The St. Paul's Epistle
September 1, 2006
Contents
Dear Members and Friends of St. Paul's
St. Paul's Welcomes Adam Peithmann
Progress Report on Music Director Search
Fellowship, Fun, and Food!
Taking to the Road with ECW
Not Just Another Pretty Vase:
Episcopal Church Women (ECW) Programs &
Calendar
A Celebration of Leadership & Annual Picnic on
the Lawn
Rochester Marathon 2006
Welcome Back!!
Worship News
You Can Help
REAPers Meet September 28
Stephen Ministry Leadership Training
SPY Corner
Dear Members and Friends of St. Paul's
"Whoopee, I am thrilled to bits and so deeply thankful that this has happened," said Archbishop Desmond Tutu upon hearing of the election of Kathryn Jefferts Schori to be our next Presiding Bishop.
I shout for joy as well, that the Holy Spirit so moved the Bishops of our Church to elect the best possible spiritual leader, man or woman, to head our church. We know the blessing of ministry by ordained women to strengthen and deepen our commitment to justice and peace in the world. It is tragic that so many parts of the Anglican Communion deny themselves the pastoral leadership of ordained women.
"Gene Robinson is a sensitive pastor and courageous advocate for peace and justice. He is a great Bishop," said a parishioner of the Episcopal Church in Littleton, NH, not known for being a hotbed of political radicalism.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is proposing two tier membership for the Anglican Communion: those national churches that sign a covenant affirming Anglicanism's traditional stance on homosexuality would be full members of the communion, while other churches would be relegated to associate status.
We, the Episcopal Church, would be relegated to associate status and a non-voting member.
Ten of our church's 110 dioceses are members of the Anglican Communion Network that opposes the consecration of Gene Robinson and are threatening to break away from the Episcopal Church.
I am saddened when anyone leaves our church, their spiritual home, perhaps for many generations. But like the ordination of women to the priesthood and the consecration of women to being Bishop, or the ordination of the first African American to the priesthood, Absalom Jones in 1818, we are a church that prayerfully and courageously is led by the transforming spirit of God in Jesus Christ.
It is painful to be an Episcopalian right now, but I have never been more proud and grateful to be a priest in her church.
Faithfully yours, Fred Reynolds, Rector
St. Paul's Welcomes Adam Peithmann
Please welcome Adam as our new organist. Adam is a senior at Eastman, studying with David Higgs, and comes to us from the Lutheran Church of the Transfiguration, Irondequoit, where he has been Director of Music since 2004.
A native of Nebraska, Adam has served a wide variety of congregations and won several competitions and awards, including the Fort Hays State Solo Competition and the American Guild of Organists Lincoln Chapter competition.
Following his graduation next spring, Adam intends to continue his organ studies in Germany.
Please join me in welcoming Adam to our community of faith.
Fred Reynolds, Rector
Progress Report on Music Director Search
The Search Committee has met five times, and we believe the process is moving along nicely. The full committee has met with David Craighead, David Fetler, and Laura Dunbar, and received written recommendations from Leslie St. Louis. In addition, individual members of the committee have had extensive discussions with members of the parish and others.
We have received and acknowledged 12 resumes and anticipate many more before the cutoff date of January 10, 2007.
We have been especially fortunate in having Tom McCart as a very active advisor. His profound knowledge of church music is both impressive and invaluable, and he has been actively spreading the word across the country as to our needs and desires. In our most recent meeting he shared with us a detailed draft job description which we hope to approve at our next meeting on September 5. Once approved we will post the document on the church's web site and invite comments from the parish.
We have begun discussions on the key personal and professional attributes we are seeking in the winning candidate. David Craighead shared with us some very useful comments which we especially appreciated.
Committee attendance has been exemplary considering the vacation season, and our members are outspoken, collegial, and very dedicated. We will issue monthly progress reports with more as necessary and, again, we are anxious to hear your thoughts and ideas.
Ted Curtis
Fellowship, Fun, and Food!
Sometimes a large church such as ours is a bit difficult to navigate. Sometimes it seem impossible to find ways to get together with people you see on Sunday at any other time. But wouldn't it be nice if you could? And wouldn't it be even better if there was good food and good conversation to go along with it?
In the past St. Paul's has done something called Foyer Groups as part of the ongoing mission to create opportunities for folks to mingle. Foyer Groups are groups of 8 to 12 people who meet once a month to share a meal and time of fellowship. Usually the groups rotate hosting the event through the membership and a good time is had by all.
The suggestion has been made that we should "resurrect" Foyer Groups. The suggestion has also been made that we might try a different plan. However, we need your input!! Please call The Rev. Leslie M. St. Louis at 271-2240 and let her know of your thoughts and interest so that we can work together to find a new and enjoyable way to bring our large community together in manageable ways.
Taking to the Road with ECW
Enclosed you will find an overview of the ECW program plan for 2006-7. This is intended as a cheat-sheet by way of a reminder of dates and speakers. This is intended, as well, for those of you familiar with what we do and who we are.
However, there is a contingent out there who is not especially aware of the breadth and depth of our work and for you, in particular, we have prepared a booklet outlining what we are all about. These booklets can be found either in the Church office weekdays or at the back of the Chantry and in the Nave on Sundays. Please help yourself.
St. Paul's is our Church.
The Episcopal Church Women of St. Paul's is here to serve all. Let us know how best we can be of help.
Mary Critikos
Not Just Another Pretty Vase:
The Story of American Art Pottery
Donald S. Hall, former director of the Strasenburgh Planetarium and an authority on American art pottery, will speak September 21 at 1:00 p.m. in the Parish Hall following the ECW Luncheon at noon. Audience members are invited to bring in suspected pieces of American art pottery for possible identification and inclusion in his talk.
Hall defines American art pottery as clay objects, made in factories in America, which were designed to be beautiful as they were useful. Brand names include such potteries as Rookwood, Roseville, and Weller. He has written for many publications and has spoken cost-to-coast on glass and pottery, including The Smithsonian. He will be addressing, in particular, the grapevine pottery on the reredos behind our High Altar. It will be an honor to have Donald S. Hall with us.
If you plan on Luncheon at noon with ECW, please confirm your reservation through the Church office at 271-2240 by Monday, September 18.
Mary Critikos
Episcopal Church Women (ECW)
An Overview of our 2006-2007 Program Calendar
Dear Friend,
Welcome to the upcoming world of ECW! The following section snapshots our program calendar for the coming year. Each of you is cordially invited to participate.
Look for timely articles previewing our programs in The Epistle and in the Sunday bulletins. Try us - you'll not be disappointed!
Meanwhile we invite you to take a booklet, "Taking to the Road with ECW" found in the Church office weekdays or at the back of both the Chantry and in the Nave on Sunday. It tells you what we do. Please help yourself. We are here to serve.
How can we serve you?
Your Friends at ECW
- Business Meetings in the Vestry Room
- ECW-prepared lunch at $4 provided in the Parish Hall
- Featured Speaker to follow in the Parish Hall
- Each member and/or guest may participate in one of several segments of the program
- We ask simply that you observe the start times
and
- We will observe the end times
NOTE: reservations for lunch, only, through the Church
Office
(271-2240) are requested to ensure sufficient food for all!
ECW of St. Paul's, Rochester:
2006 - 2007 Calendar of Events
(unless otherwise noted start times are as follows:
Business Meeting at 11:00 a.m., Lunch at noon, and the Program at 1:00
p.m.
Bible Study at 11:00 a.m.
Come for part or Come for all!)
| Sep 21 | Business meeting; lunch, program "Pot[tery] Talk" |
| Oct 5 | Business meeting; lunch, program "EROI" |
| Oct 19 | # 1 Bible Study with the Rev. Leslie St. Louis |
| Nov 2 | Business meeting; lunch, tour at George Eastman House |
| Dec 7 | Business meeting; lunch, program "American Christmas Traditions and How They Took Shape" |
| Dec 9 | Saturday, 9:00 a.m., Parish Hall: set-up for Bake Sale |
| Dec 10 | Sunday, 8:45 a.m., 11:30 a.m., Parish Hall: Bake Sale |
| Jan 4 | Business meeting; lunch, program "East Avenue Memories" |
| Jan 18 | # 2 Bible Study with the Rev. Fred Reynolds |
| Feb 1 | Business meeting; lunch, program "Outhouses" |
| Feb 15 | # 3 Bible Study with the Rev. Tom McCart |
| Mar 1 | 11:30 a.m., parking lot to carpool to John Marshall High School for lunch |
| Mar 14 | Wednesday, 5:00 p.m., Parish Hall: Debutante Tea |
| Apr 5 | Business meeting; lunch, program "American Circuit Rider" |
| May 3 | Annual meeting and election of officers; lunch, program "Spiritual Gardening" |
| May 17 | #4 Bible Study with the Rev. Tom McCart |
| May 20 | Sunday, 10:00 a.m. service: Installation of Officers |
| Jun 7 | Business meeting; pot-luck picnic lunch at Carol Panzer's home, 37 Country Club Drive, Pittsford |
A Celebration of Leadership and Fellowship
St. Paul's Annual Picnic on the Lawn
The Rev. Fred Reynolds begins his eleventh year at St. Paul's in October. To commemorate with story and prayer the past decade of his ministry, come to the 10 a.m. service on September 17. Following the service, a festive picnic will take place in St. Paul's Cross. Everyone is invited!
On September 17 after the 10 a.m. service, we are having a special annual picnic and celebration in honor of Fred Reynolds's ten years of St. Paul's leadership. Under Fred's direction we thrive as a community learning to adjust and embrace the world as it changes around us. We maintain our tradition of the "table" as a symbol of our love and tolerance of each other as we engage in fellowship and conversation.
Bring your summers news to share and an appetite! Your price of admission is a dish to pass: deviled eggs, baked beans, your favorite salad or favorite store bought picnic food. Hot dogs, hamburgers and beverages will be provided. See you there!
P.S. Remember to mark your calendar and come. Here is your checklist:
- Sunday, September 17 after the 10 a.m. service
- Bring a dish to pass
- Celebrate Fred's Leadership
Rochester Marathon 2006
On Sunday, September 17, the second annual Preferred Care Rochester Marathon will take place. Participants will begin downtown and proceed up East Avenue past St. Paul's. Runners begin the race at 8 a.m. and should be well past St. Paul's by our 10 a.m. service. However, the marathon will cause a number of streets to be closed at various times, and you will probably have to take streets other than East Avenue on Sunday. Streets will open as runners pass.
Although there may be some challenges that morning, you won't want to miss church. The 17th will be our wonderful picnic, and it is also the day we'll celebrate Fred Reynolds' ten years as rector of St. Paul's.
A complete posting of road closures and times is on the marathon's web site.
Welcome Back!!
Why Do You Come?
Well, on the one hand we have to say with just a tinge of sadness that the summer is coming to an end. The days are cooler and the nights too, sunset is earlier and earlier as the days go by. Soon, too soon, the winds of winter and whites of snow will whip around us.
But on the other hand we have to proclaim the excitement of returning, returning to the norms of schedules, friends we don't see over the summer, activities let go during the long, languid days of summer. We proclaim the excitement of returning home and part of home is St. Paul's on Sunday mornings.
And so we come excitedly back, filled with anticipation. What will happen this year, who will be there, what have they done since we saw them last, and wait until they hear about our summer adventures! But why such excitement, such anticipation? Why do we come?
Over the summer I had some interesting and lengthy conversations with folks about just this question. Why do folks come to church? Of course one of the answers is for community, fellowship. However one of my skeptics pointed out to me that people can and do have community lots of places and fellowship can be formed in a variety of venues. So what is different about church?
Something special happens in this place and during this time on Sunday mornings that draws us together. We come together on Sunday mornings and at various times during the week as a Christian community with the specific goal of "evangelizing" making new disciples. Now in the Episcopal Church we get a little nervous when people say the word "evangelize," I think. What comes to mind for most folks is going door to door and trying to bring people to Jesus. I suppose that is one way of evangelizing but the fact of the matter is that the way we live our lives is the most potent way of making disciples.
We are blessed at St. Paul's to have a wide variety of ways in which to enter this disciple-making process. Most important I believe among them are the ways in which we help our youth experience Christ. This element of evangelism is making disciples for the next millennium. We are graced with a wonderful compliment of church school faculty, dedicated to building the church of the future. We are graced as well with a myriad of adult education venues for continuing our own journey in faith. If that is not enough the list is long and ever evolving with opportunities to live out our baptismal covenant and proclaim the good news of God in Christ through thought, word and deed. To evangelize!
If you are coming home, welcome back; if you are joining us to find home, welcome. There are many ways to "be discipled" here and many ways to "be disciples" as well. I believe that the call to return is the call to create, to build, to nurture and to grow, I believe we come to church to grow in Christ to be fed by word and sacraments and therein be nurtured in ways we don't find anywhere else, not at school, not at work, nowhere but in the bonds of Christian community. To be washed over by the "euagelion" the Good News and then to go and spread that Good News to others. Join us, won't you, for any one of the opportunities to be changed by the Good News, shaped by the community and fed by the fellowship.
The Rev. Leslie M. St. Louis
Worship News
Since the publication of the Hymnal 1982, Church Publishing has produced a number of supplemental materials for the church. These include Wonder, Love & Praise, Lift Every Voice and Sing II, Enriching Our Music I and II, and Voices Found. This fall, beginning on September 10, we will be using a newly composed chant for singing the Psalm appointed for the day. Published in Enriching Our Music II, this chant was composed by George Emblom, who teaches church music at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific.
Also this fall, we will use Eucharistic Prayer 1 from Enriching Our Worship, which was first introduced at St. Paul's two years ago, and the Prayers of the People will be those written for us and introduced, also, two years ago.
Thomas McCart, for the clergy and music staff
You Can Help
Every Sunday a few volunteers gather in the Flower Room to make some arrangements from the flowers at the High Altar. These arrangements are then taken to someone who is celebrating an "advanced" birthday, or recovering at home from a hospital stay, or someone recently bereaved, or to one of our home bound parishioners, or to all of the above.
This ministry is deeply appreciated by the recipients, and it only takes a small amount of time - a few minutes to do the arrangement, 15 minutes to drive to the home/hospital (nothing in Rochester is more than 15 minutes away from the church, I'm told; and we provide maps!), and a few minutes of visiting. What could be easier?
You can help in this simple, but important ministry. Please say "Yes" to this invitation, and let me or Mary Jo Doyle (421-3464) know of your decision. If you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact either of us.
Thomas McCart
REAPers Meet September 28
Anyone who likes to Read, Enjoy, And Participate, listening for God in the short works of contemporary authors, is invited to join the discussion on second and fourth Thursday mornings from 10 -11:15 a.m. in the Wainwright Hall Parlor. The next gathering is Thursday, September 28.
Barbara Warner
Stephen Ministry Leadership Training
Thank you, St. Paul's, for sending me to this wonderfully inspirational conference in Pittsburgh, July 30 to August 5. I was there, along with 488 others, 81 clergy and the rest lay people, from 48 denominations, representing 312 congregations from 38 states as well as three Canadian provinces and Singapore! We began each day with prayer and went on to morning, afternoon and evening work sessions. We were given two evenings off and I had only that time to see the city, which is surprisingly attractive. I met many wonderful people and I plan to keep in touch with several of them.
Our one commonality was that we would all be returning to our parishes to be a part of the leadership team of Stephen Ministry. Many would be just beginning a program, but I am blessed to be joining Judy Carpenter, Tom McCart and Anne Refermat in guiding St. Paul's well-established program, begun in 2004. The training was exceptionally well done and with the extremely well-organized materials I received I feel well equipped to jump right in.
The Stephen Ministry organization was founded by Dr. Kenneth C. Haugk, is headquartered in St. Louis, MO and is over 30 years old. More than 48,000 church leaders, both clergy and lay, have been trained as Stephen Leaders in that time, and they in turn have trained more than 450,000 church members as Stephen Ministers. The mission of Stephen ministry is to bring Christ's healing love to hurting individuals, expanding the amount of caring ministry for the people of St. Paul's Church.
Sally McGucken
SPY Corner
Welcome Back Picnic for SPY Members and their Families
Sunday, September 10, 1-3 p.m.
Calling all SPY members and their families. Please join us at the Hayden's summer cottage on Lake Ontario (878 Rock Beach Road) for a cookout and an afternoon at the beach on Sunday, September 10th. Bring your swimsuit and a towel.
Please RSVP to Laura Hayden by Friday, September 8 (383-8808 or lhayden@rochester.rr.com)