St. Francis House is the Episcopal Student Center for the University of Wisconsin - Madison.
We gather at least twice a week to worship God as a community. This is an important time for us to gather our prayers, our concerns, our joys and our praise and then go forth into the world to do God's work. We worship using the Book of Common Prayer and other Episcopal texts and music to enrich our worship. Each member of the community is invited to take part in leading parts of the worship service through the reading of scripture, bidding prayers of the people, greeting people as they enter, acolyting (see Anglican Tradition). If you would like to take part in leading our community in one or more of these areas, please let us know by contacting the chaplain or Kyle Oliver, Peer Minister, for more information. Kyle will be working with the chaplain and all student liturgists to make the liturgy our own. After all liturgy does mean "the work of the people" and we are the people! Everyone is welcome. Many people don’t know that there is a lot of work behind the scenes in order to prepare the altar for worship every Sunday and for the ongoing care of our place of worship. Sacristans, Abby Cariker and Leilani Case, have graciously decided that some of their gifts are the "behind the scenes" ministry. If anyone else feels called to this ministry, please let us know by contacting either the chaplain or Kristie Saylor. You will notice that we do not pass the plate during the course of our service. However, we do leave an alms basin at the back of the church for your gifts to the campus ministry. We run primarily on an endowment, but over the past few years the endowment has not been able to cover the cost of our annual budget. We need to raise about $50,000 annually to break even. We are working on that on all ends. Stewardship is time and money, and for most students, time is the primary contribution. We do encourage you to consider giving a financial gift each semester. What makes us Anglican? The Hallmarks of the Episcopal Church |