shining the light · st. andrew's community. his creative ideas and grounded faith helped...
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Shining the LightWelcoming. Growing. Caring. All with Joyous Hearts.
Announcements for July 22, 2020
THIS SUNDAY ATST. ANDREW'S
July 26, 2020
Eighth Sunday afterPentecost
Click Here to Join Us
Virtually at 10:00am forSunday Worship
READINGS FORSUNDAY:
First Reading: Romans 8:26-39
Gospel: Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
READERS FOR THISSUNDAY:
Mary Lynn Rynkiewicz
John Seggerman
FROM OUR RECTOR: THE REV. DOROTA WRIGHT-PRUSKI Dear ones,
I am away on retreat this week. A retreat is not vacation butrather intentional time spent outside of daily rhythms,dedicated to prayer, reflection, and holy listening. While I amgone, know that I will be praying for all of you: giving thanksfor the ways you reflect God's love to one another and to me,and praying for God's continued guidance, grace, and blessingover our community.
In the spirit of retreat, I want to share with you an excitingopportunity that we will share together at St. Andrew's laterthis summer. We will spend seven weeks practicing the Way ofLove as a church. Each Sunday between August 2 andSeptember 13, we will focus on one of the seven spiritualpractices of the Way of Love. The practices are Turn, Learn,Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, and Rest, and practiced togetherthey can help us grow more deeply with Jesus and bearwitness to his love for the world.
Each Sunday, beginning with Bless on August 2, we willintroduce one of the practices of the Way of Love and offeryou suggestions for how you can share in that practice athome later that day or throughout the week.
I look forward to walking the Way of Love together thissummer!
With great love for each of you,Rev. Dorota+
REV. DOROTA ON RETREAT
Rev. Dorota will be away on retreat until Thursday, July23. During this time, please contact Celal Kamran for any
urgent pastoral matters. Celal can be reached at (571) 242-
1786 or at [email protected].
St. Andrew's EpiscopalChurch
The Rev. DorotaWright-Pruski, Rector
Quick Links:
St. Andrew's Website
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THOUGHTS FROM OUR SEMINARIAN We celebrate the feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene inCompline tonight. Mary Magdalene was a disciple of Jesusmentioned in all four Gospels and is given the title, theapostle to the apostles, in some traditions. In fact, she ismentioned more times than most apostles and is present atthe tomb in every single Gospel retelling. This seemssurprising as she holds a much smaller role in church historyand tradition. Yet, when we look at the text especially in theGospel of John, she is the only disciple left in between thedeath and resurrection of Christ. Mary Magdalene does notreject Christ, does not run away, is not scared of what willbecome of her. In this way, for that brief period, MaryMagdalene is the whole Church of Christ.I love the story of Mary Magdalene, especially at a closerglance. She is fearless when Peter and all others are afraid.She loves deeply, weeps deeply at the loss of her Christ. Shetalks to angels and proclaims the Gospel to the apostles. And,as an outsider, she finds relationship with God. In our adultforum on Black art and theology, we have been referring backto Hagar, the slave of Sarah, another outsider. Yet, God findsher when she is cast out to die, God physically delivers herand makes her equal to Abraham. God makes the samepromise to Hagar, as he made to Abraham. After which, Hagaris the first person in the Bible to name God. Both of these,among others, are biblical stories of the marginalized who notonly find favor with God but relationship and agency throughGod. And the first part of agency is bearing witness, for Godand for us.
-Celal
BLACK ART AS A SOURCE OF LIBERATION ANDTHEOLOGY
Join us for a virtual formation series discussing topics inliberation and theology as they appear in popular Black art.
Each week we will look at a different Black artist and discusshow they showcase themes of liberation as a religiousexperience. We will move through the visual album,Lemonade by Beyoncé, the grand portraits of Kehinde Wiley,the potent lyrics of Kendrick Lamar, and the oftentimesjarring poetry of Langston Hughes and James Baldwin. All thiswill be done through the lens of our religious and racialcontext.
Discussions are led by our summer Seminarian, Celal Kamran.Our last installment will be Monday July 27 at 7:15 p.m. onZoom.
For more information and to sign up, please visit St.Andrew's web page for this series. You can log in to Zoom here.
For dial-in: Call 301-715-8592Meeting ID: 899 0491 3230
Password: 4000
WELCOME, BISHOP PORTER TAYLOR
The Rt. Rev. Porter Taylor is the new Assisting Bishop of the
Diocese of Virginia, and he will be joining St. Andrew's liveon Zoom for worship on Sunday, July 26. Join us that day as
we greet our new bishop! Bishop Porter and his wife, Jo, will
move into the 2310 House when circumstances permit, which
means Bishop Porter will eventually be our neighbor as well.
SAYING GOODBYE TO CELAL
Sunday, August 2 will be Celal Kamran's last Sunday at St.Andrew's. Celal has been a great gift to us this summer, and injust eight short weeks he has become an important part of theSt. Andrew's community. His creative ideas and grounded faithhelped shape several important events at St. Andrew's,including the Prayer Vigil for Racial Healing, the Way of Lovesummer series, the formation series on Black Art andTheology, weekly worship, and engaging coffee hourdiscussions. Join us for worship and coffee hour on August 2 aswe celebrate Celal's ministry among us and send him forthwith our gratitude and blessing.
A special thanks to Celal's Lay Support Team: Matt Armstrong(convener), Carla Eckhardt, Ted Edwards, Laura Schultz,Jennifer Trezza, and Ana White. These individuals metregularly with Celal to offer support, feedback, and insightsinto the parish, and they were a wonderful team. Thank youall!
GARDEN OF HOPE
On Saturday July 11, 11 volunteers(Anne, Doris, Erin, Olivia, Susan,Susanna, Bas, Celal, Dave, Ted,and Thijs) weeded, trellisedtomatoes, clipped tomatoes,watered, picked, packaged, anddelivered 88.5 pounds of kale,
collards, cabbage, and peppers to Rock Springs CongregationalChurch for distribution. During the week, the bamboo polessupporting one side of our deer fence broke creating apotential breach in our garden deer defense. Anne, Doris,and Ted repaired the fence before the deer could mobilize andexploit the gap.
The garden continues to produce. Our 2020 donation so faris 491.5 pounds and counting! We should add tomatoes tonext week's harvest.We hope to see more volunteers in the near future. Our nextgarden workday is July 18, starting at 9:00am. We are
normally finished around11:30am.
Please sign-up through Sign-up Genius if you're interested. We have updated our proceduresensure volunteer safety:
A maximum of 10 people may be in the garden at atimeVolunteers must sign up here or RSVP to Ted Edwards inorder to ensure that we are under our volunteer limitVolunteers must wear a face covering that covers themouth and noseVolunteers must maintain 6' of distance from othervolunteers while in the garden (exceptions made forvolunteers from the same household)Volunteers must bring their own gardening glovesOther general materials volunteers should bring asneeded: a water bottle, sunscreen, sun protection (e.g.hat, sunglasses, etc.)
AFAC FOOD DRIVE
A huge thank you to everyone who hasdonated to our food drive in support ofAFAC! We have already donated atrunk-load-plus of food, and hope to beable to do it again soon so please keepthe donations coming! In addition, please remember thatthey are not accepting anything inglass containers so please refrainfrom contributing any of those as
we'll sadly have to throw those items away. As a reminder, food donations should be limited to items fromAFAC's list (below) and can be dropped off inside the plasticbin outside the entrance to the church by the church office.
Items acceptable for donation:
*Low sodium preferred.*No glass please!* Canned Tuna & Chicken* Canned Soups* Canned Vegetables* Canned Tomatoes* Peanut Butter (in plastic jars)
If you prefer, monetary donations can also be made via AFAC'swebsite.
Finally, if you are interested in driving the donations to AFACfor a contactless drop off, please contact Marcela Scott at [email protected]. Thank you for your support!
FREE WOOD
If you would like Locust tree or Cherry tree wood to burn inyour fireplace, smoke your briskets, or to make into woodenbowls, it's yours! Come to the upper parking lot behind the2310 House, next to the Church's Garden for Hope.
There are some trunk size pieces as well as pieces that havebeen chopped into manageable sizes, thank you HeathFlowers! The firstest get the mostest. Questions? Please contact TedEdwards, [email protected].
MURDER MYSTERY BOOK CLUB IS BACK ONAUGUST 22 St. Andrew's Murder Mystery Book Club is returning to thefamiliar terrain of Millers Kill, NY, for its next (virtual)meeting on Saturday, August 22, at 2:00pm.
While life circumstances have changed for Clare and Russ,there are more murders to be solved -- and, this time, in JuliaSpencer-Fleming's "Hid from Our Eyes," Russ is a suspect. Grabyour favorite summer drink, a yummy snack, and yourcomputer as we discuss the latest challenges for this duo inthe ninth (and most recent) book of the series. Zoom link infowill be provided closer to the time.
Questions? Please email Mary Lynn Rynkiewicz [email protected].
VIRTUAL MEET-UPS OVER SHARED INTERESTS Based on a suggestion during coffee hour recently, we aretaking a survey to see who is interested in participating invirtual meet-ups. These would be times set aside to meet withothers virtually, likely over a video platform, to talk about orparticipate in a common interest. Potential shared interestscould include sports, knitting, cooking, languages, cultures,books, podcasts, social issues, etc. Please consider
completing this short survey, which takes about 4 minutes.Thank you for your participation!
MUSIC NOTES Calling all musicians!
Do you sing or play an instrument? Brandon would love todiscuss with you some ways that you might participate. Thiscould be anything from an audio recording to be included in ahymn/choral anthem to a vocal or instrumental soloperformed live during the Zoom service, or anything inbetween.
You may have seen our joint choir anthem on Pentecost. ( Youcan watch it here.) We are also planning some simple hymnrecordings. There are many ways we can make our music evenmore fulfilling, and we'd love to include you in it. Let's getcreative!
Check out this survey if your interest is sparked. Or contactBrandon at [email protected].
CALLING ALL COOKS AND BAKERS The Welcome and Fellowship Committee has created awebpage for the cooks and bakers of St. Andrew's to post theirlatest culinary creations and share their great recipes. Pleaseshare your favorite comfort food, baked good, limitedingredient, or other recipe that you are enjoying during this"stay-at-home" period or that you plan to enjoy later. Wewould also love to see pictures of your creations.
Parishioners can comment and "like" recipe posts on the pageas well. Instructions for how to post recipes and commentsare available on the webpage. The webpage link is: St.Andrew's Stay At Home Recipes. Some great recipes arealready posted. If you have any related questions, pleasecontact Corttney Roan at [email protected].
GIVING TO ST. ANDREW'S Your financial gifts to St. Andrew's are of vital importance tosupport our ongoing ministries and our outreach to the mostvulnerable among us. Please continue to offer your faithfulgifts by mailing your check to our church office (4000 LorcomLane, Arlington VA 22207), or by dropping off your check atthe church. You may also use a special online portal established throughour diocesan office for electronic giving to St. Andrew's. Usethe link and put "St. Andrew's Arlington" in the memo line ofthe online form. This online portal is being made available by
the Diocese through the summer. If you use the diocesanportal, please also email our Treasurer, Doris Smith, to alerther of your contribution so she can track it. Please note thattransactions have a 3% fee associated with them. If you are making a very large donation, it may be morepractical to send it by check to the church directly.
WORSHIP SCHEDULE
Compline: Wednesdays at 8:30 p.m. A brief contemplative service of nighttime prayers
Morning Prayer: Sundays at 10:00 a.m. Our principal weekly worship service with readings, hymnsand a sermon, followed by a virtual coffee hour
All services can be accessed via this link for a videoconnection or, for an audio-only connection you can join byphone! Simply call (253) 215 8782 and enter 592 431 032 whenasked for the meeting ID number.
CONTACTING ST. ANDREW'S
Here is the best way to reach the staff of St. Andrew's at thistime:
Rev. Dorota - [email protected] or call 414-704-9694Emily Blecksmith - [email protected] Heishman - [email protected] Kamran, Summer Seminarian - [email protected]
To view St. Andrew's online member directory, go to members.InstantChurchDirectory.com and follow the promptsunder "Sign In" to "Create a login now." There is also a freemobile app available in most app stores. Simple search for"Instant Church Directory" to get the download. You will needto use your email address as listed in the directory to create alog-in the first time you use the directory online and via themobile app.
For those who would rather receive a printed copy pleasecontact Emily [email protected].
To our readers: Have a social activity or event you want published in Shining the Light?
The deadline for submissions is Tuesday evening. As always, we welcome your comments, ideasor suggestions.
Email the church office at [email protected] or call (703) 522-1600. Your input is very much appreciated.