St. John's Episcopal Church - Tower Grove
  • St. John's Episcopal Church
  • Welcome!
    • New Here?
    • Get in Touch
    • Map and Directions
    • St. John's History
    • Clergy, Staff, Vestry
    • Links
  • Worship
    • Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals
    • Choir
    • Acolytes, Chalice Bearers and Lectors
    • Altar Guild
    • Greeters and Ushers
  • Serving Our Neighbors
    • Peace Meal
    • Episcopal City Mission
    • Isaiah 58 Ministries
    • Tower Grove Pride Festival
  • Education
    • Children and Youth Christian Education
    • Adult Christian Education
  • St. John's as a Community
    • Coffee Hour
    • Young Adult Group
    • Book Group
    • Pastoral Care
  • Calendar
  • Blog
  • St. John's Episcopal Church
  • Welcome!
    • New Here?
    • Get in Touch
    • Map and Directions
    • St. John's History
    • Clergy, Staff, Vestry
    • Links
  • Worship
    • Baptisms, Weddings, Funerals
    • Choir
    • Acolytes, Chalice Bearers and Lectors
    • Altar Guild
    • Greeters and Ushers
  • Serving Our Neighbors
    • Peace Meal
    • Episcopal City Mission
    • Isaiah 58 Ministries
    • Tower Grove Pride Festival
  • Education
    • Children and Youth Christian Education
    • Adult Christian Education
  • St. John's as a Community
    • Coffee Hour
    • Young Adult Group
    • Book Group
    • Pastoral Care
  • Calendar
  • Blog
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

3/30/2021 0 Comments

Terms of Transition: What is a Priest-in-Charge?

Editor's note: As we continue forward in our journey of transition to new clergy, it seems like a good idea to make sure we're all speaking the same language. So, each week for the near future, we'll present a "term of transition": a word or phrase related to ordained ministry, and the process by which parishes go about identifying and calling their clergy leaders.
What is a Priest-in-Charge?
The title "priest-in-charge" has become more common within the Episcopal Church in recent years; we ourselves have had three priests with it (Amy Chambers Cortright, Warren Crews, and Sally Weaver). As each of them served us with differing expectations in terms of their commitment to us, this might be a bit confusing.

​In general, a priest-in-charge is a priest under contract to the diocese to serve a parish for a set length of time. So, in our case, Warren and Sally fit this general model: they were contracted to spend a year with us in very part-time capacities. There was no expectation (at least contractually) that they'd be with us any longer than that contracted year. This is the main difference between a priest-in-charge, and a rector (whom is understood to be committed to a parish for a long term).
Picture
Any Episcopal priest can serve as a priest-in-charge, as this refers to the type of contract under which s/he/they serves. "Episcopal Priest" by greenmelinda is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Read More
0 Comments

3/24/2021 0 Comments

The Sunday Sermon: Not Everyone Will Appreciate Your Good Works

by Mtipe Koggani
Mtipe delivered this sermon as a guest preacher at St. John's on Sunday, March 21.
My friends, the gospel for today tells us about some Greeks who wish to see Jesus,  and Jesus speaking about his death. 
​This passage informs us that among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  Why do the Greeks approach Philip?  Some scholars suggest that perhaps it was because they were drawn by his Greek name for, he was named after the City of Philippi. Philip goes to tell Andrew. Incidentally, "Andreas" means "Andrew" in Greek.   

Read More
0 Comments

3/21/2021 0 Comments

Terms of Transition: What is a Deacon?

Editor's note: As we continue forward in our journey of transition to new clergy, it seems like a good idea to make sure we're all speaking the same language. So, each week for the near future, we'll present a "term of transition": a word or phrase related to ordained ministry, and the process by which parishes go about identifying and calling their clergy leaders.
What is a Deacon?
Deacons have served pretty regularly at St. John's over the past 6-7 years: Kevin McGrane was with us for most of that time as a vocational deacon, and Nancy Emmel-Gunn has recently joined us as a transitional deacon. We all know they wear the collar, but how is a deacon different from a priest?

​The national Church's "An Episcopal Dictionary of the Church" provides a lengthy definition of a deacon, both in its historical context, as well as its revived purpose over the last century. Deacons still serve in a capacity of "agents of the bishop," with traditional and liturgical tasks tied to "proclaim[ing] the gospel, lead[ing] intercessions, wait[ing} at the eucharistic table, and direct[ing] the order of the assembly." In their current incarnation, bishops often expect deacons to focus on service to the needy.

​A vocational deacon serves in that capacity for as long as she/he/they feel called to do so; a transitional deacon serves for a brief period (usually around six months) before being ordained a priest.

A deacon may not consecrate the elements for the Eucharist, nor may she/he/they pronounce absolution of sin, or the Trinitarian blessing.
Picture
A deacon (in the cross-body stole) waits at the eucharistic table. "Ritual" by jolynne_martinez is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Want to learn more about deacons? 
  • The Diocese of Missouri's Community of Deacons page.
  • The ordination service for a deacon.
  • The Association for Episcopal Deacons
0 Comments

3/16/2021 0 Comments

The Sunday Sermon: Lifted Up for Healing

by the Reverend Michaelene Miller
Good Morning, St. John’s! I am the Rev. Michaelene Miller and I serve as the Director of the Deaconess Anne House, a ministry of the Diocese of Missouri for young adults interested in cultivating lifestyles of intentionality, service, and social justice. When I was a corps member in the DAH program many years ago, I worshiped regularly at St. John’s and it was the first church I preached in so I thank you for the invitation to worship and preach with you again today. 
Today’s gospel passage from the third chapter of John takes me back. Kind of like time travel, I am transported back in my memory to the last time that I worshiped with a congregation in person, inside the sanctuary, just over a full year ago. Today’s gospel passage is the latter half of the conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader and prominent religious teacher in the Jewish community. It is a conversation that I dove into as I preached that last time I worshiped with folks in person, inside on the second Sunday of Lent last year, just a few weeks before in-person worship was suspended because of the unfolding pandemic of COVID-19, a suspension and a pandemic that have now lasted well beyond what any of us could have ever predicted. 

Read More
0 Comments

3/8/2021 0 Comments

The Sunday Sermon: The New Temple

Picture
El Greco, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
by the Reverend Nancy Emmel-Gunn
​Our Gospel today teaches us that Jesus is the new temple, the very embodiment of God.   We are invited this week to continue our Lenten journey in the wilderness, to look at ourselves as community, and to explore how to be Christ’s hands and feet today.   
​John offers us the cleansing of the Temple narrative.  We find this story of Jesus throwing tables around, casting out animals in the Jerusalem Temple, in all four Gospels.  John’s version weaves in he Passover theme within the larger context of Jesus’ ministry. 
​We can envision the sprawling, noisy, chaotic market place in the Temple, in and around the Temple courtyard and in the sanctuary. We can visualize the moneychangers, sitting at tables, abacus in hand exchanging coins with customers, merchants haggling over cattle, sheep and doves in exchange for the agreed price.   We can hear the sheep bleating.  We can smell the odor of wet wool. 
Jesus is outraged at this scene.  He turns over their tables.   He makes a whip of cords and chases the animals outside of the temple, shouting to the dove salespeople, “Take these things out of here.  Stop making my father’s house a marketplace!”  

Read More
0 Comments

3/7/2021 1 Comment

The Sunday Sermon: Make It Plain, Preacher!

By the Reverend Jon Stratton
Father Stratton shared this sermon with us for our February 28, 2021, Zoom service.
"Make it plain preacher, make it plain!" If you have a background in the Black Church tradition, or a Pentecostal denomination, or maybe even an evangelical or Baptist congregation, you might have heard the refrain to "make it plain" shout from the pews during a Sunday morning sermon. "Make it plain, preacher, make it plain." That’s not so much a request as it is an affirmation. An affirmation that the preacher has stepped away from mile-high theology, wrapped up the complicated Greek word study, and closed the books on the exegetical inquiry, and, perhaps finally, started speaking the clear, plain truth in a language that the people can understand.

Read More
1 Comment

    Editorial contact

    Various members of the St. John's congregation contribute to this blog. For editorial suggestions, contact Jeff McIntire-Strasburg at [email protected]

    Archives

    April 2025
    March 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    August 2024
    May 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020

    Categories

    All Bishop Deon Johnson Book Group Congregation Members Deacons Diocese Of Missouri Episcopal Church Features General Information Parish Events Podcast Presiding-bishop-michael-curry Sermons Terms-of-transition Vestry

    RSS Feed

Map

St. John's Episcopal Church
3664 Arsenal St.
St. Louis, MO 63116

(314) 772-3970

Sunday worship at 10:30 a.m.

Picture
Picture

Stay connected