St. John's Episcopal Church
| The Rev.
Virginia Army, Priest-in-Charge 523 Hartford Turnpike, Route 30 Vernon, Connecticut 06066 |
Phone: (860) 872-0517 |
From Virginia Army …
For all of my adult professional life, it has been my habit and commitment to pray for other people and their hopes and fears, concerns and crises, family and friends. I have experienced the privilege of laying hands on countless faithful people in need of God's healing and Holy Spirit. Praying the petitions, intercessions, and thanks of the people God puts in our path, is a big piece of what priests do.
However, my perception about the power and promise of prayer has shifted in subtle but significant ways since coming to Vernon. I continue to pray all the intercessions that you ask me to pray. I hear from you about how things are going for the people we have been praying for, I give thanks for the happy outcomes, and I continue to pray for those who are still struggling or facing great hardship. The difference is the way in which all of you, as Christ's community in Vernon, pray faithfully and intentionally for me, for my health, and for my extended family. When I was ill and hospitalized at this time last year, you helped to pray me well. One of you sat with me in prayer after Easter and laid hands upon me as I worked to regain the fulness of my stamina and strength. When my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer, you were again fervent in prayer. In the month just past, my father and niece both underwent unexpected surgery. Again, you were there for me in prayer. Fr. Bill lifted my niece up in prayer at St. John's on Sunday, 2/7, and she turned a corner later that day. The prayer group of St. John's, led by Lucille Kuhnly, continues to meet weekly and to pray with great intention and heart for the healing of all those souls connected to our parish by the bonds of love.
The parish of St. John's has many prayer warriors in its midst. It is both my faith and my experience that these prayers make an enormous difference in the journeys of the people prayed for. I also believe that this is true from my own personal experience over the past year. Healing, connection, hope, comfort, and encouragement are just some of the consequences of our prayers. There are some other, perhaps less obvious, gifts as well. Being surrounded by an active and vital community of prayer helps all of us to remember and to act on the conviction that God is very near us -- on our lips, in our souls, in the hopes of our hearts, both spoken and unspoken.
When Bishop Curry joined us at the Stewardship dinner on 2/14, he spoke poignantly of the ways in which we, as St. John's of Vernon, are the eyes and ears, the hands and feet of Christ in the world. This is what it means to be a disciple of
Christ in the world today. Striving to care for God's people in the ways God cares for all of us. Working to renew our faith in the spring greening season of Lent. Giving thanks for God's extravagant gift of life to each of us. Remembering together, as a community of faithful people, that we are called to live our lives as a way of giving thanks for God's gifts to us, that we belong to God alone, and that only Our Lord Jesus' love can save us. Celebrating that God is the center and the source of all that we have and all that we are prodded to share.
Thank you for your prayers, for your witness, for your deep desire to grow and to stretch as God's community of faith, for all the ways in which you are living into the very heart of relationship with Our Lord Jesus Christ. May this Lenten season be one of healing and wholeness for all of us.
Faithfully yours,
Virginia
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Rev. Virginia W.G. Army
cell: 860-377-4972
Meet the Priest-in-Charge
The Priest-in-Charge of St. John's Church is the Rev. Virginia Army. She graduated from Wesleyan University and Yale Divinity School, and has lived in Connecticut ever since. Originally ordained in the United Church of Christ, Virginia was re-ordained a Deacon by Bishop Walmsley to the Episcopal Church in 1992, and a Priest in 1993. Before coming to St John's in the fall of 2008, Virginia has been Director of Pastoral Care, Director of Volunteer Services, and Director of Corporate Communications at Day Kimball Hospital, as well as "Clergy in Residence" at Christ Church, Pomfret.