August 3, 2023 | VOLUME 35, ISSUE 29

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The Transfiguration:

August 6, 2023

SCRIPTURE READINGS

Exodus 34:29-35

2 Peter 1:13-21

Luke 9:28-36

Psalm 99 or 99:5-9

Preacher: The Reverend Jennifer Wagner Pavia

Saturday, August 5, 5:00 PM: "Strictly Ballroom" - Sisters of Bede venue at the home of Frank Basile

Thursday, August 10, 5:30 PM: Dinner and Assembly for the Backpack Project

Sunday, August 13, 1:30 PM: Grassroots Neighbors



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

Date & Time: Thursday, August 10, at 5:30 PM.

For the last several years, St. Bede’s has partnered with First AME Church on a back-to-school backpack project for children in foster care, and this summer we are doing it again.

We plan to fill 45 backpacks (15 for elementary school-age children, 15 for middle school and 15 for high school), and we’re collecting monetary donations to buy the supplies that will go inside.

If you’re writing a check, please make them payable to St. Bede’s with “Backpack Project” in the memo portion (at the lower left corner of the check.) You can bring the checks (or cash) to church, mail the checks to church, or send your checks to Alice Short (3156 Coolidge Ave. Los Angeles 90066). In addition, you can donate via the St. Bede’s Vanco e-giving and payment process site.

Questions? Please reach out to members of the Mission Committee.

YOU ARE INVITED!!!

Jesus replied, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 3:33-35)

God took something essential for sustaining life, a universal staple for survival, and transformed it into an everlasting means of experiencing divine grace, for remembering God’s faithful love accessible by all of us.

Preparing Communion bread can be a spiritual exercise. The hands-on preparation of mixing and kneading, combined with the meditative nature of waiting on bread to bake, offers an opportunity for active contemplation. It's also fun!

The Holy Rollers, St. Bede's Communion bread ministry, invites you to experience the sacred art of making Communion bread for our worship services. No experience necessary and all supplies and equipment are provided.

This is a joyful ministry, and we are hoping that some newcomers will join us. We will likely meet monthly during the day to bake and once every two months to make the dough and bake a batch. Please let Reverend Jennifer or Susan Holder know if you are interested in joining our team and when you are available.

Therese Lee, our neighbor who lives on the grounds of St. Bede’s, will return to L.A. for an encore performance of RIDING THE BUS TO THE RED CARPET which received the 2023 Bistro Award for Outstanding Autobiographical Show. The show recalls her days in Los Angeles as an entertainment reporter too broke to own a car, and shares what her interactions with some of Hollywood's biggest stars during that time did to change her life forever.

RIDING THE BUS TO THE RED CARPET includes an eclectic set of songs from such songwriters as Jerry Herman, Richard Maltby & David Shire, Cy Coleman, Diane Warren & Lady Gaga, Patty Griffin, John Prine and more. The show is back in Los Angeles after its premiere at Feinstein's at Vitello's, NYC performances at the Triad Theater and Don't Tell Mama, and performances in Palm Springs and Palm Desert.

Music Director Doug Peck is a Los Angeles based musician and educator. He has appeared in concert with artists like Renée Fleming, Heather Headley, Michelle Williams, Lupe Fiasco, Jessie Mueller, Shemekia Copeland, John Prine, Matthew Polenzani, Kristin Chenoweth, André DeShields, Tovah Feldshuh, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Ernestine Jackson, among many others.  The show is directed by Jeff Harnar, a multiple MAC, Bistro and Broadway World Cabaret Award winning Director, recipient of The Noel Coward Foundation Cabaret Award and was the 2022 Chicago Cabaret Professionals National Honoree. He has directed solo shows for Tovah Feldshuh and Rita Gardner and award winning shows for Celia Berk, Dawn Derow, Margo Brown and Josephine Sanges.

RIDING THE BUS TO THE RED CARPET plays at THE GARDENIA (7066 Santa Monica Blvd.) Saturday, August 19, 2023, at 9PM.  There is a $20.00 Cover Charge with a $14 two drink minimum. Reservations can be made at 323-467-7444.

Therese Lee is a versatile performer who has sung in every genre from opera and art song (in five languages) to musical theater and the Great American Songbook, she has a BA in music from UCLA and has performed her own cabaret acts in Los Angeles at the Cinegrill, the Gardenia, Masquers Cabaret and Feinstein's at Vitello's. In 2019, she participated in Professional Track of the St. Louis Cabaret Conference, which gave her the opportunity to work with the finest members of the cabaret community from around the country, including Marilyn Maye, Jeff Harnar, and Faith Prince. BRAVO Therese for your outstanding career!

The Daphne A. Moote Learning Academy (DAMLA) is a popular summer program that has operated in the South Bay area for many years and on the grounds of St. Bede’s in recent summers. Students in DAMLA participate in a variety of activities emphasizing their creative talents. In addition to daily cooking experiences, activities include innovative science projects, creative media, art, music, movement and a field trip.

Program founders, Daphne Moote and Akani Fletcher, have trained hundreds of students in grades K-7. As a result of their ongoing educational research, they believe that learning through the performing arts enhances academic performance, encourages personal development and strengthens self-image, while promoting camaraderie and leadership. They have fashioned a curriculum that is both challenging and fun and chock full of encouragement. Each summer series culminates in the performance of an original children’s play and this year did not disappoint; it was as precious as can be. CONGRATULATIONS, Daphne and Akani, on another successful year!

DAMLA is a non-profit organization. All donations are tax deductible. Donations to their Scholarship Fund are gratefully accepted directly to Daphne or Akani, as well as by credit card to: S.E.E. at 818-255-9150, and specify DAMLA.

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.

St. Michael’s Apartments, Riverside, officially opens in festive program of dance, song and blessing

By Janet Kawamoto

After a multi-year process of visioning, fundraising, and engaging the support of multiple agencies, civic groups and neighbors, St. Michael’s Apartments, the first fruits of the Diocese of Los Angeles’ affordable housing initiative, officially opened in Riverside on July 24 with a festive program featuring Native American dance, song and blessing.

Bishop John Harvey Taylor offered a prayer consecrating the 50-unit building of affordable housing units, all of which now are occupied by single men and women and families with children. 

Taylor lauded the work of the Rev. Canon Mary Crist, who answered Bishop J. Jon Bruno’s call 12 years ago to develop a new ministry at St. Michael’s Ministry Center, which no longer sustained a regular congregation, but had a large property located in an area experiencing high rates of poverty and homelessness. Crist built up a community by helping to meet immediate needs, starting with a place for homeless people to congregate without fear of being chased away by residents or police. As the St. Michael’s community grew, it also became a gathering place for local Native Americans, who found a champion in Crist, an enrolled member of the Blackfeet tribe and indigenous education minister on the staff of The Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.

The new apartments were built with help from a wide range of private and government organizations. Kyle Paine, president and co-founder of Newport Beach-based Community Development Partners, which oversaw the project, was master of ceremonies for the opening program. 

Palestinian Christians in Israel

By John Harvey Taylor | The Bishop's Blog

“It’s time to solve the crisis instead of managing it, as the United States and Israel usually do,” the Rev. Dr. Fadi Diab said today. “Because 76 years of military occupation is enough.” Rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Ramallah, visiting the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles with his spouse, Ruba, and their sons, Phillipe and Andrew, Fr. Fadi addressed a luncheon audience of 40 at St. Paul’s Commons, Echo Park. The Diabs are guests of Randall Heyn-Lamb and Doni Heyn-Lamb of the Jerusalem committee of our Program Group on Global Ministry. I had the pleasure of introducing Fr. Fadi.

He offered no detailed plan for peace, justice, and national self-determination beyond insisting that the status quo is unsustainable. Israel’s right-wing government and extremist elements in Palestine are caught in a feedback loop, with violence in the occupied West Bank at its highest level in 30 years. Settlers are increasing their attacks on Christians and their religious sites. The Palestinian Authority, weakened by corruption, is failing to control Hamas and other extremists.

Meanwhile, Fadi says, follow the demographics. With 90% of Palestinians living in cities and towns, and 76% of the occupied West Bank under Israeli security in the so-called Area C, Fadi suggested we take the word of Israeli leaders who say their ultimate plan is annexation of most of the territory once envisioned as the heart of an autonomous Palestinian state.

It’s hard not to be pessimistic. And yet our hope is in the name of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth,” Fadi said, adding, “Netanyahu doesn’t have the last word; God does.” He puts considerable faith in the church to pressure governments, especially in the United States, to take up the cause of Palestinian self-determination more forcefully, using economic leverage if necessary, as we did against South Africa during the international struggle against apartheid.

Read more here

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Participants of a Women’s Dream Quest walk a labyrinth at Grace Cathedral, Nov. 18, 2022, in San Francisco. Photo: Lars Howlett

Labyrinth walking became popular during COVID-19, Episcopal priest says practice is common in time of crisis

By Kathryn Post

For years, at 9:30 a.m. on the first Saturday of the month, Mark Hutchinson could usually be found at the edge of the city of Sheffield, England, about to embark into the countryside with a dozen others — mostly people of color — for a three-hour walk.

“It’s part of our very specific aim that the countryside should be open to people, whatever their race or gender, sexuality, disability, mental health awareness,” Hutchinson told Religion News Service about the group — originally called Black Men Walking, now Walk4Health — when it was formed in 2003. After decades of walks, the core members became as close as some family members.

But just as Britain’s pandemic shutdowns began, Hutchinson, 62, was diagnosed with cancer. The walks were often canceled, and he rarely felt well enough to go. After days of praying and asking God how to cope with the diagnosis, one answer came in the form of two members of his longtime walking group.

“I still wanted to do walking and I didn’t know whether I would be up for walking with the group. But I felt that I could turn to both of my close colleagues and walk with them.”

Hutchinson, raised Anglican, said his close friends aren’t religious, but for him their shorter walks have taken on a spiritual quality, becoming a buoy of support and a time of sacred companionship.

There’s nothing new about walking for one’s health, or even for spiritual succor. But in the past three pandemic years, walking outdoors became for many a COVID-19-safe way to continue meditating, praying or connecting with nature in community. And as mortality rates drove people to realign their priorities, many simply turned to walking as a venue for introspection.



READ MORE ON ENS

Migrants, without a place to stay upon arrival in Chicago, Illinois, seek safe shelter inside the District 12 station of the Chicago Police Department on May 17, 2023. Photo: Eric Cox/REUTERS

Episcopal churches, ecumenical partners address crisis as asylum-seekers continue to arrive daily in Chicago

By Shireen Korkzan

Over the last year, more than 11,000 asylum-seekers have arrived in Chicago, Illinois, by private bus from Texas, and the numbers continue to rise as the city faces a humanitarian crisis because its shelters are overcapacity.

For a year Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has been bussing asylum-seekers to Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and other cities that are designated “sanctuary cities” daily as a “protest against immigration policies.” These cities have passed laws that protect undocumented migrants from deportation or prosecution by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement despite federal law prohibiting illegal immigration.” Chicago designated itself a “sanctuary city” in 1985.

The first busload of asylum-seekers arrived at Chicago’s Union Station from Texas in late August last year.

“Most of the time, the asylum-seekers either have no idea where they’re heading, or they think they’ll arrive at their intended final destinations to reunite with families already settled in the United States, only to end up surprised that they ended up in Chicago instead,” said the Rev. Steven Balke, canon for outreach and pastoral care at St. James Cathedral in downtown Chicago.

Episcopal churches throughout Chicago are partnering with area faith-based and secular nonprofit organizations to assist asylum-seekers as they arrive in the city. Efforts include using churches as emergency housing sites and providing transportation for asylum-seekers needing to meet with immigration officials, among others.

READ MORE ON ENS

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