Author: Gloria

Dear Members of St. Michael’s,

Thank you for welcoming me as your Deacon Intern for the last year. My Field Education at St. Michael’s is ending May 31^st. You have welcomed me, guided me and allowed me to grow as a Deacon Postulant. Thank you for your support, your kindness and your gentle instruction when I needed some guidance.

A special thanks to my Deacon Support Team including Rev. Charlie Foss, Rev. Carol Howser, Lynn Baker, Lynn Montgomery and Gary Davis. I appreciate each one of you and your willingness to meet with me monthly and encourage me along the way.

You are an amazing community of caring individuals. You reach out into the world in so many ways. I enjoyed participating with The Green Team and Environmental Stewardship and the St. Brigid’s Healing Team.  I will always remember all the stuffed animals we collected for the children, and the many backpacks that we filled for DHS. Thank you, 7:30 am church members who listened to my sermons and encouraged me and gave me feedback.

I have been through some tough times with you all too. I will always remember the beautiful funerals. I enjoyed walking with you in SW Portland with the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice. I have learned so much from Chris and James and Matthew David in ways to preach and lead adult forums. I enjoyed your engagement at the End of Life Forum. I love your Taizé services and enjoyed playing piano for the service in February.  I have appreciated the Angel groups and the sharing among so many of you.

I need your help. I helped start a Caregiver Support group at St. Michael’s. It is a small group, at this time. I think there is a great need for Caregiver Support at St. Michael’s and in our community. Please contact James if you have interest in participating in this group.

“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and our hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it,” by Arundhati Roy.  My hope is that we grieve and lament deeply enough to imagine a better future for all.

I hope and pray that we can hold onto some of the changes that have happened as we have stayed home. I hope that people in the world who are seeing blue sky for the first time will appreciate this and be willing to make changes to help our Mother Earth. I hope that I will continue to check in on my neighbors and make sandwiches for the homeless. I hope we can continue to listen and care for each other and that we can be a little kinder to each other.  We need this. The world needs this.

I believe God is present and with us in the midst of COVID 19. I pray that you may know and feel God’s presence today, and in the days to come. I look forward to our paths crossing in the future.

Blessings, Liz Klein

40 million adults in the US identify as caregivers. Caregivers often find themselves overwhelmed, lonely and depressed. If you are a caregiver or know of someone who is, please consider joining St. Michael’s Caregiver Support Group.  Our goal is to make the group a supportive environment where people can talk about a broad range of issues, where people are accepted and cared for and where people can learn from each other. The idea is to help people feel less isolated and provide and receive support and encouragement and insight.

St. Michael’s Caregiver Support Group continues as we support each other through the COVID-19 pandemic and this difficult time. We are reaching out to each other with phone calls and emails to encourage and support each other and try to help each other feel less isolated. We continue to talk about good self-care and resiliency.

Please email Liz Klein, Deacon Intern or the Rev. James Joiner  if you are interested in being part of this group.

Team L.I.F.E. here!  While we continue to encourage you to share your Labor… Influence… Finances… and Expertise with the St. Michael’s community, we know our lives have changed dramatically in the past few weeks.

Team L.I.F.E. 2.0 (COVID edition) now encourages you to share your Laughter…Improvements…Freak-out moments…and Excitement!

Upload your photo or very short video (or story in text format) Click here. If you want to share a link to a video or send in a short Word document, please email here. Please do not email videos.

To see what has been shared so far, click here.