St Stephen's Episcopal Church Oak Harbor,WA

08/22/2026

07/17/2026

St. Stephen's launches Day Monastery as a
quiet place to work, read with others.

This new program begins July 30 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and will continue every Thursday thereafter. This free program is available to everyone in the Whidbey community. Each person is invited to bring their laptop computer, cell phone and reading materials to Miller Hall, the fellowship gathering place at the church. The day will begin with a brief opening prayer and conclude with a closing prayer in the church sanctuary. The rules of the Day Monastery are simple: No lengthy conversations as people work or read. Cell phones are silenced and any callas are made outside the fellowship hall. All are welcome.

06/27/2026

WALKING TOGETHER WITH OUR RECTOR, PAUL+

Pride Sunday

This Sunday we will have our annual Pride celebration, as we’ve done for the last two years. This celebration is to share in the support of our LGBTQ+ siblings. The root of support in the Episcopal Church for LGBTQ+ people started with the Integrity Movement in 1974. Integrity USA’s primary goal was to ensure equal access to all sacraments, including ordination and marriage.

Integrity formally dissolved in April 2022 after the church approved same-sex marriage rites in 2015. Integrity USA was instrumental in several key changes within the Episcopal Church:

Ordination The group successfully lobbied for equal access to ordination processes for all baptized members, including LGBTQ+ individuals.

Same-Sex Blessings In 2009, the church approved a broad local option for the blessing of same-sex unions, a goal Integrity had worked toward.

Marriage Equality A major milestone was reached in 2015 when the church's General Convention approved official liturgies for same-sex marriage.

This Sunday we will be using a liturgy that came out of this movement. Some of the key changes brought to the liturgy by Integrity will sound remarkably similar to the liturgies we use today. Some of the differences you’ll see are: the opening acclamation, the confession, and the Peace.

The Eucharist we are using Sunday is from Enriching our Worship, supplemental liturgies. The most outstanding feature of the liturgy is the inclusive language.

Come, wear Pride colors, and celebrate Pride month with us.

Peace,

Paul+

06/23/2026

Join us!

06/22/2026

Everyone is welcome!

06/21/2026

A note from our Bishop Phil

I spent nearly three weeks in East Africa with five other delegates from our diocese as we represented all of us who make up the Episcopal Church in Western Washington. We went with two priorities:

(1) establish relationships with dioceses and congregations in both South Sudan and Kenya, and (2) deliver 100 birth kits to Mangalla Camp for internally displaced persons outside the capital city of Juba.

After passing through five security blockades en route - we had our own security detail to help with this - we were joyously greeted by midwives, congregants, and leaders at Mangalla. With nearly 60,000 people housed there, the needs are great, but that did not curtail the exuberance and hospitality that we received from the people we met.

In the time since, I've been reflecting on the thing I did not experience on that day: cynicism. Instead of seeing the kits we brought in light of scarcity - those 100 kits will likely all be used up by now - we received deep gratitude and appreciation because of the gift which they received as coming from a place of abundance. They received the blessings and saw them fully for what they were and expressed joy. Because of those gifts you helped provide, hundreds of lives will be changed.

Jesus reminded us this past Sunday that the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few. For a long time I heard those words as a plaintive expression for more workers, but thats taking the view of scarcity and cynicism. This year I'm hearing those words fresh, both from a place of reality, but also with deep gratitude for the laborers and their work. The work of Christ can happen with those who make space in their lives to participate in it. Lives can be changed even with seemingly small acts.

Our trip was coordinated by the Reverend Mary Bol - missioner for our African congregations - and her husband Simon Dau Angok - a member of Diocesan Council - who have strong family ties to both South Sudan and Kenya. I am eternally grateful to them, their deep love for the people of South Sudan and Kenya, and for their faithful leadership among us. And my deepest thanks to all of you who gave so generously to provide the medical supplies to the people of Manalla.

06/21/2026

Walking together with our rector, Paul+

Pride

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Pride parades and walks recently. Especially since we’ve had two already on the island and one more scheduled for the afternoon of this Newsletter.

As you likely know, Oak Harbor’s first organized walked happened on June 6th. I think the turnout from the city was good. Our mayor and chief of police were there and visible. The were no protests or any other disruptions for the walk. All in all it was a good show.

No, I don’t really mean show. I don’t mean protest either. Because it was not a show for everyone to watch or to ogle the people who showed up. It was not a protest either. It was support for our LGBTQ+ siblings in a way people of all orientations and colors could come together in unity.

I want to think that people are fair and kindhearted. I suppose that’s my rose colored glasses. Showing up at a Pride rally/walk/parade really points that out for me. Here are people who really want to be in community together. People who want to support one another.

It is times like this that just point out that our relationship with one another is crucial. It is building relationships so that we can be in relationship. Something that Jesus keeps reminding us of.

Love in action, community in action. We build relationship when we support one another and celebrate our diversities.

Peace,

Paul+

06/17/2026

Thoughts from our Senior Warden...

In one of his daily meditations this week, Fr. Richard Rohr wrote, “The apostle Paul
knew that the gospel message must have concrete embodiment, so he set about
founding what he called “churches.” Jesus’s first vision of church is so simple we could
miss it: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them”
(Matthew 18:20).
That’s what St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church tries to be: a concrete embodiment of the
gospel in Oak Harbor, When I was a Presbyterian minister, decades ago in Flint,
Michigan, I had a brightly colored poster on the wall of my office which proclaimed,
“Bloom where you are planted.” Of course, that’s good advice for each one of us in our
lives as plants of Jesus Christ (some of us are cacti ��), but it is even more true of our
church. We are to bloom, be true to our nature and calling, right where we are. A flower,
a plant, has one mission: be what it is. My friend Amy Donohue often signs her emails
with an Oscar Wilde quote: “Be yourself; everyone else is taken.”
So, church, be yourself. If you are Presbyterian, be Presbyterian. If you’re Episcopalian,
as we are, then live that out in worship and service. And there is also a generosity
implied in that counsel: let other people and other churches be what they are. God
seems to like diversity, many colors, many species, abundant diversity.
I also like the idea of Christians and churches being “plants” in that other sense: “To be
a “plant” in a movement or organization means you are placed there—deliberately—by
an outside group to influence, observe, or disrupt from within. The key idea is intentional
infiltration” [Microsoft CoPilot]. Maybe God has deliberately placed us where we are to
be disputers for love and justice. Maybe instead of just going along with the culture, we
are to influence it and change it for Jesus, who sent us into the world be his light and
salt. Oooh, what if we had a secret handshake or a secret sign to identify ourselves to
each other, maybe a fish or a cross.

Tom Johnson, Senior Spy, . Stephen’s EC in OH.

06/15/2026

Gospel and Sermon 14 Jun 2026

06/15/2026