October 3, 2024 | VOLUME 36, ISSUE 40

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Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Blessing of the Animals

October 6, 2024

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Genesis 2:18-24

Psalm 8

Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12

Mark 10:2-16

Preacher: The Reverend Jennifer Wagner Pavia

Sat., October 5: Octoberfest Venue (now full) changed to Luther Hall

Sat., October 19, 6:00 - 9:00 PM: A Community Gala (see flyer below; click to register)

Sat., October 26, 6:00 PM: Party of Parties in Luther Hall (see story below; click to RSVP)

Sat., November 16, 3:00 PM: "Fables & Fantasy" at Veterans Memorial Auditorium (see flyer below)

Bible and Breakfast

Tuesdays | 9:30 AM

Luther Hall & Zoom

Midweek Eucharist:

Wednesdays | 7:00 PM

Sanctuary

Adult Forum: Discussion of CA state Legislative Propositions

Wednesdays | 8:00 PM

Luther Hall & Zoom

Bring your beloved pets (or stuffed animals) to church for a blessing this Sunday!

A Blessing of the Animals

Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures.

On the fifth and sixth days of creation, you called forth fish in the sea, birds in the air and animals on the land.

You inspired St. Francis to call all of them his brothers and sisters.

We ask you to bless the animals and all living creatures.

By the power of your love, enable them to live according to your plan.

May we always praise you for all your beauty in creation.

Blessed are you, Lord our God, in all your creatures.

Amen.

PARTY of PARTIES

Saturday, October 26, at 6:00 PM, in Luther Hall

The Sisters of Bede would like to remind everyone to put on your calendars the date of our Party of Parties: Sat. Oct. 26 in Luther Hall at 6pm. Everyone is welcome to attend the party where we will hear about the events planned for the 2024-25 series and have the opportunity to sign up for our favorites. Feel free to invite a friend to join you. Click HERE to RSVP for the Party of Parties.

HOST a SISTERS OF BEDE VENUE

Hosting or attending these events is a really fun way to get to know our fellow parishioners! It is not too late if you are still considering hosting or co-hosting an event. There are paper fliers on the Narthex to be completed by hand. Or you can click HERE to Host a Venue. The deadline for submitting your event has been extended to Sunday, Sept. 29.

Come join us for this fabulous event. Click HERE to register.

Most of you know parishioner Karen Scharre, wife of St. Bede’s Senior Warden Jerry Hornof. For many years Karen has played violin in the Orchestra Nova LA, formerly known as the Los Angeles Doctors Symphony Orchestra. Karen is excited about their upcoming performance in November and encourages St. Bede’s parishioners to take advantage of this magical concert for the entire family. We hope to see you there!

From the Orchestra Nova LA website:

Join us for an enchanting “Fables and Fantasy” themed family concert presented by Orchestra Nova LA! This magical afternoon will feature repertoire, a live narration, and video projections designed to be a fun and engaging experience for the whole family. This concert promises to spark the imagination and delight audiences of all ages. Come and share in the joy of music and storytelling with us!

PROGRAM:

RICHARD WAGNER – Ride of the Valkyries

SERGEI PROKOFIEV – Peter and the Wolf, Op. 67: Narration by Gabriela Bonet**

PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY – Excerpts from the Nutcracker, Op. 71

JOHN POWELL (ARR. SEAN O’LOUGHLIN) – How to Train Your Dragon (from the Motion Picture)

RSVP HERE

** Gabriela Bonet is an actress, singer, and dancer whose film credits include The Babymoon, Renacer, Trapo Sucio, Curing Assholes, God is an Astronaut, and the Puerto Rican TV Series Incognita 2. Gabriela holds a B.A. in Acting from the University of Puerto Rico and an MFA in Acting from the USC School of Dramatic Arts.

By Melora Sundt

Bring out your (gently) used books!

The St Bede’s Book Cart, located at the north end of Luther Hall, is alive and well! It’s attracting so many readers that we are in need of gently used fiction, particularly mysteries and thrillers.  

How does it work? Donated books are lovingly curated by Kathy Russell and Melora Sundt, and rotated onto the shelves. Recently donated books receive a colored sticker, coded to the month in which we acquired the book. Any book remaining after 4 months is pulled off the shelves and donated elsewhere, making room for new books. We review and refresh the cart on the first Sunday of each month. 

Mysteries and thrillers are particularly popular, so please check your own bookshelves, and bring your oldies-but-goodies to St. Bede’s. You can leave them on top of the cart or give them to Kathy or Melora when you see us. Please donate only books in good condition and perhaps route those outdated textbooks, old health books, and the dusty, battered volumes to other worthy charities. 

As always, there are no prices on the books in the book cart, but we’d appreciate your leaving a donation in the baskets on the cart if you decide to claim something new to read. All proceeds go to the scholarships for NYA.  

Thank you!

Visit the St. Bede's website and at the top of every page, look for the "Donate" button. When you click on the "Donate" button, you will be transported to St. Bede's Vanco eGiving and Payment Process Site.

Vanco is an industry leader in online payments. More than 40,000 churches, faith-based groups, nonprofits, schools, and educational organizations trust Vanco to securely complete transactions every day. Vanco complies with PCI Level 1 standards, the highest security standard in the payment processing industry.

You are invited to set up one-time or recurring gifts using credit, debit, or bank transfer on Vanco's secure payment processing platform. Giving online through the Vanco site saves time and the hassle of remembering to bring your offering. In addition, you decrease the expense incurred by St. Bede’s from handling and processing checks and cash.

Micah Roldan, a new member of Hope Episcopal Church, Manheim, Pennsylvania, builds a birdhouse as part of the church’s creation care ministry. Photo: Hope Church

Grant will help Pennsylvania church do its part to clean up Chesapeake Bay

By Melodie Woerman

Hope Episcopal Church in Manheim, Pennsylvania, has received a $46,000 grant that will help it clean up water runoff on its property that eventually feeds into Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary.

Stormwater runoff is the fastest growing source of pollution in the bay and occurs when water doesn’t evaporate or soak into the ground but instead runs across the land surface and into the nearest waterway, taking with it nitrogen that had been applied as fertilizer.

Thanks to its new grant, by next spring, the church will be able to cut down on runoff from its land through creation of a new bioretention swale on its 17-acre property. This will allow water running off the church parking lot to be filtered through various layers of soil to allow sediments and pollutants to settle out of the rainwater before it enters the waterway system. New native plants also will provide habitat for birds and animals.

“This land is a gift from God,” the Rev. Bradley Mattson, the church’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “When we care for creation, we’re participating in something holy.”

The church worked with two nonprofits to apply for the grant that is funding the swale’s installation – Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake and the Center for Watershed Protection.

The money comes from the nonprofit Lancaster Clean Water Partners as part of a larger grant to them from the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, Mike Hudson, Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake’s outreach coordinator for Pennsylvania, told ENS. Lancaster Clean Water Partners is working to restore the 1,400 miles of contaminated streams in Lancaster County, where Manheim is located.

READ MORE HERE

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Dot Leach, program chair

Hon. Andrew Guilford, retired judge

Lo Sprague, a psychotherapist

Second ‘Losing Truth’ seminar explores role of media, viewing habits in rise of disinformation

By Pat McCaughan

Deliberate misinformation and lies “continue to put at risk the lives of school children, hospital patients and workers and our Haitian and Haitian American neighbors in Springfield, Ohio,” Bishop John Harvey Taylor said in a September 22 video welcome to participants of a second online session of “Losing Truth: The Critical Cost to Our Lives and Future.”

Taylor referred to recent false statements that Haitian immigrants in Ohio were eating their neighbor’s pets. Those repeated falsehoods led to anti-immigrant violence, including more than 30 bomb threats and forced evacuations of schools and government buildings. On Sept. 24, an Ohio Haitian immigrant group called for the arrest of presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, for repeatedly spreading the lies.

“The media marketplace makes it easy to find our way to what we want to hear instead of what we need to hear, and social media algorithms seem to read our very minds, reassuring us and soothing us in our biases and in our predispositions,” Taylor said.

Dot Leach, chair of the Program Group on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the Diocese of Los Angeles and a former broadcast journalist, moderated the September 22 conversation and a previous September 15 online gathering “to examine the critical costs to our lives and to the future” of misinformation. Both sessions were recorded and will be available soon for viewing on demand.

Panelists agreed that questioning media reports and gathering information from a variety of differing sources is essential to help discern truth, and that it is both a relational and an intellectual exercise.

READ MORE HERE

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