Year-to-date giving statements were mailed out this week. Please let the office know if you did not receive one or if you have any questions. This is the first statement generated from our new system, Breeze. It is extremely helpful for our record-keeping if your information is entered into Breeze accurately. If you have not received a Breeze invitation or need any help with your account, please contact stjohnsdirectoryhelp@gmail.com or Nancy in the office.
Thank you!
St. John’s Youth member Lily Christopher recently interviewed Rev. Edward Thornley on his background, how he came to St. John’s, and the role of teens in the church. Here is their conversation:
I like to be called Father Ed by the church.
I decided to become a priest because I felt a sense of calling when I was 15 and felt like it was the best career for me.
I had other careers in mind such as jobs relating to film, creative writing, or music. I play guitar for fun. I also used writing skills to write my thesis on religion and film. I try to be imaginative when reading the bible and presenting it to others to include creativity. I was a teacher before being a priest when teaching in a high school where I did academic work in theology. I also worked for 2 years in catering on one of the royal estates. I learned about kitchen, bar, and cook work, also learning how to count money. It was really fun and interesting, but pretty random!
I absolutely love working with kids. I was a full time school chaplain for 6 years and also a university chaplain. I worked with students for 15 years and really enjoyed conversing with young people and talking to them.
The best part of working in schools was being around people and students and teachers all the time. I got to do interfaith work and connect and learn about people with many different religions.
I try to think about how I can relate to people's experiences through the sermon that day in church. The church can also grant more opportunities to be social with peers. I enjoyed church because I made friends and expanded my faith greatly. The church provides more opportunities to interact and go further into Christianity. Faith works differently for everyone. Teens should be open with their priest and not afraid to doubt and challenge things that they believe.
I plan to better Youth Group by having the teens create new worship services and having young people have a say in what they do. I also want them to feel free to use the church as a gathering for birthdays or parties. I also think service learning through charities or helping the community could really make youth group more fun and beneficial.
Teens should go to church if they sense that God is doing something in the world, have an interest in exploring faith with friends and people who care about each other, or to connect with people with common interests. They benefit by making friends, knowing God on a deeper level, and talking about things that matter to them.
I was attracted to St. John’s because of the service learning and being proactive and how much people care about the town. With the service learning it includes the Appalachian Service Project and Free. that many from the church have been involved in. I also believe the church is doing its work well by expanding the worship styles and mixing contemporary and older ways of learning.
Community outreach is really important. There are four key parts of outreach including worship, education, care, and community. Worship is going deeper into the bible, education is bible studies and learning, care includes pastoral help and reaching out, and community is service and connections socially.
Sphyro and Duke are loving the rectory and are glad they get to roam around a bigger area.
I recommend Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder, which I read when I was 16 by recommendation. I read it when I was studying philosophy. It’s about two people who are caught in another dimension which is in a book. They have to use different modern and ancient philosophers’ teachings to escape. I really like ghost stories and horror movies, my favorite being The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. It tells the story of a haunted house in the English countryside with a group of people solving the mystery behind it.
I always laugh really hard at Sphyro when he gets into his adventures. One time, he crawled underneath a chest of drawers and couldn't get out. He then started to make a high pitched cricket sound. When my wife and I tried to get him out he wanted to stay!
I am on Instagram, Facebook, and X. I work on St. John’s Facebook page as well with updating the posts.
Lily Christopher is a member of the St. John’s High School Youth Group.
Dear friends,
This week, I have been thinking a great deal about our ministries to children, youth, and their families. Our Sunday School has begun in full force, and our Open House was well attended last Sunday particularly by some of our newer families. Our Youth Group Open House event takes place this coming Sunday as our program year gets underway. And I find myself beginning to organize my Confirmation Class curriculum for the new year. Our work with younger generations and the intergenerational dimension of our parish’s life has, then, been very much on my mind over the last few days. Indeed, our Gospel reading this Sunday features one of the moments when Jesus draws his disciples’ attention to the children in their community. He says, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” (Mark 9.37)
In relation to this, one person who has also been very much in my prayers is a man named Jerome Berryman. For those who are not familiar, The Rev. Dr. Jerome Berryman was an Episcopal priest who created the pedagogy and indeed church movement that we now call Godly Play. Berryman created Godly Play in the early nineties, following many years of research in theology, education theory, child psychology, and the Montessori teaching method which focuses intently on creative play and experiential learning. As Berryman and his wife Thea developed their own method, it quickly grew into an international foundation and is now one of the most widely used childhood spirituality curricula in the world. It is also used with adults, and, following recent research, with persons experiencing mental health and special educational needs.
In a typical Godly Play lesson, children enter a small, often custom designed chapel, where they sit in a circle, and a teacher uses sensory objects to tell a Biblical story. Instead of simply reading from the Bible or preaching to the children, the teacher “unpacks” the story in front of the group and asks “wondering questions” about the characters and elements of the narrative. “I wonder who these people are?” “I wonder what they thought they were looking for.” “I wonder where you are in this story.” Following the story and reflection, there are then activities, and a feast (as the lesson is reminiscent of the Eucharist), after which the children receive a blessing before departing. The next time you find yourself walking around our Sunday School classrooms, you will notice many such stories placed on the shelves lining each room. Many churches adapt the lessons and the method to cater to the needs of their own community. And Godly Play is one part of our curriculum at St. John’s, too.
Jerome Berryman passed away this summer, on August 6, at the age of 87. He was a wonderful human being. Over the last few years, I got to know him a little when I was serving as a school chaplain and conducting research in the theology and spirituality of childhood. One of the things Berryman would often say was that childhood was not simply an early stage of life, but a way of looking at reality at any stage of our life. Even as an adult, Berryman was someone who had a “child-like” quality about him: he would always talk to you, somewhat disarmingly, on equal terms (even if you were newer to researching the field, like me); he was curious, enthusiastic, and thoughtful; he asked probing questions, and if he discovered something he didn’t understand he wouldn’t let go of it. In many ways, his life, research, teaching, and ministry were all of a piece. He both taught and embodied a way of life where childhood was not understood simply as a specific period of time, but a way of being in the world, a form of perception, a kind of logic or sense of the world that is, in many ways, timeless.
Essentially, then, “becoming like a child to enter the kingdom of heaven,” as Jesus teaches elsewhere (Matthew 18.3-5), is not about going back in time or becoming nostalgic but learning to look at reality as it is right now and engaging with it authentically and openly. This, I think, is something we can all learn from, wherever we may be on our own spiritual journey. And as we move further into this new year together and find ourselves reorienting ourselves to life as a Christian community, how we tell our own stories, engage in wonder, and understand the way we look at the world is essential. It is vital for living into our relationships with one another and with God. I wonder what this looks like for you?
With every prayer and blessing,
Ed.
Creation Care has two opportunities to help care for our planet this weekend:
On Saturday, Sept. 21, join St. John’s Green Guardians to add a few new plant species to our pollinator garden. Some plants are best introduced in the fall and diversity will strengthen our garden and attract pollinators until winter. Bringing your own gloves and trowel is helpful, and no prior experience is needed! We will also discuss future plans for the garden.
On Sunday, Sept. 22, our Ministry will gather for its first formal planning meeting. Join us to discuss how we can continue “greening” St. John’s including updates to our building and improving our outdoor spaces. We will also discuss liturgical resources on climate and how we educate our Parish and the wider community on issues of environmental concern.
We still have a few dates available to water, please sign up here:
Big congratulations go to Outreach Chair & Free. founder Kenzie Blackwell, who has been featured in the 2024 Advocacy Issue of Pink Chair Storytellers!
The publication talked with her about period poverty, how Kenzie discovered the problem, and the work that Free. is doing to address it.
Are you ready for some Not-So-Spooky fun?
We’re looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help bring our 7th annual Not-So-Spooky Haunted House to life once again this year! There’s a role for everyone, whether you are 8 or 98, so please join us in welcoming the community for this special event on four nights: October 18, 19, 25 & 26. Sign up today and let’s make this the most fun-filled haunted house ever!
Questions? Please reach out to Kaja and Dan Fickes and look for the Haunted House table at coffee hour through September.
Join the Needlepoint Guild this fall! Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of each month (except December).
Please contact Wendy Ellison with any questions or to sign up.
Do you like to sing? Fall is a great time to join St. John's Choir. If you can carry a tune, you can sing in the choir. Bonus points if you can read music or have choral experience! All voice parts are welcome, especially tenors and basses. Rehearsals are on Thursday evenings at 7:30. Contact Buffy Gray, Organist-Choirmaster, for more information during coffee hour or by email.
Does your child like to sing? Children in grades 3 through 8 are invited to join St. John's Choristers for musical education through singing and lots of fun. Rehearsals are on Tuesday afternoons at 4:00. Second-graders who are advanced readers and have a long attention span are welcome, too. Contact Buffy Gray, Organist-Choirmaster, for more information during coffee hour or by email.
Have you ever thought about TV production? We invite you to become a member of the Stream Team, and learn how to stream our services. While the task sounds daunting, the production software is pretty simple to use. We are looking for adults and high school students to serve in this ministry. Contact Tom Daley, David Clinton, or Katie Sutton if you are interested!
Serving at the altar is especially rewarding and incredibly educational, not to mention fun!
We are looking for young folks to fill in the ranks of our acolytes. Typically acolytes age between 9 years old through high school, but we have had acolytes as young as 7 or 8 depending on the individual.
If you would like to try your hand at this ministry, we ask that you try three Sundays to start. Please contact Tom Daley, David Clinton, or Will Buckley and let us know, or even better, show up at 9:30 any Sunday morning and ask to give it a try. We can use as many as 7 acolytes on a typical Sunday morning!
Father Ed+ and Devon have been nestling into the Rectory and are very excited to spend more time with their St. John’s community! Please take a look at the following opportunities over the next few months to gather in small groups for fellowship and conversation. The Rector Transition Team is coordinating several “meet and greets” in the Thayer Room for coffee, breakfast treats or wine and light nibbles. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Sara Dickison Taylor and use the sign-up link below.
Father Ed+ and Devon look forward to seeing many of you!
Thurs., Sept. 19 from 10–11:30 a.m.—Coffee and Conversation in the Thayer Room
Thurs., Sept. 26 from 7–8:30 p.m.—Wine and Nibbles in the Thayer Room
Tues., Oct. 8 from 9:30–11 a.m.—Coffee and Conversation in the Thayer Room
Wed., Oct. 23 from 7–8:30 p.m.—Wine and Nibbles in the Thayer Room
Thurs., Nov. 7 from 7–8:30 p.m.—Wine and Nibbles in the Thayer Room
Thurs., Nov. 14 from 10–11:30 a.m.—Coffee and Conversation
The Rector Transition Committee
—Sara Dickison Taylor, Jenn GaySmith, and Elizabeth Moulds
Dear friends,
This week, I found myself rediscovering the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. As many of you will know, Bonhoeffer was one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century. He was a German Lutheran pastor and theologian who came to prominence during the Second World War and was a key member of the Confessing Church: a movement within Protestant Germany to oppose Nazism. A widely known activist and teacher, Bonhoeffer was eventually imprisoned for his involvement in a plot against Hitler. He was sent to Tegal Prison, and then Flossenbürg concentration camp where he was executed on 9th April 1945, days before the camp’s liberation.
Bonhoeffer’s writing came up at our Wednesday Group this past week. During our discussion, Fr. Robert, our Rector Emeritus, cited one of Bonhoeffer’s most famous books, The Cost of Discipleship, and in particular the difference between cheap and costly grace. Cheap grace, for example, makes no demands on us, and so prevents us from fully engaging with complexity and truth. It is a way of thinking about grace as something which comes easily and doesn’t require us to change anything about our lives or habits. Costly grace, on the other hand, makes demands on us; it is a form of grace which requires us to reckon with those things which prevent us living more fully into our relationship with God. This means being okay with making mistakes, making sacrifices, and accepting our calling even when it's tough.
While this may seem an intense way to start a weekly email, I find that there is also something very subtle, familiar, and reassuring to note in these ideas. Indeed, the difference between cheap and costly grace can also be found in Bonhoeffer’s less intense though equally profound book, Life Together. I first read this book as a student in theological college, and it has guided much of my thinking about faith ever since. In this book, Bonhoeffer considers what it means for everyday Christian communities, such as parishes and religious houses, to be places of true spiritual transformation. He argues that it is the Church, globally but also locally, which is the focal point of Christian ethics and the heart of the Body of Christ. Thus, it is in the very fabric of our lives, as we live together, and then interweave our experience with scripture and worship, that we encounter God in our midst. In academic circles, theologians often refer to this kind of thinking as “narrative theology,” where the very threading of stories and scripture in the context of community shapes our Christian life.
This may, in the end, seem like a simple thing to note at the start of a new week, and it is something which, in my mere two months here, I have spoken about quite a lot already. But I find myself repeatedly coming back to this idea in these early days with you. For I think that what makes a parish church community one of the most profound places to be is that, as Bonhoeffer notes, it is a place where we are constantly reminded to avoid that all-too-easy option to “pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.”
When I said last week that I want you to share whatever is important to you, I meant it. It’s the only way we learn and build trust, and the only way we learn what it means to experience grace.
Thank you for reading!
Yours in Christ,
Father Ed.
It may not feel much like winter outside but St. John’s is already hard at work planning for our 2024 Holiday Boutique (it’s our 24th year!), which will take place on Friday, November 22 and Saturday, November 23.
Vendor selection is in full swing and we’d like to extend an invitation to any interested vendors to apply now for this year’s show! The deadline is September 10th, but we invite vendors on a rolling basis so we encourage anyone interested to apply early! Please click here for more information and to apply.
