E-pistle of September 29th, 2022 | |
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The Season of Creation 2022 | |
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Global Warming is a Reality. The Situation is not Hopeless.
For the past three weeks, St. Luke’s has joined churches around the world celebrating the 2022 Season of Creation. We’ve celebrated God’s creation of our earth, its beauty and its diversity of life forms, and we’ve acknowledged that humanity has fallen short in caring for this inheritance of riches. Our modern lifestyles are causing climate change and pose a huge threat to life on our planet. We recognize that many of the impacts of our neglect fall most heavily on the most disadvantaged of our human population and on animal and plant species that have no voice in their future.
There is overwhelming evidence that the average global temperature has risen by at least 1.1°C since 1850 and that the rise is associated with human activity that keeps increasing the
concentration of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The impact on climate change is being felt across the world in extreme weather events, wildfires, famine, and extinctions of plant and animal species. The scale of the problems we face may seem impossibly large, but there are some signs for hope amid the news of ongoing climate disasters.
Read Full Article Here
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Blessing of the Animals This Sunday
This Sunday is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi. We will gather as a congregation at 9:45 in the parking circle at the State Street Entrance for the Blessing of the Animals.
All are encouraged to bring their beloved pets to receive a blessing.
If you have a pet that does not permit you to bring it out in public, please bring a photo and we will bless the image.
We also encourage all of our younger members with stuffed animals to bring them along so that they might also receive a blessing.
We look forward to participating in this special service as a community!
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Choral Evensong for Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi
Join us this Sunday, October 2nd at 4:00 PM for our first evensong of the choir season. The service will feature music by Titcomb, Davies, and Houston.
Choral Evensong is offered at 4 PM on the first Sunday of each month from October through June.
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Community Supper: October
October 13 from 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Lower Hall of St. Luke's Cathedral
$5.00 per adult
October Chef – John Bancroft
Please prepare and donate a side dish,
by contacting the parish office.
For more information or to volunteer
contact Dawn Brennan-Daly
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We Have Meatloaf but We Need Sides!
The St. Luke's Community Supper needs your help with side dishes!
We are lucky to have John Bancroft preparing Meatloaf as a main course. We are looking for the following sides:
-Bread & butter (for each table) - 8 tables
-Tossed salad for approx. 45 people (side- dish chef prepares for 20-25, and we try and get 2 chefs, total 40-50 people served salad). Please leave all dressing on the side. Please wash all vegetables and cut and if possible. Please place in a salad bowl ready to go.
The second Thursday of each month we will gather for Community Suppers in the Lower Hall. We need members of our community to prepare and donate specific side dishes to make these important gatherings break-even.
A notice will go out asking for a specific side dish (e.g., salad, green beans, stir-fry vegetables, potatoes, bread) in the epistle, bulletin, a sign-up sheet at each supper, and posted on the bulletin board.
To volunteer and get on the Community Supper email list, please contact Dawn Brennan-Daly.
To learn more about St. Luke's Community kitchen please visit their webpage.
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Casco Bay Ukefest
We look forward to hosting the Casco Bay UkeFest this Saturday, October 1, 2022 from 9 am to 4 pm. The day will feature morning workshops for all levels of players as well as afternoon concerts!
Read more about the Ukefest at their website here.
The Ukefest is excited to feature Amy Conley as a special guest for the festival. You can read more about her work and music here.
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Eco-tips from the St. Luke's Public Policy and Environmental Action Team
Imagine a bustling group of neighbors gathered in a local building, talking and laughing while building Insulating Window Inserts. Each person has learned a simple step in an assembly process, with different jobs for a wide range of abilities and mobility levels. Another volunteer is putting out a meal to share. Those who are receiving the inserts are working alongside other community volunteers. This is a Window Dressers Community Build. It’s like an old-fashioned barn raising or quilting bee— for windows!
Build Dates: October 3-7, 2022
Location: Maine Irish Heritage Center, 34 Gray St, Portland, ME 04102
Contact: Meaghan LaSala, meaghan.lasala@windowdressers.org
Sign up to volunteer
Sign up here if you wish to receive window inserts
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Brandan Robertson and Marpheen Chann
An Afternoon of Conversation at Saint Ansgar's
Join author, activist, and public theologian Rev. Brandan Robertson (a.k.a. “The TikTok Preacher”) and Maine’s own Marpheen Chann (author of Moon in Full: A Modern Day Coming of Age Story) on Saturday, October 15, as they discuss Robertson’s vision of “True Inclusion,” that invites communities to move from mere welcome to radical embrace, to become places where people of every race, gender identity, sexual orientation, political affiliation, disability, ability, and socioeconomic status are included, seen, heard, and valued as worthy.
Read More About This Event
Join us the following Sunday Morning to Hear
Rev. Robertson Preach at St. Luke's!
St. Luke's is delighted to welcome the Rev. Brandan Robertson on Oct. 16th as a Guest Preacher!
Please read more about Rev. Robertson and his visit to St. Luke's on our events page.
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Dr. Catherine Meeks to Speak on Nov. 3rd
Mark your calendars for Thursday, Nov 3 for an online day with Dr. Catherine Meeks and the Diocese of Maine. The morning zoom session from 10-12 will be open to all the people of the diocese. The afternoon session will be for diocesan clergy. Dr. Meeks will come to Maine in person next spring to lead the annual clergy retreat.
Catherine Meeks is Executive Director of the Absalom Jones Center for Racial Healing. Prior to the center's opening she chaired its precursor, Beloved Community: Commission for Dismantling Racism for the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. A sought-after teacher and workshop leader, Catherine brings four decades of experience to the work of transforming the dismantling racism work in Atlanta. The core of her work has been with people who have been marginalized because of economic status, race, gender or physical ability as they pursue liberation, justice and access to resources that can help lead them to health, wellness and a more abundant life. This work grows out of her understanding of her call to the vocation of teacher as well as her realization that all of humanity is one family which God desires to unite.
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Sacred Ground - A Film Based Dialogue on Race and Faith
All are encouraged to join St. Luke's next Sacred Ground circle. Sacred Ground is a film and reading based dialogue, grounded in faith. Small groups are invited to walk through chapters of America’s history of race and racism, while weaving in threads of family story, economic class, political and regional identity. We will start the St. Luke's group on Saturday, October 1, 2022. This first meeting will be from 10:00- 2:00 in the Upper Hall, co-facilitated by Judd Hume and Jean Smart.
If these times don't work, other Sacred Ground Circles led by the Dioceses of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont will be starting this fall.
Read Full Article Here
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Try on the Cathedral Choir!
New season, new director, new lease on life... Isn’t it time for you to check out the Cathedral Choir?
Rehearsals are held on Thursdays from 7-9 PM, in the choir room in the undercroft.
Enter through the doors off the parking lot (from Park St.). Fear not: Your showing up does NOT oblige you to commit to a life of choral singing here! Come and see if this is a community and a ministry you'd like to engage with. No audition required. Christian Clough, our new Canon for Music & Liturgy, would be happy to discuss the program with you, as would many returning choir members. For more information, contact Christian Clough.
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St. Elizabeth's Toothpaste Collection Drive
Please help us to collect toothpaste for our communities in collaboration with other parishes throughout the Diocese! We need your help in order to be good stewards of health and wellness for our neighbors in need!
Every tube of toothpaste can make a difference in the total that we are able to raise as a congregation. Let us join together and raise the total amount of toothpaste contributed by St. Luke's
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Calling All Worship Participants
Smoke, fire, streamers, and sticks…who wouldn’t want to play with those, especially in church?
The Cathedral Church of St. Luke’s has a long tradition of using incense, torches, streamers,
banners, processional crosses, and verges (those symbolic “sticks” that the vergers carry).
With the retirement of two invaluable head vergers, Thurl Headen and David Savage, we’ve
entered a rebuilding and recruitment mode. We’re seeking people of any age who would like to serve in one of the following roles:
Vergers – think stage managers
Crucifers – carrying the processional cross
Torchbearers – carrying the torches in the processions
Thurifers – carrying/swinging the censor to emit the incense
Boat bearers – carry the incense to be added to the censor
Streamer bearers – those who create magic with streamers in processions
Banner bearers – those who carry banners representing aspects of the Diocese
Acolytes – the training ground and ministry of all of the above
Read Full Article Here
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St. Luke's Community Kitchen Featured in West End News
The work of the St. Luke's Community Kitchen was recently featured in the West End News. This is wonderful spotlight of their active work in the community.
To read the full news article please select here.
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St. Luke's Holiday Fair
– Nov. 12, 9 AM – 3 PM
Please bring your fair donations to the Lower-Level foyer every Sunday starting September 25 – November 6, 7AM – 12 PM
We accept lightly used, “sellable” items only.
WE DO NOT ACCEPT CLOTHING, ELECTRONICS or LARGE FURNITURE.
We need booth captains! If you are interested in participating please contact Dawn in the email below!
For weekday donation drop off, please contact
Dawn Brennan-Daly
Mark all boxes “Holiday Fair.” Thank you!
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St. Elizabeth's Jubilee Center Winter Coat & Boot Drive
Coats! Coats! Coats! We will be collecting adult winter coats for the next four weeks to give to anyone that needs a warm coat for the winter ahead. Coats should be suitable for the coldest months, clean, and readily usable - no missing buttons or broken zippers, please! You may drop off coats during pantry hours on Tuesday mornings between 8:30 and 11 am at the Park Street entrance ... or coats can be left in the blue box next to the stairs, at the Park Street entrance to the Cathedral. If you have questions please contact Martha Parshley.
Partner church leaders please note: Our adult winter coat and boot drive is in full swing! We'd like to increase our supply of coats in the next 3 weeks in order to start distribution on October 11th. Our greatest need is for men & women's Large and Extra-large coats and boots of all sizes.
Similar to last year, we hope to offer coats multiple times over the cold winter months and boots at least twice. All will be dependent on our supplies.
Extra help will be needed on an on-going basis to sort, size and hang coats as they come in. Please be in touch if this is a project for you!
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St. Luke's Food Pantry Town Hall Discussion
Not of our canned goods, but of our methods.
Can we improve? Can we become more efficient? The executive committee is calling for a pantry "town hall" discussion on Sunday, October 2 at 11:30 in the lower hall. Refreshments will be served.
This is a chance for pantry volunteers and the wider St. Luke's community to offer ideas or share other pantries' methods regarding: faster lines, food choice, closing policy. Ideas big and small.
If you prefer to email ideas by Friday, Sept. 30, please send to any of the committee: Catherine Hyde, Mary Linneman, Nancy Brain, or Mary Brighthaupt.
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A Christian Life of Faith:
Signs and Thresholds Along the Way
So much of what we do at St. Luke’s is designed to help others. What about nurturing and exploring our own spiritual lives? What about our questions and struggles of faith, our relationship (or not) with God?
Dean Shambaugh is leading a Sunday morning class called “A Christian Life of Faith: Signs and Thresholds Along the Way.”
Gather with us at 9 am in the chapter room, all are welcome.
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The Healing Team
The Healing Team offers prayers of healing on a weekly basis beginning at the 10am worship services.
Any questions, please contact Judd Hume
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Dr. Hentus Van Rooyen Organ Recital
St. Alban’s Episcopal Church is pleased to invite the public to an organ recital to be performed by the church’s new Director of Music Ministries and Organist, Dr. Hentus van Rooyen. This recital will be on Friday, October 7, 2022, at 7:00 p.m., and is presented as a continued celebration of the church’s new pipe organ installed and built by the Ortloff Organ Company.
Dr. Hentus van Rooyen, a native of South Africa, comes to Maine from Lindsborg, Kansas, where he served as Assistant Professor of Music, Sacred Music Coordinator and College Organist at Bethany College in Lindsborg KS. He also served as the Director of Music and Organist at Christ Episcopal Cathedral in Salina, KS. He holds the degrees Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music from the University of North Texas, and a Bachelor of Music, and a Diploma in Church Music from the University of Pretoria, and the Teacher’s and Performer’s Licentiates from the University of South Africa.
Dr. van Rooyen will present a program designed to showcase the organ’s musical and tonal
capabilities along with its extremely melodic tone. The program will include works by Bach,
Mendelssohn, Merkel, Wammes, Prizeman, and South African composer Henk Temmingh.
St. Alban’s would like to encourage all to attend. Therefore, tickets are pay what-you-can. While $20 is suggested as the preferred option, $5, $10, $15 tickets are also offered. If you feel moved to make a donation other than the provided options and still receive tickets, please select the 'donation' option.
Tickets are available at www.stalbansmaine.org/musicandconcerts.
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Ecological Saints
(A blog from our neighbors at St. Alban's on 'Ecological Saints' by Meredith Tipton)
Alice Walker (born 1944)
“ The intent of the Book: The Color Purple by Alice Walker: “To explore the difficult path of someone who starts out in life already a spiritual captive, but who, through her own courage and the help of others, breaks free into the realization that she, like nature itself, is a radiant expression of the heretofore perceived as quite distant Divine. If it is true that this is what we run from that chases us, then The Color Purple (this color that is always a surprise but everywhere in nature) is a book that ran me down while I sat with my back to it in a field. No one is exempt from the possibility of a conscious connection to ALL THAT IS.”
-Alice Walker was the first African American Woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction and in 1983, she won The National Book Award.
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Eventide Candlelit Service at First Lutheran Church Portland
+meditative songs +silence +prayer + songs from Taizé.
a time and space for beauty, rest, and meditation
Every Sunday at 7pm
(Starting Full Moon October 9th)
Our gathering is held in the sanctuary
@ First Lutheran Church Portland
132 Auburn St, Portland, ME 04103
for more info email Aaron Hoffman
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To read about other events at the Cathedral please visit our events page on the St. Luke's website. | | | | | |
