The Epistle. Living Advent. New Service on Fridays! November Come, thou longexpected

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1 The Epistle November 2012 Living Advent Inside this issue: Seminarian Update Long Range Planning Update 2 2 On Worship 3 Come, thou longexpected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. (C. Wesley ) Advent is the first season of the Christian year. It begins Sunday, Dec. 2nd and goes four weeks until Christmas Eve. It is a time when we prepare for receiving the ultimate gift of God s love in the infant Child, born first in a manger, now waiting to be reborn in our hearts. The colors in the church change from the green growth of summer to royal blue, befitting our anticipation of the Infant King. The Gospel lessons for the year move from Mark to Luke. It is a time of preparation. On Sunday, Dec. 2 nd, we will celebrate the O Antiphons, a liturgy with banners that depict the seven titles for the Messiah: O Wisdom, O Lord, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Rising Sun, O King of the Nations, O Emmanuel. It is a service that is carried by music and our ancient scriptures of hope. Advent is counter cultural. It would be easier to live into Advent if the world were in sync, but it s not! Advent calls us to gather, to be quiet, watchful, expectant. I am moved by the words to Charles Wesley s hymn, Come, thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free; from our fears and sins release us, let us find our rest in thee. Advent is about opening the stories of our lives that need relief to the good news of the coming of the Infant Child. It is about longing for relief. I invite you to consider attending one of the weekday services during Advent on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays at 12:10pm or Compline on Fridays at 6pm. Find some way to be counter cultural, to carve out simple spaces for silence. Blessings, Lynell+ The Rev. Canon Lynell Walker Priest-in-Charge History of St. Paul s Part 4 4, 5 Financial Updates The Bible Challenge! Announcements and Upcoming Events Beginning Friday, November 9th, we will be adding another service to our weekly schedule. Fr. Eric Symons will lead Holy Eucharist with New Service on Fridays! Healing every Friday at 12:10PM. We hope you can join us on Fridays as your schedule allows. We are grateful to Fr. Eric for leading this service and helping us continue toward our goal of offering services 7 days a week!

2 Page 2 Where s our Seminarian on Sundays? For those who may have missed Rik s announcement on October 28th, Rik will be assisting at St. Matthew s Church on Sundays for the next 4 6 months as part of his required field education. He will continue to lead the Wednesday 12:10PM service, and attend weekday services as his schedule permits. Rik will be missed on Sunday mornings (he is the finder of readers and altar servers, announcement deliverer, Altar Guild assistant, and generally whatever needs doing!), but we are confident he has delegated these duties to very capable and willing parishioners. Rik will continue to serve on St. Paul s Vestry. We send Rik to St. Matthew s with our prayers and blessings. St. Paul s Long Range Planning Moving Forward Low Hanging Fruit, Easy Action Steps and More The goal-setting work of the congregation on September 30, 2012 has been used by the Vestry to develop objectives to achieve the seven goals of: Holy Place, Worship, E d u c at i on, S pi ri t u al Growth, Community Outreach, Membership and Organization. The Objectives were then ranked and scored by the Vestry for importance, ease of completion (low-hanging fruit) and impact. Action plans are being developed for those items considered critical, attainable in the near term and the most impactful upon the St. Paul s community over the next few years. For example: WORSHIP GOAL: To provide services each day of the year to people living, working or visiting downtown Sacramento. Objectives: 1) Offer Eucharist all five weekday noons; 2) 2) Add Monday and Friday Noon services Action Steps: Lynell Walker and Rik Rasmussen will schedule Monday and Friday services and determine what type of service by November 30, HOLY PLACE GOAL: To preserve this sacred and historic site, provide a facility that is clean, secure, well-maintained, with sufficient parking, and is inviting to all people. Objectives: 1) Im prove/re pl ac e exterior signs; 2) Display A-frame signs for parking Action Steps: Diane Richards, Lynell Walker and Phyllis Atha will prepare sign text and design and procure signs by November 30, 2012.

3 Page 3 On Worship Mark Robinson HOSPITALITY AS WORSHIP Each one of us at St. Paul s is really a hospitality director, and hospitality is part of the worship experience. How wonderful to make others feel welcome in our midst! As we near the conclusion of the church year, you may find inspiration in a blog, quoted below, that speaks to welcome. It is a church-centric piece, but the issue of welcome affects us all; hospitality is an omni issue, not specific to any one organization or institution. We extend a special welcome to those who are single, married, divorced, gay, filthy rich, dirt poor, yo no hablo Ingles. We extend a special welcome to those who are crying newborns, skinny as a rail, or could afford to lose a few pounds. We welcome you if you can sing like Andrea Bocelli or like others who can t carry a note in a bucket. You re welcome here if you re just browsing, just woke up, or just got out of jail. We don t care if you re more Catholic than the Pope or haven t been in church since a relative s baptism. We extend a special welcome to those who are over 60 but not grown up yet, and to teenagers who are growing up too fast. We welcome soccer moms, NASCAR dads, starving artists, treehuggers, latte-sippers, vegetarians, junk-food eaters. We welcome those who are in recovery or still addicted. We welcome you if you re having problems or you re down in the dumps or if you don t like organized religion. We ve been there, too. If you blew all your offering money at the dog track, you re welcome here. We offer a special welcome to those who think the earth is flat, work too hard, don t work, can t spell or whose grandma is in town and wanted to go to church. We welcome those who are inked, pierced, or both. We offer a special welcome to those who could use a prayer right now, had religion shoved down their throat as a kid, or got lost in traffic and wound up here my mistake. We welcome tourists, seekers and doubters, bleeding hearts and you! (Reprinted from Jon Acuff, Stuffchristianslike.net) Be the hospitality director you have been called to be; welcome all, support all through your baptismal covenant. Be creative, reach out, phone people e- mail them, and do everything you can to embrace the opportunity to get people involved through hospitality.

4 Page 4 A Look at St. Paul s History Part 4 Doug Clay The Building of St. Paul s at 15th and J Streets Construction of our present building began with a cornerstone ceremony in December The building was completed and occupied in Before that time, St. Paul s (or Grace Church as it was named prior to reorganization in 1877) had two permanent homes. In April 1856, the vestry called The Rev William Hill of Grass Valley and Nevada City, who accepted the rectorship. He oversaw the construction and completion of Grace Church s first permanent home. The church was built during the summer of 1856 a brick edifice capable of seating three hundred people at a cost of about fifteen thousand dollars. After Rev. Hill left, the Rev. J.H. Bonte of Oswego New York became rector. Unfortunately, he was to have use of the brick church for only a few months. After the first Sunday in March 1871, the church edifice was abandoned on account of the settling of the walls - the effect of the floods. A new building was erected on the same site. The corner-stone of the latter was laid by Bishop Kip, April The new church was raised eight to ten feet to the new street level, which may have contributed to the settling. The building was built quickly next to the site of the old brick church (8 th and I Streets). This building had a brick basement, but the rest of the structure was wood. It was occupied in an incomplete condition, but was fully finished at the time of its dedication of February 18, (The cornerstone from the second building was retrieved, is part of our current building, and lies beneath a second cornerstone dated 1903.) The parish had borrowed $10,000 to complete construction. Within a few years, some of the wealthy parishioners had left, and financial difficulties ensued. In early 1877, the bank foreclosed. Had the congregation not taken action, Grace Parish would have ceased to exist Instead, the Bishop authorized the creation of a new parish structure, St. Paul s. The church leased the property for five years at $75 per month. Late in 1880, the bank notified the parish of a rent increase, unless they purchased the property for $5,500, which was less that the bank paid at foreclosure. The parish repurchased the building in May In 1901, a severe wind storm damaged the church building to such an extent that it was condemned. The energetic Fr. Charles Miel worked with the Vestry to sell the lot at 8 th and I streets and purchase the present property at 15 th and J. He also arranged for the demolition of the old church building (all wood, above the basement), and, as a Vestry member noted at the time. the use of the material in the construction of the Parish house, which has done us service as a church for several years, the projection and commencement of this building whose foundations are laid in the rock of ages and its walls constructed of an indestructive [sic] material which will defy the ravages of time. The plans for our church building were drawn by the renowned Chicago architect, D.H. Burnham as a personal gift to Rev Miel who presented them as a gift to the parish. (1) Few individuals have had more impact on the American city than architect and planner Daniel Hudson Burnham. In the midst of late 19th century urban disorder, Burnham offered a powerful vision of what a civilized American city could look like. He built some of the first skyscrapers in the world; directed construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition that inspired the City Beautiful Movement; and created urban plans for Washington DC, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Manila all before the profession of urban planning existed. In fact, some say that he invented it. Burnham's other architectural achievements include over constructing over 500 structures, including architectural icons such as the (cont d on next page)

5 Page Page 5 5 Reliance, Rookery, Marshall Fields and Monadnock Buildings in Chicago; the Flatiron Building in New York; the Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco; and Union Station in Washington, DC. He seemed to have been willing to tackle any commission from the Mount Wilson Observatory in California to Selfridges department store in London. (2) It appears, from my research to date, that St. Paul s is the only existing building in Sacramento designed by D.H. Burnham and it may have been the only church building designed by this renowned architect. (1) Bruce Kleinschmidt, Spiritus Gladius! The First 150 Years of St. Paul s Parish, 150 Years of Faith, The Stories of Three Trailblazing Sacramento Churches, , Published during their sesquicentennial year (2) PBS Program, Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City, September 2010, <pbs.org/programs/ make-no-little-plans/>, [10/29/2012] Financial Updates Year End Giving As we approach the end of the year, we want to remind you to consider St. Paul s if you need a year-end taxdeductible donation. To be credited in 2012, your donation must be postmarked or received by December 31, We also encourage you to continue your pledge of time, talent and treasure during the hectic holiday season. Year end pledge statements will be mailed in January As always, if you need to adjust your pledge, please see Lynell or John Paul Olafson. Stewardship Update Our annual Stewardship In -Gathering was held on Sunday October 28, Approximately 75% of the anticipated pledges were received in the first two weeks. IF you have not turned in your pledge card, or if you did not receive one, please contact Doug Clay at dm3453@pacbell.net or contact the church office. A final stewardship report will be included in next month s newsletter.

6 Page 6 Take the Bible Challenge! Bishop Beisner is inviting the entire Episcopal Diocese of Northern California to take The Bible Challenge with him, beginning Epiphany The Bible Challenge is a year-long commitment of daily Bible reading that will lead participants to easily complete the whole Bible in one year. Each day we will all be reading the same three chapters from the Hebrew Bible, a Psalm, and one chapter from the New Testament. The Bishop will not only be doing the daily readings along with participants, but will be supporting them throughout the year through , the website, prayer, and in other ways. There is no cost, and any Bible is suitable. Each day s readings will be augmented by a brief meditation posted on The Bible Challenge web page. This will also be available in pamphlet form for those who prefer a hard copy. The kick-off for The Bible Challenge will be on Epiphany, Sunday January 6, All participants can bring their Bibles to church for a special blessing. The readings will begin on Monday January 7th. We will have links on our webpage and on our Facebook page, and we will have a blog on our website for those who wish to participate. In-person dialogue is encouraged, too! More information will be included in next month s edition of The Epistle. Preparation for the Bible Challenge Rev. Anne Slakey and Loreen Kleinschmidt are leading a Monday Night Study Group, Your Bible! The Study Begins. This is a 7 part series covering the history of the Bible. The study group will meet on Monday evening from 7:00PM 8:15PM in the church. Each session includes Bible passages for reading, information/reading pertaining to the lesson for the week, and items for further study and reflection. The session topics and dates are: 1) What Is the Bible? (10/28/12) 2) How Did the Bible C o m e t o B e? (11/5/12) 3) What Is the Old Testam e n t A b o u t? (11/12/12) 4) What Is the New Testam e n t A b o u t? (11/25/12) 5) How Has the Bible Been Preserved and Handed On? (12/3/12) 6) How Shall We Study the Bible? (12/10/12) 7) What Is the Place of the Bible in Our Lives? (12/17/12) Attendance at all sessions is not required, and self-study is an option. If you are interested, please see Loreen or Anne for a study guide.

7 Page 7 Announcements and Important Dates Go Green! Nametag Order/Update A name tag reorder will be placed on November 10, If you would like a name tag, please Diane Richards at goldiegirl56@gmail.com. If you would like to sponsor a name tag for someone, please donate $10 by check and mark the check with Name Tags. In the future, we will place a basket at the back table for those members who wish to leave their name tag at church for convenience. We currently mail approximately 140 paper copies of our newsletter each month. The volume of our mailing does not qualify for bulkmail rates, so we incur first class mail postal rates ($.45) for each copy mailed. To keep the postage at this rate, we cannot publish more than eight pages per edition. We will continue to print/ mail copies for those who wish to receive a paper copy or do not have the ability to receive The Epistle electronically. If you wish to save a tree and help us manage our postal expenses by receiving future editions of The Epistle electronically, please the church at st1849paul@sbcglobal.com. Mark Your Calendars! Sunday November 25, :30AM Sack Lunch assembly Sunday December 2, AM & 10AM First Sunday of Advent O Antiphon Service Sunday December 9, :00PM Advent Procession and Tea Sunday December 22, :00PM Hanging of the Greens

8 1430 J Street, Sacramento, CA (916) O P E N H E A RT S, O P E N M I N D S Like us on Facebook St. Paul s Episcopal Church, Sacramento, CA V I S I T U S O NL I NE W WW. S T P A UL S S AC R AM E N TO. O RG Vestry Diane Richards, Senior Warden Alex Larkey, Junior Warden John Paul-Olafson, Treasurer Marilyn Amerson Rik Rasmussen Doug Clay Leigh Stamets Andrea Patten-Weerakoon, Clerk Hallie Symons Clergy and Staff Rev. Canon Lynell Walker, Priest-in-Charge Rev. Eric Symons, Associate Priest Rev. Anne Slakey, Associate Priest Mark Robinson, Music Director Andrea Patten-Weerakoon, Handbell Director Pat Underwood, Parish Administrator st1849paul@sbcglobal.net st1849paul@sbcglobal.net st1849paul@sbcglobal.net goldenfalconjet@comcast.net andreaw709@gmail.com st1849paul@sbcglobal.net