On Sunday, November 20, our Outreach & Justice Council is hosting a forum between the services entitled “Together, We Can End Unsheltered Homelessness.” Please join us at 10:10 am in the Nativity Hall, or check your eblast for the Zoom link information.
Most of you are aware that the women’s bathroom downstairs has been in the process of remodel for several months. It’s been quietly used for the past few weeks, but it’s now officially completed – and it’s beautiful! We are very grateful first of all to Jan P., who donated ample funds for the project in memory of Mickey Harnage. Sheri O. also donated the profits from the Red Door Artisan Fair (around $1,000) to the bathroom fund.
There is no one right way to “do church” with your kids. Getting everyone out the door and going to church as a family can be a lot of work, and it’s worth it! Families with children and youth are life-giving to other families and to the entire faith community – like water in the desert.
Between services on Sunday, November 13, the Advocacy Action committee will be in the Gallery with letters to Senators Wyden and Merkley requesting them to support the Global Food Security Reauthorization Act of 2022 (S.4649).
This is an exceptional stewardship year, a year when we are living into our faith with hope and love as we go through a time of tumultuous change. As we consider what we will give of our treasure, let us also consider what we will give of our time.
All Saints Sunday, with its evocation of the great cloud of witnesses that are the communion of saints, also brings to mind all those “whom we love, but see no longer.” Baptism is especially appropriate on All Saints, as we celebrate another person being initiated into the body of Christ Team LIFE’s stewardship program, Rooted in our Neighborhood, Branching Out in Love, will conclude with the ingathering of pledges of support for St Michael’s ministries and operations next year on November 13th.
We will celebrate both the Feast of All Saints and la Fiesta de Todos los Santos over the next two Sundays. On October 30, our Spanish-speaking congregation will commemorate the their faithful departed with special prayers and the decorating of the Altar de los Muertos. Two weeks later, on November 6, the English-language morning services will celebrate the Feast of All Saints.
We are so happy to reopen our Godly Play classroom! Children in pre-K through 5th grade (parents and older siblings, too) are welcome to join the circle. We began last week with “The Story of Creation” and continue this coming Sunday, October 30, with “The Flood and the Ark.”
Youth Group has returned with new energy for the 2022-23 school year! Youth group will meet every other Sunday, with third Sundays spent with the NE Youth Collective, a newly formed collaboration of progressive churches in NE Portland who “are committed to the love of God for young people, through community, service and spiritual growth.” Meetings with the Youth Collective will rotate locations.
Last week, Julia introduced Team LIFE’s 2022 stewardship education plan, with its theme, Rooted in Our Neighborhood, Branching Out in Love. This week we focus on L, for labor. One definition of stewardship is “everything we do with everything we have” – in other words, everything we do with our time, our gifts and our resources, including our work. Psalm 119 refers to the seven times a day that faithful Jews offered praise to God, and those in monastic communities often speak of their work as prayer, intentionally weaving work and spirituality.
Sunday Services
7:30 – Rite I
9:00 & 11:00 – Rite II
1:00 pm – Misa en Español
9:00 am & 11:00 am
© 2021 St. Michael & All Angels
