Summer at the Cafe

The coming months will be a significant time in the life of our parish, and it will be especially important for the vestry and staff to be able to communicate with parishioners.

We learned when we sent announcements earlier this year about the Rev. Gary Jones’ retirement plans, and the vestry’s call to the Rev. Patrick Wingo to serve as our interim rector, that some of the information in our parish database needs attention.

Like many churches, St. Stephen’s has two sources for email addresses. One is a main database (in our case, ACS), designed to store each parishioner’s name, USPS address, phone number, birthdate, and email address, as the parishioner has provided them to us. The other is Constant Contact, the platform we use to send email newsletters based on subscription preferences determined by the subscriber. The ACS database is maintained by church staff and includes parishioners and prospective parishioners.

Constant Contact, on the other hand, includes subscribers to one or more of our free newsletters (such as the eSpirit, the Farmers Market newsletter, the Weekly Bible Study, etc.), not only to parishioners. Subscribers can add, remove, or update their own email address (though your information is not accessible to others).

We’ve been reminded that sometimes folks think they’ve updated their email address in our database, when what they’ve actually done is updated their Constant Contact preferences and information. While most email announcements are sent using Constant Contact, sometimes a communication should go to our members first, so we use the email addresses we have in ACS.

So it’s time for some “list hygiene.”

If your mailing address, phone number or email address has changed in the past year or so (or if you missed a communication you think you should have received), please make sure to let the parish staff know so we can update the ACS database and ensure that you receive important emails and letters. You can do that by calling the parish office at 804.288.2867, or sending an email to Coco Provance at cprovance@ststephensRVA.org.

If you do not receive the eSpirit, this is a good time to subscribe. We offer a number of different email newsletters—all free, and available to anyone, not just parishioners—but if your inbox is overflowing and you want just one St. Stephen’s newsletter, subscribe to the eSpirit. It’s sent every Wednesday at 6 a.m., and it’s the “general purpose” communication. This is also the list we use to send special emails such as weather-related schedule changes. Visit ststephensRVA.org/email to subscribe. We will never give your email address to any outside party, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

As always, if you have questions, please call the parish office at 804.288.2867. ✤

We’re so grateful for your ongoing support of the café during the pandemic, with online and phone orders, and meeting friends and colleagues for coffee or a meal at one of our outdoor café tables.

We’ve heard from many of you that the café was an especially important ministry to you during “lockdown,” because our outdoor seating provided a safe place for you to get together with friends, associates, Emmaus groups, and others. We saw plenty of customers bundled up during colder weather, seated at café tables near our outdoor space heaters!

We have returned to our summer hours, 7 a.m.-2 p.m. on weekdays, and 7:30 a.m.12:30 p.m. on Saturdays, for drinks, smoothies, snacks, breakfast, and lunch. We’ve also re-opened the café on Sundays, 8:30-12:30, for complimentary coffee, and the full selection of coffee and espresso drinks, available for purchase. We won’t be offering the full menu on Sundays, but there are grab-and-go snacks available for purchase. Customers will be permitted indoors to place their orders, after which you may enjoy them outdoors, or, space permitting, inside the café.

Remember that the café has free punch cards for “frequent fliers” (buy 11 drinks, get the 12th free), as well as gift cards in any amount. Please spread the word about our café, and let your friends, neighbors and colleagues know that it is open to all, not just St. Stephen’s parishioners. SUMMER HOURS Monday-Friday, 7 a.m.2 p.m. | Saturday, 7:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. | Sundays, 8:30-noon Closed when the parish office is closed (such as Monday, July 5 and Labor Day)