September 27, The 18th Sunday after Pentecost

Anglican Rosary:  Saturday, September 26,  9:00 a.m 

The Anglican Rosary devotional group meets Saturdays at 9:00 a.m. in the Church.  Everyone is welcome.

Santa Maria Barbecue :

Saturday ! September 26 4:30 p.m.

Parish Hall Lawn.

Coming up Saturday, September 26 is our annual Santa Maria BBQ, for over a decade now one of our most popular and best-attended parish events.   On the Parish Hall lawn we grill tri-tip and chicken over red oak fires using a time-honored Santa Maria recipe, and add a simple salad, barbecue beans and grilled French bread.  You bring drinks and desserts and your family and friends and it all adds up to an all-you-can-eat feast of great food and great fellowship. 

Still Looking For Help:

People to Bring Drinks, Appetizers, and Desserts!

None of this happens without the many helping hands each year who do everything from purchasing to grilling, setup to cleanup.  No experience necessary!  If you'd like to be part of this year's happy crew, say so on the sign-up sheet after church, or contact coordinator Chris Askew directly at

626 200-5209  or,  christopher.askew@gmail.com.

What we have so far:

Sign ups total:   37

Beer Wine:           10               That’s Good

Dessert                  7               In Good Shape

Set Up                   3               Need more help!

Prepare Food       2               Really Need more help!

Clean Up              4               Really, Really, Really need more help!

You can email your sign up for contributing food and helping with setup/cooking/clean up to the Church Office

Combined Service to Start the Fall: 

Sunday September 27 9:30 a.m.

 We’ll combine the 7:45 and 10:15 services into One Liturgy at 9:30. 

Parish Brunch Follows

 The Service will  be followed by a brunch in the Parish Hall.   

Tri-Tip Sandwiches  from the meat left over from the Santa Maria Barbecue

Salads and Desserts   from the Santa Maria Barbecue.

 Please bring some thing for the brunch:   Casserole, Salad, Dessert. 

Saying Good By to Jim & Eileen Goltz

Temporarily

Tuesday September 29,  Jim and Eileen Goltz leave for Japan for a year.  Jim will be a Research Professor at the University of Kyoto.  At the Brunch we will say good by and wish them well, and look forward to their return.

Church of the Angels goes social!

We thank Amy Cannon, Kenny Ryan, and Carolyn Styler for getting us moving in this.  We are seeking to accomplish two goals.  1.  As part of our Disaster Preparation/Recovery program, we want to be able to communicate with as many members of the parish as possible in the event of  a major disaster.  We will want to find out if people are okay or need help, and also let people know about the church continuing to have worship as well as other activities.   2.  The second goal is to extend our “presence” farther afield.  We maintain the grounds so that people driving by can see us, and we hope will want to stop and take a look.  Our presence on Social Media is to do the same thing: let people know we’re here, and attract them to us.  Below, Amy tells us where we are at this point.

Are you on social media? According to the Pew Research Center, 74% of American adults are on some form of social networking site -- and now, so is COA! You can follow us on Twitter or Instagram. You can also like our public page on Facebook. These pages are meant to be a point of thoughtful connection -- not too much information, just a few interesting articles, reminders of upcoming events, and focus on local community life. 

We've also started a private Facebook group specifically for parishioners.  It's closed, which means if you add someone or post a comment or photo, you'll have to wait for moderator approval, but we'd love our parishioners to join! This is a place to support and further our community throughout the week -- sharing news, prayer requests, announcements, and supportive conversations with one another. 

Twitter Address: https://twitter.com/CoA_Pasadena

Instagram Address: https://instagram.com/Coa_Pasadena

Facebook Public Page: https://www.facebook.com/coa.pasadena

Facebook Private Group Page (you'll have to request an invite): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1656220977990872/

Catechesis of the Good Shepherd

September 27, 2015

CGS Level II

Season after Pentecost

Maxims and the Summary of the Law

Matthew 22:34-40

 God is love and we are to love the Lord our God with all our strength and love our neighbors as ourselves.  All other maxims (laws/teachings) of Jesus fall under these two great maxims.

 We introduce the maxims in Level II and an expanded version in Level III to help the child recognize that our call to holiness and moral behavior comes from Jesus’ call to love.  By doing this, we help the child connect and apply the maxims to their everyday life.  Indirect aims of the work are to foster forgiveness and charity, to facilitate moral formation and development of conscience, for some it is a preparation for the sacrament of Reconciliation, in essence an invitation for all to cultivate a healthy response to the realization of our sin, and return to God.

 Maxims are moral proclamations which reveal some truth to us.  In the atrium you will find a cabinet with 10 wooden tablets that have scripture text written on them.  There are more, and are rotated within the cabinet from time to time.  The catechists ponder with the children what Jesus might have meant and how this maxim pertains to their life.

Here are a few: 

l Cor. 6:19                   Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you

Matt 6:6                       But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your

                                    Father, who is unseen

Matt 18:21b-22                       how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against

                                    me? Up to seven times? . . . not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Matt 7:7                       Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door                                         will be opened to you

Matt 5:44                     Love your enemies

John 13:34                   I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I have loved                                             you.

Luke 6:27b                  Do good to those who hate you.

There is another moment in the presentation when we just reflect on the Summary of the Law.  We read Matthew 22:34-40 and meditate on Jesus’ response to the question, “Which commandment is the greatest?”  I invite you to re/read Matthew 22:34-40 at this time.

Ms. Georgie 

Level 4

The last two Sundays you might have noticed some additional people in the Sanctuary at the Liturgy on Sunday.   Members of our Level 4 group have been learning how to be acolytes.  They will assist Fr. Bob and the LEMs during the service.   In Level 4 we are beginning an exploration of virtues, values, and character formation.  We’ll be looking at a table of character strengths from a book entitled, Character Strengths and Virtues, published by Oxford University Press.  Last week we began to explore the virtue of courage, reflecting on what it is, what makes it a challenge, and finally, what we would like our “blank page” to say when our part of the History of the Kingdom of God comes to its end.   We’ll continue to explore the Bible.  Since last spring we’ve been spending time in the Library we call the Bible hearing about the Later History of Israel.  We began with Samuel and have gotten as far as David and Bathsheba, which is a very good place to reflect on character and choices. 

Emmaus Road:  New Book

The Emmaus Road Group will begin a new book.  We will be reading Death Comes for the Archbishop, by Willa Cather.  This novel is a fictional account of the first Archbishop of Santa Fe, New Mexico, after the Mexican-American War.  It is an absolutely wonderful book, full of wisdom, spirituality, and grace.  It’s a classic.  If you’ve never read it before, now is your chance.  The book is readily available.  We will meet for our first discussion on Monday, October 5, 7:00 p.m. in the Parish Hall Living Room  

 This will allow time to acquire the book.  For the first meeting we will read The Prologue and Chapter 1

 Looking Further Ahead:   Annual Parish Retreat 

October 16-18, Camp Thousand Pines, Crestline California

This will be our fifth year at this site.  We’ve had wonderful times here.  Participation can happen in several ways.   One can stay the weekend at Camp Thousand Pines.  This is especially good for families with children.  There is lodging in nearby Crestline as well, and people can come on the site for the program and activities.  Third, the Crestline is only an hour and a half away and people can easily drive up for the day on Saturday.  The Retreat is especially good for new people to get to know parishioners better. 

Our facilitator this year will be Suzanne Edwards-Acton.  Suzanne is a skilled teacher of Christian Spiritual Practices.   She led the workshop on the Anglican Rosary that many of our parishioners attended earlier in the year.   For our retreat she will lead us through a process of engaging with the Scripture that will open to us deeper meanings we might not know were there.   It will be fun and it will help us get more out of our personal reading of the Bible. 

Allen Woolery has some pictures that people can see to get a sense of things.  Check the link below. 

Photos:

https://churchoftheangelsretreat.shutterfly.com/pictures/5

Food For Thought.

On the Food for Thought Table this weekend, we continue our reflections on Pope Francis’ visit to the United States and what that means for people of faith and good will.

1.  From The New York Review of Books,  The Pope and the Market.  Last week’s article The Pope and the Planet, also from the NYRB looked at the Pope’s new encyclical on the subject of climate change and the effects on the poor.  It was, admittedly, a little “leftwing.”   This week’s article reflects a bit of rightward pushback, raising the question whether the Pope really understands how markets function and their utility in both raising people from poverty, and how market incentives can help move businesses toward making greater efforts to reduce both pollution and greenhouse gases.

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/oct/08/pope-and-market/

2.  From The New York Times  Pope Francis, the Prince of the Personal.   New York Times columnist David Brooks reflects on the Pope not from a political, but personal and religious dimension.  “This visit is also a spiritual and cultural event.  Millions of Americans will display their faith in public.” 

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/22/opinion/pope-francis-the-prince-of-the-personal.html