A Message from our Seminary Intern:
Verna Dozier and Lay Ministry
“The temptation to establish a ‘set apart’ ministry of the ordained haunts the church. We have great difficulty grasping the idea that all of us are called, all of us, are ministers.” Dr. Verna Dozier, The Authority of the Laity page 10
As someone who is spending years preparing for ordination to the priesthood, I have spent a great deal of time reflecting on what it truly means to be a minister. The Church teaches – and I deeply believe – that we enter ministry not at ordination, but at baptism.
In baptism we are outwardly washed with water and anointed with oil, and inwardly united with Jesus Christ. We are born into God’s family and given new life in the Spirit. Through our baptismal vows, we are welcomed into the Body of Christ and commissioned as ministers in Jesus’ name — called to proclaim resurrection hope, to share in fellowship and sacrament, and to carry forward Christ’s work of reconciliation in the world.
We are all called to be ministers through our baptism.
As I move closer to my final year of seminary and look toward a life of service as a priest, I am increasingly grounded in this truth: my ministry is not created by ordination. It is rooted in baptism. This shared foundation unites us as a church. Before any of us wears a collar or serves at the altar, we stand together at the font.
This semester I have done intentional study in looking at a particular Episcopal figure who taught us a lot about a theology of the laity – Dr. Verna Dozier.
Born in Washington D.C., Dr. Dozier taught English in public schools for more than thirty years and was an instructor at the Virginia Theological Seminary. She was a popular retreat leader and was known for her ability to encourage and equip churches for Bible study. Among her books are Equipping the Saints: A Method of Self-Directed Bible Study for Lay Groups (1981); with Celia A. Hahn, The Authority of the Laity (1982); The Calling of the Laity: Verna Dozier’s Anthology (1988); and The Dream of God: A Call to Return (1991).
This semester I did a deep dive into the slim volume of The Authority of the Laity (1982), which outlined a problem in which lay people defer their authority to the clergy – thinking that church is something that the people in the fancy robes do up front on Sundays, not something that informs our whole lives. Dr. Dozier insisted that God’s love is boundless, and that laity must understand that their ministry is as accepted and necessary as ordained clergy members.
I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Dozier, and am so very glad for a chance to really dig into the beauty of affirming lay ministry and lay theology as worthy and necessary to the Episcopal Church.
There is still something effervescent and fizzy in me that bubbles up when I’m around the Eucharist. It is the calling that bids me to seek the priesthood – and while I was able to deny it as inconvenient and too difficult for a long time – I am filled with joy and promise in seeking ordination. However, I am affirmed in my life of ministry through my baptism and as a lay person. I hope that my continuing work will always be to uplift, encourage, and equip us all to recognize our invitation from God to participate in ministry.
Thanks be to God for the ministry we share!
Meghan
Connect With Us
Rector’s Office Drop-In Time
Rev. Jen has set her office drop-in day as Wednesday of each week from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. for anyone who would like to stop in and visit. You are always invited to make an appointment for a time convenient for you. Mondays are her Sabbath day.
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Rogation Sunday
In-Person Sunday Morning Worship Service, May 10, led by the Rev. Dr. Jennifer Oldstone-Moore,10:15 a.m.
You can stream the service via St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Greencastle, Indiana Facebook Page. Click on this link to view the Live Stream. We will start the Live Stream 5 minutes prior to the start of the service.
Click here for the service booklet for this service.
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The Latest Updates
PRAYERS FOR OTHERS
If you have prayers that you would like offered on Sunday–prayers of thanksgiving, for those in trouble or sickness, or those who have died and those who grieve, please call in or send an email to Michelle. The names will be said aloud on Sunday for four consecutive weeks and then cycled off. If you would like the prayers continued, please tell Michelle and the names will be added to the long-term prayer list.
HYMN NAMES IN THE BULLETIN
In the coming weeks, you may notice a change in the way that hymns are designated in the service bulletin. The information at the bottom of the hymn includes a hymn name in capital letters. The hymn that begins “Jesus Christ is risen today” is set to the tune Easter Hymn. The tune for “Come, Thou Fount” is Nettleton. “Let all mortal flesh” is set in our hymnal to the tune Picardy, and both “Love divine, all loves excelling” and “Alleluia! Sing to Jesus” are set to Hrfrydol.
Our reasons for this change are simply pragmatic: the hymn names are shorter than the first lines, and fit better into our bulletins. But there is also a certain skill—and pleasure—to identifying tunes as well as words, in part because it highlights the artistry of the person who wrote the music. Be sure to look this week for this new feature to our bulletins.
BOOK AND BIBLE GROUP
We will be taking a break through the summer from our Tuesday afternoon gatherings. Keep your eyes peeled for announcements for occasional gatherings of Pub Theology when we will gather to share snacks, a cold drink, and conversation. Evening Prayer will still be celebrated at 4.00 pm on most Tuesdays.
THINKING ABOUT BAPTISM?
The next feast day designated for Baptism is Pentecost, May 24. Contact Jen+ if you have questions or are thinking about being baptized.
PROJECTS AND PARISH SPACE
We are blessed with ample and well organized spaces for our worship, fellowship, and outreach. However, things have a way of collecting at churches—as we found when Gwen Morris and Cathryn Ensley cleaned out the front closet. We want to know what’s going on! Please mark supplies or materials gathered for outreach with the name of the project and the name of the point person.
HEALING PRAYER
Most Sundays our intern Meghan will be offering anointing and healing prayer at Sunday services during communion. Meghan will set up a station in the narthex; meet there for general or specific prayers for healing.
EVENING PRAYER
Join us for Evening Prayer in the sanctuary on Tuesdays at 4:00. Evening Prayer is a wonderful service to wind down the day and move into the evening hours.
CONTEMPLATIVE PRAYER
On Wednesdays at 1:00, we gather for about a half hour in quiet contemplative prayer. A leader introduces the prayer and a bell is chimed; we sit in prayer for twenty minutes until another chime sounds and then close with a spoken prayer. Feel free to come in any time between 1:00 and 1:20 to pray in silence in a lovely sacred space.
ALTAR FLOWER CALENDAR
An altar flower calendar is posted in Hamilton Hall. Sign up to sponsor the altar flowers to commemorate a birthday or anniversary, remember a loved one, or in thanksgiving for an important event. We ask a donation to help offset the cost of the altar flowers and other worship expenses. Be sure to tell the office your dedication so that it can be printed in the bulletin. Please make checks payable to St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church and in the memo field please put this information: Altar Flowers, person’s name, occasion, Sunday date you’d like for the flowers to be on the altar.
VESTRY MEETING MINUTES
If any of you are interested in what your Vestry is doing, there are two copies of each month’s minutes on the music stand in Hamilton Hall. Feel free to read and return!
SHOPPING LIST FOR NON-FOOD PANTRY
Please see the Non-Food Pantry Latest section of the newsletter for items most in need for this month. Meals and conversation in Hamilton Hall are going well. Patrons are now able to pick out items they most need. Your contributions help our budget go farther in helping meet the needs of those in Putnam County. Please scroll down to view the distribution dates and latest updates. If you can help with this ministry in any way, please contact Harriet Moore or Carl Huffman.
KROGER COUPONS
If you have any unwanted Kroger coupons, please bring them to Hamilton Hall and place in the window ledge near the “Little Library”. We would like to make them available to our Non-Food Pantry recipients so that they might be able to take advantage of them to help extend their food budget. Thanks in advance!
FREE DAILY DEVOTIONAL
We have some large print Day by Day daily devotionals in the sanctuary that you are free to take home for your personal devotions–and if we know that people would like copies, we can order the right amount. Many of you may also appreciate the on-line version of Day to Day. Click here.
Non-Food Pantry Latest
Saturday, May 30
• Noon to 2:00 p.m.
There will be a distribution in Hamilton Hall and light lunches will be served inside. We are grateful for all those who have worked so hard to obtain supplies for the Non-Food Pantry. Items are having to be purchased from a variety of sources making it much more expensive. Donations to help offset this extra cost will be gratefully accepted!
Top 3 Needed Items
Your prayers are asked for:
Peggy Angleton, friend of Jen+
Haile Bane, grandson of Joanne Haymaker
Beth Benedix, friend to many at St. Andrew’s
+Tom Breidenthal
Jennifer Clarke, friend of Patti Harmless
Diane * Judy * Angela Evans
Heather Cantonwine and family, friends of the Knuths
Tom Kaiser, friend of Jen+ & Chris
Lynda, friend of Sarah Finlay-Black
Warren Macy
Teresa Masten, friend of Karen & Jim Mannon
Sally Motsch, friend to many at St. Andrew’s
Mary Mountz
Gene Shaw, brother-in-law of Patti Harmless
Elizabeth & Natalie Sheffler, daughter & granddaughter of Page & Narda Cotton
Deloris Smith, friend of Emily Knuth
Jenny Smyth, niece of Patti Harmless
Luke Smith, son of Mark Smith
Skip Sutton
Eugene Swanger, friend of Jen+
Larry Taylor, former member of St. Andrew’s
Donald Voermans, father of Nick Voermans
Edwina Vose, friend of Jen+
Catherine Waggoner, friend of Jen+
Dwight Ziegler, uncle of Stephanie Gurnon
For those who have died, and those who mourn
Fr. Royce Brown (retired priest of Diocese of Wyoming), Brown family and friends Ralph and Leigh Earle. Bob Bottoms (former DePauw president), Bottoms family.
Diocesan Cycle of Prayer: St. Paul’s, Indianapolis, The Rev. Devon Anderson, The Rev. Jeffrey Bower
Our companion dioceses: The Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil: The Most Rev. Mauricio Jose Araujo De Andrade, Primate of Brazil and Bishop of Brasilia. The people and Diocese of Haiti and Saint Andre’s Parish and school in Mithon.
Anglican Cycle of Prayer: The Church of Pakistan (United)
Birthdays: Henrietta Schwartz, May 9; Breckin Finlay, May 13
Anniversaries: none
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