This year’s stewardship theme builds on last year’s: Go Together. In these trying times we are reminded how important community, commitment, and connected-ness to our church and our shared faith journey really are.

We hope this moment can be a celebration of what St. Anne’s has done in this challenging time as well as a recommitment to our shared hopes and dreams for the days ahead. We don’t know exactly what the coming months will look like, but we know we need St. Anne’s. We know the world needs St. Anne’s. And we know how much St. Anne’s needs each and every one of you.

Our annual Advent Wreath-Making event will certainly be different this year. Instead of gathering in Flint Hall during Coffee Hour, staff has prepared take-home kits for parishioners to pick up at designated times before the first Sunday in Advent. Kits will contain a wreath form, three purple candles, one pink candle, candle holders, a tray… and a special surprise! You need only to collect greens from your own yard to complete your Advent wreath.

This fall, we offered St. Stephen’s Youth Programs (SSYP) individual school supply kits for B-READY, the homework club on site at St. Stephen’s. Thanks to all who generously gave pens, markers, scissors, and special-addition-this-year: earbuds. Additionally, we are participating in the new groceries gifts program serving SSYP families on Fridays, named B-LOVE. As always, your thoughtful contributions to the families in the South End and Blackstone Elementary neighborhood of St. Stephen’s are appreciated!

We have all experienced the frustration of not being able to hear someone who is speaking. Our reliance these days on technology for moments of connection raises the stakes, making any sound quality or volume issues not only a frustration but a loss. St. Anne’s has a team working to ensure consistent, clear sound on Sunday mornings, but it will never be perfect. There are simply too many factors involved.

So here are some things we can try at home if we are experiencing sound issues.

A familiar prayer can be a great comfort, but it can also become rote, so familiar that we do it without bringing our heart or mind to the task. I have been guilty of this lately, so I borrowed Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s An African Prayer Bookfrom our library. The book is separated into the traditional types of prayer, but I preferred to open it randomly and read whatever I found there.

St. Anne’s Reopening Task Force has continued to meet several times a month to consider all aspects of outdoor and indoor gatherings. Much of our attention has been focused on embellishing the outdoor services begun last summer by offering communion at 8am and adding an occasional Sunday afternoon service, complete with fire pit. The first of these was held October 18 and the next is planned for November 22. It may become a regular offering.

I’ve been very busy recently, and I’m delighted to report that we now have a working audio system that allows the choir to sing, and make recordings, from their cars! We celebrated the feast of All Saints on November 1st with perhaps the first Drive-In Evensong in the entire Anglican Communion, and we were featured in the Boston Globe: see the article here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/11/01/metro/choir-learns-sing-one-once-more/ We owe a tremendous debt of thanks to Tom Vollaro, who not only supervised the purchasing of the equipment, but also put it all together. He has even attended every one of our our events to run the new sound system. Thank you, Tom!

Looking Back

Students came to visit St. Anne’s in five different outdoor fellowship events this fall, as well as two Pageant filming afternoons. Atrium groups of grades K-8 meditated in a labyrinth and painted their own for everyone to walk, shared in more chalk art, painted fall trees and votives, hunted for mini pumpkins, learned about the history of voting and wrote postcards to voters, prayed with Garrett, played Bible Pictionary in teen teams, gathered for s’mores, and wrote greeting cards to parishioners. At home, they were offered Sunday School Zooms with presentations, prayer table, and breakout room discussions. All of our kids are working hard in their complicated school lives, so please hold them in your prayers. St. Anne’s will gather them in, at home or in the snowy yard, this winter.

Come one, come all, bring the family….for a “BYOC” fall clean-up day at St Anne’s on Saturday, November 21 at 9am. Nothing is quite the same this year, but know this: There will be an ample supply of Fall grounds clean-up tasks to go with your coffee! And what a nice way to get outdoors and make a difference…..

Of course, our fall focus is leaf clean up at both the Church and the Rectory. But there is a role for ANYONE who wants to participate, regardless of age, skills, physical ability, or energy level. While we hope to have some leaf blowers and chain saw aficionados, cleaning up gardens with rakes and tarps will also be needed.

I was talking to a wise spiritual friend recently and we were sharing the ups and downs of the present moment, particularly how this second wave of loneliness and stress and all the rest is somehow different than the first wave of sickness. You can follow the first wave (read first wave as physical illness) in the newspaper; the second is more subtle, more particular to each person, and, while less physically harmful, so much more soul-depleting. This wise friend said something, well, wise.

How comforting to write these words from my office chair! Looking over these last six months, so much of my work has been done away from my big, broad desk here in the Parish Office, and it’s nice to be back among my scrawl-labeled file folders, jumbled bulletin board (whose Kalendar is still on April!), and hidden stash of smokehouse almonds.

I have been “on-campus” quite a bit, though – when we closed St. Anne’s in March, the painting of the exterior of the building had just begun.

In mid-June, 30+ parishioners gathered to form the Racial Justice Allies (RJA) group with the intention of exploring ways to take action at St. Anne’s to address racial injustice. The group has developed a vision statement to articulate our goals:

Racial Justice Allies Vision Statement

· We acknowledge the white supremacism on which our society and economy are built, rooted in 400 years of violence, indifference, and inaction.

· We believe in love, respect, repentance, and opening our hearts and minds to our fellow human beings.

· We commit to:

• Listen, look, and reflect more deeply in order to take responsibility for liberating ourselves from our own biases.

• Create opportunities to connect to, learn from and celebrate with communities of color.

• Identify, support, and take actions to promote racial justice through social, economic, and environmental policy.

I’ve been busy adapting to our strange new world—and I’ve learned how to make and edit videos! Each week I record a prelude and postlude; Jean and I record a hymn; and I also provide something for the anthem, which can be a newly-recorded solo, a recording from past years, or a “virtual choir” piece. This last option, where each singer appears in a box, is very labor-intensive: first I make a video that the singers sing along to as they record themselves, then I combine all the individual videos into one big movie. This complicated process really does give listeners the feeling that we are singing together, and so we gladly do the extra work—we want to keep our community happy and healthy while we tune in from home, looking forward to the day when we can be together again safely.

Your generous online giving through the St. Anne’s website is so heartwarming! If you are a new (or newer, or would-be) online donor, here are some aspects you may not know about.

Also, SSYP Pandemic Relief Fund is no longer accepting gifts for help for St. Stephen’s families suffering from the economic effects of the pandemic. If you have recently made a gift to St. Anne’s for the benefit of the SSYP Pandemic Relief Fund, your gift will be forwarded to St. Stephen’s for their ongoing mission to support their local families and children.

Out of all the church staff, COVID has changed my job the least: our communications already were sent via email, our website, Facebook, and Instagram. A big change for me is that with Greg's departure, I'll be doing tech for the 10am Sunday online service. I've had some practice runs, and I find it both comforting to be in our sanctuary and sad to not have happy voices greeting each other.

What a year it’s been! It feels like it was just yesterday that Katie and I (and Hank) pulled up to the rectory and began unloading and unpacking and making this place our new home. We were so warmly welcomed, and from the start I had (and still have) an overwhelming sense of being where God wants me to be.