The community of St Thomas responded with characteristic generosity in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake in Haiti. What's happening there today and how has the Church continued to support the people of Haiti in their struggle to rebuild this broken country? The articles linked below give us a snapshot of how another group of Episcopalians, these from Trinity Church, Staunton VA, are providing resources, expertise, and, most importantly, the spirit of compassionate solidarity in Christ with their brothers and sisters in Haiti. These stories are of particular personal interest to me because the leader of this effort is an old friend and colleague, The Rev. Roger Bowen. Roger is a priest of the Church who served as both Head of the York School (Episcopal) in Monterey CA and of St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin. Roger has long had a heart for the the extensive network of Episcopal schools in Haiti and in retirement continues to work tirelessly on various Haitian projects. He's a real inspiration.
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/haiti_earthquake/episcopalians_in_haiti_working.html#more
We can continue to express our care for the Church and the people of Haiti by making contributions to Episcopal Relief & Development, an organization whose Board of Directors includes our own Tucker Moodey.
http://www.er-d.org/HaitiEarthquakeResponse
What other ways can we imagine that we at St Thomas might be of use to the people of Haiti?
Faithfully,
Lex
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Welcome, Lucas Andrea Nassisi!
We have another new little parishioner! Lucas Andrea Nassisi was born May 29, 2010, to Andrea and Amy Nassisi, sister Bella and brother Alexander. Congratulations to all five Nassisis!
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Beyond Sundays - The Great Hall's Secret Life
The Great Hall holds a special place in our hearts. There we can gather after services and meet for Christian Education. In addition, its positive effects stretch beyond our parish into the community at large, providing the city of Medina and its citizens a critical public gathering space.
Every week scores of us gather after the 8:00 and 10:15 services for coffee and catching up. Amazingly, the Building Committee learned AA (Alcoholic Anonyms) and Al-Anon’s (family members coping with an alcoholic) monthly use of the Great Hall exceeds our own. Every Monday and Friday evenings our parking lot overflows onto the streets as the Great Hall fills with AA members. Its walls provide a vital sanctuary, a sacred pace where this AA Chapter helps its members continue in their daily path of sobriety.
The Building Committee was honored to hear the stories of affection and salvation members of the AA Chapter shared with us. Like us, they are attached to the Great Hall, but are aware of its structural limitations. The AA community and our parishioners agree the absence of private meeting spaces, comfortable restrooms, and modern childcare spaces are shortcomings which can no longer be ignored.
The Building Committee was also surprised to learn AA uses our childcare spaces on weeknights for their members. What an unwelcome shock to hear they are forced to turn away families when the number of children exceeds 18. Our AA Chapter actually uses our own childcare space more then we do. They are excited to know the Parish Life Center will give them the opportunity to help more people and young families suffering from the addiction of someone they love.
by Mikaela Cowles
Every week scores of us gather after the 8:00 and 10:15 services for coffee and catching up. Amazingly, the Building Committee learned AA (Alcoholic Anonyms) and Al-Anon’s (family members coping with an alcoholic) monthly use of the Great Hall exceeds our own. Every Monday and Friday evenings our parking lot overflows onto the streets as the Great Hall fills with AA members. Its walls provide a vital sanctuary, a sacred pace where this AA Chapter helps its members continue in their daily path of sobriety.
The Building Committee was honored to hear the stories of affection and salvation members of the AA Chapter shared with us. Like us, they are attached to the Great Hall, but are aware of its structural limitations. The AA community and our parishioners agree the absence of private meeting spaces, comfortable restrooms, and modern childcare spaces are shortcomings which can no longer be ignored.
The Building Committee was also surprised to learn AA uses our childcare spaces on weeknights for their members. What an unwelcome shock to hear they are forced to turn away families when the number of children exceeds 18. Our AA Chapter actually uses our own childcare space more then we do. They are excited to know the Parish Life Center will give them the opportunity to help more people and young families suffering from the addiction of someone they love.
by Mikaela Cowles
Monday, June 21, 2010
The Elusive Search for Balance
As a pastoral counselor, I've spent a lot of time talking to younger couples and individuals about "balance" in life. Many of us have three balls we're trying to keep up in the air, it seems to me. Marriage. Parenting. Career. The trick in keeping these three balls in the air is that we only have two hands.The ball that usually gets dropped, particularly when the kids are still around, is "marriage." So we talk a lot about attentiveness to our spouse or partner, making room for intimacy, setting boundaries,etc.; all this in service of the quest for "balance" in life. It's a clever analogy (and not one I created), but I've begun to realize it's ultimately not very helpful.
The pursuit of balance in some ways pits different parts of ourselves against one another, places them in competition without integrating them. We need integration of these various parts of our lives rather than "balance." These various parts of ourselves should be invited into conversation with one another rather than into competition. How can my vocation enrich my marriage which enriches my parenting which makes me a more whole and satisfied professional, etc. Another analogy is to the members of the Trinity, Creator Redeemer, Sustainer, who are always in conversation with and in relation to one another. The Trinity isn't about "balance". It's about the integrity of individual roles within a relational flow.
I recently ran across a fine book that speaks to the want for integration of the different parts of ourselves and our lives. The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self, and Relationship by David Whyte. His thesis is that we are not just involved in a primary relationship with a significant other. We have each made secret vows to our work and unspoken vows to our continually evolving inner selves. How these three "marriages " interact with and inform each other will be key to our fierce want to live into our true selves. Deepening and enriching the conversation, the interplay, the dance among these three marriages is the work of a lifetime.
Whyte is a poet, retreat leader and corporate consultant who lives and works on Whidbey Island.
He has a profound Celtic spirituality that radiates from all his work. I've been reading this book with a young couple with whom I've been doing pre-marital counseling and it has been as illuminating for them as it has for them.
Here's a sample of Whyte's poetry:
The pursuit of balance in some ways pits different parts of ourselves against one another, places them in competition without integrating them. We need integration of these various parts of our lives rather than "balance." These various parts of ourselves should be invited into conversation with one another rather than into competition. How can my vocation enrich my marriage which enriches my parenting which makes me a more whole and satisfied professional, etc. Another analogy is to the members of the Trinity, Creator Redeemer, Sustainer, who are always in conversation with and in relation to one another. The Trinity isn't about "balance". It's about the integrity of individual roles within a relational flow.
I recently ran across a fine book that speaks to the want for integration of the different parts of ourselves and our lives. The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self, and Relationship by David Whyte. His thesis is that we are not just involved in a primary relationship with a significant other. We have each made secret vows to our work and unspoken vows to our continually evolving inner selves. How these three "marriages " interact with and inform each other will be key to our fierce want to live into our true selves. Deepening and enriching the conversation, the interplay, the dance among these three marriages is the work of a lifetime.
Whyte is a poet, retreat leader and corporate consultant who lives and works on Whidbey Island.
He has a profound Celtic spirituality that radiates from all his work. I've been reading this book with a young couple with whom I've been doing pre-marital counseling and it has been as illuminating for them as it has for them.
Here's a sample of Whyte's poetry:
Everything is Waiting for You
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone. As if life
were a progressive and cunning crime
with no witness to the tiny hidden
transgressions. To feel abandoned is to deny
the intimacy of your surroundings. Surely,
even you, at times, have felt the grand array;
the swelling presence, and the chorus, crowding
out your solo voice You must note
the way the soap dish enables you,
or the window latch grants you freedom.
Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity.
The stairs are your mentor of things
to come, the doors have always been there
to frighten you and invite you,
and the tiny speaker in the phone
is your dream-ladder to divinity.Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into
the conversation. The kettle is singing
even as it pours you a drink, the cooking pots
have left their arrogant aloofness and
seen the good in you at last. All the birds
and creatures of the world are unutterably
themselves. Everything is waiting for you.-- David Whyte
from Everything is Waiting for You
©2003 Many Rivers PressI'd be interested in your thoughts about the integration of the various parts of ourselves and the role faith might play in that. also, if you would like to know more about David Whyte and his work, and I hope you will, here's a link to his website.
http://www.davidwhyte.com/home.htmlFaithfully,
Lex
Rowan Williams, Mitregate, Anglican Covenant, ... how much do you care?
Diana Butler Bass writes a very thoughtful blog called "Christianity for the Rest of Us" on beliefnet.com. This particular article jumped out at me.
It's a very timely article, and there's a great history lesson in it besides.
But it got me wondering about something. If you're not as much of a "church junkie" as I am, do you care about this stuff? Does it matter to you that the Episcopal Church is losing membership at a rate equivalent to one diocese every year? Does it matter that the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. is in hot water with Britain, regardless of the fact that the Church of England has no authority over us?
As long as St. Thomas is healthy and doing good ministry, does all this worldwide stuff matter to you? Should it? Or is the local church where it's really at, regardless of any denominational politics? After all, there are plenty of "mega-churches" out there with no denominational affiliation at all.
Please share your thoughts!
It's a very timely article, and there's a great history lesson in it besides.
But it got me wondering about something. If you're not as much of a "church junkie" as I am, do you care about this stuff? Does it matter to you that the Episcopal Church is losing membership at a rate equivalent to one diocese every year? Does it matter that the Episcopal Church in the U.S.A. is in hot water with Britain, regardless of the fact that the Church of England has no authority over us?
As long as St. Thomas is healthy and doing good ministry, does all this worldwide stuff matter to you? Should it? Or is the local church where it's really at, regardless of any denominational politics? After all, there are plenty of "mega-churches" out there with no denominational affiliation at all.
Please share your thoughts!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
HISTORY OF PARISH LIFE CENTER PLANNING
2005 Mark Nelson, Parish Life Center architect, evaluated the plan of the entire campus in preparation for the St. Thomas School remodel. The school project started parishioners thinking about upgrading the Great Hall, then over 50 years old, having significant maintenance problems, and increasingly becoming inadequate for church growth.
March 2006 Father Lee proposed a remodel/rebuild of the Great Hall. At the 2006 annual Vestry Retreat, he is turned down with the rationale that the church has had significant problems in the recent past, and although improvement was needed, we should let recent soothing of past problems continue for a while.
August 2006 A Facilities Task Force is established to plan for a future update. By October initial plans are prepared by Mark Nelson, designer of the Chapel built in 2000.
Winter 2007 Bad winter with multitude of serious utilities failures required major effort and convinced Vestry that a significant upgrade was both urgent and unavoidable.
Spring 2007 School demolition uprooted shared utilities between School and Parish, disabling plumbing, heating, and electrical systems. Expensive repairs further highlighted infrastructure problems.
September 2007 Focus groups were formed to evaluate needs of church and the nationwide search for development consultants to help was begun. After the search the Enrichment Group from Tacoma was determined to be the best fit as they had demonstrated much success in Puget Sound area in Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches.
Later 2007 Father Lee was called to be Bishop of Chicago. Consecrated as Bishop in February 2008.
2008 Simultaneous continued building project, profile development, and search for new rector were too complex and building project went on hold. However, through interviews and focus groups, evaluation by Enrichment estimates that a $4.5 - $5 million Capital Campaign is very possible. Sole proviso of donors was that the Profile and Search Committees emphasize importance of new Rector having experience with capital campaigns and major building projects.
Late 2008 Bishop Rickel meets with Search Committee and Vestry and urged everything NOT be put on hold as happened in Diocese prior to his arrival. It left too much for the new Rector to do in addition to his regular duties. All agreed going much further required the new head of St. Thomas to be in place before proceeding.
October – November 2009 Process restarts with Father Lex’s arrival in September. Vestry resolved to officially reaffirm campaign and authorized with funding through September of 2010.
March 2006 Father Lee proposed a remodel/rebuild of the Great Hall. At the 2006 annual Vestry Retreat, he is turned down with the rationale that the church has had significant problems in the recent past, and although improvement was needed, we should let recent soothing of past problems continue for a while.
August 2006 A Facilities Task Force is established to plan for a future update. By October initial plans are prepared by Mark Nelson, designer of the Chapel built in 2000.
Winter 2007 Bad winter with multitude of serious utilities failures required major effort and convinced Vestry that a significant upgrade was both urgent and unavoidable.
Spring 2007 School demolition uprooted shared utilities between School and Parish, disabling plumbing, heating, and electrical systems. Expensive repairs further highlighted infrastructure problems.
September 2007 Focus groups were formed to evaluate needs of church and the nationwide search for development consultants to help was begun. After the search the Enrichment Group from Tacoma was determined to be the best fit as they had demonstrated much success in Puget Sound area in Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches.
Later 2007 Father Lee was called to be Bishop of Chicago. Consecrated as Bishop in February 2008.
2008 Simultaneous continued building project, profile development, and search for new rector were too complex and building project went on hold. However, through interviews and focus groups, evaluation by Enrichment estimates that a $4.5 - $5 million Capital Campaign is very possible. Sole proviso of donors was that the Profile and Search Committees emphasize importance of new Rector having experience with capital campaigns and major building projects.
Late 2008 Bishop Rickel meets with Search Committee and Vestry and urged everything NOT be put on hold as happened in Diocese prior to his arrival. It left too much for the new Rector to do in addition to his regular duties. All agreed going much further required the new head of St. Thomas to be in place before proceeding.
October – November 2009 Process restarts with Father Lex’s arrival in September. Vestry resolved to officially reaffirm campaign and authorized with funding through September of 2010.
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