Category Archives: St. Andrew’s

Wild Longing: A Contemplative Prayer Group

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From email announcement:

St. Andrew’s is starting a new contemplative prayer group this fall. Registration is here. For more information, contact Abbott (abailey at standrewsoregonhill.org).

Description: You are invited to deepen your experience of God’s presence in your life through a variety of contemplative prayer practices using sound, silence, image and art, intercession, scripture, poetry, and creation. This group will start with an opening retreat on Saturday, September 26 from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, and then continue on Thursday evenings in October from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm.

Cost: Free (Please bring a brown bag lunch on September 26. Drinks provided.)

When: September 26, 2015 (Opening Retreat) 10:00 am to 4:00 pm
October 1, 8, 15, 22, 29: 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm

Where: St. Andrew’s House (236 South Laurel Street)

Leader: Abbott Bailey, rector of St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, is currently enrolled in a program on Leading Contemplative Prayer Groups and Retreats through the Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation. She will be sharing this rich, experiential approach to prayer through this offering.

St. Andrew’s Grace Arents Commemoration on June 20

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From email announcement:

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church is hosting Picnic and Prayers commemorating the life and legacy of Grace Eveyln Arents. Pack a picnic basket and bring a blanket, and we will provide drinks and dessert. At sunset we will have a candlelight prayer service in memory of Miss Grace. Saturday June 20, 2015, 6:30 pm – 9:00 pm at the gravesite of Lewis Ginter and Grace Arents, Hollywood Cemetery, 412 South Laurel Street, Richmond Virginia. Contact Barbara Ambrose 804-648-7980

“the ‘Real World,’ only with a twist,”

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The Times Dispatch has a story on the Grace-on-the-Hill program at St. Andrew’s Church, entitled “College graduates join to enrich outreach in Episcopal mission effort”.

Excerpt:

The “Grace” in Grace-on-the-Hill is part tribute to Arents. But it’s also part tribute to “grace,” as in the work of God.
While the church is now more a destination than a neighborhood hub — most Sundays, the pews are filled with people who had to drive in — Bailey said St. Andrew’s still has an obligation to lift up its community, both immediate in Oregon Hill and spread across Richmond.
It also has an obligation to lift up the people who come to help.
That’s where Fado and the five others come in. For 10 months, stretching across a traditional school year, they call Oregon Hill home but spread out in the day to help the community.
Fado and James Post work at Anna Julia Cooper, an Episcopal school across the street from public housing in the East End.
Patrick Keyser walks a few doors down the street and works in the St. Andrew’s office.
Kate McPherson works at St. Andrew’s School, next to the church and still loosely affiliated with it.
Melissa Eadie works in the mission office at the diocesan office on West Franklin Street.
And Stephanie McCullough works at the Blue Sky Fund, which provides outdoor programs to children from the city.
The six also work in the church, perform community service in Oregon Hill and, one day a week, operate a laundry ministry for the homeless.
“It’s been a good experience so far,” said Keyser, a 22-year-old from the town of Burgess, on the Northern Neck. “It hasn’t been perfect, but what is?”
“I’d say it’s been real meaningful, being able to really dig in and make an impact,” McCullough said. “That none of us is from here, and that we may all go somewhere else later in our lives, I don’t think that matters. In this moment, this is right.”

To learn more on the Grace-on-the-Hill program, click here.

St. Andrew’s Church and School To Host Blip Hop Symposium

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In what is sure to stir up music fans and parishes alike, St. Andrew’s Church and St. Andrew’s School announced today that they will jointly host an academic and music symposium on the small, mostly instrumental genre of modern music known as blip hop.

Although many details still need to be confirmed, including which August weekend has been reserved, exciting aspects are starting to take shape. Some big names in blip hop have already been invited (though their appearances still need to be scheduled), including German techno duo Mouse on Mars, Matthew Herbert, and blip hop enthusiast and Grammy-winning pop musician David Byrne (formerly of the Talking Heads). Local artist ENE (aka Scott Hudgins) has definitely committed and plans to attend the entire symposium. Regardless of the final line up, tickets will be free and offered first come first serve (reserve now by calling the church office at 804-648-7980)

In the spirit of community there will be several pieces performed in conjunction with the church’s choir and organist and the school’s violin, chorus and piano classes throughout the event. Workshops on blip hop dancing will also be offered. Live concerts will be held in the church’s Baldwin Hall, near the Grace Arents Community Garden, the William Byrd Community House, and Oregon Hill’s Riverside Park. Other sponsors are still being decided though possibilities include community alternative radio station WRIR, University of Richmond radio station WDCE, Plan 9 Music, Councilperson Parker Agelasto’s Office, Girls Rock! RVA, Richmond2015 UCI Bicycle Race, and Dinamo restaurant.

Asked why St. Andrew’s Church and School is so interested in blip hop, church leadership pointed to several factors. St. Andrew’s, of course, does have historic Welsh and Scottish links to the Northern European culture that David Byrne himself has praised in blip hop. “We realized that we do have tangible links to electronic music”, said one vestry board member. He mentioned the renovated St. Andrew’s House (236 S. Laurel Street) as previously being the starting place of the seminal band LaBradford. He also said that there had been some past confusion between the church’s EFM (Education for Ministry) group and EDM (a popular acronym for Electronic Dance Music).

St. Andrew’s School is still celebrating its 120 year anniversary,” gushed the St. Andrew’s Head of School, “and this symposium is another change to highlight how music has played an important part in our education efforts.”

St. Andrew’s rector, Rev. Abbott Bailey, herself a not-so-secret Zap Mama fan, said that she sees the blip hop symposium as “a way to engage with the lost children of the nineties.”

A member of Grace-On-The-Hill, a youth ministry of St. Andrew’s Church in partnership with the Diocese of Virginia, had this thought to offer:

“Instead of just rhythm pounding on like a soothing metronome, creativities and personalities layer atop it. Things meld together as strong but diverse parts join the score. Life departs what we’ve known and suddenly feels nothing like the squishy, germ-filled meat mush in the grind nor the innocent swing of habit; it transforms into a grand experience of unity within a beat. Different components add to the piece, and it is far too complex to brave its performance alone.”

Mouse on Mars on YouTube: