150th Anniversary
“I Love to Tell the Story”
People love to tell stories. People love to hear stories. Jesus conveys his teachings by telling parables: the Prodigal Son; the Good Samaritan; the Seed That Grows in Secret. The Gospels portray Jesus’ ministry by telling stories: the wedding at Cana; the healing of Bartimaeus; the raising of Lazarus. Acts depicts the Church’s birth by telling stories: the conversion of Paul on the road to Damascus; the liberation of
Peter from the prison in Philippi; the coming of the Holy Spirit at the Feast of Pentecost.
Each of us has stories, and our beloved St. Columba’s has a story. We are preparing to celebrate St. Columba’s 150th anniversary in 2024. In celebration of our sesquicentennial, we invite you to help tell St. Columba’s story by telling your stories. To that end, we invite you to share stories from your life at St. Columba’s. We’d love to hear from parishioners of all ages and stages, whether you’re a longtimer or a newcomer. Since such stories are your stories, you should feel free to tell them in your way. The only requirement is that your stories are about things you have personally experienced, and that your stories are connected in some way to St. Columba’s.
Please send your stories to Chris Schumann, either by email [email protected] or to the 150th leadership team at [email protected].
Please include:
- Your full name
- How long you’ve been coming to St. Columba’s
Your stories will eventually be collected in a bound volume. As potential examples, two of Chris’s stories are set forth below. Again, however, you should feel free to tell your stories in your way.
We also will be creating opportunities for oral/recorded story-telling. Stay tuned for more on that in the new year!
“I love to tell the story, it did so much for me,
And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee.”
Tell your St. Columba's story
Thank you for submitting your story!
Want to share a video story? Click here for directions!
Directions to Share Your Recorded St. C's Story
We are delighted that you have chosen to share your St. Columba’s story with us! Here are some friendly reminders to ensure that recording a video on your phone goes smoothly.
- Make sure that the phone is horizontal and that the volume is turned all the way up.
- Take a quick test video and play it back to ensure that you can see and hear yourself.
- When you are ready to record, pause approx. 5 seconds before beginning to speak (we will edit this out).
- Introduce yourself by offering a greeting, stating your name, and saying how long you’ve been a parishioner at St. Columba’s. Add anything else here that you would like - e.g., your family members that also attend St. C’s, your kids are in the nursery school, etc.
- Then, in 2-3 minutes max, share your story. Here are some sample prompts:
- Recall a time when, with St. C’s friends or when at church, you felt God’s presence.
- Tell us about a time at St.C’s that made you laugh.
- Recall a memory of when you first started coming to St. C’s. What’s the memory, and why has it stuck with you?
- What’s a gift St. C’s has given you - big or small?
- What’s something you love about St. C’s - and why? It might be something as beautiful as the stained glass windows or as sweet and funny as when the kids run up the aisles on Sunday mornings to bring food donations to the altar.
- Complete the sentence with a word that you’d use to describe St. Columba’s - and why you chose that word.
- To end, simply smile, count to 5, and then end the recording.
Once your video is done, send it to [email protected].
Video Stories:
Written Stories:
Alice Gregal: "The Meredith Smoke Memorial Wine Glass"
Meredith Smoke was one of the first people I met at St. Columba’s in 1982. She was hard to forget as her nametag read “Meredith Smoke, I don’t”.
Chris Schumann: "Touched by the Spirit"
One long-ago All Saints Sunday, Jim Donald preached a sermon on “saints known and unknown.” Moved by Jim’s words, I went up to the healing ministry to request a prayer for my grandfather and namesake, Walther Schumann. My grandfather lived with us until he died when he was 95 and I was 21. Although he had had a difficult and often disappointing life, he was a guardian angel to my sister and me. I knelt and asked the healing minister, “Please offer up a prayer of thanksgiving for the life of my grandfather Walther, a saint unknown to the world but known to me.”
Dee Anderson Payne, "In the Room Where It Happens"
In the fall of 1974, we at St. Columba’s had our own experience of being “in the room where it happens.” The movement to allow women to become priests in the Episcopal Church progressed exponentially when William Wendt, Rector of St. Stephen and the Incarnation, permitted Alison Cheek to celebrate the eucharist. Alison had been a lay leader at St. Alban’s Church, where she had been encouraged to take courses at Virginia Theological Seminary. She was ordained a Deacon in January, 1974. Although William Creighton, as the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Washington, was an early supporter of the ordination of women to the priesthood, he proclaimed that he would not ordain anyone until there was approval by the General Convention. Upon learning of the celebration at St. Stephen’s, Bishop Creighton charged Rev. Wendt for disobeying a “godly admonition.” After a trial date was set, the Diocese began searching for a location in which to hold it. William (Bill) Swing, our Rector, offered St. Columba’s. The trial lasted several days and was attended by women from St. Columba’s and from all over the DMV. It created many headlines locally and nationally because of the emotional debate over women’s ordination. In the end, William Wendt was censored but not removed, as “godly admonition” was a hard crime to define!
