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we’ll be having a few work eve-nings in our Sunday school class rooms to get them clean and orga-nized. If you are free during the evening of the week of September 2nd, drop Susan or me a note to find out how you can help get our class-rooms ready for the opening of Sunday School. ([email protected] or [email protected]) Sunday School will begin for our Pre-K and elementary students on September 9th at 10am. Following church, we’ll have Sundae Sunday! Please stay for coffee hour on the 9th to celebrate our new beginnings and enjoy ice cream with all the toppings.
Adult Formation will be kicking off on the 9th, as well. Rev. David Smith will begin a new class on The Book of Revelation. Believe it or not, Revelation is one of my favor-ite books of the Bible. I think it’s generally been misunderstood. Da-vid and I have both taught the book in the past, because we think it provides helpful insights into our world today. David’s been writing about Revelation for a number of weeks in “This Week” and has an article in this “Messenger,” as well. Join Rev. David on Sunday morn-ings at 9, in the Parlor.
For twenty-five of my fifty-two years, August/September has meant the start of a new school year. Whether it was my very first year of nursery school, teaching kindergarten, or my final year of seminary, the end of August and/or the beginning of September has meant the start of something new. And while I am not going back to school this year – I’m feeling all the anticipation I’ve felt at previ-ous back-to-school times, as I think about the start of new things at St. Thomas!
As you may have seen in “This Week at St. Thomas,” Susan Allen has been in the office and has be-gun making plans for the start of our new Sunday School year. It looks like we’ll have three classes for our students: Pre-K – Grade 3, Grades 4-6, and Confirmation (Junior High and High School). Susan will also be starting a Chil-dren’s Music Program, which will meet during coffee hour two Sun-days a month. Confirmation class will also meet during coffee hour, on the other two Sundays. Watch “This Week” for all the details. Susan and I will be meeting with those high schoolers not in confir-mation to talk about their wishes and desires once the other pro-grams are up and running. In or-der to get our children’s programs off to a good start,
September Issue, 2018
Messenger From the Rector’s Desk...
I’m told that Adult Formation has been a vital component of life at St. Thomas. And, I know that Sunday’s at 9 aren’t ideal for everyone. I’d like to offer one or more additional for-mation opportunities. But first, I’d like to hear from you about what you’d like to learn more about and when you want to meet. I’ve created a Survey Monkey survey listing a variety of topics as well as possible times for adult formation. There’s also space to add your own ideas. You can find that survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MD7YSS3
Continued on page 2
In This Issue
Rector…...…………………………..1
Birthdays, Anniversaries, Sundae Sunday..2
Associate for Pastoral Care…………….3
Family Minister………....……………3
Bible Study………... ……………….4
Financial……………………………6
Pumpkin Patch………………………7
Minister of Music…………………….7
ECW ...…………………………….8
Calendar .….…...……… …………..9
Amazon Smile……………………..10
Did you know???...................................11
SEPTEMBER
Deadline for
October Messenger:
September 15, 2018
1 Lisa Ross 16 Susan Caine
2 Linda Norman 16 Kianoush Karimi
3 Mahshid Beitollahisefidi 16 Beth Armitage
4 MacKenzie Ross 16 Jeremy Ross
5 Tricia Meyer 17 Christine Cabell
5 Dorene Ryder 17 Henley Lamanna
5 Pantema Mosaffa 18 Peter Reddaway
6 Sepideh Mirhosseini 19 Halie Fairchild
6 Mia Engelhardt 21 Michael Anderson
6 Lucas Greeves 23 Juliane Newman
8 Patty Mikell 24 Tess Jannery– Barney
8 Brian Anderson 25 William Norman
10 Bevin Newman 25 William S. Norman
11 Wendy Newman 26 Cleta Raymond
14 Charlie Stringfellow 27 Adele Cowart
14 Nancy Stringfellow 28 Reza Mirhosseini
14 Cyndi Hess 28 Caroline Lamanna
14 Chris McCook 29 Kevin McCook
15 Todd Kemp 29 Kathryn Miles
If you haven’t used Survey Mon-key before, it’s quite easy. Click on the link, which will take you directly to the first question. You’ll find nine questions ad-dressing possible Adult For-mation topics. You can choose either yes or no to indicate inter-est. Then, if you have a particular area of topic you’d like to know more about, click the box next to “List … below:” and fill in your ideas in the box. The final ques-tion lists possible times (morning, afternoon and evening) as well as the days of the week when I am available. You can click as many options as you like to suggest good times to meet.
The final new fall start I want to share with you is our fall Steward-ship program.
Soon, you will be receiving an intro-duction letter and our fall calendar filled with events at St. Thomas and events sponsored by our ministry partners like Second Story and Falls Church-McLean Children’s Center. Our theme moving into 2019 is: NOW into the world. The words come from the prayer of thanksgiving fol-lowing communion. And it reminds us that following communion, we are sent “now into the world” to love and serve.
I am hopeful and excited about all that is in store at St. Thomas this fall. I hope you share some of my antici-pation. Please join us, as together we begin a new program year. Blessings, Rev. Fran
Deadline for
October Messenger:
September 15, 2018
Happy Anniversary to...
Linda & Kevin McCook 9/4
Susan & Jack Cowart 9/14
Sara & Steven Miles 9/14
Bevin & Aaron Newman 9/17
Margaret Sheeran &
Tom Manteuffel 9/21
Hashem Vafabakhsh &
Pantema Mosaffa 9/21
Phyllis & Steve Wickman 9/25
Louise & Thomas Armitage 9/28
NOTE: Please let the Office know if your
birthday or anniversary is missing from this
list.
Mark your calendars for St . Thomas’
WELCOME BACK SUNDAE SUNDAY
On September 9, 2018
Sunday School resumes that day @ 10:00 am !
We are looking forward to seeing familiar faces again
As well as welcome new ones!
Dear St. Thomas Friends,
I am so excited about getting to meet each and every one of you. I will be attending the 10 am on
September 2nd and look forward to finally getting to greet some of you. We will start Sunday School
on September 9th and are planning our Sundae Sunday during Coffee Hour that morning. When I was
told about the Sundae Sunday tradition, I was thrilled. How lucky am I? I get to have an ice cream party
during my first month of working with you! Please plan on joining us for some ice cream and fellowship and
sign up your children for Sunday School. Wear your nametags so that I can start memorizing names!!!
In peace,
Susan
For I am longing to see you so that I may share with you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—or rather so that we may be mutually
encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. (Romans 1:11-12)
I am greatly looking forward to joining the community that is St. Thomas’s in September. I was able to visit for
church over the summer (one of those anonymous visitors in the back row!), and I was delighted by your heartfelt
worship and the spirit of engagement you brought to the liturgy. I look forward to being a part of your life—
worship, prayer, formation, and service.
My particular role at St. Thomas’s will be as Associate for Pastoral Care. I will have the special privilege of being
with you in times of need. I will join with Fran in visiting shut-ins, those in the hospital, and others who need the
support of community in difficult times. I believe that pastoral care is essential in times of crisis but that it is also
a part of the ways in which we relate to each other in ordinary times—the ways in which we encourage and build
one another up as disciples of Jesus Christ.
My task is not only to provide pastoral care, but to foster a culture of care at St. Thomas’s. I look forward to
working with pastoral visitors and others to think about the church’s ministries of care and how we might train
and strengthen one another as we learn how to care more and more for one another.
Know that I pray for you, and I hope you will pray for me.
Blessings,
Anne+
From our Family Minister
In some ways, the Book of Revelation is like a movie, an apocalyptic movie like The Lord of the Rings. There’s the quiet village the Hobbits call home. Frodo and his buddies are called out on a great journey. On that journey, they encounter supernatural powers—powers devoted to good and powers committed to evil. There is the evil Sauron with his all-seeing Eye. There are wizards, the gracious and powerful Gandalf and the prideful, evil Saruman. There is the One Ring of power secretly forged in the fiery Mount Doom in Mordor. And there is a host of char-acters: ents, elves, dwarfs, Gollum, Balrogs, the Nazgul, humans and many others. All are engaged in a great Holy War. The war is won through resistance, great courage, and determination.
When the war is won and Frodo and his friends return home, they are changed. Their experience, what they have seen and done, has “unveiled” (the meaning of “apocalyptic” in Greek or “revelation” in English) what they did-n’t know before. They have a new understanding of the issues at stake for life in Middle Earth. I’m pretty sure that J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote the book just before, during and after WW II, wants his readers to have a similar “revelation.”
John wrote Revelation to create a similar transformation in the church. John wrote Revelation for seven churches in the Roman province of Asia Minor (western Turkey) at the end of the first century. However, since Revelation is apocalyptic, it uses numbers as symbols. In the apocalyptic genre, numbers are not about quantity, they are about a quality or characteristic. The number “seven” means, “complete.” So Revelation addresses seven actual churches, but the number means more than that. John is addressing all churches.
And as John tells us, Revelation was meant to be heard, not read silently. It would have been read when the church was gathered to worship. For that reason, worship is one of the main themes of Revelation. It would take about an hour to read. During that hour, the church would enter into an amazing, imaginative, apocalyptic world, just as we do when we read or watch The Lord of the Rings.
Revelation lives inside a frame. Chapter 1 sets the stage. The last chapter, chapter 22, repeats many (11) of the same phrases in chapter 1. We’re home again. But it’s no longer the perspective the church had when they heard chapter 1. They now see the new heaven and the new earth! What happened? How did we get here?
Inside the frame there are three stories:
The first story, chapters 1-3, is set on the Island of Patmos. We hear about John’s vision: We see the amazing risen, glorified Christ and hear what Christ is saying to the seven churches.
The second story, chapters 4-11, takes us to the throne room of heaven: We join with the elders and heavenly beings to worship Jesus as the Lamb who was slain.
In the third story, chapters, 12-22, we watch the great holy war unfold: We see a dragon, beasts, a woman and her children. And while there is blood everywhere and Jesus the Heavenly Warrior is there, the story makes clear that victory over evil is won by the sword the comes out of Jesus’ mouth, that is, through Je-sus’ words not through violence. We also see that victory is won by Jesus, as the Lamb who gives his life. Jesus is both Warrior and Lamb. It’s like Frodo who is a great, courageous warrior who defeats Sauron and his forces by dropping the Ring of power back into fires of Mordor.
Why Study the Book of Revelation?
Why Study the Book of Revelation?
Three stories. Not sequential but layered. Intermingled. The purpose is not to give us a newspaper account of how the world will end. The purpose is to create an experience that transforms and empowers the church.
After the first century churches living in the Roman Empire hear this story read, they celebrate the Eucharist which has been hinted at throughout Revelation. Christ’s great victory through his body broken and blood shed. That experience: Revelation heard, Eucharist celebrated, church community experienced; empowered the church to go home seeing life in the Roman Empire with a new understanding of the issues at stake and with a commit-ment to, in the words of Revelation, be “witnesses” (in Greek: martyr) who “persevere.”
Join us as we spend the fall studying this remarkable book together. We begin Sunday, September 9 at 9 am in the Parlor.
Rev. Dr. David Smith
Whether you have kids at home or not, September always feels like a new year, doesn’t it? Vacations are over,
traffic is worse, the weather starts to cool down. At St. Thomas, church school starts up again, and the choir re-
turns after their summer hiatus.
Choir rehearsals are on Thursday evenings from 7:30 to 9, beginning the week after Labor Day. Our choir is
made up of a wide spectrum of folks who all enjoy singing and good fellowship. There is a range of musical skills
– some members can’t really read music – and that doesn’t divide us, it unites us. We all work together, in our
different ways, to contribute to the shared end of praising God and enriching our worship.
One of the overriding goals of the music director is to balance work and fun. You’ll hear pieces of varying diffi-
culty over the course of the year, and sometimes it takes a lot of repetition and correction to get it right. Some-
times folks get impatient at Thursday rehearsals. But the reward comes with the final product.
If you enjoy singing, think about coming to join the choir. Although many in the choir have been there for many
years, it’s not at all an exclusive or clique-ish group. Newcomers will find a warm welcome. Maybe you don’t
want to commit to every Thursday night plus coming early every Sunday morning. That’s understandable. Think
about joining for just a season, say from fall through Christmas, or from after New Year’s through Easter.
Remember, when you sing you pray twice, and all God’s children got a place in the choir.
Thanks,
Walter
Parish Financial Report
Year-to-Date Operating Revenue / Expense Cash
The 11th annual St. Thomas Pumpkin Patch is
coming soon. Over the past 10 years we have
raised over $45,000 for local charities. We donate
ALL the money we raise. This year we will con-
tinue to support: Falls Church/McLean Children’s Center, FACETS hypothermia center, Second Story and the
local food pantry, SHARE. Even better, not only does our pumpkin supplier partner with the Navajo Tribe in
New Mexico to grow the pumpkins (providing much needed employment and income) but our unsold pumpkins
also go to a good cause. Rikki’s refuge (a non-kill animal shelter) uses our leftover pumpkins as winter food.
The most important opportunity that our patch provides is the chance for us to meet our friends and neighbors and allow them to know the community of St. Thomas.
While preparations for the Patch have been going on behind the scenes for several months, there are still
FOUR WAYS YOU CAN HELP:
INVITE YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS Almost half of our pumpkin purchases were made by repeat customers. Please tell your friends and family to
visit and buy pumpkins at our Pumpkin Patch. It’s a great opportunity for others to get to know our
church and it’s a wonderful way to support our outreach programs. All profits from pumpkin sales are do-
nated to local charities! Word of mouth is the best advertising that we can get.
CHECK OUT OUR FACEBOOK PAGE Please visit the St Thomas’ Pumpkin Patch Facebook page. Leave a review Please ‘like’ us – and when we post
– please like and share! SIGN UP TO SELL PUMPKINS Actually our beautiful pumpkins sell themselves. There are 25 days of pumpkin sales. Each sales slot is 2
hours. Weekend selling is a great time to make it a family event. If you can sign up during the week – please do – these are the hardest slots to fill (they are also relatively quiet). If you’ve done it before – why not invite someone who hasn’t to assist you so you can show them the ropes?
How do I sign up? Please use the electronic sign up: http://bit.ly/2018sales Or sign up on the paper sheets in the Narthex. If you would like to sign up but don’t want to be without help – please contact Joy ([email protected]) so that we can accommodate you.
HELP GET THE PATCH READY
Sunday Sept 23rd at 4PM. Pallet Laydown – we’ll be laying out the pallets to display the pumpkins. We need around a dozen volunteers. If you are able-bodied and willing to help – please email me at [email protected].
Saturday October 6th at 12:30PM. Pumpkin Unloading – RAIN or SHINE. The bulk of the lifting and carry-ing is done by local 8th graders performing community service. We need 12-15 adult volunteers to help supervise and in some cases assist them while they help us out. Please email me at [email protected] if you can help. There are also opportunities on unload day that are not so labor intensive – check-in, hospitality etc. If you would like to assist with decorating the patch please email Becky Ventorini [email protected].
Saturday November 3rd – 10AM. Pumpkin Reloading. RAIN or SHINE. Around half a dozen folks are needed to help and supervise 8th grade volunteers reload pumpkins. Please email me at [email protected] if you can help.
Sunday November 4th at 2PM (new time!). Pallet Pickup – weather permitting – we’ll be picking them all back up again. Again about a dozen, able-bodied volunteers are needed. If you are willing to help – please email me at [email protected].
The Episcopal Church Women:
The ECW is looking forward to kicking off another fun and productive year at its meeting on Sunday, Septem-ber 9th at 8:50 am in Hudson Hall. Bring your ideas, bring your planner, and bring a friend! All women of the church are members of the ECW and we would love to have some new faces around the table.
Don’t forget to place the following dates on your calendar for the balance of the 2018-2019 Book Group season. If you have any questions, please contact Jane Pacelli at (703) 256-7834 or [email protected].
October 17, 2018: Discussion of “Before We Were Yours” by Lisa Wingate.
November 15, 2018: Discussion of “The Little Paris Bookshop” by Nina George.
December 12, 20187: Christmas dinner out and book exchange. (Location TBD).
January 16, 2019: Discussion of “Born a Crime” by Trevor Noah.
February 20, 2019: Discussion of “Being Mortal” by Atul Gawande.
March 20, 2019: Discussion of “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng.
April 17, 2019: Discussion of “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas.
With kindest regards, joy and blessings,
Becky Ventorini, ECW President
“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.” A quote from Eleanor Roosevelt on “Proper Handling”
Book Group News: Please consider joining us on Wednesday, September 19 at 7:30 pm when we will meet at Mary Lee Montfort’s home (located at 9609 Savannah Crossing Court, Vienna, VA 22182 – 703.255.1113). The book “Lilac Girls” by Martha Hall Kelly will be discussed.
Help St. Thomas by Shopping at Amazon.com
Do you shop on Amazon.com? Are you aware that you can help support St. Thomas’ when you do so? Amazon has a program called Amazon Smile. If you participate in Amazon Smile, Amazon donates .5% of every eligible purchase to the charity you select when you shop. Amazon’s website writes:
What is AmazonSmile?
AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support your favorite charitable organization every time you shop, at no cost to you. When you shop at smile.amazon.com, you’ll find the exact same low prices, vast selection and convenient shopping experience as Amazon.com, with the added bonus that Amazon will donate a portion of the purchase price to your favorite charitable organization. You can choose from over one million organizations to support.
How do I shop at AmazonSmile?
To shop at AmazonSmile simply go to smile.amazon.com from the web browser on your computer or mobile device. You may also want to add a bookmark to smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at Ama-zonSmile.
As of today, we’ve received a total $563.45 from Amazon Smile purchases. ($12.24 of that total came from me!) Please con-sider signing up for Amazon Smile and designating St. Thomas’ as your charity.
Thanks! Rev. Fran
September 2018 26
27 28 29 30 31
Office Closed
1
5pm
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
2
8 AM
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
10 AM
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
3 LABOR DAY
Office Closed
4 5 6
7:30 pm Choir
Rehearsal
7
Office Closed
8
5pm
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
9
SUNDAE SUNDAY
8 AM
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
8:50 AM
ECW Meeting
10 AM
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
Sunday School,
Adult Forum
Resumes
10 11 12
13
6 PM
GRILL NIGHT
7:30 pm Choir
Rehearsal
14
Office Closed
15
5pm
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
16 8 AM
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
10 AM
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
17 18 19
7:30 PM
ECW Book Group
meets @ Mary Lee
Montfort’s house
20
7:30 pm Choir
Rehearsal
21
Office Closed
22
5pm
Holy Eucharist,
Rite II
23
24
7:00 PM
Vestry Meeting
25
26 27
7:30 pm Choir
Rehearsal
28
Office Closed
29
5pm
Evening Prayer,
Rite II
30
ANNUAL PARISH
RETREAT
4 PM Pallet Laydown for Pumpkin Patch
From the Treasurer…
CA$H IS GETTING LOW! We started the year in great
shape due to the larger than normal number of
prepaid pledges, but with summer the cash inflows have fallen
off and we now have only slightly more than one month’s
operating cash needs on hand. Please catch up with your
pledge payments if you are behind. We will be sending out
pledge statements by early September. If you want to know
where you stand, you can check your pledge online through
Church Office Online. Reach out to Fran, Toby, or Joy if you
need help accessing your account. If you pledge an annual
amount, please consider making a partial payment now to
ease the cash pinch.
If you haven't yet pledged, please consider doing so.
Thanks! Pat
To me, there is something sublime about construction work - especially so when a lot of thinking and mindful-
ness has gone into the planning process. As Fran has noted in her weekly message, the reconstruction of the
vesting room, sacristy, sexton closet, and flower room has begun. I saw the progress yesterday after being gone a
week, and I am happy to say the work is going well. It is likely this first phase, the repair of flood damage and
relocation of the sacristy to the vesting room, will be complete in the next week or so. In late September or early
October, we will begin the second phase, renovating and repurposing the old sacristy space into a functional
flower room.
Of course, nothing goes as smoothly as one would like it to go! We had a visit from the fire department when we
shut off the building water to install the sexton sink. Our sprinkler system in the education wing depends on
water pressure, and when the water is shut off, the fire alarm sounds. Yours truly has been through this before,
but it is astonishing what doesn’t come to mind when one needs to recall important information. I plead a senior
moment! To prevent this from happening – again – we are placing a sign on the valve to call our monitoring
service in the event we need to shut the water off in the future.
In future construction news, you may be aware that VDOT is considering plans to redo the intersection of Lew-insville Road, Brook Road, and Route 7. Here is a link to an animation showing the possible intersection: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOMp-ccM3NU. You may see surveyors and engineers from Shirley Con-tracting and Dewberry Engineers on our property over the next three months gathering data on drainage pat-terns, utilities, and the like. The data will be used to inform the decision making process – construction is not imminent. Our staff is building, too – we welcomed Joy Warburton, our Parish Administrator, last month, and will welcome
Susan Allen, our new Family Minister, in early September. We have a lot to look forward to as we say goodbye to
summer and hello to fall.
Peace,
Chuck Grimes
Next ECW Meeting:
Please mark your calendar for Sunday,
September 9th for the next ECW meeting which will
be held at 8:50 am in Hudson Hall. ECW is a wonder-
ful way to experience being in a community together
with gladness of heart and a lightness of spirit. If you
are relatively new to this parish and have not gotten on
our distribution list to receive specific emails about
ECW meetings and activities, please send me your
email address so we can include you. Becky Ventorini,
ECW President ([email protected]).
Parish Directory – There’s an app for that
Does St Thomas’ have an email address for you? Then you should already be in the Parish Directory!
The Parish Directory is a part of our Church Office Online database. Once you are logged in (instructions be-
low) – you can see and search the Parish Directory (photo, name, address, email and phone number) of the folks
at St. Thomas.
Better yet – not only can you can also see and update your own information but you can also see and track your
family giving to St. Thomas. You can make an annual pledge and track your progress toward fulfilling it. NO-
ONE ELSE can see this information.
We’d love everyone to log in and check/complete their information. Even add a photo. It’s so helpful for our
new staff – Joy, Susan, and Anne – to be able to put names to faces.
Another great feature of our directory is that you can see many of the active groups without our church. Ever
wanted to join the Men Eating Breakfast? Find the group using the “group finder” – and request to join. It is
that simple.
The Parish also uses the calendar functionality of church office online. You can see all up coming events by
clicking on the calendar logo.
Finally – our directory is available via the church office online app (iOS and android). The app is more stream-
lined – and seems to work even better than accessing the directory directly! In addition to your log in name and
password it asks for the name of our directory (the domain name). Our domain name is “stthom”.
How do I access the Parish Directory?
Great news, it’s easy.
The log in page can be accessed by clicking on the “Member Log In” found at the bottom left corner of our
website main page. Or click this link https://stthom.churchofficechms.com/user/login
FIRST TIME USERS – please click on the “Forgot password” and enter your email address. The database will
email you your log in information. If you do not receive an email – or get an error message “no user with that
email address” – please contact either myself ([email protected]) or Joy in the office
Need more help?
Instructions on how to log in to the database can be found on our website here database instructions. Or send me an email ([email protected]) .
Thank you so much – looking forward to us all using the directory to help St Thomas’ and help ourselves.
Toby Bush
8991 Brook Rd
McLean, VA 22102
703.442.0330
WWW.STTHOMASMCLEAN.ORG
JOIN US FOR OUR
FAMILY GRILL NIGHT
ON
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH @ 6:PM
AS WE ENJOY THE DWINDLING DAYS OF SUMMER!
GOOD FOOD. GOOD FUN. AWAITS ONE & ALL.
TO BE SURE WE HAVE ENOUGH FOR ALL,
PLEASE RSVP to [email protected]
BRING A FRIEND!
