St. Anne's Gate 9/7/2013

Dear Friends,

Greetings From St. Anne's Episcopal Church! You can find out more about St. Anne's on our website, http://stanneconway.org/, by following us on Facebook, or, ya know, coming to church at 10am this Sunday. 

On this day 27 years ago, Desmond Tutu became Archbishop of Capetown, South Africa. Many of Bishop Tutu's sermons and statements are available online, but we can be sufficiently inspired the the words he uttered when he visited Coastal Carolina University in 1999:  "Dream, dream, dream God's dream!"   

WORSHIP

We meet on Sunday at 10am in Lackey Chapel on the campus of Coastal Carolina University.

This Sunday, at the conclusion of the social gathering (about 11:30 am), Bill Warner will be leading a prayer service for those suffering in the Middle East. We'll keep in our thoughts the Coptic Churches of the Middle East, which have made a special request for the prayers of fellow-Christians around the world. Please take some time to participate.

We have three requests that will help us better use Lackey Chapel:

1.  Please don't park in the grass; if you are able, park in the new lot, leaving spaces closest to the chapel for the elderly and individuals unloading service items.

2.  Leave your kneeler up when you leave, and stack hymnals on the table to the left of the door as you leave.

3.  Most importantly, enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise.

MINISTRY

There are lots of plans for fall, and many opportunities to participate in the life of St. Anne's outside of Sunday morning.  

Rebecca Lovelace continues to sign up individuals and families for our small group luncheons. We aim to mix it up a bit so that parishioners can meet and better get to know newcomers. We'd like to keep these small groups low-key in terms of preparation, so if you host you are not expected to feed your whole group.

Students are already signing up for the college ministry (aka "The Canterbury Club").  The campus sponsors (Michael Roberts, Amy Shea, Nelljean Rice and Scott Parker) will be hosting an organizational meeting on campus next week. After that, we'll be calling on the parish to pray for, worship with, and feed these young people. It is also the case that students have been attending our Sunday morning Eucharists. We hope to get them hooked into the college group as well.

ORGANIZATION

We've overcome some technical glitches and now have all the minutes of the Mission Committee meetings online at www.stanneconway.org.

Some of you may have noticed the Sun News article about The Episcopal Church in Myrtle Beach. They're off and running!

See You Sunday,

Dan Ennis

Senior Warden

St. Anne's Gate 8/24/2013

Dear Friends, 

Greetings From St. Anne's Episcopal Church.  

I write you on the Feast Day of St. Bartholomew. Bartholomew (called Nathaniel in John's Gospel) was the apostle "in whom there was no guile." Tradition tells us he became a missionary after the Ascension and that he traveled to Armenia and perhaps even India.  

Canon Jeremy Davis of Salisbury Cathedral in England explains how a saint like Bartholomew, about whom little is known, can still be an inspiration to us (click here for full sermon):

"On this feast day we are left with very little: which might suggest to us – not that Bartholomew was an under-achiever – but on the contrary that holiness grows by grace within the ordinary and the unsung and the unrecorded. And that broadens my idea of holiness from a cult of the hero to a notion of the everyday and the possibility that you and I are called to be holy: that is to be saints. Our lives will not be recorded in the Church’s sanctorale, and the only miracle that is likely to attach to us is that God ever called us to his service in the first place. But Bartholomew gives us reason to think that, like Nathaniel under the fig tree, we have been recognised, called by name and bidden to follow with service."

WORSHIP

After our road trip to visit our friends in Myrtle Beach last Sunday, we are back home a Lackey Chapel this Sunday at 10am.  Click here for a map. 

We've learned a bit about how worship works best in the chapel, so here's a small note:  

Typically in an Episcopal church, the collection basket is passed during the anthem (thus the nickname of the anthem as "The Money Song.")  But at Lackey Chapel, it works better for the congregation to experience the anthem, and then pass the basket after the anthem is over, as the choir returns to their seats. This will prevent some traffic jams around the altar -- Suade returning to the organ, the celebrant headed to the altar, the choir members headed toward their seats.  Episcopalians don't do slapstick.

So after the anthem ends, we need not leap to our feet anticipating the sanctus ("Praise God from whom all blessings flow...").  Instead, after the anthem Suade will play an instrumental piece on piano while the baskets circulate.  When the ushers are ready to present the gifts, we stand.

By the way, since I mentioned collection baskets, this message constitutes the entirety of our stewardship campaign.

MINISTRIES

Speaking of money, checks written to St. Anne's go into the bank to help pay for clergy, chapel rent, and worship incidentals.  "Loose offerings" (what the youngsters call "straight cash money") always go to ares of need beyond St. Anne's.  Most of the time, our loose offerings are sent to Churches Assisting People, but this Sunday loose offerings will go to the Episcopal Church in Haiti.  If you know of a worthy ministry that we should add to our support list, let a member of the mission committee know.

Our college ministry is in the midst of formation.  The CCU students are back on campus, and we'll be calling an interest meeting to let students know that there are not only welcome at our 10am services, but that we would like to offer them an opportunity for fellowship and worship on Sunday evenings.  Stay tuned and keep those recipes ready.

VISION

If you're curious about the legal developments regarding The Episcopal Church, you may keep up via the diocesan website. At last week's mission committee meeting we discussed how St. Anne's origins and character would help all of us avoid much of the hard feelings and poor witness that comes when churches sue each other. We're a new church, not a "continuing parish," not a "worship group" and certainly not in some kind of "congregation-in-exile." We're right where we're supposed to be, and neither our identity nor our future depends on the outcomes of secular legal skirmishing. We have this clarity because you have chosen to come together and build in His name. 

Can't go wrong praying, but rather than pray for particular outcomes in particular cases, turning God into some cosmic Johnnie Cochran who is going to choose our side, it might be worthwhile to pray for anyone whose life, livelihood, and spiritual well-being depends on the effectiveness of legal counsel. That's a tough place to be. 

See you Sunday,

Dan Ennis

Senior Warden 

St. Anne's Gate, 8/7/13

Dear Friends,

Greeting from St. Anne's Episcopal Church!

If you're experiencing an unaccountable burst of the Christmas spirit, it's because today is set aside in the lectionary for John Mason Neale, an Anglican priest best known for his translations of Advent hymns, including "O Come O Come Emmanuel." Neale also popularized "Good King Wenceslas," a carol that contains a social gospel message and a call for more partying ("bring me flesh and bring me wine!" says the Good King at one point).  Father Neale sounds like one of those awful Episcopalians you've heard so much about.  The rascal.

WORSHIP

We meet at Lackey Chapel at 10am on Sundays for Eucharist. 

Please make a note that our August 18 Eucharist will be a joint service with the Episcopal Church in Myrtle Beach. We'll be meeting at 79th avenue and HWY 17 bypass, at the CCU Myrtle Beach campus.  There will be no St. Anne's Service at Lackey Chapel in 8/18.  We'll be at 79th, celebrating with our cousins from the other side of the waterway.  That service starts at 10:30 am. No groaning about having to drive to the beach!  The Intracoastal Waterway might just like the Red Sea at your coming.

We'll resume our normal 10am Lackey Chapel services the following week, August 25.

MINISTRY

*Speaking of the Myrtle Beach congregation, I hear tell that their August 4th service (their first at 79th avenue) was a great success, with 33 participants, a wonderful sermon by Fr. Merchant, and plans for their first confirmation class.  I have in hand a note:

"Dear Friends at St. Anne's --

Thank you for being an inspiration to us at the new Episcopal Church in Myrtle Beach. Your dedication and passion to keep the Episcopal Church alive in our community surely encourages us to move forward.

Your generous support in providing pastors for our Eucharist in our first month is truly a gift.  We are honored to be able to use the processional cross you used in your first service at St. Anne's.

We look forward to having you worship with us on August 18.

Sincerely

The Leadership Team

The Episcopal Church in Myrtle Beach"

*The Diocese is sponsoring a Congregational Development workshop on Tuesday, August 20 at 2:00-4:00 p.m at The Church of the Holy Communion (218 Ashley Ave., Charleston).  We've been invited to send a delegation.  If you're interested in attending, send a note to Andrea McKellar [andreamckellar@gmail.com].

*The Rev. Lucia Lloyd of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Heathsville, VA is coming down to celebrate Eucharist with the Episcopal Church in Myrtle Beach on August 11th. Rev. Lloyd's TEC congregation lost their building for a few years when an portion of the congregation voted to leave the Episcopal Church.  Eventually, TEC prevailed in court and Lucia's congregation was able to resume worshiping in their church building. Rev. Lloyd taken a special interest in our Diocese because of that experience, and her congregation has twice sent packages of liturgical items to us. We still use altar cloths from her parish.

The mission committee is assembling a thank-you basket to be presented to the St. Stephen's congregation.  We are looking for items that represent our community, such as local foods.
There is a basket ready to fill with thank you gifts for the congregation. Amy Shea will be happy to help anyone gather an item, or be available to receive something anyone in Conway may like to drop off at her house. Anything from the area or SC would be great. Some of the local grocery stores, such as IGA and Piggly Wiggly, as well as Bodega in downtown Conway have items that anyone would appreciate. You may also bring items to Lackey Chapel this Sunday.

Amy and Kevin's address is 907 Lakeside Dr (843-742-9142).

VISION

Our proposed mission statement has been positively received thus far:

St. Anne’s Episcopal Church strives to be a joyous community that welcomes all people who seek to know Christ in their minds, hearts, and lives.

We gather together at God’s table, offering diverse gifts but of one spirit, becoming the body of Christ and gratefully receiving God’s grace. 

We go out into a broken world, guided by scripture, tradition, and reason, honoring Christ’s command to serve others, believing that through God’s presence in our community, we can advance God’s kingdom in the world.

In the coming weeks and months, we'll be talking about how to put those lofty ideals into practice. There is, if I may says so, a growing sense among us that our coming together in this place at this time was for something more important than maintaining an Episcopal outpost in Horry County.  We've seen hints of our special purpose as a congregation, and far be it for a worldly layman like yours truly to suggest that there's a Providential hand at work at St. Anne's, but each Sunday, when the "Steady Sixty" assemble, it is hard not to believe that we've been gathered. We haven't been gathered for wallow in bitterness over deeds and injunctions.  We surely haven't been gathered to exist as a competing franchise in the business of Christianity, Incorporated.  Nor have we been gathered merely to hang out on Sundays with the comfort of a beautiful liturgy and familiar old hymns.

But we've been gathered, sure enough. Let's find out why.

See you Sunday,

Dan Ennis

St. Anne's Gate, July 27, 2013

Dear Friends, 

Greetings from St. Anne's Episcopal Church!  I hope you raised a glass to St. Anne herself yesterday, because July 26th is reserved in the Anglican calendar for the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The prayer appointed in the lectionary reads:

Almighty God, heavenly Father, we remember in thanksgiving this day the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and we pray that we all may be made one in the heavenly family of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

WORSHIP

We meet Sundays at 10am in Lackey Chapel, 105 University Drive, Conway, SC.  Click here for a map.

Please note that on Sunday, August 18 we will not meet at Lackey Chapel, but instead will participate in a joint worship service with the new Episcopal Church at Myrtle Beach. On that day we'll meet at Coastal Carolina University's Myrtle Beach Education Center on the Corner of Bypass 17 and 79th Avenue North Myrtle Beach.

MINISTRY

Our support for the new worship group in Myrtle Beach will likely provide more mission opportunities for our congregation. Not only are we assisting the Myrtle Beach church materially (just as churches such as St. Stephen's in Heathsville, VA assisted us when we were starting out), but it won't be long until we will have a sister congregation with whom we can collaborate on programs and outreach. If you are of a providential turn of mind, you might wonder if St. Anne's was blessed so completely upon formation (with people, resources, space, and joy) so that we might be in a position to help another parish in its early hours. It would appear, to paraphrase Mark Twain, that reports of the death of The Episcopal Church in South Carolina were greatly exaggerated.

The Summer Come-As-You are Bible Study has two more weeks left to go, but it's still not too late to join. We meet on Wednesdays at 7pm and study the readings for the following Sunday. This readings for our Wednesday, July 31 meeting are 

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-23
Psalm 49:1-11
Colossians 3:1-11
Luke 12:13-21

The Bible Study meets at 4649 Westwind Dr. in Carolina Forest, Myrtle Beach. Click here for a map.

ORGANIZATION

Your Mission Committee met on July 15, 2013 and July 21, 2013.  The minutes from all Mission Committee meetings are on the website at stanneconway.org

Our recent meetings have been predominately about next steps for our parish. Our growth has been gratifying and unexpected.  We want to be ready for the challenges ahead, but we want to preserve that which has brought us together in the first place:  A simple vision of worship and community that was, in the words of an eminent theologian, "indiscriminately inclusive." Through these discussions, we able to draft a mission statement that we believe captures St. Anne's in three sentences:

St. Anne’s Episcopal Church strives to be a joyous community that welcomes all people who seek to know Christ in their minds, hearts, and lives.

We gather together at God’s table, offering diverse gifts but of one spirit, becoming the body of Christ and gratefully receiving God’s grace.

We go out into a broken world, guided by scripture, tradition, and reason, honoring Christ’s command to serve others, believing that through God’s presence in our community, we can advance God’s kingdom in the world.

What do you think?

See you Sunday,

Dan Ennis

Senior Warden

7/9/13 Update

Dear Friends,

Greetings from St. Anne's Episcopal Church! Listening to the choir's lovely anthem last week, I was reminded of Garrison Keillor's description of Episcopalians: 

"I do believe this, people: Episcopalians -- who love to sing in four-part harmony -- are the sort of people you could call up when you're in deep distress. If you are dying, they will comfort you. If you are lonely, they'll talk to you. And if you are hungry, they'll give you tuna salad."

WORSHIP

We meet at 10am in Lackey Chapel on the campus of Coastal Carolina University.  Click here for a map.

A special worship opportunity is attached to this email.  Episcopalians from Trinity Myrtle Beach have been meeting as a worship group, and they've invited us St. Anne's folks to join them this Sunday at 4pm.  So come to St. Anne's at 10am, then go to Trinity-in-Exile at 4pm. Double the church, and there's not one among us that couldn't use the extra measure of grace, right? For directions and RSVP information see the attachment to this email.

MINISTRIES

Bible study continues at the home of Jeri Dubbs,  4946 Westwind Dr., Myrtle Beach SC (in Carolina Forest for all you locals). This is best reached via Gardner Lacy Road.  Map here. The truly lost can call Jeri for directions at 236-8136.  The truly, truly lost should click here.

This Bible study follows the lectionary, so readings can be found here (follow Track 2):

The readings for this week are:  Deuteronomy 30:9-14; Psalm 25:1-9; Colossians 1:1-14; Luke 10:25-37

ORGANIZATION

The Mission Committee meets on Monday, July 15.  Please send any questions/requests/complaints to this email or share your concerns with a member of the committee this Sunday. Minutes for each mission committee meeting are available on the parish website (http://stanneconway.org).

VISION

A couple of weeks ago, twenty-six bishops met in Charleston and learned about the successful reorganization of our diocese.  They wrote a letter commending our efforts, and closed with this message:

"Going forward, please know that we are of one mind in thanking God for your witness to the entire church that we indeed worship and serve a real, risen and living Lord. And, we would ask you to ever keep with you the words of the Apostle to the church in Ephesus: “Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, for ever and ever. Amen.” Eph. 3:20-21"

See you Sunday,

Dan

7/2/2013

Dear St. Anne's Friends,

I write you on July 2nd, the actual day the declaration was adopted, thanks to that sometime Episcopalian (but mostly Deist) Thomas Jefferson. 

WORSHIP

We meet on Sundays at 10am in Lackey Chapel on the campus of Coastal Carolina University.  Directions can be found here.

I am pleased to report that a group from Trinity Myrtle Beach is organizing and they've invited us to join them at their July 14 Eucharist.  They will meet at 4pm at 302 Lafayette Road in Myrtle Beach.  Fr. Wilmot Merchant will be their celebrant. RSVP to Mary Lauer 272-6688.

MINISTRY

Bible study will not meet this week, but will resume on July 10.  We are following the lectionary (track 2).  Remember, this Bible study is designed for drop-ins, so please join us even if you missed the first couple of meetings. Jeri makes excellent lemonade. Directions here.

ORGANIZATION

Last week our loose offerings were sent to Episcopal Relief and Development.

The mission committee will meet on July 15.  Please let a mission committee member know if you have any topics you'd like to see addressed. 

VISION

"I have found that some people who sense themselves as outcasts feel that the only way they can participate in the life of the church is by making other people outcast."  --Edmond Lee Browning, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, 1985-1997

See you Sunday,

Dan Ennis

6/23/13

Dear Friends,

St. Anne's continues careening down Broad Church Boulevard, a different fool for Christ at the wheel each week. Hitchhikers welcome.

Here are three items that may be of interest to you.

1.  Come As You Are Bible Study meets at 7pm Wednesdays.  Directions can be found here or by clicking "Ministry" at www.stanneconway.com.  This Bibsl Study follows the Lectionary, so the reading for this next session (Wednesday 6/16) are:

Track 1
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20Galatians 5:1, 13-25Luke 9:51-62

2.  Jane Holley Wilson had knee surgery last week.  If you can, please help with her meals by signing up using the link below:

  http://www.mealtrain.com?id=mtgttn0eb0st 

With Meal Train you sign up for a date to bring her food during the next two weeks. Jane says to please think of cooking for two and that they love salad and fresh vegetables.  If you have questions you can contact Cathy Battle at 843 421 1608.

3.  Your Mission Committee has identified a campus ministry at Coastal Carolina University as our first major outreach as a parish.  Please let a member of the committee know (or just respond to this email) if you want to be involved.  We envision a prayer service and a meal on Sunday evenings to start with.

As always, we meet at 10am on Sundays at Lackey Chapel.  Directions (and a list of service participants) are right here.

See you Sunday,

Dan Ennis