Illuminated manuscript, 1185 , Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Reverend David Boase, Celebrant

November 13

Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost

+The Holy Eucharist+

Rite I 8 a.m. | Rite II 10 a.m.

Masks are optional.

8:30 - 11:30 a.m. - child care in the nursery.

8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite One

9:00 a.m. - Choir Rehearsal | Confirmation/Reception Class

9:15 - Adults - Morning Prayer & conversation in Pearson Hall

10:00 a.m. - Church School, Lower Level

10 a.m. service in person & streamed via Facebook Live.

Coffee hour following the service

Sunday Readings

• Malachi 4:1-2a
• Psalm 98
• 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
• Luke 21:5-19

Make an Offering or Submit Your Pledge!



• Offering: standrews-edwardsville.com/stewardship/

• Mail: Send your offering/check to St. Andrew's Treasurer, 406 Hillsboro Avenue, Edwardsville 62025.

Link: 2023 online pledge form.

The Week of November 13

• Monday through Friday - Daily 8 a.m. morning prayer and 5:30 p.m. evening prayer in the chapel.
• Friday - 7 a.m., AA Meeting in Pearson Hall.
• Sunday, November 20, Vestry Meeting following 10 a.m. service

Looking Ahead

• November 24, Thanksgiving Day
• November 27, First Sunday in Advent
• November 30, Feast of Saint Andrew
• December 11, Children's Christmas Concert

Thanks to all who have returned pledge cards. Your commitment will help the Vestry prepare a budget for presentation at the 2023 Annual Meeting (which, amazingly, is only about ten weeks away). Anyone who has not yet returned a pledge card is invited to do so either electronically, on the Parish website, or by placing the card in the collection plate in the Narthex.

The Vestry will meet next Sunday after the 10:00 o'clock service.

Kevin Babb, Senior Warden

Thanksgiving Baskets for the Needy

St. Andrew's in the past has participated in Faith Coalition's annual drive to provide Thanksgiving baskets to needy families served by the Glen-Ed Pantry. This year, donations for baskets should be made directly to the Pantry. The actual cost of items for a basket is not firm yet but donations of at least $35 or more are suggested.

Most donors are encouraged to send their check by November 18 in an envelope addressed to the Glen-Ed Pantry at 125 5th Avenue, Edwardsville, Illinois 62025. Alternatively, checks may be placed in a collection envelope on the church office desk marked "Thanksgiving Baskets."

Gifts of any amount are always needed to help the Pantry provide certain food items. An online Paypal option is now available for gifts other than the baskets. The link is at glenedpantry.org/donors.

If you have questions about donating to the Pantry, contact parisioner Nancy Dickens, who is on the Pantry's board. Her email is nmdgeo70@gmail.com.

St. Andrew’s Carillon Returns to Service

Albert and Vi Wallace joined St. Andrew’s in 1940. After Albert’s death, Vi remained a member until her death in 2003.

The following year Nancy Wallace Schneider and Allan Jay Wallace donated a solid-state digital carillon to St. Andrew’s in memory of their parents.

For years, the Angelus rang out and hymns were played from St. Andrew’s bell tower. When the carillon fell silent and was in need of repair, Building and Grounds Committee Chair Sue Buckley provided funds to purchase the necessary parts, and Parish Warden Carl Slaughter climbed into the bell tower to install them. Parishioners began hearing familiar hymns at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, October 16.

The carillon rings out Monday through Friday at 8 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. and plays four hymns each Sunday beginning at 11:30 a.m. The next time you are at Coffee Hour, be sure to listen for St. Andrew’s beautiful carillon.

Our thanks go to the Wallace family for their gift and to Sue Buckley and Carl Slaughter for bringing it back into service.

Charlie's Lunch Bunch:

A St. Andrew's Tradition

Many current parishioners have never met a special member of our congregation -- Charles Schweizer. Charles (or Charlie) and his wife, Eleanor, were very active parishioners for many years. Eleanor died in 2011 and Charles in 2013, a few days before his 100th birthday.

Among his many community and church involvements, Charles was interested in bringing people together for social discourse (no politics), whether they were new or veteran members of the congregation. He decided a weekday lunch gathering was a good vehicle for this and started promoting lunch bunch sometime between 1990 and 1993. Alfonso's was the chosen place to dine, first in Maryville and later in Troy. Other than a 1.5-year break during the pandemic, 12 or more parishioners and friends have gathered monthly for lunch and conversation for nearly 30 years! (Occasionally, the group has grown to 22.)

Ken Kelley has been the "point person" for CLB since the spring of 2013 and is owed many thanks for his faithfulness in keeping the group alive. Charles would be delighted! Ken is stepping down due to his caregiver responsibilities but hopes to attend when he can.

Marty Cavanaugh is the new contact person for those who have questions and monthly notices to those interested will continue to be sent via Constant Contact, the parish email software. If you are not on the CLB email list, send a note to info@standrews-edwardsville.com.

"God and Dogs"

by Jim Weingartner



“God and Dogs” is the title of a sermon preached by Fr. Steve Weissman, St. Andrew’s rector from 1975 to 1990. It could only have been written by someone who empathized with dogs. One parishioner remembered that a “big, mean dog” kept Weissman company while he was in his office. “As a result,” the parishioner recalled, “people who came to the church for a handout thought twice about it.” Dogs in Fr. Weissman’s sermon had a deeper although perhaps not unrelated significance.

This was the second sermon he had preached on the subject of God and dogs. He explains that the earlier sermon “compared the relationship between dogs and people with the relationship between people and God. Dogs cannot understand our thoughts [not all parishioners agreed] but dogs do love and serve us and we, for our part, benefit dogs in ways similar to the ways God benefits us. Just as dogs cannot understand us, but still trust us and even worship us, so we cannot understand God, but still trust and worship God.”

Fr. Weissman continues that he had searched the Bible for references to dogs, but could only find “contemptuous ones about dogs licking up Jezebel’s blood and the like. Jews preferred sheep every time.” Weissman does not.



In Eden before the fall, Fr. Weissman argues in the second sermon, all was well in regard to human relationships with animals including, of course, with dogs. “Each subordinate being obeyed the superior being, and each superior being was responsible towards the subordinates. That is to say, in Eden there are no bad dogs and no bad masters either.”

Original Sin, Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God’s command not to eat Eden’s forbidden fruit, destroyed those relationships: “…then all creation is disconnected from us. The animals no longer come when they are called….because mankind failed in obedience. As fallen beings, we no longer occupy the relationship of trust that the act of obedience presupposes. As we disbelieve God and violate his command, so we become no longer trustworthy and we lose our authority over other creatures. Fear appears, and vulnerability. We know we are naked and the animals know we are dangerous.”

As a consequence, the relationship between dog and master degenerates. Masters can be “indecisive and manipulative” or “cruel and arbitrary.” Dogs can cower, become nuisances and sometime a threat. They can bite.

But, says Weissman, “Redemption is possible.” This is accomplished through training which, if properly pursued, results in the dog’s recognizing its master’s dominion and developing faith in her/him. So, too, must the trainer develop faith in the dog, as in the case of a guide dog to which the trainer entrusts her/his life.

“To apply the analogy to God, I am wondering to what extent it makes sense to say that God, like a trainer, comes to have faith in human beings. God did have faith in Adam to keep Eden. God does have faith in the Second Adam, Christ. Maybe God has faith also in us…. With that kind of faith…, what can we do but entrust ourselves to him who calls us by name?”

It’s an interesting sermon and even a bit disturbing, isn’t it? It seems implicitly anti-sheep, the favored metaphorical critters in Christianity to which Christians are traditionally likened. I suspect it provoked some challenging questions for Fr. Weissman, probably much to his delight!

[Note: The photo above of Fr. Weissman was taken by Walter Bohn during a recent visit in Asheville, North Carolina.]