If you remember when I first arrived, I started to ask folks “would your neighborhood/community notice if your church suddenly shut its doors”. I had asked this question of my own congregation in Eastern Oregon when I first started my walk with them, and it informed the way we did ministry both inside and outside our four walls, as well as our approach to stewardship, communications, and virtually everything else we did.

One of my first visitations in EDSJ, and one of the places I love to brag on, is St Andrew’s Taft. Many of you have heard me talk about the amazing work happening at Taft, but let’s refrain the story through the lens of leadership. What does it mean to be a leader in a congregation with no clergy person and very few Sunday worshippers, and a booming feeding ministry? What does it mean to be the church in that context? Would the neighborhood/community notice if the church suddenly shut its doors permanently?

On one of the virtual visitations that Bp David and I recently did, we had a chat with our friends at St Andrew’s and we saw, once again, the church being the church in the best ways possible. It’s messy, sometimes chaotic, sometimes exhausting, and totally life giving.

To be a leader in a congregation with no clergy person and few Sunday worshippers is in its own way, challenging. Many of you reading this article are in similar situations. It means that the laity have to all pull together to do the work…there are reports to complete, pastoral care issues to attend to, and just the day to day operation of a facility to manage. But throw a booming (and I do mean booming) feeding ministry on top of that in the midst of a global pandemic…WOW. So as I talked to my friends Carl and Shari about their 4 year feeding ministry anniversary, here’s what they had to share:

I know my friends, that the last six months have challenged all of us. We miss each other, we miss gathering in community, and we are missing our “normal” routines. But I hope you can find a ray of light and hope in the moments of darkness. For me, on this anniversary of my fourth year as your Canon, I can say with confidence that our neighborhoods and communities absolutely depend on us. We may not look like the church that we once were, we may be serving in different ways, but we are ESSENTIAL to the wellbeing of others. St Andrews in Taft is an example to us all.

God bless you, God be with you, and remember, YOU ARE LOVED.

Canon Anna

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All ECCO employees who live on site have evacuated to safer places, and ECCO has continued to provide and take care of them during this difficult time.

 the Church in all seasons

Call to Convention

Find all the annual convention information on our website!

Resolutions | September 14, 2020

Nominations for Elected Offices | September 28, 2020

Reports to Convention | October 1, 2020

Audit Reports | October 1, 2020

Convention Registration | October 16, 2020

Event Information

Close-Up:Representation of

LGBT People in Cinema

Beginning September 15 (and scheduled for the second Tuesday of each month) St. Paul’s, Bakersfield, is hosting a series – via Zoom – called Close-Up and exploring the representation of LGBT people in cinema. Each session will feature a film (or occasionally a documentary) as the focus of a presentation and conversation. The featured film will be advertised well before the meeting with links to where it can be bought, rented and/or streamed.

The first meeting will center on the documentary The Celluloid Closet. Released in 1995 and based on Vito Russo’s 1981 book of the same name. The documentary uses Russo’s work and expands it with lectures and clip presentations detailing how LGBT characters have been portrayed in Hollywood films over the years. You can rent to stream the documentary via Amazon here. Two other documentaries that might be of interest are The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender and LGBT Film History: The Early Years (1910s-1920s). The latter is free on YouTube, and focuses primarily on German cinema. Nevertheless, it is incredibly well-made and highlights how German representation of LGBT people in film before the Second World War informed and influenced Hollywood movie makers.

Again, the first session will be Tuesday, September 15, and begins at 6.30pm. You can access the Zoom meeting via this link.

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS ARE NEEDED

Teacher recruitment period is now! If you feel called to the ministry of the spiritual formation of children, please send an email to [email protected]. Teachers can be members of any Episcopal congregation in the Diocese.

Prior to the first session, Dean Ryan and the Sunday School Committee will host via ZOOM an Orientation and Training session for all interested teachers. No prior teaching or Sunday School experience is required-all that is required is a willing and committed heart to educating the next generation of the Church. In addition to the Orientation and Training session, teachers will be required to take an online training module called Safeguarding God’s Children–an in-depth educational and training program for preventing and responding to child sexual abuse in everyday life and in ministry.

BASIC INFORMATION

Classes are Sundays at 9:15AM on ZOOM. Registration for Sunday School opens August 1st. Please visit St. James website for link to registration. The first session is Sunday, September 13th and the whole family is invited to participate.

CURRICULUM

Weaving God’s Promises is a comprehensive, three-year Christian education curriculum for children developed and written exclusively for the Episcopal Church. Weaving God’s Promises’ 30-minute lesson plans are accessed online. There will be a “take-home” paper, Threads, that will be emailed to every family after each lesson. Threads allows families to continue the conversation and theme throughout the week.

BASIC SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON FORMAT

TEACHER COVENANT OF COMMITMENT

(Developed by Sunday School Committee)

To practice the spiritual disciplines of scripture reading and prayer.