Email Blast

Join us on Tuesdays from 12:00-12:30 p.m. for 30 minutes of prayer, reflection from the Christian tradition, and meditative music.

The Sepulcher – A Liturgical Easter Play for the 10th century

Music for Trumpet and Organ from the Baroque 18th century

Easter Anthems by St. Paul’s Choir:

Dum transisset sabbatum, by John Taverner, from the 15th century

Ye choirs of new Jerusalem, by C. V. Stanford, from the 20th century

Christ the Lord is risen again, by Sam Mullooly, from the 21st century

Our rector’s sermon last Sunday considered the retelling of the resurrection story of Jesus as recorded in the gospels of John, Luke, Mark, and Matthew. Each of these slightly different accounts feature one standard element, the arrival of women at the empty tomb and the presence of an angel:

Angel: Whom do you seek?

Women: The crucified, Jesus of Nazareth.

Angel: He is not here; he is risen as he foretold.

The central panel above the baptistry altar in our church beautifully illustrates this scene. And it was this scene and dialogue that became part of the Easter Day services in Benedictine monasteries around the early 900s in France and England. Members of the monastic choirs would act out the roles of the women and the angel before a chapel altar representing Christ’s tomb. Over time, the play became more elaborate; Peter and John running to the tomb, and Mary Magdalen in conversation with a gardener who is really the risen savior. The play was known as “The Visitation to the Sepulcher” Visitatio Sepulchri.

Some parishioners may remember The Reverend Canon Dr. Steven Peay, a past dean of Nashotah House, who taught some adult courses and occasionally preached and celebrated here at St. Paul’s. Earlier in his life, Dr. Peay had been a Benedictine monk. During a conversation at lunch, I told Dr. Peay that when I was in residence at the Royal School of Church Music in Croydon, England, I had the opportunity to attend a performance of the Easter Play at Winchester Cathedral. It was performed in Latin with very simple plainsong chant. He suggested that I might consider writing original music for it adding the organ for drama and with the text in English rather than the original Latin. From his vast library, he provided the book that contained the Visitatio Sepulchri texts and instructions for performance. I finished the music for it 2 years later and it was performed in 2017.

Instead of singing evensong the first Sunday of May, we will celebrate the Easter story with my reconstruction of this medieval Easter play performed by members of St. Paul’s Choir. Since the actual play is only 20 minutes long, we will begin the program with festival music for trumpet and organ, concluding with two Easter anthems by the full choir. A reception will follow.

In the Resurrection we are promised that death has lost its power to annihilate and destroy. One way to live in hope that death has lost its sting is to prepare ourselves and our loved ones for the end of our earthly lives. Faithful acts of preparation now are gifts we give to those whom we will meet again on another shore. 

Deacon REGS and Pat Scheeler are coming to St. Paul’s on May 5, 12, and 19 to assist ALL St. Paul’s members in end-of-life planning, including the creation of a 5 Wishes Document that serves as a guide for how we would like to be cared for in our last days and following our death. These sessions will also address funeral planning and making personal and charitable gifts.  

In the great litany we pray that God would save us from dying unprepared. God is at work through REGS and Pat to help answer that prayer. Take note!

Deacon REGS will be assisting as deacon at our Sunday worship and sessions will follow in the Community Room from 11:15am-12:30pm.  

The St. Paul’s thrift shop has reopened with the same operating hours: Every Saturday 10-2 / 2nd and 4th Tuesday 10-2.

Would you like a copy of the church photo directory emailed to you? Contact Cindy in the office for a PDF copy: cindy@stpaulsmilwaukee.org

A few folks teamed up to transform a corner of our Sanctuary into a little sanctuary for young ones on Sunday mornings! This space has a little rocker and big rocker, foam flooring, books, and quiet activities for active bodies and minds during church. Kids are always welcome in church during worship – you might surprised what is absorbed while getting the wiggles out! 

We have also recently hired two nursery caregivers for Sunday mornings, Skyler and Tess. Using the daycare space on the main floor, this will allow parents of little ones to have a focused worship experience if they choose. This space is available for kids up through five years old. Kids older than five are encouraged to use the Children’s Corner and/or participate with their families in the pews. 

A huge thank you to everyone who has helped make sack lunches for The Gathering! Our next sandwich-making date is Friday, May 24 at 4 pm. Sandwich making will continue on the fourth Friday of the month at 4 pm throughout 2024 (unless otherwise indicated).

We will have two teams working at the same time, each making 75 bag lunches, with 7 or 8 people on each team. We are always looking for a few more volunteers! Please contact John Cain (johnhowardcain@gmail.com) for more information or to sign up!

Thanks to the generosity of our neighbors at Jewish Family Services, we are happy to be able to offer additional Sunday morning parking options in the Jewish Family Services parking lot (1300 N Jackson Street, Milwaukee). They have ask that we please NOT park in the spots marked “reserved,” but other than that are happy to host us, with the caveat that they are not liable for any damage to cars that may be incurred while parked in their lot.

Jewish Family Services is approximately 0.2 miles from St. Paul’s (about a 4 minute walk). You do not need to display any stickers or other paperwork in order to park there on a Sunday morning. We are grateful to our neighbors for so graciously sharing their space with us!

And don’t forget about The HOP as another option! The HOP light rail system has a stop at Ogden and Astor, right by the church, and is still free.

However you arrive, we look forward to seeing you on Sunday morning for worship!

It’s easy to get your news and information published to the parish. Here’s how to do it:

The primary news vehicle now is the website, which in turn provides the content for weekly email updates to the entire parish community. To get your content published, write it up as a news story with as little formatting as possible – just the text – and email it to us at info@stpaulsmilwaukee.org. Tips for an effective announcement:

• Use news format: That means standard prose in paragraph form and complete sentences. Imagine that what you’re writing will be published as a new story (not a display ad) in a newspaper. A news story is not the same as a poster or flier, and posters and fliers are ineffective as website content.
• Don’t bury the lead: Get to the point. Remember that people skim these stories, and if you don’t get their attention with actual information in the first sentence, they won’t read your message. A bad “news story” begins with old church newsletter saws like “Got the winter blues and want some have some fun Milwaukee style? Come one, come all! Get your dancing shoes on! The entire parish invites you to …” Ugh! just tell us what you want us to know!
• Write in the third person. Assume that the reader doesn’t know who you are.
• Headline: You should write a headline for your story. A good headline is short, uses active voice, and is informative. Examples of bad headlines: “Treasurer’s report”, “Service to be held”, “Bad news to report” or “Just a reminder”. Good examples: “Adult formation resumes for February”, “Prison ministry seeks members”, or “Evensong features Bruce Springsteen”.
• Photo: Our website automatically crops photos to a standard shape, with an aspect ratio of 4:3, horizontal. And in some cases, it crops even more, to 19:6 horizontal. Remember that when you’re submitting photos. If your photo is vertical, make sure there is enough room on either side that it can be cropped to horizontal. If you are able to crop it yourself, that’s very helpful. Keep the subject of your photo in the very center for best results.
• Copyright issues: Copyright holders routinely scan websites, including those of churches, looking for copyright violations. Make sure you don’t submit copyrighted materials, including photos, unless you have permission to publish it on the website. If that’s the case, please make sure to include copyright info (e.g., “Photo by Lee Matz, © 2018. All rights reserved. Used by permission.”)
• Contact info: Wherever possible, include contact information with your story. If you list a person’s name as the contact person, make sure you also provide an email address or phone number. Check out, for example, the last bullet point below. But also consider this:
• Privacy: Remember that our website is public. Don’t publish an email address, phone number, or any other personal information unless you have the subject’s permission.
• Embargo and expire: It’s a great idea to send news items well ahead of the dates you want it published. It’s very helpful if you give us a start and stop date for news items. Our software can honor those dates automatically, so you can be extremely precise. For example, you can have a message appear automatically at 3 a.m. if you like, and especially helpful for events, your news item can expire at a precise time. So a music event might be set to expire one hour after it starts. That helps us make sure our website is as fresh as possible.
• Questions: Contact us at info@stpaulsmilwaukee.org!