avenue West (formerly the Best Western). They are there because they are in vulnerable group either due to health concerns or age. It is a wonderful opportunity to serve and spread kindness and love. If you are interested in serving and learning more please contact Ben Margeson at[email protected] or 605-690-7619.
The Schedule for this Week
Virtual Bible School: Monday – Thursday 8:00 a.m. on our website and Facebook
Tuesday – Bible Study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning Prayer 9:00 a.m.
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. Zoom fellowship to follow
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings 9:00 a.m.
Saturday – Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. Worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers happy to make deliveries.
Be Safe and Well,
Bill
May we who are merely inconvenienced remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home remember those who must choose between preserving their health and making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips remember those who have no safe place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at home remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country, let us choose love.
And during this time when we may not be able to physically wrap our arms around each other, let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors. Amen.
- Written by Rev. Dr. William J Barber II
Morning Reflection:
You have likely heard that I have accepted the call to become the next rector at St. Michael and All Angels Church on Sanibel Island Florida. I feel incredibly blessed and excited to begin this next chapter of ministry. Sue and I deeply appreciate all the thoughtful and heartfelt emails, texts, Facebook posts and calls last week. We have truly felt God’s guidance on every step of our discernment journey. We are also grateful for 14 years of ministry at St. Paul’s.
Bishop Craig has already been in touch with wardens Nancy Schuldt and Eirik Rennan. ECMN missioners will be working with the vestry to secure an interim rector and begin the search for a new rector. These kinds of transitions require lots of time and energy. I encourage you to keep looking for ways to jump in and help out.
We remain in phase 1.5 of our phases of reopening. This means the church building remains closed. Small, outdoor gatherings with masks and safe physical distancing are allowed.
This is Virtual Bible School Week! Even if you didn’t pick up a box, you are welcome to watch the videos that will be posted Monday – Thursday at 8:00 a.m. on Facebook and on our website. All ages will enjoy the music, stories and fun activities built around our theme: “Who is our Neighbor?”
From our Friends at Loaves & Fishes
Loaves and Fishes is one of several organizations that coordinates an annual event called Community Connect. This event, which often draws 300+ people, is typically hosted at the Damiano Center and is a one day event for low income folks to access a number of different services at one place at one time. Some of the services available include: housing advocacy, DV services, haircuts, foot care, flu shots, insurance navigators, warrant resolutions, voter registration, assistance with birth certificates/id, a warm meal, toiletries/winter gear give away, etc. Obviously, in light of COVID-19, this year's Community Connect event will look very different. Our current plan is to host a scaled-down event in the parking lot of the Damiano Center on September 17th. Despite many unknowns, we do know that this year we would really like to put an emphasis on winter and camping gear distribution, especially as many drop-in shelter spaces now have limited hours and space.
Collecting donations is also much more complicated this year as the Domiano has temporarily stopped accepting donations. We have secured a storage space off-site to safely sort and store donations until the day event. We are now looking to the Duluth community to help us collect winter gear and toiletries. One simple way to help is to share with members of your congregation that Loaves & Fishes is looking for donations of new/slightly used tents, tarps, sleeping bags, boots, coats, hats, mittens, & scarves. We are also collecting socks, tooth brushes, toothpaste chapstick, nail clippers, soap, deodorant, and hand warmers. Donations can be accepted at Dorothy Day House (1712 Jefferson Street) Monday to Saturday from 11:00-1:00 or from 5:00-7:00, call (218)724-2054 and a volunteer will meet you at your car. All donations are needed by September 7th at the latest. Monetary donations for Community Connect can be made out to Damiano with Community Connect in the memo.
And From our Friends at CHUM
CHUM is looking for volunteers to deliver meals to individuals who have been moved from the shelter to the Downtown Duluth Inn on 2nd Avenue West (formerly the Best Western). They are there because they are in vulnerable group either due to health concerns or age. It is a wonderful opportunity to serve and spread kindness and love. If you are interested in serving and learning more please contact Ben Margeson at[email protected] or 605-690-7619.
The Schedule for this Week
Virtual Bible School: Monday – Thursday 8:00 a.m. on our website and Facebook
Tuesday – Bible Study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning Prayer 9:00 a.m.
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. Zoom fellowship to follow
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings 9:00 a.m.
Saturday – Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. Worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers happy to make deliveries.
Be Safe and Well,
Bill
Monday Message is on hiatus for July 6 and 13 and will return on July 20.
June 29, 2020 Message:
Prayer:
God our healer, you promise to be with us and never leave us alone. Send the breath of new life into those who suffer with the COVID-19 virus; relieve the pain of those who suffer from cancer; mend minds that suffer depression or other psychological maladies comfort those for whom death draws near. We give you thanks and praise for healthcare and other frontline workers who face danger in their daily task of caring. Protect them and grant them comfort in the knowledge that their work is not done in vain. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen
Reflection:
At a recent Zoom clergy gathering, The Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers encouraged us to learn, pray and act as we continue to do the important work of understanding and dismantling racism. In trying to deepen my own learning, I am reading Ibram X. Kendi’s book: How to Be an Antiracist. Kendi explains being an “antiracist” this way:
“What’s the problem with being “not racist?” It is a claim that signifies neutrality; “I am not a racist, but neither am I aggressively against racism.” But there is no neutrality in the racism struggle. The opposite of “racist” isn’t “not racist.” It is “anti-racist.” What’s the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an antiracist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an antiracist. There is no in-between safe space of “not racist.” The claim of “not racist” neutrality is a mask for racism. This may seem harsh, but it’s important at the outset that we apply one of the core principles of antiracism, which is to return the world “racist” itself back to its proper usage. “Racist” is not- as Richard Spencer argues- a pejorative. It is not the worst word in the English language; it is not the equivalent of a slur. It is descriptive, and the only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it- and then dismantle it. The attempt to turn this usefully descriptive term into an almost unusable slur is, of course, designed to do the opposite; to freeze us into inaction.” (p. 9)
Lake Superior Day Service – Sunday, July 19 is our annual celebration of Lake Superior Day. We are collecting video snippets of “what Lake Superior means to me” for the service. Record a brief video with your reflection and your face(s) and send it to [email protected]
Announcing an All ages chalk art show around the theme Called to the Way of Love.
Create some chalk art on your sidewalk or driveway and take a picture of it so we can create a virtual chalk art show to share and include in a future worship service. Prizes will be awarded too! Any age can participate; there was sidewalk chalk in many of the family activity bags that were distributed a couple weeks ago. Let your creativity go and spread love to the world! Email those pictures to [email protected]
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
Evening – Check In 7:00 pm
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. recorded Sunday service (available anytime after noon on Saturday)
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:40am.
Notes and Reminders:
Wednesday evening Check In – There will be a Zoom gathering this Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm for those who would like to check in. How are you doing? Has this time of physical distancing taught you anything about yourself? Where have you seen God at work in your life or in the lives of others?
Topic: Check in Gathering
Time: Jul 1, 2020 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83764178642
Wilderness Time from Faith+Lead at Luther Seminary, this week:
Session 4: The Gospel in the Neighborhood
Webinar: June 30 | FB Live: July 2 | Podcast: July 7
We don’t know how to share and receive the gospel with neighbors who might be discovering God for themselves. How might we speak authentically of faith and listen for God’s voice in surprising people and places?
The COVID pandemic has pushed churches beyond comfort and opened up new relationships with our neighbors online and in person. Many churches are surprised to discover just how few people are familiar with our insider-language. Many others find the real test is learning to listen deeply to our neighbors and not just talk at them. How do we build the bridge and trust that God’s voice shows up in people and places we least expect … including in us? With guests Nancy Frausto, associate rector at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach, CA, and evangelism consultant to The Episcopal Church; and Stephanie Williams, co-lead pastor of Mill City Church in Minneapolis.
Register here: https://faithlead.luthersem.edu/resources/podcasts/wilderness-time-podcast/
Barb Elliott’s evening book study will be meeting online on July 14 to discuss the book: The Lynchings in Duluth by Michael Fedo. Contact Barb if you would like information about how to join.
We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. Small, outdoor gatherings are now being allowed. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office. Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org As our bishop-elect said recently: “While we are separated from our buildings, we know that our churches are not closed.”
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make
deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week.
Peace, Bill
God our healer, you promise to be with us and never leave us alone. Send the breath of new life into those who suffer with the COVID-19 virus; relieve the pain of those who suffer from cancer; mend minds that suffer depression or other psychological maladies comfort those for whom death draws near. We give you thanks and praise for healthcare and other frontline workers who face danger in their daily task of caring. Protect them and grant them comfort in the knowledge that their work is not done in vain. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen
Reflection:
At a recent Zoom clergy gathering, The Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers encouraged us to learn, pray and act as we continue to do the important work of understanding and dismantling racism. In trying to deepen my own learning, I am reading Ibram X. Kendi’s book: How to Be an Antiracist. Kendi explains being an “antiracist” this way:
“What’s the problem with being “not racist?” It is a claim that signifies neutrality; “I am not a racist, but neither am I aggressively against racism.” But there is no neutrality in the racism struggle. The opposite of “racist” isn’t “not racist.” It is “anti-racist.” What’s the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an antiracist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an antiracist. There is no in-between safe space of “not racist.” The claim of “not racist” neutrality is a mask for racism. This may seem harsh, but it’s important at the outset that we apply one of the core principles of antiracism, which is to return the world “racist” itself back to its proper usage. “Racist” is not- as Richard Spencer argues- a pejorative. It is not the worst word in the English language; it is not the equivalent of a slur. It is descriptive, and the only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it- and then dismantle it. The attempt to turn this usefully descriptive term into an almost unusable slur is, of course, designed to do the opposite; to freeze us into inaction.” (p. 9)
Lake Superior Day Service – Sunday, July 19 is our annual celebration of Lake Superior Day. We are collecting video snippets of “what Lake Superior means to me” for the service. Record a brief video with your reflection and your face(s) and send it to [email protected]
Announcing an All ages chalk art show around the theme Called to the Way of Love.
Create some chalk art on your sidewalk or driveway and take a picture of it so we can create a virtual chalk art show to share and include in a future worship service. Prizes will be awarded too! Any age can participate; there was sidewalk chalk in many of the family activity bags that were distributed a couple weeks ago. Let your creativity go and spread love to the world! Email those pictures to [email protected]
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
Evening – Check In 7:00 pm
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. recorded Sunday service (available anytime after noon on Saturday)
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:40am.
Notes and Reminders:
Wednesday evening Check In – There will be a Zoom gathering this Wednesday evening at 7:00 pm for those who would like to check in. How are you doing? Has this time of physical distancing taught you anything about yourself? Where have you seen God at work in your life or in the lives of others?
Topic: Check in Gathering
Time: Jul 1, 2020 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83764178642
Wilderness Time from Faith+Lead at Luther Seminary, this week:
Session 4: The Gospel in the Neighborhood
Webinar: June 30 | FB Live: July 2 | Podcast: July 7
We don’t know how to share and receive the gospel with neighbors who might be discovering God for themselves. How might we speak authentically of faith and listen for God’s voice in surprising people and places?
The COVID pandemic has pushed churches beyond comfort and opened up new relationships with our neighbors online and in person. Many churches are surprised to discover just how few people are familiar with our insider-language. Many others find the real test is learning to listen deeply to our neighbors and not just talk at them. How do we build the bridge and trust that God’s voice shows up in people and places we least expect … including in us? With guests Nancy Frausto, associate rector at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach, CA, and evangelism consultant to The Episcopal Church; and Stephanie Williams, co-lead pastor of Mill City Church in Minneapolis.
Register here: https://faithlead.luthersem.edu/resources/podcasts/wilderness-time-podcast/
Barb Elliott’s evening book study will be meeting online on July 14 to discuss the book: The Lynchings in Duluth by Michael Fedo. Contact Barb if you would like information about how to join.
We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. Small, outdoor gatherings are now being allowed. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office. Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org As our bishop-elect said recently: “While we are separated from our buildings, we know that our churches are not closed.”
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make
deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
- Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
- Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week.
Peace, Bill
June 22, 2020 Message:
Patient Trust by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability – and that it may take a very long time. And so, I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don't try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
Are you going through a portal or down a hole?
Message from White Eagle,
Hopi indigenous.
“This moment humanity is going through can now be seen as a portal and as a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the portal is up to you. If you consume the news 24 hours a day, with little energy, nervous all the time, with pessimism, you will fall into the hole. But if you take this opportunity to look at yourself, rethink life and death, take care of yourself and others, you will cross the portal.
Take care of your homes, take care of your body. Connect with your spiritual House. When you are taking care of yourselves, you are taking care of everything else. Do not lose the spiritual dimension of this crisis; have the eagle aspect from above and see the whole; see more broadly.
There is a social demand in this crisis, but there is also a spiritual demand - the two go hand in hand. Without the social dimension, we fall into fanaticism. But without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and lack of meaning. You were prepared to go through this crisis. Take your toolbox and use all the tools available to you.
Learn about the resistance of the indigenous and African peoples; we have always been, and continue to be, exterminated. But we still haven't stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire, and having fun. Don't feel guilty about being happy during this difficult time.
You do not help at all being sad and without energy. You help if good things emanate from the Universe now. It is through joy that one resists.
Also, when the storm passes, each of you will be very important in the reconstruction of this new world. You need to be well and strong. And for that, there is no other way than to maintain a beautiful, happy, and bright vibration. This has nothing to do with alienation.
This is a resistance strategy. In shamanism, there is a rite of passage called the quest for vision. You spend a few days alone in the forest, without water, without food, without protection. When you cross this portal, you get a new vision of the world, because you have faced your fears, your difficulties.
This is what is asked of you:
Allow yourself to take advantage of this time to perform your vision-seeking rituals. What world do you want to build for you?
For now, this is what you can do:
serenity in the storm.
Calm down, pray every day.
Establish a routine to meet the sacred every day.
Good things emanate; what you emanate now is the most important thing.
And Sing, Dance, Resist Through Art, Joy, Faith, and Love."
Announcements for the Week:
ECMN Youth was yesterday, June 21st, I’m asking every member of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota who is able to, to make a donation of $7 to the Brian N. Prior Youth Scholarship Fund, so that we can reach our goal of raising $160,000 this year. Those dollars, particularly in this challenging economic time, will help us make our camp and retreat programs available to even more young people as we move forward into the future and continue to expand our impact. Thank you so much for your generosity and all your support of ECMN youth programs
The Rt. Rev. Craig Loya, X Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota
Announcing an All ages chalk art show around the theme Called to the Way of Love.
Create some chalk art on your sidewalk or driveway and take a picture of it so we can create a virtual chalk art show to share and include in a future worship service. Prizes will be awarded too! Any age can participate; there was sidewalk chalk in many of the family activity bags that were distributed a couple weeks ago. Let your creativity go and spread love to the world!
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
Evening Adult Reflection
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. recorded Sunday service (available anytime after noon on Saturday)
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am.
Notes and Reminders:
Many thanks to Bishop Craig Loya for being with us via recorded sermon and for coffee hour yesterday! You can see the recorded service and sermon on our website if you missed it.
Vacation Bible School – please let Sue know by this Wednesday if you would like a Vacation Bible School in a box. This Thursday, there is a Zoom meeting for teens interested in being on the leadership team for VBS.
Wilderness Time from Faith+Lead at Luther Seminary, this week:
Session 3: In Solidarity with guest Kelly Brown Douglas
Webinar: June 23 | FB Live: June25 | Podcast: June 30
We don’t know how to prioritize gifts and leadership from the underside. Especially in a time when the most vulnerable are suffering disproportionately, how might we ensure the church doesn’t get more balkanized around race and class?
As we reckon with COVID-19 and systemic racism - two pandemics that ravage communities of color – mainline churches are struggling with our historic complicity with structures of power and oppression. How can churches and individuals grow in solidarity with suffering communities, and reclaim Christianity’s liberating vocation, so that all of God’s children flourish? With guest Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Theology at Union. An ordained Episcopal priest and popular speaker, she is the author of many articles and five books, including Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God.
Register here: https://faithlead.luthersem.edu/resources/podcasts/wilderness-time-podcast/
We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office.
Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org As our bishop-elect said recently: “While we are separated from our buildings, we know that our churches are not closed.”
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week.
Peace, Bill
Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability – and that it may take a very long time. And so, I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don't try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow. Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.
Are you going through a portal or down a hole?
Message from White Eagle,
Hopi indigenous.
“This moment humanity is going through can now be seen as a portal and as a hole. The decision to fall into the hole or go through the portal is up to you. If you consume the news 24 hours a day, with little energy, nervous all the time, with pessimism, you will fall into the hole. But if you take this opportunity to look at yourself, rethink life and death, take care of yourself and others, you will cross the portal.
Take care of your homes, take care of your body. Connect with your spiritual House. When you are taking care of yourselves, you are taking care of everything else. Do not lose the spiritual dimension of this crisis; have the eagle aspect from above and see the whole; see more broadly.
There is a social demand in this crisis, but there is also a spiritual demand - the two go hand in hand. Without the social dimension, we fall into fanaticism. But without the spiritual dimension, we fall into pessimism and lack of meaning. You were prepared to go through this crisis. Take your toolbox and use all the tools available to you.
Learn about the resistance of the indigenous and African peoples; we have always been, and continue to be, exterminated. But we still haven't stopped singing, dancing, lighting a fire, and having fun. Don't feel guilty about being happy during this difficult time.
You do not help at all being sad and without energy. You help if good things emanate from the Universe now. It is through joy that one resists.
Also, when the storm passes, each of you will be very important in the reconstruction of this new world. You need to be well and strong. And for that, there is no other way than to maintain a beautiful, happy, and bright vibration. This has nothing to do with alienation.
This is a resistance strategy. In shamanism, there is a rite of passage called the quest for vision. You spend a few days alone in the forest, without water, without food, without protection. When you cross this portal, you get a new vision of the world, because you have faced your fears, your difficulties.
This is what is asked of you:
Allow yourself to take advantage of this time to perform your vision-seeking rituals. What world do you want to build for you?
For now, this is what you can do:
serenity in the storm.
Calm down, pray every day.
Establish a routine to meet the sacred every day.
Good things emanate; what you emanate now is the most important thing.
And Sing, Dance, Resist Through Art, Joy, Faith, and Love."
Announcements for the Week:
ECMN Youth was yesterday, June 21st, I’m asking every member of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota who is able to, to make a donation of $7 to the Brian N. Prior Youth Scholarship Fund, so that we can reach our goal of raising $160,000 this year. Those dollars, particularly in this challenging economic time, will help us make our camp and retreat programs available to even more young people as we move forward into the future and continue to expand our impact. Thank you so much for your generosity and all your support of ECMN youth programs
The Rt. Rev. Craig Loya, X Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Minnesota
Announcing an All ages chalk art show around the theme Called to the Way of Love.
Create some chalk art on your sidewalk or driveway and take a picture of it so we can create a virtual chalk art show to share and include in a future worship service. Prizes will be awarded too! Any age can participate; there was sidewalk chalk in many of the family activity bags that were distributed a couple weeks ago. Let your creativity go and spread love to the world!
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
Evening Adult Reflection
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. recorded Sunday service (available anytime after noon on Saturday)
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am.
Notes and Reminders:
Many thanks to Bishop Craig Loya for being with us via recorded sermon and for coffee hour yesterday! You can see the recorded service and sermon on our website if you missed it.
Vacation Bible School – please let Sue know by this Wednesday if you would like a Vacation Bible School in a box. This Thursday, there is a Zoom meeting for teens interested in being on the leadership team for VBS.
Wilderness Time from Faith+Lead at Luther Seminary, this week:
Session 3: In Solidarity with guest Kelly Brown Douglas
Webinar: June 23 | FB Live: June25 | Podcast: June 30
We don’t know how to prioritize gifts and leadership from the underside. Especially in a time when the most vulnerable are suffering disproportionately, how might we ensure the church doesn’t get more balkanized around race and class?
As we reckon with COVID-19 and systemic racism - two pandemics that ravage communities of color – mainline churches are struggling with our historic complicity with structures of power and oppression. How can churches and individuals grow in solidarity with suffering communities, and reclaim Christianity’s liberating vocation, so that all of God’s children flourish? With guest Kelly Brown Douglas, Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Theology at Union. An ordained Episcopal priest and popular speaker, she is the author of many articles and five books, including Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God.
Register here: https://faithlead.luthersem.edu/resources/podcasts/wilderness-time-podcast/
We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office.
Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org As our bishop-elect said recently: “While we are separated from our buildings, we know that our churches are not closed.”
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
- Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
- Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week.
Peace, Bill
June 15, 2020 MessageFor the Human Family (BCP p. 815)
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Today we commemorate the lynchings of Isaac McGhie, Elmer Jackson and Elias Clayton. They took place 100 years ago in downtown Duluth. I encourage you to visit the memorial site or the website https://claytonjacksonmcghie.org/ sometime this week. It is difficult to remember such atrocities, to imagine the terror those men experienced, to see the picture of the executioners smiling… But as the quote at the memorial says: “an event has happened, upon which it is difficult to speak and impossible to remain silent” (Edmund Burke). The goal of remembering and acknowledging the injustice is to see that events such as these never happen again. So many people just stood by. If only some had stepped up and intervened. The Albert Einstein quote at the memorial says it well: “The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” It is not lost on us, Christians, that Jesus was executed while the cheering mobs stood by. I want to offer a few ways to help explain lynching to children. I mentioned the word in my sermon yesterday, (my sermon is about nothing is impossible with God) and they might hear it come up in the news, on social media, in your family, etc. Lynching is the execution (killing) of a person by the people of an area without the use of a court trial. (https://wiki.kidzsearch.com/wiki/Lynching) Here is an article about how a 4 year old learned about lynching when their family visited the new memorial in Montgomery Alabama; https://www.the74million.org/article/the-first-word-my-4-year-old-learned-this-summer-was-lynching-why-i-thought-it-was-important-to-take-my-preschooler-to-montgomery/. I’d encourage families to visit the CJM Memorial at some point this summer. The quotes etched on the walls can spark very good conversations; and here is a guide to the memorial which gives all the quotes and discussion questions. I used one of the quotes (“Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other”- Euripides) https://claytonjacksonmcghie.org//wp-content/uploads/2014/08/disc_guide-2-1.pdf It’s never too early to talk about race, justice, treating others fairly, and love with children. It’s never too early for our children to learn about history; the good and bad of it, so that the harmful, unjust ways of the past will not be repeated and love will be our mark on the history we make today. The Schedule for this Week Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m. Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live “Family Faith Time” program posted at noon, Evening Adult Reflection Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m. Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m. Sunday – 10:00 a.m. recorded worship service, Bishop Craig Loya preaching followed by Zoom coffee hour with Bishop Craig Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section. Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever via the comments section. ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am. Notes and Reminders: Next Sunday Bishop Craig Loya will be with us via recorded sermon and coffee hour! Make plans now to view and service and join in for Zoom coffee hour. Wilderness Time Series: Faith+Lead at Luther Seminary is offering a series entitled “Wilderness Time.” Session 2: The Church Scattered Webinar: June 16 | FB Live: June 18 | Podcast: June 23We know how to go to church (i.e., the building), but we struggle to be the church (i.e., the people of God on the move). How might we rethink church as a network of distributed communities living Jesus’s Way of Love? We’ve focused “being church” on gathering in consecrated buildings for rituals led by consecrated people. Now that is disrupted--and will likely be so for some time. What does it mean for the church to be dispersed across our cities, towns, and villages in local neighborhoods and homes? How can we equip and empower people to be church in their homes, local places and daily lives? What might we learn about how to rethink church as a network of distributed micro-communities living Jesus’s Way of Love in relationship with their neighbors? With guests Michael Beck, director of re-missioning for Fresh Expressions US and co-pastor of Wildwood United Methodist Church in Wildwood Florida, and Katie Nakamura Rengers, staff officer for church planting, The Episcopal Church, and former vicar of The Abbey in Birmingham, Alabama. Register here: https://faithlead.luthersem.edu/resources/podcasts/wilderness-time-podcast/ Join the Interfaith Committee for Migrant Justice on June 20, 2020 at 4 pm at the Statue of Liberty replica near the DECC in Duluth, MN for a rally and prayer vigil for: Building Solidarity and Kindness In Our Community. You may join any of 4 car caravans at the following locations and times: Chambers Grove Park: 3 pm; Piedmont School Parking lot: 3 pm; Parking lot at the end of Park Point: 3:15 pm; East High School Parking Lot (lower level): 3:15 pm. Posters and other information will be available at these sites and at the vigil site. You may also go directly to the vigil site directly (350 Harbor Dr, Duluth, MN and park in the DECC parking lot). If showing any signs of COVID19, please stay home and pray for our event. For those attending, please observe social distancing, wear a mask when at the caravan start point/vigil/rally. Speakers at the DECC gathering will represent the cultural diversity of the Twin Ports. Native American, Christian, Muslim and Jewish faith leaders will offer prayers for asylum seekers, migrants, refugees, and others facing discrimination in our country. Please join us as we remember asylum seekers and migrants as well as celebrating the contributions, creativity, and resilience of refugees on this World Refugee Day, June 20. We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office. Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org As our bishop-elect said recently: “While we are separated from our buildings, we know that our churches are not closed.” Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details. Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535 Also: The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service. Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries. Be safe and well and have a great week. Peace, Bill June 8, 2020 MessageLet us Pray:
Almighty God, Source of all that is, Giver of every good gift: You create all people in your image and call us to love one another as you love us. We confess that we have failed to honor you in the great diversity of the human family. We have desired to live in freedom, while building walls between ourselves and others. We have longed to be known and accepted for who we are, while making judgments of others based on the color of skin, or the shape of features, or the varieties of human experience. We have tried to love our neighbors individually while yet benefiting from systems that hold those same neighbors in oppression. Forgive us, Holy God. Give us eyes to see you as you are revealed in all people. Strengthen us for the work of reconciliation rooted in love. Restore us in your image, to be beloved community, united in our diversity, even as you are one with Christ and the Spirit, Holy and undivided Trinity, now and for ever. Amen (SCLM Prayers for Racial Justice and Reconciliation) Monday Reflection: What can I do? That’s the question we have all been asking in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and so many others Last week, clergy and parish leaders from ECMN had a gathering with The Rev. Canon Stephanie Spellers and three other staff from the national church to learn about responding to racist violence as the people of God. Then, on Wednesday evening I offered a Zoom gathering for parishioners to talk and listen. Through these conversations, and much ongoing soul searching, I keep coming back to the same theme. Our calling, as Christians, is always the same. We are called to love. We ask the question: what would love do? The first step in the Way of Love is to “turn.” We are called to turn inward for some deep soul searching on our attitudes and prejudices. We are called to turn outward and to commit to learn, pray and act for justice. From Canon Spellers resources: What does LOVE look like, for a faithful individual? Among other things … TELL the truth when it's tempting to be quiet SEEK the stories of people who are different from you, especially those from the underside (and amplify those stories) ACT and speak in ways that bring life, instead of tearing others down to build yourself up REPAIR what has been broken in your own life and community, as well as in our society and institutions (It doesn't matter if you broke it; you can be part of healing.) We have many more excellent anti-racism resources under the “serve” tab on our website, including resources from the national church. I encourage you to take the first step of “learn” by looking at those resources. What else can we do?
The Schedule for this Week Today: A Conversation; The Duluth Lynchings 100 Years Later, Monday, June 8 2pm Special Zoom gathering for parents at 6:30pm. A link was sent to parents last week. Tuesday – My Bible study 9:00 a.m., Barb Elliott’s Bible study 6:30 pm Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live “Family Faith Time” program posted at noon, Evening Adult Reflection Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m. Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m. Sunday – 10:00 a.m. recorded worship service followed by Zoom coffee hour Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section. Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever it works for you! It will still be premiered at 10am on Facebook with the ability to interact via the comments section. ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am since we have streamlined the service format. Notes and Reminders: The Consecration of the Very Rev. Craig Loya Saturday June 6 https://vimeo.com/425013333 Bishop Loya's first service preaching Sunday, June 7 https://vimeo.com/426737718 We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office. Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org As our bishop-elect said recently: “While we are separated from our buildings, we know that our churches are not closed.” Tonight, Sue will be leading a Parent Gathering -Parenting in a Racist & Virus Filled World - Monday June 8, 6:30 pm , Last week several parishioners gathered via zoom in a safe space to share their anxieties, hopes and needs. We will have a similar space specifically for parents tonight, Monday. We will be able to share how we and our kids are dealing with the crises in our lives, give each other support, ideas and hope. https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81460800383 Meeting ID: 814 6080 0383 Tomorrow, Barb Elliott’s Bible Study on Marcus Borg's Reading the Bible Again for the First Time. The topic is the last chapter on the Book of Revelation. Tomorrow, June 9, 6:30-8:30. Contact Barb for the Zoom link. She is also willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact her for more information on this. Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details. Indigi-Aid is a virtual benefit concert that features Indigenous artists from all over TEC. June 11th at 4 pm Central Time. It will be live-streamed on social media and you will be able to make donations directly. All money raised will go to Indigenous communities. The Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan is the fiscal agent for donations. http://indigi-aid.org/ Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535 Also: The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service. Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries. Be safe and well and have a great week. Peace, Bill |
Video Reflections:We're Upside Down
Called to the Way of Love: Turn
Wilderness Time
Communion
Earth Day
Ways to Pray
Spiritual Practices
Maundy Thursday
|
Monday Message for June 1, 2020
A Litany for Minnesota’s Sins of Racism – by ECMN Missioner Emilia Seay Allen
Oh God, in whose image the whole human family was created, we pray for all whose lives have been forever altered by racial violence.
In particular, today we remember George Floyd, beloved child of God.
Hold him in your boundless love.
Cradle him in your peace.
We remember George Floyd’s family and friends, beloved children of God each one.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the residents of south Minneapolis, beloved children of God, who have seen their community disrupted by horrific violence.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the protestors, beloved children of God. The 20,000 who marched the day after George Floyd’s death, and those still gathering across the city, the state, and the country to demand justice and change.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the residents of East Lake Street and the surrounding neighborhood, beloved children of God, who have seen their neighborhood host terrifying violence and astonishing destruction. We remember those who have watched their livelihoods and places of work go up in flames.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the man killed during the riots of this past week, a beloved child of God, as yet unnamed and his story unknown.
Hold him in your boundless love.
Cradle him in your peace.
We remember the Black community of Minneapolis, beloved children of God, who have for decades cried out against injustice and brutality at the hands of the Minneapolis police, and who have not been heard by those with the power to make change. We remember our Black brothers and sisters, groaning under the weight of redlining, segregation, underfunded schools, unequal economic opportunity, indignity, and ever-present fear.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the residents of the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, beloved children of God, a flourishing Black community bulldozed to make room for a highway.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the residents of North Minneapolis, throughout the city’s history a home to marginalized communities, beloved children of God, all. We remember the destruction and the segregation that were caused by the construction of two highways that cut North Minneapolis off from the rest of the city.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember our public officials, beloved children of God, managing a global pandemic and a city-wide crisis at once.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember our police officers, beloved children of God, whom we ask, often without appropriate training, to respond to human beings in their worst and most vulnerable moments. We remember the police officers who feel their loyalties divided or their cause unclear, who feel afraid for themselves, their brethren, their families, and their fellow citizens.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember every citizen of Minneapolis, and of Minnesota, beloved children of God. We have been traumatized, grief-stricken, enraged, and heart-sickened by the video of one neighbor slowly snuffing the life out of another, by riots and looting, by the sounds of flash-bang grenades, the sting of tear gas, the scent of smoke, and by our own helplessness.
Hold us in your boundless love.
Cradle us in your peace.
We remember those who have pledged their lives to racist ideologies, beloved children of God. We acknowledge the pain they have caused to victims of violence, to their communities, to their families, and to their own souls. We acknowledge that each of us carries racist ideology within us, and we beg your mercy to free all your people from it.
Hold us in your boundless love.
Cradle us in your peace.
We know that the sickness of racism is in this nation’s very bedrock. Today we acknowledge and repent of the twin original sins of this nation: the genocide of the indigenous people of this land and the institution of chattel slavery. We know that the shockwaves from these sins still reverberate today, that the trauma from these sins live in our bodies, and that the pain we suffer now has its origin in those first treacheries.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We repent of laws that codify or allow unequal treatment based on race, ethnicity, religion, or skin tone. We repent of promises broken again and again. We repent of foreign policy that sees more value in some human lives than in others.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We repent of the role of the church, historically and presently, in supporting and emboldening these policies. We repent of the ways that we have made your church a home to oppression, exclusion, or indignity for any child of God.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We acknowledge and repent of the fact that Minnesota has never shared its abundance equally. Our state is home to some of the worst racial disparities in the nation: in scholastic achievement, employment, household wealth, homeownership.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We repent of the ill-use of your bounty: we hoard land and wealth, manipulate plants and animals, abuse your creation, and your most vulnerable people suffer the consequences.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We who benefit from white supremacy acknowledge that we have been given unearned privilege at the expense of our Indigenous, Black, Asian, Latin, brown-skinned, immigrant, and non-Christian siblings. We repent of the ways in which we have allowed our own fear, complacency, and incuriosity to blind us to the belovedness of your children, each, like us, fearfully and wonderfully made.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
Oh God of infinite affection, you looked at all that you had made and called it good. By your grace, help us to look upon your creation and to see, with your mothering eyes of love, how good, how good, how good it is.
Lord, in your mercy.
Christ, in your mercy.
Lord, in your mercy.
Amen.
What can we do?
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
Evening Adult Reflection
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Bishop Loya’s Ordination and Consecration 10:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship from St. Mark’s Cathedral, Bishop Loya preaching, followed by Zoom coffee hour
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever it works for you! It will still be premiered at 10am on Facebook with the ability to interact via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am since we have streamlined the service format.
Notes and Reminders:
We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office.
Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org
As our bishop-elect said recently: “While we are separated from our buildings, we know that our churches are not closed.”
Next Weekend: Bishop Elect Craig Loya will be ordained and consecrated on Saturday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. The link will be posted on ECMN’s and our website. On Sunday, June 7, we will not have a (recorded) service from St. Paul’s, rather we will have a link to the service at St. Mark’s Cathedral with Bishop Loya presiding and preaching. ECMN is collecting videos of messages for Bishop Craig and people exchanging the sign of peace. Send those to ECMN
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make
deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
Barb Elliott’s Evening Bible Study group is meeting via Zoom on June 9. Contact Barb and she will send you an email with the link. Barb is willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact her for more information on this.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a good week.
Peace, Bill
Oh God, in whose image the whole human family was created, we pray for all whose lives have been forever altered by racial violence.
In particular, today we remember George Floyd, beloved child of God.
Hold him in your boundless love.
Cradle him in your peace.
We remember George Floyd’s family and friends, beloved children of God each one.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the residents of south Minneapolis, beloved children of God, who have seen their community disrupted by horrific violence.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the protestors, beloved children of God. The 20,000 who marched the day after George Floyd’s death, and those still gathering across the city, the state, and the country to demand justice and change.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the residents of East Lake Street and the surrounding neighborhood, beloved children of God, who have seen their neighborhood host terrifying violence and astonishing destruction. We remember those who have watched their livelihoods and places of work go up in flames.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the man killed during the riots of this past week, a beloved child of God, as yet unnamed and his story unknown.
Hold him in your boundless love.
Cradle him in your peace.
We remember the Black community of Minneapolis, beloved children of God, who have for decades cried out against injustice and brutality at the hands of the Minneapolis police, and who have not been heard by those with the power to make change. We remember our Black brothers and sisters, groaning under the weight of redlining, segregation, underfunded schools, unequal economic opportunity, indignity, and ever-present fear.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the residents of the Rondo neighborhood of St. Paul, beloved children of God, a flourishing Black community bulldozed to make room for a highway.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember the residents of North Minneapolis, throughout the city’s history a home to marginalized communities, beloved children of God, all. We remember the destruction and the segregation that were caused by the construction of two highways that cut North Minneapolis off from the rest of the city.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember our public officials, beloved children of God, managing a global pandemic and a city-wide crisis at once.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember our police officers, beloved children of God, whom we ask, often without appropriate training, to respond to human beings in their worst and most vulnerable moments. We remember the police officers who feel their loyalties divided or their cause unclear, who feel afraid for themselves, their brethren, their families, and their fellow citizens.
Hold them in your boundless love.
Cradle them in your peace.
We remember every citizen of Minneapolis, and of Minnesota, beloved children of God. We have been traumatized, grief-stricken, enraged, and heart-sickened by the video of one neighbor slowly snuffing the life out of another, by riots and looting, by the sounds of flash-bang grenades, the sting of tear gas, the scent of smoke, and by our own helplessness.
Hold us in your boundless love.
Cradle us in your peace.
We remember those who have pledged their lives to racist ideologies, beloved children of God. We acknowledge the pain they have caused to victims of violence, to their communities, to their families, and to their own souls. We acknowledge that each of us carries racist ideology within us, and we beg your mercy to free all your people from it.
Hold us in your boundless love.
Cradle us in your peace.
We know that the sickness of racism is in this nation’s very bedrock. Today we acknowledge and repent of the twin original sins of this nation: the genocide of the indigenous people of this land and the institution of chattel slavery. We know that the shockwaves from these sins still reverberate today, that the trauma from these sins live in our bodies, and that the pain we suffer now has its origin in those first treacheries.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We repent of laws that codify or allow unequal treatment based on race, ethnicity, religion, or skin tone. We repent of promises broken again and again. We repent of foreign policy that sees more value in some human lives than in others.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We repent of the role of the church, historically and presently, in supporting and emboldening these policies. We repent of the ways that we have made your church a home to oppression, exclusion, or indignity for any child of God.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We acknowledge and repent of the fact that Minnesota has never shared its abundance equally. Our state is home to some of the worst racial disparities in the nation: in scholastic achievement, employment, household wealth, homeownership.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We repent of the ill-use of your bounty: we hoard land and wealth, manipulate plants and animals, abuse your creation, and your most vulnerable people suffer the consequences.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
We who benefit from white supremacy acknowledge that we have been given unearned privilege at the expense of our Indigenous, Black, Asian, Latin, brown-skinned, immigrant, and non-Christian siblings. We repent of the ways in which we have allowed our own fear, complacency, and incuriosity to blind us to the belovedness of your children, each, like us, fearfully and wonderfully made.
Help us turn away from the sin of division
And toward your all-encompassing love.
Oh God of infinite affection, you looked at all that you had made and called it good. By your grace, help us to look upon your creation and to see, with your mothering eyes of love, how good, how good, how good it is.
Lord, in your mercy.
Christ, in your mercy.
Lord, in your mercy.
Amen.
What can we do?
- Call elected officials to demand justice.
- If you can, donate to organizations working on the front line of these issues: COPAL or NAACP Minneapolis,
- Donate to the family of George Floyd.
- If you are a white person, we invite you to find ways to amplify the voices of those who are not being heard. We invite you to continue to learn, to engage in dialogue and to move beyond your comfort zone to understand your privilege. Resources can be found at: episcopalmn.org
- Donate to the Lake Street Council.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
Evening Adult Reflection
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Bishop Loya’s Ordination and Consecration 10:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship from St. Mark’s Cathedral, Bishop Loya preaching, followed by Zoom coffee hour
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever it works for you! It will still be premiered at 10am on Facebook with the ability to interact via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am since we have streamlined the service format.
Notes and Reminders:
We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office.
Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org
As our bishop-elect said recently: “While we are separated from our buildings, we know that our churches are not closed.”
Next Weekend: Bishop Elect Craig Loya will be ordained and consecrated on Saturday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. The link will be posted on ECMN’s and our website. On Sunday, June 7, we will not have a (recorded) service from St. Paul’s, rather we will have a link to the service at St. Mark’s Cathedral with Bishop Loya presiding and preaching. ECMN is collecting videos of messages for Bishop Craig and people exchanging the sign of peace. Send those to ECMN
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make
deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
- Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
- Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
Barb Elliott’s Evening Bible Study group is meeting via Zoom on June 9. Contact Barb and she will send you an email with the link. Barb is willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact her for more information on this.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a good week.
Peace, Bill
Monday Message for May 25, 2020
Prayer for Memorial Day (BCP 839)
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
We’re on the doorstep of summer…let’s give thanks for the gift of creation.
Richard Rohr Meditation: The Possibility of Restraint. From the Center for Action and Contemplation <[email protected]> Friday, May 22, 2020
Saint Francis rejoices in all the works of the Lord’s hands, and through their delightful display he gazes on their life-giving reason and cause. In beautiful things he discerns Beauty itself; all good things cry out to him: “The One who made us is the Best.” —Thomas of Celano
Goodness is a first principle of the universe. God declares it on the first page of the story of creation. —Barbara Holmes
Creation is the first Bible, as I (and others) like to say, and it existed for 13.7 billion years before the second Bible was written. Natural things like animals, plants, rocks, and clouds give glory to God just by being themselves, just what God created them to be. It is only we humans who have been given the free will to choose not to be what God created us to be. Surprisingly, the environmentalist and author Bill McKibben finds hope in this unique freedom. He writes:
The most curious of all . . . lives are the human ones, because we can destroy, but also because we can decide not to destroy. The turtle does what she does, and magnificently. She can’t not do it, though, any more than the beaver can decide to take a break from building dams or the bee from making honey. But if the bird’s special gift is flight, ours is the possibility of restraint. We’re the only creature who can decide not to do something we’re capable of doing. That’s our superpower, even if we exercise it too rarely.
So, yes, we can wreck the Earth as we’ve known it, killing vast numbers of ourselves and wiping out entire swaths of other life—in fact . . . we’re doing that right now. But we can also not do that. . . .
We have the tools (nonviolence chief among them) to allow us to stand up to the powerful and the reckless, and we have the fundamental idea of human solidarity that we could take as our guide. . . .
Another name for human solidarity is love, and when I think about our world in its present form, that is what overwhelms me. The human love that works to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, the love that comes together in defense of sea turtles and sea ice and of all else around us that is good. The love that lets each of us see we’re not the most important thing on earth, and makes us okay with that. . . . [2]
Over these past several months I have witnessed many examples of this restraint, which Bill McKibben calls love. While the lives of our elders, our vulnerable, and essential workers are at stake during the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of millions of us across the globe have been restraining ourselves at home, choosing not to do many things for many weeks in order to protect those we love (and those others love as well). Surely the earth is breathing a sigh of relief for our reduction in pollution and fossil fuel use. This “Great Pause,” as some are calling it, gives me hope that we will soon find it within ourselves to protect our shared home, not only for our own sake, but for our neighbors across the globe, and future generations.
[2] Bill McKibben, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (Wildfire: 2019), 255, 256.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
Evening Adult Formation with Liza Anderson
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour – PENTECOST Sunday
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever it works for you! It will still be premiered at 10am on Facebook with the ability to interact via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am since we have streamlined the service format.
Notes and Reminders:
We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office.
Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org
June 6 & 7 Weekend: Bishop Elect Craig Loya will be ordained and consecrated on Saturday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. The link will be posted on ECMN’s and our website. On Sunday, June 7, we will not have a (recorded) service from St. Paul’s, rather we will have links to Bishop Craig’s ordination/consecration and National Cathedral. ECMN is collecting videos of messages for Bishop Craig and people exchanging the sign of peace. Send those to ECMN
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make
deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
Remember Tom Hamilton is looking for recordings of us singing or playing instruments– preferably video, but audio is fine too. The recording is uploaded to our Google drive. Check out our website or your June Messenger for more details.
Barb Elliott’s is willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact Barb for more information on this.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great Memorial Day and week!
Peace, Bill
O Judge of the nations, we remember before you with grateful hearts the men and women of our country who in the day of decision ventured much for the liberties we now enjoy. Grant that we may not rest until all the people of this land share the benefits of true freedom and gladly accept its disciplines. This we ask in the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
We’re on the doorstep of summer…let’s give thanks for the gift of creation.
Richard Rohr Meditation: The Possibility of Restraint. From the Center for Action and Contemplation <[email protected]> Friday, May 22, 2020
Saint Francis rejoices in all the works of the Lord’s hands, and through their delightful display he gazes on their life-giving reason and cause. In beautiful things he discerns Beauty itself; all good things cry out to him: “The One who made us is the Best.” —Thomas of Celano
Goodness is a first principle of the universe. God declares it on the first page of the story of creation. —Barbara Holmes
Creation is the first Bible, as I (and others) like to say, and it existed for 13.7 billion years before the second Bible was written. Natural things like animals, plants, rocks, and clouds give glory to God just by being themselves, just what God created them to be. It is only we humans who have been given the free will to choose not to be what God created us to be. Surprisingly, the environmentalist and author Bill McKibben finds hope in this unique freedom. He writes:
The most curious of all . . . lives are the human ones, because we can destroy, but also because we can decide not to destroy. The turtle does what she does, and magnificently. She can’t not do it, though, any more than the beaver can decide to take a break from building dams or the bee from making honey. But if the bird’s special gift is flight, ours is the possibility of restraint. We’re the only creature who can decide not to do something we’re capable of doing. That’s our superpower, even if we exercise it too rarely.
So, yes, we can wreck the Earth as we’ve known it, killing vast numbers of ourselves and wiping out entire swaths of other life—in fact . . . we’re doing that right now. But we can also not do that. . . .
We have the tools (nonviolence chief among them) to allow us to stand up to the powerful and the reckless, and we have the fundamental idea of human solidarity that we could take as our guide. . . .
Another name for human solidarity is love, and when I think about our world in its present form, that is what overwhelms me. The human love that works to feed the hungry and clothe the naked, the love that comes together in defense of sea turtles and sea ice and of all else around us that is good. The love that lets each of us see we’re not the most important thing on earth, and makes us okay with that. . . . [2]
Over these past several months I have witnessed many examples of this restraint, which Bill McKibben calls love. While the lives of our elders, our vulnerable, and essential workers are at stake during the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of millions of us across the globe have been restraining ourselves at home, choosing not to do many things for many weeks in order to protect those we love (and those others love as well). Surely the earth is breathing a sigh of relief for our reduction in pollution and fossil fuel use. This “Great Pause,” as some are calling it, gives me hope that we will soon find it within ourselves to protect our shared home, not only for our own sake, but for our neighbors across the globe, and future generations.
[2] Bill McKibben, Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (Wildfire: 2019), 255, 256.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
Evening Adult Formation with Liza Anderson
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour – PENTECOST Sunday
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Also, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever it works for you! It will still be premiered at 10am on Facebook with the ability to interact via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am since we have streamlined the service format.
Notes and Reminders:
We remain in Phase 1.5 of our phases of re-gathering. This means all church gatherings are still suspended. We will continue to record Sunday services (with no more than 2 people in church at a time) and staff can continue to work from their office.
Diocesan guidelines and phases of re-opening can be found at: episcopalmn.org
June 6 & 7 Weekend: Bishop Elect Craig Loya will be ordained and consecrated on Saturday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. The link will be posted on ECMN’s and our website. On Sunday, June 7, we will not have a (recorded) service from St. Paul’s, rather we will have links to Bishop Craig’s ordination/consecration and National Cathedral. ECMN is collecting videos of messages for Bishop Craig and people exchanging the sign of peace. Send those to ECMN
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make
deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
- Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
- Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
Remember Tom Hamilton is looking for recordings of us singing or playing instruments– preferably video, but audio is fine too. The recording is uploaded to our Google drive. Check out our website or your June Messenger for more details.
Barb Elliott’s is willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact Barb for more information on this.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great Memorial Day and week!
Peace, Bill
Monday Message for May 18, 2020:
Dear Friends,
Let us pray:
Loving God, we come to you full of anxiety about what may happen in the coming days and weeks. Shower us with the peace Jesus promised to his disciples, and make us into steady pillars for those around us. In this time of uncertainty and epidemic, wake us up to the reminder that we are not alone.
Even as we are asked to keep our distance from others, help us to find ways to reach out to those who need our support. We pray especially for those whose incomes and livelihoods are threatened. For the children who will miss meals due to school closures. For those already isolated, lonely and scared. Loving God, give them your peace, and through our hands ensure they have what they need.
Sustain, strengthen and protect all caregivers. Bless them as they offer compassionate care and show selfless courage in the face of risk.
Remind us, each time we wash our hands, that in our baptism you call us to let go of our fears and live in joy, peace, and hope. Amen. (from chausa.org)
Message:
Last week we received directives from our bishop on the anticipated phases of regathering for churches. At this time, we are in Phase 1.5 (of 5). You can find the whole plan at: episcopalmn.org. Here’s a summary of our current phase:
This means very little will change at St. Paul’s. We will continue to record the Sunday service and other offerings. Staff will work from home as much as possible. Meetings will be held on-line.
Our bishop went on to say this:
“While this season comes with great difficulty, it also comes with great opportunity to consider what the Holy Spirit is teaching us about how we sustain a life of common prayer, how we care for one another, and how we bear witness to the gospel in the world.”
Bill: As church, we need to be mindful that we are called to have a Christian response to this pandemic. This means that we are always mindful of the common good, considering what is best not only for ourselves, but for others. As I watched our neighbors to the east filling taverns and lifting a glass to cheer with unmasked faces when Wisconsin opened up last week, I was thinking that we must remember that our personal freedom is always subject to, and constrained by, the common good, the welfare of others.
Bill: You cannot shout “fire” in a crowded movie theater. You cannot drive any speed you want (even though you might feel you are able to do so safely). You are required to have you children immunized and to pay taxes. Young women and men can be compelled to serve in the military. Our personal freedom has limits… As the church, as Christians, we need to be setting an example for the rest of the world to follow when it comes to this pandemic and following practices that keep our neighbors safe. As folks have said over and over: staying home is loving our neighbor.
Our bishop concluded last week’s message with this thought:
“What is being is asked of all of us is hard, and this is a long journey. We take heart knowing we walk this road together, and in this season of Easter, that we are always held by a God whose loving embrace cannot be broken by the powers of darkness and death that so often surround us. Let us not forget that in good times and bad times, in joy and in sorrow, in life and in death, we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Women’s Night 7:00 pm, https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87091751472 Meeting ID: 870 9175 1472
CHUM assembly 7:00
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
–6:30pm- Family Game Night zoom link will be sent via email to families
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
NEW- Starting this weekend, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever it works for you! It will still be premiered at 10am on Facebook with the ability to interact via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am since we have streamlined the service format.
Notes and Reminders:
Thank you to all who donated items for the rummage sale. Special thanks to Susan Anderson and Susan Hartley who put the items in the garage. The rummage sale will be held when we are able to do that.
Family Activity Kits to celebrate Pentecost and Summer Faith Ideas will be available for pick up this Wednesday and Thursday from 9am-noon in the McGiffert entrance. They will have each family’s name on it as they are personalized based on the ages of the kids.
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make 20 sandwiches in their home and then drop them off at church, and one person to deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
Remember Tom Hamilton is looking for recordings of us singing or playing instruments– preferably video, but audio is fine too. The recording is uploaded to our Google drive. Check out our website or your May Messenger for more details. He and Jay Austin are working on a virtual communal singing experience of “O God Our Help in Ages Past” online. Stay tuned for more on that.
Barb Elliott’s is willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact Barb for more information on this.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Congratulations graduates from high school and college!
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week!
Peace, Bill
Let us pray:
Loving God, we come to you full of anxiety about what may happen in the coming days and weeks. Shower us with the peace Jesus promised to his disciples, and make us into steady pillars for those around us. In this time of uncertainty and epidemic, wake us up to the reminder that we are not alone.
Even as we are asked to keep our distance from others, help us to find ways to reach out to those who need our support. We pray especially for those whose incomes and livelihoods are threatened. For the children who will miss meals due to school closures. For those already isolated, lonely and scared. Loving God, give them your peace, and through our hands ensure they have what they need.
Sustain, strengthen and protect all caregivers. Bless them as they offer compassionate care and show selfless courage in the face of risk.
Remind us, each time we wash our hands, that in our baptism you call us to let go of our fears and live in joy, peace, and hope. Amen. (from chausa.org)
Message:
Last week we received directives from our bishop on the anticipated phases of regathering for churches. At this time, we are in Phase 1.5 (of 5). You can find the whole plan at: episcopalmn.org. Here’s a summary of our current phase:
- Groups of 10 or fewer individuals may return to faith community buildings to film or live-stream services, as long as appropriate physical distancing is maintained.
- Weddings and funerals that cannot be postponed may take place outdoors, as long as they are gatherings of 10 people or less and follow the physical distancing and the wearing of masks.
- Those who are sick, those who have underlying health conditions, and those who are over the age of 65 should not re-gather in any form or fashion during this phase.
- It is very likely that we will remain in this phase for quite some time.
- ECMN summer camping programs will be exclusively on-line.
This means very little will change at St. Paul’s. We will continue to record the Sunday service and other offerings. Staff will work from home as much as possible. Meetings will be held on-line.
Our bishop went on to say this:
“While this season comes with great difficulty, it also comes with great opportunity to consider what the Holy Spirit is teaching us about how we sustain a life of common prayer, how we care for one another, and how we bear witness to the gospel in the world.”
Bill: As church, we need to be mindful that we are called to have a Christian response to this pandemic. This means that we are always mindful of the common good, considering what is best not only for ourselves, but for others. As I watched our neighbors to the east filling taverns and lifting a glass to cheer with unmasked faces when Wisconsin opened up last week, I was thinking that we must remember that our personal freedom is always subject to, and constrained by, the common good, the welfare of others.
Bill: You cannot shout “fire” in a crowded movie theater. You cannot drive any speed you want (even though you might feel you are able to do so safely). You are required to have you children immunized and to pay taxes. Young women and men can be compelled to serve in the military. Our personal freedom has limits… As the church, as Christians, we need to be setting an example for the rest of the world to follow when it comes to this pandemic and following practices that keep our neighbors safe. As folks have said over and over: staying home is loving our neighbor.
Our bishop concluded last week’s message with this thought:
“What is being is asked of all of us is hard, and this is a long journey. We take heart knowing we walk this road together, and in this season of Easter, that we are always held by a God whose loving embrace cannot be broken by the powers of darkness and death that so often surround us. Let us not forget that in good times and bad times, in joy and in sorrow, in life and in death, we make our song: Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia.”
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Women’s Night 7:00 pm, https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87091751472 Meeting ID: 870 9175 1472
CHUM assembly 7:00
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m. via FaceBook live
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon,
–6:30pm- Family Game Night zoom link will be sent via email to families
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m. on FB, Zoom chat time at 9:15pm
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
NEW- Starting this weekend, the prerecorded service will be available by noon on Saturday on our website and youtube channel. If you have weekend plans you can now watch the service whenever it works for you! It will still be premiered at 10am on Facebook with the ability to interact via the comments section.
ZOOM Coffee hour will now be held immediately following the end of the service on FB, usually about 10:30am since we have streamlined the service format.
Notes and Reminders:
Thank you to all who donated items for the rummage sale. Special thanks to Susan Anderson and Susan Hartley who put the items in the garage. The rummage sale will be held when we are able to do that.
Family Activity Kits to celebrate Pentecost and Summer Faith Ideas will be available for pick up this Wednesday and Thursday from 9am-noon in the McGiffert entrance. They will have each family’s name on it as they are personalized based on the ages of the kids.
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make 20 sandwiches in their home and then drop them off at church, and one person to deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections on the website for details.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
- Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
- Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
Remember Tom Hamilton is looking for recordings of us singing or playing instruments– preferably video, but audio is fine too. The recording is uploaded to our Google drive. Check out our website or your May Messenger for more details. He and Jay Austin are working on a virtual communal singing experience of “O God Our Help in Ages Past” online. Stay tuned for more on that.
Barb Elliott’s is willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact Barb for more information on this.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Congratulations graduates from high school and college!
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week!
Peace, Bill
May 11, 2020 Message
Let's begin in prayer: Merciful God, hear our fervent prayer for all who suffer from the coronavirus.
May those who are infected receive the proper treatment and the comfort of your healing presence. May their caregivers, families and neighbors be shielded from the onslaught of the virus. Give solace to those who grieve the loss of loved ones.
Protect and guide those who strive to find a cure, that their work may conquer the disease and restore communities to wholeness and health. Help us to rise above fear and to know the power of your presence and love. We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
Thought for the day: Signs of Love
Yesterday’s Gospel passage (John 14: 1-14) was a portion of Jesus’ “farewell discourse” in the Gospel of John. It takes place the evening of the last supper. Jesus has washed his disciples feet and said “do for others as I have done for you.” He’s given them the commandment to love one another. Then Jesus tells the disciples that he will be with them only a little while longer. He will be with them in his bodily, human form only a little while longer, but Jesus assures them that He will remain with them… in… love. He says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life…” “I am the Way of Love.”
“I will always the with you” Jesus says “in love… in your love for me and for one another.”
One of the things I’ve been doing in the midst of this pandemic is looking for signs of love. Intentionally, regularly looking for ways that people are loving each other, loving the stranger, loving God. I see love happening in big and small ways. Certainly through our healthcare heroes, nurses, doctors, first responders, putting their lives on the line for others. There are scientists and physicians working around the clock on treatments and vaccines. There are people working at group homes and nursing homes, caring for others. Grocery store workers and people working in packing plants. The owner of a small grocery store in Cloquet is giving away food to people in need. There are people loving their neighbor in heroic ways.
And there are lots of people showing love, sharing love in small ways. Kids in our neighborhood are creating encouraging messages with sidewalk chalk and with signs in windows. I have a friend posting videos of her wonderful toddler daughter to brighten our day, and people piecing together mass choir songs to lift our spirits. People making masks and sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. Words of support from a spouse or friend, a thank you note in the mail, a phone call out of the blue….
Jesus isn’t a million billion miles away in some far distant heaven. He is with us. He’s alive in our love for each other. Take some time, in the midst of all this, to look for His love and to share it – in big and small ways.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m.
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon, evening adult program
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m.
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Notes and Reminders:
Next Saturday the garage will be open from 9-11 a.m. for rummage sale donations.
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make 20 sandwiches in their home and then drop them off at church, and one person to deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections for details.
Please fill out the surveymonkey so we can continue to improve and expand our offerings.
We are looking for a couple of I Pads or Tablets with at least 20g of storage for use by our elders who do not have access to the internet. We are going to load the recorded services on the devices and drop them off for our elders. The device can be returned to you. Contact me (Bill) if you have a device to loan.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
Send in brief videos of wind, flames, kites, candles, birds, Spirit for our Pentecost Sunday service on May 31. We’d love to see as many people as possible. This is a great way to participate in our Sunday worship!
Remember Tom Hamilton is looking for recordings of us singing – preferably video, but audio is fine too. The recording is uploaded to our Google drive. Check out our website or your May Messenger for more details. He and Jay Austin are working on a virtual communal singing experience of “O God Our Help in Ages Past” online. Stay tuned for more on that.
Barb Elliott’s Evening Bible study is tomorrow Tuesday, May 12. She is also willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact Barb for more information on those opportunities.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week!
Peace, Bill
May those who are infected receive the proper treatment and the comfort of your healing presence. May their caregivers, families and neighbors be shielded from the onslaught of the virus. Give solace to those who grieve the loss of loved ones.
Protect and guide those who strive to find a cure, that their work may conquer the disease and restore communities to wholeness and health. Help us to rise above fear and to know the power of your presence and love. We ask this in the name of your Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.
Thought for the day: Signs of Love
Yesterday’s Gospel passage (John 14: 1-14) was a portion of Jesus’ “farewell discourse” in the Gospel of John. It takes place the evening of the last supper. Jesus has washed his disciples feet and said “do for others as I have done for you.” He’s given them the commandment to love one another. Then Jesus tells the disciples that he will be with them only a little while longer. He will be with them in his bodily, human form only a little while longer, but Jesus assures them that He will remain with them… in… love. He says “I am the way, and the truth, and the life…” “I am the Way of Love.”
“I will always the with you” Jesus says “in love… in your love for me and for one another.”
One of the things I’ve been doing in the midst of this pandemic is looking for signs of love. Intentionally, regularly looking for ways that people are loving each other, loving the stranger, loving God. I see love happening in big and small ways. Certainly through our healthcare heroes, nurses, doctors, first responders, putting their lives on the line for others. There are scientists and physicians working around the clock on treatments and vaccines. There are people working at group homes and nursing homes, caring for others. Grocery store workers and people working in packing plants. The owner of a small grocery store in Cloquet is giving away food to people in need. There are people loving their neighbor in heroic ways.
And there are lots of people showing love, sharing love in small ways. Kids in our neighborhood are creating encouraging messages with sidewalk chalk and with signs in windows. I have a friend posting videos of her wonderful toddler daughter to brighten our day, and people piecing together mass choir songs to lift our spirits. People making masks and sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. Words of support from a spouse or friend, a thank you note in the mail, a phone call out of the blue….
Jesus isn’t a million billion miles away in some far distant heaven. He is with us. He’s alive in our love for each other. Take some time, in the midst of all this, to look for His love and to share it – in big and small ways.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m.
“Family Faith Time” program posted at noon, evening adult program
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m.
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Notes and Reminders:
Next Saturday the garage will be open from 9-11 a.m. for rummage sale donations.
- Masks must be worn by all volunteers and everyone dropping off items
- At least a 6 foot distance must be maintained at all times between all persons
- Each person must unload their own things.
- 1 person=1 car, please do not bring children or others when dropping off items
- When you arrive, please remain in your car; one car at a time will be allowed to unload their items.
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make 20 sandwiches in their home and then drop them off at church, and one person to deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team. Lifehouse can also use some food donations. Check out community connections for details.
Please fill out the surveymonkey so we can continue to improve and expand our offerings.
We are looking for a couple of I Pads or Tablets with at least 20g of storage for use by our elders who do not have access to the internet. We are going to load the recorded services on the devices and drop them off for our elders. The device can be returned to you. Contact me (Bill) if you have a device to loan.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
- Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
- Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
Send in brief videos of wind, flames, kites, candles, birds, Spirit for our Pentecost Sunday service on May 31. We’d love to see as many people as possible. This is a great way to participate in our Sunday worship!
Remember Tom Hamilton is looking for recordings of us singing – preferably video, but audio is fine too. The recording is uploaded to our Google drive. Check out our website or your May Messenger for more details. He and Jay Austin are working on a virtual communal singing experience of “O God Our Help in Ages Past” online. Stay tuned for more on that.
Barb Elliott’s Evening Bible study is tomorrow Tuesday, May 12. She is also willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact Barb for more information on those opportunities.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week!
Peace, Bill
May 4, 2020 Message
Let’s pray for those who are caring for the sick and suffering:
Compassionate God, support and strengthen all those who reach out in love, concern, and prayer for the sick and distressed. In their acts of compassion, may they know that they are your instruments. In their concerns and fears may they know your peace. In their prayer may they know your steadfast love. May they not grow weary or faint-hearted, for your mercy’s sake. Amen. – EOW 2, 93
How is this going to go? What’s the plan? These are questions my clergy colleagues here in MN and throughout the country, and clergy colleagues from various denominations, have been asking. Our bishop and bishop elect are in regular conversation with the Presiding Bishop, bishops from throughout the country and the heads of other judicatories, like the ELCA, to chart the best way forward. While the timing of churches reopening and resuming in-person worship and meeting has not been determined, it is becoming clear that it will happen in phases. Right now, we are in Phase 1. We are staying at home. The only activity at church is staff working there when it is necessary for us to do so following the directives the governor issued for offices reopening on April 29.
The Safety Team met and along with the wardens to approve a preparedness plan for the church that we are implementing and will be expanding on as we go through the phases. I imagine that when the experts determine it is safe for us to resume gathering using safety precautions like physical distancing and other measures, things will begin to open up for smaller groups to gather. There will likely continue to be recommendations that those over 65 and anyone with preexisting health conditions continue to stay at home. This is how we imagine the reopening process at this point.
We are blessed to live in Minnesota. Our governor has charted a course that has limited the spread of the virus, though the experts tell us there will be an upcoming surge. Our decisions around opening up need to be based on the best science and advise of the experts. Tomorrow, Tuesday, at 2 pm, there will be a Livestream with Dr. Michael Osterholm. This is a discussion hosted by the Minnesota Council of Churches between Lutheran synod leaders and Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Osterholm will help faith leaders make informed decisions about when and how to begin to resume in-person gatherings. Tomorrow at 2 pm you can view the livestream on the ELCA's Minneapolis Area Synod facebook page.
It might be tempting to think all of this Staying at Home is much to do about nothing because we have seen relatively few cases here in No. Minnesota, but we need to continue to listen to the experts who know what we need to be doing to keep everyone safe. Your vestry and I will continue to update you on the reopening plan based on guidance from our bishop informed by the experts.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m.
Evening – Adult Ed. Program & Christian Formation video for families
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m.
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Notes and Reminders:
Next Sunday, May 10 - Graduate Sunday service. Be sure to tune in to this special service to see pictures and video reflections by our seniors.
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make 20 sandwiches in their home and then drop them off at church, and one person to deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team.
We are looking for a couple of I Pads or Tablets for use by our elders who do not have access to the internet. We are going to load the recorded services on the devices and drop them off for our elders. The device can be returned to you. Contact me (Bill) if you have a device to loan.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
Remember Tom Hamilton is looking for recordings of us singing – preferably video, but audio is fine too. The recording is uploaded to our Google drive. Check out our website or your May Messenger for more details. He and Jay Austin are working on a virtual communal singing experience of “O God Our Help in Ages Past” online. Stay tuned for more on that.
Barb Elliott’s Evening Bible study is next Tuesday, May 12. She is also willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact Barb for more information on those opportunities.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week!
Peace, Bill
Compassionate God, support and strengthen all those who reach out in love, concern, and prayer for the sick and distressed. In their acts of compassion, may they know that they are your instruments. In their concerns and fears may they know your peace. In their prayer may they know your steadfast love. May they not grow weary or faint-hearted, for your mercy’s sake. Amen. – EOW 2, 93
How is this going to go? What’s the plan? These are questions my clergy colleagues here in MN and throughout the country, and clergy colleagues from various denominations, have been asking. Our bishop and bishop elect are in regular conversation with the Presiding Bishop, bishops from throughout the country and the heads of other judicatories, like the ELCA, to chart the best way forward. While the timing of churches reopening and resuming in-person worship and meeting has not been determined, it is becoming clear that it will happen in phases. Right now, we are in Phase 1. We are staying at home. The only activity at church is staff working there when it is necessary for us to do so following the directives the governor issued for offices reopening on April 29.
The Safety Team met and along with the wardens to approve a preparedness plan for the church that we are implementing and will be expanding on as we go through the phases. I imagine that when the experts determine it is safe for us to resume gathering using safety precautions like physical distancing and other measures, things will begin to open up for smaller groups to gather. There will likely continue to be recommendations that those over 65 and anyone with preexisting health conditions continue to stay at home. This is how we imagine the reopening process at this point.
We are blessed to live in Minnesota. Our governor has charted a course that has limited the spread of the virus, though the experts tell us there will be an upcoming surge. Our decisions around opening up need to be based on the best science and advise of the experts. Tomorrow, Tuesday, at 2 pm, there will be a Livestream with Dr. Michael Osterholm. This is a discussion hosted by the Minnesota Council of Churches between Lutheran synod leaders and Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Osterholm will help faith leaders make informed decisions about when and how to begin to resume in-person gatherings. Tomorrow at 2 pm you can view the livestream on the ELCA's Minneapolis Area Synod facebook page.
It might be tempting to think all of this Staying at Home is much to do about nothing because we have seen relatively few cases here in No. Minnesota, but we need to continue to listen to the experts who know what we need to be doing to keep everyone safe. Your vestry and I will continue to update you on the reopening plan based on guidance from our bishop informed by the experts.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m.
Evening – Adult Ed. Program & Christian Formation video for families
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m.
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Remember: The service is posted on 2 platforms: YouTube and Facebook. If there are problems with one, you can switch. And remember you can use the comment section.
Notes and Reminders:
Next Sunday, May 10 - Graduate Sunday service. Be sure to tune in to this special service to see pictures and video reflections by our seniors.
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make 20 sandwiches in their home and then drop them off at church, and one person to deliver them to the door at CHUM. We will be providing sandwiches the first and third Thursdays of the month and need more people to serve on the teams. Contact Tom Hamilton if you’d like to be on a team.
We are looking for a couple of I Pads or Tablets for use by our elders who do not have access to the internet. We are going to load the recorded services on the devices and drop them off for our elders. The device can be returned to you. Contact me (Bill) if you have a device to loan.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
- Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
- Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
Remember Tom Hamilton is looking for recordings of us singing – preferably video, but audio is fine too. The recording is uploaded to our Google drive. Check out our website or your May Messenger for more details. He and Jay Austin are working on a virtual communal singing experience of “O God Our Help in Ages Past” online. Stay tuned for more on that.
Barb Elliott’s Evening Bible study is next Tuesday, May 12. She is also willing to assist people with creating or updating Advances Directives for Healthcare. Contact Barb for more information on those opportunities.
If you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week!
Peace, Bill
April 27, 2020 Message
Dear Friends,
Let us pray: O God, You have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing were we go, but only that your hand is leading and your love is supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
A thought for the week: There have been some interesting stories in the news about how nature and wildlife have been affected by the Coronavirus lockdown. Los Angeles has recently recorded their longest stretch of low smog days since they began keeping track. Wildlife has returned to empty parks from coast to coast. There has been an explosion in the bear population in Yosemite. The water in the canals in Venice has never been clearer. The music of songbirds is being heard in more and more places.
I am a naturally optimistic “glass half full” person. I always try to see the good in people, and to find the good in even the most difficult situation. I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the good that could come out of this pandemic lockdown. What is this teaching us?
One lesson is that we are all in this together. We are all part of the same ecosystem. The choices and decisions we make have an impact on the planet and on the people living on it, people who live next door to us and people on the other side of the world. This virus is reminding us how interconnected and interdependent we are. When you and I heed the order to physically distance and stay at home, we are protecting healthcare workers, the vulnerable elderly and many others in our community.
This is a great opportunity to look at our daily decisions and choices, and to think about how they impact others and the planet we live on.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m. Cancelled due to Clergy Conference – resumes next week
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m.
Evening – Adult Ed. Program
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m.
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Notes and Reminders:
High School seniors! We need your grad photo and video reflection for the May 10 Graduate Sunday service by this Friday! Send them to Sue.
Although many of us are blessed to be sheltering in place with a loved one, some are doing it alone, especially those who are older, and it can lead to loneliness and isolation. I encourage you to watch Dorothy Linthecum’s personal, hopeful Christian reflection on being older and living through the uncertainties and anxieties of a pandemic. You can find it on our “Tips for Healthy Living” page.
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make 20 sandwiches in their home and then drop them off at church, and one person to deliver them to the door at CHUM.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
Send in your pictures of your heart rocks!
St. Luke’s is looking for donations of tablets and chargers for use by their patients. Their IT personnel clean them up so patients can stay in touch with their family. They can be dropped off at Building A or at the St. Luke’s Foundation.
If you are a frontline worker and you’d like us to pray for you by name, please let us know. You’ll be prayed for during the prayers of the people.
I
f you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week!
Peace, Bill
Let us pray: O God, You have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.
Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing were we go, but only that your hand is leading and your love is supporting us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
A thought for the week: There have been some interesting stories in the news about how nature and wildlife have been affected by the Coronavirus lockdown. Los Angeles has recently recorded their longest stretch of low smog days since they began keeping track. Wildlife has returned to empty parks from coast to coast. There has been an explosion in the bear population in Yosemite. The water in the canals in Venice has never been clearer. The music of songbirds is being heard in more and more places.
I am a naturally optimistic “glass half full” person. I always try to see the good in people, and to find the good in even the most difficult situation. I have spent a lot of time reflecting on the good that could come out of this pandemic lockdown. What is this teaching us?
One lesson is that we are all in this together. We are all part of the same ecosystem. The choices and decisions we make have an impact on the planet and on the people living on it, people who live next door to us and people on the other side of the world. This virus is reminding us how interconnected and interdependent we are. When you and I heed the order to physically distance and stay at home, we are protecting healthcare workers, the vulnerable elderly and many others in our community.
This is a great opportunity to look at our daily decisions and choices, and to think about how they impact others and the planet we live on.
The Schedule for this Week
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m. Cancelled due to Clergy Conference – resumes next week
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m.
Evening – Adult Ed. Program
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m.
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Notes and Reminders:
High School seniors! We need your grad photo and video reflection for the May 10 Graduate Sunday service by this Friday! Send them to Sue.
Although many of us are blessed to be sheltering in place with a loved one, some are doing it alone, especially those who are older, and it can lead to loneliness and isolation. I encourage you to watch Dorothy Linthecum’s personal, hopeful Christian reflection on being older and living through the uncertainties and anxieties of a pandemic. You can find it on our “Tips for Healthy Living” page.
Sandwiches for CHUM. Please let us know if you are willing to serve on a team making simple sandwiches for our friends at CHUM. We need people willing to make 20 sandwiches in their home and then drop them off at church, and one person to deliver them to the door at CHUM.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
- Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
- Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
Send in your pictures of your heart rocks!
St. Luke’s is looking for donations of tablets and chargers for use by their patients. Their IT personnel clean them up so patients can stay in touch with their family. They can be dropped off at Building A or at the St. Luke’s Foundation.
If you are a frontline worker and you’d like us to pray for you by name, please let us know. You’ll be prayed for during the prayers of the people.
I
f you are celebrating a birthday or anniversary please let us know so we can mention your name and pray for you during the Sunday service.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Be safe and well and have a great week!
Peace, Bill
April 20, 2020 Message
Dear Friends,
Here’s a nice prayer from +Steven Charleston:
May the peace of God be with you.
I do not know what you face.
I do not know what you have been through or what awaits you still.
But I do know that your heart hopes for strength,
Your mind seeks for answers,
Your soul longs for the companionship that only faithful friends can offer.
May God’s strong arm hold you up.
May God’s wisdom guide you.
May God’s good people come to stand beside you.
Take this prayer with you.
Let it rest quietly in our spirit, come what may.
Let it be what you most need it to be: the peace of God within you.
A thought for this week: God comes to us where we are. Yesterday’s Gospel told the story of the resurrected Jesus coming to the disciples in the upper room for a second time. They were locked away behind closed doors out of fear. That might be how we’re all feeling these days, locked away and hiding out of fear. But the Gospel tells us that “Jesus came and stood among them (the disciples) and said, ‘peace be with you.’”
God comes to us where we are, to bring God’s peace, God’s love, to fill and heal us. God is also with those who are giving themselves in a myriad of ways: healthcare workers and first responders, truck drivers and grocery store workers, teachers teaching from home, parents trying to balance all the demands of daily life and our elders who fear for their health. God comes to us where we are. God comes and says: “peace be with you. I am with you.”
The Schedule for this Week
Today – Monday - Earth Day/Week
“Plastic pollution and the environment: Insights from Lake Superior”
Dr. Liz Austin-Minor, Monday, 2:00 pm –via zoom https://www.facebook.com/Environmental-Institute-at-Fond-du-Lac-Tribal-and-Community-College-278478008887826/
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Vestry Zoom meeting 6:00 P.M.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m.
Earth Day Zoom – 3:00-5:00 – A variety of speakers talking about Earth Day
Activity- spend some time cleaning up your neighborhood and/or your favorite place
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m.
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Virtual TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) 2:00 p.m. – find it on the youth page
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Notes and Reminders:
An updated parish directory was sent out via email. Since it came as an attachment, it might have been put in your spam or junk folder. Check those if you have not received it.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
Send in your pictures of your heart rocks!
St. Luke’s is looking for donations of tablets and chargers for use by their patients. Their IT personnel clean them up so patients can stay in touch with their family. They can be dropped off at Building A or at the St. Luke’s Foundation.
If you are a frontline worker and you’d like us to pray for you by name, please let us know. You’ll be prayed for during the prayers of the people.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Have a great week!
Peace, Bill
Here’s a nice prayer from +Steven Charleston:
May the peace of God be with you.
I do not know what you face.
I do not know what you have been through or what awaits you still.
But I do know that your heart hopes for strength,
Your mind seeks for answers,
Your soul longs for the companionship that only faithful friends can offer.
May God’s strong arm hold you up.
May God’s wisdom guide you.
May God’s good people come to stand beside you.
Take this prayer with you.
Let it rest quietly in our spirit, come what may.
Let it be what you most need it to be: the peace of God within you.
A thought for this week: God comes to us where we are. Yesterday’s Gospel told the story of the resurrected Jesus coming to the disciples in the upper room for a second time. They were locked away behind closed doors out of fear. That might be how we’re all feeling these days, locked away and hiding out of fear. But the Gospel tells us that “Jesus came and stood among them (the disciples) and said, ‘peace be with you.’”
God comes to us where we are, to bring God’s peace, God’s love, to fill and heal us. God is also with those who are giving themselves in a myriad of ways: healthcare workers and first responders, truck drivers and grocery store workers, teachers teaching from home, parents trying to balance all the demands of daily life and our elders who fear for their health. God comes to us where we are. God comes and says: “peace be with you. I am with you.”
The Schedule for this Week
Today – Monday - Earth Day/Week
“Plastic pollution and the environment: Insights from Lake Superior”
Dr. Liz Austin-Minor, Monday, 2:00 pm –via zoom https://www.facebook.com/Environmental-Institute-at-Fond-du-Lac-Tribal-and-Community-College-278478008887826/
Tuesday – Bible study 9:00 a.m.
Vestry Zoom meeting 6:00 P.M.
Wednesday – Morning prayer 9:00 a.m.
Earth Day Zoom – 3:00-5:00 – A variety of speakers talking about Earth Day
Activity- spend some time cleaning up your neighborhood and/or your favorite place
Thursday – Compline 9:00 p.m.
Friday – St. Paul’s Sings! 9:00 a.m.
Saturday - Community Connections 9:00 a.m.
Virtual TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) 2:00 p.m. – find it on the youth page
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship followed by Zoom coffee hour
Notes and Reminders:
An updated parish directory was sent out via email. Since it came as an attachment, it might have been put in your spam or junk folder. Check those if you have not received it.
Thank you for your ongoing giving to St. Paul’s! You can give by sending in a check, online, through bill pay at your bank or by texting “give” to 218-394-3535
Also:
The recent CARES Act includes new charitable giving provisions for 2020, for cash gifts only to the church:
- Individuals can take a $300 "above-the-line" deduction from their gross income even if they do not itemize deductions; and
- Donors who itemize charitable deductions may deduct charitable gifts up to 100% of gross income.
Send in your pictures of your heart rocks!
St. Luke’s is looking for donations of tablets and chargers for use by their patients. Their IT personnel clean them up so patients can stay in touch with their family. They can be dropped off at Building A or at the St. Luke’s Foundation.
If you are a frontline worker and you’d like us to pray for you by name, please let us know. You’ll be prayed for during the prayers of the people.
Please let us know if you need a mask or other essentials. We have volunteers willing to make deliveries.
Have a great week!
Peace, Bill
April 13, 2020 Monday Message
Hello All,
Here’s a thought before we get into the schedule for this week. I’ve been reflecting on how interconnected and interdependent we are even as we stay apart. We seek to be independent in our lives…with an 18 year old daughter living in our house anxious to go off to college, that desire for independence is really there, and it’s present for all of us isn’t it?
But we are being reminded now, in the midst of this pandemic, just how interdependent and interconnected we are We can see how decisions we make affect others, those in our household, our neighborhood, our friends, and even strangers we will never meet.
We rely on those willing to make sacrifices, to take necessary risks, like health care workers heading into hospitals every day, first responders, grocery store clerks who keep shelves stocked, truckers who keep things moving, people who keep the power on, the water flowing the trash picked up. We need them, and they need us to keep on distancing to keep flattening the curve.
I’ve also been reminded how challenging times bring out the best in people. We have so many people volunteering to help others. There was a young woman last week who was in the Peace Corps in Ghana and was evacuated and ended up here in Duluth to live with her mother. Her warm clothes were in a storage facility in Massachusetts. We just put out the word for anyone to offer some clothes and 6 large bags showed up on our doorstep within hours. It just shows how many are willing to help, to make deliveries, make masks, make phone calls to people we need to be checking in on.
These situations bring out the best in us and bring us together. They remind us of how connected we are and how much we depend on each other. And how much we depend on God. Here’s a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer found on page 815. It’s a prayer for the Human Family:
“O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son; Look with compassion on the whole human family, take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love, and work through our struggles and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard, especially the staff, with the online offerings we provided for Holy Week and Easter. They were really wonderful ways to stay connected.
Our website has been revamped, especially the COVID-19 response page, it is user friendly and everything is there, everything we offer online. And remember everything is recorded on FB and the website so you can view it anytime.
Coming up this week:
Tuesday – 9:00 a.m. Bible Study via zoom, the link is https://zoom.us/j/985710661 Meeting ID: 985 710 661 Password 1710 or dial in using your telephone +1 312 626 6799
Wednesday – 9:00 a.m. Morning Prayer You can either watch live on Facebook or Join via Zoom https://zoom.us/j/475141315 Meeting ID: 475 141 315 Password 1710 or dial in using your telephone +1 312 626 6799
Wednesday Church night - 6-7pm 2nd-7th graders via zoom- link sent to parents, 7-8pm Confirmation- link sent to parents, 8pm Adults on FaceBook
Thursday – 9:00 p.m. Compline You can either watch live on Facebook or join via zoom - NOTE THIS IS A NEW LINK: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/308741410?pwd=VWRlOFVGaUZia2pLcUVkbDd2VGpOdz09 Meeting ID: 308 741 410 Password: 1710 Or dial in using your telephone+1-312-626-6799
Friday – 9:00 a.m. St. Paul’s Sings on Facebook or the website’s music page
Saturday – 9:00 a.m. Community Connections on FaceBook or the website’s community connections page
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. service on FaceBook or the website, followed by coffee hour via zoom link https://zoom.us/j/502278631?pwd=VHl4Q2I2UVZ0dVV4TTd4MXNjK1prQT09 Meeting ID: 502 278 631 Password: 1710
A few reminders:
Peace, Bill
Here’s a thought before we get into the schedule for this week. I’ve been reflecting on how interconnected and interdependent we are even as we stay apart. We seek to be independent in our lives…with an 18 year old daughter living in our house anxious to go off to college, that desire for independence is really there, and it’s present for all of us isn’t it?
But we are being reminded now, in the midst of this pandemic, just how interdependent and interconnected we are We can see how decisions we make affect others, those in our household, our neighborhood, our friends, and even strangers we will never meet.
We rely on those willing to make sacrifices, to take necessary risks, like health care workers heading into hospitals every day, first responders, grocery store clerks who keep shelves stocked, truckers who keep things moving, people who keep the power on, the water flowing the trash picked up. We need them, and they need us to keep on distancing to keep flattening the curve.
I’ve also been reminded how challenging times bring out the best in people. We have so many people volunteering to help others. There was a young woman last week who was in the Peace Corps in Ghana and was evacuated and ended up here in Duluth to live with her mother. Her warm clothes were in a storage facility in Massachusetts. We just put out the word for anyone to offer some clothes and 6 large bags showed up on our doorstep within hours. It just shows how many are willing to help, to make deliveries, make masks, make phone calls to people we need to be checking in on.
These situations bring out the best in us and bring us together. They remind us of how connected we are and how much we depend on each other. And how much we depend on God. Here’s a prayer from the Book of Common Prayer found on page 815. It’s a prayer for the Human Family:
“O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son; Look with compassion on the whole human family, take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love, and work through our struggles and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
Thank you to everyone who worked so hard, especially the staff, with the online offerings we provided for Holy Week and Easter. They were really wonderful ways to stay connected.
Our website has been revamped, especially the COVID-19 response page, it is user friendly and everything is there, everything we offer online. And remember everything is recorded on FB and the website so you can view it anytime.
Coming up this week:
Tuesday – 9:00 a.m. Bible Study via zoom, the link is https://zoom.us/j/985710661 Meeting ID: 985 710 661 Password 1710 or dial in using your telephone +1 312 626 6799
Wednesday – 9:00 a.m. Morning Prayer You can either watch live on Facebook or Join via Zoom https://zoom.us/j/475141315 Meeting ID: 475 141 315 Password 1710 or dial in using your telephone +1 312 626 6799
Wednesday Church night - 6-7pm 2nd-7th graders via zoom- link sent to parents, 7-8pm Confirmation- link sent to parents, 8pm Adults on FaceBook
Thursday – 9:00 p.m. Compline You can either watch live on Facebook or join via zoom - NOTE THIS IS A NEW LINK: Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/308741410?pwd=VWRlOFVGaUZia2pLcUVkbDd2VGpOdz09 Meeting ID: 308 741 410 Password: 1710 Or dial in using your telephone+1-312-626-6799
Friday – 9:00 a.m. St. Paul’s Sings on Facebook or the website’s music page
Saturday – 9:00 a.m. Community Connections on FaceBook or the website’s community connections page
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. service on FaceBook or the website, followed by coffee hour via zoom link https://zoom.us/j/502278631?pwd=VHl4Q2I2UVZ0dVV4TTd4MXNjK1prQT09 Meeting ID: 502 278 631 Password: 1710
A few reminders:
- Thank you to everyone who continues to financially support the church. You can give on-line through the website, using bill pay at your bank or by sending in a check and you can also now give via text. You text “give” to 218-394-3535. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.
- Volunteers are available to deliver groceries or prescriptions, to be a “phone pal” or to deliver a cloth mask. Remember, the CDC is recommending wearing a cloth mask when you are out in public. If you would like one, or know someone who would, please let me know. Parishioners are making and donating them.
- We have phone pals for those who don’t have internet access to our offerings. If you would like to be phone pal and call someone once a week to read the announcements and do a check in, please let me know
- A parish directory will be emailed out this week, thanks to Rita for her work updating it. Please only use the information in the directory to connect with fellow church members for building church community.
- The Messenger was emailed out to everyone with an email address last week and mailed to those without an email address.
Peace, Bill
An Easter Message April 11, 2020
Easter isn’t just something that happened to Jesus, the ultimate miracle to prove He was God. Easter happens to us. Easter happens when the life-changing, world-transforming, unconditional love of God works through us to bring healing, reconciliation and new life to our broken, hurting world.
Our church is empty, but our hearts are full, full of the goodness and love that Christ revealed when He overcame death and the grave and proclaimed “Love Wins” through the empty tomb. Love is the first and last word. Love is the breath God breathed into Adam, love is the hand that lifted Jesus from the tomb, love is God’s life at work within and among us, through words and deeds big and small.
Easter happens when churches are filled with people, and it happens when we are at home. Easter happens in our hearts.
Though we will be physically apart this Easter, we are spiritually connected through the greatest and most powerful force in the universe: the love of God in Christ Jesus, who is alive and at work in our world and in us through love.
I hope you enjoy the online Easter Service found on FB or our worship page here on our website, and I wish you God’s peace and blessings for a safe and happy Easter. You can download the bulletin on the worship page too and on the back cover is a butterfly picture you can color and display as a sign of new life.
Peace and Blessings,
Bill
Our church is empty, but our hearts are full, full of the goodness and love that Christ revealed when He overcame death and the grave and proclaimed “Love Wins” through the empty tomb. Love is the first and last word. Love is the breath God breathed into Adam, love is the hand that lifted Jesus from the tomb, love is God’s life at work within and among us, through words and deeds big and small.
Easter happens when churches are filled with people, and it happens when we are at home. Easter happens in our hearts.
Though we will be physically apart this Easter, we are spiritually connected through the greatest and most powerful force in the universe: the love of God in Christ Jesus, who is alive and at work in our world and in us through love.
I hope you enjoy the online Easter Service found on FB or our worship page here on our website, and I wish you God’s peace and blessings for a safe and happy Easter. You can download the bulletin on the worship page too and on the back cover is a butterfly picture you can color and display as a sign of new life.
Peace and Blessings,
Bill
April 6, 2020 Monday Message
Dear Parishioners,
I hope this Monday Message finds you safe and well. It was great to have Wednesday Church Night programming last week. The confirmation and other groups met via Zoom. Thank you to all of our faith guides. Church Night will be held again on April 15 online.
We had a great Mission Area gathering with our bishop-elect Craig Loya last Saturday. Every faith community in our area had a chance to describe itself, and we had questions and dialogue with the bishop elect. The gathering was recorded and can be found on the website.
The Palm Sunday procession was really fun! Thank you to everyone who submitted a video clip waving branches or palms. Thank you also to Heidi for singing.
Thank you to everyone who continues to financially support the church. You can give on-line here, using bill pay at your bank or by sending in a check to the church address (mail is being forwarded). Your contribution is greatly appreciated. Thank you also to the vestry and staff for calling parishioners and checking in. From what I know people are doing well.
Coming up Online this week:
Tuesday – 9:00 a.m. Bible Study
Wednesday – 9:00 a.m. Morning Prayer- you can now just watch on FaceBook OR use the zoom link
Maundy Thursday – I’m doing : “What is Maundy Thursday?” online and we have resources for celebrating Maundy Thursday at home
9:00 p.m. Compline- you can now just watch on FaceBook OR use the zoom link
Good Friday – 9:00 a.m. “St. Paul’s Sings”
Noon: Stations of the Cross
Saturday – 9:00 a.m. Community Connections
Easter Sunday – 10:00 a.m. service followed by coffee hour
Volunteers are available to deliver groceries or prescriptions, to be a “phone pal” or to deliver a cloth mask. Remember, the CDC is recommending wearing a cloth mask when you are out in public. If you would like one, or know someone who would, please let me know. Parishioners are making and donating them.
Our friend Laura Kelly Fanucci wrote a poem entitled “When this is Over.” It has been made into a visual poem and can be found on Facebook and at the top of this page.
I’ll leave you with a beautiful prayer by Nadia Bolz-Weber...
“For the layers of comfort and convenience that surrounded our lives and that we never considered a blessing but always just took for granted, forgive us.
For we who must grieve in isolation and not in community, comfort us.
For we who care for the sick, protect us.
For the ability to turn off the fear-mongering and unhelpful commentary and worst-case scenario click bait, strengthen us.
For the times when we are all out of creative ideas for how to get through this with cooped up kids, inspire us.
For we who are now cutting our own bangs at home, guide us.
For the grace to allow ourselves and others to just be less productive, shower us.
For the generosity needed from those of us who have more resources, empower us.
From our own selfish inclinations, deliver us.
For just being your children, none of whom have done a global pandemic before, love us.
For the days ahead, accompany us.
God unbound by time, help us to know that you are already present in the future we are fearing.”
AMEN.
Be Safe and well and know that you are in my thoughts and prayers.
Peace, Bill
I hope this Monday Message finds you safe and well. It was great to have Wednesday Church Night programming last week. The confirmation and other groups met via Zoom. Thank you to all of our faith guides. Church Night will be held again on April 15 online.
We had a great Mission Area gathering with our bishop-elect Craig Loya last Saturday. Every faith community in our area had a chance to describe itself, and we had questions and dialogue with the bishop elect. The gathering was recorded and can be found on the website.
The Palm Sunday procession was really fun! Thank you to everyone who submitted a video clip waving branches or palms. Thank you also to Heidi for singing.
Thank you to everyone who continues to financially support the church. You can give on-line here, using bill pay at your bank or by sending in a check to the church address (mail is being forwarded). Your contribution is greatly appreciated. Thank you also to the vestry and staff for calling parishioners and checking in. From what I know people are doing well.
Coming up Online this week:
Tuesday – 9:00 a.m. Bible Study
Wednesday – 9:00 a.m. Morning Prayer- you can now just watch on FaceBook OR use the zoom link
Maundy Thursday – I’m doing : “What is Maundy Thursday?” online and we have resources for celebrating Maundy Thursday at home
9:00 p.m. Compline- you can now just watch on FaceBook OR use the zoom link
Good Friday – 9:00 a.m. “St. Paul’s Sings”
Noon: Stations of the Cross
Saturday – 9:00 a.m. Community Connections
Easter Sunday – 10:00 a.m. service followed by coffee hour
Volunteers are available to deliver groceries or prescriptions, to be a “phone pal” or to deliver a cloth mask. Remember, the CDC is recommending wearing a cloth mask when you are out in public. If you would like one, or know someone who would, please let me know. Parishioners are making and donating them.
Our friend Laura Kelly Fanucci wrote a poem entitled “When this is Over.” It has been made into a visual poem and can be found on Facebook and at the top of this page.
I’ll leave you with a beautiful prayer by Nadia Bolz-Weber...
“For the layers of comfort and convenience that surrounded our lives and that we never considered a blessing but always just took for granted, forgive us.
For we who must grieve in isolation and not in community, comfort us.
For we who care for the sick, protect us.
For the ability to turn off the fear-mongering and unhelpful commentary and worst-case scenario click bait, strengthen us.
For the times when we are all out of creative ideas for how to get through this with cooped up kids, inspire us.
For we who are now cutting our own bangs at home, guide us.
For the grace to allow ourselves and others to just be less productive, shower us.
For the generosity needed from those of us who have more resources, empower us.
From our own selfish inclinations, deliver us.
For just being your children, none of whom have done a global pandemic before, love us.
For the days ahead, accompany us.
God unbound by time, help us to know that you are already present in the future we are fearing.”
AMEN.
Be Safe and well and know that you are in my thoughts and prayers.
Peace, Bill
March 30, 2020 Monday Message:
Dear Parishioners,
Here’s the Monday Message with details about what’s coming up this week. Just a reminder that church staff are working from home. You can reach us via phone or email. For pastoral needs: contact via phone -either Barb Elliott or me or via email- Barb or me . Staff and vestry are calling people to check in, and I’m happy to report that people are doing well.
The mail is being forwarded. We thank you for your ongoing financial support either online through our website or through the mail.
Do check out this page as it is continuously updated and has great information like “Tips for Staying Healthy” and links for our services and online offerings.
Yesterday’s service and online coffee hour went very well. It was nice to see people and receive updates on how folks are doing. Join us for coffee hour next Sunday!
Here’s the schedule for this week. You’ll note Wednesday Church Night returns (albeit without a wonderful meal prepared by Buffy and the Browns)!
Tuesday – Bible Study at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom
Wednesday – Morning Prayer at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom
Church Night – 2nd though 7th grade at 6:00 pm via Zoom. Confirmation at 6:30 pm via Zoom. Adult program at 6:30 pm via Facebook.
Thursday – Compline at 9:00 p.m. via Zoom
Friday – “St. Paul’s Sings” at 9:00 a.m. on FaceBook
Saturday – Community Connections 9:00am on FB- watch it after the Mission Area Gathering
Also – Saturday is our Mission Area Gathering. The faith communities from our Northeast Mission Area will gather via Zoom with our Bishop-elect Craig Loya. Each faith community will do a 5 minute presentation, followed by questions for the bishop elect. I encourage you to tune in. You can find the link posted on this page when it is available.
Sunday – Palm Sunday service at 10:00 a.m. and online coffee hour. You can pick up palms outside at the Greysolon entrance on Friday or Saturday. Please be sure to only touch the palms you are taking.
A thought for this week: many of us who are working are now working from home. This allows you to work all the time, constantly checking email, doing Zoom, etc. Take some time for yourself. Get outside, paint, sew, read something not related to work. Spend some time in prayer and meditation.
A prayer from our friends at the NE Synod of the ELCA:
God, our peace and our strength, we pray for our nation and the world as we face new uncertainties around coronavirus. Protect the most vulnerable among us, especially all who are currently sick or in isolation. Grant wisdom, patience, and clarity to health care workers, especially as their work caring for others puts them at great risk. Guide us as we consider how best to prepare and respond in our families, congregations, workplaces, and communities. Give us courage to face these days not with fear but with compassion, concern, and acts of service, trusting that you abide with us always, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Remember: Jesus is “Emmanuel” a name that means “God is with us.” Hang onto that.
Peace & Blessings,
Bill
Here’s the Monday Message with details about what’s coming up this week. Just a reminder that church staff are working from home. You can reach us via phone or email. For pastoral needs: contact via phone -either Barb Elliott or me or via email- Barb or me . Staff and vestry are calling people to check in, and I’m happy to report that people are doing well.
The mail is being forwarded. We thank you for your ongoing financial support either online through our website or through the mail.
Do check out this page as it is continuously updated and has great information like “Tips for Staying Healthy” and links for our services and online offerings.
Yesterday’s service and online coffee hour went very well. It was nice to see people and receive updates on how folks are doing. Join us for coffee hour next Sunday!
Here’s the schedule for this week. You’ll note Wednesday Church Night returns (albeit without a wonderful meal prepared by Buffy and the Browns)!
Tuesday – Bible Study at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom
Wednesday – Morning Prayer at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom
Church Night – 2nd though 7th grade at 6:00 pm via Zoom. Confirmation at 6:30 pm via Zoom. Adult program at 6:30 pm via Facebook.
Thursday – Compline at 9:00 p.m. via Zoom
Friday – “St. Paul’s Sings” at 9:00 a.m. on FaceBook
Saturday – Community Connections 9:00am on FB- watch it after the Mission Area Gathering
Also – Saturday is our Mission Area Gathering. The faith communities from our Northeast Mission Area will gather via Zoom with our Bishop-elect Craig Loya. Each faith community will do a 5 minute presentation, followed by questions for the bishop elect. I encourage you to tune in. You can find the link posted on this page when it is available.
Sunday – Palm Sunday service at 10:00 a.m. and online coffee hour. You can pick up palms outside at the Greysolon entrance on Friday or Saturday. Please be sure to only touch the palms you are taking.
A thought for this week: many of us who are working are now working from home. This allows you to work all the time, constantly checking email, doing Zoom, etc. Take some time for yourself. Get outside, paint, sew, read something not related to work. Spend some time in prayer and meditation.
A prayer from our friends at the NE Synod of the ELCA:
God, our peace and our strength, we pray for our nation and the world as we face new uncertainties around coronavirus. Protect the most vulnerable among us, especially all who are currently sick or in isolation. Grant wisdom, patience, and clarity to health care workers, especially as their work caring for others puts them at great risk. Guide us as we consider how best to prepare and respond in our families, congregations, workplaces, and communities. Give us courage to face these days not with fear but with compassion, concern, and acts of service, trusting that you abide with us always, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Remember: Jesus is “Emmanuel” a name that means “God is with us.” Hang onto that.
Peace & Blessings,
Bill
March 27 Message From Rector - Stay at Home Update
Dear Parishioners,
Due to the Governor’s Stay at Home order, today will be the last day the church/office is open for the next two weeks. This Sunday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services have been recorded and will be available on the website. We will continue with our regular daily offerings, including Wednesday Church Nights (see below)!
From the calls I’ve made, and the reports I’ve received, I’m happy to report that people are doing well. We are living in the midst of a great paradox: living out physical distancing, being apart, is cherishing and protecting the community, especially healthcare workers, the medically fragile and the elderly. It’s loving our neighbor. Let’s continue to pray and to do what we can to be Beloved Community. Physically apart, together in Spirit. We will get through this with God’s help.
Peace, Bill
Due to the Governor’s Stay at Home order, today will be the last day the church/office is open for the next two weeks. This Sunday, Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services have been recorded and will be available on the website. We will continue with our regular daily offerings, including Wednesday Church Nights (see below)!
- We are available by phone: Bill, Rita, Sue and Tom if you need to reach us. (we are not listing our cell #'s on the website but they were sent in the email to parishioners, or just email us to get it) Because I live within walking distance, I will be regularly checking on the church and a professional will check the boilers daily.
- We have palms outside in buckets if you would like to stop by and pick some up for your home. Please only touch the ones you are taking. Keep them damp in a Ziploc bag with a wet piece of toweling until Palm Sunday.
- Today is the last day to pick up other materials in the Greysolon Road entrances; Books of Common Prayer, Hymnals, and other prayer materials for adults, kids and teens
- The mail is being forwarded. We appreciate your continued financial support of St. Paul’s during this time. Pledges can be mailed to St. Paul’s, 1710 E Superior Street, Duluth, MN 55812 or use our online giving option
- Wednesday Church Night Programming will continue on April 1 and 15. Families were sent links to zoom meetings for kids and Confirmation teens. There will be an Adult Forum offering posted on Facebook next Wednesday night.
- Please continue to use our website COVID-19 Response Page for important information and messages and like our FaceBook Page.
- Join us for our Daily Online offerings and hope to see you at our Virtual Coffee Hour at 11:15am via zoom following our Online Worship Service at 10am this Sunday.
- Staff and Vestry have begun calling every parishioner; so you should be getting a call soon if we have your current phone number. Please email us if your phone number has changed.
- Please let me know if you need anything. Volunteers are still able to do pick up and delivery for necessities.
From the calls I’ve made, and the reports I’ve received, I’m happy to report that people are doing well. We are living in the midst of a great paradox: living out physical distancing, being apart, is cherishing and protecting the community, especially healthcare workers, the medically fragile and the elderly. It’s loving our neighbor. Let’s continue to pray and to do what we can to be Beloved Community. Physically apart, together in Spirit. We will get through this with God’s help.
Peace, Bill
March 23, 2020 Monday Message from the Rector
Dear Parishioners,
Here’s a summary of the Monday Message I did on Facebook Live this morning at 9:00:
Some Good News!
MANY thanks to Sue Van Oss – our technology guru – for our many online offerings and keeping the website up-to-the-minute current! And thanks to Rita for updating our parish directory so we can be calling each other.
This is Kathy Jurasek’s final week of work before she begins her full-time job at Marshall School. Give Kathy and call or send her a note to thank her for her many years of faithful service. We’ll have a reception for Kathy when we are able to gather again.
Need anything? Know someone who does? Let us know. We have volunteers to do pickup and delivery.
Prayer Books, Hymnals and other materials are available in the Greysolon entrance.
Here’s this week’s schedule. The Zoom links can be found here: https://www.stpaulsfaithformation.org/covid-19-response.html
Tuesday – 9:00 a.m. Bible Study with Bill
Wednesday – 9:00 a.m. Morning Prayer with Bill
Thursday – 9:00 p.m. Compline with Barb
Friday – 9:00 a.m. “St. Paul’s Sings” with Tom
Saturday – 9:00 a.m. Community Connections with Sue
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship, online coffee hour to follow
A few final thoughts:
As I mentioned in my sermon yesterday, I recommend calling this physical distancing rather than social distancing. We need social connections now more than ever. Pick up the phone and call to check in on each other.
Get outside. Temps will be in the 40’s this week! Fresh air and sunshine work wonders.
Limit the amount of news you watch. Of course, we want to be informed, but continuous news coverage can make us anxious. Pick up a good book. I’m rereading “The Book of Joy” by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Good for the soul.
We really appreciate everyone making an effort to stay current on your pledge. We have online giving on our website, or you can always send in a check.
Remember: we are doing this physical distancing for ourselves and for others. We’re doing it for the common good. We keep ourselves and others safe when we limit interactions as much as possible. It’s loving our neighbor.
Peace & Blessings,
Bill +
Here’s a summary of the Monday Message I did on Facebook Live this morning at 9:00:
Some Good News!
- Tom Hamilton’s plans have changed and he will be with us into the summer.
- Jean Manthey has a new great-grandson. Lucas Anthony Kruczek (son of Sherry Ammerman and Adam Kruczek)
- We had over 200 devices tuned into our Sunday online worship service; which means even more than that watched as several households had multiple people on one device! Online coffee hour went great, and our youth gathered on Zoom for conversation and fellowship.
MANY thanks to Sue Van Oss – our technology guru – for our many online offerings and keeping the website up-to-the-minute current! And thanks to Rita for updating our parish directory so we can be calling each other.
This is Kathy Jurasek’s final week of work before she begins her full-time job at Marshall School. Give Kathy and call or send her a note to thank her for her many years of faithful service. We’ll have a reception for Kathy when we are able to gather again.
Need anything? Know someone who does? Let us know. We have volunteers to do pickup and delivery.
Prayer Books, Hymnals and other materials are available in the Greysolon entrance.
Here’s this week’s schedule. The Zoom links can be found here: https://www.stpaulsfaithformation.org/covid-19-response.html
Tuesday – 9:00 a.m. Bible Study with Bill
Wednesday – 9:00 a.m. Morning Prayer with Bill
Thursday – 9:00 p.m. Compline with Barb
Friday – 9:00 a.m. “St. Paul’s Sings” with Tom
Saturday – 9:00 a.m. Community Connections with Sue
Sunday – 10:00 a.m. worship, online coffee hour to follow
A few final thoughts:
As I mentioned in my sermon yesterday, I recommend calling this physical distancing rather than social distancing. We need social connections now more than ever. Pick up the phone and call to check in on each other.
Get outside. Temps will be in the 40’s this week! Fresh air and sunshine work wonders.
Limit the amount of news you watch. Of course, we want to be informed, but continuous news coverage can make us anxious. Pick up a good book. I’m rereading “The Book of Joy” by the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Good for the soul.
We really appreciate everyone making an effort to stay current on your pledge. We have online giving on our website, or you can always send in a check.
Remember: we are doing this physical distancing for ourselves and for others. We’re doing it for the common good. We keep ourselves and others safe when we limit interactions as much as possible. It’s loving our neighbor.
Peace & Blessings,
Bill +
March 20, 2020 Message from the Rector
Dear Parishioners,
I hope this update finds you doing well in the midst of all the changes we are facing due to physical distancing. St. Paul’s staff is working hard to offer opportunities for us to connect and have community online. We are also making plans to connect through phone calls. If your phone number has changed, please let me know by emailing me, calling the office, or using the contact form on this site.
If you are unable to go out and need groceries or prescriptions, please let us know. We have volunteers willing to do pickup and delivery.
We have Books of Common Prayer, hymnals and other materials and resources available for pickup in the Greysolon entry or we can drop them off.
Weekly St. Paul’s Online Opportunities starting on Sunday:
These will be available on FB with links here on our website or via Zoom links found on this page.
Sunday- Worship at 10am (here on worship page or on FB)
Virtual Coffee Hour at 11:15am (see zoom link)
Monday Message –- 9am Bill will share a reflection and announcements (on FB or here on this page)
Tuesday Bible Study – 9am Bible study with Bill on the upcoming Sunday readings (join via zoom link)
Wednesday Morning Prayer -9am Join Bill in praying Morning Prayer (see zoom link)
Thursday Compline - 9pm Join Barb in praying Compline (see zoom link)
Friday- 9am - St. Paul’s Sings – music by Tom Hamilton (on music page of website or FB)
Saturday- 9am - Called to the Way of Love –ways you can be the hands and feet of Christ in our community (on serve page of website or FB)
As we continue to sail these uncharted waters, we are grateful for your support, your prayers and your suggestions. We are also grateful for your ongoing financial support. You can set up online giving here.
Many banks offer online bill pay for a single gift or regular giving, or you can simply send a check into the office.
I’ll leave you with this piece from our friend Laura Kelly Fanucci who gave our Day of Reflection on Calling: (image below)
Peace & Blessings, Bill +
(Links and Instructions for Zoom were included in this message, but are not repeated here, they are also on this page.)
I hope this update finds you doing well in the midst of all the changes we are facing due to physical distancing. St. Paul’s staff is working hard to offer opportunities for us to connect and have community online. We are also making plans to connect through phone calls. If your phone number has changed, please let me know by emailing me, calling the office, or using the contact form on this site.
If you are unable to go out and need groceries or prescriptions, please let us know. We have volunteers willing to do pickup and delivery.
We have Books of Common Prayer, hymnals and other materials and resources available for pickup in the Greysolon entry or we can drop them off.
Weekly St. Paul’s Online Opportunities starting on Sunday:
These will be available on FB with links here on our website or via Zoom links found on this page.
Sunday- Worship at 10am (here on worship page or on FB)
Virtual Coffee Hour at 11:15am (see zoom link)
Monday Message –- 9am Bill will share a reflection and announcements (on FB or here on this page)
Tuesday Bible Study – 9am Bible study with Bill on the upcoming Sunday readings (join via zoom link)
Wednesday Morning Prayer -9am Join Bill in praying Morning Prayer (see zoom link)
Thursday Compline - 9pm Join Barb in praying Compline (see zoom link)
Friday- 9am - St. Paul’s Sings – music by Tom Hamilton (on music page of website or FB)
Saturday- 9am - Called to the Way of Love –ways you can be the hands and feet of Christ in our community (on serve page of website or FB)
As we continue to sail these uncharted waters, we are grateful for your support, your prayers and your suggestions. We are also grateful for your ongoing financial support. You can set up online giving here.
Many banks offer online bill pay for a single gift or regular giving, or you can simply send a check into the office.
I’ll leave you with this piece from our friend Laura Kelly Fanucci who gave our Day of Reflection on Calling: (image below)
Peace & Blessings, Bill +
(Links and Instructions for Zoom were included in this message, but are not repeated here, they are also on this page.)
March 17, 2020 Video Message:
March 16, 2020 Letter from the Rector:
Dear Parishioners,
As we settle into the reality of “social distancing” I want you to know that we are working to keep people connected and to provide meaningful worship and programs online. Here’s what’s coming up this week:
Morning and Evening Prayer
Join the clergy on Facebook Live as they lead Morning Prayer Wednesdays at 9am and Evening Compline Thursdays at 9pm. Go to our worship page for the service so you can download the prayers in advance to pray along.
Or you can access Morning and Evening Prayers anytime here.
101 Ways to Pray
Join Facebook Live on Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30 pm for videos and a booklet on 101 Ways to Pray in your Home with All Ages! It will also be posted on our worship page.
Sunday Online Eucharist
Each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. you can participate online in the service by watching the video and reading the bulletin on Facebook or our Website.
Here are a few other things:
Next Saturday’s Work Day is still happening! It will include deep cleaning. Come anytime after 9:00 a.m. to help.
You can serve our neighbors by signing up to provide a meal for Loaves and Fishes while their kitchen is being renovated. Sign up here.
Also, please know we have several volunteers who are standing ready to deliver a meal, pick up groceries, medications or other necessities and drop them off to your door. If you would like the assistance of a volunteer please email [email protected]. Our website has a OCVID 19 response page located under the “home” tab where you will find our communications, a request for assistance (if needed) and upcoming online opportunities.
Know that you are in our thoughts and prayers.
Peace,
Bill & Staff
____________________________________________________________
March 15, 2020 Letter from the Rector:
Dear Parishioners,
It was wonderful to see that so many participated in our online church service today. It was recorded and is available anytime on the homepage of our website, or on our youtube channel, remember to subscribe to our channel and you will be notified of new videos. You will find many videos of our services, musical pieces, presentations and meditations.
Since this was our first attempt and somewhat hastily put together, we will be making modifications and improvements. If you have comments or suggestions, please let me know.
I’d also like your input for our planning. What would you like to see us post online to lift your spirit, build community and spread God's love?
Here are some options
Morning Prayer
Noonday Prayer
Compline (evening prayer)
Conversation prompts
Online Bible study
Activities for children and families who are at home together
Specific resources you'd like
Online office hours (a time when the Rector is on FB live to converse)
Other?
We will do a variety of recorded and live posts. Reply back with your ideas. You can expect another email from me with a schedule for the week ahead of the ways we can connect with each other.
Also, please know we have several volunteers who are standing ready to deliver a meal, pick up groceries, medications or other necessities and drop them off to your door. If you would like the assistance of a volunteer please fill out the form on this page or email [email protected]. Our website has a OCVID 19 response page located under the “home” tab where you will find our communications, a request for assistance (if needed) and upcoming online opportunities.
Know that you are in my thoughts and prayers.
Peace, Bill
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MARCH 13, 2020 LETTER FROM THE RECTOR
Dear Parishioners:
The rapid spread of coronavirus COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has the potential to overwhelm our healthcare system and community resources, which can disproportionately affect those who are most vulnerable. Though there are no known cases in Duluth at this time, we know that the virus spreads through person-to-person contact that is facilitated through large public gatherings, and that the best way to combat the spread of the virus is to engage in social distancing. As the expert said this morning: “what we are experiencing now is 2 weeks old.” We are especially concerned about the medically vulnerable and elderly.
I have just completed a ZOOM (virtual) meeting with a health care professional, our bishop, diocesan leaders and other experts dealing with this coronavirus pandemic. The consensus is that social distancing begin immediately. Therefore, we are cancelling all group gatherings at St. Paul’s through April 1. This means we will not gather for Sunday services at 8:00 or 10:00, Wednesday church night activities, choir rehearsals, meetings or other events. Our bishop recommended this as the “wise and pastoral” thing to do. We need to act now to flatten the transmission curve.
But here is the good news—our staff also is absolutely confident the work of our church will continue in creative ways.
Beginning immediately:
Sunday Worship
We will stream our Sunday morning worship service live on our Facebook page every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. Please like our StPauls page, https://www.facebook.com/StPaulsDuluth It is also on the home page of this website. The experience will be very familiar for those who have worshipped with us before. We will still engage in song, scripture, a sermon, and prayer.
I ask you to commit to tuning in to our worship experiences live at 10 a.m. on Sunday with your loved ones, if possible. Even if we cannot be together in-person, we still can share the worship experience with one another. We are not cancelling church, we’re changing church.
Weekday Programming
Our life together isn’t limited to our Sunday worship experiences and, to that end, we’ll offer online programming throughout the week so you and your loved ones can remain engaged with others in our community. We’ll expand our opportunities every week (we’re learning as we go, after all), but here are a few programs you can expect right away:
Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30pm we will be sharing 101 Ways to Pray with specific ideas on creatively praying in your home. Obviously, there is no 5:30 Eucharist or simple suppers March 18 & 25.
You can also expect an email from me every Monday morning with more information about the online programs we have planned for that week and other resources. Here’s a good one called “Prayer and Worship in our homes” https://www.churchnext.tv/library/alternative-formation-for-christians-in-quarantine/114762/about/
Giving to the church
We greatly appreciate your continued support of St. Paul’s during this time. You can give online using this link or go to www.stpaulsduluth.org/give You can also mail your offering to the church.
Pastoral Care and Connection
If you are in need of food, medication or other personal items and need them dropped off, please contact the parish office as we have volunteers willing to assist you. Connecting with and caring for one another is, always, one of our community’s highest priorities. Over these coming weeks, please reach out to each other via text, phone, email or social media. If there’s anything at all that you or your loved ones need during this time, please reach out to me or Barb directly by email at [email protected], [email protected] or call 724-3535 and we will reach out to you to set up a video chat, FaceTime, or phone call.
We are making these temporary adjustments to how we conduct life together at St. Paul’s out of an abundance of caution and because we believe this is the responsible choice in the interest of public health. Please be assured that, as soon as it is safe for us to do so, we will ecstatic to return to our in-person gatherings with one another.
Coming up this week: Tentative- more will be added
Sunday, March 15: 10:00 am Livestream Service
Centering Prayer and Bach Birthday Bash postponed
Tuesday, March 17: No Bible Study
6:00 Vestry via Zoom (participants will be sent a link)
Wednesday, March 18: Noon – Livestream Noonday prayers
6:30 pm 101 Ways to Pray – Livestream
Saturday, March 21: Clean up day will include a deep cleaning of the building. More information to come.
I’ll leave you with a thought from The Rev. Paul Lebens Englund, Dean of St. Mark’s Cathedral:
“At its root, this is a decision to invest sacrificially in the Common Good – relinquish some of our own cherished rhythms and practices for the sake of those among us whose vulnerabilities may be known to them alone. It is a practical, lifesaving way for us to be and to build up the Beloved Community by taking pause together-giving thanks for the life we share, recognizing and celebrating those things we have ‘given up’ for Lent, toward the reward of savoring them all the more when they resume at a time that is safe for all of us.”
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Let’s keep everyone being affected by this in prayer.
Peace, Bill
_____________________________________________________________________
FEBRUARY 29, 2020 LETTER FROM THE RECTOR
Dear Friends,
The spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, is causing increasing concern throughout the world about transmission, and continues raising concerns about the spread of infectious disease. As a community of faith, we are in a unique position to provide a calm, prayerful presence, while also taking the precautionary measures necessary.
Our role in our communities during times of crisis are:
· Combat fear with knowledge in order to encourage preparedness and decrease stigma.
· Maintain operational continuity and continue worship life with adaptations as needed
· Show God’s compassion and care to those in our communities who are affected.
With the first official case being reported in Minnesota, we are taking preventative steps to ensure the health of all who enter St. Paul’s. Please take a few moments to read over what steps are being taken. We will continue to monitor the situation and take additional steps as needed.
1. Hand Sanitizers- we have filled the hand sanitizer bottles in the pews and purchased additional quantities and encourage you to use it when you arrive at your pew, after passing the offering plate and also immediately before receiving communion.
2. Communion- While the common cup, properly administered, has been scientifically proven to be safer than intinction (dipping the bread.host), some health officials are now suggesting ceasing the use of the common cup for a period of time, which we will be doing. The cup will continue to be used by the priest in the presidency of the Eucharist but offering it to the congregation will cease for the time being. The priests and ministers who touch the bread sanitize their hands immediately before touching it and will make every effort not to touch the hands of those receiving the bread.
The church believes that all of the grace of the sacrament of the Eucharist is conferred wholly in each element - both consecrated bread and wine. To receive only the host is not to have a "half blessing" or to receive "half communion." Instead, receiving in one kind is to fully partake in the Eucharistic feast.
3. What about intinction? (dipping the bread into the cup) It is a common occurrence when people intict the host for their fingers to touch either the consecrated wine or the side of the chalice. This is in fact less sanitary then drinking from the cup.
4. The Passing of the Peace is actually more of a concern to some Public Health experts. A handshake is not mandated by the Church, and all physical contact should be discontinued during the Peace. It is suggested to verbally share the Peace of the Lord with those around you. Making eye contact, slightly bowing your head, or offering a friendly wave are good substitutes for the traditional handshake or hug.
5. Coffee Hour- Common sense is the rule of the day. There will be hand sanitizer available in the parish hall or even better, use the bathrooms to wash your hands before consuming any food. Coffee hour hosts should wash their hands thoroughly, pour the coffee and juice for others and make sure serving utensils are available so multiple fingers are not placed on food.
6. Wednesday Meals- we are blessed to have a kitchen crew that is highly trained in proper food handling procedures and have been following them for years. We will however, begin serving all food for people going through the buffet line, instead of having multiple people touch the serving utensils.
7. Doors- As much as possible, we will prop open any doors to limit the need for touching and will Scrupulously disinfect bathrooms and other surfaces that are touched by multiple people
It bears repeating that the most significant things you can do to protect yourself and your family from contagious conditions are the same preventative practices that we promote every year during cold and flu season:
In a time of fear and panic, let us continue to dwell with one another, continue to be with one another, and continue to be at the Eucharistic feast with each other. I firmly believe Jesus would do the same.
Peace, Bill
References:
Rev. Tim Kingsley, Canon Pastor, St. Mark's Cathedral and Senior Advisor, Kingswood Security
Episcopal Church in Minnesota, Episcopal Relief and Development
Peer reviewed studies and Centers for Disease Control guidance since the 1980s have consistently shown that "no documented transmission of any infectious disease has ever been traced to the use of a common communion cup" and "the risk for infectious disease transmission by a common communion cup is very low, and appropriate safeguards--that is, wiping the interior and exterior rim between communicants, use of care to rotate the cloth during use, and use of a clean cloth for each service - would further diminish this risk." American Journal of Infection Control (Vol. 26, No. 5, 1998).
Letter to the Editor from CDC Scientists,"Risk of Infectious Disease Transmission from a Common Communion Cup"
American Journal of Infection Control (Vol. 26, pgs. 538-539). Peer-Reviewed Article,"The hazard of infection from the shared communion cup"
Journal of Infection (1988) (Vol 16, pgs. 3-23).
Dear Parishioners,
As we settle into the reality of “social distancing” I want you to know that we are working to keep people connected and to provide meaningful worship and programs online. Here’s what’s coming up this week:
Morning and Evening Prayer
Join the clergy on Facebook Live as they lead Morning Prayer Wednesdays at 9am and Evening Compline Thursdays at 9pm. Go to our worship page for the service so you can download the prayers in advance to pray along.
Or you can access Morning and Evening Prayers anytime here.
101 Ways to Pray
Join Facebook Live on Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30 pm for videos and a booklet on 101 Ways to Pray in your Home with All Ages! It will also be posted on our worship page.
Sunday Online Eucharist
Each Sunday at 10:00 a.m. you can participate online in the service by watching the video and reading the bulletin on Facebook or our Website.
Here are a few other things:
Next Saturday’s Work Day is still happening! It will include deep cleaning. Come anytime after 9:00 a.m. to help.
You can serve our neighbors by signing up to provide a meal for Loaves and Fishes while their kitchen is being renovated. Sign up here.
Also, please know we have several volunteers who are standing ready to deliver a meal, pick up groceries, medications or other necessities and drop them off to your door. If you would like the assistance of a volunteer please email [email protected]. Our website has a OCVID 19 response page located under the “home” tab where you will find our communications, a request for assistance (if needed) and upcoming online opportunities.
Know that you are in our thoughts and prayers.
Peace,
Bill & Staff
____________________________________________________________
March 15, 2020 Letter from the Rector:
Dear Parishioners,
It was wonderful to see that so many participated in our online church service today. It was recorded and is available anytime on the homepage of our website, or on our youtube channel, remember to subscribe to our channel and you will be notified of new videos. You will find many videos of our services, musical pieces, presentations and meditations.
Since this was our first attempt and somewhat hastily put together, we will be making modifications and improvements. If you have comments or suggestions, please let me know.
I’d also like your input for our planning. What would you like to see us post online to lift your spirit, build community and spread God's love?
Here are some options
Morning Prayer
Noonday Prayer
Compline (evening prayer)
Conversation prompts
Online Bible study
Activities for children and families who are at home together
Specific resources you'd like
Online office hours (a time when the Rector is on FB live to converse)
Other?
We will do a variety of recorded and live posts. Reply back with your ideas. You can expect another email from me with a schedule for the week ahead of the ways we can connect with each other.
Also, please know we have several volunteers who are standing ready to deliver a meal, pick up groceries, medications or other necessities and drop them off to your door. If you would like the assistance of a volunteer please fill out the form on this page or email [email protected]. Our website has a OCVID 19 response page located under the “home” tab where you will find our communications, a request for assistance (if needed) and upcoming online opportunities.
Know that you are in my thoughts and prayers.
Peace, Bill
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
MARCH 13, 2020 LETTER FROM THE RECTOR
Dear Parishioners:
The rapid spread of coronavirus COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has the potential to overwhelm our healthcare system and community resources, which can disproportionately affect those who are most vulnerable. Though there are no known cases in Duluth at this time, we know that the virus spreads through person-to-person contact that is facilitated through large public gatherings, and that the best way to combat the spread of the virus is to engage in social distancing. As the expert said this morning: “what we are experiencing now is 2 weeks old.” We are especially concerned about the medically vulnerable and elderly.
I have just completed a ZOOM (virtual) meeting with a health care professional, our bishop, diocesan leaders and other experts dealing with this coronavirus pandemic. The consensus is that social distancing begin immediately. Therefore, we are cancelling all group gatherings at St. Paul’s through April 1. This means we will not gather for Sunday services at 8:00 or 10:00, Wednesday church night activities, choir rehearsals, meetings or other events. Our bishop recommended this as the “wise and pastoral” thing to do. We need to act now to flatten the transmission curve.
But here is the good news—our staff also is absolutely confident the work of our church will continue in creative ways.
Beginning immediately:
Sunday Worship
We will stream our Sunday morning worship service live on our Facebook page every Sunday morning at 10 a.m. Please like our StPauls page, https://www.facebook.com/StPaulsDuluth It is also on the home page of this website. The experience will be very familiar for those who have worshipped with us before. We will still engage in song, scripture, a sermon, and prayer.
I ask you to commit to tuning in to our worship experiences live at 10 a.m. on Sunday with your loved ones, if possible. Even if we cannot be together in-person, we still can share the worship experience with one another. We are not cancelling church, we’re changing church.
Weekday Programming
Our life together isn’t limited to our Sunday worship experiences and, to that end, we’ll offer online programming throughout the week so you and your loved ones can remain engaged with others in our community. We’ll expand our opportunities every week (we’re learning as we go, after all), but here are a few programs you can expect right away:
Wednesday, March 18 at 6:30pm we will be sharing 101 Ways to Pray with specific ideas on creatively praying in your home. Obviously, there is no 5:30 Eucharist or simple suppers March 18 & 25.
You can also expect an email from me every Monday morning with more information about the online programs we have planned for that week and other resources. Here’s a good one called “Prayer and Worship in our homes” https://www.churchnext.tv/library/alternative-formation-for-christians-in-quarantine/114762/about/
Giving to the church
We greatly appreciate your continued support of St. Paul’s during this time. You can give online using this link or go to www.stpaulsduluth.org/give You can also mail your offering to the church.
Pastoral Care and Connection
If you are in need of food, medication or other personal items and need them dropped off, please contact the parish office as we have volunteers willing to assist you. Connecting with and caring for one another is, always, one of our community’s highest priorities. Over these coming weeks, please reach out to each other via text, phone, email or social media. If there’s anything at all that you or your loved ones need during this time, please reach out to me or Barb directly by email at [email protected], [email protected] or call 724-3535 and we will reach out to you to set up a video chat, FaceTime, or phone call.
We are making these temporary adjustments to how we conduct life together at St. Paul’s out of an abundance of caution and because we believe this is the responsible choice in the interest of public health. Please be assured that, as soon as it is safe for us to do so, we will ecstatic to return to our in-person gatherings with one another.
Coming up this week: Tentative- more will be added
Sunday, March 15: 10:00 am Livestream Service
Centering Prayer and Bach Birthday Bash postponed
Tuesday, March 17: No Bible Study
6:00 Vestry via Zoom (participants will be sent a link)
Wednesday, March 18: Noon – Livestream Noonday prayers
6:30 pm 101 Ways to Pray – Livestream
Saturday, March 21: Clean up day will include a deep cleaning of the building. More information to come.
I’ll leave you with a thought from The Rev. Paul Lebens Englund, Dean of St. Mark’s Cathedral:
“At its root, this is a decision to invest sacrificially in the Common Good – relinquish some of our own cherished rhythms and practices for the sake of those among us whose vulnerabilities may be known to them alone. It is a practical, lifesaving way for us to be and to build up the Beloved Community by taking pause together-giving thanks for the life we share, recognizing and celebrating those things we have ‘given up’ for Lent, toward the reward of savoring them all the more when they resume at a time that is safe for all of us.”
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns. Let’s keep everyone being affected by this in prayer.
Peace, Bill
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FEBRUARY 29, 2020 LETTER FROM THE RECTOR
Dear Friends,
The spread of the coronavirus COVID-19, is causing increasing concern throughout the world about transmission, and continues raising concerns about the spread of infectious disease. As a community of faith, we are in a unique position to provide a calm, prayerful presence, while also taking the precautionary measures necessary.
Our role in our communities during times of crisis are:
· Combat fear with knowledge in order to encourage preparedness and decrease stigma.
· Maintain operational continuity and continue worship life with adaptations as needed
· Show God’s compassion and care to those in our communities who are affected.
With the first official case being reported in Minnesota, we are taking preventative steps to ensure the health of all who enter St. Paul’s. Please take a few moments to read over what steps are being taken. We will continue to monitor the situation and take additional steps as needed.
1. Hand Sanitizers- we have filled the hand sanitizer bottles in the pews and purchased additional quantities and encourage you to use it when you arrive at your pew, after passing the offering plate and also immediately before receiving communion.
2. Communion- While the common cup, properly administered, has been scientifically proven to be safer than intinction (dipping the bread.host), some health officials are now suggesting ceasing the use of the common cup for a period of time, which we will be doing. The cup will continue to be used by the priest in the presidency of the Eucharist but offering it to the congregation will cease for the time being. The priests and ministers who touch the bread sanitize their hands immediately before touching it and will make every effort not to touch the hands of those receiving the bread.
The church believes that all of the grace of the sacrament of the Eucharist is conferred wholly in each element - both consecrated bread and wine. To receive only the host is not to have a "half blessing" or to receive "half communion." Instead, receiving in one kind is to fully partake in the Eucharistic feast.
3. What about intinction? (dipping the bread into the cup) It is a common occurrence when people intict the host for their fingers to touch either the consecrated wine or the side of the chalice. This is in fact less sanitary then drinking from the cup.
4. The Passing of the Peace is actually more of a concern to some Public Health experts. A handshake is not mandated by the Church, and all physical contact should be discontinued during the Peace. It is suggested to verbally share the Peace of the Lord with those around you. Making eye contact, slightly bowing your head, or offering a friendly wave are good substitutes for the traditional handshake or hug.
5. Coffee Hour- Common sense is the rule of the day. There will be hand sanitizer available in the parish hall or even better, use the bathrooms to wash your hands before consuming any food. Coffee hour hosts should wash their hands thoroughly, pour the coffee and juice for others and make sure serving utensils are available so multiple fingers are not placed on food.
6. Wednesday Meals- we are blessed to have a kitchen crew that is highly trained in proper food handling procedures and have been following them for years. We will however, begin serving all food for people going through the buffet line, instead of having multiple people touch the serving utensils.
7. Doors- As much as possible, we will prop open any doors to limit the need for touching and will Scrupulously disinfect bathrooms and other surfaces that are touched by multiple people
It bears repeating that the most significant things you can do to protect yourself and your family from contagious conditions are the same preventative practices that we promote every year during cold and flu season:
- Protect yourself and others by washing your hands often with soap and water; covering your cough and sneeze; avoiding touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
- If you or your child are sick, stay home.
- Wash your hands
- Be prepared in case you get sick and need to stay home. Keep enough food, regular prescription drugs and other necessities on hand in case you need to stay home and are not able to go out easily.
- Wash your hands
- Frequently clean all commonly touched work surfaces, work areas, and equipment (e.g., telephones, doorknobs, tables, countertops, copiers, etc.).
- Wash your hands. Health experts are advising a thorough hand-scrubbing of at least 20 seconds to help stem the spread of coronavirus. As it turns out, 20 seconds is about how long it takes to say The Lord's Prayer.
- The Minnesota Department of Health provides information and will continue to monitor the situation locally. They have a robust website with resources, recommendations and information about the virus and ways in which they will respond. Click here to find these resources .
In a time of fear and panic, let us continue to dwell with one another, continue to be with one another, and continue to be at the Eucharistic feast with each other. I firmly believe Jesus would do the same.
Peace, Bill
References:
Rev. Tim Kingsley, Canon Pastor, St. Mark's Cathedral and Senior Advisor, Kingswood Security
Episcopal Church in Minnesota, Episcopal Relief and Development
Peer reviewed studies and Centers for Disease Control guidance since the 1980s have consistently shown that "no documented transmission of any infectious disease has ever been traced to the use of a common communion cup" and "the risk for infectious disease transmission by a common communion cup is very low, and appropriate safeguards--that is, wiping the interior and exterior rim between communicants, use of care to rotate the cloth during use, and use of a clean cloth for each service - would further diminish this risk." American Journal of Infection Control (Vol. 26, No. 5, 1998).
Letter to the Editor from CDC Scientists,"Risk of Infectious Disease Transmission from a Common Communion Cup"
American Journal of Infection Control (Vol. 26, pgs. 538-539). Peer-Reviewed Article,"The hazard of infection from the shared communion cup"
Journal of Infection (1988) (Vol 16, pgs. 3-23).