The Northern Light. Inside. December Minister s Message. Featuring the people and events of First Congregational Christian Church of Anchorage

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1 The Northern Light Featuring the people and events of First Congregational Christian Church of Anchorage December 2015 Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Inside Minister s Message Moderator s Message From the Diaconate From the Christian Education From the CAWS Project Santa Claus December Calendar Just For Kids Puzzle Answer revel in the mystery of Christmas Minister s Message Advent was traditionally a season of repentance and a seeking of forgiveness for sin. That is why the Advent colors are violet just as the Lenten colors are. Some churches have gone to blue colors, to signify a different mood: a mood of expectation of the Savior. Now, why the pink candle on the third Sunday in Advent? In the earliest years of the church the only church season was Lent, the seven weeks prior to Easter. Lent was a season of fasting and prayer as the church commemorated the crucifixion of Jesus. The traditional color of banners in the church during this time was a deep purple, signifying royalty, repentance, and suffering. During Lent the church lit seven candles, one for each week of the solemn season. On the third Sunday of Lent, the church was encouraged not to fast, but to feast. In ancient times on this particular Sunday the Pope would honor a citizen with a pink rose, and as time passed the priests wore pink vestments on this day as a reminder of the coming joy. When the season of Advent was instituted, the church viewed it as a mini-lent, a time for reflection and repentance (thus the purple). In so doing, the church adopted the first four candles of Lent and changed the third candle of Advent to pink in honor of the Lenten tradition. This is why we have a pink candle in our Advent Wreaths. To further heighten the sense of anticipation of Christ's coming during Advent, the church named each candle in the wreath -- 1

2 the first being hope, the second peace, the third joy, and the fourth love (there are a number of other traditional names as well, though these are some of the most ancient). It has always seemed fitting to me that the pink candle is the candle of joy, the one that speaks to us with its twinge of color. The Christ candle, kindled on Christmas eve, represents the purity of the Christ Child, and every season in which Jesus is particularly the focus: Christmas and the two Sundays after (Christmastide), Christ the King Sunday, Easter (and Eastertide) are celebrated in white vestments. Enjoy the holiday season. I will be back with you for the Christmas pageant on Pink Sunday. Let every heart prepare Christ room. In Christ, George Moderator s Message November was a busy month for our church! We took some giant steps into the future by passing some major changes to our bylaws, and while they won t take effect until our next congregational meeting in April, we can begin implementation now to make the transition smoother. I see great promise for this new organizational plan, but it isn t a magic wand. This church won t grow unless we, as members, have a passion for our mission. What is your passion? How can we help you in that passion? Do you know others interested in your passion who would help? How can we let the world know about it? We are family and your passion should be ours. Obviously this is going to require work on everyone s part, but it s being Christmas time, I want to pass on the words of John Lubbock: Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. Translate that to Christmas tree and Christmas carols and remember to take time to rest during this busy time of year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours. Shalom, Claudia Kniefel, Moderator From the Diaconate Jeanette Dillon, Chair The Deacons and the Music members will be having our first official joint meeting (the Worship Ministry see Claudia s article above) this coming Sunday to see how we like it. Also, it is Greening of the Church Sunday, so everyone is encouraged to stay after church and help as many hands make light work. From the Christian Education Shellie Smith, Chair Sunday school has begun and the youth are engaged in PF activities. Marcie s class is wrapping up the Old Testament and their classroom is adorned with a number of art pieces created by the youth. Randy s class is pursuing the theme What Kind of Fruit Do You Find in the Company of Others. The youth plan to participate in a number of church activities: CAWS projects, grandfamilies brunches, greening of the church, and the Christmas pageant. A busy day is planned for November 2

3 29 with Sunday school and then a chili and sandwich lunch, followed by costume fitting and swimming at the University of Alaska Anchorage. From the CAWS Kathy Means, Chair The holidays are here and although it can be a busy and stressful time, we also want to make time for giving to others-- it will make you feel much better! First, thank you to those who have signed up for the Hospice Remembrance Tree on Saturday, Dec. 5 at the 5th Avenue Mall. At the beginning of the season, it is a familiar and comforting sight to remind us that friends and family who have passed are still in our hearts. On Saturday, December 19, FCC again hosts the volunteers of America Grandfamilies Holiday Brunch, with a special visit by You-Know-Who and the Mrs. We need food donations, and especially your presence to make this a wonderful event for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. Our Northern Lights Ringers will also provide some Christmas music for caroling. All are invited to participate. This year Hospice of Anchorage, our neighbors in the parsonage, have asked the Church to consider sponsoring a family who is going through the loss of a loved one. CAWS brought this request to Council, and they agreed it was a good project for them to sponsor. It involves buying three small presents for the five children in the family. Hospice has provided a list of the ages and wish list of the children. They need to be delivered to Hospice on December 21 for delivery by Santa and Mrs. Claus on Christmas Eve. Would your family or group of friends be willing to purchase gifts for one of the children? PROJECT SANTA CLAUS Family Aeris, girl, age 17 Size Large shirt, ladies Loves to read; wants to learn how to quilt and knit; loves to garden and wants to volunteer at botanical gardens and become a master gardener; loves working with horses. Quilting tools might be a fun thing to get her. She is Hospice of Anchorage client and she has low vision and light sensitivity due to her medical condition. Ian, boy, age 15 Size Large men s shirt Loves Albert Einstein; he writes science fiction stories; he likes painting; he wants to become a writer, and he wants an old type writer for Christmas. (He has autism) Elijah, boy age 12 Size Large men s shirt He loves to go sledding, have nerf wars with friends; loves Halo and other military games. Joshua, male age 12 Size 8-10 boys shirt He loves to paint on canvas and sketch in sketchbooks, loves VanGogh, he wants to go to Karate classes Brianna, girl age 10 Size 8 girls shirt- needs She asked Santa for a Barbie. She loves to play outdoors; she would like a basketball, or early reading chapter books (She can t have candy as she has significant medical issue as well) Your CAWS, Kathy Broome, Mary Mitchell, Trevor Wolfe-Prause, Vivian Pike, Susan Faith, Kathy Means 3

4 December 2015 CAWS Cause for December Volunteers of America Supporting Grandfamilies Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday :30-8:30 ClearWater Youth Bible Study 6:30 Investment Club 10 am to 10 pm Hospice Remembrance Tree 6 Hanukkah begins Guest Minister: Rev. Johnathan Jones 9:30 NO Adult Forum 9:30 Chancel Choir 10:30 Worship/Sunday School: Pageant Rehearsal Greening of the Church 12:00: Deacon and Music s meeting 13 9:30 Adult Forum/Choir 10:30 Worship: Christmas Pageant 11:45 Potluck (Hosts: FCC Church Council) 12:00 CAWS 12:00 The Sounding 3:00-4:30 Cashin Piano Recital (CMH) 20 Communion Sunday Hanukkah ends 5:30 Trustees First Day of Winter :30-4:00 Mabel T. Caverly Holiday Social Homewell Senior Care Christmas Party 1:30-4:00 Shipp Voice Recital :30:-2:30 Weavers and Spinners Guild 10:00 Grandfamilies Holiday Brunch 26 Kwanzaa (until January 1 st ) 9:30 Adult Forum/Choir 10:30 Worship/No Sunday School 12:00 FCC Church Council 27 Guest Minister: Rev. David Barber 9:30 NO Adult Forum NO Choir 10:30 Worship/No Sunday School No Handbells/ No Choir 7:00 Christmas Eve Service 31 New Year s Eve FCC Office closed The most up-to-date calendar is available at our web site ( 4

5 Puzzle answer on p. 6 of this newsletter. 5

6 Senior Minister Rev. George E. Blair III Music Ministry Caroline Valentine, Organist, Director, Northern Lights Ringers Lori Parker Wasco Director, Chancel Choir Christian Education Nursery: June Skinner Puzzle Answer: On the first Christmas night, long ago, a plain, brown bird sat on a beam in a stable. It watched people come to worship the newborn baby. No one really noticed this bird. After the visitors had gone and the family went to sleep, the bird saw that the fire had died out. So the bird flew down and fanned the coals with its wings. It fanned until the fire grew bright and warm again. The feathers on its breast became bright red. The bird stayed by the fire all night, fanning it to keep the baby warm. Since that night, the robin has had a red breast, a symbol of its love. Contacts Administrative Assistant & Editor Kate O Dell FCC Church Sexton Scott McClure Wedding Coordinator Barbara Widtfeldt Pastor Support Susan Faith Serving the NACCC Claudia Kniefel Chair, Executive Secretary Search Committee Year-Round Delegate Sharon Higgins Wintry it ain't - no complaints! Snowier: Storefronts are showier, light displays glowier. Shoppers are prowling, blizzard howling! Drifts a- heaping, lords a-leaping, Yule logs burning, gifts returning. Winds are keen for 2015! --The Old Farmer s Alamanac It is now, at Advent, that I am given the chance to suspend all expectation...and instead to revel in the mystery. Jerusalem Jackson Greer, A Homemade Year: The Blessings of Cooking, Crafting, and Coming Together. From The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, by Peter J. Gomes (1996) pp Mystery is not an argument for the existence of God; mystery is an experience of the existence of God. Very much like suffering and joy, mystery can often be that place in which we come to know better who God is, and who we are. The Bible is valuable to us because it is the record of those for whom mystery and meaning are not antithetical but a life s work in the growing knowledge of self and of God. It is my impression that this biblical ambition for humankind is perhaps more urgent and vital now than at any previous point in history. Before we make the case for mystery as one of those thin places in which the human and the divine encounter one another, we must in some sense demystify mystery. I am not trying to be clever. Mystery has a bad reputation in religious language as an all-pervading, argument-proof cop-out when something cannot be explained, when there is a problem to which there appears to be no answer, the temptation is to call the entire thing a mystery. To the impious, or just to the garden variety secularist, such a device 6

7 is merely clothing naked ignorance in the fig leaf of mystery, and to the pious and the generally reverent, mystery is not the opposite of knowledge but the opposite of pride or of hubris. Mystery in this sense is the frontier between what we know and can explain and what we experience and cannot explain. Mystery can be seen in an American sense of a frontier, a place or space that remains to be settled or conquered. Mystery here is merely unfinished or un-addressed business, which in the fullness of time and with the inevitable improvements in skills and technologies will be solved. As might be easily said, a mystery is merely an unsolved problem, and unsolved problems do not provoke awe or devotion but merely irritation, intrigue, and persistence. Some years ago I took up Princeton theologian Diogenes Allen s little book on temptation for my Lenten reading, and through it I learned a lot about temptation, but surprisingly and unexpectedly, I learned more about mystery; and what I learned there has helped me ever since in the appreciation of mystery. Speaking of the greatest mystery of the human experience, the relationship between good and evil, or as Saint Paul says, the conundrum we experience when we want to do good but persist in doing evil and seemingly cannot separate good intentions from bad effects, Allen says, Mysteries to be known must be entered into. He then goes on: For we do not solve mysteries, we enter into them. The deeper we enter into them, the more illumination we get. Still greater depths are revealed to us the further we go. It is not so with problems. When a problem is solved, it is over and done with. We go on to other problems.but a mystery once recognized is something we are never finished with. It is never exhausted. Instead, we return to it again and again and it unfolds new levels to us.we live in a universe permeated by a divine reality whose hem we touch when we encounter mysteries. Surely on Christmas Eve we could wish that those who come to the manger and to the altar would do so on a more regular basis, and would in fact receive the benefit of regular instruction, discipline, and fellowship, but when they do come, we must realize that they have done so not to get a crash tutorial in all that they have missed [by not coming to church more often] but rather to obey the most fundamental and unavoidable of all invitations and commands: O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. It is no accident that the carol O Come, All Ye Faithful, of which this phrase forms the chorus, is perhaps the most beloved and well-known of all the most beloved of music. It doesn t invite us to an explanation of a discussion; it invites us to respond with the only human response available in the face of the mystery of the divine condescension: adoration. That promiscuous crowd on Christmas Eve knows a mystery when it sees one, and better than that, it still remembers from its primitive, halfremembered past how to respond to one. Perhaps one of the most sophisticated believers of our age was able to understand, in the only language capable of expressing it, what these Easter and Christmas Christians know: You are not here to verify, Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity Or carry report. You are here to kneel Where prayer has been valid. (T. S. Eliot, Little Gidding )