Members' News and Worship Updates

This Week or Coming Soon

Summer Worship on the Front Lawn
On the four Sundays in August and the first two Sundays in September, we will hold Sunday services outdoors on the front lawn.

School Supplies Drive: August 14
This is a great time of year to help the kids in our community is prepared for learning in the fall! Our congregation is collecting school supplies for new arrivals with refugee or humanitarian status again this year. Please pitch in to make sure that every one is ready to start the school year. If you would like to donate supplies:
1. Go to this link to see what is needed. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0D4CAEAD2EA0FE3-school2
2. Sign up saying what you will get and how many.
3. Bring your donation to church August 14.

Childcare Room/Cleaning Day: August 17
Wednesday, August 17 at 9:00 AM HELP!!! The Childcare Room has not been used for 2 ½ years and everything needs to be cleaned. In order to provide care in the space we need to clean every object, every toy, every surface/floor, carpet, EVERYTHING. We will begin the cleaning project at 9:00 am and end when it is all completely cleaned. RSVP to help – contact Sheila Foster community@st-lukes.net or Danielle McCoy children@st-lukes.net.

Parent/Guardian Zoom Listening Session: August 18
Thursday, August 18 at 7:00 PM
In June we created a Children & Youth Formation Committee to discuss how we can build on our worship experience with more opportunities for children and youth. Now we need to hear from our families. We held a Listening Session with parents/guardians following worship on Sunday, July 31st outside on the front lawn. We realize many were not able to attend. We want hear your voices. Whatever we create will need the involvement of parents, volunteers, children and youth. Participating in this conversation will allow us to hear each other's stories, get to know each other, and begin the process of creating amazing opportunities for our children and youth. The Zoom link was included in the weekly email or contact Sheila Foster at community@st-lukes.net.

Mirzada family update: your help is needed!
Sts. Luke & James and St. John’s have been working with Minnesota Council of Churches (MCC) in helping the Mirzada family transition to their new life in Minnesota after arriving by airlift from Afghanistan last year. Federal funding allocated to support Afghan Parolees runs out at the end of six months. At the end of July, the Mirzadas will be responsible for the majority of their housing expenses, a true challenge for a family of eight who are just beginning to learn English find reliable employment. In partnership with St. John’s, we are committed to raising $15,000 in funds to support the family over the next few months – $7,500 from each parish. To reach our goal, we are providing $3,750 from dedicated funds, and are asking individuals to contribute an additional $3,750. Please help out. To make an online contribution, click here...https://onrealm.org/stlukesandstjames/give/Mirzada Thanks!

Visiting Good Courage Farm: August 20
Save the date! St. John's in Linden Hills has invited us to join them in visiting Good Courage Farm, the agrarian ministry of the Episcopal Church of Minnesota! We plan to carpool, departing at 7:15 am Saturday, August 20th to arrive for a 9:00 AM "Pie + Prayer" service in the silo chapel or big barn. Prayer will be followed by farm-made pie and coffee. While details are still being planned, we'll spend the day touring the farm, talking about regenerative agriculture and repair of our food systems, and possibly volunteering on a project. Bring a sack lunch. We'll share details before we leave. Return to the Twin Cities will be determined by your individual carpools. Questions? Link to the farm's website, Facebook page or Instagram. Doug Mensing at 612-202-2252 or dougmensing@gmail.com is St. John's organizer and can also answer questions. Please send RSVP's to Avis Thomas at avisjt@bitstream.net so we can get a sense of our own numbers and organize our carpool(s).

What is Godly Play: August 21
Come find out what Godly Play is all about. This multigenerational experience will be led by Rosemary Caspar following worship on Sunday, August 21 at 11:15 am. Come upstairs to the 2nd floor – Godly Play Atrium to experience Godly Play.

COVID-19 Protocols
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides guidance on prevention measures based on whether COVID levels are low, medium or high within a community. The COVID level in Hennepin County is medium. In communities where the level is medium, the CDC recommends that people who are at high risk for serious illness talk with their health care provider about whether to wear a mask or take other precautions. It also recommends that individuals stay up to date with their COVID vaccines.

Masks are welcome, but no longer required. • You will be invited to come forward for Communion, rather than receiving it in place. • You may receive from the chalice if you choose. • Please continue to stay in place for the Peace. • We ask that all who are eligible to be vaccinated be vaccinated.
Stay home and watch the service on our livestream anytime you are not feeling well, have any cold, flu, or COVID symptoms, or have been exposed to COVID, please get tested and stay home until you have a negative result.

Live-stream Option: The worship service will be broadcast live on Sunday morning at 10AM on our Facebook page. Live-streaming is new to us, and we're still outfitting our worship space with equipment. Please be patient as we gradually develop our skills! Early in the following week we will archive the service on our YouTube channel. The YouTube services will be lightly edited to enhance the sound quality and shorten some parts of the service.

Prep Materials for Making Peace Flags: August 28th
As we approach the Dream Team-sponsored Peace Day in September, we’re looking for a few folks to help with peace flag preparation after church on Sunday, August 28th. Specially we ask for help ripping old sheets into 12” squares (we have the sheets, just need a little assistance with the ripping), and cutting fabric strips to use as binding. It probably won’t take us longer than 30-40 minutes—and the help is greatly appreciated! Please contact Louise Robinson at larobinson303@gmail.com if you think you can help. Thanks!

Women’s Retreat News
The date and space are reserved—Saturday, October 22, at Sts. Luke and James—for our women’s retreat. The past conveners are stepping back from planning and organizing duties this year, so we need new ideas and energy. If you are interested in helping to create this year’s event, please contact Sarah Sivright at Sarahsivright2@gmail.com or 612-965-1570

Sts. Luke & James Elder Profiles: Bonnie Carleen
We continue our recently-launched practice of telling the stories of our parish members aged 75 or older. This week we feature the Elder Profile of Sts. Luke & James member Maxine Richmond . You may also pick up a printed copy at the ushers’ tables, on Sunday. And watch for more profiles of the elders of Sts. Luke & James in weeks to come.

Previous Elder Profiles:
Barb Buehl, Tony Morley, Char Carlson, Al Carlson, Bonnie Carleen

Search Committee Update
We have almost completed our discernment phase of the call process. Each of us involved wishes to thank the parish for their love and support. Please, keep praying for us, our next rector and our church. Julie Brauninger, Co-Chair, Terri Smith Peterson, Co-Chair, Chris Bercaw, Kurt Hall, Linda Lyman, Fiona Shine and Sam Spencer.

Pastoral Care
We understand the importance of continuing to provide pastoral care and healing prayers for any in our community who are in need. If you have any pastoral needs, don’t hesitate to reach out to Rev Larry Bussey at 612-309-8896, or to Rev Morris Goodwin, or to Rev Gretchen Pickeral, lilmargret@gmail.com, 612-961-1154. We’ll be there for you.

Building Use
Our church building is used for much more than just Sunday morning worship. Most of our lower level houses a child care service every weekday. We host several community groups too. Take a look at an example of a typical week's activities. Be sure to contact our office whenever you plan to conduct any event at church!

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Worship Videos

First Friday Taizé: 7PM Monthly (No Taizé in July or August)
Our Taizé service has returned to the nave (main worship space) and has also returned to its previous time, 7PM. This is a half-hour service of quiet reflection with modern chants (reiterated worship songs). Masks are welcome, but optional, for in-person worship, but you may also join the service via our live-stream on Facebook.

Compline (Evening Prayers): 7PM M-Th
During our time of separation, several of us wanted to pray together "face-to-face" in the service of Daily Compline from the Book of Common Prayer. We continue to meet on-line at 7PM Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night here:

| Zoom Meeting Link |

All are welcome to participate in this service (you do NOT need to be a member of our congregation) from your phone, tablet, or computer. You will be given the opportunity to join with audio & video, audio only, or just observe. It's helpful to have the Compline service open in your Book of Common Prayer, or to view the service text on your computer.

Formation Opportunities
We all look forward to the day when we will be able to gather for Godly Play for children, Youth formation, and The Forum but in the meantime we want to offer up a weekly resource to facilitate formation in your homes. Faith@Home which is curated by Forma & Forward Movement, has created in home formation for all ages with options for differing age levels in any household from small children through very experienced adults.

https://www.dofaithathome.org/blog/first-sunday-of-pentecost-week-of-june-5-2022/

This weekly resource will complement our worship experience for everyone whether you are worshiping from home on our Facebook live-stream or our YouTube channel or in person.

Donations
Our existence as a faith community depends upon direct donations from our participants. Your contributions preserve our worship space, pay the staff that are engaged in worship, outreach, and justice initiatives, and directly support projects in our community. Many of our parishioners have found it easiest to set up electronic funds transfers (EFT) by contacting our office. However, we welcome donations via credit card using the links in the Donations section below.

Photo: Newly ordained priest—and past SLandJ parishioner—Julia Domenick presides over our June 19 service. She has been installed as the new associate rector of St. John's Episcopal in Boulder, CO.

Connect to Information

The Epistle
We publish a newsletter that will help you get to know us, our people, our passions, and our opportunities for engagement. Please take a look at one of our recent editions.

Vestry Corner
On August 8, the vestry heard a report from Sheila Foster about the July 31 listening session for young families, and their committee’s ongoing commitment to seek feedback from parishioners about faith formation programming.
In the next few months, we’ll prepare for 2023 by revising our parish by-laws, especially reviewing the sections about vestry function and organizational workflow.
We will also take a multi-step approach to building the budget for 2023, beginning with some sessions to learn about how the budget is organized and listening sessions to guide our priority setting.
The search committee reported to the vestry about their process in interviews and other activities as of early August as we seek to call a new Rector. Aspects of this process are still confidential, but the vestry looks forward to sharing more information with the parish as soon as there is news to be shared!

If you would you like to make a report to the Vestry, you can use this form. If you’d like your report to be seen in our upcoming wardens and vestry meetings, your submission must be received by the first of the month.

Vestry Minutes
Our Vestry meets monthly to represent the parish in matters of worship, education, service, community life, and business. Meeting minutes are posted here AFTER they have been approved at the following month's meeting.

Vestry Agenda
Shortly before each regular Vestry meeting (the second Monday of the month) we will post the agenda here.

| September agenda pending |

2021 Annual Meeting Report
We held our annual meeting of the parish on Sunday, January 23, 2022. If you weren't able to attend, here are some links to the materials and recordings.
2021 Written Reports and Agenda: [ PDF ]
2020 Written Reports and Agenda: [ PDF ]
Full Meeting Video: [ YouTube ]

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Please consider adding yourself to our newsletter email list so we can provide you with up-to-the-minute opportunities and schedule changes.

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Individual giving is the ONLY source of funds that our community has. We maintain our worship space and grounds, pay our staff, purchase our supplies, and support charitable work.

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