Bear one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.
Galatians 6.2:
This is the blog page where our Diocesan Family in the Diocese of Olympia can give words of encouragement to the people of St. James.
Our Diocesan Family Responds
Aug 31
Processional Cross Stand
Aug 30
We had a very wonderful worship on Sunday with 33 in attendance.
Just as we had processed out of St. James building last week, we met outside to process into the sanctuary of the Methodist Church.
Vicki Wesen preached an excellent sermon about the many altars that St. James around which St. James had celebrated the Eucharist over the years.
The altar guild, worship team, and coffee hour folks did a great job in the new space. Coffee hour was warm and full of laughter.
The pastor from Central UMC joined us for the Eucharist and said some warm words of welcome to all of us. Terry Kyllo stayed for the first part of Central’s service and said thank you to the congregation for their hospitality.
Here is a photo of the stand for the processional cross.
Dear People St. James,
We will be worshiping at Central United Methodist Church at our usual time of 9:00 AM with fellowship hour to follow at 1013 Polte Road, Sedro Woolley,WA. Here is a link with a map.
Judy, Joanna, Pat, Judy Baker, Terry, Rilla and Vicki met at SJ at 11:00 AM. We moved a lot of stuff over to the storage room at Central UMC.
Of course it rained!
The Altar Guild will be working on Saturday to move other worship items to Central.
Rilla has ordered flowers for the congregation so that we might say “thank you” to the congregation for their hospitality. The Clergy and Vestry have sent a letter to the congregation to express our thanks as well.
On a more dour note, we changed the locks today. Bev, Jim and Judy, and Terry will have keys. We really need to only go in for necessary items. There are signs on the door that tell folks where we are worshiping for now.
You can always check our website for up-to-date worship times and maps. We will also post this sort of information on the “Blog” section of our web site. http://stjamessw.org
In the Peace of Christ,
The Clergy of St. James
The Rev. Terry Kyllo
The Rev. Vicki Wesen
The Rev. Rilla Barrett
The Rev. Dennis Taylor
The Vestry of St. James
Bev Holden, Judy Smith, Jim Smith,
Jolene Sloniker, Gloria Mapes, Paul Chaplin
Letter to Central UMC
Aug 27
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
To Our Dear Friends at Central United Methodist Church,
As you may have heard, our building is now 103 years old. We have some reason to believe that the concrete that makes up our foundation and walls is degrading from within leading to a safety issue.
In order to ensure the safety of all, our Bishop has asked that we temporarily not use the building until some further testing can be conducted. We found out about the Bishop’s decision on a Thursday morning. By 2:00 PM that day, one of our staff had called your pastor to see if there might be chance we could worship in your facility for a time until we get a more clear vision of the future. Pastor Marilyn and your trustees and as we heard the congregation warmly welcomed us to do so.
Your web site says that you seek to have open hears, open minds, and open doors.
It seems that you really do!
We are grateful.
It was so gratifying to see that you all, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Lutheran church were willing to help us out. That is the great thing about the Body of Christ: it is much less divided in reality than it is in name. This is witnessed by the fact that Episcopalians and Methodists are working on agreements to acknowledge all that we have in common.
We have many decisions to make in the next few months and of course we will spend part of that time in grief and confusion. We will seek to be good guests. Please let us know when we can improve as your guests and so honor your hospitality. We also hope to get to know you better and explore how we all can partner in ministry in the future.
Thank you for your warm hospitality and for living out of the clarity of our common mission to lead and serve in the name of Jesus Christ.
In the Peace of Christ,
The Clergy of St. James
The Rev. Terry Kyllo
The Rev. Vicki Wesen
The Rev. Rilla Barrett
The Rev. Deacon Dennis Taylor
The Vestry of St. James
Bev Holden, Judy Smith, Jim Smith,
Joleen Sloniker, Gloria Mapes, Paul Chaplin
From Centennial History of St. James Episcopal Church 1890-1990 by Mae Parker
In 1890, the Episcopal Church came to this area. It was under the direction of Mr. Oxman and the congregation, in the town of Sedro, was called St. David. For a short time, Mr. Oxman probably had services in his own home. A structure, on what is now Township Street, was built and run as a hotel, but, sometime around 1891, it was turned into St. Elizabeth Hospital, which was owned by the Episcopal Church. The Congregation began worshiping in the chapel of the hospital. Sometime between 1904 and 1907, the congregation changed its name to St. James, and in 1907, construction on the current building began. Mae stated, “It was hard to trace the moving of the church from St. Elizabeth Hospital. In the Territorial Daughter’s early scrapbook, it states that the church moved to 3rd Street, then to the Odd Fellows Hall on Murdock Street for services. According to the records, even though the cornerstone reads, 1907, the first service in the building was 1908.
Words from Mae (from her Preface)
“The past of St. James is so engraved in the hearts of people from generation to generation that affectionate interest in the dear old church will be perpetual. When we celebrated our Centennial, this was demonstrated by the people who came back and who had been connected with St. James in the earlier years. . .
Every church seems to have its own personality or tone. To me, St. James has always been a family church. The church is made of people from all walks of life and ages. The children are always given special attention and made welcome in (our) church.”
Bishop Rickel’s Sermon
Jan 4
The link below will let you listen to Bishop Rickel’s Sermon at St. James on December 13, 2009.
After listening, feel free to comment.
Bishop Rickle’s Sermon