Weekly Newsletter July 26, 2023

St. Michael’s Weekly News – July 26, 2023

Dear People of St. Michaels,    

          You have probably heard of the phrase “red-letter days” as days of importance or days that should be observed. That is true on our church calendar and you can see this on official calendars of the Church in the office or sacristy. One of those days was yesterday, July 25, commemorating St. James the Apostle.

          When I was helping at Trinity Cathedral, on my way to becoming a priest, I was asked to preach at a Saturday night service on St. James. It was then that I discovered, much like John, there are multiple ‘James’ people in scripture and in the history of the church. There is also James the Less (the younger), son of Alphaeus and James the Just, the brother of the Lord and the leader of the church in Jerusalem. The one who we remember today is “James the Elder” or “James the Greater”; he is one of the twelve apostles and his name always comes first before his brother, John. He is also one of the sons of Zebedee and like apostles Peter and Andrew, a fisherman; born in Galilee. He and his brother are recorded in all four Gospels and are also given the nickname “Sons of Thunder” by Jesus in Mark’s Gospel (3:17), presumably because of their impetuous and flashing temper.

          With his brother John and Peter, he seemed to be in a privileged inner circle with Jesus, as these three are said in scripture to have witnessed the cure of Peter’s mother-in-law (Luke 4:38-39), the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37) and were with Jesus at his Transfiguration. He was also present with Jesus, not far away, as at his suffering in Gethsemane on the night of Jesus arrest.

          James and John, in one of those impetuous moments, asked to sit at Jesus left and right hand in his Kingdom. He asked if they could drink from the same cup as he, not knowing he meant the cup of death and suffering. St. James the Apostle then was the first Apostle to die a martyr’s death and it is the only such death recorded in the scriptures (Acts 12:1-2).

          After his beheading by King Agrippa just before Passover in either 43 or 44, his relics were later buried in the great Church of Santiago de Compostela in Spain on July 25, 816. Visiting his relics in Spain made it one of the great pilgrimage centers in the Middle Ages. One Spanish form of his name is Iago, thus Santiago names a city on the Spanish coast taken to be the burial place of St. James. May we can remember and revere his name when we see or hear Santiago and when we read about him and his brother in Holy Scripture.

In Christ,   

Pastor Randy Knutson

Altar Flowers

Dear St. Michael’s Friends,

We hope you enjoy the altar every Sunday, especially the flowers which are lovingly arranged to enrich the service. If you would like to help us in this ministry of beauty, and perhaps remember a special birthday of anniversary, there are several ways that you can help. 1) A check can be given to the altar guild and we will arrange the flowers. (You can let us know if there is a particular type and color of flower you prefer and we will try to purchase it.) 2) You can bring flowers from your garden and we will arrange them. 3) You can bring flowers and arrange them yourself if that is something that pleases you. There is a flower chart in Larsen Hall and you can put your name on a particular Sunday. and we will contact you,( or just let Marcia, Teresa or I know if you want to provide flowers when you see us in church. Thank you very much for considering helping out.

Sincerely, Anne Blanton

St Michael & All Angels Green Team

St Michael’s Green Team has set in motion the project to calculate the present day combined carbon footprint of the Church, Larson Hall, and St. Veronica’s Hall. This effort helps us to take better care of our environment, working to save money on our energy bills, and providing more funding for our ministries.

Green Team Mission Statement:
As Stewards/Caretakers of God’s Creation - our shared home Earth - it is our responsibility to preserve and protect God’s gift. As part of being good stewards, St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church of Fort Bragg is committed to determine the carbon footprint of our Church buildings and grounds, develop a plan to try to reach carbon neutrality by 2030, and follow through with our plan.

The Green Team of St Michael’s is open to all who are interested in working on this very important project. If interested, contact any Green Team Member.
Please join us.

Your St. Michael’s Green Team:
Heather Anderson, Rev Randy Knutson, Robin Knutson, Marcia Waters, Rick Bondor, Renee Jones
Blessings

Shared Ministry Service at 10:00 am at St. Michaels with Trinity Lutheran

This Sunday, July 30, we will worship together with Trinity Lutheran Church, here at St. Michaels, but at 10:00 am (an earlier time for us!) We are starting (when possible) to re-establish the idea of worshiping together on the Fifth Sundays of the year. The next time we do this will be on Sunday, October 29th of this year, also at 10:00 am, but then over at Trinity Lutheran. They are delighted to invited us over to celebrate Reformation Day on that date, a very festive event for them every year. We will have a light luncheon here on July 30th following our 10 am service.

The Mendocino Music Festival continues this week concluding with a concert on Saturday, July 29th at 7:30 pm in the tent. Three of our members, Jim Blanton and Randy and Robin Knutson will be singing in the large choir in that final concert; performing the Faure Requiem and also joining the orchestra for Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe Suite Number 2.

Vestry Meeting: July 27th 2023 at 2:00 pm in St. Veronica’s Hall

July Birthdays: Jerry Mitchell, Mitchell Navarro, Patrick Scully, Terese Roberts, Dewey Turner, Harriet Gleeson

Online worship will be back to our normal routine this week, but earlier:

Live on Facebook at 10:00 am and then it remains there.

Also recorded and downloaded later on YouTube.

Online Worship Information

This Sunday we will offer in-person worship and at the same time offer the online broadcast of our service at 10:00 am in the ways posted below:

Our Sunday Service will be on St. Michael’s Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/StMikesFtBragg

https://www.facebook.com/StMikesFtBragg/videos

It will also stay there on the Facebook Pages and you can watch it later.

You can also watch it on this YouTube Channel later that day as well.

This is a NEW St. Michaels YouTube Channel and also on our website!

https://www.youtube.com/@st.michaelsepiscopalfortbragg

Website

When you can, check our new website: https://www.stmichaelfb.com/