Vestry Liaison Update – Facilities

I would like to introduce myself as the newest member of the Facilities Team. In this position I will be communicating facility-related information between the vestry and the congregation, sending updates on the state of our buildings and property as needed. I am excited to be working with such a dedicated staff ensuring that our property is safe and protected for all to use.

A few issues we are dealing with right now pertain to water seepage from old windows in the school building. We have addressed most of the water damage and are currently reviewing our next steps on the aging windows.

Our new Junior Warden Steve Howell is meeting weekly with the Warden, Rector and Sexton to identify other areas that need repair for our facility. A full walk around was completed in January and a list of projects was identified.

I always welcome new ideas and suggestions when it comes to maintaining a healthy and safe environment at St. Andrews. As I look around the church, I’ve seen areas of opportunity that need a deep cleaning and/or restoration. One idea proposed was a workday, maybe a Saturday morning, to enhance the appearance of our church. Painting party, anyone?

I am looking forward to a successful year working with our vestry and Junior Warden. 

Thank you,

Joel Duregger

The Great Litany

On the first Sunday of Lent, March 1 this year, we usually will pray The Great Litany during the opening procession at both services.  However, because the One City Marathon is on March 1, we will pray The Great Litany on March 8.

The Great Litany is an ancient form of intercessory prayer, first used in the 5^th century.  Because of its penitential nature, it is especially appropriate in Lent.  The Litany begins by calling upon the Triune God to have mercy on us; continues with petitions for protection from evil and disaster; invokes Christ’s saving work; and includes many general intercessions, including the plea for God to forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers.  You can find the Great Litany on pages 148 to 153 of The Book of Common Prayer.  I encourage you to spend some time with it prior to Sunday.

The Great Litany is not a prayer for the faint of heart, but it is a fabulous prayer for those who truly want to turn their hearts again to God.  May that be our aim in this holy season.

Anne

An Invitation to Confession…

Dear friends,

One of the five sacramental rites in the Episcopal Church is the Reconciliation of a Penitent, more commonly known as “Confession.”  This is the rite in which a parishioner meets privately with a priest to confess specific sins and receive absolution.  Our Episcopal understanding of this rite can be summed up in the adage:  All may; some should; none must.  In other words, no one is required to make a private confession, but for some folks the practice is extremely healing and helpful.  Naming aloud the wrongs we’ve done is hard and scary; hearing the words of absolution afterward is freeing and healing.

Reconciliation of a Penitent is available at all times, but in Lent and particularly during Holy Week, it is customary for clergy to encourage interested parishioners to partake of the rite in preparation for Easter.  Making my personal confession has often been part of my Lenten practice, and I have always found it helpful.  If you would like to include this rite in your Easter preparations, please let Marc or me know, and we will make arrangements to meet privately with you.  Rest assured that anything said during the rite is completely confidential and is never a matter for subsequent discussion unless you bring it up again. 

Whether or not you are planning to make a private confession this Lent, I encourage you to take a look at the two forms of The Reconciliation of a Penitent found in the Book of Common Prayer on pages 447 to 452.  As you do so, I hope you’ll be reminded of God’s deep and unending love for you and deep desire for reconciliation with all of us.

Blessings, 

Anne+

There's something about Ash Wednesday

Dear friends,

There’s something about Ash Wednesday.  Every year it happens:  people who don’t come to church regularly—or, sometimes, ever—show up on that first day of Lent to be marked with ashes.  Sometimes they come to the Ash Wednesday service; sometimes they show up at a different time of day altogether to seek that ashy cross.  I’ve brushed aside thick hair and wispy bangs to make room on foreheads for those two crossed lines that form our central Christian symbol; I’ve marked smooth hairless heads of infants and wrinkled bald heads of old men.  It is holy, every time.  It is somber and humbling and holy. 

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  Yes.  Ash Wednesday—and indeed all of Lent—is about remembering our frailty and our worth, our sinfulness and God’s love for us.  In the prayer book liturgy for Ash Wednesday, the priest says, I invite you … in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.  As your priest, I invite you to the observance of a holy Lent.  And I invite you to begin that observance at one of our three Ash Wednesday services so that you can receive again the grainy gray reminder of God’s love for fragile, fallible you.

Blessings,

Anne

Vestry Liaison Update – Outreach

I cannot think of a better way to show God’s love than through outreach.  Jesus said “You are the light of the world… let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.”   Inspired by Jason’s sermon, and being a new member of the Vestry, whose focus is on Outreach, I could not help but think how this directly applies.  Outreach can be defined as “the extending of services or assistance beyond current or usual limits”.  These services or assistance can certainly be in physical form as in feeding the hungry and housing the homeless, but also in spiritual form as we engage and relate with others. 

The St Andrew’s community has several opportunities and activities to engage in outreach, but we are working to develop more.  The Engaging the Climb team is developing and implementing projects/new ideas outside of the doors of our church with a goal of developing new Christian community for people who are currently, nor may ever be, parishioners of a traditional church.  The Building Implementation Team is developing the practical and logistical pieces involved in turning our former school spaces into a multi-use community outreach facility – a portion of the facility will be used to serve those in need or those who are underserved.

If you are interested in helping with PORT – a project of Newport News LINK that provides meals and overnight accommodations at host churches for the homeless in our community - St Andrew’s will have volunteers for this March 24-25 (Tuesday evening through Wednesday morning) at Denbigh United Presbyterian Church.  Please reach out to Matt Deller (812-9852 or pablodeller@outlook.com) for more information.

A Kairos Informational Get Together will be hosted on Sunday, February 23, from 5-7 PM at the home of Matt Deller - 300 Park Place.  Join Brad and Matt to learn more about the ministry while enjoying refreshments.  The Kairos mission is to bring Christ’s love and forgiveness to all incarcerated individuals and their families.  Please RSVP to Matt Deller (757-812-9852) if you are able to attend.  If you don’t know that this is your calling, you are still able to help by baking cookies for this ministry! More information to come. 

Recipients of the Lackey Fund gifts have received over $20,000 in total due to the generous gift from Carolyn Lackey.  Every year, a variety of programs benefit and help those in need with these funds distributed by St. Andrew’s.   Applications are submitted every year in the early fall if you would like to apply on behalf of a charity or ministry.   For more information, please contact Diana Skelton (897-7395)

Remember that God calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Be the light of the world!

Dawn Edquist

Greetings from our new Associate Rector, Marc Vance

My dear (new) friends of St. Andrew’s: Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ!

I know Anne has given you something of an introduction, but as the time for me to join you quickly draws close (March 1), I wanted to drop a note to you myself.  I am so looking forward to beginning ministry with and among you!  From a full and dedicated community of faith to facilities and resources, there seems to be unlimited potential for all we can accomplish for God’s kingdom come on earth.

Ministerially (my spell-check says this isn’t a word!) speaking, with Anne’s blessing I’ll be focusing time and energy on a number of things, not the least of which is Divine Love (it is the first word out of Jesus’ mouth when questioned about the greatest commandment, as well as his parting counsel to the disciples) as the foundational standard against which every decision made, every action taken, should be measured.  With Love as that foundational principle, the Church is uniquely poised to embody the imperatives of our Baptismal Covenant to seek and serve Christ in all persons, respecting the dignity of each person as made in the image of God.  Other areas include the sacredness and centrality of our Common worship; facilitating opportunities for our children and youth, as well as adults, to be ever-deeply formed in the Faith through prayer, education, and activity in our local, diocesan and national church contexts (Episcopal Youth Event in July, anyone?); continuing enthusiastically to encourage offering one another the ministry of presence in pastoral care; and with the Church finding herself in the midst of a seismic cultural shift where participation in a faith community is no longer the predominant social expectation, embracing an entrepreneurial spirit and exploring creative, even innovative, ways to engage ourselves and our communities with the good news of the Gospel.  I am especially excited about the potential to (no pun intended) build on the foundation of the good work that has been done to reimagine the school building as an Outreach Center for the people of St. Andrew’s to offer truly impactful ministry in the Newport News area. 

I’ve also been exploring a lot of the Newport News area for coffee shops, Taekwondo schools, places to connect with the natural world, and other venues of interest (arts, music, culture...; real seafood, too!).  At this writing, I’m not exactly sure where I’ll be living yet, but I’m not worried about it; I really appreciate Chris Robinson’s help with this. With all the logistics of selling a house, moving, and for Leticia, securing her RN/DNP licensure in Virginia, she and Elizabeth (who is near completing her Child Development Associate degree) will be joining us sometime later.  Hopefully at some point you’ll get to meet my older daughter, Shelby, who lives in Florida, is a Disney Cast Member and YMCA lifeguard/instructor, and is working on her master’s degree in medical information systems; and my youngest daughter, Rebecca, who is a sophomore at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, studying Speech and Language Pathology (but who is making lots of noise about transferring to a school in Florida, the state where she was born).

So there you have it in a nutshell - as if we can actually keep the Spirit thus contained!  Still, I am looking forward to joining Anne and the staff, and getting to know everyone at St. Andrew’s as we work together to draw people into a deeper knowledge of, love of, and service to the Lord.  See you on March 1!

Peace and blessings,

Marc