August 2024 News & Notes

Dear St. Mark’s Family,


Life gets busy, and we’re presently an all-volunteer church, so we greatly apologize for what
may seem like an absence of information about the church and what’s happening.


But please know your Vestry (Al, Andy, Ann-Marie, Jim, Karen, & Kathy), Deacon Dana, and
Officers (Bert/Treasurer & Barbara/Register) continue to work hard behind the scenes, despite
the busy-ness and unexpectedness of life, doing our best to follow the Spirit’s call for St. Mark’s.
It’s exciting work, and we can’t wait to see how it continues to unfold.


Here’s the latest. We love you all.
Andy, Dana, Jim, and Karen


PMP Update.
PMP, which stands for “Peninsula Ministry Partnership”, is a Diocesan-endorsed plan for
area churches to find creative ways to share resources, recognizing that it can be challenging
for small churches to keep everything going. In our case, we have been working for a couple
months with St. Augustine’s and St. George’s to pursue a shared priest, and let God take it from
there.
While we’ve only been able to offer $10,000 per year toward a priest’s salary, Jim Fagley
has submitted to the Diocese for review a memorandum which requests an advance of $25,000
per year for five years, taken from the interest on the proceeds from our old property. If
approved, this will match the contribution from the other two churches and will make us much
more competitive in the market for a priest. Update: this has been approved by the
Diocese!!! A huge win, and big thanks to Jim for drafting the memo and working with the
Diocese to get it signed.

We are also forming a Discernment Committee between the three churches; St. Mark’s
participants are Barbara Fagley and Karen Porter, who’ll work with two people from each of the
other two churches to begin the candidate evaluation process. Jim and Andy are also working
with Sam Barnes (St. Augustine’s) and Lisa Adams (St. George’s), two very capable leaders
who have been great teammates so far. The Discernment Committee’s first meeting will be via
Zoom on August 7th.
Andy, Jim, Lisa, and Sam also met with the new (Interim) Canon for Transition, The Rev.
Canon Mary Thorpe, and her assistant Liz Martin, at the Diocese. Canon Mary has extensive
experience with transition, having even written a book about it, and offered both encouragement
and some strategies to consider. Since St. Mark’s has begun its outreach mission, she advised
us to confirm that any potential priest will have “gifts and graces” which are compatible with our
mission. You can expect to meet Canon Mary soon, as she’d like to visit each church to get to
know us and hear from our respective congregations. She will also join us at the Discernment
Committee meeting.
We ask for your patience throughout this process, and that you continue to offer our
discernment prayer (found in our bulletin) from your hearts so God will continue to bring
amazing and unimaginable things to pass. No matter what, we are committed to seeing it all the
way through.

Irene & Chuck Updates.
For those who hadn’t heard, Irene was last known to be in Warwick Forest Rehabilitation
Center, having lost her sight to macular degeneration. Her spirits have been amazingly good
considering the circumstances, but it’s potentially a long and challenging road for her. Yes,
prayers are of course welcome. But we challenge you to do more – call, visit, or offer to help
meet some of the needs she’ll likely have as she works her way through her “new normal”. The
most important thing we can do is let her know she’s not alone, and that’s the responsibility of all
of us as family members. Please let one of the Wardens know if you’d like to help, or if you want
more information on how you can get in touch with her. (Her birthday is this Sunday.)
Also, Chuck has been in and out of the hospital with a variety of gastro-intestinal and
other health challenges, and Kathy of course attends to him while also working It has been an
extremely challenging road for them both, and undoubtedly they can both use your continued
prayers for peace and healing. Also, please consider calling or visiting if you can. Your caring
presence can mean a great deal.


Ministry Meeting.
On July 9th, we held our third Ministry Meeting for “Hands & Feet”, so named because
we intend to serve as the hands and feet of Christ in the world, ministering primarily the
homeless and disadvantaged (including veterans and first responders). In short, since we are
small and have limited resources, we seek to make a large impact in the lives of a few, walking
with those in great need on a path toward greater self-sufficiency. The exciting news is that at
our July 23rd meeting, the Vestry approved a purchase of 50 year-long “GoPass365” passes
from Hampton Roads Transit which allows passholders to travel anywhere, anytime, for $5/pass
and then $1 per swipe. We see this as an extremely cost-effective way to help address one of
the most challenging problems for those in need – transportation. We will start by distributing up
to five passes and monitor usage and expenses. But it seems to us to be a great start at doing
something!
We are hopeful that EVERYONE will eventually play a part in this ministry, but we first
acknowledge that we have to convince you that it’s worth your time. Please take a look at the
attached meeting re-cap, as well as the video of our last meeting
(https://youtu.be/Nd3WG1rOIsQ), so you can see what we’re up to, and pray that God will show
you how you can help. Next meeting is 6:30p on August 13th.


Website. St. Mark’s has a website!! Check it out at https://smechampton.org/.
It has been a long haul, through challenges and technical difficulties, but we expect to use it as
a hub for information. We’ll continue to work on making it more functional and helpful in the
weeks and months to come, but BIG THANKS to John Andrews and our web designer, Kurt
Manos, for the great work and determination to make it happen. For all, please let us know how
to make it better, and much more to follow!


Healing Prayer/Compline & Bible Study. A reminder that Deacon Dana continues to host a
short (20 min or less) healing prayer and Compline service via Zoom on Wednesday nights at
7pm, and also that we’ll start the Book of Revelation in September…so now’s the right time to
start reading this challenging, and amazing, final book of the Bible. We hope you’ll consider
joining us – please let us know so we can ensure you get a copy of the study guide.

Zoom Fun Night on July 12th. What a fun night we all had stretching our memories to come
up with songs! (Dana was great at this!) We played “Name that Tune!”, SongBurst, and even a
quick mind boggling “Kennedy Game”. But mostly we just really enjoyed each others company.
Thank you all – and if you missed it – we hope to see you next week at First UCC, on August 9th
at 6:30p, for more fun. God Bless. Love, Kathy


Angels to Each Other. Kathy has had her hands full lately, but she’s been the leader of our
Angels to Each Other, or “inreach”, program, where we just seek to take loving care of our own
church family. That might be a card or a call, driving by with a meal, or inviting someone out to
coffee or lunch. Please ask God if this is something with which you can help…it’s important.


Prayer List. Bert is very good about ensuring it includes all those who are dear to us, and
updates it weekly. But it’s not just for church on Saturday – the beauty of prayer is that when
many pray, ALL get to share in the deliverance that only our Almighty God can bring – from
disease, suffering, grief, joblessness, anxiety, or disability. His answers to our persistent prayer
strengthen our faith mightily, and we invite you to join us in this commitment to uplift those on
our list in addition to those already on your hearts.