St. James Lutheran Church St. James Lutheran Church 116 Elton Rd. Stewart Manor, NY 11530 Volume 1, Issue 11 Newsletter date: November 1, 2013 Our 2013 Oktoberfest Get Ready to Thanksgive Dear Friends in Christ: Thanksgiving is a gerund without a verb form. Usually a gerund is derived from a verb: taking comes from take. Bombing comes from bomb. In this sense a gerund is a way of converting an act into a thing about which we can speak and upon which we can act. There is no verb form, thanksgive. One of the reasons Thanksgiving has become a pagan holiday of gathering with relatives one cannot unchoose, overeating, watching parades, watching football, and planning shopping adventures is that the missing verb form is reduced to a hastily uttered prayer before we all chow down. Look at it this way. If I invite you the end of November, you will be puzzled as to what kind of event this will be. If, however, I ask you to come to my house for thanksgiving, you have a pretty good idea of the planned activities few of which are related to the missing verb form, thanksgive. This is a distortion. When we thanksgive it is an act. We thanksgive to a particular God who has created us and supplied us with all the sustenance we need. We further thanksgive to that particular God who has dealt with the problem of sin and its misery and its injustice and its unpeace by giving his only Son. We further thanksgive to that particular God for the promise of life in the new creation in which we will be lowed to participate by virtue of Jesus choosing to share his resurrected life with us. When understood properly, thanksgiving points to a way of life in which the Christian does constantly and continually thanksgive to the particular God who has claimed and redeemed us. For the month of November, I encourage you to thanksgive to God every night before drifting off to sleep. You will be surprised how the list grows through the month, and how as we thanksgive, we are transformed. Inside this issue: Stewardship Month 1 SJLCSM Council 2 September Council Highlights 2 SJLCC Council 3 Weekly Activities 3 Fellowship Events 4 Ministry of Education 5
Page 2 St. James Lutheran Church The Council of St. James Lutheran Church of Stewart Manor Council Members: Pat Simons, Steven Kopsick, Phil Blum, Aycia Morell. Maureen Robinson, Christine Blum. Ray Morell Robin Abrahamsen. October Council Highlights The Oktoberfest brought out lots of old friends Summary for the October 10, 2013 Council Meeting By Francesca Santos The new copier is operational and working well, much improving the quality of the church s printouts. The Church s Oktoberfest celebration was a success and Pastor John expressed many thanks towards all who contributed. Food is still being collected for Lutheran Social Services, as are shoeboxes and supplies for Operation Christmas Child. The church will be using a new kyrie for the next few Sunday services. Pastor John will be on vacation the week of Thanksgiving and the first week of February. The LCMC Women s Retreat will be on Saturday, October 26 at 8:30 am at the church. October 26 will be the church s Spaghetti Feast and Halloween party. November 17 will be the Harvest Potluck. December 15 will be the Christmas Carol festival. Fall Cleanup is scheduled for November 2 at 9 am. All are welcome to come by and help out. Please continue to collect shoe boxes and school supplies for this important ministry of Samaritan s Purse which we support.
Volume 1, Issue 11 Page 3 SJLCC Council NAME. Ed Cruz Gary Abrahamsen Ray Morell Kathy Santos Howard Robinson III Rose Mazzamuto Francesca Santos Officers: First Vice President Ray Morell Second Vice President Kathy Santos Financial Rec. Secretary- Rose Mazzamuto Treasurer Stella Gambino Secretary-Fran Santos Karen Concepcion took a fall down the stairs with baby Madeline on Saturday, Oct. 5. They got back from the hospital in time to come to the Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest and Thanksgiving Weekly Activities and Worship News Memorial Added to Sunday Worship Our Wednesday morning Bible Study begins at 9am. We are working our way through the Old Testament. We are up to the Song of Solomon. Pastor would like to start a Prayer group that meets monthly. We support each other on our prayer journeys. The next hiking trip to Harriman or the Catskills will be November 16. On Sunday, October 6, we incorporated a memorial for our brother in Christ, Joe Sellers into our Sunday morning worship. His funeral was out in Riverhead this past Summer, but many who knew him and loved him are here. The family was here as well as guests and neighbors from the Floral Park area where they lived before retirement. The family sponsored fellowship hour that morning.
Page 4 Newsletter Title OUR HARVEST November 17 at 4pm PLEASE SIGN UP TO BRING MORE THAN ONE ITEM IF YOU CAN AND BE SURE TO COME AND ENJOY YOURSELF! PLEASE SIGN UP TO BRING MORE THAN ONE ITEM IF YOU CAN AND BE SURE November 24th
Volume 1, Issue 11 Page 5 November 11th Halloween Fun GHOSTIES AND GHOULIES Italian Food Good Fellowship
Page 6 St. James Lutheran Church Fellowship Events at St. James (Please bring guests) November 17 is our Harvest Potluck. December 15 is Christmas Carol Festival. Below: Dancers from the North of Europe Thanks to Karla McKenzie for running our LCMC Women s Retreat at St. James on Saturday, October 26 th What happens at a Healing Service? On the first Thursday of every month we will have a healing service. It is for those who could use a little healing emotionally, spiritually, physically, or morally. It involves hymns, confession and absolution, prayers, scripture, a sermonette, anointing with olive oil, and the declaration of God s healing. The service is low key and non threatening in that stress does not promote healing. It will begin at 7pm and last a little over a half hour. JSM Our very scary preschool kids
Volume 1, Issue 11 Page 7 Our new crop of Toddlers Thanks to Karla McKenzie for running our LCMC Women s Retreat at St. James on Saturday, October 26 th The Ministry of Education There is a very challenging adult Bible study on Wednesdays at 9am in the office. Try it out. We have have five catechism students, and one transplant from Advent whom Pastor brings along with to St. James on Tuesday afternoons. We have been working on memorizing Martin Luther s Small Catechism. We shifted to a chorale based liturgy in late September. As we move into November, the harvest and thanksgiving themes will emerge.
Participants and staff of the Youth Lock-in in late April. Special thanks to Linnea for organizing it and running the program St James Lutheran Church 116 Elton Rd. Stewart Manor, NY 11530 Phone: 516-352-4099 Pastor: 516-652-5708 E-mail: jshepmckenzie@optonline.net Our new website is STJAMESLUTHERANCHURCH.ORG