March Vicar s Letter. Waldport, Oregon Greetings to you all in this season of Lent.

Transcription

1 March 2016 Vicar s Letter Waldport, Oregon Greetings to you all in this season of Lent. St. Luke s by-the-sea Vicar Peter Fones Deacon Senitila McKinley Bishop Michael Hanley I am struck by the tension of this Lenten season. The world is unsettled, it is an election year in America, our weather varies from sunshine to storm, and Easter is almost at our doorstep. Yet Lent calls us to pause from the busy-ness of life, at least in daily moments, and reflect on our own life of faith and God's place in that. It would be much easier if we had a 'pause' button to push that could take us momentarily from the rush of the day to a time of quiet reflection. It may not be happening the way you planned. The phone beckons us, too many s to read, bills to pay, and commitments to keep. We can create opportunities to pause though. Attend a midweek service, join in 'Grist for the Mill' on Tuesday morning (we worked over judgment and evil in today's gathering), pause in your day for a moment, pray your way through the daily news, or take time with a friend to visit. There's more to list of course, and you also have your own ideas. But I encourage you to find a 'pause' button in your regular routine this Lent, so that when you finally get to celebrate the resurrection of the Lord of life, you may rejoice even more. You will have had some moments to reflect on the God of resurrection and renewal who calls us into relationship through love. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry Ministers All the people of St. Luke s Look for the complete schedule of Holy Week services on page 2. Note especially: Maundy Thursday at 5pm Jesus mentored his disciples by demonstrating what it means to serve and introduced them to Holy Communion. Good Friday at 5pm We sit with Jesus, betrayed and condemned, and share in his suffering on the cross. Great Vigil of Easter at 8pm on Saturday We await his resurrection and celebrate the light of Christ entering the world.

2 St. Luke's-by-the-Sea Page 2 of 8 of Jean and St. Luke s 2016 Bishop s Advisory Committee St. Luke s People Newcomers to St. Luke s are invited to a special potluck social event on Sunday, April 10. Keep the date open and watch for more information in the April newsletters. Dutch Fortmeyer Brian Hanna Tiffany Miner Sue Niddrie Holy Week Schedule Jeanne St. John Ruth Werner 3/20 Palm Sunday 9 AM 3/22 Tuesday - Holy Eucharist 5:30 PM 3/24 Maundy Thursday 5 PM YOU ARE INVITED! It s time for making palm crosses for Palm Sunday. We d like you to join St. Luke s and St. Stephen s Altar Guilds for a potluck lunch and then a palmcross making get together on Wed., March 16 at noon at St. Luke s. You are invited to stay and make palm crosses after lunch OR just stay to visit. 3/25 Good Friday 5 PM 3/26 Easter Vigil St Luke 8 PM 3/27 Easter Sunday 9 AM NOTE: Peter+ will not have regular office hours during Holy Week. If you have any questions, please call Carol Strauss at

3 St. Luke's-by-the-Sea Page 3 of 8 Food Pantry Donations March is our month to provide donations at the Yachats Food Pantry. Here are some suggestions from Doug Yunker who is coordinating our efforts in Yachats. On Sundays in March he encourages us to bring meat based pasta sauce, eggs, butter, margarine, cheese, and bread products which he will deliver to the pantry on Mondays. 1. Spices. Seasoned salt, cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, oregano, basil and so on. 2. Feminine Products. Pads, tampons, panty liners, etc. 3. Chocolate. A chocolate bar or brownie mix are treats! 4. Toiletries. Toilet paper is always needed and is not covered by food stamps. 5. Canned meats and jerky. Proteins are really appreciated! 6. Crackers and tortillas. They don t spoil and everybody likes them. 7. Soup packets. Can often be combined with other staples to make a great soup! 8. Socks. From a former homeless person: Socks mean the world to you. They keep you warm, make you feel like you have something new, and just comfort you. 9. Canned fruit other than pineapple. People love it when other kinds of fruit are available. BAC News In recent BAC meetings new officers were named including Sr. Warden Jeanne St. John, Jr. Warden Dutch Fortmeyer, Clerk Marcia Casey and Treasurer Ryan Miner. Alternates for the Convention are Marcia Newberry and Betty Richard. Finance Committee reported on its progress in getting St. Luke s financial records current and transparent, including commitments to the Diocese and the Columbarium account. Profile Committee reported that the surveys are completed and teams are working on different parts of the report. Outreach will be the center of a study session at the March 15 BAC meeting. With a greater commitment to Outreach this year, the BAC hopes to have a more focused and effective program. BAC Retreat was held on Feb. 19 & 20 with Peter+ helping uncover the core values of the BAC (BAC 101) as we prepares for this year of decisions affecting the church for years to come. The focus on Saturday was on the Enneagram, a spiritual and personal development tool that will help the BAC and St. Luke s members communicate with improved clarity and compassion.. All church members were invited to Enneagram session led by local therapist and trainer, Deb Lyman. Spring Forward on March 13! Daylight Savings Time Returns!! Sunshine Committee Please call the members listed below about any needs for cards. Birthdays Marcia Newberry Get Well Karin Bigler Moving Kempton Hewitt Thinking of You Fawn Hewitt Special Occasions Bunny Wright Deaths & Memorial Gifts Julie Pearce

4 St. Luke's-by-the-Sea Page 4 of 8 What s Happening at St. Luke s in March 3/3 9 AM-12 Enneagram Intro all are invited 3/4 1:00 PM World Day of Prayer at Toledo Methodist 4 PM Stations of the Cross 3/5 8:30 AM Saturday Breakfast at Waldport Presbyterian March Celebrations 3/8 12 Noon Women s Lunch at Azul in Waldport 3/10 10 AM Enneagram Study Group 3/13 9 AM Daylight Savings Time Returns Spring Forward 3/16 12 PM Altar Guild Lunch & Palm Cross Making 3/22 6:15 PM Community Dinner 3/20 9:00 AM Palm Sunday Birthdays 3/22 5:30 PM Holy Eucharist 3/24 10 AM Enneagram Study Group 5:30 PM Maundy Thursday 3/25 5:30 PM Good Friday Liturgy ```````````` 3/26 8:00 PM Easter Vigil at St. Luke s `` 3/27 9:00 AM Easter Sunday Celebration 2 Dutch Fortmeyer Julie Pearce 18 Virginia Morrison A 23 Kimber Miner V 26 Curt Werner Anniversaries 26 Nick & Julie Pearce Coffee Hour Hosts 6 Betty Richard & Barbara Smith-Huggins 13 Fawn Hewitt & Elizabeth Walters-Brown 20 Larry Hanks & Julie Pearce 27 Carol Strauss & Bunny Wright Ruth & Curt Werner Regular Weekly Schedule in Lent Sunday 9 AM Holy Communion Sunday School Tuesday 10:00 AM Grist for the Mill Oatmeal & Discussion 1:30 PM Tuesday Writer s Group 5:30 PM Holy Communion Thursday 9:00 AM God Talk at Alder Bistro 10:00 AM Enneagram Study Group (2 & 4 weeks) 4:00 PM Stations of the Cross

5 St. Luke's-by-the-Sea Page 5 of 8 Brian s Musings Next week I drive to Vancouver, BC, where a friend is turning 80. He is my ex-wife s current husband, and he wants me to speak at his birthday celebration. Since the invitation seemed an act of conspicuous trust on his part, I agreed to do it. He needn t worry about what I will say. Over the last 20 years he has been extremely kind to me and my children, but most of all to my ex-wife. When we share a bottle of wine and look out over the waters of Howe Sound, he is increasingly inclined to say things like, We create our own reality, and to quote Teilhard approvingly. We think we are humans on a spiritual journey, when in reality we are spirits on a human journey, is his favorite and, I confess, mine. Brian Hanna My wife Milica tolerates our friendship, in part because I tolerate her ex, the hero of the movie their daughter made, My Father the Genius. Always passionate, he breezes in and out of our lives in alternating states of agony and ecstasy. He calls me St. Brian, presumably because of my readiness to step in when he took off in search of the elusive gods of fame and fortune. Though we are quite different, I am very fond of him. All divorces are difficult, and many leave scars. How have I managed to enjoy the last twenty years as much as I have? Frankly, the offbeat charms of St Luke s had a lot to do with my finding the courage to live a more offbeat, but somehow more real, life of the Spirit. When I moved to the coast, I was not prepared for the problems that arise in a small community when its major sources of employment have disappeared. I had never before seen up close the havoc drugs work in young lives. I had never met kids who could barely read or write, or who were gay, and bullied because of it. Certainly no plan I had for my seventies included helping a young teen who had been kicked out of his home by his stepfather for trying to defend his mother from physical abuse. Senitila+ found him under the Waldport Bridge, and a group of us helped him come to terms with his life by writing about it. One of his poems, The Protector, won first place in a nationwide poetry competition for American teens. I also never dreamt I d take two small boys into our home and help raise them, nor predicted the joy I would feel as they morphed into loving and functional young adults. Their absent mother, a meth addict, called recently to report she has been drug-free for a year, and was named Employee of the Month at a Bend motel where she works as a maid. I happily now include her on my mental list of those whose successes I m privileged to share. During the call, she confessed that she used to take swigs of my gin from the bottle and restore the level with tap water. I told her I d thought I might be turning into an alcoholic, because I seemed to be needing rapidly escalating quantities of gin to get any kind of a buzz from my happy hour cocktail. We laughed about it, and I wished her well. When I rise in Vancouver to toast the man who effectively brought a significant chapter of my life to a close, I will not do so as a victim, but as someone who continues to grow and find unexpected joy in touching, and being touched by, the human journeys of so many bright spirits. For that I will be forever grateful.

6 St. Luke's-by-the-Sea Page 6 of 8 Healing Hands on Sundays Prayers for healing in mind, body and spirit and laying on of hands are offered each Sunday. If you would like to receive the laying on of hands and anointing for healing for yourself or anyone in your life in need of healing, members of the Healing Guild will be in the narthex (entryway) of the Church to pray with you. After you receive communion, simply go to the back of the church (instead of returning immediately to your seat) to receive healing prayer. WORLD DAY OF PRAYER March 4 1:00 PM Enneagram Study Group Following the presentation at the BAC Retreat and a Catch Up session, a study group has formed to deepen their understanding of this ancient spiritual growth system. The group will meet on 2 & 4 th Thursdays from 10 AM to Noon. Contact Jeanne St. John for more info and materials. ( ) Late Fragment And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so? I did. And what did you want? To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth. - Raymond Carver, from All of Us Beloved is the message of Lent. For all the starkness the season seems to hold -- wilderness, after all, is one of its dominant images -- what Lent really offers us is an invitation to know ourselves as beloved, so named by the one who created us and who came to be with us specifically for the purpose of telling us and showing us just how beloved we are. All are invited to join with women worldwide for prayer on Friday, March 4 at 1:00 PM. The theme was selected and developed in Cuba where the service was written by Christian women in that country. This ecumenical service will be hosted by the women of Toledo United Methodist Church on Hwy 20 in Toledo. It can be a lot to take in; becoming aware of our own belovedness does not always come naturally. Lent is a great time to practice this awareness. The season calls us to learn anew -- or learn for the first time -- how completely God loves us, and how to let go of what hinders us from receiving and responding to this love. - Jan Richardson

7 St. Luke's-by-the-Sea Page 7 of 8 Wednesday Mornings at St. Stephen s The Journey Do you not know that God entrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessities for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless; and, indeed, as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you, defraud the Lord, by applying it to any other purpose? John Wesley The Methodists claim John Wesley. And they should since he was the founder of Methodism. But Episcopalians should claim him, too. Wesley never left the Church of England and was an Anglican priest until the day he died. In the quote above, Wesley follows in the tradition of Jesus as presented in the Gospel According to Luke. That gospel has more emphasis than others on a compassion for the poor (and woe to you who are rich! Luke 6:24) and more emphasis on the economic implications of the gospel. In Luke s version an angel appears to scruffy sheep herders who show up at the nativity, as opposed to well-to-do wise men bringing expensive gifts as found in one of the other gospels. In Luke s gospel a great deal is said about poverty and wealth and he pictures Jesus as a champion of the poor and distressed. You re Welcome! St. Luke s expects guests people of all faiths, races, nationalities, rich, poor, gay and straight, families and singles; young, old, and in-between. Hospitality is a very important part of our ministry, and we hope you will feel welcomed here. Women also play a more prominent role in Luke than in the other gospels in the New Testament and many of the favorite stories are found only in Luke's gospel such as the Good Samaritan, Martha & Mary, the Prodigal Son, the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, and the Emmaus story. The Wednesday morning adult education class at St. Stephen's has been on a journey through the gospels. The journey is through both the gospels in the New Testament as well as the non-canonical gospels. (i.e., the gospels that did not make the cut to be in the New Testament.) During Lent we are studying the Gospel According to Luke. After Easter the class will study several more of the gospels that are not in the New Testament. The class meets at 10:30 am on Wednesdays at St. Stephen's. Holy Eucharist follows at 12:00 pm. Anyone is welcome to attend the class; it is facilitated by Brent Burford. If you have questions about the class, you can contact him at brent.burford@gmail.com

8 Want to Make a Difference? At St. Luke s there are many ways to contribute. Sign up to help with Literacy Center Breakfasts on 1 st Saturdays Join the team of rotating Sunday School teachers St. Luke s Church PO Box Hwy 101 So. Waldport, OR Phone: Be a member of the Altar Guild Bring food and personal need items for the Food Pantry Be a phone buddy for St. Luke s folks who can t get to church To volunteer, call and leave a message on the church phone Addresses: St. Luke s Church SStLuke@peak.orgorg Newsletter: jstjohn1@charter.net Website: Centralcoastepiscopal.org St. Luke s-by-the-sea Christ is the center of this community which welcomes all to worship, to serve, and to share. ST. LUKE S CHURCH PO Box 422 Waldport, OR March 2016