VOLUME 1, ISSUE 33
SEPTEMBER 05, 2019
13th Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 18)
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
Psalm 1
Philemon 1-21
Luke 14:25-33
8:00AM SERVICE
Preacher: Deacon Nancy
Celebrant: Dean Ryan
10:00AM SERVICE
Ushers: Lozano Family
Lector: Emily Niblick
EM: Pete Cabbiness
Preacher: Deacon Nancy
Celebrant: Dean Ryan
FOOD BANK
2nd-4th Wednesdays @ 2:30PM

THE COTTAGE SHOP
Wednesdays 12:30PM - 4:30PM
1st-3rd Sat. @ 9:00AM-1:00PM

CHOIR REHEARSAL
Thursdays @ 6:30PM

FOOD BANK: TJ FOOD DISTRIBUTION
Sundays after 10AM Service (White Room)
MEN'S GROUP BREAKFAST
SAT. SEPT. 7 @ 7:30AM
Yosemite Falls Cafe

BUILDINGS & GROUNDS COMMITTEE
SAT. SEPT. 7 @ 9:00AM
Conference Room

DEAN'S FIRESIDE CHAT
SUN. SEPT. 8 @ 9:00AM
Conference Room

LUNA'S BABY SHOWER
SUN. SEPT. 8 @ 11:15AM
Fireside Room

CHAPTER MEETING
SUN. SEPT. 15 @ 11:30AM
Conference Room
We invite you to join us to celebrate the birth of Baby Luna Rose born on July 21, 2019. Following the 10AM service this Sunday, September 8th, the St. James Family with host a shower for Luna, and her parents, Kathryn and John.

The Cathedral will be providing dessert and drinks and we are asking members of the congregation to bring finger foods, appetizers, and/or small sandwiches to share with the gathered group.

Please consider offering a gift to Baby Luna and family. As a new family, with a new baby, there are many needs:

  • Baby Clothes (Size 1 and up)
  • Diapers, wipes, Diaper Genie refills
  • 4-6oz bottles and bibs
  • Bath items: Baby wash cloths, towel, and lotion
  • Baby carrier (i.e. Ergobaby, BabyBjorn)
  • Gift Cards to buybuy Baby or Target
  • Baby toys and books
FINAL SUNDAY! Dean Ryan will host “Fireside Chats” 9:00am -9:45am in the Conference Room Sunday, September 8th. (Please note the venue change!!!)

This Sunday's "Way of Love" topic is GO. 

Bishop Curry teaches about how regular worship can both help us to deny self-interest as the main aim of life and also re-center our lives on God.

The assembled group are invited to bring/grab a cup of coffee or tea and will listen together to an episode of Presiding Bishop Curry’s new podcast The Way of Love. Each episode is about 20 minutes. 

Following the podcast listening session, Dean will convene a conversation about the episode with the group. This is intended to be an informal, yet engaging gathering—participation is highly encouraged. Come for the coffee (or tea), stay for the conversation! All are welcome!
2019 FRESNO/CLOVIS CROP HUNGER WALK
Join the St. James Team on Sunday, October 20th!
CROP Hunger Walk - Six weeks from Sunday, we will gather with others in our community to fight hunger both here and around the world. We need Walkers and sponsors for the Fresno/Clovis CROP Hunger Walk on October 20, 2019.

Please see Kim Leslie, Carol Mohan, Carol Terrell, or Deacon Nancy at our Crop Hunger Walk table, following the Sunday service, for more details and to sign up to be a walker, a sponsor, or both. 

Last year Team St. James Episcopal Cathedral had 12 walkers plus one dog and raised just over $1,300.00. Thanks for helping feed the hungry both in our community and throughout the world.

CROP Hunger Walks are community-wide events sponsored by Church World Service and organized by religious groups, businesses, schools and others to raise funds to end hunger in the U.S. and around the world.

Location:
First Congregational Church of Fresno, 2131 N Van Ness Blvd., Fresno, CA

Sign In Time:
1:30PM

Walk Time:
2:30PM
Come join the St. James Episcopal Cathedral Youth Group on their adventure to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo! 

Anyone Junior High or High School Age will gain free admission with the youth group. Parents and other non-youth visitors are welcome to pay the admission fee and enjoy the zoo with us. 
 
We’ll meet at St. James Episcopal Cathedral at 12:30PM and carpool over to Roeding Park together. If you need to make other arrangements or simply wish to RSVP for this event please email at  sjyouth@stjamesfresno.org​ please make the subject: “Zoo RSVP."

Please keep in mind, if you do decide to spend the day with us you can stick with the group but cannot take your child away from the group during the set time. We want our youth to experience the zoo as a group and learn together. Thank you. 
FOOD BANK COLLECTION
Pasta Sauce
The St. James Food Bank needs our assistance to stock the shelves!

For the next couple of weeks, we are asking the Cathedral Congregation to bring on Sundays jars of the PASTA SAUCE for the Food Bank. A cart will be located at the entrance of the Chapel and the Cathedral for the collection. Thank you for your continued support of the St. James Food Bank!
The mid-week Bible Study returns on Wednesday, September 11th. The study is led by Emily Niblick and will meet weekly on Wednesdays, 10:00AM to 11:00AM, in the Conference Room.

The study will explore the Book of Revelation--a mysterious and often misunderstood book of the New Testament. The study will delve into what is written and interpret the text's social and historical context, as well as what it means for our own spiritual journey and faith. Every single verse of Revelation will be studied by the end of the study.

The primary text will be the New Testament, specifically The Book of Revelation. In addition, Emily will suggest books and commentaries for supplement reading.

If you are interested in participating or need additional information, please contact Emily Niblick.
ST. JAMES IS TURNING 140!

Come celebrate 140 years of ministry at St. James. This event is being presented by the Preservation Society for our community.

Come eat delicious food, look at curated displays, and enjoy your Cathedral family!

There will be a special kid’s area with activities just for them, opportunities to celebrate the future of our Cathedral, and more! 

Sunday, October 6 11:30-1:30 in Zoe Eden Hall

Please RSVP by Wednesday September 25th or speak to Pete Cabiness or Kourinthia Burton.
IN HONOR OF ST. JAMES' 140TH ANNIVERSARY AND THE UPCOMING CELEBRATION THIS FALL, THE PRESERVATION COMMITTEE IS OFFERING ARTICLES IN THE "MIDWEEK MISSIVE" HIGHLIGHTING THE HISTORY OF THE CATHEDRAL.
HAVE TIMES CHANGED?
by Emily Niblick
Fresno must have been a pretty wild town when the folks at St. James Episcopal opened the doors of their brand new church building in 1881. After a succession of meeting places such as the law office of Mr. Tupper (first), then a hall above the Magnolia Saloon (second), and then a room in the Hawthorne School the church members must have been elated to have an actual church to worship in. And no one, I suppose, could have been happier than Reverend D. O. Kelly, whose idea of planting a church in Fresno had been dismissed by many, their complaint being Fresno was too small a town.

Well, it wasn’t exactly a metropolis. In 1880, the census listed a little over a thousand people living in the county. Yet, in the decade of the 1880’s the town supported more than thirteen lawyers, and numerous saloons (the saloons outnumbered the churches). Also three physicians to bind the wounds of drunken brawls. It was still the wild west.

Considering these factors, along with the moral notions of the Victorian Age, it would be no wonder that a man of the cloth might be overcome with zeal at times when dealing with local personalities. Reverend Kelly was no doubt much like the preachers of his time—the fire and the brimstone sizzled on Sunday mornings. 
But just once Reverend Kelly’s zeal appears to have got him in a little hot water. The Sunday edition of the May 22nd, 1887, issue of the San Francisco Examiner tells us of “a preacher in trouble”, Beginning by informing readers that for eight years Reverend D. O. Kelly has “officiated in the pulpit of St. James Episcopal Church” and during that time has always been regarded as a “gentleman of high standing, and above reproach” the story goes on to remind us that a lady whose name I will purposely omit had instituted suit for the sum of $10,000 against the Reverend for “slanderous utterances” during the previous December, and the case had now been tried in Superior Court.

With some members of St. James looking “serious and maintaining his innocence”, while other onlookers were “eager for spicy revelations”, the charges were recounted before the verdict. The plaintiff, a former member of St. James, had been teaching some young ladies in Italian art and literature. An informant had told the court that Reverend Kelly “had informed several sisters of the church that Mrs. X was a bad woman, and of unchaste character”, and furthermore previous to being a teacher had “earned her livelihood in a more questionable manner than teaching, and other language unfit for publication.”

Coming to the lady’s defense, the Examiner then informed its readers that Reverend Kelly had not refuted the charge that he said some of the things reported, discrediting only the most derogatory ones, and “totally failed to prove the truth of any.”

Tupper and Tupper and J. G. Rhodes, vestrymen of St. James, provided the defense. The jury returned after ten minutes and awarded the plaintiff the sum of $1,000. Rather less than what the lady had asked for but, considering that when Reverend Kelly came to Fresno to plant a church he agreed to a salary of $50 a month that surely was costly.

Reverend Kelly continued his good work at St. James and, in 1892, moved to another position in the California Diocese. He was replaced by Reverend William Lucas who had been serving in Reno, Nevada. Unfortunately for Reverend Lucas, the 90’s were a time of severe cash flow problems in the church. Despite the fact Fresno was growing quickly, the new church built in 1881 was fast becoming an old church and presented many repair problems. Finally, Reverend Lucas resigned his position early in 1900.

Reverend Henry Hanson came to St. James from Trinity Church in San Francisco and perhaps provided, at least for this article, a continuation of Reverend Kelly’s awareness of loose morals in Fresno (not to assume that Mrs. X was guilty of such). 
First, however, Reverend Hanson’s time at St. James was not without some excitement. For instance, on January 28, 1905, he was awakened at 2:40 am by the fragrance of smoke in the rectory. Jumping out of bed, he rang for the fire brigade and began trying to fight the flames that engulfed one room of the house. The firemen arrived and put out the fire, but upon entering the burnt room Reverend Hanson reached for a scorched light and grabbed a live wire, being knocked to the floor. As the San Francisco Examiner reported it on January 29, 1905, “He was unable to let loose of the wire but managed to work his hands to the end of it and jerk his hands free. He was burned badly about the arms and legs.”

It appears that this was one of the few miracles that occurred during Reverend Hanson’s time at St. James, for the finances continued to go very badly and a new church building was desperately needed. Reverend Hanson would, in fact, offer his resignation in 1908 to a vestry determined to hold on to him (except for one member who in turn resigned his position on the vestry and left the church). 
Retracting his resignation, perhaps Reverend Hanson felt a renewal of energy as can be seen from an article in the Oakland Tribune from November 17, 1910. Titled “WILL INVESTIGATE ROOMING HOUSES and subtitled “Pastor’s sermon on evils in the city arouses the police to action” the writer relates the news that Chief of Police Shaw had been stirred to action because of a sermon preached by Reverend Hanson . In that sermon Hanson had claimed that the conditions in the boarding houses were awful and credited the existence of vice in them to the “over-reaching efforts of the good but misguided people who attempted to entirely stamp out the tenderloin.” He stressed that having a district that is set aside for the poor and vice-ridden inhabitants is maybe not the best solution but as for now “the safety of our daughters depends on keeping that class in a definite district with close police supervision.” In response, Police Chief Shaw ordered a thorough investigation of the boarding houses.

As an addition to the story, the Tribune also mentioned that Reverend Hanson had included a call for checking boxes in restaurants as he claimed that café owners secreted alcoholic beverages in them to serve to underage diners at late hours.

We’ll never know just how successful Reverend Hanson’s call to action was. The following year, the Missionary District of San Joaquin would be approved by General Convention, St. James would be proclaimed a pro-Cathedral, and Reverend Hanson would be replaced by Dean G. R. E. McDonald. And by that time the population of Fresno had grown to over 24,000 souls. 

But that’s another story.
CHOIR REHEARSALS RESUME
Choir will resume rehearsing on Thursday evenings, 6:30PM-8:00PM, in the Chapel, starting on Thursday, September 12th. If you are interested in joining Choir, please come to rehearsal. For more information, please contact Sherah.
MEN'S GROUP
The next breakfast gathering is scheduled for Saturday, September 7th, 7:30AM at Yosemite Falls Cafe (across from the Cathedral).
BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS COMMITTEE
The next meeting will be Saturday, September 7th, at 9:00AM in the Conference Room.
SEPTEMBER CHAPTER MEETING
The meeting is scheduled for Sunday, September 15th at 11:30AM in the Conference Room. Chapter Members please submit any reports and/or agenda items to Dean Ryan by September 11th.
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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.