1. St. Thomas Times
St. Thomas Episcopal Church | 124 East Main Street Abingdon, VA 24210 | 276.628.3606 | saintthomas@bvu.net
Dear St. Thomas Family,
Grace and peace to you in our Lord
Jesus Christ!
During the Babylonian exile, Isaiah
writes of the promise of return and
restoration of the people to Jerusalem
saying, “See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive
it?” (Is 43:19). There is much growth
and new life to rejoice over at St.
Thomas in recent months.
ReKindle Grant
Just before Easter, I became aware of a
grant offered through the Columbia
Theological Seminary to support pro-
jects for enhancing the vitality of con-
gregations as we emerge from the
COVID pandemic. The grants are
funded through the Lily Endowment’s
Thriving Congregations program. Lev-
eraging the prayerful efforts of the
Renewal Works Team this Spring, we
submitted a grant for $10,000 for a
parish-wide spiritual retreat this fall as
well as a leadership retreat in January of 2023. I am pleased to report that St. Thomas has been awarded this grant. A key concept of
our proposal is the understanding that congregations which are growing spiritually are those which are most resilient to the chal-
lenges of striving to be people of faith and a community of faith in a world that is increasingly secular. The spiritual growth and
vitality of a congregation is also one of the keys to attracting new members. The grant writing team consisted of Sarah Combs, Ka-
ren Gilmer, and myself. St. Thomas was awarded the full $10,000 for our project. Please mark your calendars for our parish retreat
October 15th
at the conference space at Sugar Hollow! Jay Sidebotham of Forward Movement’s Renewal Works process will be our
keynote speaker.
Refugee Ministry
The process of applying to sponsor a refugee family from Afghanistan is moving forward with much enthusiasm. Due to the com-
plexity of hosting a refugee family and significant interest from other congregations and organizations in our community, we decid-
ed to open this ministry up to others in the Abingdon community. This process is being led by St. Thomas congregants, the Rev.
David Stancil and Deacon Preston Mitchel. We are calling our team, the Abingdon Sponsor Circle. Represented on our team are
members of St. John Lutheran, Christ the King Roman Catholic, the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Highlands, and the Appa-
lachian Peace Education Center (APEC).
Continued on page 3.
June 2022
2. 2
St. Thomas enrolled in the Spring 2022 cohort of the Renewal Works program
sponsored by Forward Movement. The purpose of Renewal Works is to help
churches refocus on spiritual growth. At the core of the program is the belief
that Christians grow in spiritual maturity through deepening their love of God
and love of neighbor.
Fifty-three members of St. Thomas completed the Episcopal Spiritual Life In-
ventory in January/February 2022. From February to April, Mary Tackney,
Kelly Moore, Dustin Keith, Alison Bundy, Lissa Henner, Buzz Butler, John
Bradley, Sara Combs, and Fr. Boyd Evans met in a series of workshops to dis-
cuss the results and develop an action plan.
The inventory demonstrates that there is much to celebrate. St. Thomas
achieved a Spiritual Vitality Index score of 68. The average score for Episcopal
churches falls between 45 and 75.
Parishioners agreed that “Our church provides a clear pathway that helps
guide my spiritual growth,” “helps me develop a prayer life that connects me
with God,” and that “church leaders help me develop a relationship with Jesus
Christ.” The results also showed a strong support for outreach and church
leadership.
On the other hand, the inventory illuminated areas of parish life that need to
be strengthened. In terms of daily practices, 30% reflect on Scripture, 23%
read the Bible, and 9% read the Book of Common Prayer. The results revealed
a lower than average understanding of core Episcopal beliefs and practices.
The inventory indicates that spiritual beliefs and attitudes is an opportunity
area for St. Thomas to address.
The Renewal Works program has identified five best practices of spiritually vital congregations. These
practices are Heart of the Leader, Get People Moving, Embed the Bible, Create Ownership, and Pastor the
Community. Our workshop team voted to focus on Get People Moving, Create Ownership, and Heart of the
Leader. The team recognizes the strong support for outreach at St. Thomas. However, the team believes
that our first steps should be toward encouraging spiritual growth of individuals, grounding outreach in a
Biblical/theological foundation, strengthening ties of fellowship, communicating to all members that they
are on a spiritual journey, empowering people “to be the church,” and strengthening lay leadership. The
team believes that cultivating spiritual growth will ultimately strengthen outreach and potentially yield
new outreach opportunities. Our spiritual life inventory data also demonstrated strong support for Heart
of the Leader. The workshop team celebrates this finding and celebrates the strong support that this
shows for our rector. But, the team believes that St. Thomas has become too clergy-focused and needs to
cultivate stronger lay-leadership.
Continued on page 5.
Renewal Works Spiritual Life Inventory
Progress Report
Sara Combs and Fr. Boyd Evans
3. 3
We have divided up into five teams focused on addressing the needs of those we hope to host and the requirements of the application.
These teams are as follows: Benefits & Healthcare, Education & Language, Finance & Employment, Housing & Basic Necessities,
and Welcoming & Local Orientation. These teams will ensure that the family will have sufficient access to healthcare providers, gov-
ernment and local services, local school and education resources, initial financial resources to get started, housing and furniture, ini-
tial food staples, and orientation to the community. We will need to raise about $10,000 to support the initial needs of a family of
four over their first six months. Typically, the families are self-supporting by the end of that time.
I have compared the process of hosting a refugee family to an adoption process. Our team is required to submit an application pro-
posal showing that we can provide a successful transition for the family we hope to host. Once our application is accepted, families
will be allowed to choose their location based on the openings available. Please keep our team in your prayers as we move through
this process!
Worship Space Renewal
Frequently during my time at St. Thomas, the vestry has been asked to consider, “Is there anything that we can do to improve access
to the worship space for those with mobility challenges.” Several older members have reluctantly mentioned to me in recent years
that they cannot attend church anymore because they cannot navigate the space. The nave is also very challenging for anyone using a
wheelchair or scooter, and we have had several falls in the past few years, primarily around the altar or after members have received
communion and were trying to return to their pews. The parish has established a Worship Space Renewal Team to examine these
issues.
The goals of this project are:
• Ease of access for elderly and physically challenged persons receiving the Eucharist, singing in the choir, reading at the lectern
• Improved visibility for people seated in the rear of the worship space
• Flexibility in seating, both in configuration and in number of seats
• Flexibility/portability of liturgical furnishings to accommodate the sacraments
Participants in the Worship Space Team are: Rhonda Kindig, Mel Schwarzstein, Jack Barrow, Matt Bundy, Ed Morgan, Rev. Boyd
Evans, and Margaret Gregg. We are working in collaboration with Peyton Boyd for Architectural services.
Architectural prints of the worship space were not available when the team began this process, so the first step was to have Peyton
prepare a computer model of the worship space. Peyton will be meeting with the team over the next month to discuss ideas and next
steps. As the process moves further along, the parish will be invited to join in the conversation. Again, your prayers and openness to
the stirring of the Spirit are requested through this process.
Keep the faith!
Fr. Boyd+
4. 4
The Word of the Lord
by Rhonda Kindig
What do you think is the number one subject of Jesus’ teachings? Would you be surprised to learn that
Jesus actually discusses money matters more than faith and prayer put together? Do you find it unsettling that
Jesus talks as much as he does about money matters?
Reformer Martin Luther wrote that there are three conversions necessary for a Christian: a conversion of
the heart, a conversion of the mind, and a conversion of the purse. I heard a joke once about a pastor who told
his congregation that he had good news and he had bad news. The good news: “We have all the money needed
to undertake our building project.” The bad news: “It’s still in your wallets.”
Just how many verses and parables can you name do address money matters? Matthew gives us
a few parables: the treasure hidden in a field, the pearl of great price, temple tax from mouth of
fish, the unforgiving servant, the laborers in the vineyard, and the talents. Luke offers these para-
bles: the lost coin, the unjust steward, Lazarus and the rich man, and the talents.
Many people identify Luke’s gospel as the one most concerned with money issues. It is true that
Luke especially has a heart for the down-trodden, the disenfranchised, the diseased and disabled of the world.
The flip side of that could be a disdain for the rich who don’t recognize their responsibility to the poor. But, if we
take a closer look at Matthew, we may see that he has even more references to economic terms than any other
evangelist.
Most folks believe that Matthew, the evangelist, was the same Matthew, the tax-collector, whom Jesus
called to be a disciple. Could that be why Matthew addresses economy more? We know that the gospel called
Matthew was penned a good 55 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. That makes it rather unlikely that this very-
Jewish gospel account was written by someone who worked for the “IRRS” (that’s the imperial Roman revenue
service!) during the lifetime of Jesus.
If you do a concordance count in Matthew and Luke for the following words: money, coin(s), silver, gold,
copper, poor, wealth(y), rich(es), treasure, purse, denarius(-i), value(-able), talent, penny/mite, tax(es)/tax collec-
tors, and debt(-ors), Matthew wins the count, with the highest usage of economic terms. Also, Matthew uniquely
gives us the story of Zacchaeus, and only Matthew mentions the Pharisees swearing by the gold of the Temple.
Matthew alone has this instruction given in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not store up for yourselves
treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for your-
selves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matt 6:19-21) It’s pretty easy to know to what
“treasure” this passage refers! You may have heard Rev Boyd’s comment that there are no U-Hauls trailing be-
hind coffins!
One economic topic that Matthew does address, unique to his gospel, is seen as early as his Sermon on
the Mount. In Matt 6:12, the version presented of what we call the “Lord’s Prayer”, he uses vocabulary that may
sound “wrong” in our ears, since we pray this prayer in every church service every Sunday of the year with differ-
ent wording. Matthew wrote: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” In Aramaic,
hôbâ, is the word for debt, what one owed a lender. Interestingly, the standard term for “sin” in Aramaic is hôbâ!
Now we have a whole new layer of understanding added. This understanding fits in with the petition, “We are in
bondage to sin and cannot free ourselves.” Those words are from a standard confession, but when we recite
them, we quickly hear the words of absolution. Thanks be to God! There are more economic metaphors in
Matthew that we’ll explore next month in this column.
5. 5
To move forward in the areas of Get People Moving, Create Ownership, and Heart of the Leader,
the workshop team recommended that St. Thomas should consider incorporating the following:
begin and end every meeting with prayer; begin outreach meetings with Scripture reading and re-
flection; adopt a Rule of Life for the parish; parish-wide readings of books, such as Rowan Wil-
liams’ Being Christian; parish-wide reading of The One Year Bible; offer an instructed Eucharist
periodically; encourage private devotional practices such as reading Forward Day by Day; encour-
age public/private morning and evening prayer; strengthen small groups; strengthen parish min-
istries; strengthen lay leadership (vestry and parish ministries); hold parish retreats.
In April, St. Thomas applied for a Rekindle Grant through the Center for Lifelong Learning at Co-
lumbia Theological Seminary to support two retreats. In mid-May, we learned that our application
was accepted and we have been awarded a grant in the amount of $10,000.
The first retreat will be a parish-wide spiritual renewal weekend led by Jay Sidebotham from For-
ward Movement. There will be a gathering on Saturday, October 15 at Sugar Hollow Park. The
Saturday retreat will be followed by a celebratory service at the parish the following Sunday
morning. The goals of this retreat are to establish a spiritual foundation for our individual lives
and to examine the importance of fundamental tools of spiritual growth. These tools will include
expanding our concept of prayer from primarily petitionary to prayer as a form of holy listening
and meditation, guidance, and strength; increasing our knowledge of the core beliefs and tradi-
tions of our denomination; and, broadening our understanding of how we can incorporate regular
Bible reflection in our daily lives.
The second retreat will be a leadership retreat for the vestry and broader leadership of our vari-
ous ministries. This retreat will be held over a weekend at the Kanuga Conference Center in Hen-
dersonville, N.C. The leadership retreat will build on the concepts that we learned in the Fall
workshop. We will discern how the Spirit is calling us to adapt to the changing circumstances of
our post-covid world, and we will further strengthen and energize our parish ministries.
6. 6
Keep On the Sunny Side
Rick Morgan
On Sunday, May 15th, 2022, St. Thomas held an outdoor service on a beautiful sunny
warm day. This event brought back a memory to me of a time in 1925 when the con-
tractor for today’s St. Thomas and the Rector began an argument over stained glass
windows in the new sanctuary. The Rector wanted windows behind the altar of the
original church replaced. The contractor was adamant that the sun would be in the
south at 11:00am and would shine in the eyes of the congregation facing the windows
and noted “it would be hard on the eyes of the congregation”.
Now nearly 100 years later the congregation gathered donning their sun glasses, flop-
py hats, ball caps, or programs to shield their eyes. The contractor was right about the
congregation facing the sun and his spirit probably said “I told you so!” And he likely
chuckled as the Rector usually has his back to the sunlight.
Apparently, the debate in 1925 continued throughout the summer and fall until the
contractor suggested that the donor of the window treatment be consulted. The Trigg
family agreed with the contractor and the mural painting of Jesus was selected to
grace the south wall of the sanctuary. The painting was dedicated to Thomas Preston
Trigg (1851-1921) and Bette Wilson White(1851-1922). The contractor was Smithley &
Tardy of Roanoke and the Rector, Rev. Beverly Boyd.
8. 8
The Arts Depot is honored to exhibit contemporary pottery made by Rick Morgan, of Abing-
don, VA. Rick caught his “Pottery Bug” while living in the Mars Hill community, nestled in
the Blue Ridge Mountains just north of Asheville, NC. An instructor friend teaching in the Art
Department at Mars Hill College talked Rick into taking his first Pottery class. Rick enjoyed
it, but soon discovered that all pottery thrown on a wheel was a cylinder, which he felt was
boring. Thus, he turned his energy to hand building with clay. This exhibit will be full of
beautifully hand-built pieces. All proceeds raised from sales will be donated to The Depot
Artists Association in hopes of purchasing an exhaust fan for the Founder’s Gallery. This will
enable the Arts Depot to offer more workshops and classes continuing the cycle of learning
that prompted Rick to make so many creative pieces. The exhibit will open June 1st
, with an
opening Reception Saturday June 4 from 2 – 4 pm. The Arts Depot is open Wednesday
through Saturday, 10 – 4, and is free to the public.
Local Pottery Exhibit at Arts Depot
Update: Godly Play
Our “Godly Play” program has ended for the summer and will begin
again in September. Children are blessed with a spiritual imagination
and playfulness which we honor through our Montessori based “Godly
Play” curriculum. St. Thomas is a member of the “Godly Play Founda-
tion” which allows us to belong to the wide Godly Play community, per-
mission to use the official Godly Play logos, and access to high resolu-
tion images. Godly Play offers training programs for potential educators.
The 2021-2022 Godly Play class was cancelled due to high cases of
COVID-19 in our area. We did gather in January 2022 for a few weeks,
but again COVID cases began to increase. Class began again after Easter
until May. We are looking forward to September for a new year of Godly
Play. To begin again, all teachers must have updated “Safeguarding
God’s Children” training.
Our classroom is a sacred space of the Godly Play environment. We have
beautiful high-quality materials that become the unspoken message of
respect, care, and love of the Godly Play room. Well-working accessible
art response materials tell the children their work is valued.
How you can help in the Godly Play space is you can contribute festive
and healthy foods for the children, help to keep the art supply shelves
replenished with fresh materials, or use your creative skills to make ma-
terials for weekly presentations. Can you help with Godly Play in the fall?
In Christ,
Angela Goldsmith
Shoutout to Katherine Rose,
one of the folks who does
flowers for worship!
We appreciate your
work and talent!
9. 9
Caregiver’s and Grief
Support Group
After the initial meeting of the Caregiver’s group, it
was decided to incorporate a more comprehensive
name, thus Caregiver’s and Grief Support Group.
This group will meet at 1:00 on the 2nd and 4th
Mondays, May through August, in the parish hall of
St. Thomas. We will revisit the decision of date and
time as we move into a new school year. All per-
sons who feel they might benefit and would like to
be a part of this community ministry are welcome—
we are mask friendly and smile friendly. While St.
Thomas is sponsoring this needed ministry, all per-
sons within our community are welcome to join us,
keeping in mind that respect and confidentiality are
hallmarks of ministry of this nature. Any questions,
text or phone Mary Tackney at 276-274-6249.
Back to School Supply Drive
This summer, with your help, “A Back to School
Supply Drive” will begin for the 2022-23 school
year. This supply drive will help ensure that every
student is prepared with the supplies and re-
sources they need to reach their full potential in
the classroom on the very first day of school. A
new school year brings with it a fresh start and the
chance to imagine new possibilities. By investing
in families, we are strengthening our community.
A list of school supplies will be available in the
Parish Hall. School supplies usually begin to go on
sale in July. We have plans to distribute supplies in
early August. Monetary donations will also be ac-
cepted. Supplies can be dropped off in the Parish
Hall.
Thank you for your support with this project to
ensure that children in our community can focus
on learning with confidence!
—St. Thomas Outreach Committee
