Frontpage, Dec. 30, 2018

Check out 25 events that made 2018

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December 30, 2018 – Lessons and Carols

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The Week Ahead…

Dec. 31 -6:00pm – New Year’s Eve Gala

Jan. 2 -10:00-12pm – Ecumenical Bible Study

Jan. 6 -11:00am – Epiphany

Jan. 6 -12:00pm – Coffee Hour Potluck

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Sunday, Jan. 6,  Readings and Servers

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Check out the story and photo gallery on the New Year’s Eve Gala.

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Season of Giving 2018 – The Results

The Season of Giving starting on Nov. 4, 2018 was our time to support local, national and international charities. This year we substituted the Heifer project for Samaritan’s purse and added Episcopal Relief and Development, particularly for their hurricane relief fund.

Thanks to all who worked on promoting the contribution to these funds and, of course, those who contributed. The results are as follows:

1. Heifer Project – $2,507.85. This included a raffle that raised $200

2. UTO – Fall Ingathering was $563.32 (Spring ingathering was $325.36 for a total of $888.68 for the two ingatherings in 2017). The comparative total in 2017 was $757.09

3. Village Harvest – $1,250. Separately, Giving Tuesday on Nov. 27 yielded another $1,267.50. Giving Tuesday in 2017 contributed $1,010.

4. Episcopal Relief and Development– $1,400

5. ECM Thanksgiving – $287.50
$237.77 was spent for Thanksgiving food for 5 families. They exceeded their scope in 2018 by adding 2 families this year.

6. ECM Christmas -$547.50
$1,333.09 ECM spent for food and gifts for 3 families for Xmas

Helmut Linne von Berg provided the following information for the Christmas portion:

Family # 1 – A mother with two children, ages 6 and 4
Family # 2 – A mother with one child, age 2
Family # 3 – A mother with 5 children, ages 11, twins age 7, 4 and 3

“The delivery was made on Christmas eve morning. There was clothing and toys for all the children, including 5 bicycles; one mother said when she saw the bikes “that will make the kids so happy.”

“A healthy Christmas selection of food was also provided. Everyone was very thankful. The living conditions in the trailer park where these poor children are growing up is pitiful. Let us all count our blessings! If there are funds left over in the ECM fund, we will make further efforts to help those in real need in cooperation with Caroline Social Services, via Anne Tyree, Assistant Director.”
The total ECM project, Thanksgiving and Christmas totaled $835 .

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Prayer of Thanksgiving for the year just past…

God of new beginnings, we thank you for the year just past, with all of its joys and wonders. We thank you for all that we were able to do together . We thank you for giving us opportunities to serve You well and in doing so to let your light shine in our church and out in our world. We pray now for Your guidance in this new year, and for the courage to follow You wherever You would lead us. We pray for the strength to carry out everything that You will give us to do. And may our love for one another reflect the transforming love that You have for each one of us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

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And a Blessing for the New Year!

From Pastor Dawn Hutchings

“The art of blessing is often neglected. The birth of a New Year calls forth the desire in us to bestow a blessing upon those we love. Several years ago, John O”Donohue, one of my favorite Irish poet’s created a New Year’s blessing for his mother entitled Beannacht-for Josie. It is a blessing of superior quality. And so, on this New Year’s Eve, may you all receive this beannacht with my added blessing for a peace-filled New Year in which the God in whom all of creation is held, might find full expression in your miraculous life!”

Beannacht – A New Year Blessing
John O’Donohue

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life.

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The Work of Christmas

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:

To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

– Howard Thurman

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Dr. Howard Thurman was an influential author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. He was Dean of Theology and the chapels at Howard University and Boston University for more than two decades, wrote 20 books, and in 1944 helped found the first racially integrated, multicultural church in the United States.

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Epiphany –  Jan 6 until Lent  begins March 6, 2019

Adoration of the Magi – Bartholomäus Zeitblom (c. 1450 – c. 1519)

The English word “Epiphany” comes from the Greek word epiphaneia, which means “appearing” or “revealing.” Epiphany focuses on God’s self-revelation in Christ.  

Epiphany celebrates the twelfth day of Christmas, the coming of the Magi to give homage to God’s Beloved Child. 

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The Epiphany celebration remembers the three miracles that manifest the divinity of Christ. The celebration originated in the Eastern Church in AD 361, beginning as a commemoration of the birth of Christ. Later, additional meanings were added – the visit of the three Magi, Christ’s baptism in the Jordan River with the voice from heaven that identifies Jesus as God’s son, and his first miracle at the wedding in Cana. These three events are central to the definition of Epiphany, and its meaning is drawn from these occurrences.

More about Epiphany

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The Epiphany readings for Jan 6

The Epiphany readings are about travel, journey and ultimately sharing Christ’s light. But it is not easy as the opponents of Christ are present. Link to the readings:

• Isaiah 60:1-6
• Psalm 72:1-7,10-14
• Ephesians 3:1-12
• Matthew 2:1-12

Epiphany means “appearance of the Lord.” In the East, where it started, this feast was instituted not to recall the Magi, but the birth of Jesus, the Christmas, the appearance of the light. In the West—where Christmas was celebrated on December 25—it was received in the fourth century and became the feast of the “manifestation of the light of the Lord” to the Gentiles and the universal call to all people to salvation in Christ. Magi reveal the truth of John 1:9 – the true of God, coming into the world, enlightens all creation and every person. Every child is an incarnation of our beloved Savior.

Read more…

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