PARISH NOTES
Sunday 16 December 2018
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| Pieter Brueghel the Younger, John the Baptist Preaching (c. 1601-1604). National Museum Kraków, Poland |
FROM THE RECTOR
THIS SUNDAY’S MUSIC
Giaches de Wert (1535-1596)—Gaudete in Domino
THIS SUNDAY’S READINGS
Third Sunday of Advent: Gaudete Sunday, Year C
Canticle 9
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
Welcome to S. Stephen’s – especially to our visitors and guests! We’re glad to have you with us. Please join us for Coffee Hour following the 10 a.m. Mass in the Great Hall upstairs. If you have any questions or special needs, please speak to one of the ushers, who will be glad to assist you.
Saint Thomas the Apostle (December 21st) – a major feast of the church year will be kept this Friday with Noonday Prayer at 12 noon, and Low Mass following at 12:10 pm.
Stewardship Program – We are pleased to report that as of Tuesday, December 11th, we have received 39 pledges for 2019 totaling $89,874 (including six new individuals / households whose pledges total $12,670). Thank you to all who have pledged so far! This is excellent progress, but we are still waiting to hear from a number whose pledges we are counting on. If you have not submitted a pledge in hard copy or online (at www.sstephens.org/donate), please do so! We are grateful for all pledges received, no matter how large or small. Please consider prayerfully what you can offer; your parish is counting on your support and generosity.
The Advent-Christmas-Epiphany Issue of The S. Stephen – has been mailed in hard copy and is available online for viewing and downloading here. If you are not on the mailing list for The S. Stephen and would like to be, please let us know!
Rector’s Book Group – Beginning on Sunday 6 January 2019 (the Feast of the Epiphany) at 7 pm, Fr. John Alexander will lead an online discussion of C. S. Lewis's The Great Divorce (1945)— a satiric fantasy novel on a bus ride in the Afterlife. If you would like to participate - or if you'd like to find out more about what's involved – please email Fr. John so he can include you in the distribution of necessary information on how to join the discussion. (For an excellent report on the previous book group that met this past summer and autumn, see the article by J. Jennifer Jones in the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany issue of The S. Stephen.)
Christmas Flower Offering – If you would like to make a Christmas offering of flowers to the church in thanksgiving or in memoriam, please fill out the envelope included with today’s Kalendar, and put it in the offering plate or bring it to the parish office no later than today, Sunday December 16th.
Support S. Stephen’s on Smile.Amazon.Com – If you shop on Amazon through its AmazonSmile Program, you can designate 0.5% of your purchases to go to S. Stephen’s! All you need to do is visit our distinct giving link at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/05-0271657, sign into your Amazon account, and confirm S. Stephen’s Church as your charity of choice (you can always switch back and forth between charities that you would like to support). This is a great opportunity to support your parish as you do your shopping for Christmas and throughout the year. Please be on the lookout for a resource list of additional micro-donation programs to be able to donate to the church and its ministries on a regular basis, typically without even having to lift a finger after set-up.
Christmas Decorating – This year we hope to engage a group of volunteers to decorate the church after the 10 am Mass for Advent IV (Sunday 23 December), in order to have the church decorated for the Blue Heron Concert later that day. If you are interested in joining in this festive tradition, including a pizza lunch, please contact the parish office via email, or phone at 421-6702, ext. 1.
Blue Heron Concert: Christmas in 15th-Century France & Burgundy – This December 23rd, treat yourself to an early evening of the luxurious sounds of the 15th century. Blue Heron, the 2018 Winners of the Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music, bring a captivating mix of mysticism and merriment, from the penitential season of Advent through Christmas rejoicing and the festive celebration of New Year’s Day, with music by the greatest French and Flemish musicians of the fifteenth century—Guillaume Du Fay, Johannes Regis, Josquin Desprez, Jacob Obrecht, Antoine Brumel, and others. Doors open at 3:30 pm. For ticket pricing and more information, please visit http://www.blueheron.org/.
Schedule of Christmas Services – Christmas Eve: (Monday, 24 December) Christmas Eve Family Mass - 5:30 pm; Solemn Mass of the Nativity - 10:30 pm. Christmas Day: (Tuesday, 25 December) Morning Prayer 9:30 am, Low Mass 10 am. (Please note that on Christmas Eve (Monday) Evening Prayer will not be offered at the usual time.)
Nominations Committee – candidates for the following positions need to be elected at the Annual Parish Meeting on January 27, 2019:
Feast of the Holy Name – On Tuesday 1 January 2019, we shall keep the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus with a Sung Mass at 10 am in conjunction with St. John’s, Newport, whose parishioners have been invited to join us and stay to help out with the New Year’s Day Dinner (see announcement below). Do please plan to begin the New Year by coming to Mass to join in the celebration of this Principal Feast of the Church Year!
New Year’s Day Dinner – Once again we will offer our annual New Year’s Day Dinner for the Hungry, on Tuesday 1 January 2019. If you can help, please contact coordinator Bobby Rose via email, or contact the parish office at 421-6702 ext. 1 or via email. We welcome new scarves, mittens, hats and socks, as well as personal hygiene products such as soaps and toothbrushes. For I was hungry, and you gave me food: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink: I was a stranger, and you welcomed me… Matthew 25:35
Prayers have been requested for: Elizabeth, Hannah, Kaitlyn, Mary, Richard, Norman, John, Shannah, Terri, Sister Carolyn, Lynne, William, Gus, Leonard, Harrington, Joan, Sandy, John, Phebe, Gregory, Jack, Richard, Ann, Colin, Sandy, Kiersten, Beverly, Deborah, Bryan, Angela, Bobby, Beverly, Allora, Carlos, Rhoda, William, Roger, and James.
Birthdays this week: Louise Wells (Monday 12/17).
The faithful departed: Year’s Mind: Constance Margaret Maxwell (17 December 1986), Dorothy Denison Dunlap (17 December 1986), and Kathleen Herbert Congdon (22 December 2005). Recently Departed: Dorothy Rogers.
Anglican and Diocesan Cycles of Prayer – In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, we are asked to pray for the Diocese of Kivu - (Rwanda): The Rt. Rev’d Augustin Ahimana; in the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer, for the people and clergy of St. Thomas, Greenville and of St. Thomas, Alton.
Acolytes – MC J Ihnen, SD F Pisaturo, Thurifer R Noble, Crucifer D Malo, Torches G Benziger and C Sylvia
Lector – A Campbell
Ushers – Rhoda Steinhart and Phoebe Pettingell
Coffee Hour – Nancy Gingrich, Tom Oakes, and Louis Verdelotti
EXTRA-PAROCHIAL EVENTS HOSTED AT S. STEPHEN’S
Saturday 22 December
Epiphany Soup Kitchen 2:30 pm (Great Hall)
LITURGICAL CALENDAR & SERVICE SCHEDULE
16 December
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT: Gaudete Sunday (Rose)
Morning Prayer 8 am
Low Mass 8:10 am
Solemn Mass 10 am
Daily Mass and Office Lectionaries: Week of Advent III, Year One
Monday 17 December
O Sapientia (V)
Raising of Lazarus
Evening Prayer 5:30 pm
Low Mass 6 pm
Canticle 9
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Welcome to S. Stephen’s – especially to our visitors and guests! We’re glad to have you with us. Please join us for Coffee Hour following the 10 a.m. Mass in the Great Hall upstairs. If you have any questions or special needs, please speak to one of the ushers, who will be glad to assist you.
Saint Thomas the Apostle (December 21st) – a major feast of the church year will be kept this Friday with Noonday Prayer at 12 noon, and Low Mass following at 12:10 pm.
Stewardship Program – We are pleased to report that as of Tuesday, December 11th, we have received 39 pledges for 2019 totaling $89,874 (including six new individuals / households whose pledges total $12,670). Thank you to all who have pledged so far! This is excellent progress, but we are still waiting to hear from a number whose pledges we are counting on. If you have not submitted a pledge in hard copy or online (at www.sstephens.org/donate), please do so! We are grateful for all pledges received, no matter how large or small. Please consider prayerfully what you can offer; your parish is counting on your support and generosity.
The Advent-Christmas-Epiphany Issue of The S. Stephen – has been mailed in hard copy and is available online for viewing and downloading here. If you are not on the mailing list for The S. Stephen and would like to be, please let us know!
Rector’s Book Group – Beginning on Sunday 6 January 2019 (the Feast of the Epiphany) at 7 pm, Fr. John Alexander will lead an online discussion of C. S. Lewis's The Great Divorce (1945)— a satiric fantasy novel on a bus ride in the Afterlife. If you would like to participate - or if you'd like to find out more about what's involved – please email Fr. John so he can include you in the distribution of necessary information on how to join the discussion. (For an excellent report on the previous book group that met this past summer and autumn, see the article by J. Jennifer Jones in the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany issue of The S. Stephen.)
Christmas Flower Offering – If you would like to make a Christmas offering of flowers to the church in thanksgiving or in memoriam, please fill out the envelope included with today’s Kalendar, and put it in the offering plate or bring it to the parish office no later than today, Sunday December 16th.
Support S. Stephen’s on Smile.Amazon.Com – If you shop on Amazon through its AmazonSmile Program, you can designate 0.5% of your purchases to go to S. Stephen’s! All you need to do is visit our distinct giving link at https://smile.amazon.com/ch/05-0271657, sign into your Amazon account, and confirm S. Stephen’s Church as your charity of choice (you can always switch back and forth between charities that you would like to support). This is a great opportunity to support your parish as you do your shopping for Christmas and throughout the year. Please be on the lookout for a resource list of additional micro-donation programs to be able to donate to the church and its ministries on a regular basis, typically without even having to lift a finger after set-up.
Christmas Decorating – This year we hope to engage a group of volunteers to decorate the church after the 10 am Mass for Advent IV (Sunday 23 December), in order to have the church decorated for the Blue Heron Concert later that day. If you are interested in joining in this festive tradition, including a pizza lunch, please contact the parish office via email, or phone at 421-6702, ext. 1.
Blue Heron Concert: Christmas in 15th-Century France & Burgundy – This December 23rd, treat yourself to an early evening of the luxurious sounds of the 15th century. Blue Heron, the 2018 Winners of the Gramophone Classical Music Award for Early Music, bring a captivating mix of mysticism and merriment, from the penitential season of Advent through Christmas rejoicing and the festive celebration of New Year’s Day, with music by the greatest French and Flemish musicians of the fifteenth century—Guillaume Du Fay, Johannes Regis, Josquin Desprez, Jacob Obrecht, Antoine Brumel, and others. Doors open at 3:30 pm. For ticket pricing and more information, please visit http://www.blueheron.org/.
Schedule of Christmas Services – Christmas Eve: (Monday, 24 December) Christmas Eve Family Mass - 5:30 pm; Solemn Mass of the Nativity - 10:30 pm. Christmas Day: (Tuesday, 25 December) Morning Prayer 9:30 am, Low Mass 10 am. (Please note that on Christmas Eve (Monday) Evening Prayer will not be offered at the usual time.)
Nominations Committee – candidates for the following positions need to be elected at the Annual Parish Meeting on January 27, 2019:
- One Vestry Member for a four-year term (expires January 2023)
- One Vestry Member for a two-year term (expires January 2021
- Junior Warden (three year term; expires January 2022)
- Clerk of the Vestry (one-year term)
- Treasurer (one-year term)
- Two Diocesan Convention Delegates (one-year term)
- Two Diocesan Convention Alternates (one-year term)
Feast of the Holy Name – On Tuesday 1 January 2019, we shall keep the Feast of the Naming and Circumcision of Jesus with a Sung Mass at 10 am in conjunction with St. John’s, Newport, whose parishioners have been invited to join us and stay to help out with the New Year’s Day Dinner (see announcement below). Do please plan to begin the New Year by coming to Mass to join in the celebration of this Principal Feast of the Church Year!
New Year’s Day Dinner – Once again we will offer our annual New Year’s Day Dinner for the Hungry, on Tuesday 1 January 2019. If you can help, please contact coordinator Bobby Rose via email, or contact the parish office at 421-6702 ext. 1 or via email. We welcome new scarves, mittens, hats and socks, as well as personal hygiene products such as soaps and toothbrushes. For I was hungry, and you gave me food: I was thirsty, and you gave me drink: I was a stranger, and you welcomed me… Matthew 25:35
FOR YOUR PRAYERS
Prayers have been requested for: Elizabeth, Hannah, Kaitlyn, Mary, Richard, Norman, John, Shannah, Terri, Sister Carolyn, Lynne, William, Gus, Leonard, Harrington, Joan, Sandy, John, Phebe, Gregory, Jack, Richard, Ann, Colin, Sandy, Kiersten, Beverly, Deborah, Bryan, Angela, Bobby, Beverly, Allora, Carlos, Rhoda, William, Roger, and James.
Birthdays this week: Louise Wells (Monday 12/17).
The faithful departed: Year’s Mind: Constance Margaret Maxwell (17 December 1986), Dorothy Denison Dunlap (17 December 1986), and Kathleen Herbert Congdon (22 December 2005). Recently Departed: Dorothy Rogers.
Anglican and Diocesan Cycles of Prayer – In the Anglican Cycle of Prayer, we are asked to pray for the Diocese of Kivu - (Rwanda): The Rt. Rev’d Augustin Ahimana; in the Diocesan Cycle of Prayer, for the people and clergy of St. Thomas, Greenville and of St. Thomas, Alton.
THE SUNDAY ROTA
Acolytes – MC J Ihnen, SD F Pisaturo, Thurifer R Noble, Crucifer D Malo, Torches G Benziger and C Sylvia
Lector – A Campbell
Ushers – Rhoda Steinhart and Phoebe Pettingell
Coffee Hour – Nancy Gingrich, Tom Oakes, and Louis Verdelotti
THIS WEEK AT S. STEPHEN’S
EXTRA-PAROCHIAL EVENTS HOSTED AT S. STEPHEN’S
Saturday 22 December
Epiphany Soup Kitchen 2:30 pm (Great Hall)
LITURGICAL CALENDAR & SERVICE SCHEDULE
16 December
THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT: Gaudete Sunday (Rose)
Morning Prayer 8 am
Low Mass 8:10 am
Solemn Mass 10 am
Daily Mass and Office Lectionaries: Week of Advent III, Year One
Monday 17 December
O Sapientia (V)
Raising of Lazarus
Evening Prayer 5:30 pm
Low Mass 6 pm
Tuesday 18 December
Tuesday in Advent III (V)
Noonday Prayer 12 noon
Low Mass 12:10 pm
Wednesday 19 December
Wednesday in Advent III (V)
Evening Prayer 5:30 pm
Low Mass 6 pm
Thursday 20 December
Thursday in Advent III (V)
Noonday Prayer 12 noon
Low Mass 12:10 pm
Friday 21 December
SAINT THOMAS THE APOSTLE (R)
Noonday Prayer 12 noon
Low Mass 12:10 pm
Saturday 22 December
Saturday in Advent III (V)
Morning Prayer 9:30 am
Low Mass 10 am
23 December
FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT (Sarum Blue)
Morning Prayer 8 am
Low Mass 8:10 am
Solemn Mass 10 am
NEXT SUNDAY'S READINGS (23 December)
Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year C
Psalm 80:1-7
Micah 5:2-5a
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45(46-56)
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| Pieter Brueghel the Younger, John the Baptist Preaching (detail) (c. 1601-1604). National Museum Kraków, Poland |
