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Rhubarb Festival - June 28

The 4th Annual CHUM Rhubarb Festival will be held on Saturday, June 28th, in and on the grounds at
First Lutheran Church, 1100 E. Superior Street starting at 9 AM.

This annual event to benefit Churches United In Ministry, a nonprofit agency serving the area for 35 years,
is conducted by volunteers from CHUM congregations and other community organizations.  Funds raised during
this event helps CHUM provide emergency food, shelter and stabilization services to approximately 7,000
children and adults in Duluth each year.

Last year’s Third Annual Rhubarb Festival was successful with over 1,500 participants.  By the end of the day, not a smidgen of the various rhubarb treats was left!

As we work to grow the Festival into an even larger community event in 2008 we are designing activities to attract even more participants.  In the past we offered a musical stage show which this year will be expanded into a variety show including announcements of contest winners, chefs’ demonstrations, storytelling and of course music.  We will also be focusing on more children’s events with a RHUBARB OLYMPICS.  And there will be tasty and creative rhubarb treats.

Your help is needed!  We are looking for congregation members who are willing to work on the festival.  Perhaps you and family members or a group of friends may want to be involved.  There are several ways you can help…

  • Work with other church members to bake breads and muffins to be sold at the Festival;

  • Sign up to lead (with assistance from CHUM staff) one of the following  committees;

    • Set Up and Clean Up Committee;

    • Contests & Events/Games Committee;

    • Publicity and Promotions Committee;

  • Sign up to work on one of the following committees;

    • Any committee listed in #2 above;

    • Silent Auction Committee;

    • Pies and Treats Committee;

    • Entertainment Committee.

  • Rhubarb donations and people to “Pull and Chop” rhubarb will be needed throughout the month of June as rhubarb becomes ripe.   Work the day before or during the Festival.

There will be many jobs such as picking up Silent Auction Items, putting up signs, arranging tables and chairs, putting up tents, setting up the stage, etc. That will need to be done on Friday, the day before the event, and on Saturday, the day of the event.

We look forward to working with you to host a fabulous, fun-filled community gathering!

This information was sent to JoAnn Chesser by CHUM.:  St. Paul’s will be baking rhubarb bread and mini muffins this year.  In addition, to the opportunities above, we need someone to help organize the bakers and baking.  If you’d like to help, please contact JoAnn.

Peace, Bill Van Oss   
 

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Youth Sunday

Mark your calendars now for Youth Sunday on May 4. Some of our high school graduating seniors will be sharing reflections during the sermon time and participating in the service in other ways that day. This is always a marvelous way to support our graduates.

 

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CONFIRMATION

We are pleased to welcome Bishop Dan Swenson on Sunday, April 20. Bishop Dan will be here for the 10:00 service for confirmations and receptions. We have a number of young adults who will be confirmed that day. Make it a point to join in this special day for them.

If you have never been confirmed and you think you might like to be, please contact Bill Van Oss or Margaret Thomas. Confirmation is the time when adults take on the baptismal promises that were made on their behalf by parents and Godparents for themselves. If you have never been confirmed, pray over the baptismal promises (Book of Common Prayer pp. 302-306) and reflect on how God might be calling you to publicly affirm these promises for yourself.

If you were confirmed in another denomination and would like to be received into The Episcopal Church, you are welcome to be received by Bishop Dan on April 20. Contact Bill or Margaret if you think you might be interested.

A light reception in the parish hall will follow the confirmation service.
 

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        St. Paul's Rummage Sale
April 26, 2008

This year’s Rummage sale will be held Saturday April 26 from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM. We will start setup on Tuesday April 22 at 5 PM. Please come and help move items from the parish garage to the parish hall. This will be followed by a pizza supper. Wednesday through Friday we will be organizing for this sale from 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM each day. ALL Men, Women. And Children are welcome to help.

There will be a meeting of the rummage sale committee, everyone is welcome on Thursday April 10 at 10 AM in the parish hall.
Because of the lack of storage space do not deliver your rummage to the church until a date closer to the sale. If necessary call Kathy at 724-3535 and arrange a time for your drop off.

Start collecting your gently used clothing, household items, tools, furniture, sporting goods, books linens, and toys . PLEASE REMEMBER: IF YOU WOULD NOT BUY IT, THROW IT AWAY as we cannot sell those items. No computers or components can be accepted. TVs in good working order can be accepted.

Do come and help set up, work the day of the sale, help clean up after the sale or help serve lunch to the workers the day of the sale. We have fun and the fellowship is great!! Sign up sheets are on the bulletin board.

Tax credit receipts are available in the kitchen from Kathy or from Cathleen in the office. If you have questions, please call Joanne Marinac at 728-6330 or Maren Hustad at 728-5720.

We look forward to working together.
 

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Understanding and Dismantling Racism (UDR)
 

The word racism seems to be popping up everywhere these days. It’s in print and almost all other forms of the media. Not only do we hear it more frequently there also seems to be many definitions of this word, some of which have varying degrees of authenticity.

The definition we learned in many years of Understanding and Dismantling Racism (UDR) training is as follows: Racism is racial prejudice plus power. The definition of power is “the ability of act”. The next question then is who has the power to act? This is where it gets more difficult and requires much exploration. The study of racism is long and ongoing because racism is historic and lengthy. Racism has many layers and much like an onion, each layer must be taken off one at a time.

Racism is racial prejudice plus power.

 

 

In March 1994 the House of Bishops of the Episcopal Church sent out a pastoral letter to all the churches stating that “racism is a sin”. As they began to do their research they realized that they had much to ”learn, relearn and do”. The UDR Committee has copies of this letter if you’d like to read it.

The URD Committee has spent several years studying racism. It is the hope of the committee to be bringing this information to the congregation within the next year. Upcoming events will be listed either in the Messenger or Sunday Bulletin. It would be wonderful if everyone would take at one or two classes about racism. We would be glad to share a book list with you. If you have questions, please speak with one of the members of the UDR committee, JoAnn Chesser, Sue Anderson, Natalie Constance, Harley Blake, Candace Ginsberg, Sally Spellerberg, Manilan Houle, Tony Thorstad, Tony Ladeaux, Emily Vos, Peg Sutherland, Kevin Sikkila, Margaret W. Thomas.
 

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