Open Door June/July 2014 by Saint John's Cathedral

OPEN DOOR June / July 2014

EVANGELISM AS ART

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“CREAM OF ALL MY HEART” Page 10

RENEWALWORKS UPDATE

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FAMILY MINISTRIES

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STAFF & VESTRY CLERGY

Highlights

The Very Reverend Peter Eaton Rector and Dean, Ext. 7721 The Reverend Robert Hendrickson Sub-Dean, Ext. 7706

EVANGELISM AS ART

SEARCHING THE SCRIPTURES

VISIO DIVINA

The Reverend Elizabeth Marie Melchionna, Canon, Ext. 7731 The Reverend Jadon Hartsuff Canon, Ext. 7732 The Reverend Charles LaFond Canon Steward, Ext. 7711 The Reverend Elizabeth Costello Curate, Ext. 7704

SENIOR STAFF Kim McPherson Director of Religious Education Ext. 7729 Mike Orr Director of Communications Ext. 7730

“CREAM OF ALL MY HEART”

Stephen Tappe Organist and Director of Music Ext. 7726 Tara Williams Director of Finance and Administration Ext. 7720

RENEWALWORKS UPDATE

VESTRY Larry Kueter, Senior Warden Kat Challis, Junior Warden Mary Ellen Williams, Treasurer David Abbott, Clerk Class of 2017 David Abbott, Tamra d’Estrée, Jack Denman, Mike McCall Class of 2016 David Ball, Jen Courtney-Keyse, Suni Devitt, Amanda Montague Class of 2015 Susan Chenier, Ned Rule, Mary Laird Stewart, John Van Camp

GARDENING AT THE GOVERNOR’s MANSION

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From the Dean: DEEPENING OUR ENCOUNTER WITH THE SCRIPTURES Our life as Anglicans rests on ancient Christian traditions, which have as their bedrock the testimony of the Holy Scriptures. Although we understand that there are other sources of authority for us, including the 2,000-year old Tradition of the Church, the Bible occupies a unique place as a witness to God’s selfrevelation. As Christians, we are called to live a biblically patterned life in which the record, stories, evidence, and focus of the Scriptures shape our individual and collective witness.

Beyond this academic study, however, we say that the Scriptures have a character that is particular, and a meaning and significance that make them holy and give them, if you will, their “divine nature.” One great Anglican bishop and theologian of the 20th century, Michael Ramsey, used to say that just as we believe Jesus is both fully human and fully divine, so the Scriptures are at once the product of human authors and also invested with a divine nature and inspiration. The Bible is more than another book, more even than another Great Book. So, just as it is essential to understand Jesus as fully human and fully divine, so it is crucial to appreciate the capacity of the Bible to bring us into the human-divine encounter and to keep this human-divine character in balance.

This can happen only if we read and study the Scriptures. Even though we hear a great deal of the Bible in our daily and weekly worship, this is no substitute for indepth knowledge and understanding. The books of the Bible come from cultures, languages, and mindsets quite different from our own, and although we can often “take up and read” the Bible in a more devotional way, the real gifts of the Bible come from a deeper attention.

To ignore this complexity is to rob the Christian faith of its foundation in the Incarnation—the world-altering breaking into our lives of God’s own self in Jesus. It is to turn the Scriptures into a collection of charming stories at best, or a moral textbook at worst. To appreciate this human-divine quality of the Bible, to explore it, to immerse oneself in it, to be shaped by it, is to embrace its complexity, to take a step both into history and into eternity, where the truths we profess about God, the creation, the human person, salvation, and so many other aspects of our faith open up before us like a deep well of refreshing water for thirsting hearts and souls.

It helps us to understand that the Bible has a complex identity for Christians. As a collection of ancient texts, the Bible is subject to the usual forms of examination to which all ancient texts are submitted. Scholars debate when the books were written, by whom, for whom, and under what circumstances. And since we have no autographed manuscripts by the original authors but only copies of copies of ancient manuscripts, scholars wrestle with what, exactly, the author may have originally written or meant. Some passages of the Scriptures are opaque to us, and we still struggle to comprehend them. This is, if you will, the “human nature” of the books of the Bible.

Over the course of the next year, we shall be focusing on our growth in the love and learning of the Scriptures. Having engaged in “The Bible in a Year” reading program, we shall move on to other avenues of exploration. Join us for this journey, especially if you are one of those Episcopalians who says, “I don’t know much about the Bible.” The Scriptures are waiting to embrace you in an extraordinary new life.

Evangelism as Art (Hospitality, Transformation, Justice) by Mother Elizabeth Marie Melchionna

ow were copies of the Holy Scriptures created before the advent of the printing press? They were crafted slowly by hand, penned and illuminated by scribes working with gold leaf, handground natural pigments, and holy image, usually on vellum (parchment made of calfskin) to celebrate the Word. From Saint John’s Day, September 7, 2014, and through the following year, Saint John’s Cathedral will become home to The Saint John’s Bible, a modern-day illuminated volume of Scripture.

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Glorifies God’s Word through witness to our Godgiven dignity.

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Revives a cherished monastic tradition that receded with the advent of the printing press, affirming our commitment to the study of the Scriptures, to the book arts, and to art, spirituality, and scholarship more generally.

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Engages us in our history as believers and “a people of The Book.”

One of the seven volumes of this artistic masterpiece will accompany us during the year, in our study, our worship, our meditations, drawing us into deeper relationship with God through our imaginations.

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Gives voice, expression, and training to those of us who are unschooled in theology and the arts.

A work of both art and theology, The Saint John’s Bible proceeds from the collaboration between master calligrapher Donald Jackson and his team of artists in Wales with scholars in central Minnesota at the Colleges of Saint John and Saint Benedict. Together they offer an ecumenical approach to the reproduction of the Bible rooted in Benedictine spirituality. The production of The Saint John’s Bible took vellum, quills, ink, gold leaf, natural pigments, and the imaginations of more than a dozen artists and craftspeople working full-time over the span of seven years. Other faith communities who have hosted The Saint John’s Bible have found that it: •

Ignites the spiritual imaginations of believers through the collaborations among the scribes, artists, scholars, and others who read and view the volumes.

The Saint John’s Bible also reflects the values of Saint Benedict and his Rule. Three particular themes of the Rule are woven into The Saint John’s Bible: hospitality, transformation, and justice for God’s People. We expect that our making a home at Saint John’s for a volume of The Saint John’s Bible will enrich our spiritual lives in unexpected ways. We will be offering hospitality to artists young and old throughout Denver. How might we reach out to, and inspire, local artists? How might this project be used to captivate the imaginations of schoolchildren, who may be encountering illuminated scriptures for the first time? How might local Christians deepen their own faith in their own experience of The Saint John’s Bible? Please contact Mother Elizbathe Marie at elizabethmarie@sjcathedral.org if you would like to participate in the team of leaders that plans for the ways we encounter this work of theology and work of art. Read more at saintjohnsbible.org. Life of Paul, Aidan Hart with contributions from Andrew Jamieson, Copyright 2002, The Saint John’s Bible, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Photo courtesy of Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota. 2014

IMPoRTANT FEaST DaYS IN JuNE & JuLY Wednesday June 11 – Saint Barnabas the Apostle 7:00 am Eucharist, 8:30 am Morning Prayer, 5:00 pm Evening Prayer, & 5:30 pm Eucharist Saturday June 14 – Saint Basil the Great 10:00 am Ordination of Deacons and Priests Sunday June 15 – Trinity Sunday 8:00 am, 10:00 am Curate’s first Mass, & 6:00 pm The Wilderness Sunday June 22 – Corpus Christi 8:00 am, 10:00 am, & 6:00 pm The Wilderness Tuesday June 24 – The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist 8:30 am Morning Prayer, 5:00 pm Evening Prayer, & 5:30 pm Eucharist Sunday June 29 – Saint Peter and Saint Paul 8:00 am, 10:00 am, & 6:00 pm The Wilderness Tuesday July 22 – Saint Mary Magdalen 8:30 am Morning Prayer, 5:00 pm Evening Prayer, & 5:30 pm Eucharist Friday July 25 – Saint James the Apostle 8:30 am Morning Prayer, 5:00 pm Evening Prayer, & 5:30 pm Eucharist

Special Forum with Author Randall Balmer Sunday, June 1. Scholar, author, and Episcopal priest Randall Balmer will be our preacher and he will also hold a special Dean’s Forum after the 10:00 am Eucharist in Dagwell Hall on his new book Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter. Dr. Balmer teaches at Dartmouth and has previously written other significant books on religion in American life. A book signing will follow the Dean’s Forum.

Redeemer: The Life of Jimmy Carter Evangelical Christianity and conservative politics are today seen as inseparable. But when Jimmy Carter, a Democrat and a bornagain Christian, won the presidency in 1976, he owed his victory in part to American evangelicals, who responded to his open religiosity and his rejection of the moral bankruptcy of the Nixon Administration. Carter, running as a representative of the New South, articulated a progressive strand of American Christianity that championed liberal ideals, racial equality, and social justice—one that has almost been forgotten since. In Redeemer, acclaimed religious historian Randall Balmer reveals how the rise and fall of Jimmy Carter’s political fortunes mirrored the transformation of American religious politics. From his beginnings as a humble peanut farmer to the galvanizing politician who rode a reenergized religious movement into the White House, Carter’s life and career mark him as the last great figure in America’s long and venerable history of progressive evangelicalism. Although he stumbled early in his career—courting segregationists during his second campaign for Georgia governor—Carter’s run for president marked a return to the progressive principles of his faith and helped reenergize the evangelical movement. Responding to his message of racial justice, women’s rights, and concern for the plight of the poor, evangelicals across the country helped propel Carter to office. Yet four years later, those very same voters abandoned him for Ronald Reagan and the Republican Party. Carter’s defeat signaled the eclipse of progressive evangelicalism and the rise of the Religious Right, which popularized a dramatically different understanding of the faith, one rooted in nationalism, individualism, and free-market capitalism. An illuminating biography of our 39th president, Redeemer presents Jimmy Carter as the last great standardbearer of an important strand of American Christianity, and provides an original and riveting account of the moments that transformed our political landscape in the 1970s and 1980s. ISBN: 978-0-465-02958-7

Searching the Scriptures: by Father Robert Hendrickson

ighty-five percent of Americans self-identify as Christian, while 40 percent call themselves “born-again” and 34 percent believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God. Despite the strong cultural identification Americans have with Christianity, however, we have a startlingly weak grasp of the Bible. The Gospel of John instructs believers to “search the Scriptures,” yet we are facing the reality that most Christians today have not engaged the Scriptures prayerfully and deliberately. • Only half of American adults can name one of the four Gospels. • A majority of Americans cannot name the first book of the Bible. • Only one-third knows who delivered the Sermon on the Mount. (It was Jesus, not Billy Graham.) • 10 percent of Americans believe Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. Our Scriptures and Sacraments form meeting places where we gather with the faithful of every generation to encounter God. Accordingly, as a community of the faithful, Saint John’s Cathedral will engage with the Scriptures this coming year across a number of disciplines. We will host the beautiful Saint John’s Bible, read The Story together, and discuss it on Sundays. Our children will be working with many of the same stories. We will practice Lectio Divina and Visio Divina, which are prayer practices used to engage the Scriptures, and try our hands at Illumination (calligraphy and drawing) as we meditate on the Prologue to John’s Gospel, and on the way find other new ways to engage God in his Word through the year. The reading and study of the Scriptures is only one part of a Christian’s life of faith. But from them spring our community worship, our personal devotions, and our service in the world. They are all first grounded in our engagement with the Scriptures. Anglicans read the Scriptures through a slightly different lens. We approach the Bible less as the final word in a textbook and more as the first word in a poem. Our approach rests on the notion that the individual believer has the joy and the obligation to engage the poetry of the Scriptures with reason while considering the tradition of the Church.

Reading the Bible Together as a Community

Many within our own Church have been hurt by unreflective and reflexive adherence to inadequate ways of engaging the Bible. But in our rush to run from some excesses, we often miss out on some gifts—a devotion to private daily Bible reading and a respect for the wisdom of Tradition. So we are left with an uncertainty about who we Anglicans are and what we believe. It is therefore critically important for us to be able to say, with confidence, how we interpret the Scriptures and where we find inspiration and grounding for our faith in Christ. At our best, Anglicans (and all Episcopalians are Anglicans, though not all Anglicans are Episcopalians) have found a middle way that blends the ancient, catholic, and reformed approaches, not for moderation’s sake, but as a deeply grounded and balanced search for truth. The Bible is one of three tools Anglicans use to discern how and where we are being led both as individual believers and as a community of the faithful. In addition to the Scriptures, Tradition and Reason are the three pillars of Anglican theological reflection. As Anglicans, we read the Scriptures intentionally both as individuals and as a community in order to work out what it is we believe. Reading in community is done not only with those around us but also with those who came before—that is, with an awareness of the Tradition created by our forefathers and foremothers in the faith. When I think on our most essential qualities, as Anglicans, I often ponder the collect for Richard Hooker. It reads, “O God of truth and peace, who raised up your servant Richard Hooker in a day of bitter controversy to defend with sound reasoning and great charity the catholic and reformed religion: Grant that we may maintain that middle way, not as a compromise for the sake of peace, but as a comprehension for the sake of truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.”

in community, using the gifts of our Tradition and Reason as we delve into the Scriptures more deeply this fall. A people who “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest” the word of God will be a people marked by that Word. Something life-giving and powerful emerges from engagement with the deepest stories of our faith. In the same way that our appreciation for the complexity of a demanding dish grows after we have delved into a cookbook or two, so it is that the complexity, joy, and demands of our faith take on a greater depth each time we savor God’s Word and allow ourselves be nourished, and even transformed, by it. Of course, this means we will wrestle with hard passages, frustrating bits, and confusing narratives. We will stumble over names we cannot pronounce, dates we cannot remember, and places we shall struggle to find on ancient maps. We will be told things we might not want to hear and delight to discover things we dared not dream were written for us. Reading the Bible is like hearing stories from your family tree—sometimes shocking, sometimes boring, at times liberating, but always telling us a little more about who we are and where we come from. God’s Holy Word, passed on to us through the work of the Holy Spirit (and no small amount of Byzantine-era maneuvering), is given to us as guide and gift to be the place where we begin to know the story of God’s unfolding work, the nature of Christ, and the birth of the Church. We will be unsettled and convicted—and welcomed in new ways into the story of Salvation. Garden of Eden, Donald Jackson with contributions from Chris Tomlin, Copyright 2003, The Saint John’s Bible, Saint John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Saint John’s will continue on this search for truth,

Visio Divina by Father Jadon Hartsuff

Over the years, many of us have experienced a method of praying with the Scriptures often referred to a Lectio Divina (Latin for “divine reading”). A passage is read and one is invited to notice a word or a phrase or an image that has stuck in your consciousness. The passage is often read again, sometimes in a different translation of the Bible or by a different voice, and the invitation identify a word or phrase is made again. Often we pray this way in groups, and individuals share the words or phrases out loud. While Lectio Divina is a method of praying with the written word, Visio Divina (Latin for “divine seeing”) is a way of praying with images. Eastern Orthodox Christians have a long tradition of praying with images through icons, but the western Church, and Protestantism in particular, has lost much of the richness this way of praying can bring to our spiritual lives. We are more likely to read in the Scriptures about the way God has communicated through images and visions, like Ezekiel’s vision of dry bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14) or the vision that come to Peter in prayer on a rooftop (Acts 10:9-23), than we are actually to engage imagery in prayer. The irony and paradox is that our culture has done the reverse. We live in a time when we are increasingly more likely to get our news from the television or our entertainment at a cinema than we are likely to sit down and read a newspaper or a book. Surely this presents a range of challenges, like, for example, the probable correlation between these habits and our culture’s shortening attention span or ability to cope with silence. Visio Divina, an intentional way of praying with images, is needed now more than ever. The method invites one to gaze at an image and ask what God might be trying to say in that moment. Visio Divina is not about asking what an artist intended or what an image “means.” Such questions are set aside as they arise – as we make space prayerfully to move

beyond our first impressions and step away from mentally processing what we are looking at. We are invited to be surprised and even transformed as we attempt to see with our heart rather than our mind. The Saint John’s Bible will give us an invaluable opportunity to pray with images that have themselves been inspired by God’s word. This fall we will have opportunities to learn how to pray using Visio Divina with programs designed to bring us right into the illuminations of The Saint John’s Bible. Watch for announcements later this year, and if you would like to see a sneak-peek at one of the programs, called Seeing the Word, you can find a video introduction here: http://youtu. be/TcAJqVnGv5k. In the meantime, spend some time this summer praying with images on your own. These steps will help you get started: 1. Read the text (in this case, art) slowly, taking a first glance noting the colors, people, places and things. Remain with the image for one to two minutes. If you would like, jot down a few words about the image. 2. Take a second, deeper, look. Where is there movement? What relationships do you see? Engage your imagination. Where are you in the artwork? What do you see from that perspective? What deeper meaning emerges? 3. Respond to the image with prayer. Did the image remind you of an experience, person or issue for which you’d like to offer thanksgiving or intercession? Offer that prayer to God. 4. Find your quiet center. Breathe deeply. Relax your shoulders, arms and legs. Rest in this quiet. Let God pray in you. God prays beyond words. From http://episcopalprayer.org/visio-divina/

If you stop by Dagwell Hall on a Monday night, you will see 20 homeless women finding a safe and welcoming sanctuary. As part of the Women’s Homeless Initiative (WHI), we are one of many churches providing a hot meal and a place to sleep. But what we do best is treat our guests with respect and dignity. One of our guests even told us after a very challenging week that she knew if she could just get to Saint John’s, then everything would be all right. In March, we began our third year providing sanctuary to homeless women. Many of our ladies have moved on to stay with relatives or to permanent housing. Others are still with us, and each Monday we see new faces. We have much to be thankful for, and much left to do. Who are these women who stay with us? They are young, they are old, they are funny, they are scared, they are resilient, and they are God’s children. One arrived who had not eaten in two days. Another showed up on a cold night with only two towels wrapped around her shoulders for a coat. Some feel forgotten. Many feel despair. One woman told us that she didn’t think even God cared about her anymore. But we were here to remind her that God does. Being homeless is exhausting. And that is how many arrive at Saint John’s. They know that they are safe with us, but that is not all that they seek. Because when they arrive, our volunteers call them by name and show them that not only are they truly cared about, but that they matter, to the volunteers, to our parish community, and to God. They often say how unbelievable it is that perfect strangers are willing to help them. We witness their struggles but they are also witnesses to the outpouring of generosity and Christian love that

expects nothing in return. Sometimes the stories we hear can be heartbreaking. But we also have the chance to see God’s grace. We see it in the kindness they show each other, and in the kindness that they allow us to share with them. These women live in a world where they are often made to feel as if they do not belong. But God never intended for there to be an “us” and a “them.” And that is what is so amazing at Saint John’s because on Monday nights, it is all “us.” Although the stories our guests share can be heartbreaking, we also have the gift of laughter, fun stories, silliness over which color to paint fingernails (“Do you think the glitter is too much?”), great satisfaction when creating a watercolor, accolades all around for a beautifully crocheted afghan, and rueful comments that “If I could just quit smoking, I wouldn’t need to stand out here in the snow.” Our guests are us, and we are them. And we all belong to God. There are opportunities for everyone to share in the village that is the Women’s Homeless Initiative, and we hope you will consider joining us; we encourage both women and men to be a part of the program. We especially need volunteers for being with the ladies during hospitality time, providing dinners, and staying overnight. But each volunteer team is essential to the program and every prayer and every moment spent helping our guests is most welcome. The generosity of our parish family is amazing and a true reflection of God’s grace and our love for one another. If you would like to volunteer, get more information about what we do, or be added to our email list, please contact the WHI Site Co–Coordinators Sue Abbott at abbottsuef@aol.com or Becky Parnell at rebeccaparnell@comcast.net. We would love to hear from you and are happy to answer any questions.

The Order of The Daughters of the King: New Beginnings for the Saint John’s Chapter by Priscilla Shand

Cream Heart

he Daughters of the King (DOK) Chapter

is back at Saint John’s Cathedral! Current members are eagerly anticipating this opportunity to introduce this international religious order of Episcopal women to our church. DOK is a wonderful opportunity to enrich your life of prayer and commit yourself to a life of prayer, service, and evangelism. Margaret J. Franklin organized the Order in New York City on April 4, 1885, at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, now Church of the Resurrection. In the years since, thousands of chapters have been formed throughout the world. Today, chapters can also be found in Lutheran, Roman Catholic, and Anglican churches, and in other denominations having the historic episcopate but not in communion with the Episcopal Church. International growth is significant, with chapters in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean Basin.

As each Daughter is inducted into the Order, she undertakes a Rule of Life, which includes prayer, service, and evangelism. This flexible Rule of Life means that one can commit to prayer at any time and in any place — young mothers at home with children, women working outside the home, and those who might be unable to make it to church but can still hold the community in prayer!

Each chapter member has choices of ways to serve within her church, either individually or collectively. The specific role for each DOK chapter is for its members to pray daily for unity in Christ’s church; for the spread of Christ’s Kingdom; for God’s blessings upon members of its chapter and clergy; for the spiritual growth of our parish; and to pray intercessory prayers for healing and other special needs that arise from within the church family. Intercessory prayer is a beautiful way to grow in love and service to our Lord and God. It can be done anywhere, anytime, in any circumstance, by anyone. It is a blessing beyond measure, as any Daughter who has prayed for others will tell you.

of all my

Our Cathedral family is currently participating in by Father Charles LaFond the RenewalWorks inventory as we seek to assess our spiritual depth and seek vitality in our spiritual journeys. Women, please take a moment to ask yourself if this opportunity to join us as members of DOK could help you to grow in a new and unexpected way, both personally and as a contributing member of the Saint John’s family. If you want further information, or to add your name to a contact list for an upcoming meeting about DOK, please contact Priscilla Shand at priscillashand1@ mac.com or Mother Elizabeth Marie Melchionna at elizabethmarie@sjcathedral.org.

he word cream, which we associate with whipped cream, strawberries and cream, lavender crème brûleé, ice cream, coconut cream, and moisturizing face cream, actually developed from the Greek and Latin words for ‘holy oil’ or ‘chrism.’ Its alternate etymological meaning was “most excellent part of,” which is why the best oils were reserved for blessing from our many and most ancient religious traditions, including but not limited to Judaism and then Christianity. This is why the cream, which rises to the top of fresh milk, is “the most excellent part” of the sustaining milk harvest. Kings were made by anointing them with the best oils. Jesus was anointed with the most expensive oils, which shocked and annoyed some of his own followers in the moment. During Holy Week, in most Episcopal and Anglican dioceses, including ours, the bishop gathers the clergy from every corner of the diocese to bless three massive ewers of oil, which are then distributed for use in all the churches. One ewer of oil is for blessing and anointing the sick and dying. Another is for blessing and anointing the Catechumens, the baptized, and the confirmed. Still another is for anointing and blessing churches, altars, priests, bishops, and kings or queens. This last oil, Chrism, is flavored or scented with a perfume, which adds to its special place in the life of the church.

He gets to the heart of stewardship and invokes an image familiar to his parishioners, who were 17thcentury English villagers. When one collects the morning milk, the cream on top is reserved for butter and desserts. It is special, rich, and delicious. To give some cream away was an act of great generosity, one that symbolized gratitude. In one of our most beloved hymns, “King of Glory, King of Peace,” we read these words taken from Herbert’s poem: “And the cream of all my heart I will bring thee...” To pour the cream off the top of one’s heart is to take the metaphor to its great conclusion. And that is why our ancient religious term for the most holy act in our faith, chrism, has become the word we use for cream, because we take the finest we have to offer and give some of it back to God—physically with our money as we make our pledge and relationally with our hearts as we offer our best selves to God.

And the cream of all my heart I will bring thee…

When I make ginger pear ice cream, I often think of the perfuming of oils for liturgy. Once you have mixed the milk, sugar, and salt, the heavy cream is added along with vanilla and a purée of canned pears and thin ginger slices in honey. The ginger pear ice cream blessed many meals in my home. In the Easter Icon, Jesus is wrapped in a creamcolored cloth, reminding me of the way God pours the heavy cream of salvation into the human recipe as the Kingdom of God is revealed. Cream has always been a European delicacy because only a bit of it floats to the top of milk when it is collected from a cow, goat, sheep, or even a yak. Creamy milk is our first nourishment, and medieval images of Jesus and Mary often depict Jesus at Mary’s uncovered breast as the symbol of God’s provision, Jesus’ humanity, and our human predicament of needing nourishment. In George Herbert’s lovely sonnet from The Temple (1633), the great Anglican divine sums up this whole notion of pouring the cream from the top of the milk.

It is tempting to pour the cream off, hide it away in a cold place, and give God the thin, blue-white milk from beneath. But if you have ever made ice cream with milk for a special occasion, your guests will know you have served them only a poor substitute: ice milk. The blessing and intentions of what we do on Sundays is connected to the blessings and intentions of what we do the rest of the week and provides us with the integrity for which our souls long. We pour the cream of our income off and offer it to God as a sacrifice, just as God pours Jesus into our lives as a sacrifice. The Church then uses that cream (in my case, the top pour of my income, or about $6,000 out of the $60,000 available to me for my daily life) to bless those whose lives need blessing—the destitute, the marginalized, the hungry, the thirsty, the alone. The best oil is used to mark me as a Christian. My only possible response is, then, to offer God “the cream of all my heart.” My pledge is not a bill I pay. My pledge is not dues to a church club. My pledge is not to assure membership or pay for services. My pledge is a symbol that I am offering to God the cream (not the skim milk) of my heart. My pledge is a symbol of a deeper reality connected to real, human things like church mission, ginger pear ice cream, and resurrection.

“Our church is the community of the faithful. For that community to be healthy and growing, its individual members must be healthy and growing too.”

RenewalWorks Update by Andrew Britton Chair, Cathedral Life Committee

n behalf of the clergy, the staff, and our entire Cathedral congregation, I want once again to thank those at Saint John’s who took time to complete the RenewalWorks survey. Since the last Open Door, where we first reported on the parish-wide survey, RenewalWorks, your Cathedral Life Committee has been hard at work, holding three of the four initial meetings. •

The first meeting set the stage, with discussions about our spiritual lives, catalysts that drive our spiritual growth and change, and the basic concepts and definitions for categories we’d encounter in the data.

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The survey data were the focus of the second meeting. The challenge of this session was to understand the results without getting bogged down with “analysis paralysis.” Simply put, our goal was to understand the core themes from the data of the three composite areas: (1) Saint John’s role as a Cathedral church, (2) the personal spiritual practices of our parishioners, and (3) parishioners’ “faith in action.” This spiritual inventory has captured vital information about what our congregation wants and needs from its church. It was a lot of data to master, and your Cathedral Life Committee did a great job with it.

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The third meeting focused on common traits, practices, and themes seen in healthy, growing churches, which are focused on its individual members who are healthy and growing as well. We spent a significant amount of time on what it means to be an Episcopalian and focused on Episcopal beliefs and practices. These efforts were critical to our work, as we want our recommendations to emerge from a sound understanding about our identity as Episcopalians.

As I write this update, we are a few weeks away from our fourth meeting. Our plan at that time is to condense all the data into key actionable ideas and draw recommendations from those. As with any process like this, the goal is to present recommendations that can be effectively executed, are measurable, create accountability for all parties, and thus address the desires of everyone at Saint John’s. With the completion of the fourth meeting in sight, I have asked the committee to divide into three teams. One team will work on the presentation to the clergy and the vestry. Another will be a resource for the near future to support those teams who will be executing approved recommendations. The third team, which we all believe is one of the most critical, is to communicate the group’s key findings and recommendations to the congregation. Although we have worked hard and made significant progress, much remains to be done. I ask for your continued patience. Our goal is to present to the clergy and vestry this summer, finalize and approve the recommendations, and be ready to implement them at the start of the program year this fall. I want to thank the Cathedral Life Committee and Mother Elizabeth Marie as well for their tireless work to bring solutions that will impact our broad and diverse congregation. On behalf of the Cathedral Life Committee, may I say how excited we are about where Saint John’s is headed. While we have an incredible parish, at the same time, we all also have a desire to grow. If you have questions, please feel free to reach out to me by email at abritton@swbell.net, or to any member of the clergy, as together we continue to sift through this trove of vital data so that we may truly “know Christ and make Christ known.”

GETTING REA DY FOR MUSIC

MUSIC

CAMP

August 18-22, 2014 9:00 to 11:30 am daily

Children thrive when making music. A mini music camp this summer at Saint John’s Cathedral makes that possible. Targeted to children ages 5-7, “Getting Ready for Music” Music Camp aims to teach music fundamentals. The curriculum will include lessons on violin and piano, a daily show-and-tell of musical instruments, and active listening to music. Theory lessons, games, and stories will teach notes on the staff, rhythm, solfège, and basic sight-singing. Children will be taught a repertory of sacred songs, spirituals, and folk songs, which will be reprised for parents on the last day of camp. Working with Music Director Stephen Tappe, Assistant Organist Lyn Loewi, and childsafety certified volunteers, the focus will be on basic, healthy singing skills and choral group building. Wholesome food and active games will fuel bodies and minds through the morning. Cost for the weeklong camp is $75.

CONGREGATIONS OF JUSTICE: RE-IMAGINING PRISON MINISTRY Beginning in August, parishioners at Saint John’s Cathedral will be invited to join others from around the city in a 14-week course, “Re-Imagining Prison Ministry for Congregations of Justice.” The United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, expanding from fewer than 350,000 individuals in 1972 to more than 2 million today, with a shocking 7 million Americans (1 in every 31 adults) under the prison system’s control—whether behind bars, on probation, or on parole. Those under the system’s control are disproportionately poor and people of color. Through this course, people of faith will: • Develop a working understanding of the prison industrial complex, the “war on drugs,” and various theories of punishment in order to articulate the ways in which mass incarceration is a social injustice. • Develop an understanding of the interconnectedness of racial, economic, and gender oppression in the prison system. • Learn to listen to and to recognize the experiences of those in prison as authoritative sources for ethical reflection. • Foster imagination about possible responses of faith communities and civic organizations and cultivate conceptual and practical skills for addressing mass incarceration.

Sponsored by Wartburg West, this course will be offered at the Cathedral on Monday nights, 6:30 – 8:30 pm, from August 25 through December 1. We will invite teams of two to four parishioners from each participating congregation to take the course together and work on a final project — developing a concrete response for one’s faith community or civic organization regarding the injustice of mass incarceration. The projects will offer ways for congregations to reflect on how this concrete response may fit into a larger social movement seeking to dismantle mass incarceration. We do, however, also welcome individual learners. The cost for a team is $500. The course is taught by Dr. Jennifer McBride, Regents Chair in Ethics, Assistant Professor of Religion, and Director of Peace and Justice Studies at Wartburg College, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America in Waverly, Iowa, who will be in residence in Denver in the fall. McBride is co-editor of Bonhoeffer and King: Their Legacies and Import for Christian Social Thought (Fortress Press, 2010) and author of The Church for the World: A Theology of Public Witness (Oxford University Press, 2011). To enroll, or for more information, please contact Jenny McBride at jennifer.mcbride@wartburg.edu or 434.466.6892.

Library News Those of you who are familiar with the beautiful room that is Saint John’s Library know that our shelves are full of an amazing collection of books about everything from Anglican history to Zen Buddhism. The room is also a warm and inviting area in which to read or study, made even more comfortable with a new sofa recently provided by the Arts and Architecture Commission and with donations in grateful memory of Juanita Kniss, longtime parishioner and library volunteer. A display case on the west wall of the library is currently featuring three beautiful old Bibles. The first, bound in gold-embossed brown leather with heavy brass clasps, is The Holy Bible, translated from the Latin Vulgate and diligently compared with the Hebrew, Greek, and other editions in diverse languages. Beside it is the twovolume Cottage Bible and Family Expositor, published in 1841. The third is The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the original Greek together with the commonly received English translation designed for the use of students. This one is of special interest as it includes the spidery hand-written notes of its student owner Hugh S. McElroy, back in 1835. More accessible Bibles and Bible-study materials can be found on the library shelves by the hundreds. Various versions of the Bible itself are available, along with general commentaries and books dedicated to specific explorations of the Old and New Testament. The Psalms, the Prophets, and each of the Gospels and Epistles are all included in the Library’s collection. A very special edition of the Bible is coming this fall,

when the Cathedral will be welcoming an illuminated copy of a magnificent Bible, appropriately called The Saint John’s Bible, created by the monks of Saint John’s Abbey in Minnesota.

Cathedral Book Club Summer meetings of the Cathedral Book Club will be on Sunday, June 15, and Sunday, July 13, in the Wellspring Center following the 10:00 am service. The book for June is The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri. The daughter of Indian immigrants from West Bengal, Lahiri has built her literary career “exploring the immigrant experience as it relates to characters of Indian origin in America, with all the attendant questions of identity, loyalty, memory and reinvention.” She is widely considered one of the leading fiction writers of her generation and has received the Pulitzer prize, a PEN/ Hemingway award, and the New Yorker prize for Best First Book. In July, the chosen book is Dear Life, a collection of short stories by Alice Munro, whose “clarity of vision and unparalleled gift for storytelling” recently won her the Nobel Prize. If you would like to know more about the Book Club, please contact Susan Montgomery at whiston_17@ hotmail.com. Summer hours for the library are before and after the Sunday 10:00 am service, and during the week from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm.

Gardening at the Governor’s Mansion

A meditation on finitude and the foolishness of trying—again—to overcome it. by Sandy Dixon

ast summer I had the best exercise in town. I gardened at the Governor’s Mansion. We call it “the G-M.” My day was Tuesday. After two hours of hauling hoses around the landscape and patrolling the vegetable beds, I would take my harvest of peppers and tomatoes to the Saint John’s kitchen for a bath. There, I would see a friendly sexton or two or catch sight of a few of our new clergy, then newly arrived. I’d finally get my grimy self off to Metro CareRing, at 18th and Downing, where I would drop off my bounty. Later, at home and freshly showered, I would drink a lot of water, maybe take a nap, waking up to feel a few sore muscles in my newly strong arms and be proud. This new summer routine was a great change from my usual activities as an academic and mom: a big dose of natural beauty and good works, reprieve from the computer screen, and, sometimes, the quiet company of fellow parishioners. It was everything I could have asked for but would never have dreamed up on my own. Plus, I was living a dream from my girlhood, a dream about my life in a big house. In that dream I was myself the political power, and the building my palace. On a family trip to the restored colonial capital of Williamsburg, Virginia, I imagined life as the governor’s daughter. So while gardening, I had many a wry smile. A grade-school class on tour walked by the patch I was weeding: “Oh, look,” one youngster announced, “There’s somebody who works here!” Work? For me, it is play, accompanied, sometimes, with song. Hard on the heels of a Sunday service,

hymn tunes followed me on Tuesday. As the physical tasks quieted my mind, lyrics would change on their own: All my hope on God is fou-ou-ou-ouound-ed, He doth still my tru-ust renew, la dee-da dee-da dee da . . . What with care and toil he buildeth . . . We are still wee-ee - ding the-e- ca-a-bbage patch!” The cabbage patch will not be planted this year—not in that space. The weeds won. With the drought last summer, though, came clouds of doubt. Were we doing enough? Never, came the despairing answer. I consoled myself that my pound of fresh produce nourishes a child for a day—as long as she’s getting good protein and carbs. I routinely harvested 8 lbs. of vegetables a day, sometimes much more. That’s eight nourished children! In a hungry city, where one in four children is considered “food insecure” (a strange term that means a child is not exactly hungry because he has plenty of Coke and Cheetos to eat), how much

The More You Know...

good can we do? Can’t American ingenuity feed people “at the speed of business,” something, something more effective than this distracted professor on summer mornings before the heat rises. How about some serious social change for social justice? If efficiency were our primary goal, though, the beds at the GM might not produce anything at all for the hungry. Vegetable beds staked out among the lilac bushes are one thing. Tractors and combines would be quite another. Let a thousand backyards bloom, I say: tomato blossoms, squash blossoms, apple blossoms. There is enough food. It needs only to be tended, gathered, and shared. Imagine the industrial farming of all available acreage. We have nowhere to spend in air and sun, with water and soil, no way to remember God and his gardens of Eden, Gethsemane, of Heaven. God’s beneficence, God’s people in need, God’s gifts to us of “memory, reason, and skill” as one of our prayers has it. God with us in the Garden. Immanuel. As it is, we are nurtured by the work and the workers and the play of memory, activity, and dirt-encrusted hands. And we sing. Quietly, please, for God prefers mercy. Let’s pray to see how God would nurture us, and our neighbors, in this new spring of hope and renewal. Perhaps we are about to garden in a new, gentler season of social justice.

Saint John’s hunger-relief ministries are rooted in the mission arm of our Landscape & Gardens Committee. Volunteers grow and glean fresh produce from five different sources through Saint John’s and deliver it to Metro CareRing, our community partner in hunger relief. At our peak, Saint John’s delivered 5,000 lbs. of fresh produce to Metro CareRing. •

The Grow Local Colorado Gardens at the Governor’s Mansion, which is gardened exclusively by Saint John’s volunteers.

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The Grant Farms CSA (community-supported agriculture) drops off farm shares every Wednesday night in the Children’s Garth, JuneDecember, and produces many unclaimed shares every Thursday morning. Working with Metro CareRing, Saint John’s gets these valuable shares to our neighbors who are hungry.

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The Nursery Play Garden. Volunteers plant, tend, harvest, and deliver gorgeous vegetables grown right on the Cathedral grounds.

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The Cathedral Co-operative of Gardeners. A collective of backyard gardener-parishioners, this effort produces a Sunday harvest (dropoff in the Children’s Garth) from our own gardens for Monday delivery to Metro CareRing.

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New this year, the DUG–Morey Middle School Community Garden (across the street on Clarkson) has asked Saint John’s for help. Volunteers will take already-harvested produce to Metro CareRing.

The Ordination of Mother Liz Costello Bishop O’Neill will ordain our curate, Mother Liz Costello, to the Sacred Order of Priests, in the Cathedral on Saturday, June 14, at 10:00 am. Mother Liz will preside at the Eucharist for the first time the next day, on Trinity Sunday, June 15, at 10:00 am. The preacher on this occasion will be the Reverend Canon Rosie Harper, the Vicar Great Missenden and the Chaplain to the Bishop of Buckingham in the Diocese of Oxford. Mother Liz worked with Canon Harper when she lived in the UK. Mother Liz will be the fifth person who will have been ordained to the priesthood while on the staff during the present Dean’s tenure. We are a training parish for young clergy, and it is an honor for us to have this privilege. Our curates have contributed so much to our life, and we have helped to shape a new generation of leaders for the Church. The Cathedral likes to be generous with our ordination gifts, and we give a chalice and a set of stoles to the new priests on our staff. This is a gift that comes from the entire congregation, and we encourage you to contribute to this gift, as these are things that Mother Liz will use for the rest of her life. Please send your contribution to the Cathedral (not to Mother Liz personally), and please mark your contribution “Ordination Gift.” Thank you for helping us to be generous to a new priest, and please do not forget to join us for the ordination and for Mother Liz’s first Mass the next day.

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Art of Hosting Meaningful Conversations

The

by Father Charles LaFond Woven throughout the Scriptures like threads through a tapestry are meaningful conversations. Moses has them with God. Mary has them with an angel. Jesus has them on the road to Emmaus. God has them with the Psalmist.

And we all know the difference between meaningful conversations and, well, the rest of them. We know when two people are listening to each other and when two people are simply hearing each other. We humans can, in most cases, sense when the person with whom we are speaking is listening versus when the person with whom we are speaking is rehearsing their next diatribe and keeping one ear open so as to interject, much the same way Kai, my black labrador, slinks quickly into my warm spot on the couch in winter when I go to get a cup of tea. We know when the person with whom we speak has the humility to be in conversation. ‘Con’ in conversation means “with,” and we seem to know if the person with whom we speak is with, or on, or over, or perhaps even not with. We know how deep and abiding the healing of a great conversation can be. And we know when a conversation was little more than an encounter with scolding or one-upsmanship. And yet conversations can lose their meaningfulness when they ramble or when conflict arises and begins to make a conversation, which once looked like a forest path, begin to look more like a tropical jungle. That is why, sometimes, a married couple needs to have a difficult conversation in a marriage counselor’s office, or a teenager needs to have his favorite uncle in the room when speaking with his parents about something that tends to light short fuses. What has begun in the spring of 2014 will change the Cathedral forever. The launch of meetings and teachings around a practice—new to some but familiar to others—will work in much the same fashion, acting as a container for the meaningful conversations we will

be having. Together, slowly, we will begin to learn new ways of having conversations that are meaningful. We will practice them from time to time. Then on October 11 at the Dream Together Conference, we will use these “containers” to host meaningful conversations, harvesting the great intelligence in the room— intelligence that will influence the way we live our lives and affect our mission in the city of Denver over the next few decades. The leader of the Cathedral is the collective longings of the people who pledge, the people who work, and the people who gather for bread and wine. From time to time, real conversations will get sticky. We will be tempted to return to lecture or to polite, less meaningful conversations—they are easier. And when that happens—when we are tempted to be polite, or nice—we will dig deep into the work we will do around limiting beliefs by learning to ask the four questions (for more on “containers” for limiting beliefs read Loving What Is by Byron Katie, a book that has changed my life. Or read it online at thework.com/thework4questions.php). When Jesus appears as a stranger to the two apostles walking on the road to Emmaus (see my audio sermon from May 4 at sjcathedral.org/sermons), he is asked to dine with them. They eat, and suddenly, in the middle of the meal, Jesus disappears from the table. It must have been a meaningful conversation on the road because their first and only response to Jesus’ disappearance is to remark “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:13-25) As we begin to walk this road together through the conversation-containers we shall discover at the Dream Together Conference, I want to be clear about how transformative this work will be to our city, our Cathedral, our families, and our lives. Walk with us and set aside October 11.

2014

DREAM TOGETHER

CONFERENCE

“When my grandchild walks down the aisle in 2073, what will Saint John’s look like?” The Saint John’s Dream Together Conference. Plan to attend on October 11, 2014.

Loaves & Fishes:

Lo aves Fishes

Food Drive Supporting Metro CareRing

Just as Christ fed the 5,000, we too are charged to feed the hungry. At Saint John’s, the celebration of the miracle of the Loaves and Fishes will be July 27.

On that day, the Urban and Social Concerns Commission of Saint John’s asks your support for the annual food collection benefitting Metro CareRing. Last year we collected close to 5,000 pounds of food, and this year our goal is to exceed that amount. Bags with lists of the food most needed will be distributed after every service on July 6, and a representative from Metro CareRing will be at the 10:00 am service that day to talk about serving people who are hungry in our community. On July 27, please bring non-perishable food or financial contributions to church.

Loaves and Fishes is one of our most important outreach projects of the year. Why do we put so much emphasis on this food drive? It’s because hunger is everywhere in our community, and this is our time to provide a caring ministry to our neighbors in need.

There is hunger in Denver: • 1 out of 3 children in Denver live below the poverty line. • More than 25% of working families in Colorado do not have enough food to meet basic needs. • Children who are food insecure are two times more likely to be obese than their peers who have access to enough food at all times. • A child who goes hungry just once in his or her life is 2 ½ times more likely to have poor overall health 1015 years later. • Metro CareRing distributes more than 1,000,000 pounds of nutritious food each year. • Local food drives account for 25% of the food at Metro CareRing. • 96% of the food distributed is donated from local businesses, grocery stores, organizations, individuals, and communities of faith. Source: metrocarering.org Loaves and Fishes Day is our time to help combat hunger in Denver and to be a tangible witness to the living power and presence of God among us. Please contact Mother Liz Costello for more info by email at liz@sjcathedral.org.

L o aves F is h e s

Welcome to Family Ministries at Saint John’s Children come to us full of wonder and joy, and already knowing something about God. Our task is to nourish the seeds of God’s love that have already been sown, and to help our children find ways to strengthen their relationship with God throughout their lives. We do this through the stories of the Bible and our Church, by encouraging their wonder and helping them discover their deep joy, by welcoming them fully into the Saint John’s community and by involving them in all that we do. Our children are full members of Saint John’s Cathedral, and we cherish their presence here. The goal of our youth program is to help our young people journey into adulthood experiencing the care of this community as they learn how to be the hands of Christ in the world. As they grow up, they also grow into ways of being involved, offering themselves to help others within and beyond this Cathedral and creating a circle of trust for one another.

Nursery Picnic. Join us in the Nursery Play Garden on June 1, following the 10:00 am service. Please find more information and RSVP in your Family eNewsletter.

8: Summer Children’s Chapel begins at 10:00 am in Room 103. 8:

Safeguarding God’s Children class for all volunteers. 1:00 to 4:30 pm, Room 200. For more information and registration, please contact Kim McPherson at 303.577.7729.

15-21: Cathedral Camp at Cathedral Ridge! A whole week of sleepovers and fun! Registration is open at sjcathedral.org. Read more on page 23.

Family Life eNewsletter

Please check the weekly Family Life eNewsletter for information about upcoming events and information about our programs for children, youth, and parents. Register to receive this weekly eNewsletter at sjcathedral.org/eNewsletters.

Your Chance to Help!

We depend on volunteers to work with our children and youth on Sundays and at other times, and we also need volunteers to help with a variety of projects. If you would like to get involved in any way, please contact Kim McPherson at 303.577.7729. Thank you!

5-11: Youth Mission Trip to Estes Park.

1-3:

All-Parish Weekend at Cathedral Ridge. Register online now at sjcathedral.org.

Nursery Open Sundays from 9:30 am – 12:00 pm and 5:30 – 7:30 pm for the Wilderness. The Nursery is also open during special services and events throughout the year. Our Nursery is a cheerful, safe, and welcoming environment for our very youngest members.

Sunday Mornings 10:00 am - Children’s Chapel (Ages 3 & up), Room 103, beginning June 8

Children are engaged during the first part of the service (the Liturgy of the Word) in very child-friendly fashion, including lesson, prayers, confession and music. Parents may drop off children or remain in Chapel with them. Chapel goers join their families in the Cathedral in time for Communion, and enter the front of the Cathedral on the East side. Children are invited to come forward at Communion to sit on the carpet and stairs.

Kidsword Bulletins

Pick up your Kidsword children’s worship bulletins as you enter the Cathedral on Sundays. These bulletins are designed to present the scriptures in a creative, engaging, and challenging format to make them memorable for kids.

Serving in Summer Chapel

Parents, become a leader, greeter, or helper this summer in our Children’s Chapel! Lessons are prepared for you, and it’s fun! Sign up on Sundays or visit sjcathedral.org/parents for more information.

Children’s Stewardship

Would you and your family like to make one of the fun banners that are carried during the processions on Sundays? They are lots of fun to decorate with materials from our resource room. Contact Kim McPherson at 303.577.7729 or by email at kim@sjcathedral.org for more information. Children are still welcome to pledge for 2014. Please visit the table outside of Room 103 to pick up information packets. All children’s pledges and money placed in the arks on Sunday help us do all that we do and love about Saint John’s!

Acolytes

Acolytes, 4th graders and up, are the helpers in the service who carry things like candles, books and crosses, and who do things to help the service go smoothly. It is an ancient tradition, and we hope to get many of our children involved. There will be a training session in the late summer with lots of practice to make all our new acolytes feel comfortable. Please contact Kim McPherson at kim@sjcathedral.org for more information and to volunteer.

Sewell School

The Sewell Preschool is now housed in our Room 101 classroom and there are openings (with a variety of options) for the fall for two and a half to five year old children. Brochures are on the table outside Room 103 and more information is available at sewell.org.

Parents: Are you signed up for the new Family eNewsletter?

The best way to stay informed about youth activities is our Family eNewletter. In the last few months, we have worked to streamline it and move recurring items to sidebar links so that busy parents have only three or four current, upcoming reminders or notices to navigate. This is our primary communications tool for Children and Youth programming, so please sign up at sjcathedral.org/eNewsletters.

Youth Mission Trip

July 5-11. Please keep our youth in prayer as nine of them, along with Kim and Father Jadon, head to Estes Park to help with flood relief. While it’s too late to join this trip, if you would like to be a part of the next youth mission trip as it is planned, please email Father Jadon at jadon@sjcathedral.org.

High School Youth House at All Parish Weekend

Cathedral families will head to Cathedral Ridge near Woodland Park for our All-Parish Weekend, August 1-3, and High School youth can register to be part of a separate cabin where they’ll hang out with Father Jadon, watch movies, play games, and relax in a no-parent zone. Youth can join this cabin whether their family will be attending the weekend or not. We will arrange transportation for those who are coming on their own. Sign up at sjcathedral.org/AllParishWeekend.

Youth Retreat: BEYOND

October 10-12. 6th - 12th graders will join with other Episcopal Churches in our Diocese for the fall youth retreat: BEYOND, at Frontier Ranch in Buena Vista. Keep an eye on the Family Life eNewsletter for details and to register.

Confirmation for Youth

Preparation for Confirmation happens during our High School Youth Group meetings on Sundays during the 10:00 am hour, from September through May, with Confirmation at the Easter Vigil, April 4, 2015. Youth who would like to be confirmed should regularly attend youth group for at least the entire school year of their Confirmation. Youth in our diocese may be confirmed at age 15. Please contact Father Jadon at jadon@sjcathedral.org for more information.

Cathedral Camp, June 15 - 21 at Cathedral Ridge, Woodland Park For girls & boys ages 8-14. Cathedral Camp is a whole week’s worth of sleepovers! Make new friends and reunite with old ones. Play all day! Have a carnival, slide down the water slide, pray, hike, do crafts, sing, laugh, and watch the stars at night. Camp is the best! Don’t miss out. Register online at sjcathedral.org! $475. Scholarships are available; please contact Father Jadon Hartsuff. A second week of camp? Yes! Saint John’s is partnering with Saint Michael’s Church in Colorado Springs to do an additional week of camp. We’ll repeat the activities of our Cathedral Camp. Please visit coloradodiocese.org/summer-programs.html.

1350 Washington Street Denver, Colorado 80203 sjcathedral.org

info@sjcathedral.org 303.831.7115