Exciting Updates from Your Acolyte Corps - New Leadership & More!

Happy summer! We hope you've enjoyed some time traveling and getting away from the heat. We have several exciting updates to share about our Acolyte Corps.

Welcome New Vergers

We're thrilled to announce new vergers joining the ranks:

• Adult Vergers: Rachael Jones, Mark Gruber, Ann Marie Cowdrey, Van Sheets, and Michael Dorbandt

• Student Vergers: Layna Girata and Evie Davis

Please congratulate them when you see them - they're wonderful additions to our verger team!

New Recruiting Chair

We are also pleased to announce Jack Rubarth will be joining the Acolyte Steering Committee as our Recruiting Chair. He will be taking the lead on coordinating our recruiting efforts. That said it is everyone’s job to recruit so please do encourage parish members to join our Corps. Recruiting will be one of our main focuses this Fall so please help us in getting the word out.

Clergy Updates

We're excited that The Rev. David Faulkner will be joining SMAA as our new Associate for Liturgy and Worship. David will serve as our Corps chaplain and help guide our ministry. Meanwhile, The Rev. Andrew Grosso has transitioned to Senior Associate for Discipleship. While we'll miss Andrew's direct involvement, we're grateful for his continued support and excited about his new focus on parish discipleship.

New Members

This summer we welcomed Jacob and Virginia Choi-Durham as new Corps members. Some of you may remember Virginia from her youth acolyte days at SMAA - it's wonderful to have her and Jacob join us!

Remembrance 

We also pause to remember Robert Blake Hull (husband to Joyce Hull), who passed away this summer. Blake and Joyce served faithfully as acolytes for many years. We continue to pray for Joyce and the Hull family during this time.

Acolyte Corps Survey Results - Thank You!

Thank you so much for taking the time to complete our recent survey! In addition to helping us refine everyone’s service profiles in MSP, your thoughtful responses and insights were invaluable as we work to strengthen and grow our Acolyte Corps. The level of engagement and care shown in your responses truly reflects the dedication and love you have for this ministry. A few comments we wanted to highlight …

What You Told Us Serving Means:

- A privilege and honor to serve at God's altar

- A way to enhance worship with a "front row seat"

- An opportunity to build lasting friendships and community

- A blessing that strengthens you for the week ahead

Your Recruitment Ideas:

- Engage confirmation classes and Sunday school groups

- Encourage peer-to-peer invitations, especially among youth

- Promote family involvement and serving together

- Host social events and "meet and greets"

- Improve communication through church publications

Your Training Interests:

- Regular refresher training for seasonal and infrequent positions

- Understanding the "why" behind liturgical practices

- Position-specific rather than general training sessions

- Quick reference materials for each acolyte role

As one respondent beautifully noted: "Being a member of this Corps is incredibly important to me, for the fellowship, friendships and my own spiritual formation." This captures what makes our Corps special - we're growing in faith together.

We have heard your feedback and the Acolyte Steering Committee is working to take our Corps to the next level.  With that said, we have some exciting things coming this fall ...

Exciting September Launches

Wedding & Funeral Corps: We're officially launching our Acolyte Wedding Corps and Acolyte Funeral Corps with MSP signup capabilities. If you didn't indicate interest in joining one of these ministries in the survey or have changed your mind, please reply to this email and let us know.

Acolyte Reception & Training Event: It's time to get back together in a non-worship environment.  We're planning an Acolyte Reception and Refresher Training for late September. More details coming soon!

Regular Service Times are Back!

Don't forget that the Sunday 7:30 am Chapel and Sunday 11:00 am Chapel services resume starting next Sunday.

Sanctuary Audio System Improvements

Many of you reported difficulty hearing the sermon from the acolyte seats. We're pleased to announce the parish has improved the existing sanctuary speaker system! It isn't at the level we would love but it is a significant improvement and much more manageable until we implement a long-term solution.

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Thank you for your continued faithful service. Please don't hesitate to share additional thoughts or suggestions as we strengthen our ministry together.

In service and fellowship,

Your Acolyte Corps Steering Committee

P.S. Keep an eye out for more details on our September events - we're excited to gather together again!