The clergy, staff and community

of  St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Portland, Oregon warmly welcome you to our website.  We hope that you will visit our “real” parish, introduce yourself, and feel free to explore our church and grounds. We take seriously the ministry of hospitality with a goal of helping visitors find their way into our family. We have a variety of programs, which we hope will meet your spiritual, educational, worship, and social needs.Regardless of your age and whether you are family of one or many, we want you to find a comfortable place in our parish community. For more information please contact Brent, our Parish Administrator or Fr. Robert, Mtr. Whitney or Dcn. Julie at (503) 245-3777

Read Fr. Robert’s Sermon/Annual Report delivered on January 29, 2012.

This, being the Sunday of our Annual Parish Meeting, is when I report to you on the life of this parish during the last year, and also allude to things we can look forward to in the coming year.  I believe that our daily life together and our Sunday worship are deeply intertwined, and that is why I prefer to give this report in the context of our liturgy.  I also believe it is important to reflect on what we’ve done and who we’ve been in relation to scripture.

Since we usually use the psalms in worship as responses to Bible readings, we often forget that they are also part of our sacred scripture, they too are Bible readings.  And so today I would like to use verses from Psalm 111, which we just prayed, as our reflective lens for the last year.

The psalm begins:  “Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation.”  Our life together in 2011, as in all years, begins, ends, and centers in thankful worship, in eucharist.  It is the main way we “share the Good News of God.”  And in terms of our parish tag line, that we are a place “where tradition welcomes diversity,” I think our worship exemplifies that as much as anything we do.   Read the entire sermon!