Birth of St. John the Baptist: Sunday, June 24
On Sunday, June 24th, we will observe the holy day of the “Nativity of St. John the Baptist.” This day replays some Advent themes about preparing for Jesus. It gives us a chance to look at the Baptizer, who is called the Forerunner of Jesus.
John was part the unrest and spiritual upheaval which prepared the way for Jesus’s message. John’s message was that God is right about to break in to the world and act in some new ways. He was like the old prophets of Israel and a powerful word came from him into a people who needed to revitalize their faith. His call was to “change your thinking!”
Here is a picture from an old master, showing John preaching to a crowd of people, who are all dressed like 16th Century Europeans from the Low Countries. Imagine a modern graphic or Photoshopped image of John speaking to a crowd of people in our region of Washington State. How does Jesus prepare the way for the Good News in our neighborhoods and our times?
The Search Begins
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.
Searching for our next Vicar
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
Welcome for all People
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.
Godly Play
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).
