October 4, 2020

The Political Responsibility of the Church

With just weeks to go before U.S. elections in November, Pastor Mark Brocker considers the church’s responsibility to respond to societal challenges. This Sunday, October 4, he’ll take up the topic of “Responsibility for Future Generations.”

Plan to join the 10:00 am Adult Education class via Zoom. Session outlines are available on the Adult Ed page, where you can also see recordings of earlier class sessions.

Wednesday Evening Meditation

Our midweek Prayer Services continue into the fall on Wednesday nights via Zoom. The service will focus on our role in creation, with music, prayer, meditations, and scripture.

     6:30 pm:  Informal Gathering Time
     7:00 pm:  Wednesday Evening Prayer
     7:30 pm:  Centering Prayer

Join us for any or all of these events. The connection link is sent out Wednesday afternoons, so please watch for it.

Donate to Outside in Oct. 1 – 24

Since 1968, Outside In has transformed lives by helping to break cycles of chronic homelessness, poverty, and poor health among Portland’s LGBTQIA+ community, people of color, those experiencing homelessness, and the underserved. With COVID-19 plaguing our country, Portland still has a high number of people living on our city streets every night.

Outside In provides a safe space where youth can get their immediate needs met and begin building supportive, trusting relationships with adults who can help. Your financial gift will provide the basics—safety from the streets, showers, laundry, meals, and case management— to help these young people get on their feet with dignity.

Please donate from October 1-24 and send your donation to St. Andrew with “Service Committee Special Projects” on the memo line. Thank you for your response!

Bonnie Bliesner and the Service Committee

Plan Your Vote

Oregon’s voter registration deadline is October 13. Set your mind at ease. If you ahve a computer, if only takes a minute to check to ensure that you are registered. Just follow these steps:

• go to sos.oregon.gov
• click on “Voting & Elections”
• click on “My Vote”
• click on the blue box, “Go to My Vote Now”
• fill out your first name, last name, and date of birth
• click “Submit”

Within seconds, you will see your voter registration information.

Wildfire Response

Lutheran Disaster Response stands ready to help victims of recent and ongoing wildfires. Gifts designated for “U.S. Wildfires” will be used in full (100%) to assist those affected by wildfires, until the response is complete.

Or go to the Oregon Synod Wildfire Relief Fund to fund direct support to congregations providing relief and aid related to the fires in Oregon.

Telling Your Pandemic Story

Have you wondered how our ancestors managed to cope with the Influenza Pandemic of 1918, when 50 million souls were lost worldwide and 675,000 Americans died? People in the future will no doubt be wondering about us and what we did to get through this time. Like it or not, we are making history behind our masks.

Please share how you’ve been using your time, your strategies for getting through these days, things you’ve done to create joyful moments for yourself or others, the projects and passions you’ve renewed or discovered anew. What you’re doing might give others the spark needed to make 2020 a little easier to bear.

You don’t even have to write your story. Simply call the church office at 503-646-0629 and you may see it in a future issue of this newsletter.

Where’s Susan?

Waldo’s not missing here at St. Andrew, but Parish Musician Susan can be hard to find. With her marriage to John Reiser earlier this year, Susan Friesen became Susan Werner Reiser. Please update your church directory with her current contact information:

Name: Susan R. Werner Reiser
Cell phone: 503-334-6353
Personal e-mail: srwerner.reiser@gmail.com
Church e-mail: srwerner.reiser@standrewlutheran.com

Let’s Talk; Let’s Listen Contues

Thanks to all of you who have been making phone calls as a part of our Let’s Talk; Let’s Listen campaign this summer. It’s not too late to participate in this project. The information we are gathering will help the St. Andrew leadership teams respond to the needs of our community.

To sign up to call someone: https://tinyurl.com/Call-Signups
To access Questions for Callers: https://tinyurl.com/Call-Questions-to-Ask
To access the Followup Form: https://tinyurl.com/Form-for-Followup

Or, contact Lynn Santelmann, Pat Christiansen, Larry Bliesner, Scott Taylor, LuAnn Staul, Victoria Kovalenko, or Bob Stadel and one of us can get you connected.

Preparing for Next Sunday

Backyard Gatherings + More!

Seize the day! One way many of us have stayed connected in recent months is through neighborhood backyard gatherings. Mary Smith, Sharon Fako, and Pastor Robyn have developed guidelines for doing this safely. The St. Andrew MACG Core team is ready to help you host and/or lead a gathering in your back yard, your front yard, or even at St. Andrew in one of the outdoor areas. Plan a gathering now while the weather remains favorable.

Have you been wanting to learn more about how to make a carbon garden in your yard? We can arrange for someone from the Community Carbon Team to come and give your group some ideas. Are you motivated to take some action before this fall’s election? Perhaps you would like to gather some people to write postcards to voters who may not know their names have been removed from voter lists, or perhaps you would like to write letters to our elected representatives. Or would you like to come together and play games with other fun-loving people? Or simply get together and catch up?

Please contact Pat Christiansen or Larry Bliesner, co-chairs of the MACG Core Team, to get started. We can help you find out who lives in your neighborhood, connect you with people who can help with your particular area of interest, and help you with guidelines to hold your gathering safely. Let’s enjoy this beautiful fall weather with some safe get-togethers with some of our favorite people.

Nature’s Best Hope – Native Plants

In his book Nature’s Best Hope, Douglas Tallamay describes a visit to Portland. Our city has a reputation for its parks, green outlook, and eco-friendliness. Yet during a walk through Portland neighborhoods he found very few native trees. Ninety-one percent of the trees he identified were introduced from other continents or ecoregions. This means that most of the trees we have in our neighborhoods are not able to support local wildlife.

Carrying capacity is the ability of a particular place to support specific species without degrading local resources. When one species exceeds the carrying capacity and degrades the habitat many species suffer. For local wildlife, plants determine the carrying capacity. The number and type of plants in the landscape play a crucial role in the abundance and diversity of animals that can live in that landscape.

Native plants not only support wildlife, but they offer additional benefits, too. Planting native plants can conserve water and reduce the need for pesticides and fertilizers that can pollute local rivers and streams. Songbirds, bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects fight garden pests, pollinate food crops, and improve the soil. Fall is the best time for planting. If you are considering adding plants to your landscape, consider adding natives to increase the carrying capacity of your landscape.

LuAnn Staul

Men’s Book Club

Members of the Men’s Book Club will meet via Zoom at 7:00 pm on Monday, October 12, to discuss The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World. Eric Luttrell is the host.

Rated highly by reviewers and several powerful men, the book is about “gender equity and its golden thread is empathy,” says Dr. Paul Farmer. Warren Buffet says, “I think this is one of the best books I’ve ever read.” And Trevor Noah adds, “This book is a beautiful and concise mission statement on what we need to do to move society forward—continue to empower women. At every level and in all places women are truly the bedrock supporting their communities.”

Melinda Gates introduces the reader to women and girls whose experiences are much different from her own. “They’ve taught her a great deal,” Dr. Farmer says, “and in this beautifully crafted and artful memoir, Melinda Gates invites the reader to learn from them, too.”

If you’d like more information about St. Andrew’s Men’s Book
Club, please contact Gary Grafwallner.

Spirituality (Women’s) Book Group News

The Spirituality Book Group will meet on Sunday, October 18, at 3:00 p.m. via Zoom, when Sharon Fako will lead the discussion of The Mountains Sing, by Nguyen Phan Mai. According to Amazon, the book is “an epic account of Vietnam’s painful 20th-century history, both vast in scope and intimate in its telling.”

The Zoom link will be sent out a day before the meeting to all who are on the Spirituality Book Group list. If you would like to attend, contact Mary Smith for connection information.

Coming Up for St. Andrew Book Clubs

Spirituality Book Group (Women)

Sunday, October 18, at 3:00 pm
Book: The Mountains Sing, by Nguyen Phan Mai
Discussion Leader: Sharon Fako

Sunday, November 15, at 3:00 pm
Book: Unsheltered, by Barbara Kingsolver
Discussion Leader: Mary Ann Snider

Sunday, December 13, at 3:00 pm
Book: The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead
Discussion Leader: Fran Miller

Men’s Book Club

Monday, November 9, at 7:00 pm
Book: Strip Tease, by Carl Hiassen
Host: Ted Miller

Monday, December 14, at 7:00 pm
Book: Too Much and Never Enough, by Mary Trump
Host: Tim Holte

Monday, January 11, at 7:00 pm
Book: The Tattooist of Auschwitz, by Heather Morris
Host: Gary Grafwallner

Centering Prayer Training

Whether or not you’ve participated in St. Andrew’s Centering Prayer group that meets via Zoom each Wednesday at 7:30 pm, you are invited to a three-hour Zoom workshop on Centering Prayer to be held Saturday, October 17, beginning at 9:00 am. Contact the church office to register.

The workshop is appropriate for beginners or anyone wishing to refresh their practice of Centering Prayer. This approach to prayer is a form of meditation rooted in the Christian contemplative tradition and popularized in recent decades by Father Thomas Keating. The purpose of Centering Prayer is to foster deeper intimacy with God through silence and stillness.

Camp Lutherwood’s Online Harvest Festival

Visit the Spirit of Harvest online to learn more and watch Camp Lutherwood’s livestream event on YouTube at 7:00 pm on Wednesday, October 7. Start bidding on exclusive camp experiences and purchase raffle tickets on the online auction! (Please note: You must be registered to bid on any items.) Donate to Camp Lutherwood and encourage others to do the same!

Dismantling Racism in Our Institutions

The 15 members of St. Andrew’s “Reckoning with Racism” cohort invite you to join us in some of our reading as we begin to do the work of dismantling racism. This week we read a short article from Portland Monthly titled “How Oregon’s Racist History Can Sharpen Our Sense of Justice Now,” an article by Walidah Imarisha.

You can learn more at Common Table. Then contact Pastor Robyn or call her at the church office (503-646-0629) if you would like to participate. Upcoming Tuesday Zoom gatherings are scheduled from 6:30-8:00 pm on October 13 and 27, and November 10.

Pandemic Story: Keeping Herself in Stitches

When she’s not playing the organ or directing St. Andrew’s bell ringers, Susan Werner Reiser might very well be exercising her talent as a seamstress. Having sewn for herself, her home, her daughter, and her grandchildren for years, Susan decided to go into business and established an Etsy shop, SeasonalCoverings, in 2013.

During the pandemic, when so many small enterprises have struggled, business at SeasonalCoverings has been booming! Tree skirts in several sizes are her most popular item—and they’re not only for Christmas. Right now, people who decorate with the seasons are snapping up her reversible Halloween/Thanksgiving tree skirts.

Susan’s customers come from the world over and she’s sent orders to Australia, Japan, Canada, and Germany. In addition to tree skirts, aprons, and table runners, Susan also responds to custom requests. She’s made clothes for a stuffed animal Grinch for Kim in Florida and created an elegant tree skirt from a wedding gown. Etsy customers who’ve shopped SeasonalCoverings are unanimously impressed by the quality of her work. One buyer expressed it this way: “Truly beautiful…. When I opened it, it made me feel like it was crafted for me by someone that loves me. Hard to explain.”

Did you know that we at St. Andrew have been the recipients of Susan’s gifts in designing several banners and large wall hangings that she has made for display in the sanctuary? This summer, Kyler Vogt’s sermon on his vision for children’s ministry inspired her latest creation. It will be new to all of us when we’re able to return to worship in our building.

Do you have an online business that you’re nurturing through the pandemic? Contact the church office and let us know.

In Need of Prayers…

Family and friends of Chris Goodwin (brother-in-law)	Peace and God’s comfort at his death	Debi Gustafson
Family and friends of Pat Hall (sister)	Peace and God’s comfort at her death	Fran Miller
Family and friends of Lynn Dunn (friend)	Peace and God’s comfort at her death	Anne Newell
Family and friends of COVID-19 victims	Peace and God’s comfort at their deaths	Staff
Workers in the healthcare system	Protection, courage, and strength	Staff
Janet Vorvick	Comfort and courage in facing mental health challenges	Janet Vorvick
Diana Heidinger (sister-in-law)	Peace, comfort, and guidance	Judy Heidinger
Jim Heidinger and daughters	Comfort and acceptance regarding Diana’s diagnosis	Judy Heidinger
Margie Lee (wife)	Strength to endure chemotherapy	Robert May
Jeremy Bliesner (son)	Healing and recovery from eye surgery	Larry & Bonnie Bliesner
Chris Bekemeier	Healing and recovery from surgery (Oct. 2)	Pastor Robyn Hartwig
Bernie Dwigans	Healing and recovery	Carol Hogan
Phil Johnson (cousin’s husband)	Healing and recovery	Linda Fransen
Ellen Cliford (daughter of a good friend)	Healing and recovery	Sharon Fako
Judy Deal	Healing and recovery from shoulder replacement	Susan Deal
Suzanne Warnes	Healing and recovery following reactions to chemo	Suzanne Warnes
Harriett Stevens (mother)	Healing and recovery from a fall	David Stevens
Veterans suffering from PTSD during the fires	Continued healing and comfort	Pastor Susan Kintner
Carol Hogan	Thanksgiving for good test results	Carol Hogan
Noah Oyen and all firefighters	Protection and endurance	Staff
People impacted by ravages of climate change	Safety and protection	Staff
Peaceful protesters in America	Courage and protection	Staff
People working to ensure a just vote in 2020	Courage and persistence	Staff
Bishop Laurie Larson Caesar Oregon Synod and Staff	Strength and wisdom	Staff
Refugees and immigrants	Acceptance, safety, and just treatment	Staff
Military personnel, especially Justina Hailey Hope Brocker, Evan Dahlquist, Dawson Dethlefs, Neil Fiegenbaum, and Jerami Reyna	Courage and protection	Staff
Trinity Lutheran Church (Tulelake, CA) St. Timothy Lutheran Church (Portland, OR)	Serving with us in the Oregon Synod	Staff
Hoshanah Rabbah (Tigard, OR)	Blessings on our interfaith partners	Staff

Dear St. Andrew Saints,

We want to thank the Nifty Notters for the two cozy quilts gifted to us and keeping us warm. And our thanks to the Prayer Shawl knitters for the beautiful shawl whose prayers have been wrapped around us during those hard moments.

The harsh reality of losing our home and a lifetime of heirlooms is setting in and makes us feel so very sad, but then we remember all the love and care and support we have from all of you. We find ourselves often in the lament of the Psalms, but we also are comforted by the words of Psalm 91, which assures us we live in the shelter of the Most Holy, who will guard and protect us and who will answer our prayer.

You have answered our prayers with your love. Thank you!

Blessings,
John & Christine Core

Highlights for the Week

Check the church calendar for the most up-to-date information.

Sunday, October 4, Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

8:30 am	Livestream Worship	YouTube
9:30 am	Virtual Coffee Time	Zoom
10:00 am	Sunday School (age 3 – 5th Grade)	Zoom
10:00 am	Confirmation (6th – 8th Grade)	Zoom
10:00 am	High School Youth Group	Zoom
10:00 am	Adult Education:  The Political Responsibility of the Church	Zoom
11:00 am	Online Worship	Zoom
12:00 pm	Virtual Coffee Time	Zoom

Tuesday, October 6

10:00 am	Worship Planners	Zoom
12:30 pm	Citizen Science & Yard Survey Team Meeting	Community Garden Parking Lot
7:00 pm	MACG Meeting	Zoom

Wednesday, October 7 – Weekly News submissions due by 4:00 pm

12:30 pm	Bonhoeffer Seminar	Zoom
6:00 pm	Handbell Ensemble Rehearsal	Sanctuary
6:30 pm	Informal Gathering Time	Zoom
7:00 pm	High School Youth Game Night	Zoom
7:00 pm	Wednesday Evening Prayer	Zoom
7:30 pm	Centering Prayer	Zoom

Thursday, October 8

12:00 pm

Team Ministry Meeting

Zoom

Sunday, October 11, Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

8:30 am	Livestream Worship	YouTube
9:30 am	Virtual Coffee Time	Zoom
10:00 am	Sunday School (age 3 – 5th Grade)	Zoom
10:00 am	Confirmation (6th – 8th Grade)	Zoom
10:00 am	High School Youth Group	Zoom
10:00 am	Adult Education:  The Political Responsibility of the Church	Zoom
11:00 am	Online Worship	Zoom
12:00 pm	Virtual Coffee Time	Zoom

Connecting to Worship

Ways to Give

Thank you for supporting the ministries of St. Andrew!