Eucharistic Minister Training on March 17th

Mark your calendars for Eucharistic Minister (chalice bearer) training on Sunday, March 17th after the 10 am service. We’ll review the tasks assigned to the Eucharistic Minister, handle the “holy hardware” and answer any questions that you might have about fulfilling this ministry. After the service take a moment to get a cup of coffee and then meet us at the altar rail in the church. 

If you have any questions or concerns please reach out to Deacon Rebecca via email.

Join Us for the Inaugural

St. Luke’s Chili Cook Off on Friday March 22nd

Join us for our first ever St. Luke’s Chili Cook Off on Friday, March 22nd in the lower hall. This event will be a time of fun, food, community, and friendly competition to support the pantries operating out of the cathedral who support our neighbors.

Families and children are welcome and encouraged to attend! We will have board games, coloring, and cornhole available beginning at 5:30PM in the Upper Hall. Dinner will be available beginning at 6:00PM in the lower hall.

We need volunteers to make this event run smoothly and successfully! A sign-up sheet is available electronically here or on the bulletin board outside of the office. 

We are especially looking for individuals who would be willing to make a crockpot of chili as part of the cookoff! Instructions are listed on the sign-up sheet.

If making a chili isn't a role you would like to volunteer in, there are plenty of additional ways to help.

The event is open to all. We encourage and welcome donations for the following groups:



St. Elizabeth’s Essentials Pantry: Toothpaste, toothbrushes, diapers sizes 3-5

St. Luke’s Food Pantry: canned tomatoes, canned tomato soup, flour, cornmeal, dried white beans, pinto beans

cooking oil, pasta

Greater Portland Family Promise: Diapers of all sizes, additional items TBD

A general suggested offering to support the cost of the event $5 is also welcome, but not mandatory to attend. 

With questions about volunteering, please contact parish administrator, Avery Levesque-Schott by email or by phone at 207-772-5434, to learn more about how you can help!

5:15PM Sunday Worship

This Sunday the 5:15 service will welcome the Right Reverend Thomas J. Brown, Bishop of Maine, who will serve as celebrant. We look forward to ongoing conversation about planning and scheduling of future services. All are welcome!

Please contact Tim Wilkins if you want to help with the service, or have any questions. Thank you!

St. Elizabeth’s Pantry Toothpaste & Toothbrush Drive

Since February is National Children's Dental Health Month, we are asking for donations of toothpaste and toothbrushes for St. Elizabeth's Essentials Pantry to distribute to the more than 300 neighbors who visit St E's every Tuesday morning.

Please leave your donations in the box in the lower hall, next to the stairs. Contact Byrd Wood if you have questions.

Painted Rocks

and Prayers for Peace

in the Holy Land

Linda Carleton is painting rocks as prayers for peace in the Holy Land. She would like to paint one for you in exchange for a donation of any amount to the Dean’s Discretionary Fund.

Contact Linda if you would like one.

Albert A. Goodson (1933-2003)

grew up poor in Los Angeles, so much so that he used a board as a substitute for a piano when he was a young boy. His mother would send him and his twin brother to a Pentecostal church, but he was attracted to the impressive choral music at St. Paul Baptist Church, with its 200-voice choir, and would sneak there instead, where would listen to, and then imitate, the piano playing he heard there. He was eventually invited to join the choir. Gerald Hines, the choir director, took him under his wing, brought him to San Francisco on a tour, and introduced him to Mahalia Jackson and Nat “King” Cole, both of whom he played for. “We’ve come this far by faith” is the only one of his 16 gospel songs to have gained widespread familiarity. He tells in an interview that he was living alone in Chicago, discouraged, isolated and depressed, and began spinning out on a friend’s piano a melody running through his mind. He says, “As I played the Lord seemed to speak to me saying, ‘We’ve come this far by faith[…]’, the refrain of this song, echoing “…the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.” —1 Peter 1.7 

https://www.staugustine.com/story/lifestyle/faith/2016/05/20/story-behind-song-weve-come-far-faith/16308313007/

James Abbington pursued graduate study in music at U.Michigan, where he earned both the MMus and DMA degrees in organ performance. But despite his impressive credentials in that field, in which he has worked to disseminate organ music by Black composers, it is in the fields of hymnology and church music that he is best known today. He is on the faculty of Candler School of Theology (Emory U.), and is a frequent clinician on topics of church music, and especially African American repertoire. He has composed and arranged many selections that appear in recent hymnals, and has been the Executive Editor of the African American Church Music Series of GIA Publications (Chicago) for over 20 years. He was made a Fellow of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada in 2015, at that time, only the second African American so honored among 71 honorees, the first having been Harry T. Burleigh, pioneer of the arranged and concert Negro spiritual, in 1944. That 71-year gap, and spare representation of Black contributors overall, is more evidence of the discrimination against Black artists in word and music by historically White organizations. Dr. Abbington is also a vivacious, good-humored, engaging person, and to make music—and socialize—with him is a great time, as we learned when he was our guest leader for a weekend of African American music at St. Paul & the Redeemer in Chicago.

Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was known in his lifetime as “King of Ragtime Writers”. During his childhood in Texarkana, TX, he learned to play the piano through a combination of self-teaching and the instruction of a local German musician, Julius Weiss; both of Scott’s parents were talented musicians, and encouraged his studies. As was common among African American musicians of the time, he combined Western European music elements with African American idioms. He formed his first band in Chicago, and they performed during (though not officially a part of) the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, where audiences “clamored to hear their music”. He moved to Sedalia, MO, with a collaborator, Otis Saunders, where he extended his music studies with courses at the George R. Smith College for Negroes, and learned to notate the complicated syncopations (the ‘ragged’ rhythms) he and his friends had been improvising for many years, and which were so popular with 1890s audiences. The 1899 publication of “Maple Leaf Rag” set off a musical revolution, and Joplin’s fame swept the nation. He followed his publisher to Saint Louis, MO, where his home is a now a museum; and where, as in Chicago, he performed during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904. “Like other black entertainers in the early twentieth century, Joplin felt profoundly the conflict between the popularity of his music and the disdain for his race displayed by white society. His decision to perform at the fair in spite of discrimination against [B]lacks represented a common conviction among African American entertainers that performing the music of their race and generation was essential to undermining prejudice against their community.” He later moved with his wife to New York City, where his fame continued to grow, but where the effects of racial discrimination limited his success. His groundbreaking opera, Treemonisha, attracted attention for its combination of Grand Opera conventions with African American story and music, but never found financial backing, and closed before it was fully staged. In his later years, he suffered financial losses, contracted syphilis, and died poor and suffering from dementia. Still, his influence on American music is considerable.

 https://missouriencyclopedia.org/people/joplin-scott

Discussion with Greg Payne Regarding Affordable Housing in Maine

Following last week's 10:00AM service, we welcomed Greg Payne, a representative from the Governor's Office of Public Innovation and the Future (GOPIF), for a discussion regarding affordable housing in Maine.

This discussion was extremely informative and engaging for members of our community.

Thanks are given to the St. Luke's Public Policy and Environmental Action Team for sponsoring this discussion.

Thanks are also given to St. Luke's parishioner John Hennessy helped to coordinate Mr. Payne's visit to the cathedral and for sharing photos of the discussion, as well as links to valuable resources that were offered during the discussion.