Upcoming Congregational Activities
Wednesday, July 13: 6:30pm Book Club at the home of Louise Bishop
Sunday, July 17: 12 noon to 4:00pm: Olentangy River Bike Ride and Family Fun Day
Sunday, July 24 – Aug 14: MAKE for children during the 10:30am service
Pastoral Care Coverage
Deacon Pam Elwell has graciously agreed to be the coordinator for pastoral care calls. Several clergy will be available for pastoral care: The Rev. Bruce Smith, the Rev Deacon Sherm Everett, the Rev. Karl Stevens, and the Rev. Deacon Pam Elwell. Please call Pam first—she will know who is on call at any particular time.
Sunday, July 10
This Sunday, July 3, we welcome Deacon Sherm Everett to preach and The Rev. Hanci Newberry celebrate at both services. We welcome our own Thomas Clark as pianist at the 10:30am service.
BREAD Updates
BREAD… rises! The month of July is the BREAD investment drive, when we all make a financial commitment to invest in this organization and own it. Your investment can be made via the St. Stephen’s collection, or sent directly to the BREAD office (404 S. 3rd St., Columbus OH 43215).
Potential Parking Difficulty: July 17
On Thursday the office was alerted by a parishioner to the following construction update from the University: https://fod.osu.edu/woodruff_04 We have reached out to our contacts at OSU and received the following clarification: You will still be able to access the church from College Ave. You can turn right on 18th Ave. from High St. This closure will not affect your parking spots on Woodruff Ave. nor the parking lot, you will just have to go around the Road Closed Signs.
NSI Donations for July
The items for July will be canned vegetables.
Book Club News
All are invited to the July Book Club meeting. The book being discussed is Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. We meet on Wednesday, July 13 starting at 6:30 PM at Louise Bishop’s home. Please let Louise know as far in advance as possible if you plan to attend. We’ll share a potluck super followed by the book discussion. Please bring something to share (main dish, side dish, dessert, beverage). Everyone is welcome! For those who you wish to read, the book for the August 10 discussion is The Little Paris Book Shop by Nina George.
Saint Stephen’s Gratitude Project
Olentangy River Bike Ride and Family Fun Day
Sunday, July 17, 2016 12 noon to 4 p.m.
What are we doing?
- Riding bikes (@ 4 miles) on the Olentangy River Trail
- Listening to stories about the efforts to restore the natural flow of the river.
- Learning about the natural environment of the watershed and the benefits of caring for its preservation.
- Exploring ways that stewardship of the natural world can be a spiritual practice.
- Celebrating at the Annual Chadwick Arboretum Open House.
Who are we doing it with?
- Our friends and neighbors in the greater campus and North Columbus communities.
Where do you find more information?
- Visit the River Ride 2016 webpage at: http://olentangyriverride.weebly.com/
- Send an email to: river_ride@ststephens-columbus.org
Thanks to Agnes
It is with great regret, but also with deep appreciation for her insight and service, that I write to let the church know that Agnes Burris is stepping down from her position as curator of the EASE Gallery. When I began EASE in March of 2013, it was with very little experience of running a gallery and almost no contacts in the arts world. I decided to make the old Bookworm space into a gallery at the suggestion of Pete Anderson, who pointed out that there were a lot of art students, not to mention adjunct professors, who didn’t have space to show their work, and that a gallery might be a really good outreach to campus. I called the OSU Art Department, and the secretary agreed to send out a notice, and within two hours of it going out, I had heard from six artists who were eager to show. Then began the hard work of converting the space.
We got a lot of things wrong, and we probably would have kept getting things wrong if Agnes hadn’t shown up to set things right. An artist herself, Agnes had some experience with running a gallery, and had made inroads into the Columbus arts community. Her contacts there meant that we could gradually increase our local reputation, and begin working with more and more prominent artists, while remaining true to our mission of showcasing the work of unknown artists as well. More than that, Agnes had a keen sense of the needs and struggles of artists, who usually have to pay galleries to show their work, often under the smoke screen of paying contest submissions fees. Even if a gallery agrees to represent them, the gallery always takes a cut when the work is sold, meaning that it’s very rare for an artist to earn the full value of her work. But this unjust system persists because artists need to show their work and build their resumes, especially when they’re just starting out. Beyond that, art is often created in isolation, and young artists struggle to find community, particularly if they’re working as adjunct professors, a position that puts them permanently on the outskirts of a university’s art department.
Agnes has been a fierce advocate for artists, and has led us to address these concerns in a variety of ways. For several years, she organized a yearly show in which adjunct professors displayed work together. She’s been instrumental in the themed books and shows that we’ve created, and reached out to the activist community to bring together two shows that dealt with justice-related issues. She also brought us into relationship with social practice artists, such as Jeni Hansen Gard and Lori Esposito, who take their work out into the neighborhoods and involve a wide variety of people in the creation of their pieces. Her work for the gallery has been so successful that she was asked, earlier this year, to be part of a group that included the head curator of the Cleveland Museum of Art, and was working on creating a Midwest arts journal under the leadership of OSU Art History Professor Kris Paulsen.
I’m profoundly grateful for all of these things, and also that for three years I got to work with a person of deep passion and vision. Agnes can do things that I simply don’t know how to do, and that is always impressive to me. She can lead in ways that I can’t, but always with an eye to collaboration. The community that she brought together at the gallery has been deeply inspiring to me. I learned things I would have never learned otherwise, and found myself spiritually transformed as I began examining the possibility of making my own art. It is not enough to say that I’m grateful. I’ve been changed by her, and that is always the call and the gift of Christian community.
-The Rev. Karl Stevens
Reminder: If you’re mailing something to the church, especially time-sensitive materials, we recommend using the PO Box! St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, PO Box 82263
Columbus, OH 43202
