All Saints Day

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Officiants: Deacon Nancy Key and Cathedral/Diocese Staff Clergy

Preacher: Reverend Angela

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The St. James Cathedral Chapter is pleased to announce the slate of four candidates to fill the available four spots for three-year terms beginning January 2021.

The candidates are Joseph Camaquin-Vigil, Paul McGeary, Karen Simmons Gillian, and Aaron Stillmaker. We invite you to read the candidates' statements.

The Cathedral congregation will vote on the slate. The votes need to be in by Sunday, November 1 at 9:00 pm. Due to the pandemic and the suspension of public gatherings, voting this year will take place electronically.

Pending the Congregational vote outcome, either the entire slate or individual candidates will be submitted to the Convention of the Episcopal Diocese of San Joaquin. Per the Cathedral’s Constitution and the Diocese’s Canons, Convention is the Cathedral Chapter’s electing body. New members of the Chapter are officially installed during the Annual Meeting in January.

As members of the Cathedral’s governance body, Chapter Members are charged with shaping St. James’ vision for the future. Those called to serve on Chapter are expected to attend monthly meetings, actively participate in the life and leadership of the congregation, and prayerfully share their gifts and talents for the betterment of the whole Cathedral community.

Rev. Angela, Deacon Nancy, or Deacon Terrance will see you each night for evening prayer before the election for a time to offer prayers for our country, and time for quiet reflection to God. Join us any night you can, October 27th - November 3rd at 7 pm on Zoom.

St. James Cathedral has enjoyed a practice and tradition of intentional formation. These formational activities have included educational and biblically-based study series. These are places where different groups of people gather to join in study with one another. Their goal is to learn and deepen their faith in the topics that interest them.

Small groups, while sometimes seemingly similar, are focused on intentionally gathering to share life, and these groups depend on every member continuing to join week to week. Their work is focused first on trust building and mutual support for life inside and outside of Church. Once trust is established, they also incorporate some sort of shared study or time of prayer, depending on the desires and needs of the small group. Small groups are lay led with clergy acting as a resource, but the laity drive the group. Small groups have a covenanted start and end date at which point new people are invited to join, some may choose to exit, and others are invited to start their own small group, and the circle begins again: building trust, sharing life, and shared learning.

Next week, St. James will be launching a test run of a new small group model. This group was formed out of the regular attenders of the Lenten Study from last spring and has been formed as a project for what could be in the future of St. James. This group will meet until December 16th. This timing is intentional both with Christmas, but also with the arrival of our new Acting Dean. At that point, the clergy and group leaders will evaluate what worked well, what needs improvement and how we might form new groups in January.

If you are interested in the possibility of small groups in the future, please reach out to the clergy at clergy@stjamesfresno.org.

Dear Brothers and Sister in Christ:

I send you greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! I am more than honored and feel truly privileged, to be called into ministry with you at Saint James Cathedral and in the Diocese of San Joaquin by Bishop David.

What’s next? This consequential question is one I ask Almighty God…often. What does the future hold? What is the work you are calling me to engage in? My understanding is that Saint James has faced significant challenge and change. Experience tells me that all change, whether intended and planned for, or unexpected and surprising will create anxiety, even struggle.

Change takes us into a place of unknowing and for many…a place of fear. That is the way of it.

As I reflect on and pray for you…the people of Saint James Cathedral…in this time of transition, I am reminded of what seventeenth century French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, philosopher and saint Blaise Pascal wrote: “somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” That is where you are…you are on the threshold of something incredible and brand new…something that is waiting to be known. Now, together, we will discover what is next.

My hope, as I enter into your midst, is to humbly serve God and each of you. My call is to walk with you, as we…the people of Saint James Cathedral, serve each other, serve our diocese, serve our neighborhood and serve the greater community of Fresno/Clovis. I will be starting with you on December 15th. In the interim, Bishop David will be the Acting Dean.

I come to you with vast and varied experience in the ministry of transition. I have served in cathedrals, large parishes and smaller ones, as well. I am currently the Chair of the Board for Interim Ministry in the Episcopal Church and I am a member of the faculty of the Interim Ministry Network, the institution that teaches clergy from all denominations how to lead communities through times of change and transition.

My wife Linda and I have been married for thirty-six years and have three sons who are thriving in different parts of the world. We are avid animal lovers and we are the people who belong to our thirty-pound Maine Coon cat, Oliver. Normally we have a dog too but are waiting for the right time to welcome a retriever of some sort into our life. We are readers and lovers of nature and I love to fly fish! I work at staying fit and like to get a run in when I can.

We are both excited about what the future holds and we are looking forward to getting to know you. My friends, if you had said to me a month ago that Linda and I would be heading to the Fresno/Clovis area soon, I would have said, “you’re kidding me!” Still that is how God works, isn’t it… “somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” I can’t wait to discover, with all of you, what’s next!

Faithfully yours in Christ,

The Reverend Samuel S. Colley-Toothaker

Acting Dean, St. James Cathedral

COVID-19 has given us time to evaluate and discern the ways in which we, as a Cathedral community, engage with volunteers and staff. In that evaluation and discernment, we acknowledged that Kourinthia feels a call to ordained ministry in the church, and so the Bishop has assigned her to St. Paul's Modesto to continue her formal discernment process to the priesthood. While we are thrilled that she is discerning this call for set aside ministry, this means that for a number of pastoral and practical reasons her employment at the Cathedral must come to an end. We have been blessed by her ministry with us for the last year as Cathedral Administrator, and we are praying for her discernment process with the good people of St. Paul's Modesto.

In the interim the Chapter and the Bishop have decided during COVID-19 to utilize the services of a temporary employee agency to staff the position of the Cathedral Administrator. To that end, Denise Grayson will be taking over the duties of the Cathedral Administrator. She can be reached at admin@stjamesfresno.org.

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

Starting this Sunday, we will once again begin offering digital service programs. Visit the St. James website to download the program. 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.

Dial it down. Moving your thermostat down just two degrees in winter and up two degrees in summer could save about 2,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per year.

Turn it off. Artificial lighting accounts for 44 percent of electricity use in office buildings. Make it a habit to turn off the lights when you're leaving any room for 15 minutes or more. Same goes for electronics; switch off power strips and unplug electrical devices when you're not using them.

To participate, log into the Cathedral Coffee Hour on Zoom. The meeting password is "james4147". You can also join the conversation by phone. Call (669) 900-6833 and enter the meeting ID 821-8772-3828. You will be prompted to enter the phone password "492292".

Meets the first Saturday of each monthly at 9:30AM on Zoom. These gatherings are open to all. To join via Zoom, click here. There is also a call-in option: (669) 900-6833 - Meeting ID: 894 7483 4226 - Passcode: 230840797.

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.

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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.