All Saints Sunday Re-cap
Thank you to Roger Law and Melissa Stanley for giving us the Saint Stories for this year. Their Saint Stories are attached to By Way of Reminder, and will be on the back table on Sunday.
Annual Giving for 2014 now begins
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.
Bill Woods gave a presentation to both services this past week 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: Sundays at 9:00 a.m.
This Weeks’ sections from the Children’s Bible are: The Day of Joy St. Matthew 21:1-9, St. Mark 11:1-10, St. Luke 19:28-38; St. John 12: 12-19, Jerusalem, Jerusalem St. Matthew 22-25; St. Luke 10:25-28; 12-14, 19:11-44; 20, St. Mark 12:1-35, St. John 18:14, The Last Supper St. John 13-17, St. Matthew 26:17-36; St. Mark 14:1-31, St. Luke 22:1-34 The Garden of Gethsemane St. Matthew 26:30-36, St. Mark14:26-50, St. Luke 22:39-53, St. John 18:1-11 Trial and Agony St. Matthew 26:57-27:44, St. Mark 14:53-72; 15:1-32, St Luke 22:54-71; 23: 1-43, St. John 18:12-19:27 Death and Resurrection St. Matthew 27:45-66; 28, St. Mark 15:33-47; 16, St. Luke 23:44-56; 24; St. John 19:28-20:29
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 4 & 5 and look at the structure of the Eucharistic Prayer.
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.
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 go over to the Dark Side. This week’s article is from a recent issue of Harper’s Magazine, and is titled: The Man Who Saves You From Yourself: Going undercover with a cult infiltrator. Cults are still around, but unlike the 70’s with big groups like the Moonies, the People’s Temple, etc, the current ones tend to be stand alone entrepreneurs. The common denominator in all these groups is they start off with the message, “There’s something wrong with you.” And for a cost, the “master” will fix you. The article is the reason why we put so much effort into Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. The internal sense that one is known and loved in an ultimate sense means that when one hears from any source, there’s something wrong with you, one immediately recognizes it for what it is: a lie.
http://harpers.org/archive/2013/11/the-man-who-saves-you-from-yourself/