A Bilingual Episcopal Parish on NE 43rd Avenue
St. Michael & All Angels sits in the Hollywood neighborhood of northeast Portland, on a tree-lined block of NE 43rd Avenue just north of Broadway. The parish is one of the city's older Episcopal congregations and one of its most visibly bilingual, with services in English and Spanish every Sunday and a strong reputation as an Immigrant Welcoming Congregation and Sanctuary Church. Its name refers to the Archangel Michael and to all the unnamed angels the church celebrates alongside him each autumn on the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels.
The cornerstones of parish life are well established. Every Sunday morning and afternoon, the sanctuary fills for four Eucharistic celebrations. A 35-voice choir leads worship from early September through early June. Children attend a Montessori-style Godly Play program in the lower level, while the parish's outreach arm keeps a regular rhythm of burritos, sack lunches, and mission brigades. The red front doors that give the parish its quiet public face were repainted in 2026 after six years of weather, and the rector used the moment to write about what those doors have come to mean: refuge, sanctuary, and a place where vulnerable people can find safety and support.
Four Sunday Services from Dawn to Late Afternoon
Worship is the heart of the week. The Sunday schedule offers four distinct celebrations:
- 7:30 am, Holy Eucharist Rite I. A spoken service using traditional language from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer, with no music. The congregation is smaller and close-knit, often described as contemplative.
- 9:00 am, Holy Eucharist Rite II. A celebration using a mix of the Book of Common Prayer and supplemental liturgical materials, with slightly more traditional prayers and hymns. The St. Michael's Singers provide organ and choral leadership, and the service is livestreamed.
- 11:00 am, Holy Eucharist Rite II. A celebration using a variety of contemporary liturgical resources, drawing from the New Zealand Prayer Book, the Iona Prayer Book, and other supplemental materials. The full choir or chamber choir sings most Sundays, with the Saints and Singers Choir and Choristers joining on a rotating basis. This service is also livestreamed.
- 1:00 pm, Santa Eucaristía. A festive Eucharist in Spanish with prayers, a sermon, and lively music. It is usually followed by a convivio, a community meal.
On the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, the parish adds a 5:00 pm Choral Evensong, the first of its season. On the second Sunday of every month, the St. Brigid's Guild offers the Sacrament of Healing after both the 9:00 and 11:00 am services.
Anyone is welcome at the table. Communion is celebrated at every service, and the parish makes a point of inviting all who come - whatever their age, background, or place on the spiritual journey - to receive.
The Misa en Español and a Twenty-Year Spanish-Language Story
The Spanish-language service began in January 1995 with fewer than ten people. A man receiving immigration counseling at St. Michael's House kept asking, in Spanish, what time the Mass was. A volunteer named Juan Guerra, now a priest, persuaded the rector and deacon to try a Spanish-language celebration. By 2001 attendance had grown to about 28; by 2019, 75 were attending on a typical Sunday. The 1:00 pm service is now a settled rhythm of the week, with a convivio (community meal) afterward.
The bilingual character of the parish extends well beyond Sunday worship. The congregation includes many recent immigrants, and the parish's outreach to the Latino community is built into its identity. Parishioners serve as Promotores de Salud through Providence's Parish Health Promoter Program, which began at St. Michael's in 2008 and now includes seventeen Oregon churches. The Promotores organize healthy Lent dinners, Mother's Day and Father's Day celebrations, bilingual health fairs, telehealth and dental clinics, Day of the Dead events, and the multi-day Las Posadas community celebration.
A Sanctuary Designed by Ellis Lawrence, and a Renowned Music Program
The current church was designed by noted Portland architect Ellis Lawrence and dedicated on September 29, 1923. The cornerstone was laid in 1922 by the Rt. Rev. Daniel Sylvester Tuttle, Presiding Bishop, during the General Convention of the Episcopal Church held in Portland that year. The original wood-frame church was kept as a parish hall for many years, and a parish house was added in 1938. In 1953 the Nativity Chapel wing added classrooms, offices, and restrooms, and stained-glass windows were installed through the late 1950s and early 1960s. Major renovations from 1987 to 2011 connected the three original buildings with a gallery and added a bell tower and an accessible lift at the main entry. In 1990 the rector led a reordering of the sanctuary and choir areas that moved the altar and organ console to bring the liturgy more into the midst of the people.
Music has been central to St. Michael's since the first Christmas service in 1910, when a small volunteer choir sang with a donated organ. Today the parish supports a 35-voice choir (the St. Michael's Singers) that provides vocal leadership at the 9:00 and 11:00 am services, a youth Choristers program based on the Royal School of Church Music tradition, and the Saints and Singers Choir, which sings about once a month, often on the first Sunday at 11:00 am, under a slightly different name - formerly known as Takes the Fifth Choir and Band. A Balcom and Vaughan pipe organ originally installed in 1973, with later additions by Bond Organ Builders, anchors the ensemble, supplemented by a set of Petit and Fritsen handbells, a two-manual Hubbard harpsichord, a Kawai grand piano, and four other pianos throughout the building. In 1961 the boys' choir became a well-regarded men-and-boys choir that recorded and toured nationally and internationally.
Children, Youth, and Family Life
Children are a present-tense part of every Sunday at St. Michael's. From 8:50 am to 12:15 pm, the Childcare Room on the lower level, a bright cheerful space across from a large mural, cares for infants through about age five. Older children gather in front of the big mural for Children's Liturgy of the Word at both the 9:00 and 11:00 am services: an adult leader invites them forward after the Collect of the Day and brings them back to their families at the Peace. The session includes a sacred story, wondering questions, and a closing prayer in a circle.
At 10:10 am most Sundays during the school year, the parish's Godly Play program gathers pre-K through second-grade children in one classroom while Joyful Players, for grades three through six, meet in another to explore the arts. Both draw on Montessori-like storytelling methods and open-ended art response. For families with younger children, Family Worship is offered in the Nativity Hall several times a year, and on third Sunday evenings a special Family Worship event gathers children, youth, and adults for prayer, fellowship, and shared reflection. The Episcopal Youth Community, for grades six and up, meets on the first Sunday of each month for connection and spiritual grounding.
Baptism is full initiation by water and the Holy Spirit into Christ's Body the Church. The traditional Feast Days for baptism at St. Michael's include St. Michael's Day, All Saints' Sunday, the Feast of Jesus' Baptism, the Easter Vigil, Easter Sunday, and Pentecost. Leslie Sackett is the parish's Associate for Ministry with Children and Families and coordinates baptisms.
An Immigrant Welcoming Congregation and a Sanctuary Church
St. Michael's formally adopted its identity as an Immigrant Welcoming Congregation in 2013 and became a Sanctuary Church in 2015. Both choices reflect years of practical engagement. The parish has long partnered with the Interfaith Movement for Immigrant Justice and has supported undocumented students through a scholarship fund at Franklin High School.
The parish's Outreach and Justice Ministries Council, formed in 2006, brings much of this work under one roof. It allocates designated outreach funds to local partners including Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, William Temple House, NW Pilot Project, White Shield, Kinship House, Community Transitional School, and L'Arche Portland, and to international partners including Episcopal Relief and Development (for Syrian, Puerto Rican, and Cuernavaca disaster relief), El Porvenir, Grass-roots enterprises in Uganda, the Ahli Hospital Free Clinic in Jerusalem, and a parish in Mérida, Mexico, for Spanish-language prayer books. Each year the council encourages parishioners to walk in the Portland Pride Parade representing St. Michael's and the Episcopal Church in Oregon.
The Mission Endowment Fund, created at the 1992 annual parish meeting, has awarded 140 grants totaling nearly $240,000 since 1996, supporting such projects as the El Porvenir work brigade, scholarships for Latino youth camp, Día de los Niños bilingual celebrations, and architectural services for structural improvements to the church itself.
Community Meals: Burrito Love and It's in the Bag
For close to thirty years before the pandemic, St. Michael's hosted twice-monthly community meals open to all. When COVID-19 made that model impossible, hunger did not stop, and the parish pivoted. In the fall of 2021 the parish launched Burrito Love, a last-Saturday outdoor meal of commercially prepared burritos from Super Torta (a Mexican restaurant owned by parishioners), fresh fruit, home-baked cookies, and bottled water, served from 10:00 am to noon. In 2022 parishioners added It's in the Bag, originally served every Tuesday and Thursday, now served on Thursdays with donated clothing available two Thursdays a month.
The parish also keeps a large barrel in the Gallery collecting small appliances, nonperishable food, kitchen utensils, and clothing for Hollywood East, the high-rise across Broadway, and for the Northeast Emergency Food Program. Each year around the Super Bowl, the parish takes part in Souper Bowl of Caring, raising money for Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon's Northeast Emergency Food Program; total donations to the program since 2001 have topped $30,000. In summer the parish holds a school-supply and backpack drive for foster children served by the Department of Human Services, and each Christmas collects toys, gift cards, and Teddy bears for the foster-care Christmas party.
Pastoral Care, Healing, and Recovery
Pastoral care at St. Michael's takes many shapes. Eucharistic Visitors, trained and licensed by the Bishop, take Holy Communion to homebound or hospitalized parishioners on Sundays following the celebration. The Prayer Chain commits to regular prayer for those in need; Prayer Shawls knits and crochets shawls and baby blankets that carry the prayers of the whole community. The Funeral Reception team prepares the Parish Hall for grieving families, and the Home Meal Preparation and Delivery team brings food to those who have experienced a death, hospitalization, or the arrival of a new baby.
The St. Brigid's Guild for Healing meets monthly for reflection, study, and prayer, and offers healing prayer in the chapel on the second Sunday of each month. Recovery Ministry supports those seeking renewal from drug, alcohol, and other addictions through faith and understanding. Centering Prayer, an open community group, practices intentional silent sitting as a form of Christian contemplation. Pastoral-care requests can be sent to prayers@stmaa.org or through the prayer cards in the pew racks.
Formation for Adults: Being With and the Catechumenate
For adults who want to dig deeper, St. Michael's offers two distinct formation paths. The catechumenate, an adult-formation process rooted in early Christian tradition, accompanies those seeking life in Christ through weekly sessions beginning around the first Sunday in Advent and ending in late spring. Participants may be confirmed, received, or reaffirm their faith at the Bishop's Visitation.
Being With is a small-group course for anyone interested in exploring big questions of meaning, God, faith, life, and death with other seekers. Ten 90-minute sessions meet Monday nights from 6:30 to 8:00 pm, capped at twelve participants, hosted by trained community members and clergy. The next course begins on September 21 in the Nativity Hall. The rector and a parish leader, Sheryl Fullerton, coordinate sign-ups.
The Clergy and Staff
The Rev. R. Scott Painter (he/him) is the eighth rector, called in 2023 from a congregation in Houston. Before entering the priesthood he taught high school English and holds degrees from the University of Houston and Seminary of the Southwest. The Rev. J. Antonio Álvarez, known at the parish as Padre Toni (he/him), joined as associate rector in July 2025, coming from Central California. Before ordination he worked in social services and the restaurant industry; he holds degrees from California State University, Fresno, and Seminary of the Southwest. Hannah Brewer, the Organist and Music Director, joined the staff in 2012 and previously held organist positions in California, Ohio, and London. Brian Fairbanks, the Choir Director, came to St. Michael's in 2017 after many years on the music staff at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral in Seattle, and conducts the Singers, Choristers, and Saints and Singers Choir. Chloe Colbaugh (she/they) is the Interim Children and Youth Ministries Director, having joined the staff in August 2026 after serving as the Summer Youth Intern in 2024. Matte Edey (they/them) is the Parish Administrator, having joined in the summer of 2025.
The parish is governed by a Vestry of twelve elected members, plus the rector, clerk, and treasurer, led by Senior Warden Ann Wetherell, Junior Warden for Facilities Kevin Warren, and Warden for the People Elizabeth Rouffy. The Vestry meets on the third Thursday of each month.
A Parish with a Century of Reach
St. Michael's first service was held on Christmas Day 1910 in what longtime parishioners still call the little brown church, built with the carpentry help of the archdeacon and community members. The first vicar, the Rev. Thomas F. Bowen, served from 1912 to 1930 and grew the congregation from about thirty to about five hundred. The parish became an independent parish in 1937, when the Rev. Richard Flagg Ayers became its first rector. In 1968 Ann Brown became the first woman elected to the vestry and later its first woman Senior Warden. In 1984 Casey Long became the first woman priest ordained at St. Michael's. In 2007 the parish hosted the Executive Council and Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and livestreamed the service for the rector, who was recovering from heart surgery. In 2009 the Rev. Christopher B. Craun was called as rector, beginning a decade of growth that led to the parish's designation as an Immigrant Welcoming Congregation and a Sanctuary Church, and to its GreenFaith certification in 2018.
The vision statement adopted by the parish today distills the through-line. The community seeks to live in love through baptismal promises, to manifest joy in vibrant worship and beautiful music, to embrace resilience by learning each other's stories, to seek justice through advocacy and immigrant welcoming, and to remain rooted as an Episcopal Church engaged in the bilingual and multicultural life of its congregation.