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11th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 16)
Sunday, August 21, 2022
SCRIPTURE READINGS
During Ordinary time, "Track 1" is utilized.
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
Hebrews 12:18-29
Luke 13:10-17
Preacher: The Reverend Ryan D. Newman
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Saturday, August 20
Neighbors 4 Neighbors
9:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Campus Wide
Monday, August 22
Vestry Meeting
7:00 PM
Zoom
Wednesday, August 24
TED Talk Wednesdays - Education Forum
7:45 PM
Luther Hall & Zoom
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Bible and Breakfast
Tuesdays | 9:30 AM
Luther Hall & Zoom
Midweek Eucharist
Tuesdays | 6:00 PM
Sanctuary
Evening Prayer
Wednesday | 7:00 PM
Luther Hall & Zoom
Education Forum
Wednesday | 7:30 PM
Luther Hall & Zoom
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On Monday, August 15, the Christian community lost the beloved theologian, author, preacher, and pastor Frederick Buechner. He was 96.
Frederick Buechner was a Presbyterian minister who wrote over 35 books translated into more than twenty languages. His countless novels and memoirs spoke broadly across the Christian landscape and beyond. We often heard his thoughtful wisdom and grounded spirituality quoted in sermons. Presiding Bishop Michael Curry often shared Buechner's words in his sermons and presentations.
"Right about now, Buechner is making God laugh — and cry," wrote Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin this week. "Buechner had a prolific career as a preacher, writer and spreader of often pithy theological soundbites — each of which could open the gates of heaven, even for this Jew and rabbi."
Buechner is survived by his wife Judith Buechner, three daughters, a son-in-law, and 10 grandchildren.
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FOUND
by Frederick Buechner
Maybe it’s all utterly meaningless.
Maybe it’s all unutterably meaningful.
If you want to know which,
pay attention to
what it means to be truly human
in a world that half the time
we’re in love with
and half the time
scares the hell out of us…
The unexpected sound of your name on somebody’s lips.
The good dream.
The strange coincidence.
The moment that brings tears to your eyes.
The person who brings life to your life.
Even the smallest events hold the greatest clues.
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WEDNESDAY EDUCATION IN AUGUST | |
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TED Talk Wednesdays in August
Our TED Talks Wednesdays Education Forum continues on August 24 and 31. An open-ended discussion will follow the Ted Talk.
Each session will begin at 7:45 PM and will be preceded by the Office of Evening Prayer at 7:00 PM. Each session will be offered in a hybrid format (Luther Hall and Zoom).
This Wednesday's presentation will feature two talks from Simon Sinek. A trained ethnographer, Simon is fascinated by the people and organizations that make the greatest and longest lasting impact. Over the years, he has discovered some remarkable patterns about how they think, act, and communicate, as well as the environments in which people operate at their natural best.
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How To Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going
Tuesdays | 7:00 PM | Luther Hall & Zoom
September 6 - October 18
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When a church shifts from an ending to a new beginning, it can be a daunting challenge but also a huge opportunity. What happens when the old way of doing things no longer works but a way forward is not yet clear?
Church growth, building family-centered ministries, raising up new leaders, financial sustainability, welcoming a new rector... These issues, and many more, are front-and-center in the life of all Episcopal congregations, especially those in a transition process.
The St. Bede's Fall Education Series will be a 7-part series based on the book by Susan Beaumont, "How To Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going" Leading in a Liminal Season." Whether you are currently a "leader" at St. Bede's or not, this education series is designed for everyone who wants to see St. Bede's thrive in the years to come.
The series will be at 7:00 PM on Tuesdays (September 6, 13, 20, 27, October 4, 11, & 18). It will be in the hybrid format (Luther Hall and Zoom). Eucharist will proceed each session at 6:00 PM in the Sanctuary. We invite you to join us. To assist with planning purposes, we kindly ask that you register for the series.
About the Author:
Susan Beaumont is a consultant, coach, author and spiritual director. Susan has worked with hundreds of congregations and denominational bodies across the United States and in Canada. She is known for her ground-breaking work in the leadership dynamics of congregations.
Before establishing her own practice, Susan worked for nine years as a Senior Consultant with the Alban Institute. Susan has also served on the faculty of two business schools, teaching graduate level courses in leadership, management and organizational behavior. She has corporate experience in human resource management and organizational development. She currently teaches at Wesley Theological Seminary.
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VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED
September 11 | 1:30 PM & 5:00 PM
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Grass Roots Neighbors is a volunteer community organization. They meet the immediate needs of our neighbors experiencing food and housing insecurity. GRN mobilizes to fill the gaps in existing services by providing assistance with love and respect. The organization's vision is to be a community effectively involved in ending poverty.
Among their outreach programs, GNR cooks and delivers a hot meal every Sunday to various encampments on the Westside. Once a month, St. Bede's with Holy Nativity assists GNR with preparing and providing meals. There are now four different volunteer time slots:
- 2 - 4 PM (mostly chopping of fruits and veggies)
- 4 - 6 PM (mainly packaging food)
- 6 - 8:30 PM (loading and distributing the food)
- 7:30 - 10:30 PM (distributing food in Venice by bike)
GNR utilizes the kitchen facilities at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church.
GNR, Holy Nativity, and St. Bede's have created a Google Sign-Up Form to assist with monthly volunteer coordination. Please click the button below to access the volunteer sign-up form.
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FROM THE EPISCOPAL NEWS
A newsletter serving the Diocese of LA
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Festive groundbreaking launches construction of Santa Angelina senior housing community in Placentia
By Pat McCaughan
[The Episcopal News – August 17, 2022] Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor on Aug. 16 joined about 100 Episcopalians and local, county, state and national officials at a groundbreaking ceremony for the Santa Angelina affordable senior housing community at Blessed Sacrament Church in Placentia.
“Foxes have dens, birds have nests and the church in Southern California has real estate,” said Taylor, paraphrasing Matthew 8:20, amid enthusiastic applause and cheers. Taylor and others noted the drastic need for affordable housing, particularly for seniors, and the diocesan commitment to partnering with Episcopal Community Services and others to help alleviate the crisis.
For diocesan congregations with available land, developments like the Santa Angelina project offer “a natural step to housing justice,” Taylor said. “We can see how this property is already being transformed and enlivened, thanks to the openness and the welcoming heart of the people of Blessed Sacrament.”
Santa Angelina is expected to be completed in 18 months and will encompass a senior center, and 65 affordable apartment homes; 21 will be available to seniors already experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of becoming homeless, according to Alexa Washburn, senior vice president of Planning and Acquisitions for Southern California-based National CORE, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit developers of affordable housing.
“The senior population is our fastest growing population of homeless here in the county of Orange”; nearly 50 percent, she said. “It brings a smile to my face when I think about the enriching environment that Blessed Sacrament Church is going to provide for our seniors, the opportunities that may exist for seniors to volunteer at the Children’s Learning Center.”
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EMM’s Neighbor to Neighbor program offers local support system for asylum-seekers
Episcopal Migration Ministries, or EMM, is best known as one of nine U.S. refugee resettlement agencies, facilitating The Episcopal Church’s role in assisting new arrivals to the United States as they flee war, violence and persecution in their home countries. The church has welcomed more than 100,000 refugees since 1980.
But not all migrants who seek safety in the United States arrive as refugees. Hundreds of thousands of migrants apply each year for asylum, and many find new homes in communities across the country, while their cases are being reviewed. For the past two years, EMM has expanded its outreach to those migrants through the more recent Neighbor to Neighbor program.
The program is focused on supporting asylum-seekers partly because the federal government does not offer the same financial assistance it does for refugees. “Asylum-seekers are like a forgotten population,” Allison Duvall, EMM’s senior manager for church relations and engagement, told Episcopal News Service. As a church, “we want to be providing at least equivalent amount and quality of service to asylum-seekers as refugees receive through federal funding.”
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GTS, VTS formally announce affiliation agreement effective this summer
The General Theological Seminary and Virginia Theological Seminary, The Episcopal Church’s longest operating seminary, announced Aug. 16 they will formally enter into an affiliation agreement going into full effect this summer, according to a press release.
“This new relationship between these two great seminaries of the church represents a truly creative possibility for faithfully, effectively, and strategically forming leaders for the movement of Jesus Christ through the church, and for the sake of our 21st century world,” Presiding Bishop Michael Curry said in affirming the affiliation.
Leveraging the cultural and historic strengths of both schools, GTS and VTS now will begin together to provide “future seminarians a rich Anglican theological education, spiritual direction, and robust professional training through an innovative, shared governance structure and a range of joint programs and services,” the release said.
In June, the seminaries announced they were considering an affiliation, citing financial struggles at GTS, whose campus is in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. The affiliation partly hinged on General Convention’s granting authority to the GTS board of trustees to modify the seminary’s constitution, which convention granted when it met in Baltimore, Maryland, in July.
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