Shining the Light

Dear ones,

This past Sunday was The Rev. Brandon Nonnemaker's last Sunday as our seminarian. Brandon graduates from seminary tomorrow, and is just weeks away from moving back to Georgia to begin serving as the Associate Rector for Children, Youth, and Families at Grace Church in Gainesville. Between now and then, while Finley and Fletcher finish their school year and Mallory wraps up her ministry with us as Director of Family Ministries*, we will still see Brandon at St. Andrew's, albeit in a different role. He will be singing with the choir, enjoying one of the last opportunities he will have (for a while, anyway) to worship from among the congregation. Lucky us!

Lucky us, indeed. While our role in seminarians' lives is to be a safe place for them to learn, experiment, and uncover their gifts for ministry, we also receive so much from those who choose to be formed for priesthood among us. Brandon has been an incredible gift to all of us. In his preaching, teaching, liturgical leadership, creativity, good humor, curiosity, care, and joy, he has embodied the loving presence of God in countless ways. It is easy to see why Grace Church was so eager to call him!

Many thanks to Brandon for the two years he spent with us as our seminarian and, more recently, deacon. We will miss him!

With love,

Dorota+

*Mallory will continue to lead the Family Service for one more month, concluding on June 11 with a special intergenerational service in which she will be our preacher. The gratitude I have for her and her ministry is its own topic, so I will save my comments about her for a future edition of Shining the Light :)

This Sunday at St. Andrew's  

10:00 a.m. Choral and Family Eucharist

Readings: Acts 17: 22-31, 1 Peter 3:13-22, John 14: 15-21

Duty officer May 14 - May 20: Marcela and JC Scott

Beginning this weekend, seminarian Redmond Self will be with us full-time for his Mid-Atlantic Training Program internship. Redmond is a rising senior at VTS. We look forward to getting to know him and incorporating him into the life of our parish this summer. Welcome, Redmond!

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 Book of Comon Prayer at home, you may download this Compline booklet.

In his farewell sermon as our Seminarian, Brandon Nonnemaker notes that transitions are tough, and it's human nature to avoid goodbyes. In today's Gospel reading, Jesus prepares his apostles for his departure. A meaningful way to close a gathering, says author Priya Parker, is by first turning inward, then turning outward. For Christians, turning inward reminds us of who we are, of God's love for us. Turning outward focuses us on who we are in relation to others, and discerning how we should function in the world.

We are writing this with such full and grateful hearts for the people of St. Andrew’s. Throughout the decade plus we have made this our parish home, our family has cherished the many ways we have been blessed to serve with you, whether on the altar, on the Vestry, on committees, or with eggs and sausage on First Sunday Breakfasts. Recently, this became a season where you have served us throughout my mother, Ruth Finley’s illness and eventual passing on Good Friday.

Mom loved St. Andrew’s too, especially during the many holidays she spent worshipping with us. Thank you all for your love, prayers, cards, calls, texts, emails, flowers, and support of the Fisher House Foundation. Thank you for welcoming her to services for so many years. Thank you for writing to her in her final weeks. Our family is so very, sincerely blessed to be claimed as your own. -Jason, Susan, Nate, and Cullen Thomas

The St. Andrew’s Players are so grateful to all who came out to see our musical production of “Whistle Down the Wind.” It would be a toss-up as to who had the greater enjoyment, the audience or the cast.  Dozens of dedicated people worked behind the scenes to make it all happen.  Please take a look at the Playbill. Copies will be posted and left in the lounge to see all of those with lesser profile roles who deserve thanks for the success of this show.  We especially want to thank Claire Jones for her work on both publicity (and makeup.) We had close to 100 people in attendance for each performance. Four nights of decent-sized, enthusiastic audiences made the four months of rehearsals worth every second. Lessons derived from “the Story,” the songs, and friendships will be long lasting and witness to the goals of our Ministry.

Thank you Joe, Richard, Rob, Conner, and Jason for helping with the breakfast on Sunday, May 7th.

29 parishioners were served and $100 was donated to the church's general fund.

Our next breakfast is scheduled for June 4th, 9-10a, between the Sunday's services. We are always trying to improve, so any suggestions are appreciated. Please send any suggestions to Jason and/or Ted.

The Vestry was pleased to note a few wonderful news items: First, the Vestry acknowledged the extraordinary service of Mallory and Brandon Nonnemaker and discussed farewell plans for them as they make their way to Georgia. Then, the outstanding success of the St Andrew’s Players and the contributions of many to make the musical an amazing and profound play on our campus. The Vestry is glad that the Renehan Center will be again utilized. We have signed an agreement with Verbal Beginnings. They will occupy the Renehan Center from June 21st until August 25th, with children on site from July 5th to August 18th. Finances are healthy but this additional income is very welcome.

We look forward to welcoming Redmond Self, a rising senior at VTS and postulant for Holy Orders in the Diocese of Virginia, who will be doing his Mid-Atlantic Internship at St. Andrew’s this summer. Redmond will be with us from May 14 through July 30.

Finally, the Vestry started to discuss the book The Art of Gathering with Rev Dorota’s guidance.

For the next edition of The Net, we are focusing on all the large and small celebrations in our lives. Do you have a new grandchild or a new graduate in your family? Did you finally clear out those boxes in the attic? Did you master a new recipe or nail a project at work? We want to hear about it and celebrate with you!

Please email your celebrations to the Parish Administrator by May 24 to be featured in The Net. Photos to go along with your celebration very much encouraged! - Emily Blecksmith

One way scammers try to obtain gift cards is by targeting members of faith communities.

These scammers make fraudulent accounts specifically designed to mimic the accounts of

pastors and religious leaders, then send urgent requests to worshipers asking for a favor.

Their goal is to get the recipient to buy gift cards and send them the gift card number and

PIN.

You will know such an email message pretending to be from Rev. Dorota is a scam if the

email address is not one she normally uses (revdorota@gmail.com and rector@standrewsarlington.org are the only ones she uses), if the message has spelling errors and is oddly phrased, and, most telling of all, if there is a request for an unspecified favor. Rev. Dorota will never ask you for money or a gift card via email.

If you receive a suspicious email, do not respond to it. Please contact the office or call Rev.

Dorota directly. Thank you.

St. Anne’s Guild is sponsoring the collection of socks, washcloths and undergarments to support the homeless shelter in Arlington. We are looking for men or women’s socks, tee shirts, and undergarments in adult sizes. Washcloths for showers have also been requested. According to the guidelines from the shelter, these items need to be new. White socks work best as these individuals are frequently experiencing foot injuries and abrasions that heal best with dye free materials. A labelled bucket will be placed in the Lounge for donations so please feel free to add your contribution at any time. The collection will end on Pentecost, May 28th. Thanking you in advance for your support of this need. Questions: Contact Karen White by email or call 703-356-4816; 323-573-2603.

For our Glorious Companions meeting on Wednesday May 17 at 10:30am, we’ll read pages 139-158 in our book, Surprised by the Parables – Growing in Grace Through the Stories of Jesus, by Michelle Lee-Barnewall. This will be our last meeting until September. Have a wonderful summer!

This week we pray for: Henry Schmidt, the people of Haiti, the people of Ukraine, Joe Feola, Zorah and Florence Jee. We also give thanks for Penelope Hope Thomas, baptized on May 7.

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.   

Thanks to Jane on Tuesday and Anne and Ted on Thursday for watering the garden during the week. On May 6, Valerie, Munir, and Susan from Marymount University and Aaron and Elizabeth from Episcopal High School along with Shelley, Jen, Anne, Doris, Ted and Dave planted ~300 tomato and pepper seedlings. Approximately 100 came from Episcopal High School…thanks to Nat Dufield (and Puwen Lee picking them up)! We also weeded and installed new irrigation.

It is relatively dry, so we are in need of volunteers to sign up to water. Thanks to Jane for signing up to water on Tuesday and we need a volunteer for Thursday if it does not rain. A hose and watering cans are in the garden to supplement where irrigation is not complete and the seedlings should be obvious across the garden.

Our next workday is Saturday, May 13 starting at 9:00am (Sunday, May 14 at 11:30am if it is too wet on Saturday). We are planning on planting squash, peppers and tomatoes and finishing the installation of the irrigation system and weeding.

If you have an interest in volunteering in the St. Andrew's Garden for Hope, You can sign up here on Sign Up Genius.    If you have questions concerning the sign-up, please contact Emily Blecksmith, our Parish Administrator.

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.