Dear People of St. David’s, I pray that you and yours are well and that God is preparing you this season for the joy of the resurrection through God’s grace and goodness and love. Grace helps us be changed by God’s love to die to our former selves and rise again as the persons God created us to be.
Each year Christians all over the world walk the way of the Cross and Resurrection as the way to enter more deeply into the grace and love of God for us and for all people. These three holy days, or The Triduum, consist of Maundy Thursday, when Jesus instituted the Last Supper; Good Friday, when Jesus died on the cross; and Easter Sunday, when God raised Jesus from the dead and broke the hold of death forever.
I invite you to make a special commitment this year to walk the sacred journey of Holy Week and Easter. Jesus’ death and resurrection are at the very cornerstone of our faith as Christians. Together, we will reenact the mystery of our Lord’s passion and triumph, using the beautiful liturgies and times of quiet that open the way for God to touch our hearts and lives anew or for the first time.
Grace and Peace,
The Rev. W. Frank Allen, RectorCLERGY
The Rev. W. Frank Allen | Rector
The Rev. Elizabeth W. Colton | Associate Rector
The Rev. Thomas Szczerba, Jr. | Associate Rector
The Rev. Nancy Webb Stroud | Priest Associate
The Rev. Dr. Peter Stube | Priest Associate STAFF
Buff Barnes | Spiritual Direction
Margaret Biester | Head of School, SDEDS
Jamie Boult | Childcare Coordinator
Steve Boyes | Groundskeeper
Geoff Chamberlain | Broadcast Manager
CHURCH
Chris King | Parish Custodian
Grace Oh Kraybill | Music Administrator/Librarian
Maria Leal | Director of Children’s Formation
Carrie Methvan | Parish Receptionist (MWF)
Eileen Myers | Wedding Coordinator
Josiah Pizzo | Groundskeeper
Leslie Robertshaw | Parish Administrator
Dr. Clair Rozier | Director of Music
Sharon Shuttleworth | Communications Assistant
Heather Sill | Worship Administrative Assistant
Elliot VanHoy | Director of Youth Ministry
Bill Watson | Parish Custodian
Dr. Elaine Sonnenberg Whitelock | Associate Director of Music
Kurt Zampitella | Groundskeeper
Amy Van Sciver Darst | Assistant Head of School, SDEDS
Roe DeRitis | Parish Receptionist (TR)
Amy Dolan | Spiritual Direction
Diane Dowlin | Office Manager & Calendar Coordinator
Jo-Ann Funkhouser | Finance Manager
Emily Given | Director of Christian Formation
Nereida Gordon | Director of the Gift Shop & Art Gallery
Matt Grove | Grounds Supervisor
Natalee Hill | Director of Communications
763 South Valley Forge Road, Wayne, PA 19087
610.688.7947 | www.stdavidschurch.org
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Cover Image: Cross in the Chapel. Photo by Natalee Hill.
“With great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.”
–Acts 4:33
BY JIM DOLAN, RECTOR’S WARDEN
The following letter was mailed to the parish in late November 2022, after our last edition of The Dove.
Dear People of St. David’s, I hope that you all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am writing with an important announcement for our parish. After prayerful consideration over the past several months, and in conversation with his wife, Amy, and their sons, Frank Allen has discerned that he will be retiring as rector of St. David’s Church. Frank’s final liturgical service will be at Christmas 2023, officially retiring in January of 2024. The bishop and the vestry of St. David’s Church have been informed, and now, as Rector’s Warden, I share this decision with our St. David’s community.
It was a hard decision for Frank to leave his beloved community and he feels very blessed to have shared in the mission and ministry and life of St. David’s for over 25 years. In turn, I believe I speak for all of us when I say how grateful we are to have walked alongside Frank these many years as he has led us and made disciples of an untold number of people who have entered through the doors of St. David’s Church. I thank God that He has called us together. The process for the calling of the new rector will begin while Frank is still serving as our rector. We will be putting together a profile committee who will survey the entire parish about who we are; who God is calling us to be in the future; and what kind of rector we are asking God to bring to St. David’s. We will also set up a discernment committee to take that profile into the wider church to interview candidates and make a recommendation to the vestry. If you would like to serve on one of these committees, please reach out to me by email at jbdolanjr@gmail.com. We expect that the new rector will follow closely on Frank’s retirement.
This timeline also allows our community to take some opportunities to celebrate our love and express our gratitude to Frank as well as for our shared ministry. In this time, we can all make a renewed commitment
to our own lives in God, find ways to renew our participation in worship and ministry, and pray for St. David’s Church and for the calling of our next rector.
Please join me in thanking Frank for his faithful, loving service to grow this church on a mission to know God in Jesus Christ and to make Christ known to others. Pray for Frank and Amy in this time of transition to their next phase of life. May God bless them with a wonderful retirement.
Faithfully yours,
Jim Dolan, Rector’s WardenFind
Rectorsearch and transition updates at stdavidschurch.org/rector-transition/
Hello friends of St. David’s Episcopal Church,
My name is Drew Haney, I am the owner of Sir Speedy Printing in Berwyn, PA. I had an experience this past January 2023, that I am going to share. I like to call it, “You Have to Put It into God’s Hands.”
I have been in the printing trade for 45 years. When I was twelve years old, I read a book about Benjamin Franklin and became fascinated with printing presses. I knew that printing was one of the most important trades in America and never thought it would change. Then, in 1985, this thing called a computer appeared everywhere and I knew I was in trouble.
Since then, it has been a struggle trying to continue doing what I love. Little by little I am losing my printing accounts due to this new technology. Publications, newsletters, brochures, and most of what was printed on paper is now online. With the pandemic of 2020, the only way I was able to stay in business was from one big printing account I had but wound up losing it just before Christmas 2022.
For several weeks I had been sitting in my print shop with nothing to do and felt sure my printing career may be coming to an end. As a child I was raised with a great faith in God, but always tried to resolve most of my problems by myself. My closest friends started to notice that I hadn’t been myself, so I told them what I was dealing with. They all said to me on more than one occasion that I
needed to put it into God’s hands; I guess I just didn’t know how to do that.
On Friday, January 20, I went to work and had nothing to do. I was very depressed and felt as though I was not able to pull my weight supporting my family. That day a new customer came into the shop, and I helped her for about 45 minutes; the cost was 96 cents in total, and she handed me a credit card. I told her that the copies were on me and not to worry about paying me.
When she left, I decided to close early. While driving home I remember feeling a calm come over me. I found myself talking to God and telling Him that I know I tried everything I possibly could. I didn’t ask for help but asked for reassurance that if this was His plan for me, I would be ready to accept it. I also thanked God for allowing me be a printer for all these years of my life.
When I got home, I checked my email as usual. There was an email from the president of the company of the account I lost. The email stated that the company would be updating their forms and wanted me to call them first thing in the morning to discuss the details of the job. They ended up giving me 80% more work than I was originally doing for them! When I finally completed the job (took me six days straight of working, 15 hours a day), I was exhausted. I wound up having another chat with God and thanked Him for blessing me with this
opportunity to get back on my feet again.
The week of January 30, while walking out of the door of my shop, the phone rang. For a moment I thought about not answering the phone, but I did. The phone call was from Sharon Shuttleworth and Diane Dowlin from St. David’s Episcopal Church. They wanted to see if I could help them with a print project that needed to be a quick turn-around. It was for the 2023 Pilgrimage Companion Booklets for The Rev. W. Frank Allen’s trip to the Holy Land. I told them that I would love to help them and that I would be able to get it completed quickly for them.
I strongly believe this was God letting me know that He really does see everything and is always ready to help if we just put our lives into God’s hands.
I shared this story with Sharon and Diane and now I share it with all of you.
BY GRACE OH KRAYBILL
This March, St. David’s is pleased to host an organ recital series on our magnificent Dobson pipe organ in the Chapel. Each Tuesday, members of the Philadelphia Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO) will present a half-hour performance as a gift to the community. There is no admission cost for the recital, nor do these accomplished musicians receive a fee. There will be a luncheon in St. David’s Hall following each recital, at which the suggested donation is $10 per person.
The AGO is the national professional organization for organists. Their mission is to foster a thriving community of musicians who share their knowledge and inspire passion for the organ. It boasts over 14,000 members in approximately 300 chapters throughout the United States and abroad. The Philadelphia Chapter, which has over 300 members, is very proud to present this series for the 50th season. This March, the scheduled artists are:
MARCH 7: DR. KIRSTEN
Dr. Kirsten Santos Rutschman is currently the Interim Director of Music at Wayne Presbyterian Church. Kirsten holds degrees in musicology (Ph.D., M.A.) from Duke University. In addition, she has studied and completed Fulbright-supported research in Sweden. Before coming to Wayne, Kirsten was Organist/Accompanist at First Presbyterian Church of St. Louis for almost four years. During that time, she also taught music theory and related courses.
Josh Kraybill is no stranger to St. David’s as he’s had the opportunity to play the organ and sing in the choir during Christmas 2021 and 2022. He is currently a sophomore studying the organ at the Cleveland Institute of Music, one of the few all-classical programs in the country. He will also be giving a recital at the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove, NJ on August 12.
MARCH
Emily Ballentine Erb is a life-long church musician and daughter of a Lutheran pastor and music teacher. Emily is Director of Music Ministries at St. Mark’s Lutheran in Conshohocken. She was a piano performance major at James Madison University and plans to begin graduate studies in sacred music and organ performance this fall.
Jeffrey Brillhart is an author, composer, concertizer, as well as the Director of Music and Fine Arts at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian. He is also on the music faculty at Yale University, where he teaches Organ improvisation. He earned his Master’s from the famed Eastman School of Music.
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One of the better kept secrets in the church is the presence of Religious Orders and Christian Communities in the Anglican Communion. Last summer, to remind the church of these faithful Orders and Communities, the General Convention of The Episcopal Church passed a resolution that the Third Sunday after the Epiphany be observed as “Religious Life Sunday”. The General Convention’s goal was to remind all Episcopalians of our religious orders and Christian communities and to share who they are, what they offer, and how to connect with them for building up the Church, the Body of Christ.
Religious orders and Christian communities have long made important contributions to the life and work of our diocese and to the spirituality of its members. Members of religious orders live together under a rule of life and under vows such as poverty, chastity, and obedience. Members of Christian communities live in their own homes, have jobs and families, and form vowed communities that follow a shared rule of Christian life.
Religious orders and Christian communities have long developed practices that assist with spiritual growth and discernment. Their members teach about prayer, lead retreats, and provide spiritual direction. Religious orders also frequently offer hospitality for short visits or longer retreats and – like Christian communities – are eager to welcome new members.
At right is a list of and links to religious orders and Christian communities that are recognized by The Episcopal Church and active in our diocese.
The Rev. Dr. Peter B. Stube, TSSF Minister Provincial, Third Order, St. Francis, Province of the Americas
Community of the Holy Spirit (women) | chssisters.org
Community of St. John Baptist (women) | csjb.org
Order of the Holy Cross (men) | holycrossmonastery.com
Society of St. Francis (men) | ssfamericas.org
Society of St. Margaret (women) | societyofstmargaret.org
CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES
Anglican Order of Preachers | anglicandominicans.org
An apostolic religious community made up of members all throughout the Anglican Communion inspired by the spiritual tradition of our founder Saint Dominic de Guzman. We live to praise, to bless, to preach.
Brotherhood of St. Gregory (men) | gregorians.org
The members follow a common rule and serve the church on all levels. The trust that all labor and life can be sanctified is summed up in the community’s motto: Soli Deo Gloria, To God Alone the Glory.
Community of Francis & Clare | cfcfranciscans.org
A contemporary vowed community seeking to follow Jesus in the Franciscan tradition by living simply and humbly, serving and praying with and for the marginalized members of our communities and by helping to re-build the church in our day to day contexts.
Order of the Ascension | orderoftheascension.org
Seeking the presence of Jesus Christ in the people, things, and circumstances of life through stability, obedience, and conversion of life.
Rivendell Community | rivendellcommunity.org
Renewing the Church through lives of prayer and hospitality.
Third Order, Society of St. Francis | tssf.org
A spirituality of joy and a community with a contemplative heart that pursues justice, peace, and the loving care of creation.
MARCH 7-28 | 12PM
MARCH 26 | 5PM
MAY 7 | 10:30AM
June 26-30 | 9am to 3pm | $100 per camp, per camper by April 7; $120 after Open to Pre-K through rising 6th graders (rising 7th-12th graders may be CITs) Vacation Bible School | 9am-12pm
Stellar helps children discover what it means to shine Jesus’ light in everyday life. Music Camp | 12:30pm-3pm
JUNE 26-30 | 9AM-3PM
Watch a Biblical story come to life right before your eyes with the beautiful voices of children and their musical talents. More information and registration at stdavidschurch.org/2023camps
YOUTH SUMMER RETREAT TO NEW RIVER GORGE
NATIONAL PARK, WEST VIRGINIA
July 9-13, 2023 | Registration now open!
JULY 9-13
Put on your adventure hat and prepare for a week of action packed fun and fellowship! With time dedicated to venturing in the forests, mountains, and canyons, you can breathe free and enjoy the beauty of creation. This retreat is a time to connect with old and new friends, step out of your comfort zone in an adventurous way, stand in awe of God’s creation, and rest in the good news of God’s love and care! Find more information and registration at stdavidschurch.org/2023youthretreat
OR
Scan the QR code at the right or visit the Communications page on our website to sign up for our various email lists including Men’s and Women’s Fellowships, Family Ministries, the Gift Shop & Art Gallery, and more!
If you would like to make a financial gift in support of St. David’s mission and ministry in Radnor Township, the Greater Philadelphia region, and around the world, please give online by using your smartphone camera to scan the QR code to the left or by visiting stdavidschurch.org/giving. You may also text to give by texting the keyword ‘Worship1715’ and the amount ‘$___’ to 73256.
Thank you for your generosity!
“Why do we take retreats? Over the course of this year, our goal at St. David’s Youth Ministry has been to create a place that students feel safe, know that they are loved, create deep friendships, and experience the transforming power of God in Jesus Christ. We have been doing this through common meals, common prayer, service, and fun. However, sometimes the best way to build deep relationships and experience God in an all-new way is to get out of our comfort zone and go on a joy-filled adventure!
Taking a retreat opens a space for us to remember that Jesus proclaimed, “I have come that you might have abundant life” (John 10:10)! We were not made for fast paced, busy, cluttered lives; we were made for abundant lives! So much of our students’ time is spent running from school, to sports, to choir, to theater, to jobs, and more. Retreats give us a chance to slow down in a way that allows us to disconnect from the pressures of school, jobs, college applications, and social media. If you pay attention in the Gospels one thing you will frequently notice is that Jesus is often taking his disciples and going away to a quiet place for rest and prayer. Taking a retreat together is a way to imitate the practices of Jesus and to live into the life transforming invitation to come to Jesus for rest and take on his light yoke (Matt. 11:28-30)!”
BY MICHAEL BRENT, MEN’S FELLOWSHIPOn October 15th and 16th, 2004, thirty men gathered for the first St. David’s Men’s Retreat at the Donaldson Brown Conference Center in Port Deposit, Maryland. It was a twenty-two-hour event. This became the model for the next 14 annual retreats (2004 – 2019) and was only stopped by COVID-19 restrictions.
It was a comfortable and relaxed environment where we explored what it means to “Be Christian Men” and how it can help our everyday lives. Our program included spiritual education, worship, creative challenges, and time for fellowship. It was a great balance of teaching and group participation.
Intense exercises and tasks for small groups included conveying our thoughts on being a Christian man in our jobs, homes, neighborhoods, and church through poetry, song, performing a play, and a montage. These highly focused onehalf hour tasks brought out a level of creativity from the small groups that many of us had never experienced.
We were fortunate to have the guidance of our speaker, Dr. Lee K. Iseley, Executive Director of American Missionary Fellowship. He told us later that this was the first event he had lead where everyone was welcomed and there no subagendas or cliques.
The benefit we experienced as a result of this event included: strengthened friendships, spiritual growth, increased bible study attendance, starting new spiritual programs like Alpha, and a strengthened Men’s Fellowship.
ADVENT, CHRISTMAS, & EPIPHANY WERE FULL OF FELLOWSHIP, FOOD, AND FUN!
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Palm Sunday, April 2nd
8:00am, 11:30am & 5:00pm | Church 9:15am | Chapel & Livestream
Maundy Thursday, April 6th
6:00pm | Family Worship| Undercroft 7:00pm | Chapel & Livestream
8:00pm-8:00am | All Night Prayer Vigil | Church
Good Friday, April 7th 12:00pm | Church
6:00pm | Chapel & Livestream
Holy Saturday, April 8th
9:00am | Egg Hunt & Flowering the Cross | Fairgrounds
7:00pm | Chapel & Livestream
Easter Sunday, April 9th
8:00am & 5:00pm | Church
9:15am & 11:30am| Chapel & Livestream
9:30am | Family Worship| Undercroft stdavidschurch.org/easter
9:30am | Family Worship | Undercroft