Accent on Worship

     While I’m sure it is not unusual to see the new Vicar aimlessly walking the halls looking lost and confused, your newest Vicar, Neal Cannon (that’s me), will have a little extra of that this year.  That’s because not only am I orienting myself to a new call, church, and people, but I am also adjusting myself to a new marriage and home!  Soon after I began at Mount Olive (August 26), I moved into a new duplex (September 1), and will soon be  married to my beautiful fiancée, Mary (September 8).  This process has been a whirlwind of activity and change, but I have been blessed by God with amazing friends, welcoming neighbors, and the Holy Spirit who has guided me along the way.

     I was born just outside of Crystal Lake, Illinois, four minutes after my identical twin brother Paul (who is also a pastor, now serving his first call in Crystal Lake at the church where we were baptized!), to my mother Julie, a nurse, and father Charles, an airline pilot.  I have one older sister, Susie, and one younger sister, Marybeth.  Together, we moved from Crystal Lake to Cincinnati, Ohio, where I developed my life-long love of the Cincinnati Bengals, my favorite professional football team.  Our stay in Cincinnati was not long, however, and our family moved to Park City, Utah when I was in the third grade, where we remained through high school.

     After high school, I attended Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD where I received my undergraduate degree in Business Communications.  During each college summer I worked at Voyageurs Lutheran Ministry in northern Minnesota as a counselor, BWCA canoe guide (where I learned to love the outdoors), and on program staff.  After college, I felt a call towards youth ministry and began work as the middle school youth director at Roseville Lutheran Church, where I have worked for the past six years.  While I loved my job there, I began to feel another tug in my life towards seminary and pastoral ministry.  That tug led me to Luther Seminary in St. Paul, where I dived in to theological and pastoral learning these past two years.

Through it all, I have come to love Lutheran tradition, theology, and people.  I am excited to land at Mount Olive Lutheran Church where I will learn from you and with you about this great God of ours, and his Son Jesus Christ.  Praise be to God!

– Vicar Neal Cannon

This Week in Adult Education

     This Sunday, September 9, Pastor Crippen will present part 1 of a 2-part series on “An Introduction to the Book of James.”

New Olive Branch Publication Schedule 

     Beginning with this issue, The Olive Branch schedule returns to weekly publication. The publication date of the weekly newsletter is moving from Mondays to Fridays.  The result will be that members will receive news of the congregation and other information just prior to Sunday’s liturgies and fellowship, which is more timely, and copies of the newsletter may also be given to visitors at worship and still be fresh information that morning.

Name Change and Request for Helpers

     The Worship Committee recognizes the valuable service the greeters are performing during our worship services, and most of you realize it goes far beyond greeting folks at the door.  Greeters arrive at least thirty minutes prior to the services, ensure bulletins and other informational brochures are available to the worshipers.  As well, they ensure doors are unlocked, lights and fans turned on, and windows opened or closed.  They may also be asked to perform some minor duties for the other worship assistants, depending on the logistics of the service.  They keep track of and record the numbers in attendance. They are also responsible for the offering collection, the procession of the gifts to the altar, as well as coordinating the flow of traffic to the eucharist table.  At the end of the service, they see that the offering is transferred quickly to the safe and conclude their duties by tidying the pews in the nave.  They also often field questions of newcomers, and now and again may have to respond to minor emergencies.  In other words, the greeters are much more than people who just greet at the door.  They are ushers, gracious hosts, ambassadors.  Therefore, it was decided in the most recent Worship Committee meeting that there will be a name change in the servant roster from “Greeter” to “Usher.”

     With all of that in mind, we are always looking for new ushers, especially those who can serve with flexibility for both services, as well as evening services.  Those who serve in the evening would be asked to learn how to close the building, therefore adding some additional duties, similar to the previous “Building Keeper” position.  This commitment is available for new and current ushers.  If you are interested in learning the building keeper duties of the ushers and have a flexible schedule that allows you to serve in the evening, please let Brian Jacobs know.

Book Discussion Group

     Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. For the September 8 meeting they will read The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell. For the October 13 meeting they will read Remarkable Creatures, by Tracy Chevalier. All readers welcome!

Olivites in the News

     This month’s edition of Metro Lutheran features an article about Susan Cherwien, written by former Mount Olive member, Mike Sherer.

     (While you’re looking at the newspaper, be sure to check out who was “Caught Reading Metro Lutheran” – you’ll see some familiar faces!)

Prayer Shawl Ministry

     Do you knit or crochet?  Yes?  Then mark Sunday, September 23 on your calendar because you are needed at the next meeting of the Mount Olive Prayer Shawl Ministry group.   We will meet at 9:30 AM.
     Don’t know how to knit or crochet?  No problem.  We can teach you!    So grab a cup of coffee and join the meeting to learn more about this rewarding ministry.

     If you need additional information or have any questions about this project, contact Peggy Hoeft (peggyrf70@gmail.com).

A Word of Thanks 

     Many thanks to Marcella Daehn, Beth Gaede, Peggy Hoeft,  Tim Lindholm and T.J. Schnabel, Bonnie McClellan, and Sandra and Steve Pranschke, who contributed nearly 20 people-hours to clean our chancel, transepts, and narthex, and polish the brass candelabra and fittings. Our worship space positively glows!

October 2 is Drawing Near

     Tuesday October 2, is the first day of Way to Goals Tutoring for this year, and I am looking for a few good men and women to be a positive force in a child’s life by becoming a volunteer tutor.  If you have a heart for children this is the job for you!  This is a once a week commitment on Tuesday evenings from 7:00-8:30 p.m.  You will spend one hour with your student and the last half an hour enjoying a snack and fun activity, or just visiting with the other students and tutors.  The youth are in second through sixth grade.  The season goes from the first Tuesday in October through the last Tuesday in May.  We do not meet when the Minneapolis Public Schools are off and a few other Tuesday evenings. If you would like more information or you are interested in volunteering please give me a call at church, 612-827-5919.

– Donna Neste

Attention All Worship Assistants!

     The new schedule for September-December is now posted on the church website. Please check it soon to find out when you are scheduled: https://mountolivechurch.org/worship_servants.html
(click on the red box labeled, “View Current Servant Schedule”).

Every Church a Peace Church September Potluck Supper Meeting

When:   Monday, September 10, 6:30 pm
Where:  Living Table United Church of Christ, 4001 38th Ave. S.; Minneapolis 55406
            612-729-7556;   http://www.spiritucc.org
Who:  You and … someone from your church … or another church? …Your own pastor? …
            interested friend, neighbor or relative?
Why:  Support, networking, delicious food, and an outstanding program!

The program for this month is a presentation and discussion led by Michael Bayly entitled, “Justice, Peace, and the Minnesota Marriage Amendment: Understanding and speaking about the proposed constitutional ban on same-sex civil marriage from a justice and peace perspective.”
     For more Information, please visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MnECAPC/message/157  or send your questions via email to: ecapctc@yahoo.com.

Thank You

     Thank you to all those new volunteers who helped with the Community Meal this past Labor Day weekend (and a continual thank you to those who come faithfully on those special Saturdays.)
– Mount Olive Neighborhood Ministries Committee

Rachel Crippen blog from Austria
     Some folks have asked the Crippens about how Rachel Crippen’s youth exchange year in Austria is going.  The easiest way to find out is have her tell you, since she’s blogging about her experience online, and including lots of photographs.  Go to www.rcrippen.blogspot.com and it’s all there.  Past entries are listed on the sidebar, and people can leave comments if they wish, or even “subscribe,” which means getting e-mail notices whenever she makes new entries.  Pastor Crippen and his family are grateful for all the kind thoughts and all the prayers people are offering as she has this great experience.

Wear Your Nametags!

     As a way to help Vicar Neal become familiar with our names, it would be very hospitable if we could all consider wearing our nametags on Sundays for the next several weeks. If you don’t have a nametag, or if yours has been lost or misplaced, please contact the church office for a new one.

Church Library News

     I am pleased to finally be able to share some news of progress regarding the inclusion of a DVD collection for adults in our library. All summer we awaited the arrival of an ordered media spinner rack and finally accepted a substitute so that we could enter the fall season with something to use to display our newly processed DVD collection.
     So can now announce the following acquisitions in this beginning DVD collection:

• WALKING THE BIBLE — a journey by land through the five books of Moses
• THE QUEST FOR NOAH’S ARK
• JESUS — HIS BIRTH AND MINISTRY (Reader’s Digest Series — Great People of the Bible)
• JESUS — HIS FINAL DAYS AND RESURRECTION
• THE APOSTLE PAUL
• ABRAHAM, SARAH, ISAAC, JACOB AND JOSEPH
• MARY OF NAZARETH
• THE GIFT OF JABEZ
• EARTH FROM ABOVE SERIES — EARTH — Part I
• EARTH FROM ABOVE SERIES — EARTH — Part II
• EARTH FROM ABOVE SERIES — SEAS AND OCEANS — Part I and II
• EARTH FROM ABOVE SERIES — Water
• EARTH FROM ABOVE SERIES — Biodiversity
• SECRETS OF THE OCEAN REALMS SERIES — Encounters of the Deep
• SECRETS OF THE OCEAN REALMS SERIES — Nature’s Amazing Events
• SECRETS OF THE OCEAN REALMS SERIES — Nature’s Incredible Designs
• JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME SERIES — Europe and The Middle East
• JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME SERIES – Africa and Asia
• JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME SERIES – Australia to the Americas
• ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF THE PAST (Reader’s Digest Series) — Mysteries of the Americas — Vanished Civilizations
• ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF THE PAST — Mysteries of Europe and the Mediteranean — Myths and Legends
• ADVENTURES IN SEARCH OF THE PAST — Mysteries of the Orient — Ancient Journeys
• JOY TO THE WORLD — featuring The Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra
• BRETHREN — by White Knuckle Media
• NBC NEWS PRESENTS — THE GREATEST GENERATION with Tom Brokaw
• THE GREATEST GENERATION SPEAKS with Tom Brokaw (also D-Day, a Leap into History)
• THE GREATEST GENERATION with Tom Brokaw  (Memories of World War II)
• AMERICA — THE STORY OF US
• Disc I — Rebels, Revolution, Westward Division
• Disc II — Civil War, Heartland Cities, Boom Bonus
• Disc III — Bust, World War II, Superpower, Millenium
• NEVER STOP SINGING — A Celebration of Minnesota’s Choral Legacy
• A ST. OLAF CHRISTMAS IN NORWAY
• CHRISTMAS AT ST. OLAF — 2007 (Where Peace and Love and Hope Abide)
• JACK HANNA’S ANIMAL ADVENTURES — On Safari with Jack; Little Seen Africa; Africa on the Edge; Safari Through the Masai Mara; Phinda, Land of Adventure; and Jack’s Camp

     We hope that soon we will begin to acquire DVDs for children as well as update our collection of children’s books.  I would welcome a volunteer (or more) to assist in this process, especially if you have an association as an elementary or special education teacher or would have other expertise with children’s literature to share.  Please contact me at my home or in the Library many Sundays.

     Kudos to Target Corporation and The Minneapolis Star Tribune for presenting “A Family Reading Adventure” this Saturday, September 8, at the Hyland Lake Park Reserve. Details have been in the Star Tribune newspaper the past two weeks and we hope many families will have an opportunity to take part in this special event.

     We close with two appropos quotations —  “Libraries Change Lives” and “In a library we are surrounded by many hundreds of dear friends” by Ralph Waldo Emerson.

– Leanna Kloempken

Accent on Worship 

Bread for Eucharist

     We’ve just finished a month in John’s Gospel, the sixth chapter, where every week at Eucharist we’ve heard Jesus call himself the Bread of Life, and offer himself to us as food for our lives.  Now we’re moving back into Mark’s Gospel for our Gospel readings, but it seems appropriate to continue our conversation about the kind of bread we use at Eucharist here at Mount Olive.

     As you know, we’ve been using loaves of bread for our Eucharist here since Lent, and this was a trial, to determine if this is something that might enrich our worship, to determine what logistical issues would need addressing, and to determine if this is something we might wish to continue.  We began the trial using many different recipes during Lent, hoping to find one which seemed to work well.  Then in the Easter season we took one recipe which seemed the best for our use, and used it each week, with a couple bakers from the congregation providing the bread.  Finally, this summer we had about 15 different bakers providing the bread, mostly from the one recipe.  We also asked for feedback from the congregation, which many provided, and when asked to put it in writing, most did.  The Worship Committee and I read all the written feedback carefully, and at several meetings shared other feedback we’d heard as well.

     This has been a good thing to do.  Many people have responded positively to the use of loaves instead of wafers, and there have been some who have indicated clearly their preference for wafers.  I particularly was pleased with how many people took the opportunity to offer to bake our bread, another chance for people to contribute to our worship life, and how eager people were to do it.  Using one loaf for each liturgy deepened our sense of the one Body into which we are baptized, and the richer symbol of each of us eating from one loaf was a powerful reminder to many who responded.

     So the question is, where to go from here?  After listening to the discussion at the Worship Committee, and the feedback from the congregation, several things are worth noting: first, this has been a good addition to our liturgy for many, and the presence of a loaf of bread as the way we eat of the Lord’s meal has been a blessing.  Second, there is a rich and appreciated tradition of receiving the Lord’s meal here at Mount Olive using wafers of bread which is worthy of keeping a part of our life.  Third, and perhaps most important, it must be said that this has been a generous conversation no matter what people’s thoughts were.  People were able to express their opinions and their perceptions while at the same time understanding that they had sisters and brothers here who might not see it the same way, and I find that a great blessing in our life together and a gift from God for how we have any kind of conversation with one another.

     It seems clear to me that at this point in our life we are both ready for the use of loaves at Eucharist and also desirous of retaining our consistent way of receiving the bread that has fed so many for so long here at Mount Olive.  So we will do both.  For the time from Advent through Holy Trinity (and also festivals which occur outside that time) we will use loaves of bread, and for the season of Pentecost we will use wafers.  This will roughly divide the year in two.  That means that this Sunday, Sept. 2, we’ll return to wafers.  Apart from returning to loaves in Advent, we’ll have loaves on All Saints’ Sunday and Christ the King.  One of our learnings was that there are several logistical questions we still need to solve to help the Altar Guild and the sacristans and me as we work together to serve with loaves, and we’ll take what we’ve learned and sort that out before All Saints’.  In fact, the majority of concerns raised in this whole conversation related to logistical and procedural questions, and I’m hopeful that we will be able to sort most of that out.

     One thing that became apparent to me and to the committee is that this discussion opened up some very fruitful avenues of conversation about the Eucharist in general, and it is our hope that such conversation and learning will continue.  (For example, the question of “one bread, one cup” yielded some vital dialogue and discussion and also led many to wish for more opportunities like that.)  There will be several Sunday forums this fall which will center on the Eucharist and its meaning in our worship and our lives, and I invite all to come and learn together.  This gift of the Meal of Life from our Lord Jesus is something we could ponder, celebrate, discuss, cherish, and share for many lifetimes and still have wonders to know.  I hope many take advantage of the opportunity this fall to explore some of these riches together.  And thank you all for your partnership in this conversation, and in our life together.  It truly is a blessed gift of God.

– Joseph

 

Last Week of Summer Worship Schedule for 2012

     This Sunday, September 2, will be the last week of Summer Worship schedule for this year. Beginning Sunday, September 9 we resume our regular worship schedule of two Eucharists each Sunday morning, at 8:00 and 10:45 a.m.  Church School and Adult Education is held between services, beginning at 9:30 a.m. each week.

Meet the Vicar

     This Sunday, September 2, following the morning liturgy, all are invited attend the annual Labor Day forum, “Meet the Vicar.”  This will be a great opportunity for all to meet Mount Olive’s new vicar, Neal Cannon.

New Olive Branch Publication Schedule 

     Beginning with next week’s issue, The Olive Branch schedule returns to weekly publication. The publication date of the weekly newsletter is moving from Mondays to Fridays.  The result will be that members will receive news of the congregation and other information just prior to Sunday’s liturgies and fellowship, which is more timely, and copies of the newsletter may also be given to visitors at worship and still be fresh information that morning.

New Members to be Received September 23

     New members will be received on Sunday, September 23. If you are interested in becoming a member of Mount Olive, please speak with Pastor Crippen after liturgy, or call him at the church office, 612-827-5919.

Help, Help, Help!
     Our next Community Meal, free to all who come in our doors, will be held on Saturday, September 1. Some of our regular Community Meal workers will be on vacation that day. If YOU can help with the meal (prep, feeding our guests, or clean up) please call Carol Austermann at 612-722-5123.

Singers, Take Note!

     Cantorei rehearsals resume this coming Wednesday, September 5, at 7 pm.  The choir always welcomes new singers, so if you haven’t sung with the Cantorei before but are interested in giving it a try, please join us!