Thanksgiving Service. Harvest Dinner

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1 2015 To submit articles, a word document to barb@intracsystems.com Thanksgiving Service We will be having a Thanksgiving Service on Wednesday, November 25 at 7 pm. Harvest Dinner The Dinner brought in about $3,700!!!!! Thanks again to everyone for all their hard work, making it so successful! Daylight-Saving Time ends, Nov. 1 Veterans Day, Nov.1 Thanksgiving Service Nov. 25 Thanksgiving, Nov. 26 First Sunday of Advent, Nov. 29

2 Per Capita WE'RE HALFWAY THERE------in raising the almost $6000 of the Per Capita assessment due from Fairview Presbyterian Church to the larger Presbyterian Church. If you haven't already done so, the Session is encouraging you to make a special $30 offering for each church member living in your household to help pay the administrative costs of the governing boards of the Presbyterian Church. Per Capita checks should be made out to Fairview Presbyterian Church. Indicate "Per Capita" on the check. You may use the offering envelopes in the church pews. Please check "Special Offering" or write "Per Capita" on the envelope. Thank you for your continued support. Pledge Cards Just a reminder to please return your pledge cards ASAP. If you did not receive yours in the mail, please see Amy for them. It is important for the Administration Committee to have these to prepare the budget for next year. Thank you! Outdoor Sign The panels and lettering of the outdoor sign were replaced! It looks great! Snow Removal Help is needed removing snow off the sidewalks and entrance ways during the week (daytime hours) and Sunday mornings before Church. If anyone is able to help, please call Amy at the office. Christmas Cookie Sale Our annual Cookie Tray Fundraiser begins Sunday, November 8!! A tray of 5 dozen assorted Christmas cookies is $20. There are order forms and envelopes on the table in the Lobby. Please fill out a form, put it in an envelope with your money and either leave it in the offering basket or on Amy s desk. Orders need to be in by December 6. WE NEED BAKERS!!! There will be a meeting Wednesday, November 11 at 7 pm in the Conference Room for anyone who would like to help bake the cookies. Thank you to Edie Leuschen for heading this fundraiser up this year! If there are any questions, please call her at Hanging of the Greens Wow! It s almost that time already!!!! Help is needed immediately after worship on November 22 to decorate the church for Christmas. Whatever is left to do will be finished the following day. Sandwiches will be provided by the Coffee Cart volunteers. Join us for a fun time of fellowship as we prepare for Advent. Page 2

3 Care Packages Our new cookbook has 250 delicious recipes!! The cost is $10, and can be purchased after church or during the week at the office. It will make a great Christmas or wedding gift! Get them before they are gone! A Trip to Lancaster, PA September 21-23, 2016 Penny Qualls is organizing a bus trip to Lancaster, PA in the fall of It will be a two night three day stay of sight-seeing, shopping, Amish food, and a Sight and Sound production of Sampson. Men and women alike will enjoy this trip! Penny hopes to get about 30 people. Based on that number costs for the bus, tour, theatre, hotel, and food, will be about $500, excluding two lunches, room tips and souvenirs. If you are interested there is a sign-up sheet on the information table in the Lobby. In February or March, 2016 Penny will get formal sign-ups and deposits, with the balance due a month before the trip. If there are any questions, please feel free to call Penny at , or call the church office. Spread the word to your friends and family for a fun time in Amish Country! The Sunday School classes will once again send out Christmas care packages to college students and people in the military. If you have a student or serviceman, please contact Linda Tobolewski at , or ltobolewski@verizon.net. with the name and address. Kairos Kairos Prison Ministry International, Inc. (Kairos) is a Christian faith-based ministry which addresses the spiritual needs of incarcerated men, women, youth, and their families. By sharing the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ, Kairos hopes to change hearts, transform lives and impact the world. Kairos will be using our facilities November for an overnight meeting, and December 3 6 for their weekend in Albion SCI men will be participating. On Saturday, December 5 th there will be a Holy Hour at 7 pm where there will be prayers, music, and a speaker - an ex -inmate who was transformed by this ministry. We are invited to come. Then Sunday, December 6 there will be a time after our worship service to join them in the Fellowship Hall for snacks, as a thank you for the use of our facilities. This will be a great chance to meet the outside team and ask any questions about this important ministry. Check out show footage from Samson! #videos?media=media1 Page 3

4 People to Pray for Mike Mucciarone is recuperating from surgery. Barb tore her meniscus in her knee and will soon be having surgery. Healing for both. Nancy Pickens - spots were found on her liver. She will be having a biopsy. Eleanor Sample passed away on October 1. Prayers for her family. Kelly Hetz's friend, Katie, a mom to a son with very severe special needs, who is starting her life over. Lily O'Brien's mom is having heart issues and is depressed. Ken Milewski is having health problems, having tests done. Joan Fiesler was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Her husband Dave is recuperating from a stroke. Heather Adams' neighbor Debbie Reddinger was diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer. Ron Ferringer - losing his eye sight from macular degeneration. Dan & Theresa Weber - continuing health problems for Dan. Anna Mae Traut's son-in-law Carl Schnaufer has a malignant brain tumor that is inoperable. Prayers for peace for him and his family. Continued prayers for Hagan Hetz and his family. Jackie Ostergaard has Alzheimer s and is at Sarah Reed. Page 4

5 In a Different Voice (A monthly column written and submitted by Judith Johnston) Strange, interesting, weird, charming, scary as America becomes increasingly diverse, we are confronted by more & more people whose ways are not our ways. Yet, God seems to have spoken to His children in many different places at very different times. Some of these diverse views will be featured each month to encourage a healthy curiosity about other spiritual writings and to open us up to possibilities for a larger spiritual awareness. All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. Anatole France The soul unto itself Is an imperial friend Or the most agonizing spy An enemy could send. Secure against its own, No treason it can fear; Itself its sovereign, of itself The soul should stand in awe. Emily Dickinson I believe much trouble and blood would be saved if we opened our hearts more. Chief Joseph To encounter the sacred is to be alive at the deepest center of human existence. Sacred places are the truest definitions of the earth; they stand for the earth immediately and forever; they are its flags and shields. If you would know the earth for what it really is, learn it through its sacred places. At Devil s Tower or Canyon de Chelly or the Cahokia Mounds, you touch the pulse of the living planet; you feel its breath upon you. You become one with a spirit that pervades geologic time and space. N. Scott Momaday - Native American author of Kiowa descent. His House Made of Dawn won Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in Of all the religions, the best religion is to repeat God s Name and do pious deeds. Of all the religious rites, the best rite is to remove the filth of evil intellect by association with the saints. Sikh Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji Maharaaj; Hymn - Ashtpadi, Ang 266 (can be played on internet) 20: I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;

6 Page 5 The Spirituality Revolution The emergence of contemporary spirituality by David Tacey, Ph.D. It is mainly our youth who have left religion and church membership behind and are seeking a spirituality to address the angst of living in an empty world bent on self-destruction. According to Tacey the challenge for religion and organized churches is to dislodge from the rigid liturgy and creeds and fundamentalism and an anthropomorphic God in Heaven and invite Him/Her back into the mystical and sacred and primordial inner space of our being. This, he asserts, would not result in a brand new religion but a return to the real spirituality that was lost the mystical, the sacred, the holy. People would sense, feel, and experience a personal God in the care of their being, and clergy would be guides, not magical counselors to the Man upstairs. Tacey suggests that the future of religion may have been orchestrated by the Spirit itself, who, tired of our external faith, is pushing us into a deeper experience of spirituality. Perhaps God is saying, I don t want blind belief or worshippers who are content with a mere rumor of my existence. I want people to experience me in their hearts and lives; I want transformation, conversion and encounter. While religion is good at ritual and a container of spiritual wisdom, today s sciences, the arts, and medical and mental health practices are returning to the acknowledgement of the mystic and the sacred. The crisis of diminishing main-line church membership is an opportunity for new thinking and new ways of doing religion, since desperate measures to shore up traditions that no longer feed the spirit have sorely failed. Tacey presents a well-researched and clear challenge to the church to either adapt to the changes in our society and meet new needs in new ways, or die. Judith Johnston Page 6

7 Visit the Angel Tree in the Lobby Angels (pink for girls and blue for boys!) will be on the tree and ready for you to choose. Wrapped gifts with angel tag attached are due back at the church by Sunday, December 13 th. That gives you 3 weeks to shop, wrap, and return! Thanks in advance for your participation. Isn t this what Christmas is all about?! Page 7

8 Enjoy the colors of the season Page 8

9 November, 2015 Page 9

10 1 Robert Lewis 2 Ken Krause Jr. 5 Jackie Ostergaard 6 Jim Comstock Janet Harvey Julie Wagner Hunter Jageman 7 Bill Joseph Sr. Paula Paden 8 Dolores Buell 9 Don Loomis 10 Mason Vogan 11 Paul Ostergaard Sally Swanson 12 Marjorie Corbett 13 Tom Brozell Joe Grimaldi 16 Brian Madara Sr. 18 Natalie Brosig 19 Keven Lewis 20 Harper Hetz 21 Brian Jageman 24 Molly Papson 25 Paul Case Jesse Young 26 Alexandra Redlawsk 29 Caden Cammarata Page. 10

11 Editor s Page Anxiety hit me pretty hard 2 weeks ago. Mike had surgery in Pittsburgh and the five-hour wait was excruciating until we heard that the surgery had gone well and Mike was in Recovery. It was still a couple of hours until Libby, Jenna, and I were able to see him and reassure ourselves that he was okay. The three of us stayed in what s called Family House Shadyside. It s similar to Ronald McDonald House with minimal cost to families and was located just across the street from the hospital. It couldn t have been more convenient, and the staff did everything they could to make our stay comfortable. Christ surely guided their hands. I don t think it was a coincidence that Libby and Jenna are both home with us. I have torn the meniscus in my right knee and have been nearly incapacitated for the past month. I m seeing an orthopaedic surgeon next week for a consultation and to schedule surgery. One result of the knee problem is that I can t drive. So, Libby and Jenna have taken over the roles of chauffer, cook, maid, laundress, and general errand-runner. We could never have survived these past weeks without them. It s easy to take for granted those who we see daily. But this has taught me that my daughters really step up to the plate when needed. I know each of them would like to be out of our house and living their own lives, but I have to think that their being here at this time was directed by God. They have shown themselves to be extraordinary young women who have ministered to us with tender and loving hands and hearts. What a special gift. I learned lately that anxiety can only be relieved by prayer. How good is our God. Barb Mucciarone Page 11