LENTEN DISCIPLINES

 

Often as Lent approaches we begin to wonder about what we might give up for Lent. The idea of giving up something during Lent: meat, T.V., candy, watermelon (my father always gave up watermelon for Lent) beer, etc. is quite common as we talk about the discipline we might take on during this penitential season of the church year. We participate in additional religious study programs as well as additional worship services.

 

This Lent, I would like to recommend a book to you entitled, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth. The author, Richard Foster, is a Quaker pastor and he re-examines in a new way some of our older and traditional patterns of Christian spiritual discipline. In his book Foster talks about three movements of the Spirit and how each of these movements can contribute to a balanced spiritual life. Foster speaks of the inward disciplines: meditation, prayer, fasting and study as avenues of personal examination and change. Foster then speaks of the outward disciplines of simplicity, solitude, submission and service as means for us to contribute and enable the world to be a better place for all of God's creatures. Finally, Foster talks about the corporate disciplines of confession, worship, guidance, and celebration as means that bring us closer to one another and with one another to God. This is the only book I have ever found which actually has practical and useful day-to-day advice about how to go about the ancient discipline of fasting. I highly recommend it to all of you as good reading for a spiritual, prayerful, and holy Lenten season.

 

Praying and hoping for all of us a Holy Lent,

 

Canon Kate+

Ash Wednesday (March 6, 2019) Services at Holy Nativity

Please come and join us at Holy Nativity when  our very own Kathy Otani provides special music during our 9:30AM service.  After the service please come and join us for some Lentil Soup and fellowship with the good folks at Holy Nativity. For more information please contact Mrs Chandi of the Happy Kitchen or Fr. Christopher. 

Volunteers needed 

for 

Painting the Rectory Day

 

MISSION POSSIBLE

 

 

Since mid-April 2018 the Holy Nativity Vestry (the governing board of the church) and the Holy Nativity School Board along with the head of school and the priests of the church, have been meeting with a consultant three or four times a month to revisit the church-school relationship. Their purpose has been to renew, refresh and reestablish, thus clarifying our connection and responsibilities and ensuring accountability. Throughout these past nine months we have stayed focused on our stated objective, dubbed "Mission Possible: Developing relationships and structures for improved cooperation and mission accomplishment." We divided our work into three large sections: Mission, Governance and Finance, each with considerable discussion and documentation. We believe the working document, running 50+ pages, achieves our goal.

 

What will happen next? Our school and our parish will hire an attorney to rewrite our Bylaws so that they accurately reflect the decisions documented by the work group. This effort will take several weeks so can expect a roll-out in March or April. Meanwhile, the Search Committee for a new Rector will revise the Parish Profile it had drafted so that it fully reflects the decisions of the work group. When the Profile is complete, the Search Committee can publish it and begin the process of receiving and evaluating candidates for the vacancy.

 

The working document, as well as the Bylaws yet to be written, is very detailed and covers a lot of ground. Therefore, a Communications Committee is developing a summary "White Paper" which should be available to everyone soon. There will also be oral presentations with time allowed for Questions & Answers. Further, the Committee will produce a number of "bite-sized" articles for publication in our church's Banyan Tree and our school's This Week. These articles will be appearing throughout the Spring. Finally, as the Bylaws appear and the Rector's search progresses, the Committee will have the responsibility of keeping you informed.

 

Meanwhile, the members of our School Board and of our Vestry and our clergy and Head of School are steeped in the experience of Mission Possible; any of them will welcome your questions and comments. Their work has been a labor of love and of rededication to a mission of our church and to the children and families of our school.