News & Notes 12/17/09
Greetings My Friends,
Your Adult Choir and Brass Choir - along with Steve MacKenzie, Jeff Mitchell and one of Steve’s students (playing bass quitar) shared our witness for the season last Sunday at the mall - and all seemed to go pretty darn well! One of our congregation-member-audience folks received some interesting comments from other audience members, such as “What a friendly church group.” “People are so loving.” “Not afraid to have fun.” “Wonderful quality of music.” “Excellent variety.” “Great candy treats.” “Such happy people.” I want to raise my thanks to all who worked so hard to make the concert at the mall happen!! You’re all wonderful!
I received this note from my contact with Rotary Club of Dover, but I thought it might be nice to share with you, too. “Dover Fire & Rescue has a chance to win a $10,000 grant from Liberty Mutual, if we can garner enough votes. All anyone has to do is go to www.BeFireSmart.com, find the button that says, “You could help your local Fire Department win $10,000.” This will take you to a very quick quiz and direct you to select your local fire department to vote. It really is just a couple of minutes. Liberty Mutual is giving 6 grants for cities of our size. Right now we are in eighth place. We would use this grant to fund our public education programs and with the economy the way it is right now, we could really use the $10,000. Votes can be submitted until December 21st. Thanks for any help you can give us, Cathy McGuire, Office Manager, Dover Fire & Rescue” I’m pretty sure other departments might be vying for a grant too, so if you live outside of Dover, your city/town’s name will come up from where you live. I just did it, and it’s not too difficult to do.
New Hampshire Food Bank
Donate Now and your gift will be doubled!!!! The Trustees of the Madelaine G. Von Weber Trust have challenged the New Hampshire Food Bank’s community to address the rising level of need in the state. As the cold winter months move in, more and more families will need to ask for help as they struggle to pay for both food and fuel to heat their homes. The Von Weber Trust will match all donations received up to $100,000 from now until the close of the day on December 22, 2009. Donate now and your gift will have double the impact. There are three ways you can donate:
To donate online, go to www.nhfoodbank.org , click on the below link to access the special donation form.
To donate by phone, call Anne at (603) 669-9725 x 129.
To donate by mail, please send your check made out to “New Hampshire Food Bank” Attn: Anne, 62 West Brook Street, Manchester, NH 03101.
Do not forget to write “Madelaine G. Von Weber Trust” on the memo line of your check or your donation will not count towards the matching funds.
This coming Sunday is “Food Pantry Sunday” at St. John’s. It’s a monthly event for us, and this time of year is particularly appropriate to bring something to church with you - to share with those who have little or none. The food pantry is looking for non-perishable food items as well as personal care items. And remember, they love to have reusable bags to distribute their food.
This Saturday morning, December 19th, Cheri Nixon and the Worship Committee will be arranging the poinsettias in our sanctuary for the fourth Sunday of Advent and Christmas. They will gather at 9:30 AM, and would love to have some help with this task. It’s great fun, and it’s great to work as a team to accomplish this task. If you can help out, please just arrive at the sanctuary at 9:30 AM. If enough folks come, it’ll be done in an hour or so!!
Cheri hasn’t mentioned it (that I’ve heard of), but I’m sure she’d love help delivering the poinsettias to our shut-ins after Christmas. I’ll ask her, and let you know next week, when she will be doing this.
Let me lift up a reminder that we will host the “Blue Christmas Service” at St. John’s Church on Monday, December 21st. This is a Christmas service whose “audience” is those who have suffered a loss or are experiencing a sadness during the Christmas season. It is an ecumenical event for the community, and will begin at 7 PM. Rev. Bob Ervin, one of the chaplains at Wentworth Douglas Hospital (and the retired priest from St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church) will be the preacher. Please pass the word to friends who may benefit from this worship experience.
Here’s the schedule (with details) for our Christmas Eve services:
Christmas Eve at St. John’s is truly a celebration of the birth of the Christchild. As in previous years, we will offer three different worship services plus a concert on the Charles Brown Memorial Carillon.
Festivities begin at 6:30 PM with a Family Christmas service - appropriate for all ages. Our new Brass Choir will play; our Adult Choir will sing; carols will be sung; Pastor Mark will share a telling of “Silver Packages: an Appalachian Christmas Story”; and we’ll celebrate Holy Communion.
At 8:15 PM, our Carillioneurs, Andy Galt and Guy Eaton will present a concert of Christmas music on our unique twelve-bell Carillon. The concert provides a special opportunity to sit and relax, and worship God in a quiet fashion. You can come into the sanctuary to listen, or sit in your car.
As the concert comes to a conclusion Rev. Les Pettit, one of the retired pastors who bless our congregation, will lead our 9 PM service. With special music, the Bell Choir, a message, and lots of carols, communion will be celebrated at this service, too - and we’ll close with a candlelight service just outside the front doors of the sanctuary.
Finally, the 11 PM hour will provide us the opportunity to bring the day to a close as we gather for the Christmas story told in scripture and song, special music, communion and the outdoor candlelighting service, all led by Pastor Mark.
Make sure that your Christmas is firmly founded on the practice of worship with your church family. Do you have family coming to town for Christmas Eve? Bring them along! Do you have friends or neighbors who don’t have a church home? Invite them to your church home for one or more of these special events!
Remember that on December 27th we have one worship service (at 9:30 AM), and there’s no Sunday School. Childcare will be available. And during Coffee Fellowship we’ll celebrate the ministry of Barb Johnson, who is retiring as our Music Director.
I don’t have any “Christmas Humor” to close this issue of “News & Notes” with, so let me continue the “Puns for education minds”:
*A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a
weapon of math disruption.
*The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in
his work.
*No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.
*A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited
for littering.
That’s it for this week. Blessings on you as we come to the end of Advent - a time of preparation - and enter the season of Christmas - the light has come to dispel the darkness! Praise God. See you in church. Peace, Mark