October 18, 2022 E-News

October 18, 2022

In this edition of ENews:

Last minute Convention Details
St. Andrew's Mission slated to close at end of October
New Dean named for Semper Virens
Boost Your EQ IQ - Part three of three
Get out the vote!

2022 Diocesan Convention

Convention is almost here!

Banners and Banner Bearers

All Congregations are invited to bring a processional banner to Convention and designate one person to carry it in the opening procession for our Eucharist on Friday night. Please bring your own pole and banner stand, with the banner stand labeled with your congregation’s name.

If you signed up to participate in the Pre-Convention Rise Against Hunger event on Thursday, October 20, please click on the link below to Register.

http://events.riseagainsthunger.org/EpiscopalNorcal2022

Around the Diocese

St. Andrew’s Mission, Monte Rio slated to close at end of October

For the past four decades, St. Andrew’s in the Redwoods, a mission of Incarnation, Santa Rosa, has offered regular worship and outreach ministries in the Russian River area of west Sonoma County. Today, however, services at St. Andrew’s have been on hiatus since the beginning of 2022. St. Andrew’s’ membership had dwindled to a handful of souls before the pandemic. Since then, those who had been regular worshipers there have relocated, left the community, or (in the case of one beloved longtime member) passed away. While St. Andrew’s resumed occasional services in 2021, it has not been possible to find sustainable membership or leadership. After several months of discernment, Incarnation’s vestry came to the conclusion at its September meeting that the most faithful step forward is to recognize that St. Andrew’s has reached the end of its congregational life. We grieve the closing of St. Andrew’s even as we trust in the power of the resurrection: that God continues to be at work in Monte Rio and the Russian River region, and that there will be new opportunities for mission and ministry to discover in the future. We are committed to making a faithful transition for our various social ministries housed at St. Andrew’s, including our food pantry and hot meal program and the 12-step groups that rent our space there, and we have begun conversations with various partners about carrying these ministries forward.

Bishop Megan will be with us at St. Andrew’s on Sunday, October 30, at 4:00 p.m., for a closing Eucharist in celebration and thanksgiving for the ministries of St. Andrew’s in the past decades, with a reception to follow. All are welcome. Please join members and friends of Incarnation, St. Andrew’s, and the Russian River Deanery in giving thanks for the 40 years of mission at St. Andrew’s and in praying for all who have been served and will continue to be served by our ministries there. And please plan to join us on October 30 at 4:00 for the closing celebration.

McCloghrie named Dean for Semper Virens

The Very Rev. K. Lesley McCloghrie has been named Regional Dean for Semper Virens, replacing the Rev. Sara Potter.

She is currently an Associate Priest at Christ Church, Eureka, monthly supply priest at St. Paul’s Crescent City, and occasional preacher and supply at St. Francis, Fortuna. Prior to this, McCloghrie served as Resident Associate Priest, then Interim Rector at Christ Church, regular supply priest at Saints Martha and Mary Mission, Trinidad, and was priest St. Alban’s, Arcata during both of the Rev. Sara Potter’s sabbaticals.

Ordained in the Diocese of California, she spent most of her full-time ministry in the Diocese of New York, where she served as dean of the Eastern Dutchess deanery. In 2012 she and her husband Keith retired, and returned to California to be closer to family.

Please join us is welcoming The Very Rev. K. Lesley McCloghrie to her new role!

The Very Rev. K. Lesley McCloghrie

Missioner for Church Life

Evangelism Huddle – Let’s Talk!

Each month, Episcopal evangelists are invited to join the Episcopal Church’s staff officer for evangelism Jerusalem Greer and guest mentors via Zoom to talk about issues around the practice and ministry of evangelism. Monthly topics may include evangelism in a Latino/Hispanic ministry, forming evangelists, small group ministry, evangelism for campus ministry, storytelling, and much more.

Evangelism Huddle – Let’s Talk!

Third Wednesday of each month

12:00 p.m. Eastern on Zoom

To register for the October 19^th and November 16^th huddles, go to:

https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArdu-oqDItE9O9WT2CJ_g_0GoCBvFOSZ-8?mc_cid=1d7a112635&mc_eid=d936b581ee

For more information go to:

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/ministries/evangelism/evangelism-huddle/

Here you can sign up for the monthly evangelism newsletter, as well as access recordings of previous huddles.

Stewardship Resources

for Congregations

The Episcopal Parish Network (EPN) is a collaborative membership association of approximately 200 clergy and lay leaders in the Episcopal Church. They have an extensive webinar library covering a wide range of topics, including stewardship, which are available for anyone to use.

Learn more at: episcopalparishes.org

Missioner for Disaster Resilience

Boost Your EQ Preparation IQ! (Part 3)

This is the last of the three part series on earthquake safety. If you missed parts one & two, please look back at the diocesan ENews of October 4 & 11, 2022.

After the immediate threat of the earthquake has passed, your level of preparedness will determine your quality of life in the weeks and months that follow. What follows is the same for recovery from any disaster:

Reunite with others
Repair damage
Rebuild your community.

For more information, click here.

Mark G. Dibelka | Missioner for Disaster Resilience

Spiritual Formation

Sunday, October 23

Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 18:9-14:

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

This parable is all about standing: Where the two men stood to pray, and what was their standing before God.

The Pharisee was standing by himself (apart from others) and his prayer was about himself and his achievements. Note the five times he uses the pronoun I in his brief utterance. He contrasted himself with others, and particularly with the tax collector. His attitude reminds me of the wise saying of Charles Simeon of Cambridge, “We seem to ourselves elated to the degree to which others are depressed.”

The Tax collector, by contrast, was standing far off, not because, like the Pharisee, he thought himself better than others, but because he counted himself as unworthy. And his prayer was specific to himself.

Literally in Greek his words were “God be merciful to me, the sinner!”

The posture of the two, though both stood, could not be more different.

Jesus taught that the tax collector went down to his home justified, rather than the other. So the parable is about standing before God. The one who humbled himself before God was exalted, but God resisted the proud Pharisee. The Pharisee relied on his merit to give him standing before God (to be justified); the tax collector threw himself on the mercy of God. Literally he prayed “God, make an atonement for me, the sinner.” The NRSV and other western translation miss the powerful sense of this word, which was faithfully rendered by the classical Armenian translation made in the middle East in the fourth century. The contrast between the two could not be stronger, and it expresses the truth revealed in Proverbs 3:34, and cited in both James 4:6 and 5:5: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” And so, the parable poses for each of us the pointed question: on what do we rely for our standing before God? Is it on the basis of our own merit, or is it solely on his mercy and grace to “me, the sinner?”

– The Rev. Peter Rodgers

Commission for Intercultural Ministry

Printable Voting Handout for Distribution

The Episcopal Church urges us all to Vote Faithfully and, also to empower everyone in our congregations to do so. To assist you in this work in your community, the Advocacy Team has prepared a printable Voting Flyer, with easy to access information. The team invites you to print the document to handout and include it in your parish ENews.

For more information about the Diocese’s Advocacy Team contact Miriam Casey - mlcasey7@yahoo.com

Commission for Intercultural Ministries

Advocacy Team

Miriam Casey - Chair

Trinity Cathedral

Trinity Cathedral welcomes

Dr. Catherine Meeks

Founder and Executive Director of the Absolom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing

“Joy comes in the morning!”

Psalm 30 v. 5

The tensions that exist around race have been a long dark night for the soul of the United States of America from slavery, through the civil war, Jim Crow and the struggle for civil rights. Dr Catherine Meeks, a leader in the area of Racial Healing in the Episcopal Church and beyond believes that we can look forward to joy once the new day dawns. She is just not sure which day it will be.

Come and listen to Dr. Meeks, founder and Executive Director of the Absolom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing, expound her vision of racial healing at Trinity Cathedral, Sacramento on October 28 – 30.

We are privileged to have this national leader, and 2022 Presidential Award Lifetime Achievement Honoree with us for a whole weekend at Trinity Cathedral.

Friday, October 28, 7:00pm: Joy Comes in the Morning! Psalm 30 v 5

A talk by Dr. Meeks, with questions to follow and a reception.

Donations of $20 are welcome.

Please register for this event on Realm, you can fulfill the suggested donation through Realm of $20.

https://onrealm.org/TrinityCathedral/PublicRegistrations/Event?linkString=NzMzN2E4NWEtNzA2OS00ZjZlLTkzZTMtYWYyNjAxODFlM2Nl

Saturday, October 29, 10:00 am-12:00 pm: A workshop on racial healing.

Sunday October 20, 11:00am: Dr. Meeks will preach at the Eucharist to conclude her weekend with us.

Watch a VLOG post with Cathedral Dean Matthew Woodward and Dr. Meeks here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uLViOT-wh0doaDQrNmRCHUXZ0qieVx8D/view?usp=sharing

Upcoming

Events

Around

The Diocese

Luau Fundraiser

St. Michaels | Carmichael

Saturday, October 29 | 6:00pm –9:00 pm

Tickets and Information: stmichaelscarmichael.org | 916-488-3550

Cursillo 117 | In person

October 27 – 30 | Thursday – Sunday

Mt. Hope Bible Camp | located outside of Oroville

Accommodations for 25 candidates – applications on the website: cursilloncal.org. Potential candidates will need a sponsor (a previous Cursillo attendee). For information contact Jo Churchill at gjchurchill@snowcrest.net or call/text 530-524-1468