April 15, 2016
In This Issue
From the Senior Warden
From the Associate Rector
From the Junior Warden
From the Music Director
Service Notes & Music
Sunday Service Schedule
About the Gospel
Quick Links
The Gospel According to St. Mark's
"For Jesus to stand to his full height, he had to leave the small, dark place of the tomb. For us to rise up to our full stature, we must leave the small, dark places of life. We must leave the many and various tombs of this earthly life, and find our way to the broad, open and light-filled places."
-Br. Mark Brown
Society of Saint John the Evangelist




From Peter Sherer, Senior Warden
Dear Ones,
 
I have some reflections on our recent Vestry retreat and a reminder about "getting to know you better" dinners with Michele.
 
 
Growing and Deepening our Spiritual Home
 
Last weekend the Vestry and 20 other church leaders met with Michele to start a conversation about growing the church over the next five years. This topic will be the focus of our planning at Claggett on June 11th and 12th where I hope 150 people of all ages will spend some time having big fun and thinking about the spiritual future we want to create for ourselves.
 
The purposes of last weekend were to get smarter about our membership situation and to become committed to taking appropriate action based on the facts. So we started by reviewing statistics about membership and finances over the last 40 years. What we learned was that while our annual giving has been keeping up with inflation we have had a steady decline in the number of people contributing to the church. This decline in numbers is expected to continue over the next several years as key members of our community "age out" of active community involvement as they retire or move. Our conclusion was that we needed to attract about 50 new people a year if we are going to sustain our current financial strength.
 
This led us into a discussion of what had attracted us to St Marks in the first place, what caused us to return, when was it that we felt like we belonged, and what has kept us coming back since. Our answers included being invited to attend by a friend, loving the energy we saw on our initial visits, creating deep friendships, and experiencing continuing spiritual development in our small group classes and volunteer assignments.
 
We then explored how to attract new people to the church and if there were activities or habits that made it more likely that people would join us or turn away. We discovered that the glue that held us together wasn't specific activities like classes but rather it was the values that bound us together and gave us rules to engage each other. Values like inclusivity, openness, honesty, being faithful in our relationships and caring for each other in good times and bad. And rules like each of us taking responsibility for our feelings, speaking directly with our praise or disappointment, and exploring the big questions together rather than shutting off the conversation with the right answer.
 
What we didn't know was how to express those values in programs that would be attractive to people in their early 30s. It could be that some people might be seeking religious rituals like baptism for their children. Or it may be that single people could be seeking a spiritual community and we wondered what they would appreciate seeing or doing. We concluded that we needed to do some in-depth research to find out what people needed. Equally important we realized that as a group we had to become highly experimental. We would need to try a number of approaches and be ready to abandon ones that didn't work and move on. So open, flexible, caring, and imaginative are the watchwords of the day.
 
Of course we realized that we couldn't focus all our attention on newcomers because those of us who are already here would need to continue to feel a sense of belonging and purpose. So the challenge we will meet is to keep the best of what we have now and augment it with new ideas for the next generation.
 
The opportunity at Claggett is to have big intergenerational fun and to think more deeply together about what sort of spiritual community God is calling us to become.
 
Please mark your calendars for June 11 and 12, 2016.
 
Having you there will make a big difference.
 
Michele's Getting to Know You Better Dinners
 
When Michele was named Priest-in-Charge several people said that they wanted the chance to get to know her better. So she identified a bunch of times she would be available for small gatherings of between 6 to 8 people. Then Joe Calizo and Lucy Brown found hosts and put the dinner opportunities on line. Sign up soon because seats are selling like hot cakes.
 
Sign-Ups for the Gatherings With Michele are in the foyer on a clipboard and online HERE. They will be potluck, unless the host chooses otherwise. Hosts will provide a main dish and drinks. Guests will provide a side or dessert.  Questions contact Lucy Brown (lucybrown66@gmail.com) or Joe Calizo (jcalizo@gmail.com).
 
Hugs
 
Peter




From the Reverend R. Justice Schunior, Associate Rector



Friends,


This Sunday we will have a guest preacher, Dr. Stephen Patterson. A scholar, teacher, and writer, Patterson is the George H. Atkinson endowed chair in Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University, where he teaches courses on the history of religion. He writes and lectures widely on the hidden histories of earliest Christianity, especially the lost gospels, Q and the Gospel of Thomas. He is the author of many books, most recently The Lost Way: How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins (2014).
 
Patterson holds graduate degrees from Harvard and Claremont, and he was a Fulbright Fellow in Germany. In nine books and more than seventy-five articles, essays and reviews, he has explored the origins of Christianity, especially through texts often overlooked because they are not in the Bible.  
 
For more than 20 years Patterson was professor of New Testament at Eden Seminary in St. Louis.  He was also a leading figure in the Jesus Seminar and has appeared on many documentaries in connection with his work on the Gospel of Thomas, Q, and the quest for the historical Jesus.


I frequently hear from parishioners that they value St. Mark's commitment to hosting a wide variety of different voices in our pulpit. I look forward to hearing his perspective this Sunday as well as your thoughts!


Peace,
Justi
From Doris Burton, Junior Warden
 
Around the House...notes from the Junior Warden


During the past two weeks, we have had our first, and very positive experiences with our new service contract with Monarc-all one-stop shopping!
 
Monarc Maintenance: Charlie Rupp met Brian Newhouse, our field rep, and the fire suppression systems testing team April 4. They checked all smoke detectors attached to air handlers, tampering detectors on each valve of the sprinkler system, water flow thru the sprinklers; smoke detectors otherwise located, pull stations, strobes, fire alarm horns and sprinkler heads. Even Charlie Rupp was impressed by their thoroughness.


Plumbers repaired the leaks in the Sunday school hall and the Penniman Room plus installed a shut-off valve so when future leaks occur, we don't have to shut off the water in the entire building. The drywall will (finally) be replaced and we'll paint the ceilings on our parish workday.


Shades of JW Jack Burton... Last week, a sandstone slab on the tower cracked and fell to the walk (no one was hit). The cones at tower corner kept people at a distance and, by Friday of last week, Brian had a sub look at the damage and schedule repairs (for newcomers: our tower began dropping stones in 2004 requiring a major restoration during Jack's tenure, and a $300k price tag)


St. Mark's Players:  Charlie and I met with Mark Allen (president) and Jerry Dale to review issues of concern to both groups. We continue looking for ways to mitigate damage to our floor and aiming for the best interests of both.


Floor work: Arundel Floors will be refinishing the parquet on the chancel after choir season. This demands attention since we now see raw wood. They'll also replace the broken boards in the nave floor.


 Floor work, Part II: The borders of the nave floor are terrazzo, a combination of stone and concrete that is formed and highly polished. The edges of the terrazzo, where it meets the wood, have broken over the years, possibly due to the lack of support beneath the flooring. Arconti Stonework, a firm in business for nearly 70 years and which has done work in the Capitol, will be replacing the damaged terrazzo mid-summer along with the broken marble step to the high altar allowing that to be used for two July weddings.


PMM: Our new cleaning service comes on board Monday, April 17.
Two names for you to learn are Monica, who will be on-site regularly, and Juan Robles, who is our area supervisor. A day-porter will be assigned to us shortly.


Should you have concerns or questions about their work, please contact me-and please be patient as they learn their way around our space and many activities.


Coffee: Another coffee thermos is on its way to speed up coffee availability.
 
Parish Workday is Saturday, May 7. Please consider coming out to weed, plant, paint, scrub etc.
Sign-ups coming!


Lost & Found: from Maundy Thursday: small, gold ring with 3 stones. Contact me to identify/claim.
From Jeff Kempskie, Director of Music



Dear St. Mark's,
Please join us tomorrow, Saturday April 16th at 8pm, for a choral concert featuring the music of William Byrd (1543-1623).  The program will be performed by Carmina, an early music ensemble led by Vera Kochanowsky. Repertoire will include the Mass for Four Voices and motets from Gradualia. Suggested donation: $15.
Peace,

JEFF 
 
Prelude
St. Columba, No. 4 of Six Fantasies on Hymn Tunes for Organ, Op. 72,  Kenneth Leighton (1929-1988)


Opening Hymn
184 Christ the Lord is risen again! Tune: Christ ist erstanden
 
Gloria in excelsis S 280 Robert Powell 
 
Celtic Alleluia, Fintan O'Carroll & Christopher Walker
 
Offertory Anthem
The Lamb, Words by William Blake, Music by John Tavener - Chancel Choir
 
Presentation Hymn
193 That Easter day with joy was bright, v. 5, Tune: Puer nobis


Sanctus  S 129 Robert Powell
 
Fraction Anthem
This is the feast of victory for our God, Tune:  Festival Canticle
 
Music During Communion
(9:00) Jesus, Debby Kerner-Rettino 
You Hear the Lambs a-Cryin', African American Spiritual - Chancel Choir
Hymn 343 Shepherd of souls, refresh and bless, Tune: St. Agnes
 
Closing Hymn  
645 The King of love my shepherd is Tune: St. Columba
 
Postlude
From Saint Wilfrid's Suite: III. Offertory, Andrew Carter (b. 1939) 
Schedule of Services 
Sunday, April 17
The Fourth Sunday after Easter
 

9:00 am Holy Eucharist + Laying on of hands

The Reverend Michele H. Morgan, Presider

   

9:00 am Children's Chapel

The Reverend Rebecca Justice Schunior, Leader

 

10:00 am Sermon Seminar

Dr. Stephen J. Patterson, Preacher

 

11:15 am Holy Eucharist + Laying on of hands

The Reverend Rebecca Justice Schunior, Presider

Dr. Stephen J. Patterson, Preacher

 

5:00 pm Contemplative Eucharist

The Reverend Michele H. Morgan, Presider + Homilist



 

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St. Marks Episcopal Church-Capitol Hill | 301 A Street SE | Washington | DC | 20003