September 5, 2021
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Guest Preacher Ron Werner, Jr.
On this final Sunday of Pastor Mark’s sabbatical, we welcome Ron Werner, Jr., pastor and
community organizer, to St. Andrew. Werner, Jr. is the founding director of Together Lab,
which accompanies people of faith out of isolation and into a leader-full ecology of movements and ministries in Oregon. Using a fusion of sacred organizing and design thinking, this work has led to the activation of cohorts, collectives, and circles exploring everything from Oregon’s hidden racist history to ecumenical youth ministry to immigrant justice to affordable housing to faith and the vaccine. Ron is an ordained pastor in the ELCA. At home, he loves to cook and dance alongside his wife, Erin and two young daughters,
Dylan and Averie.
Mask Mandate Inside and Out
Masks are now required at all in-person worship. As always, we request and expect all who
worship together at St. Andrew to be vaccinated. If you’re feeling apprehensive about gathering for worship together, that’s understandable. Please make decisions that are best for you and your household. Remember that all online worship options at St. Andrew remain available for everyone.
Public Prayer for Water Protectors
Beaverton City Library, Saturday September 4th
9:00 am: Gathering, 10:00 am Prayer
**COVID-19 MASKS REQUIRED**
Lutheran World Relief School Supplies
Good news! We have everything needed to fill 100 school bags for Lutheran World Relief. Thank you for your generous donations that enable young people around the world to access educational opportunities that will enrich their lives.
If you’ve already purchased school supplies but haven’t delivered them to church yet, feel free to bring them in and
we’ll store those supplies to provide a head start on next year’s campaign. Otherwise, consider donating your purchases to schools or other organizations supporting young people in need.
The Service Committee
Earth Care Books
It began with Kristin Ohlson’s book, The Soil Will Save Us, more than two years ago and, since then, members of St. Andrew’s Community Carbon and Earth Care Team have discovered even more books to inspire and instruct all of us who are motivated to protect our planet home.
Recently, the group presented our St. Andrew Library with seven highly recommended books:
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Dirt to Soil, by Gabe Brown
Finding the Mother Tree, by Suzanne Simard
The Nature of Oaks, by Douglas W. Tallamy
Nature’s Best Hope, by Douglas W. Tallamy
Noah’s Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Back Yards, by Sara Stein
The Soil Will Save Us, by Kristin Ohlson
Please give Pam Farr, our adult librarian, a little time to get these catalogued and shelved, but then check them out. If you have questions about issues beyond these books or recommendations for other reading on the topic of Earth Care, feel free to contact any member of our team: Bev Briggs, Larry Bliesner, Pat Christiansen, Carol Harker, Liz Hardy, Allison Katsufrakis, Eric Luttrell, Don Nearhood, or LuAnn Staul.
September Drive for Western Farm Workers
During the month of September, the Service Committee will collect food and clothing items for the Western Farm Workers. Please donate new or gently used clean coats, sweaters, rain pants, and work boots in all sizes for adults and children. The WFW also has an urgent need for food items this year: pinto beans, white rice, peanut butter and jelly, cooking oil, and canned tuna. Please place items in or near the collection barrel in the Narthex. Thank you.
The Service Committee
MACG Leadership Training
You have heard the name “MACG” from time to time at St. Andrew. Perhaps you are wondering what this organization is all about. You are invited to attend a FREE leadership training institute in September. Come and see.
- Come to learn fundamental organizing skills: Individual relational meetings, listening sessions, research and action to help obtain a concrete, winnable outcome.
- Come to strengthen our St. Andrew community. We strive to engage people within a culture that is relational, action-oriented, and reflective.
- Come to learn to distinguish problems from issues. We can help work for common good by moving from general problems to concrete, winnable issues by using relationships we have made with decision-makers in the public arena.
This training will be held from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm on Saturday, September 18, and Saturday, September 25. The sessions will be held over Zoom, so you may join us from the comfort of your home.
Many St. Andrew members have taken this training (often more than once), and all have reported taking away important skills that strengthen our St. Andrew community as well as skills that are useful in their lives outside of St. Andrew.
To register, go to https://www.macg.org/sept_2021_leadership or visit the MACG webpage (www.macg.org) and scroll down to find the link to register.
Questions? Please contact any member of the St. Andrew MACG Core Team: Pat Christiansen, Larry Bliesner, Lynn Santelmann, Scott Taylor, Victoria Kovalenko, Bob Stadel, or Jan Smith.
Sabbatical Thanks
Thank you for our sabbatical journey and your warm welcome to our guest preachers over the past several weeks. We welcome Pastor Mark back to the church office on Tuesday, September 7!
Pastor Susan
Preparing for Sunday, September 12, 2021
Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a
Gospel: Mark 8:27-38
Go to the “Preparing for Worship” webpage for the bulletins, the complete Lectionary, and more.
I Am My Story
This year, The Immigrant Story plans to go live with four musicians and four stories of survival on one unforgettable
night, Saturday, September 11, at 7:00 pm. The event will be held at the Alex L. Parks Performing Arts Center, 9000 SW Beaverton-Hillsdale Hwy.
With storytellers from Burundi, Rwanda, Cambodia, and Syria, the program focuses on first-person tales of courage and fortitude. These stories of resilience in the face of unimaginable atrocities of war and genocide offer hope and inspiration at a time when we need them most.
The program will begin with a performance by renowned viola player Dijana Ihas, a professor at Pacific University who survived the war in Bosnia and was a member of the Sarajevo String Quartet, which played more than 200 concerts during the Siege of Sarajevo. She will be joined by three musicians from the Oregon Symphony.
Thomas Keesecker in Concert Live & Livestream
St. Andrew Lutheran Church
Saturday, September 25, 2021
7:00 PM | Sanctuary | Freewill offering
Thomas Keesecker will perform music from his best-selling “Quiet Series” piano collections in an hour-long program of piano music, congregational song, and poetry. Tom is a well-known Lutheran church musician and composer whose informal folksy programs have been compared to a show featuring Garrison Keillor and George Winston. A Lutheran pastor described Tom’s piano style as a blend of Paul Manz and Thelonious Monk! People have been touched by his arrangements of Beautiful Savior, Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring, There is a Balm in Gilead, and his Celtic and Jazz influenced stylings of other well-known hymns.
CDs of his music will be available for purchase at the performance.
Organ Scholarship Applications Due
The St. Andrew Foundation is delighted to announce that it is continuing to offer a scholarship for organists ages 13-30. This award offers aspiring young musicians financial assistance to pay for organ lessons or other materials needed for their studies. For more information and to apply, please go to
https://standrewlutheran.com/give/st-andrew-foundation/.
The application deadline is Monday, October 4. If you have questions, please email foundation@standrewlutheran.com.
Synod Day of Learning
The Oregon Synod staff invite all of us to participate in the second annual Synod Day of Learning on Saturday, September 25, from 9:15 am-3:45 pm via Zoom.
Conversations and workshops will follow the theme of “Faithful in the Fray.” This fall we will look at faithfulness as it applies to faith and racism, and we are delighted to share that local leader and author Pastor Lenny Duncan has agreed to be our keynoter. Workshops will be both morning and afternoon, and will include themes such as anti-racist reading of the Bible, crafting new liturgies as sacred collective action, and honoring our grief around the history of racism.
The entire day’s event is only $50 per screen for adults over 21. Under 21 is free. Scholarships are available by contacting the Bishop’s Office at office@oregonsynod.org. Registration closes on September 20 at 9:00 pm.
A Book Sale’s Coming: It’s Time To Prune Your Collection!
Give me your tired, your broken, your worn-out volumes
Waiting for new homes,
The unwanted books of your o’er-flowing shelves.
Give these, the books, undesired unto me,
There’ll be a sale, to give them all new homes!
Yes, there’s gonna be a book sale, scheduled for Sunday, November 28, and we need all your cast-off and no-longer-desired books to sell. Simply put your donations in the boxes on the floor of the Adult Library or on the counter, if bending is hard for you. You can bring in magazines, too, children’s books, history, fiction, whatever you think you’re ready to pass on. Proceeds will enable us to purchase new books for our libraries.
Pam Farr
Adult Librarian
Introductory Centering Prayer Workshop
Anyone interested in learning more about Centering Prayer? There will be a Zoom Introductory Centering Prayer Workshop on Saturday September 11, from 9:30 am-1:00 pm. This workshop is presented jointly by the Franciscan Spiritual Center and Contemplative Outreach of Oregon. The instructors are experienced in the Centering Prayer method developed by Trappist monk Father Thomas Keating 1981. This is the method Mary Smith and Ginny Link have followed in our Zoom Centering Prayer time on Wednesday evenings after the mid-week evening service.
Centering Prayer is described as “a receptive method of silent prayer”…“in which we experience God’s presence within us; closer than breathing, closer than thinking, closer than consciousness itself. This method of prayer is both a relationship with God and a discipline to foster that relationship.”
Cost for the workshop is $35. For more information about how to register for this workshop as well as Zoom follow-ups scheduled for September 18, 25, and October 4 and 11, go to: www.contemplativeoutreachportland.com/
What’s Up with Choir?
Minister of Music & Media Allison Katsufrakis announced to choir members this week, that given rising numbers of COVID infections, choir practice will not resume in September as it usually does. Instead, she hopes to begin rehearsals in October, with an eye toward the choir singing for Reformation Sunday (October 31) and the Advent/Christmas season. Meanwhile, special singing masks have been ordered.
Please, everyone, get vaccinated, wear a mask, wash your hands , maintain physical distancing, and pray that by working together we can squelch the virus so no more waves of infection threaten our healthcare system and the valiant people it employs.
In Need of Prayers…
If you know someone in need of prayers, please contact the church office by phone at 503-646-0629 or email office@standrewlutheran.com Tuesday-Friday, prayerchain@standrewlutheran.com Saturday-Monday.
| Family and friends of Don Brown (brother) | Peace and God’s comfort at his death | Bob & Mary Brown |
| Family and friends of Kathie Karl (Doug’s sister) | Peace and God’s comfort at her death | Doug & Jan Morrell |
| Family and friends of Lois Brass (longtime member) | Peace and God’s comfort at her death | Camille Jackson |
| Family and friends of Gloria Heidinger | Peace and God’s comfort at her death | Judy Heidinger (sister-in-law) |
| Family and friends of Sharon McBride | Peace and God’s comfort at her death | Jim & Pat Hilliker |
| Family and friends of Bob Carlson (uncle) | Peace and God’s comfort at his death | Carol Hogan |
| Family and friends of William Huffman | Peace and God’s comfort at his death | Pat Hilliker |
| Agnes Sandquist (Roger’s mother) | Peaceful passing | Roger & Pat Sandquist |
| Baby Raya and her family | Strength and comfort | Ginny Link (great-grandaunt) |
| Kay (mother) | Effective treatment and recovery | Linda Sah Olshausen |
| Joyce (sister) | Effective treatment and recovery | Judy Scholz |
| Satya Semenchalam | Healing and recovery following surgery | Rakesh & Tracie Semenchalam |
| Nan Thompson | Healing and recovery following surgery | Staff |
| Carol Means | Comfort and patience awaiting surgery | Staff |
| Maverick Dixon (unborn nephew) | Complete healing in the womb | AJ & Rebecca Uecker |
| John Fiegenbaum | Healing and comfort | Amy Fiegenbaum |
| Dr. Cara Steinkeler (daughter) | Strength as she works with COVID patients | Gary & Gail Grafwallner |
| Jan Smith & Sue Cahlander | A COVID-free bubble during their travels | Jan Smith & Sue Cahlander |
| All those suffering from natural disasters | Protection and safety | Staff |
| People of Afghanistan | Safety and security | Staff |
| Bishop Laurie Larson Caesar & Oregon Synod 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 | Protection and safety | Staff |
| Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (Cave Junction, OR) Calvary Lutheran Church (Grants Pass, OR) |
Serving with us in the Oregon Synod | Staff |
| Congregation Neveh Shalom (Portland, OR) | Blessings on our interfaith partners | Staff |
| Individual friends and loved ones in need of prayer | Whatever they most need; say their names in your heart or aloud | Everyone |
Highlights for the Week
Go to the complete online church calendar for the most up-to-date information.
Sunday, September 5
| 8:30 am | Worship with Communion (masks required) Livestream Worship with Communion |
Sanctuary YouTube |
| 10:30 am | Virtual Coffee Time | Zoom |
| 11:00 am | Worship with Communion (masks required) Zoom Worship with Communion |
Sanctuary of the Firs Zoom |
| 12:00 pm | Virtual Coffee Time | Zoom |
Monday, September 6 – Labor Day
Tuesday, September 7
| 7:00 am | Sunrise Women | Elmer’s Restaurant on 158th (1250 Waterhouse Ave) |
| 7:00 am | Men’s Gathering & Bible Study | Elmer’s Restaurant on 158th (1250 Waterhouse Ave) |
| 10:00 am | T’ai Chi | Fellowship Hall |
| 10:00 am | Meals on Wheels/Loaves and Fishes | Offsite |
| 10:00 am | Worship Planners Meeting | Library |
| 7:00 pm | MACG Meeting | St. Andrew Room |
Wednesday, September 8 – Weekly News submissions due by 4:00 pm
| 10:00 am | Yoga (both Chair Yoga & Floor Yoga) | Fellowship Hall |
| 10:00 am | Reopening Committee Meeting | via Zoom |
| 6:00 pm | Sanctuary Team Meeting | Library |
| 6:45 pm | Informal Gathering Time | Zoom |
| 7:00 pm | Wednesday Evening Prayer | Zoom |
| 7:30 pm | Centering Prayer | Zoom |
Thursday, September 9
| 9:30 am | Seekers of the Heart of God Bible Study | St. Andrew Room |
Friday, September 10
| 10:00 am | T’ai Chi | Fellowship Hall |
Sunday, September 12
| 8:30 am | Worship with Communion (masks required) Livestream Worship with Communion |
Sanctuary YouTube |
| 10:30 am | Virtual Coffee Time | Zoom |
| 11:00 am | Worship with Communion (masks required) Zoom Worship with Communion |
Sanctuary of the Firs Zoom |
| 12:00 pm | Virtual Coffee Time | Zoom |