October 21, 2022 | VOLUME 34, ISSUE 34

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20th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 25)

Sunday, October 23, 2022

SCRIPTURE READINGS

During Ordinary time, "Track 1" is utilized.

Joel 2:23-32

Psalm 65

2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18

Luke 18:9-14

Preacher: The Reverend Ryan D. Newman

Saturday, October 22

Party of Parties 2022

6:00 PM

Luther Hall

Sunday, October 23

Housing MV Forum

3:00 PM - 4:30 PM

Sanctuary

Sunday, November 13

Grass Roots Neighbors

1:30 PM & 5:00 PM

Holy Nativity Episcopal Church

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

PARTY OF PARTIES

PARTY OF PARTIES PREVIEW

STEWARDSHIP 2023

Dear St. Bede’s,

Stewardship season is upon us, and this is a time for each of us to lovingly search our hearts and prayerfully consider what we can do to help the beautiful ministry of St. Bede’s. This includes both financial giving and gifts of your time and talent. Just know that we are very grateful for your continued support and prayers.

Please see the link to the 2023 stewardship packet. We would be very appreciative if you could complete and return this packet to the church by November 6, 2022 (All Saints' Day).

Again, thank you for your prayerful consideration and love for our St. Bede’s family

Faithfully in Christ,

The Wardens, Vestry, and Interim Pastor of St. Bede’s

Please Note: Spirit Sunday events are not St. Bede's sponsored events. However, the events are organized and hosted by a congregation member.

VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED

November 13| 1:30 PM & 5:00 PM

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.

‘Lutherpalian’ congregations live into common mission

By Pat McCaughan

Kristy Chambers said she and other church members proudly wore “We are Lutherpalians” T-shirts to the Sept. 23 Episcopal Night at Dodger Stadium, “and it was great fun,” she said recently.

Chambers, 53, has attended the blended Shepherd of the Desert Lutheran and St. Paul’s Episcopal church in Barstow for four years, and happily identifies both as Lutherpalian and with her cradle Episcopalian roots.

“There are some differences, sure, but I didn’t realize how similar the two really were until I saw them, side by side. It [blending congregations] can be done without a loss of identity.”

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In addition to Barstow, there are at least three such Lutheran-Episcopal affiliations in various stages of formation in the Diocese of Los Angeles; in Big Bear Lake, Santa Paula and Seal Beach. Clergy and laity alike say the joys and blessings of engaging common mission far outweigh subtle differences in worship, polity, language and structure, and that agreements depend upon the local context.

“We are two churches, one family,” said the Rev. Mary Tororeiy who, as St. Paul’s vicar and Shepherd of the Desert’s pastor for four years, attends both Lutheran Synod gatherings and the Episcopal diocese’s annual convention, to be held this year Nov. 11 – 12 in Riverside.

The congregations share outreach ministry and space but maintain separate finances except for “One Campus,” a joint fund that covers utilities, maintenance, and other overhead expenses, she said.

The two churches began joint worship about 15 years ago, not long after the 2000 ratification of Called to Common Mission, a full communion agreement between The Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Nationally, the ELCA approved the denominational agreement in 1999. The General Convention of the Episcopal Church followed suit in 2000, after nearly 30 years of dialogue. The agreement allows each to retain autonomy and historic structures while exercising mission and witness together, as well as sharing clergy.

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Executive Council closes orientation meeting with sense of community and direction

Executive Council concluded the first meeting of its shortened two-year term on Oct. 20 having completed a series of orientations, presentations and team-building exercises intended to prepare the members – half of whom are new – for the work they will be tasked with before the 81st General Convention meets in 2024.

New committee chairs and officers settled into their roles during the four-day meeting held at the Hilton Phoenix Airport, where staff members and the longer-serving members of the 40-seat body educated the newly elected members on their responsibilities. Presentations included overviews of church finances, socially responsible investing, the canonical role of the council and the general structure of The Episcopal Church – along with the passing of wisdom and advice.

The Rt. Rev. Scott Hayashi, former bishop of Utah and a senior member whose term ends in 2024, said serving on Executive Council has made him a better person, expressing his wish that new council members will have the same experience. Addressing council members on Oct. 20, Hayashi said his new role as chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Governance and Operations is “simply one of the most moving experiences I’ve ever had in the church.”

Upstate New York congregation finds storefront worship ‘liberating’ after selling church building

An Episcopal congregation in the Diocese of Rochester, New York, thought it had the ideal solution to its inability to afford upkeep on its historic but aging building. A developer agreed to buy Trinity Episcopal Church in the Finger Lakes city of Geneva and turn it into a boutique hotel – while continuing to let Trinity use the old sanctuary for its services.

To make way for the developer’s renovations, the congregation in 2018 began worshipping in a rented downtown storefront, a move that parishioners assumed would be temporary.

Then a surprising thing happened. They really liked worshipping in the rented space.

The storefront, a former wine bar in the city’s bustling downtown entertainment district, was only a half mile away from the old church but a more intimate venue, and its flexibility made a variety of uses possible. The financial benefits were obvious – no church building to maintain.

“Not having a building is so liberating,” the Rev. Cameron Miller, Trinity’s part-time rector, told Episcopal News Service in describing how the congregation gradually grew to embrace the storefront as its permanent home. They named it Trinity Place, and Sunday worship services regularly draw about 30 worshippers, enough to nearly fill the room.

Episcopalians donate, volunteer, travel to support communities hit hard by hurricanes

Dioceses and congregations across The Episcopal Church have been active in recent weeks raising money to support those impacted by hurricanes in Florida and the Caribbean. Two congregations in the Diocese of Michigan have gone the extra mile – and then some.

The Rev. Tom Ferguson, a curate at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in the Detroit suburb of Wyandotte, has a condominium in Fort Myers, Florida, and was planning a trip there to repair damage from Hurricane Ian, which made landfall near Fort Myers on Sept. 28. Before leaving home, Ferguson reached out to St. Hilary’s Episcopal Church in Fort Myers to see what supplies the congregation might need to support communities there devastated by the storm.

Leaders at St. Hilary’s responded by sending Ferguson a list, including baby supplies, canned goods, paper products, batteries, tarps, socks and underwear, hygiene products and first-aid kids. St. Stephen’s and the nearby congregation of St. Michael’s and All Angels Episcopal Church in Lincoln Park, Michigan, shared the list with their parishioners, and the overwhelming response was enough to fill the back of Ferguson’s Ford Explorer with needed items, including a generator and over $300 in cash donations.