FALL
2020
|
SEASON
OF
PENTECOST
PARISH CALL
LIFE
AND
MINISTRY
IN
A
NEW
TIME
Dear Beloved in Christ,
anew simplicity of life and the fullness of joy, for this is at the heart of everything in God’s Kingdom.
Autumn is one of my favorite seasons. It is a season of endless bounty. Ripening fruits are everywhere, gardens yield the last of those juicy tomatoes; pumpkins and squash magically appear in fields and the branches of fruit trees bend heavily, beckoning us to harvest. Days are often warm and nights cool; humidity drops, and the sky becomes a brilliant bluer than blue. The foliage turns riotous colors and the hum and chirp of insects is all about. I would normally say that this is a season that signals the return to routine but we know that this year is different.
I can’t think of a more joyous or celebrated saint than Francis of Assisi, whom we commemorate on October 4. Francis lived a high-spirited life, typical of a wealthy young man in 12th Century Italy. He joined a military campaign and was captured. As a prisoner, he lay ill for several months and began to think about what really mattered to him—what gave him joy. And suddenly, Francis heard Jesus’ invitation anew. He discovered that the heart of the gospel was joyful simplicity and he set out to live in a new direction of trust. At every turn, he reveled in the compassion and goodness that he experienced and he shared it with
Can we celebrate the difference of this time in which we live? Among the people of God in ancient Israel, there was a tradition of celebrating a Jubilee Year (think local library amnesty day on steroids!). Every fifty years (7 x 7 + 1), Hebrew slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would
all he met, including the sun and moon, trees and wildlife. May you and I discover such unbounded joy in this Year of Jubilee. Yes, we face many complex challenges but in the Kingdom of God complexity is never more important than the simplicity of the gospel’s joy.
be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest. It marked a year of restoration and emancipation.
Pray with me this simple chant from the community at Taizé:
This Fall, I can’t help but think that we begin a Jubilee Year at St. Thomas’, a reordering of life. A key piece of this re-ordering will be in the
The Kingdom of God is justice and peace
welcoming of a new rector and we will do this in
And joy in the Holy Spirit.
the midst of a pandemic, racial tensions, economic
Come Lord and open in us
worries, and polarizing election rhetoric. Yet, amid all these complexities, there is a voice calling
The gates of your Kingdom.
us to full joy and simplicity of life.
At the Last Supper, Jesus speaks to Thomas and the others, saying, Do not let your hearts be
It is in hopeful trust that we enter this season of Jubilee, a year of the Lord’s favor.
troubled…I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. (John 14:1a,15:11)
If there is one lesson we have learned during this time of pandemic, it is to focus on those things that really matter to us. We do not need to do it all or to have it all; we are invited to discover
Faithfully yours,
Paul+
Our Vestry is deeply appreciative for the many ways you share your time, talents and treasure in advancement of St. Thomas’ mission to love, equip and serve.
We are pleased to report that construction of the Solar Farm at St Thomas will be complete in September. The system is designed with 754 panels that will provide 85% to 90% of our church’s electricity usage until 2050. The new Solar Farm enables us to use our campus to financially support our campus in a responsible way that promotes good stewardship of our earth, our community, and the property entrusted to our care.
Visitors will be welcomed to explore a series of walking paths through the Meadow that lead to our Solar Farm. Some of our committees are exploring ways to utilize this new attraction as a part of our Outreach and Welcome ministries to connect with our local community.
Our Preschool is dreaming up ways to incorporate visits. Amy Roak highlights, “as a preschool STEAM teacher, it is one of my most important goals to utilize as much of our amazing campus as possible at all times of the year, and the addition of solar panels are a welcome addition to inspire STEAM curriculum about using the sun as a renewable energy source.”
For several years, we have asked the question: how can we utilize our unused land to generate income to help us address our financial goals? John Kepner chaired two church committees that sought to identify how we might generate revenue from the vacant property, including the area where the solar panels are being installed. He shares, “Many in the parish have advocated for some time that we have not been very good stewards of this property by allowing it to lay fallow, but these studies identified the traffic, sewer, zoning, practical and other impediments to many commercial and residential uses on this property. The solar project reconciles these issues quite nicely.”
In 2019, our Solar Task Force fulfilled its 2016 charge from our Vestry to examine a proposed ground-mounted photovoltaic electricity production system (“solar array” or “solar farm”). The Task Force proposed to construct an array on one acre of unused land located in our “Back 10” acres. As Pam McKernan, chair of the Solar Task Force, stated, "the Task Force believes the solar panels provide a ‘win-win’ – helping the environment AND the bottom line."
Following an extensive due diligence process, and well organized approval process—which featured terrific support from the offices of the diocese— our Vestry approved the project. During our review process, we heard support from people like Pem Hutchinson, who says of the project, “The Solar Renewable Energy Project increases cash flow, is ‘green’, and has little downside risk. Also, it utilizes one acre of land that produces no income.” Church leaders organized to select an experienced developer and negotiate an agreement.
S O L A R at St. Thomas'
During the next five years, we will continue to make electricity payments to the developer we selected for the project. After the fifth year that the system is producing power, with your faithful financial support of St. Thomas’ mission, we will complete our purchase of the solar farm equipment. Once purchased outright, St. Thomas will calculate the electricity costs saved each year and direct the savings to manage capital needs in some of our aging buildings as well as our maturing tree canopy.
A model of stewardship that we have explored at St. Thomas' entails what Rick Felton calls ‘Year-Round Stewardship,’ which creates five seasons in our stewardship year. These include: Stewardship of Welcoming, Stewardship of the Earth, Stewardship of Facilities, Stewardship of Community, and Stewardship of Money. This model serves as a useful framework for our collective examination of how St Thomas' will support every one of those five areas of stewardship by harnessing solar energy.
As some of our parishioners learned about the project through conversations and the Solar Task Force presentations, some stewards sought to contribute gifts to support the project. The support was so strong that we actually raised one-third of the system cost before we signed the agreement with our developer! Our Vestry is currently working on a plan that we hope will invite broad parish participation during 2021 and 2022, giving as many parishioners as possible the opportunity to help provide long term support to sustaining our land and
We are called by God to care for creation and we support any move, no matter how small, to reduce our carbon footprint... I hope it will inspire other faith communities to follow our example... This is a bold and exciting venture that seems good to the Holy Spirit and to us.
buildings, and most importantly, helping to fulfill our Genesis Covenant to reduce our carbon footprint 50% by 2029
The Rev. Paul Briggs
We will gather during an upcoming event in October to bless the new system. When our next Earth Day Celebration rolls around on Sunday, April 25, 2021, we will have another opportunity to gather and celebrate our new Solar Farm as a responsible step towards environmental and financial stewardship. We are looking forward to being together and recognizing those generous spirits--our 2050 Energy Stewards-whose financial support, time and energy have made this project possible. For more on the Genesis Covenant episcopalchurch.org/files/documents /genesis_convenant_final.pdf
For complete details, videos, photos and more, check out stthomaswhitemarsh.org/solar Jim Pasquarella Senior Wardan
Vox Dei AND Vox Populum Michael Smith, Minister of Music
There are some wonderful 16th century
organ and the quartet can be the
German theology books that talk about
Vox Populum, or voice of the people.
the pipe organ as the Vox Dei, or voice
Before you get your Reformation
of God. This may be due to the fact that
pitchforks and torches, let me say
it has an endless supply of breath (or
unequivocally that liturgy belongs to
until the 20th century, endless as long as
the gathered assembly. You will still
there were people to pump the bellows).
have an active job to do when the
Our organ, installed in 1963, is beginning
soloists are singing or the organ is
to show some signs of aging, and on July
playing. Listen to the (hopefully)
18th, the motor that powers its blower
beautiful sounds and enjoy them for
failed. Luckily, the company that installed
their aesthetic value.
it is local, and they were able to remove and replace it. We had to use the piano
You have a job to do: sing with your
during that time, of course, because an
HEART. Pray the words. Pray the
organ without wind makes no sound. The
sounds. Read over the texts, and ask:
blower turbine generates a large amount
What is God saying to me? What is
of wind, which is held at 2-3 inches of
God showing me about the work I
wind pressure in a static reservoir, and
must do?
then deployed through the pipes as the organist dictates. The organ literally
Our full choir and choristers will meet
breathes, and spreads that sound
during the week outdoors (as we are
throughout a large sanctuary.
able) to sing and maintain fellowship and worship together, and to keep
Because we believe that singing may
our choirs in fine running order for
spread aerosols containing COVID-19,
when we are able to return to full
we will not have any congregational
singing. We will also continue to
singing for a while. This is very painful for
produce and share online content for
me, because hymn singing is one of my
those who are unable to attend in-
favorite things in the world. So, the plan
person at this point. It would be such
is to have four singers in the balcony,
a waste for us to disengage and
spread out at a safe distance, and
merely listen. If we are able to unite
masked, to sing for us.This is no substitute
our prayers with the Voice of God
for belting out hymns we love, but I want
and the voice of the people as
to propose that during this time, the
sounded on our behalf, God will hear and bless us.
When Singing Spreads: A Poetic Essay on Singing and COVID-19 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)
“Singing is considered a special act of respiration, and requires a motor plan. The role of respiratory function in singing is to provide a steady pressure head to generate sound.” (Robert T. Sataloff, Sataloff’s Comprehensive Textbook of Otolaryngology: Laryngology: Head and Neck Surgery (Vol. 4))
Lungs are designed to move mostly downwards. When the wall of muscle beneath them contracts, they are pulled down and the act of inspiration occurs - air enters the lungs through the nose or mouth, along with any aerosols that may be present. Then the air is exhaled with varying degrees of force - along with any aerosols that may be present.
If you want to sing, though, an intermediate step must occur: the vocal folds must be made to vibrate at a consistent frequency. This happens mostly parasympathetically, but we do have some agency in keeping them in the right place and with the right amount of air to maintain vibration. The air, traveling from the lungs back out into the cosmos, meets a certain resistance.
The ruach (Hebrew for the breath, the wind, the spirit) is wild and untamed. It blows where it will. We are inspired as the Spirit desires. And yet, here is that wind (a gas) meeting cartilage (a solid) and that act of resistance might - just might - result in singing. The Spirit moves the air along with any aerosols that may be present.
Six feet. Twenty-seven feet. Cubic square feet. How much resistance is needed to make singing that can be heard at a safe distance? Is the spirit, the wind, the breath safe? But I can sing by myself, safely. Perhaps I can sing with a few others, very far apart, safely. Thank goodness for safe singing - along with any aerosols that may be present.
One deep calls to another in the noise of your cataracts; * all your rapids and floods have gone over me. -Psalm 42:9 (Book of Common Prayer psalter)
Image: Ruach Julia Swaby
"...Then two wonders happened at the same moment. One was that the voice was suddenly joined by other voices; more voices than you could possibly count. They were in harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once, was blazing with stars...If you had seen and heard it...you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves which were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and made them sing.”
- C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew (1955)
When a sound wave of a certain frequency comes into contact with a surface with the same natural frequency, we experience resonance. It happens in an empty stairwell, and it happens in our skulls. The breath comes in, the breath goes out and resists against the vocal folds, and frequencies are produced. They encounter the bones of the skull: the frontal bones, the occipital bones, the maxillo-facial bones, and their vibrations are amplified. The empty space of the sinus cavity resonates. It’s why a trained singer can sing in a huge hall with no microphone and be heard in the back row. That singer knows how to give life to the bones and use hard, empty spaces to propel the song.
Vibrations can travel much farther than aerosols, and reach surfaces far away from our own skull. When they encounter stones, they bounce off those stones and move in different trajectories. And the molecules of the stones are enlivened by the vibrating wind, whose sound is begun in resistance and sent out by the bones.
When two voices join the same frequency or harmonically (mathematically) consistent frequencies, something magical happens. Tiny sub-vibrations, known as overtones, are set in motion and amplified by the combination of those frequencies. These give a richness, a brightness, ringing to the sound. The more vibrations that join in, the more overtones one experiences, making for a fuller, richer sound.
Image: Beathing Space Rita Vindedzis
Do places hold resonance? Do they hold the memories of what has been said and sung and screamed and moaned in them? Is that echo still there, outside of our range of hearing, but audible to the Creator of Vibrations? Are the stones crying out?
Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. (Ezekiel 37:9-10)
Bone joined to bone, sinew to sinew, sound wave to sound wave.
Prophesy to the bones, mortal. Prophesy to the cartilage of the vocal folds and the lungs. Prophesy to the aerosols, the stones. Prophesy, and say, “Mortal, can these songs live?”
The Song exists apart from the singer, and apart from the listener. When we align our resistance with the Song’s vibration, we resonate with its frequency, and spread it throughout the earth. And we will be able to do that, soon, safely. Until then, the Song lives.
Image: The Ruach Project
During the past few months while darkness often seems the forecast, God continues to light our way. One of the many ways he lights our path here at St. Thomas’ has been by bringing us closer to our partners at Church of the Advocate, building our partnership beyond our meals and service in the soup kitchen.
As the pandemic has changed the way we do so many things, that has been the case at the COA soup kitchen as well. In the first week in June when I reached out to Mamie Mathis, chef there, and asked her how things were going she told me that due to the pandemic and recent looting, places where she usually purchased kitchen supplies and food had been shut down and also that her usual government food resources had been put on pause.
I shared this information with Kathleen Schneer and the rest of Outreach, and in unison, we saw this as a prayerful calling to our congregation to lend an extra hand. The Commission okayed the final $500.00 of their Emergency Fund to Church of the Advocate’s Soup Kitchen; however, since the stores where Mamie usually shops had not re-opened or lacked supplies, we purchased what she needed throughout the months of June and July to help make daily bagged lunches possible. Items such as cold cuts, bread, paper bags, lettuce, cases of water, fruit, and chicken.
On July 1st Church of the Advocate held their inaugural Wawa Hoagie Day. (An annual event for those in need begun by Wawa in 1992.) Deacon Dennis
Church of the Advocate
and I were there to help hand out food. We set up tables in the magnificent courtyard. It was a gorgeous day, blue skies and one only had to look heavenward to see gargoyles, flying buttresses and other mesmerizing details of its gothic revival architecture.
“But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light.” Ephesians 5:13
While setting up the bagged lunches with Church of the Advocate volunteers, Dennis Womack-Kalla, COA ‘s accounting warden, stopped by to introduce himself and thank us for the emergency funds. We enjoyed talking with him and then serving lunch and iced tea with him during the afternoon.
As we handed out lunches, we noticed there were twenty-three empty flowerpots throughout the courtyard! The pandemic has proven, even more, that observing nature, greenery, flowers, and birds can ground us in the present moment, offering a momentary break from our worries and anxiety and provide a sense of hope. After discussing these important mental health benefits, we decided we would plant each of these pots so that soup kitchen customers and volunteers could enjoy viewing them while Robin Lentz Worgan
picking up their daily lunches.
So, with the help of some generous donations, we were able to purchase plants, and on July 17th with the horticultural therapist expertise of Brenda Sullivan and the aid of Church of the Advocate parishioner and volunteer Camille Turner, we planted flowers and weeded the courtyard.
During the past few summer months it also came to our attention that Church of the Advocate is starting a Clothing Closet. St Thomas’ has been offering clothing for their outreach needs for years, but now they have an actual space to organize, set up and schedule. On July 11th through the research and good work of Jim Weiss and Deacon Dennis, we were able to collaborate with COA and go to a large secondhand store in Norristown that had closed. Camille Turner, who is a chaplain and also the coordinator of their Clothing Closet, came with us. Camille was able to pick out racks and shelving for the closet as well as clothes so as to make the dream of the Clothing Closet come to fruition. Camille and COA were very excited about this collaboration.
Finally, during this time of COVID-19, Church of the Advocate suffered the loss of Harriet Mosley, a long-time parishioner and soup kitchen volunteer. Harriet and her husband, Skinner, were always the first ones you saw when you entered the soup kitchen. They would sit at the sign in desk to make sure customers signed in as they enter. In the eight years we St. Thomas’ volunteers have been going to COA, Harriet always greeted us with a smile. She had a great giggle and she loved when we brought chocolate chip cookies. Harriet and her husband lived just across the street. Harriet died in May and they were able to hold her service in the sanctuary on June 5th. Condolence cards were sent to COA as well as to Harriet’s husband from our congregation, along with her favorite dessert, chocolate chip cookies.
At this difficult time let us continue to keep Church of the Advocate’s parishioners, volunteers and soup kitchen customers in our prayers and let us continue to love and serve our neighbors as ourselves.
As autumn begins and the pandemic continues and Church of the Advocate continues to need resources to serve bag lunches, I’d like to suggest some easy ways to contribute to the monthly meals. Here’s how you can help.
Below is a list of items to offer prior to the third Monday each month when we volunteer in fellowship with them. (September 21, October 19, November 16, December 21.)
Cases of Water
Loaves of bread
Bags of apples or pears
Cartons of individual chips
Homemade desserts
Paper bags and plastic bags
Or if your family wants to coordinate with a few other families and make a portion of lunches for 75, please let me know, and if you would like to offer a small monetary donation towards meals, let me know as well. Contact me at robinlentzworgan@gmail.com.
Over the last year I have worn two different ministry hats at St. Thomas’s: serving on the Adult Spiritual Formation Commission, and co-leading the prayer effort for the rector search. Both roles have given me space to ponder deeply what is the foundational role of our church, or any church in general. I’ve come to the conclusion that a church is at its core a community of spiritual transformation. This might be easy to miss since it is easy to conflate the living organism of the church with the stone building on a hill. Unlike stone structures, organisms are undergoing a process of constant change.
Spiritual transformation is necessary because our default as humans is not God’s way. This process happens at both a corporate and an individual level, and it is something that happens continually in a healthy church. The church is not living into its calling when it is relying solely on the established structures of the past and seeking to maintain the status quo. The church is by its very nature headed in a particular direction. At a time when change feels so pervasive and overwhelming, the thought of being in constant flux doesn’t sound like good news, but I’m writing to remind you that it is indeed what we need to hear.
And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 1 Corinthians 3:18, NRSV
The Apostle Paul uses language of glory to depict this perpetual movement toward a goal that is beautiful and increasing in wholeness. We are designed to become more and more the reflection or the living embodiment of the Lord Jesus! What a thought!
Throughout the scriptures, God’s invitation to us centers around a place of need. But we aren’t always blessed with the awareness of our need; sometimes we think everything is fine the way it was.
On the last day of the festival, the great day, while Jesus was standing there he cried out, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’” John 7: 37-38, NRSV
Jesus’s invitation was for people who sensed their thirst, their need. During this time of ever-mounting difficulties, have you felt a growing sense of need in yourself and in the world around you? I wonder what God in the person of Jesus might have to offer that would meet us in the place of our deepest needs?
If you are looking for community that points you to the Giver of living water, you are not alone. This is what spiritual formation is all about, and the Adult Spiritual Formation and Children, Youth, and Family Commissions are looking to hold special space for this. How might you help serve or participate in this community of transformation? We’d love to hear from you if this is something that makes something in you come alive.
Will Gillespie Image: Wholeness Vera Wilde
Dear St. Thomas' Church Friends,
Thank you for your food donation made during the months of March through June 2020. We apologize for not reaching out sooner. We have been diligently working to meet the increased food need along with redesigning operations to keep everyone safe.
Our communities have faced some difficult times over the past few months with the hardships imposed by the pandemic. Food insecurity has increased rapidly, but through faithful donors like you, Inter-Faith Food Cupboard has been able to meet the enormous need. We've given out 7,248 bags of groceries, providing nourishing food to 1,328 families. And we couldn't have done it without caring community members like you. Together, we've made a positive impact on the lives of those experiencing hunger.
Thank you for thinking of others during this difficult time. Our partnership with community members means the world to us. We are honored to do this work with you!
With appreciation, Marsha A. Eichelberger, Executive Director
Thank you to Victor and Marsha Garsky for their work on repairing the damaged headstones in the cemetery.
Do you know about The Episcopal Church Club of Philadelphia? If not, here is some information you should know.
The Club was founded in 1895; thus it is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The mission of the club is to encourage the future clergy leaders of our diocese, provide needed financial aid for seminarians from the diocese, exchange ideas for strengthening churches, promote spiritual enrichment and Christian fellowship, and have an awareness of matters of religious, civic and national concerns. Membership is open to all clergy and lay members of the Episcopal Church. Dues are $25/yr for an individual, $50/yr for a family and $100/yr for sustaining membership.
Several St. Thomas' Church members are involved so it would be a perfect way to get to know others from your church community.
For more information or to join, please contact Bill Potts. Bill Potts
bpotts3812@gmail.com or 215 646 3526
Our Little Roses International Outreach - Honduras Like most everyone's travel plans this year, our inperson trip to Our Little Roses in Honduras had to be cancelled. But that didn't mean we weren't going to spend some good times with the girls during the week of June 29-July 3. Just as most of you have done, we turned to Zoom, and met with the girls twice a day to engage in fun virtual activities. At times there were technological glitches, but we all persevered, and enjoyed playing games, making crafts, learning fun facts and dancing to music together. And a bonus of going virtual this year was that we were able to welcome back a few team members who weren't able to travel to Honduras in the past few years.
The Our Little Roses organization is doing an incredible job during this pandemic to keep the girls safe, virus free, engaged in virtual schoolwork and busy with activities at the compound where they all live. The team in Honduras could use some extra help this year to manage the challenges of the pandemic in a country with few healthcare and economic resources. Please look for Our Little Roses on Facebook and Instagram and increase their visibility by "following" them and "liking" and "sharing" their posts. And definitely take a look at their informative website, ourlittleroses.org. You will learn a lot more about the organization's mission and successes, you can sign up for a newsletter and send in a donation. Perhaps you would like to support the education of one of the girls for the next school year, or help defray the costs to clothe, feed and nurture these promising young women? Six new girls have joined the Home since January. Maybe you'd think about being a sponsor and beginning a relationship with one of them!
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out to Marggy Ells (marggyells1@gmail.com) or Kim Morris (kwmshm@comcast.net). We'd love to hear from you. Thank-you!
Kim Morris
Marggy Ells
Kay Sheldon
Honduras Water Mission
More Than Just a Good Story At the end of the 2013 Honduras water mission, Rob Macnamara and team scouted out a new village for the following year’s mission. They were met by three little sisters who took them to see the only water hole that supplied all of the water needs for their village. It was a small, dirty hole under the roots of a tree. With concurrence from our engineering partners and friends in Honduras, Aqua Para Pueblo (APP), the St. Thomas' water mission the following year was able to provide a clean, accessible water supply to each house for the people of this village.
That is a good story
but there is more…
With the COVID pandemic raging around the world, Honduras has been in a severe lockdown since mid-March, ordered by their government and strictly enforced by their military. Few stores are open and no one is allowed to move about freely. As a result, food supplies are dwindling and people are starting to go hungry. Rob Mac has sent some unused funds earmarked for the canceled March water mission to our APP partners and they have been able to purchase and distribute food sacks to the families in some of the villages in which the water team has worked over the years. To date over 323 food bags have been delivered to eight villages.
This too is another good story
but there is more…
In the first story, the little boy on the ground with his family proudly showing off their new water pipe and spigot is Juan, the brother of the three little sisters. He was not just hunkered down for the picture but had no use of his legs to stand or to walk (polio we , think). But this never slowed him down nor dampened his spirits; with dogged determination he would drag himself along through the dirt with his arms to keep up with all the action. When APP recently returned to his village now six years later to deliver food sacks, much to everyone’s surprise and amazement, our good friend Guillermo from APP found Juan now able to stand and to walk!
Now this is not just a good story, this is a great story that warms our hearts, brightens our spirits and reminds us that in these troubling times, miracles still happen. Amen.
Rector Search Update When the Israelites left Egypt, God did not lead them directly to the Promised Land. God led them in a circuitous fashion through the wilderness, teaching them, shaping them, molding them, until they were ready to cross the Jordan River into Canaan. Although the journey was often difficult, the people of Israel adopted new
Sarah Elliott
Alan Smith
behaviors and new attitudes that prepared them for their new life in a new land.
Much like the Israelites, we have been on quite a journey together during this interim time. Think back to the way things were in November 2018 when we “crossed the Red Sea” and began our wilderness journey. We’ve seen a lot of changes since then, including a global pandemic that has dramatically changed the way we worship, study, and serve others. But we have bravely faced all the
Bev Forde
Roger Clark
challenges along the way. We have adopted new behaviors and new attitudes that will serve us well when we leave our interim time behind and enter into our new life with our new rector.
The Rector Search Committee is pleased to tell you that the “Jordan River” is in sight and getting closer. We are in the final phase of discerning who the Holy Spirit is calling to be our next rector. We have three excellent finalists, all fully qualified to be our next rector, each one with their
Pem Hutchinson
Jeff Korn
Bevan Moscovici
Judy Neely
own unique combination of spiritual gifts, skills, experience, and attributes. The Search Committee, the Vestry, the Canon for Transition Ministry and the Bishop are working closely together in this final phase. Although we can’t tell you exactly when this journey will end, all of us are looking forward to “crossing over” with our new rector by our side.
The Rector Search Committee
Sarah Elliott, co-chair Alan Smith, co-chair Roger Clark Beverley Forde Pem Hutchinson Jeff Korn Bevan Moscovici Judy Neely Sally Williams
Sally Williams
The Rev. Bud Holland, Search Consultant
Copy of the letter mailed on August 24.
St. Thomas' Church 7020 Camp Hill Road Ft. Washington, PA 19031
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R S V P
F O R
W O R S H I P ,
G O
T O
R E O P E N . C H U R C H / R / E L A 1 H S 3 J
O R
V I S I T
S T T H O M A S W H I T E M A R S H . O R G