Sunday, December 16, Third Sunday of Advent
The Holy Eucharist, 8 a.m., Rite I
The Holy Eucharist, 10 a.m. Rite II
Fr. Morsch will officiate at both services.
Church School and Pageant rehearsal, 10 a.m.
Childcare begins 9:45 a.m.
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Worship Notes
The Collect:
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we are sorely hindered by our sins, let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory, now and for ever. A
men.
This week’s lessons: Zephaniah 3:14-20; Canticle 9; Philippians 4:4-7; Luke 3:7-18
The Epistle:
“Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” Philippians 4:4
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The Gospel | Luke 3:7-18
John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown into the fire."
And the crowds asked him, "What then should we do?" In reply he said to them, "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise." Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, "Teacher, what should we do?" He said to them, "Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you." Soldiers also asked him, "And we, what should we do?" He said to them, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.
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The Week of December 16
- Monday, 6:30 p.m., Girl Scout Troop 816
- Monday, no December Book Group
- Monday, 7 p.m., Mission Leadership Team
- Tuesday, 10 a.m., Julian of Norwich Prayer Group
- Wednesday, 8 a.m., The Holy Eucharist, Rite II
Advent, Christmas Eve and Epiphany Services
- Sunday, December 23, Advent 4, Holy Eucharist at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., Children's Christmas Pageant follows 10 a.m. service
- Christmas Eve, December 24, Holy Eucharist with Children's Homily at 4 p.m. and Solemn High Mass of Christmas at 10 p.m., preceded by Carol Sing at 9:30 p.m.
- The Feast of the Epiphany, Sunday, January 6, Holy Eucharist at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.
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St. Andrew's welcomes
Fr. Joel and
Barbara to our parish family!
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A Note from Fr. David Boase
My dear friends at St. Andrew's,
I am grateful for this opportunity to write a few short words of thanks to you. For your welcome. For your smiles. For your indulgent giggles at my bad jokes. For your comments on my attempted sermons. I thank you. For your quiet in approaching the wonder of Mass. For your joy during Mass. For your appreciation in wonder at the heavenly music of both Organist and Choir and other musicians. I thank you. For your devoted Churchwardens, Vestry, Altar Guild, Sanctuary Party and the children and their teachers. I thank you. For your hugs and handshakes and kisses and letters of support, and your financial support in this, my time of trial. I thank you.
My Patron Saint is St. Andrew. I have served in churches dedicated in the name of Andrew in Penrith and Greystoke (both in the U.K.) in Gothenburg, Sweden and now as supply priest in St. Andrew's Edwardsville. My son is named Andrew. St. Andrew is regarded as primary among the mission-minded saints in the Church's Calendar. Something of a pattern emerging here ....
Last Sunday, Advent 2, among other things, I spoke about God calling people. Fr. Joel has been called to be your next Rector. I rejoice with you, to welcome him this coming Sunday and hope that Barbara will join us soon.
I am sure I should write more. Please forgive me for any omissions. Thank you, my Family.
David
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Visit the New Parish Website!
On Monday, December 10, the new parish website at standrews-edwardsville.com went live. Last August, the Mission Leadership Team approved a contract with Membership Vision (MV) of Ventura, California and Marian Smithson began working with Lisa Brown of MV in September. Three months later, our new site is online!
At first look, the site offers four "slides" for Christmas, Welcome, Worship, and Get Involved but the menu choices across the top also offer Events and Connect. All of these options provide sub-menus to take the viewer deeper into the site. At the bottom of the Welcome page, recent Facebook postings, the parish calendar, and an option to send the parish a message appear. Messages sent from the website message option are forwarded to info@standrews-edwardsville.com, which is monitored by Marian.
Timely posts appear at the bottom of Welcome and other pages (e.g. Angel Tree, Christmas Offering Form, Scarf Project). These are created by Marian and will change regularly to reflect what is happening at St. Andrew's.
At present, the ministry descriptions indicate who leads each ministry but contact information isn't provided. In January, MV will create generic email addresses for each ministry from information Marian provides so that personal email addresses are not exposed online. For example, the Mission Leadership Team text will have seniorwarden@standrews-edwardsville.com as the email address for the Senior Warden. Mail sent to that address will be forwarded to the individual serving as Senior Warden.
Links to the weekly parish newsletter are online under Connect and the parish calendar will be regularly updated, based on information provided to the office or to Marian. In January or February, MV will install a link to online giving software so that payments to St. Andrew's can be made on the web. This option will be particularly helpful for one-time transactions such as memorial gifts or ticket purchases.
Marian indicates the MV software is well-designed and she is very comfortable working with it so maintenance will not be a problem. Based on comments at last Tuesday's Lunch Bunch gathering and a few messages sent to the website by non-parishioners, the site has been well received and will serve St. Andrew's well!
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Cranmer, Gaston and Mudge
No, it’s not a law firm that Brian, Kevin, or Riley might know. The title refers to Thomas Cranmer, 16
th
century English religious reformer and author of the first two editions of
The Book of Common Prayer
, Paul Gaston, former St. Andrew’s parishioner and deacon (see last week’s newsletter), and Louise Mudge, a formidable dowager of our congregation who was notoriously uninhibited in her criticisms.
The three came together in 1971, when Gaston was asked by then rector Michael Pullin to speak on the
Services for Trial Use
, a series of revisions to the 1928
Book of Common Prayer
that had been proposed by the Standing Liturgical Commission to the 1967 General Convention. But I’ll let Paul tell the rest of the story:
- “On that occasion, I offered the opinion that Thomas Cranmer would have approved of the more contemporary language of our revised liturgy. His elegant 16th century prose, which we still cherish and largely preserve in our Rite I, was in his day an attempt to make the liturgy accessible to all the people. Afterwards, during coffee hour, Mrs. Mudge reminded me that Thomas Cranmer had never been a member of St. Andrew’s. She was a member of St. Andrew’s, however, and she did not like the new liturgy!”
The new liturgy survives (in the 1979 BCP), and Louise Mudge does not. But I’m having fun imagining her reaction to “Mission Leadership Team” and “Incorporated Eucharistic Community!” -Jim Weingartner
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St. Andrew's Elves Deliver Gifts to Area Families!
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St. Andrew's elves were very busy sorting, wrapping and delivering gifts to eight families this year. All gifts were received at church in time for delivery.
Thanks to everyone for your support as you have made Christmas for many families a little merrier this year. The Outreach Com-mittee was able to add cards from Schnucks, Target, Walmart and gasoline stations for each family.
The elves who helped this year are Mary Bohn, Pat Hulme, JoAnn Nabe, Pat Rudloff, Velma Schmidt, Fredna Scroggins, Meg Solon, Kay Werner, and Lavernn Wilson.
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Christmas offerings:
Please return your Christmas Offering form and gift to St. Andrew's by this coming Sunday, December 16, if you wish to have it listed in the Christmas Eve bulletin. The Christmas Offering form is available
here
and can be placed in the collection plate.
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The St. Andrew's Week-End Updat
e
, a weekly emailed newsletter, is designed to keep parishioners up to date on church activities. Please send news items to Editors Marianne Cavanaugh and Jane Weingartner by 11 a.m. on Tuesday to have them appear in the following Friday's newsletter.
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Behold
, I bring you good tidings of great joy.
Luke 2:10
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