For every organization, be it a business, a charity or a church, planning is essential to success.
As mentioned at St. Alban’s Annual Meeting this spring, your vestry is working on three-year strategic plan that will serve as both an audit of current activities and a roadmap to prioritize future endeavors. With the overarching goals of expanding our parish membership, enhancing their spiritual growth and development, and impacting the community, the plan embraces five main pillars of focus to coordinate our activities within:
- Expand Spiritual Growth and Renewal
- Support Discipleship/Christianity
- Embody Service and Community
- Remain Vibrant and Relevant
- Enhance Christian Education and Learning
When auditing current activities, we looked at a number of factors, including implementation resources (both human and financial) and current parishioner engagement. We took the time to evaluate what we believe St. Albans does well. Which is considerable! We also looked at where we struggle to provide services due to lack of human or financial resources, what our church should keep doing and areas where we believe resources could be redeployed to help us better serve our parishioners and the community.
When looking at future initiatives/ideas, we used a similar lens, focusing on what we believe would deepen our worship, and enhance our spirituality, provide a strong return on investment to strengthen the church financially, increase our engagement in the community and continue to grow in number.
In addition to our Vestry members, we offer special thanks to a working group of St. Alban’s parishioners who have been helpful in providing input on the strategic plan. Members include Vestry members Monique Clark, Debra Becker, and Alison Dilworth, and parishioners Pam Mathes, Mark Deal, and Chuck Blanchard.
Please click here to review the proposed 2023-2025 Strategic Plan. We welcome your feedback as we continue our work of being a vibrant source of faith, hope, renewal to all who engage with us.
Bob Ensinger and Chris Murphy Peck
Co-Chairs, St. Albans Strategic Planning Task Force
On Sunday, May 14 at 4 PM, prominent performer and pedagogue Dr. Kimberly Marshall will present an organ recital program at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Annandale, entitled “Songs and Dances at the Organ.” Part of the 
her words, how to read the Bible from perspectives that are often ignored; for example, from the perspective of the victims of discrimination. The author shows how “standard” readings of the Bible, and interpretation by the dominant culture, are not always acceptable to people on the “margins” of that dominant culture.
Building on the success of our nascent Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) Chorister Program, St. Alban’s is delighted to announce a weeklong Choir Camp from Monday, July 31 to Friday, August 4. St. Alban’s Minister of Music and Organist Adam Detzner and Vocal Coach Merissa Martignoni Driscoll will lead a week of carefully structured rehearsals, theory lessons, music games, break time, and snacks from 9 AM to 12 PM each morning.
Join us for our first Muldoon Concert of the season on Sunday, October 23, at 4pm in the St. Alban’s Parish Hall!
Merissa Martignoni Driscoll has been working with young people in the Arts for over 15 years. Before college she developed her skills in the theater department of her middle and high school, performing in dramas, musicals, and one-acts. Her summers were spent at Stagedoor Manor, a premier performing arts camp in Loch Sheldrake, NY and any spare time was dedicated to community theater. At 17 she was honored to spend a summer studying at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan.