I Am St Nick: Posts And Pledges

From the Stewardship Team:

We hope you’ve taken some time to read the I am St. Nick email sent earlier this week. And, we hope you’re considering submitting your own story about how the community of St. Nicholas touches and changes your life.

New ministries have begun and new people are participating in ongoing ministries at St. Nicholas. In addition to your time, talent, love and energy, we hope that you’ll contribute your monetary resources, which, in addition to your other valued gifts, enable us to continue to change lives–our own and those of others who are part of the St. Nicholas Community. As we continue to stress, that community includes those who worship at St. Nicholas, but also those who rely on our community for the many support groups hosted by St. Nicholas which are vital to their lives. Our community includes our guests who come to our food pantry, and those who seek a welcome and warm embrace as they drop by during the week.

We are most grateful for the many ways all the members of the Community of St. Nicholas support, enhance and give life to our mission and ministries.

We hope you are considering your pledge to St. Nicholas for 2012. As we wrote earlier, our hope is for every household at St. Nicholas to submit a pledge form for 2012 by November 20 so that we may plan for next year’s budget.

Pledge forms are at this link and on the shelf just outside the worship space.

Of course, we are always seeking your gift of time and talent as well. Please take a look at the “Serving” page of our website and see if there is a ministry you feel called to share in.

The Stewardship Team consists of Bob Kalicki, Douglas VanHouten & Val Gruenwald

Bishop’s Committee News: Strategic Planning

We thank Bob DeHaven for presenting a very thoughtful and thorough format for Strategic Planning to the Bishop’s Committee Sunday. The Strategic Plan will form a foundation for the Outreach Team’s Marketing Plan. We hope to involve several members of St. Nicholas in forming the Strategic Plan and we will be using the data that you have given us in the small group meetings, along with the data you submitted to the CAT survey. We have heard you and want to move forward using many of your ideas.

The Episcopal Diocese of Chicago will be holding their 174th Annual Convention Friday, November 18, and Saturday, November 19, at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Centerin Lombard.

Attending from St. Nicholas will be Fr. Manny; Cyndi DeBock and Hal Stratton as Delegates; and Steve Raftery and Pat Kalicki as Alternate Delegates.

pat@stnicholasepiscopal.org

Pat Kalicki

ENS: Pocket Prayer Shawls Presented To Vets in PA

At St Nicholas we occasionally make prayer blankets for people undergoing health issues or significant change. Here’s news of what other Episcopal churches are doing with the idea: a knitted, pocket-size shawl. For Veterans’ Day, they went above and beyond the call of duty.

By Linda Arguedas, November 11, 2011 [Episcopal Diocese of Central Pennsylvania] In honor of the men and women who have served or are serving in the Armed Forces, the Episcopal dioceses of Bethlehem and Central Pennsylvania combined on Nov. 10 for a Veterans Day service in the chapel at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

More than 200 pocket prayer shawls were blessed by Bethlehem Assistant Bishop John P. Croneberger, the Rev. Terry Wible of St. Lukes Episcopal Church, Lebanon, and the Rev. William Alford of St. Andrews in the Valley, Harrisburg, before being presented to Chaplain Joel Copeland of the veterans hospital.

The shawls were created by members of the Sacred Stitches group at St. James Episcopal Church, Lancaster, and the Hooks and Needles prayer shawl ministry at St. Lukes.

Members of both churches were present along with approximately 100 veterans and VA Medical Center employees.

Pocket prayer shawls can be carried in pockets or used in situations where a large shawl is not appropriate or allowed, such as intensive care units or by troops in combat, according to the Central Pennsylvania dioceses Sacred Stitches webpage. Essentially, they are “prayers you can hold onto.”

A card added to each prayer shawl says: “May this pocket-sized prayer shawl, made with love and infused with prayers, be a sign of God’s sustaining presence. May it refresh your weariness and provide comfort in your anxiety. May it make available to you healing for your pain and consolation for your loneliness. May it bring, joy, gladness and brightest blessings.”

The prayer shawls were distributed to veterans in the hospital following the service.

via Episcopal News Service – CHURCHWIDE