St Thomas Altar Organ View
eNews 28 October 2011

Greetings!

St. Thomas the Apostle is an Episcopal Parish in the Anglo-Catholic tradition.  We are called by God to be a holy place where love is found, where all are named and where hearts are freed to change the world.

 

St. Thomas has a great respect for both the rich liturgical heritage of the church and for living the message of social justice proclaimed by Jesus Christ. Whether you are young or old, gay or straight, single, married or in a relationship, female or male, poor or wealthy, you are welcome at St. Thomas just as you are...a child of God and an inheritor of God's grace.

The Time is Now. 
The  Needs are Great.

On September 25 we launched the 2011 Stewardship Campaign.  This year's theme is "The Time is Now.  The Needs are Great."  At this point in the campaign each Parishioner should have received an outreach from their Ambassador.  In the event that you have not, please notify the office.


The Every Member Canvass program is the cornerstone of our annual Stewardship Campaign.  Each member of the Parish is visited by an ambassador.  These meetings are an opportunity to share what makes St. Thomas important and valuable in your lives.  Parishioners are then invited to pray about the role of the Church in their lives.  Following the meeting a pledge card is mailed with an invitation for members to prayerfully make a commitment for 2012.  

 

Thank you for supporting St. Thomas and for your ongoing gifts of time, talent and treasure.

 

Stewardship Logo 2011

 

The 2011 Stewardship prayer:

 

Lord God of Hosts, Source of all gifts we, Thy people, rejoice in the fullness of Thy generosity.  We thank thee for those whose lives are visible signs of Thy love and blessing to others.  Give us the courage to do the same. Make us good stewards of all we have received and will receive, generously sharing our time, talents and treasure to build thy kingdom of love and justice. We ask this through Jesus Christ Our Lord, In whom we begin and end all things.
Amen.

 


We are most grateful to the following parishoners who have met with their Ambassador and made a financial pledge commitment for 2012.   Please return pledge cards to the office by November 18.

 

2012 Pledging Members as of 26 October 2011: 
Borr, Rodney
Coogan, Craig
Davies, Ian Elliott
Evans, Michael
Gray, Clint
Hartwig, Ron
Hughes, Helen
Jensen, Patricia Neal
Keltner, James William
Kemp, Stephen
Kennedy, Taffia
Marbury A, Ted
Miller, Robert D.
Olyaie, Donesh
Roncone, Vince
Sims, John
Williams, Randy

Videos Available
  
Sermon by Rev. Ian Elliott Davies:

 

111023 Last Sunday After Trinity Sermon.mov
111023 Last Sunday After Trinity Sermon.mov

 

Many thanks to Clint Gray for his mid-point campaign talk on Stewardship:

 

111023 Stewardship Talk.mov
111023 Stewardship Talk.mov
All Soul's Day (Wed., Nov. 02)

 

 

All Souls Day

All Souls' Day commemorates the faithful departed. In Western Christianity, this day is observed principally in the Catholic Church, although some churches of the Anglican Communion and the Old Catholic Churches also celebrate it. The Roman Catholic celebration is associated with the doctrine that the souls of the faithful who at death have not been cleansed from the temporal punishment due to venial sins and from attachment to mortal sins cannot immediately attain the beatific vision in heaven, and that they may be helped to do so by prayer and by the sacrifice of the Mass. 

 


The official name of the celebration in the Roman Rite liturgy of the Roman Catholic Church is "The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed".


The Western celebration of All Souls' Day is on 2 November and follows All Saints' Day, which commemorates the departed who have attained the beatific vision.


Three Masses will be held at St. Thomas in honor of All Soul's Day, 8am; 12pm and Choral Mass at 7:30pm. 


USC AIDS Lunch Program at risk

USC
A dedicated group of volunteers prepare lunch, monthly, for patients at the LA County-USC AIDS Outpatient Clinic.

The LA County-USC AIDS Lunch Program was begun in 1991 by a group from University Synagogue in West L.A. Their vision was to provide a healthful lunch for the many patients who had to spend most of their day at the 5P21 Outpatient Clinic, Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, waiting for treatment and medication. Many of the HIV-infected outpatients who have turned to LAC-USC for aid are indigent and/or homeless. The hospital is not able to provide meals for patients at the outpatient clinic, and yet many of them must wait for hours for appointments or procedures. In addition,many of the patients come to the clinic by public transportation, and cannot easily go back and forth to their homes. The University Synagogue group solicited the assistance of other synagogues and Episcopal churches to ensure a lunch was provided, free of charge, for patients every day the clinic was open.

Since 1993, St. Tomas has been active in this program. On the fourth Monday of every month, volunteers gather in the parish hall kitchen to make sandwiches, salads and desserts, which are then delivered to the clinic and served to the waiting patients and their families. We serve between 70 to 120 lunches each visit.  

This program is the longest serving program of the Parish's Stewardship of Community and Outreach Committee.  There is currently not a chair of this committee.  The Parish's commitment to Outreach has changed.  For the past several years the Rector's priority at the annual Vestry Retreat has been a commitment to liturgy.  This liturgical commitment is the essential Outreach to the community where the Parish has put its energy and focus as opposed to the more traditional Outreach.  As a result the AIDS/USC program and the Homeless Breakfast program draw limited Parish volunteers and dollars.

The AIDS/USC Lunch program has been funded via a bequest since 2003. In June of this year funding ran out and ongoing gifts do no cover the cost of the program. 

Paul Norwood leads the program with Andrew Spaulding.  He wrote to the Vestry:  "We have been participating in this program for more than eighteen years now, when I got the parish involved as head of Community and Outreach.  For many years, until the establishment of the Homeless Breakfast, it was the only regular outreach program at St. Thomas.  Of course, in those days, we were ministering to patients who were, for the most part, very sick or dying.  Most of the patients at 5P21 in those days were gay men.  Today the patients to whom we serve lunch are almost exclusively black or latino, mostly unemployed and impoverished, all without health insurance.  In that sense it has become very much a companion ministry to our Homeless outreach.  

Over the past couple of years our biggest problem with this program has been recruiting enough volunteers.  Of course, since we are a weekday rather than a weekend endeavor, we can only draw from parishioners who are either retired or unemployed or who, like me, have other than a typical 9 -5 work schedule.  These days we seem to be lucky to get four or five folks to show up, and usually it is the same four or five every month, all of whom need to go down to the hospital to pull it off.  And the leadership of the program continues to be entirely dependent upon myself or Andy Spaulding, which is not ideal after so many, many years.
 
The County-AIDS Clinic lunch program no longer seems to have the diocesan coordination that it used to have or the enthusiastic support we used to enjoy from the hospital's administrative leadership.
 
That said, the one thing we still get is the heartfelt thanks and "God Bless You"s from the patients we feed.  The program is still very viable, from their point of view.  And it is the only outreach which we do in concert with other parishes and synagogues on a regular basis."

The Vestry has funded the program since mid-year and at its meeting last week authorized funding through December 2011.  The Vestry is committed to the vibrancy and success of this ministry.  For the Parish to continue the program in 2012 and beyond new volunteer leadership needs to be identified and secured so that the program is not dependent on one or two individuals.  Ongoing funding sources are also needed.  In the event that invigorated funding and leadership is not forthcoming then the program will end in December, 2011 with our gratitude and thanks to all those who have made this ministry possible.

If you are interested in helping, please contact Paul Norwood.

 
In This Issue
The Time is Now. The Needs are Great.
Videos available
All Souls Day
USC AIDS Lunch Program at Risk
Movie Night TONIGHT
Children's Ministry hosts Coffee Hour
Mother Knows Best
Episcopal News Fall Edition
Coming Soon...
Religion Inside Out
ePrayer
History online
Video Introductions
Quick Links
Fourth Sunday Before Advent

Celebrant (8am & 10:30am)

Fr. Ian Elliott Davies

 

Sermon

Fr. Ian Elliott Davies

 

Deacon

The Rev. Walter S. Johnson


Organist-in-Residence
John West

PRELUDE
Schmucke dich, o liebe Seele
Johann Crueger - melody
Johannes Brahms setting
arranged by E. Power Biggs
 
POSTLUDE
Fanfare on SINE NOMINE
John West
 

LECTIONS

Revelation 7. 9-17
Psalm 34. 1 - 10
1 John 3. 1 - 3
Matthew 5. 1 - 12 

Movie Night is
Win Win

Win Win

 

On Friday, 28 October following the 7pm Mass, join us for the next St. Thomas Movie Night! The movie will be Win Win starring Paul Giamatti as a lovable yet long-suffering lawyer and high school wrestling coach in a brilliantly heartfelt journey through the game of life...where you can't lose 'em all! When Mike Flaherty (Giamatti) comes across a teenage runaway who also happens to be a champion wrestler, Mike's luck turns around in spectacular fashion, but his win-win situation soon becomes more complicated than he ever imagined when the boy's family affairs come into play. This touching and funny comedy will leave you cheering! Treats will be available as well. No tricks here! What better way to spend Halloween weekend?!
Children's Ministry hosts Coffee Hour

 

On Sunday October 30, the children's ministry is hosting the coffee hour!  In Sunday School that day, the children will be decorating cookies.  Hope to see you all there. 

Howard Gaass Update
 
Howard Gaass, longtime Parishioner, current Vestryman and People's Warden had a serious accident on Saturday October 22 at the Church.  While on a ladder outside, Howard fell.  He spent 2 days in the ICU and the rest of the week in a regular hospital room.  He has broken both wrists and has had major reconstructive surgery on his right elbow.  He shoulder was cracked and he received stitches on his face from where his glasses broke.  He suffered a mild concussion but the MRI has shown no bleeding inside his brain.  The fall did fracture his skull and on Thursday evening he underwent surgery to repair that.
 
Howard has been in good spirits and is tremendously grateful for the loving kindness, prayers  and generosity of the People of St. Thomas.  He thanks all those who have sent good wishes, and visited.  He is especially moved by the commitment of Deacon Johnson and the support of Fr. Davies.
 
He is being released and will require assistance during the 6 to 8 week recovery period at home.  He currently has no use of his hands so will need help in all of the daily tasks.  Please contact the office by email if you are interested in joining a volunteer corps to help Howard in his home in Sherman Oaks.  We are setting up a rotation to make sure that Howard is taken care of.
 
Mother Knows Best 

 

On November 2 in 1164, Thomas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, left for France for a six-year exile after being condemned in royal court for "ingratitude" toward England's Henry II, who had once been his dear friend.
Episcopal News - Fall Edition is now online
 
Episcopal News
 
Coming Soon...

 

Please join us for many Parish activities.  Here's a sampling of upcoming events - a full list is available online 

 
November 02
All Souls Day - services at 8am, 12pm and with Choir at 7:30pm
 
November 11
Office Closed in honor of
Veteran's Day
 
November 12 @ 7:00am
Homeless Feeding & Outreach
 
November 19 @ 10:45am
Newcomer Orientation

November 19 @ 5:00pm
Final LASchola for 2011

November 23 @ 7:30pm
Thanksgiving Eve Mass

November 24 & 25
Office Closed

November 26 @ 7:00am
Homeless Feeding & Outreach

November 28 @ 9:30am

AIDS/USC Feeding

 

Religion Inside Out November 6

 

Religion Inside Out. The Kabbalah has been doing just that for hundreds of years

 

The Kabbalah is rooted in a mystical literature that claims to know the inner life of the Divine and how that interfaces with humanity.

 

Rabbi Mordecai Finley will offer an overview of that map and how Kabbalah can shape spiritual formation and moral psychology.

 

Finley is the spiritual leader of Ohr HaTorah Synangogue. He as been teaching Jewish spirituality, mysticism and related fields of stdy for more tan 25 years.

 

Please join us on Sunday, November 6, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. for

 

Kabbalah: The Journey Into the Cosmic Soul

 

St. John's Cathedral

514 West Adams Blvd.

Los Angeles, CA 90007

 

Reception immediately following the program - Please RSVP at www.theguibordcenter.org

 

 

ePrayer

Prayer is at the center of our worship and binds us together as a community of faith.  This week we commenced our electronic prayer chain email.  A list of persons on the prayer list is sent weekly.
 
The prayer chain email is an opt-in list only - it will not be sent unless you sign up for it.  If you'd like to be on this distribution list, please update your profile (please use link at the bottom of the email, customized with your email) or contact the office.
History online 

Exterior 1931

Articles and photos from the early years of St. Thomas the Apostle are now available on our website!


Video Introductions

A brief introduction to the liturgy at St. Thomas:

St Thomas Liturgy Sampler.mov
St Thomas Liturgy Sampler.mov
A brief introduction to St. Thomas, its history, its place in Hollywood, the Damien Chapel and the organ. 

Introduction to St. Thomas
Introduction to St. Thomas
 
Quick Links

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