May 2008
New Rector Called

From the Rector’s Desk

One way of describing the vocation of priest is to say that in our role we usually accompany the members of our congregations through their transition times or the “seasons” of life; meaning any of life’s challenging times as well as birth, baptism, confirmation, confession, marriage, unction in times of sickness and at the time of death…all times of earthly transition.

St. Mark’s as a parish family has been living an additional kind of transition lately, that being the shift in your rector. Thus the term “Interim” for the pastor who will love, care, teach and walk with you as you wait. And while this may be a trying time, having to transition to a second interim rector just adds to the challenge of waiting for some of you, I presume.

I was tickled when I first heard that you referred to your pastors as George the first and George the second…I wondered if I would be forced to change my name as part of the negotiation of my covenant with the wardens…but I was relieved to learn that indeed just Mary would do. All kidding aside, I am delighted to be with you as you work toward preparing yourselves for your new rector. I will work to help discover things that you may not have considered as we wait together. Who knows what the Spirit has in mind for us over these next few months!

Many of you already know that I come from St. Michael’s and that I live in Lake Barrington just a four miles north of the church. I was born in Puerto Rico, grew up on Chicago’s near northwest side and speak fluent Spanish. I am a single parent of two beautiful sons. Nicholas is a junior in college studying at St. Louis University and Alejandro is a freshman at Barrington High School. I was ordained not too long ago in 2005 after a long career with Ameritech Corporation. I have studied leadership development for many years and teach related courses in the Deacon’s school for our Diocese. Yes, Newt Carpenter was one of my students this past fall/winter and you’ll be proud to know, if you don’t already, that St. Marks is raising a wonderful servant in that fine gentleman who I am confident will serve you well for many years to come!

As your priest I will work hard, along with our pastoral care team, to care pastorally for each of you. If you need me to do something for you or a family member, please let me know. If someone in your family is hospitalized, the new privacy laws require a family member to inform us directly. Hospitals are no longer allowed to give information over the telephone to churches without the patient’s explicit permission.

I am committed to behave as a healthy leader for all of you. As far as parish projects are concerned, I believe in open community systems which means we share information freely with everyone and communicate decisions in a timely way along with the rationale that led us to make that choice. Please feel free to ask me anything that’s on your mind about what’s going on at church. No question is off limits. I will do my best to respond in a timely way to your inquiry.

I have observed my style of leadership to be more participative than most. What that basically means is that I prefer never to impose my will on another. I will certainly be decisive when the circumstance requires that of me as your priest, but I truly prefer to talk about the possibilities with lay leaders input before we decide as a team to change anything. One question you might get tired of hearing from me will be “Can you help me understand what you think is best for this parish family?” I am committed to function with our wardens Ned and Jill as a leadership team and will work to focus my efforts to make progress on a few important goals over the summer that I expect the wardens and vestry will prioritize. While I’ll only be working a couple of days each week, in addition to Sundays, I have faith we can get some important work accomplished together.

I am grateful for the trust and confidence you have shown in selecting me to lead you into this “in between” time of waiting. I will do my best to ensure that we get ready to welcome the seventh rector for St. Mark’s, Barrington Hills. I will hold each of you in my heart and prayers daily and would ask you to pray for me, each other, our wardens and vestry as well.
Blessings,

The Rev. Mary E. Tudela
Interim Rector

Contacting the new Interim Rector

I am excited about being among you and look forward to a summer filled with blessings from the Spirit! I will be working two days a week and Sundays. My current plans are to be at church Wednesdays and Thursdays of most weeks as I manage the administrative needs of the church and support our staff. For informal questions and non urgent matters the best way to contact me is via email mtudela@st-markschurch.org. In the event you have an emergency pastoral need, I can be reached via mobile phone at 630-715-0943. met

From the Senior Warden

Wow, what a month!
We said good-bye to our interim rector of ten months, welcomed our second interim rector and announced the calling of our seventh permanent rector all in one month. And that was just the beginning.

A joyful group joined together on the evening of April 19 to give our thanks and convey our best wishes to George and Caroline Martin. Amidst great food and story-telling, I know the Martin’s know how fond we became of them and the impact George had during his time with us.

Mary Tudela joined us on April 21 and has hit the ground running. In addition to meeting the staff and tending to pastoral duties, she celebrated her first Sunday which featured the blessing of the animals and seeds in our yearly Rogation Day. The front lawn was filled with dogs, cats, assorted rodents (all in cages) and the occasional stuffed animal. And the youngsters sold ice cream sundaes as a fund raiser for some new sports equipment.

The highlight of last Sunday was Betty Kilgore’s announcement of the calling of The Rev. David A. Gibbons as our new rector. David, his wife Susan and daughters Elise (12) and Sophia (8) will be moving to Barrington Hills later this summer from the United Kingdom. The Search Committee, chaired by Betty, should feel a great sense of accomplishment in finding David. He has all of the attributes the members of our parish sought in our new priest and I know we are all anxious to have the Gibbons with us.
Before that can happen we must go through the Visa process, attend to moving logistics and make some needed improvements to the 335 home that will become the rectory. We expect the improvements to be made during July after our current tenants leave. Improvements will include a new roof, some new flooring, a significant amount of interior painting and generally a good cleaning. To manage our costs we will be seeking volunteers to man paint brushes and mops, so please plan to give us a hand if you are able.

Jill Meyer, Anita Mathewson, George Martin, Vicki Garvey and I attended a three day church leadership seminar led by widely acclaimed leadership expert Kennon Callahan. We came away from that experience with some great insights and a lot of enthusiasm. So don’t be surprised when we continue to do some things differently around the parish.

Our new St. Mark’s website is live. Go to www.st-markschurch.org and see the difference. The site is filled with useful and timely information about St. Mark’s and will be a valuable tool for parishioners and visitors alike to learn what is happening in the parish. The site was built, donated and will be maintained by Clifford Price, son of Betty Kilgore and brother of Lauren Peterson. Oftentimes a website is the first lasting image of an organization. With this website our first impression could not be better.

And thanks also go to Fred and Caroline Hille for donating the new permanent name tags. The Hilles jumped right in when they saw our paper versions and offered their expertise in making the tags. So if you don’t have yours yet, simply fill out a paper nametag and place it on the board in the narthex.

Ned Loughridge
Senior Warden

Who Do You Say That I Am?

About a month ago at a regional meeting of the Church, I learned about a new form of prayer. As she was leading us through the process of this prayer, our facilitator asked us to focus on God and, if we wished, to write the name of the God on whom we were focusing. Perhaps that strikes you as odd. Okay then, Smarty: What is God’s name? How do we call on God if we don’t have a name? The word ‘God’ is more descriptor than name. “Hey, you” frankly doesn’t always cut it unless we’re deeply in trouble. And although ‘Jesus’ can be understood to be one of God’s names, it’s not the only one. And many of the rest – think: LORD, Rock of Salvation, Shepherd,... – are titles and metaphors, not names. Actually, the name ‘Jesus’ is also something of an intentional epithet since it means – in its original Aramaic and Hebrew forms – “[God’s] the one who saves”. And ‘Christ’ is not Jesus’ last name; it’s yet another title meaning ‘the anointed one’.

Some of you might at this point have one of those V-8 moments; perhaps you’ve remembered that Moses asked for God’s i.d. the day our Moses came upon that oddly acting bush [Exodus 3 - 4]. “Aha!” you say: God said, “My name is [depending on the translation you have on hand]: ‘I am who am’.” Now I ask you, Is that a name? Nope. And wasn’t meant to be. God’s self-revelation on that mountain was not a name but a clue: God is, and God’s is-ness has everything to do with everything else that is, including you and me, our friends and enemies and the oak tree and the animals and the seeds we’ll have blessed on Rogation Sunday by the time you read this.

So how do you identify God when you pray? Although others of our ancestors in the faith called God by some title or metaphor, only one biblical character actually ‘names’ God. Hagar, the Egyptian maidservant of Abram & Sarai [later to be re-named Abraham & Sarah] has an epiphany in the wilderness. Fleeing to what would have seemed a god-forsaken place in fear for her life, she comes to a well [in the desert?] where God meets and gifts her with the first full annunciation in the bible. As she is preparing to return to Abe & Sar, she turns back and names God. “You are el-roi,” she says {Gen 16.13a}, naming God out of her experience, and the name that she selects means something like ‘God’ [el] ‘of my seeing/of my vision/who sees me’ [roi]. A telling name because the only one in the whole story of Hagar who actually sees her as a person is the God who will meet her twice in the god-forsaken desert. [See chapters 16 and 21 of Genesis for her brief story; her name occurs twice more outside these chapters as mentions only in genealogical notes.]

Little-known and even less-often-remembered Hagar the Egyptian is a gift to us because of what she did. She named God out of her experience of God. When we’re most honest in our praying, that’s what we do or ought to do. If the divine titles and metaphors known to you from years of practice in churchy settings are comfortable and comforting to you in your prayer life, then perhaps those ‘names’ are the ones you ought to continue using. Or, perhaps not. There are times in my life when God seems distant and a little frightening to me; there are other times when God is home, with all the good things that word can – at its best – evoke. I need different expressions for those experiences and others, and those different expressions – ‘names’ – have the capacity of helping my relationship with God to deepen richly, to become ever more intimate and precious. What I’m suggesting is that you be brave and try this naming of God for yourself and see where it leads you. And spring, which seems finally to have taken root here in northern Illinois, is a dandy time to put a little new life into your own life, including your life of prayer. – Vicki Garvey

Con + firmare: “to sign with”, “to sign up[?] with”

Whichever you choose as the most appropriate root meaning of the word and rite of Confirmation, we have 14 among us who will be confirmed/confirm the faith enunciated for them at their baptism. We’ve prayed for them every Sunday and shall continue to do so, but let me introduce you to the confirmands. From the J2A class and from the older than J2A class: Zach Zambelli, Monica Worsley, Maggie Stevens, Mauri Resseguie, Dana Nelsen, Ryan Melone, Ashley Jensen, Pam Jensen, Lauren Gray, Anna Etherington, Martin Doran-Smith, Robin Doran-Smith, Tim Dilsaver, Justin Barnowski. Some of them will be confirmed on the 3rd of May at Christ Church, Winnetka and the others on the 21st of June at the Cathedral of St. James. Both services begin at 11 a.m. and you are more than welcome to attend and support our folks at one or both services.

Flags Not Waving
As you may have noticed, the Episcopal Church flag and the American flag are missing from the sanctuary. They are in need of repair and cleaning and will be away for several weeks.

Name Tags Going Green
St. Mark’s is greening up with permanent name tags, courtesy of Fred and Caroline Hille. To participate, please fill out the paper name tag, wear it and after the service attach it the board in the narthex. And next week, VOILA! Your new badge will be waiting for you. And when you forget or lose your name tag that will be OK. The sticky ones will still be there. Cool, eh?

The Mission of Teaching
It seems impossible that another church school year is almost gone. But it must be so since we’re about to celebrate Pentecost. On behalf of all of us, parents of the kiddos and their extended families and all of the rest of us who are quite happy to shout out “We will” when we’re asked if we’ll support the newly baptized: a great big THANKS to those who teach Godly Play each Sunday: Lauren Peterson, Thelma Stevens, Kate Herzog, Liz Davis, and . Special thanks to Anita Mathewson who coordinated the volunteers. Dean Mathewson and Christine Melone are a good match for the highly energetic Rite-13ers, and Jamie Anding, Emily Anding, Joan Carpenter and Susan Dilsaver facilitate the J2A territory where the distinctions between who is teaching and who taught really begin to blur. Great job, one and all.

St. Mark’s New Website Is Live!
Go online to www.st-markschurch.org to view our new website designed and donated by Clifford Price. Cliff is the son of Betty Kilgore and brother of Lauren Peterson and he grew up at St. Mark’s . Our new website looks fabulous and is filled with a great deal of useful information about our life as a parish. Oftentimes a website is the first and lasting impression of an organization. Believe me, this first impression could not be better. Visit it often to stay abreast of the latest at St. Mark’s. ekl

Church Office Closed
The Parish office and Day School will be closed on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26. It will reopen Tuesday, May 27 at 9:00am.

For the good use of Leisure
O God, in the course of this busy life, give us time of refreshment and peace; grant that we may so use our leisure to rebuild our bodies and renew our minds, that our spirit may be opened to the goodness of your creation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The Book of Common Prayer, page 825