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Name: Evensong with James
Start: 2020-09-21T18:00:00-07:00
End: 2020-09-21T18:30:00-07:00

News of St. Michael's

What next, God?September 11, 2020Dear ones,I feel the tension, the edge, the uncertainty, the wonder of, ‘What next, God?’ We continue to believe that we are preparing for one thing, and then we are called to respond to yet another chaotic twist to the world around us. We are experiencing a different level of fatigue, a different level of isolation and bewilderment.And yet we are still here. St. Michael’s is with you. God is with you. Your staff and clergy are hard at work checking in with the communities and places that are most affected by the fires across our state and will be collecting ways in which we can respond to share with you. We will tune in together on Sunday morning and pray and sing and listen to the heartbeat of our family. Team L.I.F.E. will host our post-church Zoom hour as an opportunity for us to connect to one another and pray for one another and even perhaps play with one another. Please take care of yourself. Care for your loved ones. Reach out in compassion. Pray for the healing of our world.Faithfully,Chris+...
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Voting GuideSeptember 10, 2020The Advocacy Action Committee of St. Michael’s is making available a publication entitled Democracy Values & the 2020 Election: A Reflection Guide for Faith Communities. This is a nonpartisan guide offering timely sections that address urgent moral issues at stake in this election. Topics include justice for immigrants, economic dignity, care for creation and climate change, racism and criminal justice reform, democracy and voting rights, health care and the Coronavirus pandemic, and global peace-building. Reflection questions are included for your use in evaluating candidates running for office and initiatives included on the November ballot. Pdf copies of the guide are available here. Print copies will be available in a box in front of the courtyard doors on Monday, September 28 for those who would like to pick up a copy in person....
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The St. Michael’s Solar Panel ProjectAugust 25, 2020As many of you know, we received a Blue Sky Grant to begin a project of installing solar panels on the roof of our church. The team involved with getting this grant and moving the project forward will be updating us the progress of the project with stories and photos. We have created a page (click here for that page) where those stories will be listed as they are created. Since not many of us are actually seeing the church building during these times, this will be an opportunity for the community to keep up with the progress of the project.Here is a link to an article posted on “Solar Power News:” https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2018/07/the-father-sun-and-holy-spirit-churches-embrace-solar/....
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Learning Kits Filled with LoveAugust 13, 2020ST. MICHAEL’S LOVES CHILDREN! One of our greatest joys over the years has been the partnership we’ve developed with the Mid-Town branch of DHS to support local children and families being served in the foster-care system. Shopping for backpacks and school supplies in August has become part of the rhythm of our lives, and indeed the day we fill those backpacks with brand-new school supplies is one of the best Sunday mornings of the year! St. Michael’s will continue to support children in the foster-care system, this year with a “Back-to-School” effort that looks a little different due to the COVID-19 pandemic.Instead of collecting school supplies and bringing them to the church to assemble into backpacks, this year we invite you to make a monetary donation toward “Learning Kits” that will provide the supplies needed for online learning this fall. The Learning Kits will be delivered to the children by the case workers of the Mid-town branch of Department of Human Services when they make their monthly home visits.We are currently working with the DHS staff to gather a complete list of the ages of the children they serve so that we can best support them in their online learning with supplies and materials appropriate to the student’s grade level. Please join us in this life-giving work that will make a huge difference for children who need our support now more than ever.Checks can be made to St. Michael’s with the words Learning Kits in the memo line. We expect that each Learning Kit will cost between $20 – $30 depending on the age of the student and their specific needs for school this fall. We hope to fill 50 Learning Kits with lots of love and tools for learning.Please email Leslie with any questions about the Learning Kits. Thank you, St. Michael’s!Leslie Sackett, Associate for Children & Families Ministry...
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A Prayer for the Bishop Search & TransitionAugust 10, 2020A Prayer for the Transition Process“Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.” Isaiah 41:10Spirit of the living God, come among us and guide us as we seek to know your will for us in the Diocese of Oregon. May we listen deeply to your voice as we meet and discern with those who have stepped up to identify themselves and their gifts in leadership among us. May we find in all the voices that we hear, that still small voice leading us to deeper understanding of your will in each of our lives and providing us with the power to carry that out in your Church and your World. Amen.Una Oración para el Proceso de Transición“No temas, porque yo estoy contigo, no tengas miedo, porque yo soy tu Dios; Te fortaleceré, te ayudaré, Te defenderé con mi victoriosa mano derecha.” Isaías 41:10Espíritu del Dios viviente, ven entre nosotros y guíanos mientras buscamos conocer tu voluntad para nosotros en la Diócesis de Oregon. Podemos escuchar profundamente tu voz al conocer y distinguir con aquellos que han dado un paso adelante para identificarse a sí mismos y sus dones en el liderazgo entre nosotros. Que podamos encontrar en todas las voces que escuchamos, esa voz aún pequeña que nos lleva a un entendimiento más profundo de tu voluntad en cada una de nuestras vidas y nos provee el poder para llevarla a tu Iglesia y tu Mundo. Amén....
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On Team LlamaJuly 31, 2020Dear Ones,Seventeen Sundays ago, on Palm Sunday, April 5th, we introduced you to Llama. I brought Llama to help us make a festive procession. He technically belongs to my son, Jack. However, since that Sunday, Llama has become a member of our team – Team Llama. Almost an icon of this particular time for our community, Llama truly makes us smile and provides a reminder of our journey. Every Sunday morning, Hannah moves Llama to a different location, giving the congregation a chance to play “Where’s Llama?” There is a backstory to Llama, a story that began in August 2016 when James and I took an adventure to Machu Picchu in Peru. Stay tuned next week for the next installment of Llama’s story....
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The 2020 Census Matters to EveryoneJuly 30, 2020The Episcopal Church is urging all its members to take part in the 2020 United States Census. The mission of the census is to count every single person in the United States, without regard to age, immigration or citizenship status, whether or not someone is incarcerated or on parole, or whether they are facing homelessness. The goal of the Church is to help ensure that everyone is counted.Census data is used to determine representation in the House of Representatives, as well as state legislatures and local boards. It is also used to allocate funding for programs that help address poverty, healthcare, education, criminal justice, infrastructure and many others.Census results affect planning and funding for infrastructure, including programs for highway planning and construction, Section 8 housing, federal transit, community development and rural water and waste disposal systems.Census results affect planning and funding for healthcare, including programs such as Medicaid, Medicare Part B, State Children’s Health Insurance, and the prevention and treatment of substance abuse.Census results affect planning and funding for education, including programs such as Head Start, PELL Grants, school lunches, rural education, adult education and grants for preschool special education.Census results helps communities respond to natural disasters and secure funding for hospitals and fire departments.If you have not yet completed your form, you can do so now. Complete the survey online at my2020census.gov; or complete the survey by phone at 844/330-2020 or en español 844/468-2020....
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Candidatos para ser el siguiente Obispo de OregonJuly 23, 2020La Revda. Diana AkimayaAprende másLa Revda. Mary CaucuttAprende másEl Revdo. Andrew T. O’ConnorAprende másLa Revda. Canon Tanya R. WallaceAprende más...
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Sacred CirclesJuly 16, 2020St. Michael’s and the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice (IMIrJ) invite you into new ways of being, loving, and acting together by engaging in immigrant justice and anti-racism work. Many people at St Michael’s have expressed a desire for a space where they can talk about immigration injustice, racism and white supremacy, and engage in the work of dismantling these personally, in our communities and in the world.Sacred Circles will provide accountability, direction and support for people of faith and fierce love as we collectively learn and live our way into courageous action for racial and immigrant justice. Small groups of people will join together to provide each other with spiritual practice and grounding, relationship-building, education and shared action as we are called to walk together in the remarkable times in which we find ourselves. If this sounds like something you may be interested in, please email Cheryl....
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Invitation to Write – and RespondJuly 9, 2020An Invitation from Mary C. Myers, St. Michael’s parishioner, Spiritual Director/Companion & Legacy Writing FacilitatorWeek 10: An Invitation to Share your Written Reflections to be Included in the Upcoming MessengerFor the last nine weeks, you have been offered an opportunity to reflect on these times in which we are living, reflecting on how the crises of our times are impacting your daily life, your spirituality, your world view, your sense of well-being and insights you are gaining.Please consider submitting your written reflections, not limited to the prompts offered over the past nine weeks, as a gift to our community to help us better understand how you as an individual as well as us as a community are coping during these challenging times and how you are naming the struggles, finding meaning and even hope. We need to hear from each other to know we are not alone. We have wisdom and encouragement to offer one another.PLEASE CONSIDER SUBMITTING YOUR WRITTEN REFLECTION, OR EVEN PART OF A LARGER REFLECTION, A POEM, OR A WRITTEN EXPRESSION OF YOUR CHOICE, FOCUSING ON LIVING IN THESE HISTORICAL TIMES AND WHAT WE WILL WANT TO REMEMBER AND SHARE WITH FAMILY AND LOVED ONES, NOW AND IN THE FUTURE.Please submit your writing to Mary or Gloria within the next two weeks. Thank you in advance for sharing!Here are the Invitations to Write beginning nine weeks ago.Dear Friends,I would like to invite you to pause, read and reflect on the following poem by Michelle Riddell and sit with the thoughts that it generates in you about your experience of this time of chaos and crisis we are living in. We are all experiencing it differently, uniquely, and we are learning, gaining wisdom, coping, changing and being changed.It is important that we remember this time for ourselves, but it is also very important that we remember this experience for our families and loved ones, for future generations who will be asking the question, What was it like during the 2020 Pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement and all the other crises that came together to create this time of total upheaval in our lives and the unfolding consequences that we are only beginning to grasp? Therefore, I am inviting you to begin to write about your life as you are living it in 2020 and as you write, perhaps, come to greater awareness and understanding of yourself and these times and also create a legacy for your family and loved ones.Therefore, I will be offering several writing prompts each week for you to choose from and then respond to, perhaps in a journal that will be a container for your writings. Don’t worry about perfection, simply write from your heart and write as much or as little as feels right for you. In the future we may be able to come together on Zoom or in small groups to share our reflections, maybe the day will come when we can come together in small groups! In the weeks ahead, we can talk about collecting our writings to create a record of how we individually and as a community have lived and been transformed during this time.QUESTIONS FOR WEEK I:What do you miss about your life BEFORE the COVID-19 pandemic?What are the gifts you have discovered about THIS time that you hope will remain a part of your life going forward?QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 2: What are you learning about yourself? What are you finding most challenging about this time?QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 3:List at least three new insights/awarenesses that have come to you over the last five months from your reading, prayer, conversations with others, the news or participating in a small group discussions. Rather than being judgmental or defensive, reflect on each insight/awareness with a real sense of CURIOSITY. Ask yourself: I wonder what influenced or helped form what I believed before this new insight/awareness. I wonder why this insight/awareness is coming to me now, at this moment. I wonder in what ways this new insight/awareness will be a blessing and/or a challenge to me in the days ahead.Be gentle with yourself as you sit with these questions and write your response. WRITING PROMPT FOR WEEK 4: This week, I find that there are many things I WONDER about this time, what it means, what will be our future, what my response needs to be in light of all that is happening. I find nature has much to teach me besides offering me opportunities to be in wonder and awe. So, I am inviting us to WONDER together. I share part of a reflection I wrote as I spent time in nature and wondered… I wonder…… as I glide my kayak through the blanket of yellow, cup-like water lilies and the dazzling white star-burst water lilies floating above the carpet of flat, shiny green leaves,I wonder…… how such sublime beauty grows and blossoms out of the muck and decay at the bottom of the lake to grace me with such awe and joy.I wonder…… what will be the beauty and the gifts that will come out of the pain, suffering, chaos and death of this time as we are being called to draw on our better selves and manifest a better world.As I stroll along the beach, watching the rhythm of the ocean as it repeatedly erupts into high-crested waves edged in foam over swirls of blue and green water rushing to the shore that become ever more gentle and peaceful as they flow over the waiting sand.I wonder…… who and what will create the new waves of harmony, justice peace and love we long to have wash over our country and our world transforming it with healing and hope.I wonder…… can we be open to see with the eyes of our heart and catch glimpses of the new reality already forming, like waves, and beginning to wash over us with refreshment and new life.WHAT ARE YOU WONDERING?WRITING PROMPT FOR WEEK 5:Sue Monk Kidd, in her book The Book of Longings, writes, “I think every pain in the world wants to be witnessed,” and I would add, also to be truly heard.What pain(s) are people expressing during this time of chaos, crises and suffering that you are witnessing or hearing for the first time or in a new way?How the pains of those in our community that you are witnessing/hearing impacting you or challenging you?What actions, big or small, are you beginning to take to learn more about the pain or respond to the pain you are witnessing/hearing?WRITING PROMPT FOR WEEK 6:Many historic moments are happening in these days and moments we are living in today. The writing invitation for this week is to pause and name three or more of them. Suggestions: Death of John Lewis, the naming of a woman of color on the presidential ticket for 2020, the Black Lives Matter Movement, the SpaceX exploration….Choose one or more, and write about the historical significance of the event you have chosen, its place in your life story and the personal impact and meaning it has for you. It is valuable and important to pause and really take in these events and their historical significance and what it might mean for the future.If you have questions each week or would like to share your writings, please email Mary. She will continue to explore possibilities for sharing these with each other and with the community. Blessings as you reflect, write and share your thoughts.You Will Want to Remember Thisby Michelle RiddellYou will want to remember this.Maybe not next year or the year after, but someday, when the shock and horror wear off, when we are sitting next to each other at say, a baby shower or a band concert, so close that my sleeve brushes yours, and we exchange a look that recalls these strange days – you will want to remember.You will want to remember how it felt to wake up in the morning, how it took a moment for thecloud of sleep to lift, and then another for the cloud of day to settle, and how you would ask yourself What did I do yesterday? Did I shower? Did it rain?You will want to remember how you passed the time, how you became mesmerized by colorful cardboard shapes and lettered tiles and playing cards. How you drifted off in thought, mid-turn, worrying about the kids from school.You will want to remember how at last, when you had all the time in the world to read, you couldn’t tame your mind beyond a sentence.Maybe like me, you lost yourself in a closet or a drawer, emerging hours later, aimlessly clutching saved baby clothes and keychains bought on vacation.Maybe, like me, you felt guilt and relief about being healthy, safe, spared.Maybe, like me you cried watching a music video someone shared on Facebook, a dreamy, haunting rendition Of A Day in the Life, so harrowingly beautiful it hurt.You will want to remember how in this time, some people turned inward, some to nature, some to humor, some to God.How, when we all felt helpless, some made bread, others art. Some made masks. Others wore them.How phrases like “virus shedding” and “social distancing: became part of our vernacular, how we ran out of ways to say “unprecedented.”How we kept running tallies of our infected and our dead.How you stopped caring, or started caring, or wished you’d been a better daughter.You will want to remember how you changed, how you went from the rigid enforcer to letting your kids to eat cake in their bedrooms. How you learned to wait. How you learned what mattered.Maybe you made a schedule.Maybe you upheld bedtime routine.Maybe you called your Mom at midnight just to hear her sigh and tell you to get some sleep.You need to remember this. I want to remember this, because years from now, a lifetime from now, when we’re leaving somewhere, saying goodbye, when I’m hugging you tight and tighter still, and we both laugh, and yet I don’t let go – you will know why....
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Virtual VBS: Compassion CampJuly 9, 2020St. Michael’s Compassion Camp begins Wednesday, July 15, at 10:00 am. Please send a quick email to Leslie Sackett, Associate for Ministry to Children & Families, to let her know if your kiddo(s) will take part in St. Michael’s Virtual Vacation Bible School – Compassion Camp! Online Zoom meetings happen once a week on Wednesdays from 10:00 to 11:00 am for five weeks, from Wednesday, July 15, through Wednesday, August 12.This camp is a great for elementary age students Pre-k – 5th grade. Middle-school students are invited to volunteer as assistant teachers, music leaders & story tellers – we’d love to have you join us! We will put kits together so that kids at home can do all the cool stuff included in our VBS – music, stories, crafts, yoga and Zoom calls with friends on those five Wednesday mornings.Please RSVP to Leslie by Friday, July 10, and we will have your VBS material ready for pick up in the church courtyard on Sunday, July 12 (11 am to 12 pm) and Monday, July 13 (10 am to 1 pm)....
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Prayers for the JourneyJuly 9, 2020While we are still likely a ways off from reopening for regular in-person worship at St. Michael’s, we wish to create a few opportunities for you to prayerfully visit the space and draw near to the sacred center we share with one another. Between now and the end of August, we will offer three Saturday evenings where such a visit is possible. The sanctuary will be open for quiet prayer, accompanied by musical selections from Hannah, and the courtyard will have a path of four stations for prayer and reflection. You can come anytime between 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm on these Saturdays: July 18th, August 8th and August 22nd. You do not need to sign up beforehand to attend.Please abide by the precautions we will be taking for these gatherings: Masks are requiredDistance of six feet will be maintained between members of different household Follow the one-directional flow of trafficSit in the pew spaces that are pre-designatedListen to the ushers and wait along Broadway for your turn if we are at capacityThere will be ushers at the red doors and courtyard doors to help maintain the direction of traffic and monitor capacity as well as to collect names of participants should the need for contact tracing arise. Our bathrooms will not be available during this time, except in cases of an emergency. Chris and James will be outside and available to visit with you at a distance while you are standing in line or emerging from the courtyard. As a helpful gauge of distance, keep in mind that the cement squares in the courtyard are about three feet by three feet, meaning you need to be about two squares away from the next person. We will have a livestream of the sacred-space broadcast to Facebook for anyone who would like to spend some time in prayer and quiet with the community while remaining home.During a time when it can be easy to feel far apart, our hope is to provide opportunities to be together in new ways, albeit with the appropriate distance. If you have any questions about these events, you may contact Chris or James. We look forward to seeing you there and in the other ways we have found to gather during this time....
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