Inclusive Marriage Policy Conversations

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On Tuesday 4/20 and 4/27 we are delighted to host Bishop Doug Sparks, who graciously offered to facilitate a conversation about developing an inclusive marriage policy. He has facilitated these conversations in the majority of the Episcopal churches in our diocese and we are happy to participate at this time.

As I explained in our February 26th News from the Red Doors, having a written and agreed-upon marriage policy is important for both the congregation and the priest. With the help of Bishop Doug, we will explore the Resolutions approved by our governing entity, the General Convention of The Episcopal Church. We will spend time prayerfully in study of both the Bible and other resources generated within our faith tradition. And we will respectfully learn together, grow together, and establish a policy that reflects who we are as St. Paul's.

Prior to Tuesday night, Bishop Doug has asked each attendee to review the following materials:

  1. Same Gender Marriage General Convention Resolutions (8 pages, focus on the highlighted areas)

  2. A History of Marriage from DEARLY BELOVED (16 pages, please read the entire document).
    Note: DEARLY BELOVED: A Tool-Kit for the Study of Marriage was generated by the Task Force on the Study of Marriage for presentation to General Convention 2015. We will study other portions of it in the second session. The entire document is available here if you are interested in reviewing it earlier

Here are some other things you might like to know:

  • The sessions will be conducted in the church nave/sanctuary in order to accommodate the most people, socially-distanced. We will be seated according to our Sunday morning seating chart and will remain masked the entire time.

  • Bishop Doug will have a microphone for himself. Mother Michelle will have the mobile handheld microphone in order to circulate among people wishing to speak.

  • The sessions will also be available via our standard Zoom link, but will NOT be on Facebook Live.

  • If you'd like to call in to listen/participate BY PHONE, you may do so.

  • Handouts of the materials will be available for pick-up on Sunday 4/18 and for the meeting itself on Tuesday 4/20.

  • The meeting is scheduled for 1.5 hours, from 6-7:30 pm.

This is an important conversation for us. I hope and pray you will all make it a priority to participate. It is best to attend BOTH sessions as they do build upon each other. Any questions, concerns, or suggestions can be directed to myself, either of your wardens, or anyone on vestry.

Until Tuesday,
- Mother Michelle

Easter Week News 2021

Easter Week News
from Mother Michelle

Dear St. Paul's Family,

Alleluia.  Christ is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed.  Alleluia.

What joyous and amazing Easter celebrations we enjoyed yesterday my friends.  It was a joy to chant the liturgy and to hear your (soft) singing voices proclaiming the resurrection.  I pray for that joy to continue to feed you spiritually this week and beyond.

In case you missed the excitement first hand, we had a special guest on Sunday - the fire department.  The smoke from our incense set off the smoke detectors and brought the fire department (see pictures above).  We're please to know the system works so well (even though it needs to be replaced by the end of the year due to new code requirements).  And we're happy to report there was only a minor slow down in our liturgy.  It will be an Easter never to forget, for sure!

In lieu of our Friday News from the Red Doors I am sending this on Monday to keep you in the loop.  As you've likely heard by now, I am on vacation with my family from 4/5-4/12 and will return to the office on Tuesday 4/13.  In the event of any pastoral emergencies, please contact our Junior Warden Tom Konieczny.  He will coordinate any necessary next steps.  

Additionally, Fr. John Houghton will supply for us this coming Sunday, 4/11.  I know it will be lovely for all to see him again after this long year.  I'm thankful for his willingness to supply again!

After some conversation we have come to the realization that registration is no longer necessary for most Sunday services.  While we do still have to take attendance for the near future in order to provide contact tracing should one of us accidentally attend church while COVID positive, we haven't had a seating issue on any occasion other than Christmas Eve and Easter.  So beginning this Sunday 4/11 we will NOT be pre-registering for service.  There will be a parish roster at the check-in stand near the Harrison Street door and the ushers will keep track of who attended each week.  So please come to church without registering ... and enjoy that freedom.  (Note: We may still register for special services, or should the pandemic shift our seating capacity again.  For now, however, we are registration free!)

Lastly, words alone cannot express my gratitude for your faithfulness in every aspect of being faith community.  From your prayers to your willingness to participate in clean-up day; from your financial contributions to the extra effort of helping out in large and small ways for Holy Week and Easter; from your tolerance of the many pandemic guidelines we must observe to your flexibility every time we've shifted those guidelines - 

THANK YOU!

You/we are an amazing community of believers, doing more than we imagined we could and poised for our next season of ministry together.  Be well loved ones.  Know that you are in my prayers.  And enjoy the thrill of the resurrection today and always.

Alleluia.  Christ is risen.
The Lord is risen indeed.  Alleluia.

In love and prayers,
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 (c)

Holy Week Notes and Registrations

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Holy Week Notes and Registrations

Dear St. Paul's Family,

As we traverse the commemoration of Jesus' last days of earthly life, may we be grounded and certain in the knowledge of his mission to offer himself for our salvation.  May we walk this week more intently.  May our prayers take us deeper.

And on this Tuesday of Holy Week, in addition to sending the sign-up links for our upcoming services, please consider the following:

  • Maundy Thursday - Our Maundy Thursday remembrance of the institution of the Eucharist, of Jesus' teaching us to be servants to each other by the washing of feet, and of his instruction of the greatest commandment (to love one another as Jesus has loved us) will happen as in the past with one exception.

    The Altar of Repose, where the Blessed Sacrament will be available for viewing and prayer, will be placed at the space between the altar rails at the front of the church. This will allow each person to view the altar while offering prayers in their own seats. Everyone is welcome to stay after service as long as they would like, until 10pm. Upon leaving the worship space, please feel free to walk past the altar and reverence the sacrament with a bow. We will NOT offer a place to kneel there for private prayer this year due to pandemic guidelines. Once everyone has left, the church will be locked for the night.

  • Good Friday - This service is a powerful and somber remembrance of Jesus' death on the cross and our complicity (via our sinful human nature) in his need to be there. Spiritually, this service brings me to my knees, and leaves me there until the resurrection can be celebrated. This year there will be two differences in our traditional observation.

    Instead of coming forward to venerate a cross one by one, we will each receive a small olive wood cross that fits neatly in the palm of our hand. This cross will be our tactile remembrance and veneration during this pandemic season. It will also travel with us from that service until the resurrection. Keep it in your pocket as a reminder of the solemnity of the hours Jesus remained in death on our behalf.

    Secondly, when Holy Communion is offered on this day it is from the sacrament that is reserved from our Maundy Thursday Eucharistic celebration. Consecration of the elements is not permitted on the day Jesus offers himself on the cross. Holy Communion is an optional element of this specific service. In consultation with the Worship Committee, and at my request, we will NOT offer communion during this service. If this is new to you, notice how it feels to be bereft of the sacrament during this service. Observe how the lack of that spiritual nourishment affects you on this day, and in the hours until resurrection. Sit with that lacking, that discomfort until Easter morning. And then rejoice all the more when you receive the precious body of Jesus on resurrection morning.

We are privileged to be able to meet in person, to worship our Lord, to SING, and to be in community in the midst of the long haul of the pandemic.   St. Paul's is far ahead of the curve in terms of worshiping in-person and singing.  And we are doing this safely.  I share this not only to brag on us a bit, but also as a reminder there are many people in our lives missing church.  We have two Easter services and a maximum capacity of 110 people over those two services, not to mention our live stream offering.  Make it a priority to find someone to invite to our Easter celebration.  It's going to be lovely and wouldn't it be nice to have the church filled (according to our pandemic guidelines)?

Lastly, stay safe my friends.  While the initial waves and absolute terror of the pandemic are behind us, the reality of a "return to normal" at an exact moment in time is unlikely.  Continue to observe the guidelines that keep us most safe by wearing your mask in public, practicing social distancing, and taking care of yourself.  While many, if not most of us, have been vaccinated at this point, we don't know for certain that our immunized status can't still spread the virus and we don't know who among us might not be vaccinated.  As we worship together, we will observe all of the currently required precautions.  As you gather with friends and family personally over this time, please also remember to be safe WHILE you celebrate the miraculous resurrection.

Be well and pray well my friends.  

Wishing you a blessed Holy Week, 
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 (c)

News from the Red Doors - March 26, 2021

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From Your Senior Warden, Jean Burns

What joy it is to look forward with anticipation and hope to Holy Week and, in particular, to our celebration of Easter. As we begin to resume services that more closely resemble normal, care is being taken to proceed with caution. Nevertheless, the Worship Committee, led by Mother Michelle, has in place plans to make this Holy Week as special as it possibly can be. Members of the congregation will be able to sing hymns and the doxology softly behind masks beginning on Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday. There will be palm crosses for all who come to the service, and even though there will be no choir or palm procession, there will be the traditional narration by members of the congregation of the Palm Sunday reading and a beautiful service. I am so grateful for a priest and an organist who have given so much time and thought to making the week special and meaningful.

I urge each of you to join others on April 1, at 6:00 pm for the Maundy Thursday service, which concludes with placing the holy sacrament at the Altar of Repose, contemplation and silence, and the stripping of the altar. For me this has always been an especially sacred time of thoughtful contemplation. The Good Friday service at 12:00 pm is a traditional liturgical service without the Eucharist, but includes the solemn act of venerating the cross, which has had to be reimagined this year. As people enter for the service, each will be given a small wood cross of olive wood, a symbol of the traditional act of veneration that cannot safely occur this year. All, contemplating the death of Christ, will leave in silence.

Joyfully, the week concludes with a new beginning, Christians’ most important celebration of the year, Easter, the day of our Lord’s resurrection. The bell will ring in triumph both before and after the service. The congregation will sing hymns, the doxology, the Lord’s Prayer; the priest will chant the liturgy; the congregation will receive the bread. The altar will abound in beautiful lilies and spring flowers. No church is more beautiful than St. Paul’s on this day! May each of you, your family, your friends and neighbors join us at St. Paul’s on this holiest of days as we celebrate together.

- Jean Burns, Senior Warden

This Week at St. Paul's
Mother Michelle Walker

Dear St. Paul's Family,

Since Jean offered such a lovely overview of Holy Week, I will add to this newsletter only a couple bits of practical information.  

This week Tom Konieczny and I spent some time measuring pews.  We discovered that for the first 10 months of the pandemic we have been overly cautious by seating people 9 feet apart!  The CDC only recommends 6 feet of social distancing.  We discovered this while contemplating potential Easter seating and how we might be able to seat 55 people, our maximum capacity.  (55 is 25% of our fire marshal capacity, and the guideline established by the diocese for this phase of the pandemic.)

After conversation and consultation with the vestry, we decided to revise our two center aisle pew rows to the 6 feet of distancing recommended by the CDC, while maintaining our previous 9 feet of distancing on the side aisles.  We're doing this to offer those individuals who appreciate the greater distancing an opportunity to continue to feel most secure.  If you prefer one of these seats, please let the usher know when you arrive for service.  We will maintain those as long as they are being used.  We want everyone to feel secure in their worship.

We also learned, from a trusted medical professional, that COVID is not transmitted by contact (it's spread via the respiratory track).  Now we have lived for more than a year with the fear of contact transmission, so we have no intention of reducing our efforts to keep the church clean and avoid commonly touched services.  However, we will likely sneak the Hymnals and Prayer Books back into the pews if for no other reason than that is where they belong.  Please don't feel intimated by this AND you won't be required to use them in the near future.

Don't forget we resume singing this Sunday.  Tune up your vocal cords, wear your mask, and let's enjoy the (soft) singing voices that have been resting for far too long!

Lastly, I plan to send a short newsletter on Tuesday for next week.  Look for that.  I hope to see you Saturday for clean-up day and Sunday for worship!

Wishing you a blessed Lent, 
Mother Michelle
priest@stpaulslaporte.org | 219-575-0226 (c)

PS.  Invite someone to church this week, in-person OR virtually.  Go on our Facebook page and share our events or the video I recorded inviting people to church (https://www.facebook.com/stpaullaporte/videos/427378468327695).  Now is a great time for us all to practice our evangelism skills!

So you're not surprised, the signs designating which pews are available for seating have been moved from the middle of the pew to the far end.

So you're not surprised, the signs designating which pews are available for seating have been moved from the middle of the pew to the far end.

Revised seating chart w/ 6 ft social distancing in the center and 9 ft on the sides.

Revised seating chart w/ 6 ft social distancing in the center and 9 ft on the sides.