Dear St. Philip the Deacon friends,

You may remember that last year St. Philip the Deacon moved to new online calendar and registration systems. Thanks to our talented staff, that transition was smooth and seamless, and these new systems have created important efficiencies for our members and our staff over the last few months.

The final step in this process—which we have been working on behind the scenes for the last couple of months—has been to move our online giving platform to this same new system. As with the calendaring and registration modules, this new platform will be both easier and more straightforward for our members to use, and will also create important efficiencies and process improvements.

These new changes are live effective today, and we encourage you to check out the new on-line giving page here.

If you have set up recurring giving using our old system, we will be in touch with you again in the next week or so to walk you through how to move your recurring giving to the new system. Note that until you move your giving over to the new system, your giving will remain unchanged.

As always, we are grateful for your partnership in the gospel at St. Philip the Deacon, and give thanks for your faithful generosity. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly at twestermeyer@spdlc.org, or to our finance team at finance@spdlc.org.

Gratefully,
Tim Westermeyer
Senior Pastor, St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church

Mark your calendar for Wednesdays in July 2026! St. Philip the Deacon is hosting a new season of Summer Organ Concerts. Note that two concerts are at 12:15 p.m. and two at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, July 8 at 12:15 p.m.

Chad Fothergill

Cantor, Lutheran Summer Music Academy and Festival Chapel Organist, Duke University Chapel,
Organist Duke Divinity School
Durham, N.C.

Wednesday, July 15 at 12:15 p.m.

Sam Backman

Director of Sacred Music, Holy Cross Catholic Church
Minneapolis, Minn.

Wednesday, July 22 at 7 p.m.

Tigran Buniatyan

Doctoral Candidate, Organ, Arizona State University
Director of Music, Christ Church of the Ascension
Director of Music, Mountain View Lutheran Church
Phoenix, Ariz.

Wednesday, July 29 at 7 p.m.

Celina Kobetitsch

Organist, St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church
Plymouth, Minn.

Lutheran World Relief Fabric Kits are specially designed to help people coping with poverty, disaster, conflict and more. Sewing is a valuable skill that can help men and women earn reliable income. Lutheran World Relief Fabric Kits provide fabric and thread for vocational training programs teaching sewing and for newly trained tailors to launch their sewing business. LWR Fabric Kits are highly regarded throughout the world because of their quality and consistency.

Through June, we are collecting the following items:

• Spools of matching or neutral-colored, general purpose thread 250–300 yards each
• Cotton or cotton-blend fabric (no knits)

Fabric should NOT have religious symbols, messages, US flags, patriotic or military symbols or camouflage. Each piece should be at least as large as the following dimensions:

• 60” wide fabric, 2.25 yards
• 44” wide fabric, 3 yards
• 36” wide fabric, 4 yards

Please contact Renee Putnam at serve@spdlc.org or Pastor Valerie at vstrand@spdlc.org if you would like more information.

Dear Friends of St. Philip the Deacon,

We write to invite you to attend one of two special Estate Planning Workshops sponsored by the St. Philip the Deacon Foundation on Tuesday, April 14. The event will be held from 1–2:30 p.m., or from 6:30–8 p.m. Both events are identical, there is no registration or cost to attend, and anyone is welcome.

The sessions will be led by three experts in Estate Planning, each of whom is also deeply committed to the Lutheran tradition:

• Joe Sullivan: Regional Gift Planner for the ELCA Foundation, based in the Twin Cities. Through his work with the ELCA Foundation, Joe provides individual donors with confidential, free consultation on a wide variety of charitable giving options.
• Jason Watt: Senior Manager at DAFgiving360, a national provider of charitable solutions, specializing in donor-advised funds. A licensed attorney and CPA, he has dedicated much of his career to helping donors support Lutheran ministries.
• Kimberly Gray: Estate Planning Attorney for her own practice, representing clients in estate planning, probate and trust administration, real estate transactions, and planning for long-term care.

These experts will help attendees more fully understand the fundamentals of estate planning, how to most efficiently gift assets, and the benefits of establishing charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts. They will also be able to respond to whatever questions about estate planning you may have.

The St. Philip the Deacon Foundation exists to augment and expand the mission and ministry of St. Philip the Deacon. It does this not only by receiving and managing assets to benefit the congregation—now totaling more than $1 million—but also by offering periodic educational events like this one.

We hope you will join us for one of these free sessions. If you have questions we invite you to reach out to Pastor Westermeyer at twestermeyer@spdlc.org or foundation@spdlc.org.

Blessings,                                                                                  

Tim Westermeyer, Senior Pastor, St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church
Jason Bixby, President of the Board, St. Philip the Deacon Foundation

Dear St. Philip the Deacon Friends,

After careful consideration of the weather forecast for this weekend, we have made the decision to cancel our Sunday morning services tomorrow.

This is a highly unusual action for us, but given the expected levels of snowfall, high winds and dangerous travel conditions, we feel it is best not to put our staff, volunteers and members at risk by attempting to get to church in the morning.

Please note: We ARE holding our Saturday evening service tonight as usual at 5 p.m., and will record this service so we can rebroadcast it on Sunday morning at our usual livestream time of 9:30 a.m. Please join us for worship this evening in person if you can.

We hope that we are communicating this decision early enough for this message to get to everyone connected to the congregation, and we encourage you to share this news with others so they are aware of these plans.

For our families who were planning to celebrate First Communion tomorrow, we will work to get that rescheduled soon, and we invite the congregation to keep these young people in your prayers as they prepare for this important step in their faith journey.

Be safe this weekend, and God Bless,

Tim

We’ve got plenty of summer events planned, from Vacation Bible School to golf, Minnesota Twins games to gardening. Learn more about these events by visiting our online registration site, and sign up for summer events full of fun, faith and fellowship! You can pick up a Summer Preview brochure at church, or download a PDF here.