Category Archives: Reaching Out

I Am St Nick: A Call To Share Your Story

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IAmStNick

We all understand and appreciate the gift of sharing. At St. Nicholas we do a tremendous job of offering time, talent and treasure to this community of faith and to the greater Church. We are blessed and in turn, we share our blessings.

We are inviting anyone and everyone to share a story…YOUR story. We are united but we are also very diverse and individually unique. Think for a moment of just how and why you came to St. Nicholas Church. Who or what moved you to become part of this community, a member of the Episcopal Communion. How about a story of church, an occasion that moved and perhaps changed you or some special “church person” who helped guide and develop your faith. So many of us come from other faith traditions and other churches, Episcopal or otherwise. We wish to know our sisters and brothers better. The sky is the limit as to what kind of stories are out there. The depth of our wishing to share and read these recollections is even greater!

We all love a story and there are no better stories than the ones we share with each other about ourselves, our faith, our journeys, spiritual or otherwise.

All are welcome to participate. No one is too young or too old. No such thing as a “generation gap” when it comes to stories celebrated and shared. In fact, I suspect we all have quite a few stories we could submit. This is YOUR time to do just that…SHARE. The more we have, the greater and richer our field.

Think…Pray…Write. When you have some thing to share, please submit your story (simply reply to any issue of News From Nick) and it will be posted in an upcoming edition of News From Nick.

Thank you for your consideration and willingness to share…we are all the more blessed.

Marriage Equality The Law of the Land, Soon a Liturgy In The Church

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Episcopal Church Supports Marriage Equality

SALT LAKE CITY (RNS) By an overwhelming majority in both of its legislative houses, the Episcopal Church made history Wednesday (July 1) by making marriage for same-sex couples available throughout the church.

The actions on marriage equality came after decades of progress toward fully including LGBT Episcopalians in the work and witness of the church.

Meeting in Salt Lake City for its 78th General Convention, the House of Deputies concurred with the House of Bishops to approve a canonical change that eliminates a written definition of marriage as between a man and a woman and authorizes two new marriage rites for same-sex or opposite-sex couples.

Taken together, these actions make marriage — which the Supreme Court ruled last week is a “fundamental right” for all Americans — equally available for all Episcopalians.

Read More at Religion News Service and ThinkProgress.

Morning Prayer 12.6.14, Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, c. 342 | The Daily Office

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Happy Feast of St Nicholas! We will celebrate tomorrow at the Sunday morning service at 10am, with the Rt. Rev. Jeffrey D Lee, Bishop of Chicago, presiding. Come and be welccome, and “be St. Nick” with us!

St Nicholas of Myra, by Fr. Tobias Haller BSG

The Daily Office | Diocese of Indianapolis: St Nicholas of Myra

The Daily Office site is an incredibly rich resource for prayer, spirituality, and the inner life for people of faith. Each day they post the prayers and readings of the day, and the offer webcasts and sometimes live webchats. I’ve managed to attend one (they’re held during my work day, so it was a day I was off for some reason) and it was very interesting and uplifting to share that with people from all over the country and the world. The daily posts also include beautiful images and photographs to illustrate the holy persons who are commemorated that day, gathered from many sources (many from Episcopal churches who have commissioned art or submitted photos for use by the site).

The icon at the top of this post is a particular favorite of mine, as it’s by a blogger whose work I’ve read for years, Fr. Tobias Haller BSG. He writes poetry and posts icon sketches at his site “In A Godward Direction.”

Another icon of St Nicholas that is new to me is this one from an Episcopal Church in Ohio:

St Nicholas of Myra, by Kelly Latimore, icon at Grace Church, Pomeroy OH

St Nicholas of Myra, by Kelly Latimore, icon at Grace Church, Pomeroy OH

Thie one depicts Biblical images of sailing ships – Jesus walking on the water, and also in the boat with His friends. St Nicholas holds a modern riverboat tug, because Pomeroy’s position on the Ohio River means that the sailors under the saint’s protection are on our inland waterways and not just at sea.

Although there will be no Saturday evening service today, the Feast of St Nicholas is “transfered” to tomorow, so that the whole community of St Nick can gather and celebrate with Bishop Jeffrey. You are most welcome to join us, tomorrow and always!