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Monday, March 23 2020
St. John’s Episcopal Church Treasurer’s Report for The Chronicle March 23, 2020 Our Current Financial Condition Bank Balances as of March 19, 2020
Use of Endowment Funds As of February 29, 2020, the balance in our General (Unrestricted) Account with the Diocese of Olympia Master Trust was $325,247.96. To-date, we’ve withdrawn $120,000.00—$40,000 in December 2019 and $80,000 in January 2020—and applied to our architects’, contractors’, and consultant’s fees and expenses to-date for their work to replace our sanctuary roof, undertake related structural repairs, and prepare for our upcoming capital campaign in the fall of this year. Since January 1, 2018, those expenses total $179,897.37. Since the balance in the Capital Campaign Account is only $13,246.79, the last payment to KMB Architects, in the amount of $35,917.50, was made from the Designated Account. At last Thursday’s meeting, the Vestry approved a withdrawal of $40,000 from the General Account and the reclassification of $35,917.50 in Capital Campaign expenses paid to KMB Architects from the Designated Account. As with the earlier withdrawals, we intend to reimburse the General Account with interest from funds raised in our capital campaign. Our Budget Year-to-Date Statements of Activities and Financial Position as of February 29, 2020 can be viewed by clicking on the embedded links or by going to our Vestry page on our website and scrolling to the bottom of the page. Our year-to-date operating deficit is -$38,113.37, which will be supplemented by $40,000.00 upon receipt of the withdrawal from our General Account. Although total pledges for 2020 have increased to $265,892.00—including $11,532.00 in supplemental pledges—pledges received year-to-date are below budget by -$9,831.20 (20.2%). Thanks so much for your pledges to support and sustain our work and our ministries in 2020. Your generosity lifts us up and brings us together in these challenging times. Please do your best to honor your commitments and make your pledge payments in a timely manner, either online or by mail. They are our lifelines. Our projected Diocesan Assessment for 2020 is $56,346.00. The January and February 2020 payments have been made. The March payment will be mailed this week. If you have any questions or would like additional information regarding our budget or financial condition, please contact Cynthia Knapp, our Bookkeeper, at cynthia@stjohnsoly.org or me at bobleroy05@gmail.com. Respectfully submitted… …Bob Le Roy, Treasurer Monday, March 23 2020
Dear Friends, At this most difficult time, I hope this finds you healthy and safe. Your Vestry moved from meeting in the Guild Room to a Zoom meeting taking place in our homes, be they permanent or temporary. I worked from Lin's sewing/craft room with a background including an ironing board and shelving containing her quilting fabric stash (just one visible part) and boxes of my tapestry yarn. I started to try to learn to weave VERY basic tapestry projects a little over a year ago. I'm certainly glad I started doing that. It gives me something to do during this time of nunwanted, yet necessary, social distancing. New members Troy Atwell, Ted Focke, Bob Le Roy and Fawn Hacker were finally able to participate in a Vestry meeting. Ordinarily their first meeting would have taken place during the annual retreat, but this is proving not to be an ordinary year. As you may recall, the retreat was cancelled due to the current medical crisis. Welcome Troy, Ted, Bob and Fawn! As we began, we learned of the personal impact of this pandemic on Vestry members. If I remember correctly, there were two members whose immediate families have been directly affected by this outbreak. I know we all send prayers to everyone being forced to deal with the reality of this crisis. Rather than repeating information on other agenda items, I will refer you to Fr. R.C.'s weekly letter in The Messenger and Treasurer Bob LeRoy's report included in this edition of The Chronicle. On a typical Sunday as we conclude our services, we always share celebrations and express our thanks for the gifts that have been bestowed upon us. Continuing in that spirit, I want to take this opportunity to celebrate the life of our beloved little dog, Tiny, our faithful and devoted friend for the past 7+ years. Tiny was 16 years and 10 months old, and we knew him since he was a puppy. We lost him last Friday. In celebration of his life and the joy he gave us, I've mailed a donation to St. John's | San Juan, and want to encourage you to continue to do so when there is someone or something you want to celebrate. These opportunities for celebration and thanksgiving may become even more essential as the days pass. The same would be true of your pledge or other financial contribution you typically make. We do need to try to continue to maintain some degree of normalcy and routine as best we can, and we need to remember bills must still be paid. A few final thoughts--I subscribe to the Episcopal Church Foundation's (ECF) publication "Vital Practices." It has proven to be a wonderful source of information and ideas addressing issues common to churches. This most recent edition contained a wonderful letter from ECF President Donald V. Romanik dedicated to the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic. He opened his writing with the following scripture from Isaiah 41:10, and I will use it to close mine: Do not fear, for I am with you,
Stay healthy, Tuesday, February 18 2020
Renovation Update for February 2020 Chronicle by Lou MacMillan A summary of recent renovation news shared at the parish annual meeting on February 9th. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Respectfully submitted, Lou MacMillan Renovation Committee Chair Tuesday, February 18 2020
Treasurer's Report by Bob Le Roy for the February 2020 Chronicle Statements of Activities and Financial Position as of December 31, 2019 are available on the parish website. Bank Balances as of February 7, 2020 Operations = $26,198.08 (up from $22,898.96 on December 31, 2019) Note: This includes $14,353.14 in reclassified expenses attributable to the Capital Campaign. Designated = $80,301.07 (up from $67,222.86 on December 31, 2019) Note: This includes $43,353.14 in reclassified expenses attributable to the Capital Campaign. Memorial = $7,718.53 (virtually unchanged since December 31, 2018) Capital Campaign = $40,184.06 Use of Endowment Funds As of January 31, 2020, the balance in our General (Unrestricted) Account with the Diocese of Olympia Master Trust was approximately $331,000. It was reduced by $40,000 in December 2019 and $80,000 in January 2020 and applied to our architects’, contractors’, and consultant’s fees and expenses to-date for their work to replace our sanctuary roof, undertake related structural repairs, and prepare for our upcoming capital campaign. We expect to incur significant additional expenses related to our buildings and grounds, including repairing cracks in the sidewalk, mold and asbestos remediation, and the requirement to add sprinklers, fire alarms, and enhanced bathroom lighting in the area occupied by the Olympia Community School. We anticipate these to be capital expenses, payable from our Capital Campaign Account and funded by additional withdrawals as needed from our General Account. We intend to reimburse the General Account with interest from funds raised in our capital campaign. Looking Ahead in 2020 The Profit & Loss Budget Overview for 2020 (our 2020 Budget) was approved by the Vestry on December 12, 2019. Our current projected deficit is - $24,836.66. Total Pledges for 2020 have increased to $263,772.00, including $11,232.00 in supplemental pledges. THANK YOU! Our projected Diocesan Assessment for 2020 is $56,346.00. The January 2020 payment was mailed on January 17. The February payment will be mailed the week of February 10, 2020. If you have any questions or would like additional information regarding our budget or financial condition, please contact Cynthia Knapp, our Bookkeeper, at cynthia@stjohnsoly.org or me at bobleroy05@gmail.com. Tuesday, February 18 2020
Giovanni Gabrieli (c. 1554/1557 – 12 August 1612) was an Italian composer and organist. He was one of the most influential musicians of his time, and represents the culmination of the style of the Venetian School, at the time of the shift from Renaissance to Baroque idioms. Gabrieli was born in Venice. He was one of five children, and his father came from the region of Carnia and went to Venice shortly before Giovanni's birth. While not much is known about Giovanni's early life, he probably studied with his uncle, the composer Andrea Gabrieli, who was employed at St Mark's Basilica from the 1560s until his death in 1585. Giovanni may indeed have been brought up by his uncle, as is implied by the dedication to his 1587 book of concerti, in which he described himself as "little less than a son" to his uncle. Giovanni also went to Munich to study with the renowned Orlando de Lassus at the court of Duke Albert V; most likely he stayed there until about 1579. Lassus was to be one of the principal influences on the development of his musical style. By 1584 he had returned to Venice, where he became principal organist at St Mark's Basilica in 1585, after Claudio Merulo left the post; following his uncle's death the following year he took the post of principal composer as well. Also after his uncle's death he began editing much of the older man's music, which would otherwise have been lost; Andrea evidently had had little inclination to publish his own music, but Giovanni's opinion of it was sufficiently high that he devoted much of his own time to compiling and editing it for publication. Gabrieli's career rose further when he took the additional post of organist at the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, another post he retained for his entire life. San Rocco was the most prestigious and wealthy of all the Venetian confraternities, and second only to San Marco itself in the splendor of its musical establishment. Some of the most renowned singers and instrumentalists in Italy performed there and a vivid description of its musical activity survives in the travel memoirs of the English writer Thomas Coryat. Much of his music was written specifically for that location, although he probably composed even more for San Marco. San Marco had a long tradition of musical excellence and Gabrieli's work there made him one of the most noted composers in Europe. The vogue that began with his influential volume Sacrae symphoniae (1597) was such that composers from all over Europe, especially from Germany, came to Venice to study. Evidently he also instructed his new pupils to study the madrigals being written in Italy, so not only did they carry back the grand Venetian polychoral style to their home countries, but also the more intimate style of madrigals; Heinrich Schütz and others helped transport the transitional early Baroque music north to Germany, a trend that decisively affected subsequent music history. The productions of the German Baroque, culminating in the music of J.S. Bach, were founded on this strong tradition, which had its roots in Venice. Gabrieli was increasingly ill after about 1606, at which time church authorities began to appoint deputies to take over duties he could no longer perform. He died in 1612 in Venice, of complications from a kidney stone. Though Gabrieli composed in many of the forms current at the time, he preferred sacred vocal and instrumental music. All of his secular vocal music is relatively early in his career; he never wrote lighter forms, such as dances; and later he concentrated on sacred vocal and instrumental music that exploited sonority for maximum effect. Among the innovations credited to him – and while he was not always the first to use them, he was the most famous of his period to do so – were dynamics; specifically notated instrumentation (as in the famous Sonata pian' e forte); and massive forces arrayed in multiple, spatially separated groups, an idea which was to be the genesis of the Baroque concertato style, and which spread quickly to northern Europe, both by the report of visitors to Venice and by Gabrieli's students, which included Hans Leo Hassler and Heinrich Schütz. Like composers before and after him, he would use the unusual layout of the San Marco church, with its two choir lofts facing each other, to create striking spatial effects. Most of his pieces are written so that a choir or instrumental group will first be heard on one side, followed by a response from the musicians on the other side; often there was a third group situated on a stage near the main altar in the center of the church. While this polychoral style had been extant for decades (Adrian Willaert may have made use of it first, at least in Venice) Gabrieli pioneered the use of carefully specified groups of instruments and singers, with precise directions for instrumentation, and in more than two groups. The acoustics were and are such in the church that instruments, correctly positioned, could be heard with perfect clarity at distant points. Thus instrumentation which looks strange on paper, for instance a single string player set against a large group of brass instruments, can be made to sound, in San Marco, in perfect balance. A fine example of these techniques can be seen in the scoring of In Ecclesiis. Gabrieli's first motets were published alongside his uncle Andrea's compositions in his 1587 volume of Concerti. These pieces show much influence of his uncle's style in the use of dialogue and echo effects.]There are low and high choirs and the difference between their pitches is marked by the use of instrumental accompaniment. The motets published in Giovanni's 1597 Sacrae Symphoniae seem to move away from this technique of close antiphony towards a model in which musical material is not simply echoed, but developed by successive choral entries. Some motets, such as Omnes Gentes developed the model almost to its limits. In these motets, instruments are an integral part of the performance, and only the choirs marked "Capella" are to be performed by singers for each part. There seems to be a distinct change in Gabrieli's style after 1605, the year of publication of Monteverdi's Quinto libro di madrigali, and Gabrieli's compositions are in a much more homophonic style as a result. There are sections purely for instruments – called "Sinfonia" – and small sections for soloists singing florid lines, accompanied simply by a basso continuo. "Alleluia" refrains provide refrains within the structure, forming rondo patterns in the motets, with close dialogue between choirs and soloists. In particular, one of his best-known pieces, In Ecclesiis, is a showcase of such polychoral techniques, making use of four separate groups of instrumental and singing performers, underpinned by the omnipresent organ and continuo. -Taken from Wikipedia Tuesday, January 21 2020
The Chronicle, January 21, 2020 Treasurer’s Report Our current financial condition Statements of Activities and Financial Position as of December 31, 2019 are available on the parish website. You can find these reports by following this link and scrolling to the bottom of the page. Bank balances as of December 31, 2019:
As of December 31, 2019, the balance in our General (Unrestricted) Account with the Diocese of Olympia Master Trust was $410,954.88. It was reduced by $40,000 in December 2019 and will be reduced by another $80,000 in early January 2020 and applied to our architect’s fees and expenses to-date for their work to replace our sanctuary roof and undertake related structural repairs. We intend to reimburse the General Account with interest from funds raised in our upcoming capital campaign. Looking ahead in 2020 The Profit & Loss Budget Overview for 2020 (our 2020 Budget) was approved by the Vestry on December 12, 2019. An update will be posted on the parish website later this week. To access that updated budget, please follow this link and scroll to the bottom of the page. Our current projected deficit is -$107,037.31. $70,744.43 (66%) of the projected deficit is for mold abatement. The projected deficit reported last month has been reduced by $63,130.78 due to new and increased 2020 Pledges of $18,080.00 and the reclassification of $45,050.78 in Capital Campaign expenses paid from Operating and Designated Funds in 2019 and January 2020. The projected deficit will increase as we incur significant additional expenses related to our buildings and grounds, including repairing cracks in the sidewalk, the requirement to add sprinklers, fire alarms, and enhanced bathroom lighting in the area occupied by the Olympia Community School, and other issues yet to be determined. Our projected Diocesan Assessment for 2020 is $56,346.00. We have committed to Bishop Rickel to remain current on our assessment payments throughout the year. In return, he is not requiring us to make any payments in 2020 on the amounts we owe from 2018 and 2019 (totaling $77,000). He suggested that at the end of 2020—if we have remained current in our payments throughout the year—we may petition for forgiveness of all or a portion of the amounts still owing from the prior years. The January 2020 payment was mailed on January 17. If you have any questions or would like additional information regarding our budget or financial condition, please contact Cynthia Knapp, our Bookkeeper, at cynthia@stjohnsoly.org or me at bobleroy05@gmail.com. Respectfully submitted… …Bob Le Roy, Treasurer Tuesday, January 21 2020
Music at St. John’s The music program at St. John’s continued with fervor throughout 2019 and into 2020. The Parish Choir continues to sing weekly at the 10:30 a.m. service. The Jubilate Choir sings much of the same choral literature as the Parish Choir, but with a less strenuous schedule. They have special projects with the trebles from the Parish Choir adding to the variety of choral music offerings within the churches liturgy. And of course they join in singing for all Festival Services. The Compline Choir has increased in size with about 14 regular members that insure an octet minimum ensemble. Performing more challenging literature has stretched each singer’s skill and confidence creating consistently reliable performances of the liturgy needed for peaceful evening worship. Overall, attendance has substantially increased. The Second Sunday of the Month Compline Service has been enhanced with an organ recital immediately following the Compline Office. This offers local organists an opportunity to have the experience of playing our fine Schlicker Pipe Organ, increasing their skills, while making an evening musical offering to our community at large. Overall attendance ranges between from 20 to 70 souls with the organ recitals being larger. In the Fall of 2019, Isaura Fernandez Orozco began leading the 6 pm Spanish Service Ensemble with her stunning voice accompanying on the guitar along with Jim Steyn playing trumpet. The Spiritus Dance Ensemble added to worship for a numbers of Festival Services. However, now there are not available dancers as in the past. Taizé services during Lent included instrumentalists and vocalists from the congregation and from Olympia Sacred Jazz Ensemble who also offered a Jazz Mass this fall at the 10:30 AM Service. A strong brass ensemble presence is now emerging with a seven member ensemble participating for Festival Easter Services and during Christmas, as well as trumpets added to services from time to time. In addition to Sunday services, the singing of a hymn at the Wednesday morning 7 a.m. service continues. Our 5th Annual Lessons & Carols Service, led by the Parish Choir, the Compline Choir and Jubilate Choir revealed that St. John’s Choirs have grown in size and vocal ability. They confidently led the congregation in traditional Anthems and Carols for the Season. Our Christine Beckman’s Nookta Rose Baroque concert, this past Sunday was a hands down spectacular success. Christine’s choice of music from the Italian Baroque revealed both the sensitive and the exciting sides of life lived in Italy. Hearing the fine reproductions of period instruments, violins, cello, baroque guitar, and the visually exciting archlute introduced many listeners for the first time to the world of early music. Expert interpretation of this styled music along with pithy narrative invited all into the magic. In review, St. John’s Concert Series continued with its traditional procession of outstanding visiting choirs, The Esoterics and Seattle Pro-Musica. However, St. John’s entered into an agreement with the Olympia Chamber Orchestra for their performing their annual season as a part of St. John’s Concert Season and OCO will accompany St. John’s choirs in various projects throughout the year. Many of you enjoyed OCO’s Concerts this past Fall and we look forward to two more this spring, Of Dance and All American Concert. The latter features all St. John’s Choirs along with St. Martin’s University Choirs, Opera Pacifica Chorus accompanied by Olympia Chamber Orchestra in a spectacular celebration of music by Aaron Copland and others. Gabrieli and Friends Music for Brass and Organ extravaganza with scholar Rebecca Edwards, and the Dedicatory Recital of our finished Schlicker Pipe Organ played by Douglas Cleveland. We thank Bond Organ Builders of Portland, Oregon for stepping up as they work to complete the installation in time for the concert. The Parish Choir continues to sing weekly at the 10:30 a.m. service. The Jubilate Choir sings much of the same choral literature as the Parish Choir, but with a less strenuous schedule. The Compline Choir has increased in size with about 14 regular members that insure an octet minimum ensemble. Performing more challenging literature has stretched each singer’s skill and confidence creating consistently reliable performances of the liturgy needed for peaceful evening worship. Overall, attendance has substantially increased. The Second Sunday of the Month Compline Service has been enhanced with an organ recital immediately following the Compline Office. This offers local organists an opportunity to have the experience of playing our fine Schlicker Pipe Organ, increasing their skills, while making an evening musical offering to our community at large. Overall attendance ranges between from 20 to 70 souls with the organ recitals being larger. A strong brass ensemble presence has emerged with a seven member ensemble participating for Festival Christmas and Easter Services with added brass added to services from time to time just for fun! Tuesday, January 21 2020
From Lou MacMillan, Chair of the St. John's Renovation Committee: Since my December report, we’ve forged ahead with design of the roof/structural improvements and Chancel remodel, keeping within budget and on schedule. We’ve also learned a good deal more about how much energy a solar panel array on the Sanctuary roof could produce, for how long, and what it could cost. Read on for more details. Sanctuary Renovation KMB finished all schematic design (SD) work for Part I and Part II in January, and is now well into design development (DD) of the Part I roof/structural work. Building on the completed SD phase, we expect DD to finalize all the design, structural, and material details by the end of January. Then KMB will begin working on construction documents (CD), the final detailed plans used for bidding and construction. The Vestry wisely authorized only schematic design for the Part II Chancel remodel to provide a general scope of proposed improvements to address several key areas:
Earlier this month, KMB delivered the final schematic design materials for use with the upcoming capital campaign. They contain narrative, floor plans, elevations and illustrations. These materials will be distributed in conjunction with the campaign. Bear in mind that the design solutions proposed simply illustrate the general scope of work. If the work is funded and constructed, final design of features – screen walls, altar, ambo (a combination pulpit and lectern), furnishings and finishes – will be refined significantly. I want to thank KMB, their sub-consultants, architect Clint Pehrson, and Father R.C. for their thoughtful approach to and valuable feedback on the Chancel schematic design. The team has worked hard and well together to get us to this stage of discernment. In other good news, FORMA Construction, our general contractor, performed a “rough order of magnitude” review of the Part I scope of work and estimated construction will cost $817,000, which is close to our August 2019 estimate. At this stage of design, this is considered a reasonable margin. As I said, scope, budget and schedule are all aligned – a good thing! Solar Panel Array Capstone Solutions, a Redmond-based alternative energy provider, has provided a preliminary analysis of installing a solar panel array on the new Sanctuary roof. The good news is a system is technically feasible, will not void the new roof’s warranty, and depending on its size, could provide all, or nearly all, of our electrical energy (based on last year’s usage). The not-so-good news is the cost estimates are $100,000 - $120,000. Obviously, this additional cost is a concern, given that the roof and structural work will total about $1 million and the Chancel remodel, if approved and funded, would cost an estimated $600,000. One option to outright purchase of a system is to finance it instead. One or more investors (donors) could form a limited liability corporation (LLC) and acquire the system up-front to be installed on the roof. The LLC members could recoup their investment through both tax credits and power production paybacks over a period of about 10 years, then transfer ownership of the system to the church for the sum of a dollar. That would provide the parish with another 15 years of service life on a system that’s guaranteed for 25 years. This is just one financing option discussed with Capstone, there may be others. The Vestry received this information at its January 16 meeting, and will consider next steps. If the Vestry authorizes the addition of a solar panel array, either the “stretch” goal of the capital campaign will need to be adjusted upwards to include the extra cost, or we will need to further explore the financing option with Capstone. Either way, if approved, it will be important to move ahead quickly on a solar array to fold it into the overall project scope in time for construction start this summer. Respectfully submitted, Tuesday, January 21 2020
January 17, 2020 Dear Friends, Another calendar year has passed. The Vestry Class of 2019 participated in its last meeting on January 16, 2020. Be sure to offer "Thanks!" to Catherine Atwell, Mary Knotts, Nicki Weekes and Mark Teply for their service over the past years. Each of them has contributed so much to support St. John's. Please be sure to let them know how much you appreciate their work as I do. As they leave, we will be ready to welcome the Class of 2021! Those members will be elected on Sunday, February 9, 2020 at our Annual Meeting. The meeting will take place between the 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services on that day. Be sure to mark your calendar! To begin with your Vestry worked on: 1. Thank You Notes 2. Who to recognize in February at our monthly Recognition Sunday 3. Vestry Coffee Rota 4. Cleaning Party on January 21, 2020 5. Revisiting the Greeter Program at St. John's 6. Ways to involve youth As the King of Siam says to Mrs. Anna, "Etc., Etc., Etc." An oft-quoted line from "The King and I," if you're unfamiliar with that reference. Those "Etc's." included: An update from Lou MacMillan on the Building Renovation Project, Jr. Warden, Ric Weatherman's, sharing the Mold Abatement Estimate, and Financial updates from Treasurer Bob LeRoy. All those reports should be uploaded and be available for your viewing on the website. Other topics of discussion included what options would work for coverage for Fr. R.C. while he is on Sabbatical. At this particular point, the Vestry understands the financial situation we're in, but realizes it must also make the best decision for St. John's. Certainly extensive thought, guidance and prayer are essential as we contemplate that decision. Treasurer Bob LeRoy reports that our Diocesan Assessment for January 2020 has been paid! We've committed to being current with our assessment payments; let's continue to work together to achieve this goal. Thanks! Your continued support is noted and much appreciated! Bob also provided additional information on the Capital Campaign, as well as addressing efforts to ensure all parishioners have had the opportunity to participate in our 2020 Supplemental Pledge appeal. To accomplish this, you should be receiving a letter regarding that appeal shortly. If you have already indicated you can help with an increase in your 2020 pledge or make an additional gift of some sort, please disregard that letter. If you haven't, please take a moment and prayerfully consider it. Please Note: JANUARY 31--Please have all Annual Reports submitted to Mary Law by this date so she can have them ready for the Annual Meeting. I'd like to mention a couple of things before I close. 1.--As Fr. Evan mentioned in his remarks this past Sunday, please remember to wear your Name Tags! If you need a new one for whatever reason, let a Greeter, Usher, Vestry or Clergy member know. Someone will get one made for you. It's a beginning to help us all know each other better. 2.--Please, please, please speak with myself or any Vestry member if you have anything you want to discuss. The more we talk, the more we understand. Again, as Fr. Evan mentioned in his sermon a couple of weeks ago, sitting down and having conversations, be they pleasant or uncomfortable, is something we need to do. I think it helps St. John's when we do. I look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at the Annual Meeting! In the attempt, Friday, December 13 2019
The days have gotten short, and it feels like all the light in the world has been snuffed out. As Christians, we spend Advent waiting and watching for Jesus. We remember that he was born to Mary, which we celebrate each year at Christmas, but we also watch for the mystery of it happening again, among us now. We watch for him to return in majesty. We see the light disappear bit by bit, knowing that it will return again, and when we welcome the light again, we will also welcome Christ. In a way, we’re waiting in expectation like this as a parish as well... ....We look to this summer, when the roof of our worship space, which has leaked since the day it was completed, will be replaced. We look to a time when our beautiful church won’t have any more water stains, and everyone will be able to approach the altar, regardless of their ability on stairs. And we look to a time when our community is about to celebrate the tremendous accomplishment of renewing our church building, a task which has been dreaded by generations of St. John’s members. As the light comes back into the world at Christmas, so it will grow in our parish, as we get closer and closer to seeing this dream become a reality. You’ll hear more about how we’re working to get there in this month’s edition of The Chronicle. Our Senior Warden Mark Hampton has written about all the incredible work your Vestry has done to get us to this point, and our Treasurer Bob LeRoy will talk about the budget he and our leaders have created, which was adopted at the December Vestry meeting. The Vestry has also adopted a plan for me to take a sabbatical next summer, from June 1 – September 30. Sabbaticals are referenced in the Bible, but are better known from the world of academia these days. The Biblical sabbatical was every seventh year. In the Diocese of Olympia, the standard is not a year, but 3-6 months every five years. It’s a time of ceasing what you would normally do, so you can take up a new activity for a time, to enrich your vocation when you return to it. I will be spending the first half of my sabbatical, all of June and July, studying Spanish by immersion at the Spanish Institute of Puebla. I will then travel with my family some, and then visit members of my clergy group before concluding my time with a pilgrimage to the ecumenical monastery at Taizé, France. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this sabbatical time in the coming months, as we prepare together for my time away. I know that this sort of opportunity a rare gift, and I am incredibly grateful to the entire congregation for the chance to do this. Finally, I’m also making final preparations for having my left hip replaced on December 31. It has been bothering me since I first came to St. John’s, and January is usually slow enough at St. John’s that I felt it was a good time to get this addressed. I am grateful to my colleagues here at St. John’s who will keep everything running smoothly while I am recovering, and to my colleague, the Rev. Evan Clendenin, who will be the priest-in-charge until I return. I hope to be back on Sunday, February 2, but that will depend on how my healing is going. I wish you an Advent of wonder, and a Christmastide of joy. Many happy returns of the season! |
