Happy Halloween! Halloween or All Hallows Eve is a traditional holy day celebrating the day before All Saints Day. Traditionally, Christians would come together on All Hallows Eve to ask for God's blessing and protection from the evil in the world. The source of the modern celebrations stemmed from the donning of saintly and evil spirit costumes to act out the battle between good and evil. Halloween has become a day to play dress up, eat too much candy, stay up late and in general have a good time. For my children’s sake, I’m content with that. It’s a joy to see them get excited pretending they are super heroes and animals. They prowl, fly, crawl, howl and in so doing imagine they can be anything. Isn’t that what we want for all of God’s children? The chance to be anything they want?
Yet, the origins of Halloween are eerily relevant today. The battle between good and evil rages around us: war, famine, discrimination, violence take aim at peace, love, justice and mercy. And we choose. We choose whom we will serve- good or evil.
In Deuteronomy 30, the Israelites have made it to the edge of the promised land and Moses gives them the choice: “
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God
*
that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous; Choose life.”
Choosing life is more than a quick check of a box or a push of a button. Moses is asking them to turn their lives toward God and choose God every time over anything else. He is saying that every day, we have to follow God’s commandments and walk in God’s ways. We must always choose love over hate; mercy over cruelty; peace over disturbance; justice over injustice. We must always choose God (and good) over evil.
Tonight, I hope you delight in the outfits and costumes. Give generously of your candy and compliments. Remember to be kind and patient as many kids are shy, have an unseen disability or are timid. Take good care with them. Smile. Remember that they too are learning to choose life. They too are learning to love and you get to help form them even by the briefest of encounters. See you Sunday for All Saints’ Day and Stewardship Kick Off. Blessings, Kedron +
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Director of Youth Ministries & Community Engagement
Rachel Minick
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The changing season brings beautiful colors, cooler weather, and a special anniversary for which I am grateful. In November, I will celebrate my third anniversary as a staff member here at St. Paul’s and I am grateful for all of the support and encouragement this community has provided for our youth ministries as well as our family. Each November I challenge myself to reflect on the things I am thankful for and I would like to invite you to join me in the same. Sharing gratitude has many benefits, from improving physical health, enhancing empathy, improving sleep, and enhancing your self-esteem.
I invite you to join me in expressing and sharing gratitude this month.
Join the challenge:
Pick up a Gratitude Every Day calendar from the commons this Sunday and use the prompts to share a reflection to celebrate and Give Thanks as a community.
Join me on social media by following @stpaulswilkesboro on Instagram.
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Stewardship is Here!
Nov. 4-25th
November is harvest time and at St. Paul’s it is time to harvest our gratitude and give back to God. We give of our time, talents and treasure.
Think about the impact this community of faith has on your life and the wider community. Pray about God’s generosity in your life and prayerfully make a pledge that reflects that generosity. Your pledge means we can plan ministry for the next year. Pledge packets available in the Commons Sunday. New to pledging? Want to discuss it? Call Rev. Kedron to talk about how giving is a spiritual practice.
Parish Administrator Update
Our Parish Administrator, Lynne, has decided to step away from St. Paul's. The job was growing and her desire was to cut back. We wish her well as she enters a new phase of life. Please see below for the job posting and share widely. We have a volunteer interim assistant while we perform a careful search for the long-term position.
Job Opportunity
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is in search of a Parish Administrator. This full-time position reports to the Rector and has the primary responsibility of managing the business of the parish including the areas of bookkeeping, office administration, and some communications. As the face of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church with parishioners, vendors, outside groups and newcomers, the Parish Administrator must have excellent interpersonal skills and represent St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in a positive manner. Excellent pay and benefits. For a complete job description or more information, please call Rev. Nicholson at 336-667-4231 or email
office@stpaulwilkesboro.org
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Calling All Artists!
Advent bulletin cover art request— will you draw, paint or design a cover for one of our 4 Advent Sundays? Remember the themes of Advent: waiting, candles, light, Mary, joy, peace, love and Christ! (We need the art in a file we can resize to fit the cover - preferably a JPG.)
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We need your help to make the annual ECW bazaar and bake sale a success!
We seek your help in making our annual ECW bazaar and bake sale a success. This is ECW's only fundraiser and it raises money we use to financially support vital non-profits doing work for displaced children and those with special needs, recovering addicts, impoverished seniors, neighbors in financial crisis, and the like.
Our bazaar and bake sale is
Sunday November 18, 2018, from 830am to 1pm
in the Commons and the adjacent outdoor patio (assuming our parish house is still under renovation). We ask those of you who are crafters, to please consider making crafts and donating them to our bazaar. Whether it's woodworking, art making, ornament making, floral arranging, jewelry making, sewing, knitting, cooking, writing, etcetera, we know folks will enjoy taking home something you have hand crafted. Additionally, we ask all bakers to donate home made sweet or savory fare. Many of our customers use those goodies on Thanksgiving, the following Thursday, and are grateful for one less thing they have to prepare themselves! Finally, we are happy to receive donated "re-gift" items, that is, new or gently used items you have received but have no use for. Let us make them useful to someone else, while simultaneously assisting ECW.
ECW members will collect donations on
Saturday, November 17, 2018, from noon to 3pm
at the choir room entrance on the eastern side of the church building. If needed, we can refrigerate donations in the kitchen adjacent to the teen room, located below the sanctuary. If you prefer, you may drop items off early on the morning of Sunday, November 18, 2018.
Thank you in advance for supporting us! Any questions, please call Anne Hannibal 216 644 1595.
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Congratulations to our silly, wonderfully made, loved Confirmands! You are a gift to our parish and the world. God bless you.
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Acolyte Training
Please join Rev. Kedron for an acolyte training following the
10:30am service on Sunday, November 4th. We will meet in the Sanctuary and light snacks will be provided.
This training is for current acolytes and acolyte hopefuls alike.
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Don't Forget to Set Your Clocks!
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This weekend you can sleep in an extra hour as we "fall back" into standard time. (Unless you have small children, in which case that extra hour of sleep does not apply to you.)
Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 4, which means you'll want to turn your old-school clocks back before you go to bed Saturday night, Nov. 3. The change is automatic for most smartphones, computers, tablets and other digital devices. If you arrive an hour early, start a pot of coffee for the rest of us!
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Sunday, November 4:
8:30am
Holy Eucharist in Chapel
9:30am
Coffee Club - Sunday School for Parents
9:30am
Sunday School - Children & Youth
9:45am
Choir Practice
10:15am
Nursery opens for children under 4
10:30am
Holy Eucharist in the Sanctuary
10:30am
Children’s Chapel meets in Commons
6:00pm
Youth Group meets
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Tuesday, November 6:
7:00pm
Al-Anon in library
Wednesday, November 7:
5:30pm
Healing Service with Eucharist
6:45pm
Choir Practice
7:00pm
Dick Underwood Book Club in library
Thursday, November 8:
11:30am
Crisis Assistance @ Wilkesboro United Methodist Church
12:00noon
Al-Anon meeting in library
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Birthdays:
November 4- Ray Stone
November 4- Eden Burkenbine
November 4- Elijah Burkenbine
November 7- Chuck Forester
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Anniversaries:
None this week.
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Prayer List
Please remember in your prayers:
All those who are ill or unemployed. All those who are on our prayer list.
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Illness
Rik Absher, Jim Andrews, Joe Barber, Wayne Boyd, Jacob Brown, Ken Canter, Billy Coles, Rancene Cook, LaMar Creasman, Ann Davis, Alvin Emmanuel, Ernestine Freas, Gail Gattis, Mike Graf, Ruth Gray, Edward C. Griffith III, Janet Hartzog, Gerald Hendley, Larry Hendley, Margo Hurd, Steve Jackson, John Jacobson, Pat Jones, Joan Knox, Maggie McCann, Kay McCloskey, Susan McManus, Ann McNeill, Donna Moore, Becky Mullins, Bertie Pardue, Curtis Parker, Bob Skees, Ester Small, Carolyn Stephens, Marie Waddell, Robin Walsh, Dick Whittington, and Cole Younger.
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Armed Forces
Let us pray for
the safety of
all our troops
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especially Rob Beauchaine, Matthew Cage, Alex Cline, Philip Cooney, Karl Duerk, Mike Earley, William Grant, Edward C. Griffith IV, Jacob B. Hall, Jonathan Johnson, Brandon Moore, Russ Necessary, Charlie & Lauren Pendry, Adam Pinkerton, Philip Southwell, Mark Stone, Patrick Szvetitz, Jackson Triplett, Levi Walker, Nathan Wyatt, and all others who serve in Iraq, Afghanistan and throughout
the world.
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Readings:
The Liturgy of the Word for November 4, 2018
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Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Moses said: Now this is the commandment--the statutes and the ordinances--that the Lord your God charged me to teach you to observe in the land that you are about to cross into and occupy, so that you and your children and your children's children, may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life, and keep all his decrees and his commandments that I am commanding you, so that your days may be long. Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe them diligently, so that it may go well with you, and so that you may multiply greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Psalm 119:1-8
1 Happy are they whose way is blameless, *
who walk in the law of the Lord!
2 Happy are they who observe his decrees *
and seek him with all their hearts!
3 Who never do any wrong, *
but always walk in his ways.
4 You laid down your commandments, *
that we should fully keep them.
5 Oh, that my ways were made so direct *
that I might keep your statutes!
6 Then I should not be put to shame, *
when I regard all your commandments.
7 I will thank you with an unfeigned heart, *
when I have learned your righteous judgments.
8 I will keep your statutes; *
do not utterly forsake me.
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Hebrews 9:11-14
When Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls, with the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to worship the living God!
Mark 12:28-34
One of the scribes came near and heard the Saducees disputing with one another, and seeing that Jesus answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’ —this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
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November 4
Daylight Savings Time Ends
Chalice Bearer/Lector 8:30:
Anne Hannibal
Usher 8:30:
Glenn Smith
Chalice Bearers 10:30:
Kent Wansley and Misty Hartzog
Lector:
Carl Elledge
Prayers of the People
: Carla Bowers
Oblation Bearers
:
Tony Lyall and Sharon Lyall
Acolyte Leader:
Jackson
Acolytes:
Crucifer 1-Benjamin Searcy
Torch-Carol Canter
Torch-Aaliyah Kilby
Gospel-Bram Koch
Server-Bram Koch
Greeters
: Monty Shaw and Diane Shaw
Communion Bread : Ramona Curtis
Ushers
:
Ray Stone, Chief
Randall Faw
Joe Richardson
Bailey Koch
Altar Guild
Sharon Greene, cpt.
Sharon Lyall
Cynthia Palazzolo
Nursery Attendants:
Morgen Love and Mark Williams
Feed My Sheep Team Leader :
Gwen Temple
336-984-6469
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St. Paul's Episcopal Church | 336-667-4231 | office@stpaulwilkesboro.org | https://stpaulwilkesboro.org
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