St. Andrew's Weekly Newsletter, April 8, 2020

Building God's Kingdom through

Worship, Outreach and Fellowship

Today's prayer video:

Walking the path of Holy Week

Click here to watch

Close up of St. Andrew's stained glass

Walking through Holy Week together

The holiest days of our Church year are upon us, and this year we will walk through them in new and different ways because of the pandemic. This is a brief description of what you can expect when you join us online for worship:

Maundy Thursday

On this night, the theme is sacrificial love. We hear the story of Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, and the service ends with the stripping of the altar. Our online worship will end in silence, with pictures of our altar being stripped. See the article below for a guide to tuning in Live for the 7 PM service.

Good Friday

We have mailed to you a hard copy of the service of the Stations of the Cross so that you can follow along as we walk those stations at St. Andrew’s. We will post the service at noon, the hour when Jesus was crucified.

Holy Saturday

Marc will lead us through this short and somber service.

Easter Sunday

On Easter Sunday we will celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our service, packed with Alleluias, will contain the familiar music we love so well and a few new elements. The service will be live at 10:30 on Easter morning. To mark the day as special in this disorienting time, plan to dress up for the service. Afterward you can take pictures of yourselves in your Easter finery, and share them on our Facebook page. -Anne

Lectionary for Easter Sunday

click here to read the scriptures

Getting ready to join our Maundy Thursday service in real time (Live) via Zoom

Many of you joined us Live for our Palm Sunday service this past Sunday morning. People reported back that, even though we were not together physically, they experienced a sense of oneness with each other, just know we were all watching and worshipping together in real time. If you weren't able to watch Live on Sunday, we hope you will give it a try on Thursday evening. Just follow the instructions below. But even if you can't join live, never fear, as a recording will be posted to St. Andrew’s Facebook page later on Thursday night.

Our Live Maundy Thursday service will take place on Thursday night at 7 PM. Between now and Thursday evening, there are a few things you need to do to get ready to watch in real time (Live).

If you will watch on your desktop, laptop or iPad:

Click on this link
Click on Open Zoom
Enter your name
Choose join with computer audio

You have now laid the groundwork for Maundy Thursday. Click on leave meeting at the bottom of the screen to exit for now.

If you will watch on your mobile phone

Download the iPhone or Android Zoom Cloud Meetings app from your device's app store.
When you open the app, click Join a Meeting
Enter the meeting ID in the box at the top of the screen. The meeting ID is 474-768-419.
Click JOIN
Enter your name and email address, click OK

You will see the words Maundy Thursday at the top of the page and the words waiting for host to start this meeting.

You have now laid the groundwork for Thursday. Click on leave at the top right of the screen to exit for now.

Regardless of how you will watch, you will receive an email reminder Thursday morning with the link to join the 7 PM service.

Have you submitted your Easter Project video yet?? Today is the deadline

The St. Andrew’s Easter Project will be a collection of videos filmed by parishioners in which they share reflections about John’s Easter story. It will be a way for us to hear from one another about what Jesus’ resurrection means in our lives right now. To learn more and for a link to John's Easter story, click here.

If you have any questions or concerns, email our Easter Project technology person, Raven Cadena, at [email protected].

Prayer requests from round 2 of our phone call ministry

The parishioners who are making calls on behalf of St. Andrew’s to every member of our parish have been asking folks what they’d like us to pray for. Praying is something each of us can do, no matter where we are.

Below are the requests we received in the second round of calls. In order to preserve confidentiality, we are not including last names. Please keep these people/situations in your prayers:

Kara, her husband, and her two children—Americans living in Spain
A daughter in Brooklyn and family members in Detroit
That this virus will end quickly
The whole world; and especially for a daughter whose work requires interaction with people
All caregivers, especially medical professionals working without adequate protection.
The staff and volunteers of THRIVE, for health and safety so that they can continue serving; and that they are able to reach those in need.
A parishioner with diverticulitis
A son’s work situation
Children who live in New York
The health of a baby due in October; Mom’s name is Rachel
Jonathan, an Emergency Room doctor in Leesburg
Dick, having trouble with his hips
All medical folks on the front lines
Parents of Elizabeth; Laurens, who is elderly and has COPD and heart disease; and his wife Allene, caring for him
Mimi; for her son, who works in the grocery business; and for her brother Matthew, a doctor
All of us
Lynda’s brother, Jerome, a heart transplant survivor
The Patriot Colony Community
Julie’s mom, Nicki, who is bedridden
Rory, Mason, and Jennifer
Matthew
Katie, recovering from surgery for a detached retina

Do you know how to sew?

Patriots Colony, a retirement community in Williamsburg, where Travis Greenman serves as Chaplain, needs 300 masks sewn for their assisted living and convalescent center residents. Travis is asking if folks in our parish are willing to pitch in. They need the pleated kind. Elastic is hard to come by now, so people are using the pony tail ties. Here is the pattern and pictures for sewing masks.

Email Travis if you can help. Thanks everyone!

Link needs our help - hygiene kits for the homeless

LINK needs the following items for hygiene kits: soap, shampoo, lotion, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and facecloths. If you can provide any of these items, please contact LINK directly at 947-5880 to make arrangements to drop off the items. LINK is open between 9:00 AM and noon Monday through Friday.

LINK provides emergency services to homeless men, women and children facing unmet basic needs, housing crises or other emergency situations.

Donations are still welcome for our neighborly St. Andrew’s T.P. Project: collecting toilet paper for families who can’t find any.

Next time you’re at the store (social distancing!) and there’s toilet paper on the shelf (one roll, a dozen) buy some, drop it off in the bin in St. Nicholas Chapel which is always open to the public. The t.p. will be distributed and whatever is leftover when things get back to normal, we’ll donate. Thanks neighbor!

Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7

Church bells in Diocese to be rung every Thursday at noon

Every Thursday, at noon, church bells from our diocese will be rung for three minutes in honor of the health care community and first responders.

In addition, our Diocese encourages you to use the hashtag #SoVaGrateful to post your prayers, thoughts and thanksgivings on Facebook and Instagram. Our hope is that health care workers and first responders will be uplifted by our posts and find comfort in knowing that their service and commitment is valued.

Announcing online giving at St. Andrew’s through Tithe.ly

After much research, we are excited that we can now offer a new way to give online using your credit or debit card or your bank’s routing/account numbers.

click on the purple GIVE NOW button below
create your account and log in
enter your information into the simple form
choose whether to make a recurring contribution or a one-time gift. Don't worry, if you decide later to choose a different option, you can make changes at any time.
click on the cover fees box to cover the small processing fee if you are paying with a credit or debit card (there is no fee for having funds sent directly from your bank account) Although this is optional, we sincerely hope you will do that.

Other things to know:

St. Andrew's will be listed on your bank or credit card statement as the recipient
your contributions will be reported directly to our financial administrator, and will be listed on your regular church giving statements.

An important note! We are not changing anything else about the way we accept contributions. If you are happy with the way you give, we are too! If you have any questions, please contact Rachel Roby.

GIVE NOW

Staff days off Monday through Wednesday; no prayer videos Monday and Tuesday

Between Holy Week/Easter preparations and the current coronavirus situation, our hardworking staff has put in many extra hours of work over the past few weeks. So that all staff can have a complete break, we will not be producing daily prayer videos or sending any other church email on Easter Monday and Tuesday. There will be a prayer video on Wednesday but staff will not officially return to work until Thursday, April 16. A suggestion: If you feel a bit bereft on Monday or Tuesday without a daily video, you can always go back and rewatch some of the earlier ones. Even if you don’t have Facebook, you can always access the St. Andrew’s Facebook page by clicking here.