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JUNE 2008 From the Rector’s Desk Sacraments from the Latin word sacrare, meaning to consecrate…the separation of a thing or person for divine service. The term consecrate is used primarily for the Eucharist, for the act whereby the bread and wine are sanctified for the people and become the body and blood of Christ. According to our prayer book, sacraments are “outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace.” Sacraments are physical actions that point to deeper realities than we are able to experience with our five senses. The Episcopal Church recognizes two major, or “gospel” sacraments, and five minor sacraments or sacramental acts. The two major sacraments, Baptism and Communion are called gospel sacraments because Jesus told us (in the gospels) to do them until he comes again. The other sacramental rites are described on page 860 of the Book of Common Prayer in the Catechism section of that wonderful red book we call our own. When I arrived here, I was surprised to see the way in which we store our communion that is left over from our regular services. And I was also surprised to discover that this church does not have a tabernacle. I initiated discussions with the wardens and vestry about how we could decide as a family to introduce a tabernacle into our worship space. I have scheduled a series of conversations about this topic on Sundays and we’ve already had the first round of these last week and are looking forward to continuing our dialog. I have asked Vicki Garvey to prepare for us, in the beautiful way that only Vicki knows how, to teach us about the history and origins of tabernacles and their symbolic meaning in our contemporary times. We haven’t quite worked out whether she will do that live or as a handout for us given our church schedule and all the other things we have on the calendar for the parish during the first few weeks in June. I have asked for volunteers to work on a temporary ad hoc committee to make recommendations to the vestry following discussion with the congregation about all of our options. I am requesting that four people come forward, one from the altar guild, one from the flower guild, a vestry member and one from the congregation at large. This group will be charged with a specific purpose from me to do the preparation research needed for the vestry to make a decision. Please see me personally, email or call to volunteer yourself for this short term opportunity. I did send our new rector David an email explaining my plans about this project and he enthusiastically supported our undertaking this task before his arrival. If you have any
questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me and I will
be happy to discuss it with you. The
Rev. Mary E. Tudela
The following State of Parish Report was presented by Senior Warden Ned Loughridge at both services on June 1, 2008. On this first day
of June, and our last day together before we begin our “summer”
schedule and activities, I want to take the opportunity to give you
an update. While I cannot possibly cover every aspect of our ministry
together or recognize the many people for their generous and faithful
work, I do want to provide you some highlights.
By far one of the most important activities for the future of our parish was the culmination of the work of our Search Committee. Eleven devoted members worked since April 2007 to find the 7th rector of St. Mark’s. And boy did they succeed when they found The Rev. David A. Gibbons. David comes to us from St. Faith’s Church in Havant in the Diocese of Portsmouth in England. He brings solid credentials as a parish priest who guided a dwindling parish to new growth and renewal in his seven years. And he led the parish in raising the capital necessary to bring their 13th century building back to life. These and many more skills will be very helpful as we map out the future of St. Mark’s. Our road to landing David was not a straight one, rather we experienced many a hairpin turn along the way. One in particular tested our faith, particularly mine. We communicated to David he was our choice in late February. However, he was not finished with his own discernment process and asked us to wait unit mid-March for his answer. Having plenty of corporate recruiting experience, I saw only problems with this situation. Never in my business experience would we have waiting three weeks for a candidate’s answer. Well “me of little faith.” We not only came out on top when all was said and done, but our willingness to give David the time he needed to make his decision exhibited to him our faith in a big way. Now he, wife Susan, daughters Elise and Sophia and even Buddy the dog are anxiously awaiting their move to Barrington Hills. The family came in mid-April for David’s interviews with our Vestry and Bishop Lee. Within a week we had a signed covenant with David that was quickly ratified by the Diocese. And after producing a ream of supporting paperwork for the government from both St. Mark’s and the Diocese, David will visit the US embassy in London tomorrow for his visa hearing. Assuming all goes well and it should, he will have an approved visa within five business days. The last five months has seen the end of George Martin’s 10-month interim ministry with us and the arrival of Mary Tudela as our second interim. With each interim, I believe we have been challenged to grow and mature. George Martin may best be remembered for trying new things. For instance he and Vicki worked to re-energize our Adult Formation and change how we offer our Sunday School programs. We saw significant increases in the number of people attending Adult Formation. We also got more people involved in the delivery of Sunday School. But this did not happen without pain for some Sunday School teachers and parents. So to that end, we will be conducting a parish survey this summer to solicit input from all parishioners about these programs, particularly the timing of each. With the arrival of Mary Tudela, we have seen the energy and enthusiasm level continue to rise. With her corporate management experience, Mary has worked to improve our formal and informal communication processes. Mary has also brought a welcome frankness to our parish. A good example of this is the ongoing series of conversations we are having about the handling of our reserve sacraments and the need for a tabernacle, however modest a tabernacle that may be. She has changed the tone of the conversation from concern about breaking holes in our walls (which by the way we don’t need to do and won’t do) to the liturgical reasons for having such a vessel. During our Vestry retreat in February, we identified three areas of concentration for 2008. The three areas are Engagement (how we engage our visitors and new members), Enhancement (how we can enhance our worship and lives together as a community) and Presence (how we improve the presence and image of St. Mark’s in our community). The Engagement Team has put a new process in place for greeting and following-up with our visitors with an emphasis on providing a welcoming experience and have assigned members of this subcommittee (which is more than just vestry members) to specific duties. Most important is how we greet our visitors, and I must say that as a congregation you are doing a terrific job. The Enhancement Group has worked to plan another series of summer Saturday worship services that will both feed our souls and bodies. Also in the works is an Activity Fair for the fall that will highlight all the groups in the parish and how we can all get more involved. The work of the Presence Team has resulted in the improved website. It is not only very attractive and professional but the information is much more organized and up-to-date. And we have stepped up our efforts to get press coverage with some success. From our new newspaper listings at Easter we had a number of new visitors and our Rogation Day was featured in the Pioneer Press. The next task for this group is to develop a marketing plan for St. Mark’s. In the area of property, we made the decision late in 2007 to make 335 Ridge Road the rectory and to use the current rectory for meeting space at least in the short term. Besides being a more attractive home, this will allow us to get the property off the tax rolls, hopefully for the next tax year. With the Gibbons’ pending arrival, we will be doing some work to the 335 house. Included in the work will be a new roof, interior and exterior painting, some work on the grounds and some extensive cleaning. In order to save money on this work, we will recruit a team of people to do that does not require professional help, such as cleaning, simple painting, yard work and the like. I would encourage anyone in the parish interested in helping to contact Rick Cavenaugh or me. We will finally be replacing the damaged windows in the sanctuary and the windows in the front of the church this fall. The funds for this work will come from a portion of the William Friend Trust and they will be memorialized in honor of Bill Friend. And as always, we continue to experience issues with our buildings. Upon inspection, we found that the two chimneys on the church and one each on the rectory and old rectory are in need of extensive repair. In addition our wet winter caused leaks in a few areas which need to be addressed, the 40 plus year old boiler continues to cause us problems. We also have a myriad of projects including repairing walls and replacing damaged ceiling tiles, repairing and refinishing the Fellowship Hall floor and plumbing work in the day school wing to consider. Many of these items need to be addressed now. Which brings me to the subject of finances. II. Financials For those of you who attended the Annual Meeting or who have studied the Annual Report, you know we entered 2008 with a deficit budget of $60,000. The deficit mainly came from two areas. First, we experienced a $33,000 reduction in pledges between 2007 and 2008 with 21 fewer pledging families. We also budgeted $30,000 for one-time search and relocation expenses relating to our new rector. We have worked
very hard to manage our finances since the beginning of the year and
to find areas of cost saving. Unfortunately a number of areas have worked
against use. We have already exceeded our annual budget for snow removal.
We expect our gas costs to go significantly over budget. We have replaced
a great many pumps on the boiler. And while the search portion of the
new rector process came in $5,000 less than budgeted, we face a rector
relocation from overseas. We have also deferred some projects. For instance
planned new shutters which were to have been done in conjunction with
the sanctuary windows have been put on hold. So I come to each of you today with a request. On behalf of the entire St. Mark’s community, I would ask each of you to prayerfully consider your financial ability to either increase your pledge or to fund some of the our critical areas of need such as the Gibbons’ relocation, improvements to the rectory, masonry work to our buildings or the many repair needs we have. Starting off on solid financial footing with a new rector is vital as we all work to build the St. Mark’s of tomorrow. To that end, Jo and I are committing today to increase our pledge. And I am going to ask each member of the vestry and the search committee to do the same or to help fund one of our projects. If we each of us does our part we can enter the next era of our parish on solid financial ground. III. Looking Forward As we look into the future we have much to looking forward to and much to do. Tentatively David plans to arrive on August 1st. This will give him some time to get things settled, buy a car, get bank accounts set up – all the things one needs to do in a new city, let alone a new country. It will also give him some time to transition with Mary and meet with the staff. We hope that his first Sunday leading the congregation will be August 10th. David and I have spent a good amount of time in conversation about our future. Undoubtedly he will need some time to acclimate with us and the Episcopal Church and to develop his game plan for moving the parish forward. But we have agreed
that now is the time for realizing our future as a parish and an opportunity
for us to leave a legacy for the future generations of St. Mark’s.
We inherited a wonderful church. It is incumbent on us to leave it in
even better shape for the future. This is an exciting time to be at St. Mark’s. On behalf of your Vestry, I thank each and every one of you for your dedication, your faith and the spirit which you bring to our parish family. Each one of us has special gifts. Thank you for sharing them in the past and for your continued support – as together we shape the St. Mark’s of the future.
As you know, I’m a reader and a lover of words and the universes they open and the places they take me. Have been since before I can remember and can’t imagine a day without reading. My brother swears I’ve been reading all my life – including the backs of cereal boxes and match book covers when nothing else was available – and my father was certain that I was born late because I was still learning to speak in full sentences before I left my mother’s womb. I read all sorts of things: mystery and thriller and theology and poetry and fantasy and history and kiddy lit and even a little science for spice now and again. And because I’m an extrovert I tend to be downright ebullient about what I read and public in my ebullience; when something in the written word excites me, I can hardly stand to keep it to myself. So here you go, a wonderful nugget I found nestled in a book I was reading in preparation for a workshop on faith and culture: The physical body you’re using to read this book is actually not the same one you used to pick it up. That’s because when you take one deep breath “you inhale1022 atoms from the universe.” That’s 10 with 22 zeroes after it. When you exhale, the same number of atoms that came from your body goes out into the universe. It’s possible to make calculations that will show that “beyond a shadow of a doubt ...you have in your physical body at least a million atoms that were once in the body of Christ, or the Buddha.” [Geo Althena Trevarthen, quoting Deepak Chopra in The Seeker’s Guide to Harry Potter (O Books, 2008), 33.] I hardly know where to start. Well, yes I do, but I’d rather progress toward that amazing final sentence above. Of course, I say to myself, of course the I who picked up the book – or typed the last word – is not exactly the same I who read the book – or typed the last line. Of course I know that. And yet the concept blows me away. Not just that parts of me change in the minutest immeasurable part of an instant, but that even that which marks my being certifiably a living entity – inhaling and exhaling – alters me at a basic level. And that which I take in and release has been present in the universe in some basic way since the universe itself first had being. So of course I share atoms or sub-atoms with the once living historical Jesus. It’s one thing to proclaim ourselves the living Body of Christ, as we do with some regularity, or to tell ourselves truthfully that we are the ones called to carry out Christ’s mission in our world, that we are called to be other Christs. All of that is true. I believe it and sometimes with the grace of God, I actually act as if I really believe it. But this business of what’s in me having once been in Jesus somehow gets me at a more visceral level. What can that mean? And if it’s true what implications might it have for the meaning of the ‘Real Presence’ and where can it be found? And if I take this in, this snippet of amazing information, what sort of impact could it have on, say, my attitudes about myself and my place in the world? And what if this snippet is true of everyone – as it must be if it’s true for me – what does that do to our interactions with one another? What should it do? I’ve told you before the rabbinic story that reminds us that in front of each of us there is a small invisible parade of angels bearing lighted torches who shout “Make way for the image of God; make way for the image of God.” In his life among our forebears, Jesus, in his interactions with those he met, demonstrated that he believed that. He excluded no one, accepted and honored everyone, especially including those whom others might have thought undeserving, and he always made their lives better than he found them. So what is the atom of Jesus doing in me? What ought it be doing? – Vicki Garvey
Speaking of celebrations with food. It’s almost Summer, so almost time for our outdoor laid-back Saturday liturgies followed by cook-out. We’ve scheduled 2 with one TBA. Mark your calendars: Saturday, June 14 and Saturday, July 19 [the TBA is August, either the 16th or the 23rd and this one could serve as one of our welcomes to the Gibbons’ family]. As has been true in the past, we’re soliciting host families for each of these to take care of the various parts of the liturgy [think: readings, prayers of the people, ushering and greeting, chalice-bearing]; look for signup sheets in the narthex. In June, the main food item will be steak, in July, salmon, both provided by the church. We’re asking that folks planning on coming provide such things as side dishes, desserts. $5 donation per person or $20 cap per family to help defray the expenses. Mark those calendars and plan to be with us. Wear casual clothes. vlg
Suggested Donation:
$5 per person; $20 cap per family - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - We will host the
June 14 Super Summer Saturday. ___________ ******************** I (We) plan to
attend the June 14 Saturday liturgy. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Picnic…PIcni C…PICNIC. Yes, sports fans, it’s that time of year. No, not only the 3rd Sunday after Pentecost or even the 1st Sunday in the only June that will ever exist in the Year of Our Lord 2008, but our annual Spring-Comin’-Up-on-Summer Picnic. We celebrate the completion of another successful program year in this congregation and we pay special tribute to the teachers who have shared their understanding of the life of faith with our youngest: Liz Davis, Kate Herzog. Kendra Johnson, Lauren Peterson and Thelma Stevens; Anita Mathewson who coordinated the Rotation Model for our 3rd – 6th graders with the help of several volunteers from the congregation; Jamie Anding, Joan Carpenter, Susan Dilsaver, Dean Mathewson and Christine Melone who facilitated the learning for the Rite 13ers and J2Aers. These are the folks this year who took most seriously our vow to “support these persons in their lives in Christ” that we each take every time we baptize a new member. The rest of us couldn’t have done it without them. So when you see one of this hardy band, say ‘Thanks’ and say it in person at the picnic on the 1st of June immediately following the 10.15 service. What a deal; there’s even lunch. vlg Of Tents & Tabernacles: A Taste It is fitting that I write this little educational piece on the day that the 4th incarnation of the Indiana Jones series is released. Most of you will remember that the 1st film was called Raiders of the Lost Ark; what you might not know is that the ark referenced in that initial movie is based on one of the holiest objects in the bible. Like Indy’s ark, the ancient ark of Israel which contained holy things from Israel’s earliest memories of itself with its God was also lost and, despite the History Channel’s quest – and the conjecture in the film that it is crated in an anonymous warehouse among other anonymous warehouses outside D.C. – the ark of Israel has not yet been found. Modern tabernacles, au contraire, are found in many churches, particularly Anglican, Roman Catholic and Orthodox, and they serve the function of housing the sacramental elements which have been consecrated, usually in a Eucharistic setting. But tabernacles are older than any of these incarnations of Christianity. They seem to go back to the early church and even to an earlier period before the Church itself was born. The word tabernacle stems from the Latin tabernaculum, meaning ‘tent’. So to get to the roots of the modern tabernacle, we have to go camping, or at least to the desert and to the foundation story of Israel, which is also the penultimate foundation story of Christianity. The formative myth of our beginnings in the Bible tells us that Israel became Israel in the wilderness and that the God who called Israel into being willed to be available to them not only in promise: “I will be God for you and you will be people for me,” but also in presence. So, according to the book of Exodus, God instructs Moses in the building of a dwelling so that God may always be available to the people in a way they could understand and even ‘see’. That early dwelling was a tent – the ‘Tent of Meeting’ also called the Tabernacle – in which there was a further tented-off area containing a receptacle – the Holy of Holies in which reposed the Ark of the Covenant. When Moses had a question or the people had an issue, Moses and/or Aaron would go to the Tent of Meeting/Tabernacle to the Holy of Holies to confer with God. That original Ark and Tent and tenting materials were constructed for mobility so that where the people went, God could go, and where the people were, God could readily be understood to be present with them. Time passed. When Israel the people finally settled in Israel the country, first David and then Solomon made Jerusalem their capital city and it was there under the latter’s reign that the ancient tent with all its trappings was institutionalized, rebuilt, and set in the Temple. In all of this several hundreds of years of history, Israel was aware that in ‘housing’ their God, they were not delimiting God’s freedom, but were giving themselves a physical reminder, first in the portable Tent and later in the fixed Temple, that their God was an eternal and intentional presence. In the 4th gospel, the one we usually call the Gospel of John, we are told that “the Word became flesh and lived among us” [Jn 1.14]. This is, in John’s economy of language, his version of the Christmas story. It’s a lovely little half-verse. But it is even more fraught with meaning when we realize that the Greek verb translated ‘lived’ is derived from a Hebrew verb which is the same root as the word for tent, so a more accurate translation would be something like: “The Word became flesh and pitched a tent in our neighborhood.” It is no wonder then, that the very earliest of Christians, in continuity with their Jewish past, but also moving slowly forward into this new self-understanding, would adopt one of the traditions of their immediate forebears in the faith. First in their homes and later, after Christianity became legal and churches were built, they constructed their own versions of the Tent and the Ark to provide a dwelling place in the midst of the people for the one who once ‘pitched a tent in our neighborhood’. And this, to paraphrase Paul Harvey, is only a little bit of the story.... VLG 2008 BARRINGTON AREA CROP HUNGER WALK COMMITTEE GEARS UP FOR 26TH ANNUAL EVENT Representatives of area churches, schools, businesses and civic organizations are preparing for the 26th annual Barrington Area CROP Hunger Walk, determined to improve upon last year’s outstanding performance of 446 walkers and $66,397 receipts. Twenty-five percent of all funds raised in Barrington is kept in our area for the Barrington Giving Day, Barrington Meals With Wheels, Wauconda-Island Lake Food Pantry, the Northern Illinois Food Bank, the People in Need program of the Barrington Area Ministerial Association, Project HOPE and the FISH Food Pantry, Carpentersville. The amount for these local agencies totaled $16,572.75 for 2007. The Barrington Area CROP WALK is an annual community hunger education and fund raising event sponsored by Church World Service, an international ecumenical relief, development and refugee resettlement agency providing assistance in the United States and around the world. The WALK takes place throughout the Village of Barrington, beginning at Barrington Middle School Station Campus with registration at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, October 19. To learn more contact Barbara Schwartz 847-381-3074.
We welcome into
the household of God: We offer congratulations to: Anna Etherington who placed 5th in the women’s Illinois State pole vault track meet. That's quite an accomplishment! Anna is the daughter of Mary & Steve Etherington and granddaughter of Ann & Louis Gross. Beth Vance &
John Fearncombe who were married on May 3, 2008 in Indianapolis. John
is the son of Moira & John Fearncombe and brother of Amy Fearncombe
Meyers.
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