This Week at St. Paul's
Mother Michelle Walker
Dear St. Paul's Family,
With a resounding "yes", we will reintroduce congregational singing effective Palm Sunday! Thank you for sharing your opinions and support on this topic. We decided at our Worship Committee meeting on Tuesday to phase singing back in quickly. On Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday we will sing the hymns, the Psalm, and the doxology. Beginning on Easter, we will sing everything again. It will be so glorious. I can't wait!
One important note on our "glorious singing", however, is that in order to optimize everyone's safety we will follow these guidelines:
When we sing, actually anytime we're in the building, our masks must cover both our nose and our mouth.
Singing softly means singing no louder than a normal speaking voice. Think of it as if you were singing a baby to sleep.
Our soloists will continue to add their beautiful voices to ours, both to help us get back in the swing and to remind us to sing softly.
Many of us, especially our organist, are greatly looking forward to the return of singing. You'll also find it lovely to know he is meeting with me personally to help get me up to speed on chanting the liturgy, which is a new skill considering I've only done it twice!
This Sunday, however, on our last Sunday in Lent, we will continue with NO congregational singing - as we have throughout the pandemic. That will make it all the more wonderful to sing again on Palm Sunday.
Be well, dear ones. Stay vigilant and safe regarding the virus. Draw closer to Christ in these last Lenten days. And begin preparing yourself for crucifixion, death, and resurrection.
Prayers and blessings to you,
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226
Some Thoughts About Creation Care
I prepared these notes and links for our March 16th vestry meeting. It was suggested that I share them with the entire congregation. I plan to include 5-10 minutes of "development time" at all future vestry meetings, when possible. I'll be sure to share the good details with you as appropriate.
Dear Vestry,
This evening we will spend a few minutes discussing Creation Care, one of the three focus areas from our General Convention in 2018. (The other two are Racial Reconciliation and Evangelism.) The intention is to make you aware of offerings from the wider diocese in the event you might be interested in them or would like to support these initiatives in any way. As April is the month we celebrate Earth Day, it is appropriate to share this with you prior to then. I am scheduling this email to arrive at the start of our vestry meeting so that you have the links necessary to further explore this topic.
The Diocese organized a Creation Care Commission, which ANYONE is welcome to join, shortly after General Convention 2018. More information can be found here: https://ednin.org/creationcare.
Mission: The mission of the Commission on Creation Care is...bring resources together, focal point, creation library, foster an awareness of our connectedness to the earth, enable congregations to help steward the earth.
Vision: Our vision is that people of our faith communities of the Diocese of Northern Indiana will...increase awareness, decrease use of Styrofoam, creation audit, explore other sources of energy.
Creation Care in the Episcopal Church is based on understanding ourselves to be stewards of what belongs, not to us, but to God. Stewardship of creation therefore demands that we "seek to heal, defend, and work toward justice for all God's creation and to respect the kinship and connection of all that God created through education, advocacy, and action." The people of the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Indiana engage in Creation Care through a variety of activities, some of which are highlighted below.
We also have a diocesan Facebook group that you are welcome to join, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ednincreationcare1
And there are several components to Creation Care that are currently ongoing around the Diocese such as:
Unity Gardens - (4 parishes) land is set aside on church property to grow produce that is then available to the community
A Province V Creation Care Network - (meets 1st Monday of the month via Zoom) where ideas for caring for the earth and environment are shared. Details are available here: https://www.provincev.org/creation.html.
Greening Our Churches - which are ways to be more green (ie: leave less of a carbon footprint) in the ways we worship. Check out this website: https://greenfaith.org/
Environmental Justice - includes partnering with the Episcopal Church's Office of Government Relations to be a voice for creation care.
Holy Hikes - and perhaps my favorite, although I haven't yet been able to join, is a group of people committed to creation care that meet regularly simply to hike (as a method of worship) in holy places (which is anywhere that the holy people are ... but especially in parks around the area). They have a Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/Holy-Hikes-Northern-Indiana-101103515159435. More information is also available here: https://ednin.org/holy-hikes-northern-indiana.
Deacon Melissa Renner is the chair of the Creation Care Commission and is planning an event on April 24th beginning at 9am to kick off the Creation Care initiative more fully. Look for details in the Diocesan eNews. Deacon Melissa serves as the deacon at St. John the Evangelist, Elkhart and can be reached at this email address: melissa.e.renner@gmail.com.
The earth is not ours to use and destroy, but must continue to shelter and nourish (hopefully) countless generations after us. We might not think that seemingly small changes will help preserve the environment but if all of us make those changes it just might.
Personally I work hard to reduce, reuse, and recycle. I am constantly looking for ways to reduce the amount of plastic I use, even though I recycle it. I use very few disposable straws and avoid Styrofoam as much as possible. I carry my own silverware so that I rarely need plastic, even from fast food places. I am experimenting with shampoo bars (vs. plastic containers of liquid) and use linen napkins in our home. I rarely use disposable plates. I try to be aware and hope that my small pieces add up to something larger.
If caring for the environment is important to you and you'd like to be more actively involved, or aware, I suggest you research some of the links above.
Thank you!