Sr. Warden’s Reflection by Julian Betts

Senior Warden’s Address

Julian Betts

2023 has been a year of growth and change for St. Andrew's.

Before I discuss our progress and our hopes for the future, I would like to thank our extraordinary clergy and staff. 

First, we are blessed with Mother Brenda's innovative leadership of St. Andrew's.  While many parishioners and staff have made important contributions to the growth in the programs and services our church provides over the last 9 or 10 years, it is obvious that Brenda has been absolutely instrumental in this growth.

As for change, last year we bid a fond farewell to Heather Lawrence (now Ma). For me an indelible memory of her was the day she had a bunch of parishioners, probably aged from 5 to 80, standing in a circle barefooted on the grass outside Parish Hall, praying about Mother Earth. A great moment. And we will remember her great musical contributions. We may never meet anybody again who had the courage and energy to choose, as she did, to become ordained and married in the same week!  

We have had amazing additions too. We welcomed our new Assistant Rector, the Rev. Dawn Stary, and her wonderful family. Who knew that Dawn came with her own tenor section?! Our Deacon, Pete Martin and Mother Dawn have both made important contributions over the last year, with their inspiring sermons, and their involvement in many of our outreach programs and education programs as well.

We also welcomed Mindy Bugaj as the energetic Director of Youth Ministry for St. Andrew's and Bethlehem Lutheran Church.

Erin O'Brien's caring demeanor for our children and youth, and her creative work on Christian education for all ages are marvelous.

I already knew that Virginia Sublett was an excellent musician. As a new member of the choir, I can now tell you that she is also a gifted teacher.

We are also grateful to Alison Lee for her devoted work as Parish Administrator. We also thank Jack Deane and Simeon Bruce for their work in the office and for sharing their considerable musical gifts with the congregation.

I said that this has been a year of growth, and it has, as we have seen many people attending St. Andrew's for the first time, a second time and later becoming members of the parish.

Our activities and programs have grown as well. Mindy, with important contributions from Erin, has for the first time created a middle schoolers' group. This is an important step forward. Mother Dawn is working on a new dinner church that we hope will bring to St. Andrew's spiritual seekers of all ages, and especially younger adults, and Christians who have felt excluded in certain other denominations. Deacon Pete has initiated the Bible Bros, an online men's bible study group that has already developed a devoted following. The services provided in our Saturday morning outreach program have continued to expand, with dental and medical services now provided in addition to showers, haircuts, clothing and a hot breakfast. Our longstanding Food Pantry program has continued to grow, with us serving well over 200 families each week in recent months.

At the Vestry Retreat last February we identified two key themes for additional efforts last year, outreach and what I call "inreach". In outreach, vestry hoped to do even more to spread the word to all the surrounding community that we are an accepting community of love. We revised the words of welcome on page 2 of each Sunday's bulletin to make even clearer that we welcome all, regardless of orientation, identity, belief or affiliation. We have signaled this openness using various online venues as well. Similarly, our Director of Christian Education, Erin O'Brien, deserves kudos for leading a re-design of the St. Andrew's website. Our new website, in addition to providing information in an even more efficient way to potential new members, exudes to outsiders the sense of warmth and God's love present in our parish. Finally, in the next few weeks, your vestry will take part in an activity I co-designed with Mother Brenda that we are calling "Through the Eyes of a Newcomer". In this activity vestry members will imagine seeing our services and programs through the eyes of first-time visitors, and reflecting both on what we are doing right and what we could do to make our activities even more accessible, understandable, and welcoming to newcomers. 

If expanded outreach was the first theme emerging from our February retreat, the second was refining our "inreach", that is, our outreach to, and engagement of, all the members of our parish. As one important part of this work, the congregation embarked on a series of conversations about Becoming an Affirming Congregation, which concludes on January 28.

We also look for new ways to engage all parishioners in education activities and volunteer activities, so that St. Andrew's becomes about Sunday, and much, much more on the other six days of the week. One thing that has always amazed me about St. Andrew's is the large number of parishioners who are involved with education programs as well as service programs. Our hope is that we will see even more parish members becoming involved in church activities in addition to the Sunday services.

So I want to challenge you a bit.

Here is a question for all us as members of the congregation to think about for a moment. When you are in a time of need, who will you turn to for support? Of course, our outstanding clergy, and your family members. But in that time of need, who are the friends who you would seek out for support? I will give you a moment to think about who those friends would include.

Here is the next, and the key, question. Of those friends you thought of, were any from St. Andrew's? For many of you, the answer will be yes, while for others the answer might be no. If no, that is OK. We are all at different life stages, and there is no judgement here. When our daughters were little, Carolyn and I had little time to do more than attend St. Andrew's on Sunday mornings. Now, as our daughters have entered and, in one case, graduated from university, we are able to get much more involved in the church.  We all understand that.

So, for those of you who did not think of anybody at St. Andrew's in that list of friends in times of need, that is perfectly OK. But I believe that this signals to you a real opportunity. An opportunity that I urge to grab. As your life stage permits, get involved in Christian education here, and in volunteering through our many service programs.  There are three reasons. a) You will be doing the right thing, b) most importantly, you will be serving God, but c) on top of that, I guarantee that you will reap the reward of many new friendships.

And these will not be casual friendships. If you are so willing, they will be deep friendships, that begin while chopping fruit or cracking eggs for Saturday morning Community Breakfasts or for our Sunday Parish Breakfast.  Deep lifelong friendships that start in the Women's Annual Retreat. Or, at least so I am told, because I have not yet been able to attend that retreat, for reasons that escape me right now. One example that I can share on the men's side of activities is the bonds being formed in Deacon Pete's Bible Bros. Another example is the Men's Hiking Group, an intergenerational group of men who hike, discuss life, the bible and learn from each other. There is roughly a thirty year range in the ages of the participating men, and this matters in wonderful ways. On these hikes, the older men teach the younger men about how, as they have progressed through their careers, their attitudes to work and spirituality have evolved. And the younger men, they teach the older men how to use their iPhones. For example, did you know you can surf the Internet with those things? Wow!

Putting silly jokes aside, these supportive friendships among parishioners are important. They are essential to all of us becoming incorporated fully into the Body of Christ.  This is what will make the social fabric of Saint Andrew's even stronger. We have superb clergy and staff, to be sure. But this is a challenge for our growth as lay members of this church. And as with anything else in life, the more you put in, the more you will get out.

So, there, I have challenged you a bit. But to be clear, I am categorically not saying that there are not enough people who volunteer at this church. On the contrary, I have a sense of awe about the literally scores of parish members who devote themselves to service, and to education, here at St. Andrew's. There are heroes here, to whom I really look up. What I am saying, is, can we do even more? Can we encourage even more parishioners to get involved in education and service?

To drive home my appreciation for all of you I will share that while writing my annual report as well as this address, I made a conscious decision that after thanking our great clergy and staff, I would not thank any lay members of our church by name. The reason was simple: in less than a minute I had compiled a list of literally dozens of outstanding lay volunteers and leaders. There was no way to name each of these heroes of mine.

 I will make a single exception for a lay member of this parish who reminds me of a recurring scene in the TV show Ted Lasso. For those of you not familiar with Ted Lasso, this show is about a fictitious English soccer (football) team called AFC Richmond. There is one player on this team who in some ways has more heart than the rest of the players put together. One minute, Roy Kent is making a great offensive play at one end of the football pitch and the next minute he has run the length of the pitch to make a great defensive play at the other end. And each time, the AFC Richmond fans will show their appreciation by chanting as follows (although this is a sanitized version): "Roy Kent's here, Roy Kent's there, Roy Kent's friggin' everywhere!" And this chant really does make me think of our incoming Senior Warden, Gigi Miller. For it is absolutely true that in our church "Gigi's here, Gigi's there, Gigi's friggin' everywhere!!!"

Gigi is truly a paragon of faith, love and service. I can't wait to see where she and the new vestry, once they are installed in February, will lead us. I know that there will be exciting new ideas, because that is what happens in a church full of heroes. I look up to all of you.  It has been a great honor to have served on Vestry for the last three years, and an even greater honor to have served as your Senior Warden this year.  God bless all of you, and God bless this wonderful church of ours. Thank you.