Sunday Sept. 11: All Ages Gathering 

On Sunday, September 11, all ages will meet in the parish hall for a celebratory breakfast gathering at 9:00am (you are welcome to come at 8:45am to eat and visit with other parishioners before the program begins). We will hear from ministry leaders about their hopes and dreams for the future and how our building supports their ministries or gets in the way. Please make every effort to join us for this fun event as we continue to discern what God might be calling us to do with our building. 
 
Rosa Uy has agreed to organize the breakfast. Please bring egg dishes, fruit or pastries to share - if you are interested in helping, please contact Rosa.

Remember that we will return to two worship services on this Sunday at 10:30am and 5:30pm. This is our regular worship schedule and you are encouraged to invite family, friends and neighbors to join us!

Regular Christian formation classes for all ages will begin the following Sunday, September 18 from 9:15 to 10:15am.
September Faith Forum Offerings 

September 11: All Ages Gathering - Building Discernment - What might God be calling us to do with our building? 9:00-10:15am in the Parish Hall; Breakfast served at 8:45am

September 18: Art and Dementia Conversation with Sue Ryan and Sandra Menefee Taylor. The Undercroft Gallery is hosting "In a New Voice" Art Show

September 25: A Conversation With Artist Leslie Barlow, Blessing of Beatrice Garubanda Portrait 
Sunday Evening Worship Resumes September 11 
 By Jeff Kidder

The Sunday evening worship & meal is soon to resume again - on September 11th, just around the corner. Once again I am looking forward to leading music alongside our faithful volunteers. We were blessed by the participation of many talented volunteer musicians on Sunday evenings last year, whom I hope will join us again this year, and we would love to welcome new volunteers as well.

We use a wide variety of music and instrumentation on Sunday Evenings, from simple to more complex, which is accessible to a broad range of musical skills. We're very flexible - some folks play on most everything, others just focus on a few pieces that they can handle playing. We incorporate traditional hymnody, contemplative (Taize), world music, folk, rock and more, with a varying ensemble that often has included 4-6 singers, guitar(s), percussion, keyboard, accordian, sometimes violin/strings and brass. We're open to incorporating most any instrument.

If you sing or play an instrument and would like to offer your time and talents to God at St. Matt's on Sunday evenings, consider joining us.

Our weekly schedule for Sunday evening worship and rehearsal will continue as it was last year with the service at 5:30 and dinner following at 6:30. The ensemble will rehearse on Sunday afternoons starting at 4:30 sharp, take a break for water, bathroom, etc. at 5:20. Jeff starts the Prelude time with some instrumental music around 5:25 and then we have a sung Prelude -which we're calling "Centering Songs" this year - at 5:30.
Please email Jeff Kidder if you have questions, or just come join us on Sunday at 4:30.
5 Questions for Noah Hanson 

Noah is part of St. Matthew's J2A (Journey to Adulthood) group and has graciously agreed to answer a few (not too) penetrating questions.  This is incredibly helpful as we would like to know more about this intriguing group of young people. Noah - the son of Terri and Peter Hanson will be a Junior at Great River School in St. Paul this fall and he is interested in football, baseball, and basketball. He also plays guitar, piano and the drums.

As part of the J2A group at St. Matthew's, do you have any good memories from last year or things you may be looking forward to this coming year? One of my favorite things that we do is about one Sunday every month we have a game day. This is a day where we find a new board game to play as a group and play it after a short discussion. I am looking forward to continuing to build lasting relationships with members of the J2A group. We are also still grinding out ideas of where to go on our upcoming pilgrimage this year.

I understand you have interesting discussions with this group - were there any subjects that captured your imagination or caused the group to dig in to a particular issue?  We regularly have in-depth discussions about not only Christianity, but also our school experiences and our lives outside of school. One conversation that comes to mind is when Grace Tillotson came into J2A one day after having an argument with her older brother. The class then spent about 30 minutes discussing who was right and who was wrong.

What exactly is this group like - pretend we are flies on the wall - do you all get along?  Any stories you can share?  Our group is led by our two outstanding leaders: Maclore Christensen and Erik Johnson. They do a great job at keeping the conversation rolling and keeping us engaged and interested. Maclore never hesitates to tell us how much easier we have it than she did when she was our age and her "Sunday school" was memorizing bible verses and reading the bible.
  
Do you have any hopes for the future for your group or the larger church?  We were able to add a few more people to the J2A group which brought us up to about 8 members. It would be great to get even more people to add to the fun. I highly recommend it!

What's happening in your world this fall?  I am part of the SMB Wolfpack football team. The team in made up of three main schools: Saint Paul Academy, Minnehaha Academy, and The Blake School. I play wide receiver on our varsity team. We were ranked #8 in state last year and are hoping to work our way up to #1 this year.
The Train Is Leaving The Station

Dear Friends: 

We are offering Financial Peace University (FPU) this fall at St. Matthew's. The course has been extremely popular all over the US and has typically been offered through local churches. It is designed to provide structure to our management of personal and household finances. Many parishes, including St. Matthew's, have taken the course on as an extension of their pastoral ministries.

It is worth noting that most of the participants in the course offered this winter by Dwight Zscheile have shared their positive view of their experience with the congregation at the mid-service announcements. If we were to try to list all the benefits of the course we might not have room, but a couple of them are: 
  • The course puts various aspects of household finance into a manageable framework.
  • It is wonderful for younger people who have not yet made all the money mistakes.
  • It can help older participants to recover from previous mistakes.
  • If multiple generations of a family attend they will have a much richer dialog about money thereafter.
The class will consist of nine sessions starting on September 25 at 4:00 PM here at the church and run through November 20. Go to http://www.daveramsey.com/home/ Click on "Classes" which is right below the Dave Ramsey logo. On the left side of the page you will see "Find A Class". Click on it and you will quickly find St. Matthew's Episcopal Church. The cost of materials for the class is $93 plus shipping. Financial assistance is available, please talk to Rev. Pogue. In addition, childcare will be provided - please rsvp to the church office for child care - this will help us know how many people are coming and enable us to have enough nursery workers on hand.

We really hope to see you there!
Dan White 
The Howard Family in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, MN
- Cecelia & Arun Caspram & Cecelia's brother on Chicago's Lakefront.
More Parishioners on the Move...
We love pictures and news of your travels.  Send us the details at Tidings.
An Angel of Hospitality...

Parishioner Nancy Hall recently made hundreds of personalized bars and cookies for students at the Bethel University Ministry Fair last week.  Each one had a Bible verse or welcoming message. The Rev. Blair Pogue, Janna Burger and Terese Lewis were on hand to pass them out to willing passersby - encouraging young people to visit St. Matthew's this year.  Thank you Nancy for your hospitality and ministry of treats!
Looking Ahead: Calendar Highlights
  • September 11: Return to regular worship schedule of 10:30am & 5:30pm AND All Ages Celebratory Gathering at 9:00am
  • September 18: Sunday Christian Formation for all ages begins at 9:15am, Faith Forum on Art & Dementia with Sue Ryan & Sandra Menefee Taylor
  • September 25: St. Matthew's Day, Blessing of Garubanda portrait, Faith Forum with Artist Leslie Barlow
  • September 25: Financial Peace University Class begins, 4:00pm
  • October 2: Celtic Liturgy Begins
  • October 28-29: St. Matthew's Men's Retreat at Dunrovin Retreat Center
 
Please share your news and photos with us: tidings@stmatthewsmn.org 

Visit our website for the prayer list, calendar and sermons