This week at St. Stephen's

Help us clean the church for Easter
John LaFrenz invites everyone to join him sprucing up the church of our celebration of Easter.  All abilities and talents welcome.  John says there’s a job for everyone.  Come this Monday and/or Tuesday, Mar 26-7, at 9am until it’s time to stop.  Let John know you’re coming at jlafrentz@gmail.com.

Give thanks for another amazing Pantry
161 households, representing 216 people, received an estimated 2,400 meals of food today at our St Stephen’s (StSt) Table Food Pantry.  Half our volunteers are members of the neighborhood who also use our Pantry for meals.  This month we welcomed the energy and excitement of 17 students and their teacher from Athey Creek Middle School in West Linn who joined us as a school field trip.  Another great take-home flyer, designed by Faye Tayler, is hanging in the pantry room with their picture.  Take a look Sunday.

Palm Sunday - April 1
Liturgy of the Palms, Reading of Passion Gospel, and Holy Eucharist at 7:45 and 10 am.

Wednesday in Holy Week
Holy Eucharist at 12:15 pm

Maundy Thursday - April 5
Holy Eucharist with Foot Washing at 7 pm

Good Friday - April 6
Liturgy of Good Friday with Solemn Collects and Adoration of the Cross at 7 pm

The Great Vigil of Easter - April 7
Saturday at 7 pm

Easter Day - April 8
Festal Eucharist at 7:45 and 10 am

New Vestments

On Sunday, March 18, The Rev. Dale Carr and The Rev. Dennis j. Parker blessed and dedicated new rose vestments.

The paraments, stoles, and chasuble were made by Catholic Liturgicals in Tamil Nadu, India.  The colors are intended for the 4th Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday) and the Third Sunday in Advent (Gaudete Sunday).

In his sermon, Fr. Dale  reviewed the history of Laetare Sunday (aka Refreshment Sunday, Mothering Sunday) and spoke to the Eucharistic theology in the story of the feeding of the 5000 in the Gospel of John.  The vestments are a gift to the parish from Fr. Dale and Ken Ballard in thanksgiving of their union and the support of the St. Stephen's community.

Left to right: The Rev. Paul Davis (Outreach Minister), The Rev. Dennis j. Parker (Rector), The Rev. Dale Carr (Associate Clergy), Ken Ballard.

This Sunday - March 18

This Sunday at 9am Adult Inquiry focuses on Lenten Liturgical Prayers.  The Collects and Eucharistic Prayer of the Lenten liturgies have been created by the Church both to express our understanding of Christ’s death and resurrection and to evoke a deep and profound sense of worship.  The class will discuss how the liturgical prayers encourage our communal and personal act of worship.  All are welcome.

Our preacher at 7:45 and 10 a.m. Eucharist is Fr. Dale Carr.  Fr. Dennis presides at the Table.  During the service, we will dedicate the new rose vestments given in thanksgiving for the Celebration of Marriage of Dale Carr and Ken Ballard at St. Stephen’s on October 11, 2009.   At 10 a.m., the dedication will include smoke.

The Vestry meets immediately following 10 a.m. Eucharist for their regular monthly meeting.

Thank Yous

This week, we have another refrigerator/freezer for St Stephen’s (StSt) Table.  Thank You, Jeanne Armstrong, for the donation from your apartment; and thanks to the moving crew of Tom Bartlett, Kevin Gardner and Dick Emlaw!  We now have 8 cooling units for the meals program and pantry, 5 donated in the past year, plus the refrigerator of Operation Nightwatch (ONW).

Thank You, John Lafrentz, for the beautifully cleaned carpets in the church and chapel in preparation for Easter.  John rented the equipment and steamed cleaned them for us himself.  They look great!

Thank You, Carolyn Rundorff, a Saturday Breakfast volunteer from Bethel Congregational UCC, for donating dinner plates, napkins, and, earlier this month, silverware for StSt Table.  Carolyn and her family take the lead in the kitchen this Saturday.

Thank You, Wendy Malcomson, the new health care coordinator for ONW, for cleaning and painting our Sunday Nursery/ Saturday Footcare/ ONW Medical Care room.  Paint donated by Miller Paints.
Thank You to all our volunteers at StSt Table.  Last Saturday Breakfast (joined by Waverly Heights UCC and Wy’east UU) we served 103 guests, 140 servings; Tuesday Chili served 58 guests 73 servings. 

What's Happening at St Stephen's

Thank You Tuesday Chili

This week, not only did our ever-faithful Tuesday Chili crew help 14 students (and 6 chaperones) from The International School engage with our guests and experience volunteer service firsthand, but they also served a record 121 people 161 servings of yummy enchiladas prepared by Joyce Lew.  It was another great day for St Stephen’s (StSt) Table!  A picture of the students, in a special StSt Table flyer by Faye Tayler that went home with every student, is posted in the Pantry storage room.  Take a look on Sunday!  At least one chaperone has already emailed that she and her son will be volunteering at Saturday Breakfast soon.  We keep expanding the circle of our healing presence!  Once again, thanks everyone!

Signup Saturdays

With our wonderful growth of volunteers for StSt Table Saturday Breakfast – we have over 70 on our StSt Table email list -- we are taking a lesson from Operation Nightwatch (ONW) and asking everyone with Internet access to sign up at www.volunteerspot.com.  One of our Saturday regulars, Liz McCoy, emailed this week after using it: “This is a really great tool. I think it's going to help a lot.”  Now we will know exactly who is coming to help on Saturday, when, and what job they’d like to do. Thank You, Gary Davis, for introducing to the site originally designed by the PTA to coordinate school volunteers.  Gary is also teaching us that too many volunteer is just as difficult for hospitality as too few.  Read his comments to ONW at: http://hosted.vresp.com/371712/51c548d015/1666000197/83e4ef520b/.  If you are part of the Saturday crew, you’ve received an email link to VolunteerSpot.   If you’d like to be added, just send Paul an email at JPaulDavis@prodigy.net.

Adult Inquiry

Sundays at 9am, Adult Inquiry focuses on Lenten Readings from The Hebrew Scriptures.  The group explores the ancient Jewish texts used in our Lenten liturgies and examines what the texts reveal about Christ and how they are a source of nourishment for our Christian spiritual life.  The class is led by Richard Wallace and Barbara Hayes in the parish hall.  All are welcome.

A special donation to Communion in the Park (CiP)

This week, a group of credit union employees and volunteers from the Development Education Network (of the National Credit Union Foundation), Young Credit Union Professionals, and The Cooperative Trust are teaming up to make the sandwiches we hand out in the park after our nondenominational Communion in the Park service.  The organizers of this service project have planned it to “really bring people back to what credit unions should be about – people helping people.”   Come join our outdoor Communion service at SW Park between Columbia & Jefferson, rain or shine, every Sunday at 1:30pm.  Food and conversations are shared following the service.  Brandon Bressi joins Ken Arnold and Paul this week as a Street Companion.  Brandon makes our weekly sandwiches from StSt Table for ONW’s Hospitality Center.

Janet Packer Violin Recital March 25

St. Stephen’s 2011-2012 Concert Series continues with a violin and piano recital featuring Janet Packer, violinist based in Boston, MA, and Anthony Padilla, concert pianist based in Appleton, WI.

The program will feature the debut Oregon performance of Imaginary Variations (2010), an important new work commissioned from the distinguished Polish composer, Krzyzstof Meyer. The program also includes Vittorio Rieti's elegant and witty Rondo Variato (1945); Debussy's late masterwork, Sonata (1917); and the rarely heard French Romantic Sonata (1900) of Gabriel Pierné.

St. Stephen's Episcopal Parish, 1432 SW 13th Ave Portland, Oregon 97211, on Sunday, March 25, 2012, at 2:00 pm.

Suggested donation $10.  Refreshments will be served after the concert.

More information about Janet Packer:

http://www.janetpacker.com/index.html

More information about Anthony Padilla:

http://www.lawrence.edu/fast/padillaa/

More information about St. Stephen’s concert series:

http://ststephenspdx.blogspot.com/2011/07/2011-2012-concert-series.html