Homecoming Sunday!

Dear St. Paul’s family,

It’s Homecoming Sunday!  Welcome home.

Every year we designate a Sunday in the fall as homecoming Sunday.  Usually it is homecoming because the summer often brings a different routine. Whether it is vacation, sleeping in, a break from school, finding cool places to avoid the heat, or just the lazy days of summer, sometimes our church lives tend to slow down as well.

Lots of churches call this day in the fall “Rally Day” to rally us all back to our common cause in Christ; rally us out of the slowness of summer and into the more active academic year.  A few churches call it homecoming, as if we all had left for the summer and are now returning from a long absence.  My sense is that at the cathedral, it is more metaphoric than anything, because I hardly think we ever slow down!

This year, we are celebrating a very special Homecoming.  It is our 150th birthday!  Each service will have special food to celebrate our sesquicentennial.  We will have a seated lunch after our 10:30 service, where we will welcome parishioners who have been with St. Paul’s for many years and those just starting their journey here. We will hear a little bit about this exceptional journey of people that we are all now a part of.

In the next weeks, you will hear more about how we will celebrate the anniversary of the cathedral’s civic legacy:  we will have a grand gala in December for our proper anniversary; a fitting tribute for the Cathedral for the City. It will be a grand event and help us launch fundraising efforts for a new and important initiative the dean will tell you about very soon.

But today, let’s celebrate our cathedral family.   We celebrate 150 years of people coming through the cathedral doors to find friendship and fellowship and be embraced by each other and by God.  We celebrate the mantle we inherit as the current generation whose great joy and responsibility it is to be a part of this wonderful cathedral community.   We celebrate being home.

Blessings,

Jeff

A letter from the Dean: Our Music MInistry

Dear St. Paul´s family,

Our Pentecost celebration last Sunday was joyful and Spirit-filled. I had the blessing of attending all four services and experiencing the wide variety of gifts and cultures that we enjoy here in San Diego. We heard the Acts reading in many different languages, we experienced a graceful dance, we sang great hymns and enjoyed splendid organ music; at the 1:00 service we celebrated Baptism and First Communion with Mariachi accompaniment; and at the 5:00 service we joined with our Sudanese brothers and sisters in traditional songs in Arabic and Swahili, blending with the more usual Anglican offerings. Truly a Pentecostal celebration!

Our musical tradition goes deep into our history as Anglican Christians, and music speaks to the heart in ways that words alone cannot. People of faith have always sung the praises of God, as we see in the Psalms. Personally, I love to sing and to be in the midst of great music, and it is music that brought me back to the church when I strayed. God speaks to us through music.

Music is central to our worship life, as you know. Our girl and boy choristers are legendary in this city; our organ is one of the best in the country; our Choral Evensong is a gem treasured by many, including clergy of other denominations. A music program as extensive as ours normally has a whole team of staff and volunteers, but at St. Paul´s, somehow Martin Green and Gabriel Arregui produce fantastic results with other committed musicians, both professional and amateur, and minimal financial and support staff resources. I am grateful for those who volunteer significant time to sort sheet music.

Our Friends of Cathedral Music are those members of the community who make special gifts from time to time to support the music ministry. Designated gifts are placed in a special fund which is used for special occasions or, when the need is acute (as it is this year), to support the general operating expenses of the music program. We are developing a brochure to communicate different ways in which you can support our music ministry. A new music endowment is in its infancy, and you can make a contribution towards the cost of commissioning special music for our sesquicentennial celebration next year. Another current effort is the fund to rebuild our Steinway grand piano, so that we can host professional recitals in appropriate style. You may be shocked to learn that it costs up to $25,000 to rebuild a Steinway.

On Sunday June 3 our choirs will present their annual Spring Benefit Concert, featuring the beloved Requiem by Gabriel Fauré, accompanied by professional instrumentalists from around the area. I hope you will come to Evensong and stay for this short concert: I guarantee that your soul will be fed!

Donations in appreciation will be added to the Friends of Cathedral Music fund, which is in need of replenishment, but you can also mark donations for Piano Restoration, Sesquicentennial, or Music Endowment (we need $40,000 more to make the endowment active at $100,000, but our ultimate goal is $1m). You can make a gift either online or via check at any time for any of these funds. Each one will further our mission and enrich the ministry we offer the community.

St. Augustine said that those who sing, pray twice. I give thanks for all the opportunities we have to sing God´s praise, and for all the faithful and generous souls who play, sing, pray, and give in support of this ministry.

The Very Rev Penny Bridges

A letter from the Dean: Communication and sharing

May 15, 2018

Dear St. Paul’s family,

This week we celebrate Pentecost, the day when the church was born. It’s a day to rejoice in the ways the Spirit has gifted each of us for ministry and to be listening for the movement of the Spirit in our life together. I’ve been listening hard these last few weeks, both to the Spirit and to you. My weekly letters are starting to generate conversations of all kinds, and I am grateful for the parishioners who let me know what they are hearing. If we can’t tell each other the truth, we have no business trying to be a faith community. So please keep the feedback coming so that we can respond and ensure that everyone is heard and cared for.

As Chapter, executive staff, and I continue our work to plot a sustainable course forward, people share ideas that don’t have to wait for a strategic plan. Pentecost marks a turning in the middle of the church year. We have completed the cycle of Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection, and ascension: in this second half of the year we focus on being church, on living into the gift of the Spirit as we learn to live as the body of Christ in the world. How do we strengthen that body? Here are some ideas we are working on:

1. Continue these weekly letters and address themes suggested by parishioners. What do you want to know about?


2. Increase interaction between staff clergy and congregation members through a slightly more leisurely exchange of the Peace, and occasional lunch or happy hour gatherings after church on Sundays .


3. Invitations to spend a minute during church sharing something about a ministry you are passionate about. 


4. Summertime socials at parishioner homes on Fridays and Saturdays starting in early June. No agenda, just being together with me and hopefully other staff members, so we can know each other better. Let me know if you would like to host a gathering!

Ours is a faith built on hope: the hope that we and our world can be transformed by the love of God. Our hope is fed by faith, and our faith is strengthened by active participation in our corporate life. I am committed to being fully present for this part of the body of Christ, and my faith tells me that God’s Spirit is moving among us. My hope is that the love we show each other in friendship and care will spill over into the world around us, and that we will all experience the excitement and new life that once overtook another community band of faithful people, when the Holy Spirit swooped down on them and turned the whole world upside down. May God, who enlightened the minds of the disciples by pouring out upon them the Holy Spirit, make you rich with his blessing, that you may abound more and more in that Spirit.










The Very Rev Penny Bridges

A letter from the Dean: Membership

May 9, 2018

Dear St. Paul’s family,

This week’s message is about membership and engagement. It’s evident to all of us that attendance at worship has declined in the last four or five years, from an average Sunday attendance (ASA) in 2015 of 607 to 525 in 2017. It’s not a trend any of us want to see. I am committed to nurturing every member of St. Paul’s in faith, and when people choose not to attend, it means that we are not reaching them in a meaningful way, and that is something we need to address. I am always saddened when a familiar face is absent from the table, and often we don’t know exactly why they are absent.

The measurement of membership in the Episcopal Church is not an exact science. We don’t take individual attendance, we don’t require people to tell us when they leave, or their reasons for leaving, and we don’t require people to record their baptisms with us, although we encourage it. At present the best measure of membership that we have is in the pledge numbers. If someone pledges, I know they regard themselves as members of Christ’s body in this place. If they stop pledging, there can be several reasons including financial hardship or relocation. The numbers of pledges recorded tell a story: from 400 recorded for 2015 to 313 for 2018 (to date). Despite the drop in the number of pledges, we have almost maintained the total amount in dollars pledged, which means that those who pledge are both generous and committed. This being the case, only a small portion of our budget gap can be traced to the drop in pledges (see my previous letters on this topic). However, we are unlikely to correct the deficit unless we address the questions of both attendance and pledge numbers.

Jeff has called together a small group of longtime, trusted parishioners to reach out to those whom we miss, with the hope of gathering data to tell us more about why people have drifted away from St. Paul’s. The literature tells us that younger people tend not to place a high premium on belonging to an institution, so we are also dealing with a changing concept of membership. I know that the many staff and clergy transitions over the last six years have been hard on you all, and life continues to get ever more crowded with multiple worthy options competing for our time and contributions; people simply attend church less frequently than they used to. We have harnessed technology to address the busyness, with live streaming and video recording of principal services, and the development of Faith to Go for families (here’s a link to this week’s offering: http://www.stpaulcathedral.org/connect/cyf/faithtogo1/) .

Since I arrived in 2014 the staff has been engaged in building structures and systems to make our ministry more transparent and sustainable; perhaps this focus has had its effect on our common life and thus on the “glue” that holds us together. We all care deeply about the life and future of St. Paul’s. We are in this together, and I need your help in discerning a way forward. If you have ideas or thoughts, please share them with me. And please come to our next quarterly Community Life Council gathering on Wednesday May 15 at 6:00 pm in the Guild Room, to join in the conversation over a light meal. (Please RSVP to Judy in the cathedral office so we can plan for dinner).

There is good news: the recent Holy Cow survey told us that St. Paul’s is still well within the healthiest and most vibrant quadrant for ministry and mission compared to churches across the spectrum of size and theology. And we have nearly 350 people engaged in active ministry at St. Paul’s, from choir members to Showers workers to forum attendees. That is quite extraordinary! Let’s work together to strengthen our community and to make our cathedral a center of exciting and compelling ministry for all who know us. Thank you for your continued commitment as we seek to Love Christ, Serve Others, and Welcome All.

Your sister in Christ,

The Very Rev Penny Bridges

Oh come let us adore him

Dear people of St. Paul's, "In this holy season, let it be our care and delight." Whenever I hear or say these words, I know that we are welcoming the Christmas season in our uniquely Anglican way. The seasonal Service of Lessons and Carols is one of those traditions that connects us with our spiritual ancestors and with communities of faith all over the world. A service that begins with these words promises a sweep through the Scriptures and a rich banquet of choral and congregational song. We Episcopalians know how to "do" Christmas! I am eagerly anticipating our special Advent and Christmas liturgies in the month ahead: the Advent Procession, Lessons and Carols for Christmas, Carols for the City, and the Midnight Mass of the Nativity, culminating in the surprisingly simple service on Christmas Day (here is a link to the full schedule of services). Our staff, choirs, and many volunteers are already hard at work to create transcendent and transforming worship experiences for both long-time Cathedral members and first-time visitors. This is an ideal time to invite a friend or a neighbor to come to church with you, so that they may experience the extraordinary warmth and welcome of this congregation. As we say at Communion, "Come, not because the Church invites you: it is Christ, and he invites you to meet him here." While our seasonal observance centers on worship of the Holy Child in the manger, Christ also calls us to pray and act on behalf of those who find it hard to celebrate Christmas, those who are homeless, or refugees, or estranged from their families; those who suffer chronic hunger, despair or fear. Let it be our care and delight, therefore, to work for God's justice and peace to prevail in our city and the world even while we sing the beloved and familiar songs of angels and shepherds. If you feel moved to make a special gift to support the work of the Cathedral, here is a link to our giving page. To donate Christmas flowers in thanksgiving or in memory of a loved one, click here (donations received by December 14 will be acknowledged in our Christmas service bulletins). I look forward to welcoming you and your guests to our Advent and Christmas events. May you and those you love know the presence of Emmanuel, God with us, in your celebrations. Peace, The Very Rev Penny Bridges, Dean