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Parish Life

House Tour Review


The events of the 54th Annual Potomac Country House Tour took place October 2 — 4, 2009. 
Click here for the House Tour in Review slideshow, from the Auction Dinner to the After Tour Cookout.
Herewith, the Rector's gratitude for House Tour volunteers as published in the church newsletter, Sounds.

Please permit me to express on behalf of many a deep sense of gratitude to all who worked on the Potomac Country House Tour. I learned the hard way that no roster is ever complete in acknowledging debts of appreciation since someone is inevitably omitted by oversight. One year we “rolled the credits” in this space from the actual House Tour ticket book only to leave out two indefatigable ladies whose names had been left out of the book itself. Ever since, I have shied away from such lists. But it is easy to pay thanks to Fran and Anne Baker. I know we have often had two generations involved in prior tours, but I do not believe we have ever had co‐chairs who were “intergenerational”. They will be a hard act to follow, a truth all who have worked on this year’s Tour know well.
   Still, I write not just to Fran and Anne (and by extension to Jim also) but to all in our parish who make this annual event possible. Revenue and expenses will be reckoned after the Tour, so that report must come later. It would be disingenuous to assert that the money does not matter, for the truth is, it does. It cannot be said too often that House Tour remains the principal vehicle for raising outreach funding in this parish. Even if we had an endowment or some other inherited source of such money, we would lack something apart from the “sweat equity” that comes from the work so many offer to make any Tour a success.
   That allows a secondary observation, that this is not just about the money. House Tour builds up the community of this parish in a way unlike any other “project”, to oversimplify the whole thing.
   The great Bible translator William Tyndale saw in I Thessalonians (1:3) a “labour in love.” The scholars who edited Tyndale to produce the Authorized, or King James Version, reworked that phrase as “labour of love.” Perhaps there is a difference in that distinction, but it is not apparent. Four centuries later, the editors of the Revised English Bible elected to put the concept this way: “We continually call to mind, before our God and Father, how your faith has shown itself in action, your love in labour, and your hope of our Lord Jesus Christ in perseverance.” Regardless of how it is styled, the concept Tyndale saw in the oldest New Testament book is seen in fresh reality in something like House Tour. Keeping that truth in mind will help set the right context for all the hours so many expend every year. All of those elements are mixed here: Faith in action, love in this labour, and perseverance to make it come about for the work of the Lord.
   Each time St Francis hosts a House Tour the familiar refrain sounds, “This will probably be the last one.” Reasonable factors are cited to support that prediction: The difficulty of getting houses, the challenge of human personnel, the competition for our guests’ time and dollars, and on and on. It is hardly news that such thoughts are bruited about. What I have noticed, however, is that it is never the Fran and Anne Bakers of the parish who say this. We would be in bad shape if they did. To a person – and I have been here for two dozen of these affairs — the chairs have been enablers in the best sense of that word. They make it possible for others to do their labors of love in love, and with no small amount of perseverance. A parish that can unfailingly summon such people to these big tasks has many reasons to take heart, and is not short of sterling examples for others to follow.
   We pray for God’s grace to sustain this and all works done in the Name of our Lord in and through our labors of love.

The Rev. William Munro Shand, III





  
The header images at the top of this page, from left to right: 1) The main door brass of Saint Francis Church, home to the 1,300 members of the parish; 2) Two of our crack parking attendants; 3) The title page of a British first edition of C. S. Lewis's classic novel donated by Matthew and Lee Anne Jillings. At the House Tour live auction, the book sold for $2,500.

For more House Tour information, click on our site dedicated to it at Potomac Country House Tour.