Our newest member!

Cristina is received into the Episcopal Church on June 12 at St. James Cathedral.
Here with Bishop Lee & Bishop Scantlebury and The Rev. Kara Wagner Sherer

Christina Calvit receives the Bishop's Award

Christina's fan club gathers at the Union League Club...gosh they clean up well!
(the people that is, the club was already clean!)

The bishop lists all her great accomplishments, her playwriting for Lifeline Theatre (she adapts novels for theatre), her Jeff awards, her professional life. She is so talented!

The bishop says more nice things about Christina...her contributions to St. John's through work on the altar guild and coordinating the flowers, decorations, and "set design" for St. John's.

All that embarrassing attention deserves a hug!

And a beautiful proclamation with the bishop's seal on it!

More admiration from fans
A good time was had by all!

The Bishop's Visit

When the Bishop visits, we dust in all the corners, put on our best clothes, and get ready to celebrate!

We call in the best musicians...

And the crack team of acolytes!

We are reminded of our promises thorough baptism, confirmations, and receptions (into the Episcopal Church). We had all three!

Adrian got wet!

Adrienne, William and Nikki were confirmed. (The bishop's hands seal the deal.) Susan and Brian were received. They got lovely prayer books.

Suellen and Hugh were honored for their commitments (and got beautiful icons to show for it - of St. John as a fisherman and Dame Julian of Norwich with her cat.)

We won't forget the Bishop's story of his recent trip to Sudan. At one church he was greeted by the slaughter of a bull. He had to step over it to enter the church! (If he told us we could have arranged something!)

Bishop Lee's Christmas and Epiphany Message

Bishop Lee Reflects on Imperfection

If you attended Julianne's ordination, you know Bishop Lee gives a good sermon. The Episcopal Café is currently featuring this 10-minute video of the bishop:

Jeffrey Lee, "Wounded Gifts" from 30goodminutes on Vimeo.

Pictures at an Ordination

A good crowd of St. John's folks were privileged to witness Julianne's ordination to the priesthood on the Feast of St. Clement, Saturday, December 5. In the interest of sharing pictures as quickly as possible, there will be little narrative to this post. Any picture can be enlarged by clicking on it. Click on your browser's back arrow to return to the post.

The scene – St. James Cathedral, Chicago:


The vestments at the far end of the rail are Julianne's:

The ordinands prostrated themselves at the beginning of the service. The bare feet are Julianne's.




Former Chicago Bishop Persell was there to participate. Here Bishop Persell gives Julianne a Bible:

Bishop Lee presided:




Bishop Lee asked to receive the first blessing of the new priests:

Bishop Lee Reports from General Convention

Chicago Bishop Jeffrey Lee prepared three video reports from the General Convention in California. Here is the last of them, summarizing developments there.



His first two video reports are available here and here. Bishop Lee has also issued a letter on the General Convention, available here.

Kara's Birthday Bash

Here are some pictures from Kara's 40th birthday yesterday, starting with a view from the Wagner-Sherer's back steps.


If you spotted that splash of purple in the above picture, you've already figured out that we were happy to welcome Bishop Lee to St. John's for the first time (of many, we hope). Below, John is explaining to the bishop the manufacturing process employed for the tar pitch used on the Titanic's life boats.


No captions for the next few pictures. Write your own.




Kara had suggested that everyone wear seersucker to the party. Everybody who did gathered for a group shot, below.


In everybody else's defense, it wasn't quite seersucker weather, yet.

The photographer missed the best pictures in this sequence, where Lourdes and Kara were opening the champagne bottles. Kara sent two corks over the 12-foot high hedges. I am not making this up.


Bill and Alice won the Cutest Couple contest.


Ken and Melissa were a very close second.


And we were happy to see former parishioner Nanette, who has moved away but came back specially for Kara's Birthday Bash.


Here are some more scenes captured as the photographer walked around. Don't forget: click on the picture if you want to enlarge it, then click your browser's back arrow to return here. [Warning: Because most of these pictures are uploaded at 72 dpi, larger won't necessarily mean prettier.]






Kara asked that in lieu of presents, contributions be made to Hands to Help Ministries, an organization near and dear to her heart. Hands to Help gives assistance to our Irving Park and Portage Park neighbors who need help with rent, a fare card to get to a new job, a Jewel grocery card, or some other special need. That explains why you couldn't get a blueberry scone without seeing this:


That wasn't the camera getting blurry on the last number, it was the blood rushing from the photographer's head. He doesn't know how to pronounce numbers with that many zeros. Dream no small dreams, Kara!

[Actually, the generosity of the St. John's community came through again — though in pronounceable numbers.] [Later note: Kara gives the total in Comments, below.]

And if you haven't seen your picture yet, you can now breathe a sigh of relief. The camera's battery died, and the photographer had a new entry for his list of "Stoopid Photography Mistakes".