October 15, 1953...

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!

60 Years Ago Today: September 20th, 1953

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

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

Michaelmas 2013 - Our 60th Anniversary!

Michaelmas Patronal Feast 2013

St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church

602 N. Wilmot Rd (at 5th Street)

Please help us celebrate

• 60 years of prayer, service, and advocacy –  from the dedication of the Church on Michaelmas, 1953 (when Wilmot was still a dirt road on the outskirts of Tucson), to the future.

• 20 years in solidarity with Mayan Indigenous in rural Guatemala.

 And welcome honored guests –

The Rt. Rev. Armando Guerra Soria, Episcopal Bishop of Guatemala and Primate (Presiding Bishop) of the Anglican Province of Central America, representing 6 countries. 

The Rt. Rev. Kirk Smith, Episcopal Bishop of Arizona.

Sat. September 28, 7 PM 

Michaelmas Eve Concert – Arizona Baroque:  a new  University of Arizona ensemble, performs baroque music and song of 17th and 18th century Latin America, using early instruments.

Reception with Presiding Bishop Guerra of Guatemala follows the concert.  Bishop Guerra visits Arizona to

• celebrate St. Michael’s Guatemala Project work   
• explore Arizona border realities 
• talk about migration from the perspective of conditions in sending countries.

The first Guatemala-born Episcopal Bishop and the first to ordain women in Guatemala, on August 11 Bishop Guerra was host to the Archbishop of Canterbury, symbolic head of almost 82-million faithful of the worldwide Anglican Communion, at Guatemala City’s modest Episcopal Cathedral.

Sun. September 29, 9:30 AM

Festal High Mass with confirmations and special music.

Brunch follows.

All activities FREE. Donations accepted.

For more information:

886-7292  (Church office) 

623-3063  (Bp. Guerra’s schedule)

http://www.smallangelstucson.org 

Photo: Bishop Guerra with Ila Abernathy, Coordinator of St. Michael's Guatemala Project.