August 31, 2023 | VOLUME 35, ISSUE 33

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost:

Sept. 3, 2023

Preacher: The Reverend Jennifer Wagner Pavia

Saturday, September 2, 9:00 AM - 5:30 PM: The Way of Spiritual Consciousness POSTPONED

Saturday, September 9, 11:00 AM: Memorial for Linda Guagliano

Sunday, September 10, 1:30 PM: Grassroots Neighbors

Saturday, September 16, 9:30 AM - 2:00 PM: Climate Change Summit at St. Paul's Commons in Echo Park or Online

Bible and Breakfast

Tuesdays | 9:30 AM

Luther Hall & Zoom

Midweek Eucharist

Wednesdays | 7:00 PM

Sanctuary

Adult Forum

Wednesdays | 7:45 PM

Luther Hall & Zoom

HOMECOMING SUNDAY IS SEPT. 24

The St. Bede's Homecoming Barbecue will be held on Sunday, September 24, after the 10:00 AM service. This is an annual event to mark the end of the summer vacation season, reconnect with the St. Bede's family, and highlight the many opportunities and activities at St. Bede's. The Vestry will provide everything, so it is not necessary to sign up. See you there!

SPIRITUAL RETREAT IS POSTPONED

Please note that "The Way of Spiritual Consciousness," a day of spiritual retreat in Malibu with Dr. Akani Fletcher and others, has been postponed due to the Labor Day holiday. Please stay tuned for a new date. In the meantime, a small group session is pending; details can be obtained by calling 310-710-4540.

CLIMATE CHANGE: PARISH REPs SOUGHT

Elizabeth Coombs is extending an invitation to all St. Bede’s parishioners concerned about climate change. She is encouraging us to be part of a team that actively participates in contributing to the prevention of irreparable planetary damage and the advancement of intergenerational justice at the local level. Elizabeth enthusiastically plans to be a representative and encourages all interested parties to attend the Diocesan Climate Change Summit described below. Please let Elizabeth (elizabethcoombs@earthlink.net) or Rev. Jennifer know of your plan to attend the summit, either in-person or online.

During the hottest month on record — July 2023 — the sun sets over Echo Park, where the Sept. 16 diocesan Climate Change Summit will be held at St. Paul’s Commons. Photo: Bob Williams

Diocesan Climate Change Summit set for Sept. 16 in Echo Park; all congregations asked to send representatives to hybrid event

By Bob Williams

With July 2023 now on record as the hottest month worldwide, the Bishop’s Commission on Climate Change has set a summit meeting for Saturday, Sept. 16, at St. Paul’s Commons in Echo Park, asking each congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles name a representative or team to attend either in person or virtually online.

Focusing on practical action by congregations and individuals, the Climate Change Summit will underscore U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres’s recent statement that “the era of global warming has ended” and “the era of global boiling has arrived.”

“The summit is a great opportunity to bring our diocesan community together to do what we can to address this issue which affects our whole world. It’s not easy work but it is necessary work,” said the Rev. Canon Melissa McCarthy, diocesan canon to the ordinary, who chairs the 30-member commission on behalf of Bishop John Harvey Taylor.

“The church has tremendous potential to make a difference,” McCarthy added. “I firmly believe we can do anything we are called to do when we are working in community and with God’s help. The issue of climate change needs our concerted, intentional, and communal attention.”

The summit has been called in keeping with Diocesan Convention resolutions adopted last November.

Summit topics will include priorities of reducing carbon footprints and use of fossil fuel while adopting green technologies.

The summit program will bring news of Commission partnerships, including the “Climate Connections” disaster resilience plan, now a pilot project, engaging congregations in strategic, collaborative response to crises including earthquakes and heatwaves. Made possible by a grant from Southern California Edison, the program is coordinated by Lucy Jones, Ph.D., a Cal Tech seismologist and parishioner of St. James’ Church in South Pasadena, who co-chairs the Commission’s Disaster Resiliency Subcommittee with Mary Nichols, a lay leader at St. James’, Los Angeles, and former head of the California Air Resources Board.

Summit presentations will be announced when confirmed.

An online registration portal for the Sept. 16 summit is here. All are welcome to register for either the in-person or online program.

Box lunches, available for a donation of $12, will be provided during the 9:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. program. St. Paul’s Commons, the diocese’s administrative and ministry hub, is located at 840 Echo Park Avenue, Los Angeles, with free parking available in the on-site garages.

Further information may be requested from Samantha Wylie, coordinator of Diocesan Convention, by email at swylie@ladiocese.org.

A sincere note of thanks for our participation in the backpack project !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ST. BEDE'S ONLINE GIVING PORTAL

Are you planning to attend worship online and want an easy way to make a pledge payment? Do you want to ditch the checkbook and set up reoccurring payments? Are you looking for a convenient way to make a one-time special gift to St. Bede's?

Did you know you can make donations online to St. Bede's, securely and easily?

Visit the St. Bede's website and at the top of every page, look for the "Donate" button. When you click on the "Donate" button, you will be transported to St. Bede's Vanco eGiving and Payment Process Site.

Vanco is an industry leader in online payments. More than 40,000 churches, faith-based groups, nonprofits, schools, and educational organizations trust Vanco to securely complete transactions every day. Vanco complies with PCI Level 1 standards, the highest security standard in the payment processing industry.

You are invited to set up one-time or recurring gifts using credit, debit, or bank transfer on Vanco's secure payment processing platform. Giving online through the Vanco site saves time and the hassle of remembering to bring your offering. In addition, you decrease the expense incurred by St. Bede’s from handling and processing checks and cash.

EPISCOPAL NEWS SERVICE

Thousands gather for March on Washington’s 60th anniversary

BY JACK JENKINS

[Religion News Service] Thousands of people assembled near the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday, Aug. 26 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, paying tribute to the historic civil rights gathering led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. while voicing new frustrations with political extremism that threatens racial progress.

In his address to a sprawling crowd, the Rev. Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, framed the country’s current political contest as a battle between “dreamers” and “schemers.”

“Sixty years ago, Martin Luther King talked about a dream,” said Sharpton, referring to King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered from the same spot in 1963, in which the slain civil rights leader envisioned a future of racial harmony. “Sixty years later, we’re the dreamers — the problem is we’re facing the schemers.”

Sharpton explained “dreamers” were those in the crowd and elsewhere who resist various forms of hatred and advocate for causes such as voting rights, women’s rights, abortion rights and LGBTQ equality. The “schemers,” meanwhile, are their political opponents — including former President Donald Trump, who surrendered at an Atlanta, Georgia, jail this week on charges of trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the state.

“The dreamers are in Washington, D.C.,” Sharpton said. “The schemers are being booked in Atlanta, Georgia, in the Fulton County Jail.”

After 12 years in limbo, Washington National Cathedral gargoyle now has its head back

[Episcopal News Service] Twelve years to the day after a Washington National Cathedral gargoyle’s head was detached from its body by a 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck the Washington-D.C. area and damaged the cathedral and other area buildings, the two pieces were reunited on Aug. 23.

The earthquake caused extensive damage to the cathedral’s central tower, where pinnacles were toppled, falling inward onto the roof and not onto the ground, and finials on towers and parapets rotated in place.

The gargoyle was struck by debris falling from pinnacles above it, which severed the head from the body but otherwise didn’t damage it. The head was left dangling on a drainpipe that ran through the gargoyle, designed to direct water away from the building. The head was retrieved two months after the earthquake and was housed in a display box, awaiting the day it could be returned to its rightful place.

Presbyterian congregation ‘nests’ in Episcopal congregation, rejuvenating both

By DAVID PAULSEN

[Episcopal News Service] St. Matthias, about a half hour west of Milwaukee in Waukesha, Wisconsin, is an Episcopal church. It also is a Presbyterian church, at least by current practice.

Services held in the downtown church are attended by worshipers from both denominations and draw from both liturgical traditions. The two congregations remain officially separate, one Episcopal and one Presbyterian, but those denominational distinctions are not sharply drawn at St. Matthias. For the past year, First Presbyterian Church of Waukesha has “nested” itself at St. Matthias Episcopal Church, a unique arrangement that church leaders say has brought new energy to both congregations.

“It feels like the church is alive again, after COVID,” the Rev. David Simmons, rector of St. Matthias, told Episcopal News Service, and he attributes much of the new energy to the arrival of the Presbyterians. “I really feel like they’ve added a completely different dynamic to the way we think about ourselves as part of Christ’s church.”