The Message All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church

Transcription

1 The Message All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church From the Rector The Gift of Perspective I heard a powerful story on the radio recently. The reporter had a cousin who spends the summer in a beach house on the Greek island of Chios in the Aegean Sea and spoke to her about the refugees who are washing up on the shore of the beach. Most are arriving through Turkey, fleeing the violence and warfare of Afghanistan and Syria. The reporter s cousin, Maria Vlassopoulos, spoke about how the summer residents of the island have begun helping the refugees in any way they can. People need water and food. Babies need diapers. But mostly, people need to be told that they are safe. When asked if some of the residents resent the refuges, Vlassopoulos said, There's no negativity. Whoever you talk to says, The poor people, you know, they're running away from war. The first couple of boatloads, I just couldn't believe what these people had gone through. I imagined our children being in that situation and it was really moving for me. But now, you know, humans become used to things and I'm not in pieces the way I was in the beginning. We have been through a lot in Greece in the past six months, as you know, and we've been feeling sorry for ourselves. This really puts things in perspective. (August 10, 2015, All Things Considered, NPR) Perspective is a game-changer, isn t it? Whenever we hear Holy Scripture, whenever we pray, whenever we come together as people of faith, we are opening ourselves to a shift in perspective. We might be surprised by the way another person understands scripture. We might be angered at another person s response (or September 2015 Volume 66, Issue 4 Inside this issue: From the Rector, 1 Vestry Update from the Sr. Warden, 2 Jr. Warden Update, 3 ECC News, 3 RenewalWorks Progress, 4 & 5 Building Dedication Photos, 6 & 7 Music Notes, 8 Outreach Update, 8 Membership Update, 9 Announcements & Events, 10 Service Opportunities (continued), 11 At Left: Visitors enjoying our new patio & garden space. lack of response) to the calling of Jesus Christ to follow him. Or we sometimes gather at church or with other believers, and we re simply tired tired of the competing demands of family, work, society, and church. The observation by Ms. Vlassopoulos that in the midst of the economic crisis in Greece, she had caught herself feeling sorry for herself, made me think of similar thoughts I ve had over the last two years. As we have dealt with delays in construction and weather, neighbors, our own expectations, and the realities of construction in the 21 st century, there have been times when I ve felt a little sorry for us, even a bit (I daresay) persecuted. I ve wondered and prayed, Why can t we get a break in this process? But, thanks be to God, I m jolted out of those thoughts by the needs of the poor, the hungry, and the hopeless. But the Holy Spirit also jolts me into a new perspective of gratitude for God s blessings yes, with a beautiful, accessible new building, with a stronger sense of community, and a renewed commitment to mission. May we all be moved and changed more deeply into God s perspective of love and life. John Beddingfield 1

2 From the Senior Warden Three Things for Autumn for You Welcome! And a special welcome back if you ve been away this summer. I want to say 3 things. 1. Working Out at All Souls For me, attending church is like working out at the gym. If I don t attend regularly, I get a little cranky and lose my center. My life focus starts to blur. I encourage you to explore the benefits of regular attendance at Mass. Get into a spiritual rhythm now that fall is here. Church isn t just about the next life; it s about now and you. It s about making this world a better place and yourself a better and more fulfilled person by practicing God s love and by inviting the Holy Spirit into your life. That doesn t happen by magic. It requires intention and commitment from you. Try it. Become more involved in the life of All Souls. If you don t regularly attend Mass: start. If you attend Mass regularly, then take the next step: express God s love through direct action. Get involved in one of our many missions. As a trainer at the gym might say, Show up and I guarantee results. 2. Goals for Our 2015/2016 Year Your Vestry, the governing board of the church, held a strategic planning session over the summer and developed new goals and performance measures for our 2015/2016 year. Here are the goals in summary form: Hold an instructed Eucharist in the fall and spring, an Episcopal Primer series in the fall, and a new seeker series in the spring. Make our service opportunities to the broader community better known and engage more parishioners in service to others. Develop mission partnerships with a small number of non-profits. Start and grow a group to provide emotional/spiritual support to fellow parishioners in times of need. The three programs above are a result of last year s parish-wide survey (RenewalWorks) and represent the top three priorities of the congregation as expressed in that survey. Host a major social event in the fall and in the spring. Encourage more people to host breakfast and coffee hour on Sundays. (Part of Christian community is fellowship with one another with breakfast after the Sunday 8:30 a.m. Mass and coffee hour after the Sunday 11 a.m. Mass being principal ways we support that fellowship. We need more people to host especially coffee hour. It adds only 10 minutes to your weekly shopping and takes just 30 minutes to set up on Sunday morning before Mass with Moises, our Sunday Sexton. Sign up in the Undercroft or speak to Jennifer Johnston or Daniel Callis for more information.) Post videos about All Souls on our web pages to make the parish more inviting to newcomers or people church shopping online. Participate in two local street festivals to evangelize. Promote our programs and music through select advertising including both print and digital. Reach out to everyone who visited the parish in the past year with a note encouraging them to come again. Run a successful stewardship campaign and increase the number of people who make an annual stewardship pledge, which helps us operate more smoothly, more efficiently, and within budget. Complete our All Souls Forward capital campaign for the new accessibility addition. Develop a prioritized list of capital projects to maintain the beautiful old part of our physical plant. Develop an owner s manual for our entire physical plant. If you would like to get involved in any of these activities, consider this an invitation. Please talk to me or another member of the Vestry for more information. 3. Let s Get Better Together Finally, whether it s Christian community, a quiet place for prayer and reflection, a place where you restore yourself after a busy week, or a way for you to express your love for God or serve others, I want All Souls to be a place for your soul. And if there is something Father John or I or the Vestry can do to make All Souls better, please tell us. You can always me directly at senior.warden@allsoulsdc.org. I ll see you at Ingathering on September 13. Have a great fall! Jeff Wells, senior warden 2

3 From the Junior Warden Going Green at All Souls Episcopal Center for Children ECC News Construction moved quickly in this summer s good weather, but the final walk-throughs and inspections are painstakingly slow! We approach Ingathering Sunday with hopes of more fine weather to enjoy our new addition. The back gardens might look ragged for a while longer. The Garden Guild wants to use the best planting guidelines for installing trees and those may dictate when fill-in plantings can go in. Speak to Garden Guild members for information about what we can look forward to seeing. They have been working closely with John Shorb for irrigation and planting design. In early August, the installation of LEDs in the higher reaches of the nave was accomplished. One of the very early (and reoccurring) items on the agendas for All Souls Are Green was the conversion from incandescent lamps to CFLs with the intention of going to LEDs when appropriate. The first step was pretty easy thanks to volunteers who spent a weekend day making the changeover in the easy to reach places. The nave was a more challenging story. More volunteer time and energy was spent on installing LEDs in the aisle canisters and chandeliers, but the spots and floods were out of reach both physically and practically. The nave lighting levels are quite sophisticated, and it took a while for technology to create the lamp colors and fixtures suitable for All Souls. The height was a factor, as well; reaching the highest places required the use of a bulky lift. But finally, thanks to a donor who understood our desire to have a greener worship space with appropriate tones, the project has come to completion. We also thank David Ghatan from CM Kling & Associates, Inc. for his long-time advice and counsel. Martha Domenico, junior warden Sunday, September 20, 2015 will be the third annual book sale at Politics and Prose to benefit ECC. Politics and Prose, our neighborhood independent book store, assigns ECC 20% of sales associated with the school either through the teacher constructed wish list or through general purchases. More information will appear in The Weekly, but start now thinking about holiday book or cd purchases. On November 7, ECC will celebrate 120 years of service to emotionally disturbed children and their families from the greater metropolitan area. Tours of the Utah Ave. NW campus will be available and refreshments served. A silent auction will benefit the school, and if you would like to donate something to the auction, lease let me know. Look for updates in The Weekly. For more information, contact Martha Domenico at the.domenicos@verizon.net or The lift in the nave, ready to install new LED lights! 3

4 A RenewalWorks Progress Report The RenewalWorks survey that over 70% of the parish took last year identified three themes that the congregation identified as high priorities. These themes were: Encouraging spiritual growth and better pathways to that spiritual growth; Creating more opportunities to serve those in need in the broader community; Providing more help and support to one another in times of emotional stress. We heard you, and we ve been hard at work coming up with ways to fulfill these needs. Below and on the page opposite, you will find updates on the work we ve been doing in each of these three areas. Opportunities to Serve One of three key findings from the RenewalWorks survey which we took last Fall was that parishioners are looking for the parish to provide more service opportunities. Efforts to address this need began with a handful of us attending the Doing Good Well workshop in March 2015 at the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. A key take away from that workshop came from the opening session. In a talk entitled Five Guidelines for Doing Good Well, David McAllister Wilson, President of the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C. pointed out that The fruitfulness of our endeavors must be as important to us as the good feeling they engender in us. A summary of the talk is posted in the undercroft, or see Starting with materials from Doing Good Well, a large team of parishioners have been working on how to approach service opportunities since May. Rather than just jumping in and doing something, we ve spent time intentionally thinking about what service should look like at All Souls. In the course of our efforts, we found that All Souls has some sort of involvement in a large number of service-related groups or activities. Individual members are involved in a lot of things. Our Endowment gives money to a number of service organizations. As a church, we provide occasional group service opportunities (Habitat for Humanity, furnishing an apartment through Transitional Housing Corporation, etc.). But what we have been doing has been scatter shot. After much prayerful discussion, we have decided to focus on five service opportunities. This doesn t mean that anyone has to stop doing other things, nor does it mean that these will be the only service opporunities that we will ever pursue. We may decide that some of these aren t the right fit for us after all, but in order to make a difference, we felt we had to be more focused. These are the service opportunities we picked as a starting point: Christ House: All Souls has supported Christ House for over 20 years. It opened in 1985 as a 24-hour residential medical facility for the homeless, and its scope has expanded over the years to include providing meals and many other services. Cleveland and Woodley Park Village: The village helps senior residents in our immediate area stay in their homes. We were introduced to this group three or four years ago when they were very new, and they had a table right next to ours at Cleveland Park Day. We just met with them to discuss how we can partner with them. They want to provide more social opportunities for their members (they were particularly excited to hear that we have parking and that we are fully accessible). Food: We believe that feeding people in the Washington, D.C. area is critically important. We are looking at various groups in the area that accept food, and would like to build a relationship with one of those groups. Heifer International: This is our one international opportunity. Heifer provides farm animals for breeding and for milk to very impoverished areas. We ll be raising money for Heifer at various times during the year. See notices in the weekly announcements about the Heifier Brigade. Transitional Housing Corporation (THC): This group works to put homeless families in Washington, D.C. into apartments and helps them begin to thrive. Our recent school backpack drive was a near-term opportunity to support THC. You helped us deliver 24 fully equipped school packs that means that 24 kids from THC are going to be ready for school that s a fruitful endeavor! Continued on Page 11 4

5 Encouraging Spiritual Growth The RenewalWorks survey identified spiritual growth as an area of opportunity for All Souls to better serve our parishioners, and we are excited to take on the challenge. Over the next few months, we will explore the disciplines and core values within our faith that bring us into a closer relationship with God and one another through Christ. Spiritual growth is an elusive concept for so many of us. Growth by what means, by what measure? Is spiritual growth just abstract a concept to focus on meaningfully? And even if we could focus on it meaningfully, is it even healthy to think I m spiritually strong, or is that just the stuff of self-righteousness? These are good questions with complex answers, and their complexities should not scare us: they should excite us. For being formed of God s own handiwork is the very stuff of being human. In October, we will once again offer our Primer Series, which provides an introduction to Episcopal faith and practice. In Spring 2016, we ll be offering more in-depth sessions focused on specific topics of interest to our congregation. Both newcomers and All Souls members are welcome! As we move toward the 2016 program year, we would love to hear how you answer these two questions (please your responses to AllSoulsAreFormed@gmail.com): 1. What does a with-god kind of life look like? 2. In which aspect of that vision would you benefit most from focused attention in working toward it? We so look forward hearing what you have to say and using the feedback to develop opportunities to discover God in even deeper ways than we already offer in worship and fellowship. Come; grow with us at the table. Spiritual Formation Committee All Souls Cares All Souls Cares has begun to meet monthly to review our prayer list and send cards and notes to members of the congregation who might be sick, grieving, homebound, or simply have not been at church in a while. If you've been in the hospital and need food, we can help. If you need someone to go with you to a doctor's appointment or a hospital visit, let us know and we'll find someone. If you need help with transportation, again, let us know. If you notice someone has not been sitting near you or has not been at church in a while, perhaps consider sending their name to the All Souls Cares team, who (in communication with the parish clergy) will send a note or make a call to the person, if appropriate. An may be sent to All Souls Cares (caring@allsoulsdc.org). In November, we hope to begin training for Lay Eucharistic Visitors and continue thinking and praying about how we can take better care of one another. Other ways that All Souls offers pastoral and congregational care include communions, confessions, and conversations with the clergy, monthly Eucharist at St. Mary s Court, healing ministers, the prayer shawl ministry, and our prayer lists. Stay tuned for more information as we continue to grow, and if you re online, see our section for Congregational Care on the church website. Support in Times of Emotional Need 5

6 Celebrating the New Addition On May 31, we dedicated the new addition at a combined Mass at 10 a.m., which concluded with the laying of the cornerstone. After the dedication, we gathered in the undercroft for a celebration. Below, find photos from the Mass and celebration. The undercroft set up for the reception. Food prep in the kitchen. A look into the top floor of the new addition! The garden & patio space nears completion. Since the building wasn t yet completed at the time of this dedication, we re celebrating the actual completion of the building as part of the festivities on Ingathering Sunday, September 13. Please join us! Left: A full house for our dedication service! 6

7 Left to Right: Art by Louis Von Rago to celebrate the completion of All Souls Forward; Nancy & Linda; Don & Jimmy. Station at the doors to the new addition. Processing to the back garden. The laying of the cornerstone! The reception in the undercroft. View more photos at 7

8 Music Notes Join Your Voice with Ours During the summer, the music program at All Souls takes some much needed time off. In July, we capitalized on our relaxed summer schedule and presented our 2nd Festival of Sacred Music. The choir of All Souls (and a few friends) came together for mid-week rehearsals and presented a host of choral music on Sunday mornings. Thanks to the fine efforts of the All Souls Communication Team, the DC community became aware of our festival and attendance at Mass was nearly double that of the preceding year! Music festivals are no small undertaking and truly succeed based on the contributions of many. Special thanks to our fabulous pianist, Christine Hagan, and volunteer and staff singers for making July a month to remember. The regular choir season begins on Sunday, September 13. We are a fun group of folks who really love making music together. Perhaps you would be interested in joining your voice with ours? If so, please be in touch with Ben Hutchens (music@allsoulsdc.org) - individual voice coaching is available as well! Our choir is comprised of a host of volunteer singers, 3 choral scholars (who are music majors at the University of Maryland), and 4 professional staff singers. The choir rehearses on Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. and is the service choir for the 11 a.m. Mass. If you enjoy great music, but don t fancy yourself a singer, donations of time or treasure are most welcome. In addition to financial contributions, there is constant work required in filing music, keeping our vestments tidy, and sundry other tasks. New to our choir schedule this year will be Spring Training. On the first weekend in March, our choir will travel to Venice, Florida for a weekend of rehearsal and performance in preparation for Holy Week & Easter. We are grateful to Peter Madpak, Organist/Choirmaster, and the choir of St. Mark s Episcopal Church, Venice, for hosting this important retreat & concert. If you are interested in traveling to Florida with the choir as a singer or non-singing supporter please be in touch with Ben Hutchens. Parish Outreach Toss the Basket Aside When I was a kid, I found a couple of verses in Matthew most puzzling and memorable. In Matthew 5:14, Jesus warns against hiding one s light under a bushel basket: nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. I remember wondering, Why on earth would someone hide the lamp light under a basket? Well, I ve learned that it is often too tempting to do just that with our faith. The pressures of daily living, reluctance to get is someone s face, or lack of confidence in my own ability to articulate my faith and the place Jesus and His teachings hold in my life are the basket that covers and hides my light. Members of All Souls Communications Committee have made it our business to rid ourselves of that basket whenever possible. We have made a concerted effort to take our faith outside the confines of our beautiful nave and into the community. We have made ourselves visible and available at a number of community events in the last few years, and with increasing success. The Capital Pride Festival has become a staple in this effort and has been joined of late by Adams Morgan Day, the 17th Street Festival, and Cleveland Park Day. Members of All Souls have answered the call to shine our light by meeting people in unexpected places and offering a glimpse into the faith community that is All Souls. We have made a Communion Service a part of these events and have seen attendance and interest in our witness increase over time. We will soon embark on a new light-sharing effort where we will invite members of our parish to share (in writing or on video) what being part of the Body of Christ and of the ministries at All Souls means to them. In this way, we will continue to seek out opportunities to toss that basket aside and, as the Gospel urges us, to, Let [our] light shine before [all] in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father. 8 Greg Lebel, communications committee

9 From the Membership Secretary The Importance of Parish Records It is hard to believe, but it has been almost seven years since I started my volunteer work as Membership Secretary. One of my first tasks was to review all our membership categories (21 of them) for the following information: Were the categories mutually exclusive?; Who was in each category?; What was the membership distribution across the categories?; Did we have the necessary information for each member? I continue my effort to accomplish those goals focusing mostly on member information. Since starting the task, the rector and I have reviewed all of the membership records, agreed on a definition of each category, and eliminated four categories. We repeat this membership review process annually in preparation for the required Parochial Report. In addition, I send letters to members for whom we have incomplete information. You may wonder why this is necessary and what you can do to help us. When the Bishop makes her official visitation, she reviews our records. And each year we are asked to validate members in order to provide an accurate parochial report to the national office. In the Episcopal Church, becoming a member is as simple as recording the date of one s baptism in our parish records, yet we don t have that basic information for many of our folks. For statistical purposes the Episcopal Church counts only active baptized members. Counting active members avoids double-counting of persons who are registered in another congregation and did not obtain a letter of transfer. Counting only active members also avoids counting persons who are not currently contributing to the corporate worship and communal life of the reporting congregation. The Episcopal Church in the USA is a hierarchical body. We agree to follow the canons (church laws) and to accept the authority of the clergy, bishop, presiding bishop, and councils of the church. Canon I.17.1 defines membership in the church. There are three core membership categories: member, communicant, and communicant in good standing. Baptized Member (we use Member) All persons who have received the Sacrament of Holy Baptism with water in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, whether in this Church or in another Christian Church, whose Baptisms have been duly recorded in this Church, are members thereof. Communicant All members of this Church who have received Holy Communion in this Church at least three times during the preceding year are to be considered communicants of this Church. Communicant in Good Standing All communicants of this Church, who for the previous year have been faithful in corporate worship, unless for good cause prevented, and have been faithful in working, praying, and giving for the spread of the Kingdom of God, are to be considered communicants in good standing. We work all year long to have accurate records. You don t have to be baptized to be active and welcome in our parish, but baptism is the official requirement for membership, and that is in the form of a recorded date of baptism. Our membership database contains not only the information required for membership but all contact information for individual members and important family data. Twice a year in May and December we publish a Member Directory for your use. Please help us maintain accurate records by providing your baptism date and keeping us up-to-date on any changes in your contact information. Barry Huber, membership secretary Where do we stand in membership count? Here are some membership statistics. According to the Parochial Report, our active baptized members were: 2004 = = = = = = = = = = = 360 9

10 Calendar Highlights Ingathering Sunday On September 13, join us as we celebrate Ingathering Sunday! This is what s referred to in some churches as Homecoming Sunday. Reunite with your church family and welcome back the All Souls choir from their summer break. This year, we will also celebrate the completion of our accessibility addition. Don t miss it! Save the Date: Veterans Day Service On Wednesday, November 11, at noon, All Souls will hold a Sung Eucharist with Thanksgiving for Veterans in commemoration of Veterans Day. Look for more information in the October/November issue of The Message. Reception for the Women of All Souls To view the full All Souls event calendar, visit and click the Church Calendar link. All Souls women s group plans to hold a reception on Sunday, September 27 at 12:30 p.m. in the New Narthex. Keep an eye on the weekly announcements for more information, or contact Mother Orens at eorensnoel@earthlink.net. Announcements St. Francis Day: Blessing of the Animals Join us on St. Francis Day, Sunday, October 4, for Evening Prayer and the Blessing of the Animals at 3 p.m. We gather on the front lawn of the church for Evening Prayer and the Blessing of the Animals. Please bring your own animal companions, as we give thanks to God for all the special creatures that grace our lives. The simple liturgy will provide an opportunity to name, recognize, and bless these friends with holy water. Those who have lost a beloved animal may also find this an appropriate occasion to bring a picture or other token of remembrance so that we might give thanks for departed creatures as well. Heifer Brigade The Heifer Brigade is on the moo-ve! Please join us. There will be lots more information in the next Message! Contact Charlie Boone at mbcc2@comcast.net if you re interested in getting involved. Spread the word, as this is a perfect opportunity to invite friends and newcomers. As a treat, there will be dog and cat treats (with a note from our church) that will be given to those pet-owners who attend. Wise & Mature Lunch for Seniors (and Friends) Resumes The Wise and Mature monthly luncheons resume on Wednesday, September 30 after the noon Mass. It has been 19 months since we last held our lunch, and I am looking forward to seeing all my dear friends for this time of fellowship. You should also save the following dates for the remainder of the year: October 28, November 18, and December 30. If there is anyone in the parish who I can include on the invitation list, please me at hcj72380@aol.com with your address or call the church office. Thank all of you for your patience during our construction project. This is a ministry I take great fun and pleasure in providing to you. Blessings to all of you. Mark Hoffman 10

11 Continued from Page 4 Service Opportunities Here are the immediate opportunities for you to support service at All Souls (To connect with any of these opportunities, contact dalealewis@aol.com): There is an ongoing need for food. You can place food in the bins in the Narthex. Food currently goes to the Capital Area Food Bank or Martha s Table. Christ House needs men s clothes. You can place any gently used men s clothes on the right by the stage. A group from All Souls cooks breakfast at Christ House every Wednesday morning. If you are interested in volunteering, here s a great starting point where you can work with your fellow parishioners. Cleveland and Woodley Park Village needs people to drive seniors to appointments. The seniors sign waivers protecting the drivers. The Parish Register will return in the next issue. Let me close with a reading from a book the service team used, 7 Creative Models for Community Ministry. We now use this as a prayer: O, to be like the Macedonians, with generosity as a defining factor in our lives. To think first of giving, of our own needs much later. To give regardless of circumstances. To give with joy, not out of guilt. To be so bowled over by God and a desire to serve that we just cannot stop being generous. Amen. Volunteers assemble backpacks to be donated to Transitional Housing Corporation. Dale Lewis, service coordinator The All Souls Message All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church 2300 Cathedral Ave, NW, Washington, DC Follow All Souls on Facebook & Twitter! UPCOMING NEWSLETTER DEADLINE Copy deadline for articles for the Oct/Nov 2015 issue of The Message is Monday, September 14, message.allsoulsdc@gmail.com with story ideas, questions, and comments. The Message Staff & Editorial Review John Beddingfield, Evelyn Duffy, Greg DuRoss, Terry Cain, Leigh Harrison, Mary Beth Howard, Barry Huber, Chuck Hunter, Jeff Wells Clergy and Staff The Rev. John Beddingfield, rector Sermons at Mary Beth Howard, parish administrator office@allsoulsdc.org about announcements, calendar questions, altar flower requests, giving statements, online giving, etc. Dr. Benjamin Hutchens, II, director of music music@allsoulsdc.org with questions about the choir and music program. Moises Flores, Sunday sexton Volunteer Clergy Rev. Elizabeth Orens, Rev. Cameron Soulis, Rev. Elena Thompson, O.P.A., Rev. Christopher Worthley, honorary assistants The Vestry Jeff Wells, senior.warden@allsoulsdc.org Martha Domenico, junior.warden@allsoulsdc.org Melissa Barrett, Daniel Callis, Jen Catena Davis, Elaine Eaker, Jennifer Crier Johnston, Greg Lebel, Jonathan Nicholas, Katherine Nordal, Rick Taylor, vestry@allsoulsdc.org Terry Cain, treasurer Linda Mahler, registrar 11 Volunteer Lay Leadership Carlos Guerra, sexton emeritus Terry Horan, financial secretary Barry Huber, membership secretary membership@allsoulsdc.org with address changes & transfer requests Jim Lewis, chair of the endowment fund board

12 The All Souls Message September 2015 All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church 2300 Cathedral Ave NW Washington, DC Ingathering Sunday is September 13