Epistle

From the Rector
Charging into the New Year

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

At the time of writing the new Christian year is underway. So far we are having a wonderful Advent, with two packed houses for the two Advent Lessons and Carols services. Not only are these services of extraordinary beauty from a musical point of view, they very powerfully reflect the Advent themes and indeed the Advent journey. But by the time you receive this, Advent will be nearly over and Christmas looming very shortly.

January events
Obviously, January sees the beginning of the secular New Year, and the first day of the New Year is always the Feast of the Holy Name, which, like Christmas, this year falls on a Sunday. The usual Mass schedule will obtain on that day. At 6 PM, there will be a congregational Solemn Evensong and Benediction -- the choir will be away on a well-deserved break -- after which, I hope you will join me at the rectory for an open house. I have for a couple of years extended this invitation at noontime on the Feast of the Holy Name following the usual morning Mass. You will appreciate that doing anything social at the rectory in the middle of the day on a Sunday after three Masses, three sermons, three coffee hours, and other things simply is not viable! I do hope you will be able to come on the evening of January 1.

Friday, January 6, is the great Feast of the Epiphany. At 6:30 PM, there will be a Procession and Solemn Mass. I am delighted that a friend of mine from England, a young priest, Fr. Timothy Pike, from the Diocese of London, will be our preacher.

Sunday, January 8, is the Feast of the Baptism of Our Lord. To help us celebrate that Feast, the Walner triplets will be baptized at the 11:15 Mass that morning. Our guest preacher on that day will be Canon Preston Hannibal from the Diocese, where he is the Canon for Academic Ministries. Canon Hannibal has been extremely helpful and supportive of our work at George Washington University, and I am delighted that he is able to accept this invitation to preach at St. Paul's. On the evening of January 8 at 6 PM, there will be the Epiphany Lessons and Carols service.

I shall be going with some of our parishioners to Grace Church, Charleston, on Monday, January 9, for a training conference for the Trinity Institute for Christianity and Culture. You will have read and heard about this in previous Epistles and Parish Notices from me as well as from Linda Wilkinson. One of the many hats that Linda wears is that of the coordinator for the Trinity Institute for Christianity and Culture in the United States. This conference will be to train people in the use of the materials that we will be using in the "Awareness" course produced by TICC, the first of which will be the basis for our Lenten study on Wednesdays in Lent.

We shall keep our patronal feast, the Conversion of St. Paul, on the Sunday nearest to that day, which will be on Sunday, January 22. I am pleased that another member of the Diocesan staff will be with us to preach on that day -- and again someone who has been so helpful in so many ways to me and to the parish -- Canon Mary Sulerud. Canon Sulerud is now the Canon for Deployment and Ordination. She previously was at the National Cathedral and prior to that was the Stewardship point person in the Diocese, which is where she has been so helpful to me, the Wardens, the Finance Committee, the Stewardship Committee, and now also the Planned Giving Awareness Task Force.

Candlemas and Walsingham Appeal
By way of advance notice, I hope you will put Thursday, February 2, at 6:30 PM, in your calendars. We will celebrate Candlemas with the Blessing of Candles and a Procession and Solemn Pontifical Mass at 6:30 PM. That day will also see the U.S. launch of the Walsingham Appeal. We will have with us the Rt. Rev'd Keith Ackerman, the Bishop of Quincy, to celebrate that Mass.

Bishop Ackerman and I are the two Honorary Guardians of the Shrine at Walsingham in the United States. The preacher at that Mass will be the Rt. Rev'd Alan Chesters, the retired Bishop of Blackburn in England and the Chairman of the Walsingham Appeal. Bishop Chesters will be in the United States, along with Fr. Philip North, the Priest Administrator of the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, making visits on the West Coast, the Midwest, and the East Coast.

On Friday, February 3, I shall be hosting at St. Paul's a meeting of the Walsingham U.S. Appeal Board, of which I am the Chair, and of which Bishop Ackerman is the Vice Chair. This will be a meeting of clergy from around the country who are assisting with the fundraising for this appeal. Some of them will also be present with us on the night of Thursday, February 2. Fr. Philip North will be traveling to Washington on Friday, February 3, from a preaching engagement at St. Mary the Virgin, New York City, and he will then stay on with us to be able to preach for us here at St. Paul's on Sunday, February 5. A host of distinguished visitors, then, for that first weekend in February, and I hope that you will not only give them your customary warm welcome but that you will also be in church to hear these engaging and articulate preachers and teachers of the Faith.

Stewardship
I would like to take this opportunity to thank David Schnorrenberg and Matthew Leddicotte, co-chairs of our Stewardship Committee, and the members of that Committee for the hard work that they have put in over the past several months overseeing our stewardship campaign. At the time of writing, we are in those frustrating but crucial final couple of weeks when we are in touch with those who have not yet responded with a pledge for 2006. Once the Stewardship Committee has completed their work and we have a firm figure from all of you for our pledge income, we will then immediately begin work on the 2006 balanced budget, first in the Finance Committee and then in the Vestry.

It would be wonderful to have a day in the foreseeable future when we do not need to have so intensive a stewardship campaign. I think that as we become more deeply converted, we simply become more generous and we can simply depend on that generosity without being fiscally irresponsible. However, we are not at that stage yet.

I know many of you find the emphasis on pledging somewhat galling, but you also please need to remember that without that pledging we simply would not have the resources to continue at our present level the mission and ministry in and from this place in Christ's name. The Stewardship Committee have worked very hard and I commend them for that, and I thank all of you who have responded not only promptly but also generously. More on the results of all of this, no doubt, in a later Epistle.

Fr. Humphrey will be taking his post-Christmas vacation in the week after Christmas. I shall be away in February taking my post-Christmas break for a week and then spending a week leading the retreat for priests at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham February 20-25.

As usual then, much to be involved in and much for which to be grateful!

With my gratitude and love in Christ as always,
Andrew Sloane+

New Parishioner Profile -- Chuck and Candie Bruse

Chuck and Candie Bruse started attending St. Paul's last January and transferred into the parish over the summer. They transferred from the Falls Church, which they attended for close to 25 years. The Falls Church was their first Episcopal parish. They started attending when they lived in Falls Church, Virginia.

The Bruses started on their path to St. Paul's when their son, Kyle, attended Saint James School near Hagerstown, Maryland. St. James was founded in the tradition of the Oxford Movement and its worship continues in the Anglo-Catholic tradition. The Bruses enjoyed the liturgy at Saint James. They also felt they wanted a smaller parish than the Falls Church.

They asked the Rev'd Stuart Dunnan, headmaster of Saint James School, to recommend Anglo-Catholic parishes in the D.C. area. Fr. Dunnan had grown up at Ascension and St. Agnes, so he recommended that parish and St. Paul's.

The Bruses came to St. Paul's first, and, as Chuck says, "it fit the bill." They never did go check out Ascension and St. Agnes. They both say they "thoroughly enjoy" St. Paul's. They are currently in the Pilgrims in Christ catechumenate.

Both Chuck and Candie came to Washington in the early 1970s to work for their home state senators. Candie grew up in South Carolina and came to work for Senator Strom Thurmond.

Chuck grew up in Nebraska, and after graduating from the University of Minnesota law school and a year of private practice in Omaha, he worked for Senator Roman Hruska. The couple met on Capitol Hill.

Candie continued to work for Senator Thurmond through the 1970s, then stayed home to raise their son. She worked for President Bush's campaign in 1992 and later worked for Senator Thurmond again. Recently, she has turned her "passion and hobby" into an interior decorating business.

Chuck went to work for Allstate in 1975 and is currently their vice president, governmental affairs, and assistant general counsel.

The Bruses have one son, Kyle, who is about to return to school to finish his undergraduate degree.

The couple say they were attracted to St. Paul's by the diversity of the parishioners, the warmth of the reception they received, and, as Chuck says, "the music put it over the top."

But it is the diversity of the parish that they really emphasize. Chuck reports that they are looking forward to "continuing in our walk to learn more about God with such an interesting and diverse group of people."

Please greet the Bruses at the 11:15 AM Mass. [AMN]

Accounting for Gifts to the Parish

Parishioners and friends of St. Paul's have many opportunities to support the activities of the parish. One important way to show support is though financial contributions. We appreciate all contributions and want all givers to understand our accounting requirements for gifts.

Monetary contributions received by the parish for any activity or program are counted each week by the assistant treasurer for counting. The assistant treasurer prepares a report and a bank deposit slip, which become the official record of contributions received each week.

The parish administrator and treasurer use the counter's report to post contributions in the parish accounting records. Additionally, the assistant treasurer for posting uses the same report to record contributions to each giver's record, which ultimately results in the statements issued periodically by the parish.

We have recently had several different fundraising and social activities that involved contributions. It is important for every giver to understand that only contributions made directly to St. Paul's Parish will be recorded as such in the official records. For example, a check made payable to St. Paul's with a memo line noted "coffee hour" will be credited to the giver's official contribution record. By contrast, cash donations at coffee hour cannot be credited to a giver's official record, simply because the giver is not readily identifiable. The same holds true for cash contributions to any program or event, again simply because the giver is not readily identifiable.

Contributions for which the giver receives something in return may not be recorded as a contribution to the parish, regardless of the form of the contribution. For example, checks made payable to St. Paul's for the purchase of goods at a plant sale or bake sale are not considered contributions since something of value was received in return. Givers should consult a tax advisor regarding the deductibility of any contribution to the parish.

We appreciate the support of all givers for the various programs and events of the parish, and we hope each giver understands the accounting requirements we have. If you have questions about how your contributions are recorded, please contact the treasurer, Polly Peckham, at StPaulsTreasurer@aol.com. [PP]

November Vestry Notes

The Vestry met for its November meeting on Tuesday, November 15.

David Schnorrenberg reported on the status of this year's stewardship campaign. At that point, $550,000 had been pledged (out of a goal of $723,000). The Stewardship Committee had issued the challenge that pledgers increase their pledges by 5 percent. At the time of David's report, 66 percent of the pledges were increased from the prior year, with an average increase of 25 percent.

A subsequent update from David reported that as of December 7, the parish had met its pledge goal, with $724,000 pledged and some 44 pledgers from last year still to be heard from.

Rhoda Geasland reported that Barbara Gurr, who is moving, has resigned from the Commission on Mission. Geoffrey Suiter and John Presley were appointed by Fr. Sloane as the new Honduras co-chairs.

The Vestry approved the distribution of matching funds from the Carwithen Charitable Trust Fund. The amount of $3,476.06 has been raised for Malawi and $5,728.26 has been raised for Honduras. Both of those amounts will be matched from the fund.

An update from the Building Improvements Committee indicated that we are waiting on the issuance of building permits from the city in order to start the construction phase of the building project. Jerry de Michaelis reported that the Committee will be interviewing construction supervisor candidates in December.

In other Vestry news, on December 3, Kenwin Benn submitted his letter of resignation from the Vestry. [AMN]

A New Year Beckons

The following is adapted from an article by Glenn Holliman published in the December 5 issue of the Episcopal Church Foundation's newsletter GiftLegacy Weekly eNewsletter. It is modified here with permission.

A New Year is upon us, filled with possibilities and challenges. One of the opportunities of life that many of us put off in 2005 was the preparation of a will or estate plan that serves our families well. Of course, we all have a will -- the intestacy law of the state in which you reside will direct who gets your possessions if you die without a will. This state-prepared will may not partition your estate in the way you would want, and it will not express your feelings about your family. Failure to prepare a will and to do proper estate planning may complicate life for your loved ones after you are gone.

Loved ones will experience heartache at your passing. They don't need to experience headaches! If you love your family, look forward to 2006 and prepare a will. Take care of your family. If you have a desire to remember your church or favorite charities in your will, the New Year may be a time to put these philanthropic thoughts in order.

The Episcopal Church Foundation has several booklets designed to assist you in estate planning. One of those booklets, entitled The Ministry of Gift Planning, is available in the tract rack at the back of the church.

In all cases, seek the advice of your personal attorney and financial advisors. If you are wondering where to start in the process, our Planned Giving Response Team, led by Larry Toombs and Marcia Stanford, would be happy to visit with you by telephone or, in some cases, in person.

If you are interested in planned giving assistance, please fill out the "Legacy Society sign-up form"; or if you have already remembered St. Paul's in your plans -- as more parishioners than we might think are doing -- also fill out the form. Please return the form to the parish office or bring it with you next Sunday and leave it in the Planned Giving box on the tract rack. [DL]

Seminarian Profile -- Paul Francke

I grew up in Charleston, West Virginia, about six hours southwest of D.C. I'm the oldest of five children. By the time this is printed, my family will have visited St. Paul's twice, so some of you will have had a chance to see the other beanpoles in my family garden: We're all between 6 feet and 6 feet, 6 inches, tall.

Despite what you may have heard, West Virginia is a wonderful place to grow up! My neighborhood is part of a metropolitan area of a quarter million people, and yet it was surrounded by endless wilderness to hike, ski, and canoe.

I went away to Chicago for college and ended up staying in that city for nearly six years. I majored in political science, thinking I would go to into law. During my senior year, though, I began to have second thoughts. It seemed that I was made for something else, but I wasn't sure what. I prayed for guidance: I told God I would do whatever he wanted me to, but that I needed some help figuring out what that was.

I had become involved with the Episcopal chaplaincy on my campus, and occasionally I ventured uptown to the cathedral. We got off school for Martin Luther King Day, and during this time I went to the cathedral for the regularly scheduled mid-day service. But there was no service. I and a small group of would-be worshippers waited outside the locked cathedral for 20 minutes, to no avail. Someone with a cellular phone called the cathedral's office; no one picked up, and there was no message about being closed for the day. I and a small crowd of strangers complained, laughed, and went our separate ways.

But as I turned to leave, an old man came toward me out of the crowd and asked, frankly, "had you been thinking about the priesthood?"

His question truly came from out of nowhere. I hadn't said a word on the subject. In an instant, a certain life-within-my-life flashed before my eyes. I remembered several people close to me suggesting, at various times in my past, that I might be meant for ordained ministry. Those suggestions just confused me in the past, but they all seemed to make sense now. I nodded. "Yes, I guess I had been thinking about that." "Well, when you've got a parish," the man answered with a smile, "remember not to lock everyone outside in the dead of winter!" And then he left.

The experience got me thinking. I talked things over with several of my favorite priests. I preached a few times. I prayed a lot, and finally I admitted that God was calling me to the priesthood. Answering that call, of course, has dominated my life since then, and it has led me to Virginia Seminary and to St. Paul's. While I was in my diocesan discernment year in West Virginia, I visited friends in D.C. and attended mass at St. Paul's about once a month. It was then, two years ago, that I first developed relationships with the clergy and some parishioners of St. Paul's.

I am truly blessed to be able to expand those relationships by serving as one of the seminarians here. Besides helping out with Sunday services, I am working with Fr. Humphrey to develop the parish's college ministry to George Washington University. My experience at St. Paul's has been wonderful from the start, and I can't help but look forward to the year-and-a-half to come. [PF]

Parking Volunteers Needed

The parish could use three or four more volunteers to help with parking on Sunday mornings, both before the 9:00 o'clock Mass (from 8:15 to 9:15 AM) and between the 9:00 o'clock and 11:15 Masses.

If you are interested, contact Atlee Shidler, 202-333-3022.

The Importance of Prescribed Forms of Worship

The following excerpt Philip Secor's 2003 edition of Richard Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Book V (SPCK, London, 2003), first published in 1597. Richard Hooker, an English priest and theologian, was one of the first to promulgate an Anglican view of the Church.

The first thing that should, with a clear conscience, yield approval of established religious practices is not so much that a good examination shows them in all cases to be superior to any others that might possibly be devised -- for whoever required such a standard for any human laws? -- but only that they are convenient and suitable for the purposes they are designed to serve. When we consider the nature of religious services and the manner of their proper performance, we recall that it is generally agreed that the importance and dignity of any sort of behaviour is measured by the worth of the subject performing the acts and the worth of the object towards which they are directed. In both respects we must acknowledge that our world affords nothing comparable to public corporate worship. If the best of things have the most perfect operations, it follows that, since man is the worthiest creature on earth, and every community of people is worthier than any single person, and the most excellent community is the one we call the Church, then there can be no work in the world equal to the exercise of corporate public religion, which is the proper operation of the Church of God.

Since religion focuses on Him whose majesty and power is infinite, we fail to give it its due unless we esteem it according to the very height of excellence that our hearts conceive when divine sublimity is properly considered (John 4:24; Wisdom 6:10; I Chronicles 29:17). God requires the most sincere affection towards Him that can be yielded by the force of our minds and souls. If we regard Him as any less than far above all other things, our religion lacks the inner perfection that it should have and we do not truly worship Him as our God.

That which each person should be inwardly, the Church should express outwardly. The outer performance of our worship, which is visible, should represent what our inner affection to God, which is invisible, ought to be. Signs must resemble the things they signify. If religion holds the greatest sway in our hearts, then our outward religious observances must show it, in so far as the Church is able to assure it. Religious rites performed by whole societies should have in them, so far as it can be achieved, an excellence corresponding to the majesty of Him whom we worship (II Chronicles 2:5). Indeed, public exercise of religion is best ordered when the Church on earth resembles outwardly the hidden dignity and glory with which the Church triumphant in heaven is blessed.

Even as the heat of the sun, which is the life of the whole world, was a grievous annoyance to the people of God wandering in the desert (and indulged God, in his extraordinary goodness, to shade them with a sheltering pillar of cloud), so things of general benefit may always be incommodious by some accident or other to a few people. For what in this world is so perfect that no inconvenience ever results from it? In these cases there are private remedies for private problems but this must not disrupt the general welfare.

Therefore let our first demand be that, regarding the external forms of religion, those practices that are apparently fit to advance godliness and can generally be demonstrated to do so because they betoken either God's greatness, or the general dignity of religious observance, or the heavenly thoughts in people's minds, may be reverently entertained, notwithstanding some few, rare, casual and tolerable inconveniences.

Updating Parish Records

Do you find that your birthday or anniversary of marriage, baptism, confirmation, or reception are not read at Mass or go unnoticed in the Epistle? Is your mail from the parish not being forwarded? Do you fail to receive any of our important e-mails?

Perhaps the records in our office database have not been updated (or -- heaven forbid -- never entered).

There is a handy form to advise the parish office of all pertinent information on yourself and your family members. Please pick up one of these forms on the tract rack and return it to the office with all of this vital information. [MW]

January Birthdays

1 Linda Y. DeBerry; James Earl Patterson; Ranell Schlatter
3 David B.J. Chase
4 Carol J. Berger
6 Sarah E. (Liz) Ryon; Ty'Shawn Mwalimu Shoemaker
9 Daniel Michael Nevius; Penelope Sutherland Everman Wilhelm
10 Atlee E. Shidler; Jeanne H. Smith
11 Peter R. Agnew; Linna M. Barnes
12 Gary Michael Fischer
14 Grace Linnet Buzby; Ernest L. Latham, III; Edward A. Loucks
15 Carol M. Niswander
16 Mary Claire Davis
17 Richard A. Best, Jr.; Shanu Okwesa; Henry J. Holst, Jr.
19 Glen Franklin Koontz
20 William Heron; David A. McGaw
21 Mark A. Freeland; John Crane
23 William Ivan Starrett, Jr.
24 Caroline Cunningham; Michael Cunningham, Jr.; Ann Gardner Martin; William P. O'Brien
25 Margaret C. Haynes; Thomas P. Shoesmith
26 William Page Dame, IV; Grace Hollandsworth Koontz
27 Andrew A. Darmstadter
28 David A. Parker
29 Harry Green
30 Guy D. Korsgen
31 Bobbie C. (Mildreth) Thorberg

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

Parish Statistics

Transfers In: Victoria Ann Russell from Christ Church, Rockville, Maryland (November 14, 2005); Mozart Bernard from Saint George's Episcopal Church, Hempstead, New York (November 22, 2005)

Death: Ruth Maddox (November 29, 2005)

Feast Days in January

Feast of the Holy Name
Sunday, January 1
7:45 AM Morning Prayer
8:00 AM Low Mass
9:00 AM Sung Mass
11:15 AM Solemn Mass
6:00 PM Solemn Evensong and Benediction
Followed by an open house at the rectory

The Epiphany
Friday, January 6
6:45 AM Morning Prayer
7:00 AM Low Mass
5:30 PM Devotions at the Walsingham Shrine
6:15 PM Evening Prayer
6:30 PM Procession and Solemn Mass

The Baptism of Our Lord
Sunday, January 8
7:45 AM Morning Prayer
8:00 AM Low Mass
9:00 AM Sung Mass
11:15 AM Solemn Mass with Baptisms
6:00 PM A Service of Epiphany Lessons and Carols, followed by Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament

The Confession of St. Peter the Apostle
Wednesday, January 18
6:45 AM Morning Prayer
7:00 AM Low Mass
5:30 PM Devotions at the Walsingham Shrine
6:15 PM Evening Prayer
6:00 PM Low Mass

The Conversion of St. Paul, Our Patronal Feast (transferred)
Sunday, January 22
7:45 AM Morning Prayer
8:00 AM Low Mass
9:00 AM Procession and Sung Mass
11:15 AM Procession and Solemn Mass
6:00 PM Solemn Evensong and Benediction

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

Red Sea dinner Tuesdays at 6:30

Salvation Army dinner preparation
First Friday of each month, 5-7 PM,

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

Editor Alistair Nevius
Assistant Editor Allison Freeman
Desktop Publisher John Walker
Designer David McGaw
Contributors Paul Francke, David Lewis, Robert Menzer, Polly Peckham, Andrew Sloane+, 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 Nathan Humphrey, Curate
Mark Dwyer, Music Director
Scott Dettra, 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
Chip Heath, Secretary
Polly Peckham, Treasurer
Jeremiah de Michaelis, Debra Loucks; Kenwin Benn, Rhoda Geasland, Matthew S. Leddicote, Lynne V. Walker; Alistair Nevius, Geoffrey Peckham, David Schnorrenberg, Linda Wilkinson

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, January 9