Congratulations to Rob Flynn and Sharon Bogue, whose marriage we blessed on December 17th. Above, Kendall Atterbury and Jason Haynes enjoy the pre-blessing tea party with others (including a guest with a festive bird hat!)

 

 

 Allyn & DiDi post-Santa visit!

 

CGS hosted two wonderful events for small children last week, both offered by Watertown Family Network. On Tuesday, children came to "make a gift" for a loved one. On Saturday, they came to have a photo with Santa. It was a joy to fill the parish halls with music, laughter, and the energy of children!

 

On December 14, we marked the 20th anniversary of the altar, which was designed by Carl Queander. Amy and Carl Queander were honored for their many decades of service at the altar. Please do take time to learn about the Queanders and the the history of our parish altars from the beautiful display Wallace Dailey created for the occasion. It is on the wall in the sanctuary.

Children's Formation

The younger children have spent the past few weeks reading the story of Christmas. We have read a few different versions and shared a shorter version with children who were in the nursery. We shared stories of our own, about Christmases past and what we think of Christmas as a celebration of the birth of Jesus. We continue to work on praying together and will continue that through the new year! Lower Elementary has some fantastic singers who are busily learning the songs for the pageant on December 21st

 - Rachael Thames

 

 
The Bishop is coming!
Please mark your calendar now for Bishop Alan Gates's first visitation to our parish: Sunday, February 1, 2015. (Read his Advent message to the Church here.)
 
A Stewardship Update

Stewardship season is the time we pause to reflect on what is important in our lives, what this parish has achieved in the past, and where is God calling us to go in the future. 

The personal reflections offered during the season renewed our faith and helped all of us dig deeper into our own commitment to this parish and God. As several people men-tioned, it is a gift to give back to God,what God has given us, to advance His
work in our community. 

Our goal this season was to have a commitment in pledges of $100,000. I am pleased to say that we have exceeded that goal. The number of pledges is up to 49 with six new members pledging. We are still hoping to get a few more pledge cards in as well. This is exciting news! The parish leadership thanks everyone and looks forward to the year ahead.

-- Cindy Babstock,   
   CGS  Treasurer
Let your voice shine this Epiphany season!
It's not too late to join the choir for our Epiphany Lessons & Carols service on January 11. The choir will be singing several special pieces that day, and we'd love to have you participate! Please talk to Linda or give her a call (number below).

 

Confirmation Course starting in January

Who is God? How shall I pray - and why? What are the core spiritual practices for Anglicans? Where did the Episcopal Church come from and where is it going? How do Episcopalians make ethical decisions? How can I be "faithful" in a world with so much suffering?

These are some of the topics we'll explore in a series of gatherings this winter and spring designed to prepare adults for confirmation or the reaffirmation of their baptismal vows.

Confirmation is the adult, public claiming of the promises made on our behalf by others at our baptism. In the Episcopal Church, no one is required to be confirmed, but everyone is invited to do so. 

Reaffirmation is a decision made by an adult who is already confirmed to re-claim his or her commit-ment to Christ. A person might choose to reaffirm their baptismal vows after having been away from the church for many years, or after a time of spiritual renewal following hardship.

Pastor Amy will be leading a Confirmation Class, which will meet (generally) on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month, January through April, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Participants will do some reading between sessions, reflect on their experience of God and the Church, and work with a sponsor to prepare for Confirmation or Reaffirmation, which will take place during Easter season.

Adults who have not been baptized are also welcome to participate, leading up to their baptism as the Easter Vigil at CGS.

If you are interested please call, email, or talk with Pastor Amy before Jan. 4.

Ministries to Consider
Paul teaches that each member of the church has gifts which contribute to the building up of the Body of Christ, as well as to the work of reconciliation in the world.

How are you using your gifts? Here are some opportunities to pray about:

At our Annual Meeting on January 25, we will be electing people to serve in key leadership positions. We will elect two new members for the Vestry, which is a group of lay persons charged with oversight of the parish. Vestry members serve for 3 years. They meet once a month and occasionally serve on ad hoc committees.  

We will also elect four or five persons to serve as Deanery Representatives. These people represent our parish at deanery assembly, which happens about six times a year. We gather with reps from 10 other churches in our area to share ideas, learn about resources, and equip one another for mission.

We will also elect two delegates (and an alternate delegate) to diocesan convention. These persons represent CGS at our annual diocesan convention, where we vote on resolutions, elect diocesan committee members, and consider how our diocese is living into its mission in Eastern Massachusetts.

If you would like more information about any of these ministries or would like to be considered as a candidate, please speak to either of the Wardens - Brad Parsons or Rob Flynn, or to Vestry Members Deb Whitman and Peter Rosenmeier.


Rejoice! 
News from Church of the Good Shepherd, Watertown -- December 2014
Rector's Message

 

The shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us."

                                    -- Luke 2:15 

 

This Advent has been a season of crying out. Both inside the walls of the church, and out in the streets of our cities, there has been wailing, and raging, crying, and fervent praying. This has not been a quiet season.


 

Our Advent theme of "crying out in our wilderness" elicited formal and informal, public and private wails. Living epistles from Peter Rosenmeier (the wilderness of grief), Brian McCreath (the wilderness of parenting), and Carol Roberts (the wilderness of aging) helped others know they are not alone in finding their current season of life spiritually challenging. At our quiet day, we wrote psalms of lamentation and made a banner of our cries. And each week, our choir gave voice to our deepest yearnings, as they pleaded "Lord, take our fear away replace it with your love."


 

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Americans (including some from our congregation) took to the streets to wail against systemic injustice that degrades the human spirit and oppresses minorities, especially African-American men, over and over again. Where do we begin to change hearts, and laws, and protocols, so that the pattern of violence and tragedy ends?


 

Now the Church invites us to hold those cries and wails and fears in our hands and take them to the manger. At Christmas, we "go to Bethlehem" trusting the paradox that it is in vulnerability that we will find the strength we need. We go seeking God, who did the most creative and unexpected thing in all of history by showing up among us. We go to God, who is the only one who can reveal the creative and unexpected new order we yearn for. We go to God, inviting God to change our hearts and reorder our lives.


 

In this season, I am so thankful to go to the manger with you. 

I look forward to a rich, beautiful Christmas season, which will strengthen me for the journey ahead.  


Faithfully,

 

(The Rev.) Amy McCreath

Rector

 

Education for Ministry update

Education for Ministry at CGS this year is made up of 10 men and women from 5 different parishes and a secular Jew. The diversity of experience, race, income, and age is bountiful. The theme this year for every EfM group is "Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World."

 

This week we spent the entire time reflecting on a challenging book we were assigned by EfM for a two week interlude to our regular studies. The Bush was Blazing But Not Consumed by Eric Law is short, dense and very good in its exploration of the dynamics of multicultural misunderstandings and how different cultures perceive and use power.

 

We also told stories to the group of times in which we felt powerful. We began by defining 'powerful' in societal categories that denote power or powerlessness. To share a story of our own about when we had power is a vulnerable place to be. To tell that story is to reveal much about ourselves, our culture, our education, and our skill sets. However, it is a great way to enter into that holy place of being near the burning bush and not being consumed.

 

After our snack we shared a story of our being powerless. This was the fifteenth meeting, so our trust level was secure enough to share our differences.

 

Towards the end we compared our desire to relinquish our power as Christians. My "Aha!" of the evening was that being intentional about this work is very important in our spiritual journey and pretty hard to do alone.  We felt good about the theological conversation and spiritual yearning we had had. Indeed it was a good Advent evening. 

 

The Rev. Louise Forrest, EfM Mentor

 

EfM is a four-year program of adult formation providing a deep and solid foundation in scripture, Christian history, and theology. Participants learn and practice theological reflection. If you are interested in joining EfM next Fall, please be in touch with Louise.

 

 

Christmas Season @ CGS 
(with a preview of Epiphany Season, too!)

 

Sunday, December 21: Christmas Caroling to retirement homes and group homes - meet at church at 3 pm. Done by 6 pm.

 

Wednesday, December 24:  Christmas Eve Service, 5 pm, with festive reception following. Children will be invited to meet with Olivia during the sermon and prayers for a Christmas craft, returning to worship for the peace.

 

Thursday, December 25: Christmas Day Service, 10 am. More Christmas joy, with different hymns and carols! No nursery today.

 

Sunday, January 4: Discernment gathering after refreshments (~11:45 am). Pat Ahern and Pastor Amy have been gathering ideas from parishioners about how our parish can engage in study, self-reflection, and action to address racism and racial injustice. Join us to look at an array of possibilities and determining next steps for the parish.

 

Friday, January 9 & Saturday, January 10: Mental Health First Aid Course. See article below.

 

Sunday, January 11: Epiphany Lessons and Carols, and an Epiphany Party, 10 am. We will sing yet more Christmas carols and other great music, enjoy scripture readings leading up to the Baptism of our Lord, and then celebrate the ancient feast of Epiphany with a multi-cultural, family-friendly extravaganza. 

 

Monday, January 19: Watertown Unity Breakfast, 9:00 am. Sponsored by the World in Watertown, this MLK Day gathering will feature two renowned scholar of African-American music, Emmett Price III. CGS will have a table: To reserve a spot, sign up on the Wall of Opportunity. $10 contribution invites.

 

Sunday, January 26: Parish Annual Meeting, 8:45 am, followed by Holy Eucharist. A light breakfast, elections, reflection on the year behind and preparing for the year ahead. 

 

Sunday, February 1 (The Feast of Candlemas): The Rt. Rev. Alan Gates' first visitation to CGS. Mark your calendar, and come enjoy a very special Candlemas! If you are interested in baptism on this day (by the bishop!) please contact Pastor Amy by Jan. 2.


Mental Health First Aid: Last call for sign-ups
 
Mental Health First Aid is an in-person training that teaches you how to help people developing a mental illness or in a crisis. You will learn signs of addiction and mental illness, how to assess a situation and help, and local resources and where to turn for help.

The training takes 8 hours. We will offer this course at CGS on Friday, January 9, from 5 pm to 9 pm, and Saturday, January 10, from 11 am to 3 pm. We can have up to 30 participants. The course is filling up quickly, so if you want to participate, act quickly! The cost per person will be $10.  

To sign up please email Parish Administrator, Gail Rundlett ([email protected]). She will be in touch to confirm your spot. Payment will not be due till the course begins.  
Blue Christmas reflections

Our beautiful Blue Christmas service included thoughtful reflections from four people: Steve Steadman, Molly McHenry, Anne Donna, and Jeff Lyons. Thank you to all four of them for sharing from the heart in a way that brought hope to others. Here are a few excerpts from two of the reflections:

Recently I was at an adolescent homeless shelter in Boston for a meeting. On one of the bulletin boards was a poster. It had a soothing picture of a mountain landscape at sunset and it said, "God never gives you more than you can handle." I could feel
my body temperature rising as I suppressed an impulse to rip the poster down and tear it to shreds. In the weeks since then, I have been thinking about that poster and wondering who hung it. I find myself feeling so angry that those are the words that
the young people are given to explain their suffering. I have since made room in my heart for the possibility that these words may be helpful to some people. However, I would still like to hang up a poster next to it that says: " And also when you cry, God cries with you. When you are forgotten and pushed to the margins, so is God." -- Molly McHenry

According to Global Issues, "A new global study concludes that 90 percent of large fishes have disappeared from the world's oceans in the past half century, the devastating result of industrial fishing."  Right here in New England, just in the last month it was announced that there is no longer any cod to be fished; the fishing industry based in Gloucester faces a total collapse... Disturbingly, despite such news, we seem to be immobilized, frozen in considering any serious actions to avoid yet further severe environmental destruction in the future. We seem to be fatalistically uncommitted to any action beyond just talk and hand wringing.

That the world is God's creation is fundamental to our Christian belief and we pray weekly for our careful stewardship of our environment. I ask you to pray that somehow we as Americans can wake up to the reality of our wasteful abuse of the only environment that we have and urgently move toward an environmentally sustainable future. We all need to be part of the solution to this problem facing mankind. Let's just do it!
-- Steve Steadman

Steve also sends this hopeful addendum: "The very recent surprising agreement in Lima,Peru for all nations of the world to work to reduce carbon emissions, although only committing to half of what we need to do in order to avoid irreversible and unpredictable effects on our environment, is the first really positive step in the right direction and gives us hope that after 20 years of inaction we may now be finally moving toward solving this urgent situation facing mankind."
On the Journey to Ordination....

We heard the good news recently that the Commission on Ministry has approved CGS vestry member Duncan Hilton as a postulant for ordination to the priesthood. Duncan, who has already graduated from seminary, will have a season of further preparation focusing on Anglican/Episcopal studies before applying for candidacy. Please keep Duncan in your prayers as he moves into this new phase of preparation.

CGS member Andrea Wyatt, who is a candidate for ordination as a priest, will be taking the General Ordination Exams (GOEs) during the first week of January. These comprehensive exams, which take several days to complete, cover a range of areas in which we ask priests to show competency. Please keep Andrea in your prayers, especially during the GOEs. See Andrea's letter, which follows here.

A Letter from Andrea Wyatt

Dearest CGS friends,
I humbly invite your prayers for me - and for Chuck, Molly and Emma - as we continue in a time of transition on multiple levels. We moved in the spring to temporary housing, and I began serving in the summer at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Southboro. I am leading a new Parish Care Team, and supporting hands-on outreach efforts. I preach monthly, and that parish offers 3 services each Sunday. Preaching three times in a row has renewed my friendship with the Sunday afternoon nap!

In addition to my work as Hospice Chaplain, I have been taking classes 2 or 3 days a week at Episcopal Divinity School, preparing to sit for the General Ordination Exams January 5th - 8th. I will be writing essays - with Episcopalian colleagues across the country - on a broad range of topics. Some of my anxiety stems from the fact that my seminary studies were completed almost 25 years ago! Prayers, indeed!

I have been back and forth to New Haven as my Father, a Presbyterian clergyman for almost 60 years - is in treatment for pancreatic cancer. It brings us such comfort to know you pray for him each week at CGS. And most recently, in November, I was laid off with all my colleagues when our Hospice agency was sold. After the GOEs, I will be in full-time job search.

You hold a special place in my heart, and I will be with you in person when I am able. I pray for you, as the Christ child is born in and among you in just the way each of you needs.

-- Andrea Castner Wyatt
A Final Word

It seems fitting that the final word this month be about Mary, the God-bearer, who held the mystery and gift of God within her. Here is an excerpt from a famous poem by Denise Levertov. Read the whole poem here.

...to bear in her womb
Infinite weight and lightness; 
to carry in hidden, finite inwardness,
nine months of Eternity; to contain
in slender vase of being,
the sum of power -
in narrow flesh,
the sum of light.

Then bring to birth,
push out into air, a Man-child
needing, like any other,
milk and love -

but who was God.
Be In Touch:

Church of the Good Shepherd: 617-924-9420
The Rev. Amy McCreath: 617-967-7780
Co-Warden Rob Flynn: 617-548-1820
Co-Warden Brad Parsons: 617-501-4539
Organist/Choirmaster Linda Lyster: 617-734-3072

The church office is open on Tuesdays, 9 am to noon, and on Thursdays, noon to 5 pm.