News & Notes 11/29/07
November 29, 2007 St. John’s UMC, “News & Notes”
Dear Friends,
There is life after “Church Conferences”! I have to learn that again, every year! Thanks to everyone who came on Tuesday evening - to those who helped prepare for it (Sandy Dearborn, especially) and to our District Superintendent, Mike Davis. Now, on to Advent and Christmas!!
We begin our Advent season this Saturday with the “Parents Day Out” - kidcare - from 12:30 to 4:30 PM ( a fundraiser for the youth, to undergird their mission trip to Slidell); our very informal “Hanging of the Greens” Service at 4:30 PM (if you can help prepare for that service - i.e. bring everything out of storage and get it set to put into pleace — please come to the church from 9 till 10:30 AM); and then the Pot Luck supper at 5:30 PM (bring a salad, casserole or dessert to share, as well as your own place setting). If you need a ride to the service and/or the pot-luck, please give the church office a call (742-3046).
Through the shifting of leadership this fall, the Christmas gift collection for “Dover Children’s Home” and “Our Home for Girls” did not get arranged in time for inclusion in “The Bell-Wether.” Well Jinny Scott and the Outreach Committee have picked up the ball, and have begun to run. This Sunday, just inside the door to the narthex of the church, you’ll find a Christmas Tree “decorated” with stars, on which will be written the information about a gift to purchase, wrap and bring back. Our time for getting the gifts back will be short this year, I’m sure, so I’m guessing that the gifts will need to be returned by Sunday, December 18th. But St. John’s has always been a wonderfully compassionate and giving congregation, and I’m sure we’ll “turn to” yet again!! Check out the tree!!
At worship this week, we’ll begin the lighting of the candles on the Advent wreath. “Mary” will be lighting the first candle - the candle of hope. And we’ll celebrate the sacrament of communion - singing the liturgy to the tune of Christmas carols. It’s a special service - I hope you’ll do your best to be in church!!
St. John’s 2007 Christmas cantata will take place this Sunday, December 2, at 3:30 pm. (The snow date is December 9, at 3:30, but of course we won’t need to use it!) We need your attendance, because congregational participation in this traditional “Festival of Lessons and Carols” is very important! Come and hear our choirs, handbells, instruments, and magnificent organ, as we bring in the Advent/Christmas season. The concert is free, so be sure to invite your friends. An offering will be taken. The Festival of Lessons and Carols is based on the format of the traditional service held each Christmas Eve since 1918 in the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge, England. The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols was adapted by Eric Milner-White from a service created by Archbishop of Canterbury E. W. Benson in 1880. Jonathan Willcocks’s newly-composed Festival of Lessons and Carols incorporates seventeen carols within its eight scriptural lessons, with the congregation participating in more than half of them. He has often melded two carols together, creating an imaginative new texture for both, particularly when infused with congregational support.
A special menu is being planned for the Katrina Mission Trip Public Supper - being held on Saturday, December 8th, from 4:30 till 6 PM. There are still open spots on the sign-up sheets in Hartford Hall. Won’t you check ‘em out?
Advent Studies have begun this week. It is great to take the time to look at the carols that we sing year after year. I know that any group would welcome new participants - on any week - ’cause the classes don’t necessarily “build” on one another. So check out the “Bell-Wether” and the bulletin board in Hartford Hall to see which study would fit your schedule.
And let me remind all those who are in their “20’s or 30’s and themsome” that the inaugural meeting for a new social group (though some small group experiences, or Bible Studies, etc. might eventually come out of it) in our church will take place on Sunday afternoon, December 9th, beginning at 5 PM. The group will share a pizza supper, spend time getting to know one another, talk about future activities, and play some games together. Everyone knows it’s difficult to come to an activity “cold,” but we think it’ll be worth the extra effort. Won’t you give it a try? It’ll only be as good a group as we make it. While some of the future activities will be suitable for participation by children, this first meeting is aimed at adults.
Ross Freeman gave this to me, and gave me permission to share it with you: “I put Miranda on Youtube just for fun. I’m just a proud dad.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=dWgjBQvMcAo
“Enjoy, and pass the word (email) 
Happy Thanksgiving! Ross”
The next three things come from our Conference Office:
New England United Methodist Historical Society Newsletter
New England U. Methodist Historical Society Newsletter is just out. Includes a Membership Form just in time for Christmas giving. For your complimentary copy, please contact Joe Beardsley, jbear@midcoast.com , 2473 Old Aug Rd. Waldoboro ME 04572. Phone: 207-832-5127.
A Celebration of Charles Wesley’s 300th Birthday
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
6 to 8:30 PM
Christ Episcopal (”Old North”) Church in Boston, MA
Sponsored by: Old North Church, Boston University School of Theology, The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada
For More Info, Click Here
or go to: http://neconference.brickriver.com/files/oFiles_Library_XZXLCZ/wesley_300_ZX3DDQHY.pdf
UM Communications is offering a free, five-session online course for those who want to learn more about General Conference. “The course is ideal for anyone attending the 2008 General Conference, including communicators and delegates, as well as United Methodists interested in learning more about how the denomination makes decisions,” said site administrator Cheryl A. Hemmerle. “Participants can begin the course at any time between Nov. 15 and Dec. 26, and move through the sessions at their own pace.” The goal of the course is to give participants a basic working knowledge of the church’s legislative process through General Conference. To register for the course, visit <http://training.umcom.org.> For more information, call 888-278-4862 or e-mail training@umcom.org. Additional sessions will be offered from January to May 2008 leading up to the 2008 General Conference. - UM Commuciations
And that’s all my news for today. I’m closing this issue of “News & Notes” with an article written by a friend of mine - a retired minister, living in Rhode Island - who wrote this for his church’s newsletter. I thought you’d enjoy it. Have a great weekend. See you at church - lots, I hope!! Peace, Mark
FROM WHERE I SIT
[a column by the Reverend F. Richard Garland]
MAY CHRIST BE BORN IN YOU
In her wonderful little book, “When the Heart Waits,” Sue Monk Kidd tells of visiting a monastery sometime around Christmas. She recalls walking past a monk outside the church and greeting him with the traditional, “Merry Christmas.” To which the monk replied: “May Christ be born in you.” The words, over the years, became for her a discovery of what she calls “the real essence of transformation.”
Today, with our ‘politically correct’ economic driven festivities around Christmas, we’re lucky if we get even a muttered “Happy Holidays,” let alone a “Merry Christmas.” “May Christ be born in you?” Fer-gidda-bow-dit! And, yet, it is a greeting, that, once you have heard it, sticks in the soul.
Any one who has ever had a baby come into their life knows that babies change things: bodies change, relationships change, routines change, ways of life change, futures change. To greet someone with the words, “May Christ be born in you,” is a prayer that they may be changed, transformed by the living presence of Christ. If that doesn’t get at the heart of what God was doing at Christmas, I don’t know what else does.
The Gospel of John makes it clear: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” [John 1:14-RSV] Or, as Eugene Peterson paraphrases it: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” [The Message] To greet someone with the words, “May Christ be born in you,” is a prayer that Immanuel will take up residence in their life. That most certainly would change how we look at Christmas!
Perhaps we need to change our perspective at Christmas just enough to look beyond the birth to the life that follows. If we leave the baby Jesus in a cradle in Bethlehem, we miss an important part of the story. This child did, after all, grow “…strong in body and wise in spirit. And the grace of God was on him.” [Luke 2:52-The Message]
So what exactly might it mean anyway that Christ be born in us? What if Christ did actually take up residence in our lives? I suppose that, for many of us, it would mean watching our language and giving up some bad habits. That’s not all bad, but there’s more to it than that.
In the first place it would probably mean straightening up our living environments. Just as a family creates room for a new baby, and then eventually “baby-proofs’ the house, if Christ is to be born in us, we need to make room for his coming, and then make it safe for him to stay. Every new birth deserves a loving, safe environment. Then, as we are creating it for another, we begin to discover how good that is for us too.
Further, if Christ is to be born in us, it is likely that we will have to be prepared to see things differently: through inquisitive eyes that appreciate the beauty of the world; through a sensitive spirit that learns from nature’s lessons; through a childlike sense of fairness that wants good for everyone and protests injustice; through a devout soul that knows it has been made in the image of the divine. Every new birth deserves a healthy environment and we too will start to thrive when we begin to make it happen.
And, if Christ is to be born in us, it is probable that our priorities will change. Over the years I have heard many people say that they would be glad when Christmas was over so they could get back to their routines. It can be a disruptive time. But suppose, just suppose, that it is our routines that are the problem - habits that have become ruts - numbing and unsatisfying - symptoms of priorities that have been chosen for us by others.
Four hundred years before Jesus, Socrates said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” He was on trial for heresy because he encouraged his students to challenge the accepted beliefs of the time and think for themselves. Each time we celebrate Christmas Christ challenges us to examine the priorities that have been set for us by a fear driven society infected by consumerism. There is a better way, and that is what Immanuel, God with us, is all about. The birth of Christ is about the real essence of transformation.
So, in this year of our Lord 2007, allow me to greet you: May Christ be born in you!