Advice for the Parents of Graduates

The transition from home life to beyond home life can be a trying one for parents.  This May we

would like to offer our friends who are sending young ones out into the world a collection of advice. 

What good news do you have?
What do you wish you had known?

Please write your offering in the comment section below. 

This will be collected and curated into a small booklet (and kept alive here online) to be given to them on May 17 (Senior Celebration).

I haven't done this (parenting thing) so I need you to make it happen!

Original Vigil: April 19th 7.30 pm

Human worship patterns may have originated in the experience of ancient tribes telling stories around the fire.  Stories about who we are and where we came from and where we imagine we are going.  The pattern of our Sunday Eucharist is much like that...story, song, story, song, reflection, and prayers followed by the sharing of blessed food.  To offer a story and or bring some food (or tend the fire) please follow this link.

This year St. Paul's is going to try an original approach to the ancient practice of an Easter Vigil.  Learning from the work of dinner church projects across the country, and recalling the ancient roots of all liturgy we will be celebrating together the resurrection of our Lord with an Original Vigil.  It may need a better name, but for now that will do.

What will this Original Vigil be like?  

• We will celebrate at the home of Earl and Sandi B. Please call or email St. Paul's if you need to know where they live.
• We will begin promptly at sundown,7.30pm. 
• We will begin our worship by bringing forth a holy fire.
• Families and groups of friends will be invited to take on the telling of various Vigil stories as they choose to do so.  Creativity and originality are welcome at this Original Vigil.  
• Guests are encouraged!
• Following the declaration of Christ's resurrection we will proceed inside for a Dinner Church Holy Eucharist: communion with a whole sacred meal.

If this sounds interesting or intriguing at all, then mark it on your calendar!
This might be a great option for folks who want an ancient practice but desire to avoid the crowds.  It also might be a good choice for folks who are drawn in multiple directions on Easter Sunday.

The Vigil Stories can be told dramatically, musically or in any creative or simple format.  For this Original Vigil the 'readings' are:

• 1st Creation Story: Gen 1
• The Exodus: 14.10-31, 15.20-21
• Dry Bones: Ezek 37
• Psalm 98
• Resurrection: Matt 28

If your family or group of friends or merry self would like to claim one of these readings...please make your comment below!

We will begin at 7.30 pm, and we will be done no later than 9pm.  
We will celebrate at the home of the Blackaby's.  

Plenty of time for all ages to rest up for the excitement of Easter morning.  :)

Holy Playfulness: October 27 is Costume Sunday!

Friends, family, neighbors and strangers... members of all ages are invited to wear a costume to church this Sunday, October 27th.  

• Be a ball player or your favorite book; 
• A map or a hero; a flower or a vase.  
• Dress up like a sacrament or a saint.  

Children, teens and adults who wear a costume TO WORSHIP AND FORMATION TIME will receive a prize!

The following WEDNESDAY Yg is COSTUME BOWLINg.  Bring your own or there will be duct tape and we can make one for you!

'Nick and Lucy' comes to St. Paul's!

What could be better than a festive winter brunch with Nick and Lucy?

DECEMBER 14th 2013

12 NOON 

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Walla Walla, Washington

All friends and families are invited to an extra-ordinary festive winter lunch with two ancient and holy guests: Nicholas of Myra and Lucia of Syracuse. 

These two holy friends will be visiting us from beyond time, having no knowledge of things beyond their earthly years.  They will tell us of their lives and of their service to the poor and needy.  This musical celebration includes prayers, songs, food and candy traditions as well as brunch.  A good way to celebrate without the holiday nonsense.

Please reserve your seats HERE by December 12th.

This is a 'Jane' tradition, and if you follow the link you will find the sermon from a previous Nick and Lucy Sunday.   Nick and Lucy begins promptly and is open to all ages, families, friends and neighbors.   Bring your grands and the nieces, bring anyone who needs a bit of 'unplugged' holiday joy.  Please also bring a gift of clean socks.   

Seats are available for a  $7 suggested donation per person, benefiting the youth and family ministry.  Any donation is welcome and payable at the door or online. 

Youth and their families will be invited to help prepare, offer and serve the brunch.

FLYER TO POST!

Advent Architects: December 1, 12 noon

Do you want to pull the plug on the holiday nonsense?  Or just dampen the noise a bit?

Do you want to help your children experience Christmas as a holy occasion?  

Join St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Walla Walla for  

Advent Architects: 

Sunday December 1, 12noon.   

Families, children, teens, parents and grandparents are invited to prepare for a holy Advent season with St. Paul's.  The activities include:

• painting and assembling portable Advent wreaths.  One to keep and one to share.
• preparing candy free Advent through Epiphany calendars for watching the days progress.
• cut and color holy families to process through your home till Epiphany (January 6)

Lunch will be a 'potluck' of of Turkey day leftovers!    Or is there a dish you love...but missed this year?  Make it and bring it along!

You may want to bring a smock or old oversized t-shirt to keep your clothes fresh.

Solo adults are also welcome and may enjoy the offerings.

All ages are invited; all friends and neighbors are always welcome. 

Help us plan ahead by signing up here.

Suggested donation $7 (can be made via credit card or paypal here!) 

Epiphany Pageant and Party!

Plan ahead and mark your calendars for the Epiphany Pageant and party in the evening on January 5th. We will be weaving together epiphany lessons with the amazing story by Sandy Sasso, 'God Said Amen'.

A few things you should know:

• Roles and readers will be recruited from children and teens! However, Jesus has already been cast.
• All are welcome! Even on the evening of the pageant, if a young person can find a costume and follow along..they can be in the show.
• Rehearsal is the morning before, 10-12 January 4th. Friends, grandchildren, cousins, nieces, neighbors, children...all are welcome.
• If you have an animal costume that your child has grown out of we would be glad to find a home for it.

The party foods will include king cakes and tamales. If you can help make or help purchase these, please let JAG know soon.

Creative tension: reForm

Two stories, two styles. One much more orderly, one more an illustration seeking to locate us within the mud and rivers of the fertile crescent. St. Paul's has wisely invested in the Godly Play method and materials for young children. However holy playfulness doesn't end as we live and grow. It is an important part of any relationship:with each other, with the community and even our traditions. Not a frivolous destructive leisure, but a creative interaction with God's will for his people.

This week in reForm we played a bit with the multiple origin stories of Genesis. How they reflect different intentions and styles, how they mesh fairly well with the contemporary story told by scientific discovery. One of the benefits of lifelong participation in a fun and smart church setting is being able to play with our setting, to play with joy and holiness. If getting up and out on a dreary morning when the Seahawks were playing was hard...here is what you missed.

This week in Godly Play featured the Great Flood.  If you look at the stuff marketed towards children and featuring Noah's Ark you would think it was a cute and cuddly story. However it is a deep and dark story about learning to live with one another; about what is important and what is not; and a story about getting so upset that you hurt something you love.  Children know all about that last bit.  Part of growing into a mature relationship with God and his people is learning to not 'throw the baby out with the bathwater'.

Lastly...if you are a pinterest pinner...we now have a pinterest page.  Just follow the link from the images in this post!

Looking for last Sunday's Sermon?

Did you miss the service this Sunday?  This is the link to last Sunday's sermon on JAG's personal blog page.  It also has various musings and older sermons.

"Greed, love, passion, want. These feelings make us want to clutch and grab and hold and lock things up. Greed and passion and want These feelings lead us into the sins that our friend Amos today was yelling about. Greed and hold and clutch and panic. That is not how Jesus lived, and not how he calls his disciples, how he calls you and me to live. Blessed the bread, broke the bread and he did what?"

"This parable is about what are you going to do, when everything else is pushed out of view. This is a kingdom parable; a reign of God parable, a radical invitation to the last things."

 Proper 20, Year C, RCL Track 2

 

YG Schedule Flip: October!

In October there will be a small change to the YGroup schedule.

• Oct 16 is now a Crash Course on Tools with Ernie Cambell!  (JAG will be out of town!)  
• Oct 23 will now be Whedon Wednesday with an episode of Angel.

Tonight: Crash Course: Fire!  If you have dry firewood...bring it along.  6-8pm @ StP WW

A Lost Sugar Tower and Lost Coins

To illustrate the parable of the lost coin the Reverend hid three single dollar bills in the side chapel and invited the children to find them.  They looked and looked.  In the same places, repeatedly.  The stack of liturgical cloth in the window must have been looked through a dozen times.  The children looked under cushions and under chairs, but rarely stopping long enough to look through the hundred or so prayer books and hymnals that reside in the small chapel.  It was a parable in motion.

I also want to mention how carefully they looked; approaching the brass with awe and honor, carefully looking through the altar book.  When a cloth went astray, another child would come behind and straighten it.  If you are not familiar with the Godly Play method, then you may not see what I saw.  That attention to detail; that careful concern for the space...that comes from our love for the space; but also from what they learn in the Montessori based Sunday School method we are so blessed to offer. 

We began the regular schedule of Sunday morning formation for all ages today.  The youngest children returned to Godly Play and the youth class began a new program: reForm.  Today's question..who wrote the Bible (and how and when and where) included the metaphor of building a tower, a group project with a  wide variety of materials.  The green apple licorice was left out of the process because it tasted shallow.  The candy corn was left out because the builders have a considerably biased view of marvelous fresh fall candy corn.  Yet the master let them choose as they were inspired (and enjoyed the candy corn).


After the lesson, but having nothing to do with the lesson at all, the reForm group was offered the chance to burn their tower down..to which the response was decidedly chipper  The flag was removed, and then the tower was carried outside to the fire-pit.  Where it burned down.  And was a great joy to all. 

See y'all next week!

A Very Good Sugar Filled Darling First Day of the Fall Program Year

We had a tremendous amount of fun today at St. Paul's.  Cupcakes and gizmos aplenty.  Ministries and coffee galore. 

Online Formation Form for Sunday School and Youth Group

Hi there.
This Sunday is the ministry fair.  This form can be filled out there, but it can also be filled out now.  Right where you are.  It will take no time at all!

This is the online registration form for Sunday morning formation for children and youth and Wednesday Youth Group for youth.


This will help JAG have current contact information for all families. 

Thanks.

Open Playdate

We will begin a new monthly gathering for parents and families this September: PLAYDATE.  Playdate is an open group for anyone with children and youth at home: parents or primary caregivers.   

Friends, family, neighbors, and even strangers, are all welcome.   

This will meet once a month, alternating between events with children’s activities and occasions for adults with childcare provided.   

The first PLAYDATE will be a Fingerfood Picnic at Pioneer Park by the playground, on Sunday, September 15^th at 4pm.  This first event is for all ages.

Please bring a fingerfood to share.   Make sure to bring a label if it has any high allergen ingredients.


This first PLAYDATE will also be my welcome party.  So come on out!