MARCH 31, 2020
WALT BOHN, NURSERYMAN -
A BUSY GROWING SEASON!
Parish Warden Walt Bohn has been busy in his home greenhouse since January, preparing for another growing season. As the picture above shows, he has had good results with many varieties of annuals and vegetables. His brother who lives nearby and runs Bohn's Farm, a wholesale nursery, relies on Walt to grow starter plants for him, but Walt grows many plants for others, including annuals and vegetables for St. Andrew's annual plant sale. Continued...
SPRING IS HERE!
MISS VISITING THE BOTANICAL GARDENS?
Enjoy the flowering cherry trees at MOBOT via a drone video. Click here.
WATCH FR. BEN'S MIDDAY MOMENT!
RECORDED TODAY AT 11:39 AM
Fr. Ben introduced "A Midday Moment" on Facebook today, with a reflection on British poet and cleric, John Donne. In this segment, Fr. Ben reads the lyrics to the hymn written by Donne from page 140 in our hymnal. Hymn title: Lent.
 Links: John Donne . Hymn 140.
SHARING ART: THE ALTARPIECE OF GHENT
-Jane Weingartner
A great work of art repatriated by the Monument Men after World War II has recently been restored and is on display at two sites in Ghent, Belgium. Happily, we can visit one of them online and see the entire work and images from the restoration.

The interior panels of the polyptich visible when Jan van Eyck’s Altarpiece of Ghent is open are at Ghent’s St. Bavo’s Cathedral. Panels seen when the work is closed are at the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent.
The entire work by Van Eyck, the painter considered the greatest of all time by many art historians, is at this site .

Two Khan Academy com- mentaries are on YouTube. Another excellent study of the interior panels which provides a good introduction is at Inside the Ghent Altarpiece - Google Arts & Culture ( Link). Please tell us, the editors, about your experience with art online and share your favorite site.
TREASURE FROM THE CRYPT
5000 Respirator Masks Discovered
in Washington Cathedral Crypt!
-Jim Weingartner
The Washington Post reports a timely discovery in the crypt beneath the Washington National Cathedral. Sharing space with the remains of such notables as President Woodrow Wilson, Helen Keller, and Admiral Dewey were boxes containing 5000 of the now desperately needed N95 respirator masks.

The masks, which were found by the Cathedral’s chief stonemason, were apparently acquired to deal with the H5N1 (“bird flu”) threat of 2006, but never used.

That was then. The newly-discovered masks were resurrected from the crypt and given to Georgetown University Hospital and Children’s National Hospital. The Cathedral is retaining “a small number of masks to facilitate pastoral care needs.”
ELIZABETH DONALD
-Life During the Pandemic
Elizabeth Donald has a new book out - sort of! Most of you know that Elizabeth and Jim met on book tour, as they are both published authors. Lately Elizabeth has been working with Crone Girls Press, which is a small press specializing in horror fiction, and they’ve just released Coppice and Brake, a collection of dark fantasy fiction. Elizabeth has a short story included in this collection titled “Shiny People,” which was inspired by an allegedly true story told to her at a book convention last year.

“There was a man in the audience who told a story I found so creepy, so fascinating, that I asked him afterward if he would mind if I wrote it as a short story,” Elizabeth said. “He said that was fine, as long as I named the little girl after his daughter. I was happy to do so.”

Coppice and Brake isn’t Elizabeth’s first project with Crone Girls Press: they included her short story “In Memoriam”
PASSING THE TIME:
-Cindy Reinhardt
Cindy - Spring is always a time of multiple writing deadlines for me, so I am staying busy working on my “stories.” Last month I finished the Friends of Leclaire newsletter that included the history of four houses on Longfellow Avenue and the Madison County Historical Society’s newsletter (MCHS News) on the Madison County Tuberculosis Sanitarium (1926-1968).

Now I’m working on a profile of Roland Harris, a Highland historian whose family has been in Madison County for over 200 years (May MCHS News). I’m also working on social histories of four Edwardsville buildings for an annual series published in the Edwardsville Intelligencer each year for National Historic Preservation Month. I have written social histories of over 100 Edwardsville buildings over the past 20 years or so, including the homes of several St. Andrew’s parishioners.
FLORIDA LIFE: THE HOFFMANS
-Arnold and Sharon Hoffman
Greetings from The Hoffmans in Sebring, Florida and Diocese of Central Florida!

On April 17th, we will have lived here for one year. Hard to believe!! In that time, we have had “Love Bugs” in May (worst deluge in over 20 years), Hurricane Dorian preparations in the early Fall (it came within 90 miles), and now, we are “self-isolating,” because of the virus.

The Rector of our church, St. Agnes, is continuing Eucharists on Sundays and Wednesdays, soup suppers and Bible Study. Because of the virus and the density of the congregation, we are not going to “in-person” gatherings. Arnold+ has celebrated here at home twice. 

On April 22nd, we could not get the St. Andrew’s live-streaming, so we said Morning Prayer. We are hoping to be able to get the live-streaming this Sunday, the 29 th . The only time we leave the house by car is to go to the grocery store or bank occasionally.

We are keeping busy by tending and watering our plants all around the house (including two large tomato plants), by walking 1 ½ miles each morning, by taking a ride
BACK FROM FLORIDA EARLY!
-Mary Caspers
News from Mary via a recent email:
Jan, her mother, Genny, and I have been in Clearwater, Florida since mid- January. The first two months were filled with eating great seafood, going to the beaches, shopping, golfing, and being with all of our friends who are down here. We even met Sharon and Arnold halfway between their house and ours for lunch one day.

Since the pandemic, which Florida was very slow to react to, all the beaches are closed, as well as restaurants, shopping malls, etc. Jan’s been doing a lot more cooking and bread making. Genny loves to read and I play games on my iPad and watch movies. We walk every morning. 

Holy Trinity continued to have services, but is closed for the next two Sundays and maybe more. We are leaving here March 28 for home, cutting our time here by two weeks.

My brother Carl, who had a stroke while vacationing in Phoenix, is back home in Sartell, Minnestoa, residing in a rehab facility. He needs all the prayers we can muster as he has a very long road to recovery!

(Mary is back in Maryville by now. Welcome her home!)
PALM SUNDAY
Consider displaying greens on your front door as a way of remembering the symbolism of Palm Sunday and sharing it with your neighbors.

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In Touch is published weekly on Tuesdays until June 1, 2020 as a way of keeping in touch with each other during our Illinois "Stay at Home" confinement. We hope it brightens your day!

Marianne Cavanaugh
Marian Smithson
Jane Weingartner

Issue Two: 03.31.20
THE SEMINARIANS HYMN
Sung by Fr. Shane Spellmeyer
(our former seminarian) Link.

WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
o Mary Bohn has been doing Qigong and Tai Chi classes on YouTube and reading Six Years by Coben

o Liz Edwards is making a quilt for a friend.

o Julie Hamilton is teaching yoga on Facebook.

Let us know what you are doing for our next issue! Send your information to
info@standrews-edwardsville.com.
A PRAYER FOR COMFORT

Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and relieve your sick servants, and give your power of healing to those who minister to their needs, that those for whom our prayers are offered may be strengthened in their weakness and have confidence in your loving care; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.