OneBreadOneBody

News from Holy Innocents & St Nicholas

11.19.06

Jesus Aboriginal

Nothing we do changes the past.

Everything we do changes the future. — Joan Chittister

What lies behind us and what lies before us matters little when compared to what lies within us. — Cherokee saying

Mission Accomplished!

No, really. Thanks to all who helped collect 78! bags of food from St. Nicholas neighbors last Sunday. That was an incredible 28% response rate. Mission to be continued… We are going to repeat our mission outreach December 3 when Bishop Scantlebury visits. This time we will be asking for Christmas presents for children served by the Northwest Community Family Health Center – and, led by Bishop S, we are going to go straight from the closing hymn out into the community. The children
we will be helping are primarily from low-income Hispanic families and we can make a big difference by helping make their Christmas one St. Nicholas would be proud of. Besides helping that day, we are asking the people of both Holy Innocents and St. Nicholas to bring one or more unwrapped presents any Sunday between now and December 10.

Labyrinth Walk

is at St. Nicholas from 7 to 9 p.m. this Friday, November 17.

Thanksgiving Eve

… liturgy will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 22 at Holy Innocents with the combined choirs of the two congregations! That will be a feast rivaling the turkey that follows on Thursday.

Fannie Mae fundraiser

Bring back those order forms to either church by today, November 19.

Joint Bishop’s Committee

…meeting is today at noon at St. Nicholas. Those wishing to be confirmed or received into the Episcopal Church when Bishop Scantlebury visits on December 3 should let Steve know immediately (onebreadonebody@sbcglobal.net) and are invited to attend a brief meeting after the St. Nicholas liturgy on Sunday, November 26.

Annual Campaign/Stewardship Drive

You should have received in the mail a letter from the leaders of both congregations inviting your 2007 pledge to support the ministry of the new congregation. Your prompt and generous response will enable us to begin planning in concrete ways for what we anticipate will be a year of spiritual and numerical growth. THANKS!

What was your name again?

Nametags are placed next to the bulletins in both churches. The people of Holy Innocents are quite used to using them, while the people of St. Nicholas are learning. We ask everyone to please make a habit of wearing a nametag every time we gather. Our goal is to continue to welcome and get to know each other, but also to welcome those who are with us for the first time on any particular Sunday.

We are very good at tending to those among us who are new, but just think how wonderful it will feel to welcome someone by name, or hand a hymnal to a newcomer and be able to call them by name. In order to really get to know each other on a deeper level, we need to be able to call each other by name. It sounds like a simple concept, but it will take us a great deal closer to our ongoing goal of radical hospitality. Thank you!

November is a time to remember those who have died

St. Nicholas has done this for many years by adding their names to a banner that hangs behind the altar until the first Sunday of Advent. There will be a time during each liturgy this month when you can come forward to add names to it. You also can do it at other times. Holy Innocents parishioners are encouraged to drop by St. Nicholas during November to add names of their loved ones.

Final liturgy in the Holy Innocents building will be December 31

Please join us to make this a glorious tribute to all the people of Holy Innocents – past, present, and yet to come!

Bring food to church

St. Nicholas parishioners are asked every week to bring one or more non-perishable food item to church every Sunday to help Second Family, our giving program for hungry children. Please be generous.

Advent and Christmas schedule

For those looking ahead to the Christmas season, here’s our schedule:

One Bread, One Body

I am aware the education hour at St. Nicholas has been struggling a bit of late, both among children and adults. I think in some ways this is related to my absence during that hour. I hope we can regroup before January 7, when both congregations will be in the same building and I will be personally involved in Sunday morning education once again. It’s a little odd that my absence would result in a loss of focus given the myriad ways the people of St. Nicholas are claiming and using their spiritual gifts,
but life is always surprising. Nevertheless, as we saw again this past week with Cyndi Beck’s terrific homily, both parishes are full of amazing and talented people. I hope if you or your kids have only been coming for worship that you will make a real effort to come at 9:30 for adult and children’s formation, starting this Sunday. (And the reality is that this Sunday, December 10, and December 17 are the only remaining days for Christian education in 2006. We will not hold classes November 26 because
of the Thanksgiving weekend, December 3 because of the bishop’s visit, or on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve because of special worship times.)

Several more reflections.

1. Diocesan Convention was wonderful this year. I thought the Saturday Eucharist was the best in all my years of attending Convention. It was also nice that there was little controversy and both our parishes were well represented. I hope more and more of our people in the years to come will attend at least part of the annual Convention. It is a great experience and one of Bishop Persell’s legacies will be his decision to move it out of the cathedral and into a hotel each year.

2. I am concerned about our parishioner, Carmen McCall. As you know, Carmen was recently diagnosed with lung cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy for it. She is reporting being in a lot of pain and it is clear to me that she will need us to rally around her as powerfully as many did around Kenny Marx early this year. Carmen’s main social support is her church, and I would like to recruit 5-7 volunteers who will commit to visiting her weekly for 30-60 minutes as she undertakes this difficult journey. Ethan
has generously agreed to coordinate our pastoral care of Carmen and, although he will not be at church this Sunday because of a work commitment, he can be reached by email.

3. This past Sunday was both sad and wonderful. Sad because I really missed my friends at Holy Innocents. The “pulpit exchange” with Deb Seles meant I was at St. Columba – her regular gig – while she replaced me at HI. I was glad to be able to make it to St. Nicholas in time to hear Cyndi preach. And I had a profound experience sitting in the congregation and watching rather than leading St. Nicholas worship. It was moving to see from a different angle how involved so many of us – from youngest
to oldest – are in leading the liturgy. It was also great to have Deb back and leading worship at St. Nicholas. I hope she will be able to spend more time with us in the months and years ahead. She is a great treasure.

4. I loved the wonderful concert Betsy gave with a little help from her friends – especially our former music director, Sharon Cohen. It was a different side of Betsy than we see when she leads our music on Sundays – and it was wonderful. I hope even more parishioners will attend the next concert she gives. She was splendid.

5. The response to our food collection was mind-boggling. As important as it is for our mission, its greater importance may be the visibility it gives us as a church actively caring for hungry children in our midst. This is one of several new approaches being generated from the synergy and energy between St. Nicholas and Holy Innocents. We have a very bright future ahead and as we move into it, I am having more fun than I’ve ever had as a priest. I hope you are having fun, too.

6. Finally, on Tuesday, I had a fantastic meeting with Randall Warren, our Diocesan staff liaison. Randall “gets it” in a way I’ve never had anyone else from Diocesan staff get that we have a real opportunity for significant growth. I think this is because, apart from his vision, he has pastored a small congregation in addition to his diocesan duties. He made clear the bishop’s full support for the combining of our two congregations and our plans for growth. Most of all he convinced me that we will
not be in this alone, but will have a lively interaction with our Diocese. Randall repeated several times his desire that “We do it right the first time.” I thought I’d died and gone to another Diocese!

More seriously, this conversation only fuels my tremendous excitement at what is happening. We’ve got a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we’ve got a chance to become what I have felt for more than a decade we could and should become – a vital center of the gospel, changing and transforming ourselves and the lives of many beyond our walls. All of you in both congregations are writing the book on how to bring new life to a dying congregation, and I love you for it. Let’s do it right the
first time…

—Steve