Welcome to St. Alban’s Church! Every Sunday, and most days in between, people gather in this place to worship, to learn, to grow, to share the joys and struggles of our lives, and to seek God’s grace in the midst of our lives. We do not come because we have it all figured out, but because we are seeking light on the way. We come as we are and welcome one another.
Latest News
What's new at St. Alban's? Read on for Vestry updates and other news from the St. Alban's community.
OCTOBER VESTRY NEWS
by Senior Warden Ken Patterson
Vestry News, September 2019
by Senior Warden Ken Patterson
St. Alban’s remains financially sound and heading toward a balanced budget for the year. Pledge income is on track. The endowment will exceed $5 million this week, a milestone made possible by the addition of a generous bequest of the Rev. Loren Mead. Average attendance for September was up 14% from September 2018.
The Vestry approved a number of much-needed building repairs using money set aside for that purpose. Work should begin later this year on all the following:
- water-infiltration remediation for the basements of Nourse Hall and Satterlee Hall
- improvements and repairs to the Parish offices
- installation of a new ramp to the Rectory
- repairs to a bathroom and the screened in porch of the Rectory
- a refresh of Trenbath and the office corridor including painting, floor refinishing and other cosmetic improvements
The annual stewardship campaign has kicked off. Please add your pledge to the $200,000 in pledges we have already received. So far, half of the households pledging have increased their pledge over last year by an average of 19 percent.
Expanded summaries of this and previous Vestry meetings can be found here.
REST IN PEACE, DICK PARKINS
Longtime St. Alban's parishioner Richard (Dick) Parkins died this week. He was 83 and had been suffering from cancer. Dick was a leader in our global ministries and helped to connect St. Alban's with Hope and Resurrection School in South Sudan. He was the former director of U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and of Episcopal Migration Ministries.
“Richard was all that is best about our church,” said Russell Randle, a member of The Episcopal Church’s Task Force on Dialogue with South Sudanese Anglican Diaspora. “He was articulate, joyful, persistent and wise, a gracious colleague, a steadfast friend and an example to me and many others of what it means to grow into the full stature of Christ.”
The Episcopal News Service posted this lovely remembrance.
A memorial service will be held at St. Alban's on Saturday, September 21, at 11:00 a.m. with a reception to follow.
WELCOME OUR NEW CHORISTER PROGRAM DIRECTOR
Hannah Baslee has been singing and teaching professionally in the DC area since 2015. She is originally from Texas where she earned her Master of Music in Vocal performance from the University of Texas at El Paso. She now sings regularly for Washington National Cathedral and the National Shrine, in addition to her freelance solo and chorus work and private teaching.
Hannah sang in the Schola Cantorum here at St. Alban's for the past year and will now be spearheading the Chorister Program and occasionally leading music in Children's Chapel. Hannah will be here on August 18th to greet our younger congregants and their families. Please greet her warmly.
On Thursday August 29, Hannah and music director Matthew Steynor will hold an open house for the 2019-2020 choristers. We will play games to get to know each other, assign robes and folders, and take a tour of the church. Refreshments will be provided! Click here to register. Contact Hannah for more information.
WELCOME, YOIMEL
Our Vestry has unanimously affirmed the call of Yoimel Gonzalez Hernandez to serve his first appointment, often styled as a ‘curacy’, with us at St. Alban’s. Yoimel is a native of Cuba, where he was in youth ministry in the Presbyterian Church. He will be ordained a Priest of this Diocese on June 15 after completing his studies at Virginia Theological Seminary. He is sponsored by St. Stephen and the Incarnation and doing his field work at St. Patrick’s, DC.
Yoimel (pronounced ‘Joimel’) will begin his ministry with us on August 1, 2019. His primary role among us will be leading our youth ministries, in addition to being pastorally available to those of our parishioners who speak only Spanish. We have developed a plan for his first three years in which he will be introduced to all aspects of parish ministry, toward the end of which he will develop some additional areas of ministry such as working with our growing group of young adults. One quarter of his time for at least the next two years will be taken and reimbursed by our Diocese, who need him to be involved in developing materials and working in the Deacon’s School.
So far Yoimel, in addition to being present at our recent Vestry meeting, has met with interview teams of Ken Patterson, Lucy Fraser, Ted Swett, Tomas Montgomery, Veronica Quiguango and Lauri Fitz-Pegado. He has also met with the J2A youth twice and some of the parents once, although not in an ‘interview’ situation. His extensive list of references, both here and in Cuba, are universally positive. One of his earliest tasks will be to join the J2A pilgrimage to Greece this summer.
CONGRATULATIONS, JO TURNER
Seabury's annual celebration of service at the National Cathedral honored our own Jo Turner as "an older adult who has made a significant impact through service and leadership." Jo's citation notes her 25 years of active service at St. Alban's and her life of "compassion and care-giving." The full text along with information about other honorees is here.
Congratulations, Jo!
FAREWELL, DEBBIE
by the Rev'd Geoffrey Hoare
It is with decidedly mixed feelings that I have shared with the attendees of our 11:15 Spanish Language Liturgy that Debbie Kirk will be leaving us this summer. There are two parts to this. First, as most of you know, we were able to fund Debbie’s position with us by donating half her time to CASA de Maryland and paying for it as part of our Global Mission budget, which was not sustainable in the long term. Second, I have been in conversation about how to find or create a sustainable model for this congregation going forward, given that ‘separate is vulnerable.’ We will be restructuring clergy roles and changing staffing to create such a model.
Debbie has been an important part of our common life in the whole parish in the past two years and a significant leader among our Spanish speakers for much longer - serving first as seminarian and then as primary pastor for the San Albano community. She has offered leadership development and been with us in times of joy and sorrow, offering her significant pastoral skills and giving tirelessly of herself for the growth of the community. We hope to be able to announce that Debbie has found a new ministry opportunity before she steps down this summer, and that we can enjoy a wonderful celebration of her ministry, both past and future.
Among her many accomplishments, she has embraced talking less about ‘the San Albano community’ as a separate group and more about the Spanish liturgy of St. Alban’s Parish and the community being fully part of one parish. This seemingly small thing is actually significant, and we will be exploring what that means as our distinctive but accessible-to-all liturgy is served by all the clergy of the parish who will also offer pastoral care as we do for all Anglo and other parishioners.
There will be further conversation about that in the weeks to come, but for now I ask that we turn our attention to celebrating our time with Debbie and the gifts she has both shared and brought forth in us.
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