The Saint George's Vestry approved two major changes to our worship schedule at our July 21 meeting. These changes are designed to build on St. George's tradition and love of the multiple forms of great liturgy that our Episcopal heritage provides us, while taking into account the volunteer and clergy resources required to support them. We also see these changes positioning us to strengthen our existing membership, potentially attract new members, and create a strong and stable worship environment into which we will welcome our new rector in early 2011.

First, effective Sunday, August 29, we are establishing a service schedule with two Sunday morning services--a Rite I service at 8:00 AM and a Rite II service at 10:30 AM. Positioning the two services at those times will enable adjustments of the Sunday School, Adult Forum/Education, choir practice, and coffee hour schedules that will make participation and flow between these activities much easier for parishioners. A two-service schedule also will lessen the demands on the multiple organizations that support each of our services-acolytes, chalicists, altar guild, lectors, and ushers. It also is in alignment with all of the other Episcopal churches in Arlington with only one clergy member. Each offers two Sunday morning services.

We see this change not as going back to how things were before, as we recognize we are not the same people we were and therefore can't go back, but rather as a step forward, a move forward towards a new "us".

We are keenly aware of the impact this change will have on our members who currently attend the 9:00 service. They have been attracted to that service both by its time and by its format. Once we decided to move to a two-service schedule, we committed to doing what we can to smooth the impact of the changes on the 9:00 congregation. We already have introduced some of the liturgical and musical elements from the 9:00 service into the 11:00 service, and that will continue in the new 10:30 service. For example, Phil will be introducing a monthly children's sermon, which will be an integral "family-friendly" part of the 10:30 service. Between the Vestry, the Worship Committee and the Clergy, we will look for opportunities to provide elements of what made the 9:00 service "unique" in the new 10:30 service. We encourage anyone with suggestions on how we can make this transition most comfortable for the 9:00 service attendees to let me know, and I will see that those suggestions are considered for implementation.

Second, we voted to establish a 6:00 PM Sunday evening service, beginning by October 31, and likely sooner than that. That service will be a meal-centered, participant-driven Eucharist, designed and staffed in large part by the people who attend that service. This will be an Episcopal service, and it will be intimate, informal, family-friendly, and dynamic in that each service is likely to be a bit different from week-to-week. There is a team of St. Georgians who are working to design the service now, and the clergy leadership will initially come from the Reverends Heather VanDeventer and David Gortner. We expect that once word of the non-traditional and dynamic format of this service gets around, there will be requests from VTS seminarians and other clergy in the Northern Virginia and elsewhere in the DC metro area to participate as well. This service is being designed to require no additional workload from St. George's altar guild, acolytes, lectors, ushers, and clergy-and while Ben Kesely will initially provide music, and possibly the youth choirs, we expect that the evening service congregation will develop its own musical performers as the base of this service's musical content.

The Vestry approved the creation of the Sunday evening service as an opportunity to address the heartfelt desires of some within our congregation to experience a participatory service in the spirit of the early church. Other Episcopal churches that have initiated similar services have found that, along with serving unmet needs within their current congregations, this style of service has drawn in the previously-churched in their communities and may have the same effect here, invoking our commitment to "Feed My People" spiritually.

An important note is that the approval of the Sunday evening service included a requirement for the service planning team to report to the Vestry on their progress with the service by the October 2010 Vestry meeting, and a follow-up reporting and decision point as to whether to continue with this service eight months from the initial service. The Vestry is committed to an open evaluation and decision on the service at that point.

In summary, your Vestry determined that a two-service schedule on Sunday mornings better suited Saint George's than a three-service schedule, and that now was the best time to make this change. Additionally, we saw the opportunity, and in fact the need, to create a Sunday evening service as a response to expressed desires and needs from current parishioners. We feel that these changes will put the parish in the best position to thrive going forward, and we will be watching to make sure these changes do help us to thrive. If they do not, we will make further changes. Finally, we want to express our love and consideration for those parishioners who are impacted both positively and negatively by these service schedule changes, and encourage anyone who would like to talk about the changes, and who might have suggestions on how to best implement the changes to speak with either of your wardens (keydelena@gmail.com or bclarkeva@verizon.net), members of the Vestry (SaintGeorgesVestry@yahoogroups.com) and/or members of the Worship Committee (Norma Kacen chair - nkacen@aol.com). Our goal is to make St. George's the best place for each of us to express our love of God and enable us to feed God's people in the world. We believe these changes will help us meet that goal.

Cordially,

Bob Clarke                    Elena Keydel
Senior Warden             Junior Warden

-- on behalf of the St. George's Vestry