Happy Michaelmas!

The big weekend is here! Bishop Guerra is visiting us from Guatemala, the big, free Arizona Baroque concert is tonight at 7 PM, and the actual Mass of Michaelmas is going to be an extravaganza!

Rehearsing the procession.

Our best dragon ever is waiting in the wings, and soon may have to give up his candy to St. Michael's children!

 Puff waits patiently.

The church website has been updated with current info on the Music page, an expanded History page and a detailed listing (with more to come) of church groups and activities on the Ministries page.

And we have new publications! The Michaelmas issue of The Messenger is ready, all 12 pages of it, with articles by Fr. Joel Ireland, Michael Leeming and others, looking back across the history of St. Michael's and also forward into the future. There is also a new brochure of church ministries and activities, a two page history of St. Michael's to match the History web page, and a print only, full color pamphlet on the Art of St. Michael's!

So as you can see, we've been busy, getting ready for the Big Weekend, and now it's here! All we need now is YOU! Sign up on Facebook to let us know you're coming to tonight's concert, or just show up, and bring someone with you! And don't forget to attend our Michaelmas procession and High Mass. There will be a Family Mass session at 9 AM, and the main mass will start at 9:30. Mision San Miguel will be art of this mass, with two Bishops participating, special music and a Confirmation. Be there!

Through September 28th, 2013

 Women's Bible Study is held each Wedensday at 6:30 in the evening. This year we will study one of the most courageous women in the Bible: Esther. We will explore the history and see how this can apply to us today. All women are invited to attend; there is always room for one more.

 

You are invited to join us for Bible Study each Wednesday mornings at 10 am in the Womble Library. Peter Schmidt is the facilitator. The Bible Study will be centered on the Old Testament. Join us and bring a friend.

The need is great and our Food Pantry is low. We need: tuna, mac&cheese, canned vegetables (no green beans or canned tomatoes) canned spaghetti products , soup, fruit, cereal, evaporated milk, cereal, various canned beans. Once again we thank you for continued generosity.

 

Celebrate Michaelmas weekend!

YOU ARE INVITED TO:

“ARIZONA Baroque Concert”

 

Reception to follow in parish center

solemn high eucharist

9:30 am

September 29, 2013

Followed by a festive brunch ~

parish Center

ONE MASS ONLY THAT DAY

60 Years Ago Today: September 20th, 1953

Here are two more blasts from the past from the church archives. Enjoy!

Announcements through September 22, 2013

St. Michael’s ECW Women will meet on Wednesday, September 18th at 10:30 am in the Parish Center. We invite you to join us for a business meeting, a speaker and a Potluck Lunch.  Deacon Michael Meyers will give us presentation about the good work being accomplished at St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic in Nogales.  If you have shoes ready to leave your closet please bring them to donate to Deacon Meyer’s Shoebox.  Bring a salad or a dessert to share.  ECW will provide the beverage.  It feels good to get back to business…you are invited join us!  The annual ECW State Convention is on October 5, in Phoenix. Sign-up sheets are in the back of the church. More information will be available at the meeting.

Women’s Bible Study is held each Wednesday at 6:30 PM in the Parish Center.  This year we will study one of the most courageous women in the Bible: Esther. We will explore the history and see how this can apply to us today. All women are invited to attend; there is always room for one more.

You are invited to join us for Bible Study each Wednesday morning at 10 am in the Womble Library. Peter Schmidt is the facilitator. The Bible Study will be centered on the Old Testament. Join us and bring a friend.

Taize Service of Prayer is this Tuesday, September 17th at 6:45 pm. at the Mary Altar in church. All are invited to attend and bring a friend.

Were you here in the early days of St. Michael’s or even in the middle years as the church was expanded and the current organ was first purchased? Karen Blocher would love to include your St. Michael's memories in our special 60th Anniversary issue of The Messenger, coming out later this month. If you have a special memory to share, write it out (a single paragraph is fine) and either email it to Karen at mavarin2@gmail.com or drop it off in the church office. Or if you have one to share and don't want to write it yourself, tell your story to Karen at Coffee Hour today after the 10:15 AM Mass. Let's make this 60th Anniversary Michaelmas a great celebration of this wonderful place! Old photos and other documents from the early days are also welcome, to add to the church archive.
Also needed: we are updating the church website and putting together a booklet with all the different ministries here at St. Michael's, from Altar Guild and Godly Play to Deacon's Shoebox, Volunteers and the Meals program, from Taize to POZ Cafe. If you are involved in any of these groups, please note that we need a brief description of each, when it meets and what you do. Thank You!



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Arizona Baroque on Michaelmas Eve!

Arizona Baroque, the University of Arizona's baroque ensemble, will perform a concert at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church on Saturday, September 28. The free-admission event begins at 7:00 p.m.

Collaborating with St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church as part of the 2013 Michaelmas Patronal Feast, Arizona Baroque will present a beautiful program of Latin American vocal and instrumental music from the 17th and 18th centuries.

The concert will be followed by a reception with the Rt. Reverend Armando Guerra Soria, Episcopal Bishop of Guatemala and Primate (Presiding Bishop) of the Anglican Region of Central America. The reception features Latin American foods from Mision San Miguel and Tucson’s Guatemalan community, as well as "Baroque" light fare from concert organizers.

St. Michael and all Angels parishioners sponsor the concert as part of Michaelmas (Feast of St. Michael) events celebrating sixty years of prayer, service, and advocacy since the founding of the church in 1953.

Bishop Guerra Comes To Tucson - Details

EPISCOPAL BISHOP OF GUATEMALA VISITS ARIZONA TO CELEBRATE
WITH ST. MICHAEL'S AND OFFER NEW PERSPECTIVES ON MIGRATION

His Grace the Rt. Reverend Armando Guerra Soria, Episcopal Bishop of Guatemala and Primate (Presiding Bishop) of the Anglican Region of Central America, visits Arizona from September 23 to 30 for a series of public and private meetings at the invitation of St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church (Tucson), St. Michael’s Guatemala Project, and the Episcopal Diocese of Arizona. The Presiding Bishop will offer fresh perspectives on migrants and migration and participate in Michaelmas (St. Michael’s Feast) 60th anniversary activities, as St. Michael’s celebrates the church’s founding in 1953 and Guatemala Project’s 20 years of advocacy with Maya in rural Guatemala.

Guerra has served as Episcopal Bishop of Guatemala for 31 years, including some of the fiercest years of Guatemala’s 36-year civil war. He holds divinity degrees from the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas, and is President of Guatemala’s Ecumenical Council.

Principal public programs with Bishop Guerra, in English or Spanish depending upon audience, are the following:

• Monday Sept. 23, 5 p.m., Phoenix: Welcome and light meal with Guatemalans and others. Iglesia Santa Maria, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 6501 N. 39th Avenue (N. of Bethany Home).
• Wednesday Sept. 25, 3:30 p.m., Green Valley: "Migrants, Migration, and Faith – A Guatemalan Perspective." Program and discussion. St. Francis-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church, 600 S. Canada Drive [from I-19, Esperanza Blvd. exit, then south on La Canada to the church].
• Saturday Sept. 28, 7 p.m., St. Michael’s: Michaelmas Eve concert, followed by a reception with Bishop Guerra. Arizona Baroque performs Latin American Baroque music of the 17th and 18th centuries. The reception features Latin American foods from Mision San Miguel and Tucson’s Guatemalan community, as well as "Baroque" light fare from concert organizers.
• Sunday Sept 29, 9:30 a.m., St. Michael’s: Festal High Mass, the Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith, Episcopal Bishop of Arizona, celebrating. Brunch with both bishops follows in the Parish Center.

Additionally, Bishop Guerra will tour border areas with Samaritans, visit Operation Streamline at the Federal Courthouse, interact with the Guatemalan community and Guatemala Project teams, and meet with Roman Catholic Bishop of Tucson Gerald Kicanas, Episcopal Bishop of Arizona Kirk Smith, the Guatemalan Consul General, and others. Planners have also requested meetings with members of Arizona’s Congressional delegation.

All activities are free. Donations in any amount welcomed.

Bishops on the Border: Pastoral Responses to the Immigration Crisis, a new book edited by Bishop Smith, and information about St. Michael’s Guatemala Project will be available at events.

The Episcopal Parish of St. Michael and All Angels Church and School
602 North Wilmot Road
Tucson, Arizona 85711
(520) 886-7292
FAX (520) 886-8636
John R. Smith, Priest and Rector

60 Years Ago Today!

Tucked away in the Womble Library is the St. Michael's Archive, a collection of old photos, histories, press clippings and other documents that help to tell the story of the 60-year history of St. Michael and All Angels Church. Recently, several parishioners got together and pulled out a selection of these documents, hoping to digitize and share some of them with the rest of the parish (and the world). Late this afternoon I started going through one of those notebooks, scanning and photocopying the most interesting items. Toward the front were these two photos, dated on the back as 9-14-53, exactly 60 years ago today!

 

This is the interior of the church, with a man looking up at the eastern wall. The walls had not yet been plastered, and the floor had not yet been laid. But the place was already rather beautiful.

This appears to be a view from near the back of the then-unfinished church interior, looking north to where the sanctuary would be. Note the catwalk with a worker crouched on it. The white cross seen here was an opening in the original north wall, into which the stained glass cross would be added. The northern end of the church has since been expanded twice, once in 1964 to add the transept (the size sections in front) and apse (a place for the high altar), and again in 1998 to add the organ chamber behind the sanctuary. The glass cross is now in the western wall, near where the choir sits.

A third photo is only dated as September, 1953, but may have been from the 14th:

Help us celebrate 60 years of St. Michael and All Angels this Michaelmas! Details on upcoming events can be found on this blog, with more to come. And we're still looking for your input for our special 60th Anniversary issue of The Messenger, coming out later this month!

Karen

Announcements through September 14

Doug Leightenheimer’s organ recital at the U of A last April will be broadcast on 90.5 classical radio on this Sunday, September 8 at 3 PM and Thursday, September 12, at 9 PM (not AM as previously posted). If you missed the recital, here is a chance to hear Doug at his best.

Women’s Bible Study begins on Wednesday, September 11th at 6:30 PM in the Parish Center. This year we will study one of the most courageous women in the Bible: Esther. We will explore the history and see how this can apply to us today. Books can be purchased ahead of time in the Parish Office at a cost of $15. If you cannot afford the book, but still want to come, please do. The cost will be covered. Sign-up Sheets are located in the back of church.

You are invited to join us for Bible Study each Wednesday morning, beginning September 4th at 10 am in the Womble Library. The Bible Study will be facilitated by Peter Schmidt. Come with your ideas, suggestions and what you would like to learn so we can tailor-make this informal class best suited to everyone. Join us and bring a friend. All are welcome.

Were you here in the early days of St. Michael's, or even in the middle years as the church was expanded and the current organ was first purchased? Karen Blocher would love to include your St. Michael's memories in our special 60th Anniversary issue of The Messenger, coming out later this month. If you have a special memory to share, write it out (a single paragraph is fine) and either email it to Karen at mavarin2@gmail.com or drop it off in the church office. Or if you have one to share and don't want to write it yourself, tell your story to Karen at Coffee Hour today after the 10:15 AM Mass. Let's make this 60th Anniversary Michaelmas a great celebration of this wonderful place! Old photos and other documents from the early days are also welcome, to add to the church archive.

We are updating the church website and putting together a booklet with all the different ministries here at St. Michael's, from Altar Guild and Godly Play to Deacon's Shoebox and the Meals program, from Taize to POZ Cafe. If you are involved in any of these groups, please note that we need a brief description of each, when it meets and what you do. THANK YOU!