By The Rev. Dr. Paul S. Nancarrow

(Romans 12:15-16). Sharing joys and sorrows in harmony and compassion is, as Paul sees it, an essential component of the Christian life.

The same thing is still true two thousand years later. The way we rejoice with the joyful and weep with the suffering is integral to our being as Christians. It is part of the mission and ministry Jesus shares with us as his people in the world. Sharing joys and sorrows in the community is near the heart of what we are learning to call “mission-minded” faith and practice. Howard Hanchey—whose book From Survival to Celebration is guiding the Vestry’s and the parish’s thoughts about mission-mindedness this year—points out that a core principle of mission-mindedness is “the wonderful ministry of identifying and celebrating God at work in the world.” One of the most important ministries we can offer to each other is to help identify and celebrate how God is present in the joys—and, yes, in the sorrows, too—that we experience. Inviting others to know and share the things that make us weep and the things that make us smile and the things that make us shout

aloud for joy is one of the ways we can invite others to come to know the presence and power of God.

And that touches on a part of parish life that we usually call “pastoral care.” We often think of pastoral care as a specialized ministry in the church, in which a priest or designated lay-pastor comes to someone who is in need—and, more rarely, someone who is in joy—and offers to listen, to counsel, to encourage, to comfort—in short, to be a “helping professional” in a spiritual mode. We can think of pastoral care as a service the church offers to parishioners, in the same way a bank offers financial services to its customers or a club offers membership services to its dues-payers, a service that must be organized and administrated so that one submits one’s needs and the organization provides the requested service.

But Paul (and Hanchey, too) invites us to see pastoral care in a different light. Pastoral care is one dimension of the ministry of identifying and celebrating God’s work in the world. Pastoral care is visiting someone who is sick, allowing her or him to be honest about how much it hurts and how frustrating it is to feel debilitated and how eager he or she is to feel better—weeping with the one who weeps—and then identifying God’s grace in the moment of sharing that offered an experience of something other than pain. Pastoral care is getting a phone call from a friend who is all excited because he or she just found a new job, encouraging her or him to feel happy about the new opportunity and challenge and growth that job will bring—rejoicing with the one who rejoices—and then celebrating God’s grace in this creation of new possibilities. Pastoral care is not only reaching out to others who rejoice or weep, but pastoral care is also inviting others in when you rejoice or weep, so that you and they might both have the chance to identify and celebrate God in the midst of life.

One of the goals the Vestry set for our parish life at St. George’s this year is to improve our pastoral care among our members. On one level this means working out the administrative ways we connect needs and resources: it means calling the parish office when you have a need or an illness or a hospitalization, so that you can be on the prayer chain or scheduled for a lay eucharistic visitor or called on in the hospital by Fr. Paul. It means sharing information with the parish in appropriate ways, ways that do not violate privacy or dignity, so that parishioners can pray and send cards and cook meals and do other things for each other to help in time of need and celebrate in time of joy. It means having healing services, and naming intercessions and thanksgivings out loud in the Prayers of the People on Sundays, and recognizing important accomplishments and milestones with prayers in the service or with parties in the parish hall, so that the joys and sorrows that weave through our lives are not ours alone, but contribute to the crazy quilt of love and sharing that makes up our parish life.

And improving our pastoral care to each other means more as well, above and beyond the administrative and the programmatic. It means taking the risk to let someone else know about your pain and your happiness—and both can be risky! - while trusting that God will reveal an ever greater harmony in such knowing. It means making the wonderful discovery that pastoral care isn’t just the province of a few special “pastorally trained” people, but is a sharing for which all Christians are called and empowered. It means opening the heart to the full range of rejoicing and weeping, the “uppest” ups and the “downest” downs, in the fundamental faith that wherever two or three are gathered to share, Christ is among them, and Christ’s love lifts up and makes whole all or joys, all our sorrows, all our lives in God.

St. Paul tells us that rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep is part of our Christian mission. For mission-minded Christians, such happiness and such sorrow are avenues into the deeper joy, the deepest joy, of being witnesses to the love and grace of God.

Responses by parish members to these questions will help guide the vestry, rector and parish leaders as they work out the vision for St. George’s mission. As we heard at the annual meeting, we are seeking to move from “maintenance” to “mission” in how we conduct our parish life. That means we want to be more focused on what God is leading us to do and less so on just maintaining what we have.

You’ll also be offered the opportunity to be part of an effort to create a parish quilt. Callers will have instructions for you when they visit.

Please say “yes” when you are called!

John and Sandy Stonhouse

St. George’s Evangelism

Team Members

Doubling the enjoyment of the concert for St. Georgites will be the fun of hosting some of the singers in our own homes over the weekend. Belcanto was scheduled to come last year but sadly canceled because of the September 11 tragedy. Happily, they have decided to return this year.

This talented group of 28 singers, teens to adults, arrives on Friday, September 27 and will be performing in the Twin Cities, New Ulm and a number of locations in Washington state before returning home in early October.

Der Chor Belcanto comes to us from Bovenden, Germany in Lower Saxony. Director and founder, Torsten Derlin and his wife Anneli are familiar faces to many St. Georgites. They brought their group to perform here in 1992 and 1996.

An insert in this issue of St. George’s Today invites parishioners to sign up to host some choir members in our homes over the September 27-29 weekend. As many of us recall from ‘92 and ‘96, this is an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

Contact John and Sandy Stonhouse at 952-920-4024 to arrange hosting.

Parish Life and Celebration is about:

1. Fostering a mission mindset throughout the church

2. Creating clear mechanisms for pastoral care that both supports parishioners in times of need and shares the joy with them in times of celebration -- making sure both areas are consistently addressed

3. Acknowledging and celebrating the contributions individuals and groups have made to the parish and to the community at large

4. Interacting with groups to discern cross-team support opportunities

5. Educating parishioners about what God is calling other people and groups in the parish to do and inviting parishioners to explore what possibilities for ministry might be available to them through those groups

6. Encouraging groups and individuals to invite non-members and the community at large to celebrate with us at church events whenever possible and appropriate

7. Inviting others to create their own opportunities for ministry as short or long term partners on the Parish Life and Celebration team

Roxie and John view the new PLC team as a wonderful opportunity to enhance the pastoral care of all parishioners; as a platform for letting people know about the different missions within the parish; and as a mission of support to foster greater cooperation, understanding and strength.

To bring PLC to life, Roxie and John are working on a couple of projects. The first is developing clear mechanisms to insure the pastoral needs of all parishioners are met in the ways they want them to be met. Second is to talk with all the groups around the church to find out what they do, what ministry opportunities they offer, what support would be helpful from members of the parish or other groups, and what invitation they would like to extend for others to explore whether an opportunity for mission exists for them.

We will be celebrating and acknowledging their contributions in the Sunday bulletin and the monthly newsletter. We will also be hosting Open Houses for each group or team and inviting the congregation to come and learn about the groups for themselves. (If you’re worried these Open Houses will be hard-sell recruiting drives for volunteers, don’t worry. They will be informational only. If you see an opportunity for personal ministry, wonderful, and if you don’t, at least you will have had the chance to learn from and acknowledge those who so generously serve St. George’s.)

We invite all members of the parish to approach us with their ideas about what Parish Life and Celebration means to them and what ideas they might have for bringing it to life. We also invite anyone who sees an opportunity to serve through the PLC to let us know – we would welcome your support at whatever level you feel comfortable.

Here in the St. George’s community, Eileen is a member of the Vestry, serves on the Evangelism leadership team, ministers at the altar as a lector and a lay eucharistic minister, among other ministries past and present. Her professional skills in communications and her ministry roles for the Gospel come together in many ways.

It is part of the mission of our parish life that we weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Please rejoice with Eileen in this significant professional accomplishment!

Katherine Bloomquist -graduating from St. Louis Park High School and will be attending the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington in the fall. Katherine served on the Rector Search Committee and was an acolyte here at St. George’s. She also received the “Caring Youth” award from the city of St. Louis Park.

Alex Kotula is graduating from Eden Prairie High School and will be attending the University of Michigan in the fall. Alex has served as an acolyte and as a youth representative on the Vestry.

Jessica Monroe is graduating from St. Louis Park High School and will be attending St. Thomas University in the fall. Jessica was an acolyte and also a youth representative on the Vestry.

Ashley Tomoson, who has worked in our nursery the last couple of years, has graduated from St. Louis Park High School and will attend college this fall to earn a degree in Elementary Education. Ashley also received a scholarship from Citizen’s Independent Bank. Way to go, Ashley!

The St. Louis Park Emergency Program provides a bag of school supplies appropriate for the grade level—for each registered student. Each student will also receive a backpack (if needed), socks, underwear and a bag of toiletries.

Think back to your first day of school and remember how important it was to have new “stuff”. The normal school supplies are needed: folders notebooks, pencils, ball point pens, rulers, glue, scissors, crayons, colored pencils—and just about anything you can think of.

St. George’s collection will be from July 15 through August 10. Please leave your donations on the bench in the narthex. If you would prefer to donate money, it is always needed.

Checks should be made out to STEP. Help to make some child’s first day of school more special!

“Things seem to have gone well and I am anxious to be back at the desk in the office. Hopefully, by the time you read this I am back at the office and ready to work!”

Eleanor Wylie—”I wish to thank the members of St. George’s for all their prayers, calls, cards and visits when I was recovering from my fractured hip. The support of the St. George’s Parish Family has meant much to me during this difficult time.”

New Albs! - Thanks to the generous donations of many people we were able to order new albs for our Lectors, Lay Eucharistic Ministers and Acolytes in early June. They were promised to be here by the middle of June. These new vestments will be a welcome change—they are much lighter in weight than the old ones. Check them out!