This Week in Adult Forum: Faith and the Book of Common Prayer

Adult Forum this week discovers the wealth of resources that is the Book of Common Prayer 1979. How does this seminal book inform our shared lives of faith? What is a Holy Mystery? How is this book ordered, and what does that have to do with my faith?

Come find out this Sunday after worship and a snack. Questions and discussion are encouraged. 

Social Justice Liaisons Meeting This Sunday

Calling all Social Justice Liaisons: There will be a meeting with Dean Greta on Sunday, October 5 after worship to report on successes of the past, goals for the future, and to discuss how the Cathedral can move forward with the mission of justice through prayer, advocacy, and action.

If you're involved in any of our six supported organizations: COTS, Migrant Justice, Spectrum Youth & Family, JUMP, Feeding Champlain Valley, and the Elmwood Community Center, please be there! We want to know how you're doing and how the Cathedral can continue to support your efforts.

Welcome Ministers, All of Us!

As most of you know, there is a Welcome Ministry. We ensure that the coffee is hot and the treats are on the table most Sundays. That's wonderful, tasty, and good. HOWEVER it is so tempting to go downstairs, grab a drink, and sit down to chat with friends we've known forever. 

Look around the parish hall before sitting please. Are there one or two people you don't know sitting by themselves? Extroverts and Introverts alike bravely walk over and ask if you may join them. They'll most likely say yes! Introductions follow. You learn how they found St. Paul's or if you've just missed seeing them for weeks! (Blush!) Conversations usually bloom from there. 

It is so much fun to discover who they are, where they are from, and what they enjoy or would like to see at St. Paul's. Your faith and family histories are bonds that have bloomed for Keith and me over the years. Why not describe Cathedral activities they might enjoy, or listen to what they participated in doing from a former parish, or maybe no church at all. They might be seeking a faith community and become part of our Church family, without whom we would have missed some great souls!  

Some other important suggestions: wear your name tag, ask if they'd like a name tag, or to fill out an enquiry card. Welcoming works upstairs as the service ends, turn and say "Hello there" Invite folks to coffee hours, lead them downstairs. Sometimes we have coffee hour upstairs too. This may be the last chance, if folks aren't welcomed, they might not return to St. Paul's. Be a Welcome Minister. Please! 

St. Paul's Silent Vigil and Witness Gets the Word Out

St. Paul's Cathedral Weekly Silent Witness & Vigil for Peace | Center for Media and Democracy

Check out the link to Town Meeting TV and hear the powerful messages from participants in the weekly Silent Witness and Vigil. The vigil takes place every Sunday, rain or shine, at St. Paul's from 12 to 12:30.

Spectrum Empty Bowl Dinner

Spectrum Youth & Family, one of St. Paul's outreach ministries, holds their annual Empty Bowl Dinner fundraiser on Tuesday, October 7. This family-friendly evening brings the community together to raise over $100,000 to help teens and young adults get help when they need it most.

Choose a handmade ceramic bowl to keep, and fill it with soups donated by local restaurants and served up by local celebrities. Buy eyeglasses, textbooks, warm socks – even birthday cake – directly for youth at our Giving Board. You will leave with a full heart and your own bowl to remind you of the difference you’ve made in the life of a young person facing homelessness and other challenges in our community.

Tuesday, October 7, 5 - 7:30 p.m.

UVM Davis Center, Burlington, VT

Tickets cost $75 each and are available here.

Cathedral Arts Presents Alan Chiang, Piano

Cathedral Arts favorite Alan Chiang performs a program celebrating a variety of piano music, from the ornate brilliance of the English Renaissance to the masterworks of the Romantic era. Join us for an hour of music to inspire listeners.

Thursday, October 9 at noon at the Cathedral.

This is a free concert, donations to Cathedral Arts are always gratefully accepted.

John Bull (1562-1628) Fantasia on “Ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la,” FVB 51

William Byrd (c.1540–1623) Pavan & Galliard, MB 52 

J. S. Bach (1685-1750) Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue, BWV 903

J. S. Bach (1685-1750) Prelude and Fugue in B-flat Minor, BWV 867

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24

Taizé Meditation: Prayer in Troubled Times

This hour-long candlelit service combines sung and spoken prayer, meditative readings from Scripture and other sources, along with silence, allowing space to slow down and simply “be.” Selections primarily from the Taizé Community in France supply the musical framework, with creative instrumental accompaniment. Icons and candle lighting provide additional conduits to join minds and hearts in prayer for ourselves, the community gathered, and the world. Images at this service are wide-ranging examples of past and present witnesses to troubled times who were called to sometimes heroic responses and act as beacons.

Sunday, October 12 at 7 p.m. at the Cathedral.

Diocesan Convention Volunteers Sought October 25

Mark your calendars: The 2025 Diocesan Convention in-person programming will be held at the Cathedral on Saturday, October 25.

We are seeking one more volunteer for breakfast setup and cleanup (8 a.m. - 10 a.m.)

Are you interested in meeting priests, deacons and parish representatives from around the diocese? Curious about the behind-the-scenes workings of the Church? Determined to show off the hospitality of the Cathedral? Sign up to volunteer by emailing the Cathedral office: admin@stpaulscathedralvt.org.

Wreath Project 2025: How You Can Help

It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Wreath Project is about to swing into gear as it has for nearly 60 years! Every year requires a variety of volunteers with a myriad of skills. 

There are a variety of roles available for different time and talents. Such as:

• Spreadsheet design/tracking
• Wreath unloading and plastic flooring installing on Saturday, November 22.
• Acorn, teasel, cone collecting.
• Wreath coning/adorning pre- and post-Thanksgiving.
• Packaging and labeling for shipped orders.
• Food donations to feed wreath makers!

If any of these roles sound appealing or if you'd like to learn more, please reach out to Penny Pillsbury at 802-734-9349, or Buffy Caflisch at 802-658-1460.   

Get Hooked!

The Annual Dopp Recital at First Baptist Church, 81 St. Paul Street, Burlington will be played at 3 p.m. on October 12 by Peter Berton.

The historic 1864 Hook tracker organ is featured in a program each fall in memory of former musicians at First Baptist. Mark Howe and David Neiweem have played this program in past years...come hear Peter (ably assisted by Karl Fandrich on the stops) in a varied hour of music including an audience-participation hymn.

The program is here. 

Film Screening: Native Voices: Speaking to the Church and the World

On October 13 at 6:30 p.m., join Rock Point's Racial Justice and Healing Committee for a virtual film screening and discussion of Native Voices: Speaking to the Church and the World. This event will be held on Zoom and registration is required.

Native Voices was produced by the Episcopal Church Office of Indigenous Ministries. The film features Indigenous clergy and lay leaders discussing "how their lives have been affected--historically and currently--by the Doctrine of Discovery" and colonialism.

This film screening is being held on and in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, observed annually on the second Monday of October. Declared a national holiday in 2021 by President Joe Biden, Indigenous People's Day has been observed as a state holiday Vermont since 2019. Read more about Indigenous Peoples Day.

Following the viewing, members of the Racial Justice and Healing Committee will lead small group discussions about the film.

Register online.