As we celebrate Tom’s ministry, we asked Loren Crow, a parishioner who works with Tom in Jail and Prison Ministry, to speak to some of the impact Deacon Tom’s work has had.
Read Loren’s reflection by clicking “Read More.”
What time of day is it for our community?
At a recent gathering of clergy, we were asked the following question: What time of day is it for your community? One person said that it felt like it was five minutes before midnight. Another said it was five minutes after midnight. One person said it was high noon. My response was dawn. Here’s why.
Vestry Report for November 2022
The Vestry has been reflecting on quotes from John Phillip Newell’s text, Sacred Earth, Sacred Soul at each meeting this year. It has been a joy to start our meetings reflecting on his words. The quotes that were shared with us for the September and October meetings invite us to search and see the holy in each other as well as in nature. These reminders have been helpful as we continue to live in the liminal space that is this season of “next normal.” There is a bit of trepidation as we wonder what is around the corner and how to best love our neighbors, but as Newell so gently reminds us, “There is hope. And it is a hope based on our deepest knowing, that every human being is sacred, body and soul.” It’s that hope the Vestry carries as we keep working to identify and meet the needs of our church community.
Read the Vestry’s entire report by clicking “Read More.”
Learn to Speak Spanish in the Anglican Diocese of Cuernavaca
Sacred Ground: The Sacrament of Embodiment - A Spiritual Growth Opportunity
Christians have gotten mixed messages about bodies. On the one hand, St. Paul has told us that our body is a temple. On the other hand, he has said, “Nothing good dwells within my flesh.” For many of us, the second message has been emphasized, and not the first. Using breath work and movement as embodied prayer, as well as poetry, Visio Divina, and small-group sharing, we will explore what it means to be a sacred body in a community of other embodied sacred persons living in an embodied and sacred cosmos.
Read about this four-week offering by clicking “Read More.”
Update on our Covid-19 policies
The Vestry has decided that starting on Sunday, September 11th, our 9:30 service and its activities will become mask optional. This change is due to now universal vaccine eligibility. Everyone 6 months and older who wants to be vaccinated can finally access the vaccine. The last group to become eligible was the under-5s, who could get their first dose in mid-June. Depending on how quickly families were able to get that first dose and which vaccine they received, children in this age group started to become fully vaccinated in early August, with many more coming up to full vaccination throughout August and September.
Please click “Read More” to read the entire update on our Covid policies.
St. Mary's Organ Renovation
Since returning to the sanctuary for worship services, many parishioners have commented on the sound of our organ. Several have spoken to our Music Director and Organist, John Jantzi, and have asked if something has changed. Your ears do not deceive you! During the first two years of the pandemic, the sanctuary was not as heavily used, offering a unique opportunity to renovate the organ.
To read the entire article about our organ renovation, click “Read More.”
Vestry Report for June 2022
This spring has felt like a season of hybridity, or like a continual lesson in how to occupy the both-and situations that characterize much of our reality right now. Our reflection that began our May Vestry meeting focused on the dual nature of our existence as people of joy and resurrection enmeshed in a world of sorrow. In a passage from Sacred Earth Sacred Soul, John Phillip Newell encourages us to embrace tears not as a sign of emotional weakness but as a way of cleansing our inner sight. He writes that we should not hide or be ashamed of tears but should instead recognize their power to reveal the “glistening of heaven in earth” and to help us feel “more deeply within us the current of life’s sorrows.”
A One-Year Reflection
As I look forward to this next year and all the continued growth and expansion it offers, I am excited, humbled, and proud to be a part of this amazing community. I am truly blessed by the supportive team of clergy and staff, and all of you who show me your genuine care.
Read Ryan’s entire reflection by clicking “Read More.”
Whatever Your Something Is, Do It!
I am writing this on Ascension Day, remembering Ascension Day twenty-four years ago when I sat at Central Lutheran for the combined Episcopal-Lutheran Eucharist that evening and silently wept as the choir sang the Sanctus from the Faure Requiem. Ascension Day 1998 was the day of the Thurston shooting. I spent the day telling my students I didn’t know what to say to them, and wasn’t about to mouth empty platitudes just to say something. By the next day, after a mostly sleepless night, I had found my voice.
Read Sharon’s entire “How We Live” reflection by clicking “Read More.”
Rector's Closing Thoughts: Rest and Refreshment
Update on Ryan Baker-Fones' Curacy
Communion Update - The Common Cup
Starting April 3, 2022, communion wine returns as an option for those who would like. We will be using the common cup. If you are not ready to start receiving the wine again, that is fine. Receiving just the bread is considered full communion; the entirety of the sacrament is independently contained within each element. Several people did not take the wine before COVID for various reasons. This has always been perfectly acceptable.
Read Bingham’s entire announcement by clicking “Read More.”
Vestry Report for March 2022
The month of March is already a transitional time since it ushers in the first day of spring and leads to longer, lighter days. This year, March has been even more full of transitions for our church community, in addition to our local, national, and global societies. So much is happening so fast, and we are trying our best to keep up. It is a time of mixed emotions, and perhaps even conflicting or confusing feelings. We want to embrace the positive changes with enthusiasm and hope, all while we continue to keep ourselves as informed and educated as possible. We recognize that this time requires a great deal of emotional adjustment from each of us.
Masking Update
Thursday, March 10, 2022
Dear friends in Christ,
I am writing you today to talk about upcoming changes to our Covid protocols. As you have likely heard, the state will be removing the mask mandate on March 12th in response to the continuing good news regarding Covid cases and hospitalizations across the state. As of today, Lane County has moved into the low-risk category according to the CDC guidelines and we continue to see the seven-day average of cases drop. These improvements do not mean that the Covid pandemic is over. Whether this is a new normal or a calm between storms, we do not yet know.
Click “Read More” to read Bingham’s entire letter regarding masking.
Rector's Closing Thoughts: Drawing Closer to God
As we begin our third pandemic Lent, I’m feeling like the pandemic is more akin to the forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness than the forty days that Jesus spent out in the desert! And yet, one of the great themes of Lent is that God is with us through the difficult times. God taught Noah how to build an ark for the stormy forty days. God nourished and guided the Israelites for those forty arduous years of struggle and longing. The angels tended to Jesus during those forty days of deprivation and temptation.
To read Bingham’s entire article, which was originally printed in the Lent Bellringer, click “Read More.”
Vestry Report for February 2022
Our last Vestry report, which was posted on the St. Mary’s website in January, reflected back on the Christmas and Advent seasons, along with the rise of the Omicron variant back in November. We were—admittedly—a little disheartened by the extreme weather disasters and pivots back to remote activities that ushered in the new year. The joke about 2022 as 2020 too felt more cruel than funny, and we wondered how we would endure yet another “unprecedented” stage of the pandemic. So far throughout the months of 2022, our Vestry meetings have continued to be illuminating moments of community, shared hope, and excitement for this year. We remember that it is a rare and wonderful privilege to be a part of such a caring and gracious group.
To read the entire report for February 2022, click “Read More.”
How We Live: Quiet Obedience
Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands;
Collect for Saint Joseph, BCP page 239
There are three churches in our relatively small diocese that are named for Saint Mary, but none that claim Saint Joseph as their patron saint. That is not uncommon, there are many fewer churches throughout the Church named for Saint Joseph than for his beloved wife. While Mary is certainly worthy of all the attention and praise Christians heap upon her for her willingness to say yes to God’s call to bear a son who would grow up to be the savior of the world, much was asked of Joseph as well.
To read Sharon’s entire article, click “Read More.”
2022 Lent Madness
Lent Madness is a unique, March-Madness-inspired Lenten devotional brought to us by Forward Movement. Several years ago, St. Mary's decided to play along as a group, as a fun way to learn about the saints and raise money for St. Mary's ministries!
Read all about our Lent Madness fundraiser by clicking “Read More.”
RIP Medical Debt
By putting our “little bits of good” together, St. Mary’s was able to abolish over $768,000 in medical debt for Oregonians! This good news story began in the fall when St. Mary’s Outreach Council brought forward a new proposal: to spend $5,000 of our outreach allocation funds to buy medical debt for pennies on the dollar and then forgive that debt, working through the non-profit RIP Medical Debt. At that time, it was estimated that our donation would enable us to forgive about $450,000 in medical debt. We surveyed the parish and received enthusiastic support to proceed.
Read the full story by clicking “Read More.”
