The Ven. J. Stannard Baker, Cathedral Deacon and Diocesan Archdeacon and Chaplain to the Retired, died on June 24. 

A funeral service to celebrate his life and ministry will take place on Saturday, August 2 at 11 a.m. at The Cathedral Church of St. Paul. The service will be livestreamed on the Cathedral's YouTube Channel. Doors will open at 10 a.m. and the prelude will begin at 10:20. Overflow seating will be available at The First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington.

The service will be led by the Rt. Rev. Dr. Shannon MacVean-Brown as the principal celebrant; the Very Rev. Diane Nancekivell will be the presider at the Service of the Word; and the Rev. Canon Tanya R. Wallace, Diocese of Western Massachusetts, will preach.

Clergy are invited to vest and process (alb, white stole) and pink accents are encouraged.

The family requests that in Stan's memory, attendees wear bright, joyous colors. Pink if possible.

A reception will follow the service.

Please note, due to the limited availability of parking, those who attend in person are highly encouraged to carpool and park either on the street or in the city garage across the street from the Cathedral. The first two hours are free. Parking in the Cathedral's lot will be reserved.

You can read Stan's obituary here.

Cathedral Arts Presents Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival Fellows Concert

Saturday, July 26 at 7:30 p.m.

Festival Fellows from Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival present a program of chamber works for strings as the culminating concert of the 2025 festival. This concert is in partnership with the Music for Food Project.

Admission is free with the donation of non-perishable food items.

Peter Harrigan to Attend Worship this Sunday

Since many have asked: Stan's husband Peter Harrigan will be with us for worship on Sunday, July 27. This is a chance for the St. Paul's community to offer Peter condolences, share a favorite memory of Stan, and for the St. Paul's community to be together in worship in a more intimate setting than at the funeral.

Ice Cream Sunday July 27

Back by popular demand: St. Paul's Ice Cream Sundae tradition!

To celebrate summer, it has been our decades-long tradition to have a coffee hour devoted to ice cream cones.

Sunday, July 27, we invite folks to bring their favorite ice cream, sherbet, lactose-free dairy/dairy-free delights to St., Paul's. Please place the frozen treats in the Parish Hall freezer. If some of you could bring boxes of cones (sugar cones, waffle cones and gluten free cones), that would be great!

Please let Penny know if you are able to bring either ice creams or cones. If you forget to let her know, bring it on anyway!  

We would love to have a coterie of SCOOPERS, so everyone will have a chance to enjoy the cones. Consider this fun, cool ministry.

Just in case you wondered, there will be coffee too!

Seeking Ushers for Stan's Funeral

Stan's memorial service is expected to be very heavily attended by many whose lives were deeply impacted by his kind, loving, generous spirit and actions through his life.  How lucky we are that his home church was St. Paul's!  

We will need eight ushers and more than one greeter to welcome everyone attending this service celebrating Stan's life. Besides the service in the Nave, there will also be televisions set-up to view the service remotely in the lower level of the Cathedral and at the Unitarian church if needed.  

Would you be interested in serving as a greeter or an usher? If so, please respond to Buffy Caflisch (BCaflisch@gmail.com) as soon as possible.  Thanks!

Cathedral Beautification Day

Thursday, July 31, 3-5 p.m.

Family in Christ, 

Many strands are being woven together to wonderfully and appropriately honor our beloved Stan. So many people have come up to me to offer their help… So many, in fact, that I am struggling to remember all of them. I have resorted to a spreadsheet to keep track of all those serving in various ways. 

If you are looking for a way to honor Stan’s spirit of servanthood, the upcoming St. Paul’s Cathedral Beautification Day is a way anyone can pitch in. Parishioners of all ages and abilities will gather on Thursday, July 31st, beginning at 3 p.m. and going until 6 p.m., to clean and setup our physical space. Come for as long or as short as your are able.

Our two-pronged approach sees Adam Skiff heading the chair efforts, while Katie Gonyaw oversees the cleaning tasks. Essentially, we are asking this community who loved Stan so much to show up – willing to serve – as Stan so often did. If you come to lift lift chairs, you don’t need much other than yourself. If you come to clean, please feel free to bring your own cleaning supplies (my favorite chamois might make an appearance). If you are able to help beautify our outdoor space, bring gardening gloves and trowels.

Now is our Cathedral’s time to shine. If you mostly have experience inside the Episcopal tradition, you may not know that how we honor people is really special. If folks are coming from another faith, denomination, or a secular background, they may be blown away by how loving a worship service like this can be. An attractive and accommodating space allows St. Paul’s Cathedral to put our best foot forward, as we welcome so many from outside our community into our space. 

If you have offered to help, or don’t know what else you might do: this is what you can do. Please come help make the Cathedral Church of St. Paul’s building as beautiful as the hearts of those who worship here. 

In Christ’s Peace, Bobby+ 

Give to Stan Baker Memorial Celebration

As Deacon, Stan set our table at the altar nearly every Sunday in a way that made it clear that every single one of us is welcome at the banquet God prepares for us. As we celebrate his life on Saturday, August 2, we'd like to honor his ministry of radical hospitality with an act of hospitality of our own - a beautiful reception after his funeral service for the many many people who will be present with us on that day.

We will be grateful for donations for that reception, which will be catered in the church hall and in the Rose Garden under a big tent. Please contribute either online or by check in the Sunday offering plate (designate it for "Baker Reception") or in an envelope addressed to 2 Cherry Street, and again indicating it as a donation for Stan's reception.

Stan's celebration of life will take place at the Cathedral on Saturday, August 2 at 11 a.m., with the reception to follow.

Share Your Photos of Stan with Us

As a way of remembering Stan, St. Paul's youth along with Children's Formation Coordinator Katie Gonyaw are collecting photos of Stan for a banner.

If you have photos you'd like to share, please send them to admin@stpaulscathedralvt.org, or stop by the office with prints and we can scan/copy them. Thank you!

Have you Seen these Tables?

We appear to be missing a few of these tall tables. Did you borrow them and forget to return them? Have you seen them in a closet we've missed?

Please reach out if you know of their whereabouts, no questions asked! We can even potentially arrange pickup.

Thank you!

St. Paul's Social Justice Ingathering

One of the signs of summer 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.

There will be an ingathering on Sunday, August 17. To learn more about social justice outreach activities at the Cathedral, reach out to Deacon Susan McMillan. Thank you for your generosity.

Cathedral Arts Presents Bach in Church

The Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival presents its annual free afternoon recital of Bach and a World Premiere from Resident Composer David Serkin Ludwig at St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Tuesday, August 19 at noon. This is a free concert, donations to Cathedral Arts are always gratefully accepted.