From the Rector
Remembering Others – and Continuing Our Own Work
My dear parishioners and friends of St. Paul’s,
The copy for this Epistle is being written by me a week following the devastation in the southern part of this country by Hurricane Katrina. Scenes that we have seen on our televisions are unimaginably horrific, and it is difficult to believe that these are taking place on our own shores in the United States. The President himself has described the situation at the time of writing as “unacceptable,” and that is at this time most certainly true, as well as being scandalous.

I have been in touch with my friend, Bishop Charles Jenkins of Louisiana, and, as I mentioned in my sermon on Sunday, September 4, contributions that I received for the discretionary fund that day will be forwarded to the Diocese of Louisiana to be used at Bishop Jenkins’ discretion to meet the immediate needs of people affected by the hurricane. At the time of writing, I know that many of you have been extremely generous, and I hope that by the time you receive this letter funds will have been received and released that will help us to make a significant contribution to the effort in New Orleans and its surroundings.

You may remember that Bishop Jenkins visited us at St. Paul’s a couple of years ago to celebrate and preach at Candlemas, and he was gracious enough to be with us for my Silver Jubilee last June. It was also my privilege at his request to lead the clergy retreat for the Diocese of Louisiana a couple of years ago, and at that time I was immensely impressed by the caliber of the clergy of that Diocese. Those clergy now surely must have been tested to the uttermost, and I am sure that the effects of this tragedy will be felt for many months and even years. Our hearts and prayers and hands and dollars must continue to go to supply the “needs of the saints.”

Pilgrims

By the time you receive this, we should be underway with our new Pilgrims in Christ class, and we are anticipating a large, young, and exciting group of people. I would commend all those of you who have sought during the summer months, at my behest, to sow the seeds of faith and to bring your friends, colleagues, and neighbors to St. Paul’s where, hopefully, they have encountered the living God face to face. The work of evangelization is essential not only for our own survival – it is said that any parish church is one generation away from extinction – but also it is at the very heart of our faith and practice as Christians. Peter, in the Acts of the Apostles (Chapter 4) writes that in our experience of the risen Christ, we, too, “cannot but speak of the things we have seen and heard.”

Stewardship

To kick off our stewardship month on Sunday, October 2, we shall observe our Feast of Dedication, and that occasion will also launch of our stewardship drive for 2006. There will be one Mass only, a Solemn Mass at 10 AM on Sunday, October 2. (Morning Prayer will be said at 9:15 AM.) This is the one time in the year when all of us from the three different congregations that attend Mass on a Sunday morning come together as one parish family.

I urge each and every one of you to pack our church to the brim to rejoice in our fellowship with God and one another as fellow members of the same Body of Christ. This is a unique event in the course of the year, and I would hope that everybody would be willing to compromise, to give up their normal routine at 7:45 or 9:00 or 11:15, and attend Mass at 10 AM. The combined Mass will be followed by a presentation in the dining hall by our dynamic Stewardship Committee, and that, in turn, will be followed by a potluck brunch for the whole parish. Details of this day are elsewhere in the Epistle. Solemn Evensong and Benediction will be held as usual at 6 PM on October 2.

You will be receiving various materials from the Stewardship Committee. At its August meeting, the Vestry adopted a five-year plan for our 2006-2010 budgets. This long-range budget addresses the need for us to increase our staff salaries. It also maintains a promise that the Vestry made last year, namely to give 10 percent of our church income outside the parish. This will include our Diocesan pledge as well as funds to support the work of our Commission on Mission.

As you study these stewardship materials you will find these two principles – rightly, to my mind, adopted by the Vestry – provide some real challenges for our growth in terms of funding our parish programs. It has been said that a parish church must look to both its inner life and its outer life. In the last year or more, we have done a wonderful job of reaching out much more, and the fruits of that initiative are more and more evident. The Vestry has maintained a tithe of the parish's income to set each of us an example of tithing – that is, the giving back to God of 10 percent of our income. This standard is described as .minimum. standard of giving for the Episcopal Church by the General Convention. The answer is to look more and more carefully at what is called “percentage giving” – namely that we are aware of what percentage of our income we are giving back to God for His work through our parish church and that in turn each of us can work toward a tithe, or 10 percent of that income.

It is quite clear that if everyone in this parish tithed, we would have no restrictions in terms of our witness and ministry from our budget.

While I and the Stewardship Committee urge each of us to exercise faithful, generous, sacrificial Christian giving, it is also perfectly clear to us – myself and the Vestry – as well as to the leaders of the Diocese, that once a parish reaches a certain amount in its annual budget, it becomes more and more difficult to sustain that budget from pledges alone. The five-year plan puts us at an annual budget of somewhat over $800,000, which is almost entirely dependent on pledges and plate offerings. Again, as in previous years, I underscore the fact that this parish does not have any significant endowment and that we are entirely dependent for our operating expenses on the income that we receive from our parishioners.

Elsewhere in this Epistle, you will see a report from the Planned Giving Awareness Task Force. (See below.) It will be their challenge to us to examine our planned giving, be that making money immediately available to the parish in charitable trusts or be it a generous remembrance of the parish by bequests in our wills. Through such bequests, we will be able to address the challenges for funding our building program and renovations; after that, it will enable us to build up a significant endowment that will assist us in areas of our operational budget to support the generous giving of our people. From your own personal finances, you recognize the fact that in order to keep abreast of cost of living increases, our income must likewise increase. If we increase by 3 percent each year, we are able simply to maintain the status quo. The relevance of a significant endowment will enable us to make some extra leaps in our budget that in turn can lead to growth and the support of new initiatives. You will be hearing much more about all of this in the month of November.

October events – and our new curate

The end of September brought a visitor to our pulpit from England, namely Fr. John Gribben of the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield. The end of this month, October, will see another visitor from England, this time Fr. Alan Gyle, the vicar of our sister parish of St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, London. As far as I know, this will be the first visit of a vicar of St. Paul’s, Knightsbridge, to St. Paul’s, K Street, and I am delighted that he was able to include us in his American visit. The weekend will, I hope, give us an opportunity to reexamine our sister relationship, which goes back to the days of his and my predecessors, and an opportunity to define or perhaps redefine what this relationship is.

Secondly, October 15, as you know from past years, is the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, as well as the Feast of Saint Teresa of Avila. This year, that day will have particular significance since it will see the arrival of our new curate, Fr. Nathan Humphrey, along with his wife, Anne. Fr. Humphrey was unanimously elected at the August Vestry meeting at my nomination and with the Bishop’s approval. Elsewhere in the Epistle, you will find an article about Fr. Humphrey. (See below.) I am very excited about his joining our staff, and I hope he will bring not only his obvious intelligence but also a creative energy that will continue to build on our excellent programs for children and young people, including the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.

He will also work with Canon Preston Hannibal of the Diocese of Washington to help us to grow our ministries at George Washington University. He will also be taking on special responsibilities for the attraction and incorporation of newcomers, and I am sure that he will be putting his mind to new ways and challenges for our work of evangelization. He will obviously be sharing with me the liturgical and pastoral responsibilities of the parish. Fr. Humphrey’s appointment completes our team of paid parish staff. I am confident that with the gifts our wonderful staff will now bring to bear together we shall move more into the place and the people and witness and mission and ministry that God has in mind for us in the years to come. I believe the years ahead will be exciting and formative.

All our formation programs will be up and running by the time you receive this Epistle. Please be sure to consult the various trifold leaflets available at the tract rack in the back of the church. I am grateful to Alistair Nevius for seeing to their production. Also, this information is totally available on our website (www.StPauls-KSt.com). As always, I am grateful to Robert Maddox for his continuing efficient daily supervision of our website and also again to Alistair Nevius who has taken over the responsibilities formerly held by David McGaw, who has now moved to Chicago to complete graduate studies.

I shall be away at the beginning of October from Monday, October 3, until Friday, October 14. During that time, I shall be attending the Chapter of the Guardians at the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham on October 4 through 6. I shall be at Holy Trinity, Sloane Street, in London on October 9 and thereafter visiting my mother on the south coast before my return on October 14.

As always, October is a very busy – but I hope exciting – month for us. I know that you will respond enthusiastically not only to the opportunities for Christian formation and ministry that are presented to us at this time of year, but also in your generous and sacrificial giving of your time, talent, and money to the ongoing, important mission, witness, and ministry of St. Paul’s, K Street.

As always, this comes with my love and gratitude,
Andrew Sloane+

Parishioners Travel to Honduras
“¿Donde esta el quetzal resplendiente?” eagerly inquired John Presley, as we sat in the Miami International Airport awaiting our connecting flight to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. High on his list of birdwatching goals for this trip was the sighting of the elusive resplendent quetzal, a large, outrageously plumed resident of the mountainous cloud forests of Honduras. Would we see any? Where exactly do they live? Would our local hosts understand our Spanish?

Each excited soon-to-be missionary on the Diocese of Washington mission trip to Honduras had his or her own set of questions and expectations of the nine-day adventure to follow. Some, like group organizers Richard Marks and Tom Cooke, had long experience in Central America and fluent Spanish to match. Others, such as our own Tina Mallett and Jo Stelzig, had been to Honduras before, could communicate more than adequately, and hoped to build on their prior experiences. And then there were a few such as I, almost completely inarticulate in Spanish, and who had never been south of Houston.

In contrast to the habitat of the elusive quetzal, the destination of our St. Paul’s group of four, plus St. Margaret’s parishioner Chris Beale, was never in doubt. From San Pedro Sula, a large commercial city in the northwestern part of the country, we were soon loaded into 4 x 4 pickups for the two-plus hour journey to Protecciòn, a small village (82 households) surrounded by verdant hills planted in coffee and corn. St. Margaret’s and several other parishes have supported a small clinic in Protecciòn for several years, but the local public school that owns the building needs it back. We were there to witness the groundbreaking, as it turned out, of a new, much-expanded clinic.

How rural and mountainous Protecciòn is quickly became apparent as we sped past the industrial suburbs of San Pedro Sula and began bumping up the unpaved mountain roads past roadside country stores, small farmhouses, and a vast rolling panorama of vegetation. We arrived in Protecciòn well after dark and were welcomed to our new home, a long, low building adjacent to the church that served as kitchen, office, and temporary residence for the priest, Fr. Israel Monje. The ceiling fan whirred reassuringly as Chris, Tina, and I met with curious local parishioners.

Not many words were exchanged, but we were treated to our first cups of excellent Honduran coffee, and smiles and friendly curiosity did not require a translator.

The next day saw the beginning of a week of new experiences, tastes, and friendships. As the morning mist lifted from the surrounding hilltops, we could survey Protecciòn’s astounding setting, in a bowl almost underneath towering green peaks. From our enclosed porch, we looked out upon a neat turquoise-painted plaza with palm trees and benches, the church at one end, small houses and a couple of shops on the other sides. On a rise just beyond the church, stood a retaining wall and stakes and strings marking the foundation of the future clinic. In the week of our stay, despite a lack of tools and a couple of soaking rainstorms, we would see these stakes and strings become neatly excavated ditches into which hand-sawn rebar would be set, awaiting pouring of the foundation. The skillful local workers, many of them volunteering a day per week, brought this to pass, plus a little sawing and unloading of “bloques” from their American friends.

Most of our activities, though, were of a social and fellowship nature. Particularly social were the many niños and niñas of Protecciòn. Shy smiles quickly turned to excited laughter as Jo produced a menagerie of balloon-critters, ranging from dogs of indeterminate breed, to anatomically complex multi-balloon octopuses. Being an only child and not particularly experienced with young children, I was pleasantly surprised by the overwhelming friendliness and helpfulness of these kids. Not only did they play with balloons, they also gleefully rushed about picking up “basura,” sawing rebar, and even breaking up the crumbly local stone with a mallet, enjoying it all at least as much as American kids with their Game Boys. Some of the boys were virtual bird experts, much to John’s delight.

The parish of Protecciòn seemed to enjoy the active participation of all ages. The small children, while as squirmy as any American kids, knew all the words to the catchy hymns and enthusiastically belted them out with their older co-parishioners. More musically adept were the teens and twenty-somethings who gathered for singing and guitar accompaniment on weeknights as well as Sundays. Look out for our renditions of Honduran hymns at the Honduran dinner! While Mass was less formally structured perhaps than at St.Paul’s, Fr. Monje’s flock packed the pews and conveyed their enthusiasm for worship to us all. While not worshipping or visiting with parishioners, we were treated to several field trips that gave us a much broader perspective of modern Honduras. Our favorite destination was a nearby “eco-turismo” site, owned and developed by relatives of the mayor.

When completed, this hilltop site will sport tourist cottages, a small pool, a snack bar, and exhibits of native flora and fauna, with pleasant winding trails. Nice though these amenities will be, though, they can hardly add to the natural setting. From either side of a ridgeline, visitors can sit on benches, feel the constant breezes, and gaze out over jaw-dropping vistas fully equal to anything on Skyline Drive. On one hike to the top, we stopped to harvest a few frijoles from our guide’s fields, which we shelled atop the mountain and later savored in the form of red bean soup that night!

Although an undeniably poor country, Honduras is blessed with a climate that seems to grow nearly everything. On one afternoon we saw growing corn, coffee, cinnamon, sugarcane, coconuts, bananas, and a squishy fruit known as the maracuya, which made a refreshing drink. By means of a ladder, a long board for prodding, and a machete, we could enjoy coconut milk straight from the nut, as well as its succulent meat.

Come to think of it, I realized that I consume copious Honduran products – probably every week – without even knowing it. The archetypal “banana republic,” Honduras produces many bananas, which we enjoyed fresh and fried. Even more lucrative is that favorite D.C. beverage, coffee. Honduran coffee is very often shade-grown and is generally regarded as being of high quality and smooth flavor, but due to lax sorting and grading, does not bring as high a price as its equivalent from Guatemala. One of my post-visit projects is to investigate sources of fair trade, possibly organic coffee so that all St. Paul’s parishioners can help Hondurans even if they never venture closer to Honduras than Arlington.

After five days in Protecciòn, the time arrived for us to rejoin the other Washingtonians who had scattered to their own adventures building a school and visiting many other parishes. It was a little sad to leave the ever-hospitable and knowledgeable Fr. Monje and his young family, Reina and the other ladies who kept us considerably more than adequately fed, and the many excited kids. One more adventure was to follow, in a very different part of the country.

On our last full day in Honduras, we got to see the Caribbean side of the country, in Tela, a sandy seaside resort in which Jimmy Buffett would feel right at home. After a quick dip in the Caribbean, we sipped our beer and conch soup overlooking the beach. All was not rest and relaxation for all of us, however. Jo Stelzig had a particular interest in Tela, since it is home not only to a lovely modern Episcopal church, but also one of the diocese’s bilingual schools. Even in a state of renovation, this K-11 school is impressive, with classes conducted largely in English, nice air-conditioned classrooms, modern textbooks, and a basketball court overlooking a reedy river. The school’s mostly middle-class graduates have an admirable success rate in obtaining higher education, in some cases in the United States. I am sure that Jo will be able to tell you much more; she may not be the only St. Paul’s parishioner with an interest in teaching there.

After seven days in Honduras, it must be said, we did not see the resplendent quetzal. (John claims to have seen a few of the not-quite-so-impressive oropendula.) Nonetheless, I think that we all came away with plenty of observations and memories that will remain with us. Memories I am sure we would all be happy to share (photos, anyone?).

More than scenery and delicious food, though, the most lasting impression is of the dedication of all the Hondurans we met: the harried yet gracious Fr. Monje, kids eager to show us their home village, parishioners volunteering to work extra to dig through rocky soil for the good of their community or to drive two hours to run errands, Reina the chief queen of the kitchen, who, despite a seriously ill daughter, showered us with gastronomic wonders, as well as Bishop Allen and his staff, with all of their plans for building clinics and schools.

Thankfully, the story will not end with this epistle. I am sure that we will have more stories to tell and tasks to share even after the official diocesan relationship ends in a year. Keep all in the Diocese of Honduras in your thoughts and prayers and stay tuned for more news of Honduras! [GS]

St. Paul’s Welcomes a New Curate: Fr. Nathan Humphrey
The Rev’d Nathan Humphrey was unanimously elected curate of St. Paul’s by the Vestry at its August meeting. His first Sunday at St. Paul’s will be October 16. Fr. Humphrey previously served as curate at St. James', Monkton, Maryland, and taught in their day school. Before his ordination, he served as chaplain and religion teacher at Washington Episcopal School in Bethesda, Maryland. 

Nathan Humphrey grew up in Southern California and came to Maryland in the early 90s to attend St. John’s College in Annapolis. Although his grandfather, Gleason Humphrey, had been an Episcopalian (a member of St. Paul’s, San Diego), Fr. Humphrey was not raised in the Episcopal Church. In fact, his father was the pastor of an evangelical nondenominational church.

One summer while he was in college, Fr. Humphrey attended a five-week monastic experience program at the Roman Catholic Benedictine monastery of Mount Saviour. While he was there, another guest piqued his growing interest in the Episcopal Church. That attendee was the Rt. Rev’d Frank Griswold, then bishop of Chicago, now Presiding Bishop.

Fr. Humphrey felt like he was closing a circle with his Episcopalian grandfather. Although Gleason Humphrey had died before Fr. Humphrey was born, he had always felt his presence in his life and senses that there was “something going on there with the communion of saints to draw me into the Episcopal Church.”

Having been introduced to the Episcopal Church, Nathan started attending St. Anne’s, Annapolis, but he also felt immediately drawn to high church liturgy and the Anglo-Catholic tradition’s emphasis on a disciplined life of prayer and service. He was confirmed while he was still in college, and he wanted to make his first confession, which was not offered at broad church St. Anne’s. A friend suggested he do so at St. Paul’s, K Street.

Fr. Humphrey first attended a liturgy at St. Paul’s on Candlemas, 1993, and during college he continued to come all the way from Annapolis on Prayer Book Holy Days.

After college, Nathan attended Yale Divinity School. He wanted strong theological training and was attracted to Yale’s academic rigor. While in divinity school, he attended Christ Church, Broadway, New Haven, which cemented his sense that in Anglo-Catholic liturgy and theology he had found a model for Christian living that he could wholeheartedly embrace. By contrast, Fr. Humphrey’s wife Anne is a cradle Episcopalian who was raised in an Anglo-Catholic parish – and her family made almost-heroic efforts to get to church every Sunday during her formative years.

Anne was raised in Newburyport, Massachusetts, north of Boston. Before having children, her parents had been members of the Church of the Advent in Boston. But after Anne’s brother became a chorister at St. Thomas, Fifth Avenue, she and her family would make the five-hour drive each way every Sunday to attend church in Manhattan. Anne grew up believing that commuting ten hours for Solemn Mass and Choral Evensong was normal.

Anne’s parents moved to Severna Park, Maryland, while she was in school, and she later returned to Maryland to attend graduate school at Johns Hopkins. She is currently an editor with the National Geographic Society.

Anne’s parents are members of Old St. Paul’s, Baltimore, where Anne and Fr. Humphrey were married last year (they were introduced by the former rector of Old St. Paul’s and his wife).

Fr. Humphrey is very much looking forward to serving St. Paul’s Parish. In addition to assisting the pastoral and liturgical work of the parish, he will have specific responsibility for attracting newcomers and helping them integrate into the parish life. When Fr. Humphrey came to interview for the position in July, he was particularly impressed by the parish’s excellent Catechesis of the Good Shepherd program. He will assist its dedicated volunteers in the recruitment of more CGS catechists and will also tend to the spiritual and pastoral needs of the parish’s older youth.

He is excited by the opportunities the parish has for outreach to GWU students, and he will supervise, in conjunction with the Diocese of Washington, our campus ministries at the George Washington University. Finally, he and Anne are both eagerly anticipating being involved with the Carpe Deum group for parishioners in their 20s and 30s. “St. Paul’s is blessed to have a group of young professionals and young marrieds,” he says. Please welcome Fr. Nathan Humphrey and Anne to St. Paul’s.

St. Paul's to Host the National Meeting of the Guild of All Souls
On Saturday, November 12, 2005, St. Paul's Parish will host the Annual National Meeting of the American Branch of the Guild of All Souls. The meeting will begin with a High Mass of Requiem at 11:00 AM. The preacher will be the Rev’d Fr. Douglas E. Anderson, S.S.C., rector of St. James' Church, Texarkana, Texas, and a member of the governing Council of the Guild. Our choir will sing the Requiem of Maurice Duruflé. The St. Paul's Branch of the Guild will host a catered luncheon at a cost of $20 (wine will be included). Advance reservations must be received in the parish office no later than Thursday, November 3 (adminasst@StPauls-KSt.com). The day's activities are open to all, and a special invitation is extended to all parishioners and friends.

Our rector, Fr. Sloane, Fr. Martin (our former rector), Fr. Ostman (a former seminarian), and Fr. Davenport (rector of Ascension & St. Agnes) are among the 14 members of the governing Council. The St. Paul's Branch of the Guild presently has 23 members. Information regarding the objects, privileges, and duties of Guild members can be found in the July 2005 Intercession Paper of the Guild, available in the brochure holder (on the windowsill above the tract rack) or by contacting the rector or Robert Maddox, Branch Secretary (RbtCMaddox@aol.com). Additional information regarding the Guild is available on our website. You are invited to join the Guild! [RM]

Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts Continue
As this issue of the Epistle went to press, rescue efforts were underway in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The Diocese of Mississippi was reporting on its website the complete destruction of six churches. The Bishop of Louisiana had evacuated to St. James, Baton Rouge. The fate of churches in New Orleans was unknown.

Contributions to the rector's discretionary fund on September 4 were sent to the Diocese of Louisiana to help with the relief effort there. Contributions can still be made through St. Paul's – simply write “Katrina” in the memo line on the check. In addition, the Commission on Mission Outreach Board unanimously agreed to contribute $6,500 from outreach funds for aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina. This reflects a tithe of outreach income for the year. These contributions were made directly to the Bishop of Louisiana’s relief fund.

A check from St. Paul’s in the amount of $10,000 was mailed to Bishop Jenkins of Louisiana on September 9.

Finally, Episcopal Relief and Development is helping in the relief effort, working with the affected dioceses and assisting communities that are hosting relocated people. Contributions can be made to: Episcopal Relief and Development: http://er-d.org/ or 1-800- 334-7626, ext. 5129.

Theological Reflection on the Arts: Othello at the Shakespeare Theatre

Join Woodstock Theological Center and the Washington Theological Consortium for a special performance of Othello at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington on Tuesday, October 18 at 7:30 PM. The Rev’d Dr. Roger Ferlo, director of the Center for Lifetime Theological Education at Virginia Theological Seminary, will lead a post-performance discussion with one of the principal actors.

This event has been organized by Woodstock Fellow John Farina as part of the Theological Reflection on the Arts program at Woodstock and is made possible by the gracious cooperation of the Shakespeare Theatre. To reserve tickets, call the box office directly at 202-547-1122 or visit www.shakespearedc.org. Tickets are limited.

Parish Launches Planned Giving Program
The Minister of the Congregation is directed to instruct the people, from time to time, about the duty of Christian parents to make prudent provision for the well-being of their families, and of all persons to make wills, while they are in health, arranging for the disposal of their temporal goods, not neglecting, if they are able, to leave bequests for religious and charitable uses. – Book of Common Prayer, p.445

Planned giving is a vital ingredient of stewardship in the Church. Many benefactors of our parish have contributed to special purpose funds, and others have generously provided for the parish in their wills or by other charitable giving mechanisms. Such gifts have usually come as surprises, albeit very pleasant ones. Recently, St. Paul’s has begun a systematic program to encourage all parishioners and friends of the Parish to be more intentional in planned giving in order to provide the parish with a solid general endowment as well as special purpose planned gifts, all on an ongoing rather than “single shot” basis.

On February 15, the Vestry created the first element of a three-part planned giving structure – a new Endowment Board that constitutes a creative mechanism to work with the Vestry to direct and manage the parish’s endowed funds. The next step is to initiate a Planned Giving Awareness Task Force (PGATF), with the mission of raising general awareness of planned giving in the parish. After one year, the PGATF will transition into a Legacy Society similar to those in other parishes and educational institutions. Membership in the Legacy Society will be open to any person associated with the parish (including anyone who desires to remain anonymous) who has made a provision for the Church in his or her estate plan, regardless of the size of the gift. The third element is a response phase to help individual parishioners meet their own planned giving needs.

Volunteers are needed to begin the work of the PGATF. If you would be interested in becoming a part of the new PGATF, please contact Larry Toombs at SPC@Toombslaw.com or David Lewis at DLewisAAO@aol.com. The task force’s role will be to create an informative, positive climate to foster planned giving by writing and facilitating articles, enabling communications, and doing what needs to be done to prepare for several special events that have been or will be scheduled to promote awareness.

The planned giving program has scheduled a Mass of Thanksgiving for Benefactors of the Parish on Saturday, November 19, which will be followed by a reception. On this day, the parish will remember and give thanks to the many parishioners and friends of the parish whose generosity has made possible the buildings and furnishings that we now enjoy and which are soon to come. On the following day, November 20, there will be special presentation on planned giving at the rector’s forum. In February, a workshop devoted to the mechanical details and methods of planned giving has been scheduled. [DL & LT]

Commission on Mission October Outreach Events

What a glorious first year the Commission on Mission had! Our success is a direct result of the enormous outpouring of contributions and support from the parish and St. Paul’s community at large.

Now we launch our second year’s outreach programs.

October 2005 events

Sunday, October 23 – Second annual Taste of Italy

This luncheon is sponsored by the youth for an outreach project. Lunch, which includes homemade pasta, salad, bread, and dessert, is $10 per adult, $5 each for children under 12.

Raffle tickets for trove baskets are available for $4 each, or 6 tickets for $20. These fantastic trove baskets include:

•Martini Basket (last year’s winner received complete martini equipment including a bottle of Sapphire gin);
•Starbucks Basket – including a Barista espresso maker;
•Portable Picnic;
•And much more.

Sunday, October 30 – Second annual St. Paul’s Bake Sale

This event will benefit our mission to St. Mary’s Convent, Luwinga, Malawi. Only homemade items will be featured. Specialty cakes and pies will be available, along with smaller items.

We are asking for contributions to sell – homemade products only. This is also an opportunity to collect recipes for St. Paul’s Parish Cookbook. Everyone who contributes a home-baked item to the sale is asked to bring the recipe for that item.

All donations will be gratefully accepted. [RG]

TICC – Education with a Difference
There are many existing interfaith organizations whose goal is to promote dialogue and understanding between different religions. There are also many existing Christian educational courses seeking to teach Christians the fundamental principles underlying other world religions.

What makes Trinity Institute for Christianity and Culture (TICC) different is that its educational program seeks to impart this understanding from a Christian perspective and within the context of a modern, changing, and diverse society. TICC helps Christians develop an informed response to the religious and cultural diversity around them by being centered in their faith and secure in their identity.

TICC is an educational institute resourced by the Trinity Foundation for Christianity and Culture, a charity registered in the United Kingdom. TICC was inaugurated by the Archbishop of Canterbury on September 14, 2003.

TICC aims to create a new generation of committed Christians who are not only aware of their place and responsibilities in their societies and can engage with the changing religious and cultural climate around them, but also celebrate religious and cultural diversity without losing hold of a strong faith rooted in central Christian values.

TICC is developing a worldwide network comprising churches and educational institutions that span multiple Christian denominations. The network today includes representatives of the Episcopal Church of the U.S.A., the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek and Russian Orthodox Churches, the Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and the Congregational and Armenian Protestant Churches.

TICC’s regional reach currently extends to North America (Washington D.C., New York, Maryland, South Carolina, Louisiana, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Antigua), Europe (U.K., Germany, and Spain), the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria), and Australia.

TICC’s ordained and lay consultants from the United Kingdom and these other regions met together, in London in September 2004 for the first time to plan the way forward. In December 2004, the Middle Eastern Consultants held a Regional Conference in Beirut; the North American Conference took place in Charleston, S.C., in May 2005.

Education is presented through the use of a Teaching Manual that enables the courses to be taught worldwide and in different languages. In 2005, St. Paul’s will be conducting Course One as our Wednesday evening Lenten program.

Synopsis of TICC courses

Course One: The first course concentrates on a world view for the third millennium, taking into consideration the resurgence of religions and contemporary conflicts. Globalization is here to stay – the question that faces Christians is how do we live in a global village and still take our faith seriously and work on our spiritual journey, rooted in the person of Christ.

We live in a diverse society that includes different cultures and religions. Tolerance is not an option – because what is needed is beyond tolerance: coexistence, respecting each other’s faiths, and at the same time becoming rooted in our own. We are called as Christians to explore our cultures in the light of discovering and growing in the knowledge of the Holy Trinity, in the context of a culture of love that was revealed in the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. This course is concerned with living in a diverse world, being able not to get threatened by the other, and at the same time living without compromising our own faith.

One of the most serious problems facing our society in the third millennium is secularism, more specifically indifference and even hostility toward religion, particularly blaming religion for what is going on – and has gone on – around the world.

How do we face this challenge of an increasingly secular society, an increasing obsession with individualism, and the rejection of Christian values such as forgiveness, family life, and listening to each other? These values sit at the heart of our faith as Christians and remain at the moment in the shadow of our lives. This course attempts to bring the challenge back to us so that we can face the reality of our time.

Course Two: The second course is about monotheism, the rise and development of the idea of the One God. Monotheism is concerned with exploring the three Abrahamic faiths from a Christian perspective, looking at the similarities, the differences, and the challenges we face together. Christianity has a unique perspective on God that does not exist in Islam and Judaism, and it is very important for us as Christians if we want to understand the other faiths and live together and respect each other’s beliefs to know where we stand at the basic idea of the One God that all three faiths share.

The course takes people on a journey of exploration, going back as far as the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Middle Eastern cultures, to see how they struggled with and explored the idea of God and how they developed their thinking and beliefs about that subject. Then it moves on to look at the culture of the Old Testament and the rise of Judaism and the development of YHWH and the One God and examines how this idea was taken by Islam and the faith of the absolute oneness and the absolute unity of God. In Christianity, we see the concept of the Trinity in the center of understanding God’s reality. The course is an essential exploration of and introduction to the similarities and differences in these three religions and building a net of connections to how to relate as Christians to the other Abrahamic faiths.

Course Three: The third course studies the writings of a unique writer of the New Testament – Doctor Luke. Luke was the only non-Jewish writer in the New Testament; he was a Gentile, a physician, a scientific person, and an artist. We will look at his unique perspective on the person of Christ – his life, his cross, and his resurrection. Luke accompanied Paul in part of his journeys; he met Peter and wrote the Gospel, which was aimed at the Gentiles, and also the Acts of the Apostles, the account of how the Apostles of Christ proclaimed the good news from Palestine to the world, including the turning point in Christianity, which was the faith and life of St. Paul.

This course is important because it addresses the fundamental issue of claiming the Gospel in a multicultural, multi-faith society in early Christianity because Luke wrote to the Gentiles, and he wrote to a diverse society, which can resonate a great deal with our situation in the third millennium. This course raises the challenge of understanding the scriptures and Luke as an example of how to read and understand and look at the Scriptures, taking into consideration its context and relating it to our own. It complements the first and second courses and opens up the possibility of studying the scriptures in a different way, digging into the culture of the Gospel and connecting it to the culture of today.

For more information about TICC, contact Linda Wilkinson at ljwilkinson@cox.net. [LW]

Thank You from Fr. Simon Clark
I just want to say a big thank you to you all for making me feel so welcome at St Paul’s during my locum stay. It was so good to be with you and see how you do things the other side of the "pond." Thank you also for putting up with my strange "English ways"! I really did enjoy my time with you and was glad to meet so many great people.

A particular thank you to Frs. Sloane, Radley, and McQuin, and also to the servers for their patience and guidance. Thank you to the wardens for being so welcoming and generous in their hospitality.

Please see the attached pictures of our church here in Ponders End – I thought some of you might like to see.

I hope to return to Washington soon and know there is always a welcome in this parish [St. Matthew's, Ponders End, London] if any of you make it to London in the future. (Parish Mass is 10:00 AM.)

Yours sincerely and with prayers,
Fr. Simon P. J. Clark

Church School Starts New Year
The church school kicked off the new academic year on September 11 with a welcoming celebration, followed by registration and a short meeting.

Approximately 20 children are enrolled in three Catechesis of the Good Shepherd classes at St. Paul's. There are also classes for middle school and high school students. The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is a Montessori approach to spiritual development and growth for young people.

The church school meets every Sunday between the 9:00 AM and 11:15 AM Masses. All children, ages 3 and up, are welcome. For more information, please contact David Chase, at 301-208-8310, or Lesley Cross, at lesleycross@cs.com.

Feast Days in October

Feast of the Dedication of St. Paul's Parish
Sunday, October 2
9:15 AM Morning Prayer
10:00 AM Solemn Mass
6 PM Solemn Evensong and Benediction

St. Luke the Evangelist
Tuesday, October 18
7 AM Low Mass
Noon Low Mass
6 PM Low Mass

St. James of Jerusalem
Monday, October 24
7 AM Low Mass
Noon Low Mass
6 PM Low Mass

The Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude
Friday, October 28
7 AM Low Mass
Noon Low Mass
6 PM Low Mass

Full Daily Mass Schedule to Resume October 15

Please note the old Mass schedule will resume as of the arrival of our new curate, Fr. Humphrey, on Saturday, October 15:

Monday-Friday Low Masses at 7 AM and 6 PM; an additional noonday Mass on Prayer Book Holy Days

Saturday Mass at 9:30 AM

October Birthdays
1 Anne Shroeder; Denise Hodge; Barbara Gurr; Abigail Schutte; Arianne Boylan; Peter Minnig
2 Maurice Cottingham; Joan Miller; Elizabeth Peckham
3 Calvin Marquis
6 David Scott; Aidan Crane
7 Patrick White, IV; Sarah Schnorrenberg
8 Jeanette Simpson; Vernon Tancil
9 Benjamin Best
14 Evelyn Teehan; George Colson; Thomas Rayfield
15 William L. Ryon, Jr.; Wilfred Genung-Keats, II
16 Ralph Braun; Melinda Burrows; Dorothy Spaulding; Andrew Bush; Christopher Heron
17 Jacqueline Maiorca
22 Helen Clark
23 Michael Womack; Elizabeth Schnorrenberg
24 Patricia Byrd; Elinor Schutte
26 Thomas Harner; Betty Ajueyitsi
27 James Jones, IV
28 David Dirstine
29 Robert Hedrick; Emily Rickard; Benton Crane
30 Raymond Wertheim; Gay Hanna
If you have an October birthday that was not included, or if there
are any mistakes, please contact the parish office. [MW]


Parish Statistics
Transfers Out: Leigh Ann Barnett, James Barnett, Rosalyn Barnett
to St. Paul's, Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
Deaths: Blanche H. Gardner (August 25, 2005)

Notice: Masses Combined on October 2
All three Sunday Masses will be combined into one 10:00 AM
Solemn Mass on Sunday, October 2, to celebrate our Feast of
Dedication. (Morning Prayer is at 9:15 AM that Sunday.)

---

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 Simon Clark, Rhoda Geasland, Davis Lewis, Robert Maddox, Andrew Sloane, Geoffrey Suiter, Larry Toombs, Linda Wilkinson, 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, October 3

© 2005 St. Paul’s Parish, K Street