"LEAD LIKE ANDREW"
Membership Newsletter
Brotherhood of St. Andrew
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Welcome back to the current edition (Volume 25) of our bi-weekly newsletter "LEAD LIKE ANDREW." It's a quick read, multi-topic news channel for members to see what is going on, what is planned and successes from the previous weeks.
We urge you to contact us with news, tidbits, or notices of upcoming events in your area, so we can include them! We also want your feedback on this newsletter or how you are being served by the national office.
Please share this newsletter with other men in your parish or community.
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JOIN US EACH WEEK
Mid-Week
Mid-Day
Pray Day
Join us...
What better way to level set during the middle of the week! We will be holding a Wednesday, 12 noon (CDT) prayer time weekly over ZOOM open to all Brothers and guests. Let's pray for the Brotherhood, for our Brothers, and even share some stories of how Prayer has impacted you or someone you know!
We can all spare 20 minutes in prayer. It's like making a stop at the faith service station to fill up your prayer tank!
Please join us every week when you can to recharge your prayer batteries!
The Zoom link can be accessed by clicking here. You must enter Passcode 0723
Prayer Leaders Scheduled
August 10 Bro. Greg Evans, Province III President
August 17 Bro. Lyn Revis, MAL Facilitator
August 24 Bros. Mick Cox, Province II President and
Rory Smith, Race and Reconciliation VP
August 31 Bro. Chris Matthews, Province VII President
Sept. 7 Bro. Tom Martin, Field OPS VP
If you'd like to lead the program one Wednesday, it's simple...we already have the script made out (in our devotional handbook or the Book of Common Prayer)!
We're done in about 20 minutes....that's it!
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Craig Coleman, from the Alzheimer's Association, presented our webinar last week
Alzheimer's and Dementia
Worldwide, 55 million people are living with Alzheimer's and other dementias.
Craig reviews the top 10 early warning signs!
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Meet Our Peeps!
Starting this week, we'll be highlighting a couple of folks in every edition so we can all become more familiar with our Brotherhood members and staff from all over the country! Digital ministry is important ministry and especially these days. Relationships can be formed online with caring and informative interaction. We can visually connect and share Good News.
God is everywhere. Church is everywhere.
This week let's meet:
Jessica (Jess) Shelton and Richard (Dick) Hooper
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Hello Brothers and Friends! I’m Jessica (Jess) Shelton and I started working for the Brotherhood in June 2015. My husband, Jeremy, is a Priest serving in the Anglican Diocese of South Carolina where he’s the Rector of St. John’s Parish Church, Johns Island, SC. We have 3 boys; Will (15), Ben (12), and Hayes (5)—we also have a yellow lab named Molly. Our boys play baseball for their local school and travel baseball during the summer. We are very active in our Parish and our community (1 Peter 4:10-11). It’s a joy and privilege to be part of the Brotherhood in this capacity for 7 years. I enjoy all aspects of my job but I get so much joy out of our phone conversations and hearing why you joined the Brotherhood, hearing stories of how God uses you for ministry in your parish, hearing about your families. I spoke with a brother the other day for over 45 minutes as he shared what life was like on Johns Island (where I live) when he visited in the late 70’s and 80’s---it’s vastly different! The Brotherhood is filled with a rich history and Godly men. I encourage you to reach out to your neighbors and share your story—His story! |
Hi, I’m Dick Hooper, and I am a proud life member of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, and recently I have accepted a position as Chairman of the Membership Committee. After a long Covid interlude, I want to assist my brothers in resuming our disciplines of prayer, study, and service on a local, provincial, and national level. . I am a retired orthopedic surgeon who practiced in Pensacola Florida. I have been a member of Christ Church Parish since 1973 and served as an EYC counselor, vestry member, senior warden, and Sunday School teacher before I became a brother. Some of you old timers will remember Ralph Vawter. A force of nature! He restarted our chapter in 1995, and so I became a member because one didn’t say “no” to marine Colonel Vawter! After becoming Director of our chapter, I was “invited” by that same Colonel Vawter to the New Orleans Triennial in 2005 where I met a great group of guys (+ wives). Then it was inevitable that I took part on a national level in the Brotherhood. It was because of the Brotherhood my three disciples of prayer, service, and study became enriched and deepened.
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Why I am in the
Brotherhood of St. Andrew
by David (Dave) Adams
NOTE: Dave Adams was elected as a Chapter Representative to the Brotherhood National Executive Board in June 2021. He is a retired U.S. Army colonel and serves in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary as a Rear Admiral. Dave has been a member of the Brotherhood for many years and currently serves in a variety of capacities for the Trinity Chapter in Fredericksburg, Virginia. At the National level, Dave is the information technology manager and webmaster for the Veterans Ministry and he is the lead for our Brotherhood Evangelism initiative
I am honored to share my reasons for being a member of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew. The main reason is that I consider serving God as my spiritual duty just as serving my country in uniform as my patriotic duty. Service is important to me – whether it is Christian service, community service, or military service. The Brotherhood offers many opportunities to serve, whether at local chapter level, diocese level, provincial level, or national level.
Another reason I am in the Brotherhood is fellowship. There is a certain amount of inspiration from being with my brothers in prayer.
Last, but not least, I am in the Brotherhood to learn through Bible Study. I am thrilled to lead Bible Study and learn much when I am the one who has to research the Scriptures so that I can share precious spiritual truths with those who are eager to learn.
In closing, I consider the Brotherhood of St. Andrew a priority in my life. It is an essential part of the Body of Christ and an essential part of my life. I cannot imagine not being one of the Brothers Andrew.
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What's In Your Cup?
You are holding a cup of coffee when someone comes along and bumps into you or shakes your arm, making you spill your coffee everywhere.
Why did you spill the coffee? "Because someone bumped into me!!!" Wrong answer. You spilled the coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea.
*Whatever is inside the cup is what will spill out*
When life comes along and shakes you (which WILL happen), whatever is inside you will come out. It's easy to fake it, until you get rattled.
So, we have to ask ourselves... “what's in my cup?" When life gets tough, what spills over? Joy, gratefulness, peace and humility? Anger, bitterness, harsh words and reactions?
Life provides the cup, YOU choose how to fill it. Today let's work towards filling our cups with gratitude, forgiveness, joy, words of affirmation, kindness, gentleness and love for others.
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2022 National Council will meet in November
Only Chapters in good standing will be allowed delegate voting!
We will be holding our Brotherhood National Council meeting in November to approve the proposed 2023 budget, elect a Treasurer, and vote on proposed Constitution and Bylaws changes that have met notification requirements.
Only Chapters IN GOOD STANDING will be allowed voting delegates. Don't miss the opportunity for your chapter to have a voice and vote! "In Good Standing" indicates an Annual Chapter Report has been submitted and the chapter members are current in their dues for 2022.
The delegates from the 2021 Council meeting will be contacted by email to confirm if they are indeed the delegate for 2022 and if not, who from the chapter is to be the representative.
If you have proposed Constitution or Bylaws changes, please submit them to Br. Billy Harrison our National Council Chairman.
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Do you have 15 minutes to refine your fathering skills?
Along with the National Fatherhood Initiative, Project Twelve is offering you 15 sessions of information, questions and videos, each about 15 minutes long designed to help you to manage your life and build healthy relationships with your children and their mother.
Topics cover everything from:
-health
-achieving family/work balance
-fathering skills
-dealing with grief and loss
-child development
-discipline
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There's LOTS of Opportunity for SERVICE!
Prayer, Study and SERVICE....the three tenets foundational to our ministry. Sometimes we don't even think of very EASY but meaningful and impactful service opportunities! "The discipline of service is making continuous efforts, day by day, to bring others nearer to Christ through his church." I recently helped out at our church's Vacation Bible School (wearing my Brotherhood ballcap of course) and it struck me how easy it was to "bring others nearer to Christ". Teaching Sunday school, working with acolytes, ushering or welcoming at services, helping with coffee hour, serving on vestry, being a part of a mission team, leading a youth group meeting, serving as a Lay Eucharist Minister....wow, so many ways to show service JUST IN YOUR PARISH! And once you step our into the community, so many more ways.....lead a prayer group, check in on an elderly neighbor, help someone load or unload their groceries, water a vacationing neighbor's plants while they are away or pick up their mail..... the opportunities abound to do good deeds for others and maybe have a chance to witness to them or just have them know you are a part of a men's ministry community dedicated to Prayer, Study and Service.
Our service does not need to be big or include multiple men in our chapter. Sometimes the simplest service opportunities are the most personal to those whose lives we touch.
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Our Executive Director is on a two week, well deserved sabbatical through August 14 so look here in the next newsletter edition for news from him!
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CS LEWIS' AMAZING DESCRIPTION OF THE TRINITY
"That Son exists because the Father exists: but there never was a time before the Father produced the Son…In the same way we must think of the Son always, so to speak, streaming forth from the Father, like light from a lamp, or heat from a fire, or thoughts from a mind. He is the self-expression of the Father—what the Father has to say. And there never was a time when he was not saying it. …And that, by the way, is perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing—not even a person—but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. The union between the Father and Son is such a live concrete thing that this union itself is also a Person. …This third Person is called, in technical language, the Holy Ghost or the “spirit” of God. Do not be worried or surprised if you find it (or Him) rather vaguer or more shadowy in your mind than the other two. I think there is a reason why that must be so. In the Christian life you are not usually looking ‘at’ Him: he is always acting through you. If you think of the Father as something ‘out there,' in front of you, and of the Son as someone standing at your side, helping you to pray, trying to turn you into another son, then you have to think of the third Person as something inside you, or behind you. Perhaps some people might find it easier to begin with the third Person and work backwards. God is love, and that love works through men—especially through the whole community of Christians. But this spirit of love is, from all eternity, a love going on between the Father and Son.” (CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, “Good Infection”)
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NEW WEBSITE!
Kick off with the developer began the week of July 5-8, with an anticipated launch by Sept. 2!
WE COULD REALLY USE PICTURES OF BROTHERS IN ACTION!
Please send some "action shots" and names of who is in the pictures please!
If you have suggestions or pictures, drop an email to our Communications VP, Br. Gary Allman at communications@brothersandrew.net or to Br. Conrad Jones at conrad.jones@brothersandrew.net
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Scatter your Brotherhood seeds everywhere!
Then Jesus said to them, don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?
The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires of other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop - 30 60 or even a hundred times what was sown.
Mark 4:13 to 20
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NOTES FROM THE MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
The Episcopal Church's Presiding Bishop, Michael Curry, (who is also a Brotherhood member!) declared the Brotherhood as THE men’s ministry of the Episcopal Church. What an honor! Also, what a responsibility. To fulfill this large role throughout the church, the Brotherhood needs each brother to make an annual pledge, and when possible, even donate more dollars. Why?
We brothers have two tasks. Many persons today, especially younger men, are suspicious of institutions, and unfortunately, the church has a large suspicion target on its back. Therefore, each brother’s first task is to make personal contact to speak as an evangelist and tell the Good News. But none of us are done then. Our second task is to contribute membership dollars that are essential for the Brotherhood to present our message to a larger audience on a provincial and national level.
The committee’s task is clear, and we committee members are rolling up our sleeves to emulate our forebearers who reached out to lonely men in rooming houses in Chicago and invited them to church. So, we invite you to come with us. We need every brother. As we Southerners say, “What are y’all doin’?” As our Lord and master, Jesus Christ, said, “Come and see.” And I say, come on in, the water is fine. Come and see! Blessings, Dick+ The Season after Pentecost 2022.
The members of your committee are:
Dick Hooper (FL)
Tom Martin (GA)
Jim Carlock (VA)
Sam Palermo (PA)
Carlo Cherubini (OH)
Jeff Butcher (KY)
Roy Benavides (NM)
Eric Fisher (CA)
John Matthews (FL)
Nick Cox (NY)
Tom Welch (KY)
Conrad Jones (NC)
Combined, that represents over 270 years of Brotherhood experience. If you have suggestions for how we can maintain and enhance our Brotherhood community membership, please reach out to dick.hooper@brothersandrew.net
Their next meeting will be August 15 at 8pm EDT
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Ev-angel-ism
"Be angels, be messengers of the good news that God has lavished upon us in Jesus Christ. Share with others what you have received. Evangelism is our core business too. We are called to lead (evangelizing churches) in a world where there is so much need, and so much confusion. What the world needs is what God has lavished upon us in Christ.”
- Archbishop Cottrell, famous in the Church of England for his personal ministry of evangelism
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CURRENT ISSUE... Episcopal Relief and Development Fund:
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PLAN FOR THE SUMMIT......
MEN’S DISCIPLESHIP
SUMMIT
Topic: “Why and How to Disciple Men”
Saturday, September 24, 2022
9:00am – 4:00pm
at
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Frisco, TX
6400 Stonebrook Pkwy, Frisco, TX 75034
Early Registration Fee of $45
Register by August 15 to avoid a late fee registration of $55
Your Registration Fee Includes:
Breakfast snacks; All -Day Coffee, Tea, Water, Soft Drinks,
Full Catered Lunch
Takeaway: The Four Priorities by Dr. Tolson
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Brotherhood of St. Andrew Asset Map
Check it out!
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Prayer Requests
If you have a personal prayer request please contact (502) 450-5809 to access the list and/or submit your requests. Accessing the list to join in the power of praying for those in need.
Many chapters have used various methods of keeping track of their prayer request. One such form has been used that organizes the requests and corporate prayers.
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Brotherhood Membership Updates
Welcome to New Members of the Brotherhood:
Rev. Jonathon Totty, Jeff Pitsenbarger, Bill Watson, Jeff Kilgore, Fernando Buckley, John Gorman, Terry Schieber, Russ Brumagin
New Chapters: Grace Episcopal Church, Galveston, TX
Brothers entering the greater life: Joseph Wright, George Worrell, Bud Currens
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MEMBERS-AT-LARGE ACTIVITIES/EVENTS
Brothers-At-Large Wednesday Monthly Meeting
Wednesday, August 17th⋅7:00 – 8:15pm CDT (8:00 PM EDT, 6:00 PM MDT, 5:00 PM PST)
Monthly on the third Wednesday, until Oct 20, 2022
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Recovery Ministry
Recurring Zoom Recovery Meetings for addicts, family, and friends.
For all addictions such as alcohol, narcotics, sex, pornography, gambling, codependency, and overeating. Anonymity is maintained - first names only:
- Every Wednesday at 7 PM (Central) 12-step recovery meeting for all addictions. Sponsored by the Recovery Ministry of the Episcopal Church (RMEC). Zoom ID 923 8806 4304.
- 1st and 3rd Wednesday of every month at 8 PM (Central) 12-Step Recovery Eucharist for all addictions. Sponsored by All Saints Episcopal Church, Pasadena, Ca. Zoom ID 875 5107 8462.
Helpful Websites
A Quick Guide for Finding Help with Recovery from Addiction
Find recovery group meetings at these websites:
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A Reminder: brothersandrew.net Website Notes
We now have a Member's Only tab that is password-driven for members. The password for access to Brotherhood documents is "1883BSTA0122". This area is still under construction for the next few weeks.
SMS Text Messaging is now available
SMS messaging from the Brotherhood is now available. You can easily subscribe by texting (502) 305-5498. You will receive text events, meetings, and articles from the Brotherhood.
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Some Suggested Books
The Shack
by
William Paul Young
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Daniel Coleman
The Holy Epistle to the Galatians:
Sermons on a Messianic Jewish Approach
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D. Thomas Lancaster
Do you have any book recommendations? Write to us and give us the title and author, so we can share it with your Brothers!
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We Always Need Cross Articles and Ideas!
Send any stories you have about Brotherhood activity in your area to
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