October 31 is Stewardship Sunday, when we dedicate our combined pledges to God’s service. If you have not already returned your pledge card, please bring it with you when you come to worship this Sunday. You can download a pledge card here. If you prefer to make your pledge online, please refer to the instructions for online giving.

Everyone who turned out on a beautiful Sunday afternoon had a wonderful time planting pansies and painting pumpkins on the church grounds. The photos tell the story!

The day we celebrate as Halloween may have grown out of the Druids’ holy day for honoring the dead. It was thought that only a veil separated the living and the dead and that on All Hallows’ Eve the veil was so thin that the souls of the dead could pass through and walk among the living. In Christian tradition, it is the eve before All Saints’ (or Hallows’) Day, when we remember those who have gone before us into death. In addition to its spiritual meaning, in this earthiest section of Windows, we recognize it as the sign that we have left the growing season and put the lawn mower away for the winter. As the mowing season ends, Captain Randy Cook (October 27–30) mows the church lawn for October 31, which is also, aptly, Stewardship Sunday.

Let us thank all the saints of the mowing team, good stewards all:

Linda R. Lamb (pictured) has been involved with handbells since 1992, as director, ringer, and composer. She received a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from Carson-Newman College (now University) with a minor in music, and a Master of Church Music with handbell emphasis from Concordia University Wisconsin. She is the founder and list owner of the Frustrated Friends of Finale (FFF), a mailing list for users of the computer music program who mostly compose and arrange for handbells. She has numerous handbell publications to her credit. Of her handbell arrangement of BEACH SPRING (our prelude) she writes, “The need for six-ringer music outside the standard twelve-bell arrangements rose from a need in my own church choir.” It is a perfect match for our six intrepid ringers today!

William Faulkes (1863–1933) was a native of Liverpool, where he spent most of his working life. His first appointment as church organist was at St. John the Baptist Tuebrook (1881–86). He returned to St. Margaret’s Anfield as organist in 1886 and remained in that post until his death. Faulkes published more than 500 organ works, for which he is best known. Such was his reputation that before and after the Great War he journeyed several times to Germany to record player rolls for the Welte Company. These rolls survive in the Seewen Museum of Music Automatons in Switzerland, and some have been recorded on CD. Faulkes dedicated his “Festival Prelude on Ein’ Feste Burg” (our postlude) to “my friend Edwin H. Lemare.” Known for his many organ transcriptions of orchestral works, Lemare had an even greater following all over the world.

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