Three times a month we are able to provide meals to our neighbors. It is a gift for us to be able to open our hands and hearts and help others — and of course, love is always a two-way street — we are made richer by their involvement in our lives. We are serving “Grab and Go” meals during this time of safety precautions due to the pandemic, but the meals are healthy and prepared with love. If you would like to be involved in this ministry, please contact Mother Barbara (email on website) and she will connect you with the Coordinator.
Category: Community Invovlement
Food Pantry and SPO Collection
Thank you so much. Your generosity is so very appreciated. We asked for your support for SPO and our Food Pantry and you have responded. We are able to continue our regular monthly donation of money to purchase fresh eggs for our local food pantry — and send additional money, thanks to you!
Each month we commit to sending $75.00 to Shippensburg Produce Outreach because we believe this food pantry provides an essential service to our neighborhood.
We thank you too for your donations, in-kind, or monetary, to support our “Little Free Pantry”. We fill it up every other day, so we know your donations are going to people who are hungry. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
Community Meal Served
This past week, our faithful volunteers served meals to our hungry neighbors, by offering take out packages of delicious food. We are noticing that more people are showing up in need, as we are serving many more meals that we previously did. We are grateful that we are able to continue this ministry as helping others, as Jesus did, is at the heart of our being. Thank you to all who contribute to this ministry in many ways. If you would like to make a donation to help cover the expenses of these meals, you can do so by writing a check to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and write “Community Meal” in the memo line.
SPO Collection
Thank you so much. Your generosity is so very appreciated. We asked for your support for SPO and our Food Pantry and you have responded. We are able to continue our regular monthly donation of money to purchase fresh eggs for our local food pantry — and send additional money, thanks to you!
Each month we commit to sending $75.00 to Shippensburg Produce Outreach because we believe this food pantry provides an essential service to our neighborhood.
We thank you too for your donations, in-kind, or monetary, to support our “Little Free Pantry”. We fill it up every other day, so we know your donations are going to people who are hungry. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts.
Community Meal Served
There is hunger in our neighborhoods and we as a church are committed to be there with the people who are hungry, meeting them, welcoming them, and feeding them. We continue our offering of the community meal twice a month (1st and 2nd Monday of each month). Due to the health situation of COVID-10, we have needed to change the way we serve, but we’re willing and able to do that. All our ministers wear face masks, to protect the ones who come to receive the meal. And we serve only “to-go” containers. We miss sitting at the tables with everyone and catching up on life, but we are blessed that we are still able to offer a loving heart and boxes filled with good home-cooked meals.
If you would like to join this ministry, please contact the church office at 717-532-8089 or email our Parish Secretary (Melanie) at office@standrewsship.org. She will get you in touch with our Community Meal Coordinator, Mike Stitt.
Recently there was a news article about our church serving this meal . My favorite quote is from Mike Stitt and goes like this: “We consider this meal part of our communion that we have every Sunday. We are not only nourishing the body, we are nourishing the soul, too.”
To read the full article, please click here.
We are blessed that we are able to be the hands and feet of Christ in the world. If you would like to make a donation to the parish to support our feeding program, which includes our Little Free Pantry, please write a check out to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and place in the memo line “Feeding Program” and we will use your check to ease the worry on the hearts of many families of how to have enough to eat.
Blue Christmas Service
We began our beautiful service tonight with the following prayer:
God of abundant mercy, you have given us grace to pray with one heart and one voice, even though our hearts are broken and our voices tremble with grief and sorrow. Comfort, comfort, Lord, your holy people. Comfort those of us who sit in darkness, mourning beneath our sorrow’s load. Speak to us of the peace that awaits us, of the balm of healing for our weary and wounded souls. We ask all this, trusting in the promise you have made to hear the prayers of two or three who have gathered in the Name of your Holy Child, Jesus. Amen.
This prayer gathered our thoughts, drew us together in love, and offered us the space to allow our most vulnerable selves to be present to God and to each other.
Our worship service today was meditative, moving, and healing as we came forward to offer our deepest pains and most fervent prayers to the healing grace of God. The music from the harp soothed our souls and and lifted our hearts as we sat in prayer and in the beauty of our sanctuary. There was great meaning in writing the names of the people whom we love but see no more or the deepest prayers from our souls on stars, which we then hung on the Advent tree. We were very blessed too to welcome new people into our worship. God’s mercy and grace abounded.
Our closing blessing offers us much wisdom and direction in how to faithfully live our lives:
The Blessing My friends, life is short, and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who make this earthly pilgrimage with us, so be swift to love, and make haste to do kindness, and the blessing of God, who comes to us as Creative Presence, Saving Grace and Life-giving Spirit be upon you and all whom you love this night, and forever more.
Candlelight vigil for Brian Helman
In the beauty of our candlelit sanctuary, in the midst of people from within and beyond our parish community, in the “active and alive” silence shared by people in prayer, and in companionship of grief, we prayed for Brian Helman, our church musician who was severely injured two weeks ago. This prayer vigil was organized as an effort of love with Brian’s family, St. Andrew’s, the Cumberland Valley School of Music. This time of silent prayer felt like a thin place, for Brian was in a liminal space, between life and death, and we could join him as we joined our hearts with God, who holds us all.
To read the collection of prayers, poems, and lyrics gathered specifically for this time of prayer, please click on the resource below.
We are so grateful to all whose hearts were opened by this time together, whose prayers were offered in love and hopefulness, and whose souls were changed by this encounter with God in community.
Youth Mini-Mission Event: Hiking Trail Clean up
Recently our young people gathered with friends and hiked on the AT (Appalachian Trail), enjoying a glorious day, entering into the beauty of God’s creation, exploring and playing in the nearby stream, climbing on a natural jungle-gym, and reflecting upon how God speaks to us through nature. It was a time of joy and embrace of the goodness we find in one another and in nature. We picked up trash as we went along, always trying to leave the place better than we found it. It’s amazing how we can fall into deeper friendships and closer relationships just by walking a trail together — but we did! Our Youth Mini-Mission Event program is designed to offer our young people (9-18) the opportunity to serve the world around them while reflecting on what our activities tell us about God and each other.
To view more photos of the event, please see the photo gallery on this website.
Egg money collection
We have an ongoing ministry of providing $75.00 to SPO (Shippensburg Produce Outreach) each month so they can purchase fresh eggs for their clients. This is a long-standing tradition at our parish to reach out and provide fresh food for our neighbors.
This past month we collected $124.00 which will be sent off to SPO, exceeding our monthly commitment! It is such a blessing to be able to respond to the generosity of God by, in turn, being a generous and caring parish which finds ways to make a difference in the lives of others. Thank you!
Take, eat, this is my body, given for you. Christ the King sermon
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
The Rev. Barbara Hutchinson
Christ the King Sunday
November 26, 2017
Take, eat, this is my body, given for you. In these simple yet remarkable words, Jesus gives us everything. In our outstretched hands, we receive whatever it is we are lacking in our heart, mind, body, or soul, be it hope, healing, joy, comfort, inspiration, challenge, insight, creativity, strength, or a taste of what is yet to come in our lives. It is a moment which we would talk about as sacramental, meaning that it is an outward expression of inward grace or, in simpler language, it means Jesus is there, in that bread, in that grace of acceptance we feel in our hearts, and in that pull toward our own wholeness, in God’s righting what has gone wrong in our lives, Jesus is there.
In our gospel lesson today, Jesus asks us to make every moment sacramental, and tells us how to do this. First is to see Jesus in every moment by looking at the need that is before us. Who is hungry, either for food or for respect and dignity? Who is feeling exposed or naked? Who is being imprisoned by jail cell doors or by poverty or addiction or race? Who is heart-sick and needs the touch of a human hand upon theirs? Take, eat, this is my body which is given for you. See my body around you. See me in the need of others.
Jesus then asks us to be Jesus in each of those moments, by having the heart of Jesus. That’s the point behind receiving communion – that our hearts might be shaped and formed, so only love, whose origin is divine, will flow from us, so we will see the need in others and we will care. As hard as it is to be present to someone in need, whether it be grief or hardship or shame or rejection, we will stand with them as their companion and champion. Take eat, this is my body, which is given for you. Be my body, my heart for others.
Finally, Jesus asks us to do for or do to Jesus in each of those moments, by moving from caring to action, by imaging Jesus is each of those people before you, and asking you for help. These instructions aren’t merely metaphors, just as Jesus is not a metaphor. Jesus intends for us to actually put the plate of homemade food before the hungry person. Jesus intends for us to make that phone call to the person we know is lonely, or bring that casserole to the family in need, or talk to the person with kindness, even if we can’t understand them well due to their foreign accent. Jesus calls us into “Kingdom living,” which means seeing and responding to each moment sacramentally, as though Jesus were in the conversation, the interaction, the need. Take, eat, this is my body given for you. Do this for me, for my face is in each of the faces you see.
In Matthew’s gospel, today’s story is Jesus’ last teaching opportunity before he is crucified, so we have to imagine Jesus has saved the most important for last. Jesus is saying to us that our actions matter. We are to be accountable to what Jesus has asked us to do. This really is non-negotiable. You may notice that Jesus’ last teaching has nothing to do with orthodoxy, right belief, or how the church is to be structured, but rather, it’s all about orthopraxy – walking the walk, being authentic, making a difference in the world, being accountable for our choices or the choices others make on our behalf. We are living an authentic Christian life when we receive the bread on Sunday and on Sunday afternoon, as we plan our week ahead, we orient our lives to feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned, and welcoming the stranger. Jesus did all of these things, which is why, when we do them, these moments are sacramental. Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you. In receiving the broken bread, we become Christ’s body, so that we can see, be, and do for Jesus, so we can be sent out into the world to move it toward justice, where wrongs will be set right, and only God’s love will pour from all hearts.
When I was working with the results from the Friday evening exercise at our Diocesan Convention, one person responded to the question, “What is your burning desire?” by saying he wanted to stop doing all the church activities and get out there and feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. I was relieved to see this person wasn’t a member here at St. Andrew’s, because it said to me that that parish had lost its sense of Jesus’ imperative to make a difference in the world by looking around us and meeting the needs of others. Many times, churches can get self-absorbed or focused on activities of the people who come to church all the time, but forget those who are still outside the walls of the church. Jesus’ message today is a good reminder that we as individuals and as a parish should always use this as our criterion for making decisions about what to do or how to be or how to spend our money – do our actions meet a physical or spiritual hunger? Do they provide protection for those who feel naked, exposed, or vulnerable? Do they open our hearts so we love as Jesus did, unconditionally and with the desire to heal in every moment? Do they welcome those who may not have felt at home in church before? This is gospel work. Jesus makes that very clear today. This is why two of the promises we make in our baptismal vows are centered on how we make the love of God real to others in concrete ways. We promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves, and to strive for justice and peace among all people, respecting the dignity of every human being. These promises cover it all. If we live into these two vows, through our choices and actions, we will indeed make each moment sacramental. We will indeed feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, and visit the sick and those in prison. Take, eat, this is my body, given for you.
Our actions matter, for through them, we enter into a knowledge and experience of Jesus, and that is our salvation. You may notice that when you hand someone a plate of food that you have lovingly prepared at the community meal, or listen to their story, or offer to help them get to their doctor’s appointment the next day, or when you make someone feel really welcome when they sit next to you in the pew, or when, as our young people did, you meet people of different backgrounds, like we did at the ESL class, or when we created a garden for people imprisoned by domestic violence, that you feel a particular closeness to God. That’s Jesus being there. That’s what sacramental living, or Kingdom living is all about.
Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is a day when we celebrate a number of attributes of Jesus, but in particular these two: first, Jesus is the Lord of lords, the King of kings, which means Jesus’ power is over all of the world. This means that if all is not well, it is not the end. This is particularly comforting in our world today, when each week it seems there’s some new thing to be alarmed by, either here in our country or elsewhere around the world – some natural or human evil released into the world. It’s good to know that this is not the end. Jesus will have the last word. Our story from Ezekiel reminds us that, when the Israelites strayed from YH, YH allowed them to stray, permitted them to be oppressed, so they could choose to return. They were never separated from the love of God, who is presented as the metaphor of the Good Shepherd in that story, but they were allowed to wander, living in the wilderness for some time before ultimately being brought back into the fold. This story gives us hope that this will happen to our world also. That, as Desmond Tutu predicted, if we each drop our kindness into a bucket, eventually that bucket will overflow, and goodness will reign. That’s God’s dream and intention for us. Each time we feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome the stranger, visit the sick and imprisoned, we are adding to the kindness in the bucket and helping God’s reign come near. Each time we make these choices, we are acknowledging that Christ is Lord of lords, King of kings, and God’s goodness will prevail. Take, eat, this is my body, which is given for you – so you can become Jesus in the world.
The second attribute of Jesus we raise up today is that there is judgment involved. That’s what kings do, they judge their subjects. If we had believed the stories from our last two Sundays were of the real Kingdom of God, not the fake Kingdom of God others presented, this statement might cause us some consternation. That “king” would have slammed the door on all those unprepared, all those without the appropriate resources, all those who lived in a place of fear or punishment. And if we were honest, we’d acknowledge that we’ve been in those places ourselves, and we’d be looking at the outside of a closed door. But here’s something interesting: those described, those unprepared, those without resources, those who live in fear, sound a lot like the people Jesus is instructing us to care for – those who are hungry, vulnerable, imprisoned by fear or paralyzed by oppression. This is when we realize Jesus is a really different kind of king. Jesus, as the King of kings, cares about justice, cares about everyone, cares about righting the wrong ways of the world. Here’s a way this could play out. Jesus as the King of kings, the one who cares about justice, can be good news for the bullies and those bullied. Jesus as the King of kings says that the power of Jesus will work with those who feel the need to prove themselves to be better or stronger than others, by giving voice to his or her victims, which of course has been the whole “#me too” movement, raising voices together to say this isn’t the way of the Kingdom, or by being the force behind laws or school rules that make this behavior unacceptable, and by drawing the bullies into a place of healing the deep hurts or rejection that is at the root of this behavior. This is also good news for those bullied, for God will be their companion and champion. Jesus will be with them. And if Jesus is there, then we will be also. Jesus knows what it is like to be bullied and was able to create new life from this violence and aggression. Jesus, through our actions, will do that for those who find themselves in this situation. Take, eat, this is my body, given for you, so you can do this for and to Jesus himself.
We will break bread together shortly and in receiving it, we will be given everything, all that we need to be whole, all that we need to make the world a better place, all that we need to see Jesus in every moment, to be Jesus in every moment, and to do for or to Jesus in every moment. Our life experiences are our daily bread, as are our times of joy and sorrow, courage and fear, strength and weakness, abundance and scarcity. As we allow Jesus’ body to be broken so we may become it, may we also allow Jesus to break open our daily bread, our lives, so that Jesus may come within. Let us allow Jesus to be our Lord of lords, King of kings, acknowledging that his way is our way and the way toward justice in our world. Amen.
Veteran’s Day Homily — The Lord said “who shall I send and who will go for us” and I said “Here am I; send me.”
SERMON FOR VETERANS DAY 2017
NOVEMBER 5, 2017
Mr. Michael Stitt
The Lord said, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us” And I said “Here am I; send me.
Forty-eight years ago, I took an oath ,something I still live by today.
I, Michael Stitt, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to regulation and the uniform code of military justice, SO HELP ME GOD.
This is the oath that anyone entering any branch of the military takes. It is the beginning of a long road to becoming a veteran.
Next Saturday November 11th is Veterans Day. A day for picnics, maybe a trip to a park, hiking or fishing and all kinds of sporting events. Then there are the parades, school bands, scouts, marching units and the veterans, three generations strong. Most people along the parade route will cheer and wave but some will laugh and jeer. I feel sorry for those that do this. They don’t know that most of these veterans have seen the horrors of war, they endured hardship that we can only imagine and they came home to fight a personal battle for what they saw. Just so we can enjoy the freedom that we have today.
Cindy and I are a family of veterans. Most of Cindy’s family served during WW2, my great-great grandfather served in the Union army during the civil war, my grandfather in WW1, my father and uncles in WW2, I in Viet Neman during the Cold War, our son in Iraq and Afghanistan, and several other countries that most people don’t know exist, our grandson is a 1st Lt in the Army serving in Germany and our grand son-in-law is in Japan serving in the Air Force. For almost three years a blue star flag hung in our window, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. A blue star flag is a small banner that is hung in a window. The number of stars indicates now many children of that household are in the service of their country during wartime. I have read that because of the all-volunteer military only two percent of United States families have someone in the service. In some ways, this is good but it puts a great burden on so few.
I have also read and heard people saying that veterans are heroes. We are not heroes. I like to think that we are just ordinary people that have done extraordinary things. I have met some outstanding and brave men and women during my time in service. Medics who risk their lives to save others, doctors and nurses working tirelessly, snipers who spend days, weeks alone watching for the right moment, men who stood their ground knowing they were outnumbered. Pilots who provided cover fire and helicopter pilots that flew into enemy fire to get their men out of harm’s way. Then there were the chaplains, men of God of all faiths who went out armed with only a bible and communion set. Well, except one Catholic priest I knew who always had his bible in his pocket, a 45 strapped to his waist and 12-gauge shotgun over his shoulder. He often said “I might be a man of God but if I’m going to heaven from the field of battle I’m taking someone with me for company”.
I have always considered my time in service easy, at least compared to my forefathers and son. As most of you know I was a cook. In Viet Nam, I worked in the Commanding Generals Club of the 25th division and the rest of my service was spent in hospitals in the states and Germany. My time was not without some excitement. In Viet Nam, I would hear the rockets passing over head headed for the airfield that was their favorite target. At night, I could see mortar rounds being lobed toward our compound. As was the case of many of us that traveled highway one, there was a sniper who would shoot at us, he was such a poor shot that no one shot back thinking that he would be replaced with someone better. While flying with the General one day, I got to watch a B-52 strike, you didn’t see the plane, you couldn’t hear the bombs but for an area one mile wide and three miles long nothing was left except piles of burning earth. The worst I saw and will always remember is the aftermath of it all. The damage done to the mind, body and spirit of a lot of brave men.
I was also fortunate to meet many interesting and famous people. A lot of one, two, three, and four star generals and the grandson of Gen. George Patton. Many government officials and a vice president that wasn’t supposed to be where he was. Bob Hope, he was as funny off stage as on, Neil Armstrong, that was a great honor and the rest of the cast of the USO show. While stationed at Brook General Hospital in Texas I met and talked with Lady Bird Johnson in the Presidential suite, President Johnson had just had a heart attack and was at Brooke for treatment, of course my son had to beat that by having lunch with Laura Bush while in Iraq. In Germany I was stationed at the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt. One day the wife of a Russian officer was brought in, she had suffered a stroke and because she was a military dependent she couldn’t go to a civilian hospital. Since I had a high security clearance I was assigned to her care team. Can you imagine this was at the height of the cold war, Russia and the United States weren’t exactly friendly and this poor Russian woman is in an American Army hospital. Not only was I her cook, I was also her food taster, did I mention she didn’t quite trust me. My proudest moments came several years after leaving the service. The first being when my son graduated from officer candidate school and I was allowed to give him his first salute, a few years later his son followed in his footsteps and I was there to give my grandson the first salute of his career.
When most people think of veterans day we think of people going to war in defense of our way of life. We see Army Special Forces, big tanks and guns, the big ships of the Navy, the fighter jets and bombers of the Air Force and Marines storming a coast line. Most people don’t see the Coast Guard saving people from a sinking ship or plucking people off of rooftops after a flood. They don’t see military doctors and nurses treating people after a disaster or the Air Force loading their big cargo planes with much needed supplies. The National Guard being called out in the middle of the night to search for lost hikers and the Reserves being called to protect and serve areas ravaged by storms. We forget about the Marines and their toys for tots and the children’s homes and hospitals all over the world getting supplies and equipment they need because a soldier cared.
This veterans day let’s not forget the real heroes. The wives, husbands and children who had to watch us leave for far off places. They endured being without their spouse, fathers and mothers for months sometimes years at a time. They endured the loneliness hardships, not knowing when or if we would return, all while we were serving our country.
There is a little poem I think about this time of year.
Some people dream the dream
Some people live the dream
Some people defend the dream
God bless the defenders
The Lord said “who shall I send and who will go for us” and I said “here am I; send me. Amen.
Learning about how to be right with God.
Our focus this year is on how to be in right relationship with God by being in right relationship with our earth, God’s creation and primary revelation. Our young people are leading us in this effort, of course! Yesterday, we held a Youth Mini-Mission Event which helped us understand how crops and livestock can be grown in a way that works with the earth.
We visited Oyler’s Organic Farm, where they harvest apples, raise cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, and have a wonderful farm stand which sells only certified organic products, that either they produce or other business do. The woman, who was a 7th generation Oyler, told us about their commitment to growing produce organically, both in terms of the future direction of farming, but also because she remembered her father coming in after applying the pesticides with dilated pupils and pesticide poisoning and deciding that’s not a good future for his children and grandchildren.
We tasted amazingly delicious cider after seeing the processing room and examining the equipment which cleaned all the apples produced in their orchards. One thing that really stood out to me was the mindset behind organic farming — building up the strengths (nutrient rich soil supplements), bringing in and supporting the natural pollinators (bees), and training the apple trees in such a way that helps them naturally resist infection. It sounds a lot like a spiritual rule of life — support those practices which build up our strength in God, bring in resources that help our spiritual lives come to fruition, and adopting disciplines that keep us supported and growing in the right direction. There was a lot of wisdom in what she shared with us.
After experiencing what it would be like to be a migrant worker who would paid to prepare the crops for sale, such as cleaning the garlic cloves, we left there happy and refreshed in the idea that people are purposefully choosing to make a difference in how they move from “users” to “caretakers” of our land.
We then went to Boyer’s Orchards, where we had the opportunity to glean for apples, in cooperation with the Gleaning Project of South Central PA. We had a great time picking and sorting Crispin apples. We picked over 1000 pounds of apples, all of which will be distributed to food banks in our area. It was a perfect day of having fun, while making a difference in our world, to those who are hungry, and to the earth which we are called to care for.
Our next Youth Mini-Mission Event is 11/5, when we will go into the Michaux State Forest to learn about how to manage forests well and to clean up a trail. All are welcome to join us!