Tis the Season For Cold and Flu

We've already had some parishioners out with colds and flu over the past few weeks. Although masks are not required this winter, please feel free to wear one if you are feeling under the weather or more comfortable in one. We will have a supply on the Narthex table by the bulletins if you forget your own or are in need. As always, if you're not feeling well, please know you are still able to watch the streamed service online if you need to stay home(link is above).

Short Notice Leaf Cleanup

Bring out the entire family, grandparents, aunts and uncles and other holiday visitors to the short notice St. Augustine’s church garden leaf clean-up on the 26th of November starting at 9am and ending after you have worked off that Thanksgiving dinner! It will be a beautiful day and no UNL football game. Yard trash bags will be provided so please bring some rakes and wear gloves. Point of contact is Jim Keepers, Church Garden Steward

Celebrating Christmas with COPE Be sure to get your tag this week, presents need to be turned in NEXT Sunday, December 4!!

COPE(Christian Outreach Program of Elkhorn) Adopt-a-Person is back this year!

 Please feel free to take one or more tags from the table in the Narthex by the front doors.  Or, if this is not something you want to do alone, consider pairing up with another family or friend to adopt a child. We have less tags this year as COPE continues adding new churches to help with their outreach. If you find that all of our people have been adopted or prefer not to adopt but would still like to contribute, we would still love you to help by donating a $25 gift card that will be used for someone.

All gifts need to be brought to the church by Sunday, December 4. Please put all gifts in a large bag with the family tag attached to the bag.

We will need people to help with receiving, sorting and delivering gifts on December 8-10.Use the sign up genius to pick a job and time for yourself or your family! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0a48aea723a46-20223

As always, THANK YOU for your caring contribution to the COPE Christmas gifts!

Advent Wreath Making

Sunday, Nov. 27 in-between services

Please join us for a Multi-generational Advent Wreath making Workshop!

We will have fresh greenery, thanks to our Church Garden Steward, Jim Keepers. We will have pine cones and all of the supplies you will need. If you have wreath forms from last year, please bring them in with you. If you are able to donate, we will be accepting good will donations to cover the cost of supplies.

Join us as we Ready the Church for Christmas

Sunday, November 27 11:30 AM

Join with the St. A's Altar Guild for the Greening of the Church after services on Sunday November 27 at 11:30am. We will need families of all ages to drape garland, hang wreaths, place florals in windows, and hang ornaments from the ceiling. Ladders, treats and pizza provided!

Thanks especially to Angie Gallegos for organizing treats and Jim Keepers for providing pizza!

Be sure to also save the date to "de-green" on Sunday, January 8. Same time and place!

Altar Flowers

Would you like to remember or celebrate someone special by purchasing altar flowers to be displayed on a particular Sunday? Now you can. We’ll even make it easy for you by ordering bouquets from Magdalene Blooms and getting them onto the altar. Starting this week, St. A’s is accepting donations (suggested donation is $50 earmarked for altar flowers on the memo line). If you are donating in someone’s name or for a specific date, please let us know that as well so we can include the information in the bulletin. 

Fricke Ministry Representative to Help Youth

One of the ministries in our broader area is the Fricke Episcopal Community Ministry, coordinated by our cathedral, Trinity Episcopal. This ministry has identified various needs over the years, and invites each local parish to have a representative that helps learn about their work and communicate it back. Barb Hall has been our representative, and as she shifts into other ministries, she’s ready to help someone else step into this role for our church. Currently, the Fricke Episcopal Food Ministry is coordinating special drives for toiletry needs for youth in local schools, including soaps, toothbrushes, toothpaste, tampons/pads, toilet paper, and laundry detergent. This support of hygiene needs fills in a need that often falls through the cracks, helping support hygiene and preventing bullying, teasing, and self-esteem hits. If you’d like to help us keep aware of the Fricke Episcopal Food Ministry’s work, and how St A’s can assist with it each year, please contact Fr Ben! This volunteer role involves meeting with the Fricke team and our Outreach Committee here at St A’s, currently chaired by Julie Pendegraft, and helping with occasional drives for support.

Undie Sunday's

December 4 & 11 2022

Undie Sunday, December 4 & 11th

Please help us with Undie Sunday by bringing in underwear and socks for Downtown Episcopal Outreach. We will only be collecting for two weeks, so don’t miss it, December 4 & 11th fill the tote in the Narthex!

Caroling and Christmas Party Sunday, December 11

Sunday December 11 we will be having some Christmas celebrations during coffee hours. Magdalene Omaha will be selling their wares(see separate announcement). Sunday School will have Christmas Crafts during their normal time in the Parish Hall, and we will be caroling after the 10:30 am service! Please be sure to join us!

Magdalene Omaha Product Sale Sunday, December 11 During Both Coffee Hours

Please join us in supporting our friends at Magdalene Omaha by getting some Christmas shopping done with some of their amazing products, they have bath and shower products, body creams, lip balms, candles and scented waxes.  All products are designed and hand made with love by survivors!  Every purchase supports survivor job training.  While you're at it, check out Magdalene Blooms for your holiday flower arrangement needs!

Blue Christmas Service

Saturday, December 10, 5 PM

A service for remembering loved ones through this time of preparing for Christmas, with readings both sacred and secular. This service gives us a moment to lift up those who are in our hearts through this tender time of year, light candles in memory of them, and celebrate the Holy Eucharist to gather together with Christ’s Table at which all in this world and the life to come are united in God’s love.

Please feel free to invite others who may need a moment of prayer and tradition to remember our loved ones.

Wrapping Party

Wednesday, December 14 6-8 PM

During Youth Group Wednesday, December 14 from 6-8 pm parishioners are invited to a Wrapping Party! Free will donations for youth wrapping or babysitting are welcomed and appreciated. You are welcome to bring your own supplies, and wrap your own presents while youth babysit or drop off presents for youth to wrap. Please contact Kate for more information.

Lessons and Carols Sunday December 18 9:30 AM

This will be a combined worship service, and the only service that day.

There will be no Sunday School so your children are able to enjoy the service with you! 

We would love for you to save a plate of cookies or Christmas goodies to share at Coffee Hour after the Lessons and Carols service!

Stewardship at St. Augustine

2023 is just around the corner!!

Have you thought about completing your 2022 pledge, prepaying your 2023 pledge or just making that additional contribution to St. Augustine’s for tax purposes? All money must be deposited by December 29, 2022 (last day the office will be open in 2022), in order for you to be able to deduct your charitable contribution on your 2022 tax return.

Considering holidays and office closures, we have some options for you and deadlines to consider.

 If you want to use our PayPal system, you need to have it in no later than December 22, as it takes 2-3 business days to reach our account after we initiate transfer.

 If you are paying by check, please make sure it is to the office by December 28 or the morning of December 29.

If you want to take advantage of our brokerage account through Charles Schwab, plan early!!! With the transfer from your account to our account and then taking into consideration the sale time and not to mention getting the check written to St. Augustine’s and getting it deposited by December 29 – well do we need to say more?? Please contact treasurer, Maggie Wellman, for the needed information to access our account.

If you need to know your pledge balance for 2022, please contact Jay as she has all the updated information. Thank you for working with us to meet our deadlines and to make the end of the year a smooth transition into 2023!!

Flower Fund

Each year prior to Christmas, we ask for donations towards our Altar Flower Fund. This fund purchases the lovely greenery and flowers for the Christmas season as well as the flowers that adorn the altar throughout the year.

Special envelopes are on the table in the narthex near the bulletins for you to use to remember loved ones or give thanks for your blessings. We will add the names of remembered loved ones to our Christmas Bulletin.

Culture Club December Outing Thursday, December 15 7:30 PM

Culture Club is planning a December outing.

Join us for Sister’s Christmas Catechism at the Omaha Community Playhouse. You may have heard of Late Night Catechism, a popular one-woman show; this show is written by the same author. Sister retells the story of the nativity, as only she can. This holiday production is unlike anything you have ever seen. Join us for laughter and a fun night out. 

We have reservation for Thursday, December 15, at 7:30 p.m. If we can get a group of 12, we get tickets for only $30 per person. 

Please have checks, made out to Omaha Community Playhouse, and give them to Sandra Squires as early as possible. The absolute deadline is November 13 to secure our front row seats in the small theatre. Checks can be mailed to Sandra Squires, 681 S. 85th Street, Omaha, NE. 68114. Please email Sandra with any questions.

Sacred Ground, Pilgrimage, and Session 12: Racial Reconciliation Opportunities at St. A's

Over the past few years, we’ve had more and more conversation at our parish about the Christian call to reconciliation, and how to apply that to the work of inclusion and racial reconciliation in particular. In a time when public discourse can break down really quickly on these topics, the enduring voice of our faith tradition has powerful teachings, vocabulary, and a fundamental theology of the dignity of every person God has made to help us find a solid foundation.

This year, we will have some organized opportunities to learn more together and gather in prayer, study, and fellowship as part of our parish’s mission, “to be a growing, faithful, inclusive, and caring community committed to the ministry and teachings of Jesus Christ.” Here are some basics of what’s coming up:

-        Sacred Ground, Sunday afternoons this Spring. This 11-session curriculum meets for 2 hour sessions with a group that commits to take the whole program together. You get to know your group members well and build trust for earnest and serious conversations. Each session has some videos and readings to prepare – probably 3-4 hours of prep time over the 2-weeks between each meeting. Documentaries, articles, prayerful reflections, and conversations help build awareness and understandings as we talk together about what faith calls us to do.

Sacred Ground Dates, Sundays 3-5 pm: 1/22, 2/5, 2/19, 3/5, 3/19, 4/2, 4/16, 4/30, 5/7, 5/21, 6/4

-        “Session 12,” quarterly. Several Sacred Ground alums met with Fr Ben to discuss a regular opportunity to gather over topics of reconciliation. This is meant to offer several things: a chance for Sacred Ground alums to continue talking together and learning more, a chance for people to be part of Christian conversations about reconciliation to see if they’d like to commit to the larger Sacred Ground classes, and a chance to invite others into conversation about what Christian faith can teach us about loving our neighbor as ourselves. The first Session 12 is planned for Sunday, December 4^th, from 4-6 pm, with a broad orientation to The Episcopal Church’s teachings around reconciliation, opportunities for engagement in our church and diocese, and small group discussion topics. Tentative future dates are Sunday, February 26^th and Sunday, April 23^rd.

-        Pilgrimage 2023: Monuments and Roads, June 6^th-12^th, 2023. Our Diocese of Nebraska is planning a Pilgrimage around the racial history of the United States. Any adult who has completed Sacred Ground prior to the trip (including our Spring group) is eligible to register and attend. St A’s member Pam Wright has been instrumental in helping develop our itinerary, which includes bus travel from Omaha to Memphis, Tennessee, then Oxford, Mississippi, and on to Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery in Alabama, before returning by way of Memphis. Sites involved will include the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, a walk on the Edmund Pettis Bridge, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, among others. Several Episcopal churches will also welcome us and offer teaching and reflections from their own parish’s connections to historical events. More information is at https://episcopal-ne.org/Events/2023-pilgrimage.html, and we do anticipate that we will have some parish scholarship available to those who need it to attend the trip.

Parish 2023 Nominations

We are accepting nominations and self-nominations for official parish roles in 2023. Each year, we elect several offices for various terms at our Annual Meeting (January 29^th). This year, we will have openings for the following:

-        Vestry Member. The Vestry is our legal parish board, and regularly reviews financial and administrative requirements of our church, as well as receiving reports from the parish committees about our ministries and programs at St Augustine’s. They meet monthly over three year terms, on 3^rd-Sundays of the month from noon to 1:30. Vestry members must be Confirmed or Received in the Episcopal Church (for information, contact Fr Ben at rector@sainta.net – Bishop Barker’s next visit will be on February 12^th and include a chance to be Confirmed or Received).

-        Legacy Society Director. One of our parish’s financial tools is a Legacy Society. Anyone can join the society by pledging to include St Augustine’s in their estate planning and giving, and the Legacy fund is designed to grow and provide distributions to specific uses including outreach, formation, and building needs. It can assist our operating budget to an intentionally-small degree, to serve as a help but not replacement for our annual giving. Each director serves a 3-year term, reviewing the fund documents quarterly and ensuring that the policies are followed. Directors may not also be serving Vestry members according to our policies We will elect one Director to a 3-year term and one to an open term with 2 years remaining.

-        Annual Council Delegate. Each year all parishes send delegates to our diocesan Annual Council, which meets in October and gathers all of our Nebraska communities for worship, learning, fellowship, and the business of the diocese (which includes budget review, election of offices, and sometimes resolutions around either administrative matters or diocesan positions). St A’s is eligible to have up to 3 delegates and 1 alternate attend Annual Council, which will be held Thursday evening, October 26^th through Saturday noon, October 28^th in North Platte in 2023. Because it is sometimes difficult to know schedules so early in a year, any seats left unelected at our parish Annual Meeting are left open to be filled by the Vestry at a later point in the year.