New faces on the church staff

New faces, and gifts, join St. Stephen’s staff And the parish bids grateful farewells to several faithful servants

The only constant is change, goes the adage…and during a pandemic, there seems to be even more of it. As our ministries adapt to new realities, staff needs adapt, as well.

Since mid-Lent, St. Stephen’s Church has been producing worship videos released each Sunday (as well as those for Holy Week). After nearly six months of creating these videos with a freelance videographer and editor working with our communications, music, and clergy staff, we have hired a full-time communications associate whose duties include video production. Dillon Gwaltney, a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University who grew up in the Richmond area, recently returned “home” after working as an editor in Los Angeles. He has worked for a majority of his career in action sports media where he produced high energy content for companies like RedBull and NBCSports. We know that even after in-person worship returns, we will continue to build on our new video and livestreaming ministry, so Dillon is an important addition to our team.

“We’ve had talented freelance videographers work for us on specific projects over the years,” says Sarah Bartenstein, director of communications. “We’ve known for some time that we could be doing more through this medium, but it took a global pandemic for us to realize that having a videographer/producer on our staff wasn’t a luxury, but a necessity. Dillon is a tremendous asset as we reach our parishioners in exciting new ways, and expand the reach of our communications.”

Another ministry that has adapted to current circumstances is the Café @ St. Stephen’s. When churches throughout Virginia closed to the public, the café (and the May Fair House and the bookshop) were also closed. When it became possible to resume operations in a limited way, the café began offering curbside service, and later expanded to include outdoor dining with additional café tables, umbrellas, and chairs on the terrace outside the café and in the courtyard. During the past several months, two cafés on Grove Avenue have closed, and we have been glad to be in a position to serve customers who have missed seeing one another and want to re-connect in a low-risk way. So we’re thrilled that a new, full-time café manager joins our staff on September 16, Tabitha Venditti. Tabitha has a background in food service, most recently as the kitchen manager at Mountain Run Farm in Sedalia, near Lynchburg. Her desire to move to the Richmond area coincided with our need for a new café manager, and all who interviewed Tabitha were bowled over by her skills, knowledge, enthusiasm, and her understanding of and appreciation for our mission.

Parish administrator Betsy Lee was among those who interviewed Tabitha. Betsy says, “It was clear that Tabitha is passionate about food, the environment, health and people.”

Betsy continues, “The more we told her about our various food ministries, the more excited she became. You could see it in her eyes. We are doing things she feels strongly about and it was evident that she and St. Stephen’s were a good match.”

We announced the arrival of the Rev. Cate Anthony in a special edition of the eSpirit several months ago. This newest member of our clergy staff arrived over the summer as a transitional deacon, having graduated in the spring from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. In early September, Cate was ordained a priest at St. James’ Cathedral in Chicago, her presenting parish. (The Rev. Will Stanley, our vicar, represented St. Stephen’s at this small, safely-distanced service, and was also the preacher.) Cate has been coordinating pastoral care since the retirement of the Rev. Steve McGehee; working with Allison Seay on Emmaus Groups; coordinating our “Sacred Ground” program, a 10-week small group curriculum on race; and contributing homilies to our weekly worship videos. In other words, pandemic or no, she’s jumped into our life with both feet. Since Cate has not had the opportunity to meet (or be met) by many parishioners in person, we are working on a video introduction that will be available soon on our Web site and Vimeo channel.

Erin Townsend is with us as interim outreach coordinator to ensure that vital ministries, particularly our food ministry, continue as we search for a full-time outreach director. The needs are growing all the time as people cope with economic upheaval brought on by the pandemic, and we are grateful to have someone with Erin’s enthusiasm, skills, and dedication. The 2019 graduate of James Madison University has been an active member of the parish for many years, and she is doing an excellent job in her role here.

GODSPEED

Dawn Childs, who had served for five years as a part-time member of our music team, departed our staff in June. Dawn said that with her family responsibilities as well as her expanding role at St. Michael’s Episcopal School where she is a teacher were

among the factors contributing to her decision to step down. Happily, she says that St. Stephen’s will continue to be her family’s church home.

The multi-talented Wei-Li Suen left earlier this year as Sunday accompanist for the Palmer Hall service to fully devote himself to his career in medicine.

As we announced in a parish-wide email communication over the summer, we also said reluctant good-byes to sextons Donald Clements and Chuck Dixon, as well as Sunday Community Supper coordinator Ben Nelson, who held the distinction of having been on our staff longer than anyone here! In addition to cooking and coordinating the Sunday supper, Ben printed liturgical bulletins, and served as a sexton. As we related in that special communication, the duties these valued employees performed were necessarily changing as our buildings remained closed to the public and in-person services and events were curtailed. We miss them!

Deb Lawrence, who served as our outreach coordinator for nearly 15 years, accepted a job over the summer as director of development for the Underground Kitchen’s non-profit enterprise, Community First. Before the pandemic shuttered restaurants and events, Underground Kitchen staged “roving” experiential dinners. In March, when they put that business on pause in response to the quickly spreading virus, they shifted to providing meals for first responders as well as for those in need. That effort has continued to expand, and Deb is raising money and awareness for these efforts. Deb and her husband Rick remain members of the parish family.

Josh Rockett, who joined our staff two years ago as outreach coordinator, working closely with Deb, has accepted a position with ACTS. ACTS is our long-time outreach partner and the organization to whom we refer people seeking assistance with rent, utilities and other needs. Initially, Josh will be working with those at risk of losing their housing as a result of pandemicrelated economic hardship. Josh did wonderful work here in Richmond, worked on two pilgrimages to the southern border, and helped expand our outreach volunteer opportunities for youth. He was also known here as an excellent preacher.

We are sorry to lose Deb and Josh, but we know they are continuing to exercise important ministries in their new roles. A search committee chaired by parishioner Thomas Goode is at work to find our next director of outreach. ✤

Would you like to be in a video?

Weekly worship videos depend on parishioners to be the ‘talent’

One of the things staff members hear from viewers of St. Stephen’s weekly worship videos is how much they enjoy seeing the faces of parishioners in those videos. Sometimes it’s because they’ve missed seeing one another. Sometimes it’s because they’re introduced to people they did not already know—this is not only a large church, but new members are joining all the time.

If you’ve thought you might like to participate in a weekly worship video, perhaps you wonder how it happens. The first step is to indicate your interest. You can do that by sending an email to the Rev. Claudia Merritt (cmerritt@ststephensRVA.org), who has become our “talent booker.” Claudia will slot you in for an upcoming video. Then, you’ll come to the church—usually on a Friday or Monday—for videotaping. Your appointment will take only about 10 minutes. Sarah Bartenstein will explain the process to you, and Dillon Gwaltney will videotape you. You do not need to memorize your part; you can read from the Book of Common Prayer or the Bible. During your taping, you can read through your part as many times as it takes for you to be comfortable. You do not need to get all dressed up, either—unless you want to! We’re interested in children, youth, and adult participants. Typical parts are the Opening Acclamation and Collect for Purity, the Collect of the Day, scripture readings, the Lord’s Prayer, the Prayers of the People, and the Peace. You will read two or three of those things during your appointment, and we’ll choose one of them to use in a video.

Putting the video together is a bit like solving a puzzle. We do our best to mix ages, male and female voices, and so on. Occasionally someone comes in to record, and we end up not using any of their recordings. This has nothing to do with the quality of their delivery! In fact, we do our best to make sure it’s usable before you leave your appointment. More likely it has to do with how the different pieces fit together. And if that happens, we will either use your part in a different video on a future date, or we’ll invite you to return to record something different, at your convenience.

We are so grateful to all who have participated in our videos so far, and look forward to working with more of you in the future. ✤

SPIRIT

PENTECOST 2 | F A L L 2 0 2 0

Issue Number 36

ST. STEPHEN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH

6000 Grove Avenue l Richmond, Virginia 23226

ststephensRVA.org

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Parish Staff To reach a staff member, call 804.288.2867 or send an email using the initial and name provided in parentheses, with @ststephensRVA.org.

Janet S. Allen (jallen), Associate for Membership & Development The Rev. Cate Anthony (canthony), Associate Priest Stan Barnett (sbarnett), Coordinator of Kitchen Ministries Liz Bartenstein (lbartenstein), Hospitality Sarah R. Bartenstein (sbartenstein), Director of Communication Larry Bidwell, Sexton Barry Cleaton, Assistant Market Manager Smokie Crews (weddings), Wedding Coordinator Chris Edwards (cedwards), Director, St. Stephen’s Choir Dillon Gwaltney (dgwaltney), Communications Associate/Video Producer Melissa Hipes (mhipes), Finance Manager Chris Holman, Sexton Anna F. Jones, (ajones), Farmers Market Manager The Rev. Gary D. Jones (gjones), Rector Betsy Lee (blee), Parish Administrator Becky Lehman (blehman), Hospitality & Communication Assistant Jan Locher (jlocher), Preschool Director (288-6401) Christi McFadden (cmcfadden), Finance Assistant The Rev. Claudia W. Merritt (cmerritt), Associate Priest Allison Seay (aseay), Associate for Religion & the Arts Blake Singer (bsinger), Youth Minister The Rev. William S. Stanley (wstanley), Vicar Brent te Velde (btevelde), Director of Music Erin Townsend, Interim Outreach Coordinator Betsy Tyson (btyson), Chaplain to Palmer Hall Tabitha Venditti, Café Manager Greg Vick (gvick), Organist Tyronn Wilkins, Sexton The Café @ St. Stephen’s 804.288.3318 Claire Hackley, barista Annie Ward Love, barista Brianna Maurice, barista Bou Zintseme, barista

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