November 17, 26th Sunday after Pentecost

Annual Giving for 2014 underway

With All Saints we begin our Annual Giving Pledge drive for 2014.  We ask parishioners and friends to make a pledge to support the parish financially for the year to come.  Annual Giving Pledges fund the operation of the Parish.   With a  parish this size it is imperative that everyone participate.  Everyone’s gift matters.   

Take God for your Spouse and Friend and walk with him continually and you will not sin, you will learn how to love, and the things you must do will work out prosperously for you. 

St. John of the Cross 

Bill Woods gave a presentation to both services on the Sunday of All Saints about this year's Annual Giving Pledge campaign.  Here's a summary of his report.

The generations that preceded ours built COA and held it in trust for the generations, like ours, that followed them.  We hold it in trust for the generations that follow us.  The best way to make sure that COA will be there for future generations as it has been there for us is to make sure that it is in at least as good a spot as the church we received from the generation that preceded us.  So how are we doing on that score?

COA's expenditures have declined from where they were before the Great Recession, and have stayed flat since then.  COA's Finance Committee reviewed COA's books for places where we could economize, and could find nothing of any size.   The revenues on which we rely to operate COA on a day-to-day basis (our contributions and the movie money) have fallen since the Great Recession.  The Great Recession contributed to this reduction in revenue, but it isn't the only reason.  COA has lost generous members to transitions out of the area and to death, and we have not yet replaced them.

Historically, COA paid its current expenses out of current revenues, and left its endowment for improvements and major items.  However, COA has spent about $30,000 more each year since 2008-2009 than it has taken in from our pledges and movie shoots.   We have paid for this shortfall out of COA's endowment because we didn't want to cut more from COA's mission than was appropriate.  COA's endowment can handle spending at this level.  But it means that we are taking from the patrimony left to us by the generations that preceded us to pay for our daily operations.  We are taking from COA's endowment not because we want to or because it's the right thing to do, but because we have to in order to continue to fund a very lean operation.

The Great Recession has ended for none of us, and continues to weigh heavily on many of us.  COA asks that each of us do for it only what we are comfortable doing.  However, please consider our stewardship of COA as you consider the pledge letter that is on its way.  

Bible Walk Through:  No Bible Walk Through this Sunday. 

Calendar Committee To Meet

The Calendar Committee will meet Sunday November 17 at 9:00 a.m. in the Parish Hall.  The group will pull together all the information to create the Parish Calendar of Activities for 2014.  Any one interested in helping with this is welcome to attend. 

 Altar Flowers 2014

The sign up sheet for giving Altar Flowers during 2014 will be on the table outside Church this Sunday.   Feel free to sign up and write in the memorial or thanksgiving you wish to acknowledge. 

Year of Grace Calendars for 2014 Now Available

The New Year of Grace Calendar for the Christian year that begins on the First Sunday of Advent will be on sale after Church the next several Sundays.   They come in three sizes:  Laminated Poster, 26 x 26, Laminated Notebook  11 x 17,  Paper Notebook  11x17.  The Laminated Poster size fits nicely on a refrigerator door.   

Laminated Poster:  $15.00 each.  There are two available but we can order more

Laminated Notebook:  $5.00 each

Paper Notebook  $.50  each.   

Choose which one you’d like and place your check or money in the envelope at the table. 

Back By Popular Demand!  Mid-Week Eucharist Returns:  Wednesday mornings 7:00 a.m. 

Emmaus Road  Mondays 7:00 p.m.

Beginning Monday, October 21 the Emmaus Road Group begins a new book, The Book of Common Prayer: A Biography, by Alan Jacobs This book will look at the composition of the first Book of Common  Prayer 1549 and trace its development down through the centuries.  For Monday’s meeting we’ll discuss the Chapters 6 & 7 and look at the structure of the Eucharistic Prayer.. 

Music with the Angels Concerts

Our Music with the Angels, Sunday Afternoon Concert series continues with two performances for November. 

November 17  3:30 p.m. - Con Gioia Early Music Ensemble. The 300th Birthday of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. Concert I: MUSIC FOR BERLIN (The Early Years). 

November 24 4 p.m. - Concordia Clarimontis: John Barcellona (flauto traverso), Shanon Zusman (viola da gamba), and Robert Zappulla (harpsichord and director). 

Liturgy for Thanksgiving:  Wednesday, November 28, 7:00 p.m.

We will celebrate Thanksgiving on the evening before, Wednesday, November 28 7:00 p.m.  with the Holy Eucharist.  This liturgy is wonderful as we hear Scripture that touches very deeply our American consciousness, along with hymns that recall us to our heritage as well.  Doing the Eucharist on the Eve of Thanksgiving  gives us the benefit of touching our deep Christian and American roots, as well as leaving Thanksgiving Day free for family and friends. 

Advent is Coming 

Advent Event:  Sunday December 1

Following the 10:15 Liturgy on Sunday December 1, we will have a Parish Potluck in the Parish Hall and make Advent Wreaths for use at home.  We’ve done this event for the last three years and it has been well attended and a lot of fun.  A signup sheet for the potluck will be outside Church the next several Sundays.  

Food For Thought

On the Food For Thought Table the next two Sundays we continue our walk on the Dark Side. 

We have two articles from a recent issue of The New Republic.   The first is The Archbishop of Atheism.  This is an interview with Richard Dawkins, one of “The New Atheists.”   The second article is Beyond Naturalism.  It is a review of a new book by the late legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin entitled Religion Without God.   As was mentioned in the homily last week, two of the greatest theologians in Christian history, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas held that heresies and other challenged to the Christian proclamation serve a useful purpose of getting believers to think more deeply about their faith.   In other words, they are worth reading.   

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115339/richard-dawkins-interview-archbishop-atheism 

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/114898/ronald-dworkins-religion-without-god-reviewed-religious-worldview