The Shell Newsletter – August 29, 2019

I am excited to share that this fall we will be welcoming a DOV Intern at St. James’.  DOV (Discerning Ordained Vocation) is the second year of the process in the Diocese of Maryland for people discerning a call to ordained ministry. 

As a part of the DOV program, participants disengage from their home parish and spend 3 ½ months serving at another parish.  So often we love “the church” because we love “our church.”  When we begin to discern a call to ordained ministry we often have in the back of our minds someday serving a church just like “our church.”  And yet for all that we are a people of common prayer, every parish is different, with varied core identities and charisms.  The value of the internship is that it allows folks to participate in a different parish to help discern if their call is to serve in the church writ large.

Goals for the internship include preaching, pastoral care, attending a Vestry meeting, participating in Outreach, assisting in liturgy planning, and meeting with a Parish Lay Committee (PLC), made up of members of the parish, for reflection and feedback.

Please read below for an introduction from our Intern, Tommy Turbyville, and join me in offering him a warm welcome on Kick-Off Sunday (9/8), his first Sunday with us.

Yours in God’s peace,
Kristin+

 

From Tommy –
Hi, my name is Tommy Turbyville and I am coming to St James’ for an internship (Sunday, September 8 — Sunday, January 12) as part of the second year of the discernment process: Discerning Ordained Vocation. Thank you so very much for hosting me and sharing this important part of my discernment journey. Discerning whether I have a call to ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church is truly a community process, and so your insight, feedback, and especially your openness to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you about my call is an important part of helping me find my way. 

I hope to get to know you all over the next few months.  I hope that we have an opportunity to share our gifts, to meet each other as members of a large Holy Family.  We are all called to live more deeply into our baptismal vows.  We are all called to open our hearts, to minister, and share Christ’s Good News—to be the hands of God in the world—to do loving work.  Lately I have been exploring whether I am called to be a priest in the Episcopal Church.  

I was born in Tucson Arizona, but have lived all over the place.  I grew up in Washington D.C., Mexico City and Switzerland.  My childhood had wonderful moments of adventure and true love. For that I am grateful. But my father was an alcoholic, and so things were far from perfect (I’ve learned since then that no family is perfect). When I graduated from high school, I moved back to Tucson where I went to college, taught school and spent summers working as a summer camp counselor and director, and then went back to the University of Arizona to get a PhD in Cancer Biology.  Nowadays I am a principal scientist at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research in Frederick, MD.  There I lead a group of 6 scientists in drug discovery and cell biology to target a cancer causing mutation that is found in about 30% of cancers.  Really though, I think at heart I am still a summer camp director organizing people to have fun and meaningful experiences with each other.  

I met my wife Jeanette over 30 years ago.  We have two daughters, Isabella (20), and Rosie (17).  They are both studying abroad: Isabella is a senior at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and Rosie is senior at a school in the Swiss Alps. Jeanette and I live in a small row house in downtown Frederick that was built in 1850.  Jeanette is a teaching assistant at an elementary school across the street, and loves gardening and ceramics.  I love art, poetry, hiking, trail running, playing guitar, and reading and writing. 

We have been members of All Saints’ Episcopal Church for the last 6 years or so (I was baptized at an Episcopal Church in Tucson in 1967.  Unbeknownst to me, until my mother pointed it out to us, Jeanette and I were married in the same church 27 years later).  I’ve been involved in a variety of ministries: youth group, worship team, an art and soup ministry, morning prayer, and vestry.  I recently served as the senior warden, and particularly enjoyed assisting the rector, Mother Adrien, in teaching leadership development and College of Congregational Development tools to vestry and ministry leaders.  I also love inventing and launching new ministries with people that coalesce around a particular need or passion in the community.  This is where I hear God’s insistent voice: to do this work of gathering people to turn towards God.  It is in the work of gathering that I am taken, blessed, broken, and given.  

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

How would you like to join a group at St. James’ and perhaps find a rewarding way to help our church and serve Jesus Christ?  Currently, there are two openings on the Altar Guild.

 

At this time we serve every five weeks with teams of two and could make that six or seven weeks if enough people are interested.  We also have two meetings, yes only two meetings a year.  One meeting in January and one in August to go over any holidays in those time frames.

 

So come check us out and ask questions to see if this is for you.  You can contact Aline Sautter at aline.sautter@gmail.com.