Members' News and Worship Updates

This Week or Coming Soon

Victor Price interment: August 7
The ashes of + Victor Price + will be placed in the columbarium at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, 3045 Chicago Avenue, Minneapolis, on the 44th anniversary of his birth, Sunday, August 7, 2022, at Noon. Pastor Joseph Crippen will lead the prayers, music will be provided by Cantor David Cherwien, and the recipients of the Victor Price Anti-Racism Fund will be formally announced. You are invited to join in this brief liturgy of Committal. During the service Father Heisley will distribute the entirety of the Victor Price Anti-Racism Fund to two organizations: • $6,186 will go to YWCA Minneapolis. This organization’s motto is Eliminating Racism/Empowering Women. • $6,186 to the Center for Leadership and Neighborhood Engagement Both groups work diligently against racism and to enable people of color to obtain job training and employment. Victor was passionate about these concerns, often dreaming dreams of what he hoped to do. Alas, he never got the chance. But our prayer is that his legacy will provide a leg up for those same people.

Summer Worship on the Front Lawn
On the four Sundays in August and the first two Sundays in September, we will hold Sunday services outdoors on the front lawn.

Creation Sunday: August 14
Join us on Sunday as we celebrate the Spirit of God working in and through all of Creation. Susie and Kelly Looking Horse will open our worship with a drumming song and smudging. Kelly will also lead prayers and share the Lakota Creation Story. Jeremy Greenhouse and members of the Sweet Colleens will perform, including a brief post-service concert of their Celtic-inspired music. We'll end with dance and song led by Kelly.

School Supplies Drive: August 7-14
This is a great time of year to help the kids in our community is prepared for learning in the fall! Our congregation is collecting school supplies for new arrivals with refugee or humanitarian status again this year. Please pitch in to make sure that every one is ready to start the school year. If you would like to donate supplies: 1. Go to this link to see what is needed. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0D4CAEAD2EA0FE3-school2
2. Sign up saying what you will get and how many.
3. Bring your donation to church August 7 or 14.

Mirzada family update: your help is needed!
Sts. Luke & James and St. John’s have been working with Minnesota Council of Churches (MCC) in helping the Mirzada family transition to their new life in Minnesota after arriving by airlift from Afghanistan last year. Federal funding allocated to support Afghan Parolees runs out at the end of six months. At the end of July, the Mirzadas will be responsible for the majority of their housing expenses, a true challenge for a family of eight who are just beginning to learn English find reliable employment. In partnership with St. John’s, we are committed to raising $15,000 in funds to support the family over the next few months – $7,500 from each parish. To reach our goal, we are providing $3,750 from dedicated funds, and are asking individuals to contribute an additional $3,750. Please help out. To make an online contribution, click here...https://onrealm.org/stlukesandstjames/give/Mirzada Thanks!

Pike Island Walk/Pilgrimage with Kelly & Susie Lookinghorse & Family: Aug. 13
1:00 PM Kelly & Susie along with their children & grandchildren will travel from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, stay in Mankato the site of the Execution of the Dakota 38 + 2 on Dec. 26, 1862 and invited our Sts. Luke & James community to join them on their family journey to the Bdote. (Bdote means “where two waters come together.” While bdote can refer to any place where waters converge, many Dakota people consider this location as a sacred place of creation, identifying themselves as the Wicahpi Oyate (Star Nation) who originated in the sky and came into being on this land.) This will be the first time for their children and grandchildren to visit this sacred site. Pike island. Pike Island is also the site where the US military held captive the Dakota women, children, and elderly that were unable to flee to South Dakota and Canada following the US – Dakota War. The Dakota people were held on the island during the winter of 1862-1863. Many died of disease and starvation. Those who survived were taken to South Dakota to Crow Creek Indian Reservation at Fort Thompson, SD. There is a simple but profound Lakota prayer: Mitakuye Oyasin. These two words mean “All My Relations” or “We are All Related”. To pray this prayer is to petition God on behalf of everyone and everything on Earth.

COVID-19 Protocols
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides guidance on prevention measures based on whether COVID levels are low, medium or high within a community. The COVID level in Hennepin County is medium. In communities where the level is medium, the CDC recommends that people who are at high risk for serious illness talk with their health care provider about whether to wear a mask or take other precautions. It also recommends that individuals stay up to date with their COVID vaccines.

Masks are welcome, but no longer required. • You will be invited to come forward for Communion, rather than receiving it in place. • You may receive from the chalice if you choose. • Please continue to stay in place for the Peace. • We ask that all who are eligible to be vaccinated be vaccinated.
Stay home and watch the service on our livestream anytime you are not feeling well, have any cold, flu, or COVID symptoms, or have been exposed to COVID, please get tested and stay home until you have a negative result.

Live-stream Option: The worship service will be broadcast live on Sunday morning at 10AM on our Facebook page. Live-streaming is new to us, and we're still outfitting our worship space with equipment. Please be patient as we gradually develop our skills! Early in the following week we will archive the service on our YouTube channel. The YouTube services will be lightly edited to enhance the sound quality and shorten some parts of the service.

Second Saturday Recreation: August 13th
The third Second Saturday is coming up at 6:00 pm on Saturday, August 13 on the lawn. There will be croquet! Maybe with a twist…our lawn isn’t particularly well-suited to regulation croquet! But please, please come even if you don’t like games (you know who you are!). Please bring your own beverages, blankets, chairs, and food.

Visiting Good Courage Farm: August 20
Save the date! St. John's in Linden Hills has invited us to join them in visiting Good Courage Farm, the agrarian ministry of the Episcopal Church of Minnesota! We plan to carpool, departing at 7:15 am Saturday, August 20th to arrive for a 9:00 AM "Pie + Prayer" service in the silo chapel or big barn. Prayer will be followed by farm-made pie and coffee. While details are still being planned, we'll spend the day touring the farm, talking about regenerative agriculture and repair of our food systems, and possibly volunteering on a project. Bring a sack lunch. We'll share details before we leave. Return to the Twin Cities will be determined by your individual carpools. Questions? Link to the farm's website, Facebook page or Instagram. Doug Mensing at 612-202-2252 or dougmensing@gmail.com is St. John's organizer and can also answer questions. Please send RSVP's to Avis Thomas at avisjt@bitstream.net so we can get a sense of our own numbers and organize our carpool(s).

Women’s Retreat News
The date and space are reserved—Saturday, October 22, at Sts. Luke and James—for our women’s retreat. The past conveners are stepping back from planning and organizing duties this year, so we need new ideas and energy. If you are interested in helping to create this year’s event, please contact Sarah Sivright at Sarahsivright2@gmail.com or 612-965-1570

Sts. Luke & James Elder Profiles: Bonnie Carleen
We continue our recently-launched practice of telling the stories of our parish members aged 75 or older. This week we feature the Elder Profile of Sts. Luke & James member Bonnie Carleen. You may also pick up a printed copy at the Ushers’ Tables, on Sunday. And watch for more profiles of the elders of Sts. Luke & James in weeks to come.

Previous Elder Profiles:
Barb Buehl, Tony Morley, Char Carlson, Al Carlson

Search Committee Update
The Committee is excited to begin in-person interviews. Schedules are always difficult to coordinate, but soon we'll be at this part of the process. Keep sending your prayers our way as we discern God's choice for Sts. Luke & James.

Pastoral Care
We understand the importance of continuing to provide pastoral care and healing prayers for any in our community who are in need. If you have any pastoral needs, don’t hesitate to reach out to Rev Larry Bussey at 612-309-8896, or to Rev Morris Goodwin, or to Rev Gretchen Pickeral, lilmargret@gmail.com, 612-961-1154. We’ll be there for you.

Building Use
Our church building is used for much more than just Sunday morning worship. Most of our lower level houses a child care service every weekday. We host several community groups too. Take a look at an example of a typical week's activities. Be sure to contact our office whenever you plan to conduct any event at church!

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First Friday Taizé: 7PM Monthly (No Taizé in July or August)
Our Taizé service has returned to the nave (main worship space) and has also returned to its previous time, 7PM. This is a half-hour service of quiet reflection with modern chants (reiterated worship songs). Masks are welcome, but optional, for in-person worship, but you may also join the service via our live-stream on Facebook.

Compline (Evening Prayers): 7PM M-Th
During our time of separation, several of us wanted to pray together "face-to-face" in the service of Daily Compline from the Book of Common Prayer. We continue to meet on-line at 7PM Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night here:

| Zoom Meeting Link |

All are welcome to participate in this service (you do NOT need to be a member of our congregation) from your phone, tablet, or computer. You will be given the opportunity to join with audio & video, audio only, or just observe. It's helpful to have the Compline service open in your Book of Common Prayer, or to view the service text on your computer.

Formation Opportunities
We all look forward to the day when we will be able to gather for Godly Play for children, Youth formation, and The Forum but in the meantime we want to offer up a weekly resource to facilitate formation in your homes. Faith@Home which is curated by Forma & Forward Movement, has created in home formation for all ages with options for differing age levels in any household from small children through very experienced adults.

https://www.dofaithathome.org/blog/first-sunday-of-pentecost-week-of-june-5-2022/

This weekly resource will complement our worship experience for everyone whether you are worshiping from home on our Facebook live-stream or our YouTube channel or in person.

Donations
Our existence as a faith community depends upon direct donations from our participants. Your contributions preserve our worship space, pay the staff that are engaged in worship, outreach, and justice initiatives, and directly support projects in our community. Many of our parishioners have found it easiest to set up electronic funds transfers (EFT) by contacting our office. However, we welcome donations via credit card using the links in the Donations section below.

Photo: Newly ordained priest—and past SLandJ parishioner—Julia Domenick presides over our June 19 service. She has been installed as the new associate rector of St. John's Episcopal in Boulder, CO.

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The Epistle
We publish a newsletter that will help you get to know us, our people, our passions, and our opportunities for engagement. Please take a look at one of our recent editions.

Vestry Corner
The vestry would like to extend its thanks to all families who participated in the listening session after church on July 31. The planning committee and staff will be working over the coming weeks to finalize plans for family programming beginning this fall. In our August Vestry meeting next week, we will consider a timeline for vestry work for the remainder of 2022, which will center around the budgeting process and the possible revision of parish bylaws. We are excited to see that the search committee has made great progress. The vestry is re-entering the discussion in the coming days, and we hope to be able to give a more complete report of our progress and next steps with candidates by the middle of August.
At our July 11 Vestry Meeting, Tom Junnila gave a comprehensive facilities tour to vestry members, and we had a discussion about the many current needs that our campus has, and our commitments to address them.

If you would you like to make a report to the Vestry, you can use this form. If you’d like your report to be seen in our upcoming wardens and vestry meetings, your submission must be received by the first of the month.

Vestry Minutes
Our Vestry meets monthly to represent the parish in matters of worship, education, service, community life, and business. Meeting minutes are posted here AFTER they have been approved at the following month's meeting.

Vestry Agenda
Shortly before each regular Vestry meeting (the second Monday of the month) we will post the agenda here.

| August 2022 Meeting Agenda |

2021 Annual Meeting Report
We held our annual meeting of the parish on Sunday, January 23, 2022. If you weren't able to attend, here are some links to the materials and recordings.
2021 Written Reports and Agenda: [ PDF ]
2020 Written Reports and Agenda: [ PDF ]
Full Meeting Video: [ YouTube ]

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Please consider adding yourself to our newsletter email list so we can provide you with up-to-the-minute opportunities and schedule changes.

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Individual giving is the ONLY source of funds that our community has. We maintain our worship space and grounds, pay our staff, purchase our supplies, and support charitable work.

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