St. Francis Weekly

October 1 - October 7, 2025

Embodying God's love by building community through worship, inclusivity, and outreach.

Hello, Friends of St Francis!

This week we bid a fond farewell to Rev Dr. Linda Spiers and warmly welcome Rev Joe Rose.

We have such gratitude to Linda for all she has done for St Francis. I bet that we have all shared a special moment with Linda when she understood us, lovingly challenged us, encouraged us, supported us, prayed with us, and laughed or cried with us. Linda is someone who leads by her actions, not just with her words.

In conversing with others, the following are words that are used to describe Linda: inclusive, courageous, full of humility, loving, dedicated, kind, thoughtful, inspiring, wise, calm, loving, considerate, thorough, competent, encouraging, enthusiastic and reassuring. She is an amazing problem solver, has exceptional emotional intelligence, quiet strength and has provided excellent counsel and pastoral care! Even though Linda's role was “interim,” she fully dedicated herself to us, and we can’t thank her enough.

And today Joe becomes our new pastor! The St Francis family looks forward to a collaborative partnership, new ideas, and many new memories with Joe and Heidi. We welcome them to their new spiritual and physical home! We are so happy they are here.

Special Events and News

Help welcome Joe and Heidi Rose during Brunch on

Sunday, October 5 after the 10 am service Click to sign up to help set up, clean up, or to provide food or drinks.

Blessing of the Animals, for the Feast of St. Francis, Sunday, October 5 3:00 - 3:30 PM at St. Francis Church

In lieu of the blessing of animals during the 8:00 and 10:00 services, join in the Blessing of the Animals at the Church at 3:00 pm on October 5th. See the flyer for more details!

Lunch Bunch

Wednesday, October 15 noon - 1 PM

Please join us in the meeting room for laughter and friendship. Bring your lunch and drink and a treat will be provided! Lunch Bunch meets the third Wednesday of each month.

Join Sister Ola on zoom on

Sunday, October 19 3 - 4:30 PM

All are welcome to join former St Francis guest speaker Sister Ola for an interactive event on Hajj: Pilgrimage to Mecca. See flyer for details.

Clothing Drive for Person to Person now through October 26

It's that time again! The Outreach Committee asks that you bring your clean, gently used fall and winter clothes to the Church between now and Sunday, October 26. Please mark gender and size on the bags. You can place items in the bin outside the Church or bring your donations on any Sunday. Donations will be delivered to Person to Person on Monday, October 27. Please email Patricia or Cathy with any questions.

Parish Directory

The Parish Directory has been updated and the latest version is now available. For security reasons, we do not publish the directory on the website; Click to download a copy. If you would prefer to have a PDF copy emailed to you, email Claudia.

Mid-Week Meditation

Click to listen to Rachel Platten's Better Place song. Thank you to Linda for seeing each of us and making St Francis a better place!

Click to listen to Natalie Merchant's Kind and Generous song. We are so grateful to Linda for being kind and generous with her time and spirit!

Linda has encouraged us to be part of our larger community outside of St Francis and has been a model of how, and why, to fight for social justice.

Would you like to share a spiritual or inspirational reflection?

Please email it to: dawnerandall@aol.com

Multimedia of the Week

Click to listen to this week's sermon.

On September 28, 2025, Linda celebrated her final service with us, and then we celebrated her! We hope she felt our gratitude through the many gifts, kind words, hugs, and even a parody by Margie I. If you weren’t able to join us, or would like to relive the memories, Click to go to website for photos, videos, parody and more