SAINTS’ ALIVE! July 2018 Page

To Serve You: Bishop: The Rt. Rev. Gregory H. Rickel Vicar: Rev. Joe Scheeler Deacon: Rev. Deacon John Ackermann

Senior Warden: Alice Williams

Junior Warden: Carol Burckhardt Parish Administrator: Jennifer Myers-Power Church Office Hours: Mon., Tue. & Wed. 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

All Saints Episcopal Church 2206 NW 99th Street

PO Box 65825 Vancouver, WA 98665-0028

360-573-8106

admin@allsaints-vancouver.org www.allsaints-vancouver.org

Inside This Issue:

Fr. Joe’s Morning Ride

From the Senior Warden

Announcements

Ministry Schedule

July Calendar

Take a Minute to Say Thank You

There is a reason that All Saints Episco-pal Church has the most beautiful grounds in north Vancouver. It is due to the hard work of Kitty and Rob Ash, Martha Stephenson and Carol Burkhart. They weed, prune, mow and plant tirelessly, every week. You may want to take a minute and just walk around to enjoy the beauty that they have created and maintained. Also, outside the back door, by the St. Francis statue, take a moment and look at the healthy stand of sweet grass. -Alice Williams

Born in Blessing: Spiritual Living in Service to the Creator

July 11 to August 29 from 6:30 to 7:45

This series will explore the sacred nature of our being, and our commission from God to serve and honor creation. We will learn about the nature of our created life from Christian mystics, indige-nous cultures and sacred stories. The purpose of living a spirit-filled or spiritual life is to become ever closer and more in tune with our Creator. We will explore four unique opportunities to experience this ever- greater closeness. We will look at the call we each have to be a mystic, creative expresser, and prophet for our time. Don’t worry if you need to miss a few weeks for vacation or other travel. Each session will be independent of the others although the topics are all related. Celebrate summer with a renewed devotion to the spiritual opportunities that are before us. Taught by Roxanne WhiteLight who has a Doctor of Ministry Degree in Creation Spirituality Studies.

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Fr. Joe’s Morning Ride: The Dakota Fire The celebration of Pentecost has come and gone. The celebration and sto-ries of the 50th day after Easter are the stuff of a pyromaniac’s dream vi-sion. Fires everywhere. Songs about fire, liturgies ignite and combust. We wear red to symbolize the fire of Spirit. Fireballs fly from pulpits every-where. We hear of “tongues of fire,” conversion lightning bolts, and the apostles burning with their Message and speaking in tongues. One of my children’s earliest memories is from the tiny Church of the Nativity in Montana. Every Pentecost the Vicar would invite Pastor Illudi from Tanzania to speak and also to sing. His song “Fire, Fire Fire….Fire Fall On Me” is literally burned into the memory of my children. So much that they sing it spontaneously from time to time, especially at Pentecost.

What about now? How are all those giant warming bonfires, lightning strikes to the heart and other spir-itual forest fires doing now? Fuel depleting? Oxygen low? Not much left but a small glowing bed of em-bers, soon to extinguish as we languish through the post-Pentecostal “green times” awaiting next year?

The First Nations people knew fire well: as a friend, a lifeline for the community. Fire sustains, fire pro-duces results, heat and warmth, yet without all the “flash.” Fire that does no damage. Fire that is hard to spot, but amazing to feel up close, personally, intimately. Dakota Fire. The Dakota Fire was born out of necessity. The First Nations Tribes of the Great Plains had several important things to deal with regard-ing fire. The first issue was the environment of the plains grasses themselves. The grasses of the Great Plains were so tall and expansive that it is hard for us to imagine today. As the Tribes moved through the plains grass in search of the buffalo herds, the grass was like a huge green, waving ocean. When the people stopped, and the lodges were being prepared for raising, the first thing required was to manage the grass. This was the beginning of the traditional Grass Dance, still danced with great joy today at First Nations Ceremonies. The drums would come out and the Grass Dancers would stomp down the plains grasses in ceremonial style. Only after the Grass Dance was complete, could the lodges be erect-ed, and the people’s village emerge.

A plains grass fire was a disaster. Grass fires, once ignited, burn for months, often extinguished only by the onset of the winter snows. While restorative in the long term, the fires both scared away the game so important to the people as a food source, and ultimately destroyed the food supply of the buffalo on which the people depended on for just about everything. Fire, important but also needing control and understanding. Wood was scarce on the Northern Great Plains. The Dakota, Lakota, Assiniboine, Ojibwe, Blackfoot and Northern Cheyenne needed to create fires that were fuel efficient, yet effective enough to cook with and to warm the people. Also, concealment was a factor in fire making as well. Large, smoky fires gave away the position of the village to ones enemy and put the people at risk. And so, the Plains First Na-tions, adapted to their ever-changing environment, developed a high thermal output fire that could be easily controlled, required very little fuel and was smoke free and stealthy...The Dakota Fire.

So let’s learn a bit about the Dakota Fire of our ancestors and see how it could possibly be related to our post-Pentecostal experience:

Step 1 – Dig a Hole – The Understanding Hole To make the Dakota Fire we have to get intimately re-acquainted with our Earth Mother and with ourselves. We must dig a circular hole about 12” in diameter and about 12” deep. We have to dig out all the dirt, rocks, root fragments and have a clean place for the fuel to do its work. The Elders call this the “Understanding Hole.” As we are attempting to light our sus-tainable Spiritual Fire we need to do the same thing. Dig deep, understand what is getting in our way, chop through it, dig around it—get it gone, so that the Spirit’s fuel can ignite. The Understanding Hole belongs to us...represents us...is us.

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Step 2 – Dig Another Hole- The Spirit Hole Uff! Another hole? Yep, this one is a twin to the “Understanding Hole” you just dug. About 12” around and 12” deep, only it is very important that this hole faces the direction of the wind. This companion hole is called the “Spirit Hole.” This is the where the Spirit Wind enters and amazing things happen.

Step 3 – The Connection Poke a hole in the dirt wall between the two holes. Make a clean connection. Pull out and throw away all the debris in the connection channel between the Understanding Hole and the Spirit Hole. If the con-nection path gets blocked, the fire can no longer sustain on its own and will extinguish. Take as much time as you need to insure you have a strong connection to the Spirit Hole and to the Spirit.

Step 4 – Load the Fuel Gather some small sticks about 8-10” long and load them vertically into the Understanding Hole. It doesn’t take much fuel to ignite and sustain the Dakota Fire. If we do our digging right, clean things out and make a good connection to the Spirit Hole. Spirit Wind does the rest.

Step 5 – Prepare for Ignition Construct a tinder ball of twigs, moss, leaves and vines. Don’t compact it with dogma and rules. Give it room to breathe, for the Spirit to work inside the tinder, wrapped with new understanding, and visions.

Step 6 – Strike a Spark We have to do this work. We have to say, “I am ready Spirit, come and ignite me!” Whether we use a flint or a bow stick…we have to make the first move.

Step 7 – Ignition – The Dakota Fire is Birthed…The Spirit Lives The smoldering tinder ball of our beliefs and understandings contacts the fuel and the Sacred Spirit Wind is sucked into the Understanding Hole through our Spirit Connection and the Dakota Fire is born!

The Dakota Fire is an amazing piece of ancestral work. The scientists tell us that the connection be-tween Understanding Hole and the Spirit Hole is actually a venturi tube that creates a drop in air pres-sure and a subsequent vacuum that continues to combust air into the Understanding Hole at a very high and sustainable rate. As long as that connection is maintained the modest fuel will be combusted effort-lessly and efficiently yielding the maximum BTU from every ounce of fuel. The Dakota Fire is so effi-cient, it can boil a quart of water in under 5 minutes, rivaling any current gas or electric stove.

So I’ve been hinting about the connection between the Dakota Fire and us and our Spirit Fires. What’s the deal? Well think about it, Pentecost seems to be about the flash…big fires…big miracles…big trans-formations. Do those fires happen sometimes? Absolutely. But I have found that the Dakota Fire is more like how I have always engaged the Sacred Spirit. If I dig my personal Understanding Hole deeply, and try to remove the Spiritual impediments that are causing difficulties for me; if I get in touch with the Earth and re-learn her lessons; if I chop out the roots and clean out the stones...if I do the work, I make myself “Spirit Ready,” if you will.

Next, and most importantly, I make a clean connection so that Spirit and I can conjoin. The Elders call this “being a Hollow Bone.” It is through that connection that the Spirit Wind flies, ignites our fuel and how we “inject grace” or “good Medicine” or the Sacred Fire back into the world. The Spirit Wind singing though the hole, sustaining our fire to do the Creator’s work in the world. We don’t need very much fuel, if we do things right. We don’t have to be brilliant, or rich, or beautiful, or strong. We just have to understand the gift of the Dakota Fire. Build it carefully and with inten-tionality. Offer the gift of the Dakota Fire to the Spirit….quietly stand back and let the Spirit do the rest.

Blessings, Father Joe

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July Anniversaries:

Carol & Linda July 27

July Birthdays

Camila July 1 Margaret Yuriel July 10 Linda July 15 Michelle July 16 Bonnie July 26 Ann July 27 Tristan July 27

From the Senior Warden

Yesterday, Tom and I attended St. Luke’s-San Lucas Church to be part of the worship with Bishop Curry. It was a mountaintop experience. SL2 did a beauti-ful job of handling the logistics and Bishop Curry was beyond amazing. If I would have dropped dead after the service, I would have died a happy person! We attended the 8:00 service and sat with a lot of the All Saints attendees. By my informal count, I think we had over 25 people at this service, and others attended the 10:00 am. Roxanne led us in community prayers after the service outside the church. This too was very moving and meaningful. On to more temporal things: If you are a Freddie’s shopper and have not signed up to support their community giving back pro-gram, let me or Jennifer know. We can get you signed up. We are not getting much back from this program, but every dollar helps, and if we get more people, obviously we will get more money back. There are other programs that provide funds back, but we need to make sure that it is worth the effort as a fund raiser. With the death of Mona’s grandmother, Grandma Dorothy, the mutual ministries and BC retreat (June 23rd) was postponed. We have not decided on a new date, but we will be having the retreat sometime in the near future. I am very excited that our summer is filling up with a lot of wonderful and hopefully fun activities: Pride in the Park, Parish Picnic, Community Garden tour (with TDS). Clearly, we are an active and joyful community.

In God’s love, -Alice Williams

Grand Ultreya July 8th

Episcopal Cursillo of Oregon and SW Washington invites one and all to a Grand Ultreya and

snack food Potluck gathering on Sunday, July 8, 2018 at 2pm. It will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 1444 Liberty St. SE, Salem, OR 97302. Lots of singing, sharing, and connecting with friends old and new. Find and join us on Facebook under Oregon Episcopal Cursillo, and sign-up for Cursillo email at www.oregon-cursillo.org.

SAINTS’ ALIVE! July 2018 Page 5

FINANCIAL REPORT MAY 2018

Monthly income: $10,128.79 Monthly expenses: $11,136.36 Overspent: $1,007.57* *Primarily utilities and assessment

Calling all New and Experienced Ushers and Greeters Watch This Space

In the next few weeks, I will be scheduling usher and greeter training. There have been some changes over the last year, that need to be communicated, and I am delighted that we have some more people who have indicated an interest in serving this minis-try. To get everybody trained, I think it will take about two Sundays. We will convene after a short coffee hour, and probably it will take no more than 30 minutes. As Fr. Joe often says, the ushers and greeters are the first faces that visitors see when coming to All Saints. It is a very vital and important ministry. -Tom Williams

Vacation Bible School

at St. Luke’s ~ San Lucas

We welcome kids ages 4-10 years of age to come, have fun and learn with us 5 mornings, 9AM – 12 Noon, Tuesday, July 10th through Saturday, July 14th. During Vacation Bible School, campers will travel back to ancient Babylon and experi-ence the story of Daniel and the Lions in an interactive setting. Campers will get to walk with Daniel through his story of brav-ery in the face of adversity and talk about how God is always with us through the best and worst of times. Games, crafts and music will make every-day fun filled and empowering for all attendees! Suggested Donation: $10 Registration Form can be found on our website: www.stlukesvancouver.com

St. Luke - San Lucas sends warm thanks for our "wonderful cookies" for the recep-tions for Presiding Bishop Curry's visit. (We sent 13 platters.) It was a glorious day and I saw 27 of us there. I'm sure there were more that I didn't see. Bishop Greg sends blessings to all of us at All Saints. - Kitty

Pride in the Park sign-up sheet is in the Parish Hall. Our booth will feature All Saints, Traveling Day Society and Babies in Need. We hope to have at least 2 people from TDS at the drum throughout the day and 2 from the church throughout the day to welcome people and an-swer questions. TDS will be playing on the main stage from 9 - 9:30 am.

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All Saints’ Annual Summer Church Picnic Sunday, August 12th at Vancouver Lake Park (Heron North Shelter)

7:00 am—3:00 pm Come one and all to our annual church picnic! We will celebrate with each other in worship and then move on to great food and activities. The shelter has seating for 72 with picnic tables, barbe-cue, running water and electricity. It is at the "far" end of the park, closest shelter to the children's playground. It's on the water, and those of us with kayaks, paddle boards, etc. may want to bring them - if so, PLEASE BRING LIFE JACK-ETS ADEQUATE FOR THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE YOUR CRAFT CAN HOLD. Also, there is no life guard and parents will have to take responsibility for their children as we will be close to the water. Parking is adequate and, they tell me,close to the shelter - or those of us who can't walk long dis-tances can be dropped off close to the shelter and then picked up there when it's time to go. Parking is $3 per car per day, so carpooling is encouraged

All Saints Labyrinth Outside!

We welcome all to the labyrinth the last Saturday of the months of June, July, August and September, weather per-mitting. A canvas labyrinth, that's the same shape as the lab-yrinth in Chartres Cathedral in France and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, will be placed on the soccer field from 7-9 PM. This labyrinth consists of 11 circuits. It is not a straight line, but if you follow the path, it’ll lead you to the center. Then you can follow the same path back out.

Walking a labyrinth can be like a walking meditation. It's im-portant to begin with an open heart — free of expectation. Often people come with a ques-tion they want to explore or a quality they may want to deepen. Sometimes folks draw something like an angel card and meditate on that during the walk.

It may be helpful to think of the walk in 3 phases. On the way in, it can be useful to identify your “preconceived notions” about the subject of your walk and practice letting those go. The center can be a place of inspiration, developing a new way to think about the subject. Then the way out is a time to practice integrating these new thoughts into your life.

People the world over are using labyrinths as part of their spiritual journey. We hope you'll give this a try. Traveling Day Society will play for some of the time of the walk.

Hope to see you there. If you have questions please call Ruth Langstraat at 360.953.4964. If you'd like to help us set out the labyrinth please come at 6PM.

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All Saints Episcopal Church Ministry Schedule — July 2018

Unable to do your assignment? Find someone to substitute for you and then leave a message for the church office, either voice mail or email: admin@allsaints-vancouver.org. Thank you!

SCRIPTURES July 1 TEAM 1

July 8 TEAM 2

July 15 TEAM 3

July 22 TEAM 4

July 29 TEAM 2

1st LESSON 2 Samuel 1:1, 17-27

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10

2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19

2 Samuel 7:1-14a

2 Samuel 11:1-15

PSALM Psalm 130 Psalm 48 Psalm 24 Psalm 89:20-37 Psalm 14

2nd LESSON 2 Corinthians 8:7-15

2 Corinthians 12:2-10

Ephesians 1:3-14 Ephesians 2:11-22

Ephesians 3:14-21

GOSPEL Mark 5:21-43 Mark 6:1-13 Mark 6:14-29 Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

John 6:1-21

SUNDAYS 9:00 AM

Altar Setup Fiona Martha Sharon M Sheridan

Pat Martha

Lay Eucharistic Ministers

Fiona Alice

Sheryl Candy

Jon Mona

Sheridan Rob

Sheryl Candy

First Lesson/ Psalm

Jon Linda Candy Sheryl Linda

Second Lesson Sharon M. Fiona Matthew Dee Ann Fiona

Ushers Matthew Mike Tom Pat Mike

Greeters Candy Vicki Alice Verna Vicki

Potluck

Coffee Hour/ Potluck Team

Alice, Tom Verna, Mary,

Judy

Kitty, Rob Vicki, Mona

Martha, Remedios,

Candy, Carol S. Carolyn

Darlene, Linda, Terry B., Ann

Kitty, Rob, Vicki, Mona

Lay Eucharist Visitor on duty

Sheridan and Candy

Reminder! July is the second month of 2018 with a FIFTH Sunday. Team 2 will serve on July 29th according to our new

Ministry Team Rotation schedule. Thanks!

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Sunday Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Holy Eucharist

9:00 am Potluck

12-1:30 pm TDS at

Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital

Fourth of July Church Office

Closed

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 AA: 11:30 - 1:30 7 - 9 pm

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 AA: 11:30 - 1:30 5 - 9 pm

AA: 11:30 - 1:30

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 6:30 - 9:30 pm

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Holy Eucharist

9:00 am Coffee Hour

Bishop’s Committee Mtg TDS @ Art In the

Garden

Born In Blessing 6:30-7:45pm Traveling Day

Society

Finance Committee Mtg.

3:00 pm

Men’s Breakfast 8:30 am

AA: 11:30 - 1:30

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 7 - 9 pm

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 AA: 11:30 - 1:30 5 - 9 pm

AA: 11:30 - 1:30

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 Chp. 9 Couples 5:30-

8:30

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Holy Eucharist 9:00 am

Coffee Hour

Born In Blessing 6:30-7:45pm Traveling Day

Society

Saints' Alive! Deadline

AA: 11:30 - 1:30

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 7 - 9 pm

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 AA: 11:30 - 1:30 5- 9 pm

AA: 11:30 - 1:30

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 6:30 - 9:30 pm

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Holy Eucharist 9:00 am

Coffee Hour

Born In Blessing 6:30-7:45pm Traveling Day

Society

Labyrinth Outside 7:00-9:00 pm

AA: 11:30 - 1:30

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 7 - 9 pm

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 AA: 11:30 - 1:30 5 - 9 pm

AA: 11:30 - 1:30

AA 6:30 - 9:30 pm

29 30 31 Holy Eucharist

9:00 am Coffee Hour

AA: 11:30 - 1:30

AA: 11:30 - 1:30 7 - 9 pm

July 2018