The 2012 National Acolyte Festival

In Washington, D.C. stands a cathedral scraping the sky with gargoyles and grotesques.  As my family and I were nearing it I said, "Wait, I get to go into that church and participate in the National Acolyte Festival and walk on the National Cathedral's grounds?"  I reminded myself that "Yes, it's going to be the best day ever if my feet don't fall off before that."  (We had to walk at least a mile and a half from the Metro Station to get there.)

Once we got there, we were so confused on where to go and what to do since it was our first year participating in the festival.  After we figured out what to do, it was picture perfect.  We processed down the long, packed aisle along with over 700 acolytes from around the country.  Once we got to the front of the cathedral my sister and I bowed to Bishop Magness and went back to our seats and participated in the rest of the service.

After the service was over there were workshops that the acolytes could participate in.  My sister and I attended a workshop called "Jubilation Streamers."  We also participated in a workshop about the gargoyles and grotesques of the National Cathedral.  One of the grotesques was Darth Vader, which was placed in a location on the Cathedral where sunlight never shines.  Even on the National Cathedral Darth Vader is on the "dark side."

Overall, it was a great experience and worth the long walk to and from the Cathedral, and I look forward to hopefully going again next year.

Aleah diZerega

This year my sister, Aleah, and I had a wonderful opportunity to visit the nation's capital, Washington, D.C., to attend the National Acolyte Festival at the National Cathedral.  There were many things that made me like it.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was the procession.  People would twirl ribbons while they were walking in.  The different colors of the ribbons represent different liturgical symbols. The gold, silver and white streamers were used during seasons of celebration such as Easter, and the yellow, red and orange ribbons symbolize the Holy Spirit and could be used at Pentecost.  (We even got to try spinning them at an afternoon workshop, and it was really fun.)  Another reason why the procession was one of my favorite parts of the Festival was getting to see how other churches do things differently than at our church.

Another one of my favorite parts of the service was the sermon. Bishop Magness told about being an acolyte when he was our age, and then he quit going to church when he was fifteen. He didn't go to church for many more years, and he didn't go back to church until after his service in the Vietnam War.  The sermon he gave was short, but had a good message.

The Cathedral itself was beautiful.  It had seven floors and it was really, really big.  It had gargoyles and other decorations all over the church.  It was so cool to see the Cathedral, let alone attend the festival.

As you can see, I really enjoyed my time there.  I also hope that I can go again sometime in the near future.

Eryn diZerega

Friendship Project Update 

As most of you know by now, we are developing a connection with the people of the village of Assante, Benin in West Africa where our daughter Christina is a community health worker serving in the Peace Corps. The children of St. Stephen's and Assante are getting to know one another through letters, pictures and photos. Our pen-pal prayer group there consists of 43 children between the ages of 3 and 17.  Heartfelt thanks to all who have participated so far and especially to all of you who responded so quickly and cheerfully to our request (with a very short timeline!) for small gifts for the kids to be included in Christmas boxes we hope to have shipped out by the time you read this. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your kindness and generosity!

We are so excited about meeting all the children when we visit Assante as part of the Sabbatical experience in January and apparently they are already preparing for our arrival! We would like to bring more items with us then, including some basic medical and school supplies, more communications from their St. Stephen's Pen Pals and hopefully... a suitcase full of shoes for the first girls soccer team ever seen in the area!! Christina has been the catalyst for the creation of the team, that already has 25 girls who can't wait to play. Bare feet, rough ground and hard soccer balls do not mix, so our goal is to help sponsor the team by coming up with enough closed toe shoes for the whole team. Many thanks to The Reverend Dana Solomon who has volunteered to work out the logistics of obtaining the shoes that we will hand deliver in January. Please contact Dana directly for more information. 

We are confident that our mutual friendship and support of our brothers and sisters in Africa will continue to blossom and grow as part of our broadening global outreach program at St. Stephen's. If you would like to learn more about Assante, check out Christina's blog at: http://kaychristina.wordpress.com/. 

Blessings and Peace,

Fr. Max & Anne

 

Now registering:   

St. Stephen's Wonder Kids Preschool and Child Care 

CHRISTIAN FORMATION NEWS

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered in the classrooms this past month!!!  It has been wonderful to have so many people working together to create a great program for our children.   We have such a large pool of talent out there!

November has many openings still open, in fact, only one person has signed up to teach this month.  So, please add your name to the list if you have been contemplating joining us.  The children really do get so much out of these classes, let's not disappoint them by having classes cancelled by a lack of volunteers.  Christian Formation should be available, and a vital part of every child's life here at St. Stephen's.  

Only volunteers can make that happen.

During the month of October, the Sunday School lessons have been focusing on Haiti and the need that is still very present after two years of recovery from the devastating earthquake that put so many already struggling people out of their homes.  Therefore, the children will be helping Haitian children, in a group effort with others (Youth Group, St. Cecilia's Guild, etc.) as we team up and raise money to sponsor a child's education.  Although education is supposedly "free" in Haiti, the costs of books and supplies, not to mention clothing and food, put the idea of schooling out of reach for so many.  However, just $300 will provide enough to allow one child to attend St. Paul's Mission at Petit Trou de Nippes, which includes 

a meal with every school day.  

So, help support this effort by participating in the Haiti House Sales, Mum Sale, and Bake Sale.  Let's see how many children the St. Stephen's family can help out this year.

Remember, "No one can do everything, but everyone can do something."

Recycling at St. Stephen's

...Give us wisdom and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty...(Book of Common Prayer, p. 827)

It's the season of stewardship and of harvest; no better time to speak about our stewardship of nature! This includes what we are trying to do at St. Stephen's to conserve the resources God has so freely given us.

We are trying to conserve energy and recycle more here at church. This year we had the boiler pipes insulated, and new, energy-saving, programmable thermostats installed, as well as new energy saving lighting.  My office has 1/3 fewer light bulbs, but is much brighter.

Recycling at St. Stephen's is different from the way you can do it at home. At your house, the City picks up mixed recycling in your bin. Since churches don't pay takes, we don't get this service, so we contract with a private company for trash. For recycling, we're on our own, so it's important we separate what we can.

Kas Knutsen has been our Recycle man for years. Once every week or so (and he's over 90!) he stops by the office and picks up the used paper and hauls it to the recycling center.  Please thank him when you see him!

Every piece of paper gets used on BOTH sides. We buy paper that contains recycled fibers whenever possible. I try to make only as many bulletins as we need, so if the ushers run out, smile and share with your neighbor, and why not take the bulletin home with you, so you'll have the announcements and the lessons for next Sunday! And the email Witness has saved many trees.

You may have noticed the little covers on some of the paper recycle bins in the Narthex. That's because Kas and Kandace are tired of fishing out things that don't belong - napkins, cups, plates... So unless you are a piece of paper, don't launch yourself into one of those bins.  Despite the fact that they'repaper plates and cups, their almost invisible plastic coating prevents recycling.

YOU can help:

• Recycle coats, hats, gloves, hoodies and blankets by donating to the Rotary Club's WINTER WARMTH coat drive, in the bin in the Narthex through Nov. 30th
• Recycle other clothing in the bins for the OUR Center in the Narthex
• Put bottles and cans in the appropriate containers in Boone Hall (near the windows)
• Donate small electronics (like cell phones), old printer cartridges, and box tops/ labels from various products for the Wonderkids Preschool in the bin or the counter in the narthex. There are two kinds of box tops/labels to save (We'll do the sorting for you!)
• Box tops for Education (General Mills, Pillsbury & others) will be taken to our partner school, Burlington Elementary, by our Kids Hope volunteers
• The Labels for Education (Campbell's soup, Post cereal & others) are used by our own WonderKids Preschool. Brochures next to the bin show you which products participate and there are coupons for you to use, too!

With a little attention and effort, we can not only keep the church neater, but also conserve resources while doing so.

The Witness  

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