St Andrew’s Newsletter

September October

Letter of Thanks

Thank-you for the donation of school supplies. The Central staff and our students appreciate your generous donation.

Munger, Office Coordinator, and Central Elementary Staff

Holiday Bazaar

The Holiday Bazaar will be Saturday, November 7. In the meantime, ready your knitting needles, wood-working tools, and the like! We are also taking donations of baked goods, books, plants, and gently used kitchen items, as well as fall and holiday decor.

State of the Building

Summer is the busy time of year for Building and Grounds. With cheerful help from many volunteers we prepped and painted chipped paint on the north, east and south outsides of Giles Hall. We also cleaned folding chairs and painted the handicap signs on the pavement. A garden service was hired to do a clean up of the gardens in anticipation of our Old Home Sunday picnic. Lupo Construction completed the “aerial” project: cleaned, replaced some roof tiles and siding, painted and put bird spikes on the bell tower steeple; closed up potential bird openings around the whole church, repaired the leaking west Whiteside Room window; cleaned the gutters. Our next project will focus on issues closer to the ground. Over the last 38 years both the concrete kitchen steps and the concrete ramp and steps have been listing away from the building. We’re in the process of exploring solutions and may need to have a capital campaign to raise money for these activities. We’re also looking at replacing rotten wood on the sanctuary porch, office threshold and the access door to the crawl space under the Parish Hall.

An important member of the Building and Grounds Committee, Colin McAfee is moving off the Building and Grounds Committee. He will continue to serve as the contact for building use, key distribution and communications with groups who use the building, and he will also continue to help with some electrical/technical issues like controlling thermostats. Colin has been an invaluable asset to the Committee with his curious mind, love of puzzle-solving, and technical know-how. Please let him know of your appreciation for his many, many years of work behind the scenes at St. Andrews.

From the Vestry

The Vestry met for our regular monthly meeting, but this time in the Whiteside Room upstairs. It seemed to be pretty well suited for such a gathering, with a little more room than our usual Music Room venue. We began with approval of several meeting’s worth of minutes, then a review and approval of the Treasurer’s Report. That report is that we are two-thirds of the way through the year (as of August) and pledge and investment income are above budget, with expenses generally below budget (with a few exceptions). One of those exceptions was the Permanent Maintenance budget, which absorbed the costs of both the full repainting of the Great Room and Giles Hall as well as the closing up of some outside gaps through which birds were entering, the repair of the Whiteside Room window, and the painting of the steeple and cleaning of the gutters. All were long overdue maintenance and the additional outside work was thankfully covered by a generous $20,000 donation towards the Permanent Maintenance Fund. The report was approved, with the additional note that the outside work came in under budget.

The Senior Warden remarked about the work done on the last workday and encouraged the Vestry members to attend the next one. She also noted the congregational meeting on August 30 and the Old Home Sunday just passed. She said that we on the spur of the moment we donated the leftover food from our picnic to the Salvation Army next door, as they were having an outdoor gathering. This seemed to exemplify the community spirit on which Fr. Paul preached. Our Junior Warden gave us a rundown on all of the completed items from the spring and summer. She mentioned that the Buildings and Grounds Committee would like us to form a Safety and Security Committee that would take on the ongoing supervision of the keys as well as researching additional security measures that could be taken, including the installation of security cameras outside. We were mindful of the tragedy of the man who died in our parking lot several months ago and it would have been helpful to have a way of more closely monitoring the areas around our church. She also noted that we continue to have issues with building users duplicating keys, not emptying the garbage, and essentially not following the agreed-upon rules. Fr. Tom agreed to send all of the groups a letter reiterating the rules and asking for their cooperation before we move to more extreme actions.

Other committee reports followed, including Laurel’s desire to get some of our events into Coastal Currents (with some in the congregation wanting a return of the Christmas Eve “Midnight Mass”) and a discussion of our evolving welcoming program, the kick-off of our Annual Giving Campaign in October, and people’s preferences for times of Christian education (see Fr. Tom’s note). We also discussed an early idea to establish the Thomas R. Halbrook Memorial Library by installing bookshelves in the Whiteside Room and using the over a dozen boxes of books donated by Fr. Halbrook’s family to populate those shelves. Fr. Tom will present a more developed proposal to the Vestry in October for approval. The Bazaar date was set as November 7 and the Epiphany Gala (formerly the Twelfth Night Celebration) tentatively set for Saturday, January 9. We hope and intend to have the 2027 calendar set by the Annual Meeting.

With a few last housekeeping items, the Vestry adjourned until Wednesday, October 21.

From Desk of the Priest-in-Charge

It was both a humbling and gratifying experience to welcome several of my predecessors back to St. Andrew’s on Old Home Sunday. Former Rectors and Interim Rectors The Reverends Robin Leuthe, Dale McQueen, and Paul Collins joined me in attending our service, with Fr. Paul preaching and me celebrating the Eucharist. Bob and Dale supported us from the pews. It was especially gratifying to hear from them how grateful they were to God, to others, and to me (though I believe I have had little to do with it) for the health and vitality of St. Andrew’s displayed that Sunday. We had nearly 60 people in our pews and filled the Great Hall to overflowing. As they say, a good time was had by all!

This Old Home Sunday continues a process of self-discovery that began with our Congregational Meeting and Potluck on Sunday, August 30. We had a great time sharing stories (some of which I’m still in the middle of reading!) and Old Home Sunday simply reminded us of the rich heritage that we share and of which I am proud to be a part. We will continue that self-discovery into the fall and 2027 as we discern who God is calling us to be post-pandemic and post-search.

Speaking of that, October 15 is my one-year anniversary as your Priest-in-Charge! What a year it has been, for both me personally and for the parish. Lisa and I started out in a damp apartment in South Aberdeen and then were blessed to be able to move up the hill to a wonderful house which we love and is only 5 minutes away from the church! Then we had our medical challenge in late April through July, and things are finally settling down in August and September. With all of our own transitions, it sometimes seems like we just arrived! Through all of it, the people of St. Andrew’s have cared for us and we are truly grateful for all of the support. We’re hoping for a less eventful and more joyful and productive year to come!

On another front, in consultation with the Vestry, I’ve decided not to do a “Tuesdays/Thursdays with (Fr.) Tom” weeknight class series. As the days get shorter, few want to venture out on a weeknight. So, most of those educational opportunities will take place after church and Coffee Hour on Sunday, for those who wish to stay afterwards. These will be one, two, or a maximum of three sessions and will likely start in October, so keep an eye on the bulletin for announcements.

Finally, I’m personally taking on recruiting volunteers for Coffee Hour, which I’ve retitled “Coffee & Cookies” to make it clear that all we need is one person to make coffee and another to bring cookies on any given Sunday. The sign-up sheet will be passed around at church on Sunday!

— Fr. Tom+

PRAYER LISTS

The following is a list of people for whom our prayers are asked. For the sick, and suffering; for those who mourn, and for those who rejoice, and others:

JoAnne A, Mason A, the members of the AA and NA groups, , Sara, Dom Philip Bernard, Louise B, Ginger H, Mike A, Don & Judy M, Danny S, Paul & Susie T, Dianne M, Muriel, Richard H, Michael R, Debby M, Lorene H, Lisa N, Dennis D, Elaine P, Mike A, Cheyenne B, Don H, Barb S, Dale O, Nichole H, Angela B, Shelley C, Bill E, Casey K, Rodney H, Terry, Shirley.

Those in current military service:

Andrew Roth, Breanne Gunther, Ian Gunther, Nicole Hyde, Jordan Bush, Josh Sindorf,

Madison Sylvester, Brandon Roeseler, Casey Sindorf, Gabriel Calderon.

Prayers for Israel, Gaza, Iran, and the Middle East:

Loving and liberating Creator, send your healing Spirit upon all involved in the current conflict and violence in the Middle East. Comfort those who mourn or who have been harmed by brutality. Stand with those who are fearful. Protect and provide for the powerless and the vulnerable. Inspire a spirit of forbearance and understanding within all and uphold those who even now work for a just and durable peace. In the name of Christ. Amen.

September

Anniversaries: Doug & Merry Jo Z, Rob & Denise C, Maria & Tim B

Birthdays: Shaen D, Anne B, Glenn S, Erich S, Dennis D, Joshua B, Eric H, William S

October

Anniversaries: Larry & Judie S, Dennis & Barbara D

Birthdays: Erin C, Dorothy B, Sheri H, Alice K, Michelle T, Annette P, Jane P, Marley S, Ruth K, Richard W, Kathy A, Susan D, James I, Karla P

September-October Newsletter