October 8, 18th Sunday after Pentecost

Tonight!

Exploring the Liturgy:  Wednesday October 4,  7:00 p.m.

Fr. Bob’s long promised class on what we do on Sunday morning begins this Wednesday evening in the Parish Hall Living Room.   We plan to go for no more than an hour per meeting so as to not keep everyone up too late (Especially Fr. Early Bird!) 

The purpose is to explore the Sunday Liturgy, to understand how it is structured, what it is saying, and most importantly, to reflect on our experience of it and find words to talk about it like…. 

Mature and full-bodied with layers of dark fruit flavors. Transforms readily into the Real Presence and pairs nicely with communion wafers.

We’ve had a sign- up sheet out for several weeks, but any and all are welcome.  Each session is self-contained so people can come in any time.  In our first meeting this week, we’ll learn how to describe the entire Christian faith in just ten words! 

Coffee Hour:  Good Reviews on our ‘new brew’

It’s said Episcopalians firmly believe that coffee hour is the eighth sacrament, but only if the coffee is caffeinated.  Here at Church of the Angels, because we take the coffee hour seriously-- we're improving the coffee we serve on the patio after services.  

Last Sunday, we welcomed the new brew -- a small-batch roasted blend called Rose City from Pasadena’s Jameson Brown Coffee Roasters -- on the patio after each service.  You'll recall that, after the Evensong in May, we held a blind coffee-tasting and Rose City was the clear winner with parishioners.  The blend is described as  “… a classic light/medium roast Brazil and Colombia with a touch of dark-roast Guatemala.  Nutty with a hint of citrus and cocoa.”   Parishioner Bryan Bennett, who previously owned a coffee business, assisted with our coffee-discernment process and the eventual calling of Rose City into service at the parish.

Now you can invite your friends and neighbors to church, sure in the knowledge that the convivial cup of coffee we serve after services is second only to the Holy Eucharist as the preferred ‘cup’ of choice here at Church of the Angels.

Coffee Hour Sign Up

The Sign-up sheet for Coffee Hour for September and October will be on the table outside Church this Sunday.  Please sign up and help us create a nice atmosphere of fellowship after the Sunday Liturgies.

Sundays We Need:   7:45:   October 22, & 29

                                   10:15:  October 8, 15, 22, & 29

Outreach Committee :  COA is building a school library

What Library???

Church of the Angels’ Outreach Committee is helping to establish a school library at the Suubi Children’s Centre in Bukeka, Uganda. We started way back in 2014 by sending money to build locking bookcases. In January 2015, Tracy Gaestel visited the Suubi Children’s Centre to work with the teachers from the school.

Upon arrival, Tracy, and her partner volunteer Bethany found boxes of books and learning materials that only the bugs and the rats had seen.  The people didn’t want to use such wonderful books and material.  Bethany and Tracy got the material out, organized and into the beautiful book shelves.  They also learned that the people of Bukeka did not know what a book was or how to treat it.  Village children who had been sponsored and been given books returned home where their parents looked at this foreign thing and put it to good use, ripping the pages for toilet paper!

The trip was a success. Tracy discovered a beautiful country with wonderful, friendly people who didn’t understand her English, but they were too polite to mention it.  The learning curve was huge, but at the end of the visit, the teachers had learned a lot and Tracy had learned even more.

After Tracy returned she continued corresponding with the directors of Global Hands of Hope, the organization that started the Suubi Children’s Centre. The Outreach Committee gathered books from COA parishioners and sent them to the school. The school held a reading contest and local dignitaries were amazed at how well the students read Frog and Toad are Friends. 

So we had provided some shelves and some books, but this has become a larger project to establish a working library as the school has grown over the last few years. Church of the Angels is blessed with three librarians. We are a parish of readers and so the Outreach Committee decided to take on this project. The people at COA (that’s you!) know the importance of books and reading and connecting books to children.

And we need your help!!!

We need help to get the books processed and shipped, and we may need some more, specific books. If you have set of encyclopedias, we’d love to send it to the school. If you would like to donate your time, bring your laptop and help us make lists of books on Sunday, October 15, after the 10:15 service. If you have some time at home, Eileen would love some help typing up spine labels and labels for the pockets and cards (especially since she plans to go to Japan with her husband before the end of the month!).

If books, libraries, and people thirsting for something to read speak to your heart, we’d love for you to join us in this endeavor.  Come, enjoy a light lunch and take an hour or two listing books.  We’ll provide lunch, a template for you to use and the books to list.  Many hands make light work!  Email Tracy if you have any questions or comments: gaestel.tracy@gmail.com

When:                   Sunday Oct. 15 after the 10:15 service

What to bring:      Your laptop computer (any kind)

What we are going to do:  Everyone with a laptop will take a stack of books and make an excel sheet with the Title, Author and category.  We’ll show you how to set it up and how to find the information.

Why?  Many hands make light work!!!

We will provide a light lunch and expect to be completely finished 2 or 3 hours after starting.

Come and bring your laptop and make a difference in the lives of hundreds of children!

Put on by the OUTREACH COMMITTEE.

Emmaus Road:  Monday October, 9 7:00 p.m.

Emmaus Road continues reading and discussing the book The Road to Character by David Brooks.  In our first meeting we discussed the Introduction and Chapter 1 which laid out the basic premise of the book which is the shift from an “other centered” set of values to our current culture’s focus on what Brooks calls, “The Big Me.” 

This week we consider George C. Marshall

Food For Thought

On the Food For Thought Table an article from last month’s Wall Street Journal, The Right Way to Have Difficult Conversations.   The intro to the article says, “In our tense era, a radio host’s rules for showing respect and knowing our own biases.   Is it possible to talk about things we consider important, things we feel strongly about with people who see these things differently than we do?  The article talks about people who build such bridges across divides and the communication skills they use to do this. 

Hillsides:  Continued Cooperation

Hillsides has a much more difficult population of residents than in years past.  This is due to a change in child welfare policy that tries to keep troubled families together and provide services to help them through their difficulties.  Sometimes that means placing a child in foster care to help that child stabilize while the family is also given assistance.  Some children are so damaged that they can’t cope in foster care and in that case they are placed at institutions like Hillsides for a short periods, again to help them get stable and then return to their families.  These children are difficult to monitor and control and sometimes they get out of Hillsides property and either run away or cause vandalism.  State law prohibits the staff from physically restraining them, so it’s a difficult problem.

We’ve had some vandalism recently from Hillsides residents and at a meeting with the Vestry and Hillsides Director Joe Costa, Parish Warden Carolyn Styler asked that Hillsides provide security cameras and Joe Costa agreed.

It’s taken some months, but we came up with a proposal that we presented to Hillsides this week.  While we were thinking of a stand-alone system for the Church that would just record motion around the perimeter of the building, Hillsides was thinking of our system being linked to theirs for 24/7 monitoring.  This would enable them to see residents on our property before they did anything.  It was something we had not considered but sounded.  We had a meeting with Hillsides this week and our combined proposal is going forward.  So some kind of system will be installed that will protect the Church and grounds and this is one more instance of our two organizations working together for mutual benefit.

Music with the Angels:  Jouyssance Concert: Sunday, October 15, 2017 at 4 p.m.

Palestrina: Master of All

Praised and imitated by his contemporaries and revered throughout the centuries, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina crafted some of the greatest a capella music of all time. Jouyssance devotes an entire concert to this contrapuntal master, presenting not only his most beloved motets, but also the sumptuous Missa L'homme armé à 5.  Although he is long associated with the Catholic Church, Palestrina had a rarely seen secular side, which Jouyssance will explore with a selection of his madrigals.

About Jouyssance

Jouyssance holds many of its rehearsals on Sunday afternoons in Church of the Angels Parish Hall

Jouyssance performs an annual series of three concert programs in West LA and Pasadena, and are regularly featured as performers at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Orange County. The group honors the tradition of historically informed performance practice, seeking to re-create the music as it might have sounded at the time it was written. Performances occasionally include historically informed accompaniment on period instruments.

The Ensemble's repertoire includes music from the 9th through the early 17th centuries, often featuring such major figures as Machaut, Dufay, Josquin, Palestrina, Lassus, and Monteverdi. Concerts showcase music not only from every corner of Europe, but also from non-Western traditions from around the globe, such as Canadian First Nations, Mexico and Guatemala, Bolivia and Peru, the Ukraine, Ethiopia, Byzantium, India, China, and the Philippines.

Jouyssance aims to educate audiences in ways that engage and inspire. During concerts, Dr. Baker generally speaks about the repertoire to the audience, often peppering her comments with humorous, informative anecdotes that help bring the music and its composers to life. Program notes for each concert include texts and translations that are also made available on our website.

Nicole Baker, Artistic Director

Teacher, conductor and singer Nicole Baker has served on the music history and voice faculties of California State University, Fullerton, since 1997. A graduate of Wellesley College, Dr. Baker earned her MFA in vocal performance and her Ph.D. in music history from UCLA. She has conducted choruses for 25 years throughout Southern California, including ensembles at California State University, Northridge, and has led Jouyssance since 1999. She also serves as Music Director at St. Philip the Apostle Church in Pasadena.

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