May 2025 Parish Meeting Recap

We held a Parish Meeting after the service on Sunday, May 4. If you missed the meeting, you can read all the updates below.

Financial Report

Jared Noetzel is the vestry member appointed to the Incarnation Finance Team. He shared an update on Incarnation's finances as of March 2025, halfway through our fiscal year (Incarnation operates on an October-September fiscal year).

You can read the full report here. Thank you for your incredible generosity toward the ministry of Incarnation!

Maryland Service Update

Amy, Katie, and vestry member Buz Schultz shared about Incarnation's monthly Maryland service.

Amy shared:

As you know, we’ve been holding a monthly service in Hyattsville, Maryland, since January; we just held our 4th one last Sunday. We also have a weekly small group that continues to meet in the Bennings’ home in Maryland and is absolutely bursting at the seams. 

And this year, for the first time, we held Holy Week services in multiple locations: Maundy Thursday dinners across DC, MD, and VA, and Good Friday services in VA & MD. When we tallied up the number of people who participated across those services, it was about double our norm. And still more came to the Vigil, and then more to Easter morning.

It seems that when we offer more services in more places, it has a multiplying (rather than dividing) effect. Our numbers don't get diluted across too wide a region; they grow, because more people have the opportunity to worship where they actually live. 

I mention that because one of the questions people often ask me when they hear that a small church like Incarnation is starting a service in Hyattsville is — “aren’t you scared that’s going to pull too many resources away from the mother church?” 

And my answer is always no! I want us to be a church that gives ourselves, our prayers, our wonderful church culture, our people, and our money generously to the work of God. And that is scary, and it does come with risk. But this is where we believe God is leading us, and so we take those risks, stretching out in faith and believing God will provide for us.

That's a spiritual answer to the question. But now we also have some data to answer that question in a more practical way. When we hold a Maryland service, our Virginia numbers hold stable and our Maryland numbers keep growing. Visitors are coming, and they’re sticking — including people without a church home, people who’ve been hurt by the church, and people who have been longing for a church near them for a long time. 

Numbers are only a small part of the story of what’s happening in Maryland, but they do help us see that there’s really something here, that God is doing something. The numbers help us discern. 

And that’s been the point of these monthly Maryland services from the start: discernment. This has been an experiment. All along the way, it has seemed like God has been out ahead of us, doing something in the Hyattsville-Mt Ranier-Brentwood part of Maryland, and so we wanted to take a step of discernment, in faith, to see what might happen. 

We knew this part of Maryland is a sort of church desert. We knew that people who already feel far from God are not going to drive 45 minutes to Arlington. So we wanted to see what would happen if we offered something nearby. Incarnation has an ethos of “try stuff,” so we’ve been trying this, and praying and watching all along the way.

And now, after 4 months of “trying stuff,” we are at a natural decision point. We need to make a 2026 budget (a bit early this year, because of my sabbatical) and we need to make some plans for next year. We need to begin applying for grants for this work in Maryland, because whatever it is, we know that we can’t sustain it alone; we’re not a big church! We will need the partnership of our diocese. And we also need to decide whether to sign a new lease with Hyattsville Mennonite Church, our host church in Maryland, to continue meeting there beyond June.

And so although we are still discerning, still watching and praying, we came to a decision as a vestry this week. We have decided to shift our operating assumption; we are no longer in experimental mode; we are intentionally moving in a certain direction. We are now assuming that the Maryland service will become a church plant. The vestry came to this decision on Monday unanimously, confidently, joyfully, through much prayer and a fair number of tears.

We still have more months of experimenting and learning ahead of us; we still are praying and listening and observing; and we still have an easy off-ramp if God stops us for some reason. But we are now intentionally moving in the direction of a plant, with a target of January 2026 when we will shift to a weekly service in Maryland. We will begin laying the groundwork now, and we will finalize our plans with our 2026 budget when I return from sabbatical. 

This is the next step that we are taking. There are many, many more steps to come, including building a budget; applying for funds; continuing to hold services; inviting curious friends and neighbors; preparing for a launch; and — really, really importantly to us — figuring out what the relationship between our two communities will look like in the future. We love each other! So what will we continue to hold in common, and what will we begin to hold separately? And what on earth will we do here in Virginia without Katie Hamlin? 

We are thinking about all of these things, asking all kinds of questions, and feeling lots of big feelings. Excitement, wonder, fear, worry, sadness, amazement. That’s all very normal. It comes with the territory of stepping out into something new and unknown. We are trusting God to show us the way, to provide for our needs, and to shepherd us through, as he always has. But we have arrived at a new sense of clarity around the direction we are moving, and we wanted to share that with you as soon as possible.

Finally, Incarnation's decision to plant a church in Maryland does not obligate our Maryland members (or NE DC, or anyone!) to join the plant. Right now, in a way, we’re all joining the plant — because we are all still one church, meeting in two places, and we all belong to one another. We hope that our ranks in Maryland and Virginia increase with people outside the church over the coming months.

In the meantime, for the next 7 months we will just keep doing exactly what we’re doing now. And as we do, we encourage all of you to discern how and whether God is leading you to participate. Please reach out to me or Katie or a member of vestry if you want to talk or pray about this decision.

Katie shared: 

There are many ways to tell the story of what has unfolded in Maryland, but one way is to focus on how God has led us through the prayers of his people over the past year. 

Last January, my family started a small group in Maryland with the Benning family and I confess my hopes were quite modest. I just wanted my family to have a chance to gather with others from this community, closer to where we live in Takoma Park, MD. But at our very first meeting, Elena Benning prayed that our group would be like a spark that God fans into a flame, and that God would bring us more people. And pretty quickly, by word of mouth, people heard about our small group and began to join us every week in the spring of 2024. 

And then in our church discernment process in spring 2024, people had images of barns and fences being knocked down by an overwhelming harvest. That image feels like it has been echoed this year in the growth we’ve continued to see — as we added a monthly service to our weekly small group — among people without a church home, people coming back to the church, or exploring faith in Jesus for the first time. That image was also echoed just this week, as a Maryland small group member had an image of Maryland as a countryside road with long, overgrown grasses and plants on each side of the road, but the road itself is clear. And we do believe the way ahead is now clear.

And then this spring, in vestry meetings, as we’ve been thinking and praying about what to do next in Maryland, the image emerged of Maryland being like a car rolling down a hill and Incarnation running along behind it, being invited to hop in and join whatever God is already doing. 

And then when the vestry met last week to decide what to do next in Maryland, it felt clear that God is birthing something new in Maryland and again inviting us to participate in that work of drawing others into fellowship with him. Elena Benning, our vestry member who is also a founding member of the Maryland group, led us to pray: Lord, we believe, heal our unbelief and help us to see the people who are hungry for God and who could find him in a community like ours. 

And finally, someone shared with us this week a prayer from the theologian Stanley Hauerwas, that speaks to the enduring power of friendships within the Body of Christ despite geographic distance. And so we pray that God would assist us as people discern whether to join the work in Maryland, as we face the challenges and joys of integrating new people into our fellowship, and as we work through our complex emotions around this new season in Incarnation’s life. 

Let us pray.

God of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Ruth and Mary, you have called us through your Son, Jesus Christ. You lead us on our way by the fiery cloud of your Spirit. We ask you, "Do we really have to make this trip?" We are just beginning to get the hang of this "worship-of-God business," and then you tell us we have to go and we are not even sure there is anywhere to go to. Help us remember, as Hugo of St. Victor put it, "the man who finds his homeland sweet is still a tender beginner; he to whom every soil is as his native one is already strong; but he is perfect to whom the world is a foreign place." So we will go to travel the world. Help us remember we do not and cannot go alone. You have made us your friends and friends of one another. Help us trust in that friendship, knowing we will need it as you encounter us in the unknown. God, it is exhilarating to be your people. We praise you for giving us such wonderful work. Amen.

Finally, Buz Schultz shared a vestry perspective: the significant prayers prayed about Maryland every month; the beauty, hospitality, and creativity of the monthly Maryland services (he's been 3 times!), and the vestry's strong and clear sense that this is the next step God is leading our church to take.

Team Updates

Russell Vick

Amy announced that Incarnation's worship pastor, curate, right hand man, left hand man, best man and only man on staff — the amazing Russell Vick — is moving into a full-time role.

Russell has been bi-vocational for most of his time at Incarnation, and has done a great job juggling two very different roles. But given the strong state of our finances, as well as the significant need for additional support on our staff team (especially with the upcoming sabbatical and church plant), we have offered him a full time role and he has accepted.

Russell will be taking over more details of our Sunday worship, including volunteer coordination, over the coming months.

TJ Ono

Next, Amy introduced TJ Ono. TJ has been worshiping with Incarnation since January, taking a season for rest and discernment (a common theme when people come to our church!).

TJ previously served as a curate at our mother church, Restoration Anglican. He was ordained a transitional deacon in our diocese last November (a transitional deacon is a deacon on the way to becoming a priest). Deacons serve at the threshold of the church and the world; they take vows to interpret the needs and concerns of the world to the church, and the church to the world. Those vows mean that all deacons need a church in which to sink down roots and do this work. We are delighted to announce that TJ is sinking those roots with us. He’ll be serving as a deacon with us over the coming months, in ways both visible and invisible.

TJ has a full-time job at the Center for Christianity and Public Life, so he’s not joining our paid staff team, but we are grateful for his addition to the broader team of people who serve and provide pastoral care at Incarnation. When you see him at church in the coming weeks, I encourage you to ask him to grab coffee or invite him to dinner to get to know him better!

Sabbatical Updates

Vestry warden Will Montague explained the purpose of a sabbatical for the health of the rector and the congregation, and provided a biblical foundation for the practice of a seven-year sabbath. Then Amy shared several key details from the provided Sabbatical Plan:

Sabbatical Dates

9 June - 2 Sept 2025

Last Sunday at Incarnation: 8 June, Pentecost

First Sunday back: 7 September

Acting Rector

Katie Hamlin will serve as Acting Rector in Amy’s absence. As such, she will have voice and vote in vestry decisions.

Katie will take a vacation from July 21 to August 3, 2025 (two Sundays away). During that time, the Wardens will be responsible for the church, in consultation with the staff.

Vestry

Amy will miss the June and August vestry meetings. The vestry will not meet in July. Per Incarnation bylaws, a Warden (Will Montague or Katie Foran) will preside over vestry in Amy’s absence, preparing the agenda in consultation with Katie Hamlin.

Communication

Email Access

Amy will be locked out of email access, and an autoresponder will be turned on, redirecting inquiries to the appropriate staff person. Emily will monitor Amy’s email during the sabbatical.

WhatsApp Access

Amy will delegate administrative privileges on the WhatsApp chats to other members of the Incarnation staff, and will remove herself from all Incarnation chats during her sabbatical.

Other Communication

Amy will be overseas and unavailable for most of her sabbatical. The congregation is requested to refrain from contacting Amy. In the case of emergencies, the staff and wardens will know how to reach Amy. 

Sunday Services in Virginia & Maryland

Preaching

Katie, Russell, David, and laypeople from Incarnation will fill most preaching roles. Details are provided in the linked plan.

Maryland Service

Katie will continue to lead the Maryland service over the summer. While she is away in July, the meeting will be Evening Prayer without the Eucharist. Katie will work with the vestry in Amy’s absence to continue planning for the future of the Maryland service.

Celebrating the Eucharist

Katie will serve as celebrant in both Virginia and Maryland most Sundays of the sabbatical, with two exceptions during her vacation. On July 27, we will hold a service of Morning Prayer (no Eucharist) led by TJ Ono and Russell Vick. On August 3, Mary Amendolia Gardner, another priest in our diocese, will celebrate the Eucharist. Mary was introduced to the church during the announcements on May 4.

In the case of an emergency, if a Sunday celebrant is unavailable (e.g., last-minute illness), we will cancel Eucharist and offer a service of Morning Prayer led by Russell, TJ, or a member of vestry.

Pastoral Care

Katie and Russell will provide pastoral care for the congregation, including hospital visits and 1:1 meetings for prayer and counsel. Katie, Russell, and (when available) David will meet weekly to check in about the pastoral needs of the congregation.

If additional help is needed in providing pastoral care, particularly in Virginia, the following clergy are available to assist in an on-call capacity:

The Rev. David Griffin (on call July 20-27)

The Rev. Mary Amendolia (on call July 27-August 3)

The Rev. Mary Hays

The Rev. Deacon TJ Ono

In addition, we will work to strengthen the pastoral care capacity of laypersons in the congregation so that people feel empowered to care for each other.

Finances

Incarnation's Finance Team, staff, and vestry have thoroughly planned for the oversight and management of the church's finances during Amy's sabbatical. Details provided in the linked plan.

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Thank you for your incredible generosity, grace, trust, and faithfulness, Incarnation! Please reach out to Amy, Katie, or a vestry member with questions about anything from this meeting.

To quote the prayer shared above: "God, it is exhilarating to be your people. We praise you for giving us such wonderful work. Amen."