Welcome New Church Year!!

Advent at St. Augustine's 2017

Greetings!

Happy New Year!

This coming Sunday is the first in the new church calendar. We enter the season of Advent - four Sundays leading up to Christmas.

A word from Fr. Kevin about Advent:

Traditionally during Advent the Four Last Things— Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell—have been the themes for Advent meditations, all through the lens of expectant eyes and a faithful heart waiting for the return of Christ. The characteristic note of Advent is therefore expectation as we watch and wait for our Lord to return. Accordingly, our Advent preaching series will focus on these Four Last Things during the next four Sundays.

The four Sundays of Advent and their preaching themes are as follows:

1st Sunday - December 2nd - Death

2nd Sunday - December 9th - Judgement

3rd Sunday - December 16th - Heaven

4th Sunday - December 23rd - Hell

You may be wondering what these topics have to do with shopping, Santa, and all things secular. Count on our priests to set you straight on the focus of these sacred four weeks before Christmas.

Our Christmas service will be on Monday, December 24th, at 5:30. This is a high holy day in our faith, filled with candlelight, beautiful music, and God's Word. The service is scheduled so that you will have time after for your family gatherings before evening closes.

The service of Lessons and Carols will be on Sunday, December 30th, at 10am. Plan to join us to sing the songs of the season and to hear the story of Christ's birth through scripture.

DTM

Do you want to know more about Advent? Click here for a brief summary in layman's terms.

Help with Faith Mission Needed Saturday!

Faith Mission is this Saturday, December 1st. St. Ann has plenty of servers at this point, but she needs one volunteer Friday night to help prepare the food AND several to bake cookies. If you can do any of the following, please let her know by clicking here .

For more details about this mission, click here .

Poinsettia Orders Due Sunday

Help beautify our worship space for Christmas Eve with the purchase of a poinsettia in honor or memory of a loved one.

The selections are as follows:

6” pot size (4+ blooms) - $9.95

8” pot size (10+ blooms) - $19.75

Place your check made payable to St. Augustine’s in the collection plate no later than Sunday, December 2nd.

We will have order forms available on Sunday. Or, you can click here and print the form to bring on Sunday.

Blessing of the mite boxes in 2014

To strengthen your devotion and focus during your Advent journey, the church is providing two tools:

Each family will receive a mite box for storing monetary donations. Every penny counts! We will send our gifts to the Anglican Relief and Development Fund after Christmas. Plan to bring your filled mite boxes to be blessed on Sunday, December 30th .
The second tool is a booklet of Advent devotions to guide you to think and pray during this Christian journey. The devotions are written by staff and students at Trinity School for Ministry.

Have you purchased your St. Augustine's Christmas ornament yet??

Thanks to a generous offering from the Winklers, the parish is selling custom-designed St. Augustine's 2018 Christmas ornaments to support the building fund. The ornaments are $10.00 apiece . Make checks payable to the church, and designate the building fund in the memo line. Thank you, Winklers for this gift to the future home of St. Augustine's!

This Sunday is BIG! Bring your donations to CHA animal shelter , and Lauren (the Chili Queen!) will take them to the shelter. (Make your checks directly to CHA.) Also, we ask for contributions to the Pastor's Discretionary Fund , which supports those in emergency/difficult financial situations. And, of course, we will say a prayer for those celebrating birthdays and anniversaries in December.

Bakers/Shoppers for Sunday Fellowship Needed

Sharon M. has put out an all-points bulletin for bakers (and grocery shoppers) to provide snakes - I mean - SNACKS for Sunday fellowship. Can you help? Please let her know Sunday and she will sign you up!

Thank you to all who work behind the scenes to make our fellowship time special. There are several men and women making coffee and providing goodies, and they do it quietly, with no expectation of thanks. God bless you all.

Sunday's Music: Giving to the Lord

Tanya Matsuda is a piano teacher and skilled pianist. She and her husband, Ken, also a professional musician, share their talents with St. Augustine’s on a regular basis. With permission from Tanya, I share her thoughts about her gifts to the Lord.

–DTM

Sometimes music glues my life together along with prayer. If I can’t say it in words I can express it with sound. Playing for me, especially in church, is like praying for the people in church helping them to express their own prayers and deepest troubles to God.

A single note, for me, is like putting every feeling I have into one note and pray that God understands me without words. Music keeps me closer to God than anything else. No matter what I’m going through, the music draws out my hope in Christ.

There is almost no separation between me, the music, and Christ’s love I have felt throughout my whole life. Lord, what can I give back to you?

–Tanya