S u n d a y S c h e d u l e:

9 a.m. — Worship
10 – Celebration Sunday
11 — Worship

Christmas giving at St. Nicholas.

There are three important ways you can give at Christmas.

1. Christmas presents for children served by the Northwest Community Family Health Center – and also by our own Second Family program (see announcements below).
2. Cash gifts to the church at Christmas and Easter are an important source of revenue that help fund our ministry.
3. Christmas Eve flowers. We encourage you at both Christmas and Easter to bring flowers to decorate the church. Poinsettias are, of course, especially appropriate for Christmas, but flowers of all varieties help us celebrate the Incarnation of God as human flesh. Index cards to indicate in whose memory or thanksgiving the flowers are given are available at church.

From the Generosity Team…

Our heartfelt thanks to all who have turned in pledge forms for 2008. We are humbled by the generosity shown. To date, we have 7 brand new pledges and the average increase for repeat pledges is just over 20%! If you have not yet turned in your pledge form, please do so as soon as possible. There are extra forms on the table at the entrance to the church. If you are new to St. Nick’s or to the Episcopal Church and have questions about pledging, feel free to speak to any of the Generosity Team members: Cyndi Beck, Mary Beth Jarvis, Bob Kalicki, Mary Anne O’Rourke, Douglas VanHouten or Heather Voss. Thanks again!

Schedule for the 10 a.m. hour

Our new schedule for the 10 a.m. hour is:
First Sunday of the month – Celebration Sunday; the 10 a.m. hour will be devoted to connecting.
Second Sunday – The Celebrating our Anglican Heritage series will now meet on this Sunday.
Third Sunday – Ministry Teams will meet on this day instead of on the Fourth Sunday.
Fourth Sunday – The series on major figures of the Hebrew Scriptures will meet one Sunday per month instead of two.

The BVM is moving (and you can help surround her with a few friends)

One challenge of blending our two parish families has been finding an appropriate home for the wonderful statue of Mary which comes from Holy Innocents. Her present location in the southeast corner of the church was chosen for its proximity to the font, probably the premier focal point in our worship space. But the location has posed two problems. One is that she seems too far away from most of us. The other is that the kneeler that goes with her crowds up against a row of chairs, making it difficult for those who wish to pray to Mary.

Not to worry. During Advent, she will move to her new home on the west brick wall near the entrance to the worship space. And to keep her company – and help us honor the role of women in the church – numerous women saints will be joining her after Christmas, when we place their icons on the wall behind her.

We’ve chosen icons that will represent something of the diversity of women saints within the church. There are some old standbys – Mary Magdalene, Julian of Norwich, Perpetua and Felicity (early martyrs), Teresa of Avila. And there are some surprises – Brigid and Darlughlach, Edith Stein, Dorothy Day.

Here’s where you can help. This is going to be close to a $1500 project – 10 larger icons at $145 apiece. Rather than take it from our budget, we are hoping folks will donate an icon – or portion of one. Checks can be placed in the collection basket, with “icon” noted on the memo line. Thanks!

Information about the saints chosen will be available in church.

Advent in our parish.

As most of us know, we rearrange the worship space according to liturgical seasons, and Advent brings a shift from our familiar theatrical staging of the space to a more ancient “choir-stall” arrangement that evokes centuries of nuns and monks at prayer. We also will see a lot of Advent blue appear this week, easing our entry into Advent’s mood of patient, expectant waiting.

Last year’s Advent wreath is back, along with a tradition of “constructing” it ourselves, by placing pine boughs in it on the First Sunday of Advent. Mary and the choir also have been hard at work on Advent and Christmas music, and this year promises wonderful musical fare.

December of course also brings the feasts of Nicholas and the Holy Innocents. We’ll celebrate Nicholas on December 9 and the Holy Innocents on December 30.

“Bagging” collection for Christmas presents December 2 and 9.

We’ll repeat our bagging efforts in a different neighborhood – on the first two Sundays in December as we collect Christmas presents for the children served by the Northwest Community Family Health Center. This is a change from our original plan. We had been planning to bag this Sunday, with collection on December 2, but decided to give folks a week’s rest.

Your Christmas presents also help

– part 1. While we are relying on our neighbors to make this Christmas effort a smashing success again this year, we also are hoping our parishioners will respond generously by bring an unwrapped toy on December 2 or 9.

Second Family Ministry update and Christmas presents

– part 2. This year we are helping two families that were referred to us by the social worker at Clearmont School. The clothing we collected for five children has been delivered to them. We have also purchased winter coats and jeans for two children in another family with donations to our Second Family Ministry. Both families are very grateful for our assistance and send a big “Thank You” to all of you. One of the families that uses our food pantry has requested help with Christmas gifts this year. The children are a boy, age 13; a boy, age 7; and a girl, age 5. If you would like to donate a gift for these children, please mark it Second Family and bring it to church by Sunday, December 16.

One of our families also has requested additional jeans or pants for two boys, sizes 10 regular and 8 husky.

New film reconciles the Bible and homosexuality

A new film examines Scripture and the experience of gay and lesbian people through the insights of five American Christian families, including one family who are friends of our own Anna Stefaniak and Denise Butera. The film also includes interviews with noted figures including Bishops Desmond Tutu and Gene Robinson.

For the Bible Tells Me So is currently being screened through Thursday December 6 at the Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Avenue, two blocks south of Irving Park Road. For show times call the theatre at ((773) 871-6604. Bishop Persell attended a screening of the film and highly recommends it to members of the diocese.

Christmas Schedule.

We will worship at 4 and 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

Can you help Pat get to church?

Pat Sikora, a former parishioner, has moved into Elk Grove Village and would like to resume attending St. Nicholas. However, Pat had a leg amputated several years back and does not drive. If you can help, let Steve know at 630.476.6425 or onebreadonebody@sbcglobal.net

Food Pantry.

Help replenish the food pantry by bringing one or more non-perishable items each Sunday.

Bishop’s committee report.

Meeting of November 28, 2007
Present: Borg, Brouillette, O’Rourke, Martin, Kalicki, Taylor, Martz
Absent: Jewett

One official action was taken, as we approved unanimously a 3.5 per cent increase in our diocesan pledge during 2008.

Other items discussed were:

The youth/young adults outing to Nashotah House has been reschedule to February 9.

The visit of a United Thank Offering representative to St. Nicholas on December 16.

Going ahead with the purchase of book racks for some of the chairs, so they can be used for the choir in place of the present pews.

We agreed by consensus to begin an observance of a special liturgical celebration of people of color. This will be on a Sunday near Martin Luther King’s birthday and is part of our observance of several special Sundays during the year. This began with our celebration of Recovery Sunday in September and will also include an LGBT celebration later in 2008. Special celebrations of women, men, and children also will be added during the 2008-09 program year.

We scheduled a bishop’s committee mini-retreat for Sunday, January 27.

We spoke of setting up several retreats for preachers during 2008 and 2009.

We scheduled our next “baggings” for April 6-13 and May 4-11. (Yes, we know the 11th is Mothers’ Day.)

The selection of icons for the wall behind our Mary statue was agreed upon by consensus.

The preaching and liturgical ministry schedule for upcoming months was distributed, and there were some minor adjustments.

There was a lengthy and quite positive discussion of the difficult developments with Bishop & Trustees regarding the building addition. We concluded that we must plan as if the building will not be completed in time for the beginning of the 2008-09 program year. From there we concluded we could not enter another program year without sufficient program space and agreed the vicarage represented the best available option. Hence, we will request it be taken off the market for the time being and, beginning in September 2008, we will plan to use it for programming until such time as the addition is completed. We also agreed that we will actively seek builders to bid on the construction project, and are confident we can locate one who will construct it for less than the present builder.

Sunday homilies are available at http://www.onebreadonebody.org/homilies.htm

Help with Yummy Hour.

The Welcoming Team is seeking volunteers to help provide snacks for the social gatherings after both the 9 and 11 a.m. liturgies. We ask that the same person(s) cover both the 10 a.m. and noon gatherings. Set up snacks, regular and decaf coffee, and a pot of hot water for tea. Sugar, creamer, cups, napkins, and stirs are in the cabinets in the Gathering Space while coffee and coffee pots are in the kitchen. Let’s all get involved!

There is a sign up sheet in the church – AND you can sign up online by picking one of the available dates and emailing your choice to Manny: vanborg@sbcglobal.net

Here’s the schedule to choose from:

December 9 – St. Nicholas Sunday

December 16 – volunteer in place

December 23 – volunteer in place

December 30

One bread, one body reflections: A building update.

From Father Steve:

At its November meeting, Bishop & Trustees reversed their Spring decision to pursue a “design-build” approach to our addition and, while retaining the architect, voted to seek bids from other builders. They apparently concluded – as we have said all along — that the builder’s projected cost was too high.

In the “design—build” approach, an architect and builder agree to build the project for a set sum, and the contract for our addition was awarded on that basis. It is confusing that the builder now claims to be unable to meet that figure, after having been awarded a contract for claiming he would do so, and it is difficult to know fully what to make of this reversal.

We are disappointed at the further delay inherent in it. At the same time, a builder who will work more efficiently and economically is in our best interest. We already have spoken with one builder who is interested in bidding on the project, and we have other possibilities, too.

We are not confident, given this latest development, that we will have a building by the beginning of the 2008-09 program year. The failure to have adequate program space for a second consecutive program year would be a very serious obstacle to our continued growth. It is all the more disappointing because in 2007 we have done exactly what we told the bishop, the Congregations Commission, and B & T we would do: grow in attendance, finances, and most importantly, spiritual depth and mission outreach.

The bishop’s committee will ask B & T to take the vicarage off the market, so we can use it for critically needed program space until such time as an adequate addition is complete. Our goal remains to double our size in five to seven years after the addition is complete. This is a bold goal, and we know that we can achieve it only in true partnership with B & T and the Congregations Commission.

We are grateful to Bishop Persell, the Congregations Commission, and diocesan staff members for their strong support. We hope B & T will be able to live more fully into a similar commitment, a commitment they have voiced.

All of us in this congregation’s leadership are frustrated by the delay, which in our view was not necessary. We know that the human dimension of the church sometimes makes things more complicated than they should be. Yet we also trust the divine dimension of the church and believe God will bring us good news as we bring others the Good News.

Lots of love,

Steve

Our schedule this week

Sunday, December 2

Worship at 9 & 11 a.m.
Today is our monthly Celebration Sunday
Bagging for Christmas gifts after each liturgy – we need your help
Formation for all ages at 10
AA meets at 7:30 p.m.

Monday

AA meets at noon
AA meets at 7 p.m.

Tuesday

AA meets at noon
AA meets at 7 p.m.

Wednesday

AA meets at noon
Choir meets at 7 p.m.

Thursday

AA meets at noon
GA meets at 7 p.m.

Friday

AA meets at noon

Saturday

AA meets at 1 p.m.
AA meets at 8:30 p.m.

Sunday, December 9

CELEBRATION OF THE FEAST OF ST. NICHOLAS
Worship at 9 & 11
Celebration Sunday – 10 a.m. hour is a time to connect and build community
“Bagging” collection – please help