E-pistle December 1st, 2022

A Message from Libby

I’m writing this on Tuesday evening after having cleared out another 50 or so e-

mails related to “Giving Tuesday.” It’s a great concept, but the number of e-mails is

annoying. For this year’s Stewardship Season (St. Paul’s version of “Giving Tuesday”),

we sent a letter from Stewardship Chair Martha Bodine and have put reminders in

several editions of the E-pistle and our Sunday leaflet insert. Those are meant to

express gratitude and hope and to inspire, rather than badger and annoy.

Truth is, this congregation can’t function without your financial support. Yes, we

were blessed by our ancestors with an endowment fund, but our primary source of

operating revenue comes from present-day parishioners like you. If you haven’t made a

financial commitment yet, let “Giving Tuesday” be a reminder to place your church high

on the list of organizations and causes you support. “All things come from you, O God,

and of your own have we given you.” We speak that verse of scripture as the offering is

presented at every 8 a.m. worship service here. Let those words sink in and respond by

placing your pledge card in the offering plate this week or mailing it to the church. We

can move forward confidently when all of us join together.

In this newsletter, you’ll see other ways to give: purchasing a gift for a local

family in need, giving food or donating money for the Lee Food Pantry, giving money for

poinsettias to adorn our altar area at Christmas, or offering to help pay for extra

musicians on Christmas Eve. You might also consider giving your time to attend Sunday

or Wednesday worship, participate in Tuesday Bible Study, attend one of the upcoming

concerts, or pray regularly using our Parish Prayer List.

As we watch and wait for the coming of Christ, may we be God’s generous and

faithful people.

Sunday Worship Services

This Sunday, December 1st, worship is at 8:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.

Collect for the Second Sunday of Advent

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

Advent Wreath Prayer – Prepare

The Word of John: I am the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord.”  (John 1:23). O God of John, in this season of holy preparation, begin your road work in us.  Raise the valleys of our guilt.  Lower the mountains of our pride.  Prepare in us a royal highway, straight and level, leading to the Babe at Bethlehem and beyond.  Amen.

Scripture Readings for the Second Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 11:1-10; Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19; Romans 15:4-13; Matthew 3:1-12

Sunday Worship Teams (If you exchange slots with someone, please notify the Church Office as soon as possible.)

Sunday, December 4 (8 & 10 a.m.)

Celebrant (8 a.m.) – The Rev. Libby Wade

Celebrant (10 a.m.) – The Rev. Jane Tillman

Preacher (8 & 10 a.m.) – The Rev. Libby Wade

Reader/Intercessor (8 a.m.) – Rob Maloney

Reader/Intercessor (10 a.m.) – Darryl Lafferty

Usher/Greeter (10 a.m.) – Natalie Boyce

Lemonade Host (10 a.m.) – Ginny Willcox

Sunday, December 11 (9 a.m. ONLY)

Celebrant/Preacher – The Rev. Libby Wade

Reader/Intercessor – Diana French

Usher/Greeter – Jorja Marsden

Lemonade Host – Diane Dillon

Parish Prayer List

• People we pray for on Sundays: Bruce, Charles, Irby, David, Nick, Melissa, Ginger, Joan, Duncan, Mary, Bernadette, and Linda
• Long-term prayer list:  Piers, Katrina, Rich, Karen, Michael, Tom, Khali, George, Doug, George, David, Barbara, Christy, John, and Florence
• Our partners at Grace Church, Great Barrington, and their priest Tina; Christ Trinity Episcopal-Lutheran Church, Sheffield, and their priest Erik; 
• Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury; Michael, our Presiding Bishop; Doug, our Diocesan Bishop; Libby, our Interim Priest; and Jane, our Priest Associate; and all faithful lay ministers 
• Peter Wright, as he celebrates his birthday this week and for all celebrating birthdays or anniversaries.  
• Outreach Ministry of the Week:  Lee Food Pantry
• The Austen Riggs community and the Riverbrook residents and staff.
• Diocesan Cycle of Prayer:  St. Mark’s, Worcester
• Anglican Cycle of Prayer:  The Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East.  
• We pray for our legislative and judicial institutions and for local government, that they may use the plentiful resources they steward to care for the people of the world.
• We pray for victims of war, violence, abuse, persecution, terrorism, and disaster at home and abroad; especially remembering those impacted by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.  
• Our altar flowers this week are given by Bernadette Brusco in memory of those who have died with AIDS and in thanksgiving for their caregivers.  

Stewardship Season – Encouraging Progress

Thank you to the 21 individuals or households who have returned pledge cards for 2023.  As of November 28, the total pledged is $81,095.  That’s roughly 60% of what our treasurer estimates will be needed to support a 2023 budget with a full-time priest as Rector for half the year.  The good news is that 5 of the pledges received to date are new and 11 are increases over the previous year.  That’s a very positive development.  However, we need everyone to make a commitment in order to reach our goal.  Please mail your pledge card to St. Paul’s or put it in the offering plate on Sunday.  Let’s keep the momentum going!  

Advent: I am Enough, and Together We are More than Enough

Just as much as the Advent season reminds us to be vigilant to the subtle signs of Christ’s light as we once again anticipate and revel in the remarkability of Christ’s birth and his return in the Second Coming, Advent is also about preparation for impactful giving – giving back to ourselves as well as to our communities.  It’s about recognizing where there is potential for energy renewal and restoration in our lives, in a world where we are often asked to operate on overdrive.  Renewal and sustainability go hand in hand; to use our giving-energy sustainably means employing our awareness to our fullness as individuals first.  In doing so, we can identify our actual capacities to give. 

The Stewardship theme for this year is more than enough.  It is difficult in today’s world to look for evidence of renewal and rebirth among very real threats of scarcity, depletion, and other forms of not enough-ness.  For many of us, it can be especially hard to find enough-ness within our own bodies.  The Advent season provides a context for this search because even in the darkest of hours, hopefulness for the future can be cultivated and energized anew when we pay close attention to our needs and the needs of our community.

We are all exhausted and overwhelmed by the unprecedented circumstances created by the COVID pandemic.  But I am constantly and lovingly reminded by one of my dearest friends that our boundaries are bountiful.  To give more than what we have, to exist in a state of depletion, does not yield a sense of more than enough.  The miracle, however, is that if each of us can identify and act upon the bounds and limitations of how much we can give, we can show up better for ourselves and those around us, authentically and less harmfully.  If we give from a place of our embodied fullness, we are honoring our full humanity.  We can then sustainably grow our capacity to give back to ourselves, as well as our communities and the land that we occupy.

This is what sustainable stewardship means to me: Giving from a place of our personal definition of plenty.  Whatever that plentifulness may look like from person to person, is bountiful.  And in this way, together we can be more than enough to do the collective healing work that needs to be done.  

(Elise Mills, The Episcopal Network for Stewardship staff member)

Giving for Christmas

St. Paul’s is providing Christmas gifts to benefit a local family.  This year our adoptive family has one child, a 3-year-old girl.  There will be a sign-up sheet on an orange clipboard at the back of the church this Sunday with a list of the family’s needs.  If you would like to help, but are unable to go shopping, please email Matt Fillio, who is happy to be your personal shopper.  Checks should be made out to St. Paul’s Discretionary Fund, with “Local Family Christmas” in the memo.  Please place your unwrapped items in the pews beside the pulpit.  All gifts must be dropped off at the church by December 12.  Gifts will be delivered to the local sponsoring organization in time for Christmas giving.  We hope you’ll take part in this project as we offer support and love to our neighbors.  Please call or e-mail Matt Fillio with any questions (413-822-3759, mcfillio@yahoo.com) 

Christmas Flowers

We invite you to contribute towards alter flowers for Christmas. If you are interested in giving, please fill out the yellow form in your service leaflet insert and place in the offering plate, mail to PO Box 704, Stockbridge MA 0126, or email the information to stpaulsstockbridge@gmail.com by Monday, December 19th, 2022.

Edward Hicks, "Peaceable Kingdom," Isaiah 11:1-10

Advent Bible Study

Tuesdays 7-8 p.m. on Zoom

December 6, 13, 20  

 Isaiah 11:1-10, Isaiah 35:1-10, Isaiah 7:10-16



The Rev. Libby Wade, St. Paul's Interim Priest, will lead folks from the three South County Episcopal/Lutheran churches in a study of the wonderfully evocative Isaiah passages from our Advent Sunday Lectionary.  Invite friends to join us. 

For Zoom link:

Click Here

Meeting ID: 177 160 858

Passcode: 917937

Or call:646 558 8656,

(New York)

Crescendo Chorus and Berkshire Brass with a Light Show

St Paul's, Saturday, December 10, 6:00 PM

The award-winning music organization Crescendo in collaboration with Berkshire Brass

will present a holiday concert with Renaissance and Baroque music on December 10 in

Stockbridge. From delicately soft and soothing angelic melodies to powerful and

dramatic echo choirs, this program is all about music on which some of today’s beloved

Christmas carols are based. Performers include the Crescendo Chorus with solo soprano Jordan Rose Lee, as well as the Berkshire Brass with Peter Bellino and Brian Kanner, trumpets, and David Wampler and William Carr, trombones. Crescendo’s Founding Artistic Director Christine Gevert will conduct from the organ.

An outdoor light show by Joe Wheaton will add a special multi-sensory

experience. There will be also be a pop-up hot beverage and food event outside the Red Lion Inn.

The outdoor light show will be free to all, and has been underwritten by anonymous donors of the town of Stockbridge. In case of bad weather, the light show will not take place.

Tickets to the indoor concert are $40 general admission, $75 premium (preferential

seating), and $10 for youth under 18 years. For more information, our Covid prevention

policy, and tickets, please visit Crescendo’s website: www.crescendomusic.org

Worship Schedule for Advent and Christmas Season

Every Wednesday

8:30 a.m. Morning Prayer on Zoom

December 4

8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite 1

10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite 2, with music

December 11

ONE SERVICE ONLY at 9:00 a.m. – Holy Eucharist with Holy Baptism, with music

December 18

8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite 1

10:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist, Rite 2, with music

Christmas Eve Services

Saturday, December 24th – 5:30 p.m. Holy Eucharist, with music

Saturday, December 24th – 10:30 p.m. Holy Eucharist, with music

Christmas Day Service

ONE SERVICE ONLY at 10:00 a.m. – Holy Eucharist, Rite 2

January 1

ONE SERVICE ONLY at 10:00 a.m.—Lessons and Carols

Upcoming Events

+ Advent Bible Study on Zoom, Tuesdays 7-8 p.m. on Zoom (see article above)

+ Stockbridge Main Street Christmas, Saturday, December 3 and Sunday, December 4. Concert by MMRHS at St. Paul’s from 12:30-2:00 p.m. on Sunday, December 4.

+ Vestry Meeting, Thursday, December 8, 5:30 p.m., Parish House

+ St. Paul’s team serves at the Lee Food Pantry on Saturday, December 10. Your contributions of non-perishable food and personal care items may be dropped off at the church near the southwest door of St. Paul’s at any time.

+ Sunday, December 11, 9:00 a.m., Holy Baptism of Anders Tierney and a time to honor our 2022 Food Pantry and Gideon’s Garden Volunteers.

+ Holiday Concert “Resonet In Laudibus – Resounding Joyful Praise” at St. Paul’s on Saturday, December 10, 6:00 p.m.

+ Monday, December 12, last day to leave “Dreams of Joy” gifts at the church.

+ Oakes & Smith presents “The Holy Moment – Holiday Candlelit Concert at St. Paul’s on Saturday, December 17, 7:00 p.m.  This concert offers listeners a moment of stillness and peace during the often-hectic holiday season, a moment to touch the depths of this joyful and holy time of year. Admission is free, donations gratefully accepted.

This image came from one of our participants who had read the Letters of John this past week. Our discussion of the image led us to the phrase "keep your lamps trimmed and burning."

Dear God, eternal source of light 

You illumine our path and banish fear

We thank you for your steadfast companionship

We pray that we can keep our lamps trimmed and burning

So that we may make ready for Your coming

AMEN

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