The Basket St. Philip s Episcopal Church Advent 2018
The Times, They Are a-changin Rev. Vicki T. Burgess Almighty and everliving God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for this parish family. Strengthen the faithful, arouse the careless, and restore the penitent. Grant us all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within your holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. We are looking for a 10% increase in attendance in that time period to tell us whether this will correct the trend in attendance. We re working on the details of the time for Christian Education, because we want to offer a later start and also not to lose anyone from Christian Ed. In our baptisms, we vow to continue in the apostles teaching and fellowship ; St. Paul writes to his Roman church to be transformed by the renewing of our minds,. I hope it s important to you, too, and your formation in the faith, and so I hope you will adjust your schedule accordingly to take advantage of this opportunity for a later service time. Prayer for the Parish, BCP 817 A couple of months ago at a vestry meeting, we asked: What can we do about attendance? We believe we do a good job of getting our activities, news, and our welcome out to those who may be looking for a church to try on. I told the Vestry then that I was beginning to think that our service time - 9:00 a.m. - may be a factor in dwindling attendance. Five years ago, we made the decision to go from two services (8:00 and 10:30 a.m.) to one, as our attendance at the 10:30 principal service dipped to a fairly consistent 85 people or so. We agreed to try one service to see if having all our parishioners in the room together would make a difference, and it did. However, the compromise we made for the service time skewed a little toward the early service - 9:00 a.m. What we hear now is that for the vast majority of our folks, from families with little ones to not a small number of our seniors, is that this is too early for a weekend morning. We may be missing folks who could attend much more regularly, and we may be missing folks who choose not to come to St. Philip s at all because our service is just too early. This is all about attendance, so we propose to try once again offering two worship services on Sunday mornings, one at 8:00 a.m. and one at 10:30, with Christian Education between. The early service would be a said service; music at 10:30. We would begin this on the Sunday of the Epiphany, January 6, and continue through Easter Sunday April 21. 2 - The Basket - Advent 2018 We realize this is a huge change. We will send out lots of reminders as January 6 approaches. We beg your good wishes and prayers as we undertake this big push for growing our congregation. We believe in our mission and in our ability to make a difference in our own lives and those of our community and world. St. Philip s Episcopal Church - 3
During a children s church discussion, the children were asked, What is so special about Advent? Advent Art Show We recieved some very good answers about the excitement surrounding the birth of Jesus. We even heard key words about hope, peace, joy, and love. The piece that the children left out, one that often times even adults forget, is the expectation and excitement in Advent surrounding the Second Advent of Christ. The time where everything will be right again, on Earth as it is in Heaven. We experienced a bit of this Kingdom life on the Saturday before Advent. Jo Wintker, Janet Fox, Kathleen Addison, and Pam Foster spent time weeks ahead preparing for a special day. Each child had a piece of his/her artwork laminated with their name and photo on the back along with the scripture verse that inspired it. We had lovely refreshments, and festive music, and even a craft project where we made mini Advent wreaths of our own. Rev. Vicki even found enough chocolate Advent Calendars for everyone to have one to take home. And as much fun and special as that was, we almost missed the most important part. Well, the adults almost missed it. The children knew exactly what to do. I saw kids who didn t really know each other, hit it off and become fast friends. I saw brothers sharing food with sisters. I saw dancing and singing. I saw grown-ups working and playing together with the children of others. I saw real connection. All of this, becasue we have people in our midst who value our children. St. Philip s is a place where creativity is encouraged, where childhood wonder is encouraged and cultivated, where innocence is protected, and kids can experience joy. I am thankful for this place, St. Philip s Church, an outpost for the Kingdom until the next Advent of the Lord. 4 - The Basket - Advent 2018 St. Philip s Episcopal Church - 5
God s Good Gifts Sharon Green This is a story of my mother who drilled the words of Jesus into my brain, heart and soul and how those words and her example have influenced my life and continue to do so. The words are the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:33: Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. September of my senior year in high school was an exciting month. A Senior Trip to New York was being planned for the class; my only sister had just married and moved out; my mother, father and I had just moved into our new rural, tiny brick home, and I was consumed with my college plans and who might be my dorm roommate. However, as life has its way, the rug was pulled out from under my parents and me when International Paper Company decided to terminate the men who were a few months away from retirement and eligible for their retirement. My dad was one of those men 2 months short of turning 65, after having worked 40 years as a wood scaler for the Company. He could no longer provide for my mother and me. My college dreams suddenly became very dim. Needless to say, this was devastating, and my father s health deteriorated due to an emotional breakdown as a result. Our only income was my mother s earnings from her small beauty shop at the back of our rural home. Beauty shops of the 1960s evolved into present-day Salons. During the next few months my mother s faith and her strength enabled her to seek legal advice and finally secure my dad s retirement which would not be available until sometime later the next year. Thus, we had to make it on her beauty shop earnings. Fortunately, I soon found employment after school and Saturdays at the JC Penny store in little town. Throughout that fall as she nursed my father, she would talk with me about the fact that no matter what, she planned to continue tithing as was hers and my dad s habit to our country Baptist church. You see, tithe was a household word for me growing up. She suggested that because my J C Penney job was my first, that I, too, had the opportunity to begin the practice because it is the right thing to do, Sharon, she would say. God will take care of us. We don t tithe in order to get something from God, speaking in her Sunday School teacher voice. During my childhood, she would explain giving a tithe or a tenth by comparing it with a Southern pie. God gives you a pecan pie cut into 10 pieces; He only asks you for one piece of the pie back which He gave you. How many pieces are you left with? My answer--nine! She purposefully emphasized the donor of the pie-- God, who gives us all good gifts. This reminds me of how we Episcopalians say in the Wednesday Eucharist after giving our offering, All things come of thee, O God, and of thine own, have we given thee. Fast forward to my graduation night. The Principal rose to award scholarships for college, and before I knew it, as Forrest Gump said, God showed up! My name was called as the recipient of so many scholarships that I truly became embarrassed and felt sorry for my classmates scholarships I had applied for and others that just came out of the blue. God did honor our obedience and willingness to put Him first. That night at home in my bed, I began realizing the wisdom of my mother s strong belief concerning Matthew 6:33. We had put God first, and he had taken care of me. Nine months before, in September, my college education was in jeopardy, and now God had placed my education on a silver platter before me. We had given back to the Lord a portion (the tithe, the tenth), my mother had lived out the example of putting him first through this devastating time of our lives, and sure enough, He came through. As a result, I gladly commuted to college and really did not miss the dorm lift that I had dreamed of earlier. God s gifts to me of a strong Christian mother and father who put their money where their mouths were and my mother s example of living out the scripture before me have had a profound impact on my life. I have tried to the best of my ability to embrace my responsibility to be thankful for and to use my NINE pieces of the pie hopefully for His honor and for the good of others. This is my stewardship. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen. 6 - The Basket - Advent 2018 St. Philip s Episcopal Church - 7
Youth Christian Education: The Psalms Alex Gulden & Michael Cador This semester our christian education class has explored the psalms. The psalms are songs or poems to or about God. They express different emotions. This expression of emotion allows us to be ourselves to God in a personal way. For example, Psalm 137 expresses anger towards God. This means that we are free to voice our angry opinions to God, too. When mess up, poems like Psalm 51 allow us to admit our guilt. Psalms can also be used to express positive emotion. Did you see the amazing solar eclipse in 2017? If you did, you probably felt awe just like us. Psalm 19 is an example of a poem that expresses awe in creation. Psalms use many literary features, like parallelism, acrostic, repetition and metaphor. The most popular psalm is the Psalm 23, which uses metaphor to compare God with a shepherd and us with a sheep. It expresses a lot of emotions, too: comfort, relief, gratitude, and security. In the Episcopal Church, we know that the psalms are important. Our worship book is the Book of Common Prayer, and the psalms are featured on about 40% of the pages. Jesus quotes the Psalms 11 times in the New Testament, more than any other book from the Old Testament. He even quoted Psalm 22 as he was being crucified. Jesus is fully divine and fully human, but he still used the Psalms to express anger to God. As Rachel Held Evans says, The Psalms are, in a sense, God s way of holding space for us. They invite us to rejoice, wrestle, cry, complain, offer thanks, and shout obscenities before our Maker without self-consciousness and without fear. The photos illustrate our work with Psalm 100, a Psalm of Joy. 8 - The Basket - Advent 2018 St. Philip s Episcopal Church - 9
Prayers for the Season First Sunday of Advent Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Third Sunday of Advent Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen. Fourth Sunday of Advent Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Second Sunday of Advent Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. The Nativity of Our Lord: Christmas Day O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit he lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen. 10 - The Basket - Advent 2018 St. Philip s Episcopal Church - 11
Upcoming Events: 1/6 New service times 1/13 Epiphany Taize 1/20 Annual Meeting 1/27 Christian Ed. Resumes 2/3 Soup-er Bowl Party 3/5 Shrove Tuesday