6 November 2025

 

Dear People of St. Nicholas and Casa Maria Food Shelf,

     We had a great beginning to our new program year with Cyara’s presentation about Casa Maria and her family’s experience in America.  The St. Nicholas Prayer Group is in full gear and have met for the last two Sundays after the 10:00 am Eucharist and Coffee Fellowship.  This group is open to everybody - all ages and men and women. The name might be a little misleading in that we don’t pray the entire meeting. We have conversations about topics such as The Last Supper, look at artwork and talk about God’s work in the world. See The Rev. Kathleen Galvin for more details about this dynamic ministry.  She’s the group facilitator. 

     You should have received a letter from me about Stewardship and our Campaign this year with the theme, Tell Out My Soul. Here are more Updates and developments since the last E Meditation and updates:

     1) This coming Sunday, November 9, 2025, will be our 2026 Pledges "In-Gathering” in which we will bless the Pledge cards and thank God for generous hearts and generous giving. We hope you would prayerfully consider increasing your Pledge as we also are hit with inflation and rising costs. If you have already handed in a Pledge Card perhaps you may wish to change it. You may do so by completing another one with a note to ignore the first card. Above and beyond pledging, we also need more volunteers. We need acolytes, lectors, chalice bearers, Altar Guild persons, Coffee Fellowship treat providers, Fund Raiser team leaders and members, etc. As you all well know, it takes more than money to offer ministries in our church. 

     Tell Out My Soul is a reference to the Magnificat and Mary’s response to  the Angel Gabriel telling her she would bear a child. It’s a story and it’s stories bringing us together. Each of us has a story to tell, a reason why we found this diverse faith community of St. Nicholas and why we continue to participate in its ministries.  One of the parts of our Good News is that we can bring our whole selves, all our story, to St. Nicholas and to its people and receive the support, praise and encouragement that we need. Thank you very much for giving out of abundance and not scarcity. I can’t tell you enough how grateful I am.

     2) As I’m writing this to you, early this morning around 7:00 am, Tom McConnell and I are at the church as the old furnaces are taken out and new ones installed. It couldn’t be timelier as Sunday’s weather is predicted to be cold. Thank you to those of you who donated for these new furnaces. We won’t have to worry about them for a very long time. Special thanks to the Trustees of the Diocese (ECMN) for their financial support for this new project. Much appreciation to them!

     3) We are in need of someone to oversee our Prayer List - people to pray for throughout the year. That individual would update it as needed and keep it current. Please see me if interested.

     4) A very warm welcome to Betsy Tibbs who transferred her membership from St. John’s in the Wilderness of Flat Rock, North Carolina, to St. Nicholas. Betsy has also very graciously volunteered to be an acolyte. Thank you, Betsy, and we’re so pleased you chose us to be part of our growing faith community.

     5) Does anyone have a birthday or anniversary in November? I didn’t see anyone on the list I have. Please let me know if you are having one this month or next so we can celebrate it as a community.

     6) The Season of Advent begins on Sunday, November 30, 2025. Advent is a time when we prepare ourselves for the coming of Christ. It is also meant to be a time of reflection and a time set aside to renew our commitment to Jesus. You can find an Advent devotional book, A Light Upon My Path, at shop.forwardmovement.org. 

        The meditations in it explore the light and hope of Christ in a weary world. Inspired by the readings from the Daily Office and/or the Revised Common Lectionary, each day’s devotion invites you to embrace the wonder of God's birth and the promise it holds for you. The book costs $12.00.

     7) Each of you will receive a complimentary Advent meditation booklet for your own use. In your devotional booklet, you will find daily meditations, prayers and personal stories of growth that illustrate how God speaks to people through various life experiences. I hope you make use of it.

     8) Special thanks to Rich Makela who enhanced our liturgy last Sunday with the clarinet and Kerry Banks with drums.    ​

     9) Casa Maria news - see Casa Maria Donation page.  

​​     10) I’m thinking about a Thanksgiving Eucharist on Wednesday, November 26, 2025. Give some thought about it yourselves. We offered it last year at 5:30 pm or 6:00 pm and only 2 people came. 

     11) St. George’s Episcopal Church in St. Louis Park is closing on December 28, 2025. They are merging with St. David’s Episcopal Church in Minnetonka. Not all their people will go there. I invited their people to visit us any Sunday and said that they would be more than welcome at St. Nicholas! They actually published my Invitation in their November Newsletter. So if you should meet a person visiting us from St. George’s, please invite them to consider joining us.

     12) Cyara and I will be representing St. Nicholas at the Annual ECMN Convention in Rochester on November 14 and 15, 2025. I’ll come back late Friday night so I can be here for the Spanish Mass at 4 pm. 

     13) Thanks to Uriel Duran and Tomy Linares along with Cyara and Cindy for putting together a special altar for All Saints/AllSouls Day. We had many photos of deceased relatives and it was a wonderful celebration of their lives! 

     14) Thanks to all who helped with the delicious dinner  following the All Saints/All Souls Spanish Mass last Saturday. This was open to everyone at the Mass and our friends from St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Linden Hills. A good time was indeed had by all!

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     I can now report to you that we have heat!!! Tom McConnell made sure all was done to have it. Thanks to Tom for coming in before 7:00 am and being with me while the furnaces were being installed. There are many other things I could tell you but I don’t want to make this too long. The E Meditation follows. Suffice to say, St. Nicholas is alive, vibrant and growing because of each of you! Tell others about us, invite them to visit and extend an open hand to them to join us. See YOU on Saturday or Sunday!

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E MEDITATION

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     I’d like to focus this week on the nature of communities and for us to think and pray about what “community” means for you and me at St. Nicholas!

     Nothing is sweet or easy about community! Community is a fellowship of people who do not hide their joys and sorrows but make them visible to each other as a gesture of hope.

     In community we say: “Life is full of gains and losses, joys and sorrows, ups and downs—but we do not have to live it alone. We want to drink our cup together and thus celebrate the truth that the wounds of our individual lives, which seem intolerable when lived alone, become sources of healing when we live them as part of a fellowship of mutual care.”

     Community is like a large mosaic. Each little piece seems so insignificant. One piece is bright red, another cold blue or dull green, another warm purple, another sharp yellow, another shining gold. Some look precious, others ordinary. Some look valuable, others worthless. Some look gaudy, others delicate. We can do little with them as individual stones except compare them and judge their beauty and value. When, however, all these little stones are brought together in one big mosaic, portraying the face of Christ, who would ever question the importance of any one of them? 

     If one of them, even the least spectacular one is missing the face is incomplete. Together in the one mosaic, each little stone is indispensable and makes a unique contribution to the glory of God. That’s community, our growing community of St. Nicholas, a fellowship of little people who together make God visible in the world.

     The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.., 1 Corinthians 12: 21-22

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     Have a fabulous weekend and as always I look forward to being with you on either Saturday at 4pm or Sunday at 10:00 am. Stay warm!

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Your faithful servant in Christ Jesus,

Father Rob+