Author Archives: ginny

Northwest LGBT Spirituality Group Saturday at 5:45pm

Posted on by
Reply

The NW LGBT Spiritual Group is a weekly group that meets every Saturday @ 5:45pm in the sanctuary of St. Nicholas’. We explore spirituality, as well as other LGBT issues. Our goal is to explore how we can make our spirituality a bigger part of our entire lives. We discuss issues concerning identity, and how that impacts our overall spiritual selves. Through group discussion and friendly fellowship, we hope to continue to deepen our bonds, and then to eventually, reach out to the wider community. Sending out a message of tolerance and inclusion is something we want to be very vocal about. Our watchwords are exploration, reconciliation, and acceptance.

More info at this link.

(the meeting takes place after the 4:30pm Saturday Eucharist should you wish to attend but it’s not necessary)

Bishop’s Committee News

Posted on by
Reply

Canon Randall Warren met with the congregation Sunday and explained the transition process we will be going through in selecting our new vicar. He emphasized that we do not want to hurry the process, but be thoughtful, intentional, and prayerful. In the next few weeks, we will have an opportunity to take an online survey that will give us objective data that will provide us with a profile of St. Nicholas. In turn, the Search Team will use this profile to build a profile for what we are looking for in our next vicar. The survey will identify where our strengths lie and where we want our focus to be, so that we can continue to grow as a worship community.

This can be an exciting time for us to express our feelings and desires for what we want St. Nicholas to be and become. The survey will be completely anonymous. For those who do not have a computer, there will be hard copies of the survey; you’ll then put your unsigned survey into a box and someone will take them and enter them into the computer. I strongly encourage everyone to participate in the survey. Your voice counts!

In the meantime, Manny will continue to be our Transition Minister. He will be contracted to be here on a 75% time basis and is eligible to interview for the position of Vicar.

Please let me know any questions and/or concerns you have.

Pat Kalicki

pat AT stnicholasepiscopal.org

Pledges, Time, Treasure… Groceries, Books, DVDs, Kitchenware

Posted on by
Reply

We welcome pledges at any time throughout the year, but we especially encourage those who have not yet submitted a pledge to St. Nicholas for 2011 to do so as soon as possible. You’ll find the pledge form at the church at this link [PDF file: PledgeCard]

In the Episcopal Church, and specifically at St. Nicholas, we pledge to give some of our treasure to St. Nicholas Church. Pledging allows your Bishop’s Committee to accurately budget for programming, staffing, worship, outreach and facilities upkeep each year. But just as importantly, pledging allows each of us to reflect upon the ways in which we choose to share some of what we’ve been given with others. Pledging is a sign of our commitment, not only to St. Nicholas, but to each other as well. When we prayerfully fill out a pledge card, we are saying that we realize the church indeed belongs to us, the people of St. Nicholas, but more importantly that we understand it belongs to everyone. We are sending a message that we wish to be part of helping St. Nicholas continue its tradition of welcoming all.

As much as we’d love to write simply about our mission and ministries, the reality is it takes financial resources to keep our doors open and our lights shining brightly to and for all. Our new building is a blessing, but it requires maintenance. Our instruments – organ, pianos and human voices – assist us in joyful and meaningful worship, but they require tuning and printed music. Our Food Pantry serves countless guests, but the gas and electric bills must be paid so that we have a place in which they may choose their items.

We ask that you prayerfully consider making a pledge to St. Nicholas for 2011. The amount you pledge is not nearly as important as the fact that you choose to pledge as a sign of your commitment to the mission, ministries and realities of St. Nicholas. Click here to get your pledge card and either return it by mail or place it in the offering on Saturday or Sunday.

An additional way to support St Nicholas is to sign up with Dominick’s Grocery Stores to donate a percentage of your purchases to the church if you get one of their Fresh Values cards. This is especially valuable if you purchase healthy non-perishable food items for donations to our Food Pantry on Sundays (or drop off any time the church is open for a meeting).

Yet another way to support St Nicholas is to use the Amazon Search box on each page to purchase books, DVDs, kitchenware, or electronics. This can be especially handy at “St Nicholastide” or Christmas – there are all kinds of things available on Amazon.com that would make great gifts for friends and family. Did you know that there are chocolate candy St Nicholases, and musical snowglobe St Nicholases?

Of course, the most important way to help support St Nicholas and the work that our community does (including the support groups, the little Bulgarian school, and the food pantry volunteers) is simply to be here with us, and to tell a friend.