It was a wonderful year, and it started with a bang. On January 9, our magnificent new kitchen was unveiled and dedicated. With cookies, champagne punch, cheers and rejoicing. I recently bought a book entitled “Kitchen Congregation.” Yes, I did buy it because of the title, which is not what you are supposed to do. But it turned out to be a lovely little book about some wonderful women who fed body and soul of family and friends out of their kitchens and their hearts.

It is tempting to call St. A’s kitchen congregation, but that might bring forth a sharpened editorial blue pencil. Still, 2005 was definitely the year of the kitchen. Suddenly, Pierson Hall saw itself transformed into Pierson Bar and Grill. The Mardi Gras Cajun cookery fuelled another fun party. Steaming pots of soup prepared the many participants of the Via Media Lenten series to reflect on their faith, to examine and discuss it. During Holy Week, a Paschal meal, a seder was served to remind us of that original one we commemorate.

So many kitchen-based events: a baby shower, the blessing of a union, the great American chili cook-off, aka the annual parish dinner. The men’s and women’s fellowship groups declared the kitchen the official headquarters for their monthly meetings. So did the St. A’s (swinging) seniors and the 20s and 30s group. The youth group cooked and served their first-ever pancake breakfast from the kitchen and baked 15 pumpkin pies for the homeless at Thanksgiving.

But the breakfasts to end ‘em all were those which took place this summer between services. Cooked and served by the men’s and women’s groups, the Healing and Intercessory Prayer people, the vestry, the Altar Guild and the bookies, they were so successful that it was decided to continue them at the first Sunday of every month. Come and get it, folks!

Time to close the kitchen door. What else happened in 2005? We are grateful for the dedication of the columbarium. For the highly successful men’s and women’s retreats. For finding God and apple pie at the annual parish weekend. And another Corazon build in which our parishioners covered themselves with paint and glory.

We bid farewell to Joyce and welcome to Laura. Hartshorn’s sabbatical begat a book, and we hosted a book-signing for Bishop Borsch’s opus #18. The transition committee worked long and hard to plan for the post-Waldorf school era beginning this summer. And we are grateful to all of you for your generosity throughout the year. The Blessing of the Animals brought in some $700 to help the SPCA care for the animal victims of Katrina. (I found out that two snakes came a-slithering in at the blessing. I’d have fainted dead away had I seen them!) And then, you shopped for a cause. All monies taken in by the bookstore one Sunday went to help Andre Vessell’s daughter and her five children who lost everything in the hurricane. We sent them $1600. Thank you – darn, we’re good!