Annual Giving for 2015
As we come off our 125th Anniversary year of celebration, we turn out attention from our past toward our future. The celebration of our heritage represents a faith that we also have a future as the presence in the world of the Risen Christ in and through our belief and our living out the Christian life.
One thing that stands out so sharply during our 125th year are all the acts of generosity on the part of our fellow parishioners for the benefit of us all. We’ve beheld, acknowledged, celebrated, and blessed the large and visible gifts of the Organ and Lytch Gate restorations and Catechist’s International Retreat.
There have also been numerous acts of generosity that are somewhat hidden, but go a long way to making our parish life as good as it is. Some of these includes paying for the “extras” that just appear, like decorations, table coverings, flowers, wine, equipment, etc. It also includes the gifts of people’s talents (of which we are blessed with an embarrassment of riches), put to work on such things as the Land Use Committee, the Finance Committee, the Choir, Building and Grounds, and Outreach.
Of course there are also the gifts of time that go into all the tasks necessary that the parish can function.
Most of the time, people who have a generous spirit, don’t think of themselves as such. It just flows naturally. But if a generous person does stop and think about it for a moment, they become aware that the most pronounced experience of generosity is that it is fun. It is fun to see good things happen as a result of one’s efforts. It is fun when we are able to give a person just the right gift that brings them joy. It is also blessing to realize the blessing it is that one is able to do this.
Christian generosity flows from an awareness of God’s generosity to all that is. Christian generosity is our responding to God’s invitation to participate in the life that makes God, God. God’s life is one of self giving, both within God (We call that the Trinity) and beyond God (We call that the Plan of Salvation and the Kingdom of God).
The practical application of all this comes in what we call the Four Fields of Christian Giving. The Four Fields of Christian giving refers specifically to the making of financial gifts. They are:
Annual Giving: Financial Support for the life and work of the local parish.
Mission Giving: Financial Support for the spread of the Gospel and the relief for human need For us this usually means sponsored by the Outreach Committee, funded by 10% of income from movie locations
Capital Giving Occasional Financial Support for building new or upkeep of Church infrastructure. This is funded by income realized from the Church being used as a movie location, and endowment income from gifts left by the Campbell Johnston family and other benefactors. Which leads to…
Legacy Giving: Making a provision for the Church out of your estate so that your support continues beyond your lifetime so that future generations may enjoy what we’ve all come to value.
We will soon commence our Annual Giving Drive for 2015. We will ask you to make a pledge of financial support to the parish for it’s life and work. Please give our asking your serious consideration and join in that is really a source of joy.
We thank Bill Woods for a wonderful talk last Sunday about our parish and what Annual Giving means for our life together. As he said to us, “We invite you all to participate with us.”
Coffee Hour Sign Up
The Sign up Sheet for Coffee Hour for November and December will be on coffee table this Sunday. Please sign up to take a turn.
Altar Guild Meeting: Saturday, October 25, 9:00 a.m.
The Altar Guild will meet in the Parish Hall Living Room to continue to fill out its schedule, welcome new members, and to plan the decorations for Christmas.
Hands of the Angels October 25, 10:00 a.m.
The Hands of the Angels Knitting & Handicrafts group meets on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays 10:00 a.m. in the Parish Hall Living Room. Everyone is welcome to join and if you’d like, learn how to knit. The next meeting will be Saturday October 25 10:00 a.m. Parish Hall Living Room
The Feast of All Saints:
Sunday, November 2
Stories of the Saints, Prayers for deceased loved ones.
We will celebrate the Feast of All Saints on Sunday, November 2. Once again we will have two “Saint Stories, and we will recite the names of those who have been buried from our parish since last All Saints Day, and as is our tradition, we will recite the names of our loved ones who have gone before us, all within the context of the Eucharistic Prayer. In the reciting of the names embedded in the Eucharistic Prayer, we not only remember those we love who’ve gone before us, but affirm our hope in their living in our Lord’s Risen life which the Eucharist makes present to us. All Saints is a profound event, of the most moving liturgies of the Church Year.
There will be a sign up sheet for you to list those you’d like to be included in the prayers for All Saints, on the table outside the next several Sundays.
You can also email names in to the Church Office. Please specify whether you want them read at the 7:45 or 10:15 a.m. service.
Annual Parish Retreat:
October 17-19 Camp Thousand Pines, Crestline.
We’ve got a total of 24 adults and 9 children signed up to go. We look forward to wonderful time together. Here is what we will be doing
Friday Night: Arrival & getting settled.
After dinner (on your own): Unstructured time to visit, talk, read, or go to bed.
Saturday
8:15 a.m.: Breakfast
9:15 a.m. – 11:30 p.m. Presentation
Children’s activities with Camp Staff
12:15 p.m. Lunch
1:30 p.m. Hikes and activities
5:00 p.m. Social Hour (Snacks, beverage etc.)
5:45 p.m. Dinner
7:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Campfire
Sunday:
8:15 a.m. Breakfast
9:30 a.m. Holy Eucharist,
By 12:15 p.m. Box Lunch & Depart
What are God's hopes for my life? What would God enjoy seeing me become? What kind of fulfillment would God like to see me experience? How can I come to know this?
These questions can be summed up under the heading of "vocation." Vocation literally means "call." While we might first hear this word in terms of God's will, God's command, God's direction, what if instead it was really about invitation? Instead of "I command you to do this, this is my will for you," it was, "I'd like to invite you to consider this path, see if you feel drawn to it, and if so, begin to walk on it"?
Who am I in the sight of God, and what does God hope for me and the life he has bestowed?
This will be the topic for this year's Annual Parish Retreat. Fr. Bob will make use of various parts of The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola as guides for how we might reflect on these questions for ourselves and how we can begin to hear God's invitation and respond to it. The goal is for each of us to acquire a frame of reference from which we think about, understand, pray over, and then decide how to go about finding and fulfilling the end for which we are created
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
The Atriums will be closed this weekend. Several catechists and children are going on the Annual Parish Retreat
Food For Thought: Video Version
Sundays, 9:00 a.m. Science & Religion DVD
We will show one of the earlier lectures this Sunday that deals with St. Augustine and his reflections on God’s revelation through what he calls The Book of Nature, and The Book of Scripture, and the demanding task of interpreting both. St. Augustine believes there is one truth and so when The Book of Nature and The Book of Scripture are carefully and correctly interpreted, they don’t contradict each other.
Emmaus Road Monday, October 13, 7:00 p.m.
We conclude our reading of the book Jesus, and discuss what we will read next.