St Ignatius of Antioch Episcopal Church

As most of you know, building up our ministries with families, youth, and children has been an important priority for me since I arrived at Saint Ignatius in the autumn. Children and Youth are not simply the “future” of the Episcopal Church, they are the Episcopal Church today. When Church is a positive, fun, educational, and safe environment for young people, it opens-up amazing possibilities. Children already learn about the love of God from their parents, even from the moment that they are born. The experience of being loved and cared-for in community shows them new ways to love and respond so they may, as we promised to help them at their baptism, truly “grow into the full stature of Christ.” I have had the chance to get to know each of you at least a little bit and have had the honour of even baptising some of your children.

It has been wonderful to see the Sunday morning nursery grow and thrive to the extent that we now need more child care assistance. Tigi has been significant part of our community for a long time and she is just swamped and needs help! In a way it is a good problem to have. We have been fortunate that some of my son's sitters have been able to come on Sunday mornings when they are able, but I am now in the process of finding additional regular child care providers for Sunday mornings. I will keep you posted on my progress (indeed as I am writing this letter another application has just flashed into my email!).

I have also been in conversation with some parents and other parishioners about our need to re-open Saint Ignatius’ church school this coming autumn, beginning right after Labor Day. I am in the process of formulating a plan to have a one-room school house Sunday school for children from 4 to about 11 years old that will consist of Biblical based story telling and art response. Each Sunday one of the clergy will be present to assist and answer children's questions or to make a special presentation. There will be more information to follow in the coming weeks.

Bishop Sisk is coming in the autumn and it is my hope that we might have several candidates for confirmation. Confirmation candidates are usually at least Eighth Graders. Please be in touch with me if you think your child might be ready or interested.

As some of you know, I had the pleasure of meeting a number of our teens at a Christmas Party that my wife and I hosted back in December. It was really terrific to get to know these important members of our congregation better. There are a number of ways in which I hope our teen-agers might get involved in the work of the parish. Many already serve in the Soup Kitchen and at the altar on Sunday mornings, and I wish to encourage this. Fr Harding and I are thinking of other ways for them to get involved, including participation in the annual Crop Walk, which is coming-up in several weeks, and about which you will hear more soon.

We certainly face some challenges, not the least of which involve finances and our tight space. Nevertheless, I believe we have a real opportunity to grow an amazing family ministry here on the Upper West Side. We all need to work together to help our ministry to and with young people grow and thrive. Throughout this letter I have promised to keep you informed as we move forward, and to facilitate this process, I would love to have a couple of Sunday gatherings of families at coffee hour following the nine o’clock Mass on Sunday the 27th of April and Sunday the 4th of May. I hope that you can attend at least one of these meetings.

Finally, I want to say that each and every one of you should not hesitate to be in touch with me, either by phone (917-238-4828) or with any questions or concerns or suggestions.

Faithfully yours,

Andrew C. Blume+

For more information about children and families at Saint Ignatius click here.