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The week of Nov. 9-15, 2015
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New equipment in our kitchen!
Norma and Bobbie inspect our new range
Kitchen equipment for our renovated kitchen and parish hall arrived last week and was installed Monday. In this photo Hospitality Chair Norma Williams and Stewardship Chair Bobbie Gordon show their delight with the new 10-burner range that is replacing the old model. For those who haven't visited our renovated parish hall as it is being completed, we hope to hold our New Consecration Sunday celebration lunch there Nov. 22.
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What does New Consecration Sunday mean for parishioners?
Yes, New Consecration Sunday is coming. What does that mean? It means I'm going to need to pray to God and ask his help. I need to know what percentage of my income God is calling me to give to support the ministries at St. Paul's.
As I think about this, I'm focusing on the many gifts in my life. Life in itself is a gift - I weighed 3 lbs.12oz. at birth (72 years ago); my family, my friends, my education, my work, my retirement, my volunteer activities, my health, this parish family - all are gifts.
How can I possibly begin to thank God? I need to remember these gifts as I listen for God's answer to: What percentage of my income are you asking me to give to St. Paul's? I hope you'll join me in recalling your gifts and asking, "What percentage of my income is God calling me to give?". Then we will all be ready to complete our estimate of giving cards on Consecration Sunday and enjoy the Celebration Luncheon following the service.
Faith, hope and charity
Daniel 12:1-3; Psalm 16; Hebrews 10:11-14,19-25; Mark 13:1-8
Our collect for this Sunday asks God to increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity. That sounds like a healthy and fitting request, yet the collect goes on to ask that God would make us love what God commands in order than we might obtain what God promises.
The implication is that without the love of what God commands we will not be able to receive the increase in faith, hope and charity that we request. So we need to recognize and seek the fulfillment contained in what God commands. In simple terms that would be to love God and love our neighbor. A more expansive view would contain the Ten Commandments.
Our Hebrew Bible reading from the Book of Daniel tells us to be patient, because, as is said, "God isn't done with us yet." Both this reading and our psalm note that we face decisions all the time and that the wise choose the godly path. In our Gospel reading Jesus warns about those who would lead us astray while pretending to proclaim Jesus' message of love of God and neighbor.
Whether others lead us astray more or less than we choose on our own is very personal. But God did give us free will so we could make decisions like this.
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poster by Alexis Plain
COMING SOON
ST. PAUL'S CHRISTMAS BAZAAR
Saturday, December 5 - 10am-3pm
Bake Sale, Treasure Tables (our indoor yard sale), Handmade Crafts and Refreshments
Sign up sheets in the Narthex Sunday
St. Paul's CROP Walkers raise $495
The 2015 Dutchess County CROP Walk was held October `18. The walkers from St. Paul's have collected their pledges from sponsors and the tally for our parish this year was $495. Congratulations to Rose Marie Proctor, Alexis Plain (who celebrated her birthday by participating in the walk on that day), Maria Bell, Elisabeth Gillon, Adrian and Madison Goldson and Danya Clarke.
Sunday School plans to sell
St. Paul's ballpoint pens
We all know the pen is mightier than the sword. In the near future our Sunday School will be selling mighty ballpoint pens inscribed with the name and address of St. Paul's Church. The pens make excellent gifts. They have a good weight and a sharp appearance. The Sunday School has ordered 100 of the pens and they will sell for $1.50 each. Proceeds will be used to support a worthy cause selected by the Sunday School.
Another View of Stewardship
With Veteran's Day Wednesday my thought tend to focus more than usual about military service related topics and ideas. It is also the Stewardship season and it occurred to me that this is no coincidence.
It came to me that the concepts that I present to students when they visit my place wof work at the Hall of Honor are no different than concepts which apply to stewardship. They are Volunteer, Service and Sacrifice.
We are asked to consider how we will serve in the Parish in the upcoming year. We make the decision, and thus the first concept "Volunteer" is met. We make the choice to attend Church and we make the decision to give to our parish. We are not forced into anything, but instead we offer to give to God and the Church.
This giving starts with our time and talent pledge, our offering our skills to help our church. This is the Service that we give, and it is a valuable gift.
Then there is the last concept: Sacrifice. Basically we are giving something up. When we volunteer our time to do things in and for the church we indeed sacrifice that time that might have been used for other things by committing it to the church. This need not have a negative connotation: We are giving something up to serve God and the parish.
In that spirit I am going to ask you to sacrifice some time to consider your pledge for the upcoming year. Those in church Sunday heard about the steps of giving and got to see where we all fall. We also got to see how a one-step change would change our percentage of giving. But the charts are only to help us see where we are and where we might go. Now we need to make a sacrifice of that time to prayerfully consider what our gift of thanks to God will be for the upcoming year. It will be time well spent. --Warden Pete Bedrossian
St. Paul's volunteers sign-up for gift wrapping
at Barnes and Noble on Black Friday
Each year St. Paul's Outreach Committee volunteers wrap gifts for tips at the Poughkeepsie Barnes and Noble. This year Jeanne Henderson has acquired the 6-hour time slot from 3-9 pm on Black Friday, Nov. 27,the day after Thanksgiving. If you would like to volunteer to share a time slot with another parishioner, pick your time and sign the signup sheet up in the Narthex.
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THIS WEEK'S CALENDAR
This is the week of Nov. 9-15 from our bulletin
9 - 5pm Stewardship
11 - 12:15pm Healing Service & Eucharist; 1pm Parish Aid
12 - 6pm Relatives as Parents; 6pm Pastoral Care
14 - 11am Girl Scouts
15 - 8am Rite I
8:45 Lessons' Discussion
9:30 Choir practice
10am Rite II -celebrating birthdays and anniversaries
10am Sunday school
11:15 coffee hour
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