Shining the Light

Dear St. Andrew's,

As I move toward completion of my Vestry appointment, I am grateful for your confidence in me to help St. Andrew’s navigate through a challenging two-year period marked by COVID and its after-effects. Serving on Vestry has been a privilege, an educational experience, and an opportunity to witness up-close the welcoming spirit, generosity, and fellowship of the St. Andrew’s community. My 2021 Vestry ministry liaison was to Sacred Spaces – an ad hoc group formed to guide the Capital Campaign. I had the privilege of working with our amazing Building and Grounds committee to complete several follow-on projects, finishing up just this month in the construction of a wooden enclosure for our trash bins. My 2022 Vestry ministry is to Stewardship. It is likely that inflation combined with the slow recovery from income sources lost during COVID will present a significant challenge to our 2023 operating budget. But, in keeping with the old mantra “challenges beget opportunities,” the Stewardship Committee (together with Rev. Dorota and the Vestry), have recognized an opportunity for grace-filled spiritual enrichment through sacrificial giving. We will be sharing more about this as the Pledge Campaign rolls out next month.

In looking back on my two years on the Vestry, I am most proud of St. Andrew’s leadership in establishing a faith-based presence at Arlington’s inaugural Pride Festival. As the sign on the entrance to the church offices says, “All Are Welcome.”

Thank you for all the good you do.

Bob McCabe

In addition to our regular 8am/10am worship schedule, we will hold a special service on October 2 to honor our pets in celebration of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals and ecology. The service will begin at 1:00 p.m. on the church lawn just east of the sanctuary. All pets are welcome, regardless of whether they walk, swim, slither, or fly!

Each Wednesday at 8:30pm members of St. Andrew's meet via this Zoom Compline link for a brief service of contemplative nighttime prayers. All are welcome to join. For those who do not have a copy of the BCP at home, you may download this Compline booklet.

Our community picnic was wonderful in every way thanks to our Welcome & Fellowship Ministry, our many volunteers who helped set up and clean up, and especially the White and Ghosh families for their leadership. Many thanks to all who brought a dish, an appetite, and a desire to connect with old friends and new.

The celebration for The St. Andrew’s Players’ 50th Anniversary continues on Saturday, September 24 from 3:30 to 6:00 pm! Please join us for a Costume Party in the Undercroft and on the church lawn featuring fun, food and games for all ages. Visit the Anne of Green Gables station for three-legged races, spoon races, home-made ice cream and more! Experience Siam at The King & I station, and travel back in time at the Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat station. Catch your breath and relax at the French café from The Madwoman of Chaillot. Then enjoy memories of The Sound of Music, including a puppet theater, games and strudel. Visit The Wizard Oz station to play “Find the Ruby Slippers,” “Flying Monkey Smackdown” and other games, including a trivia challenge for adults. Finally, don’t miss the karaoke machine, where you can sing your heart out!

Each station will have food and games for children and adults, plus memorabilia from that production by the Players. Costumes are welcomed but not required, or check out our odds-and-ends bin to fashion your own once you arrive. We look forward to celebrating with you on Saturday!

On November 5, the St. Andrew’s Players will be performing an original work, “Still At It—50 Years of Faith, Drama, and Laughter.” Participants will include former, present, and future Players. We are currently casting various dramatic and musical roles to include men, women, and children of all ages.Rehearsals will take place on most Sunday afternoons in October as well as November 2^nd and 4^th. Please consider joining us onstage or off. While no experience is necessary, we are looking for someone with technical experience to help with visual projections. If you are interested in being part of this production, in any way, please contact Jane Massant by email or 703 975-6615. If not, please save the date and plan to come and be entertained.  

The next monthly breakfast will be October 9, not October 2. Apologies for any confusion!

On Sunday, October 9 we will bid farewell to longtime parishioners Jane and John Bartlett. The Bartletts have sold their home in Arlington and are moving to Annapolis. Join us at the 10am service on October 9 to send them off with God's blessing, followed by a special reception in the lounge.

Please wear your nametags at church throughout September. As we find our rhythm with our regular worship schedule, school routines, and work flow, we often see new faces in the pews. Let's be prepared to greet each other warmly and show hospitality to our visitors!

Now is a great time to log in to our online church directory to check your contact information and/or update your photo.

If you've never logged in online, go to https://members.instantchurchdirectory.com and following the prompts under "Sign In" to "Create a login now." You will need to use your email address as listed in the directory to create a log-in the first time you use the online directory. Not sure what email address might be in the directory or if you're even in the directory? Contact the parish administrator, who will be happy to help!

Glorious Companions will meet Wednesday morning at 10:30 am in the Lounge on September 28. Please read pages 36-67 in our book, A Severed Wasp, by Madeleine L’Engle. New members are always welcome.

Thanks to Carol Kiranbay for hosting a wonderful meeting of the Murder Mystery Book Club on August 20! We enjoyed great food, fellowship, and a few trips down memory lane as we discussed Kate Charles' book Evil Intent. Next up is Wicked Autumn: A Max Tudor Novel by G.M. Malliet. This first book in a series about an MI5 agent-turned-vicar "sharply skewers the quintessential English village in a cunningly modern version of the traditional drawing room mystery. Wickedly entertaining, it’s the perfect choice for Agatha Christie fans." We'll meet in the early spring to discuss it, so there's plenty of time to dive into this newest choice. Happy reading!

The much-needed wifi upgrade to the campus is complete, which gives us greater signal, bandwidth, and flexibility to support our work today and into the future. We have a network for use by all who come to St. Andrew's; the credentials are:

Network name: SAEC-Access

Password: Andalsowithyou!

There are additional options available for ministry leaders who might need additional bandwidth and/or wired connections; contact the Parish Administrator or Mark Seip to learn more.

This week we pray for: Trudy Koczyk, Henry Schmidt, Paul Thorton, Derek Cruz-Nagoski, June Dudley, Paul and Kate Bayes and the people of Ukraine.

Would you like to add a name to the prayer list? If so, please email the church office with your request. Names will be kept on the prayer list for about a month unless otherwise specified, and will be published weekly in Shining the Light.   

The garden continues to do well thanks to all our volunteers! On Saturday, Jen, Teddi, Susan and Anne were joined by a team from Episcopal High School led by Keven Potter, who brought Laura, Emma, Corie, Daisy, Blu, Selar, Alejandro, Mates and Laura. They picked, packaged and delivered 79 pounds of kale, zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes to Rock Spring Congregational Church.  The weather was pleasant once again! Thanks for all the added support! Our poundage for the season is up to 2,175.2 pounds…now well over a ton!

Our next work day is scheduled for Saturday, September 24, starting at 9:00am (our alternate rain date is Sunday, September 25 at 11:00am). To join us, please sign up through our Sign-Up Genius. See you in the garden!

P.S. Many of you know that I have a clear passion for growing Dahlias and have heard that our local Dahlia society is sponsoring the American Dahlia Society National Show, here in Reston this year at the Sheraton 24-25 September. The show is free and is an amazing opportunity to see an amazing display of dahlias and experience their remarkable beauty and diversity. Attached is a brochure with the details. - Dave Smith

If you are able to drive the donations to AFAC for a contactless delivery, please sign-up here. Here is a list of items AFAC accepts.Thank you to Carol Kiranbay for taking our most recent haul to AFAC.