St. Hilda St. Patrick Episcopal Church

Our church is soon gathering in a garden in more than one sense.

After observing the feast of St. Mary Magdalen on July 22nd, we’ll gather in our Peace Garden to spruce up.

She is a key figure in Jesus’ story. She was a follower; indeed, a friend. She went to the tomb to care for his body, and found it empty. She called the apostles to come and see. And she stayed, still fearing the loss of Jesus, until she saw him. He seemed to be a gardener. He spoke her name. He really was the Gardener, the one from the beginning! She saw and believed and was sent to spread the word, the first apostle of the resurrection.

We will spend time in our garden after church July 22nd. We “come to the Garden,” but not alone! Come help us care for the earthly garden we cultivate. And maybe see Jesus, and maybe be sent!

On August 5th, we will have the Sunday service in the Peace Garden itself here at St. Hilda St. Patrick.

                                “I’d stay in the garden with him
                                Though the night around me be falling,
                                But he bids me go; through the voice of woe
                                His voice to me is calling.”

Jesus & St. Mary Magdalene

On Sunday, April 15th, the Profile Committee will be honored, and its work, the St. Hilda St. Patrick Profile will be formally handed over to the new Search Committee that will also be commissioned on this day.

After this blessing, the committee will go to work applying the Profile to interested clergy members forwarded by the Diocese. At the end of the process, they will report one nominee for consideration by the Bishop’s Committee (congregation governing council). The BC will take it from there. All this will take some several months more. We are now in the second of the two stages of transition work: writing a Profile and Searching for the clergy member to nominate.

It is with great pleasure that we announce that our Profile has been enthusiastically approved by Bishop Greg Rickel, and we have just posted links to it on our St. Hilda St. Patrick website Transition page.

I invite each of you to open it and read it. It is an amazing portrait of our church family. It represents months of hard work and dedication by our Profile Committee – and great participation by the members of SHSP in both small groups and in the CAT survey.

With the achievement of this milestone we are now ready for the next phase, and we begin calling our Search Committee. And we eagerly wait for the Diocese to send us news of interest in our wonderful church by clergy looking for a church like ours.

Now, just as much as ever, your prayers for the Episcopal Church of St Hilda St Patrick are vital. Please pray also for the Bishop’s Committee as they begin the work of discerning whom they will call to be part of the Search Committee.

Stay tuned for more details!!

In Christ,
Michael Rader
your Senior Warden

The Rev. Mark Miller is the interim priest for the rest of 2017 and into 2018. He retired this past year after many decades of experience. “I have found this church full of very cooperative leaders and members who are ardent in love for this congregation and dedicated to making it available and welcoming for all persons,” he said after the first months this summer.

This hands-on, “Montessori”-style learning time is for children in 1st through 3rd/4th grades. It is based on learning the stories of the Bible by showing them in small images and figures which the children handle, and then asking “I wonder…” about how it was to be there when these stories happened.

Godly Play meets every Sunday at 9:30am (at the same time as the regular service).