Epistle

From the Rector
Lessons Learned...

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

My letter to you this month will come it two halves. The first half continues my sabbatical leave report, which began last month and which no doubt will continue for a few more! The second half ( ...and Lenten Observances, below) is to alert you to features of our common life for this month, including the beginning of Lent on February 25.

Last month, I spoke in fairly personal terms of some the effects of my time away. You may well be asking, but what did he actually get up to?!

Teaching at Holy Trinity

The anchor of my time is England was a weekly commitment at Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, in London. This is the home of Bishop Michael Marshall's extraordinary work, along with the newly founded Trinity Institute for Christianity and Culture (www.theticc.com). Bishop Marshall and the Rev'd Nadim Nassar, Principal of the Institute, invited me to offer a course, one of four in the first semester of the 2003-2004 year. My course was entitled "The Distinctive Marks of Christian Spirituality" and was offered alongside "Who on Earth Is Jesus? Christ the Teacher in a Multi-Faith and Multi-Cultural Society," by Bishop Marshall; "Who on Earth Do You Think You Are? Creation in Science, Mythology, and Theology," by Nadim Nassar; and "The ABC of Faith: The Anglican Basis of Christianity," by Fr. John Simpson.

You'll notice the balance between let's call it "inward looking" (Christianity and Anglicanism) and "outward looking" (culture, other faiths, science).

I was pleased to have about a dozen students. Like people at St. Paul's, they were highly educated and interesting people – with all the challenges that go with that for an amateur teacher. The content of the course I taught was from materials that may be familiar to some of you from my presentations here already; some is new. I shall be offering a condensed version of this course in the Rector's Forum in February. Here is the outline, which is also available on our website:

February 8 The Incarnation and Its Implications
February 15 The Sacramental Life: Baptism
February 22 The Sacramental Life: The Holy Eucharist
February 29 The Role of the Church and the Place of Worship
March 7 Corporate and Personal, Not Individualistic
March 14 Ministry and Mission: Authenticating Marks
March 21 Day to Day Spiritual Living
March 28 Types of Christian Spirituality

Our Wednesday evenings together were stimulating and rewarding – at least for me! I was very aware of our own Wednesday evening offering of Pilgrims in Christ, and Holy Trinity offers a similar schedule – with Mass followed by a cup of tea, the classes, and ending with compline (which we don't do). There were about 50-60 people involved in the four classes, and they were taught in the church itself, there being no parish house or classroom space we are spoiled despite our complaining!

Trinity Institute for Christianity and Culture

Wednesdays and Thursdays were generally my days at Holy Trinity, and I was able to work with Nadim Nassar and others on future planning for the Institute. Interest in what they are about has grown encouragingly. The Archbishop of Canterbury was able to launch the Institute last fall with a sermon at a special Evensong. Their plan is to get it well and truly launched in London and then to identify various parishes and other institutions worldwide that would affiliate with their work. Already there are such places in Syria and Lebanon, as well as in England.

They would very much like us here at St. Paul's to be a major focus of their American work, and I have been asked to begin to develop – with the help of some of you reading this, I hope – a strategic plan for the Institute for the United States. You will be reading in the Epistle from time to time some further information.

One thing I worked on was to take the basic principles of the Institute and incorporate them into our own established plan for Christian formation. (See page 10.) I also worked on the development of a leaders' manual that would be the blueprint for all those leading courses and classes associated with the Institute.

I helped develop a timetable for the Institute whereby pilot associate programs would be launched in 2005 with a launching conference/workshop in the United States, followed by a repeat conference in the United Kingdom. The Principal of Sarum College in Salisbury is on the Institute Board of Advisers and is keen to host the conference there; Nadim and I had a very productive day with him in Salisbury.

One of the highlights of my trip right at its end was to be present at the ordination to the diaconate of the Rev'd Nadim Nassar by the Bishop of London at Holy Trinity – so I can no longer call him a high church Presbyterian! Hopefully, Nadim will be ordained to the priesthood later this year.

A trip to Rome

I took two overseas side trips from the U.K. The first was not planned but was simply a reaction to a ridiculous airfare offer of £29 round-trip from London'to Rome. The weekend I was able to do that turned out to be the weekend of the beatification of Mother Theresa of Calcutta. So, along with 300,000 other people, I was able to attend that papal Mass in St. Peter's Square on a clear, sunny day in October. It was quite an experience, as you can imagine. I was struck by the quiet devotion and eager participation in the liturgy and by the enormous crowd. Many of the people where I was standing were from Albania, Mother Theresa's homeland, and they were obviously deeply moved to be there. Most astonishing were the liturgical logistics to communicate 300,000 people, which was accomplished by an army of priests who fanned out from the altar after the Eucharistic Prayer.

The Holy Father was of course the principal concelebrant and was clearly very frail and had difficulty speaking. A clear PA system and a huge outdoor color screen enabled all to feel part of what was going on. It was fantastic to look up to the basilica of St. Peter's to see the outdoor papal altar surrounded on one side by a sea of red all the cardinals who were present – and on the other a sea of purple – presumably bishops and archbishops.

While in Rome, I was able to visit all of the major basilicas, as well as several catacombs, including those of St. Agnes and St. Sebastian, which I had not seen before. To be in Rome is to be part of the crucible, in a way, of Western Christianity. It is moving to visit the tombs of the early martyrs from whose seed we find our own lineage. It is also very interesting to observe carefully the architecture and the liturgical settings of the early Roman liturgies and see their influence on current liturgical practice and debate.

St. Gervais, Paris

The other side trip was to Paris on the splendid Eurostar – a train now upgraded to 2 hours and 40 minutes from the heart of London to the heart of Paris. My main goal there was to visit once again the astonishing church of St. Gervais – on the right bank, right next to the city hall or Hotel de Ville. Jeffrey Smith had first alerted me to its existence following his own sabbatical several years ago. It is the church where Couperin wrote and played, and that organ still serves the liturgy. It is also the home of the Monastic Communities of Jerusalem, whose motto is "In the heart of the city in the heart of God."

Under the inspired and charismatic leadership of Père Pierre-Marie Delfieux, their founder and superior, the community has become the fastest-growing religious community in the Roman Catholic Church and has gathered an extraordinary community of worshippers around it at that church. Earlier last year, I attended one of the most moving liturgies I have ever experienced anywhere, in a church in the heart of Paris packed with people of extraordinary diversity. Both Bishop Marshall and I have commented that our own parishes seek renewal in, for, and of the inner city. What has been the key to the evangelistic success of St. Gervais?

Through the auspices of a friend who is an Anglican priest in Paris, and who speaks fluent French – unlike my own rather rough high school French – I was able to spend a wonderful day at St. Gervais, to eat lunch with the community and spend several hours talking with Fr. Pierre-Marie. Fr. Pierre-Marie had been the chaplain at the University of the Sorbonne. He felt a call to the hermit life of the desert and answered that call by going to Egypt. His experience there led him to a vocation to try to bring the spiritual desert to the heart of the city. And so the community was founded – a religious community dedicated to living in the city, worshipping and praying for and with city dwellers and workers.

The community prays three offices and one Mass each day. Perhaps 60 or 70 monks and nuns gather before the high altar at St. Gervais to sing the office most exquisitely. Each service is preceded by 30 minutes of silent meditation by the community and others. They are joined by people on their way to work, on their lunch hour, or returning home in the evening, when the Sung Mass is also offered.

I was struck by so much: A picture of our own community continuing to gather as it does three times a day also, but to include people from the residences and institutions by which we are surrounded. I imagined those offices being sung simply and beautifully. I imagined some form of disciplined, ordered community living under a common rule and a common life – indeed Fr. Pierre-Marie suggested that at the heart of their witness is the religious community itself, which God uses to draw the lonely, isolated, and estranged, the stressed and confused to his holy order and peace. Is there a call here to a more intentional, foundational community at St. Paul's?

I was most struck by how completely unself-conscious the liturgies are at St. Gervais, and I worried that we Anglo-Catholics are far too self-conscious. Is it that the Roman Catholics don't have to prove their Catholicism and we do, or is there more to it than that? Is it that we use what could be considered archaic language for our worship, which must make us self-conscious to an extent, or is there more to it than that? Many questions, but no answers yet! The authenticity of that community's life and worship is palpably powerful and irresistible. Is ours? If so, where are the numbers? Or don't numbers matter?

Let me end this brief observation about St. Gervais – you'll be hearing much more – with some comments by the good father. I asked him for the key to their life and witness. He answered: a community of love and a community of prayer – inseparable – and characterized by joy. Now there is food for thought! I told him that was difficult for Anglo-Catholics, too often characterized by "gin, lace, and backbiting," as someone once said, by bitterness and by majoring in the minors, by being stupefyingly self-absorbed, self-important, and self-conscious. Where do we fit in all that? More questions and more (thrilling) challenges and more from me later!

Back here

As my plane was landing at Dulles returning from Barbados in December, the man next to me looked down on the nation's capital, sighed and said, "Welcome back to the rat race!" Well, sadly, that is all too true, but Lent and the days leading up to it offer an antidote to stress cynicism and too much doing and not enough being. Don't pursue "everything to live with" without realizing the One to live for in your life.

Allow me to end by saying how exciting it is to be back. We have lots of challenges before us this year on a number of levels: stewardship, budget, buildings, evangelism, the issues in which Anglicanism is painfully but we hope creatively involved, the formation of new and renewed Christian souls, outreach, hospitality and so much else – these days of Lent remind us of one essential: It is only Jesus that matters and our faithful response to his love on the Cross.

With my gratitude and with my love in Christ,

Andrew L. Sloane +

From the Rector (Part II)
...and Lenten Observances

February begins with the lovely feast of Candlemas, or the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, on Monday, February 2. At 6:30 PM, we shall have a Procession and Solemn Mass at which the Suffragan Bishop of Long Island, the Right Rev'd Rodney Michel, will preside and preach. It is a lovely service when we celebrate the Light of Christ – "a light to lighten the gentiles" in the words of old Simeon – when we bless and dedicate all the candles to be used in the church for the coming year, including those we shall use in procession that evening. As always, nursery care will be provided and a reception will follow in the dining hall.

This is one of those days that very few other churches keep so solemnly as we do here, so it is a wonderful time for you to invite your friends and neighbors, and to begin to reach out to all those people round about us that I mentioned above. They will not know unless you tell them, and imagine that the people you are telling have been waiting all their lives for an encounter with the living God, which surely they will have when we meet that evening to worship him and to feed on him in word and sacrament.

Ash Wednesday

Lent begins on February 25 with Ash Wednesday! (Not, as some would prefer, with the First Sunday of Lent four days later!) You will find details of our Lenten observances and disciplines outlined elsewhere in this Epistle. Traditionally, our primary Lenten observance in addition to Sundays has been on Wednesdays. Please note the schedule for services on Ash Wednesday and, equally important, the schedule for confessions on Shrove Tuesday (being shriven is what it is all about; pancakes are incidental!) and on Ash Wednesday itself.

The Lenten program: Looking towards Resurrection

One of our parishioners astonished me some months ago by professing belief in and the importance of the Crucifixion – fine – but then went on to disavow the importance or necessity of the Resurrection. There in a flash, in that encounter, was our Lenten program formed! There is all sorts of confusion, half truths, and error surrounding the central tenet of our faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Some contemporary authors who should know better have not helped the situation! So that is what we shall be looking at on Wednesday evenings in Lent. The schedule and details are found elsewhere here.

I have my comments regarding St. Gervais in my mind (see above) when I write now of the importance of the communal nature of our Lenten observances. It is all too rarely that this community of St. Paul's comes together as one Eucharistic family – truly a challenge to the building of a consistent community of prayer and love. Wednesday evenings in Lent are one such opportunity, along with the essentially important observances of Holy Week. I implore you therefore to make every effort to be with the Lord and us on Sundays, of course, but also on Wednesday evenings. Fr. Barnett will once again arrange for a program for little ones and young ones, and I hope that this year that may include more than his own children and the odd one or two!

St. John Passion in context of Vespers

On Friday, February 27, thanks to Jeffrey Smith and the choir once more going above and beyond what their responsibilities are, we shall hear a performance of the Bach St. John Passion in the context of Lenten Vespers with a sermon. This is not just another musical event. If you have attended either of the previous two years' services, you know the power of the music and words in themselves to convert, and you know the power to attract those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ. Your presence at this event provides the context of the worshipping and loving Christian community that the music and its composer assume, and that so many of those who visit us long for.

It is a challenge to preach the cross succinctly and powerfully, but I shall make myself available to do so as I know you will make yourself available to be the hands, hearts, and voice of the crucified and risen one whom we are called to make known; preaching, in other words, is not limited to the pulpit alone, but by our every word and gesture together. [More information may be found here.]

Lenten quiet day

By way of advance notice for March, please note the Lenten quiet day scheduled for Saturday, March 13, which I shall be leading. For a parish that prides itself on its Anglo-Catholic tradition, we do not do well with the discipline and indeed blessing of quiet days. All fluff and no substance I wonder? Another question to ponder! [ALS+]

New Parishioner Profile – Tygh Bailes

Tygh Bailes is relatively new to both the Washington area and to the Episcopal Church. He grew up in Virginia and recently moved to Washington, where he works at the Leadership Institute, a non-partisan conservative organization in Arlington. Tygh's job as the Executive Director of Grassroots Programs is to train conservative candidates, campaign staff, and activists to be more effective in grassroots campaigning.

When Tygh first moved to Washington, he started looking for a church here. Even though he grew up Southern Baptist, Tygh first settled on a suburban Episcopal church. As he was about to join that parish, some friends from Richmond strongly suggested that he check out St. Paul's.

"I first attended St. Paul's in January last year, and haven t gone anywhere else since," says Tygh. He soon met many people who cared that he was here, he remembers.

The Sunday worship has become especially important to Tygh: "Every time I attend Mass, I leave feeling like I have really worshiped Christ – something I am glad to be doing." This year, Tygh attends Pilgrims in Christ, where he has gotten to know many other parishioners. "St. Paul's is the most diverse church I've attended, and it is also the greatest church community I've been a part of. It is very much a Christ-centered community," he says.

Tygh Bailes will be confirmed later this year. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling, reading about politics, and watching college football, as well as such outdoor activities as running, fishing, and hiking.

Please greet Tygh Bailes at the 11:15 Mass. [EB]

Choristers' Parents Concert

A yearly tradition you will not want to miss is the Annual "Mommas and the Poppas" Parents Concert benefiting the youth choral program at St. Paul's. The concert will be held at 7:30 PM on Friday, February 6, and it will feature the talents of our choristers' highly skilled parents, many of whom are professional musicians. The concert will help fund this year's choir tour to Williamsburg, Virginia.

Among the performers will be mezzo-sopranos Barbara Hollinshead and Kris Brown Coleman, bass Frank Albinder, tenor Jonathan Coleman, violinist Risa Browder, cellist John Moran, French hornist Diana Ogilvie, and oboist James Dickey. Selections will feature music from Renaissance to modern, including works by Byrd, Finzi, and Rameau.

Please mark the date to attend! Admission passes are available in advance or at the door ($20 suggested donation). Following the concert there will be an elegant dessert reception inspired by the approach of St. Valentine's Day. [JS]

Forum on Love, Marriage, and Sexuality

The December monthly forum in the series "Living a Christlike Life in Today's Society" had an amazing turnout to discuss issues relating to the beginning of life. Since St. Valentine's Day comes in February, the topic selected for the series is the ethical issues relating to love, marriage, and sexuality.

What is marriage? Who may be married? What about people who aren't married? What forms of expression exist, or should exist, between people who are not married in the traditional sense? What does the Gospel say about this question? How has the Church traditionally interpreted this question, and why is the Church's traditional stand coming under attack today? Is the diversity of family structure here to stay?

This is an opportunity to discuss and share views. We expect that everyone will come away entirely convinced of the same opinion with which they arrived, but we hope people will be challenged to think and perhaps put themselves in the place of others who have had different experiences.

The forum meets on the first Thursday of every month in the Guild Room at 6:30 PM. Come and join us on Thursday, February 5. [DW]

Bach's St. John Passion

Did you know that our 2003 performance of Bach's St. John Passion was listed in The Washington Post as one of classical music critic Tim Page's Best Bets? With an appreciation of two years' worth of tradition, we will once again offer the St. John Passion as part of our parish's Lenten devotion.

The Parish Choir, under the direction of Music Director Jeffrey Smith, will perform the work on the first Friday of Lent, February 27, at 7:30 PM. As was customary in Bach's time, the Passion will be performed in the context of a Vesper service, with sermon, congregational hymns, and responses. While liturgical performances were the rule in eighteenth-century Germany, they are very rare today. St. Paul's is the second venue, and the only church, in the United States to perform the St. John Passion in this setting.

What is an authentic performance of a great musical masterwork? While ubiquitous in the classical recording world, the early instrument performance ideal is admittedly only a step towards the dream of full recreation of a composer's intent. To achieve truest authenticity in a performance of a Bach Passion, for example, one would need to recreate the mindset of worshipers in Bach's era – impossible! (One would also expect an hour-long sermon, but Fr. Sloane promises to be inauthentically brief!) Nonetheless, framing the music within the prayer life of a worshipping community is an important realization of the true nature of Bach's intent.

St. Paul's Parish Choir will be joined by the period-instrument ensemble Modern Musick, led by John Moran and Risa Browder. The timbre and articulation of the period instruments lends an exciting transparency to the orchestral sound. Our vocal soloists are among the finest performers in the region: Robert Petillo, tenor; Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano; Barbara Hollinshead, mezzo-soprano; and Steven Combs and James Shaffran, bass.

Because of the liturgical nature of the event, we are unable to fund its expenses with tickets and instead rely upon the generosity of friends and parishioners. Those wishing to contribute to the expenses of the evening are invited to send their memorial or thank-offering gifts to the parish office. Names will be published in the evening's program. The suggested contribution at the door is $25 per person.[JS]

Additional information may be found here.

St. Paul's Hosts Congregation-Based Shelter

Clarence remembers taking the streetcar to see Ella Fitzgerald at the Howard Theatre at 7th and U Streets, N.W. Then there was listening to Sarah Vaughn or Ray Charles, dancing the mambo or lindy, floating down the Potomac in an inner tube, playing games at the Boys and Girls Clubs.

"Those were the days," Clarence reminisces. "Kids these days just don't have the same things to do. And they don't have the same discipline."

When Clarence was big enough to turn on his grandmother's television, he started a little business. He would invite the kids in the neighborhood over to watch a show provided they paid him a quarter, a bag of chips, or a box of popcorn. When his grandmother got wise to his scheme, he tried to hide all the kids in a closet but was found out. He was banned from the television which the family only watched on Saturdays for two months.

Clarence, who will turn 66 this month, resisted the D.C. bus system until the city tore up the streetcar tracks. When he finally started taking the bus, he realized that it was pretty handy, going more places than the streetcar. Then the Metro came along – which Clarence said has been D.C.'s biggest change. Nowadays, Clarence will take the Metro sometimes, but he says his 91-year-old mother still refuses to get on one of those newfangled trains.

Clarence used to pay $1.25 for an Ella Fitzgerald show. Now he pays $1.20 a few times a week to take the bus up to St. Columba's Episcopal Church on Albermarle Street for their "water ministry" – free showers. He also frequents the Georgetown library.

And for one week last month, Clarence trekked over to St. Paul's Parish each evening to spend the night in Pillsbury House as part of the Georgetown area Congregation-Based Shelter.

The shelter is a program of Georgetown Ministry Center (GMC), which operates out of Grace Episcopal Church. The Georgetown Clergy Association and Georgetown University founded the center in 1987, partially in response to the 1984 death of Freddy, an elderly homeless man who died of exposure one night in a Georgetown phone booth.

The ministry center started the Congregation-Based Shelter on a pilot basis for six weeks during the winter of 1993. Ten years later, it runs each night from November to early April, with different churches in the Georgetown area sharing the responsibilities.

St. Paul's hosted the ten residents of the shelter January 11-18. Each night, the residents filed into Pillsbury Hall at 7 PM and headed out each morning by 7 AM.

Dumbarton United Methodist Church (UMC) provided the dinners for six of those nights. Tina Mallet came over each morning at 5:30 to make breakfast, and a handful of other St. Paul's parishioners visited the shelter to share fellowship with the group and help with set-up and clean-up in Pillsbury House.

St. Paul's became involved in the shelter about six years ago, largely thanks to the efforts of Tina. During the cold and snowy week when the shelter's residents made their home at St. Paul's, they set up collapsible cots in Pillsbury House, where they slept with blankets and pillows that GMC provided. A shelter employee stayed with the residents every night.

Robert Tibbs, one of the shelter employees, said that working with the shelter has been a "real blessing." He said the residents have included doctors and former professionals who for one reason or another find themselves in this situation. "If you saw them on the street, you might want them to get away, but you spend a night with them and you see they re human, just like you," Tibbs said.

As the ten residents, two shelter staff, three St. Paul's parishioners, and four Dumbarton UMC parishioners gathered around the table for dinner in Pillsbury House one night, it was hard to tell who was there for what reason.

Residents and parishioners chatted about what they've been reading and seeing, the Presidential primaries, and the intricacies of biotech seeds. It was your typical D.C. dinner party, except that half the attendees didn't go home at the end.

"We give praise to you for waking us up out of our beds this morning, giving us another breath of life," shelter resident Vernon said in prayer before the meal. "We give praise to you for this food and ask you to help the sick and suffering all over the world."

If you would like to make dinner, serve dinner, or spend the night with the shelter one night as it makes the rounds this winter through Georgetown area churches, you can volunteer with the Georgetown Ministry Center by calling Amy Zandarski-Pica at 202-338-8301.

To get involved with St. Paul's ministries with the homeless, you can join the Grate Patrol any Saturday or Sunday morning at 5:30 AM to distribute coffee and bagged meals to homeless in Foggy Bottom and downtown. To volunteer, contact Tina Mallet at 202-965-9324 or tmallett@retail.si.edu.

And St. Paul's Red Sea Program is a weekly gathering of parishioners, a social worker, and a small, regular group of friends who are homeless or formerly homeless. Its long-term goal is to create a community in which all participants are moving toward lives that are materially, spiritually, and emotionally balanced. To volunteer, contact Joe Manson at 703-979-9542 or Kenwin Benn at 703-593-7445 or ricmgtsys1@aol.com. [AF]

St. Paul's Christian Formation Plan

This is the St. Paul's Parish plan for Christian formation, with elements from the Trinity Institute for Christianity and Culture (TICC) Foundational Principles incorporated into the text in italics.

Introduction

Christian formation is a dynamic, unceasing program of growth and development which each of experiences in our lives with and in the Risen Christ. Christian formation cannot be reduced to the acquisition of skills or knowledge by completing a prescribed curriculum similar to achieving and satisfying the requirements for a degree. It is not simply one of the activities or occurrences in a person's life; Christian formation is the continuing activity that gives shape and meaning to all activities in the life of a Christian.

Each of us enters into this relationship, this adventure of formation, with our Lord at different times from different levels and experiences. And in so far as our church can provide us the preparation and training to live out our commitments through formation, this parish church with full consideration of the witness to the Catholic faith, both past and present, has as its responsibility the provision of resources to plan a responsive blueprint for Christian formation.

In other words, Christian formation becomes a school of faith and an ongoing apprenticeship in the Christian life.

St. Paul's Parish and TICC

St Paul's Parish is part of a world-wide community of parishes, colleges, and universities who work in association with the Trinity Institute for Christianity and Culture at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, London. This association at St. Paul's is formed primarily in the following ways:

Our Rector, Fr. Andrew Sloane, serves as one of the International Consultants of TICC. Part of his task is the "translation" of TICC principles to a parish in the capital of the USA:

to encourage other pastors and administrators in the USA to form similar association with TICC; and to exchange ideas, materials, programs, and evaluations of events and materials to TICC leadership in London;
to host seminars and consultations for TICC in Washington;
to relate St. Paul's own ongoing and diverse programs of Christian families for adults and children to TICC foundational principles, as outlined in the "Introduction to Christian Families" on the St. Paul's website.

Foundations of adult Christian formation

The role of the TICC is to encourage Christians to celebrate the diversity of culture and religions while growing into an ever deeper discipleship and faith in Christ (TICC Foundational Principles).

No Christian ever stands in isolation. The Christian soul is united first to Christ Himself at Baptism; through Him each soul is related to all others who are in him and also have gone before in the life of Faith or who like us are on the journey on this side of death. Nor does the Christian Church stand in isolation from the work and the culture in which it finds itself.

Although Jesus offers a radical critique of culture, never the less he encourages believers to engage with culture in an ongoing process of dialogue and challenge (TICC Foundational Principles).

For Catholic Christians, a heterogeneous community of God's people, spirituality is profoundly communal. Although each of us is an individual, our faith experience is collective. We worship, not in isolation, but in mutual dependence upon God and each other. Our lives are bound up in one another and dedicated to spreading the Good News of the Risen Christ. This translates to a need to enlighten ourselves as we minister to those in need.

This process of enlightenment, education, training, learning, and/or study, dialogue and challenge is at the core of Christian formation.

Formation, beginning at Baptism, is a continual process of maturation not unlike new growth maturing through a nutritional, healthy process.

The goal of Christian formation is for each person in a Christian community to appropriate a clear perception of his or her personal vocation as a laborer for the Lord. Although this goal may begin and be nurtured by a deeper knowledge of God and God's wishes for us, the goal of formation is not achieved by simply knowing what God wants, but action on God's will is essential. Formation should mean a cohesion of one's life in the church and society, not as two independent or contrary realities, but as two dimensions incorporated into in a single life.

Formation can be categorized into several broad, overlapping areas: spiritual, doctrinal, and human.

In the spiritual category, the emphasis in Christian formation is movement toward a closer union with Christ.

Doctrinally, we experience formation through catechesis, placing into tension orthodox teachings with current social conditions and cultural values.

The practices and skills we acquire as servant leaders are what we apply to our everyday opportunities, challenges, and expectations. The TICC Programmes seek to equip Christian disciples with the necessary resources and skills to engage positively as citizens and leaders within their own local culture (TICC Foundational Principles).

Within God we find space to meet, to celebrate and to explore our humanity in all its diversity of cultures, backgrounds, languages and religions (TICC Foundational Principals). The primary sources of Christian formation are God, the church (specifically the parish in the context of this formation plan), the family, schools, the workplace, and other groups or associations.

Purpose of Christian formation

The purpose of this plan for adult Christian formation is to facilitate the knowledge and practice of the Catholic faith at all levels of development, interest, and need. Christian formation is not confined to any definitive period of time; it truly begins when we begin our lives in the faith and remains with us until our service on earth is through.

Formation cannot, in its truest sense, be a solely intellectual exercise. Indeed, it may be said that what might be called "Academic Theology" has in some cases become divorced from the community it is supposed to serve, namely the community of faith, the Church, and has traveled afar to places out of reach to the faithful Christian pilgrim. Too often such theology has been seen to become irrelevant at best or detrimental at worst to the worshipping community.

So we seek to reconcile

Information with inspiration

Rationality with spirituality

Reason with faith (TICC Foundational Principles).

Our vision is "to make the good news of Jesus Christ more widely, clearly, accessibly and relevantly available" (TICC Foundational Principles).

Formation is understood in the context of vocation. Christian formation is the active response to God's call. And it is just as true for the laity as for the ordained. To know what God wants is a first step, and it is indeed the first objective in formation. The next step, and one which more often than not is taken in conjunction with discerning God's will, is to do what God wants. Our programs of Christian formation speak to:

The heart

The mind

The will

In order to meet these goals of adult Christian formation this plan will offer to each person in the parish ways in which to acquire wisdom of God and to live out a commitment to Christ. So, the plan is for young and the not-so-young, the working person and the retired person, the homebound and the robust, the inquirer and the proficient, and the neighborhood and the suburbs. Those associated with St. Paul's may elect to continue their accustomed practice of participating in regularly scheduled classes or activities, or may be encouraged to reach out beyond their present limits and take on new endeavors which challenge both our intellectual and vocational capacities.

Resources of Christian formation

Adult Christian formation at St. Paul's begins with a corporate response to God's love for each of us. Flowing from communal worship there are ample opportunities for each member and friend of the parish to enter personally into Christian formation. It is the parish that provides the primary resources that equip its members in formation for ministry. In formation, resources most often take the shape of workshops, lectures, study groups, dialogues, and both large and small group training.

First and foremost in the life of a Catholic parish is worship, particularly the Eucharist. At every Mass, as well as at Morning and Evening Prayer, the word of God is read, proclaimed. At this parish church the Holy Eucharist is celebrated every day, and the Daily Offices are read in the morning and in the evening.

Beyond corporate worship, there are a number of classes or learning experiences for the adult who wishes to place himself/herself into formation. For information, contact David Chase or the Rector. [ALS+]

The Chorister's Prayer After Divine Service

Grant, O Lord, that what I have sung with my mouth, I may believe in my heart; and what I believe in my heart I may steadfastly fulfil; through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The Rev'd James Elwin Millard, Historical Notices of the Office of Choristers (1868)

Feast Days in February

Candlemas – The Feast of the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple

Monday, February 2

6:45 AM Morning Prayer

7:00 AM Low Mass

Noon Low Mass

5:30 PM Our Lady of Walsingham Devotions

5:45 PM Evening Prayer

6:30 PM Blessing of Candles, Procession, and Solemn

Pontifical Mass

The Rt. Rev'd Rodney Michel, Suffragan Bishop of

Long Island, presiding and preaching.

Reception following in the dining hall.

St. Matthias the Apostle

Tuesday, February 24

6:45 AM Morning Prayer

7:00 AM Low Mass

Noon Low Mass

5:30 PM Our Lady of Walsingham Devotions

5:45 PM Evening Prayer

6:00 PM Low Mass

Ash Wednesday

Wednesday, February 25

6:45 AM Morning Prayer

7:00 AM Low Mass

Noon Low Mass

5:45 PM Evening Prayer

6:30 PM Solemn Liturgy of the Day

Confessions, Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday

Shrove Tuesday

Tuesday, February 24

4:30-5:30 PM Fr. Sloane

Ash Wednesday

Wednesday, February 25

4:30-5:30 PM Fr. Barnett

Also by appointment

February Birthdays

2 Rachel Dickey

4 Carole Mullarkey

5 Anne Kirlin; Alexander Malson

6 Vanessa Montes

7 Maryan Darmstadter

8 Pattie Kindsvater; Richard Burke

9 Cynthia Efird; Elizabeth Freeland

10 Cathryn Jones

11 William Taylor, III; LisaAnne Fischer

13 Brooke Reasoner; Mary Ham; Kate Kirlin

14 George Buzby; Robert McAllister; Arleen Hesse

15 Fred Steckhahn

16 Douglas Bush; Esme Pierzchala

19 Mickey Anne Benson; Diane Dean

20 C.B. Wooldridge; Sybil Boggis;

Marcia Berrien

21 Warren Woodfin

22 Matthew Leddicotte; Peter Schlatter; Stasia Schlatter

24 Jenny Brake; Cindy Nadeau; Oghene-Bruru Ajueyitsi

26 Bill Cameron; Ruth Brill

27 Sharon Watkins; Desiree Faili

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

Parish Statistics

Baptisms: Grace Linnet Buzby (January 11, 2004)

Deaths: Violet Euphemia Mondell (January 4, 2004)

The Epistle

Editors Christine Nevius, Alistair Nevius

Assistant Editor Allison Freeman

Desktop Publisher John Walker

Designer David McGaw

Contributors Elisabeth Braw, Andrew Sloane, Jeffrey Smith, David White, 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

2430 K Street, N.W.

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

Dr. Jeffrey Smith, Music Director

Charles Burks, Assistant Music Director

Melva Willis, Parish Administrator

Frederick Murdock, III, Maintenance Manager

The Vestry

The Rev'd Andrew Sloane, Rector

Larry Toombs, Senior Warden

Pat Byrd, Junior Warden

Gregory Capaldini, Secretary

Lynne Walker, Treasurer

Peter Agnew, Ed Loucks; Kenwin Benn, Larry Cook, David McGaw, Marcia Stanford; David Chase, Jeremiah deMichaelis, Cynthia Efird, Phil Schlatter.

Our Mission

St. Paul's Parish seeks to restore all people to God and to each other,

through Sacramental Worship and Christlike lives.