“As we come to experience the erotic as sacred,
we begin to know ourselves as holy and to imagine
ourselves sharing in the creation of one another
and of our common well-being . . . “
-the Rev. Carter Heyward
S u n d a y S c h e d u l e
:
9 a.m. — Worship
10 – Ministry Teams Sunday
11 — Worship
Christmas 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.
Christmas giving
. You should soon receive a letter about Christmas giving. Please respond as generously as possible. Envelopes will also be available at the church.
Next Asbury Court liturgy
.
This Saturday, December 15, St. Nicholas will be offering an Ecumenical Communion Service for all residents of Asbury Court at 10:30 am. This service will take place in the chapel area at Asbury Court, 1750 South Elmhurst Road (corner of Oakton and Elmhurst) in Des Plaines.
Whether you plan to have a leadership role in the service or just be with us, please join our Nurturing Team as we gather to sing Christmas carols, hear God’s saving word, pray for those in need, and celebrate Communion at God’s table. St. Nicholas plans to offer this and similar forms of worship at Asbury Court on a monthly basis.
Ministry Teams meet this Sunday
. Please consider coming early or staying late to join these meetings at 10 a.m. The ministry of our church is increasingly vibrant and can be more vibrant still as more of us become involved. There are four team meetings to choose from: Welcoming, Inviting, Generosity, and Nurturing.
Movable Feast
. It’s a four-month series of small group potlucks, offering us a chance to get know one another more deeply. Sign-up sheet is at church. Thanks to the Welcoming Team for organizing these events.
Seven icons to go: choose yours today
.
After Christmas, we are going to add 10 icons of 12 women saints to the brick wall behind the statue of Mary.
But we need your help. The icons are $145 apiece. Rather than take $1450 from our budget, we are hoping folks will donate an icon – or portion of one. Two specific saints already have been “chosen” and the “last one left” is also spoken for, but we have seven more to go. Checks can be placed in the collection basket, with “icon” noted on the memo line. Thanks!
The icons we have chosen are Brigid and Darlughdach (a two-for-the-price-of-one deal!), Julian of Norwich, Mary Magdalene, the Syro-Phoenician woman, Dorothy Day, Joan of Arc (spoken for!), Edith Stein, Perpetua and Felicity (another two-for-the-price-of-one deal), Hildegaard of Bingen (spoken for!), and Teresa of Avila.
Second Family ministry update and more about Christmas presents
. 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.
Christmas Schedule
. We will worship at 4 and 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Food Pantry
. Help replenish the food pantry by bringing one or more non-perishable items each Sunday.
Bishop’s committee report
.
Meeting of December 12, 2007
Present: Brouillette, O’Rourke, Jewett, Kalicki, Taylor, Martz
Absent: Borg, Martin
No official actions were taken. Items discussed included:
Timing of the annual meeting
Pastoral care visitations
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 16 – volunteer in place
December 23 – volunteer in place
December 30
Schedule for the 10 a.m. hour
Our 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 Anglicanism 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.
One bread, one body: the postmodern parish
(a note from Father Steve).
Recently I received an invitation to be a candidate for rector at a church. These invitations come periodically, generated usually by a computer in New York that matches my skills with those desired by churches seeking a priest.
Although I am not at all disposed to leave St. Nicholas – the fun has just begun! — I try to react prayerfully to each invitation, asking whether the Holy Spirit may have something different in mind for me than I have in mind for myself.
Sometimes, these letters come with essay questions like those many of us saw answered by the candidates for bishop. Typically, these questions are routine and predictable, and make my discernment simple. But this recent invitation contained two questions that caught my attention, including this one:
Describe the mission and ministry of the twenty-first century, postmodern parish.
That alone nearly convinced me to apply! Why? Because so few churches, especially in our Diocese, have comprehended that this is probably the most critical question facing institutional religion. It is — thank God! — something that is squarely before the leadership here at St. Nicholas.
Historic Christianity, including historic Anglicanism, is dying and this makes Christians – choose one – prone to a) become depressed b) engage in fantasy, or c) be excited.
a) There are lots of churches that are depressed and de-energized. Holding on for dear life, they mostly look inward and seldom have energy for meaningful mission. We’ve been there.
b) Others deny the obvious and go on as if nothing is wrong, doing things “the way we’ve always done them” and often engaging in lovely rituals while wondering why more people don’t join them — especially people that look like they do and think like they do. We’ve been there.
c) Some, but in my view not enough, churches actually recognize that Christianity is in crisis and find this exciting, for it challenges us in our own spirituality and challenges us as a congregation to become clear about what we, as the body of Christ, are called to offer the world.
Certainly one response we at St. Nicholas are making to the death of historic Christianity is to revision the body of Christ, insisting that all belong in the community, especially those who have felt unwelcome, and one role we have is to celebrate all people.
This is important, and something we will continue and expand, but the larger question is: what we do with and for those coming to us, as well as those who have been here longer? Obviously, the foundation is Sunday worship, and we are doing a good job of offering lively, strong, and meaningful worship.
The fundamental challenge for the postmodern parish is to become a place that truly cultivates the inner life. Christianity at its zenith was a powerful symbol system in which people found life’s meaning. But for many, this no longer works.
Our western materialist culture is no longer able to nurture a rich inner life and, in a stunning irony, neither are most churches. We’ve lost touch with the very quality that should define us – and many of us run around like crazy trying to replace it with something new that will define us.
So we hire church growth and church systems “gurus,” adopt finely focused mission statements, and look to entrepreneurial clergy for salvation – all to save us from death. The paradox of course is that “Christianity” needs to die before a living faith can be born anew.
The most successful churches – in terms of numbers – in our time are the megachurches. But they are a product of the culture more than of Christian tradition, and are even more clueless than the mainstream churches when it comes to the Christian spiritual legacy and its mystical practices.
Yet the challenge before us is not all that complicated. The postmodern parish ought to begin with the recognition that the human psyche is deeply religious, and set about caring for it. In dreams and in other forms, the psyche, or soul, is constantly producing the prima material of a rich inner life, forever providing us with “religion” and “spirituality.”
We will be talking in the coming months and years about how we go about doing this at St. Nicholas. It is certainly at this stage of my vocation the chief passion I have as a priest.
I also would love to hear from others of you what you think is the shape of the postmodern parish. For the shape of our postmodern parish will not come solely from my vision, but from our combined wisdom and visions.
Lots of love,
Steve
Our schedule this week
Sunday, December 16
Worship at 9 & 11 a.m.
Ministry Teams meet today
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.
Food Pantry at 6:30
Thursday
AA meets at noon
GA meets at 7 p.m.
Friday
AA meets at noon
AA Holiday Party, 6:30-10:30 p.m. – parishioners invited
Saturday
AA meets at 1 p.m.
AA meets at 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, December 23
Worship at 9 & 11
Decorating of church for Christmas follows 11 a.m. liturgy
