This Sunday we will be celebrating St Andrew’s Day. Our online service will include Bagpipe music played by Ian Massie who traditionally plays at our St Andrew’s Day service. 

After the service we hope you will come to the church between 12noon-1pm to pick up #StAndrewsstrong bracelets and a package of shortbread which Margaret and I will be distributing. Mia will be distributing greens gathered on Saturday from the Hunnewell estate to make your Advent Wreath.

It seems another world away when we recall how we were celebrating St Andrew’s Day this time last year on the 125^th Anniversary of our parish. We had our wonderful 125^th Anniversary Gala at the Wellesley Country Club, we celebrated the success of our 125 Capital Campaign and we gathered in a joy-filled packed church to hear Bishop Laura Ahrens preach about our call to walk in the steps of Jesus.

But in an important way our 125^th Anniversary celebrations last year are a source of strength for us during the challenges of the pandemic. Our 125^th Anniversary celebrations highlighted the strength and resilience of the St Andrew’s community over its history through the times of challenge including two world wars, the Great Depression, the Spanish flu and other events.

I certainly have been encouraged by remembering the history and example of our parish family. I know from many of you that being part of the St Andrew’s parish family in the present time has been a source of strength and encouragement as we live through the pandemic. 

So, there is much to give thanks for as we celebrate St Andrew’s Day and the life of our parish this year. The life of our parish serves as a concrete reminder of Christ’s loving presence with us. 

I wanted to encourage you to sign up to receive wine and wafers for Holy Communion at the 5pm Christmas Eve service.

We will be distributing pre-consecrated wine/grape juice and wafers to all who wish to participate prior to Christmas Eve. You will be able to pick up your Christmas Eve Communion wine/grape juice and wafers at the church on either Sunday December 6 or Wednesday December 8 between 12noon-2pm. Alternatively you can opt to have your wine and wafers delivered to your home by a member of our team of volunteer parishioners.

If you would like to receive wine and wafers to participate in the Christmas Eve Communion please click here.

Yours in Christ, Adrian

Mail is being delivered, invoices and check requests are being processed and payments are being received and credited.

Our 10:15am Sunday Service will done Live on Facebook and on our website. A video of the Live service will be posted on YouTube on Monday. Our service sheet for any given week is posted here on our website.

Following the service, you're invited to drop-in to check-in with our clergy and other parishioners after the service until 11:30am. Dress code is casual! (PJs encouraged!) Scroll down to the bottom of the email for more detailed instructions for how to use Zoom on phone or computer. Click here for the Link to Coffee Hour

Join us this Sunday, November 22, when Reverend Margaret Schwarzer invites us to consider "What is Free Will?"  How do we combine our belief that God acts in the world with our understanding of our own human free will? Does free will even exist? Come learn about some Biblical models and share your questions and observations. Everyone is welcome.  Use this link to get the class notes for this week: they come out by Friday. Contact Rev. Margaret with questions.

Please join us from 9 to 10am on Zoom.

Join us next Sunday, November 26, when Reverend Sarah Robbins-Cole teaches a class on The Virgin Mary’s portrayal in the Qur’an. This class is a two part series; join us for part 2 on December 6.

We’re all in this together! It is so important to remember each other and stay positive. In the spirit of “banding” together, please come to the church on St. Andrew’s Day, November 22 from noon to 1pm to pick up your new #StAndrewsStrong silicon bracelet. All sizes are available! Clergy will be passing out the bracelets on trays with proper social distance; please wear your mask when you come. The idea is that we will wear our bands until we can gather together again as a congregation in our newly renovated sanctuary. On that day, we will symbolically cut the bands. Don’t worry, we can always order more if you want to keep an intact one! —Lakey MacArthur and Becky Hamlin

Pick up your Advent wreath greens this Sunday from 12-1pm when you grab your bracelets and shortbread. Unfortunately, we have decided not to allow folks to stick around to craft their wreaths due to COVID-19 concerns. We will have both the rings and candles available for purchase. Cash only, $5 each.

Contribution statements were mailed out. Please review your statement for accuracy. If you feel there may be an error or have any questions, contact me by email or leave a message on my extension at the church. Voice mails are being retrieved weekly.

Procedures for crediting payments will be changing as well. Any payments received after December 31 will NOT be credited on your 2020 statement; they will appear on your 2021 statement as a Postpaid Pledge.

Looking towards year end, this year we will be unable to accept in-person payments at the church office. Please keep these deadlines in mind when planning your giving this year:

Joanne Butler, financial administrator 781-235-7310

Welcome to the St. Michael’s Holiday Bazaar. We have a multitude of craft items to purchase and numerous auction items to bid on or "buy now." The event begins on Sunday, November 15 at 12pm, and runs through Sunday, November 29 at 12pm. It’s easy and fun! Just click on the this link to get started. We appreciate your support, thank you! Please note that you cannot "register" for the auction prior to Sunday, November 15. 

Our annual Gathering of the Greens event is now full. If you signed up and can no longer make it, please contact Rev. Mia so that another parishioner can take your spot!

St. Stephen’s Holiday Dinners

Following our long-standing tradition, St. Andrew’s will be providing Thanksgiving turkeys and meal fixings to people at St. Stephen’s Church in Boston. The need is greater this year and we’ll be providing bags to 80 families. While we can’t do our typical in-pew collection, nor assemble the bags together, we hope you will contribute by sending a check payable to St. Andrew’s with “Holiday Dinners” in the memo line, or by giving through the St. Andrew’s website with the same designation. 

During this time of year, we feel the need to gather in unity, return to our values, and offer gratitude. Wellesley area clergy invite you to join them in fellowship for an Interfaith Thanksgiving service on Monday, November 23 at 7pm on Zoom. Our clergy will lead us in prayer, scriptural readings, song, and words of comfort. Rabbi Saphire will deliver the homily. We hope this service will help to ease the feelings of loss and loneliness caused by our inability to gather this Thanksgiving. You are welcome to share this invitation with another friend of faith. All are welcome, whether or not you have a congregational home or religious practice. Please click this link to register - https://tbewellesley.org/event/interfaith-thanksgiving-service/ 

St. Andrew’s has a team this year, our fifth year. The race will be virtual and it honors Carol Chaoui, a remarkable woman and founder of the race who died this past August. Running the regular course isn't possible, but we can all run at 8am on Thanksgiving morning, joined in fellowship, and raise money for cancer research and food banks in our area, with gratitude for the life we share at St. Andrew’s. Please send photos to Jenny Sawyer by clicking here.

If you ran this last year, you may have already signed up for the race. Terrific! Let me know by sending an email to me. If you haven't signed up yet, click here. Click "register" on the Turkey Trot site and then type in “Wellesley Turkey Trot" when you get to the Racewire site. You should see the 2020 race. When you sign up, choose “Join a Team” and join our team: “St. Andrew’s Team.” We can also run between November 21 - November 29 this year. Because the race is virtual, the organizers are giving us a 9 day spread to run the race. We will have an opportunity to post our results on Racewire and full results will be posted. More details to come.

On the first Sunday of Advent, Sunday, November 29, join us from 5:30- 6:00 pm to enjoy the chanting, flickering candles, and silence of this service. The section leaders and lay members of our senior choir will sing the chants in four-part harmony. We can join the singing from our own homes, adding our voices to theirs as we are comfortable. We invite you to start Advent with the beauty of icons, the grace of music, and the stillness of prayerful silence. This service will premiere on our Website and Facebook at 5:30pm and be available for the rest of the evening. Contact Rev. Margaret with questions.

This year will be a hybrid collaboration of traditions from both St. Andrew's and St. Michael's. The body of the pageant will be in a reader's theater format with children taking on narration and characters in their own homes recorded on zoom or separate videos. Photo, music and art relating to all pieces of the story being told will be interspersed throughout. The Christmas Pageant will be broadcast as a part of the 10:15am Sunday service on December 20, 2020. For more information and to sign-up see Mia’s church school meditation or click here.

Keeping the Promise, a virtual holiday concert featuring Livingston Taylor, James Montgomery, Ellis Paul, and other acts will take place on Saturday, December 5. There is no admission charge, but there will be opportunities to donate and to bid on silent auction items, including several baskets created by St. Andrew’s parishioners. Click here to reserve your tickets.

Help spread the Christmas spirit to St. Andrew's and St. Michael's! We are looking for families to send in short (30 seconds or less) Christmas greeting videos to be shared in our Christmas Eve service similar to the Easter greetings that so cheered our parish! Dress in your Christmas best, stand by your Christmas tree, and send your virtual Christmas card in to this Dropbox by Monday, December 13.

If you or someone you love has had a year of challenge or grief, please join us on Zoom for our Blue Christmas Service. On Wednesday, December 16, from 7pm to 7:45pm, we will gather on Zoom with solemn, gentle silence, a spoken service, and an opportunity for each of us to silently light a candle and offer a prayer or a hope for both the year that is past or the year that lies ahead. (Please have a candle ready in your home if you would like to do this.) Most importantly, we will rest in the promise that even in times of sorrow, God’s love and God’s grace can find us and support us. We are invited to make room for love’s arrival. Contact Rev. Margaret Schwarzer if you have any questions about the service.

December common cathedral lunch

Our next date to prepare 150 brown bag lunches at home and deliver them to our friends at common cathedral, a (mostly) unhoused Episcopal congregation that meets on Boston Common, is Sunday, December 20. Click here to sign up for this important outreach effort.

Winter Warmth Collection for common cathedral and Coats for Kids

Your donations of no-longer-needed men’s winter clothing and blankets/sleeping bags, as well as hand warmers, can help the unhoused people of common cathedral stay warm this winter. Drop-off takes place on Tuesdays in Wellesley, in conjunction with our weekly B-LOVE food collection. Please see the winter warmth signup for more details on this effort to help our neighbors, which replaces our mitten tree this year.

There is a need for used women’s and children’s winter coats too! Please drop them at any Anton’s Cleaners location for their Coats for Kids program, which St. Andrew’s has participated in for many years.

Pick up your next unit of lessons for December at Advent-wreath making this Sunday at St. Andrew's Day from 12-1pm or from the box in front of our office! This week's lesson and video can be found on our webpage. For the full links to all lessons, click here.

The world is a changed place. Staff is working both in the office and at home. Currently, all the clergy work Sunday through Thursday; their 'weekends' are Friday and Saturday. If you would like to contact a clergy person during regular work hours, please feel free to contact them on their cell numbers. Adrian can be reached at: 603/831-4938; Margaret at: 617/733-0661; and Mia can be at: 203/814-8804. If you need a clergy person on the weekend, please call Adrian: 603/831-4938.

To stay up to date with St. Andrew's virtual content, make sure to like and follow St. Andrew's on the social media platforms you use.

Did you know that we have a directory for church members that you can access from our website? Your email address will need to be in our database for you to get a username and password. Click on “Directory” in the upper right hand corner. Then look for "Need a login? Click here" and enter your email, first name, and last name. you will be prompted from there about getting a password. (Click here to email Kate with questions.)

There is also a mobile app for your cell phone called “Church Life” you can use once you have a username and password. Check it out! 

A huge thank you to our Rite-13 leaders for being angels "Among Us"! Thank you for delivering goody bags for our first successful virtual lock-in this past Saturday and for being great "crewmates" for the kids this year.

Many thanks to those who prepared and delivered 150 bag lunches to common cathedral on November 15: Bonnie Akins, Nancy Echlov, Joanna Horobin, Laura Brown MacKinnon, Debbie Osborn, Ryan Osborn, Caren Parker, and Sandy Warren. 

After the service concludes, click the link in the coffee hour notice. If you do not already have Zoom, your browser will prompt you to download Zoom as a desktop application. Download Zoom. Here are video instructions for how to download Zoom on different browsers.

If prompted to enter a Meeting ID it is: 231 303 1816 and the meeting passcode is "StAndrews" Join the meeting using your computer's audio and video. You can opt to join without video.

You will be automatically muted when you join. Click the microphone button in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen to unmute. Please mute yourself when you are not talking.

929 205 6099. The voice will prompt you to enter the meeting ID: 231 303 1816

The voice will prompt you to enter a participant ID or to press pound. Press Pound. You will automatically be muted. To unmute yourself, press *6. To re-mute yourself, press *6 again.