may-june 2018 the chronicle · beryl moore 215-736-3608 ... left, above); her husband kevin...
TRANSCRIPT
TheTheThe ChronicleChronicleChronicle The magazine of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Yardley, PA
May-June 2018
ST. ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL
CHURCH Founded 1835
47 West Afton Avenue
Yardley, PA 19067
Tel: 215.493.2636; Fax: 215.493.3092
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.standrews-yardley.org
The Rt. Rev. Daniel G. P. Gutierrez,
Bishop of Pennsylvania
Parish Staff
The Rev. Hilary Greer, Rector
The Rev. Lloyd H. Winter, Jr.,
Priest Associate
Mark Dolan, Music Director
John Boccanfuso, Parish Administrator
TITAR Commercial, Cleaning Service
Bob Ebert, Sexton
Office of the Rector
Accounting Warden
Gerry Yarnall 215-295-1589
Rector’s Warden
Kathleen Johnson 215-321-0555
The Vestry
Alex Villasante 267-797-5498
Sara Peralta 267-872-9264
Bill Vallier 267-392-5088
Steve Rupprecht 215-428-9568
Lisa O’Donnell 215-295-6162
Kathy Royal 215-493-4413
Doug Riblet 215-321-7920
Beryl Moore 215-736-3608
Jay Johnston 215-493-7852
Marilyn Slivka 215-321-3524
June
4: Gift of Years, 1:30pm, RCR
5: Camera Club, 7:00pm, PH
5: Vestry Meeting, 7:30pm, RCR
6: Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, 2:50pm
10: Mutual Ministry, 12noon, PH
12: Property Committee, 7:30pm, RCR
16: Aid for Friends, 8:00am, PH
17: Installation of New Rector, 9:00am, C
18: Gift of Years, 1:30pm, RCR
26: Prayer Shawl Ministry, 1:00pm, RCR
26:Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, 2:50pm
July
2: Gift of Years, 1:30pm, RCR
3: Camera Club, 7:00pm, PH
3: Vestry Meeting, 7:30pm, RCR
4: Independence Day, Parish Office closed
4: Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, 2:50pm
10: Property Committee, 7:30pm, RCR
15: Finance Committee, 12 noon, PH
16: Gift of Years, 1:30pm, RCR
21: Aid for Friends, 8:00am, PH
24: Prayer Shawl Ministry, 1:00pm, RCR
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018 2
Subscribe to The Chronicle: To receive The Chronicle by mail at home: annual
subscription for five bi-monthly issues, $20. Checks to St.
Andrew’s Episcopal Church, with “Chronicle” on the
memo line, may be placed in the offertory basket at
church or sent to the church office. Information, contact
Robin Prestage: [email protected].
FOR YOUR CALENDAR
On the cover: At Hilary’s Installation on June 17, she
greets two former Rectors, former Presiding Bishop
Frank Griswold and Sharline Fulton. More images from
the Installation Service, celebrated by Canon Betsy Ivey,
and the parish tea party afterwards are on the back cover.
Photos: Robin Prestage.
Photo credits in this edition: Ann Holland, Bob
Anderson, John Sherrard, Episcopal News
Service, Diocese of Pennsylvania, Robin Prestage.
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018 3
IN BRIEF
Call for action on ‘immoral’ southern border policy In the wake of recent news reports
detailing the separation of children
from their parents at the U.S.
southern border, Episcopal Public
Policy Network has urged the
Administration to stop “this
inhumane and immoral policy”.
In a statement issued June 19,
EPPN said: “Above all, we implore
the U.S. Congress to undertake
comprehensive immigration
reform. We must allow refugees to
resettle in the U.S., parents to be
reunited with children, and spouses
and extended family to live
together,” the statement read.
An immediate end to the current
policy on immigrant families was
also urged by Presiding Bishop
Michael Curry on MSNBC’s Last
Word with Lawrence O’Donnell on
June 18.
On stage in N. Ireland St. Andrews’ own Gary Sloan
travelled to Northern Ireland in
June to perform in a play he
adapted about Edwin Booth, the
famed actor and brother of
Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes
Booth.
Sloan, an actor, author and
college professor, per-
formed “HAUNTED
PRINCE: A Requiem for
Edwin Booth” at the Brian
Friel Theater in Belfast, on
June 14 during the open-
ing night of the British
Shakespeare Association
conference. It was the first
public presentation of the
new play. Sloan’s adapta-
tion uses Booth’s own words and
those of the Shakespearean
characters he portrayed.
Thank-you to St. Andrew’s A big shout out to the members of
St. Andrew’s who donated 678
children’s books to Cops ’n’ Kids
Delaware Valley during the month
of April —Mary Auker,
Coordinator: Cops ’n’ Kids
Delaware Valley.
Our heartfelt appreciation for St.
Andrew’s donation of 430 pounds
of food for Send Hunger Packing.
Nutritious hot breakfast and lunch
meals will be served to 528 chil-
dren (213 more than last year) —
Denalerie J. Johnson-Faniel,
PhD, CBA, Director, Mercer Street
Friends Food Bank.
Sheena to work in Ghana Sheena Rolle, a good friend of St.
Andrew's, has worked with us on
feeding the hungry through Bread
for the World, preached at our
services, taught at our forums, and
played in the Church of Baseball.
She graduated from Princeton
Theological Seminary this spring,
and will go to Ghana to join the
Circle of Concerned African
Women Theologians at Trinity
Theological Seminary in Accra.
Inside: Outreach & Justice: Helping families through the
summer; Syrian families take in D.C., 4 & 5.
Annual Meeting Notes: Reports from the Senior
Warden and Accounting Warden. 6 & 7.
From the Rector: Hilary outlines special events to help
us deepen out listening habit and explore liturgy, 8 & 9.
Review: Bob Anderson offers a selection of reviews,
but begins with a warning, 10 & 11.
Voices: Jonathan Smith tells us how much this parish
community means to him and his family, 12.
The Church of Baseball: Bob Anderson takes us out to
the ball park (well, the Parish House), 13.
Advocacy: Feeding the hungry; SNAP myths, 14 &15.
From the Bishop: Harsh rebuke against “inhumane,
horrific” immigration policies, 16.
From Episcopal News Service: Presiding Bishop Curry
urges the spreading of Jesus’ love, 17.
Art’s Gallery: Susan Ye Laird’s journey from
Revolutionary China to “gentle” Yardley, 18.
From the History Corner: Jaf Baxter continues his
journey through St. Andrew’s history. 19.
Our third annual poetry festival on May 13
featured poems by Ceci Apalategui (second
left, above); her husband Kevin Pilkington,
Sarah Lawrence professor and acclaimed
poet (left); Hilary Hudgins, daughter of St.
Andrew's; and Terry Culleton, George
School teacher and former Bucks County
Poet Laureate.
4
OUTREACH & JUSTICE
READERS, we are communing Christians and
(mostly) able to make ends meet. And we begin this
month’s article with a series of questions.
1. How can we begin to understand the lives of our
most impoverished neighbors?
2. Is this even possible?
3. Assuming it is possible, do we
really want to?
4. Concerns about material wealth
aside, what will it cost us to
understand? Would it make us
better people?
5. How did Jesus answer these
questions?
I will not pretend to be able to
answer most of these questions, but
let me briefly provide my own
answer to question #4. Understand-
ing the lives of our downtrodden
friends will cost us dearly. We will
pay with our innocence. We will
lose the ability to close our eyes to
poverty. When we see our broken
neighbors as friends who have fallen
on hard times, when we learn to
forego our stations in life and
appropriately contemplate both rich
and poor, we will not forget. Our lives will be forever
changed. I think seeing things in this way will make us
better people! But I have also seen too much caring
lead to depression and nihilism. That leads to one final
question:
How will we work together to end poverty and
injustice, so that none of us must bear these
burdens alone?
Today we give God thanks for the gift of community!
At St. Andrew’s, we are blessed to have been given
this, and one of the ways we honor this gift it is to
build it stronger through the ministries we share with
our less fortunate neighbors. What does the Lord
require of us? But to do justice, love kindness, and
walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8).
In the past few months, St Andrew's Outreach and
Justice Group has helped to organize a clothing drive
for Trenton Rescue Mission (Thank you so much to all
who donated!). We have set up the Christmas in June
gift card campaign, and all 36 families have been
provided for. At the time of this writing, Outreach and
Justice Group was also preparing to assist with the
renovation of the Penndel Food Pantry (see photo).
We also began a new campaign spearheaded by Mary
Auker, supporting the Cops n’ Kids Book Drive. (I
also ask that you pray for Mary, who now has a house
full of over 12,000 books and is considering renting a
storage container!)
This coming summer, Outreach and Justice Group is
beginning a monumental project in conjunction with
the Bucks County Housing Group. Our goal is to bring
the lives of the people of Robert Morris Apartments
closer to those of St. Andrew’s parishioners. We can’t
wait to share in the ways we can help strengthen our
community with the congregation!
Eric D. Laird
Projects helping families to continue through summer
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
ON April 27, our two Syrian
families journeyed to the capital
and Capitol of their new country.
What a joyful weekend they had
and how proud and grateful they
are to be Americans!
Many of us at St. Andrew's have
befriended M.A.R.Y. — Moustafa
and Amal, the 22 year-old parents
of Yusra (4) and Rasha (2) — and
W.A.S. — Weaam, the 32 year old
mother of Abdul (8) and Suleiman
(11). M.A.R.Y. came to Morris-
ville in November 2016 and W.A.S.
came in January 2017; they escaped
slaughter, arrived as legal refugees,
and are now awaiting their green
cards. After that, it's five years until
they become citizens. Inshallah!
Because the families are concerned
about safety, they do not allow
sharing pictures showing their
faces. But pictures from behind can
be worth a million words.
In the photo above/top the family is
looking at the huge Capitol — did
you know that the Dome weighs
18.9 billion pounds? The kids love
this fact. And the Capitol is awe-
some in what it symbolizes for
immigrants, refugees, and citizens
alike: Freedom.
The second photo above is of the
Friday Muslim prayer service in the
Capitol. This was the trip highlight.
Freedom of religion is for all
people of all faiths and of no faith.
Freedom of religion is alive and
well in the People's House. Alham-
dullilah!
The families were invited to the
Capitol by Congressman Brian
Fitzpatrick; he has been kind to
them ever since they met on
the weekend the President
issued the travel ban. In inter-
acting with the families, he
has been tender, thoughtful,
and unassuming, "Brian"
instead of "the Congressman."
This is not an endorsement,
just the fact of this particular
matter. While Brian was
voting, the kids took turns
sitting in his office. Yusra
cannot constitutionally be
President, but Senator Yusra
is a fine and feasible idea.
On the tour of the Capitol,
Yusra and Rasha played with
a scale model of the National Mall.
I imagined a gospel choir singing:
She's Got the Whole Wide World in
Her Hands.
We stayed at the William Penn
House, a Quaker hospitality center
just like a vision of Grandma and
Grandpa's house. This was the first
night that M.A.RY. had spent out-
side their apartment in 529 days.
The next day we went to the zoo,
a.k.a. the Peaceable Kingdom.
Yusra and I put on panda and tiger
masks. After the zoo, the boys
played soccer and frisbee on the
National Mall while the girls went
home to unwind. Jesus lived out a
gospel paradox: The margins are
the center. Throughout the week-
end, people on the margins helped
us — the homeless showed us how
to use the Metro machines and a
mentally ill companion on the bus
prayed for us and told us where to
get off.
On Sunday, it was so frigid at the
National Mall that we splurged for
sweatshirts and hats for the kids.
The sweatshirts were red, white,
and blue and emblazoned with
U.S.A. For us, Team U.S.A. is the
land of the free and the brave, the
tired and the poor, and refugees
seeking to breathe freely and
peacefully. Salaam!
Bob Anderson
Postscript: Three weeks after our
trip, Moustafa and his family
received their green cards granting
them permanent legal status as
residents. Thanks be to God/Allah/
Jehovah for this terrific news.
Weaam and her boys came two
months after Moustafa's family so
they will presumably receive their
green cards in two more months.
And in five more years, both
families and all their friends will be
rejoicing in their becoming citizens
of the United States of America,
Inshallah!
5
D.C. trip welcomes Syrian families to Team USA
6
Report of the Rector’s Warden THIS was a year of preparation,
planning and celebrating. Most of
the Vestry’s efforts, along with
those of the Parish Profile and
Discernment Committees, centered
on a search for a new Rector. All
of us on the Vestry were impressed
and appreciative of the work of
these groups led by Marcie White,
Tim Johnson,
Jonathan Smith and Cindy Shaw.
It was the work of
all of us in the
entire parish in so
many ways that led
us to understand
our hungers and to
locate a Rector.
Of course, the on-
going work of the
Vestry continued
throughout the year
with operational
concerns addressed
by all of the
members each
month. There were
a few areas of
particular focus for
us, first among
them, reinstituting
the mutual ministry
process with our
interim Rector.
This is a process we will be
completing each year, which will
allow us to determine if we, as a
parish, have accomplished what we
set out to do each year. It will also
allow us to plan for the coming
year. To facilitate this ongoing
process, the Vestry has recently
approved a mutual ministry task
force to begin this work. We also
named liaisons from the Vestry for
many areas, as follows: Steward-
ship: Porter Hibbitts; Property:
Doug Riblet; Outreach: Doug
Riblet; Common Life: Dave
Richardson; Godly Play: Lisa
O’Donnell; Rite 13: Alex
Villadante; Music: Lisa
O’Donnell (jr. choir) Marilyn
Slivka and Beryl Moore (adult
choir); and Preschool: Jay
Johnston. It goes without saying that January
was an exciting time with the
Vestry voting unanimously to call
Hilary Greer as our next Rector.
This year we also welcomed John
Boccanfuso into the role of church
administrator. And what a
beautiful and warm welcome party
we planned together. So many not
only came but also supplied the
feast we all shared! Since that
time, we have been led by Hilary
to spend time contemplating the
“hungers” described in the Parish
Profile. Our contemplation has led
us to see the commonalities in our
vision, including
intergenerationality,
outreach, community,
concern for social
justice, and beauty.
And the children of
our parish were a big
part of our dreams for
the future.
In other work of the
Vestry, we stayed on
top of the finances,
which are doing well,
and completed a
thorough budgeting
process. As an
important part of the
finances, the Vestry
approved the work of
an endowment task
force. The task force,
led by Jim Grady,
completed its work
and made recommen-
dations to the Vestry.
The Vestry needs to
determine and approve the 3-5
endowment areas for the proceeds
as explained in the document and
ensure careful review of the
managing and marketing aspects of
the report.
Kathleen Johnson
Rector’s Warden
ANNUAL MEETING NOTES
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
AT a Vestry Organization meeting early in June,
Kathleen Johnson was re-appointed Rector’s
Warden and Gerry Yarnall was re-appointed
Accounting Warden and Treasurer. Tim Johnson
will be asked to serve as a Vice-Treasurer. Beryl
Moore was elected Cemetery Warden.
The following committee chairs were approved:
Finance - Jim Grady; Property - Pete Morris;
Stewardship - Porter Hibbits.
New Vestry members this year are Sara Peralta,
William “Bill” Vallier and Kathy Royal (who
was also elected Secretary of the Vestry). They
replace retiring members Dave Richardson,
Porter Hibbitts and Dorothy Schrandt.
The Vestry also approved painting of the red
doors on the Church building and the Parish
House and reviewed an inventory of future
business items.
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018 7
Report of the Accounting Warden IN terms of achieving financial stability, 2017 was
likely the most significant year that St. Andrew’s
Episcopal Church has ever seen. In March 2017 the
Church received a bequest of $450,000 from long-
term parishioner, the late Ann Merriam. Then later
in the year we received
another significant gift
from the estate of long-
time parishioner Carol
Roberts in the amount
of $100,000. The Vestry
is continuing to consider
various ways in which
these bequests might be
deployed. The monies
are currently held in a
money-market account
and have been accumu-
lating interest.
Also importantly, our
operating results for
2017 were favorable as
well, even without
consideration of the
extraordinary bequests.
Our pledge and plate
income rose to $327,000
from $274,000 in 2016 –
an increase of almost 20
percent. In addition, the
number of pledging
families rose from 66 to
88, an increase of 33 per-
cent. This certainly sets a
high benchmark for our
Stewardship Campaign
today.
Our expenses remained under control in 2017 as well.
Expenses in 2017 were significantly lower than in
past years due to our having an interim rector rather
than a full-time rector. Also, we were spared from
major emergency property issues. Several catch-up
projects were undertaken resulting in property related
expenses being only slightly over budget.
We have also made significant progress in
replenishing monies taken from the Being Church
Capital Campaign Contingency Fund. This Fund was
established for the purpose of providing the Church
with a “margin” to cover six months of expenses in
extraordinarily hard times. We used monies from that
fund to meet current expenses in several past years.
In 2017 we were able to repay almost $20,000 back
to that Fund. We still
“owe” the Fund over
$30,000 and hope to
repay another portion
back in the coming year.
So thank you to all of
you for making the job
of balancing our cash
inflows and outflows
much easier to manage. I
want to make special
note of how extraordi-
nary this has been –
especially in the year of
transition that 2017 was
for us. You — the
people of St. Andrew’s
— have risen to the
challenge of not only
keeping us going, but
pushing us to thrive, and
we should all be both
grateful and proud.
Our current results give
us great reason for
optimism and we need to
keep things on a positive
track. We are now
supporting a full-time
rector again and need to
pay a wage that supports
living in our area as well
as provide medical insurance coverage and pension
contributions.
We are also current with our Diocesan Assessment
and Pledge, paying $1500 per month throughout the
year.
Gerry Yarnall
P.S.: As of June 13 the Stewardship Campaign came
in at $245,000 from 72 pledging units.
Endowment Task Force
THE St. Andrew’s Endowment Task Force
was established by the Vestry and began
meeting in mid-September to determine
how to best manage the bequest of
approximately $450,000 from the estate of
Ann Merriam. During the time of these
deliberations, St. Andrew’s received an
additional major donation of $100,000
from the late Carol Roberts. Members of
this task force were Ron Slivka, Pete
Morris, John Poole, Tim Johnson, Tim
O’Donnell, Joe Royal and Jim Grady.
The task force determined and
recommended to the Vestry that the best
use for these funds is to establish an
endowment fund and place those funds
there. The Vestry will now establish an
Endowment Committee whose primary
and ongoing function will be to monitor
management of the Endowment Fund(s).
Ron Slivka is leading the effort to conduct
the annual audit of parish finances and
operations.
8
I AM excited to be with you here at St. Andrew’s and
thank you for your warm welcome! It has been a
delight to get to know all of you. I’m particularly
grateful to the Parish Profile
Committee and Discernment
Committee for laying such an
excellent foundation for our work
together. My installation on June 17
does not mark the end of their work
or mean that a lone leader is now
responsible for everything – far
from it!
Our Parish Profile Committee spent
hundreds of hours in conversation
with groups throughout the parish
listening for the voice of God
among you. The purpose of this
committee was not to simply
develop a profile, but to clarify the vocational call and
life of this congregation.
The process was rooted in deep, community-wide
listening because, as Parker Palmer writes:
“Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes
from listening…That insight is hidden in the word
vocation itself, which is rooted in the Latin for ‘voice.’
Vocation does not mean a goal I pursue. It means a
calling I hear.”
The Parish Profile Committee listened deeply to the
entire St. Andrew’s community and discerned six
spiritual hungers for:
Abundance, not scarcity
Spiritual formation
Beauty
Community and communication
Outreach and justice
Collaborative Leadership
My call to be your new Rector marks a new phase of
listening — listening to each other, for where God has
already been moving among us, and for where God
might be leading St. Andrew's next. Our celebration
on June 17 marks the anniversary of the consecration
of our sanctuary on June 17, 1890. The voice of God
speaks to us from our past, in who we already are,
while also calling us from the future.
To support and lead us in listening for this voice, the
Vestry has appointed a Mutual Ministry Team. The
purpose of this team is to build the spiritual practices,
community habits, and church infrastructure to
support the creation of an annual mutual ministry
process that engages the entire parish
in 1) discerning where we are being
called as a parish; 2) the distinct role
each ministry holds in that call; and 3)
assessing where we are, what we have
already done, and what we can learn to
move forward. The coming year can be
thought of in two parts: the first, laying
the groundwork for active listening,
discernment, and processes of
communication. The second, building
on that groundwork by engaging the
entire parish in a discernment and
planning process to live into the God-
given hungers of St. Andrew’s. Our
listening process has already begun with the many
gatherings we enjoyed in each other’s homes as part of
this year’s stewardship campaign. Getting to know
each other more deeply is the (fun!) primary step of
listening to each other and to God together. This
spring brought special Sunday forums focused on the
history and ministry of St. Andrew’s. On June 24 and
July 1, we’ll be gathering at 9:00am to discuss how
our liturgy at St. Andrew’s shapes us as people of
faith, and throughout the summer, we’ll be gathering
in fun ways to get to know each other better. Coming
this fall, there will be special forums, sermon series,
speakers, and a parish retreat day focused on
deepening our practical spiritual habits of listening.
We will experiment with guidelines and groundrules
for communication that will help us listen to each
other even when we disagree. Starting in early 2019,
we will begin a community-wide process for
creatively planning for our ministries together for the
next year.
On June 17, I am excited to celebrate who St.
Andrew’s already is as we pledge ourselves to listen
faithfully for how God is calling us today!
Hilary+
Listening faithfully to how God is calling us
FROM THE RECTOR
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
HOW does Christian liturgy shape us, form us,
and draw us to God? How do the pieces of the
liturgy work together to both praise God and
transform us?
What does this mean for the many ways we
worship together as a community at St.
Andrew’s? How do you experience liturgy
here?
We’ll consider these questions and more
during the 9:00am forum hour led by Hilary
on Sundays June 24 and July 1. Using excerpts
from James K.A. Smith’s popular book You
Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of
Habit (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2016), we
will explore the centuries-old understanding of
liturgy, and discuss what this means for us at
St. Andrew’s.
Each session will start by grounding our
discussion in brief excerpts from Smith’s book
that can be read in less than five minutes, a
discussion of how this speaks to us, and our
own experiences of worship life at St.
Andrew’s. There is no need to read Smith’s
book to join the discussion – hard copies of
one-two pages of excerpts will be printed and
available at each session. Here’s a sampling
from page 77 of Smith’s book:
“Christian worship is rooted in the conviction
that God is the primary actor or agent in the
worship encounter. Worship works from the
top down, you might say. In worship, we don’t
just come to show God our devotion and give
him our praise; we are called to worship
because in this encounter God (re)makes and
molds us top-down. Worship is the arena in
which God recalibrates our hearts, reforms our
desires, and rehabituates our loves. Worship
isn’t just something we do; it is where God
does something to us. Worship is the heart of
discipleship because it is the gymnasium in
which God retrains our hearts.”
9 THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
FORUM
Discussions of Liturgy: June 24 and July 1 in the Parish House at 9:00am
10
Warning: Do not read this
column or the gospels unless you
are prepared to be scandalized.
IN the eyes of many, "homies" are
gang members who are to be locked
up without a key or a prayer.
But in God's eyes, homies are
beloved children. Look at Jesus.
Jesus was a homie, born to an
unwed, dirt-poor teenager. He
immediately became a refugee and
then returned to hang with
adulterers, lepers, and corrupt tax
collectors; wash everyone's feet;
break bread with his betrayer;
promise a thief the first ticket to
paradise; and tap a woman who had
been possessed by demons to
announce his resurrection. Jesus
welcomes everyone to join his
gang.
LIKE Jesus, Father Gregory
Boyle loves homies. Boyle is the
author of Barking to the Choir: The
Power of Radical Kinship, this
homie's
favorite new book.
Boyle, a Jesuit priest, founded
Homeboy Industries in Los
Angeles. Homeboy hires homies,
often just released from prison, to
work in its bakeries, groceries, silk-
screening and embroidery shops. It
then immerses them in "an
irresistible culture of tenderness."
Barking to the Choir is awesomely
faithful and wickedly funny.
Boyle's homies act in the most
loving ways and, like kids, say the
darndest things. They have a gift
for mangling the English language,
as evidenced by this book's title.
When Boyle talks turkey to
Ramon, an unreliable bakery
worker, Ramon tells Boyle to chill:
he's "barking to the choir." That
response mixes up "Barking up the
wrong tree" with "Preaching to the
choir." But in his confusion, Ramon
nails it.
THE last thing we need is for either
the Preacher or the Choir to stay
stuck in the "old game" of self-
congratulation and other-
condemnation — the "endless
judging, competing, comparing,
and terror that keeps us from . . .
entering the kinship of God."
God's kinship is scandalously and
radically inclusive, so inclusive
Jesus had to be executed as a
common homie. For Jesus and
Boyle:
"There are no monsters, villains, or
bad guys. There are only folks who
carry unspeakable pain. There are
among us the profoundly
traumatized who deal in the
currency of damage. And there are
those who are mentally ill, whose
sickness chases them every day.
But there are no bad guys. Jesus
seems to suggest that there are no
exceptions to this. Yet, it’s hard for
us to believe him.”
Yup, almost impossible to believe.
So some barking is imperative.
Bark these beatitudes:
“Survival of the unfittest" is the
law of the gospel;
Allegiance to "those who line
the bottom" outranks allegiance
to the bottom line; and
The last and the least and the
lost shall be the first and the
favored and the found.
BUT: Bark without biting or
bitterness.
Sit at the feet of Mario, the
intimidating yet most gentle homie,
and learn a truth that can set us
free: ". . only the soul that
ventilates the world with tenderness
has any chance of changing the
world.”
Bark softly and tenderly. Behave
likewise.
In giving tenderness, we receive
tenderness:
"In all my years of living, I have
never been given greater access to
the tenderness of God than through
the channel of the thousands of
homies I’ve been privileged to
know.”
HERE is the bottom line gospel
truth: "we belong to each other, and
to this spacious God of ours, who
thinks there are no bad guys, just
beloved children."
We're all homies, kin to be treated
with kindness. For "God is in every
kindness."
May all of us homies be at home in
our kinship and God's kindness.
Woof!
Bob Anderson
Barking to the Choir: Softly and tenderly to change the world
REVIEW
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018 11
Lectio Divina: Sacred Words, Sacred Encounters When Carolyn Lyday speaks, I
listen. Carolyn is an amma, a
spiritual mother.
Carolyn studied with Henri
Nouwen at Yale Divinity School.
In the 1970s, she joined the George
School faculty and St. Andrew's.
She has often shared her wisdom in
sermons and parish forums.
Carolyn recently led two forums on
prayer. In the second, we
considered and practiced Lectio
Divina.
Lectio Divina means Divine
reading of a text, usually of a
scriptural passage but also of poems
and other art forms and even
Creation itself.
It's an affair of the heart, not the
head. One reads a passage
prayerfully — reflecting,
responding, and resting in God's
presence. Listening in silence, we
seek to discern how God is already
praying in and through us.
A sacred word savored in silence
often leads to a sacred encounter.
In my experience, these sacred
words and encounters lead to
peaceful and powerful renewals of
energy and direction.
What Carolyn reads, I read. She
recommends Lectio Divina - The
Sacred Art by Christine Valters
Paintner so I read it and now
recommend it myself.
When I practice Lectio Divina, I
use The Message, Eugene
Peterson's putting the Bible into
kitchen table language. Paintner
quotes Peterson:
"What we must never be
encouraged to do . . . is to force
Scripture to fit our experience. Our
experience is too small; it's like
trying to put the ocean into a
thimble. What we want is to fit into
the world revealed by Scripture, to
swim in this vast ocean."
Come on in. The water's deep but
delightful. Let's go swimming.
Words: A Life and Death Matter Words kill, words give life; they're
either poison or fruit — you choose.
(Proverbs 18-21, the Message).
Words of accusation, of judgment,
of gossip, of hatred kill. In fact,
they kill twice. They kill both the
speaker's target and the speaker's
soul.
Our words constantly kill each
other in our culture and political
wars. In his book Nonviolent
Communication: A Language of
Life, Marshall B. Rosenberg has a
simple message. Enough Already:
Choose Life.
The message is simple, but the
practice is difficult. Our spirit, so to
speak, is willing, but our tongues
are weak. This book is a helpful
and practical guide to reorienting
our thinking and reframing our
speaking.
I hope that we, individually and
collectively, will commit ourselves
to speaking and acting
nonviolently. I yearn for parish
forums on this lifesaving topic.
In the meantime, I give Rosenberg
the last word by quoting his first
words: "What I want in my life is
compassion, a flow between myself
and others based on a mutual giving
from the heart."
Me too. May we choose our words
lovingly. May we choose life.
By Henri Nouwen about Jesus: "The whole message of the Gospel
is this: ‘Become like Jesus.’"
So writes the late Henri Nouwen, a
Dutch Catholic priest, a professor, a
friend of the poor and the
handicapped, and an all-around
mensch.
Here is a progressive way to
become like Jesus:
Read every book by Henri
Nouwen.
Take every word to heart.
Turn your heart into
compassionate action.
Become like Henri.
Become like Jesus.
Will I see my dog in heaven? Yes, says Franciscan Friar Jack
Wintz in his playful yet profound
book by that title.
We will see and celebrate the whole
family of Creation, as born in the
Garden of Eden; found away in the
manger; painted in the Peaceable
Kingdom; described in the psalms;
praised by St. Francis in his
Canticle of the Creatures; and sung
by good Episcopalians in All
Creatures Great and Small.
It's all happening at the zoo, in
heaven as on earth.
Bob Anderson
REVIEWS IN BRIEF
12
A FEW weeks ago Katherine Benziger spoke about
her first visit to St. Andrew’s with her son Jack, and
how despite sitting in the back of the church she was
made to feel a welcome part of the community. That
got me thinking that it’s been almost exactly 20 years
since our family visited and then became members at
St. Andrew’s. It’s hard to believe I have
spent more time here with you than
anywhere else in my life.
Now there are some urban myths about one
of, if not the first visit we had to St.
Andrew’s. Does anyone know that story?
We were in rector discernment, it was
around Easter time, and we were attending
the long past 9:30am family service. Our
son Lewis was about 8 months old. Here is
where some details get a little hazy. Anyone
that was there can help fill in the blanks, as
sometimes my memory tends to make things
in the past seem a little bigger than reality.
There were a lot of people — maybe 600 or
700? It was hot hot hot — maybe 120
degrees — of course this was before the Capital
Campaign, so no air-conditioning in the church. We
were all crowding up to the altar for communion.
Then Lewis (or maybe it was me) began to cry — or
maybe it was Lewis screaming and me crying. We
could not escape the push of bodies crowding up to
the altar. How could we escape? Then like a soccer
star scoring the winning goal at Wembley Stadium,
Lewis was lifted up by many upraised arms and
passed person to person to the back of the church
where the air was cooler and he settled down…well, it
was something like that.
Other versions of this story I have heard claim about
40 people were there, but Lewis was still crying until a
woman with a kindly face and a British accent tapped
me on the shoulder and said, “Here, perhaps I can
help”, after which I just passed our only child to a
complete stranger while Joanne watched helplessly as
this person proceeded to coo and walk with Lewis to
the back of the church — thankfully not out
of the church! That person was Betty
Burlingame.
Whichever version you choose to believe is
kind of true. There have been countless times
over the years where our family has been lifted up and
carried on raised arms by many of you here during our
times of need. I won’t get into specific details because
as many of you know, I tend to get kind of weepy. In
turn we have been able to join in lifting some of you
up. The gift of providing love and support — and the
equal gift of accepting it — is
universal here. That is one
reason why the community of St.
Andrew’s means so much to
many of us.
What I’d also like to talk about
briefly, and why I am so excited
today, is what I see St. Andrew’s
meaning to me and to all of us in
the future.
As part of the discernment
committee, I had the chance
more than most to intensely
study our Parish Profile and
think about what it said to me –
about US. We Hunger for ABUNDANCE, NOT
SCARCITY. We Hunger for SPIRITUAL
FORMATION. We Hunger for BEAUTY;
COMMUNITY and COMMUNICATION;
OUTREACH and JUSTICE, and we Hunger for
COLLABORATIVE LEADESRHIP with our new
Rector — and I think with each other.
I see in our future being able to more fully live into
and expand our reach for these hungers. Not just
because of Hilary (no pressure, Hilary), but because I
could see in our recent journey of profile creation, to
discernment, to welcoming Hilary how we share such
energy and a common bond in caring about these
things. I just think we have extraordinary growth as a
community ahead of us.
So thank-you for being such an important community
to the Smiths these past 20 years, and thank-you for
being with us during our continued journey together
into the future.
Jonathan Smith
Living into and expanding the reach for our parish hungers
VOICES
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018 13
GALLERY
Opening Day for The Church of Baseball On Sunday, April 8, St. Andrew's celebrated the Church of Baseball.
Team hats and jerseys were worn to church and in the parish forum
between services. There was crackerjack and pregame tunes. St. A's
teammates offered stories, skits, and songs illustrating why Church and
Baseball go Hand in Glove. All under the guidance of Commissioner
Bob Anderson and Umpire Tom Conners. Joy came to Mudville.
14
THE people of St. Andrew's and our new
rector are enthusiastically engaged in
charting our course forward. We seek not
just to survive, but to thrive. Abundance,
not scarcity: 5000 plus meals, not just five
loaves and two fish.
Three words are essential to an abundant
future: Interfaith plus Food plus Alliance.
Interfaith: Churches that stay stuck in
dogma and isolate themselves from other
faiths are going to die. We have found
wisdom and pure joy from learning from
Rabbi Elliot Strom and Imam Numaan
Cheema at forums and from befriending
the Syrian families who have resettled in
Morrisville. Like Jesus, we go out to meet
and love our neighbors of all faiths and
backgrounds.
Food: Churches that stay stuck in feeding
their own needs and comfort are going to
die. Jesus put sharing meals and feeding
the hungry at the heart of his ministry.
Andrew brought forward the child with
the five loaves and two fish that turned
into 5000 plus meals. Like Jesus and
Andrew, St. Andrew's finds abundant life
and joy in feeding the hungry.
Alliance: Churches whose members stay
stuck in their pews are going to die. Jesus
built relationships and partnerships; he
went inward to pray, but outward to build
community. The key question is not what
we do behind our own walls, but what
impact we have in the larger community.
To insist on seeing that the hungry get fed
means joining alliances to deliver
services, educate the community, and
advocate for justice.
Interfaith Food Alliance: These three
words join together to form the Interfaith
Food Alliance. Luckily, we already have
an Interfaith Food Alliance (IFA) and St.
Andrew's is already a member, along with
our Yardley mosque, Zubaida, and eight
other faith communities. http://
www.interfaithfoodalliance.com. Now is
the time to step up or help for the IFA and
the hungry.
The IFA invites us (and specifically you,
dear reader) to join in the fight against
hunger by:
Volunteering at the Family Backpack
Center at Morrisville Methodist
Church on Tuesday evenings and
Saturday mornings;
Writing your state and federal
representatives;
Donating food, supplies, and funds;
Talking about the atrocity of food
insecurity; and
Looking into the eyes of those who
are hungry.
Details can be found on the IFA's website.
I add one more invitation pertinent to our
abundant St. Andrew's future:
Make room at our table for everyone
and then dance with joy. https://
www.youtube.com/watch?
v=92OM5bdQ4N4
Shalom, Salaam, and Peace.
Bob Anderson
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
ADVOCACY
Three Essential Words: Interfaith Food Alliance
Bread for the World Lobby Day in D.C.
Leah French and I and six companions from the Interfaith Food
Alliance went to Washington D.C on June 12 for the Lobby Day
organized by Bread for the World.
The gospel story for June 12 was the feeding of the 7000. Jesus
was a founding member of Bread for the World!
Charity raises just six cents of every dollar needed to
feed the hungry. Faithful advocacy is essential to
securing adequate funding for our anti-hunger
programs.
The picture (right) of our meeting with Congressman
Brian Fitzpatrick tells a good story. Our conversation
was enjoyable, thoughtful, and constructive. We dif-
fered over some particulars, but had a common desire
to respect every person’s dignity and right to food
security. The Congressman has co-sponsored bi-
partisan bills to reauthorize the Global Security Act
and to provide summer meals to school children; and
he has twice voted against steep cuts in SNAP
funding, including the recently defeated farm bill. He
will likely follow that course.
“O God, whose love is so wide as to cover the
universe and so narrow as to heal the cracks in our hearts, help
us to express and enact your love in feeding the hungry.” May
we be Bread for the World.
Bob Anderson
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
What is SNAP? Supplemental Nutritional
Assistance Program – formerly known as food
stamps.
MYTH: Most SNAP benefits are going to
people who could be working.
FACT: Most SNAP recipients are children and elderly.
Only 40 percent of eligible seniors are participating. Half
of all SNAP benefits go to children.
MYTH: There is nothing we can do to help
the hungry.
FACT: There is LOTS we can do! Volunteer, donate or
collect food. Advocate — call and write your elected
officials. VOTE! Remember: hunger isn't only about food.
We should also be concerned about passage of living-
wage laws.
MYTH: It's better for local charities to feed people,
rather than the government.
FACT: Food banks, soup kitchens were created to solve
temporary, emergency situations, not systematic problems.
They are staffed mainly by volunteers, with donations, and
are open limited hours. They do not have the capacity to
feed the number of people who need help.
MYTH: SNAP enables lazy people to live well
on society's dime.
FACT: The average benefit is about $1.40 per meal, per
day.
MYTH: SNAP is rife with fraud and abuse.
FACT: The accuracy rate for SNAP is 96.2 percent. The
overwhelming majority of SNAP recipients follow the
stringent rules.
MYTH: People waste SNAP benefits on junk food.
FACT: Sugar and sweets account for only 2.8 percent of
the average family's SNAP purchases.
MYTH: All poor people receive food stamps.
FACT: Approx. 25 percent of those who are eligible for
federal nutrition assistance don't apply. This is due to diffi-
culty in navigating the system and the stigma of poverty.
MYTH: Undocumented immigrants are eligible
for SNAP benefits.
FACT: False. Documented adults with green cards must
wait five years before being eligible for SNAP. Only four
percent of participants are non-citizens. (Documented refu-
gees or immigrants)
MYTH: People waste SNAP benefits on alcohol
and cigarettes.
FACT: SNAP benefits cannot be used to purchase any
non-food item. This includes: diapers, shampoo, soap,
toothpaste, feminine hygiene products, etc.
MYTH: People are hungry because they are
too lazy to work.
FACT: Many who visit food pantries are elderly,
physically challenged and mentally ill. Many others are
hard-working families living below the poverty line. Rents
are high in our geographical region. Food is one of the few
flexible items in a family's budget. Often they do without
food to pay other bills.
MYTH: You can't be overweight and be
food insecure.
FACT: People who live in poverty tend to have less
access to healthy and affordable food. People living in
poverty cannot afford enough food, and often, what they
can afford is processed and unhealthy with low nutritional
value.
MYTH: Hunger in the USA is a myth.
FACT: 50 million Americans are food insecure. The
S.S.D.A. defines food insecurity as meaning "consistent
access to adequate food is limited by a lack of money and
other resources at times during the year."
MYTH: SNAP creates a dependency.
FACT: On average, a new participant stays on SNAP for
only eight-ten months.
MYTH: People on SNAP just need to get a job.
FACT: Approx. 40 percent of households receiving SNAP
benefits have at least one working person. SNAP provides
a vital lifeline for families during a search for
employment.
15
Myths and facts regarding food insecurity in our world
16
But Jesus, aware of their inner thoughts, took a little
child and put it by his side, and said to them,
'Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes
me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who
sent me; for the least among all of you is the greatest.
Luke 9:47-48
FRIDAY, JUNE 15: Father's Day is approaching, and
I will long for my son who is away and will soon
depart for ROTC boot camp. I love him with a love
that knows no boundaries. The separation will be
painful, and I will pray for his safety. I will ask Jesus
to hold him close and embrace him within
a holy presence.
I cannot imagine being forcibly separated
from my child. Throughout Holy Scripture,
God is continually seeking to be united
with us. So much so, that God sent Jesus
Christ. Scripture is clear that evil scatters
and God unites. Separation and scattering
are occurring in our country.
Today, children are crying for their parents.
Tonight a child will sit alone in the
darkness because of a policy. Each moment
that a child endures this separation is horrific,
inhumane, and unnatural. It counters every verse in
scripture to be one with God, one another and as a
family.
This is a moment in time when our faith and life must
be in Jesus Christ. This is a time when our faith must
become a reality. This is the moment when we can
shine the light of Jesus into the darkness of despair.
This is a moment when our leaders have the
opportunity to bring peace.
I am speaking as an American, a bishop of the
Episcopal Church and someone who has given my
life to Jesus Christ. I am asking that Christians of all
denominations raise their collective voice against the
policy of forcibly separating children from their
parents if they are caught at the borders. This policy
must end today.
For one holy moment, let us place aside political
parties and personal partisan mindsets. In this sacred
moment let us cast aside blame, the past, policies,
laws or the reasons parents have chosen to immigrate.
They are excuses for living in darkness and for not
seeking the light. We believe in life, we believe in
family.
I am pleading that we not, nor do we, confuse the
issue of separating children from their families from
the technical legalities of immigration. Separating
children from their parents violates God's Law. God's
law is not beholden to the laws of man:
"But Peter and the apostles answered and
said, 'We must obey God rather than men.'"
(Acts 5:29).
This is not who we are as citizens of the
United States. This is not who we are as
people who carry the name of Jesus Christ.
People of faith and conscience, this has to
be changed today. A child's future is in our
hands. Our collective conscience is on
display.
We are better than this. Let us raise our
collective voice and show the world why Jesus
matters. Let us demonstrate why Jesus is the answer
to the problems that confound society, and that His
followers actually believe it.
Take this moment to imagine the terror a child is
enduring by being removed from his or her parent.
The pain, isolation, fear, and despair. As Christians,
this pain must touch our faith and our lives. On this
Father's Day, let us give the gift and light of Christ to
a child who sits apart from their family. Through
prayer, I hope you are moved to express your faith
and beliefs to those that represent you at all levels of
government.
May God bless America and may God bless us all.
The Rt. Rev. Daniel G. P. Gutiérrez
XVI Bishop of The Episcopal Diocese of
Pennsylvania
Separating immigrant children from their parents is horrific, inhumane and violates God’s law
FROM THE OFFICE OF THE BISHOP
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
MAY was quite a month to be an
Episcopalian.
For the week leading up to the
royal wedding at Windsor, people
across the world wanted to know
everything about Presiding Bishop
Michael Curry, including why the
leader of the Episcopal Church
would be preaching in the
presence of the Queen of
England. Then on May 19,
nearly 30 million TV
viewers in the United
States alone watched
Curry’s sermon on the
power of God’s love at the
wedding of Prince Harry
and Meghan Markle. For
a week afterward, Curry
was interviewed or pro-
filed by seemingly every
major media outlet, from
the BBC to ABC’s The View to the
celebrity gossip site TMZ.
Episcopalians, who have long
known of Curry’s talent as a
preacher, responded with a mix of
joy at “one of us” receiving such
attention and hope that Curry’s
rising profile would boost the
church’s profile – and maybe even
help fill the pews.
“I think you can’t discount just the
kind of euphoric pride that
Episcopalians felt,” said Melodie
Woerman, communications
director for the Diocese of Kansas.
After the royal wedding, posts
about Curry on her diocese’s social
media accounts generated a level
of intense interest “like I had never
seen before,” she said.
Curry did his part to seize this
opportunity for evangelism, delib-
erately turning the conversations in
interviews back to Jesus’ message
of love’s power to change the
world. And days after the royal
wedding, in a bit of scheduling
serendipity, he joined other
ecumenical Christian leaders for a
“Reclaiming Jesus” church service,
procession and candlelight vigil in
Washington, D.C. (photo above).
Though planned long before Curry
was asked to preach at Windsor
Castle, those events, held on May
24, drew additional news coverage
due to his sudden star power.
Of course, news cycles don’t last
forever. If Curry was granted his
Warholian 15 minutes of interna-
tional fame, he succeeded in
extending it by several days. But
he, the church and Episcopalians
now are faced with the question,
what’s next?
“Part of evangelism is helping the
church to be more visible, just as a
practical matter, and the other part
of it is the church having a mes-
sage that is worthy of the hearing,”
Curry told Episcopal News Service
in a phone interview May 31,
recapping the whirlwind of his past
few weeks. “And this has nothing
to do with Michael Curry. Jesus
figured this out. Jesus was right.
This way of love is the only way of
life. That’s it.”
“The world just recently discov-
ered Presiding Bishop Curry and
his amazing ability to make the
Gospel come alive. The
House of Bishops and many
in the Episcopal Church
and beyond have known
this for a long time,”
Olympia Bishop Greg
Rickel said prior to Curry’s
recent visit to Olympia
Diocese. “It will be a price-
less gift to have him with us
for these four days in June.
I hope everyone will find a
time to intersect with him at
the public venues and hear
his message and vision for the
Jesus Movement.”
The bigger question for dioceses,
congregations and parishioners
may be whether the attention Curry
has brought to the Episcopal
Church and to the Reclaiming
Jesus initiative will flow down to
them in ways that serve the long-
term mission of the church and the
work of its members. Even if it
does, some say there still is plenty
of work to be done.
David Paulsen
Paulsen is an editor and reporter
for the Episcopal News Service. He
can be reached at
Curry spurs Episcopalians to spread the message of Jesus’ love
17
FROM EPISCOPAL NEWS SERVICE
18
ART’S GALLERY
BORN as China’s Great Revolution began in the late
1960s, parishioner Susan Ye Laird now looks back on a
surprisingly idyllic childhood and a life with far more ups
than downs.
“It was like ‘Born Free,’” she recalls of the freedom to
roam the surroundings around her home on campus of a
university outside Shanghai where her father, a university
administrator; her mother, a high school Chinese literature
teacher; and her older brother (with Susan in the photo
below) lived.
“We lived on the outskirts of the city. It had its own quite
isolated and protective shield and the Cultural Revolution
wasn’t as bloody as elsewhere. Certainly, due to the fact
that our grandparents were not categorized as counter-
revolutionary, we were seen as ‘good seeds.’”
Growing up, she attended elementary school and then
boarding school where she learned English. She married
her first husband, a fellow college student in China, in
1991 and came to the U.S on Thanksgiving Day 1992.
After a year in Anchorage, Alaska, they moved to
Norfolk, VA and Old Dominion University where she
earned a master’s degree in
electrical and computer engineer-
ing while her husband was
working toward his Ph.D.
Unable to find a job after gradua-
tion and with troubles at home,
Susan struck out on her own and
found a computer-related job in
Wilmington, DE. in 1996.
Following a divorce, she moved
to New Jersey where she worked
for the College of St. Elizabeth in
Morristown and for New Jersey
State Police headquarters in its
Police Information Technology
Bureau in West Trenton. She married Eugene Kashpureff
in 2001 and their son, Gregoriy, was born in 2002. In
2009, she and Eugene divorced and Susan devoted her
attention to raising her young son while doing computer-
related work for the NJ State Police.
Susan discovered Yardley and St. Andrew’s around this
time from a female friend who lived there.
It was during this time that she met Eric Laird online.
“We were bloggers. It was all anonymous at that time and
we must have corresponded for two or three years before
we met,” Susan recalls. They married in 2010 and their
son, James, was born in 2011. (Both sons were baptized at
St. Andrews.)
Eric has his Ph.D. in nanotechnology from Drexel Univer-
sity in Philadelphia. The dictionary defines that as “the
manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized
from 1 to 100 nanometers.” He works for Breen Color
Concentrates in Lambertville, NJ. Breen provides custom
color and additive concentrates to the plastics industry.
He chairs St. Andrews Outreach Committee and has over-
seen two church-sponsored trips to Guatemala. Eric went
on one and Gregoriy went on two.
Susan is devoting her time these days to helping Eric raise
two sons and working from home on a monthly poetry and
fiction publication with the great name of “Better than
Starbucks.” (www.betterthanstarbucks.org). She holds the
unusual title of “translation editor,” which means she
“finds people to translate submissions from around the
world.” It keeps her busy and in touch with people all over
the world.
Susan loves Yardley and St. Andrews. She and her family
(pictured above) usually attend the 10:15 a.m. service but,
through Eric’s work with the Outreach Committee, have
friends at both services.
Her thoughts about St. Andrews?
“I am amazed at how gentle and how patient people treat
each other within our church community. I had quite
stressful work after my trusted boss retired in 2006, so St.
Andrews became my sanctuary and safe place.
It has a small and intimate setting in its buildings and in
the people.”
Art Mayhew
From revolutionary China to ‘gentle, patient’ Yardley
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018
THE CHRONICLE MAY-JUNE 2018 19
THE December 1965 Vestry
minutes record that an
anonymous person has
offered to give wrought iron
railings to be placed before
the choir stalls. Best guess
as to the donor: Richard N.
Marshall. The gift was
accepted. (These railings
were removed in the early
1990s when the chancel was
reconfigured to its
present form. Much of what
remains of the railings now
adorn the openings in the
fireplaces in St. Andrew’s
House, after the downstairs
was renovated.
THESE same minutes also
detail a fund raising project,
the sale of 100 jars of “Nuts
and Bolts”, a cocktail snack
put up by the Spruce Bend
Farm in Flemington, NJ. As
John Parsons, the Secretary
to the Vestry writes: “The
name of this confection does
not adequately describe the
indigestibility of the product.
The Vestry will however
unload 100 jars at a profit of
50 cents each in defiance of
the motto: ‘Salus populi
supreme est lex.’”
The big “event” in 1966 was
the sudden disappearance of
the rector, Father Davison, in
early November of that year. A
note in the November 8
minutes states that “Fr.
Davison is no longer able to
continue further useful service
to the parish.”
At a November 20 meeting of
the Vestry these items:
“Discussions held concerning
efforts to locate Fr. Davison”
and “discussions held on the
apparent financial
irregularities both personal
and church.”
The day before Fr. Davison
left he went to the home of
two long time members of St.
Andrew’s (Ann and Ralph
Yardley) and asked for
financial assistance for a
“needy parishioner”. The
church members responded
with a check for $200.
Apparently they were not
the only church members
who were called on that
day by Fr. Davison seeking
funds for the “needy
parishioner.”
The next day Fr. Davison
was gone, leaving his wife
and children who were
living in the Rectory. On
that same day a man who
had been living with the
Davisons in the Rectory
also “disappeared”.
Beyond the financial
irregularities there were
rumors of other problems. In
the emergency prompted by
Davison’s departure, Bill
Mills, Rector of The Church
of the Incarnation in
Morrisville, offered to assist in
handling church needs. Other
priests from neighboring
parishes also stepped in and
offered their aid.
SO closed another chapter in
the life of St. Andrew’s and
opened the door to a new
chapter with the arrival of a
new Rector, Frank Griswold
and his wife Phoebe to set St.
Andrew’s further on a
renaissance and his ministry
on the path to his becoming
Presiding Bishop of the
Episcopal Church USA.
FROM THE HISTORY CORNER
Jaf Baxter recounts the genesis and subsequent history of
St. Andrew’s.
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