How to Celebrate Pentecost

Dear friends,

Pentecost, which this year falls on Sunday, May 31, is a major feast in the Christian year.  On Pentecost we celebrate God’s gift of the promised Holy Spirit.  We hear the passage from Acts 2 that tells the story of the Holy Spirit resting on the heads of the believers like tongues of fire, and we are reminded anew of our own anointing with the Spirit in our baptism.  The Spirit that empowers people for ministry has been given, individually and abundantly, to each of us.  That is reason indeed to celebrate!

We will celebrate that gift of the Spirit during our online worship at 10:30 AM on May 31, with readers proclaiming God’s good news in a multitude of languages, as happened on that first Pentecost.  We will wear red, to symbolize the flames of the Holy Spirit.  Our worship service will be followed by a virtual Zoom coffee hour, complete with red balloons provided by St. Andrew’s; and red clothing—provided by you!

What if you are not able to join us online?  You can still celebrate Pentecost!  Read Acts 2:1-21.  Imagine what it would have been like to be one of those early believers—or a bystander as the Spirit alighted and proclamation poured forth!  Dress in red on Pentecost Sunday.  Blow up your red balloons from St. Andrew’s, and be reminded of the way God breathes into you!

Red Balloons for Pentecost!!

St. Andrew’s has packaged a baggie of red balloons for every parish family for Pentecost.  The baggies will be available for St. Andrew’s parishioners in the St. Nicholas Chapel on Wednesday and Thursday, May 27 and 28.  On May 29, any remaining baggies will be on a table outside the church for our neighbors.  Baggies are also being delivered to those living in retirement communities and those who are not able to come to the church to pick theirs up.  (If you need to have your balloons delivered to you, please contact Bill Wilds at saec.bill19@verizon.net by noon on Thursday, May 28.)  We hope you will bring your inflated balloons to the virtual coffee hour on May 31!

Blessings!

Anne

Sharing Thoughts on Our Vital Phone Call Ministry

I am one of the callers for the "phone call ministry," staying in touch with other parishioners during this time when we are all struggling to cope with various issues but we can't be together to worship God and to support each other. The conversations give a new insight into how important our church is in all the parishioners' lives.  Many talk about their appreciation for the ways St. Andrew's is there for them, still active as our church, even during this pandemic.

I have talked to friends I've made at church over the last thirty years, and I am beginning to know people I hadn't known well or have just now met for the first time on the telephone.  We've shared personal stories, some serious and anxious and sad, and some entertaining.  Often we find that we have similar views on how this crisis is or should be handled.  I look forward to seeing and talking to my telephone friends in person at church.  One of the only good things the COVID crisis brings us is a reminder of how much our relationships mean.  Thanks to these calls, I am reconnected with a man who cut our grass when he was a teenager.  I have learned a new game to play with my grandson on Facebook.  I have, sadly, learned the word "endemic."  And I am encouraged to check on more of my friends, in and out of town, than I already have.  

As Barbra Streisand sings, "People who need people are the luckiest people in the world."   I'm glad we're making these calls.

Isabel Hatchett

When will we regather in person for worship?

Dear Friends,

I know this question is on many people’s minds.  The short answer is:  We don’t know.  Our bishop has called together a team of experts (clergy, parish musicians, doctors (including an epidemiologist), and mental health professionals) to come up with a list of guidelines for parishes in our diocese to follow.  Once I have received those guidelines, Marc and the vestry and the staff and I will ensure that we meet all of them before we reconvene for worship.  We will keep you posted.

I miss being together, and I know that you do, too.  But my primary concern is your health and safety.  It would be terrible if any of you were to become ill because of a poor decision we made about when and how to regather for public worship. 

While I don’t know when we will be able to come together again in person, I do know that worship and parish gatherings will be very different in coming days than they were before the pandemic.  Safety is paramount, which means that some of the practices that are so familiar to us will have to be changed so that we do not risk passing germs to one another.  While I am not looking forward to those changes, I know they are crucial.  And we will work together to figure them out, trusting in God’s presence and guidance and love.

As is always the case, God is at work bringing good out of the hard things that happen to us.  One example of that in our current situation is the online worship ministry that we have begun during this pandemic.  Marc and I have discovered that people have found it a very helpful way to connect to St. Andrew’s—not just because of the current social distancing but also for those who for other reasons have not been able to come to church for some time.  We are committed to continuing to provide online worship even once we can regather in person. 

I am well aware that even when we are able to gather again in person, not everyone will want to return.  Many of you are in high risk categories for coronavirus and should continue to shelter in place.  As we move forward, we will continue to seek and implement new ways to help you stay in touch and be connected. If nothing else, this pandemic has certainly helped us to remember that the Church is not the building!

As you probably know, our phone ministry continues.  By the time you receive this, we will probably be in our fifth round of calls.  I am so very grateful to the generous parishioners who are reaching out to make this ministry possible.  There are 270 families in our phone directory, and we care about each of you!  If for some reason you haven’t been receiving calls and would like to be called, please let me know. 

I am praying for you, and for this whole suffering world—the world for whom Jesus was willing to die. 

Blessings to you and to your loved ones. 

Anne 

Books That Change Us

I’m sure I’m not alone in this experience: every once in a while, my eyes fall on the very reading material I’m ready for. Sometimes we’re jolted awake by a real aha! moment.

My latest find is Falling Upward by Richard Rohr.  He’s a Roman priest who writes and speaks about the spiritual life.  He says that we have two halves of life: the first part is the hard work we do to establish our place in the world.  Sometime, however, we encounter the biblical “stumbling stone” that we have no answer for, try as we might.  When we recognize that vulnerable place, the second half of our spiritual life can begin.  Only through emptying ourselves of our expectations and preconceptions can God begin to fill us with his plan for us.  We “fall upward” into something new and life-giving.  For instance, we can let others do what they’re going to do without our self-imposed pain of being judgmental.

OK, enough with the book report; enjoy God’s precious gift of May in Virginia!

-- Brad Norris, Minister of Music