St. Joe's Dispatch | June 12th, 2025
I. From the Desk of the Vicar
Dearests -
The bishops of our diocese visit each of their churches once a year or so, and this Sunday--Trinity Sunday--Bishop Sam will visit the morning service at St. Joseph’s. He will preach, and he will confirm and receive new members of the Episcopal Church; he will eat a popsicle with us at coffee hour; and he will visit with the clergy and vestry in the early afternoon.
I anticipate the bishop’s visit each year with layers of feelings. Mostly, I feel excited. Clergy wind up knowing the bishop better than most congregants do, and I am always excited for all of us at St. Joe’s to get some time with Bishop Sam. And clergy wind up knowing their local congregation better than bishops do, and I am similarly always excited to show us off, if you will, to the bishop. But I also always feel a kind of vague butterflies-in-stomach. The way you feel, maybe, when your new in-laws come to visit your married home for the first time; the way you feel when you’re hosting a Christmas party for beloved friends who don’t know each other very well, and you want everyone to like each other and for it all to go well. A little lepidopteral (I just made that word up, I think: “lepidoptera” is the classificatory term for butterfly, so I’m coining “lepidopteral” to mean “butterflyfish”).
What are bishops, anyway, and why? “We believe that the experience of the Holy Spirit courses through the Church’s liturgy, sacraments, icons, and its structures of discernment, most especially its bishops and councils. We also believe that faithfulness to the experience of the Spirit speaking in the past is balanced by discernment of the Holy Spirit’s voice speaking in the present. And here too, the bishops play the key role. To use a playground image, consider a see-saw, with Tradition on one side and contemporary experience on the other. The bishops are in the center, as the fulcrum, discerning the direction of the Spirit to bring these two dimensions into balance….[I]t is the bishops’ specific vocation to maintain balance between faithfulness to the past and discernment of the Spirit today.”
That’s an extract of an article by John A. Jillions—it’s about bishops in Orthodox churches, and it seems to me it speaks quite well to Anglican understandings of bishops as well. Bishops do many things – they administer our common life; they pastor the rest of the clergy; they teach; they sacramentally hold the churches together so that “dioceses” are not merely a administrative units but foremost sacramental bodies. At ordinations and confirmations, bishops lay their hands on our heads – as John Zizoulas has written, the bishop is the “one through whose hands the whole community….pass[es] in being offered up to God in Christ.”
And, as the article about Orthodox bishops so wonderful expresses, bishops keep all of us listening to the Holy Spirit, and they keep us judiciously attentive to both the long history of the church and the needs, demands, gifts, and anguishes of the present-day world. That, I think, is what bishops are doing when they ask questions like “What liturgies are the most fitting liturgies for the church to pray today?” and “What is the Holy Spirit showing us about marriage and family relationships and friendship today?” and “How must the church witness to the peace of Jesus Christ in the midst of today’s specific violences?” This is one thing we might be listening for in Bishop Sam’s sermon on Trinity Sunday: the galvanizing intersection of tradition and the contemporary world.
This next and final paragraph, be forewarned, goes into Episcopal Church weeds: St. Joe’s bears an especially close relationship with our bishop because St. Joe’s is a “mission church,” which is to say we have fewer than 100 “confirmed adult communicants in good standing.” (Larger churches are “parishes.”) And when you are a mission church, the bishop is, in fact, the church’s rector – the head priest and pastor of the church. Because the bishop cannot give day-to-day oversight of and lead liturgies at all the diocese’s mission churches, a “vicar” is appointed to function “vicariously” for the bishop. Again, that’s very much in the weeds. The point is: when we welcome Bishop Sam, we are not only welcoming our diocesan bishop; we are also welcoming the rector of our church. So, maybe my butterflies are not so much like in-laws or a Christmas party. Maybe they are like the butterflies you feel when an uncle you love very much but don’t get to see very often comes to visit. Or maybe it’s what a classroom of children feel when the mayor comes to visit.
Sunday will be a rich day for us. I very much look forward to worshipping with you and Bishop Sam then.
With love from
Vicar Lauren
II. Announcements
Spiritual Practices for Resilience and Resistance * June 16, from 7:00- 8:30 pm at Vicar Lauren’s home. Questions? Email Vicar Lauren.
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Casserole bake * Wednesday, June 18, 6:30 pm in the Parish House. Questions? Email Weston Curnow.
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Parish Workday * Saturday, June 21, 10:00 am-2:00 pm at the church. Questions? Email Isaac Lund.
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Fr. Lachlan is away from June 20 until July 25 * He will be in London, visiting family and the archives of 19th-century architectural societies as part of his academic work at Duke. If you have questions about Breakfast, please email Breakfast Minister Katherine and Breakfast Intern Weston. If you have pastoral concerns, you are always welcome to contact Vicar Lauren, Deacon Jan, Deacon Kelly, or our Priest Associate, Miriam. For other concerns, email Parish Administrator Hannah and she will be able to point you in the right direction.
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Meal Train for Victoria, James, and Rosie * If you'd like to participate in a meal train as they settle into life as a family of three, please follow this link.
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Welcoming families with young children to worship this summer * Between June 15 and August 31, Children's Chapel will take a summer break -- meaning young children will join their families in worship. During this summer season, you might ponder how God is calling you to notice and support the gifts children bring to worship. You may wish to help children pray using materials in their worship bags, point out the priest's gestures during the Eucharist or share your hymnal to sing together. Your hospitality will not only honor the dignity of disciples of all ages but model for young worshippers how you live out your faith. Questions about welcoming children in worship? Please email Deacon Kelly.
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An Update on the Durham Episcopal Resettlement Coalition (DERC) * Over the last three years, members of St. Joe's and several other Episcopal churches have served as a welcome team for refugee families’ moving to the Triangle. In all. DERC welcomed 319 people in 63 families between October 2022 and January 2025; the coalition also set up an apartment and supported a family from Afghanistan in 2021. The group has decided to pause its work until more refugees are permitted entry, and the current monies raised for DERC will gain interest in a money market account during the present hiatus. A huge thank you to Ed and Margie Pikaart and Ruth Upton, who have been St. Joe's chief hands and feet in this multi-church coalition. Even while DERC is "on pause," we can all still pray for those needing refuge, remembering that the Holy Family who fled to Egypt when Jesus was an infant in danger; beseeching the Holy Family to be present to, and make a way for, those today in need of refuge; and asking, too, that we may find clarity about how to help, and the courage and means to do so.
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Spiritual Friendship Group for young adults (~20 to 39) * Wednesday evenings following Evening Prayer a group is gathering to read through the book of Acts. We will walk together to a nearby food location (likely Cosmic Cantina) for a time of fellowship and a time or reading scripture in community. Questions? Email Sarah Ruiz.
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Fellowship Opportunity for Folks 40 & Older * Newcomers and others! If you’re 40+, please join us at our monthly St. Joe’s “Food & Fellowship” lunch! We will gather at The Refectory Cafe at 11:45 am on Wednesday, June 25, to enjoy each other's company and welcome newcomers into the weave of St. Joe's parish life. Questions? Email Julia Hoyle, or Frances Dowell.
III. Art
IV. Community Events
American Dance Festival * June 12-July 26. Durham is hosting the internationally eminent opportunity for aspiring dancers and professional dance companies, and for public audiences. There will be engaging classes, performances and special events at Duke and around Durham. Tickets and additional information here.
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St. Joe’s friend, Kerry Sweet, has a family home service company, Streamline Services, that partners with Lennox for Feel the Love, a program sponsored by Lennox to bring HVAC equipment to families in need. Homeowners that have fallen on hard times but need new HVAC systems can potentially get free HVAC equipment and installation. Details and instructions for nominations can be found here.
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Aging Gracefully Resource Fair * Thursday June 12, 2025, 9:00 am-5:00 pm at the Human Services Building in downtown Durham, 414 E. Main St. Professionals will address Alzheimer’s /Dementia, Social Security, home healthcare, and more.
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Outdoor screening of My Name is Pauli Murray * Friday, June 13 at 8:00 pm, on the lawn of Pauli’s childhood home.