We will celebrate the Eucharist, or Holy Communion, this coming Sunday. We will eat, we will pray, and we will love one another as we practice this two thousand-year-old ritual together.

Be aware that we are holding both services, 8:30 and 10:50, this week, even though many of you may be enjoying the longer weekend by traveling out of town. Our offices will be closed Monday morning in honor of the national holiday. It’s been great to see such great numbers in our sanctuary the last few weeks!

As of our meeting, we have set official dates for a medical mission to Bolivia, and plan to fill the spots on our team with members from both Epworth and St. Stephen’s. This mission will take place September 16-September 25, 2011. Debbie and I will be completing the application forms and will be ready to distribute them to you in the next few days. We will need a couple of doctors, a couple of nurses, possibly an optometrist, possibly a dentist, a translator or two and a good core of folks ready to assist in a variety of ways.

The details have yet to come together, but we will form our team and start making plans. This mission project will require the full backing of the congregation of St. Stephen’s in those things we mention every time someone joins our church: prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness. We need your prayers. We need you to come to the events that will provide education about Bolivia. We need you to make contributions that enable us to go. We need you to help us pack supplies. And we need you to spread the work about the good work we are planning to do.

I look forward to taking this journey-before-the-journey with you. Thank you for being a church who is willing to serve tangibly in mission.

As many of you know, I was cast as Princess Winnifred in Chickasha Community Theatre’s production of “Once Upon a Mattress”, which opens this Friday. I certainly have become familiar with all the landmarks along Highway 62 between here and there: the burrito place in Blanchard, the Alex Longhorns sign, the horse trailer at CS 2920 that never seems to move, and the antique car club as you enter town. I can make it in 42 minutes, which gives me time to run over lines in my head and sing through all of my songs. I have a feeling that Monday night, I will start out in the car at 6:15, only to realize along about Newcastle that the show is over. The car is in such a habit!

Because we have a performance early afternoon on Sunday, I have invited a young friend of mine to take my place in the pulpit. His name is Clayton Miller, and he has just graduated from Oklahoma City University with double degrees in Religion and Philosophy. Clayton started and operated a non-profit environmental organization on campus while maintaining his full-time student status.

He is currently employed for the summer at Turtle Rock Farm, a sustainable living environment founded by Rev. Pat Hoerth, daughter of Henry Bellmon, on their family’s former family retreat land. Clayton aspires to serve in the Peace Corps, and has a passion for working in environmental issues. He and I serve on the Oklahoma United Methodist Environmental Coalition together, under the leadership of Dr. Mark Davies, whom many of you know from his and his family’s attendance and speaking engagements at our church. I look forward to hearing what Clayton has to share with us this coming Sunday!

I encourage all of you to consider signing up for the Reconciling Ministries Network as a supporting individual. By becoming an individual Reconciling United Methodist, you put your name on their mailing list and are kept abreast of all developments in this movement. By signing up, you have the option to make a monetary donation or just to sign up for prayerful support. The envelopes are still available in the loggia of our church, or you may join by visiting their website: www.rmnetwork.org

This Sunday, we return to our focus on the historic affirmations of faith of our church. This week’s focus will encompass the Statement of Faith of the Korean Methodist Church, which states that the “reign of God [is] the divine will realized in human society, and in the family of God, where we are all brothers and sisters.” These words, written in 1930, still hold true and emphasize what we hold most dear theologically in the next century.

Come early this week and find a seat!

The last two years have been a time of great pride for me in being able to serve a church that lives out the slogan, “Open hearts, open minds, open doors” in such a tangible and brave way. I am proud to serve a church that works hard to establish a community that is free of persecution and discrimination against those who might find persecution and discrimination elsewhere. As we have traveled this journey, we have all worked hard to discern exactly what we are called to do and exactly how we can make our doors of welcome wider and wider and wider as time moves on.

We will celebrate our monthly service of Holy Communion, and our sermon time will feature messages from three individuals who would like to share part of their spiritual journeys and how their faith has been shaped by participation in St. Stephen’s as a faith community. I urge you to make plans to attend either the 8:30 or 10:50 service this week in order to support these three speakers from our fold and to learn a little bit more about what Reconciling Ministries and the Believe Out Loud campaign is all about.

I hope you have kept them in your prayers this week as they experience the transformational power of sacrificing a week of their summer for a mission project. These young people will be on hand this Sunday to lead both worship services. They will even assist me in rounding out the sermon time as we worship together.

Please be there this Sunday to hear about their mission adventures and to support them as they take leadership roles in our service. We celebrate their lives, their families and their contributions to our family of faith and to the outer community!