Dear Community of St. James’, We have traveled a long road from March 2020 to today. The road has taken many turns and iterations. We have gone from a complete lock-down with video-taped services, to going “live” in an empty sanctuary with all of you worshiping at home, to registration-based in-person services, to proof of…
Thornton Ave & Cabrillo Terrace, Fremont CA
Join us for worship in-person every Sunday at 8am and 10:30am (live-streamed at 10:30am)
Posts by Lori Walton
Mandatory proof of vaccination required at indoor worship services and gatherings for vaccine eligible participants
I have been mulling a question in my head for the last few days: “what is worship?” Back in the olden days, like three months ago, the answer was easy. Worship was the gathering of the faithful in order to praise God, to give thanks, to bring the suffering of the world to the altar…
It is as if life has stopped, isn’t it? A halting of routines, habits and patterns disrupted, negotiating shared space in ways we’ve never done before, having a game plan for grocery shopping, and not being able to run to the doctor for non-life-threatening concerns. We are living in strange times and nothing seems “normal”.…
This was an Easter Sunday none of us will forget. For the first time ever, I was able to sit next to my husband to worship for Easter! In fact, Ron, Clover, Olive, and I all sat in our pew (aka couch) and participated in the Grace Cathedral worship service, joining in with the prayers and exuberantly…
This is the most liturgically intense week of the year and it calls upon all of our senses to be alive. We can see the table set with bread and wine, tabbouleh, hummus, pita bread. We can see the wooden cross and the flickering candles. We can see the first fire of Easter, the Paschal Candle, the…
On Sunday we begin Holy Week in a way we’ve never begun Holy Week. The altars at St. James’ will stand bare and the pews will not be filled.
The journey through Holy Week is a hallowed walk done by Christians for centuries and throughout the world. The ritual movements and sacred stories tie us to both Jesus Christ and to each other. As you move through this week, marking each day with prayer and scripture, hearing God’s word and experiencing sacred chant, remembering…
One does not have to look far to find examples of everyday human beings, people like you and me, encountering God with open ears and open hearts, listening and watching in such a way that the encounter compels them to do something bold. From the ordinary to the extraordinary. Imagine Abraham standing under a night…
In the southeast portion of Washington state, along highway 260, traffic came to a standstill for 10 hours on New Year’s Eve. It wasn’t snow, it wasn’t rain, it wasn’t a big accident that caused the standstill. Instead, what forced miles of cars to stop driving were hundreds and hundreds of tumbleweeds. Tumbleweeds. Like in…