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Maranatha Youth Music Academy
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Swing Dance Lessons

Vestry News July 2017

Our Vestry met on Wednesday, June 21 for its monthly meeting. The minutes for the meeting will be filed and will be available for your review. Being the first of our meetings with Rob on sabbatical, we were happy to have Rachel with us as our spiritual leader in his stead.

As usual, financial reports were first on the agenda. We are still looking good with year to date pledge income remaining ahead of budget for the year. Thanks to all of you for your faithful dedication to keeping your pledge of support current. We are still finalizing the Stable Tour finances, but we are confident that with a current net income of $59,232, the ending income will be well over our budgeted goal of $50,000. The tremendous effort put forth by our Chair, Kat Gemmer, our faithful congregation, the generous farm owners and all of our volunteer friends and families is heartwarming. Trinity is able to support many great causes with all of the money raised from Stable Tour going to Outreach. We will soon start the planning for next year- the 59th in a row of successful Hunt Country Stable Tours.

Finance Committee presented a revised 2017 budget with several modifications. Vestry approved a budget with an operating deficit at the beginning of the year with the understanding that this would be resolved in the mid-year adjustment. The Finance Committee reviewed the 2017 Mid-Year Budget prepared by the Treasurer and recommended Vestry approve it. With the revised budget, we will end the year with a very small $810 surplus, so the Treasurer and Finance Committee will continue to monitor income and expenses closely. The complete adjusted budget will be available as part of the minutes from the June Vestry meeting which are posted in Cox Hall for all to see. The budget will be presented for all interested at our July congregational meeting.

Outreach committee reports that they continue to keep us on track to support the local, regional and international causes that have been through their vetting process. Vestry approved the committee’s recommendation for distributions to Piedmont Child Care Center, SOME, ESL, Churches of Upperville, Mobile Hope Loudon, and Kairos Ministry to name a few. The Committee will use remaining funds to provide support to organizations that make a meaningful and direct impact on our local community. Rather than just “sending a check”, Outreach support will include an opportunity for volunteer support and participation by Trinity members. The Committee will also consider national and/or international organizations when we can directly see and measure the results of the donation. As we prepare for 2018, we will be looking at other significant outreach opportunities.

Our Building and Grounds (B&G) committee reported Repairs and Maintenance expenditures through June 16, 2017 were $9,227.12 - mostly for badly needed Cox Hall kitchen electrical repairs. Recent Capital Expenditures included a new AC unit and installation for the Cottage next to Keith House. B&G expenditures through June 16, 2017 include the new lawn service contract that we paid in advance (for the year) to capture cost savings. Also of note, we changed garbage services to Valley Waste which significantly lowered our recurring costs while providing a measurable increase in customer service and reliability.

We are very pleased to report that we have an outstanding slate of candidates for the upcoming Vestry elections. Voting will take place at our annual meeting on October 1 - same as it did last year, so please plan on attending that meeting to cast your votes. The nominees are members in good standing who have all been active participants in the life and development of Trinity. I expect it won’t be easy to choose only four.

Ok- I think that’s it for now… Oops, wait- don’t forget to come out to the Vestry sponsored cookout on the July 26… it will be another good time to be had by all! Thank you for your prayers, participation and encouragement.

Jim Gemmer

Music News

Dear Rob,

Do you read this while you are on sabbatical? If so, know that we miss you!

Things are going well here. Rachel is handling your white collar duties with skill and grace beyond her years. It can't be easy stepping into this role so early in her ministry, but you wouldn't know it. Jim is adding his well seasoned brilliance on his occasional visits to the pulpit and attendance is up for the summer time so they must be doing something right. Phil is keeping us organized with his usual blend of thoroughness and humor, Tommy and Angela have everything looking spiffy inside and out, and of course we all know that Betsy could run the whole place by herself if necessary.

We celebrated our first "cat's away" Sunday with a visit from the Cathedral Brass on Trinity Sunday and followed that with a wildly successful Vacation Bible School, again thanks to Rachel's hard work and a team of wonderful volunteers. Now we are hopefully settling in to the quieter flow of the summer months and looking forward to some vacation time. I'm thinking next summer might be a good time for the rest of us to take a three month sabbatical.

One of the signs of a good leader is to have that which they oversee be able to continue well without them. We are glad that you have this time to reflect and refresh and are pleased to report that your ministry here continues well in your absence. Even so, we look forward to your return.

Summer Coffee Hour

With the Summer season soon upon us, we are going to try a new system for the Sunday Morning Coffee Hours at both the 8 am and 10:30am services during the summer. This is to give a respite during these summer months from the congregation needing to provide refreshments every week. *Please know that if you are already signed up for coffee hour or wish to sign up during the summer, you are most welcome. On the days when no one has signed up, the church will purchase light refreshments as well as provide coffee, lemonade, and iced tea.

If you are able to help set out these items on a given Sunday and handle clean-up after the event, please contact Gina Hammond. This process will begin on Sunday, June 18 and continue through Labor Day.

Music News

As the leadership of the church is contemplating our overall mission, I thought it would be a good time to remember the mission statement of our Music Ministry. It was written by our Music Committee about 15 years ago and I have tried to publish it in conjunction with Genesis articles at least annually ever since. It can also be found on the music page of our website, in Music Ministry brochures, and on the bulletin board over my desk in my office where I see it every day. I hope it sounds familiar to you.

It is our mission to enable and encourage all members of the parish to share in the experience of glorifying God through music; to teach together the skills of music and the practices of faith; and to build the body of Christ through worship, rehearsal, outreach, and fellowship using music as an instrument of God’s peace.

This can easily be broken down into three sections. The first reminds us that we strive to do music in such a way that it enhances our worship for all members of the parish be they musicians in the choirs or congregants in the pews. The second shows that we do not separate music from the rest of our faith but instead experience both notes and words together in a way that is entirely sacred. Finally, we recognize that music in the church is truly a ministry intertwined with many aspects of our church life. From 8 year old choristers to 80 year old bell ringers, our church’s music participants spend countless hours not just practicing the sacred art of music but supporting the overall mission of the church using music as an instrument of God’s peace. For that, I am supremely grateful.

Vestry Notes

Our Vestry met on Wednesday, May 17th for its monthly meeting. The minutes for the meeting will be filed and will be available for your review.

As I was looking at the note I wrote last year for the June Genesis. I started by saying welcome to our new Assistant Rector, Rachel. Wow- what a difference a year makes as this month I’ll say good luck to Rachel as she takes the reigns for few months with Rob leaving for a his three month sabbatical. I hope you all agree with my thinking that we are in good hands! Yes, we’ll miss Rob... a lot and yes, we have an awesome back up Priest in Jim, but I’m still very happy that God sent Rachel to us. She’s done a fantastic job with our family ministries and don’t forget Vacation Bible School is almost here.

A few notes from the Vestry meeting:

  • We received a very good financial report. We have positive variance from budget in our pledge income which, while perhaps temporary, is always a good thing. The rest of the report is positive too and we remain in a good position with cash.

  • Worship committee gave a thorough report having come through a very successful Easter season and our confirmation visit from Bishop Gulick.

  • B+G reported that the electrical repairs in the Cox Hall kitchen were almost completed- I think they are done now. While not a highly visible project, the added safety is critical. B+G is continuing to improve our internet and intranet capabilities across the campus.

  • We also continued our discussion about God’s call to mission and how we can translate that into ideas and actions at Trinity.

All in all, a very good and productive meeting.

 

Another thing that I did at this time last year was to ask you all to join the Stable Tour volunteer list because I was writing this note before Memorial Day weekend. However, this time, the 2017 Hunt Country Stable Tour is done... and what a fantastic weekend it was! Thank you, and thank you to ALL of the many volunteers, Trinity staff and our friends who contributed innumerable hours. I had the pleasure of working at Peace and Plenty on Saturday and Sunday with two different teams and I made new bonds of friendship that I’m sure will continue to grow.

If you were at the outstanding finale dinner on Sunday evening, you heard our HCST chair tell us about how many people we touched during the build up to the weekend, during the weekend and that we intend to continue to reach through the coming year. Kat had a lot of numbers that matter- especially in today’s digital age and considering the changes that our social interactions continue to undergo. I want to list just a few for your information, awareness and consideration as we begin thinking about next year’s tour and how we can reach even more people:

  • The Hunt Country Stable Tour Facebook page was viewed over 35,000 times

  • At least 12,500 of those viewers like, shared or commented on the site

  • In the last couple of weeks before the event, over 6,000 people viewed the HCST site and 3,000 (three thousand!!) of those viewers bounced from the HCST site to Trinity’s home page to view information about our church

Very good numbers by any person’s yardstick, and a great way to make initial contact with people who may not have found us by happening to drive by Trinity one weekend, like a lot of us did. The views of the live feeds from the tour, like the horse swimming event at Trappe Hill Farm, are still getting new views as I write this note.

So- Bravo to the Stable Tour team, Godspeed to Rob for a productiive sabbatical and a safe return, and on to summer for us. Don’t forget the June picnic and the Vestry sponsored picnic in July!

 

Healing Ministry Conference

We had a wonderful day on Saturday, May 20 when The Rev. Nigel Mumford returned to Trinity
for another healing conference. We had 65 people in attendance from churches all over Northern Virginia including 22 people from

Trinity. It was a day filled with teaching, learning, prayer, sharing and the awesome presence of the Holy Spirit! It was “brilliant” as the Brits say!

We learned that God healed during Biblical times, Jesus healed during his time on earth, the apostles healed and, as Christians and followers of Jesus, we are all called to heal others with the power and love of Christ (Luke 9:1-2). Healing has always been, and still is, present in the world. Whenever we meet someone in need of prayer, it’s as simple as asking “How may I pray for you?” and praying with them right then and there (If they don’t want you to pray for them, pray for them anyway, silently in your heart). It doesn’t take great training or skill since God is the one who does the healing not us. Lay your hands on your children when they hurt and teach them about the amazing healing and love of God our Father.

We learned that whenever we pray with someone, God always shows up and something happens, although it may not be what we asked for and doesn’t always mean we are cured. The healing that God desires for us is transformation and healing of the whole person - body, mind and spirit - not just curing the physical illness or injury. Healing is a mystery of God; we don’t know how it works, nor why some are cured and others are not. Even though we are not cured of a disease or condition, it does not mean that we have not been healed. Many people who have not been cured, report with great thankfulness that they have been healed. In fact, death is the ultimate healing when we are united to God through Christ Jesus.

We also learned about forgiveness, one of the biggest blocks to healing. Jesus calls us to forgive friends and enemies alike (Matthew 6:14), and it is so important that it is repeated every time we pray the Lord’s prayer. Hanging on to anger, judgements, hatred, and revenge can cause illness as well as prevent healing. Forgiveness does not mean condoning the action, nor do we need to like or be with the person hurting us. Rather, it means letting go of the pain which is only hurting us.

We experienced prayer and ministry with those who are hurting, sharing by those who have been healed by God, thanksgivings for God’s blessings and a powerful intimacy with all those united in following Jesus the Christ. Hallelujah!

S.O.M.E. News in June

355 guests plus many school volunteers were fed this month!

Thursday Cooking Crew

Holly Bimba
Valerie Davis
Ellen Hall
Robin Keys
Stephanie Knapp
Ann MacLeod
Jennifer Youngman

Friday Serving Crew

Jim Gemmer
Gina Hammond
Robin Keys
Ken Knapp
Beth Lamond
John MacDonnell
Mary MacDonnell
Ann MacLeod
Carol Miller
Len Shapiro
Mark Thompson

Next S.O.M.E. Schedule:

We will cook on Thursday, July 20 starting at 7:30 AM. We will go to DC to serve on Friday, July 21. The van will leave the church parking lot at 8:30 AM.

This is our only summer visit and youth age 16 and over are encouraged to participate. Please contact Ann MacLeod at 592-3313 for more information.

Pentecost at Trinity

Pentecost is the fiftieth day after Easter, this year, June 4, and we will celebrate Pentecost by wearing red (if we have red to wear or perhaps pink) and by reading Scripture together, some of us in other languages. But why do we do this? Why is Pentecost important?

After his death on the cross and his resurrection, Jesus appeared to his disciples and gave them proof that he was alive. He told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit, from whom they would receive power to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. Jesus ascended to heaven and the disciples returned to Jerusalem and joined together in prayer in an upper room.

Acts 2: When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

We celebrate Pentecost to recognize the gift of the Holy Spirit to the believers, to all believers, to “everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” We bear witness to this gift on Pentecost by wearing red to symbolize the color of the tongues of the flames that rested on each disciple; and we bear witness to this gift by speaking in other languages - modern languages today - by those who have the ability, to symbolize the diversity of languages that were spoken in the upper room.

2017 Stable Tour Results

Over $14,000 in Thrift Shop Sales!

Over 35,000 views on the Stable Tour Facebook page!

775 advance-sale tickets sold!

Over $53,000 Raised for mission outreach projects!

12 Vendors at the Country Fair!

12 Farms on the tour!

Music News

The origins of the pipe organ can be traced to 3rd century BC ancient Greece and it has continued to grow in size and complexity throughout history.  In 812 AD, Charlemagne commissioned a large pipe organ for the Chapel at Aachen which began the enduring association of pipe organs with western church music.  While pipe organs have been used in theaters, concert halls, and even private homes, there is no other instrument more associated with churches and thus more ultimately sacred than the pipe organ.  At Trinity Church, we are greatly blessed with what is one of the finest pipe organs in the area.  In addition to supporting the rest of our music ministry, it is used for lessons, recitals, concerts, and educational forums all of which provide sacred inspiration to those in our community and beyond as well as furthering the development of church music and church musicians.  Trinity’s pipe organ is not just a musical instrument but an instrument of ministry.  Much like the rest of our invaluable campus, our pipe organ is also a unique religious resource whose stewardship requires special care to maintain it to its original standard.

Trinity’s pipe organ was built by the Aeolian-Skinner Organ Company of Boston and originally installed in the church in 1960.  By the early nineties, it was in desperate need of major repair.  In 1996, the Lawless-Johnson Organ Company of Hagerstown, MD, performed an extensive rebuild of the organ including some greatly needed additions bringing the total size of the organ to approximately 3000 pipes in 55 ranks at a total cost of $250,000.  Within five years, there were more problems so in 2002, a professional organ consultant, Haig Mardirosian, was brought in to perform an unbiased evaluation and deliver a consultative report which outlined three phases of work to be done.  Phase I involved bringing the organ up to workmanlike order by correcting many mechanical deficiencies from the 96 rebuild.  This work was performed by David Storey of Baltimore, Md. in 2005 at a cost of approximately $50,000.  Phase II involves a thorough tonal finishing of the organ which was not done in 1996.  This work was estimated at $50,000 in the 2002 report.  The music committee has been asking for funds to accomplish this phase ever since and has gradually raised our estimate of the cost to $100,000 to reflect both inflation and continued deterioration.  Phase III involves additional expansion and reconfiguration which may be included in the next major rebuild of the organ.  It should be noted that the life cycle of rebuilding large pipe organs is 30-40 years so we should be planning for this in the next 10-20 years at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars.

In the last year, an organ fund was created to begin to collect money for both short term Phase II tonal finishing and long term Phase III rebuild and this fund has now been seeded with the gift of $50,000 from the Lambert Foundation.  Considering this, we have brought in renowned organ builder Larry Trupiano of NY and Curator of the National Cathedral organ, Bard Wickkiser of Baltimore to examine the organ and develop a joint proposal for accomplishing the Phase II tonal finishing work.  We have been in constant dialogue with them about tailoring their work to our needs and at their April meeting, the Vestry voted to approve the thoughtful and thorough Trupiano/Wickkiser proposal at a cost of $100,000 with work to potentially begin this summer.  However, final ratification of a contract is pending raising the additional $50,000.  Hurst Groves has agreed to lead this fundraising effort.  For more information about this project or to consider donating, please contact me at the church or Hurst at hkgroves@aol.com.  Completion of this project has been a long time coming and will finally bring the organ up to its full potential as we continue to build the body of

Christ using music as an instrument of God’s peace.

Vestry Notes May 2017

Our Vestry met on Wednesday, April 19th for its monthly meeting. The minutes for the meeting will be filed and will be available for your review. Your Vestry wants to sincerely thank ALL of the many people and groups who helped with this year’s Holy Week and Easter Sunday. We are blessed with a beautiful campus and a wonderful membership who pulled together this year to ensure it was a success. The Sunrise Service was one of the best ever. If you missed it, please consider joining us next year and of course, also for the many special events that happen around Easter… Thank you Trinity!

In case you have not been made aware yet, Trinity has secured a weekend at Shrine Mont for another congregational retreat! It will occur the weekend of October 14/15. More information will be forthcoming, but if you can, please put a hold on that weekend and join us for Friday and/or Saturday night. Depending on the weather from now until then, it may just be the peek weekend for fall foliage viewing.

We had a fairly regular Vestry meeting this month. We received the Treasurer’s reports. Our cash position is good. Pledge income was a bit down for the month, but with our impending draw from endowment, we will remain in good standing through the next several months. Pledge income for the year was up compared to our budget so we’re looking okay.

A couple of items from the Finance Committee to report are 1) the Spending Authority policy was updated to reflect changes approved by Vestry last year- mostly dealing with the approval of funds by Vestry and acquisition of bids; 2) upon discovery that there was no formal oversight of the Food Closet, Vestry approved that the Food Closet be formally assigned to the Outreach Committee for financial oversight; and 3) Vestry unanimously authorized the Parish Administrator to enter into a new contract for a leased printer/copier as described in the Finance Committee Report.

Vestry received a Proposal for Organ Improvements submitted by Mann & Trupiano Organ Builders in partnership with Bard B. Wickkiser Organ Builder. Trupiano and Wickkiser are two of the most skilled organ builders in the country, especially for Aeolian-Skinner organs and Wickkiser is the curator of the National Cathedral organ- also an Aeolian-Skinner. Considering the funds already in our recently created Organ Repair Fund, Vestry concluded that it could not approve a contract until the additional funds have been secured. Vestry formally accepted the proposal from Trupiano and Wickkiser as presented, and voted that a contract for the work be ratified upon receipt of the required additional $50,000.

We received the Stable Tour update. Thanks be to God for the remarkable response to this year’s donor campaign which was reported to be at $25,000 already. I won’t go into a lot of detail here as more information will be given elsewhere, but I will ask that everybody please consider how you can pitch in to help. Our Outreach efforts for the whole year are dependent on a successful Stable Tour and as Rob has been telling us, Vestry has been considering ways that we can have a greater impact with our Outreach activities as we attempt to clarify and carry out our purpose and mission.

We briefly discussed the need to identify new Vestry candidates. This month we have identified a list of eligible candidates and the outgoing Vestry members will be taking this issue for action. You may start seeing reminders that we are seeking candidates for nomination so if you interested in learning more about what it takes to be on Vestry, please let us know. 

As always, thank you again for your prayers, participation, engagement and support.

 

Did You Know?

“Trinity Church is the only church in Meade Parish, which is named for The Rt. Rev. William Meade, a former Bishop of Virginia.”
— 1 Profile of Trinity Episcopal Church – January 1979 ​​​​​​​

With the establishment of the settlement in Virginia by the English, the Church of England became the established church.  Following the tradition of the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church, parishes were established in Virginia, and each parish was served by a Rector who may have had one or more churches.  To differentiate each parish, they were given names and in our case, Meade Parish was the name given to the area served by Trinity – Upperville.

Bishop Meade (1789 – 1862) was born in White Post, Virginia, in what is now Clarke County. 

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Meade

This will be the last article in this series of 33 “Did You Know” articles. I have enjoyed sharing some of the knowledge I have gathered over my years at Trinity.  It is my understanding this space will now be used to periodically update the readers on the ongoing repairs being carried out by your Property Committee to these amazing facilities.

 

 

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