Welcome Center & Gift Shop | Church of the Incarnation

by Inese Heinzel

“Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.” Romans 15:7

Our Welcome Center / Gift Shop opens in the newly refreshed former bookstore in Farlander Hall on Easter Sunday. Everyone is invited to stop in and look around.

The Welcome Center is our new hospitality hub, an inviting place where visitors, newcomers and regulars alike can relax, browse, and get information about our church, our mission and ministries, and sign up for classes, groups, events, and name tags—and get a special gift, too.

As Pastor Stephen says in church every Sunday, Welcome! And a special welcome if you are visiting us for the first time or for the first time in a while: you enrich us with your presence and there's a place for you here at Incarnation.

The Center will be staffed on Sundays for an hour or so after both services by members of our Vestry and other parishioner volunteers to help anyone who enters feel at home, and to orient them to worship and community at Incarnation.

The spiffed-up Gift Shop sells Fair Trade jewelry and other items that benefit the sellers of the country of origin, as well as books, calendars, cards, icons and other items that are particularly centered on Episcopal faith. Books of a general spiritual interest are also available, as are materials needed for classes on our campus. All sales support Incarnation's ministries.

Over the next few weeks, the Welcome Ministry Team* will be providing updates on our continuing and evolving welcome strategies and tips. If you feel a call to join the Welcome team as a Welcome Center volunteer, please email us at [email protected] for details about schedules and training.

Now go make someone feel welcome today!

* Welcome Ministry team: Daphne Vernon, Kathleen Baumgardner, Inese Heinzel, Amy Nykamp, Mark Sawdon, Judy Velasquez

Tags: News & Notes

People decide to visit a church for lots of different reasons, often because they're at some sort of transition point in their lives. Maybe you're a longtime Episcopalian; maybe you have experience in another faith tradition; or maybe you've never been to a faith community at all.

Whoever you are, and wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you enrich us with your presence, and there's a place for you here.

Learn more about visiting Incarnation.

Incarnation is located at 550 Mendocino Avenue in downtown Santa Rosa, just south of the corner with Cherry Street.

Our church parking lot is located around the corner at 636 Cherry Street. The lot often fills up for our Sunday morning services. Additional free church parking is available in the small gravel lot at the corner of Mendocino and Cherry, or in the city garage at 521 7th Street (free on Sundays), which is a two-minute walk from the church. Finally, street parking is also free on Sundays.

We're also located close to several bus lines, and we have a bike rack in the central courtyard.

Children aren't just the church's future—they're an essential part of our faith community right now. At Incarnation we strive to serve our kids' growing faith, and we know they have much to teach adults, too. Children are always welcome in worship: any age, any time.

Learn more about our children's ministries.

Episcopal worship follows an ancient pattern that dates to the earliest days of the Christian church. The first half of the Eucharist is the Liturgy of the Word the second half is the Liturgy of the Table, also called Holy Communion. If you've spent time in Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, or Eastern Orthodox churches, much of our liturgy will seem familiar. If you're unfamiliar with liturgical Christian worship, don't worry. You're welcome to participate as fully as is right for you, or to just relax into the liturgy and let the rest of the congregation carry you in worship.

Click here for online worship, or to learn more about Episcopal worship.

To stay connected with everything that's going on, please subscribe to our e-newsletter, News and Notes.

Often someone who's been visiting for a while will ask us how to become a member of Incarnation. Learn more about becoming a member.

To support our work sharing God's love here in Sonoma County, you can make a donation online.

Giving is one of the most powerful spiritual practices in existence. It's a statement of gratitude and trust in God.

At Incarnation we encourage all our members and friends to prayerfully choose a percentage of their income to give toward causes that serve God's mission. We ask that part of that intentional giving be a pledge of financial support to the parish, both so our leadership can plan ahead in making a budget, and as a tangible commitment to what God is doing here at Incarnation. For more on the practice of proportional giving, see this FAQ.

You can make a donation to Incarnation online, toward your pledge or as a special offering, by clicking below.