St. George’s Episcopal Church, Arlington, Virginia

A Diocese of Virginia parish serving God in Arlington, Virginia, since 1908; on the net since 1998
Our mission: to make God known.

Reflections

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What do you love about St. George’s?

• There is a place for everyone

• There is a mission for everyone

• There is a friend for everyone

• Nice people, nice clergy and staff

• I like the friendliness of so many people and feel very comfortable and “at home.” So many times, I feel “at home.”

• I love the early Rite I communion service, I like going early and sitting in the peaceful dimly lighted church. I often go for the 12:00 service on Wednesdays, and sitting in the quiet church before the service begins.

• I also like the music, the “peace” and the rituals.

• I have always been an Episcopalian, and enjoy it more at St. George’s and the food pantry, social good, outreach!

• The love everyone radiates.

• That it is a group of people who treat their “membership” not as one in a country club but as one in the community in which they live and work and worship.

• The strong social outreach program and sense of commitment to those in need.

• It’s wonderful atmosphere for worship whether for quiet prayer or the pageantry of our Christmas celebrations. I am especially fond of the stained glass windows.

• St. George’s is a beautiful space, and I like its small, unpretentious and humane congregation.

• Primarily I love St. George’s for its service, and because it is a  beautiful church. It is in a convenient location and has always had an excellent rector and assistant. I have been a member since Bob Hall was rector, and worked on the “Banner.” I was a member of the Altar Guild and on a team to deliver “Meals on Wheels.” I am probably one of the oldest members.

• I love the friends we've made—an extended “family” on whom we can count for sharing good times and bad times.

• We show extraordinary hospitality!

• That it’s there—welcoming all—welcoming back—like a family. Changing but remaining true to the values of Christ—love—humanity.

• The liturgy and music. I really like the clergy singing the liturgy, and our responding.

• The high quality and richness of our music program…

• The wonderful people I’ve met here, and continue to meet…

• The openness in which to express ideas and doubts, without fear…

• Music

• Going to Sunday School

• Going to Sunday School

• We love the interest St. George’s takes in the underprivileged and the needy.
• We love the way St. George’s focuses on our Lord, Jesus Christ, through various programs, music and worship.
• We love the safety net of St. George’s and knowing if a tragedy in our lives ever occurred that someone at St. George’s would be there to comfort us.
• We love the sermons—the parables as Jesus spoke the, and then applying the lessons derived from those parables to our everyday lives.
• We love the feeling we have when we leave St. George’s—blessed and at peace.
• We love the simplicity of St. George’s—no great production—so unpretentious and non-judgmental towards those who cannot attend St. George’s regularly—like us.

• I think you have a nice choir.

• People who: care and share, question and think, sing and laugh.

• Coffee hour.

• I love the music and all the extra music activities.

• My love for St. George’s goes back many years. New friendships, new programs, new wrinkles in service formats, but a community focused on the love of our Lord.
• Always striving to become better persons and a more loving community to help those less fortunate.

• That St. George’s welcomes and delights in the diversity and uniqueness of each member of the community.
• That St. George’s provides an atmosphere where each person feels valued and encouraged to share their special talents with the community.

• I love our commitment to outreach—we have a lot of do-ers here who give time, effort, and heart to make a lot of good happen for the needy in our neighborhood and in the world.

• The people—diverse, intelligent, difficult, hardworking, world-traveled, eccentric, warm, caring, seeking, sharing, accepting, broad-thinking, talented, busy, energetic, questioning, spiritual, demanding, receiving, forgiving.

• Our eccentrics—the difficult, strange, and challenged individuals who have been taken in and loved by the congregation over the years. May we continue to open our doors and hearts to them.

• It’s people.

• St. George’s always rings together all sorts fo folks and unites them in God’s service in a limitless variety of ways.

• An openness to engage in dialogue and exchange ideas—to raise questions of the heart in probing the truths of our faith.

How has someone at St. George’s touched your life?

• I am inspired by the faith and dedication of many members
  There are many who, if they were to leave the church, would leave me feeling quite abandoned; I rely on the faith of others

• My daughter and I could not go home on some holidays because of her job commitments. A “casual” friend at St. George’s invites us for Thanksgiving, New Year’s Day and Easter—we have now come to know her friends, and feel like one of the family. It brightens our holidays so much!

• Everyone with their love.

• The woman who reads the lessons in Braille has inspired me with her determination.

• My first day at St. George’s, pregnant with a 2-year old in tow, I found a notice on the bulletin board for Glenwood Cooperative Preschool. When I visited Glenwood, the 1st person I met was Valerie Gulick who had posted the notice at St. G.’s. We became friends, worked together on the St. George’s Television Network and she even introduced me to her editor at VOA which led to my most interesting job.
  As we moved back and forth from overseas assignments, I would always touch base with Valerie. She helped me reconnect to Arlington and to St. George’s. I missed her this trip back. She would have been a great guide to this stage of my life.

• Both Bob Hall and Ron Crocker have a special place in my family’s lore through the memorable wedding ceremonies they performed first for my daughter and then for my son.

• The Eucharistic Ministers who visit Sunrise to conduct services and bring Communion

• The IPG—Intercessory Prayer Group—is a shelter in the storm.

• When I needed a stabilizer in my life Suzie M. and Rev. Ron were there—close enough to give me my bearings but knew I needed to stand on my own—Thank you!

• There are so many inspiring men and women that have given me a refreshing… appreciation of their experience. Travel stories, educations achieved, and trials of work give me reason to persevere, and take risks. But maybe I just want to be able to do the same some day.

• While going through a difficult period with my husband, interim rector Victoria Heard provided guidance and support as we realized that divorce was our best option. My Stephen Minister Vicky walked with me through the grieving and healing period that followed. And the women of Time Out enfolded me in love, asking no questions, providing a safe haven with heaping portions of breakfast rolls and coffee.

• Miss Nies gave me a palm cross.

• Mom brings me to church.

• When we decided to convert from Catholicism to Episcopalian, it was Father Ron who took us under his wing. He shared with us the history of St. George’s and its continued pride in St. George’s bonded community. We were inspired by his personal trails and tribulations and how he overcame them.
• Ron has played such a large role in our happiness. Ron is not only our spiritual guide, Ron is our friend.

• Ron and others who helped me cope with the pain and uncertainty of divorce.

• Jane who taught me to sing with gusto and confidence.

• Mike Nelson.

• St. George’s is my spiritual center.
• As I grew up my parents were members of St. G’s, touching my life.

• Many people through the years have been examples or touched me and in some way impacted my life. Seminarians, clergy, senior citizens, youth.
• If we listen, we can understand and learn and at times offer hope and encouragement to those in trouble.

• Dave Crocker, John Martin, Grady and Marion Malone—these people truly welcomed and sought out each person’s gifts. They had a way of inviting people to joyously share their gifts to strengthen, extend and enrich our community.

• John Martin, with his quiet discernment and gentle wit taught me about the Episcopal church and taught me to strive to be kind and inquiring. For a decade or more his promotion of the book “Church Meetings That Matter” influenced the way St. George’s vestry approached its business.

• Ron Crocker has been a true rock through some of the big crises in our family, and I will never forget the Sunday when I was late to church and missed communion. Ron realized at the end of the service and gave me communion from the consecrated bread that was going to parishioners who could not come to church. This, for me at that moment, was truly the hand of Jesus reaching our to me.

• Norma Kacen came to Mary and me through the Meatloaf Ministry. She was most supportive and helpful as a caring person. She is so buoyantly enthusiastic as well as available to help in any way that she could and always makes me feel she delights in what she does in the Lord’s name.

• So many St. Georgians touch my life and help me better understand myself, including in a specific way those to whom we bring home Eucharist.

What is your greatest dream for our parish?

• Lifelong relationships

• Continuing dialog about purpose and values

• Prove a home and haven for anyone who needs it

• I think that my greatest dream for St. George’s is that they could continue and enlarge their outreach. It is expensive and hard work but I think it also says a lot about the church.

• Continue to radiate it’s love.

• My greatest dream for St. George’s is that we become a focal point for the current generation in the Ballston area. A packed, thriving hub of spiritual, community, and outreach. I dream we do this by better “marketing” who we are, rather than adopting new ways to suit what we think the new people want.

• Margaret Pollock, when she took the 1st group to Honduras, told us she wanted us to experience the grace that she felt the Honduran parishes had. I think I felt that grace at a service, held in a carport in a driving rain with a metal desk for an altar and Pepsi bottles for flower vases, as I watched an old woman in her best dress search in her plastic purse for a coin worth less than 1/10 of a penny to put in the offering plate. Bonding with that congregation that had so little and had lost so much in the hurricane made me understand what Margaret meant. I would like for our parish to have more opportunities to experience grace .

• For St. George’s to become the vibrant center of spiritual like in Arlington.

• That it will continue to have good leadership

• I hope that we grow and grow—so that we have SRO every Sunday and children filling the Sunday School classrooms!

• That like all, the parish can live and change to meet and support the congregation and the greater community.

• Build up a larger group to fill the pews. but more so, to have a robust network of people to do things with, especially doing community improvement things, like a big art project or a local home repair for someone in need.

• To be a vibrant, lively, welcoming community, with active participation in meaningful ministries by clergy and laity.

• That we can claim to be GREEN!

• Our greatest dream for our parish is for St. George’s to have the wherewithal to continue its good works and worthwhile programs that unite a community and that will attract new parishioners.

• Swimming pool.

• That everyone in Arlington know what a wonderful and caring community we have at St. George’s and feels welcome to visit or join us.

• To have guitar songs.

• My dream for St. George’s is that it stay the same beautiful little church it is now with glorious stained-glass windows and wonderful congregation.

• Continued growth in membership, good, varied programs that would attract newcomers and ongoing maintenance and upkeep of the buildings and grounds.

• That St. George’s continue to see each person as a unique individual created by God with special talents and gifts and that St. George’s leaders call out each person to use their special gifts.

• To do more than feed the needy lunch—to change their lives in even more significant ways.

• That its reputation will be (and reflect the reality) that it is the most theologically liberal Episcopal congregation in Arlington—the church home for intelligent seekers of the Christian way—and maybe the first Arlington church to celebrate a gay wedding.

• That it will be a church recognized and sought after for liturgical and musical excellence.

• That we may all be united together as the Body of Christ—and become a visible sign of his love in a fallen world.

• That it continue to sustain and augment its ministry throughout the community and in many other parts of the world.

• That each of us comes to understand and to believe. “I never knew how to worship until I knew how to love.” Henry Ward Bucher quoted by Joan Chittister, OSB in “How Shall We Live”

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