From the Desk of the Warden

My dearest brothers and sisters in Christ,

It has been a very interesting year here at the spiritual oasis of University Heights. We have had members come and go; we’ve had weddings, funerals, baptisms and the beginning of our centering prayer group. So all in all it has been a pretty good year for us.
Personally I had an interesting year dealing with the trauma of a home fire and beginning anew, but with the help and encouragement of the St. Andrews family and the diocese as a whole, I came through it with a new look at life and a greater belief in the power of prayer. I wish to personally thank each and every one of you for your prayers, financial donations and help in the actual move to my new home at the Hotel Lenox.
St. Andrews has gone through some changes also throughout the year. During 2010 we officially were given the designation of having national historic status, which is quite a wonderful achievement. Having this status will open up more avenues for more grant monies to help us fix up and transform St. Andrews, the building, and bring us into the future. The future of St. Andrews is still in our hands, what do we feeling is the best use for the building and the future of our congregation. We cannot stay in a dormant state of the same old, for that will lead us to closing the doors permanently. We must discern the path that St. Andrews must take to keep the building and congregation vital, if we do not we are just going to keep spinning our tires and not move each in our journey.
My hope for St. Andrews the congregation and building is for forward thinking movement. Our thoughts need to be local global thinking, of greener times and prayer for the world and community as a whole. We need to open our doors and ourselves to new ideas and new thoughts if we want to stay in the building we have come to cherish so as our place of worship. I feel we can do that and our journey has just begun, I hope I am not proven wrong.
I wish each and every one of you a wonderful and peaceful Christmas season and I hope your lives grow and flourish in the New Year. God bless each and every one of you.

Yours always in the Service of Christ,

Michael Maciejewski
Warden

A New Day Begins
By Michael Maciejewski
Warden, St. Andrews Buffalo

As I looked out the window of my hotel room onto a car filled highway off ramp and knew my life would never be the same again. The days of knowing exactly what was going to happen day after day, week after week, the home I learned to tolerate was gone and I had to start fresh. How to do it, how to begin again, to make new memories when there is a fear of this happening again. The pictures, memorabilia, papers, books, my “stuff” that I collected over the years was gone, my security blanket was no longer there. It’s not a real blanket, I never really had one of those, but my comfort zone had been violated and that would be hard to build again.
Fire is really an amazing implement of destruction, it’s beautiful to look at, but deadly to anything that gets too close to it. My apartment unfortunately got too close to it, my apartment never caught fire directly, the apartment above mine did, and oh what a fire it was. Thick acrid smoke billowed down the stairs and hallways from its location, leaving ruin in its path. Everything that the smoke touched would never be the same, my apartment, my stuff, the building and I will never be the same.
How do you get through a situation like this, depend on the Red Cross for help? No. Depend on the government agencies to help you? No. What you need to depend on is the Lord. The Lord God Almighty guided me through the darkness and smoke into the light of a new day. It is a journey that is just beginning and with his help I will grow from this experience and become an even better me.
The journey began with the reaching out of my church family, my connection to the goodness of the Lord, the compassion of the Lord. Sarah, my rector and friend, the rector of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Buffalo, was the first who gave me a call of hope. A cell phone call, one of the few things I was able to salvage from the wreckage of my apartment that fateful day. She let me know that my church family will be there for me, I already knew my mother would be there, she always has been, but my family of faith was there too. She joked saying that the parish will fill my next with furniture and supplies as a housewarming gift. Little did I really know that that was going to be reality?
I am getting ahead of myself though, the next people that I talked to were Mark and Angie, two of the most intelligent, sweetest and giving friends a person could have. The first thing they asked me after, “are you okay?” was “what do you need?” Amazingly a couple of hours later they came to my hotel with a care package of food and clothing items. They made me feel like I was someone special, though I am just a faithful follower of Christ and a hospitality worker; they made me feel like a king.
Those moments will never leave me until the day I die. I never realty felt that I was worthy of my position and accolades until then. I felt like Sally Field at the Oscars: “You like me; you really, really like me!” Since that day I have gotten many well wishes, prayers, financial and spiritual help along the way from my St Andrew’s family and people too numerous to mention. The help truly came from the Lord through my most amazing family of faith and my family of birth. My love and gratitude will be never ending for all who helped me along the first steps of new journey of life. Some may say that it’s just getting a new apartment, but I am rebuilding and creating a new life from the ground up and I am going to try not to look back. Through the Lord all things are possible, my new life and home that will be filled with new and donated gifts are proof of that.

THE ST. ANDREW’S SEPTEMBER NEWS

Dear Members of the Community of St. Andrew:
This newsletter begins the effort to move St. Andrew’s communications to the internet and allow the Propers (readings) for the month to be listed for all to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest! Copies of the E-News will be made available at church for those who do not have web access. The intent is to get news out once a month. At this time there is no particular order of priority in the posting. There will inevitably be other emails sent out as concerns and possibilities arise, stay connected!
Let Us Love One Another as Christ Loved Us,
Mother Sarah+
Reception for Deacon Shirley
Deacon Shirley is retiring to her home in Texas. Deacon served St. Andrew’s for many years and is beloved by the people of St. Andrew. A reception in her honor is being held Sep 18 (7-9 PM) at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in North Tonawanda; 61 Payne Avenue. Please call Sandy to let her know if you’re planning to attend.

ALL CARE PHYSICAL THERAPY to care for our grounds!
In exchange for the use of our parking lot, All Care Physical Therapy has consented to help St. Andrew’s by mowing and taking care of the landscaping of our church property. Please offer prayers of Thanksgiving for All Care. We are so blessed!

Use of Our Space
St. Andrew’s is in discernment with the Buffalo Mindfulness Community about use of our space. Several parishioners met with members of their community last weekend. Mother Sarah learned Mindfulness (or Vipassana) meditation from an Episcopal priest at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, NY. Holy Cross was the first indigenous religious order in the United States. One of the rare stained glass windows of the founder, of Holy Cross, James Otis Sargent Huntington, is in our chancel. In the 30’s, Holy Cross brothers used to come to St. Andrew’s on preaching missions. (Please note the Celebration of the Holy Cross (9/14) listed on the calendar below and keep the Order of the Holy Cross in your prayers). Others in the Episcopal Church who practice this form of meditation are Brothers of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, including the Bishop of Massachusetts. Buffalo Mindfulness is also looking at other sites. Please keep their community and ours in prayer for our mutual discernment.

Getting Rid of Stuff/Making Room for the Future
Our Getting Rid of Stuff/Making Room for the Future Sale was a great success. Running for only 3 hours, we got rid of a lot of stuff, but not just “got rid of”, were able to provide goods and give aways for: a start up church, families with furniture and household goods and students with furniture. Joe was on hand in the kitchen with home made goods for our visitors; Carrie, Virginia, Barbara, David, Bobbie, Fr. Stephen and Mother Sarah were on hand to assist folks as needed and Angie accompanied our activities practicing the piano! The highlight of the day was getting to know folks in the neighborhood, especially students from all over the world. Many expressed interest in having an place and opportunity for university students to get to know each other by gathering in interfaith conversation.

Giving to Journey’s End
St. Andrew’s has also made contact and provision to give much of what we no longer need but could be of use to Journey’s End Refugee Center a reality. Virginia is the contact for this initiative.

Received for Sale of Property
A check for the sale of the back lot has been received. We can claim this as living authentically into our vision statement of being a transforming agent for university heights. A back yard for children far exceeds becoming a repository for Fraternity House debris! Speaking of Fraternity House debris: I have spoken to Matthew, a member of Alpha Sigma Phi. Matthew no longer lives in the house but has volunteered to make sure our lot is cleaned up every Sunday morning. However, should you ever come to church and find debris or broken glass in the parking lot, please call Buffalo Police Non-Emergency: 853-2222. The Police will come only if someone is on site.

Centering Prayer
Fr. Stephen will continue with our offering of Centering Prayer at 9:00 a.m. on Saturdays. Those who have participated have found this very beneficial in reducing stress. And, our prayer to be open to God seems to be being answered. See following:

Making Space for Others
Over the past the past four months, as the St. Andrew’s community has been reshaping, focusing and opening, many conversations have begun about the Mission of the St. Andrew’s Building. Later in October, we will be hosting a conversation with those in our neighborhood, city and university about a Global Buffalo initiative. Stay tuned and keep this in your prayers.

Note the New Toilet in the Men’s Room!
Thank you Barbara for making this happen!

Sunday Leaflets
Elaine is taking a break and will no longer be preparing our Sunday leaflets. Thank you Elaine for all of your consistent and hard work in making sure we had leaflets without an administrator! Mark and Angie have volunteered to take on discerning how we might best provide for leaflets and/or readings. Until the decision is made, we will continue by using the Book of Common Prayer with page numbers and hymns announced. While we are on this topic: Let us offer our fullest prayers of thanksgiving for Angie’s ministry of music! We are truly blessed.

OUR NEW LIFE
Since Archbishop Terry’s visit June, 26, we have gained a new sense of community and direction. To this end, during August, Mother Sarah has been teaching and preaching about Baptism and the Emergent Church in her Sunday sermons. In September, in his sermons Fr. Stephen will incorporate teaching on The Eucharist. In October, Mother Sarah will focus on The Book of Common Prayer and Our Liturgy and, in November, Mother Sarah and Fr. Smith will alternate preach and teaching while weaving in reflection on Anglo-Catholicism: its heritage, St. Andrew’s heritage in the movement and what recoveries of practice may be most vital for the Church today.

EMAIL CONVERSATION ABOUT ST. ANDREWS
By now you should all have the group list of emails for the Community of St. Andrew and received the email from Mother Sarah inviting you into conversation as to the needs and wants for your spiritual life and the church. Please respond with your comments to the group email list. This will enable us to be in an online conversation and come to common understanding together. (Again, if you prefer your response to be anonymous, you may reply to Mother Sarah alone and your thoughts will be discreetly integrated).

OUR NATIONAL STATUS
As well as gaining listing on the National Historic Register, St. Andrew’s has now become a Partner Parish with the Episcopal Church Foundation. Not only will this enable us to gain support from ECF, we will be contributing to the development of the Episcopal Church by sharing our experience.
From: Donald Romanik
Executive Director of Executive Director of the Episcopal Church Foundation
August 25, 2010
We are pleased to consider St. Andrew’s Church in Buffalo as a partner parish of the Episcopal Church Foundation (ECF). Through this relationship, ECF will remain in regular contact and communication with the congregation as it continues to discern its future and as ECF lives into its mission of helping Episcopal communities of faith develop leadership and raise resources for ministry. Together, ECF and St. Andrew’s will be about the work of transformation, growth and responding to God’s call in very practical and innovative ways. We may also develop models and best practices that can be replicated and shared with other congregations with similar challenges and opportunities. We look forward to walking with you on this journey.
www.epsicopalfoundation.org

Lay Readers
For those who are reading aloud in church, and any others who may be interested, following are the lessons for the Sundays in September. A hint for lay readers: look at the reading on the lectern as soon as you come to church; make sure you know exactly where it is in case a page needs to be turned; if the next reading is on another page than the reading you read, please turn the page for the next reader. Go through the text at home and at church before services and make sure you know how to pronounce any odd words and all the names!

From the Desk of the Warden