Sunday Morning Prayer September 17
Service is at 10:30 am
BC Franson, Licensed Worship Leader
All are welcome to join St. James for services in church every Sunday or stream the service at the link below:
Internet Streaming Location Link:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/93422716877?pwd=b0dSU1pKVU5nRFVQQ21kY3pLbDVwZz09
Click on this link for the Sunday Bulletin
Should you wish to give an offertory to St. James, GiveMn is available all year :
https://www.givemn.org/donate/Stjamesepiscopalmarshall
St James Episcopal Church, Marshall in southwest Minnesota is a small rural Shared Ministry parish, where everyone in the parish family is given the opportunity to find and do the ministry to which God is calling them.
St James Episcopal Church continues to function with lay ministry led worship and supply priests to carry out the mission of the church.
We respect the dignity of every human being and welcome ALL people to our fellowship. We strive for justice and peace in the world and work to spread the message of Christ in what we do and who we are.
Join us!
The Episcopal Church has a legacy of inclusion, aspiring to share and show God’s love for every human being and welcoming all regardless of heritage, gender, sexual identity or orientation.
Our church family in Marshall honors that legacy and welcomes all people looking for an open and inclusive community and faith family.
Episcopal News Service:
https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/
From Bishop Loya
Beloved in Christ,
Loneliness is killing us. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently issued a report that called loneliness as deadly to our health and well-being as smoking. We live in an age when connecting has never been easier, and yet on the whole, study after study has confirmed that we are lonelier than we have ever been. Our bonds with one another affect every aspect of our emotional, spiritual, and physical well-being, and nearly everything in contemporary American society conspires to impede it.
Pentecost, the major feast we celebrate this Sunday, is God's subversion of human isolation. It is God's answer to Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17, that we "all may be one." We are told that "there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem." When the apostles are praying, the Spirit descends on them like flames of fire, and everyone hears the apostles speaking in their own language. In the midst of that staggering cultural, political, racial, and linguistic diversity, Pentecost is the great miracle of community and communion. At Pentecost, God draws us from scattered fragments into the Beloved Community. (Incidentally, the mitre traditionally worn by bishops is meant to evoke this image, and is a symbol of the Spirit's ongoing presence in and with the Church).
But make no mistake, Pentecost doesn't erase the differences and diversity present. It's not that everyone speaks or hears the same language, it's that deep connections are formed across differences. The Church's mission is not uniformity, but community and connection. The Church's purpose is to join God's ongoing work of subverting human isolation with loving community.
This week, I invite you to pray, every day, for the Spirit to be poured out in new and fresh ways on our diocese. Pray that in a culture of exclusion and isolation, we might be agents of connection. Pray that our faith communities may be places of big, crazy, expansive, and life-saving embrace. Pray that you, and I, might fully take our part in patching the fabric of the creation God longs to heal in the eternal embrace of God's love.
Grace and Peace,
The Right Reverend Craig Loya
X Bishop
A call to ALL . . .
On behalf of St. James Episcopal Church, we are inviting you to bring your ideas and voices together with us, as we address difficult scenarios facing public safety and our communities.
Building the Beloved Community - Interfaith Action
The Episcopal Church has a history of inclusion – as we have accepted different theologies, lifestyles, and viewpoints to strengthen our faith tradition. As a member of the church, BC Franson volunteered to become part of Building the Beloved Community Public Safety Project. This project is a joint effort by Interfaith Action of Greater St. Paul and the Department of Public Safety to gain insight from various faith communities across Minnesota on issues facing our law enforcement officers and our community members.
Reading Luke 4:21-30 and 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 together we are reminded that to be Christ in the World we must go beyond our community . . .our hometowns. . .our church to love others and do God’s work for ALL – as we come together to ponder questions and issues we begin to understand the impact of our personal decisions in difficult moments and can see God’s work in the world.
Faith-Based Principles Informing Public Safety
The following principles emerged out of conversations at twenty-five houses of worship in Minnesota, spanning Protestant, Catholic, Buddhist, Jewish, and non-denominational settings. Conversations were held between January-September 2022. Over 900 responses were collected and analyzed. Additional context is included in the attached report, and resources and recordings for the project may be found at https://interfaithaction.org/get-involved/buildingbeloved/.
Participants explored difficult dilemmas faced by peace officers. They studied scenarios offered by Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety, John Harrington, and analyzed how our religious traditions reveal core values that should inform peace officers’ responses in those scenarios.
We urge you, as our state-wide policymakers, to incorporate the following four principles into your decisions about specific proposals to build a more effective public safety system in Minnesota:
- Take a systems approach to public safety. Work across agencies to identify and address systemic issues impacting situations where peace officers may be the first to respond (e.g. mental health, homelessness, food insecurity, racism, addiction, domestic violence, gun violence, etc.).
- Shift police culture towards a “guardian” model of public safety. Hire and train peace
officers to:
- preserve the sanctity of human life,
- prevent unnecessary use of force,
- engage in collaborative problem-solving, and
- presume innocence.
- Foster respect & empathy between peace officers and the community. Build awareness of the impact of systemic injustices, the challenges of making split-second decisions, and other factors that play a role during crisis situations. Foster stronger relationships between all involved, particularly between BIPOC communities and peace officers.
- Acknowledge complexity & work through tensions. Rather than champion one single or simple solution, work through tensions that arise in prioritizing values (e.g. sanctity of life, bodily safety, justice and equality).
The following twenty-five houses of worship participated in this project, and endorse these principles:
o Adath Jeshurun Congregation, Minnetonka
o AssumptionCatholicChurch,SaintPaul
o BethElSynagogue,SaintLouisPark
o BethJacobCongregation,MendotaHeights
o Bethlehem Lutheran Church in the Midway, Saint Paul
o CommonGroundMeditationCenter,Minneapolis
o ForestHillsUnitedMethodistChurch,ForestLake
o Hazel Park United Church of Christ, Saint Paul
o HillCityUnitedMethodistChurch,HillCity
o Hope Community Church, Lowertown Saint Paul
o ImmanuelLutheranChurch,SaintPaul
o Lord of Life Lutheran Church, Maple Grove
o MinnesotaCorrectionalFacility,LinoLakes
o MinnesotaZenMeditationCenter,Minneapolis
o Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis
o RedeemerLutheranChurch,Minneapolis
o St.AnthonyParkLutheranChurch,SaintPaul
o St. Anthony Park United Church of Christ, Saint Paul
o St.JamesEpiscopal,Marshall
o St.JohntheBaptistEpiscopalChurch,Minneapolis
o St.Paul'sUnitedChurchofChrist,SaintPaul
o St.PeterClaverCatholicChurch,SaintPaul
o St.RoseofLimaCatholicChurch,Roseville
o United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, Saint Paul
o ZionLutheranChurch,SaintPaul
The Beautiful Gardens
the loving Ministry of Shannen Louwagie
Summer will return. Feel warm while enjoying the memory of summers past.
