Associate Rector’s Note: Where in the world is the Rev. Anne on Second Sundays?

The Rev. Anne Thatcher

Dear St. Martin’s,

You may or may not know that, prior to answering a call to St. Martin’s, I served a Spanish- and English-speaking congregation in Santa Ana, California. The growth of worship services in Spanish in the Episcopal Church continues across the nation and our diocese is no exception. Unfortunately, the number of clergy who are fluent enough to preach and celebrate the Eucharist in Spanish is limited. Due to this clergy shortage, churches with a Eucharist in Spanish within our diocese are often challenged with finding leadership for Sunday worship. 

Free Church of St. John in Kensington is one such congregation. In November of 2018, their vicar, the Rev. David Franceschi-Faccio, returned to Puerto Rico. For the interim, the Diocese of Pennsylvania Office of Transition Ministry has asked me to serve on the second Sunday of each month as the celebrant and preacher for their 11:15 a.m. Sunday Eucharist in Spanish. Free Church is a congregation comprised of both English- and Spanish-speaking members, with deep roots in the local Mexican and Puerto Rican community. This is a service full of joyous music with guitar accompaniment.

I will still be here until mid-morning on second Sundays to connect with you all, and then I will drive down to Free Church. I encourage you to consider visiting and worshipping with us on a second Sunday in the coming months. Their address is 3076 Emerald St., Philadelphia, 19134. Experiencing the Eucharist in another language is a way to begin to understand how worship both transcends and distinctly represents different cultures. You would be welcome to carpool with me to the church and back. I am also available to talk with you in more detail about this church and their engagement in the local community of Kensington.

In the coming months, I will share updates about the Free Church community.


Blessings for 2019,

The Rev. Anne Thatcher
Associate Rector

Building Community

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

I want to tell you about a terrific new committee here at St. Martin’s called the Community Building Committee. On election day this group provided hospitality to voters when they came to vote in our parish hall. Coffee, tea, and donuts created an atmosphere of good cheer in our foyer as an unprecedented number of voters came in to do their civic duty. Anne Thatcher and I mingled with the voters, greeting them warmly and thanking them for voting. I even met someone who wants to get her three-month-old daughter baptized!

While this committee is doing a great job, we all agree that building community is a ministry we share in common as the Body of Christ. The efforts we make to greet each other, build relationships, and welcome newcomers build the muscles and sinews that make us nimble and strong as a community that represents Christ in the world.

“Deep relationships, bold ministry” is the theme we are working on this year at St. Martin’s. That theme challenges us to see our presence and our activity at church as crucial to the character and virtue of our community of faith. When we take the time to relate and to invest in relationship, we learn to be there for each other in times of joy and sorrow. When we take the time to relate and to invest in relationships we find our life enriched, and even our direction in life altered. Want to find someone to join a ministry you love here at St. Martin’s? Be busy getting to know new people!

It’s easy to want the church to be here. It’s another matter entirely to choose to be the church when you are here and when you are away.

Here are some ways to be the church on Sunday mornings:

1. Wear your nametag!
2. Greet someone new. As you enter the church, during the passing of the peace, and after church simply introduce yourself to someone you don’t know. Simply say, “My name is ________, and I am not sure if we have met?”
3. Remember that families of all ages are welcome at all services. That joyful noise of children is a sign of life and vitality in our ministry!
4. When circled up with old friends, make room for newcomers by inviting them into your circle.
5. Move across the driveway to community hour in the parish hall after worship. Community hour is a time to meet, greet, and connect. This is a time of important ministry and the more the merrier.
6. If you have an event, activity, class, or ministry to promote, set up a table during community hour. Make it festive. Bring food, balloons, a banner. We would love for community hour to be a bustling hive of activity and opportunity.
7. Encourage your friends to come to community hour, and walk newcomers across the driveway so they know where to go.

St. Martin’s is a dynamic and multifaceted community of faith. To support such an active ministry, we invest in our bonds as a community. Those bonds will help us take risks together in the name of Jesus.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector