Some thoughts about solicitations at church

Maybe it’s happened to you: You are coming into St. Andrew’s for a service or volunteering at the front desk or just chatting with a friend in the lobby, and someone comes up to you to ask for money.  You don’t know the person, but he or she has a compelling story and definitely looks needy.  What should you do?

My reply may surprise you:  Say a silent prayer, introduce yourself, ask the person’s name, express your concern about their situation, invite them to enjoy St. Andy’s Café, but please don’t give the person money.  Instead, offer them one of the “Seeking Help?” papers from the tract racks in the Main Street Lobby, which list contact information for LINK, THRIVE, and several other local agencies.  Why?  Because LINK and THRIVE are far better equipped than we are (or at least than I am) to ascertain how best to help someone asking for aid, which is why our parish partners with them and provides financial and other support for their ministries.  Usually when a person is asking for money there are a number of underlying issues that need to be addressed.  I trust our friends at LINK and THRIVE to be able to assess the situation. 

Some of the folks who come to St. Andrew’s seeking help have been here numerous times before but have not been willing to work with LINK or THRIVE.  If we give them the cash they are seeking, we enable them to continue to avoid doing some important internal work that might actually resolve some of their financial problems. 

I know that it’s hard to say, “No” to these requests.  It is for me, too.  In my car I carry brochures with contact information for THRIVE and LINK and other agencies, and I offer bottled water and granola bars to folks who come to my window asking for help.  I tell them that I don’t give out cash because I donate regularly to the agencies on the paper, who are better equipped to help them than I am.  And it’s true. 

Anne +

Veterans Day 2018

There is a time for everything...a time for everything that is done on earth.

There is a time to be born and there a time to die.

There is a time to plant and a time to pull up what is planted.

There is a time to kill and a time to heal.

There is a time to tear down and a time to build up.

There is a time to cry and a time to laugh.

There is a time to be sad and a time to dance.

There is a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them.

There is a time to hug and a time not to hug.

There is a time to search and a time to stop searching.

There is a time to keep and a time to throw away.

There is a time to tear and a time to mend.

There is a time to be silent and a time to speak.

There is a time to love and a time to hate.

There is a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

This year has been an exciting year in the life of Hilton Village and thus the city of Newport News, with various groups focusing on our impact during World War I.  In the years of that war, more than 500,000 horses and mules were sent to England and other countries out of Newport News; and over 500,000 men returned to Newport News and were honored to walk through our Victory Arch.  I can’t speak for them.

I can’t speak for those who, in World War II, went to Europe, maybe to brave the beaches at Normandy, or to the Pacific Theater to brave the untold fear of the islands.

I can’t speak for those who went to Korea, or to the Middle East, or to Afghanistan.

I can only speak of having gone to a small country where, when Christ was born in what we call the Holy Land, a war was being fought.  It was a land of airstrips, jeeps, tar paper houses with tin roofs held down by old tires, motorbikes, black silk pajamas, water buffalo, sandbags, straw hats, green and camouflaged fatigues, trash, mountains - with some of the best marble in the world, land mines, and thousands and thousands of miles of barbed wire.

Veterans in all wars:

have endeavored to plant the seeds of democracy and peace,

have made many efforts to rebuild what was destroyed,

have cried and laughed with each other,

have hugged and gathered to remember, as we do today,

have kept their thoughts and maybe relics from their past, often finding

it difficult to throw away those thoughts and relics,

have been silent and have spoken out,

have tried to turn hate into love,

and have hoped that war will be replaced with peace.

May we all plant joy; support those who are downhearted; dance, and hug, and even cry together; speak from our hearts, and hopefully one day be able to replace hate and war with love and peace.   Amen.

Bill Wilds

Prayer vigil for Tree of Life Synagogue

Please join us on Monday, October 29 at 7 p.m.for a prayer vigil for the victims of attack on Tree of Life Synagogue in PIttsburgh. 

You can read the statement from Bishop Dorsey McConnell, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Pittsburgh, here. 

"This terror is added to the great heap of such crimes we have witnessed in the past. Yet our hope is not dimmed, and our obligation is clear: “Behold, I set before you this day, life and death, blessing and curse: therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19) May we especially who bear the name of Christ be fierce in our love and unwavering in our courage, as we mourn with those who mourn, and work with others to lay the foundations for blessing, life and peace for all people." -- Bishop McConnell

The invisible thread

When God took on the form of a human being in Christ Jesus, he experienced all that inhabiting flesh entails – exhaustion, hunger, thirst, pain, birth, death.  Like Jesus, all of have suffered physically, some in extreme and unbearable ways.  And we, like him, have experienced the sweetness of health and well-being, of inhabiting our physical bodies and all of the goodness that comes to us through our senses.

But what of the emotional aspects of being human – joy, anger, betrayal, contentment, rejection, doubt, regret, fear, grief?  Here are the sources of our highest highs and our lowest lows.  Just as you and I have times of deep sadness and soaring joy, Jesus knew the range of human emotions – the sting of betrayal by his closest friends, the depths of grief when he learned of the death of his friend Lazarus, the joy of the wedding feast, the anger at seeing the temple defiled by the money changers.  He felt tenderness towards the woman who washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, he asked if it might be possible to be spared the cup of crucifixion.  He said to his disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”

To be human is to embark upon a lifelong quest to understand and to be understood.  If we are lucky, we encounter someone along the way who just seems to understand what we are going through.  Even though they can’t change the hard circumstances we are in, they are somehow able to bring us a measure of comfort just by their presence and a few quiet words of understanding.  Intuitively, we sense in them the invisible thread that knits certain people together, the thread of shared experience.  There are many in our world and in our midst whose souls are overindulged with sorrow.  Blessed are we that we have each other and a Savior who knows us deeply and understands our deepest doubts, hopes, fears and joys.

Rachel Roby, Parish Administrator

Applications for Lackey Outreach Fund Grants are now being accepted

Thanks to a substantial trust left by Carolyn Lackey to benefit the less fortunate, St. Andrew’s has disbursed over $100,000 to charitable organizations since 2014.  Some of these worthy organizations include LINK, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Menchville House Ministries, THRIVE Peninsula, Holy Cross Education Foundation, Kairos, Soundscapes, and more.

In the past, recipients have been selected by a committee.  This year parishioners can nominate organizations for funding via an application found on our website and in the church office.  The application can be completed by someone from the organization, or a parishioner can complete it on behalf of an organization with which they are involved.  Organizations that have received a grant from the Lackey Fund in the past must also apply.  Applications should be returned to the church, ATTN: Diana Skelton.  The deadline for applications is November 30, 2018.

A committee will review all applications based on the guiding principle that “the money follows our people”; in other words, top priority will be given to organizations in which parishioners are actively involved.  The Outreach Team appreciates your support in getting the word out to those organizations already receiving Lackey funds and any new organization you would like us to consider.

Diana Skelton