Dear Friends,

We are well into summer now, and there are some changes and transitions that we want to highlight for clear communication going into July & August.

• Beginning this week, through Labor Day, our office hours will be Tuesday-Thursday, 10:00am-5:00pm.  While staff won’t technically be on reduced time, the change in office hours will allow more flexibility for vacations, flexible schedules, and coordinating special projects in the office to prepare for Fall.
• For worship, please note that we will continue our regular schedule until the Parish Picnic at Wilshire Park on July 26.  After that, our worship schedule will change through the Labor Day Weekend: 7:30am & 10:00am (in English), and 12:00pm (in Spanish), August 2-September 6.  Back to the regular worship schedule on September 13!
• On July 1, Dave Reilly retired as Treasurer for the Vestry.  Tim Sackett has been appointed to that position.  To contact Tim for matters relating to giving, expense reimbursement, financial records, etc, please use his new email: treasurer@stmaa.org.  (This is different from the other email addresses, which are shared mailboxes for the finance team.  Only the Treasurer email is dedicated to go only to Tim.)
• On June 30, Leslie Sackett officially retired from her position as Associate for Children & Family Ministries.  Thank you for your presence and good wishes for the celebration of Leslie’s ministry on June 7, for your generous giving to her purse, and for all your support as we navigate into the summer and an interim year ahead.  We had a good “last day” with Leslie in staff meeting yesterday, and celebrated by sharing good memories and pie.
• July and August will be transition months, as we await the arrival of Chloe Colbaugh to serve a year as Interim Director for Ministry to Children, Youth and their Families.  During the next two months, please contact me directly with questions about this continuing ministry (scottP@stmaa.org).  When Chloe joins us at the end of August, her email address will be ChloeC@stmaa.org.  

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Friends, this weekend marks 250 years since the independence of the United States.  We share a complicated legacy, a difficult history, and live together now in fraught times.  I have never been more convinced of the importance of churches and centers of faith like ours, upholding the ideals and values of prayer, connection, resistance, solidarity, and human dignity enshrined in our baptismal promises.  I will speak to this national moment in my sermon on Sunday, and we will sing and pray together in a quest for renewed purpose and hope for the future. Honestly, being with you on Sunday is what I am truly looking forward to. I hope to see you.

With you,

Scott+

The Rev. R. Scott Painter, Rector