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Misa Coro rehearsal

Progress AA meeting

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Cascadia Chamber Ensemble ensemble (most Fridays)

Dances of Universal Peace

Misa celebration of foods

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Name: Dances of Universal Peace
Start: 2019-09-20T19:30:00-07:00
End: 2019-09-20T21:00:00-07:00

News of St. Michael's

Fall Ministries FairSeptember 19, 2019In the spring, the ministry leaders and staff of St. Michael’s offered an opportunity to learn more about some of the many ministries here. On Sunday, September 22, mostly different ministries will be represented by parishioners who will share with you—not recruit you—why they joined their ministry and the impact that it’s had on their lives and the lives of others. Some of the ministries that you may learn more about include Taizé Prayer Service, GreenFaith, Children & Families, Centering Prayer, the Music Program and others. Checking out the St. Michael’s ministries, May 2019 This will all happen between the morning services at 10:10 am. If you generally attend the 11:00 am service, we hope you’ll come to church early this day to sample our many ministries....
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Global Climate Strike + Advocacy ActionSeptember 16, 2019Here’s the latest about the Global Climate Strike as it pertains to St. Michael’s and Portland: EcoFaith Recovery and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon are hosting an interfaith service and gathering time prior to the Climate Strike on Friday, September 20, at Terry Schrunk Plaza from 10:00 to 10:30 am. Please feel free to join the interfaith community at the service wearing your St. Michael’s t-shirt (weather permitting) to facilitate meeting up with our community. We will have someone at the St. Michael’s gathering spot at 10:15 as announced in our flyers for the event to make sure we don’t have any strays. We will all plan to get together at Terry Schrunk Plaza at 10:30 and to march onward from there with the faith community. We apologize for the confusion. Much of the event planning for the Climate Strike has been very last minute. More information about the interfaith gathering and the Climate Strike is available here. After a brief summer hiatus, the Advocacy Action team is making plans to bring worthy topics to your attention this fall. We kicked off the season at our table on September 8, sharing information about #StrikeWithUs, the student-led Global Climate Strike Week of Action, which begins September 20, three days before the UN Climate Summit in New York City. Pick up a flyer on the Welcome Table to learn more, or to sign up to join the St. Michael’s group participating on September 20. You can also check out the local websites, Climate Strike Oregon and Portland Youth Climate Strike, to learn how to volunteer your time, money, or organizational skills to contribute to the success of this action. After a brief summer hiatus, the Advocacy Action team is making plans to bring worthy topics to your attention this fall. We kicked off the season at our table on September 8, sharing information about #StrikeWithUs, the student-led Global Climate Strike Week of Action, which begins September 20, three days before the UN Climate Summit in New York City. Pick up a flyer on the Welcome Table to learn more, or to sign up to join the St. Michael’s group participating on September 20. You can also check out the local websites, Climate Strike Oregon and Portland Youth Climate Strike, to learn how to volunteer your time, money, or organizational skills to contribute to the success of this action. Our Second Sunday Tables were quite successful during the first six months of 2019: 80 to 100 people each month stopped by to sign letters and postcards. Actions included assisting St. Michael’s Health Care for All Oregon team in February and getting parishioners involved in making boxes for the Soul Box Project commemorating victims of gun violence in May. We sent letters to Federal legislators opposing drilling in the Arctic while advocating for the cause of the Gwinch’in People of Alaska (January); and opposing a war with Iran (June). Oregon legislators received our letters backing gun-control legislation in May; and concerning bills supporting clean energy jobs, supporting the extension of the moratorium on offshore drilling, and opposing an exemption to allow small modular nuclear reactors in March. Finally, we paused to give thanks—with individually signed postcards to Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley—for our Senators’ backing of the Green New Deal (April). Signing letters to our elected officials You’ll also have a chance to learn more about our activities during the Ministries Fair on September 22. Visit our table to learn more about upcoming actions planned for October and November. We are always open to new voices, so stop by and let us know what issues concern you; or drop by a meeting – 7:00 pm on the fourth Wednesday of the month. Most importantly, we thank all of YOU who participated in our actions by signing letters and postcards. We will continue to bring you important actions in the coming months and look forward to your continued support....
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Celebrating 25 years of the MisaSeptember 16, 2019Confirmations at the Bishop’s Visit, June 2019 The 1:00 pm Spanish-language Misa, or Mass with Eucharist, began at St. Michael’s 25 years ago, originally organized and supported by Fr. John Scannell and Deacon Marla McGarry-Lawrence. In the ensuing years, a strong community has developed and is now flourishing with Padre Beto Arciniega at the helm. He is assisted by strong lay leaders, some of whom are original members. Kermesse, or carnival, to support St. Michael’s in July 2018 The community now has its own choir (Coro), a weekly prayer group, fundraisers throughout the year to benefit St. Michael’s, and annual celebrations which include Día de los Muertos, Las Posadas, Día de los Niños, el domingo de Oscar Romero and Nuestra Virgin de Guadalupe. Also celebrated during the year are many bautismos (baptisms), XV Años (for 15-year-old girls), confirmaciónes (confirmations) and bodas (weddings), as well as memorial Misas for loved ones who have died. The community gathers most Sundays after the Misa for a convivio, a meal prepared and served by parishioners on a rotating schedule. The St. Michael’s community is invited to learn more about this diverse group of parishioners and help them celebrate. The week kicked off with a Forum at 10:10 am on Sunday, September 15, with presentations from several groups, including Los Promotores de Salud (Health Promoters), Salvadoreños Unidos en Oregon, the Misa Coro (Choir) and IWC. On Tuesday, September 17, at 6:00 pm, the community will offer an evening of music from several countries and a meal including tamales and horchata. Finally, on Sunday, September 22, following the 1:00 Misa with Eucharist, all are welcome to come to the courtyard and spend time with each other and enjoy dishes that represent many countries (or states in Mexico) in Latin America....
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A Reflection from James’ SabbaticalSeptember 13, 2019On my second Sunday back at St. Michael’s, I led a Forum about my sabbatical, and someone asked me if I had any surprising insights while I was traveling. Great question! I told this story: San Damiano cross While I was in Italy, I went to Assisi, the hometown of St. Francis. I wanted especially to see the original San Damiano cross, an icon that spoke to St. Francis in a vision when he heard God asking him to rebuild the Church. The San Damiano cross is one of the most highly reproduced images in Christianity and can be found in multiple sizes at any Catholic book store. It’s a cross of the Resurrection; so rather than standing crucified, Jesus appears having just stepped from a dark, empty tomb which stretches behind him on the horizontal bar. The middle of the cross is wider than a straight vertical line, and makes room to include some of Jesus’ friends and followers crowded around him. His arms are outstretched, not in crucifixion but in a gesture ready to receive the world which wounded him. I’ve always loved this icon, and I wanted to see the real thing. A friend told me it was in the museum attached to the Basilica of St. Francis, but I didn’t see it there. My Italian is also very limited, and I had a hard time asking for help in seeking it out. I spent my entire day in Assisi looking for the true San Damiano cross to no avail, all the more frustrating as countless copies of it stared out from the numerous gift shops lining the street. Finally I found a clue, a brochure from the San Damiano chapel in English which pointed me to the side chapel of the Basilica of St. Clare. I had half an hour before I had to run back down the hill to the train station, so I practically ran to the chapel. When I rounded the corner, I saw the icon hanging above the altar rail and a few people sitting quietly in the pews, and my eyes welled up with tears. The Basilica of St. Clare in Assisi, Umbria, Italy There was something different about the original icon, and I can’t quite put my finger on what that was. Part of the tradition of iconography involves one iconographer carefully and faithfully copying the work of those who have come before, and I imagine that some faithful artist had rendered the version of the San Damiano cross which gets used for mass production. It must be, because the original looked completely different to me than any one I had seen before. The only way I can describe it is to say that Jesus just looks more generous in the original. He has an expression on his face which seems so tender and so kind and I think that is part of what prompted my tears. The Jesus in the copy of this icon that gets shared most widely looks gaunt and severe by comparison. And it seems like nothing can compare to the loving gaze of the one I saw. For me, this experience has become a metaphor for what it’s like when we settle for a copy of a copy of a copy of the real thing, something which happens frequently in religious life. We tell the same story over and over again sometimes, or we rely on what we’ve heard and gotten used to. Then sometimes the real thing bursts in and takes our breath away and reminds us of what we’re really working with, a God who is love fiercer than anything else we can conjure in this world. Lately, when I speak of “disarming poor theology.” this is part of the work I’m talking about. Questioning some of the images and ideas about God we’ve gotten used to so we can dig a little deeper and find ourselves face to face with the real thing. — the Rev. James Joiner, Associate Rector...
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Backpack updateAugust 26, 2019The collection of school supplies over the past month and the packing party last Sunday were both highly successful! Thank you very much to everyone who contributed backpacks and school supplies and/or help to pack the backpacks. We collected at least 71 backpacks, with many supplies left over to begin next summer’s collection. DHS (Department of Human Services) employees came by on Monday to pick them up and were very pleased to have so many well-stocked backpacks to hand out to foster children before the start of school....
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Eulogy for George Ivan SmithAugust 19, 2019The family of George Smith, for whom services were held on Saturday, has asked that the Eulogy given by his daughters, Cynthia Smith and Alyssa Phelps, be posted on our website. There were many requests for the text to this war;m and funny portrait of their father and we are happy to post it here. EULOGY for George Ivan Smith by his daughters, Alyssa Phelps and Cynthia SmithAugust 17, 2019 George Ivan Smith For those who don’t know us, George was our dad. He grew up as the older brother to three little sisters, which, we’re sure, gave him plenty of insight when it came to raising two daughters. He was close to his family and quite sentimental—-this past week, as we’ve been going through his drawers and boxes and files, we’ve come across countless letters and memorabilia he saved, to and from his parents and sisters, that chronicle his time in college, in seminary, in Indonesia where he did mission work, at a 1960’s civil rights protest in the south; letters about being set up with our mom by his boss and good friend, Ernie Fogg, getting married and having a baby, driving from New York to Oregon in a U-haul with a toddler and a pregnant wife, starting a graphic design business and sharing a home here in Portland for five years with our dear friends the Olivers; letters about teaching art, letters debating politics. He also kept his correspondence with friends, mementos from his travels, clippings from newspapers of anything he thought might be meaningful to someone close to him, cartoons he drew, photos and slides. More photos and slides. He saved it all in carefully labeled boxes. Of course, not everything he saved is quite as appreciated—we’ve also come across tax returns from 1982, test questions from his 1990’s tenure as an art professor, packets of press-on vinyl lettering that are yellowed with age. My understanding is that if items are carefully packed away and labeled, then you’re not *technically* a hoarder. We’ve spent the past week trying to think of things to say that would illustrate just what he meant to us, not to mention everyone else who knew him. Two quotes came to mind. One, from Winnie the Pooh, is “How lucky I am to have something (or, in this case, someone) that makes saying goodbye so hard.” Our grief at his loss is tempered by our gratitude in having him, happy and healthy, for so long. Dad always made himself available, whether it was to come to the rescue with jumper cables by the side of the highway at 6 AM, or to have an impromptu and in-depth discussion about the importance of kindness and equality, and taking action for your beliefs. He once recounted his experience in the ‘60s helping black people in the South register to vote. More recently, he marched every year in support of equality in the annual Pride Parade in downtown Portland. When my husband and I moved just three years ago, Dad came over to our new home each day and spent countless hours there, chopping down several unwanted palm trees in our yard (don’t worry—we planted other trees in their place), painting the foundation, and scraping off layers of wallpaper in every room of the house. When Mom and Dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year, he gamely obliged our request to mark the occasion with a family trip to Hawaii, where he hiked with us, waded in the ocean, and even danced with Mom at the luau. Just three weeks before he passed away, he made us all dinner, as he always did on Thursdays, cracking cheesy dad jokes and watching our faces, as usual, to see how long it would take for us to roll our eyes at his puns. The other quote that we felt really captured Dad is one that he often repeated, telling us it was Father John Scannell’s mantra. It’s from H. Jackson Brown Jr.: “Never resist a generous impulse.” And Dad never did. He would say that it was important to send a card to someone “just because it was Tuesday”, and he got a kick out of surprising people with a freshly-baked bread sculpture or a personalized hand-drawn cartoon. He spent many hours after his retirement perfecting his chocolate chip cookie recipe, and made batches of them for anyone he felt “could really use some cookies right now.” He made it a point to do the little things that made a person feel special. Each time we came to visit from Japan, he’d clear his schedule so that his car would be available for us to use. He’d fold our laundry and place it on our bed for us. He’d cook all our favorite foods and stock the freezer with Tillamook Mudslide ice cream. Our children were fortunate to have an attentive Grandpa who took great delight in indulging them. He made sure to have their favorite meal when they came for dinner—and carefully teach them how to make it–, and their most exciting birthday presents were invariably from him. He treated them to special “Grandpa days,” taking his granddaughter Hana to paint pottery and his grandson Everett to buy scary books. They called him “the Master Spoiler.” Everett was recently imagining what kind of pranks a ghost version of Grandpa might play. He said “He’d spy on people to see what they wanted for Christmas and then leave it on their porch. With chocolate chip cookies.” I think he nailed it. When we were writing this eulogy, we realized that the hardest part about it was not being able to ask Dad to critique it. We’re both pretty confident in our writing and artistic skills, but after finishing an essay or a painting, before printing it out or adding the lacquer, we’d always check in with Dad. We knew we could count on him to commend us on something about our work that we hadn’t even realized was note-worthy. But we also knew that he would offer some suggestion or bit of advice that would make our work even better. And then we’d tweak a sentence, or adjust a shadow, and the piece would be just right. Every once in while, when one of us would run something by him, Dad would respond with “No, put your pen down. It’s done. You’ve got it.” Well, Dad, we’re putting the pen down. Hope we got it....
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St. Michael’s House porch fireAugust 19, 2019Many of you may have noticed the caution tape around the porch of St. Michael’s or the charred boards sitting to the sides. Around 1:00 am on the morning of July 20, a police officer driving by noticed a small fire on the porch and called the fire department. The fire was quickly extinguished, but there was fire and then water damage to the porch, doors, stairs and one window. It has been established that the fire was not caused by arson but by debris on the porch left by an unauthorized person/s. The recovery costs will be covered by insurance less our deductible, and we are working with contractors to have the porch and stairs rebuilt as well as have a deep-cleaning done to eliminate the smoky odor inside the house. If the repair work needs to be delayed because of scheduling conflicts, a temporary entry path may be created. If you need access to the house and are not familiar with the new alarm system, please contact the church office. We appreciate all the work done by John Pedisich, who was called and came to the church in the middle of the night, and by Mitch Oglesby, Jack Harper, Cliff Fairley, Bob Spiers and Chris Craun, who collectively helped to coordinate the St. Michael’s response....
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