Food For Thought: Video Version
Sundays, 9:00 a.m. Science & Religion DVD
We turn our attention toward the elephant in the room: Evolution..
Christ the King: Last Sunday for:
Information Updates:
On Sunday we’ll put out the current Parish Directory and Email list so you can make corrections to it. Each will be in a separate file folder. You need to check both and make any necessary corrections in both files because they are in different parts of the computer.
Year of Grace Calendars
The Year of Grace Calendars for the Christian Year which begins on the First Sunday of Advent, November 30, will be available for purchase on Sunday. They come in three sizes: Laminated Poster, which is great for hanging on your refrigerator door, Laminated Notebook size which is 11 x 17, and Paper Notebook size. An envelope will be available for checks and cash.
Altar Flowers for 2015
The Sign Up Sheet for Altar Flowers for Sundays in 2015 will be on the table outside Church on Sunday. Sign up for the Sundays you would like to give Flowers. The cost is $55.00 per Sunday.
CGS Level I Atrium
November 25, 2014
Give thanks to Him and praise His name
Psalm 100:4
Throughout the year, there are moments when children of the Level I atrium take time to reflect upon the material presented to them. Children at this age absorb much, but like for many of us time is needed to process what we have come to know; we need time to wonder.
This week, will be a “free day” for the children to move to material they have been presented but wish to know more about; they are given time to wonder.
The only structured time will be at our prayer table.
For those who are new to Church of the Angels, the children organize the liturgy for their Christmas service; children of all three atria participate.
This Sunday, the children of Level I will spend time at our prayer table listening to scripture from the Bible, Psalm 100, focusing on the meaning of thanks. Given the season of Thanksgiving on some of our minds this week, it is a nice time to express what is on our heart. Our thoughts will be recorded and translated to prepare our submissions for the Prayers of the People for the Christmas Liturgy. We will then create a list, a long list of song requests. For this week, there is a catchy version of Psalm 100 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ixtM-mTJj4. If you are interested in hand motions/signing, please see YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2twHtb3s7U.
This is one of my most favorite times to be in the atrium. The response is transparent, pure, and from the heart. Pets have always been a staple on the list in addition to family (not necessarily in that order). Last year, we offered up young a family friend who recently died.
The following week, we start the church New Year and Advent Nov 30! It is important to be as consistent in attendance as possible because we break up the prophecies and wonderful infancy narratives of Jesus’ birth into several weeks. But knowing life can be interrupted, no worries. We repeat everything at one feast celebration, at the Children’s Christmas Eve Service. Please plan on attending.
I am grateful and honored to be in the presence of the children as they come to know more about the love of our Good Shepherd. I am grateful for each one of you.
Ms Georgie
Thanksgiving
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
The First Sunday of Advent is November 30. Since this is also the Thanksgiving Weekend, we’ll postpone the Advent Potluck to the Second Sunday of Advent, December 7
Advent Event: Sunday December 7
Following the 10:15 Liturgy on Sunday December 7 we will have our:
Hand’s of the Angels will have knitting crafts for sale
Annual Advent Parish Potluck in the Parish Hall
Make Advent Wreaths for use at home.
Make and Decorate Christmas Cookies to be served at the Late Christmas Eve Liturgy..
A sign up sheet for the potluck will be outside Church on Sunday.
Annual Giving for 2015
Stop the Presses!
Faith and Reason Don’t Contradict Each Other!!!!
On Monday The Wall Street Journal had an article in its Wealth Management section, entitled, “Can Money Buy Happiness?” The article reported on some research in this area.
The results, at first glance, may seem obvious: Yes people with higher incomes are, broadly speaking, happier than those who struggle to get by. But dig a little deeper into the findings and they get a lot more surprising—and lot more useful.
In short, the latest research suggests , wealth alone doesn’t provide any guarantee of a good life. What matters a lot more than a big income is how people spend it. For instance, giving money away makes people a lot happier than lavishing it on themselves. And when people do spend money on themselves, people are a lot happier when they use it for experiences like travel than for material goods.
The article explored the difference in the experience of acquiring things vs. experiences reflecting why satisfaction in acquiring things has a very short shelf life. It makes an interesting case for exercises is self denial as a way of enhancing one’s satisfaction in what one has. Maybe there is something to Lent after all!
What is really interesting in the article is the subsection called, Try Giving it Away
The paradox of money is that although earning more of it tends to enhance our well-being, we become happier by giving it away than by spending it on ourselves. An experiment was conducted with some college students who were given a sum of money and telling them to spend it on themselves and others to spend it on someone else. Those who spent money on other people were happier than those who treated themselves.
This was followed up by similar experiments in other countries with the same results. The Gallup World Poll found that people who donated money to charity were happier in rich and poor countries alike. “The fact that we were able to observe the same we’d seen in Canada in places like South Africa and Uganda was probably the biggest surprise of my career,” the researcher said.
“A lot of us think we’ll give to charity one day when we’re richer, but actually we see the benefits of giving even among people who are struggling to meet their own basic needs.”
What moves the needle in terms of happiness is not so much the dollar amount you give, but the perceived impact of your donation. If you can see your money making a difference in other people’s lives, it will make you happy even if the amount you gave was quite small.
Isn’t it interesting that things Christians have known and proclaimed for two millennia turn out to be confirmed by scientific research protocols. It shows once again that faith and reason don’t contradict each other.
What is described in the article is carried out in what we call The Four Fields of Christian Giving:
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.
The Annual Giving Letter and Pledge Cards have been mailed out. We ask your participation and to please return them to us as soon as possible.
Emmaus Road Monday, November 24, 7:00 p.m.
We will conclude our reading of Demon by Tosca Lee. Beginning on December 1, we will be reading selections from the Advent Anthology Watch For the Light. This is something we’ve done for a number of years. There will be copies of the readings on the table outside Church on the Sundays of Advent. Anyone is welcome to join in on Monday evenings to reflect on the readings, or simply take the readings home and read along.
Christmas Flowers and Decorations for the Church
We will begin taking sign up for donating toward the decorating of the Church for Christmas. People can sign up to decorate for the various flower arrangements.
Entrance Arrangement: $50.00
Window Arrangements $40.00 each. Need 7
Altar Arrangements $50.00 each Need 2
Greenery around the baptistery: $70.00
Poinsettias $10.00 each.
We’ll have some pictures so everyone can see what they are donating.
Along with the Sign Up there will be a place to write your memorial or offering. All those will be acknowledged in the Christmas bulletins.
Food For Thought
We ran out of the article s from the current issue of Pacific Standard, entitled, We Are All Confident Idiots.. We will have more on the Food For Thought Table this Sunday. And this time we’ll have all the pages, promise!
A description of the article is below.
As the author writes, “The trouble with ignorance is that if feels so much like expertise. A leading researcher on the psychology of human wrongness sets us straight.” What really does make it so hard to admit, “I don’t know?” I guess I’ll have to turn in the T-shirt Leigh Torgerson found in an airline magazine. On the front of the T-shirt it says, “Of course I’m right. I’m Bob!”