St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church

Weekly E-Blast

May 25, 2023

PO Box 445 (mailing address)
8818 SW Miley Road (physical address)
Wilsonville, OR 97070 
503-678-5422
Our Facebook Page

The Day of Pentecost

Sunday, May 28, 2023

The Lesssons


Acts 2:1-21


Psalm 68:1-10, 33-36


1 Corinthians 12:3b-13


John 20:19-23

Preparing for Sunday
St. Francis subscribes to a weekly service called Preparing for Sunday, which provides some brief commentary on the bible readings for the upcoming weeks. It can be found on the Sermons & Services page on the St. Francis website (https://tinyurl.com/sermonspage). I encourage all of you to consider looking at it prior to Sunday, particularly if you are a lector for the week.
Father Brendan

Forward Day by Day - Luke 10:29

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”


One of my favorite childhood memories is wandering through the woods around my grandparents’ house. If you took one step beyond the edge of my grandpa’s garden, you were surrounded by tall leafy trees. I could get to my cousins’ house by walking through the woods—and a few neighbors’ unfenced yards.


I was usually nervous to take the shortcut. In the places I lived, yards are fenced, and you don’t walk across neighbors’ lawns. My cousins didn’t think twice about it because their neighborhood was an extension of home. There is something neighborly in this attitude of allowing people access to our resources. Whether that translates into a watchful eye over kids crossing the lawn or sharing our most precious commodity, our time, being a good neighbor means reconsidering the ways we use what is ours. The story of the Good Samaritan reminds us that sharing ourselves generously removes the need for us to justify our actions toward others. 


MOVING FORWARD: Do you know your neighbors? What might you share with them today? A wave? A story? A meal?

Father Brendan turned palms to ash earlier this week.

Participants in this Week's Services

Serving at 8 am

LEM: Susy Mekarski

Intercessor: Dale Rushton

Lector: Dale Rushton

Lector: Ron Coleman

Ushers/Greeters: Jim and Mary Kirk

Altar Guild: Ron and Sue Coleman

Serving at 10:30 am

LEMs: Joe Schiwek, Jr. and John Wisecaver

Intercessor: Mark Stewart

Lector: Oliver Meskell

Lector: John Wisecaver

Ushers: Rob Campbell and Bob Sharp

Usher/Videographer: Mark Stewart

Welcome Table: Nyla Emory and Ann Frazier

Altar Guild: Apryl Garmon and Terese Barich

Flower Guild: Linda Hammersley and Sandi Wilson

Click here for the Full Church Calendar

This Week at St. Francis


Thursday, May 25

7:00 pm - AA Men’s Group


Friday, May 26

10:00 am - Al Anon


Sunday, May 28

8:00 am - Spoken Eucharist

9:00 am - Adult Formation

10:30 am - Sunday School

10:30 am - Eucharist, Live Eucharist on YouTube/Facebook

12:30 pm - Misa


Monday, May 29 - Office Closed

7:30 pm - AA


Tuesday, May 30

7:00 pm - RA


Wednesday, May 31

12:00 pm - Noon Eucharist

1:00 pm - Staff Meeting

7:00 pm - Choir Rehearsal

7:30 pm - AA


Thursday, June 1

7:00 pm - AA Men’s Group


Friday, June 2

10:00 am - Al Anon


Sunday, June 4 - Memorial Garden Remembrance

8:00 am - Spoken Eucharist

9:00 am - Adult Formation

10:30 am - Sunday School

10:30 am - Eucharist, Live Eucharist on YouTube/Facebook

12:30 pm - Misa

Parish Activities
If you would like your announcements to be included in this newsletter, or in the Sunday bulletin, please email them to the office at saintfranciswilsonville@gmail.com by Tuesday evening (7:30 pm). Please include a contact person within the announcement in case there are questions. Announcements will run for two weeks or until the event takes place.

Help Needed

June 4th is the Memorial Garden Remembrance Day at St. Francis. At the 10:30 service, we will honor the people interred in our gardens by  reading their names and by placing roses on their graves. Families have been invited to join us. We are in need of some strong helpers who can help set up tables at 9:00 am and then others who can help take the tables down after the event.

Please let us know if you can help.

Many thanks!

Gay and Jane

Adult Formation 

Join us for Adult Formation as we continue to explore Awe in this season of awe. We experience awe as the feeling of being in the presence of something vast or wonderful that transcends our current understandings. Is Awe your star word this year? Can you imagine what it was like to see the resurrected Christ? What do science, culture, and our own lives tell us about awe? Awe does more for us than we think! Grab some coffee and come to the conference room at 9:15 on Sunday mornings.

Movie Tuesday

We will meet next Tuesday, May 30th, at the Wilsonville Regal Cinema for the 3:20 showing of Robert DeNiro’s new comedy, About My Father. We will follow up with a barbecue in the parish hall at St Francis.

Ladies Lunch

Let’s do lunch! We hope you can join us on Tuesday, June 6th at 11:45 am. We will meet at Spring Ridge. A head count is helpful so there is a sign-up sheet in the Narthex. Questions? Contact Peggy Danford or Sandi Thompson

Eyeglass Collection

Please bring reading and distance glasses that you and your friends no longer need to church. GEMPDX is an extension of Global Eyeglass Ministry (GEM) and a 501c3 nonprofit through Calvary Chapel Southeast in Portland, Oregon. Wayne & Joby Duggan are local team trainers and vision clinic team members and will be on the team that will wash the glasses, read their prescriptions with a lensometer, and bag and label the eyeglasses for the mission field this fall. Our old glasses will help underserved people go to school, navigate fuller lives, keep their jobs, and see their grandchildren.


We’ll have a collection box at St. Francis through June. If you have questions, contact Terri Hoffmann.

Contemplative Prayer Group

A contemplative prayer group meets twice per month on Monday at 2 pm in the Parish Hall library. We do Lectio Divina and sit for Centering Prayer, among other devotions. Our next meeting will be on May 29th. at 2 pm. If you are interested in Silent Prayer or Contemplation and want to join the prayer group or ask for more information, please contact Lucia Jorge-Nebert (call or text: 971-341-2068, email: lnebert@yahoo.com) or Marcia Burdon (text only: 503-380-7820, email: mlburdon@hotmail.com).

Pentecost (Wear Red)

May 28th is Pentecost Sunday. Remember to wear red! Everybody is invited to join in the festive procession behind the Dove Kite, waving streamers, which will be provided. There will be a lunch that will feature many red foods. 

End of Sunday School

June 11th will be the last day of Sunday School until September. It has been a wonderful year with our amazing young people, and we are grateful for their delightful presence and their dedication. During the service, the Sunday School attendees will receive a certificate of attendance and a small pin in recognition of their participation.

Memorial Garden Remembrance

On June 4th, we will be celebrating the Memorial Garden Remembrance. As part of our memorials, we place roses on the graves of those interred in our two memorial gardens. Families have been invited to attend, however some families are not able to be here, and we need the help of our St. Francis family with laying roses on the graves who do not have family in attendance. We appreciate all the help. Roses will be provided.

Thank you,

The Caring Committee

Books/Games/Puzzles

Visit the St. Francis Book and Puzzle Share bookcase. Take what you like and enjoy! If you have a book or puzzle you no longer want to store, bring it to the bookcase. The bookcase is outside Jon Holland’s office.

Birthday Cards

One of our parishioners is turning 102! If you would like to send birthday cards to Mark Stewart's father, Robert Stewart, in celebration of his birthday on June 3rd, his address is:

Robert Stewart

32100 SW French Prairie Rd

Apt 103

Wilsonville, Oregon 97070

Online Directory

St. Francis has an easy-to-use, online Directory.

For members only. Here’s how to use it:

1. Go to the Saint Francis website.

2. Click on the "More" header at the top of the page.

3. Click on "Directory." 


This will open the Church Member Sign-in Screen to either: 

• Sign in with your password. 

       or

• Create a Sign-in / Password if you do not have one yet. To do so, enter your email address and choose a password. Note: As a security measure, your sign-in request will be rejected if you are not yet listed in the Directory or if you are listed but with a non-matching or missing email address. The solution -- contact Jodi to fix your Directory listing.  

Did You Know? - Coffee Creek Quilters

In the months before Coffee Creek Correctional Facility opened in 2002, a prison official made a presentation at St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church in Wilsonville, asking for volunteers to teach a hobby to the incarcerated women. Koko Sutton, an active member of the church and an avid quilter, came up with the idea of a quilting program. The church agreed it was a good idea and became the program’s first supporter, giving Koko the money to buy six of everything she needed.


In Koko’s search for sewing machines, she met Ray Landis, who owned Sewing Center West in Beaverton. He sold Koko six machines and equipment at cost. Over the years, he also gave the program fabric and serviced older machines that he donated to CCQ to give to students when they were released. Ray made a simple flyer about CCQ for customers that resulted in a lot of donated machines and volunteers for the program.


At first, Koko kept all the equipment, fabric, and supplies in her garage. That space soon proved to be inadequate, so she started looking for a place to store everything. Again, St. Francis Church came through with space in Wisdom House, an old building on church property. An instructor’s husband made two large closets for the fabric and supplies. Koko was busy giving talks to anyone who would listen to raise money for the program.


In the early days, all classroom supplies were put on a big cart that was stored in a locked closet between classes. Six of everything (machines, scissors, rotary cutters, seam rippers, project boxes, etc) fit on the cart along with two small ironing boards and some irons. Eventually, Don Herr, a math teacher at Twality Junior High School, heard about the program and made an equipment cabinet. Next, Koko designed a cabinet to hold the project boxes, which are large pizza boxes students use to store their quilts. That cabinet was made at the prison workshop by CCCF women.


Initially, Koko and another volunteer were the only instructors for the first six students. They quickly discovered their students knew little, if anything, about sewing and many also experienced learning challenges. So Koko made a presentation to NW Quilters asking for help and three women volunteered to teach.


Instructors put out bowls of safety pins and straight pins for students to use during class. The number of safety pins and straight pins were not counted. That is, until someone discovered straight pins taped under the tables. Safety pins were out and a system of keeping straight pins in a sheet that was checked out to students, and counted, was instituted.


At first, the instructors did not have their own students, but roamed the classroom helping as needed. Students began requesting to work with certain instructors and it was decided that each instructor would work with the same students each week. Some students seemed wary of the class and made up excuses not to come. Koko instituted the policy that, after three unexcused absences, students were removed from the program.


After instructors started working with the same students and showed up every week for them, students began looking forward to the classes and commenting that it was the highlight of their week. Koko was also hearing from prison staff about the change in students’ attitudes.


From the outset, the program was based on students making three quilts. The first two would be donated to charity and the third could be kept or given to a loved one. Koko realized the importance of students being able to “give back” with the first two quilts and the significance of creating the special third quilt. With the same instructor working with a student over time, it was easier to assess student’s skills, incorporate skill building over the three quilts, and maximize the opportunities for success.


The program flourished. Soon there were 10, then 15, in the class, and women were asking to be put on the waiting list. Over time, the program expanded to four different classes of 20 women each. For a long time, Koko attended every class as the only instructor trained to hold the keys to the doors and cabinets. Eventually, each class had a lead instructor who, with training, had access to keys.


Early on, instructors found most of the fabric for their students, usually from their own personal stashes or purchased, and used their own patterns. The instructors were very generous. Realizing the need for fabric and financial donations, the organization submitted proposals to fabric companies and individuals, and slowly donated fabric and cash donations started coming in.

Today, the organization is flourishing. They receive donations of time, fabric, supplies, and cash throughout the year to sustain operations.


Parish Outreach

Auction Information


Only 10 tickets left!

Tickets will not be sold on May 28th. Sales will resume on June 4th after the 8 am and 10:30 am services. St. Francis Outreach Auction is Saturday, June 17, 2023, at the church. Only $35 buys you a wonderful evening of camaraderie, extensive appetizers, wine and other beverages, and an opportunity to bid on some very interesting items. What could be more fun? If you are unable to buy tickets at church, please contact Ann Frazier (503-657-0739 or annfrazier41@comcast.net;)


Donation Forms

Each donation for the auction needs to have a Donation Form accompanying it. Forms are available at the Information Center at the church or can be downloaded here: file:///C:/Users/offic/Downloads/2023%20Donation%20Form%20letter%20size%20PDF%20(3).pdf


Dropping Off Auction Items

Please drop off your auction donations to the church office no later than Sunday, June 11th so that we can include them in the auction displays.


Wilsonville Food Bank

They need peanut butter and storable fresh fruit such as apples and oranges. NO CEREAL, please. You can drop off your donations to the church. A volunteer takes the food to the Food Bank every Tuesday.

Thank you all for helping with this important need!