Epistle

From the Rector
The Start of the Church Year

My dear parishioners and friends of St. Paul's,

I write this immediately upon my return from San Francisco, where I and about a dozen parishioners from St. Paul's witnessed the installation of our former music director, Jeffrey Smith, as Canon Music Director at Grace Cathedral. Most of us stayed on for the Sunday following, All Saints' Sunday, when I was privileged to preach at two Masses. The late Mass saw a packed Cathedral with 20 baptisms!

The Cathedral is an extraordinary place with a very full and vital program and life, and they have enormous human and financial resources available to them for their program. It was all most impressive. However, as so often happens, I returned to St. Paul's ever more aware of the extraordinary nature of this parish church, which more than equals such a Cathedral as Grace in its liturgical schedule as well as its many other offerings, with a fraction of the resources that are available.

I suppose this is both good news and bad news. The bad news is that we might from time to time take for granted all that is offered here and all that we have in our life together. The good news is, of course, that God has richly blessed us and continues to call us to an important and vital witness, mission, and ministry.

Advent events
This year, the new church year begins at the end of November, with the first Sunday of Advent falling on the 28th, and by the first day of December we will be four days into the Advent season. The season will begin with the usual Sunday schedule, of course -- with the addition both on November 28 and on December 5 of our traditional and magnificent Advent Lessons and Carols service at 6 PM. This has become the best attended single service in the course of the church year, and that is why last year, for the first time, the same service was repeated. The previous year, conditions were actually quite dangerous in terms of overcrowding in the church.

Please note that Benediction does follow Advent Lessons and Carols on both days -- at 8 PM. We pride ourselves on offering Benediction every Sunday, and it seems to me that that is exactly what we should do without exception. This means that after the service, you will be able to attend the reception and then close the day with devotions to the Blessed Sacrament.

The first weekend in December, I shall be conducting a three-day preaching/teaching mission at St. John's Church in Newport, Rhode Island, where a former seminarian at St. Paul's, Canon Jonathan Ostman, is now the rector. Please keep me and that parish in your prayers as we seek to "Awaken the Spirit Within."

Advent quiet day
Our Advent quiet day will be held on Saturday, December 11, from 9 AM to 3 PM. I am delighted that Mother Miriam, the Superior of the Community of St. Mary, has agreed to conduct that day. As in each Advent and Lent, I enthusiastically urge your participation in these golden opportunities for a time of quiet and reflection -- a rare event in any of our lives and too rare in our parish schedule!

Mother Miriam has graciously agreed to be with us for the weekend. Mother Miriam will address the rector's forum on Sunday morning, December 12, from 10:30 to 11 AM, and then she will be available to meet with anybody over tea at 4:30 PM prior to Evensong and Benediction.

St. Paul's has undertaken to assist the Community of St. Mary in their new work in their Convent in northern Malawi. Mother Miriam will be talking about that new work, and I hope that she will show us ways in which we can be helpful.

Christmas
Christmas falls in a pretty lethal combination this year! Christmas Eve, December 24, is a Friday. Christmas Day is a Saturday, and the very next day, December 26, is the first Sunday after Christmas. Please note the full Christmas service schedule on page 10.

The second Sunday after Christmas, January 2, will see our annual Christmas Lessons and Carols at 6 PM.

For the secular new year, New Year's Day is a Saturday, January 1, and in sacred time it is the Feast of the Holy Name. There will be a Sung Mass at 9:30 AM.

As always, this comes with my gratitude and love in Christ,

Andrew Sloane+

Tina Mallett Receives Award

Some of us have known for a long time that Tina Mallett is a very special woman among us at St. Paul's, but at last the wider Washington, D.C., community is learning of her great capacity to care and to make a positive difference in the lives of people of our community. Over 200 women were nominated for the annual Washington area Toyota Dealers and WJLA-TV Tribute to Working Women, and Tina was one of seven to receive one of the awards this year.

The seven winners were honored at a gala luncheon at the Ritz Carlton Hotel on Monday, November 8, 2004, where Kathleen Matthews, Channel 7 news anchor, presented the awards, which included a $1,000 check. Although several St. Paul's parishioners tried to convince Tina that she should spend this money on herself, she announced in her acceptance speech that she would be giving it back to our homeless ministries.

Tina was nominated by some of her friends involved with the Grate Patrol. Tina started this program almost 30 years ago. About 400 meals are taken out to the homeless every weekend when the other kitchens do not operate. This "room service" (as one of our former volunteers would announce as she approached sleeping or just waking recipients on their grates, doorways, etc., where they spend the night) provides a sandwich, hard boiled egg, banana, hot coffee, and a prayer card. For all these years, Tina has been the coordinator of the many people it takes to make the sandwiches, set up and fill the bags, and deliver them every Saturday and Sunday morning.

Congratulations, Tina on an incredible job well done! (And, if you decide that you can use the award check for yourself, we won't tell any of those who were at the luncheon; you really deserve something for yourself!) [JAS]

Gift-Giving Opportunities

The Commission on Mission is establishing a program of gift-giving opportunities in support of individual mission ministries at St. Paul's. Parishioners and friends will be able to donate to a ministry as a gift. Gift cards and a description of the ministry will be available for donors to send to friends stating a gift was given in their name.

All proceeds will go directly to the designated ministry.

Available ministries:

Hunger/Homeless -- includes Grate Patrol, Red Sea, Salvation Army, or any one segment may be specified
Habitat for Humanity
Honduras
Malawi

[RG]

Canterbury Fellowship Off to a Great Start

Canterbury, St. Paul's new ministry to college students, has begun meeting this fall and is already involving several undergraduates at nearby George Washington University. Weekly meetings after Evensong on Sunday feature a few ice-breakers, some snacks to provide welcome doses of caffeine and carbs, and thoughtful conversations about faith in Christ and life as a disciple.

The group has been reading and discussing C.S. Lewis's Mere Christianity and are finding his insights helpful in understanding and articulating the gospel amid the clamor of busy lives on campus. These evenings of spiritual discussion can have long-lasting impact as young adults begin to clarify their beliefs and make decisions about how -- and for whom -- they will live their lives.

Several Canterbury students joined others involved in Episcopal campus ministries in Province 3 (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and D.C.) for a weekend retreat at the Virginia Theological Seminary. In addition to talks on the theology of prayer, there were opportunities to explore different ways of praying, such as using a labyrinth, icons, and beads in an Anglican rosary.

In a creative outreach to the campus, Canterbury student leaders Julie Whitis and Stephen Morel have laid the groundwork for a concert by GWU a cappella singing groups, to take place at St. Paul's in early December. You are cordially invited to join us!

If you see a student at St. Paul's (or anywhere else, for that matter!), be sure to give them a warm welcome!

For more information about Canterbury, click here, or contact GWU Ministry Coordinator David McGaw at 202-498-5540 or david@mcgaw.net. [DM]

Activity Morning Will Prepare for Christmas

We are planning to have our second annual Preparing for Christmas activity morning on Saturday, December 18. The program is open to all of the children and youth of the parish and any friends or neighbors you wish to invite.

After the usual Saturday 9:15 AM Morning Prayer and 9:30 Mass, we will begin with breakfast snacks in the dining hall.

We will light the candles on the Advent wreath, sing a few Advent songs, and choose partners for the morning's activities. In the church, we will have a new version of last year's treasure hunt, finding the windows and other objects in the church that are pictured on your paper. Next, the Flower Guild will help us to make some of the Christmas decorations for the church. We will also be able to prepare the church for Christmas by polishing the brasses.

After all of these activities, we will return to the Dining Hall for pizza lunch and prizes for all.

Sign-up sheets will be available so we will have an idea of how many will attend. Contact Jo Stelzig at 703-426-0487 or Jstelzig@cs.com for further information or if you have questions. [JAS]

Malawi Mission Bake Sale a Success

On behalf of the Sisters of St. Mary's Convent in Luwinga, Malawi, many thanks are given to St. Paul's Parish and its friends for its generous gifts of time and talent to support of the Malawi Mission Bake Sale. With your help, we raised over $1,000. These funds will help the Sisters to build an indigenous African Community that ministers to its own people in ways appropriate to their culture. Equally important, your dollars will build their chicken house, one brick at a time, helping the Sisters to become self-sustaining through the sale of chickens. Many thanks to each of you for your participation! [SC]

The Malawi Mission:
Building a Self-Sustaining Community

One of St. Paul's most promising mission programs is a commitment to support the work of St. Mary's Convent, Luwinga, Malawi, in South Central Africa. A farming project aimed at creating a self-sustaining way of life is underway following the training of seven sisters from Malawi by the Sisters of the Community of St. Mary in Greenwich, New York.

In 1999, The Rt. Rev'd Christopher Boyle, Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Malawi, initiated a discussion with the Community of St. Mary to start a religious convent to aid his local people. His aim is to build an indigenous African community that prays and ministers to its own people in ways appropriate to their culture. Thus was created the concept for St. Mary's Convent in Luwinga -- the Malawi Project.

The Malawi Project reflects the history of the CSM, which was founded in 1865 on the Benedictine principle of combining a monastic life with a balance of worship, study, contemplative prayer, and work. The Community is the oldest Anglican order for women in the United States.

The work on the Malawi Project started four years ago when the first novices traveled from Malawi to New York to study with the Community, learning the basics of monastic life and receiving practical training in animal husbandry and sustainable agriculture. Since that time, a new convent has been built in Luwinga, Malawi, where five Sisters live and work; two additional African novices are currently being trained in Greenwich.

The specific projects most needing your contributions in Luwinga are:

* A brick chicken house for raising fryers and layers and eggs to sell. The project needs 35,000 hand-made clay bricks, cement, wire, roofing nails, and other building materials are needed. The convent goal is to sell 12,000 eggs, 516 fryers, and 25-layer and 25-fryer chicks annually to sustain self-sufficiency. Total cost: $10,000.

* A brick fence to secure the Convent property line. Currently the property line, adjacent to the highway, is open to poachers and looters. This needs 900,000 bricks are needed, plus cement blocks, river sand, cement, and other materials and labor. Total cost: $44,031.

* A 6-burner commercial stove with double ovens. Total cost: $1,500.

You can help build a self-sustaining community, one brick at a time!

Make a contribution
Initial site preparation for the chicken house: an essential cement and cinder block foundation $4,000.00

Bricks:
10 bricks @ .20 each. $ 2.00
100 bricks 20.00
1,000 bricks 200.00
2,500 bricks 500.00
5,000 bricks 1,000.00

A 6-burner commercial stove with double ovens. $1,500.00

How?
* Make a check payable to "St. Paul's Parish," for: The Malawi Mission

Put your check in the plate or in the tract rack slot. You may also give a gift certificate.

* Make a pledge to The Malawi Mission. Pledge cards are available in the back of the Nave.

The Malawi Mission demonstrates a clear vision for aiding a people in need with growth and practical resolution. We seek your prayers and contributions. The Sisters are very grateful for all contributions, large and small.

"He who honors the poor, honors him" (Proverbs 14:31). [NB]

St. Paul's 2005 Walsingham Pilgrimage Planned

Next April, Fr. Sloane will lead the third pilgrimage by St. Paul's Parish to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. In addition to the pilgrimage to Walsingham, the group will visit York and Lincoln. A warm welcome is extended to all who wish to join the pilgrimage.

The prior parish pilgrimages to Walsingham, in June 2001 and May 2003, were well received by participants from the parish. Each pilgrim will testify that it was a personally rewarding and significant religious experience. In addition, the parish has forged or strengthened ties with the Walsingham Shrine: A cell of Our Lady of Walsingham has been established at St. Paul's, and Fr. Sloane was appointed as a Guardian of the Shrine during the 2003 Pilgrimage.

Walsingham
The Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham was the most renowned sanctuary of Mary in medieval England. It sprang into fame upon the report that the Mother of God had appeared to the Lady Richeldis, an inhabitant of the Manor of Walsingham, belonging at that time to King Edward, the Confessor. Our Lady directed that a chapel, after the model of the Holy House of Nazareth, should be built in honor of the mystery of the Incarnation. Here was enshrined the venerable image of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Tentative daily itinerary
April 15-28, 2005 -- 13 days and 12 nights

Friday, April 15 -- Depart Washington Dulles, 7:00 PM, on British Midland Airways flight 702. Overnight flight to Manchester, England. Dinner and light breakfast aboard flight.

Saturday, April 16 -- Arrive Manchester at 6:00 AM. Coach and guide will meet our group and transfer to the Middlethorpe Hall Hotel. After check-in, we plan an excursion to a nearby restaurant for lunch (on your own). Later, we will drive to York Minister for a guided tour prior to Evensong at 5:00 PM. After Evensong, we will return to the Middlethorpe for a welcome reception and buffet.

Sunday, April 17 -- Depart the hotel at 9:00 AM by coach for Mass (Fr. Sloane to preach) at St. Wilfrid's Church, Harrogate, at 10:00 AM. Lunch in the parish. After lunch, we visit Ripley Castle, a stately home, and then on to Ripley Cathedral for a tour, and Evensong at 5:30 PM. Return to York. Dinner on your own. (Restaurant recommendations will be provided.)

Monday, April 18 -- Breakfast in hotel, then board our coach for a full-day trip to Durham and tour of the cathedral, with Mass by Fr. Michael Whitehead. Lunch at the home of the Archdeacon. Return to Middlethorpe for a quiet evening including soup and sandwich supper (on your own).

Tuesday, April 19 -- Breakfast in the hotel. Drive to the Community of the Resurrection in Mirfield for Mass. Lunch at Mirfield. In the afternoon, tour of Harewood House (one of the great stately home of England). After the visit to Harewood, we will go to Ripley for dinner (on your own) at 6:00 PM at the Boar's Head Hotel. After dinner, return to the Middlethorpe Hotel.

Wednesday, April 20 -- Breakfast in hotel. We visit York for Mass at All Saints' North Street Church. After Mass, we board the coach and travel to Lastingham (St. Mary's Church). We take the North York Moors Railway, a steam train leaving Pickering at 1:20 PM and arriving at Grosmont at 2:25 PM. The coach will meet us where we visit Whitby Abbey and the hilltop church of St. Mary. Later in the evening, we will enjoy a fish and chips (on your own) supper at the Magpie Cafe, Whitney. After supper, return to the Middlethorpe.

Thursday, April 21 -- Breakfast in the hotel. A morning visit to ancient abbey of Riveaulx and a pub lunch (on your own) at Helmsley or the Star Inn at Harome. In the afternoon, we go to Ampleforth (a Roman Catholic abbey and college) for a tour and sung Vespers. Return to Middlethorpe for drinks and dinner at the hotel with invited guests.

Friday, April 22 -- After breakfast, we check out of the Middlethorpe and travel by coach to visit two of the finest churches in North Yorkshire, Beverley Minster and Selby Abbey. After lunch (on your own), we travel to Walsingham arriving late afternoon. First visit at the Holy House, followed by dinner at Walsingham. Evening at leisure.

Saturday, April 23 -- After breakfast, Stations of the Cross, quiet morning, and possible visit to the Slipper Chapel and Roman Catholic shrine. Lunch at Walsingham, then a visit to Holkham Hall, 6:00 PM Mass in the Shrine church, dinner, and 8:00 PM liturgy including candlelight procession of Our Lady.

Sunday, April 24 -- Mass at St. Mary's, Walsingham, at 11:00 AM, followed by drinks and lunch. Sprinkling at 2:30 PM. Procession of the Blessed Sacrament, Benediction. Dinner at 6:00 PM. Evening at leisure.

Monday, April 25 -- 8:00 AM Mass in the Shrine church followed by breakfast. Morning at leisure. After lunch, we go by coach on a "church crawl" of nearby churches and East Barsham Hall, followed by afternoon tea with Barbara Marlow at Wells-Next-the-Sea. After tea, return to Walsingham. Dinner at 6:00 PM.

Tuesday, April 26 -- 8:00 AM Mass in the Shrine church followed by breakfast. Last visit to the Holy House at 9:30 AM. After the last visit, we board our coach to Lincoln with visits to the glorious churches of Walpole St. Peter and St. Botolph, Boston, en route. Arrive late afternoon in Lincoln and check in at the White Hart hotel. Evensong at Lincoln Cathedral. Dinner is on your own.

Wednesday, April 27 -- Breakfast in hotel followed by tour of Lincoln Cathedral, spending the morning in the city. After lunch (on your own), we will visit the church of St. Wulfram at Grantham. Return to hotel late afternoon with free time to explore Lincoln. We say farewell tonight with a special dinner.

Thursday, April 28 -- Depart by coach to Manchester Airport. Return flight departs at 12:20 PM, arriving Washington Dulles at 3:00 PM.

Cost per person sharing room: $2,599. International airfare: $491 + tax $113* = $604.00. Total per person: $3,203.

*Note: Airport tax of $113.00 is based on current British pound/U.S. dollar exchange rate and is subject to change at time of issue of air tickets.

Included in the cost:

* Roundtrip airfare from Washington, D.C. to Manchester, England;
* 6 nights in a five-star hotel in York: Middlethorpe Hall;
* 4 nights at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham;
* 2 Nights in a first-class hotel in Lincoln: White Hart Hotel;
* Hotel tax and service in each hotel;
* Full English breakfast in York and Lincoln;
* All meals in Walsingham (breakfast/lunch/dinner) for 4 days;
* Welcome reception and buffet in York;
* Included meals as noted in daily itinerary;
* Escorted coach travel for 13 days throughout itinerary;
* Qualified Blue Badge Guide throughout the itinerary;
* Day tour to Durham, including lunch;
* Day tour to Mirfield, including lunch;
* Tours as listed in itinerary.

To reserve space on the pilgrimage please fill out the reservation request form. A $200 per person deposit is required. For more information, visit the Walsingham Pilgrimage web page or contact David Eld at 703-379-8071. [DE]

Memories of Old St. Paul's

I recently read an account Dorothy Spaulding wrote some time ago of old St. Paul's, and it brought back a flood of memories about the "church on the circle," its demise and subsequent resurrection on K Street, as well as the parishioners involved in those old St. Paul's days.

My first introduction to old St. Paul's was a midnight Mass in the late 1930s. I had been invited to St. Paul's by Ann Evans (Baynard). There I met, for the first time, the inimitable Curt Cooper, who was serving that night as the acolyte allowing parishioners up to the communion rail.

When old St. Paul's was condemned, a great debate arose as to whether the survival of the church was as important as the building of a hospital.

To his everlasting credit, Fr. McCallum decided to keep St. Paul's in the parish boundaries, even though many parishioners had felt that the then-economically deprived Foggy Bottom had little to offer.

It was Fr. Mac who chose the architectural genius, Philip Hubert Frohman, as the creator of St. Paul's. Mr. Frohman's unique signature -- the unfinished stonework at the entrances to St. Paul's today -- is the same signature he left on the National Cathedral on Mount Saint Albans, since he believed strongly that the genius of his original architectural plan should eventually be faithfully completed.

Hopefully, St. Paul's, in due course, will complete Mr. Frohman's design of the porches at the entrance to the church.

An early memory of St. Paul's, K Street, was of the birds flying into the church through the unfinished stained glass window openings.

Dorothy Spaulding mentions Fr. Mac's service in World War II. I wonder how many parishioners have been puzzled by the artillery projectile in the coat of arms in the stained glass window on the Epistle side of the high altar.

This coat of arms is a tribute to Fr. Mac's service as chaplain of the D.C. National Guard's 121st Anti-Aircraft Regiment before World War II. When this regiment was mobilized at the beginning of World War II, Fr. Mac entered active service, driving by truck with the regiment to Fort Hood, Texas, and returning to St. Paul's later that year.

St. Paul's at St. Thomas, Dupont Circle
Probably my most vivid memory is the time when St. Paul's worshipped at St. Thomas. At that time, I headed up the acolytes at St. Thomas, as did Curt Cooper at St. Paul's.

St. Thomas' churchmanship was much more "low church" than St. Paul's since St. Thomas' long-time rector, Dr. Howard Sargent Wilkinson, had a variable churchmanship. If, for example, he felt good on Palm Sunday, there were palms on the choir cross; if not, no palms...

When St. Paul's came to St. Thomas, Dr. Wilkinson had passed to his great reward and had been succeeded by a militant low churchman, the Rev'd Harold Bend Sedgwick, who wore a Canterbury cap in lieu of a biretta.

Needless to say, Mr. Sedgwick was not as hospitable to St. Paul's as could have been wished. Nevertheless, Fr. Mac was unperturbed, and St. Paul's moved forward.

On a personal note, upon St. Paul's return to Foggy Bottom, I decided I would also come to St. Paul's, where my children were baptized and confirmed and my sons sang in Mr. Birchby's choir. My wife and son are interred in the Columbarium, as are my mother-in-law and sister. I was pleased to assist in the design and construction of the Columbarium, which was originally conceived by Fr. Richards. [JVS]

The Vitality of Prayer at the Heart of Our Lives

This sermon was preached by the Rev'd Philip Barnes, Shrine Priest of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, at St. Paul's on October 17, 2004.

Debate has been raging in the Roman Catholic weekly The Tablet over the desirability, or not, of the intercessions at Mass being written and read by lay people. A priest wrote in to have the last word:

Sir, The debate on lay participation in the Prayer of the Faithful is all well and good, but ... At Mass some years ago now I invited the congregation to lead the prayers. After ten minutes praying for various family members with blood-curdling diseases, sick budgies, and the like, and despite several abortive attempts by me to introduce the "Hail Mary," a religious sister leapt to her feet. My heart sank. "Dear Lord," she prayed, "please let this be the last bidding prayer: Lord hear us!"

We've all experienced the sorts of prayers where it is as if it is imagined that through making them last a long time God will get somehow worn down and give in to us. But can this really be what Jesus is suggesting that we should do in this morning's gospel (Luke 18:1-8)? Are we to suppose that just through sheer persistence God will give us what we want? Because it seems that in that extraordinary parable of the widow and the unjust judge, we're invited to draw parallels between her pushiness to a judge who really couldn't care less about her and our life of prayer.

The Welsh priest and poet R.S. Thomas encapsulates something of this sort of experience in prayer when he writes:

Prayers like gravel
flung at the sky's
window, hoping to attract
the loved one's
attention. But without
visible plaits to
let down for the believer
to climb up,
to what purpose open
that far casement?
I would
have refrained long since
but that peering once
through my locked fingers
I thought that I detected
the movement of a curtain.

It's so easy to cast ourselves as the widow, subject to oppression and delayed retribution, bashing away at God like some enraged bag lady, and literally giving him a black eye, in order to get some sort of intention.

At the heart of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham is our life of intercessory prayer. Every day since the Shrine was restored in 1921, Shrine Prayers have been offered, using the rosary as the vehicle for the offering of the many intercessions that are left or sent in to us -- a work which I know that you share here at St. Paul's with your daily Shrine devotions. And this parable is inviting us to put our work into a right perspective.

Look at it this way: The invitation "pray always" is not so much to do with the length of prayer or the thought that we are going to wear God down into some activity on our behalf. Rather we are being told why prayer is important, because quite simply it is faith put into action. It is not some optional pious exercise, performed to show our relationship with God -- it's far more fundamental than that, because it simply is that relationship. To be constant and to persevere in prayer is to persevere in fidelity to the God who calls us into relationship with him and to understand more deeply that we are children of God and that he is our loving Father. Yes, we are supposed to laugh at the comic tale of a judge being hand-bagged into submission -- but then to see in that persistence a model for our own.

No unanswered prayers
So when you pray, consider what you want and need and never mind how vulgar or childish you think you are being, because when you pray you need to be as honest with God as you can be, and it's not even worth pretending. One of the great human values of prayer is that we face the facts about ourselves and admit what we want; and we know that we can talk about this with God because he is loving and forgiving. We must persevere in prayer, in bringing all those needs and wants to him because when we do we meet God and meet ourselves where we really are -- and then comes the risk, for God will move us on. When we speak to God of our desires, very gently and tactfully he will often reveal to us that we have deeper and more mature desires.

Prayer is the way in which our Father in heaven leads each of us by different paths to be saints with him.

So, there is no such thing as unanswered prayer (if it is real prayer and not just going through the motions) -- the widow is never going to come away unheeded. Either God will give you what you ask, and this is extremely common; or else he will reckon that you are ready to receive more than you asked. To you at the time, and especially to the cynical outside observer, it might look as though your prayer has not been answered. But as you will recognise at a later stage, God has been getting you to understand that your deeper desire was for more than you asked for. If you let this continue he will gradually lead you to realizing that what you really want above all things is himself.

Seeing God's gifts for what they are
Just a couple of months ago, we had in Walsingham a group of children, one of whom had special needs, and I was told by his teacher that he didn't have long to live. As we moved around the Shrine Church, we thought together about the way so many people come to Walsingham to pray for healing and to experience God's grace in a particular way. He came up to me afterwards and he wanted to know about people who weren't healed, those whose pain went on and whose physical suffering remained.

I answered by talking about what Walsingham was for -- because as we look at Mary in the kingdom of heaven, we're given a new perspective into which our lives fit. Walsingham gives us the whole picture in which we understand ourselves, for we see that we are on a journey towards that place where all is turned to glory, and where we will find the resolution to all our desires and needs.

So, to return to the problem we started with, can we put pressure on God so that he changes his mind? No, of course not, because that sort of thinking is the wrong way around. Prayer starts not with us, but with God. It is, remember, our life of faith, and God wants us to see his gifts for what they are, so he wants to give them to us as answers to prayer. When he heals us miraculously in answer to prayer, we get a privileged glimpse into the generosity of God. But he is no less generous in creating and sustaining the skills of doctors and nurses and the ingenuity of researchers into medical technology. Answers to prayer are not so much special acts of God's love -- they are more the perpetual action of God's love made specially visible to us.

Heaven in ordinary
In his poem "Prayer," George Herbert describes it as "Heaven in ordinary" -- a wonderful phrase, our ordinary lives as the crossing place for God's space and human space. Today's Gospel challenges us to never forget the vitality of prayer at the heart of our lives -- for it is our communion with the God who calls us into relationship with him, and who calls us to draw new life and new hope in his infinite resources.

December Birthdays

1 Greg Capaldini
2 Elisabeth Braw
3 Anne Abbott
4 Deb Loucks; Jean Groves
5 Phil Schlatter
6 Daniel Miller
8 Devon Hill; David Schnorrenberg
9 John Walker
11 Robert Bullock; Peter Yeager
12 Martha Shoesmith
13 Douglas Purvance
15 Joe Manson; Kalyn Bruin; Linnie Condon; Martha Baker; Mitaire Ojaruega
18 Ron Meekhof
20 John McKendrew
21 Robert Menzer; Beverly Dame
22 Thomas Hardy
23 Shannon Whitefischer
24 Seth Bruin
25 Lucky Ajueyitsi
26 Andrea Merrill; Ann Bush Cooper

If you have a December birthday that was not included, or if there are any mistakes, please contact the parish office. [MW]

Parish Statistics
Transfer out: Elizabeth Linden Rubin and Skylar Blair Linden Rubin to St. Francis, Potomac, Maryland; Gerald Wells to Trinity, Portsmouth, Virginia
Baptisms: Jeffrey Paul Lawrence Coulter (October 21, 2004)
Marriages: Alison E. Meekhof and David L. Jenkins (October 30, 2004)
Deaths: Gordon Wray (October 12, 2004)

Mission Calendar -- 2004

Hunger/Homeless
Grate Patrol every weekend
Preparation Friday afternoons 3-5 PM
Delivery Saturday and Sunday mornings

Red Sea dinner Tuesdays at 6:30
Dec. 7, 14, 21, 28; Jan. 4, 11, 18, 25

Salvation Army dinner preparation,
First Friday of each month, 5-7 PM, Dec. 3, Jan. 7

Malawi Mission
Advent Quiet Day Saturday, December 11,
with Mother Miriam, CSM
Rector's Forum Sunday, December 12

Advent Quiet Day, Saturday, December 11

Led by Mother Miriam, Mother Superior of the Community of St. Mary

9:15 AM Morning Prayer 9:30 Mass
10:00-10:30 Continental Breakfast
10:30-11:00 Meditation I
11:15-11:45 Meditation II
Noon Noonday Prayers
12:15-1:15 Lunch
1:15-1:45 Meditation III
2:00-2:30 Exposition and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament

Feast Days in December

St. Thomas the Apostle
Tuesday, December 21
6:45 AM Morning Prayer
7 AM Low Mass
Noon Low Mass
5:45 PM Evening prayer
6 PM Low Mass

Christmas Eve
Friday, December 24
6:30 PM Sung Mass (preacher, Fr. Andrew Sloane)
reception following in the dining hall
11:00 PM Procession and Solemn Mass (preacher, Fr. Andrew Sloane) reception following in the dining hall

The Nativity of Our Lord
Saturday, December 25
7:45 AM Morning Prayer
8:00 AM Low Mass
10:30 AM Procession and Solemn Mass
(preacher, Fr. Edwin Barnett)

First Sunday after Christmas Day
Sunday, December 26
7:45 AM Morning Prayer
8:00 AM Low Mass
9:00 AM Procession and Sung Mass
(preacher, Fr. Andrew Sloane)
11:15 AM Procession and Solemn Mass
(preacher, Fr. Andrew Sloane)
6:00 PM Solemn Evensong and Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament

St. Stephen, Deacon and Martyr
Monday, December 27
6:45 AM Morning Prayer
7 AM Low Mass
Noon Low Mass
5:45 PM Evening prayer
6 PM Low Mass

St. John, Apostle and Evangelist
Tuesday, December 28
6:45 AM Morning Prayer
7 AM Low Mass
Noon Low Mass
5:45 PM Evening prayer
6 PM Low Mass

The Holy Innocents
Wednesday, December 29
6:45 AM Morning Prayer
7 AM Low Mass
Noon Low Mass
5:45 PM Evening prayer
6 PM Low Mass

The Epistle
A monthly publication of St. Paul's Parish
K Street -- Washington, D.C.

Editors Christine Nevius, Alistair Nevius
Assistant Editor Allison Freeman
Desktop Publisher John Walker
Designer David McGaw
Contributors Nancy Bush, Stephanie Chesson, Rhoda Geasland, David McGaw, Andrew Sloane+, Jo Stelzig, James Van Story, Melva Willis

Submissions Invited
We welcome the submission of articles, comments, and suggestions. Manuscripts and correspondence can be dropped off at the church office or e-mailed to the editors at nevius@erols.com. Electronic manuscripts are preferred. Articles accepted for the Epistle are subject to editorial revision.

SAINT PAUL'S PARISH Washington, DC 20037-1797
phone 202-337-2020
fax 202-337-7418
e-mail info@StPauls-Kst.com
Web www.StPauls-Kst.com

Parish Staff
The Rev'd Andrew Sloane, Rector
The Rev'd Edwin Barnett, Curate
Mark Dwyer, Music Director
Charles Burks, Assistant Music Director
Melva Willis, Parish Administrator
Frederick Murdock, III, Maintenance Manager

The Vestry
The Rev'd Andrew Sloane, Rector
David B. J. Chase, Senior Warden
Philip Schlatter, Junior Warden
Ellen Purvance, Secretary
Polly Peckham, Treasurer
Larry Cook, Antoinette C. MacAulay, David McGaw, Marcia Stanford; Jeremiah de Michaelis, Debra Loucks; Kenwin Benn, Rhoda Geasland, Matthew S. Leddicote, Lynne V. Walker

Our Mission
St. Paul's Parish seeks to restore all people to God and to each other, through Sacramental Worship and Christlike lives.

Deadline for next issue
Monday, December 6