Five Talents Saves Lives

Our friends and longtime mission partners from Five Talents will be here at both services this Sunday, Dec. 10, and between services during our social time, to share their recent ministries.  St. Dunstan’s is currently supporting the project in South Sudan, a place where few aid organizations can even work due to instability there. 

Five Talents is the Anglican microfinance ministry – with a difference: FT doesn’t just make small loans and hope it will help poor people.  FT works through local Anglican churches.  It creates local communities called savings circles, give training in business practices, and walk with these brave entrepreneurs who start businesses to support their families.  Most FT group members are women, who use their money to buy food and medicine, and pay school fees for their children.  Each small loan (often under $100) lifts up many lives out of extreme poverty, saving lives, giving dignity and hope.    

What could be more fitting in this Advent season, when we pause to remember how God came to a poor family in Palestine, in order to bring hope to a world full of poor and scared people?  Our own needs may not be material, but we are spiritually thirsty for something to encourage us in a world that’s often pretty dark.  Some of us are despairing of the hatred and indifference we see in societies today.  We need the hope and light of Jesus just as much as a South Sudanese woman who is trying to keep her children safe and fed. 

God gives something to each of us – maybe five talents (a whole lot!), maybe just one talent (still considerable resources).  Each of us is responsible to use what we’ve been given for God’s glory.  How are you using the resources entrusted to you by God?  JBM  

The Possibilities of Spring

We come this Sunday to our third season in Creation Time: Spring.  After the cold, dark, and fallowness of wintertime, Spring is always welcome – a sense of possibility, newness, growth, and surprise come with this season. 

In the Gospel today (Matthew 22:1-10) Jesus tells the story of a king who gives a wedding banquet for his son – certainly one of the most significant parties one ever throws, tied up with the hopes and dreams we have for our children.  He sends advance invitations (the first-century equivalent of “save-the-date” cards), and the guests reply.  Then when the moment comes, he sends messengers to bring in the guests who had promised to come.  Then all hell breaks loose.

The guests give excuses for not coming – new property purchases, recent marriage, new livestock to tend.  The king is not amused.  (Here the story lapses into hyperbole about murder and mayhem among the guests and the king’s servants.  This seems to be a reference to the historical misfortune of prophets (messengers or slaves), and the destruction of Jerusalem 40 years after Jesus told this parable.  Thus, these violent outbursts are probably not original to Jesus’ parable, but added later.) 

What I take from this story is about God’s invitation to us to step away from our day-to-day lives and consider something new.  There’s a banquet laid for us in life, but we have to be willing to step out, explore what’s new, and perhaps change our course in life from time to time.  Aunty Mame of Broadway fame once said, “Life’s a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!”  That’s what can happen when we don’t accept God’s invitation to try new things, explore new possibilities, new callings, new ministries.  What better way to honor Spring?  JBM  

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness...." 

It’s Valentine’s Day!  Did you hear the one about the husband who approached his wife and asked "If I died tomorrow, would you remarry?" The wife thought for a minute and said "Yes, yes, I think I would." He went off for a while and then returned.  "Would you let him use my golf clubs?" "Oh no, no, no," said his wife. "He's left handed."

All of us are subject to temptation, I guess.  We’re in good company: Jesus had to struggle himself with the devil in the desert. 

How can we make ourselves stronger as we are tempted by so many things in this life?  How can we make our congregation stronger, so that our community will shine with the love of Christ on Mass. Avenue? 

Many temptations can lead to little lapses – fudging taxes, lapses of integrity at work, irritability at home, envy and jealousy of our neighbors who seem to be doing better than we are.  Sometimes there are big lapses: infidelity to a partner, dishonesty in business, vengeful reprisals against someone who crosses us.  There’s no shortage of temptation in our lives! 

But on Valentine’s Day, we remember how much we love each other, and might feel a twinge of regret that we don’t always act like it. 

This Lent, we are focusing on a Rule of Life….a pattern of living that helps us live in love and in faith.  Now you may think of a monastic rule, where monks and nuns rise at 4 a.m. to pray each day, wear hair shirts and sackcloth,  give away everything they have, and read through all 150 psalms every week in church. 

It doesn’t have to be like that.  A Rule of Life for the rest of us can be very simple, to help us live more sanely, more generously, more lovingly, more joyfully than we would without it…

Nine of us spent the weekend on retreat exploring what a rule of life might mean for each of us.  We all know some of the traditional elements – daily prayer, moderation in our appetites, acts of compassion.  We discovered that this can be much more about being intentional about practices that feed us and bring us joy and peace…and not about punishing ourselves with demands that we can hardly meet.  It may mean less about adding hard things to our to-do list, and more about committing ourselves to a do-not-do list.  What could a do-not-do list look like? 

· I will not beat up on myself, or on other people, when we make an honest mistake. 

·When I am tired, I will not feel guilty about stopping to rest when I can. 

· I will not say yes to things when I need to say no.

· I will not claim all the credit, or take all the blame, when it doesn’t all belong to me. 

· I will not neglect the ones I love the most.   

Does that sound like a rule of life that might help you live better?  I know it would be good for me. 

Congregations can have a rule of life too – common norms that we all support, to make our community as healthy and Godly as we can be.  Our vestry consultant Ed Kelaher mentioned some of these rules of healthy congregations:

· I will pray that God will send the Holy Spirit into our church, and I will pray for our leaders who have hard jobs, and for our ministries.

· I will always work for the greatest good of the church, even when I don’t get my own way. 

· I will express thanks to God and to all the people who make our church a beautiful community of faith. 

· I will not engage in negative talk to my friends about some else in church; I’ll speak directly to the person.

Before Jesus really got started preaching and teaching about the Kingdom of God, he was led by God’s own Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  Why did God do this?  For one reason, it was so that Jesus would know the many temptations that all of us face in life – to be selfish, to indulge our appetites too much, to show off, or to try to manipulate other people, or manipulate God.  For another reason, this time of hunger and temptation was meant, I believe, to harden Jesus, to toughen him up, to make him strong to face what he would have to face.  This was Jesus’ “boot camp,” his basic training for life. 

Maybe we can look at our temptations in life in the same way, and derive some benefit from the struggle – renewed strength, renewed trust in God.  Lent is a good time to take another honest look at your life as an individual child of God, and see if some changes need to be made.  It’s a good time to examine our life as a Christian congregation – the Body of Christ – and ask not what our church can do for us, but what we can do for our church.  Temptations will never go away in life; it’s up to us to face them openly and honestly, and ask God’s help to overcome them.  And God is so happy to be asked!  So happy to be invited into our lives, even our messy lives, to walk with us.  That’s what Jesus learned, and what Jesus is trying to teach us today.  AMEN.  

ANNUAL MEETING 9:50 a.m. Sunday - Say yes to St. Dunstan’s.   

Only once a year do we gather as a congregation to elect leaders and conduct the business of our parish, St. Dunstan’s.  This year’s meeting is different.  We’ll start with a fun slide show of parish activities of the last year.  And we’ll hear from Praveen Jeyarajah about the exciting plan to grow our parish this year.  And, for the first time ever, the Vestry presents a Three-year Plan for our budget and ministries.  All in 50 minutes, starting at 9:50 a.m. in the Parish Hall, with refreshments.  Will you come? 

I want to thank and celebrate those who have stepped up to be nominated as leaders of our congregation.  We have a bumper crop of talented and dedicated people this year.  Six people are nominated to join the Vestry. 

We’ve also formed two new committees:

Growth Committee: Praveen Jeyarajah, Chair; Meghan Jarvis, Rosi Sweeney, Ray Donnelly, Anne Taylor, Nastya McNally, Julie Anderson, Jeff MacKnight (staff)

Membership Committee: The Vestry...Nils Overdahl, Chair; Fred Bentley, Pete Sather, Jessica Ault, Ryan McCormick, Sue von (staff)

Please welcome all these leaders, thank them, and consider what you can do to support them. (Nominees this year in boldface, underlined.  Note that additional nominations may be made at the meeting on Sunday.) 

Your proposed new Vestry 2016: (New nominees in bold italics.)

Diocesan Convention Delegate: Rosi Sweeney (’19); Alternate Delegate:  Mark MacCarthy (19)

New Endowment Committee members: Clare McCown (’19), John Wyss (’19)

Continuing on the Endowment Committee: Chris Hemus, Chair (’17), Chuck Cash (’18), Ron Poropatich (’17), Cliff White, Treasurer ex officio

Columbarium Committee (At least 5 members, appointed by the rector, including Chair, Vice Chair, Clerk, Treasurer, Member(s))

Growth Committee - Praveen Jeyarajah, Chair; Meghan Jarvis, Rosi Sweeney, Ray Donnelly, Anne Taylor, Nastya McNally, Julie Anderson, Jeff MacKnight (staff)

Membership Committee – Nils Overdahl, Chair; Fred Bentley, Pete Sather, Jessica Ault, Shelly Brett-Major, Matt McNally, Nancy Douglas, Trudy Surut, Ryan McCormick, Sue von (staff)

I also want to thank our leaders who are leaving office at this point, having served from one year to many years. 

Thanks to those leaving the Vestry: Lynne Ryan, Boots Quimby, Rosi Sweeney (Registrar), Don Baker. Thanks to Elin Botha, faithful Diocesan Convention Delegate. Thanks to Bob Boyd, faithful Columbarium Committee Chair. Thanks to Mark Tatelbaum and Praveen Jeyarajah for service on the Endowment Committee.

Gifts, Known and Unknown

Some years ago, the Bishop asked me to serve on the diocesan committee on Constitution and Canons, which is concerned with church laws and statutes and their revision as needed. I was puzzled, since I have no legal background. Still, I wanted to help, so I said “yes.” Well, I found it fascinating, and I served quite happily for over 10 years, and even became chair of the committee for a while! I would never have known I had any gifts for such things if I had not said “yes” when I was asked to serve. 

St. Paul speaks in I Corinthians 12 about the variety of gifts given by the Holy Spirit – gifts to build up the church, and gifts to serve people in need or trouble.  The Body of Christ – the Church – has need of all these gifts, and the Spirit gives them for the common good. You might have some gifts you’ve never used! (I’d like the gift of working miracles myself….) If you don’t explore your spiritual gifts, how will you ever know? 

As St. Dunstan’s begins a new year, we need your gifts for ministry:  the gifts of every person in our congregation. When one person isn’t offering the gifts God has given, then both that person, and the community, are impoverished. We have been recruiting for Vestry and other offices, and – thank God! – most people are saying yes! We are forming a new team under the leadership of Praveen Jeyarajah to bring growth to our parish. Growing is our primary task and focus in 2016 and beyond, with a goal of a net gain of 10 new households a year for the next several years.  I’m grateful for all who have said “yes” to serve on this crucial project. To grow our church, we’ll need everybody to be on the growth effort – talking about St. Dunstan’s, bringing friends to church, doing visible ministries in the local area, and reaching out to welcome new members in your neighborhood. I hope you’ll offer your God-given gifts to help our parish. Please offer your gifts and skills! And if you are asked to serve, say “yes.” You might be happily surprised.  JBM  

Crisp bright days and chilly nights, autumn leaves in a riot of color – we can’t miss the movement of God’s creation outside. This is one of Washington’s most beautiful times. I’m so glad I live in a place with four real seasons! 

Yes, God has outdone Godself once again in the splendor of creation around us.  We now need to look within – within ourselves, within our church – to see and mark what God is doing in us. This is not as easy to point to as a sugar maple glowing an impossible shade of orange, but our inner lives are just as much the site of God’s creative work!

What has God been doing in you – in your heart, your mind? Where has God moved you toward greater love, a growing passion for justice, a heart for people who are poor and struggling? Where has God given you greater joy and gladness?  Where is God calling you to greater generosity? What is the harvest God wants to gather in?

Our parish’s Annual Giving Campaign begins today. Every year, we take stock of where we’ve been and where we’re going. We open our eyes to see God’s gracious hand at work in our lives and in our world. And then we respond with our own offering of praise and thanksgiving…for the church and for the world. 

Our response – our pledge to St. Dunstan’s – is first and foremost a spiritual offering, a part of our spiritual journey with God. It is our small act of reciprocation to God’s huge gift of life and love and beauty. Most of us here have been given so much more than we need. At our house, our problem is too much stuff, not too little! 

But we have an opportunity, with our giving, to make a difference in the lives of others…to welcome and teach children in our faith, to help students in Ecuador, to feed the hungry in Washington, to care for a neighbor who is sick or is grieving a death. We gather to celebrate births and marriages and all the milestones of life.

Through our pledge to our parish church, we can touch people in real need. We also uphold this wonderful house of God and keep it strong, as our forebears have done since 1958. 

The Judeo-Christian tradition has always upheld the tithe – 10% of income – as our standard of giving. That may seem like a lot, but it is a goal that can be reached.  We can take small steps every year to increase our giving. Our parish needs more money each year, just to continue our current ministries. Can you take a step upward in your pledge commitment for 2016? 

Some folks who feel stretched by expenses work toward giving 5% to the church.  If your income is $100,000, that would be a $5,000 pledge. That’s easier on a tight budget, and yet still so helpful to the parish! Every single pledge makes a difference in this community, so please listen to the voices of our 4 week campaign, read the letters in the mail, and make this your most generous year ever.  JBM

Send in your reply cards NOW! 

Saturday, April 18, 2015 

6:00-9:00 p.m.

This fundraiser supports St. Dunstan's Community ministries and features a live and silent auction and dinner. Please return your RSVP cards as soon as possible.  Extras are available on the table in Founder's Hall. Cards and checks may be mailed to the church or placed in the offering plate this Sunday, April 12. Support for this event is always appreciated from those who can not attend.  

Bring your friends for a fun night of music and fellowship! 

Save the date… Lent doesn't last forever!

The Ninth Annual Cabaret

Saturday April 18, 2015 at St. Dunstan’s

Take a trip to the Temple Bar in Dublin and enjoy an evening at

Delectable dinner of:

 Irish stew, Pecan slaw, Irish soda bread, Ultra-chocolate “Guinness” Cake,  and Beer and wine included!

Auction to support St. Dunstan’s Community Ministries

Invitations will be mailed soon!

Can you bring some friends? ​