"LEAD LIKE ANDREW"
Membership Newsletter
Brotherhood of St. Andrew
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Welcome back to the current edition (Volume 26) of our bi-weekly newsletter "LEAD LIKE ANDREW." It's a quick read, multi-topic news channel for members to see what is going on, what is planned, and successes from the previous weeks.
We urge you to contact us with news, tidbits, or notices of upcoming events in your area, so we can include them! We would also value your feedback on this newsletter or how you are being served by the national office.
Dr. Roy Benavides email Roy for feedback or for sharing newsletter information!
Please share this newsletter with other men in your parish or community.
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JOIN US EACH WEEK
Mid-Week
Mid-Day
Pray Day
Join us...
What better way to level set during the middle of the week? We will be holding a weekly Wednesday, 12 noon (CDT) prayer time over ZOOM open to all Brothers and guests. Let's pray for the Brotherhood, for our Brothers, and even share some stories of how Prayer has impacted you or someone you know!
We can all spare 20 minutes in prayer. It's like making a stop at the faith service station to fill up your prayer tank!
Please join us every week when you can to recharge your prayer batteries!
The Zoom link can be accessed by clicking here. You must enter Passcode 0723
Note: The scripted Formats for the Mid-Day Prayers may be found in Google Drive under the Shared Folder of "Membership Activities."
Prayer Leaders Scheduled
August 24 Bros. Nick Cox, Province II President and
Rory Smith, Race and Reconciliation VP
August 31 Bro. Roy Benavides, Sr. VP Administration
Sept. 7 Bro. Tom Martin, Field OPS VP
Sept. 14 TBA
Sept. 21 Bro. Chris Matthews, Province VII President
If you'd like to lead the program on a Wednesday, it's simple...we already have the script made out (in our devotional handbook or the Book of Common Prayer)!
We're done in about 20 minutes....that's it!
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September Webinar
Rev. Peter Rodgers
Our guest for the next monthly webinar is Rev. Peter Rodgers. He was Rector of St. John's Episcopal Church, New Haven Connecticut, and an Associate Fellow of Timothy Dwight College at Yale University from 1979 until 2003. He holds degrees from Hobart College, General Theological Seminary and Oxford University. Before coming to St. John's in 1979 he was curate for student ministry at the Round Church in Cambridge, England. . In his retirement, he teaches New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, Sacramento campus, and is Pastor of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Antelope, CA.
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He has published several journal articles and books on the text of the New Testament and is the author of Knowing Jesus, a basic introduction for those who want to explore what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. His latest book, The Pelican and the Phoenix, is an excellent story about Rufus, a scribe of the roman church, who was on a mission in western Britain in 184 A.D.
Our monthly webinars are held on the first Wednesday of the month at 8pm EDT. The next one will be September 7, and you can join by simply clicking here.
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Meet Our Peeps!
Each edition we'll be highlighting a couple of folks so we can all become more familiar with our Brotherhood members and staff from all over the country! Digital ministry is important ministry and especially these days. Relationships can be formed online with caring and informative interaction. We can visually connect and share Good News.
God is everywhere. Church is everywhere.
This week let's meet:
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Brother James "Nick" Cox
A so-called Baby Boomer, I had my childhood years in the 1960s and my teenage years in the 1970s all on a tiny 13 square mile island in the Caribbean called Carriacou. That afforded me a great experience, because life was simple and great monetary wealth was not what was needed to be happy. I was brought up as an Anglican in the times when there was a subject called “Scripture” as part of the high school curriculum and “Religious Instruction” was part of both Primary (Elementary) and Secondary (Middle and High School) education. That was a great foundation for me.
My parents felt, though, that opportunities for life would be more meaningful if we ceased to restrict ourselves to a small island, and so, at the end of 1979, my family moved to New York. I knew that this was the right move, because the tertiary educational opportunities that I could not afford in Carriacou, were now available to me in the United States of America.
The transition to the Episcopal Church was natural and as time marched on I became more actively involved in the mission of the Church. I got married and baptized both my daughters in the Episcopal Church
I joined the Brotherhood of St. Andrew when the Chapter was revived at St. Gabriel’s Church in Brooklyn. I served as Chapter treasurer, Brooklyn Assembly treasurer, and Chapter director over the years. In 2021 I was elected as the president of Province II. The experience of membership in the Brotherhood has served to make my life more centered in the Christian way of serving God and neighbor. Each day we as Brothers Andrew should take opportunities to bring others to Christ sharing the Good News and setting good examples.
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Brother Larry Biddle
Born in Aurora, Colorado I grew up in Sacramento, California where I attended Catholic schools—Immaculate Conception ES, Christian Brothers/Bishop Armstrong HS, St. Mary’s College of California—accepted to attend NYU’s Junior Year Abroad at The University of Madrid in Spain. I met Virginia B. Marshall at Converse College, Spartanburg, SC in New York Harbor on our way to Spain on August 21, 1962 … We married on August 22 … two years later! We returned to Spain to pursue a Masters degree with Middlebury Language Schools in Spain.
We have 3 married children, 6 grandchildren—four married—and four great grandchildren … I am an Entrepreneur-Educator who has worked in K-20 schools. In 1984 I began applying 10 Essential Business PrinXiples in Education … My #1 Initiative at Conway HS was adopted @J_Renaissance—honored to be the founder … Our movement reaches 25,000 schools today
Our Brotherhood Chapter began at St. Paul’s Conway in 1990 in an effort to provide a men’s organization that would mentor young men in our community … Our BStA chapter continues to focus on prayer, study and service our Annual Golf Tournament, Seasonal Rod & Gun Days, hosting TeamEffort in our County for several years …
Our annual fundraising of $5,000 supports local, regional, national and international missions …
I'm honored to serve on our Executive Board for the last five years.
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A Bright Moment in Our Brotherhood History!
Signed by President Teddy Roosevelt
Vice President Charles Fairbanks
Speaker Joseph Gurney Cannon
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Has the Brotherhood transformed your spiritual journey?
Do you feel a part of a movement in men's ministry that has lasted nearly 140 years?
Have you considered making a bold statement of your dedication to our ministry and mission?
Join over 440 of your Brothers and become a
Brotherhood of St. Andrew
LIFE MEMBER!
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2022 National Council will meet in December
Only Chapters in good standing will be allowed delegate voting!
We will be holding our Brotherhood National Council meeting in December to approve the proposed 2023 budget, elect a Treasurer, and vote on proposed Constitution and Bylaws changes that have met notification requirements.
Only Chapters IN GOOD STANDING will be allowed voting delegates. Don't miss the opportunity for your chapter to have a voice and vote! "In Good Standing" indicates an Annual Chapter Report has been submitted and the chapter members are current in their dues for 2022.
The delegates from the 2021 Council meeting will be contacted by email to confirm if they are indeed the delegate for 2022 and if not, who from the chapter is to be the representative.
If you have proposed Constitution or Bylaws changes, please submit them to Br. Billy Harrison our National Council Chairman.
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Trinity Chapter in Mattoon, IL is bustling with evangelism!
First off, we are the only chapter in the Diocese of Springfield Illinois. We re started the group with 5 members of our Mission Parish. And we are in the process of adding 2 new members which includes our at large member Deacon Tim Leighton. We begin our meetings with morning prayer lead by lay readers.
We serve a morning Breakfast donated and catered by ladies of the congregation or local dinner. During this breakfast we get history lesson on origins of Christianity by Bailey, whom is a recently retired Eastern Illinois University Professor and Scholar. Along with discussions of other denominations by Fr. Knox and David Cole. Mainly Amish/Mennonite because they live around David and are only 15 minutes from our Parish. After breakfast we hold our meeting lasting 45 min to 3 hrs.
Activities-
At our first meeting we assigned homework projects for each of the members. These homework assignments created a informal insights of what charitable organizations are in our communities and what ministry we would like to do.
We decided on the high school Food Pantry. This food pantry was created to help the need of high school students that are homeless or sleeping on a friend's couch. They supply toiletries and non perishable food items to the students. We have delivered roughly 8 box’s of items along with a check for a$280 for donation. The items and money were collected by our parish and blessed the Sunday prior to delivery.
The City of Mattoon holds two parades, one on 4th of July and one during the festival Bagel Fest. We accepted significant donations of bottles water and ice. The parish congregation along with the Brotherhood labeled and handed out to the participants walking in the parade over 280 bottles of water at the 4th July parade and over 300 bottles of water at Bagel Fest.
We will be participating in Trunk or Treats led by City of Mattoon in Downtown area. While handing out candy to the children we will be displaying information about the Brotherhood and our Parish while passing out handouts to the Parents. This will help create an outreach to our activities at our chapter along with recruitment efforts.
Since our congregation is majority of elderly without kids in Sunday school, The parish hasn’t had a Sunday school class in years. Fr Knox and I have been working the last year on coming up an idea how to make Sunday school available for my children and the grandchildren of another member of The Brotherhood.
I came up with a creative and innovative idea of the Brotherhood led Sunday school program. As joint effort by our significant others / spouses to help make a program, and not just rely on two people to do it. This Sunday school program will follow Episcopal Guidelines and all material and items needed will be donated by the Brotherhood.
With Deacon Tim joining the Brotherhood from Trinity Lincoln and the work he will be doing as Deacon for that parish, our chapter will be providing support and joining forces with him to help make and create a successful prison ministry. With Lincoln having 2 Illinois state prisons, this will be a significant expansion of our chapter's ministries, while lead the way to creating a bigger and stronger influence of ministries in the Diocese of Springfield.
Thank You
Dustin Hay
Director- Mattoon Chapter of Brotherhood of St. Andrew
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Brothers handing out water |
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OUR THUMBPRINT?
From time to time, we’ve referred to the fact that our database of Brothers has nearly 5,100 names. But that also includes names of Brothers we’ve not heard from in several years, as well as prospects and complimentary memberships. But have you ever wondered what our “thumbprint” looks like in the USA? Here are a couple of graphics depicting the demographics that we’re able to glean from our database. BUT REMEMBER, what you see here is representative of the INFORMATION YOU HAVE PROVIDED US. We don’t know what we don’t know, and that is why it is so very important for chapters to send in Annual Chapter Reports (ACRs) to provide updated information on all of our Brothers!
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The first chart shows our membership by state (as of August 2022). But, you’ll notice that the total is not near the 5,100 in our database. In fact, it only represents the 42% who have fulfilled their 2022 membership pledges plus Life Members. |
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This second chart represents our AGE footprint (as of August 20). We have asked that our Brothers please send in (again on the ACRs or with their Member At Large renewals) their month and year of birth. This chart is only representative of the Brothers who have sent us their birth date info. And notice there are 53 Brothers age 90 and over! Including 4 centenarians: Brothers Michael Roithmayer, Jerry Hodge, Stanley Allen and Emil Saroch have all passed the 100 year old mark!
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But we want to keep in touch with you all, so it is so important that we have email addresses for our Brothers! In fact, as of August 22, we have 5110 in our Neon database. Of those,3,829 (75%) have provided us with email addresses, but 939 have "opted out" of receiving emails from us. The net is, we are only reaching slightly over 50% of our membership base. Please help us to be able to reach EVERYONE by checking with your chapter and MAL friends to make sure they are receiving our emails!
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S
NOTES
First, thanks so much to those members who continue to bring their pledges up to date for 2022. We are still below some 20%+ of where we need to be as we approach the end of August. Our budget was not, and will not be in the future, based on brothers pledging some years and not others. We are presently preparing the 2023 budget. It is driven, in large part, by member faithfulness to a $50 annual pledge. Please, if you haven’t made a pledge, do so this week. If your pledge was made by your chapter, please confirm the check was mailed.
Having said that, we are very proud of the 217 new members that have joined so far this year. YOU helped exceed the goal set with this renewed spirit of enthusiasm. BRAVO!! We try to have their “welcome letter” from National President Conrad Jones and membership materials mailed to them directly, or in the case of a new chapter to the parish itself, within seven business days of receipt. Thanks for letting us know when new members are still looking for the packet.
Lastly, never underestimate the difference you can make in bringing others to Christ, and helping others see Christ in you. When you do that the kingdom grows. I close bidding you wage compassion relentlessly,
In His Name,
Tom Welch, Executive Director
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NEW WEBSITE!
Kick off with the developer began the week of July 5-8, with an anticipated launch by Sept. 2!
WE COULD REALLY USE PICTURES OF BROTHERS IN ACTION!
Please send some "action shots" and names of who is in the pictures please!
If you have suggestions or pictures, drop an email to our Communications VP, Br. Gary Allman at communications@brothersandrew.net or to Br. Conrad Jones at conrad.jones@brothersandrew.net
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NOTES FROM THE MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, (who is also a Brotherhood member!) declared the Brotherhood as THE men’s ministry of the Episcopal Church. What an honor! Also, what a responsibility. To fulfill this large role throughout the church, the Brotherhood needs each brother to make an annual pledge, and when possible, even donate more dollars. Why?
We brothers have two tasks. Many persons today, especially younger men, are suspicious of institutions, and unfortunately, the church has a large suspicion target on its back. Therefore, each brother’s first task is to make personal contact to speak as an evangelist and tell the Good News. But none of us are done then. Our second task is to contribute membership dollars that are essential for the Brotherhood to present our message to a larger audience on a provincial and national level.
The committee’s task is clear, and we committee members are rolling up our sleeves to emulate our forebearers who reached out to lonely men in rooming houses in Chicago and invited them to church. So, we invite you to come with us. We need every brother. As we Southerners say, “What are y’all doin’?” As our Lord and master, Jesus Christ, said, “Come and see.” And I say, come on in, the water is fine. Come and see! Blessings, Dick+ The Season after Pentecost 2022.
The members of your committee are:
Dick Hooper (FL)
Tom Martin (GA)
Jim Carlock (VA)
Sam Palermo (PA)
Carlo Cherubini (OH)
Jeff Butcher (KY)
Roy Benavides (NM)
Eric Fisher (CA)
John Matthews (FL)
Nick Cox (NY)
Tom Welch (KY)
Conrad Jones (NC)
Combined, that represents over 270 years of Brotherhood experience. If you have suggestions for how we can maintain and enhance our Brotherhood community membership, please reach out to dick.hooper@brothersandrew.net
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Ev-angel-ism
"Be angels, be messengers of the good news that God has lavished upon us in Jesus Christ. Share with others what you have received. Evangelism is our core business too. We are called to lead (evangelizing churches) in a world where there is so much need, and so much confusion. What the world needs is what God has lavished upon us in Christ.”
- Archbishop Cottrell, famous in the Church of England for his personal ministry of evangelism
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CURRENT ISSUE... Episcopal Relief and Development Fund:
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PLAN FOR THE SUMMIT......
MEN’S DISCIPLESHIP
SUMMIT
Topic: “Why and How to Disciple Men”
Saturday, September 24, 2022
9:00am – 4:00pm
at
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Frisco, TX
6400 Stonebrook Pkwy, Frisco, TX 75034
Early Registration Fee of $45
Register by August 15 to avoid a late fee registration of $55
Your Registration Fee Includes:
Breakfast snacks; All -Day Coffee, Tea, Water, Soft Drinks,
Full Catered Lunch
Takeaway: The Four Priorities by Dr. Tolson
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Brotherhood of St. Andrew Asset Map
Check it out!
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Prayer Requests
If you have a personal prayer request please contact (502) 450-5809 to access the list and/or submit your requests. Accessing the list to join in the power of praying for those in need.
Many chapters have used various methods of keeping track of their prayer request. One such form has been used that organizes the requests and corporate prayers.
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Brotherhood Membership Updates
Welcome to New Members of the Brotherhood:
Marc Witmer, Michael Smith
Brothers entering the greater life:
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MEMBERS-AT-LARGE ACTIVITIES/EVENTS
Brothers-At-Large Wednesday Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, August 17th⋅7:00 – 8:15pm CDT (8:00 PM EDT, 6:00 PM MDT, 5:00 PM PST)
Monthly on the third Wednesday, until Oct 20, 2022
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Recovery Ministry
Recurring Zoom Recovery Meetings for addicts, family, and friends.
For all addictions such as alcohol, narcotics, sex, pornography, gambling, codependency, and overeating. Anonymity is maintained - first names only:
- Every Wednesday at 7 PM (Central) 12-step recovery meeting for all addictions. Sponsored by the Recovery Ministry of the Episcopal Church (RMEC). Zoom ID 923 8806 4304.
- 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month at 8 PM (Central) 12-Step Recovery Eucharist for all addictions. Sponsored by All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, Ca. Zoom ID 875 5107 8462.
Helpful Websites
A Quick Guide for Finding Help with Recovery from Addiction
Find recovery group meetings at these websites:
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A Reminder: brothersandrew.net Website Notes
We now have a Member's Only tab that is password-driven for members. The password for access to Brotherhood documents is "1883BSTA0122". This area is still under construction for the next few weeks.
SMS Text Messaging is now available
SMS messaging from the Brotherhood is now available. You can easily subscribe by texting (502) 305-5498. You will receive text events, meetings, and articles from the Brotherhood.
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Some Suggested Books
The Shack
by
William Paul Young
Fish
A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results
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Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D.
Harry Paul, and John Christensen
The Holy Epistle to the Galatians:
Sermons on a Messianic Jewish Approach
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D. Thomas Lancaster
Do you have any book recommendations? Write to us and give us the title and author, so we can share it with your Brothers!
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We Always Need Cross Articles and Ideas!
Send any stories you have about Brotherhood activity in your area to
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