St. Anne's Gate 10/12/13

Dear Friends,

Greeting from St. Anne's Episcopal Church!  We meet for worship every Sunday at 10am at Lackey Chapel, 105 University Dr.. Conway, SC. You can find a map here.

On this day almost 60 years ago (October 12, 1964) Martin Luther King gave a speech to the Episcopal Society for Cultural and Racial Unity, praising The Episcopal Church for its commitment to social justice.  The next day Dr. King was informed he'd won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here are a few news items:

1.  The Parish Survey.  Last Sunday we were reminded how helpful it would be to fill out the Parish Survey.  Fail to do so and somebody "will be wroth with the whole Congregation of Israel." Folks, we don't want any wroth.

2.  Cell Phone.  We are looking for a cell phone to serve as our parish telephone. We have hired Laura Barr to work a few hours per week on parish administration, and one of her duties will be to answer the phone and check voice mail.  If any of you have a working cellphone to contribute, St. Anne's will set it up with a basic calling plan.  It doesn't have to be fancy -- no need for web browsing, etc.

3.   Lunch Groups were a success! We'll repeat the activity next month, so please sign up by emailing Rebecca Lovelace at rslove@sccoast.net.  The next Lunch Group Sunday is November 3.      

4.  Remember that on November 10th St. Anne's will celebrate its one-year anniversary.  Instead of our normal morning service at Lackey Chapel, we'll be meeting at 5pm at Palmetto Missionary Baptist Church in Conway, followed by supper at the Lovelace home. So sleep in on November 10th, because you'll have to stay up that night.

See You Sunday,

Dan

PS-- As a parish, we don't pay much attention to the ongoing legal proceedings in our diocese.  It has been the consensus of the Mission Committee that we've found the right path for us, and that St. Anne's is a new church, not a congregation-in-exile.  But we also have a connection to our fellow "Worship Groups" -- congregations like ours that formed in the midst of the split, all of us renting space and relying on supply clergy.  I wrote a letter to my fellow "Worship Group" leaders, trying to capture some of the spirit of St. Anne's and our "not interested" attitude toward the property claims.  If you're interested, you may read the letter here. 

Victorious Surrender:

An Open Letter to the Worship Groups of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina

October 6, 2013

My Friends,

As a member of a “worship group,” you probably spent this Sunday morning as I did, helping to set up and then break down a temporary Episcopal Church in a rented space. Maybe you hung the “Episcopal Church Welcomes You” sign, unloaded hymnals from the trunk of a car, or plugged in a portable keyboard. A few miles away, the church building in which you used to worship still stands, no longer connected to The Episcopal Church. On that building the word “Episcopal” has been inexpertly effaced. The Episcopal shield has been pried from the very structure, leaving something like a wound.

On most Sundays, our joy of being free of the negativity and division that for so long shrouded our diocese competes with rootless anxiety. Worship groups are tenants, with leases subject to change. We get bumped from the schedule when our landlords need the space. We update our websites when we change addresses. From lining up supply priests to storing reserved sacrament in the absence of a tabernacle, worship groups manage week-to-week. We've been reminded how little we need, and how easily we had allowed non-essentials to encrust our faith, like barnacles on a ship. (I should substitute “dock” for “ship,” in deference to the worship group at Okatie, which did for a time worship on a dock. I still repeat their joke about “casting bread upon the waters.”)

Resentment is tempting. Why should we be reduced to rented sanctuaries and makeshift altars simply because we wanted to remain Episcopalian? A man moves here from California, decides The Episcopal Church no longer suits him, and we’re the ones told to hit the bricks?  Why has his decision to leave our church left us in this bind?

Resentment?  We should give thanks. Leaving our buildings has been a blessing, and losing them for good would be a godsend.

As worship groups, we have paid a price for our loyalty to The Episcopal Church, and therefore we’ve earned the right to tell our leaders that we object to the ruinous and expensive legal battle being waged on our behalf.  Let us win through surrender.

For those still bitter over packed vestries and secret standing committees, surrender might be cleansing. Some of us walked away from buildings in which we were baptized, married, and confirmed. We left the names of loved ones on brass plaques attached to donated pews. We served on building campaigns that raised money for churches that we are no longer allowed to use. We painted the narthex, mended the roof, and helped install the playground.

But when two children are fighting on that playground we helped build, with a single toy in both their grasps, the one that lets go first has control. The one who lets go first chose to let go, and at that moment the toy loses its value. The kid who doesn’t let go often ends up on his butt, crying over his hollow victory. The toy’s power springs from its desirability.

What if we let go first?

When we refuse to fight for property, we escape the temptation to worship the space, rather than in the space. Those buildings are tombs. In them are buried all the good works that can’t be accomplished by congregations enslaved by facilities. Refusing to fight for property is not a sign of weakness, but of the kind of strength that says, “Take this building. We have a better refuge and a stronger fortress.”

In the twenty-first century, The Episcopal Church in South Carolina is no longer the establishment church, no longer “The Republican Party at prayer.” Each worship group is a ragged extended family of “indiscriminate inclusivity.” Giving up those buildings is a gesture that suits our new identity – missionary, underdog, stripped-down, self-reliant Christians, tolerant to a fault. Heck, tolerant past fault. So tolerant it drives some folks up a wall. So recklessly tolerant that we might occasionally go too far, but knowing full well that the grave danger is not going far enough.

Yes, in some cases we would be giving up prominent symbols of Christianity in our communities. Many of us would be saying goodbye beautiful churches that have stood for decades (or centuries), with steeples that assert respectable religiosity. The prestige building is a sign of worldly success, the right church for polite company, the correct church to join if you want to advance socially.

We worship groups are called to be the wrong church. To join a church that meets in a barbecue restaurant (as the worship group in Edisto did for a while) is to join a church that grants no social advantage. God’s gentle lesson – replacing Edisto’s pretty white church with a pig-picking joint – is directed at us all. We are not able to point to a lovely building and say “That’s our church.” We’ll have to point to the world instead.

Today’s lectionary included a reading from Habakkuk. It starts with the prophet complaining, but turns to a call for perseverance:

I will stand at my watchpost,

and station myself on the rampart;

I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,

and what he will answer concerning my complaint. (2:1-4)

We've been assigned our watchposts: St. Francis Episcopal Church in West Ashley worships in a funeral home. St. Catherine’s in Florence meets in a school. The Episcopal Church in Myrtle Beach is already in its third location, having moved from a back porch to a rented classroom to a building on loan from the Methodists. The Church of the Good Shepherd in Summerville and the East Cooper Episcopalians are also borrowing space from the Methodists. (Thank God for the Methodists!)  These are not the watchposts we would choose, but we are called to keep watch nonetheless.

If after a season we find our mission would be served by owning our own buildings, we will have arrived at that point after a worthwhile (if occasionally inconvenient) period in relative wilderness. We will have to buy or build those watchposts on our own, and we’ll enter them after we’ve been thoroughly reminded that we should view property as a sharp tool –potentially useful, but dangerous to the careless. We’ll be wiser; perhaps wise enough to pity and love those who now appear to be “winning.”

So by letting go – letting all that brick and mortar pass into hands more desperate than ours – we win. We fulfill the promises made at baptism and embraced at confirmation. We avoid a decade of claims and counter-claims with those with whom we used to worship. We devote our resources to the Great Commission, not great attorneys. We can be both in the right and willing to be wronged. 

The property under dispute in our diocese is the second-place trophy in the only race that matters. Wouldn’t we rather come in first?

Regards,

Dan Ennis

Senior Warden

St. Anne's Episcopal Church, Conway

St. Anne's Gate 9/27/13

Greetings From St. Anne's Episcopal Church in Conway, SC!

On this day 34 years ago the General Convention endorsed the 1979 Book of Common Prayer. Here is one of the "new" collects that first appeared in the 1979 Prayer Book and led to charges that the new prayer book was too political:

"21. For Social Justice

Almighty God, who created us in your image: Grant us grace fearlessly to contend against evil and to make no peace with oppression; and, that we may reverently use our freedom, help us to employ it in the maintenance of justice in our communities and among the nations, to the glory of your holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."

WORSHIP

We meet for Eucharist at 10am in Lackey Chapel (105 University Dr. Conway, on the campus of Coastal Carolina University).

We have special plans for Sunday, November 10.  We will be holding our service that day at 5 PM at Palmetto Missionary Baptist Church (1931 Fulmer St. Conway). There will be no 10am service in Lackey Chapel that day.

Palmetto Missionary Baptist got its start in 2010 in a borrowed space provided by an Episcopal Church. It is fitting that on our one-year anniversary as a community we Episcopalians will enjoy the hospitality of Reverend Cheryl Moore Adamson and her congregation. 

Given that November 10 marks our one-year anniversary as a church, we surely need to have a party, so immediately following the service we will adjourn to the Lovelace home (503 Lakewood Ave) for a BBQ supper.

MINISTRY

Mike and Donna Oyer are organizing a "Meal Train" for Florence Vaught.  There will be a sign-up sheet at church this Sunday.  If you are not able to attend this Sunday but would like to help u, reply to this email and Mike or Donna will get in touch with you.

General James Vaught's obituary and funeral information is available here. An early supporter of St. Anne's, Jim Vaught was kind enough to list our church along with the Horry County Museum and Mercy Care as three institutions designated for memorial donations.

Lunch Groups will begin on Sunday, October 6th.  We will not have refreshments at the church that day, and we are hoping everyone will participate by being in one of the lunch groups. Before that Sunday, you will be told which host home you are assigned to, and we will proceed to the host homes immediately after the 10 am service is over.  The host will provide sandwiches, and each participant is asked to bring a side dish or dessert to "throw in the pot" and share. We will have a maximum of 10 people at each home, and our goal is to have the opportunity to visit and get to know each other better in a small-group setting.  Please email Rebecca Lovelace at rslove@sccoast.net, and sign up (if you signed up at the church, please email her to confirm you will be participating on Oct 6).

The Diocese is hosting a meeting on October 19 in Charleston to discuss ways to rebuild the Diocesan Endowment.  Individuals interested in attending that meeting are invited to reply to this email; we'll provide you with specifics.

VISION

The 1979 Prayer Book contains many differences form its 1928 predecessor, but both books contain these words, suitable for those in mourning this week:

"I know that my Redeemer liveth, 

and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth;

and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God;

whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold,

and not as a stranger."

See you Sunday,

Dan Ennis

 

 

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