Christmas Offerings and Outreach
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During the Christmas season, we ask our parish households to contribute to the open plate offering and the special Christmas collection. Our outreach budget is entirely funded at present by the seasonal offerings at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Please remember that every dollar you contribute helps provide grants to agencies requesting our support, and be as generous as possible. Your gift will make a difference for these organizations, and help us to sustain the level of giving we have attained in the past.
Your
Jesse Tree
donations are gifts of hope and joy for families supported by Connections for the Homeless in Evanston and students at Holy Family School in Chicago.
Please be sure to return your wrapped and tagged gift to the parlor by December 11th.
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by Marc Franson, Canvass and Stewardship Chair
We all know that Christmas is the time of giving. Don't forget about Holy Comforter in your giving plans!
Here are some reminders and helpful hints to consider for your gift giving. As Christmas approaches and we become enthralled in the season of giving, as we remember the ultimate gift, the gift of our Lord to us, let us also remember to give -- to each other, to those less fortunate, and to sustain, nurture and grow our community, the church of Christ.
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For centuries, people of faith have decorated their local parish churches for holiday seasons with festive flowers and greens. If you would like to help beautify Holy Comforter for Christmas this year through donations supporting Christmas greens and flowers, please send a check to the church, payable to the parish, with a note in the memo section for "Christmas flowers." Please also indicate in a note if you are giving the flowers in memory or honor of someone. We need to receive donations by Friday, December 18, in order to get dedications in the Christmas bulletins.
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Cocoa and Carols
Sunday, December 20th
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By now, surely all are aware of one of our most festive and joyous celebrations at Holy Comforter: the annual Christmas Carol sing-a-long on the 4
th
Sunday of Advent during the formation hour. On December 20, gather with friends and family in the Great Room for a lively, spirited, even raucous time, and raise your voice in merriment and revelry!
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On the First Sunday of Christmas, December 27, we will celebrate the Eucharist at 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. only. Please make a note of this change in times for the later services.
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by Chris Hardman
As we move toward our celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, we begin anew realizing that God is love: creating, sustaining, and uniting. We see that all around us, although we do have to look. One place to look is Humboldt Park where the Franciscans of the Eucharist are at work every day. On December 6th we will welcome one of those Franciscans, Sister Alicia. She will tell us about the Franciscans in general, but, more specifically, about their work in a very diverse neighborhood. On December 13th we will take some time to discuss more deeply the Franciscans and what they believe, as well as the Buddhist understanding of the Tao. We hope to begin to find "common ground" with both groups. Perhaps, Dr. McIntosh's understanding of God will help. On the 20th we will hold our ever-popular "Cocoa and Carols" as we prepare for our Christmas Celebration.
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It is with sorrow that we make note of the death on November 8, of Evelyn Pesely, the mother of Susan Rex, at the age of 89. Please keep Susan, Deacon Sandy, and their family in your hearts, and offer a prayer for the soul of Mrs. Pesely. May God envelop Evelyn in peace, strength, and joy.
Our hearts and prayers go out to Cathy and Bob Pratt and their family on the death of her father, Dr. Camak Baker. Dr. Baker was 85, and, in Cathy's words, lived a wonderful, full life. May God welcome Camak into his new home in the holy realm of God, and shower him with light, comfort, and peace.
We also offer our prayers and condolences to Bill, Stephanie, and Jill Sick on the death of Bill's brother Bob in September in California. May God shine light perpetual upon Bob and comfort him with new and eternal life.
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t was with deep sorrow that we received news of the death last Monday afternoon, November 23, of long-time parishioner Bob Dau, near Petoskey, Michigan. Bob was 84, and had relocated to Michigan following health issues earlier this year. His funeral is tentatively scheduled for the afternoon of Saturday, December 12, here at Holy Comforter, with a reception to follow. When the time for the service is established it will be communicated to the parish. Our hearts and prayers go out to Bob's daughter, Fernanda Fisher, and her family, as well as his extended stepfamily. May light perpetual shine upon him, and may Bob know new life and peace in the heavenly realms.
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by The Rev. Dr. Jason L. Parkin, Rector
Advent and Christmas are not the same thing, despite what our popular culture tells us.
Christmas is about the Birth, the Child, the Different Thing God does in our world in the Incarnation.
Advent is about getting ready for that Different Thing; about preparing our hearts and our homes, our souls and our spirits for the stunning, shocking in-breaking of God into our lives. This season we began on November 29 is about slowing down, listening, leaning into God's future, allowing God's breath to fill our lungs.
Advent also reminds us that we are not passive spectators to the marvel of the Incarnation: we are active participants in the Word made flesh, called, during this holy and pregnant season, to "further heaven's hopes and summon God's glory" in whatever ways we can. It is a vocation for which we are all completely unsuited. Being handmaids to the birth of the Holy One is too much to ask of us feeble, frail, faulty people. And God asks us, anyway: to proclaim peace; to live with compassion and charity; to reach out in care and humility; to manifest the manifestation of divine grace and self-offering.
This Advent, pause. Breathe. Listen for God's presence with your heart and your soul and even your ears. Help further heaven's hopes. Become more and more part of the Different Thing: divine love made flesh in a world profoundly hungry for that love.
Lucy Shaw poem here...
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Center for Trinitarian Spirituality:
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by Chris Hardman
I have added a couple of my favorite books on "Science and Religion" to our new library this month-
Radical Amazement
by Judy Cannato and The
Unbearable Wholeness of Being
by Ilia Delio.
Judy Cannato, a Roman Catholic Spiritual Director from Ohio, has done more to popularize the link between science and religion than anyone I know. Her book Radical Amazement is just that, an amazing book that talks about amazing things in amazing ways. The subtitle is telling: Contemplative Lessons from Black Holes, Supernovas and Other Wonders of the Universe. She not only sets the context for the writing of this book, she does so with such enthusiasm that the book "comes alive" and you see why nature is indeed the "hiding place" of God. Unfortunately, Judy died of a rare form of cancer in 2011 at age 62. So, we only have a few books from her. This is my favorite.
The other equally amazing book that brings science and religion together is Ilia Delio's
The Unbearable Wholeness of Being
. Ilia Delio is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC and an American theologian specializing in the area of science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics and neuroscience and the import of these for theology. Taking the work of Bonaventure, John Dun Scotus, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, and Thomas Aquinas she weaves a compelling story about how God who is Love creates a world of love. While some background in theology and science is helpful in reading this book, she writes so well and so compellingly that you cannot stop reading. In this book she explains some of the church's storied history with scientific discoveries, but moves on to the present where a veritable explosion of connection between science and religion is taking place.
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by The Rev. Dr. Jason L. Parkin
Last Chance to be a Founding Member of the Society of the Dove!
Please remember that December 31 is the last day to become a founding member of our planned giving group, the Society of the Dove.
Imagine giving a gift that lasts not for a day or a season or a year but for over 100 years. Imagine giving a gift that lasts forever, not out of pride or to perpetuate our own name or for own glory, but for something larger: to sustain the ministry and mission of a place we have loved and that has nurtured us; to offer to generations yet to come a spiritual home that will provide sustenance for the difficulties of life, and a place to celebrate the joys of life; to support outreach and fellowship and pastoral care and worship of God for years to come.
If Holy Comforter has been a place of joy, comfort, or growth for you, please help us insure that this Church will be able to provide the same nourishment and community for others decades after we are all gone from this holy place. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss any questions.
On behalf of the Vestry and the Planned Giving Committee, thank you for your thoughtful consideration and for your dedication to, and love of, Holy Comforter.
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"Behold, I am Making All Things New"
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by Pastor Heath Howe, Family Ministries
"Advent is not a time to declare, but to listen, to listen to whatever God might want to tell us through the singing of the stars, the quickening of a baby, the gallantry of a dying man."
Madeleine L'Engle
I absolutely love this quote by Madeleine L'Engle. I return to  every Advent. Reading it has become as much a part of my Advent and Christmas preparations as is the adorning of the tree and the lighting of the Advent wreath. Each year these words remind me to not make assumptions, especially when it comes to God. Advent is a time of preparation for sure. As we prepare our homes for Christmas Day, we are also preparing our hearts for the birth of our Lord within us, our community, and our larger world. This quote, however, reminds us that Advent calls us to listen. We cannot truly listen if our minds and hearts are full of assumptions. Assumptions about what the season is about, what God is about.
Read more here...
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by Mary Johnson, Director of Children's Ministries & All Things Bright & Beautiful
It is a little hard to miss that this blessed occasion that we call Christmas is on the way. Everywhere you go there are what some would call the signs of the season. From brightly decorated trees to glittery decorations lining streets and malls and airports - the "signs" are everywhere. I know that for this year, one sign of the season is not a red coffee cup offered by a national chain. More profound is lack of any sign of Love, the Lord, in the horrific and senseless acts of violence around the world. So, where to look? I will look right here: in my family and in the loving community of Holy Comforter this Christmas to find the signs of the season. Read more here...
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by Charlotte Long, Youth Ministries
When I was in 7
th
grade, my Sunday School teacher Susan Rex (wife of our very own Sandy Rex) came into our room all excited and showed us a short movie describing an organization called Heifer Project International. We learned that HPI is a non-profit charity dedicated to empowering communities worldwide and trying to address the problems of global hunger, while respecting the communities' natural rhythms, cultures and traditions. For HPI, this means not donating money or food, but
livestock
(animals) and seeds, workshops and classes. A family in need, in Cambodia, Ukraine, Rwanda, Peru or Vietnam, receives a living animal that can benefit for the rest of its life: a goat, a cow, a chicken, fish, a guinea pig.
Read more here...
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by Derek E. Nickels, DMA, Director of Music
One of the Rituals and Traditions of our journey of faith is our Annual Service of Lessons and Carols for Advent, which will be on Sunday, December 6th at 5:00 p.m. This service, with its readings from Genesis, Isaiah, Luke, Matthew, and Mark illuminates the proclamation of the Christ's birth and helps set the tone of the short season of Advent and joyous season of Christmas. Each of the readings will be followed by music by Ireland, Brahms, Nickels, Rickards, Willcocks, Manz, and hymns of the Advent Season. Like last year, our Youth Choir will join the Adult Choir in this beautiful service of music and readings.
Read more here...
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