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The East Range Epistle
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by Linda Davis, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Eveleth Last summer I had the opportunity to work on St. John’s history for our Centennial Celebration. In one of our planning committee meetings, one of the members mentioned the “mite boxes”. These were offerings the children gave, once a month or so. It was a special time when the children brought up their own offerings, which were collected and counted separately from the regular collection plate. She remarked how very proud they were to do this, standing up in front of everyone, doing their part. In reading different notes and minutes and letters from the churches' past, these mite boxes were an expected part of membership in the church – any member who had been baptized and received first communion was expected to participate by contributing what they could. I expect these boxes were named after the passage of "the widow's mite" – that coin of smallest denomination that was not meaningful to the rich, but was everything that the poor widow had. Since then, I've also been able to read the histories of St. Paul’s, St. Mary’s and St. Stephen’s Churches. They all had something in common with St. John’s – a very active Episcopal Women’s Guild – started in each church, originally to raise funds to help to build the church and pay the rector. These women amaze me – they catered meals for social events, receptions, and other churches – just about any reason you can name. The meals were sold for a dime – and they raised hundreds of dollars each year. The money first went to help pay for the churches – which were basically paid for by the time building was completed. After that, they continued to raise funds – for a new rector, for heat, for choir robes, for altar linens, kitchen supplies – anything that was needed these women helped to purchase. They were even charged a certain amount by the Diocese – I suppose a part of the original “Fair Share”. They had teas, and dinners, and “evenings of fine entertainment” that consisted of a small band or orchestra of 3 or 4 instruments and allowed dancing. A fifty-cent piece allowed a couple entrance to the festivities, their meal, and several hours of dancing and music. They rented halls for 50 cents to house these events. They sold spices and tea towels, Easter and Christmas decorations, and crafts. Christmas teas were very big – everyone came, and the food sounds wonderful! They had a goal (to raise money), a purpose (to pay for the church or some needed item), a commitment to the church to continue to work toward these goals and purpose, and the gifts and talents (cooking and hospitality) to achieve these. The letter describing the final vote to disband the Ladies’ Guild is quite moving. Although the ladies continued to meet for fellowship and in friendship, the main reason they disbanded was because they no longer felt needed. Surprisingly, at one of the Search Committee meetings, these same topics came up but in a completely different context. We had received a 27-page manual from the Diocese with 30 ministry specialties (General Skills) to choose from (we had to select 4) and then, in each of those 4 categories we had to select up to 6 specific skills or skill details to describe exactly what we needed our new minister to be able to do. (There were up to 90 of those skill details per page.) It took us a while – most of an afternoon. First we went through and crossed out the ones we didn't need, and we repeated this until we were down to 6 skills – then we rated them in importance. It was in the area of Children's Education/Youth Worker that we came to a realization that surprised me: we were talking about our kids’ place in the church, and how our kids are tomorrow's church. Your survey responses indicated that you want our kids to feel that they are important and necessary to the church, so we needed to determine what skills our new priest will need to reinforce those feelings? What skills are needed to keep our children active within the church? And those same things came up: our kids need a Commitment to the church; they need to feel necessary; they need to know they have a purpose within our church; they need to have goals ... and they need to be made aware of their gifts and talents so they can be of service. From Ladies’ Guilds as the century turned from the 19th to the
20th, to youth programs as the century turns from the 20th to the 21st
– the same things are needed: Goals, purpose, commitment, an awareness
of individual gifts and talents, and the sense of knowing that you’re needed.
One group builds a church in one century; the other is needed to sustain
it through a different century. Maybe things don't really change at all
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Linda Davis is a member of St. John's Episcopal Church, and a member of the Search Committee.
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How proud I am of your leadership. I have always admired the gifts for ministry and caring that you as the East Range Churches have expressed during hard demographic times. It is with gratitude that I welcome the hard decision you have made concerning the call of a new a new priest. The vestries and search committee have agreed to search for and call a priest at an affordable part time basis which will likely be around 75% time. It is far better to call a priest who knows up front the financial pressures that have affected your congregations. I am confident someone is searching for such a position in one of the most beautiful spots on earth among and with some of the most caring and gifted disciples I have known.
Mother Theresa experienced a low point in her life while tending to the problems of caring for the numerous poor and needy. She shook her fist at God and stated something like this: No wonder you have so few friends when you treat them so unfairly. I suspect she came to her senses when she realized the depth of love and giving that God continually provides. Right now we are in one of those unfair situations. If Mother Theresa was tempted to shake her fist at God perhaps we too need to be wary of such temptation. As we head toward Lent let us give thanks for what God has given us and rejoice in that gift and pledge to offer it back to God who has done and is doing more for us than we can ask or imagine.
The story is told of an older married couple who were driving along in a car. In front of them was a car in which the driver and rider were snuggled close to each other. The older couple made some snide remarks: I wonder who¹s driving. Must be Siamese twins. After a long pause the rider turned to the driver and asked, “why aren¹t we that close any more?”. The driver turned to the rider and said, “who moved?” Lent is that time set aside by the church to examine our closeness with God. If it isn¹t there as it once was – who moved? May you all experience a blessed and holy Lent that draws you toward the love of God.
+ The Rev Canon Stephen Schaitberger is Canon Missioner for Northern Minnesota, which includes the East Range Episcopal Congregations.
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Update #4
Well, a lot has happened since last month. The National Church sent our Diocese a thick stack of potential matches, and our Diocese weeded through them and conducted a preliminary screening, then forwarded to us the names and CDO profiles of 13 potential candidates.
We are in the process of trying to schedule a meeting to determine which candidates we will contact to ask if they would like to begin the search process with us. We have 14 candidates altogether - we originally had 2 more, but one had to withdraw because of health reasons (he's fine, but incurred a great deal of debt though medical testing so needs to settle those accounts before moving on,) and another candidate received a call from a church in Maine.
The candidates are of different ages and experience levels, and are from many states – Massachusetts, Ohio, Wisconsin, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Oklahoma, Georgia, and West Virginia, and right here in Minnesota. There are 5 men and 9 women; some are married, some are not. Before they became priests they had a number of professions or majors - music, human relations, law, education, English, business administration, foreign languages, history, dramatic arts, liberal arts, and English Literature. The oldest was born in 1944, the youngest in 1968.
The task of the Search Committee will be to determine which ones fit, most closely, our own needs (areas of ministry specialty), which we've narrowed down to 4 main areas of concern/need: Pastoral Care, Preaching, Growth/ Congregational Development, and Youth Worker/Christian Education.
The candidates' profiles give us their 6-8 areas of Ministry specialties, so we tend to have matches inat least 3 of the 4 areas we feel are most important. The committee will have to decide how many to invite into the search process, and of course we have no idea how many of those contacted will respond with interest. Once they've expressed an interest, they will receive our packet of information about our churches, and be asked if they wish to pursue this further. If they answer "yes" we'll send them a list of essay questions that the committee has prepared. One of the candidates has already reached that level.
More next week at church, or next month in the Epistle!
If you have questions, please talk
with your Search Committee members.
| The following are members of the Search Committee:
St. John’s:
St. Mary’s:
St. Paul’s:
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East Range
Churches' News |
Ash Wednesday Service
The Ash Wednesday Service with imposition of ashes will be at St. Paul;’s at 7PM on Wednesday, March 5.
Region II Meeting
The Region II was held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Duluth, after the Epistle went to press. Results of the meeting will be in the next Epistle.
Northern TEC
(Submitted by Gail Coon)
Spring Northern TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) will be held March 14-16 in St. Cloud. Adults or high school youth who would like more information can contact Gail Coon (218-744-5138 or 218-744-5099).
General Convention 2003 Needs Volunteers
The next General convention will be held in Minneapolis
from July 30 to Aug 8. The Diocese needs volunteers to assist delegates
and visitors during the convention. Volunteer shifts are four hours
long and there are tasks to fit your abilities. Details are available
online.
Paper registration forms are available from your
Senior Warden or through the contacts on the webpage.
April Epistle
Deadline for input to the April 2003 issue of The East Range Epistle is Wednesday, March 19, to Carol Morello (218-744-1615, or fax: 218-744-1635). Processing is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, March 26.
Epistle Contribution Schedule
The schedule for the lead article for the next three issues of is:
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St. John's
News
(Submitted by Nancy Harvey) |
Vestry Meeting
The following was covered at the Vestry Meetings of January and February:
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St. Mary's News |
No input received
Please provide input to Mary Groeninger (218-365-3364).
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St. Paul's News |
In March, St. Paul’s Churchwomen will continue meeting each Wednesday at the Guild Hall at 12:30 PM. Come join us for something to interest everyone, and not always work (we meet for lunch every third Wednesday). We have started a new project, working on cutting square sewing pieces. For information, contact Dorothy (218-741-1613). Everyone is invited.
Eagle Scout Award
Michael Draper (of the “real service” quote) has attained the rank of Eagle Scout. The presentation ceremony will be at 2 PM on Sunday, March 2, at United in Christ Lutheran Church, 116 Adams Ave, Eveleth. Coffee and Cake reception to follow. Dr. and Mrs Draper request the pleasure of your company at this ceremony and the reception.
St. Paul’s Directory
The updated directory for St. Paul’s is nearly finished. Distribution
should be in late March. If you have not checked your entry, contact
Carol
or Chuck Morello (218-744-1615)
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