The Vestry is pleased to present the following nominees for election to St. Clare’s Vestry. Outgoing and continuing Vestry members are listed below. Eligible voters are 16 years of age or older, in the congregation at least 6 months, and faithful in worship, working,...

Sometimes, when you are writing a newsletter article, you find yourself six paragraphs and several hours deep in very boring theological hairsplitting. That is generally a good time to bail on the whole enterprise. If you’re lucky, you already have something written...

St. Clare’s recently revised our bylaws. I wanted to understand the roots of the term, so I went first to the dictionary. Oxford Language says a bylaw is "a rule made by a company or society to control the actions of its members." Webster says a bylaw is "a rule...

this post was updated on Jan 21, 2022: the proposed bylaws have been updated following a review on January 5 by interested congregants and subsequent approval by Vestry on January 19 An item on the agenda of the January 30, 2022, Annual Meeting will be a vote on a...

Announcing a wonderful opportunity! Dear fellow parishioners,  It is time, once again, to consider nominees for our upcoming Vestry elections. As you likely know, membership on the Vestry is for a three year term, and is a wonderful opportunity to serve in a...

For the past few years I have subscribed to an online program called Advent Word. Each day of Advent, a special word and a brief reflection is delivered to my inbox. A few days ago, the word was “strength” and, in the reflection, Kathy Wilder spoke of the strength of...

Hello, beloved St. Clarians, I wanted to write this month’s Vestry Corner about vaccination and vaccine hesitancy. I’m so happy to have had my vaccine and to soon be rejoining in-person activities such as services at St. Clare’s! With some people in my family hesitant...

Living into our Baptismal Covenant, the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan, and its affiliated congregations, and other entities, strive for justice and peace among all people. The obligation to seek and serve Christ in all persons and to respect the dignity of every human...

Do you want to know more about Native American spirituality, as our Land Acknowledgement program takes shape? If so, The Four Vision Quests of Jesus is one of the most original and helpful books that I can recall. The author, Steven Charleston, is a Choctaw. Even...

I was pondering Paul this morning, and specifically the bit in Romans where he compares his pre-conversion life to filthy rags (for the scripturally-knowledgeable who are raising their eyebrows right now: stick with me). As a Christian from the baptismal class of...

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” For some of...

Profile Committee Report, by Christine Cook As I promised in my January St. Clarian article, once we finalized the responses to the questions for the online ministry profile, I would share them with the congregation. This article is an effort to provide transparency...