In this Edition:

• This Sunday
• Annual Meeting
• Technology Survey - Last Call
• Wednesday Night Dinner - Jan 18
• January 22 - Guest Preacher and Confirmation with the Rev. Kerri Meyer
• Mill City String Quartet Concert - Jan 22
• Faithful Innovation - What's that all about?
• Try something new in 2023 - Learning and Advocacy Opportunities

Have an announcement you would like to share in this weekly email?

Send it to [email protected] before noon on Wednesday to be featured.

Snapshots of Epiphany at St. David's

& our visit from the Bishop!

Church this Sunday

8:00 and 9:30 Holy Eucharist

Children's Time will take place during the 9:30 service for children age 3 through grade 5. 

We will continue to Facebook Livestream the Sunday 9:30 service and upload to YouTube to accommodate for those who choose to stay home.

10:45-11:30 Open House Tour and Social Time

I’m reviving our Community Room, located down the hall from the church offices. I'm excited that this Sunday is the first day we will use it for Children’s Time! That got Katherine and me thinking – our spaces look a little different – and we have new folks here who haven’t seen the rest of our church.

So, during coffee hour, we encourage you to take a little tour of the space before going to the Undercroft for coffee and fellowship.

This will be a great time for long time members and newcomers alike to get a tour of our space, and learn what longstanding, or new, ministries happen in these spaces!

-Anna Brock, Children and Youth Minister and Office Assistant

The St. David's Annual Meeting will take place during the community forum time on January 29th

Kids are invited to come sledding on the St. David's lawn during the annual meeting.

The Budget Presentation will be Sunday, January 22nd during the community forum.

Last Call - Technology Survey

The Vestry has been discerning around how livestreaming and video recording services align with the mission of St. David's and how much resources (time and money) to dedicate to these efforts. We obviously need to offer these formats when conditions require the church to be closed, but we are trying to determine how important they are when the church is open for in-person worship. We have created a short survey to gather information from the congregation. We have not gotten very many responses. Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey to provide your input and help guide our decision-making process. Paper copies are also available in the Narthex. Thank you!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DXKH3JS

Wednesday Night Dinner

Another Wednesday night dinner will be in the Undercroft with food served 5:30-7:00pm.

All are welcome!

Welcoming the Rev. Kerri Meyer

Sunday, January 22nd we welcome the Rev. Kerri Meyer as our guest preacher and our confirmation class instructor!

The Rev. Kerri Meyer, the Executive Director of Good Courage Farm, is an ordained priest in The Episcopal Church. Before making the leap to a fruit farm in rural Minnesota, Kerri served as Associate Rector of St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church in San Francisco. Kerri's role on the farm is both visionary and practical. As both farmer and priest, she engages daily with the agricultural and spiritual life of the farm, leading worship services and faith formation programs. Though she's a Master Gardener, she especially loves tending the animals who make their home on the farm, whether livestock or wildlife.

Connected to the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement, and located on the ancestral homelands of the Wahpekute Dakota, Good Courage Farm is a place where neighbors of all faiths and none gather to work for food justice and to witness God’s renewing love for all of Creation. At Good Courage, friends of God and God's good Earth gather in worship, fellowship, community building and labor. We are blessed to be in partnership with Episcopal Church in Minnesota and the larger faith-based food and agriculture movement. Embedded in the beauty, abundance and travail of farming, Good Courage offers hospitality and space for service, sacrament and sabbath.

Learn more about Good Courage Farm here.

Mill City String Quartet Concert

Sunday, January 22 at 3pm, St. David's Sanctuary

Easy as 1, 2, 3

Please join members of Mill City String Quartet for a wonderful concert of Solos, Duets, and Trios! St. David's very own Music Director, Roger Stratton, will be performing for this concert as well as our newest quartet member, violist Coca Bochonko. This concert features amazing pieces by Elaine Fine, Max Reger, Dimitri Shostakovich, Amy Beach, Vittorio Monti, and Sergei Prokofiev! Come let this vibrant music warm your heart on a cold winter's day. 

Faithful Innovation - What's that all about?

Indeed, that’s a very good question, and it is being addressed by our very own MN diocese, right here, right now.  Church as we have known it say 50, or even 20 years ago, no longer exists.  Church attendance is way down across all denominations, people are not seeking spirituality in traditional organized religious constructs, and “unchurched” people far outnumber church-going folk in America. In the wise words of Bob Dylan, the times they are a-changin'..…..Indeed!

In response to these trends, the Episcopal Diocese of MN is on the forefront with a most important journey ahead called Faithful Innovation.  We at St. David’s are blessed to be able to participate in this program. During this journey we will ask ourselves and one another some very important questions and partake in organized practices aimed at exploring this issue.  We will be encouraged to be curious with questions like: Where is God in our life, our church, our neighborhood, our world?  What is God up to and where?  We will be invited to participate in 3 practices along this journey.  First, we will dwell in scripture; then, we will have the opportunity to share spiritual stories with one another; and finally, we will physically walk through our neighborhoods, and St. David’s neighborhood, listening and noticing what is around us.   When we find God in all these different places, working in peoples’ lives (and we will), we can experiment with ways to join up with what God is already doing. 

From Rev. Blair Pogue, Cannon for Vitality and Innovation, “We know from scripture that God is a God who heals, who brings people into relationship across lines of difference, who forgives, who brings new life, and who sees the people and places we sometimes fail to see.  It will be exciting to learn more about what God is up to all around us, and to watch what happens when we participate in God’s life and the life of our neighbors more fully.”

Each week of January we will feature, in the weekly email, one of the 3 practices that will make up the Formation Innovation journey. After that we will begin the practices.  Below there is a link where you can listen to the Rev. Blair Pogue’s introduction to Faithful Innovation.  We taped this presentation at Epiphany Sunday’s forum with Blair and Bishop Craig Loya.  Take a few minutes to listen to become better informed.

We are excited to take this journey with you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0I2yhsYVeM

Diane Curley, St. David’s Parishioner, Vestry Member, Faithful Innovation Committee Member

Learning and Advocacy Opportunities for 2023!

As we enter into the new year, take some time to consider

trying something new. This next section offers 7 different opportunities.

Learn about Women of the Bible with Rev. Lindsay

Brrr....nights in January can be cold and dark indeed...but here's a way to warm them up! In Epiphany, from January 11 - February 15, on Wednesday nights from 7-8 p.m., the Rev. Lindsay Hardin Freeman will be teaching a national (Zoom) class on Ruth and Esther for the Good Book Club. Learn why these two women are so important to Jewish and Christian history. And from there, you can go right to St. David's Compline at 8 p.m! Learn more and sign up here.

Dismantling Racism Training

The Absalom Jones Episcopal Center for Racial Healing has really hit it out of the ballpark with this particular training. I took it a couple of months ago and it was time so well spent. They put together video vignettes for people to watch and discuss that were incredibly powerful and the rest of the teaching is just so well done. I was grateful to have the opportunity to attend this training and I hope you will consider it for yourself. 

-Gervaye Parent

https://www.centerforracialhealing.org/training

If the cost for attending is prohibitive, please contact the Rev. Katherine Lewis for assistance.

MNIPL's Reparations Learning Table

January 12 & 26, February 9 & 23, 12-1pm | Online

Learn more and register here.

ECMN partners Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light offer this four-part introduction to consider what reparations and repair mean, and why they matter to caring for creation.

"Then" is not separate from "now." Yesterday created the realities we live in today. To care for creation, we must not only divest from harmful systems. We must also repair harms we might not have caused, but still benefit from. The work of reparations recognizes the generational impact of stolen land and stolen labor. Reparations let us co-create new systems that honor the full humanity of all our neighbors. 

Come as an individual or invite a team from your congregation or spiritual community. Together, we'll deepen into the many paths of repair and how truth-telling can bring about a truly interconnected world where all are loved, supported, and free.

Democracy and Christianity

What is the role of Christians as responsible citizens in a democracy? What is the meaning of “freedom”? How do concepts like patriotism to a nation or allegiance to a political party line up with Christ’s admonition, while we cannot serve God and man, that we give to Caesar what is owed to Caesar? In a divided country, how do we encourage civil disagreement? Join us for the 2023 Barbara and Justin Simpson Forum Democracy and Christianity, February 2, 9, 16, and 23 at 7:00 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church in St. Peter as our speakers consider these, and other, questions.

Read more and how to register here.

Volunteer with St. David's Children and Youth!

We are so lucky to have a committed and enthusiastic group of kids here at St. David's. And that group is growing! With more kids, we need more adult volunteers. Specifically, we need a second adult to serve with Sara or Anna on one Sunday morning a month. Please prayerfully consider this opportunity!

Email Anna at [email protected] if you are interested.

Want to view the full calendar for the week? Click here to view the St. David's website complete with a calendar to keep you updated on events and offerings! Scroll all the way to the bottom to view it.