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The Fourth Sunday of Advent - December 22, 2013
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Collect of the Day
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen..
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Readings
CLICK HERE to listen to sermons from previous weeks
CLICK HERE for Bible study resources.
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Bob & Donna Weber, Yasso Herath, Peter Lubeck, Catherine Lubeck, Teri Caserto, Shirley Federico, Joseph Caserto, Janet, Thomas Humeston, Elaine MacPhee, Tankert Mahler, Marie Haynie, Pat Mapstone, Jack Seeman, Evelyn, Zell Schwartzman, Courtney Hoenveld, Miranda Pinckert, Bernadette Polizzi, Adele, Susan Northcutt, Clinton Taplin, Dominique Rhoklin, Ewan, Claire, Fred Teyan, Marie Stay, Marie Young, Janet Drury, Holly Bee, George Fee, Robert A, Miriam, Susan Weber
The prayer list is refreshed monthly please call the office to add a name, or to request that a name be carried forward. There is a book in the narthex where -- before the service begins -- you may add names to be read during the Prayers of the People for the day.
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ADVENT
Frederick Buechner
The house lights go off and the footlights come on. Even the chattiest stop chattering as they wait in darkness for the curtain to rise. In the orchestra pit, the violin bows are poised. The conductor has raised the baton.
In the silence of a midwinter dusk there is far off in the deeps of it somewhere a sound so faint that for all you can tell it may be only the sound of the silence itself. You hold your breath to listen.
You walk up the steps to the front door. The empty windows at either side of it tell you nothing, or almost nothing. For a second you catch a whiff in the air of some fragrance that reminds you of a place you've never been and a time you have no words for. You are aware of the beating of your heart.
The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.
The Salvation Army Santa Claus clangs his bell. The sidewalks are so crowded you can hardly move. Exhaust fumes are the chief fragrance in the air, and everybody is as bundled up against any sense of what all the fuss is really about as they are bundled up against the windchill factor.
But if you concentrate just for an instant, far off in the deeps of yourself somewhere you can feel the beating of your heart. For all its madness and lostness, not to mention your own, you can hear the world itself holding its breath.
~originally published in Whistling in the Dark and later in Beyond Words
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Are you on the worship ministry schedule this weekend? CLICK HERE
to find out.
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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19 5:00pm Christmas Pageant Rehearsal & Pizza Party SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21 10:00am Run-through for Christmas Eve services 1:00pm Gather for Caroling in Nyack (Choir Room) SUNDAY, DECEMBER 22 8/9:30/11:00am Holy Eucharist 1:00pm Christmas Pageant 2:30 Greening of the Church |
CHRISTMAS AT GRACE
CLICK HERE FOR OUR SCHEDULE OF SERVICES
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 SPREAD SOME HOLIDAY CHEER WITH CAROLING!
Join members of the choir and friends in caroling in the heart of Nyack on Sunday, December 15 and Saturday, December 21. Simply meet in the Choir Room at the church on either (or both) days at 1pm, get some caroling books and festive garb, and head over to sing in front of the Grace Church Thrift Shop on South Broadway. We will carol from 1:30-2:30pm, hand out holiday treats, and spread Grace Church's Christmas spirit to all! For more information, please contact Brandon Beachamp at 845.358.1297 x13.
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 PLEDGE 2014
Thank you to all of you who have already made a pledge for 2014.
If you haven't yet turned in your pledge card, please do so - we need your support.
Haven't received your pledge packet? Can't find it under that stack of papers on the desk? It's always available on the pledge page of our website, and at the back of the church. If you have questions, please be in touch with Fr. Owen, or pledge secretary Sally Ann Mock.
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For a New Beginning
John O'Donohue
In out-of-the-way places of the heart,
Where your thoughts never think to wander,
This beginning has been quietly forming,
Waiting until you were ready to emerge.
For a long time it has watched your desire,
Feeling the emptiness growing inside you,
Noticing how you willed yourself on,
Still unable to leave what you had outgrown.
It watched you play with the seduction of safety
And the gray promises that sameness whispered,
Heard the waves of turmoil rise and relent,
Wondered would you always live like this.
Then the delight, when your courage kindled,
And out you stepped onto new ground,
Your eyes young again with energy and dream,
A path of plenitude opening before you.
Though your destination is not yet clear
You can trust the promise of this opening;
Unfurl yourself into the grace of beginning
That is at one with your life's desire.
Awaken your spirit to adventure;
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will be home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
John O'Donohue,
To Bless the Space between Us (New York: Doubleday, 2008)
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GRACE EPISCOPAL CHURCH
130 First Avenue.Nyack.New York.10960.845-358-1297
The Reverend Owen C. Thompson , Rector
Brandon Beachamp, Interim Organist and Choirmaster
www.gracechurchnyack.org |
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