First Sunday after Pentecost: Trinity Sunday

Acts 2:1-21

Psalm 104:25-35, 37

Romans 8:22-27

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

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Celebrant/Preacher: The Very Reverend Samuel Colley-Toothaker

Deacon of the Mass: The Reverend Deacon Nancy Key

Director of Music: Ms. Sherah Moore-Burdick

Director of Technical Services: The Reverend Nelson Serrano Poveda

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What can art look like at St. James? Can you imagine our sanctuary illuminated by images created by adults and children of our community? Beautiful images, colors, lines, and reflections integrated with our liturgy becoming a new way to allow us to see and feel the word of God without words. Art can make worship come alive by showing the yearnings, hopes, desires, and thrills of the story behind the words. Art is about using things and materials to take notice of God at work among us. Art is an event. Art animates, organizes, and encourages us to respond to the divine mystery in new ways. Art can be visual like painting, drawing or using fabric, or it can be music or movement. Creating art is about risk taking. Working with fellow parishioners helps us build community, and it provides an opportunity for outreach as we invite others to show their work.

Would you like to explore your spirituality through the arts? Can St. James become a center for the arts? Are you an artist right here in our community or an individual who would like to explore our traditions, diversity and inspire a spirit of joy and passion in our worship through the arts? Join a group from our parish that is beginning a discussion on how the arts can be used to enrich our liturgy and our church. Consider being a voice in developing and shaping guidelines for art at the Cathedral. If you are interested, please call Denise Grayson, Cathedral Administrator at 559-439-5011 or send your contact information to admin@stjamesfresno.org.

I would like to invite you to consider becoming involved with hospitality at St. James. I am a lifelong Episcopalian. Two congregations contributed to my raising: St. Timothy’s, a small mission church in Gridley, CA and Trinity Episcopal Church, the Cathedral for the Diocese of Northern California. What both of these congregations have in common is the extraordinary efforts they made to make people feel welcome. From the homey coffee hour tables of St. Timothy’s to the coordinated newcomer ministry of the Cathedral, I have great models of hospitality. I am excited to build on that foundation with all of you at St. James. I will be looking for volunteers to help with the following:

Coffee Hour: Once restrictions are lifted and we can return to socializing, I will be seeking teams of volunteers to provide refreshments after the 10:00am service.

Events: We will one day return to hosting Cathedral events and Diocesan events on our campus and I will need volunteers to help decorate and to prepare and/or serve food.

Welcoming Newcomers: Beginning in the fall, we will begin a coordinated ministry to newcomers that involves welcoming them on Sunday, sitting with them during the service, taking them to coffee hour and introducing them around, and following up during the week. This program is called “Invite, Welcome and Connect” and some training will be involved should you feel called to this ministry.

You may have noticed that we have been providing a small token on Sundays to those who attend the 10:00 am service. Until we can gather for coffee hour, these takeaways are designed to extend a welcome and some hospitality in the meantime. If you feel called to provide 30–40 items one week, please contact me! Hopefully we will transition to coffee hour soon!

As you can see, there are a number of ways you can get involved in hospitality at St. James, and we need you to do so. If you are interested in participating in some way, please email Denise Grayson, Cathedral Administrator at admin@stjamesfresno.org, and your name will be forwarded on to me.

We did it! Together we have raised $1,246.78 for our diocesan Zoom Sunday School Mission Project in support of the work of Heifer Project International!! This means we have succeeded in fully funding our Sunday School heifer Ripjaw as well as a share in every other animal that HPI gifts to subsistence family farmers!

In case you don’t recall those animals, they are Bees, Chickens, Ducks, Rabbits, Pigs, Goats, Sheep, Heifers, and Water Buffalo! As well as seeds, tree seedlings; veterinary technicians, and the techniques of sustainable land use practices. HPI uses a holistic approach to lift people into a self-sustaining, community-focused future that is based on the core value of the Common Good: loving our neighbor as ourselves, and doing unto others as we would have them do unto us.

Sunday, May 30 is our last pandemic year Zoom Sunday School class. We will celebrate our Mission Project success with a story about Beatrice and Her Goat while munching donuts and apple slices. Apple slices are one of a heifer's favorite snacks!

Beatrice is a real child who lives in Uganda. The gift of an HPI goat changed her life. The milk from the goat increased her mother’s income enough to permit her family to repair their home with a new roof and provide tuition for Beatrice to receive an elementary school education. As recipients of an HPI gift animal, Beatrice and her family were able to pass on the gift that keeps on giving to neighboring families with the two baby goats delivered by Beatrice’s goat. Those gifts made it possible for children in those households to go to school as well.

Thank you for your radical generosity! There is such joy in giving, such satisfaction in the recognition that we, too, can change the lives of families here, and all over the world. Thank you for role modeling for our children Christian stewardship of our financial resources, and putting flesh on what it means to follow Jesus!

Why study the Bible?

It is important to remember that we are to study the scriptures to seek and know Jesus as the source of eternal life. The power of understanding what the scriptures say is not for knowledge only but because they testify of Jesus…and they teach more broadly about how God has interacted with all creation since the beginning of time. If you will, scripture is a road map that leads each of us back to our creator.

Join me, will you, on May 26 at 6:45 pm, via ZOOM. We will continue our journey through the Holy Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Bring your translation of the Bible and pick up a copy of The Path: A Journey Through the Bible, by Melody Wilson Shobe and David Creech.

This study promises to be worth your time! REMEMBER: we will join again on May 26 at 6:45 via ZOOM. The Zoom meeting ID is 896 1414 2873 and passcode is 368674.

PS: If you cannot afford a copy of the book email me and I will give you a copy.

RSVP to canonanna@diosanjoaquin.org to receive the link.

Erica Bird, Lutheran Campus Ministry Board President, shared a $1,000 Darcy Jensen Scholarship opportunity. Any high school senior or graduate that is going on to some form of higher education in the fall is eligible to apply. Please help us to spread the word of this scholarship to anyone who may be interested.

With continued in-person services, we are in need of ushers, lectors, and weekday office volunteers who can commit to regularly perform this duty.

For readers, this will include an annual training session. If you are interested, please sign up below. We require that you arrive to the service at 9:30 am to allow for rehearsal time. You will be e-mailed the reading ahead of time to practice.

Contact Aaron Schuelke, Junior Warden, if you are interested in working on the Buildings and Grounds Team. There is much to be done, and you can make a difference. You can reach him at jrwarden@stjamesfresno.org.

The CDC recommends everyone 12 years and older should get a COVID-19 vaccination to help protect against COVID-19. Widespread vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic. Getting your child or teen vaccinated can bring you one step closer to enjoying the activities you miss. Children 12 years and older are able to get the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.

Effective April 8, 2021, all individuals 16+ years and older are eligible to receive the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine approved for those 16 and 17 years of age--those that are 16 and 17 years of age need parental consent before receiving the vaccine.

These clinics are for individuals interested in receiving the vaccine. To schedule an appointment, click on the button below. Bring proof of registration and any required forms (walk-in accepted at certain sites).

For second doses: Don't forget your white vaccination record card.

St. James offers Sunday worship each Sunday at 10:00AM on our YouTube Channel, Facebook Page, and Website. Archives of these services are available.

Don’t forget to download the digital service program to your device so you can follow along during the service. If possible, for our creation care work, please do not print the program.

To help us improve our digital church experience, please evaluate your experience of our "live stream service," by taking a moment to complete a short survey following Sunday's service.

Find out what your water footprint is and how you can reduce your impact. This calculator will show you how your lifestyle impacts the rest of the world and how you can make a positive difference. Share with us ways you plan to reduce your footprint!

There is no digital coffee hour this week. We will be back!

The clergy of St. James remain deeply committed to offering pastoral care and support to members of the Cathedral Congregation especially during this difficult time. If a pastoral need arises for you or someone you know in the congregation, and you want to contact the clergy, please either email us at clergy@stjamesfresno.org or call the Cathedral office at (559) 439-5011 and select option 5 to leave a message for the clergy.

The celebration of Pentecost – a feast marking the birth of the Christian church and spiritual renewal – rippled across The Episcopal Church in music and worship during the “One in the Spirit: Pentecost Way of Love Revival Weekend” from May 21 to 23.

The partially obscured faces of parishioners in the pews greeted the Rev. Jamie Parsley as he celebrated Holy Eucharist on May 16. Their masks were a fact of pandemic life for the past year under the Diocese of North Dakota’s COVID-19 protocols, but Parsley sensed a change coming.

Lawmakers and leaders of the faith-based Poor People’s Campaign unveiled a sweeping new resolution on May 20 designed to eradicate poverty in the United States, with activists touting it as a broad-based legislative framework that hopes to do for poverty what the Green New Deal proposes to do for environmental issues.

If you walked past the Episcopal Chaplaincy at Harvard University on a recent evening, you might have heard chanting, music and bells, smelled incense and gotten a glimpse of robed figures.

If you have any feedback, comments, or questions for the Midweek Missive Editors, please email us. Submissions to the Midweek Missive are welcomed and must be submitted to midweek@stjamesfresno.org by Tuesday at noon.