[Magdalen] Interesting Sunday

[Grace Cangialosi]

Wow, Cady!!
Having supplied at your church many times over the years, I know these are major changes--whew!  Your summer schedule was a killer; the first time I filled in there for three weeks, I couldn't imagine doing that every Sunday all summer. Services were at 8,9, and 10.
The move to more Morning Prayer services is interesting, although I know you've kept MP in rotation all along. Is that just for the time before you call a new rector? And is there any sense of when that will be?
Congratulations on leading a sung Morning Prayer service! That's always challenging.
Will Bill Queen continue as your interim, or is his contract up? I heard good things about him when he was at All Saints in Richmond.
And I love Johnson's "The Creation"! At the church I attended for the Easter Vigil this year, that was the first reading--a wonderful choice!

I never think of Trinity as small--maybe because it has three services and has such a variety of ministries.What is your ASA?

Keep up the good work! 
Grace

> On May 30, 2016, at 11:02 AM, cady soukup <cadyasoukup at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear ones,
> 
> Our small church, Trinity Episcopal Church in Washington, VA, is
> nearing the end of an interim rector's year (Bill Queen) after the
> retirement of our long-term (42 years!) rector Jennings Wise Hobson
> III (whose father and grandfather were both Episcopal priests). It's
> been a year of all those "fun" interim activities: tightening our
> budget belts, learning who we are and who we want to be, stretching to
> meet goals, examining our "business practices" to bring them into line
> with more modern church expectations, renovating the Rectory and the
> Parish Hall, keeping up with the expected schedules, creating a Parish
> Profile and starting the search process. The vestries (last year's,
> this year's, next year's) have been, are, and will be working harder
> and longer than what has been the norm, and have done very well.
> 
> One tiny outcome of all this has been a re-examination of lay
> leadership roles. There have been meetings and will be training for
> various positions (Litanist, Lay Eucharistic Minister, Lay Eucharistic
> Visitor, others). We have 3 regular Sunday services: 8am Rite I spoken
> Holy Eucharist; 9:15 am Rite II family service with folk music,
> alternating between HE and MP; 11am Rite II "formal" service
> alternating between HE and MP. The service bulletins are now uniform
> (Grace Cangialosi can attest to the previous complexity of the
> bulletins!) and the service elements are more uniform.
> 
> And we have moved from requesting Supply clergy at a fee, to having
> Lay Led MP services when our rector is gone. He was gone previously,
> and Mike Mahoney was one of the Lay Leaders. He was gone yesterday for
> his youngest son's college graduation (yes, scheduled on the Sunday of
> Memorial Day weekend!). I was the Lay Leader for the 11am (summer
> 10:30am) MP service. First time through.
> 
> We had an unexpectedly full service with a few new people (one of whom
> I know as he graduated high school with our youngest son) and some
> "visitors" from other services. I am grateful for: the deep training
> of our congregants as I forgot to announce several of the service
> moves from one element to another; our 4-member choir including our
> substitute pianist/organist Danny Wilson who stepped up to the
> challenges of a fully sung MP service, our Altar guild members who are
> coping with great grace and forbearance as they cope with only a box
> for their supplies during the enormous Parish Hall renovation. We even
> had a lovely coffee hour that I forgot to announce. <sigh>
> 
> For the homily, the Rev. Bill Queen provided a poem "The Creation - A
> Sermon in Verse" from "God's Trombones" by James Weldon Johnson
> (partially because the previous lay-led Sunday's homily was a reading
> from one of the Church fathers that was not well received by the
> family service). I hadn't printed it out, so read it from my iPhone.
> The congregation had the grace to pay attention, including a few
> unexpected younglings.
> 
> I am so very grateful for the honor of being able to perform this
> function, even if this is the only time it happens. Praise God!
> 
> virtual hugs & virtual beverages for all !
> 
> Cady