News – Page 6 – St. Andrew's Episcopal Church

Vestry Gifts

We began our last vestry meeting by identifying our individual gifts, so that we can then apply them to a group project: planning and executing a good stewardship program this fall.

I thought you’d like to see the long list of gifts of your vestry members:

Creative thinking
Creativity (3)
Realistic
Balance
Courage
Perspective
Organizing
Seeing Big Picture
Joy of life
Listening (2)
Compassionate (2)
Friendliness
Hospitality (2)
Organization (3)
Delegating details & keeping on track so it gets done
Detail oriented
Communication
Schedule
Tech
Project Management
Learner
Commitment
Team Player
Supportive
Observer

Pretty impressive list, isn’t it?

In the stillness of the cool evening, we gathered to be intentional around our time with God. We began in prayer, chose a psalm passage, and then headed out to meander by the creek, contemplate and color, find stillness sitting on a rock in the water, crossing the water, and spending time repeating our psalm passage in our hearts.

After 45 minutes, we gathered to reflect. We all had a greater sense of peace. We all knew this was a good thing to do: to be intentional about quiet restful time with God. We all experienced our time somewhat differently, but also had a sense of being together in a group, even though at different places along the creek.

It is good to “Be still and know that God is God”.

Choir Party today

We are so blessed by our faithful music ministers here at St. Andrew’s. It is such joy that we have a number of members who offer their gift of music as part of our worship at 10 a.m. They are led by Organist and Choir Master Dr. Gerald Weale (Jerry), for whose leadership we are most grateful.

Our wonderful organist and choir master!

The choir sings from September through mid-June. They rehearse Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. in the PLC. New members are always welcome.

Today a luncheon was offered by Mother Barbara at her home to show her appreciation for their faithfulness and the many gifts they offer our parish. Please join her in expressing your thanksgiving for their ministry.

Building Faith: Brick by Brick Curriculum for 9-11 year olds began today.

This morning, we began offering an opportunity for our 9-12 year olds to build with legos in response to one of our scripture stories. It’s an exciting thing to watch: our young people diving into the lego basket to create a depiction of the Bible story they just heard. It’s yet another way we try to bring real life and engagement into the ancient and sacred stories which are a treasure for us.

We offer this opportunity once a month. To learn more about the curriculum, please click here.

Book of Psalms: How they respond to our life

Tonight, we gathered for dinner, then for a conversation about how the psalms were used in the liturgy of the Jewish temple. We learned that the themes of the psalms connected with major festivals which celebrated pivotal events in the salvation story of the ancient Israelites, such as the Passover and the Day of Atonement. In addition, they were used during rituals of purification, entrance hymns, victory songs, King’s birthdays or wedding times. The psalms responded to and led people forward in their thinking to how the ancient Jews structured their worship lives.

We then looked at how we as Christians use the psalms in our worship — always as a response to the Old Testament Reading. A response mandates that we say the psalm together and also says that the sentiment, or wisdom, or thought process of the psalm offers something that leads us in responding to the Old Testament reading in a faithful manner. We looked at the reading and response for Sunday — the grumbling prophet Jeremiah and the psalmist response, in both the NIV (New International Version of the Bible) and Psalms for Praying by Nan Merrill.

After all this discussion, we looked at how St. Benedict, as he formed the Benedictine community 1500 years ago used the psalms to respond to life, to draw people through the week to a place of faithfulness of God. It’s fascinating how we can use the scriptures to remind us about God and God’s faithfulness and we can structure our practice of praying the psalms so that we use certain ones to offer the support, comfort or challenge we may need (predictably) at the moment throughout the week.

We ended by listening to the chanting of the psalms by SSJE (Society of St. John the Evangelist). Here’s the link to purchase the CD: https://www.amazon.com/Guard-Us-Sleeping-Compline-Prayers/dp/1561012556

In the still of the night, after a long day, by candlelight, we could have all fallen asleep at the moment, lulled by the melodic chanting of the psalms by the monastic community, but woke up to eat pie and ice cream and wish each other a good night.

Our next series of fellowship, conversation, and engagement will be making Anglican Prayer Beads, which will begin on October 5th. Please join us!

Youth Mini-Mission Event: Serving at the Community Meal

A dozen young people showed up tonight to serve our community meal. It was an amazing experience. They worked so hard and so cooperatively. The older ones were shepherds to the younger ones. They served everyone who came to share this meal with us, offering them drinks, meals, and take-home packages. Then we gathered for conversation to reflect upon our experience together.

To see photos of the event, please see our photo gallery.

Here are the highlights which I saw:

Everyone jumped right in, doing whatever was asked of them, and felt comfortable doing it.
There was a gift in having all the youth (9-18 years old) together. We have incredibly kind and helpful older youth here who were always willing to be with and help those who may be younger.
There was real interaction between the guests of the dinner and our young people. At one point, one of our guests, who is a youth, joined the line of servers of young people and a new kind of community seemed to be formed.
Our young people immediately saw and spoke about how this was a family gathering this evening.
During our reflection time, I heard such compassion and empathy for others that my heart was very happy! We have young people who care deeply for people, who understand what Jesus is saying to us in feeding other people, understand how what they feel inside is actually how the food and meal are blessed.
One of the prayers which I will always hold in my heart I heard today, when we were praying for the people who came this evening. It was “for those who have lost their sunshine, may they find it again”. That’s deep intuition and compassion. Thanks be to God for the prayers of our young people!

It was a great event, except for the fire alarm going off through the whole dinner! I learned a lot from our young people and am ever in more deeper awe of them.

Blessings, Mother Barbara

Youth Mini-Mission Project has begun!

Today, 13 of our young people gathered to peel apples, measure dry ingredients, mix everything together, and wash the dishes ~ all to prepare fresh apple cakes for our community meal tomorrow. It was such a joy to see our young people working together to help other people!

Oh those messy hands make for sweet cake!

How many different hands can be involved?

Tomorrow evening we serve our community meal. Each month, we offer a delicious and homemade meal to about 60 people from our neighborhood. It is an offering born out of our desire to make the world a better place by meeting the needs of others and by getting to know those who walk through our doors as friends. Our meals have become real community events, being a communion of those of us who serve and those of us who receive.

After our meal tomorrow, our young people will gather and reflect upon their experience. We want to know what they think of the hunger problem in our area, what they think they can do about it, what the scriptures tell us to do, and how they think we can feed those hungry (in many ways) they meet.

Our youth program is focused on making an impact in our community. We are grateful for our young people and their parents who make this a priority. We are all blessed by it!

Commemoration of September 11th~ 15 years later

This morning at our 10 a.m. service we commemorated the 15th anniversary of September 11th. Each of us had our story to tell, where we were when we learned of the attack, the ensuing horror, and the changes it made in our lives. It was clear there is still a need of healing as we continue to grapple with understanding the complexity and complete depravity of humankind which allowed this attack to occur.

We were blessed with the presence of our Mayor, Bruce Hockensmith, and members of the West End Fire Company. It was a joy to recognize their dedication to our community and their union with the civic leaders and all those who serve our communities who are always willing to risk their lives for the common good.

One of our parishioners offered a display of newspapers and photos of the week following the attack as well as a book which showed the gift of the firefighters who fearlessly offered their services to help those in need.

Books highlighting the sacrifice of many

We offered a memorial Eucharist, dedicated to all those who lost their lives in the attack, which was moving and set the loss within the greatest gift of all, the sacrifice of Christ which enables us all to enter into an eternal life, where there is no sorrow or pain.

Two of our young members played taps, which was very moving. We entered then into a time of silence and then the tolling of the bell.

Play taps to honor the victims of this terror attack

All that we offer seems inadequate to address the loss that so many individuals suffered that day and the loss to our nation. However, our liturgy is rich and real and invites us to place our pain within the love of God which holds it all. Thanks be to God!

Ladies’ Paint Nite

There is something very special about women getting together, wanting to relax and have fun together, desiring to create together, and doing it all at church. We learned tonight that there is a remarkable bond that can be formed over palettes of paint!

Tonight we gathered for our first Ladies’ Paint Nite and had a wonderful time. It was fabulous that we each felt free to create the sunflower painting that was exactly right for us ~ they were all different, as we are all different. I especially loved the artistic gentle guidance of Jenny, who was able to step back and see our painting from a different perspective, which is always helpful. Sort of like that friend of ours who can see things clearly for us, when we’re too much in the midst of it all. We were all encouraging and supportive of each other and saw the beauty in our diversity ~ and that’s actually what Christian community is all about.

Thank you to Kelly Rhodes for organizing this evening for us! We are all the closer and richer for it.

Summer Series: Those “nasty” psalms

We gathered this evening, in the midst of the heat and humidity, to find a place of fellowship and fun over dinner outside, as the rain fell around us. There’s a place of peace and ease that’s been developing among us, that’s really lovely ~ AND there’s always the opening for others to join us. Every week it’s always a different group gathered — and always the right one. So, come on out and give it a try, if you’ve been curious or feeling the call to explore the psalms!

This week we explored those nasty psalms that call upon God to wreck havoc and vengeance upon our enemies. We read a portion of Psalm 109 and the honest reaction afterwards was “Good Grief!”. Mother Barbara shared with us some information about this genre of psalm (part of lament psalms) and talked about the different possible reactions (ignore them, be horrified by them, enter into them). One of our parishioners shared her real life experience in feeling these psalms which was powerful and helpful. Mother Barbara then spoke about what God’s retribution actually looks like (not the revenge we may imagine, but a tearing down of barriers that keep us from being honest before each other and God and allowing God’s love to lead us into a new place of healing).

The evening ended with the peace and calm of Compline. Thanks be to God for the grace which was present this evening.

Simply Scripture opens up exploration of new ideas and great insights.

This past Saturday, our parish library was crammed full of people hungry to learn more about our scriptures for the upcoming month and to share their thoughts, reflections, and wonderings. We studied the Epistles for the month, which are largely from the book of 1 Timothy.

One of the topics that I think was most fruitful was an exploration of what to do when there is a word of phrase in the scripture that you don’t like.

Do you just skip over it?
Do you look up the word in the original language to see what it meant then?
Do you look at other translations and pick the one most congruent with your understanding? Or the one most irritating to you?
Do you settle into the tension and reflect upon why this word or phrase is causing such a reaction in your own soul?
Do you talk to others to see if this worried them as well?

The answer, of course, is “all of the above” (except the first one!).

It is always important to know the context of the passage, to look up the original word in Greek or Hebrew and look at all the possible meanings ~ and it is very important to know why this word or phrase grabs your attention. Often it’s God’s message to you to pay attention to what’s happening within you.

Questions are a good thing, in the Episcopal Church. So bring them on!

Newly Painted Handicap Ramp

This past weekend, parishioners gathered to paint the ramp with non-skid paint to allow everyone to come into our worship space safely. It is very important to us that we care for all our parishioners and want to make sure all can enter our buildings without any difficulties. Thank you to all who showed up and made a difference!

Thank you Buildings & Grounds Group for keeping all properties so beautiful and safe!

Category: News