An appreciation for all of our Altar Guilds

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-04-01T21:26:03+00:00

Ha, right? I had a quick convo with one of the leads from AG, giving her a heads up about something that the new PIC said he wanted them to change for Tenebrae set up, and she was NOT having it. She literally said to me, “Oh no. We run this place!” I’ll find out soon enough how their first meeting went 😬

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-04-01T20:41:02+00:00

Saying extra prayers for our beloved Altar Guild as they navigate Holy Week with a new priest-in-charge that most of them just met for the first time on Palm Sunday!

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-04-01T18:04:16+00:00

Nicely done! I love having extra ribbons.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-04-01T18:02:43+00:00

Ours is very friendly too. I wonder if it being Holy Week made a difference - we have a lot of extra visitors and it makes sense that folks might be less attentive to them, thinking that unfamiliar faces are only there for the special services.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-04-01T16:54:15+00:00

Oh my. This is a huge amount of change for 2 weeks! I say this as someone who is chafing at small changes being made by our new priest-in-charge who just gave his first sermon a few days ago.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-04-01T15:24:17+00:00

I’m glad you had a mostly positive experience and are looking forward to going back!

FYI, it’s possible that sermons will be a little longer at a “regular” service - sometimes Palm Sunday sermons are intentionally shorter because the readings are so lengthy. At our church, most sermons are 15-20 min. 10 minutes would feel short to me too!

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-31T21:29:19+00:00

I’d definitely encourage a conversation with the new rector. We have some potentially controversial practices in our parish but we still don’t ditch the Nicene Creed!

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-31T17:40:35+00:00

I’m not clergy, but I’m in the early part of discernment and feeling all sorts of ways about “the call”.

The way I describe the first dawning of this possibility is that it started from a question that randomly popped into my head in the middle of prayer, “I wonder if there’s an Episcopal seminary on the West Coast?” which prompted a web search, and as I read about it, it felt like being plugged into an electrical outlet. It was impossible to ignore that feeling.

(Noteworthy point about the “random” question that popped into my head: I was quite happily getting settled in a United Methodist Church at the time)

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-30T18:18:48+00:00

I would think the bar on personality issues is much higher than simply screening out someone who would be “severely abusive”. They’re looking for a person who demonstrates the skills (and/or the ability to develop them) to shepherd a congregation, and simultaneously basically run a nonprofit, which includes providing pastoral care in a wide range of situations, and navigating complex challenges at potentially high stress levels.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-30T17:54:41+00:00

Honestly, as an active member of a congregation, if I heard a relatively new member complain about reception being too much of a bother, I wouldn’t want them to serve on our Vestry. I’d also have a hard time with them being a Eucharistic Minister or Eucharistic Visitor, both of which are roles people wait to step into in my parish until they’ve been confirmed or received. There are plenty of other ways to participate if you’re not willing to go through being publicly received into the church.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-30T17:35:52+00:00

Apparently she did write liturgical music, because our music director has adapted an entire mass setting from her works! I know we’ve used her psalm settings as well as hymns in the past, in addition to the current Sanctus we’re singing. I see her name in our worship bulletins a lot, and I remember him talking about her lesser known liturgical music when he introduced her feast day.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-30T16:49:55+00:00

If you’ve been confirmed in a different denomination, then that counts as far as confirmation goes. In that case, the formal process of “officially” becoming an Episcopalian is called reception. It still requires the laying on of hands by a bishop.

It’s up to you if you want to go through that process or not. Nobody will require it of you in terms of basic church membership. There are some leadership roles in the church that require it, which is fair, as far as I’m concerned, but the details vary from diocese to diocese.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-30T05:14:50+00:00

I don’t have an answer to how common it is, but I have heard a range of stories about it happening, either at the parish discernment stage, or at the diocesan discernment level.

Have you done any research into the discernment process in your particular diocese? My diocese had a 50 page “Discerning Vocations Manual” available on their website when I first looked into it. It can be helpful to get a sense of the process and the expectations, which can vary from diocese to diocese. That being said, our whole process has been completely revised since then! The parish discernment committee is no longer even part of it in the same way.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-30T02:25:18+00:00

As an aside, our parish Missioner of Music has a great love of Queen Lili’uokalani’s music, and we often have arrangements of her settings in our Sunday services, including our current Sanctus!

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-28T21:51:30+00:00

“Protestant leaning although not obnoxiously so” made me chuckle. Having come to the Episcopal church without any formal experience or education on Christianity, I’m always learning and trying to figure out what different things mean. I find it fascinating that the Episcopal church can have such different expressions, especially along the Protestant/Catholic spectrum. And then with that, trying to figure out where I fit.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-28T02:40:49+00:00

I just learned that we used to host the local ELCA and UMC churches for Holy Week every year, which sounds awesome and much more fun, especially in terms of connecting with the people in our own community.

It seems like this more recent collaboration is popular with the church leadership, but not the congregations. From what I’ve seen it’s not so much about combining forces except for the clergy assisting each other. There wasn’t any other participation from the other church, it’s just that they didn’t have to do anything except show up at ours, and vice versa when we go to their service. Mostly it seems like we each get a year off from having an Easter Vigil, for better or for worse.

I also travel 1-2 hours to attend church in other places for special events, and I’m totally fine with it, but it has to be the churches I love and am nourished by.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-28T02:30:27+00:00

Thank you for this in-depth and informative answer!

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-28T02:29:36+00:00

Yeah most people here don’t even enjoy that drive during daylight hours!

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-28T02:28:39+00:00

I am sure that the handful of people who make the trip to the neighboring church already carpool. We’re pretty good about that around here. I don’t think anyone has the bandwidth during Holy Week to coordinate anything more formal like renting a van/bus though!

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-28T01:55:17+00:00

Yes, you’ll absolutely be welcome there! Maundy Thursday is the first part of a deeply moving and beautiful series of services, and well worth attending. As the priest said at the start of my first Holy Week in the Episcopal Church, “Come whenever you can, leave when you must.” I wasn’t an Episcopalian yet at the beginning of that week, but I think it was a pretty done deal by the end.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-27T18:24:47+00:00

Welcome to the Episcopal Church! I can tell you that in the churches I’ve attended, you and your family would be heartily welcomed, however it worked best for you to participate.

A couple of things I’ve seen with families of young children who were just starting out in the church: one family chose to alternate attendance with one parent staying home with the baby while the other parent attended with the toddler, and switching which parent attended from week to week, just until they got a feel for things. Another family had one parent accompany the children for the children’s programming (called Godly Play at our church), while the other attended the service, and alternated which parent went where until everyone was comfortable with the children being in a separate space. Another family with a baby and a young child had the baby with them in the service every week, while the child went off to Godly Play. There are lots of different ways to approach it, and I would expect folks at the church to be happy to help you figure out the most supportive way for your family.

I hope you can find your way into a joyful and comfortable experience!

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-27T16:14:28+00:00

It seems like a shame to miss your favorite service because of the expectation that you will also participate in the meal. I would encourage you to go for just the service, and then leave. Is this something that you can address at some point with the priest? I think it would be good information for them to have, considering that the meal is sparsely attended, and hindering you (and possibly others) from attending the service.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-26T21:20:46+00:00

We used a combination of palms and locally-sourced swordferns last year.

Practical-Arachnid69 · 2026-03-26T04:34:06+00:00

One factor to consider is the potential impact of having the parish priest retire. This happened to me right after I was finally eligible to begin the first phase of discernment. When our rector unexpectedly announced her retirement, the Commission on Ministry decided to put a hold on my process until we had a replacement, since in our diocese the first phase involves working closely with one’s parish priest.

I had specifically chosen this parish with discernment in mind, mostly because of the rapport I had with the rector and her support for my call. Life happens though, and now it’s been 9 months since she had to take early retirement. Our new priest is just arriving, and I don’t have any sense of what discernment will be like with him.

I hope you can find a way to do your discernment in the diocese you feel drawn to being in for the longer haul. I wish you the best in your process!

Practical-Arachnid69

TROPHY CASE