Beloved,

I head out on vacation for a couple of weeks at the end of next week. Before I go, I want to give you a fuller update on the redevelopment project and put the information up front here where you can easily find it!

As you may know, your Vestry made a decision to hire consultants to work with us in exploring the proposals from Stewardship Realty more fully and to help us discern the best way forward from both a financial and business perspective. Your positive vote in March allowed us to begin that work with White + Burke, real estate development consultants, Blaise & Halpern, tax attorneys, SRH Law, and Shehadi Advisory (for due diligence). All four companies have been busy working on our behalf and we have received good and helpful feedback from them.

As of this writing, due diligence on Stewardship Realty has begun and will continue through at least the next month or two. We look forward to receiving that report and will share what we can with you once we receive it. The Redevelopment Task Force has met three times and is doing excellent and creative work! Members of that Task Force are listed below in the Redevelopment Corner of the newsletter and several will be available for open conversation on June 7 during coffee hour - come and ask your questions!

Brian Pine, our principal consultant at White + Burke has been working on the terms of the ground lease, helping us to form a counter-proposal to the initial offering of Stewardship Realty (SR). SR's offer was, indeed, on the low side and we have begun working through more favorable and fair terms in our thinking and in our spreadsheets (thank you Teri Donovan, Peter Jones, and Buffy Caflisch!). An interesting outcome of working with those new numbers (that are still only a possibility but, we believe, a real possibility) is that we may now have more options for the Pearl Street property that we were considering selling to an outside developer. To that end, the Task Force made a decision this week to focus internally on those other options for the time being and have asked our consultants to not focus on the sale of the property, for now, but to put their energy and time into the ground lease terms.

I ask you to continue to hold me, your Vestry, and the Redevelopment Task Force in prayer as we undertake this work for the benefit of God's mission here at the Cathedral.

Beloved, you are beautiful. I love you, and God adores you.

Greta+

Thank You

Many thanks to Caroline Henne and Cecile Woodbury for their support of the St. Paul's Young Adults Table.

Join us This Sunday for Worship, a Celebration of Graduates, Social Justice Ingathering, and our Last Sunday Lunch

Sunday, May 31 is Trinity Sunday, a feast that recognizes the one and equal glory of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We'll celebrate with the Holy Eucharist at 10 a.m. During worship we'll celebrate choir promotion and retirement, recognize the graduates in our congregation, and offer our prayers for them as they embark on a new phase of their lives. We'll also have our Social Justice Outreach Ingathering that day.

This will be the last Sunday of our program year, so it will be the last Sunday for Church School and the Choirs* until the fall. After worship, we hope you'll join us for a Last Sunday Lunch where we'll gather in fellowship, offer our gratitude and well wishes to Children's Formation Coordinator Katie Gonyaw, and enjoy a meal (burgers, dogs, and fixin's) provided by the Cathedral.

*The choirs are making a special summer appearance at our Juneteenth service on Sunday, June 14!

Spring Social Justice Ingathering at St. Paul's

One of the signs of spring at the Cathedral is our annual Social Justice Outreach Ingathering, when we focus our fundraising efforts on local organizations that address hands-on support for members of our community, as well as those targeting systemic change in our community and state. Social justice fundraising is a form of support and power-building, not just a way to finance an organization's work, and raising money is an important part of the work of organizing, educating and advocating for human services.

To donate, you can drop a check in the offering plate on Sunday with "ingathering" on the memo line, or online using the link here, and enter your donation on the "Social Outreach" line so that your donation is applied appropriately. We will also be donating proceeds collected from the offering plate at the Ingathering to our Social Justice Outreach Ministries.

There will be an ingathering this Sunday, May 31. Thank you for your generosity.

Cathedral Arts Presents Vermont Choral Union's Sim Shalom (Grant Us Peace)

The Vermont Choral Union (VCU), under the direction of Eric Milnes, presents a collection of choral works from the Jewish tradition, featuring composers such as Salamone Rossi, Louis Lewandowski, Emanuel Kirshner, and Max Janowski. Often overlooked by contemporary audiences, these works illuminate our historical understanding and provide a new context for our present.

The program culminates with Leonard Bernstein’s iconic Chichester Psalms. VCU is excited to share this much-beloved choral masterwork with Burlington audiences. Assistant Director Cole Marino directs Bernstein’s rarely-heard chamber orchestration, featuring some of Vermont’s great instrumental performers. These performances promise to entertain, enlighten, and engage audiences, and the Vermont Choral Union looks forward to seeing you there!

Sunday, May 31, 4 p.m. at the Cathedral

Preferred seating: $50; General admission: $30; Students: $10; Child under 18: free

Click here for tickets.

Cathedral Office Closed Friday, June 5

The Cathedral office will be closed Friday, June 5 to accommodate staff vacations.

Calling All Summer YATers

If you are ages 20ish - 40ish, you have a seat at the Young Adult Table!

Please come to the table in the Parish Hall at 6:00 on June 5 and on August 7. We'll have delicious food, and a conversation we could only have here...

In June, please bring and share something that has been iconic/encouraging on your spiritual path: a song, a poem, a piece of art, your own art or example of an art form, a prayer or scripture - anything helping you find connection to God, (and a sentence or two about why it matters to you).

We are skipping our July YAT gathering, but don't forget about the Heavenly Parking opportunity on July 3.

In August we will begin a table conversation about "what difference does Jesus' life then, make to us now?" To all college age, professionals and young families - we meet at the table. 

Redevelopment Task Force Forum June 7

Grab a cup of coffee and join members of the Redevelopment Task Force downstairs in the Parish Hall after worship for a question and answer session about the progress we've made and the next steps on the proposed agreement with Stewardship Realty.

Sunday, June 7 after worship. All are welcome.

Ushers Sought for Diocesan Ordination

By the Grace of God and with the consent of the people, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Shannon MacVean-Brown will ordain Heather Caulfield-Mills to the Sacred Order of Deacons on June 13 at the Cathedral.

We are looking for a few volunteers who might be willing to usher and/or greet guests at the diocesan ordination of Heather Anne Caulfield Mills to the transitional diaconate on Saturday, June 13 at 11 a.m.

Please let the Cathedral office know if you are available and willing to extend this hospitality to the diocese on the Cathedral’s behalf.

Juneteenth at St. Paul's

On Sunday, June 14 we will celebrate the Holy Eucharist and honor and celebrate Juneteenth, commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. 

Bishop Shannon MacVean-Brown will preside, the Ven. Susan McMillan will preach, and the Cathedral choirs will make a special summer appearance.

All are welcome.

St. Paul's to Elevate Worship with Sound System Project

We are pleased to announce that this summer the Cathedral is embarking on the upgrade of the speaker system in the Nave. This project will accomplish several important things:

• It will reduce the number of "dead" acoustic areas in the Nave.
• It will improve the sound on the livestream experience.
• It will make the Cathedral even more attractive to performers due to the increased clarity of sound.

A significant portion of this project will be paid for by a grant, but if you would like to make a donation to help cover the excess expenses, you can do so via the Cathedral's website here and entering your contribution on the "Sound System Project" line.

Justice Speaks: Migrant Justice in the Netherlands

Update: From the Migrant Justice website: "In 2025, Migrant Justice submitted an international human rights complaint with the Dutch government over abuses on dairy farms supplying Hannaford Supermarket. After a year of investigation and deliberation, the National Contact Point for Responsible Business Conduct in the Netherlands has concluded that the complaint should move forward. In response, Hannaford parent company Ahold Delhaize has agreed to enter into mediation with Migrant Justice." This is great news and one more small step forward!

Original Post:

In early April 2026, Migrant Justice members attended Ahold Delhaize’s annual meeting of shareholders, sharing farmworkers’ testimonies and positions directly with the company, Hannaford’s corporate owner. Ahold has not yet committed to join Milk with Dignity, but the CEO and top executives affirmed the importance of the issue and committed to dialogue with Migrant Justice. 

This escalation in the Milk with Dignity campaign coincides with the publication in The Guardian of two articles, both important for understanding this campaign.

Visit these links: 

Workers in Vermont's 5.4bn Dairy Industry Fight for Basic Labor Protections

Vermont's Undocumented Dairy Workers Live in Fear After Immigration Raids

Since 2019 farmworkers and allies have urged Hannaford – one of the largest buyers of dairy in our region – to protect the rights of farmworkers in its supply chain by joining the Milk with Dignity Program. 

This is the second year Migrant Justice has participated in Ahold’s annual general meeting of shareholders, using proxy votes from allied investors at Domini Impact Investments and United Church Funds to enter the meeting and question company executives and board members. Migrant Justice read farmworker testimony and asked questions, getting the company on the record. Other investors also asked questions about human rights violations and increased the pressure on the company. After the meeting, Ahold executives sought out Migrant Justice to continue the conversation and commit to further engagement. Progress in small steps!

Visit Migrant Justice's Website for more on the Netherlands trip.

In solidarity,

Sylvia Knight (comments? sknightinvt73@gmail.com)

Join our Weekly Vigil Against Racism, Sundays at 11:45

The weekly vigil against racism began in the summer of 2020, when Stan Baker organized it shortly after the killing of George Floyd. That first Sunday was a powerful moment; many people gathered on the greenbelt or church yard, from Cherry Street, up Battery, and around Pearl Street, as well as in front of other churches and synagogues in the city. We stood silently, masked and at a distance from each other, holding our signs and seeing each other in person for the first time in months. When the church bell rang, we all knelt for eight and half minutes, memorializing the final moments of George Floyd’s death. It was such a liturgical moment, kneeling together at the sound of a bell. I was astonished at how long those eight and a half minutes were; how could a life be deliberately drained away for so long?  

Since that first Sunday, we have a continued to stand on the corner of Battery and Pearl Streets. A smaller number now gathers, members of St. Paul’s and other faithful participants. We are mostly silent but always willing to talk to whoever walks by (those who comment while driving by get a wave or nod). The comments are mostly positive but sometimes challenging. Kneeling is still a memorial, but for me it also an embodiment of repentance and of prayer.  

The weekly vigil against racism is so much a part of my life that I miss it when I am out of town or unable to be there, just as I miss being at the Eucharist when I cannot come. It is a different kind of communion, but communion nonetheless. It reminds me that our world is still broken, that not all members of the body of Christ are granted the life they deserve as the beloved children of God, and that there is nonetheless hope for regeneration and life as the beloved community.  

Join us if you will.

Anne Clark  

Cathedral Redevelopment Corner

Dean Getlein and a few other members of the task force met with our contact at Stewardship Realty last week to check in and go over some questions that the task force had formed in their conversations. This was a very positive and productive meeting.

In working with our development consultant, Brian Pine, the task force realized that a more favorable financial and business agreement regarding the ground lease can offer us new and different options for the property that is under consideration to be sold. At a special meeting of the task force Wednesday night, we decided to delay progress on the sale of the Pearl Street property while the committee explores these new options.

In the mean time, the consultants we have hired are doing their due diligence on Stewardship Realty, and researching the terms of the ground lease proposal so that we can enter negotiations with the most favorable terms for the Cathedral possible.

If you have questions, please join us on Sunday, June 7 during Adult Forum to hear from members of the Task Force.

*Members: Dean Greta Getlein, Senior Warden Marley Skiff, Junior Warden Karl Fandrich, David McKay, Lisa Schnell (trustee), Caroline Henne, Shannon Williamson (vestry), Jen Sisk (vestry), Peter Anderson, Sarah van Ryckvorsel, Bert Cicchetti (trustee), Frank Guillot, Jennifer Sumner (staff)

The Cathedral Redevelopment Corner is a recurring item in the eNews - a place to learn more about the potential redevelopment project the Cathedral is considering. Check here weekly for updates, frequently asked questions, and other guidance on the future of this plan.

Diocesan Book Study: The Psychology of Christian Nationalism

Beginning in June, join the Racial Justice and Healing Committee for a three-session book study on The Psychology of Christian Nationalism by Pamela Cooper-White. Sessions will begin at the end of June and follow a curriculum written by the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, Tackling the Truths of a Toxic Movement.

In three short chapters, Cooper-White uncovers the troubling extent of Christian nationalism, explores its deep psychological roots, and discusses ways in which advocates for justice can safely and effectively attempt to talk across the deep divides in our society.

Meetings will be held on Tuesdays June 30, July 14, and July 28 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Zoom and discussion will be led by members of the Racial Justice and Healing Committee. Each session will be focused on a different chapter of the book.

Copies of the book may be purchased on Bookshop.org or at your preferred book seller.

You do not need to attend every session to participate, but registration is required.

Register online.

Note, Zoom links will be distributed to registrants ahead of the first meeting on June 30.

Contact the Ven. Susan McMillan, chair of the committee, with questions.