Who We Are

May 2010 Epistle

Download the May issue of our newsletter: The Epistle, May 2010

Inside this issue:

• This Spring, Hope by Wallace+
• The Ascension by Kate+
• Woodville Summer Camp 2010 by Liz Whitehurst
• Hope and Education Half a World Away by Suzanne Johnson
• Elevation: Moving Forward Together by Wilson Whitehurst
  
• Summer Worship by Adrian Luxmoore
  
• The Children's Library: A New Location by Carol Parke

and much, much more! Download the PDF to read the full issue.

On the Cover:

This Spring, Hope

My Dear People,

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune--without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickenson

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We never give up hope. We have no right to do so, for hope is not ours to give up.

Hope is not of us. It is a gift from beyond us. It has flown to us. Like a bird. Like an angel.

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We never give up hope on someone else. Again, it's not ours to give up.

True, it is hard to teach an old dog new tricks. But it's not impossible; and, furthermore, we're not dogs.

Nor do we ever give up hope for ourselves.

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Nothing that we or the world at large can present in the face of hope is unprecedented. ("There is nothing new under the sun," as Ecclesiastes puts it.)
Hope has met and overcome it all before; and will again.

And let us never confuse hope with optimism, which is a matter of mere human will, versus hope, which is born of the will and power of the Almighty. Optimism is fickle, ephemeral, and dependent on such things as what we had for breakfast; while hope is immovable and eternal.

Optimism is to hope, as happiness is to joy. Optimism is to hope, as tin is to steel. Better still, if optimism is like tin, then hope is like magma.

Like magma, at the center of everything that is; deeper than anything that is; able to overcome and move beyond anything in its way.

Hope is, at bottom, a trust that we have a future in God, a future that cannot be taken from us; a future that God is preparing for us, and for the world. As the prophet Jeremiah reports, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD... to give you a future and a hope."

This day, and this spring season, may you and may we all be filled with green-growing hope, as green and as lush as the world around us; hope for yourself, for our parish, for our city, and for our world; for God himself has great hope for us and in us; and, through us, God is working to bring about that hope even now, right here on Grace Street. Onward and upward we go; with hope, and with trust in God, leaning into the new day that God is preparing for us, my sisters and brothers.

Out into the sunlight we go!

Your brother in Christ,

Wallace+

Pictured: One of ten memorial windows by Tiffany at St. Paul’s. The subject is a single figure, the Angel of Hope, seen floating in an aspiring pose amid puffy clouds. The Angel of Hope represents a theological virtue, not an expectation oF worldly reward through divine intervention. Hope’s immediate object is God, the supreme expression of supernatural good. Hope, along with faith and charity, are the essential Christian verities. The Angel of Hope, while not Biblically referenced, has for centuries been a personification of the virtue of hope, an icon for those seeking divine grace and guidance. (Calder Loth) Photo by Cyane Lowden

Tiffany: Color & Light opens at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Saturday, May 29. Read more about Tiffany at St. Paul’s and joining the tour guide ministry at www.stpauls-episcopal.org/tiffany.

The Ascension

By The Rev. Kate Jenkins, Associate Rector
(.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

We are in the interim between Easter and Pentecost. Of course, we live in an interim in other ways: we anticipate graduations, new jobs, the birth of children and grandchildren, the resolution of dilemmas. St. Paul's emerged from an interim period between rectors about eighteen months ago when Wallace Adams-Riley was called to be your rector. Given the choice, few of us would choose to be in an interim; interims are unsettling and uncertain. Interims are also not easy- there is work to be done.

The first followers of Jesus lived in an interim time. In the beginning of Acts, the risen Lord instructs the disciples to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit. This they do for 40 days, recalling Moses on the mountain, receiving the law and experiencing the glory of the Lord.

"Lord," they ask Jesus, "is this the time that your kingdom is going to come?"

"No," Jesus says, "it is not for you to know that. . . But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses."

Then Jesus ascends to heaven, and two men in white robes ask the disciples, "Why are you looking up to heaven? He is going to come back!"

Looking Upward and Downward

In his commentary on the ascension, Peter Gomes insists that the event has both an upward vision and a downward vision. The upward vision is heaven: "I go to prepare a place for you." There is that wonderful motion and movement toward the skies, a second Easter with its promise of great things to come in that bright and brilliant place. Amidst the troubles of this world, we want to be lifted up-we need an upward vision. We need a vision of the other side of the veil, of eternity.

But there is also the downward, earthly vision, expressed in the question, "Why are you looking up toward heaven?" It is not so much a question as a rebuke. Wonder and awe are good and holy things, they liberate the imagination, they remind us of the promises, and they make us intimate with the holy and the divine. Given the choice, I'd bet that all of the disciples would gladly have gone up into the clouds with Jesus rather than face the tasks that awaited them in Galilee and beyond. But the disciples were not permitted the luxury of gazing at Jesus' feet and neither are we-there is more to be done. Immerse yourself in the daily life of this world, put your hand to the plow, and pray.

One day the upward and downward dimension shall be no more, but until that time we're called to look up, look down, and look all around.

Pictured: "Tiffany: The Vision of Christ to Believers." Installed in 1896, the subject of this memorial window (one of ten by the Tiffany studios at St. Paul’s) is the vision of the risen Christ to believers, a scene that vividly reveals Christ’s divinity.
 

Woodville Summer Camp 2010

By Liz Whitehurst (.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address))

Even though they still have two months of school, students at Woodville Elementary have been excited about summer camping for months! St. Paul's sponsored a heath fair and orientation for residential campers on Saturday, March 13 at Woodville Presbyterian. Dr. Michelle Whitehurst-Cook and her colleagues gave physicals and volunteers from St. Paul's, Woodville Presbyterian and Good Shepherd Baptist Churches helped parents complete registration forms for 81 children to go to residential camps. Another session for day campers took place on Saturday, April 24.

New this year for Woodville campers is a week for ten campers at the Steward School's day camp, a week for 12 campers at YMCA Camp Thunderbird and possible camping experiences at St. Gertrude's basketball camp and Theatre IV.

Campers will again go to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Visual Arts Center, Maymont, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, S.P.C.A., Cat's CAP, St. Christopher's, Collegiate, Camp on the Hill, and Latin Ballet day camps. Other children will participate in camps at the Peter Paul Development Center or Elk Hill, where they go for most of the summer. Some children will venture further for residential camps at Camp Hanover, Alkulana, Comfort Zone, 4-H, and Makemie Woods. Some will go out of state to Mercersburg Academy (PA.), UNC Greensboro, or Camp Sandy Cove (West Va.)

Brightened Summer Days

We plan to provide approximately 375 camping experiences this summer. The camps are free to students, thanks to scholarships provided by most of the camps and funds raised by each church, individual contributions, and our annual Put Happy on a Face Christmas fundraising campaign. We provide transportation for each child from home to camp and back and any additional supplies the campers need.

We can't do all of this without volunteer support. Please consider giving some of your time this summer to our Woodville campers. You will meet some smiling, excited children and have your day brightened.

Here are some ways you can help:

• Chaperones to ride the church van with children from home to day camps and back. You can volunteer for a few hours, a day, one day a week, or a whole week. We also need volunteers willing to organize and make phone calls. Call or e-mail Liz Whitehurst, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 285-2627.
• Drivers to residential camps in the area. Call or e-mail Page Luxmoore, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or 264-5302, to volunteer as a driver or get more details.

Thank you in advance to all who will volunteer with summer camps in 2010!

Pictured: Santaja smiles as she shows off her art created at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts camp.

Hope and Education Half a World Away

By Suzanne Johnson, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

St. Paul's is helping to change the lives of students in Mwitikira, Tanzania, half a world away. Each year Tanzanian students completing Standard (grade) 7 have one chance to pass a strenuous national exam that determines whether they are eligible to continue their education into secondary school. The average pass rate nationally is about 35%.

The year before St. Paul's got involved in education in Mwitikira, only 25 out of the approximately 100 Standard 7 students passed the test. The next year, after our first gift of desks, school supplies, dictionaries, and our own teaching there, 48 students out of 100 passed. This year, after our further involvement-more textbooks, more school supplies and teaching aids, and several rounds of teachers from St. Paul's working there with students and teachers-a remarkable 75% of the students passed! Every single one of the Standard 7 students who are in The Carpenter's Kids group that we support passed! When you think that these are the most vulnerable children in the village, their accomplishment is truly amazing.

Father Erasto, the priest of Mwitikira and our good friend, says that the most important aspect of St. Paul's involvement in the village is the change that our relationship has wrought in people's attitudes and spirits. Truly the Holy Spirit is in the midst of our work together.

Making a Difference in Mwitikira

In June, when another group of pilgrims from St. Paul's goes to Mwitikira, we have the opportunity to continue to make a difference. During the month of May, our goal is to encourage contributions to continue our work there.

Here are some specific needs:

• Build 70 more desks ($40 each) to reach our goal of providing enough desks for all the students in the primary school;
• Purchase enough English language textbooks for every student in Standard 5; ($4 per textbook, $600 for the whole class);
• Provide additional school supplies for the primary students-$16 will buy 100 pens or pencils; $24 will buy 100 exercise books. We would like to get an exercise book and a pen or pencil for each of the 926 children in the primary school; $2 will buy a compass set needed by the upper grade students for math-approximately 150 needed;
• $6.50 will buy 5 pairs of socks and 5 large bars of soap that help the Carpenter's Kids keep their shoes in better shape and their one uniform clean. We would like to provide this year's supply to each of the 136 Carpenter's Kids.
• In July, Janet Edmundson is going to Mwitikira to work on the library; we need $500 to purchase additional book pockets, library cards, and specific books needed to complement the library's holdings.

May is Mwitikira Month at St. Paul's

May is Mwitikira month at St. Paul's-the month that we ask for your direct contributions for The Carpenter's Kids. Our goal this year is $5500. All of the items (except for the library supplies) will be purchased in Tanzania, further helping the economy there. Please send our pilgrims with the tools to help the students and teachers of Mwitikira continue to make important strides toward a brighter future.

Checks should be made out to St. Paul's Episcopal Church with "The Carpenter's Kids" in the memo line. If you want to designate your gift to specific needs, please enclose a short note to that effect.

Pictured: A student in Mwitikira with textbooks from St. Paul's

St. Paul's Pilgrims

June Pilgrims to Mwitikira

Mark Gordon
The Rev. Kate Jenkins
Hannah Jenkins
Suzanne Johnson (returning)
Marieke Wichers
Si Wofford (returning)

Past Pilgrims to Mwitikira

Trudy Bryan
Natalie Davis
Suzanne Johnson
Roger Whitfield
Sandra Whitfield
Si Wofford
Cindy Wofford
David Wofford

Elevation: Moving Forward Together

By Wilson Whitehurst, Senior Warden

Now is a truly exciting time in the life of St. Paul's Church. The parish is alive with a provocative and inspired sense of mission and direction. We have dynamic clergy leaders, an energetic staff, as well as eager, committed parishioners who create a strong feeling of vitality and purpose. We are the "body of Christ" poised for action. I feel privileged to serve on the Vestry of this great church, and am honored to be given a leadership role, especially at this time. I will do my best to follow Mary Kay Huss's example of confident, level-headed reasoning coupled with a thoughtful, sensitive manner rooted in a love for this church and a faithful commitment to its mission.

I believe that our current template for action, Elevation, lays out a dynamic blueprint for the future efforts of the parish. It is a list of four focus areas that are the distillation of numerous parishioner thoughts and suggestions that have been brewing for some time. This is viewed as "step 1" of a multi-step process that will continue to evolve as we work through our mission. The four areas represent a well balanced course of action - two are inwardly focused and two are outwardly directed.

Inwardly and Outwardly Directed

Elevation calls for the Parish to Build Stronger Connections. This entails a reinvigorated commitment to pastoral care and parish life. There is a strong sense that we need to better care for each other. We need to provide effective structure for opportunities for encouragement and support. We need to offer assistance and prayers in times of difficulty as well as our presence and love in times of joy.

Elevation also denotes the need for a renewed effort to develop and enhance Small Group Ministries. This is a great way to get to know and share with fellow parishioners in more intimate settings. Many of these offerings will encourage people to go deeper into exploring and developing their faith, as well as hearing other perspectives.

Elevation also addresses the ways in which St. Paul's must confront and inspire those outside the parish. It calls for us to proactively Welcome and Incorporate newcomers into the life of the church. We must provide a structure for seeking out, embracing, and actively incorporating all those persons who express interest in becoming a part of our vibrant ministries.

Finally, Elevation spells out the desire to establish a Downtown Mission Team that seeks to celebrate the good news in our neighborhood. The purpose of this effort is to provide a means for meeting people and building relationships. It will be St. Paul's renewed emphasis on reaching out and sharing our vision and missions with others. I can not wait to see what may come next.

Time to Move Forward

With inspiring, passionate clergy leaders and an empowered laity, St. Paul's is on the brink of a renaissance. The energy is good. The ground is fertile. It is time to move forward.

Summer Worship

By Adrian Luxmoore

For the past two years the Summer Schedule at St. Paul's has included two services: 1.) An 8 a.m. service like the 7:45 a.m. service that we offer during the rest of the year; and 2.) A main service at 10 a.m.

The 10:00 service tried to accommodate the rich diversity of worship at St. Paul's by alternating between the contemporary and traditional styles we use during the fall, winter and spring.

During Such Great Heights we concluded that we wanted to approach the main summer service from a new direction - to start from scratch and see if we could design a service that would meet the worship needs of the whole congregation.

Enriching Our Worship

Our goal is to create a high quality, warm and welcoming worship experience that involves the whole congregation, honors our diversity and expresses our connections to one another. And especially we hope to provide opportunities for rich experience and deep meaning.

A group of people who represent the rich diversity of our worship has begun to meet to work on this task. Our first decision (subject to the approval of the bishop) is to base our summer worship on "Enriching Our Worship" a supplement to the Book of Common Prayer. The title precisely reflects our hope for the summer! The preface to the book concludes as follows (and expresses our intent best):

"It is our hope that praying and singing the prayers and canticles in this collection will deepen and strengthen our encounter with Christ and make it possible, with ever increasing conviction, to cry out with St. Ambrose, ‘You have shown yourself to me, O Christ, face to face. I have met you in your sacraments.'"

We plan to launch the new summer schedule the Sunday after Pentecost, on May 30. The summer service schedule (8 a.m. & 10 a.m.) will continue through Sunday, September 5, 2010.

The Children's Library: A New Location

By Carol Parke, Librarian

Very good news... During the past year St. Paul's volunteer Belinda Byrne has led a successful effort to revitalize the St. Paul's Children's Library and bring it up-to-date. In the last few months, the picture books and easy readers were transferred from the "grown up" library to the new Children's Library in Room 111, next to the nursery. This room is spacious and cheerful, with low shelves, soft seating, tables and chairs - a warm and welcoming spot for our younger readers, readers-to-be and their parents. Books in the Children's Room include all of our picture books, plus the easier books for children reading up to third or fourth grade level.

The Children's Library author-title-subject catalog and the drawer holding check-out cards have also been moved to Room 111, where our youngest readers or their parents may leave checked-out book cards in the box provided.

Parents: when your child borrows a book, please be sure the check-out card includes legible first and last names on each check-out card. Please also include the full date, e.g., 4/15/10.

Catalog cards for books intended for middle school children and young adults are still being transferred from the catalog in the Children's Library to a separate drawer in the adult library catalog - thank you for your patience while this project is underway. Check-out cards for these children and young adults can be left in the appropriate drawer in the adult library.

And now for the not-so-good news... Our recent and ongoing Children's Library inventory has shown that many of our books are missing - over 150 so far. Missing books include some wonderful titles purchased in the last two years, which is a terrific loss to the children of our parish. With the average cost of a hardcover book at $20 or more, the loss to the parish is also substantial.

Our budget for new books is far too small to replace these titles, and we need your help retrieving those we can find. If you or your children have been users of the children's collection now or in the past, please check your/their bookshelves and return any St. Paul's library books you can find to Room 111. We are already contacting the parents of children listed on check-out cards. Thank you!

And thank you as well for your support as we work to build back and update our Children's Library collection - and stay tuned for progress and new ideas in future newsletters.

Pictured: The Rev. Kate Jenkins borrows a book from the Children's Library

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