This
Sunday, the 2nd of November, is All Saints’ Sunday,
with a Festal Eucharist of Thanksgiving at 9 o’clock, at which we will offer
our pledges to God. The service will be followed by a celebration breakfast hosted by the Stewardship
Committee to which you are warmly invited! Our liturgy will begin with the
solemn reading of the names of the departed. If you have names that you would
like have read, please call or email the office by Friday noon.
Daylight Savings Time ends Saturday
night, so …
REMEMBER to set clocks back 1 hour. The effect of this is that the
“new” 9 o’clock will actually feel like
the “old” 10 o’clock!
The readings for this Sunday are Revelation 7:9-17, Psalm 34:1-10, 22, 1 John
3:1-3, Matthew 5:1-12.
The Episcopal Church of
the Holy Spirit
263 Highland Street
Plymouth, NH
9 AM-2 PM, Saturday, November 22nd
Cost : $10 for lunch
To register, please email holyspiritrector@gmail.com
or call 603-536-1321 (leave message
if no reply).
 |
| Remember the fun? (from Nov. 14, 2008) |
We hope you will join us for a Saint Andrew's Harvest Supper and Pie Auction,
to be held on Friday, November 21st: 6 o’clock for the meal, 7
o’clock for the pie auction. Tickets (adults
$10, children $4) will be available at the door. Plan to come and invite your
friends! We are hoping that many of you will provide your delicious baked pies
(pies that can be frozen for Thanksgiving feasts are especially welcome) to be
auctioned following the meal, beginning at about 7:30pm.
We
also need help delivering flyers. Please pick them up in the Parish Hall.
Note:
Pies should be delivered on the day of the dinner/auction by 3 p.m.
Please
contact Patti Rau (367-8223) or Christine Mills (452-4049) with questions or
offers of help.
Yikes! The Christmas Fair at Saint Andrew’s (formally known as Boughs and Bonbons) is only a month away: Saturday, December 6th from 9 to 3! The committee has some new additions planned for this year, including serving a simple chowder lunch in the Prince Room, which will be beautifully decorated for Christmas.
Of
course we also need volunteers to help….Stay tuned for ways in which you can
participate.
Great work on the ChIPs Project! Special
thanks go to the Bunker household for their clear communication of the need! We
brought in $344! Kathy and her team of young people will go shopping on
Saturday to purchase suitable gifts, then the gifts will be taken by our
Diocesan Convention Delegates to Convention next week. From that gathering point they will be
wrapped and distributed to incarcerated parents to give to their children at
their Annual Christmas Party.
The Alternative Orthodoxy group that has
been meeting on Wednesday mornings during October will take a break while the
rector is away. We will reconvene for a final session to explore the topic Mysticism over Moralism on Wednesday,
December 3rd from 11 to 12:30, followed by lunch for those who’d
like to stay.
December calendar reminders:
On the 3rd Sunday of Advent, December 14th, our Bishop, Rob Hirschfeld, will be with us for his biennial parish visit to baptize, confirm, receive, preach, celebrate, and visit with us. We will have ONE service only at 10 o’clock. Please mark your calendars and do your best to be with us that Sunday as we welcome him to Saint Andrew’s and share the Advent season with him.
On the 4th Sunday of Advent, December 21st, we will again have a single service at 10:00 for our Greening of the Church liturgy, at which, within the liturgy, we prepare the church for Christmas. This is a wonderful opportunity for those who will be out of town for the actual Christmas holiday to share in the joys of the season here at home.
On the 3rd Sunday of Advent, December 14th, our Bishop, Rob Hirschfeld, will be with us for his biennial parish visit to baptize, confirm, receive, preach, celebrate, and visit with us. We will have ONE service only at 10 o’clock. Please mark your calendars and do your best to be with us that Sunday as we welcome him to Saint Andrew’s and share the Advent season with him.
On the 4th Sunday of Advent, December 21st, we will again have a single service at 10:00 for our Greening of the Church liturgy, at which, within the liturgy, we prepare the church for Christmas. This is a wonderful opportunity for those who will be out of town for the actual Christmas holiday to share in the joys of the season here at home.
A message from the Rector… Duane and I will be leaving Sunday
afternoon for Thailand, to return November 20, just in time for the Harvest
Supper and Pie Auction. (See details in last week’s MEMO.)
The Rev. Susan Ackley will cover services on November 9 and the Rev. Jay Hutchinson on November 15. If you have urgent pastoral needs, please call the office or one of the wardens: Carol Tubman at 651-8230, Gretchen Behr-Svendsen at 323-7459. And, yes…We promise to come home with lots of pictures and stories!
The Rev. Susan Ackley will cover services on November 9 and the Rev. Jay Hutchinson on November 15. If you have urgent pastoral needs, please call the office or one of the wardens: Carol Tubman at 651-8230, Gretchen Behr-Svendsen at 323-7459. And, yes…We promise to come home with lots of pictures and stories!
Food for thought on Halloween and
All Saints’ Day…
In our contemporary culture, Halloween has been so separated from it’s original context – that it is the Eve of All Saints’ Day – that perhaps is warrants some attention. Since the days of the early church, Christians have commemorated those who, having professed faith in the living Christ, have entered into the nearer presence of their Lord, especially those who had crowned their profession with heroic deaths. Scholars believe the celebration of November 1 as All Saints’ Day originated with our Celtic forbears, where this date had long been honored as the thinnest” time of the year – when darkness overtakes the light –– when the veil between this world and eternity becomes transparent – the beginning of the season when deaths were most frequent (because of scarcer food supplies, illness, and cold). By the ninth century, the designating of this day to honor the continuing connection within the communion of saints – the living to the dead – had reached Rome and been adopted and it was urged that a festival honoring the day be observed throughout the Holy Roman Empire.
Rather than holding a major Feast Day tomorrow (on Saturday, the 1st), our calendar gives us permission to transfer the celebration to the following Sunday when we, too will remember those who have died, recognizing that we are “knit together in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Christ our Lord.” By the tenth century, it became customary to set aside November 2nd as a sort of extension of All Saints’ (meaning major saints), honoring the vast body of faithful departed who are unknown in the wider fellowship of the church. With our Sunday celebration, be honor with joy and gratitude both the known and the unknown faithful departed.
In our contemporary culture, Halloween has been so separated from it’s original context – that it is the Eve of All Saints’ Day – that perhaps is warrants some attention. Since the days of the early church, Christians have commemorated those who, having professed faith in the living Christ, have entered into the nearer presence of their Lord, especially those who had crowned their profession with heroic deaths. Scholars believe the celebration of November 1 as All Saints’ Day originated with our Celtic forbears, where this date had long been honored as the thinnest” time of the year – when darkness overtakes the light –– when the veil between this world and eternity becomes transparent – the beginning of the season when deaths were most frequent (because of scarcer food supplies, illness, and cold). By the ninth century, the designating of this day to honor the continuing connection within the communion of saints – the living to the dead – had reached Rome and been adopted and it was urged that a festival honoring the day be observed throughout the Holy Roman Empire.
Rather than holding a major Feast Day tomorrow (on Saturday, the 1st), our calendar gives us permission to transfer the celebration to the following Sunday when we, too will remember those who have died, recognizing that we are “knit together in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of Christ our Lord.” By the tenth century, it became customary to set aside November 2nd as a sort of extension of All Saints’ (meaning major saints), honoring the vast body of faithful departed who are unknown in the wider fellowship of the church. With our Sunday celebration, be honor with joy and gratitude both the known and the unknown faithful departed.
And this closing Food for Reflection
and Prayer from
Brother James Koester SSJE…
Death
This ‘November Triduum’ of All Hallows’ Even, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days hold for us the same stark reality as does the Easter Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter: that death is real. It may come in the guise of cute children dressed up in all manner of costumes, begging candy from you or threatening tricks, but our pre-Christian and Christian ancestors in the faith would recognize Hallowe’en as that night when you stared at death, and stared down!
This ‘November Triduum’ of All Hallows’ Even, All Saints’ and All Souls’ Days hold for us the same stark reality as does the Easter Triduum of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter: that death is real. It may come in the guise of cute children dressed up in all manner of costumes, begging candy from you or threatening tricks, but our pre-Christian and Christian ancestors in the faith would recognize Hallowe’en as that night when you stared at death, and stared down!
I hope you will be with us we celebrate this powerful time
of continuing connection in Christ.
See you in church!
See you in church!
St. Andrews-in-the-Valley, P.O. Box 436, Tamworth, NH 03886
Office hours: Tuesday-Friday 9-Noon
Phone: 603-323-8515
Office Administrator: Debra Hoyt
Office hours: Tuesday-Friday 9-Noon
Phone: 603-323-8515
Office Administrator: Debra Hoyt
