February 2008 Contents
I confess that Lent has snuck up on me this year. In the church office, we generally think of January and early February as a relatively slow time – a season when we can recover from the hectic pace of Advent and Christmas while leisurely preparing for the busy seasons of Lent and Easter. That is not the case this year. The earliest Easter can possibly be is March 22, which has not happened in more than a century. This year it is on March 23, something that hasn’t happened since 1914. And it won’t be this early again until after 2089, which is the last year covered in the “Table to Find Easter Day’’ in the prayer book. All of this is to say that Lent is upon us. This Wednesday, February 6, is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the penitential season of preparation for Easter. For many people, the season of Lent is marked by giving up something – alcohol or chocolate or desserts. And there is something to be said for the discipline of doing without something that we enjoy, or perhaps have become too dependent upon. But I suggest that this Lent you consider the practice of taking on a spiritual discipline, of adding something of importance to your life. Here are a few suggestions. Feed your spirit . Add some new practices to your regular worship. If you have gotten out of the habit of regular worship, resolve to be in church on Sundays. If that is already your habit, think about coming to a midweek service. There will be a noon Eucharist on Wednesdays throughout Lent. Beginning Feb. 13 that service is followed by a simple lunch. Or come to our Village Suppers on Wednesday evenings at 6 p.m., followed by a potluck supper. Decide now to take time in Holy Week, the week before Easter, to attend the special services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday. For a different kind of worship, pray the Stations of the Cross, which will be set up around the church grounds during Lent. (For more information, see the article inside this issue.) Feed your mind . There are several exciting opportunities for Christian Education in Lent. In adult Sunday School, we will continue the series Living the Questions, which has generated lively discussions. Come to hear Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann’s lectures on the Book of Isaiah at St. Dunstan’s and St. Bede’s (details inside). Choose some Lenten reading that will stimulate thought. If you have been intrigued by what Marcus Borg or John Spong have said in Sunday School, check out one of these books. Or try one of the many wonderful books – Kathleen Norris’ Amazing Grace, Anne Lamott’s Traveling Mercies, Sara Miles’ Take This Bread to name a few --that speak eloquently, and often humorously, about the connection between faith and daily life. Or come to the Lenten film series (details inside). Bob Longino has once again chosen entertaining, but thought provoking films for us to watch and discuss this season. Feed your soul . Do something good for someone else. Cook or serve food at Holy Comforter on Feb. 20. Spend a day volunteering at Buckhead Christian Ministry or at a local school. Save money to buy mosquito nets for our brothers and sisters in our companion diocese of Tanzania. Doing any of these things will help you to have a holy Lent, and to be better prepared for the joy of Easter.
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Announcements
Table of Contents | Return to top A Lenten Prayerby Walter Brueggemann
The pushing and shoving of the world are endless.
Table of Contents | Return to top Lent at St. Dunstan'sLenten Lecture Series
“Making a Place Amid Displacement” will consider the Book of Isaiah as a resource for the “missional imagination of the church,” Brueggemann says. “The Book of Isaiah reports a community of faith in a crisis of displacement and renewal, a crisis not unlike our own,” he says. The lectures will look at how hope exists even in the midst of displacement. “We will give attention to the specific reality of the church among us, and consider how Scripture may lead us to fresh discernment and even renewed energy,” he says. The first lecture will be Wednesday, Feb. 13, at St. Bede’s Episcopal Church at 2601 Henderson Mill Road. The second in the series will be Thursday, Feb. 21, at St. Dunstan’s. Both lectures will begin at 7 p.m. Dinner will be served each evening at 6:15 for a charge of $5. To make dinner reservations at St. Bede’s call 770-938-9797. Dinner reservations at St. Dunstan’s may be made at 404-266-1018, or by signing up in the narthex. Transportation for both evenings is also available. Brueggemann is the emeritus professor of Old Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur. He has published more than two dozen books and lectured around the world. Brueggemann’s appearance at St. Dunstan’s is funded in part by an anonymous gift in honor of the Rev. Patricia Templeton and Dr. Joe Monti.
Lenten Outreach: More Mosquito Nets What I didn’t envision was the mosquitoes that make the deck and backyard all but unusable in summer months, no matter how much mosquito repellant we spray on ourselves. To us in Atlanta, mosquitoes are a nuisance. But to people in many parts of the world mosquitoes pose a life-threatening danger. One of those areas is Africa, where mosquito-borne malaria causes up to 3 million deaths a year. Health officials estimate that the use of mosquito nets alone could cut the number of deaths by 50 percent. Yet in Tanzania, one of the areas where malaria is most prevalent, only 2 percent of people sleep under nets. The reason? They cannot afford the $4-$6 a net costs. When we look at the problems facing the world they often seem so overwhelming that we simply turn away, knowing there is nothing we can do to make a difference. But we can make a difference here. Buying a simple mosquito net may potentially save a life. Last year we collected almost $5,000, which we sent to the Rev. Dickson Chilongani, the dean of Msalata Theological School in Tanzania. The money was used to buy mosquito nets for staff, students and their families. And with the vestry’s approval, the money was also used to buy medicine. In an e-mail Dickson told me that many students who already have malaria cannot afford the medicine to treat it. He has seen students break one pill into parts, hoping to make a daily dose last a week. Thanks to our contribution, everyone who needed medicine was able to get it. Our money also paid for the school to hire a nurse for an hour a day (for about 90 cents a day. This nurse was many students’ only access to a health care professional. You can see pictures of the nets and the nurse standing before a fully-stocked medicine cabinet in the narthex. Mosquito nets, medicine, a nurse – all provided by the money we collected during Lent. Let’s remember our Tanzanian brothers and sisters in Christ again this Lent. ~Tricia
Table of Contents | Return to top Christian FormationCheck out the Christian Education Bulletin Board for great pictures of the Christmas Pageant. If you have good pictures from the pageant, feel free to add to the display. There is also information about Episcopal summer camps. Watch the Life of Jesus unfold in colorful ‘stained glass’ drawings on the Sunday school glass walls. Each week between now and Easter, a child, teen, or adult will be invited to color a picture which depicts a story from Jesus’ life.With your child, watch for the new picture that is added each week to the display.
Table of Contents | Return to top New This YearStations of the CrossThe Stations of the Cross (also knows as the Via Dolorosa) is an ancient rite depicting the final hours of Jesus’ earthly life. The stations help us to participate in Jesus’ suffering by making a prayer pilgrimage to the places he walked on his way to the cross. This Lent, we will set up a Stations of the Cross along our grounds. Each station has been made by a parishioner. The path will begin at the back porch in the Beech Grove, then to the fire pit, then across the parking lot to the nature trail. It will end in the garden between the sanctuary and parish hall. During Lent, most of us forgo some kind of luxury like chocolate or alcohol or sodas as a penitential practice. Instead of (or perhaps in addition to) taking away a luxury during Lent, perhaps the season can be a time for adding in new spiritual practices. The Stations of the Cross is a great opportunity to add in a new spiritual practice during Lent. This year for Lent you are invited to commit to adding a new spiritual practice by walking and praying the Stations at least once a week (or more). Booklets with the prayers for the stations will be available in a waterproof container on the back porch. Groups will be praying the Stations together periodically during Lent as well— look for announcements about times and dates. ~ Tim BlackTable of Contents | Return to top From the Organist and ChoirmasterA Lenten Meditation ... With CarolsT he Great Forty Days of Lent, with all of their inherent spiritual drama and profound implications, have provided artists for centuries with sources of inspiration. On Sunday, February 24 at 4:00, the St. Dunstan Choir together with Mary & Martha’s Place will offer A Lenten Meditation with Carols. (The Organ Prelude will begin at 3:30.) This unusual and beautiful service follows a liturgical sequence of prayers, readings, carols, hymns, and anthems arranged to amplify the various themes observed by the Christian world at this time. Many carols traditionally associated with Advent and Christmas contain Passion imagery and take on a new meaning when sung in a Lenten context. Particularly effective are those carols which connect Christ’s incarnation with his death and resurrection. The poignant Lenten Meditation with Carols was developed at St. John’s College, Cambridge, England, where it is still sung on the last Sunday of Lent by the Chapel Choir. Originally conceived as “A Meditation on the Passion of Christ,” the service offers a unique depiction of the events of Holy Week as recalled in music, prayer, and readings. A striking feature of these annual services is the unusual—and often startling—juxtaposition of art and literature not often associated with Lent, Holy Week, or even traditional Christian worship. Additionally, the deliberate combination of things both old and new expresses a sense of continuity with the past and a feeling for the new demands of the present. In response to Christ’s own example, Sunday afternoon’s service is especially appropriate as we continue our personal Lenten journeys toward the events of Holy Week and the Feast of the Resurrection. The morning of Palm Sunday gives the promise of joy, as the people of Jerusalem, expecting Jesus to be the promised Messiah, welcome him into the city with acclamations of “Hosanna in the highest!” Suddenly, however, the mood changes, and by the end of the week it will seem that all have deserted him when he is hung on a cross with two thieves at Golgotha—a common criminal, “scorned by all and despised by the people.” During this unique service, we will be brought into this time of our Lord’s suffering, as “the shadows lengthen, the evening comes, and the busy world is hushed.” With Jesus, we will go to Gethsemane and hear him say, not only to his disciples but also to us: “Watch and pray.” May this Lenten Meditation, centered as it is on Christ’s monumental life and amplified by the musical and literary poetry of the past several centuries, help to focus your thoughts and prayers on the sacrifice and resurrection of the One who is, who was, and who is to be. May these meditations become your own. Please take time during this busy season to attend this unique event and experience the beauty and stillness of God through the offerings of his servants. Faithfully,
Sundays at Four ContinueSorrow, Peace, Joy ... A Co-Production with Mary and Martha's Place, Center for Women's Spirituality The Great Forty Days of Lent, with all of their inherent spiritual drama and profound implications, have provided artists for centuries with sources of inspiration. Please join the St. Dunstan Choir and Mary & Martha’s Place for this liturgical sequence of prayers, readings, carols, and anthems arranged to amplify the various themes observed by the Christian world at this time. Featuring music of Orlando Gibbons, John Rutter, Johannes Brahms, Healey Willan and James Stephenson. A co-production with Mary & Martha’s Place, Organ prelude at 3:30 p.m.
STEVE FURCHES Table of Contents | Return to top. Passages
Speaking Out for OutreachHelp Serve Dinner to Holy Comforter Typically, we need to serve about 100 persons; 5-6 cooks for the main dish, 4-5 persons to prepare salads, bread, cookies, and tea (sweet and unsweetened). We need paper products for serving and napkins, and we need cleaners. Barbara Bradshaw again has volunteered to collect the food and deliver it on February 20. If you would like to help, please contact Greg Blount, Barbara Bradshaw, or Gilda Morris. ~ Craig Withers
Table of Contents | Return to top. Coming SoonSt. Dunstan’s Fourth Annual Lenten Film SeriesSt. Dunstan’s Fourth Annual Lenten Film Series will be held this year on the first three Sundays in March. All movies will begin at 2 p.m. at the home of Eleanor Ringel Gillespie. The films will be followed by discussions led by AJC movie writer and St. Dunstan’s junior warden Bob Longino. Look for sign up sheets at the church soon. Here’s the lineup:
Wondrous Love: Southern Folk Passion ServiceMarch 16, 4:30 p.m. at Druid Hills Baptist Church· 1085 Ponce de Leon Avenue – The agony and splendor of the last days of Christ are brought back to life by Brenda Bynum's haunting retelling of the gospel. Plaintive traditional music recalls the emotional intensity of the Passion of Christ. Harmonies almost too close to hear bring heaven and earth together. The Meridian Chorale will perform, which includes our own Laura Withers. www.meridianherald.org .
Table of Contents | Return to top. From the TreasurerFinancual Update ~ Year End 2007 The November 2007 Bellows reported that, due to a very tight income situation, the Outreach portion of the 2007 operating budget had been put on an indefinite hold. The good news is that income in November and December was very strong and all of the 2007 budgeted Outreach funds ($22,000) were moved into the Outreach Designated Fund at the end of the year and can be disbursed this year. The other good news is that, even after applying the Outreach dollars as an expense, the church ended 2007 in the black and we have a small amount of operating reserve funds. The flip side of the strong-year-end-income is that income was slow during the earlier months of the year. But, of course, checks go out for expenses on a steady basis. This is what makes having a small operating reserve so important. 2008 The Stewardship Committee wishes to thank you for your pledged support of St. Dunstan’s for 2008. We sincerely appreciate the commitments and thoughtful stewardship each of you provided to parish operations. Thank you very much! PLEDGE GIFTS: If it is possible, it is most helpful to the financial process if parishioners divide their pledges into pieces (weekly, monthly, or quarterly) and give throughout the year, rather than waiting until year-end to make the entire pledge gift. 2008 BUDGET: Expected total income for 2008 is less than 2007, making another “tight” year for St. Dunstan’s. Anticipating a continued need for budget restraint, the vestry once again appealed our Diocesan Pledge Assessment in late summer of last year. The appeal was approved, so our commitment to the Diocese remains at $15,000 for the 2008 budget year. This is less than half of the assessment by the Diocese. The other hardest hit area of the 2008 operating budget is Outreach, for which no funds have been allotted in 2008. Craig Withers, vestry person for Outreach, will oversee a review of St. Dunstan’s entire Outreach effort during the first half of the year and input will be sought from all interested church members. Summary 2008 Budget
RECTOR’S DISCRETIONARY FUND: Parishioners are reminded that the cash-plate income from the first Sunday of every month goes to the Rector’s Discretionary Fund. In addition, individuals also may – and do – contribute to the fund with occasional gifts. The Episcopal Church’s policy states that “all fees and gifts from any source to the fund must be deposited and recorded on the books of the church, and subsequently transferred by the treasurer to the fund’s separate checking account.” St. Dunstan’s members who wish to contribute to Tricia Templeton’s discretionary fund may do so at any time. The check should be written to St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church – with a note on the memo line or attached to the check saying “for discretionary fund.” Such gifts will then be recorded on the donor’s pledge/gift record, deposited in the church’s bank account, and transferred by the treasurer to the discretionary fund. FINANCIAL REPORTS: Monthly financial reports will be posted on the bulletin boards in the coffee area and the office hallway. Feel free to look at them and if you have any questions, contact Richard Stansbury (Vestry person for Finance) or Nancy Elliott (Treasurer). In addition, there will be regular financial updates in the Bellows throughout the year.
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Table of Contents | Return to top Deadline for articles for the March Bellows is February 15.
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One of the things that attracted us to the house we bought when we moved here almost four years ago was its beautiful deck, and its big, wooded backyard. I envisioned dinner on the deck on summer evenings, and Joseph Henry spending long afternoons outdoors. 
This year, we will once again use Lent as a time to collect money for mosquito nets. You may pick up a Lenten “mite box” at church. 
St. Dunstan’s is scheduled to provide dinner for Holy Comforter on the Wednesdays of February 20, July 2, and December 3 this year. Holy Comforter is a special place of grace within the diocese that serves persons with physical and mental health challenges who seek inspiration through Jesus Christ in the comfort of the Episcopal tradition. Many parishioners of St. Dunstan’s and other churches in the diocese view this outreach activity as among the most important, authentic and profound of Christian experiences. Often they describe providing dinner as an honor and a privilege. Please volunteer and help a special group of people. | 4:30- 5:15 PM | St. Cecilia Choir (ages 8 and up) |
| 5:30- 5:55 PM | St. Julian Choir (ages 4-7) |
| 6:00- 7:00 PM | Village Supper |
| 7:00- 9:15 PM | St. Dunstan Adult Choir (childcare available) |
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Nancy Dillon—Senior Warden |
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Bob Longino—Junior Warden |
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Andy Delfino |
Bruce Lafitte |
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Ruth Roser |
Richard Stansbury |
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Jeanne Taylor |
Craig Withers |
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Danny Woodard |
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Paul Ruhmkorff, Treasurer |
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Our Staff
The Rev. Patricia Templeton, Rector
The Rev. Maggie Harney, Priest Associate
Ellen Gallow, Director of Christian Education
Stephen L. Furches, Organist-Choirmaster
Kim Branch, Parish Administrator
Paul Ruhmkorff, Treasurer
Bruce Lafitte, Vestry Clerk
