The Eagle - April 2006

On April 9th, we will mark Palm Sunday and then, for the following six days, the events of Holy Week. On the seventh day, we will gather in great numbers to celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection. This journey we make from Palm Sunday through Easter is the single most important passage which the Christian Church makes during the course of the year. It is so important because not only is it the story of the last days of our Lord's life, but also because it is the acting out of the story which is our lives as Christians. To see the worldly adulation of the entrance into Jerusalem give way to the betrayal of Maundy Thursday is to know the reality and emptiness of the world's power. It is to know, as our Lord knew, that it turns as quickly to betrayal as it has sprung to life as earthly glory. It is also to know that there are times when, no matter how grand the world around us says we are, within us are crosses we must bear and realities we must face which are ours alone and which we can only confront and overcome with God's help. It is to know with our Lord that the agony of Good Friday is real and that, no more than he would avoid it, can we. It is painful and it is lonely, but it is the truth. Yet through Good Friday, we pass to Easter Eve...to that most holy of all nights...in which we gather in a church shrouded in utter darkness and ever so slowly but surely behold the Light of Christ spread throughout this place until it is ablaze with the glory of new life...new birth...resurrection. And as our alleluias begin to echo and re-echo within its walls, and as we partake of the First Eucharist of Easter, that feast which will occur again and again the following morning, not just here but throughout the world, we know that our journey has been completed. The promise, which is our life in Christ, is fulfilled.

I pray that each of us will make this journey together. Let us not leave here on Palm Sunday and not return until Easter, for, if we do, we will miss the journey along the way...that journey which says so very much about our lives and the life of Him into whom we are baptized. And to miss it is to miss much.

Evensong will be sung on Palm Sunday, April 9^th at 5.00pm

As the anthem at the service, John Stainer’s

“The Crucifixion” will be offered.

This glorious, ancient service of prayer offers a fine way

to conclude this pivotal Sabbath in the Christian year

and to begin the journey of Holy Week.

We hope that you will attend.

Collegieum Musicum ~ There are still a few seats left for Friday’s Salon Concert (March 31^st) featuring Taft School’s premier chorus, Collegium Musicum. Dinner and libations will be served beginning at 6.30pm and the concert will begin at 7.15pm. Please call the office immediately if you wish to attend.

Mite Box Sunday ~ On Easter Sunday, April 16^th, during the 10.00 am service, the children of the Church School are invited to be in Church with their families as part of the Easter Liturgy. They will present their Mite Boxes during this service. They will receive these boxes beginning the first Sunday in Lent and will put an offering in them during the course of this season. The gifts will be collected and sent to an organization chosen by the children that assists those in need. It is a wonderful thing which the young people do in this regard, and we urge all of you to congratulate them on their efforts.

Loaves & Fishes ~ Our day for Loaves & Fishes is Friday, April 21^th. Please sign up for cooking food or delivering it and serving it at Loaves & Fishes. The sign-up sheet is in the Parish House. Please have the pans of food delivered by Noon on the 21^th. Please note: we are needful of volunteers to help with serving on that day. It will not take a great deal of your time, but it will be a tremendous help at the Soup Kitchen.

Passion Narrative for Palm Sunday ~ It has been the tradition of this Parish to read the Passion Narrative during the course of the 10.00am Liturgy and having various members of the congregation read the parts of that narrative. A number of people have signed up already, but we hope that a few more will do the same. Please call the Office 868-2527 as soon as possible to let us know that you would be willing to take a part. You will have your part ahead of time, and it is simply read from your seat during the course of the Liturgy.

Easter Flowers ~ Attached to this copy of The Eagle, on the yellow sheet, is a form on which you can request that individuals be remembered at Easter in the service leaflet for the Easter Sunday services. An envelope is provided for this purpose (and in which you can also make a contribution to help with the Easter Flowers which will decorate the Church). There is another envelope in which to make a Special Easter Offering if you so desire. Please return the completed form and envelopes in the collection basin or to the Office no later than 9.30am on Monday, April 10^th.

Services of Holy Week

Maundy Thursday ~ On Maundy Thursday, the service will take place with Communion and the Stripping of the Altar at 7:30 p.m. Following the Service, the Vigil before the Reserved Sacrament will begin at 10:00 p.m. As you recall from previous years’ discussion of the Vigil, the Tabernacle which stands in the corner of the Chapel contains the Reserved Sacrament…communion hosts consecrated at previous Eucharists and used with each Eucharist that takes place at Saint John’s in a literal and figurative commingling of all that has gone before with all that is happening immediately. The presence of this Sacrament, the body of Christ, is marked by the light which burns over the Tabernacle signifying the presence of Christ in our midst. This light is known as the Light of the Presence. During the hours of this particular night, which remembers our Lord’s betrayal, trial, and eventual murder, it is customary in many places throughout the Church for members of the congregation to keep watch in the Chapel by the Reserved Sacrament. This watching with Christ is, for many, a most powerful moment in the course of the year…one of silence, reflection, and prayer on the oft times painful realities of the human journey. The idea is that members of the Parish sign up for one hour “shifts” of keeping watch in the Chapel. It is perfectly reasonable to have more than one person in the Chapel at any one time, and we hope a response of such a magnitude might well be the case. Feel free to sign-up on the sheet provided at Sunday Services, return the form attached on the pink sheet (by mail or in the offering plate), call the Office, or simply to come to the Chapel during the hours of the Vigil. If you have any questions about this please feel free to give the Rector a call (868-2527).

Good Friday Services ~ On Good Friday, the service at Saint John’s will take place from Noon until 1:30. We will be using the liturgy from the Prayer Book for Good Friday allowing Communion to be received from the Reserved Sacrament. The Choir will be present for this service. We hope that you will mark your calendar now to be at Saint John’s for the full 1 l/2 hours from Noon until 1:30 p.m. to mark the hours of our Lord’s passion and death and to share with him in this time of anguish.

Easter Eve ~ There will be traditional Easter Vigils at Saint Michael’s Church, Litchfield at 7.30 p.m. and at Trinity Church, Torrington at 8.00pm. All members of Saint John’s are most cordially invited to either of these Services.

Easter Day Services ~ On Easter Day, services at Saint John’s will take place at 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. At 8:00 a.m. the Eucharist will be celebrated with hymns and, at 10:00 a.m., the Eucharist will be a most festive celebration with music and an egg hunt afterwards. Please note that, at the 10:00 a.m. service, families are invited to bring their children. There is no Church School that day. There will be some snacks and juice set out in the Undercroft in case parents have a child who becomes very unhappy, and they would like to take them down stairs for a “break” for a few moments. Otherwise, it is our belief, on this day of days, the entire Parish Family ought to be together to mark the greatest gift we know as Christians.

Adult Forum for Lent ~ During Lent, the Adult Forum will be lead by Dr. Randall Balmer. You have heard of Dr. Balmer and his involvement with the life of Saint John’s in previous Eagles and during Church the past week or two. We hope very much that you will not fail to take advantage of this remarkable gift he is giving us. Full details of the gatherings are available at www.stjohnswashington.org on the bottom of the Christian Education page under the heading “Adult Forum Schedule – Lent 2006”

Vestry News ~ The regularly scheduled meeting of the Vestry took place March 19, 2006.

The minutes of the January 15 meeting were amended and approved with amendments. The February 19 minutes were approved as submitted.

Stewardship - Mary Schinke discussed the current Stewardship effort. It was agreed that reminder letters should be sent to all those who have not pledged in hopes that they will make their pledges in a timely manner in order to assist the Vestry with its ability, responsibly, to fulfill its role of fiscal oversight for the Parish.

Outreach Committee – An extensive discussion regarding the work of the Outreach Committee took place and is discussed elsewhere in The Eagle.

Outreach Committee News ~ During March’s Vestry meeting, an extensive discussion took place regarding new possibilities for the makeup and functioning of the Outreach Committee. Mr. Bent, chair of the Outreach Committee, offered an overview of its work at present and some of his concerns regarding the increasing difficulty of finding volunteers to do “hands-on” work on projects that we might undertake. It struck the Vestry that, given the reality that the Outreach Committee really has functioned for some time as a “Grants Committee,” it might be prudent to accept that reality regarding its future and move in that direction. With this in mind, the Wardens would appreciate hearing from members of the Parish who might like to be involved with a “Grants Committee.” The ideas is not that everyone who might serve on such a committee would necessarily be one who ended up rolling up his or her sleeves and pounding nails on some sort of service project or another, but would be individuals very interested in receiving requests for grants from charitable organizations and then determining how our outreach funds will be allocated. This group will also choose perhaps two or at most three “hands-on” projects during the course of the year that are related the work of institutions that we support and do the necessary advertising and organization to ensure that members of the Parish know well in advance when they might be able to offer their “elbow grease” in serving these organizations. This two pronged approach to matters seemed to the Vestry to be wise, and the Wardens would welcome hearing from any member of the Parish who might be moved to step forward to be involved in this work. Mary Schinke’s email is: mary@schinkelaw.com and Chris Boshears email is: CBB@christopherbboshears.com

Also, you might feel free to contact Ted Bent at tedbent@earthlink.net with any questions you might have.

6-9^th Grade Group ~ During April this group will meet on April 23rd and 30th. The days’ topics will be sent by email to participants.

Altar Guild ~ The Altar Guild’s day of preparation for Holy Week and Easter will be on Saturday, April 8^th from 9.00 – 11.00am. All Altar Guild members should gather in the sacristy for this important effort.

Rector Away ~ The Rector will be away from April 17^th through May 5^th. In his absence, The Revd. Roger White, Rector of Saint Andrew’s Parish in Kent will be available for emergency Pastoral call (927-3486). The Wednesday Eucharists will be celebrated by the Revd. Susan McCone and the Revd. George Hall. Sunday services will be celebrated by the Revd. Rowan Greer. We express our deepest gratitude to these members of the clergy who so generously give of themselves to care for us at Saint John’s.

Music Notes ~ On Palm Sunday, the 9th of April, at the 5 PM Evensong, the Saint John's Choir, augmented by a number of guest singers from the wider community, will offer as an extended anthem The Crucifixion - A Meditation on the Sacred Passion of the Holy Redeemer, by John Stainer. This work has for over a century been one of the most beloved of all the settings of the Passiontide drama ever composed. I thought, perhaps, a little historical background might be in order.

At the time of its composition, John Stainer (1840-1901) was principal organist at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and professor of music at Oxford University. No fool he, but a man who knew well the state of church music in his day. Naturally, he would have been acquainted with the monumental settings of the St. John and St. Matthew Passions by J. S. Bach - though these masterpieces had only recently been introduced to the British public - as well as with the numerous settings of gospel Passion accounts by other composers of note (no pun intended, I promise). But almost without exception these pieces require such gigantic forces - including, in many cases, full orchestras - and are of so daunting a degree of difficulty, that only the very largest choirs at the very largest

churches could even consider offering them. (And, speaking from personal experience, even some of them would do well to think twice!) Choirmasters throughout the country may long have felt the need for an extended piece of choral music concerning the crucifixion, set in English, that would be suitable for use by small to medium sized parish choirs. Stainer most certainly did.

In 1887, with the idea of filling this choral void, he asked the son of one of his fellow musicians, a man with the rather charming name of Sparrow-Simpson, to write a suitable libretto. Soon afterwards, the completed work was given its first performance at St. Marylebone Parish Church, London, and was received with an enthusiasm and love that has never waned, even in the teeth of vitriolic comment from those poor critics who just don't ever seem to be able to get things right. Of course, as so often happens, the critics are long-forgotten, whilst the music has been continuously cherished for well over a century.

Nevertheless, there are still those who tend to feel that the style of Stainer's music and, indeed, of all music of the Victorian era is somewhat out of date. By way of refutation I can do no better that to paraphrase Nicholas Temperley, author of the liner notes for the Clare College, Cambridge recording of The Crucifixion, who observes that objecting to the music of the Victorian age as being dated is a prejudice that is itself now completely out of date.

Stainer's Crucifixion remains as one of the most honest, affecting, successful, and enduring settings of the account of Jesus' death ever written. I can't think of a better way to begin the journey through the Christian Church's most solemn and important week. The Choir and I sincerely hope that you will plan to attend this moving and meditative service.

One further item. As you can imagine, the weeks leading up to Easter are inevitably a busy time for a church choir, involving a lot of extra work. Our singers give their time and effort enthusiastically, cheerfully, and without complaint, but there's no getting around the fact that it is a very demanding time of year. I'm glad to have the chance of thanking publicly and sincerely the members of our choir for their unselfish devotion to the musical life of this Church.

Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work… You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

To meet St. John’s 2006 budget, our pledge goal is $269,500, representing a 10% increase over 2005 pledge income. To date, we have received $184,320 in pledges from 94 families. We need an additional $85,180 to meet our operating costs.

Overall, pledges this year remain roughly the same as in 2005, with some pledges actually decreasing. Somewhat offsetting this disquieting trend, some parishioners have increased their pledges. Those increases account for a 4% higher level of giving than seen in 2005 thus far. If trends toward largely static pledge levels continue, however, the support of our parishioners will not meet St. John’s operating costs.

Ours is a community that has been richly blessed. We live in what is perhaps one of the most affluent areas in the nation and certainly the world. It is well within our reach to cover our parish expenses. If we each truly reflect on what we have, how we spend it and entrust a reasonable proportion of our God given resources to His work through St. John’s, we can count on enormous personal and corporate benefits. If you have not pledged for 2006, please consider an increase over your 2005 pledge. If you have already pledged, please prayerfully consider increasing your pledge. You may use the pledge card on side two of this sheet.

At the end of March, the Vestry sent letters to all parish families that have not yet pledged. Each such family will also be contacted by a Vestry member. It is the sincere hope of the Vestry that these conversations will be opportunities for dialog about our mission and parish life as well as Christian stewardship. While the Vestry bears responsibility for the management of our resources, we welcome hearing each parishioner’s insights as to any aspect of our spiritual community.