There are four things to highlight in this week’s e-letter:
- Trunk or Treat, see below
- Stewardship Materials, see below
- Names for the All Saints’ Day Necrology, see below
- This week the Rector will be out of town on family business (but available by cell phone). She’ll be back in the office Thursday morning. Wednesday’s Bible study is cancelled for this week.
STEWARDSHIP
Stewardship materials for 2015 have been sent out. Please look for the letter, FAQ, and pledge card, and read them carefully; they contain important information about your parish. If you did not receive the materials, they are also available in a basket in the Narthex. Your support is vital to funding the mission and ministry here at All Saints’. We hope that you will prayerfully consider how you will do this, and then return your pledge card by Sunday, November 2. Thank you.
WORSHIP and MUSIC
All Saints’ Sunday, November 2 is our parish feast day. As always, we will begin both services with the chanting of the Necrology, the names of members of the parish and other loved ones who have died in the past year, and those you wish to have remembered. Please e-mail or call the Parish Office by October 27 with the names of those to be included in this year’s prayer.
Bell Choir for All Saints’ Sunday – anyone interested in ringing for All Saints’ should sign up on the sheet in the Narthex. The rehearsal schedule will be worked out when we see who is participating. Questions? Speak to Alison Siener Brown.
All God’s Children, third Sundays at noon service for special needs kids and their families. It meets the third Sunday of each month (Nov. 16 is next service). We welcome the community to this non-denominational Christian service designed to engage children with a wide variety of developmental, emotional or physical challenges. Please extend an invitation to those who might be interested; all are welcome! Contact Mother Vicki with questions.
Altar Guild is the ministry group that sets up the altar for worship and cares for the linens, vessels, etc. Members serve on a team once a month, and for special services. New members are welcome and encouraged. In particular, the Altar Guild is looking for someone to oversee maintaining our stock of candles (ordering, replacing, cleaning the candlesticks and processional torches). If you are interested or want more information please speak to Liz Gorny.
Save the date! December 7 at 4 pm we’ll have a festive Advent Evensong . We will have a festive Advent Evensong to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Mother Vicki’s ordination to the priesthood, followed by a Parish Pot-Luck Supper. Sign-up on the sheet in the Narthex to bring an appetizer, side-dish or dessert. Hope you can come to this festive event!
COMMUNITY HOSPITALITY
Sunday’s Community Art Show was a great success! Thanks to Nancy Mink, Tom Day and Kathy Bousquet for all their hard work. Thanks also to the artists from our parish and our wider community. This has become a wonderful way for All Saints’ to be a patron of the arts by providing a venue in our neighborhood for artists to share their gifts and talents with the rest of us. If you are an artist, or know someone who is, please let them know that we’ll be back next year, and would love to have them be part of our show.
Advent Theater Production - Save the date for a performance of The Other Wise Man, Friday, Dec. 5. It’s a Christmas tale in which a fourth Wise Man goes in search of the Christ Child, but at every turn encounters people in great need. Written by Henry Van Dyke, it has been adapted for the stage by William Ward, specifically for All Saints’. This costumed reading by professional actors will take place in the Church. Proceeds will benefit North Porch, which provides emergency supplies to babies and toddlers. We’ll also be collecting jars of baby food for all ages: fruit, veggies and first foods.
Fish and Chips Thanks again to everyone who worked at the dinner and provided a wonderful welcoming atmosphere for our community neighbors! We were also able to donate 15 dinners to the men in the Veterans Administration Transitional Housing in Lyons. Our final fund-raising profit was $2,061. Good job, everyone
FORMATION
Trunk or Treat – All Saints’ very own Hallowe’en/All Hallows’ Eve celebration! Sunday School kids wear their costumes, and adults provide Hallowe’en treats. The kids trick-or-treat from car to car in the parking lot, and we have refreshments outside, this Sunday, October 26 at 11:15 am. Note, if you are providing treats, please park in the center section of the parking lot! Thanks. Hope you’ll come out for this fun event.
Coffee Hour hosts needed for Sundays after the 10 am service. What do you need to do? Provide sweet and/or savory snacks, juice, hot water for tea, and coffee. Instructions are available and John McGrath can walk you through a demo! Coffee Hour is a wonderful time to meet and greet fellow parishioners and newcomers. Please sign up on the sheet in the narthex.
Women’s Book Group meets Wednesday, November 19 at 7:30 pm in the Rath House. The book for discussion will be Love Anthony by Lisa Genova, a neuroscientist and novelist. Te book is a story about autism and unconditional love. Come for a fun evening of friendship and discussion.
Wednesday Bible Study Group, 10:15-11:30 am in the Rath House. This fall we are reading the Gospel of John. Newcomers to Bible reading are welcomed and encouraged. We’ll provide you with a Bible if you need one. Come and try us out! Questions? Speak to Mother Vicki. Note - no Bible study on 10/29.
HELPING HANDS
Knitting for Seafarers All Saints’ has a dedicated group of volunteers who knit scarves and caps for Seamen’s Church Institute’s Christmas-at-Sea ministry. If you are interested in knitting for this ministry, please speak to Janet Mansfield. She can give you directions and yarn, and then you work on the project on your own time. Your gift will help keep a seafarer warm this winter!
PARISH CALENDAR THIS WEEK
Wed 10/29 Bible Study does not meet this week
Thur 10/30 HE & Healing Prayer 7:00 am, Church
Choir (kids) 5:00 pm, Church
Choir (adults) 7:30 pm, Church
Daylight Savings Time ends on Saturday, Nov. 1 and EST begins Sunday, Nov. 2.. Remember to “fall back”!
And please check the calendar on our website for the full listing of groups and events in our buildings.
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For All the Saints – The people being remembered for (Oct. 26) are St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles.
"the only thing the Gospels tell us about Simon is that he was one of the disciples, and that he was called “the Zealot” (Zelotes). John mentions Jude in his description of the Last Supper. The Epistle of Jude may be the work of the disciple Jude, who is the man mentioned by John as the brother of James the Greater.
Tradition has consistently associated Simon and Jude as apostles to Persia. Some accounts state that they were martyrs, a tradition generally accepted by the Western Church. The Monology of Basil, however, says that Simon died a peaceful death at Edessa. Jude, who was surnamed Thaddeus, has been confused with another Thaddeus, who was also said to have died a quiet death, either in Beirut or Edessa. Whatever the facts, accounts conflict and reliable data are lacking.
There are other scholarly questions about both men. One involves Simon’s appellation “Zelotes.” Whether in fact he had been a member before his conversion of one of the several factions called “Zealots,” or whether this title refers to his zeal for the Jewish law, is not known, but he has consistently been identified by it. For some centuries, and even to this day, Jude has been regarded in popular devotion as the “patron of desperate or lost causes,” but the basis of this tradition is obscure.
The Epistle of Jude concludes with this striking doxology: “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you without blemish before the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all time and now and for ever” (Jude 24–25)." ~ Holy Women, Holy Men.
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Stewardship Prayer
~ from the Diocese of Blackburn, UK
“Almighty God our Father, we belong to you
All that we have comes from you
Our family and friends
Our health and life
Our possessions and energy
Our leisure and abilities.
Help us to share in the blessing of giving as well as the happiness of receiving.
We ask this in the name of Jesus.”
Blessings,
Vicki McGrath+