Life Center Project Updates

At church today someone asked me how things are going on the Life Center Project. Here is an update. Please share this with others.

1) The City of Medina has installed the infrastructure and facilities for their modular structures.

2) New parking, paving, and sidewalks are the most visible change which will benefit the City, the Parish, and the School.

3) The City of Medina Police Department has moved onto campus.

4) The City of Medina City Hall opens on the morning of Monday the 25th.

5) The Enrichment Gatherings Team has made contact with more than 250 people, informing them of the plans for the Life Center.

6) The Advance Commitment Team has mailed to scores of households. They will call those households in the next 10 days.

7) The Promotions and A/V Team continue to develop and refine the publications and electronic media for the campaign.

8) Studio 216 will finalize their computer graphic work by the end of the week.

9) The final video filming for the next version of the parish video takes place this week with the Bishop of Olympia.

10) Work on the Advance Commitment event and all parish Banquets are well underway.

11) The Friends of Saint Thomas work effort moves ahead with outreach to schools, neighbors, publications, foundations, and major donors.

12) Bonnie and Lex will update the Saint Thomas School Board of Directors on the Life Center on the evening of 24 October.

13) The Building Committee is prepared to refine their initial plans should they be called back into action by the Steering Committee or the Vestry.

14) The Vestry continues to fund, support, and oversee the Life Center effort.

Thanks to each of you for your respective efforts to make the Combined Campaign and Life Center efforts as successful as they have already been.


Peace,

Bob Simeone
Project Manager
Life Center at Saint Thomas

Building for the Hospitality of God, in Christ, in our community and for future generations.

I'll Be Close to Him Today

This will be my article in the November issue of The Collect. I figure, hey, why not publish it here in advance? That way you get bonus points for visiting the blog.

- Josh Hosler, Associate for Christian Formation


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In her first week of kindergarten, my daughter Sarah befriended a little boy named Eric. The entire class was trying to adjust to the kindergarten routine, and Eric dealt with it by crying every morning on his way from before-care into the classroom.

One morning the before-care teacher was consoling Eric as he cried. Sarah came up to her and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll be close to him today.”

My memories of age five are not clear enough to remember what this kind of grief felt like. I have experienced grief many times since then, but when you’re only five, even little losses must feel overwhelming. Sarah spent the summer preparing to grieve the loss of her preschool, her weekly day with her grandparents, and our weekly “Daddy-Daughter Day.” By September, she was ready. Having dealt with her grief in advance, she knew how Eric felt. And she was able to come close to him.

“Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” Could this be the bleakest lament in the Bible? It is attributed to a field of bones that represent—in Ezekiel’s psychedelic vision—the people of Israel, God’s chosen people [Ezekiel 37:1-14]. But at one time or another, these bones also represent each of us. No matter our age or the size of our loss, we are all grieving something.

Every week when we gather for worship, there are people among us who are grieving, who feel dried up and hopeless, cut off completely. Christians are those who don’t allow people to remain cut off. We strive to live like Jesus did: pouring ourselves out for others, and finding meaning in our life even as we pour it out. One way we can give ourselves away is to be fully present and attentive as the Holy Spirit drops opportunities for ministry into our laps, like the opportunity Sarah found with Eric.

This Sunday, talk to a stranger. When you pass the peace, don’t just greet people you already know. Seek out somebody you don’t know. Begin a conversation and continue it at coffee hour. Welcome people. Include people. Invite people. This is our mission: practicing the hospitality of God. And hospitality is one of the tools God uses to breathe new life into old, dry bones. You never know who God is calling you to come close to.

A landmark day for kids and youth at St. Thomas

Wow. Rarely have I come home from church so exhausted, even after a ten-hour day. But it was a great day. 

As parishioners gathered for a 9:15 forum on Christian Life in Palestine, our childcare opened -- and it stayed open for nearly four hours. With Erica Flores joining Danielle Smoot, we now have two paid childcare providers and are able to offer childcare every week during the Sunday forum.

One thing that really made my day was seeing the Junior Choristers, Senior Choristers and Youth Ensemble in action. But here's the amazing thing: despite the fact that 18 kids were busy singing with the Choristers yesterday, we had above-average attendance in Sunday school at the same time!

As usual, we had a spirited group of acolytes -- coincidentally, this week, they were all middle school boys. Back in the sacristy before church, they held a countdown and watched the clock until it struck 10:10:10 a.m. on 10/10/10. 

On other weeks, our middle school Seekers have been busily writing questions and wonderings all over their church programs. We'll gather all our Seekers' weekly questions and go over them at our next get-together in November. But this week, it seems all our Seekers were busy as acolytes, singers, lectors, and instrumentalists. Everyone was so busy creating the liturgy that not a single question got written down! Actually, come to think of it, that's pretty neat.

After church the parishioners gathered in the Great Hall for the first "enrichment gathering," an informational session for the entire congregation about the plans for the new Life Center. We crammed 13 young kids into the childcare room while 16 kids in grades 3-5 met in the Choir Room for Kids' Club. (Why the Choir Room? Because there was so much going on, there was literally no other place they could go.) And some kids even opted to attend the enrichment gathering (along with older youth) instead of Kids' Club. 

The Kids' Club ate lunch and then disbursed funds. Remember the Vacation Bible Camp coin drive? After the kids had given over $500 to Episcopal Relief and Development's Gifts for Life program, another $284.50 came in. So now the kids got their chance to give that away, too.

The kids talked about the money they receive from chores, pet-sitting, grandparents, etc. What do we do with the money? Save it all? Spend it all? How about sharing some, saving some, and spending some? Since the kids will be major beneficiaries of the new Life Center (most of these kids will be in youth group by the time it is completed), I encouraged them to make their own pledge to the capital stewardship campaign.

Finally, we went outside and posed with our Treasure Garden, the garden the Vacation Bible Camp kids planted in July. Look at it now! Anybody want some vegetables?

I gathered with the high school youth in the afternoon to discuss the direction of the group and to brainstorm ideas for service projects and fellowship. On November 5-6, the parish will hold a 24-hour prayer vigil in support of the Life Center project. Our youth in grades 6-12 will be the anchors for that event, pulling a corporate all-nighter to keep the prayers going.

As the youth group dispersed at 6:00 p.m., Danielle and Erica were back to offer childcare again, this time for the Palestinian Women's Potluck and Panel Discussion. What a busy day, and a landmark week for kids and youth at St. Thomas! And I don't know about you, but I'm having a ball.

Christian Life in Palestine: Forum

Sunday forum presented at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Medina, WA, on October 10, 2010, by Claude Souda

Take Comfort ... But Don't Stop There

A couple weeks ago we had a conversation going here about the new Starbucks slogan, "Take Comfort in Rituals." Here's the original post.

It got me thinking a lot about the Eucharist, and I was especially reminded of the convoluted but beautiful passage we hear in Eucharistic Prayer C (Book of Common Prayer, p. 372):

"Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength; for pardon only, and not for renewal. Let the grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in his name. Risen Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the Bread."

If we take comfort and stop there, we are guilty of hoarding.

Notes from the field: El Salvador 2010

On September 19, the youth of St. Thomas hosted 100+ El Salvador “stockholders,” serving them dinner and presenting them with reflections on their pilgrimage. The evening concluded with an exciting question-and-answer session.

Back in July, during the week our youth were in El Salvador, I posted this 2008 piece from Lily Moodey. Lily was one of four 2008 pilgrims who returned to El Salvador in 2010. By way of comparison, I’d like to share her reflection from this year’s trip as well.

(photo by Rachel Best)

The most striking part of my second experience in El Salvador came not from culture shock, the surprising lack of digestive problems, or even our detention, but from the realization that a mere two years’ difference in perspective could change my experience of the country in such an intense way.

A rising senior in high school, I feel myself suddenly faced with the breathtaking prospect of opportunity. With college applications in my immediate future, adults are perpetually telling me that I’m entering the prime of my life. Left and right people ask me what I aspire to be, assuring me that I’m allowed to change my mind, telling me this is what youth is all about … except not everybody is given that luxury.

While I face an array of choices and exciting experiences, the youth I’ve met and become friends with in El Salvador live in a different, more daunting reality. With ridiculous living costs and wages that don’t match them, it is nearly impossible for anyone to battle poverty without getting involved with the rising gang presence and, in turn, drugs, violence and danger. For them, this is not a desire or even a choice, but an inescapable trap.

Bishop Barahona talked to us about the church’s approach to the situation, trying to offer youth a way out, even when the prospective laws make any association illegal. It was hard to imagine, as I kicked the soccer ball around with new friends from Santa Maria Virgín, or exchanged email addresses with a boy named Francisco, or played with Jennifer and Abél, our cook Mercedes’ kids, that while they have the same passion, energy, excitement, drive, insecurities, faith, and love that I do, they could be facing such a different, scarier future. To me, the difference in our futures was ten times as disturbing as the differences in our material situations and lifestyles that had hit me so hard last time I visited the country.

This trip, however, was not about comparing what they have to what I have and feeling bad about it. Too often, I see something horrible and I stuff my guilt away to deal with later. There’s a lot more that I can learn from the people I’ve met than what I get from merely comparing our situations. I will undoubtedly go about my future questioning who I am to take the opportunities given to me, but I plan to do so using what I’ve learned from the people I met in El Salvador.

The tour guide at the Romero museum brought up a point that resonated with me through the rest of the trip. She affirmed that our ability to stop the injustices in El Salvador are limited, just as much injustice and need exist at home in our community. But by simply respecting the people around us—be it the people who pick up our trash or immigrants who come to our country—we are helping move toward the justice craved by those who are denied it.

I plan to take this advice, along with the patience I learned from a man willing to talk to me in Spanish for an hour despite my difficulty in communicating, the kindness I learned from Mercedes and the other people who welcomed us into their communities, and the strength I learned from the youth of El Salvador as I face whatever comes next. All the while, I will pray that they are given the chance to follow their own dreams.

- Lily Moodey

You can read the entire El Salvador 2010 retrospective here. (Be patient after you click; the file is huge.) My thanks go out to the pilgrims and to the stockholders for their commitment to this very important project.

The Joy of Generosity: Forum

Do you still have burning questions about the capital stewardship campaign and its plan to create a new building in place of the Great Hall? The first thing you should do is listen to this forum (play button below).

Next, attend one of our three upcoming Enrichment Gatherings, where you will have a chance to hear all about the proposed building. Why a new building? Why now? What will it be like? All of these questions and more will be answered. These gatherings are informational and are NOT an ask for money! No pledges will be taken yet.

The Enrichment Gatherings will be held:

Sunday, October 10, after the 10:15 service
(light lunch and childcare included)

Sunday, October 17, after the 10:15 service
(light lunch and childcare included)

Wednesday, October 20 at 6:00 p.m.
(light dinner and childcare included)

Please RSVP to Joanne DelBene.

Third, save the date of our all-parish 24-hour prayer vigil, November 5-6.

But first: listen to this fabulous spiritual reflection, "The Joy of Generosity."

Sunday forum presented at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Medina, WA, on October 3, 2010, by Marc Rieke, our capital stewardship campaign consultant from The Enrichment Group.